Latest / Crafted Connections / EP 6: Music, Tenacity, & Collaboration with Eric Salazar

Transcript

EP 6: Music, Tenacity, & Collaboration with Eric Salazar · Crafted Connections

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Hello! Welcome to Crafted Connections.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Kayla Calhoun, and this is a podcast all about storytelling and building genuine community.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_00: Here we'll dive into the art of storytelling, unpack strategies for making meaningful connections, and hear from incredible humans who are using their story to create impact.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So grab your favorite beverage, settle in, and let's craft some connections.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hello and welcome to Crafted Connections.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Today's guest is an amazing human, a talented, talented musician and composer, my dear friend Eric Salazar, the clarinet guy.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I met him far enough into his career that I was like, oh, what an established guy.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it hasn't always been easy.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think we forget about people's origin stories.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: I think we forget about how much it takes to actually get to where we are today.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so we dive into that with Eric, the challenges he's faced along the way, and his take on creativity and his take on leadership.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited to share Eric with you, and I hope that you enjoy our conversation.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Salazar, thank you for joining Crafted Connections.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: You're my sunshine.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to have you here.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yay! I'm happy to be here.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yay! Okay, to kick off, can you do me and the good people listening a favor and let us know who you are?
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: Who is Eric Salazar?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so I'm Eric Salazar.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the clarinet guy.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a performer and composer and teacher and career coaching, entrepreneur, business owner, etc., etc., etc.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: I perform primarily as a clarinet soloist and as a chamber musician, which is a classical music term for small band.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_02: I perform some classical music and then some modern instrumental, like recently composed music.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then as a composer, I primarily work in film, which is how you and I met, and then also write for small ensembles as well.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: My instinctual thought when I asked you who is Eric Salazar was who isn't Eric Salazar?
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it just makes me so full of joy because you have all these talents, but they're surrounding this one love, which is, you know, your music.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think with that, we can jump right into your origin story and kind of where the love for music came from, your journey into music.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: Would you mind diving into that?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I knew, well, my mom suspected that I was gonna be a musician when she was pregnant.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_02: She felt it in her bones.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so, yeah, it's it's real.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so she, my middle name comes from a musician.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: She loved Billy Joel when she was a teenager and and still does.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so my middle name is Joel because she felt that I was gonna be a musician.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: So my middle name has that meaning.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then later on, I should have suspected that I was afflicted with the desire to be a musician because when my mom would vacuum or like the microwave would be going, I would hum and harmonize with the vacuum cleaner or the microwave.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was all happening at a young age.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: But what really brought me like formally officially into the musical fold was Tom and Jerry.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I uh loved cartoons, still do, and I would watch Tom and Jerry a lot after school because I was generally pretty hyper and needed to wind down, so it was uh turn on the Tom and Jerry and focus on something for a little while, Eric.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh tactic.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so there's a lot of classical music, a lot of jazz music in Tom and Jerry, and I heard clarinet in that, and I enjoyed that from a young age.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_02: And then in fifth or sixth grade, in our general music class, we were shown a video that had pictures of all the instruments with little excerpts of what they sounded like.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: And so when the clarinet came on screen and I heard it, I was like, oh, that's the Tom and Jerry instrument.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna play that instrument.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Then fast forward to sixth grade when uh they're recruiting uh kids to join bands.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: I was just like, oh, I know what I'm doing.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing clarinet.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: And the band directors were like, Well, are you sure you don't want to try like a variety of instruments?
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I just was like, no, and immediately went to the clarinet.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Don't waste my time.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: I know what I want.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you very much.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so that was what started it all was that, you know, just watching the cartoons that kind of exposed me to the music.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: And then, you know, once I saw that the actual instrument existed in real life and was an option, I definitely wanted to play it a lot.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_00: That's a story that I feel like didn't even have a start because it was just so ingrained, you know.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I mean, I'm sorry, but children, they're magical.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: And but I just have never heard of a child recognizing something in that way, both musically, and then as soon as it's shown to them, they're like, Yeah, I'm I know for a fact that that's what I'm gonna do.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we've heard stories of it, but like, and it makes so much sense, right?
