Latest / Basic Folk / Julian Taylor's Folk Evolution: From Misfit to Musical Storyteller, ep. 340

Transcript

Julian Taylor's Folk Evolution: From Misfit to Musical Storyteller, ep. 340 · Basic Folk

0:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello and welcome to Basic Folk, where we have honest conversations with folk musicians on the bluegrass situation.
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It is me, Cindy House.
0:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for finding us today.
0:21
[SPEAKER_00]: We have Julian Taylor on the podcast.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Before we get into that, let's talk about our mailing list.
0:28
[SPEAKER_00]: You can sign up for our once a month email at the link in the show notes or you can go to BasicFoke.com.
0:35
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0:40
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0:42
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0:54
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0:57
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1:08
[SPEAKER_00]: How's
1:09
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's get into Julian Taylor, interviewed by Lizzie Noe.
1:14
[SPEAKER_00]: One of the things that Lizzie really enjoyed about interviewing the Toronto-born singer-songwriter Julian Taylor is his relationship with the truth.
1:23
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a really peaceful attitude towards learning new information and sharing new information.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: For example, at the beginning and the end of the interview, there were some biographical facts
1:39
[SPEAKER_00]: And Julian Gently and Matter of Fact checked her, and they just moved on.
1:45
[SPEAKER_00]: It was such a cool example of, oh, you've got this bit wrong, and it matters that we get it right, but nothing about it is personal.
1:53
[SPEAKER_00]: In an era of misinformation and alternative facts, it feels really grounding to have an hour-long conversation with someone who really cares about getting and right, and that shows through his songs and in his storytelling.
2:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Julian experienced an eclectic musical upbringing thanks to his classical and gospel musician father, his mother's love of Motown and folk and wide influences from pop to blues.
2:17
[SPEAKER_00]: Oral tradition in his family shaped how he tells a story, especially on his mother's side with his mohawk grandfather, who was a pastor who told incredible stories.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: He also discusses being pigeonholed by race and genre, oftentimes people will think that he performs a certain type of music because he looks a certain way.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: He mentions that audiences can be shocked when he pulls out a country song while sporting hair that looks more reggae than Johnny Cash.
2:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Taylor discusses his breakthrough 2020 album The Ridge.
2:47
[SPEAKER_00]: He talks about his writing process often starting with the lyrics and the intent behind anthology volume 2, including the song's hunger, don't let him dedication and weighing down addressing mental freedom, identity politics, and self forgiveness.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll take a listen to a song from his latest release.
3:06
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a clip of the song Hunger and then we'll get to our conversation with Lizzie No and Julian Taylor on Basic Folk.
3:33
[SPEAKER_02]: And it hovered in the clear sky like a bird of prey Took the baby from the cradle To the black it's from the bed And it sat down at their table Right there water ain't their breath Hunger
4:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Hunger crossed the fields like rolling thunder Hammer's longer, it must be filled this hunger You could settle down among them Like a gas to never leave It turned mothers against children Turn brothers into thieves
4:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm good, I'm good We get all the new, new, new, new, new, new Is the King, we're living under I'm not a face, you can't cry, can't wait until The morning rain falls down again
5:00
[SPEAKER_02]: Drink our fill, hungry, hungry We'll take a plow and take it one day They will wonder what was his hunger All the treasures of his world are waiting to be found
5:28
[SPEAKER_02]: I sleep and see the lies and see the meat The soul will grow Hunger, hunger And baby's stronger will be stronger one day They will wonder what was hunger One day, they will wonder
5:58
[SPEAKER_02]: What was wrong with you?
6:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Julian Taylor, welcome to Basic Folk.
6:03
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm Lizzy No, and I'm so happy to have you on the pod today.
6:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Let's dig right in.
6:07
[SPEAKER_04]: You grew up on the six nations of the Grand River territory.
6:11
[SPEAKER_04]: I did not.
6:13
[SPEAKER_04]: You did not.
6:14
[SPEAKER_01]: No, I did not.
6:15
[SPEAKER_04]: OK, so I need to confront a journalist who wrote that about you.
6:19
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it.
6:20
[SPEAKER_01]: See, I always have to protect myself in that regard.
6:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not from six nations of the Grand River.
6:26
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm from Toronto.
6:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Family, I have roots, and I have family in Ganoague, which is a Mohawk Reservation in Quebec.
6:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Six Nations is in Ontario, your boyfriend, and I'm going to walk us here in Montreal.
6:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, this is great to know.
6:43
[SPEAKER_04]: So tell me about growing up in Toronto and what music was like for you growing up in your household and like in your neighborhood.
6:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, in my household, what was music like growing up, it was pretty varied, it was very eclectic.
7:00
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad is a classical pianist, also saying in a band he had a gospel band called the Sheppard's Flock, which he started with my uncle, and they were in a band together for many years, so we grew up with a lot of music, so anything from
7:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Bach, Chopin, Rockman and off, to Louis Armstrong, Knackin Cole, Bessie Smith, all of it.
7:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Stevie Wonder, then my mom, her and her sister, Rekogo dancers back in the old days, and Motown was a huge thing for them.
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: So, a lot of Motown, you know, that was...
7:38
[SPEAKER_01]: very drunk on the temptations and this screams, Gil Scott Heron also came into the like some really conscious music came into the into the fruition as well.
7:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And then it was pop.
7:48
[SPEAKER_01]: I was into pop because I was like, I was born in 1978, so by the time 1984 came around.
7:54
[SPEAKER_04]: What an era for pop.
7:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
7:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It was big.
7:56
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was a big fan of Prince Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston, Billy Ocean, who else was in that mix.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess born in USA from Bruce
8:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, it's going to dark was pop, I guess.
8:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And then later on in life, well, actually, like my cousins and stuff, they listened to different things too.
8:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So like they listened to more rock and roll in country and blues and jabs.
8:21
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a lot.
8:21
[SPEAKER_01]: We got, we got inundated a lot.
8:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And my mom also was a big folk fan as well.
8:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I pretty haven't.
8:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, sweet.
8:27
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, John Moose, Jim, those kind of things were really prevalent in our house.
8:31
[SPEAKER_01]: So it was a musical home.
8:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and so was there ever a moment where you felt like there was a shift in consciousness where you thought, I Julian and an artist, or do you feel like it was something that was just shared and like in the air.
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Definitely shared it in the air.
8:44
[SPEAKER_01]: All of us are an artist and in my family when it comes to see my dad playing piano.
8:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Listen to him.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: That's how I knew he was home because he the first thing he would probably do like if we were sleeping And I'd be waiting after he'd go and play with the Anna and I knew my dad was home and that was really something else So like my cousin's all played as well like my cousin Richard played trumpet My cousin Paul playediano and my grandfather my dad's father played piano and guitar My uncle Paul played trumpet
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: my uncle brainer played everything he's the conductor of the choir church then on my mom's side and gonna walk out of my cousin's jean plays drums and berry plays bass it's a love oh my gosh yeah I never thought I was like an artist artist I was I was that I was just somebody who was playing along
9:33
[SPEAKER_04]: Well, speaking of playing along, tell us about your first band, staggered crossing, and the type of music that you were making, and the type of musician that you were in those days.
9:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure, we were a bunch of misfits, really, because we were teenagers.
9:48
[SPEAKER_01]: So I started that band when I was 16 years old.
9:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And at first, it was like, I wanted everybody to play rhythm and blues, because that's what I had grown up with.
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And it just wasn't in the car, it's because they didn't really grow up with that.
10:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
10:02
[SPEAKER_01]: It was the first time I was sort of introduced to a lot of that stuff was in, you know, high school and I guess because we grew up in the 90s, Nirvana and Pearl Jam and Sound Garden and all of those bands broke out and we were inundated with that.
10:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I also really enjoyed hip-hop though, like I was, I was really into, um, track called Quest with, it's one of my favorite groups of still.
10:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Cypress Hill, Gangstar.
10:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Are you a living color fan?
10:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a huge living color fan.
10:34
[SPEAKER_01]: I love living color.
10:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I love bad brains.
10:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, bad brains.
10:38
[SPEAKER_04]: Because when I was listening to the staggered crossing stuff, I was like, I feel like there is an overlap between rock roots and full crutes in your lineage.
10:48
[SPEAKER_04]: That's a really interesting overlap.
10:49
[SPEAKER_04]: 100%.
10:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, 100%.
10:52
[SPEAKER_01]: My friends that I went to high school, like the rest of the guys in the group were all Caucasian guys.
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And so when you grow up and think that everybody has the same experiences you do, but it's just not true.
11:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
11:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it became an amalgamation of a lot of different thoughts and ideas.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I was introduced to so many things that I had never really been inundated with like the drama, Rob's Pantera and I've got it.
11:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my gosh, yeah.
11:18
[SPEAKER_01]: My scope.
11:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I was like, what is this?
11:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Howlman was another one that he introduced me to, but I was introducing them to things that they hadn't been introduced to as well.
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Like death, like bad brains, like fish bone, and even living color, like that was cool who banned as well back in the day.
11:36
[SPEAKER_04]: I love low in color.
11:37
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I'm such a big fan.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So I picked up the electric guitar.
11:40
[SPEAKER_01]: But literally I thought I wanted to be buddy guy for a long time.
11:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Mm-hmm.
11:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, when you and I first met, and a big part of why I wanted to have you on basic folk is that was it 2022 or 2023 when we met at the hillside?
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Was that still sad?
11:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I don't know what year it was.
11:56
[SPEAKER_04]: I think it was like four or five years ago, but we were both put on a workshop together.
12:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And like,
12:04
[SPEAKER_04]: For people that go to folk fest, you'll know that a big part of the folk fest vibe is that you're not just seeing artists on the main stage, you're getting a chance to meet people in more of a one on one or a workshop setting and like I didn't know what I was getting into, but I was so taken with
12:22
[SPEAKER_04]: your presence as a storyteller and your ability to translate your songs into super relatable stories for like a very broad audience.
12:32
[SPEAKER_04]: So I'm just curious how often you're in situations where you're teaching and like how did you develop your storytelling abilities like even outside of the music side of it?
12:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, that comes down to family once again.
12:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly my grandfather,
12:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's where the Mohawk lineage comes from.
12:53
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a definite storyteller.
12:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just part of our tradition.
12:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It's an oral tradition.
13:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And same with the on the African side, he went to my grandfather, was a pastor, and he had an incredible ability to tell stories.
13:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that holding that skill was a genetic, but at the same time, once you've gone through a lot of things in your life,
13:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you are trying to make sense to them, a lot of the time what you end up doing is you tell those stories to yourself a lot and they go through your head, like a constant real.
13:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And if that's happening, it can be really detrimental to your health, I find.
13:35
[SPEAKER_04]: I agree.
13:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So I had to discover a way of using that in it to its advantage.
