Latest / The Scene Projects / Peter Gunn on Musical Roots, AI Innovation, and Personal Growth

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Peter Gunn on Musical Roots, AI Innovation, and Personal Growth · The Scene Projects

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  Today, we're joined by poet, author, and speaker Peter Gunn, a modern voice reimagining
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  epic poetry, blending myth, fantasy, and personal resilience.
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  Stay tuned as we dive into his journey and his new works in the music industry.
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  Let's get into it.
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  This program is part of the Scene Projects podcast network.
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  Scene Project features interviews with independent musicians, comedians, and artists
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  from across the Midwest.
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  Become part of our community and support local art wherever you are.
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  Welcome in to a very exciting episode of the scene.
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  I'm your host, Bubba Starts, and with me today is Peter Gunn.
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  Welcome to the show, brother.
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  Thank you for having me, Bubba.
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  It's a pleasure to be here.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I'm excited.
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  Just reading your bio today and having a chance to, you know, check out the website.
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  An interesting fella.
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  You are.
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  So we're gonna get into it.
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  Before we get into the new music and everything, I'd love for you to give a little,
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  backstory, and, the floor is yours, sir.
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  Well, I've been called a lot of things because I have my, my hand at a at a lot of, avenues.
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  I've been called a polymath.
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  I've been called a a red sauce man, but I like to consider myself just being a poet because if
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  you look at everything I do, it has basic roots in poetry, my writing, my music, even my
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  speaking.
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  You know?
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  I've done, you know, ten, fifteen minute talks, all that all rhyme from beginning to end.
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  So poetry is is where I come from, is where I base myself, and that's why I consider myself
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  to be a poet first and foremost.
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  I you know, I'm a I'm a Midwestern kid.
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  You know, I I came from a very humble background, but I was also very blessed.
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  The the thing about me that makes me a lot different than a lot of other creators is when
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  I was seven years old, I had an NDE with with an angel that told me my job wasn't done.
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  I had to come back.
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  And ever since then, I've been very connected.
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  And I'll get downloads.
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  I'll get, actual songs, you know, come through, from the other side.
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  You know?
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  And, it's one of those things where I've just learned to deal with it.
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  And I'd say about 80% of the stuff that I put out is channels.
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  So, it's partially me, but not all me.
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  And if you listen to the album, you will see that the message that it's trying to convey is
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  very much of a positive, helpful, for humanity as well.
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  Incredible stuff.
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  I'm a songwriter myself, and, I talk a lot about it that those strikes of inspiration, I'm
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  merely an antenna for that.
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  So you talk about a download, you know, coming from the other side, pulling it from the ether,
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  if you will, and just being a conduit for that song is what I've always tried to do.
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  And no doubt that, you know, my own personal lived experience informed some of that as well,
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  which I it is just impossible as a creative to not influence that.
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  But, yeah, love it.
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  And as someone who's written, you know, poetry and songs since I was, you know, since my first
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  writing classes in grade school, really, I respect and appreciate what you do.
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  Incredible.
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  Incredible.
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  You said Midwestern kid.
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  Where'd you grow up, Peter?
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  Wisconsin.
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  Okay.
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  Well, I live here in rural South Dakota.
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  I got family around the Black River Falls area.
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  They're out in Taylor, Wisconsin.
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  And we used to take trips up, when we lived in the Chicago area.
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  That's where my family's originally from.
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  All the way up to Manitowish Waters, close to the UP there.
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  So, love the state of Wisconsin except Green Bay.
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  And, other than and, just, I love love getting to talk with other Midwestern creatives.
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  I often joke that they kicked me out of Wisconsin because I don't drink.
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  So I don't you know, there's no beer.
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  You know?
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  And, I I don't swear.
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  I don't spend out, you know, late nights partying, you know, because we're we're known
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  for having a bar in every corner, and it's Yeah.
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  Just wasn't me.
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  Yeah.
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  And if you're lactose intolerant, you hit the trifecta there.