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I met you, gosh, well into your career at that point.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: We were in a like a creative entrepreneurial fellowship together, and that's where we ended up becoming buddies and collaborators.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, I'm a filmmaker, video uh production human being, and uh sometimes you need music for that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so when I was writing and fundraising for one of my earlier films, I had just been in this fellowship program with you.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I wonder if that guy wants to compose some music for me.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then it was so much fun producing that together and really collaborating and bringing both of our talents to the table.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you've been my favorite music collaborator ever since.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it's a beautiful thing.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: So you knew clarinet.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're doing, that's where we're going.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, being an artist in the world is definitely a challenge, and there's lots of narratives around that.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: What kind of came up as you were you were pursuing this field and where did you experience some a little bit of adversity in that?
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so the the one thing that, you know, despite how uh readily I knew that I wanted to play clarinet, at the time where I lived, Brownsburg was a much more rural area than it is now Brownsburg, Indiana.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_02: And I come from a non-musical family, no other musicians in the family, no other artists in the family.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: We're a family of business owners and homemakers.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: So we had no idea that music lessons were something that you should be doing if you wanted to have a career in music.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I went to college for for clarinet performance, but I was not accepted into school at first.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: So the way it works when you're a music major is you can get accepted to the university itself from your like grades and you know, ACT SAT scores.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: And so I was.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: But if you're wanting to be a music major, there's another layer to that where you have to audition.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: And so you can be a student at that university, but not accepted into the music program.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_02: And so I yeah, I I was not accepted into the program uh primarily because I was just so far behind uh my peers who had been taking private lessons for, you know, some of them for six years by the time they got there.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, oh, what's a private lesson?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: That sounds cool.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: One-on-one.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, like the part of the audition process, there's just language, there's technical lingo that you have to know.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just beginning to be exposed to that kind of language and and some of the more challenging musical things that you have to do.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so my first year at at uh Ball State, I was a freshman as an undecided major with a minor in music.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: They let me minor in music because I was good enough for that.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_02: But I had to re-audition and I actually uh failed uh multiple times at those auditions.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And so I had to just kind of keep uh sticking with it and keep practicing, and I was so far behind my peers that, like, you know, the rubric that they were using to measure whether or not someone would be successful in music, I was not even close to being at that level of proficiency on the clarinet.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: So the good and bad things came from that.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like the bad was that at least the first year, a lot of peers and also professors just thought I was kind of a loser who wasn't gonna make it.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_02: And one of them even told me, like, you're never gonna be a professional musician, you're not good enough, stop doing this.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and so that was very difficult.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: But one of the positives from that is that I answered that question of, am I doing the right thing?
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: Should I even be doing this art form?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: I answered that question when I was 18.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas many of my peers don't have to face that question until post-graduation when they're having trouble paying the bills and they're not getting enough work in the art form.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I just sort of a fresh new young adult was like, you know what?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm doing this and I've decided, and I'm gonna stick with it, and I'm gonna fight through this, and I'm gonna advocate for myself to get the instruction that I need.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I worked hard, like literal blood, sweat, and tears, and was able to finally get accepted into the program.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then beyond that, continued on to get a master's degree in music performance as well.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_02: So when I think about, you know, adversity, that's the thing that always comes to me.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_02: It's like, you know, I'm literally a kid.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I'm 18, I can vote, but like I'm a kid, and people are telling me, stop doing this, you can't do this, you're not good enough.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: Don't do this.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_02: Pick a different career path, kid.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I just was stubborn and was like, nope, it's clarinet.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: I love it, so I'm gonna do it.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: But yeah, the the positive that came out of that hardship was there's no question in my mind, because I answered that question when I was 18 about whether or not I should be doing this as a career.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: In the sense, too, of this pressure on the age range from like 18 to 24, that you have to know it now.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: You have to know what it is, you have to know it now, and you have to be good enough now, you know, which is interesting because you did come from this background of like, I mean, I know you've got business operations in your bones.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: I see what you're doing out in the world, you approach it from this logical, strategic way.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the whole time you've been investing in your creative self as well, which you have deep passion for, right?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and I think it is very interesting that teachers and peers were kind of telling you, well, you're not talented enough.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: And you're like, maybe you're you don't have enough operations skills.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: There's a level of that.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I think we um, especially from my experience in the arts, it's like it the level of like, we have to be so good at the art, but actually maybe the art can be cultivated.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's actually a skill, just as the business side of things, and that it's doesn't have to be an innate thing.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I just find that very interesting and and how it's almost backwards the way it's taught and learned.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then people are out here like having to like pay for their own food and being like, How do I do this?