13:47
[SPEAKER_01]: in my room, or you know, in my living room, or in my bedroom, for your tar primary, I do play piano a little bit, because obviously my dad wanted to be to, when I was a kid, but speaking to that guy, guitar became, it became my best friend, and a solace, and I was able to tell that instrument, my deepest, darkest secret, which was really something that is quite an amazing gift to be able to have that instrument
14:17
[SPEAKER_01]: What I found after that, those stories became really relatable to other people because the more the more experiences I have, the more people that I've met across the entire globe, I actually feel like I have more in common with them than I don't.
14:33
[SPEAKER_01]: You and I have much more in common with each other than the average person, just because of our lineage and our heritage and our experiences through life, because of that.
14:46
[SPEAKER_01]: that being said, everybody was a child once.
14:50
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, I really feel like being a touring musician is what really made my socialism real.
14:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Like it was a theory and a set of ideas, but when you spend your time just connecting and meeting with people from all walks of life, you know, every night on tour, you do realize we share so many of the same basic needs and the same basic concerns and the same desires.
15:15
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I couldn't agree with that more.
15:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It also comes to talking to people when I first met you and we chatted, it was an instinct connection with you.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that, like he said, touring and being a musician that, well, first of all, we also have this empathy that we're born with.
15:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
15:34
[SPEAKER_01]: As artists, and I find that any conversation that I have most the time,
15:40
[SPEAKER_01]: If somebody's not, if I feel safe, let's put it that way.
15:43
[SPEAKER_01]: If I feel safe, I'm able to open up to people and they're able to open up to me.
15:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So I've done my best to try to make music where I feel safe, we're in turn, other people would feel safe too.
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Even if it's an uncomfortable topic.
15:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, like the songwriting and the storytelling for you, it sounds like are a container for connection.
16:04
[SPEAKER_04]: In a world where connection, it doesn't always feel safe, especially with people that don't come from our same background or like it's a way of building trust.
16:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, for sure.
16:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
16:14
[SPEAKER_01]: If there are some stages where I've been on and I've actually
16:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, come to tears because I've had the courage to tell the audience, thank you, I thank you for making me feel safe.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't happen all the time.
16:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's correct.
16:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It's correct.
16:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And people who haven't had our experience who aren't, you know, minorities, for instance, may not have.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I've never had the experience of being a woman in that regard.
16:38
[SPEAKER_01]: You can only see it through the people that I have in my family or my daughters or eyes.
16:48
[SPEAKER_01]: try to see other people for what they're going to do.
16:52
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think it's really highly important.
16:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I think safety is one of the most important things that we have on Earth.
16:57
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes, it goes that deep.
17:00
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel the exact same way when I'm on stage.
17:02
[SPEAKER_04]: And even when I'm writing like, I need to feel emotional, physical, and psychological safety to feel creative at all.
17:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to hear about the process behind your 2020, really break through album The Ridge.
17:27
[SPEAKER_04]: And it seemed to like mark a transition for you sonnically to what extent were you intentionally crafting a new sound and image, a more folksy sound and image, and like how did that record change your life?
17:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the rich changed my life in exponential ways because I was able to reach a worldwide audience for the first time.
17:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I was also able to reach a Canadian audience for what I thought was the first time because I reached an international audience.
17:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you expand on that a little bit?
17:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Sure.
17:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been making music and producing records and writing songs for posts to 30 years down and Canada,
18:08
[SPEAKER_01]: As always been my home, Toronto has always been where I grew up and where I had my formative experiences, but, you know, I toured the country and it was hard, it's hard to wear this country, it's big, it's vast, it's also not incredibly kind sometimes, people have that misconception.
18:29
[SPEAKER_01]: A lot of the time, our Canadian artists have to go outside of
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like there's because it's so vast and because it's also quite small.
18:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe there's this sort of competitive mindset and people's psyche that doesn't allow them to really appreciate what they have here until it goes somewhere else and somebody else is appreciated, which is unfortunate, but it's changing.
18:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But that was the time when I first came, it was coming up.
19:01
[SPEAKER_01]: At the same time, you know, I felt it was very difficult to be pigeonholed.
19:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I never wanted to be pigeonholed, I was, you know, also coached in a way to be a certain image so that it would maybe break the band or help me with my career.
19:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to go into salt too much of it because there's a systemic problem with it.
19:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
19:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Whether it's your race or your gender or let's go as simply as genre.
19:32
[SPEAKER_01]: For the longest time, the way that I love people
19:35
[SPEAKER_01]: would ask me, am I a reggae artist or my hip-hop artist?
19:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was never either, I can do both, and I enjoy both of those music genres, of course, and styles.
19:47
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I mean, every Black artist has a version of that.
19:49
[SPEAKER_04]: I feel like, because of my presentation, people are like, oh, she's real light-skinned.
19:53
[SPEAKER_04]: It'd R&B, R&B singer, Salore and B singer.
19:57
[SPEAKER_04]: And I'm like, no, I'm a folk band leader, actually.
19:59
[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, that's very relatable.
20:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't understand that.
20:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, they don't understand that.
20:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny when I was doing cover band stuff after the technical process split, I would do, you know.
20:10
[SPEAKER_01]: If I, if I broke out of Bob Marley song with people, the audience felt comfortable.
20:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you like, well, yeah, well, I get this now.
20:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
20:16
[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as I would do something by, like, say, Johnny Cash or something like that, but look on people's faces or what they would say to me afterwards, was so incredibly insulting, but yes.
20:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Real at the same time, I can't really.