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  Yeah.
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  Amazing.
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  Well, yeah.
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  I mean, there's so much that we could get into.
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  I know that you've been working on some music stuff, but you you have these books and these
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  other creative works.
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  Does the music tie in to some of the other creative works, or is it a a separate entity
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  altogether?
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  Well, basically, underlying in everything I do is to help uplift in humanity.
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  Okay?
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  So there's an underlying message, whether it's a story, okay, to bring the feminine into the
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  hero's journey like the Amazons, the crepiest curse to help, young girls understand that they
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  could take an active role not only in their lives, but in in their destiny.
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  And then, of course, the angelic with with the album, to help understand humanity that they
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  can fight back and they have a choice.
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  I love it.
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  My wife is my superhero.
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  A little backstory on my wife, Danielle.
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  When we met, she had already completed college and had a four year degree.
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  And in the last year and a half or so, she took on a new role leaving the business world and
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  the manual labor world to work at our local elementary school as a paraprofessional.
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  Now just two years later, she is teaching at the school as a special education teacher.
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  She is on an advanced teacher permit through a program called the teacher apprentice program
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  here from the state of South Dakota through Dakota State University.
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  So I love that you're empowering young people and and giving them a vision of a brighter
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  future.
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  I think especially with the way the last I mean, it's really been more like ten or fifteen
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  years, but especially the last five years, there hasn't been a lot of hope delivered.
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  There's been a lot of chaos and a lot of fear and hate that has been spread, but not a lot of
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  hope, love that has that has entered the world through one way or another.
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  And I think at this point, you're not gonna get it from the world as we know it.
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  It has to come from somewhere else.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I always say that the first step for help has to come from you.
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  You know?
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  You have to pick up your weight, bear your cross, so to speak, and, take accountability
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  for yourself first.
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  You know, god helps those help themselves.
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  Taking accountability is something that I think a lot of people can learn from.
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  I, myself, in my experience as a a once incarcerated individual, I did two years for,
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  you know, distributing marijuana, which now I have a license where I could grow or smoke or
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  buy as much as I would want to, more than that they had caught me with, but I had to I I ran
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  away.
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  Right?
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  I ran away from that.
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  And I actually lived in Mexico for a year, Peter.
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  And it took me some hard conversations with myself and looking at my children and going
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  that they had not asked for this life on the run and being in this.
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  And I had to take accountability for my actions, whether I thought it was right what I
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  was being prosecuted for or not, that I had to go in to pay the piper, so to speak, so that I
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  could build a better life for my children.
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  And here we are now, you know, ten years removed from that and, you know, eight years
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  removed from prison and off of parole now and and now able to turn around and to serve our
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  community.
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  My wife is not only a teacher at the school, but we also have a program supporting young
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  athletes at the school as well with our podcast.
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  So, it it's nice to, yeah, be on the other side of that now.
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  But, I'm never afraid to share that story because I think it informs a lot of who I am as
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  a man and as a human being that I did take my accountability.
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  Yes.
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  I made mistakes, but I I have learned from those mistakes, and I accept that they made me
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  who I am today.
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  And taking that accountability was a huge step in that process.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, that's one the first steps you wanna look at is if someone comes to you for help, you
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  know, is are they willing to take the steps themselves?
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  Because so many people have a kind, gentle heart, and they'll take on their load,
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  unfortunately, and you can't do that, Yeah.
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  Because it will bring you down.
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  But, it it's it's it takes a special kind of person to actually wanna do that because so
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  many people out there are very cutthroat, you know, and, all about themselves.
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  Well and I think in this day and age, it's very easy to shift the blame.
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  You can shift the blame to society or your parents, which I did for a long time.
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  Right?
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  You know, not a great upbringing.
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  And it was very easy for me to just be an angry young man and to blame everyone else for the
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  poor decisions that I was making.
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  And I think we get even more of a, you know, especially in this digital age where we can
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  take to Facebook and find people, that will back up our bullshit to speak.