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that was the thing I said to the professor who told me I was never gonna make it.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_02: I said, No, you're wrong.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: I I said, You haven't taught me a lesson yet, and you're the best instructor here for me.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: So teach me a lesson because all I need is for someone to show me how to make music, and I know I can make music.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: That conversation was very difficult, and I do have a good relationship with this former professor now, but the end result of that conversation was her being like, This kid's stubborn.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: So she gave me an ultimatum and said, Okay, I'm gonna allow you to audition one more time to get into the school of music.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: And if you fail that, then I'm removing you from my studio.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it hurt a lot, but it ended up being the last chance I needed.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, from that point I learned a level of perseverance and work ethic that has allowed me to be successful in the field.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so knowing what I know now, those faculty were really trying to save me time because I'm sort of the one percent of kids who make it, who come from the situation I came from, who enter a program so radically far behind their peers, based off of what they were seeing, were trying to be like, you know, this kid's gonna get crushed, let's save him now, so he can do something else with his life and learn that now.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: But no one understood how stubborn I can be.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: So so I don't fault anyone for what was said back then because they were all really earnestly trying to teach me in the best way that they could, and it ended up I did learn, like I said, a level of perseverance and and work ethic that has taken me super duper far.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: Oh goodness.
• 13:46
  SPEAKER_00: There's there's so much I want to keep exploring on that, but you have like other parts of your life that we need to dive into.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Like I could just keep because that is so significant and so pivotal.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I like I also start thinking about like, okay, well, what if that last audition didn't pan out?
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I I genuinely believe that you would have kept going, like from who I know.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I just would have gone to a different school.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's like I'll play on the streets.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: You can't stop me.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And and you would have been amazing, right?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, just anyway, so that just that blows my mind and it just inspires me too.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, even though, you know, now I'm in my 30s, I'm no longer 18-year-old baby Caitlin, but I it's like, if this is what you want, yes, you eventually developed the skills that, you know, have has allowed you to do all the things that you described at the beginning of this conversation.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_00: How have you approached the like the business side and the the growing a community side and like the networking side that has allowed you to make certain connections and and to have certain opportunities?
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how has that kind of gone post you know, fighting for your right to play the clarinet?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I I mean, I'll greatly expand on it, but the number one word that comes to mind to answer that question is how I've approached developing the business side is collaboratively.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: As we discussed earlier, I'm lucky to come from a family of business owners who I'm seven years old and grandpa's telling me how to sell boats, you know, like so I got a lot of great training at home.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but you know, post-earning degrees and things, what I realized early on is that if you want to work with a community, you have to be present in that community.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: So if you want to do business with a community, you gotta be present, earn their trust.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the best ways to earn trust is to collaborate authentically and successfully.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_02: So my whole approach to like doing all the business things, expanding a network, you know, define outlining services and deciding what fees to charge, all of that has really just come from the understanding of because I'm a musician, I need to be on good terms with other musicians.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_02: And just because I have a need that I want to get taken care of doesn't mean that I can't help others take care of their needs as well.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: I don't take a transactional approach to like helping other folks.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: For me, it's just the right thing to do.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: But what I've noticed is that when you create space for others and when you help others, when you, you know, pass work to other people, that energy that you're putting out into the community gets reciprocated back to you.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: And the best example I can give of that happening for me is that I spent uh eight years working in arts administration, just you know, killing myself, creating opportunities for others, and also like still practicing clarinet on top of the full-time job.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: I left that a couple years ago to be a full-time musician, which I am now, and I was so scared to take that leap.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: But what happened was as soon as I put out into the world, hey, I'm a full-time musician now, so if you have any music work, please think of me.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: All of that goodness that I put out into the Indianapolis community during my time as an arts administrator came back to me.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I was very quickly able to set up a a sustainable uh practice as a full-time musician.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: So I have stability and financial security now, and I think part of that's just who I am and how you know I have that never give up attitude.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I think a significant part as well is the good that I authentically uh was doing for the community.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: And then when I asked for help, people came and and helped me.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: You you made this very clear, but I just like want to reiterate, especially as someone who's received your kindness and has gotten to collaborate with you.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_00: It is one of those things where it does, it comes from a genuine space of giving, right?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like even right now, you giving your time to have this conversation.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's in no way, shape, or form, you're like, well, when we're done, Caitlin, you better, you know, introduce me to three potential clients.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I love hearing you talk about that because I've also seen it in practice.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna transition us over a little bit.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know I can't be stopped with storytelling and community building.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: Can we talk a little bit about your take on story and your take uh on story in relation to music and community?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, one of the things I really like about working in film is that we have all these different disciplines coming together for the purpose of telling a great story.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: To the lay person, what we see is the actors telling the story.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_02: And they do, and they're great.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: But there's also set design, there's costuming, and even the lens that we are looking through is also an art form.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: There's an amazing cartoon that highlights this exact concept you're talking about, where it goes through little squares of if there were no lights in this robbery scene, you would, you know, it would be black, right?