20:29
[SPEAKER_04]: I still get quiz all the time.
20:31
[SPEAKER_04]: What do you know about that type of when I talk about country or folk?
20:34
[SPEAKER_04]: People just have such a resistance to seeing certain bodies in body certain types of storytelling practices because it doesn't match.
20:43
[SPEAKER_04]: There are subconscious biases about who can be what type of
20:51
[SPEAKER_04]: I think that's really helpful context for the brilliance with which you broke through a lot of that noise and have become such a formidable presence in the folk scene as a songwriter and singer and a guitar player and all of those things.
21:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to make sure we dig in really deep to your new album anthology volume too.
21:10
[SPEAKER_04]: But before we do that, can you set the scene of what it looks like
21:16
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, do you have a favorite guitar that you go to?
21:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have a spot in your house a time of day?
21:20
[SPEAKER_04]: Or are you just writing whenever or wherever?
21:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I do have a favorite spot.
21:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in it at the moment.
21:26
[SPEAKER_01]: One of them.
21:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, great.
21:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm in my attic, which I created, like, it's like a little den with instruments and the computer work and you know, record demos and things like that.
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And it also contains a lot of my family history when my
21:42
[SPEAKER_01]: my aunts and uncles and grandparents started to transcend.
21:47
[SPEAKER_01]: and move on to the next realm, I was bestowed with the responsibility of holding a lot of there are artifacts.
21:54
[SPEAKER_01]: So they're in this room with me.
21:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Some are in boxes and some are out for display, but there's a certain energy that each year.
22:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Don't you feel like every black family has at least one or two historians slash like anthologists?
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The keepers?
22:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
22:12
[SPEAKER_01]: We have, yes, we have me, my mom,
22:15
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a few other, and yeah, we are the keepers of these things, and so I guess that's part of the story too, I suppose, is that those, those, those keep sakes, yes, speaking to me.
22:27
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's a really wonderful thing, also I love writing in nature.
22:32
[SPEAKER_01]: If I have the chance, I'm not going out today.
22:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It's mine is 15, so it's a good temperature to write in.
22:39
[SPEAKER_01]: But if I get the chance, I'll sit on the deck and just write or sit by a lake and write and sit in the forest and write.
22:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's really again.
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: The keepers.
22:54
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... keep talking to me and nature and you know being from a hodin a show any background as well nature as always spoken to me i was always taught to listen to it to nature you know it was interesting my grandfather would always talk about the birds and and and and and they're sitting in if you ever got lost in the forest which were to go listen to this animal listen to this bird and i was taught that way i was taught that the great spirit was that it was the guide
23:20
[SPEAKER_01]: and is the all-compassing thing that we are all shaking and come from, and where you are, a lot of people coming from our background, it was interesting, it was a dichotomy because on one side of the family was religion, but they have, they're all very spiritual people, which is wonderful because they're not in this, in this,
23:43
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know in a way to explain it because they're beautiful theologians and they're beautiful spiritual people and then on one side there's another group of beautiful spiritual people but that didn't believe in the same sort of secular sort of ideas.
23:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So I was privy to both which was such a gift to see that that combo and again like traveling around the world see how that is so much there's so much in common if you
24:12
[SPEAKER_01]: So that was really cool, but yeah, the writing process for me is really interesting like that.
24:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I think for the rich, that was one of the first times however, though that I started with, the whole record was pretty much written, lyrics before the music even came to fruition.
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And before that, you know, jamming with my rock and roll, alternate rock and roll band and things like that, ideas came from music and then the lyrics, I would go back and work on that.
24:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But this was an interesting record, so it taught me that if I started with the lyrics, the melody and the shape of the songs would be very different.
24:43
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I continued to do that.
24:46
[SPEAKER_01]: But like anything can happen, inspiration will strike you at any time and you got to run with it if you can.
24:52
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been working on a brand new record.
24:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm done it.
24:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I've actually got the lyrics completed.
24:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I need three verse.
24:58
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh my gosh.
24:59
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
25:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm going into record it tomorrow.
25:02
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm so stoked that we're talking today.
25:04
[SPEAKER_04]: Perfect timing.
25:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Perfect timing.
25:06
[SPEAKER_01]: It's going to be fun.
25:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's my most political record that is for sure.
25:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
25:10
[SPEAKER_04]: We're going to want you back on the pod to talk about that for sure.
25:13
[SPEAKER_01]: This is very exciting.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that I hope it doesn't get me canceled, but at the same time I actually don't care.
25:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah.
25:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Black artists getting canceled is usually a compliment.
25:23
[SPEAKER_04]: It means you're on to something.
25:39
[SPEAKER_04]: So let's get into the anthology volume two.
25:43
[SPEAKER_04]: Why start with hunger?
25:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Why is hunger the place of beginning for you?
25:48
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, well, because of a couple of reasons and I'll tell you, number one, because of what's going on in the world.
25:55
[SPEAKER_01]: and number two is that it is a direct segue into what's coming on this next record.
26:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt that I had the same with like, don't let them all these things, all these ideas and these different.
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's the first, this record is different from any other record because yes, it is a very personal record that I'm writing, but I wanted to go with hunger and I wanted to go with dedication and and don't let them because I wanted to show where
26:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm headed.
26:23
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
26:24
[SPEAKER_04]: Now speaking of don't let him, which is an amazing do-at with Jim James, I think it might be my favorite on anthology.
26:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
26:32
[SPEAKER_04]: Who are some of your greatest teachers when it comes to mental freedom or maybe what?
26:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Like what are some situations that have taught you about that pursuit of being mentally free that you're talking about on don't let him?
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
26:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, definitely because I'm going to kind of go haga and hold in the show and make that mental freedom and because I'm black.
26:52
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a thing that we grow up with because there's a systematic constraint against what we who we are.
27:01
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
27:02
[SPEAKER_01]: There's and many people don't recognize it.
27:05
[SPEAKER_04]: No.
27:05
[SPEAKER_04]: I think about the fact that for in the US for a long time it was illegal to teach a black person to read.
27:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Right.
27:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Like if that doesn't say the foundation of what we were expected to do and be, you know, on this side of the Atlantic Ocean, I don't know what else does.
27:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
27:21
[SPEAKER_04]: Our minds are really the battleground.
27:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that that's the whole, that's the whole point.
27:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that our minds are the battleground.
27:31
[SPEAKER_01]: our bodies.
27:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So like the three things that everybody talks about all the time, are the things that people need to recognize are really what we're fighting for.
27:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course we're fighting for physical freedom and we're fighting for rights, like we always have.
27:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But what I'm feeling and what I'm seeing in the world right now,
27:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And a lot of it has to do with the fact that we are confined by another structure, social media now, Fox just in again, and it's feeding us information.
28:03
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a line in my record, hold on, I'll find it.
28:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, a scoop.
28:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you get a scoop, here you go.
28:10
[SPEAKER_01]: There's two songs that address it.
28:12
[SPEAKER_01]: One is called Silent War, and one of the other one's called Fuck It, but whatever.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: The line is,
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Fuck the one-drop rule and blood quantum tricks.
28:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Stop reading into the white lies of identity politics.
28:27
[SPEAKER_01]: The system is built to conquer and divide, but it needs to harvest human suffering in order to survive.
28:33
[SPEAKER_04]: There you have it.
28:34
[SPEAKER_01]: That's it in a nutshell.
28:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Yep.
28:36
[SPEAKER_04]: You mentioned the song Dedication.
28:38
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your secret to making drums and percussion feel effortless on a full record?
28:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my God, it's the drummer.
28:50
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I come up with a lot of ideas rhythmically before we go into the studio, but I really count on the talent of the musicians in the room to bring it to life.
29:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Like if you listen to the ridge, that's my cousin Jean Diabo playing drums and it's my other cousin Barry Diabo playing the bass.
29:12
[SPEAKER_01]: They've been playing together for years and years and years and obviously we're all family.
29:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it's like a like a like blood relation like you sound bleeds into one another I guess it's best way to describe it, but and they're also on beyond the reservoir for part of that record and in dedication It's Sean Monahan.
29:34
[SPEAKER_01]: She's a wonderful drummer from the UK
29:38
[SPEAKER_01]: that I met over there touring, and she's in my touring band there.
29:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Actually, my touring band in the UK is an all-female touring band, other than me, obviously.
29:46
[SPEAKER_04]: I know that's right.
29:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Even our road managers, a wonderful female named Yvonne Bailey.
29:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's just me and five girls.
29:53
[SPEAKER_04]: And I bet everything is efficient as hell.
29:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It is, and they care so much.
29:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Sean is a drummer.
30:01
[SPEAKER_01]: She's one of the best drummers I've ever played with, but she's so serious.
30:07
[SPEAKER_01]: and like, watches it, listens to it, studies it, and it's like, okay, she's like, God bless.
30:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, so actually, the girls are coming to Toronto, I'm bringing them here.
30:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Unfortunately, the flight has been delayed, but they're on their way.
30:22
[SPEAKER_01]: They are recording the brand new record of original material with me.
30:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I am so excited to hear this new record.
30:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I am, too.
30:30
[SPEAKER_04]: I want to know more about the song weighing down.
30:33
[SPEAKER_04]: That's been one that's on repeat for me.
30:36
[SPEAKER_04]: Who is the you in that song that you're addressing?
30:40
[SPEAKER_01]: The you is you.
30:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's me and it's you.
30:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
30:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: That song, you know, it stems from my inability to accept my own faults and my own mistakes.
30:57
[SPEAKER_01]: and how those mistakes and those faults have affected those around me, including myself.
31:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
31:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that I'm one of the biggest culpants in my own personal life.
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm the one that's broken my heart the most.
31:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that it's certainly broken other people's heart and disappointed them and disappointed myself.
31:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just feeling really, really incredibly down on myself at that point in time, but that song was written that I needed some sort of skate escape.
31:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And I wrote it in this attic.
31:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't take long.
31:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It was done in, you know, an afternoon.
31:36
[SPEAKER_04]: We love to see that.
31:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I do too.
31:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I like it.
31:38
[SPEAKER_04]: When songwriting is easy, that's, that's a good time.
31:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a beautiful time.
31:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, as it, it's as if some of the songs that we've worked on and written are already there.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: If it wasn't me that wrote it, it could have been you.
31:52
[SPEAKER_01]: It just is timing and where our emotional and spiritual antennas are connectedness to that, that spiritual universe and inspiration.
32:04
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I love words.
32:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like universe actually means one song.
32:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Union, Latin is one and verse.
32:12
[SPEAKER_01]: And I like to break down words a lot too.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: community for me is common unity and inspiration means to be in spirit and for these things are these antennas are sort of connecting to our cerebral and our hearts.
32:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It could be any that you could have written like laying down.
32:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, it could still happen that it was me that then.
32:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have any tips for getting your spiritual antenna tuned to the
32:39
[SPEAKER_04]: how to get yourself into that safe creative mindset?
32:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I mean, the first silence is number one.
32:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And the more time that I'm allowed to have by myself, the more time I'm allowed to be silent and tap into that, which I value very much, you know, as a father, as a musician and a troublemaker, musician, you don't get that as often as I say, I would have at a certain point in time in my life.
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: But breathing is really, really something that's very healthy for us, you know, my body and spirit.
33:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It does allow you to connect and find all the enough sleep deprivation does this well.
33:18
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
33:19
[SPEAKER_04]: I wrote most of my album Half-Sees during an insomnia spell.
33:25
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that right?
33:27
[SPEAKER_04]: There's something about the veil being thin when you're tired.
33:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know what it is.
33:32
[SPEAKER_04]: We hear a little bit of a nod to the great Elizabeth cotton on 100 proof.
33:39
[SPEAKER_04]: Can you talk about your relationship with her music?
33:42
[SPEAKER_04]: How you came across it?
33:43
[SPEAKER_04]: How she's inspired you as a player?
33:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
33:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, her bestie Smith, you know, Thor, who else?
33:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Even Link Ray, like these are like, these are like deep down, dirty players.
33:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
33:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's hard not to connect to them.
34:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, freight train, when I first heard that, that melody, that riff, that way of playing the guitar, it's inescapable.
34:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It connects to you as if like, again, another thing that was pulled out of the ether that was always supposed to be in existence for us to hear.
34:18
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think, you know, cotton, door, these guitar players, and a link ray, like I said, the other is another one that's, like with rumb one things like that.
34:26
[SPEAKER_01]: These things had to exist, like always had to.
34:28
[SPEAKER_01]: When you listen to the difference between Big Mama Thornton's Hound Dog and Elvis Presley's Hound Dog, they're like holy smokes.
34:34
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's like, in one is in black and white, and one is in Tecna color.
34:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, for me.
34:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely.
34:42
[SPEAKER_01]: One is like right in your gut.
34:45
[SPEAKER_04]: One you can feel and one you can only hear.
34:47
[SPEAKER_04]: Apologies to Elvis, but it's just like no comparison for me.
34:54
[SPEAKER_04]: You mentioned being a parent and like we don't have time to get into all of the ways in which I'm sure that has shaped you as an artist, but there's a couple of songs on the anthology that I feel like refers to that moment of noticing that being a parent has changed how you're thinking about things.
35:13
[SPEAKER_04]: I'm thinking about stolen lands and I'm thinking about why to wait.
35:24
[SPEAKER_04]: In originality, like your role as an indigenous storyteller, how do your kids relate to you in that regard?
35:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it's interesting, because now we're at a different stage of life and right now, the door is always shut and that's fine.
35:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
35:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I got it.
35:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But growing, like it'll come back, but it'll always do.
35:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I did the same thing.
35:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I did the same thing.
35:46
[SPEAKER_01]: So being, you know, when my thought was younger,
35:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that her indigeneity is so important to me.
35:53
[SPEAKER_01]: We've spent time with family out of east and going to the power out there.
35:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And my mother is a very instrumental storyteller in my daughter's life.
36:03
[SPEAKER_01]: When my grandparents passed, it was almost as this like I had to take the torch.
36:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I had sort of slowly been coming back since I was a teenager and I've never really laughed.
36:13
[SPEAKER_01]: I knew that, but there's a huge responsibility to keep those stories and those ideas and practices as well as I think it's an interesting thing.
36:25
[SPEAKER_01]: The way that we look at it is like, all my relations means that we're all connected and we're all related.
36:32
[SPEAKER_01]: There's also, like, to walk in a good way, to be in a good way, is really part of that heritage, to respect mother, to respect our elders, to respect one another.
36:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's such a different way of looking at things.
36:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, like, even in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the, in the
36:53
[SPEAKER_01]: phrase for how are you, I guess I guess you could say, but it's going to go on means like I wish a great piece.
37:00
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought you would say as a greeting.
37:04
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a different way of looking at the world and I have always looked at the world in a different way.
37:11
[SPEAKER_01]: By no means an expert on anything and when it comes to my culture, I'm still learning.
37:20
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I'm still learning about my ancient indigenous culture, even though I always knew about it like there's like some people asked me about what did you discover that you were indigenous and and when I was born.
37:32
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I was I was actually born with straight black hair and my grandfather was like so stoked was like oh my god.
37:39
[SPEAKER_01]: You've got any in here.
37:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I won't use that word because I guess people don't use it anymore, but.
37:44
[SPEAKER_04]: up to you how you want to use it, you know?
37:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It's got, you just got native hair.
37:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, our family uses all the time in black Indians.
37:49
[SPEAKER_01]: We don't give, we don't care.
37:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But like, yeah, like I understand that in the media and in the outside world outside of our circle that people sometimes find out of offensive, so I don't use it.
38:01
[SPEAKER_04]: But you're allowed to have a nickname for your own family, you know?
38:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, I agree.
38:06
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's what we are and that's totally fine and we love it and we love each other.
38:12
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we all have our issues with each other, too.
38:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we're family, like we don't always get along, but there's always, you know, respect and love, shown no matter what, from my perspective and what I put out into the world, that's my most important vessel.
38:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's my most important gift and superpowers, like from the inside of my heart, I wanna show and contract love.
38:51
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, would you describe yourself as a folk musician?
38:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, maybe.
38:57
[SPEAKER_04]: What's folk music to you?
38:59
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a tough question.
39:00
[SPEAKER_04]: Listen, we're on the basic folk podcast and we're going there.
39:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, we have to.
39:05
[SPEAKER_04]: In this moment, you are the expert on your concept of folk music.
39:08
[SPEAKER_04]: So there's no right or wrong answer.
39:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, okay.
39:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think that folk music is a storytelling.
39:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Mm-hmm.
39:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that folk music is tradition.
39:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that folk music is a way of taking all sorts of different types of music, which is what I do.
39:24
[SPEAKER_01]: So I look at it as roots music, too.
39:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, nothing that I've ever done is in one lane, everything sort of very vast and all-encompassing, but I think that folk music represents those things.
39:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that folk music represents an all-encompassing sort of way of being.
39:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Tradition and heritage, I think it includes spirituality and emotion.
39:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that it includes, you know, social rights and I believe that.
39:59
[SPEAKER_01]: It has a fight in it, it's got a bit of punk to it, you know.
40:04
[SPEAKER_01]: It also is, it's about love and relationships.
40:10
[SPEAKER_01]: When I think about my own heritage, I look at it at folk music, it's all my relations to it.
40:15
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a connective being.
40:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, it's called folk.
40:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Period.
40:20
[SPEAKER_04]: It's about the people.
40:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the people.
40:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a connective being.
40:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole genre is a connective being.
40:25
[SPEAKER_04]: I couldn't agree more, I mean, I also feel like you have unique and sharp perspectives about what folk music can and should be like, there's a line on anthology about.
40:39
[SPEAKER_04]: This land is your land, isn't really it.
40:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Like, that's not exactly the model that you're thinking about for a shared experience of the land and music.
40:50
[SPEAKER_04]: So like, how do we avoid that?
40:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Woody Guthrie one size fits all model.
40:55
[SPEAKER_04]: When we're trying to have a shared language around folk.
40:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh wow, heavy question, does it?
41:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I think about this journey.
41:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's interesting because I, you know, this whole make make everything great again.
41:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
41:14
[SPEAKER_01]: How do you do that when it wasn't great for everybody?
41:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So that you're approaching that sort of mentality where it's like, okay, this vast but some people believe that it's been amazing.
41:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the way that it should be.
41:29
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... when that's challenged by another uh... idea or way of thinking the tenancy to get your back up and is is is the most prevalent now in folk music i'd i personally feel that it's learned a lot that has a lot more openness to when it started there was a point in time where folk music did not have that
41:54
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, we all hear the stories that I wouldn't bear, but we've all heard the stories about when going went electric, for example.
42:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's use it as simple example as that.
42:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Where folk music had to learn to spread its wings and open its heart.
42:08
[SPEAKER_01]: It's one of the, you know, connected beings and languages that has enabled itself to do that over time.
42:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Not under great pressure,
42:19
[SPEAKER_01]: and strike, but it has done that.
42:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that me saying that that wasn't a great thing for what he got me to say is fine.
42:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I agree.
42:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been attacked online about it, and I've been like, well, you know, think about it.
42:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Really think about it.
42:32
[SPEAKER_04]: I have great respect for his legacy and his family and everything that he did, and I think as contemporary folk artists, it's okay to hold our heroes to task and say, actually, I don't agree.
42:44
[SPEAKER_04]: And here's what I think our land is, you know, like I think we should have, we should be updating our ideas of justice if we are to really consider ourselves folk artists.
42:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Most of the time when people say something like that to me, I say, you know what, what he got through standing right here in front of me, he probably agreed to be right now to it.
43:01
[SPEAKER_04]: And as folk artists were happy to have the debate, I think that's part of what makes this type of music important because it's a place for realistic and real conversation.
43:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that about this type of music.
43:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that more than ever, it's going to find a really beautiful space to have that connectivity in those conversations.
43:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said, those conversations are really difficult to have, but art, music, that's where it starts.
43:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it's worth it.
43:31
[SPEAKER_01]: no more babies.
43:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Great for sure.
43:34
[SPEAKER_04]: All done.
43:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no more babies.
43:39
[SPEAKER_01]: No, what do I want to want to be making in ten years?
43:42
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I have this sneaking suspicion that in ten years I'll be 58.
43:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe that's when the inner blues man will come out.
43:52
[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I see that you know my next question is I was going to ask if you would ever perform material from the album Tech noir or the Julian Taylor band like the funk roots side of it.
44:06
[SPEAKER_04]: Is that going to come back?
44:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, I did it on Saturday was so fun.
44:09
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, hell yeah.
44:10
[SPEAKER_04]: Now what's the best part about playing?
44:13
[SPEAKER_04]: in a more funk-based band.
44:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, there is connectivity again, but it is within movement.
44:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you know what I mean?
44:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
44:23
[SPEAKER_01]: Like when you have people moving with you, it's a different, like folk music is like a cerebral being, the storytelling,
44:33
[SPEAKER_01]: the mind altering and mind, you know, changing, well, altering is changing, that's being redundant.
44:40
[SPEAKER_01]: But mind altering sort of concepts and ideas and discussions and conversations come from folk music.
44:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Funk music's a totally different beast where those conversations happen within your body.
44:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
44:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And I dig that because you know, if you get people dancing together, you've made, you've done that, that much work as well.
44:58
[SPEAKER_01]: You've, you've broken down spaces.
45:00
[SPEAKER_04]: No, I couldn't agree more.
45:01
[SPEAKER_04]: I have one last question and then I wanted you a lightning round with you if you're down.
45:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, lightning round.