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  You don't cuss, but I do.
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  And will, allow us to justify our our poor behavior.
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  And it really starts with a gentleman that I listen to a lot, Andy Frisella, and something
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  he says all the time is that, you know, personal excellence is the ultimate rebellion.
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  And it it starts with looking in the mirror, taking accountability, whether it's problems
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  with your weight or it's problems with your mental health or the situation that you're in.
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  You have to be able to look in the mirror and to speak to yourself honestly.
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  Yeah.
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  I oftentimes will direct people to the map of consciousness.
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  I don't know if you for Billy, we're not
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  Yeah.
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  I'm sorry I laughed, but it's on my book list sitting right in front of me
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  on the Yes.
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  On my wall.
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  I have yet to buy it and read it, but I think that was a sign or a download that I better get
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  to it.
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  Well, if you look at the map of consciousness and you could you know, anyone could do a
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  Google and and look at it and just, you know, start to read it.
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  And then also then I say bring up Maslow's hierarchy of needs and then see that you think
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  you could superimpose them on each other.
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  You know?
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  And then start to understand that people speak different languages of this world.
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  Because when you're down 85%, if you look at the metaconscious, 85% or more of people are at
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  or below 200.
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  So they're down down in the lower half.
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  So to consciously want to rise up is very rare not only very rare thing, but then learn that
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  you're gonna speak a different language when you're up here.
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  A person down here that's wronged is gonna wanna fight, take revenge.
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  Person that's up here is gonna turn the other cheek, walk away, and pray for that person.
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  So you speak two different languages.
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  Do you find it to sometimes be a lonely place in that upper level of consciousness?
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  Oh, yeah.
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  I mean, people don't understand it.
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  You look they look at you like a weirdo.
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  Especially if, like, they see a situation where would initiate a fight.
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  You know, there's okay.
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  Great.
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  This guy's gonna fight.
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  Like, no.
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  I'll walk away.
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  And people don't understand.
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  Like, where are you coming from?
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  You know, you're one that odd man out, but you get used to it.
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  Yeah.
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  I know you've been getting a little bit of pushback with your music because of how it was
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  produced.
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  Yes.
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  I I don't I I'm not here to fight you on it.
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  I think any way that we can express ourselves is a beautiful thing.
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  Even being someone who's in the commercial business of music, Most of the money that I
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  make comes from performing live, and I don't feel like AI, at least to this point, is
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  recreating that.
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  I mean, they've been lip syncing over songs since the Milli Vanilla days.
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  So Yes.
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  I I often about that.
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  I often think about that.
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  Yes.
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  And maybe maybe I'm just a little bit older than most people out there nowadays.
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  But, talk a little bit about the music and what kind of informed these songs and, this new
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  album.
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  Well, you know, when you're an entrepreneur, you're always looking to reinvent yourself,
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  rebrand yourself, and go to the next level.
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  And that's what I did.
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  When I initially started is I had a good friend, Andrew Diordani.
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  It was she's my producer slash director, and she's doing my audiobook.
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  And we're gonna make it sound like a movie.
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  And then, okay, I figured, okay.
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  I'm gonna get a band and start a soundtrack, you know, because it it will it will accompany,
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  you know, the the new audiobook.
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  And this is that's how this whole thing started where I found a band online, and then he had
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  other friends, and then he brought in other guys.
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  All of sudden, before I knew it was the four of us, and we decided to go out on our own and
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  make our first album.
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  So and there and we've come across some criticism because they're in Germany.
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  There's Leo.
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  He's in in Dusseldorf.
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  There's Max.
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  He's in Munich, and I think Ellis is in Berlin.
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  And we're do we're doing a lot of recording via Zoom, and we're we're we're doing whatever we
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  can to make it work and put up the best product we can.
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  So that means using AI to clean up the music because, like, via Zoom, you get a lot of
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  hisses and pops and stuff like that.
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  So we'll do whatever we can to make the best possible product to be able to put out there
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  for people.
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  Oh, so you're not even prompting the AI to create the music.
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  You guys are playing instruments and creating the music, and they're just using it.
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  We're using, AI to change our voices as well, though.
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  Oh, yes.
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  We're using AI to change our voices as well.
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  Yeah.
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  We've been using auto tune.
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  I mean, Lil Wayne got famous for auto tune.
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  Come on now.
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  Like, let's let's pull back.
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  So the fact you're getting any pushback now kind of it ticks me off a little bit, Peter.
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  I'm not at that upper level of consciousness like you.
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  I still allow myself to get a little angry sometimes.
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  It it's served me well to this point.
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  Maybe one day I will grow past that and shed that weight as well.
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  You never constantly unless you're like Jesus Christ and you just elevate, elevate, elevate,
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  it's an up and down process.
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  It's just a matter of being aware.
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  Wait a minute.
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  I'm going down, so I'm gonna have to do something to get myself up.
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  Yeah.
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  Great advice.
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  Well, I haven't got a chance to listen to the music yet, but I would love to have you on some
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  of our other shows.
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  We have a couple other shows on the network.
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  One of them called Love Noise.
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  We do every Wednesday, actually, which we are recording this on a Wednesday morning, live on
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  YouTube at 9PM central.
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  We, we take the music.
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  We bring a couple of the songs on.
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  We have you on with us, and we get to talk about the songs specifically.
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  So Oh, good.
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  To leave those fresh.
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  So anybody who's kinda bringing me music, I I don't like to do necessarily a lot of homework
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  because if they ever get the chance to come on Love Noise, I like that to be my first listen.
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  I like to give an honest first impression and feedback of the song.
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  So, Peter, you're more than welcome if you'd be so inclined to come on and share your music
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  with us sometime and to, yeah, to let us hear what you guys have been working on.
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  I think it's awesome.
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  I think it's great that you guys are not only well, because you could track it.
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  You could track the stuff and everybody could do it independently on their own and to to
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  voice over.
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  I love that you're kinda creating on Zoom altogether still, which obviously is going to
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  have issues.
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  You're going to have lag times.
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  You are on other opposite sides of the planet communicating through, you know, through the
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  beauty of the Internet.
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  What an incredible experience that is.
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  How did you meet these gentlemen in Germany?
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  Well, this is a a website called Upwork, and you go there to you know, you could find
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  musicians on there.
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  You could find producers.
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  You could find anything an entrepreneur need entrepreneur needs for his business, could find
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  on there.
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  And that's why I started looking at Upwork, and that's where I first met Leo.
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  And he knew the these other guys that he brought them on.
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  And then we initially did 10 songs for the audiobooks, and then it worked out so well that
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  they said, hey.
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  Let's do an album together.
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  So we decided to, you know, join up make ourselves a band and call ourselves Angelic,
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  which is a, you know, a tip of the hat to my angel and my NDE and, go from there.
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  Incredible.
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  And, you know, I have another show called get better together.
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  I kind of I I kinda glossed over the near death experience because, obviously, that would
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  become a much longer conversation.
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  And I promised you I'd have you out of here in about twenty minutes today as is typical for
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  the format of this show specifically.
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  But, Peter, I I think we could come back and have plenty of long conversations and and
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  really dig in deep to some of this stuff.
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  I would love to have you back.
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  If you would Yeah.
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  If you would grace us with the presence again.
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  Yeah.
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  That'd be fantastic.
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  Before I let you go today, go ahead and, plug everything that you have.
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  I know you have a website and and where people can find the music.
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  You can go to my website at www.petergone.net, and you could check out our album.
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  It's called Hazing Hades, and the the name of the band is called the Angelic, and it's on all
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  current platforms for music.
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  I love it.
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  Well, Peter, thanks for taking some time for me today.
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  Looking forward to speaking with you again.
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  Thank you for being part of the scene.
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  Oh, thank you for having me on.
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  It's a pleasure.