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_00: Um if there were no actors, there there would just be like a set, right?
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_00: If there was no props department, like they're they're robbing, but they don't have like the fake guns or whatever, right?
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: So it's uh and you go through everything if there's no sound, blah, blah, blah, blah, like all the things, like, yes, we have our iPhones now.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we can just shoot a quick video, but like I don't think people actually understand.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: You see the credits, but you don't like feel the credits the way that someone who like works behind the scenes.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_00: And even when we've done work together too, there are times where you have electronically composed something and used electronic simulation, and also you can hire out a whole band and rent a space for it.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you've done that as well, right?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so it's like even in the music department, beyond the composer, there's all these individuals.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: There's the person recording it, there's the person composing it, there's all the different instruments that make all these different sounds, like our clarinet with Tom and Jerry, you know?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: Watch out.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I definitely look at in credits very differently now after working in film.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_02: And I I really have come to appreciate the collective that it takes to tell a story.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: It can literally alter someone's brain chemistry.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: A great story, it can shift your perspective on life, it can make you feel seen or heard, it can alleviate feelings of isolation and loneliness.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: So I just think it's really, you know, what we do is really special and awesome.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and and I'm very happy that music can be a part of it.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all, I just love to interview people.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: I love sussing out their stories.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_00: I've been doing it for a while, and that's what Calhoun Creative Consulting is all about.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: We are a strategic storytelling firm.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I know there's a huge push for content, content, content, content, content, right?
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: But what if you approach it with your story clearly established, with some strategic thinking around how you want to present yourself in the sense of who are you truly?
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: How did you get here?
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: And where are you going?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Sharing that with people is essential to get where you want to go.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_00: So we help people do just that with strategic storytelling advice and also full service video production.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: So if you want more information, check out Calhoun Creative Consulting.com.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_00: Book a call with us.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: We would love to talk to you about your story.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, obviously, we're doing it weekly with all these cool people that you've been listening to on the pod.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks a bunch for being here.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: Now back to the episode.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, what have you been up to recently and what have you been excited about in your community?
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: My group Forward Motion.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: It's a chamber ensemble of flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: We have A lot more performances this year than uh previous years.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_02: So we are super excited.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in terms of film, last year I wrote music for Dirty Laundry by uh Rocky Walls and Zach Downs with 12 Stars Media.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: So basically to put it in a nutshell, I've been kind of in a hybrid mindset of like providing mentorship and instruction about what I do in terms of like how to realize an artistic vision, but also how to have like sustainable business practices.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: Been providing a lot of mentorship on that.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then artistically just trying to not trying, I have been pushing my comfort zone and learning new material, which a lot of you know, a lot of musicians we don't always have time to learn new material.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: I guess is how I'll put it.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_02: When you're a musician, a lot of times the gig is hey, can you play this?
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: Come, we'll pay you to play this.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: But learning new material, it's similar to writing a new script that might be in a different genre than than you're used to writing.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that's what I've been doing.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, basically just providing mentorship and like pushing my artistry to the next level so that I can use my artistry to further impact the world.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: I love that.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can we dig into the idea of defining something as trying something and doing something?
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: When you said that, that that's something my my partner Phil and I have a lot of conversation about as we are always, you know, shifting next level, next level, what have you.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_00: When we're pursuing something new, like, you know, you with learning a new piece or new material.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'd be curious to know your thoughts on the mindset between those two phrases.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_02: When we're talking about artistry, we have a spectrum where on one end we have experimentation and on another end we have replication.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know, doing something you know how to do, doing it again, making it successful again, that's replication.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Then there is trying something new that's experimentation.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_02: But interestingly, within that spectrum, there's a whole gray area.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know how to make documentaries, but there might be subject matter that would be your first time.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: And so that wouldn't necessarily be either polar end of that spectrum.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: It'd be somewhere in the middle.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that what's so important about differentiating between experimenting or trying something new versus replicating, doing the thing, is you need to decide on the front end roughly where you're at on that spectrum, so that expectations can be uh in alignment for whoever's involved in that.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if you know you're doing a big grand experiment, like for me as a musician, if we're trying a completely new show idea, learning new material, then part of my expectation is like, yeah, we might have 10 people in the audience because this is completely new and different.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: And like that's just part of the mindset, is like when you're in experimentation mode, success is defined by process and what you learn from it, not by outcome or output.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas when you're replicating, when you're trying to do the thing by the timeline, success is more so defined by the outcome or the output.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_00: You brought up my own experience with documentaries.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: I remember in 2021 and I had already had two short films under my belt, right?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I kept writing in my journal.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_00: I kept being like, I just want to be a documentary filmmaker.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, I just want to be a documentary filmmaker.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then one morning I was like writing and I was like, Caitlin, do you not have two films under your belt already?
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Are you not literally like already partially funded for the one you're currently working on?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like you are a funded documentary filmmaker.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_00: We go from that, like, we're trying a thing, we're trying to build community around it, we're trying to develop what it actually is.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: And then one day you wake up and you're like, 30 people are at this show.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what like a good number for a show is, but like let's say from 10 to 30, that's a good increase, is it not?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: That is just so fascinating to me what like manifests in real life versus like what we're telling ourselves exists can be so different sometimes.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let's dig in further to another thing you've just spoken about, which is the mentorship.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: What would you say to someone listening who wants to be entrepreneurial, wants to be a creative entrepreneur?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, if if you're wanting to pursue entrepreneurship, the number one thing that I have to say about it is not all entrepreneurs are the CEO.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_02: It's completely okay if you're not the speech giver, big emperor, king, queen person on top.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's completely okay.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: You can be an entrepreneur because the definition of an entrepreneur is someone who coordinates people and resources to make something happen.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: And that does not necessarily mean that you need to be the conductor of the train.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: You can be the engineer of the train and still be an entrepreneur.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my number one thing.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: And take that information.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_02: And if you are the CEO type like I am, cool, great.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_02: Go find people, hire them.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_02: If you're not the CEO type, what I just said tells you is all you need to do is find the right people to work with.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_02: So find your foils, find people who cover your weaknesses, like you have a strength that you can lend to them.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: Something that happens often in my work, because I work with a lot of musicians.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: We're all creative and passionate and wonderful, and we have so many ideas, and only one of us can actually manage a project, and that person is me.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, just embrace that we all have our strengths and weaknesses, and it's not about being the ultimate picture.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_02: It's about being a puzzle piece that fits together with everyone around you.
• 28:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's a take I've never heard on entrepreneurship.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's also very cool.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now, because honestly, I'm almost like it's my brain's almost fighting that in the sense of like, what?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: Like the story you hear, right?
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: The image that you're presented and the narrative around it is very much grow, grow, grow, you know, be the leader, leader, leader.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: But then like there's opportunities to like lead from behind or lead from the side, or you know, what can you contribute?
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: Also in the sense of like, you know, my skills and your skills.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: My skills and my approach is very quick start, big idea, big idea, big idea.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: Find a bunch of people who can be a part of that big idea, let them run with it, and then make sure we tie it off at the end, kind of thing.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you are great about consistent.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: He's going up the mountain.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, I'm gonna take a helicopter to the mountain, you know, and it's a lot of fun to work together because of that.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: But if if there was two of you or two of me, it wouldn't really work as well.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: So pairing up with other people in that regard has has been so magical for me.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: Just to share the other end of that spectrum, I am, I mean, I'm creative, I am, but like my whole approach is methodical.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: I take things that I've experienced and I think about how to improve them by one step.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_02: And that is my process and how I engage in my art form.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm honestly in a room full of creatives.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: If we're just talking about raw creativity, I'm not the most creative person in that room.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: I am probably the most engineer person in that room, but I'm not the most creative person.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: And so for me, as an entrepreneur, I end up in like leadership roles where I'm but that's more so being a project manager.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not necessarily the creative leader in the projects that I engage in.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not the person who comes up with the vision.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: And like with my chamber ensemble, it's rare for me to be the one that is um creating the show.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like I manage our schedule, but I'm not the one that comes up with like the narrative of what story the music tells.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's my other collaborators.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, just regarding entrepreneurship, I mean, not everyone has to be the CEO.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: There's in there can only be one.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_02: But I think everyone can lead in the way that their strengths allow them to lead.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: And no one can be everything.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, that's my perspective on it.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Is like, I I am creative and I'm confident in that, but like I'm not that kind of spontaneous idea out of nowhere creative.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: I am the let me observe this mountain, and okay, well, we could put a step there, so I'm gonna build this step, and then a step over there, so I can build that step.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Whereas someone who's really truly spontaneously creative can be like, oh hey, I was wandering around and I found this path up the mountain.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_02: How come you didn't see that, Eric?
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_00: Just to get so deep into the metaphor, I'm thinking about like these bursts of energy, right?
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like these bursts, and then like you're consistently building your steps, making your way up the mountain.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you pass me a couple times, you know, and I'm like out of breath and like can't get out of bed, you know, and you're like, see you soon.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like, and we get to keep interacting, you know, and it's like we'll both get there.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh, I love I love that so much.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: You spoke about this a second ago.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: You're not maybe the one who decides the story direction of the music or this, that, and the other, or like the overlay of the program that's being put on, maybe.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: But could you share your insights on how storytelling and music just interact so beautifully?
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: It's primarily related to something that we don't fully understand about music.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: And that is we don't know why it does this.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: We just know that it does do this.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's so closely tied to our memories.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: And our memories are cemented in feelings as well.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: So, like everyone has a song that they listened to when they were a teenager that not only they love, but it also like literally inflicts this feeling of youth within you.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know why it does that.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_02: There's still research we've been researching it for a long time.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know why it does that, but we know that it does do that.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_02: And so music can be such a powerful tool with storytelling because it can draw on that echo of a memory, we can really encourage the audience to feel the way that we want them to feel in any particular moment.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: So we know if we hear a march with low brass, it's probably a villain, because that was Darth Vader.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: We know that if we hear a march with kind of an upbeat tempo with some low brass honking away, we're in trouble.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're in trouble.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: And so we can use music to draw on those memories, and it's also just as a composer, such a fun legacy to interact with because I'm building on a tradition that's come long before me, thousands of years before me.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_02: We've been shaping human perception of specific sounds.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's just such a powerful tool that we can both create things that sound familiar, that activate memory and feelings, and also on the other side of that coin experiment and try something different.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_02: And it's fun to see how the audience reacts to it.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is different.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to activate your memory, I'm trying to do something new and wild.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: And how does it make you feel?
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_02: And how does that factor into this broader legacy that I'm locked into and perpetuating?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I am all about making people feel things through video.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: You're totally right.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: The music plays such a large part in that as well.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: And the music paired with certain imagery just amplifies it even more.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: You see something cute and little, and you got a cute and little song, you better watch out.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: We love it now.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's too late for you.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: You're in love with this thing we're showing you, right?
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And and I love playing with that.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: I also it makes me think of, you know, when Phil and I are watching a TV show, one of us is like, oh, is this gonna happen?
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: And we'll be like, oh, well, the music, this isn't nothing bad's gonna happen.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: The music's playful, like, you know, and you know, being an editor, being a video production expert, like it's just yeah, maybe it ruins my like TV watching experience, but it also doesn't because it gets to be like my experience.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, they there nobody's gonna jump out because it's just like a fun, playful song.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: She's just getting ready for bed.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's fine.
• 35:10
  SPEAKER_00: Like, and then it turns and you're like, oh, yeah, yep.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: There is trouble now.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: So when scary things are happening, when suspenseful things are happening, I don't cover my eyes, I plug my ears because uh the jump scare, the that's it's all sound.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's sound, it's not the actual like visual.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: And it would be if you played it without sound, you'd be like, Oh, okay, that's a new shot.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, and that man's just larger.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, very cool.
• 35:36
  SPEAKER_00: Eric, I am so grateful for you and your time and our conversation and our friendship and our collaborations and everything and what you give to the world and your community.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Would you mind sharing with people what you're excited about and how they can find you?
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_02: So uh best place to stay up to date with Mustaf is on my website, ericselasarClarinet.com.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: On my website, you can sign up for my email list.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then I'm also on social media as at the clarinet guy.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, I mean, what I'm excited about is primarily my performing that I've got coming up.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_02: Forward motion is doing a lot May through August.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be at the Chatterbox Jazz Club on the third Sunday of every month.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: We are uh on social media forward motion new music, and so we'll be posting about all of our different performances.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I got going on.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_00: Your time means the world to me.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: Your friendship, your collaborationship.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's a word.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: It means so much, and I'm so glad that people got to hear from you.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yay!
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for having me.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: Crafted Connections is lovingly produced by Calhoun Creative Consulting, a strategic storytelling firm dedicated to helping people and brands tell their stories in a way that resonates.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and connect with us on Instagram at Crafted Connections Pod.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: Keep creating, keep connecting, until we meet again.