45:06
[SPEAKER_04]: When you look back at your body of work as a songwriter, what are some of the descriptors that you would want to be remembered by?
45:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I would want to be remembered for, you know,
45:20
[SPEAKER_01]: preaching love, connectivity, openness, resilience, strength.
45:27
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to be known that for an artist who was socially and consciously aware of their surroundings,
45:43
[SPEAKER_01]: and the black diaspora around the world, who also was able to live in different experiences and meet different people to try to find that, that common ground and open up the palate to be able to have that conversation with others, whereas just because you happen to be from a different walk-up life, or just because you're a different race, or a different gender, or a different person altogether, just a different personality.
46:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Doesn't mean that we can't have this conversation.
46:12
[SPEAKER_01]: to be recognized for that.
46:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I want my work to be recognized for the safety that it provides.
46:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I think that's what it is.
46:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The warmth and the safety that it provides as well.
46:23
[SPEAKER_04]: That sounds like your music to me.
46:26
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay.
46:27
[SPEAKER_04]: First instinct intuition questions.
46:30
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, boy.
46:31
[SPEAKER_04]: Who's your favorite Canadian songwriter?
46:32
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm probably up to say Neil Young at the right off the top of my head.
46:35
[SPEAKER_04]: What is a must-have item in your bag when you're getting on an airplane?
46:39
[SPEAKER_01]: My massage.
46:40
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your must-have snack in the tour van?
46:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Crambers.
46:45
[SPEAKER_04]: Mmm, I love crambers.
46:46
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your favorite thin Lizzy song?
46:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh, it's a good one.
46:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Showdown is really good.
46:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
46:51
[SPEAKER_01]: She knows Sarah.
46:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Yes.
46:54
[SPEAKER_01]: I love thin Lizzy.
46:55
[SPEAKER_01]: That's another band that I'm like.
46:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Three perfect answers.
46:58
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your favorite fruit?
46:59
[SPEAKER_01]: My favorite fruit, blueberries.
47:02
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your favorite color?
47:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Red.
47:05
[SPEAKER_04]: What is your favorite city to have a day off in on a U.S. tour?
47:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Salida, Colorado.
47:12
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I've never been there.
47:13
[SPEAKER_01]: It's awesome.
47:14
[SPEAKER_04]: What should I do there when I go?
47:17
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of thrift shopping.
47:18
[SPEAKER_01]: I got this killer belt and a killer jacket there.
47:21
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a couple cafes that you can check out.
47:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They've got live.
47:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We went to this live music bar.
47:25
[SPEAKER_01]: It was mental, so I don't know if you want to be that, but it was cool.
47:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It was fun, there was a funk band playing there.
47:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's sort of like a Tex-Mex town
47:33
[SPEAKER_01]: the best area part of Colorado.
47:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
47:36
[SPEAKER_01]: It's small.
47:37
[SPEAKER_01]: It's cool.
47:37
[SPEAKER_01]: I played a church there and I really enjoyed that.
47:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But other than that, yeah, maybe San Diego, but.
47:44
[SPEAKER_04]: Beautiful.
47:45
[SPEAKER_04]: These are good answers.
47:46
[SPEAKER_04]: Do you have any secret non-musical talents?
47:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Do I have any secret?
47:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I can play hockey pretty good.
47:53
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh wow.
47:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm Canadian.
47:55
[SPEAKER_04]: Hello.
47:56
[SPEAKER_04]: 15 to minus 15.
47:59
[SPEAKER_01]: That was amazing.
48:00
[SPEAKER_04]: You got the skills to go with it.
48:02
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, and finally, what is one song you wish you had written?
48:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god.
48:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, even Bob Dylan wishes that he wrote fast car.
48:08
[SPEAKER_04]: Period.
48:09
[SPEAKER_04]: That is such a good answer.
48:11
[SPEAKER_04]: Now, before I let you go, why did you name your album anthology volume two?
48:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Because there was an anthology volume one.
48:19
[SPEAKER_04]: Oh, is it on Spotify?
48:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I've got anthology volume one too.
48:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It was just trying to, I was trying to put new songs together and put them all on.
48:26
[SPEAKER_01]: It's great.
48:27
[SPEAKER_04]: Okay, I didn't see volume one.
48:29
[SPEAKER_04]: I saw all your albums on Spotify and then anthology volume two.
48:32
[SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, what's the implied volume one?
48:35
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not implied, yeah, it's totally there.
48:40
[SPEAKER_04]: It's existent.
48:41
[SPEAKER_04]: Julian, you've been such an amazing guest.
48:42
[SPEAKER_04]: Thank you so much for coming on basic thoughts.
48:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, so great to see you, man.
48:46
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm just always learning from you.
48:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Same, same.
48:49
[SPEAKER_01]: I just, we got to hang more, man.
48:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
48:53
[SPEAKER_00]: This episode of Basic Folk was produced by Anthony Cabrera, Dietrich Strauss Composes Our Music.
48:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Basic Folk is a production of the Bluegrass situation.
49:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find all of our episodes there.
49:04
[SPEAKER_00]: You can check us out on Basic Folk.com.
49:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Find us at folkalli.com or folkalli's mobile app.
49:10
[SPEAKER_00]: You can search for Basic Folk on the Series XM app.
49:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Or you can find us wherever you find your shows.
49:17
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest sharing it with a friend, like maybe that friend who is constantly surprising everyone around themselves by redefining themselves and shooting themselves into space metaphorically and literally.
49:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Send it to that friend.
49:33
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
49:34
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening all the way to the end.
49:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye!