Latest / Basic Folk / Gina Chavez: From Choir Kid to Latin Grammy Nominee, ep. 321

Transcript

Gina Chavez: From Choir Kid to Latin Grammy Nominee, ep. 321 · Basic Folk

0:12
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi, and welcome to Basic Folk, where we have honest conversations with folk musicians on the Bluegrass situation.
0:18
[SPEAKER_00]: It's me, Cindy House, and I host this here show.
0:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening today.
0:24
[SPEAKER_00]: We have the great Gina Chavez on, but before we get into that, let's talk about ways we can stay in touch.
0:31
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0:38
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0:40
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0:42
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0:47
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0:52
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0:56
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1:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
1:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I gotta tell you, this is the first intro that I have recorded since coming back from maternity leave, which just ended yesterday.
1:16
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm pretty fresh, pretty fresh, pretty new.
1:18
[SPEAKER_00]: I have a new outlook on life, a new perspective.
1:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Baby is very cute doing really well.
1:25
[SPEAKER_00]: And yeah, feel really lucky.
1:27
[SPEAKER_00]: Feel really lucky, it's good to be back.
1:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do this.
1:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, new Bestie Gina Chavez speaks about her journey in music, her deep love for connecting with people and the influence of her mixed cultural background.
1:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Her parents are of Mexican and Swiss German descent.
1:46
[SPEAKER_00]: Her father, although second generation Mexican-American, was not raised with the Spanish language or any Mexican culture.
1:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Gina discusses growing up in Austin, Texas, and the role music or the absence of it played in her household.
2:02
[SPEAKER_00]: She talks about being a choir kid in the nineties before it was cool.
2:07
[SPEAKER_00]: She reflects on discovering her Latin roots later in life and how singing in Spanish feels spiritually significant to her.
2:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Gina shares her experience studying abroad in Argentina, running a college fund for girls in El Salvador, and the moment she unlocked her true singing voice in the studio.
2:27
[SPEAKER_00]: She talks about meeting her awesome wife, Jodi Granado at the Catholic Student Center at the University of Texas.
2:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Fantastic place to meet a lady.
2:38
[SPEAKER_00]: She talks about her complex relationship with Texas, her Catholic upbringing, her advocacy work, and the joy of performing on Olivia travel cruises.
2:47
[SPEAKER_00]: Throughout the interview, Gina emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself and learning to embrace and express all parts of her identity.
2:57
[SPEAKER_00]: We'll take a listen to a song from Gina Chavez before we get into this fantastic interview.
3:03
[SPEAKER_00]: This is Lake Manda from Gina Chavez, and then we'll check out the interview right here on basic folk.
3:30
[SPEAKER_02]: When I look at you, I see everything I see.
3:35
[SPEAKER_02]: Until I see you, until I see you, until I see you.
3:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Gina Shavez, welcome to Basic Folk.
4:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, thanks so much for having me.
4:21
[SPEAKER_00]: So you've said the reason I love music is because I love people and what a beautiful way to connect to people.
4:28
[SPEAKER_00]: So for you, like where does that love for connecting with people come from?
4:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
4:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it comes from the stars.
4:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I've started learning a little bit.
4:42
[SPEAKER_00]: We are starting in the stars.
4:45
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I've been learning a little bit about astrology and I love the concept that essentially each of us is walking around with a map of the universe.
4:58
[SPEAKER_03]: from the point in time and place from where we were born when we took our first breath, the idea that the universe from that point gets stamped into you.
5:08
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, I mean, I've always just loved people.
5:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I am very much a communicator for those that are into astrology.
5:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm a double Gemini and a Leo Rising.
5:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I have a lot of mercury.
5:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I've got a lot of air.
5:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it makes a lot of sense that I would be as communicative as I am and not just through song, but also just through talking, like I love talking to people, probably more than I love singing.
5:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So I think, yeah, I think it's, I think it's from the stars.
5:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, right on.
5:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
5:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You grew up in Austin, Texas.
5:49
[SPEAKER_00]: So your dad is Mexican-American and your mom is up like Swiss German descent.
5:55
[SPEAKER_00]: They are not musical and not many people in your family are.
5:59
[SPEAKER_00]: You have a cousin who is a great piano player and yourself.
6:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Where was music in your house growing up?
6:06
[SPEAKER_00]: What was being played and were there any type of like musical performers around you that were like getting through to you?
6:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's what's interesting.
6:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember growing up with music in the house, really.
6:27
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I know my parents had records, but I don't remember them playing when I was a kid.
6:34
[SPEAKER_03]: But we would go on road trips all the time.
6:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I had my dad's side of the family.
6:39
[SPEAKER_03]: He's from San Antonio.
6:40
[SPEAKER_03]: My mom's side of the family's from Dallas, Richardson area.
6:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we spent a lot of our time, you know, in the car, driving to see family.
6:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I just remember hearing music on those road trips.
6:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was, you know, we were in a tiny Mazda with four people crammed in there, listening to cassette tapes.
6:58
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the ones that I remember loving were Michael Jackson, thriller, Lyle Love Its Ponyack.
7:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And the judge, I'm not sure which album.
7:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Those are the ones and little Richard those are like the run the ones that stick into my mind I always love to fast songs I hated the slow songs, but you know in the time of cassette tapes you just kind of bore with all of the all of the music Yeah, so those are the
7:31
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's kind of a wide variety of genres in there.
7:35
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, those were the artists that as a child, I remember listening to.
7:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Aside from like, Rafi, you know, kids music.
7:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
7:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
7:46
[SPEAKER_00]: So your dad is second generation Mexican American, but you did not grow up listening to Latino music and you did not grow up speaking Spanish and he did not even grow up speaking Spanish.
7:58
[SPEAKER_00]: Can you talk about your curiosity about learning about your Latino roots growing up?
8:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think it's similar to the stars, you know, I think it's just something that
8:11
[SPEAKER_03]: for some reason is within me, you know, my brother and I grew up in the same house and I was kind of like the more latina child and he was kind of the more white child.
8:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Even just in how we looked, I think now we look pretty similar in our skin tones are very similar, but as a child I would always get a tan and I was very, I was very brown and I always, I don't know, I always just kind of loved
8:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I liked learning Spanish when you're in sixth grade and you have to learn a language.
8:46
[SPEAKER_03]: I really enjoyed that.
8:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I wanted to go abroad and go to Spanish speaking countries and kind of seek out that there's something about that that's always called to me.
8:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't really know where it comes from because I didn't really grow up around much of it.
9:03
[SPEAKER_03]: I do remember as a kid going to visit.
9:07
[SPEAKER_03]: So my I had a great on Lube on, you know, my dad's side and I remember
9:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Gosh little blips of visiting her.
9:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't even know how old I was but she only spoke Spanish and I remember that being weird like that we couldn't communicate.
9:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think as a singer what's interesting is
9:32
[SPEAKER_03]: When I perform, when I sing in Spanish, it feels like the language that my soul speaks, but my mind doesn't know that language.
9:45
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it doesn't know it as well.
9:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Like that's what I've spent time trying to teach my brain how to interpret the language of my soul.
9:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And so when I sing in Spanish, I feel different.
10:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And I've heard that from other people, too, whether their Spanish speakers are not, people that say, yeah, there's something else that happens when you sing in Spanish.
10:11
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know that I have a good explanation to be honest.
10:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is something when I was digging into your life and your music.
10:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Today, I feel like this thing kept coming up that was like,
10:25
[SPEAKER_00]: you had the knowledge inside of you that like you needed to connect with something but you just like hadn't gotten there quite yet and like this the Latin roots in Spanish was one thing and then also like when I mean this is skipping way ahead into my question but like let's go when you are in the studio
10:47
[SPEAKER_00]: and you just decided to like start screaming Lakimanda and you have a sudden like unlocked this thing that seems like it was inside of you this whole time so it's like you and I felt that way too where it's like you're younger and you're like something is wrong and you're like too young or you just like haven't lived enough life to like get to that point hmm
11:13
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I actually feel like I'm living in the time of the unlocking.
11:21
[SPEAKER_03]: Right now.
11:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
11:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think there's moments like Lacan Mandar, you know, even younger, right?
11:28
[SPEAKER_03]: There's moments where you're tapping in and you may not know it.
11:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I'm more consciously in the unlocking phase if that makes any sense.
11:40
[SPEAKER_03]: It's exciting.
11:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, it is.
11:43
[SPEAKER_03]: It's also.
11:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I think there's that human desire to just like get there.
11:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know what I mean?
11:53
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like now that I know I'm like, oh,
11:55
[SPEAKER_03]: I know that I'm unlocking.
11:57
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like I just want to get there and it's kind of like staring at a plant and being like, okay, what are you going to bloom?
12:02
[SPEAKER_03]: You know.
12:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And like that's not how it works.
12:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think on some level, it's exciting and also a little bit of a mind trip.
12:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I think when we're unconsciously discovering ourselves, we're not placing a value on it, we're just stumbling around, doing life.
12:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And so on some level that ignorance maybe is bliss.
12:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, so it's both.
12:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
12:35
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, this is cool.
12:36
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
12:39
[SPEAKER_00]: I had this like crazy question about, um, so first of all, going back to connecting to Latino culture, you went to college, you studied in Buenos Aires, Argentina, you discovered Czechadera music.
12:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, what was it like for you to like first connect with it and how did it help in learning more about yourself and your family roots, not not the type of music, but that plays into it, but like all of like Latin culture in general.
13:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think one thing that's interesting is while my parents, while I didn't grow up with really in the trappings of any particular Latinic culture, I was instilled with a love of travel and that's something that my parents
13:29
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, yeah, I think that they instilled that in us mainly because we did travel.
13:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we would, like, they did this crazy trip when they before kids in the seventies.
13:43
[SPEAKER_03]: They literally followed the Grand Prix races.
13:45
[SPEAKER_03]: They stopped their lives in Houston.
13:48
[SPEAKER_03]: They hated their lives in Houston.
13:49
[SPEAKER_03]: They sold everything they had.
13:50
[SPEAKER_03]: They bought a VW bus and just like traveled around Europe for a year and a half following the Grand Prix races.
13:56
[SPEAKER_03]: And I grew up on those stories, stories from their travels and adventures, like Budo hippies in Europe in the seventies.
14:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And so then as kids, they had bought a VW bus when we were little.
14:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we did multiple trips, but one trip in particular, where we went kind of all up into Canada.
14:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And I mean, I was young.
14:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I was probably four.
14:22
[SPEAKER_03]: or five.
14:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And I remember moments from that trip and like how that, you know, I just love was like, oh, I want to travel.
14:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And so when I went to Argentina, that was kind of the first time that I'd ever left everything I'd known.
14:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I still live in Austin today.
14:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I still see people that, you know, knew me when I was a child.
14:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that was the first time that I was living outside of my city, outside of my state, outside of my country, outside of my language.
14:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that was a real eye-opening experience to go be in another country.
14:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And then, of course, the Spanish that they speak is completely different than what I was, you know, cast the chano, like the whole accent and everything is so different.
15:07
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was a really beautiful experience, and that was the first time that when I heard a particular type of Latin music, I was drawn to it.
15:15
[SPEAKER_03]: In a way that I wasn't really drawn to, you know, I had heard like Dejano and Corrido and stuff, here in Texas, and it just like, Núca-me-yo-mo-latenseo.
15:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, it didn't, it wasn't the thing that I was interested in.
15:29
[SPEAKER_03]: But when I went to Argentina and her Chacarrera and heard Núevatrova, I was like, what is this?
15:35
[SPEAKER_03]: This is awesome.
15:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's weird because I'm not Argentine by races, but it kind of became my first time to drop into something and have like a particular affinity for a certain type of culture and the trappings within that.
15:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And so even like behind me, I have a drum called a bomboleguero that's from Argentina.
15:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I have an instrument called a charango that's from Argentina.
15:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And these are both instruments from the northwestern part of Argentina, which is where Chacarrera is from.
16:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, so I'm trying to remember what your actual question was.
16:13
[SPEAKER_03]: But I don't know, I just felt, I kind of fell in love there.
16:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that in a lot of ways is kind of the beginning of my story of why Latin music.
16:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's cool.
16:25
[SPEAKER_00]: So how is your work in music and advocacy in the Latin-A world impacted your family's connection to their roots?
16:36
[SPEAKER_00]: Or has it?
16:37
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't know that I would say that it has.
16:40
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, obviously I can't speak for my family, for my family members.
16:45
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I don't know that it has.
16:47
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I think my dad very much grew up at a time where, I mean, a certain kids of his generation were even taught Spanish because it was literally beaten out of the generations before them.
16:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And so they, you know, they were like saving their kids from that kind of pain and detriment.
17:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And you know what I mean?
17:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And my dad, I mean, he loves baseball in fifty-seven shavis and Elvis Presley, like very American things, you know.
17:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I don't know where my
17:24
[SPEAKER_03]: kind of affinity for what was taken from us comes from.
17:30
[SPEAKER_03]: But I also want to recognize that even Spanish itself is the language of the colonizer.
17:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's like, there's, you know, it's all nice and messy in there.
17:41
[SPEAKER_00]: For sure.
17:43
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
17:44
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's get even messier.
17:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's go.
17:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You are from and live in Texas.
17:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Which is a really conservative state.
17:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Fun, yet conservative.
17:56
[SPEAKER_00]: You are working towards and with movements that counter major conservatism that is found in Texas.
18:04
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm from Yale, New England, so this is just a classic liberal kind of question.
18:10
[SPEAKER_00]: So with that in mind, what's your relationship to Texas?
18:14
[SPEAKER_00]: What's your relationship to the United States and how have those relationships evolved?
18:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean, it's a love hate relationship.
18:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I think is the easiest way to describe it.
18:30
[SPEAKER_03]: In a lot of ways, I think my answer to that question actually goes more to the church.
18:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I grew up on a cradle Catholic and
18:42
[SPEAKER_03]: We can definitely go deeper if we want to, but the, I'm ready.
18:46
[SPEAKER_03]: The semi short version of this story is, you know, I was so Catholic that at sixteen, I was the kind of person that would pick fights with people about abortion.
18:57
[SPEAKER_03]: I literally wrote a paper in my AP history class on like the worst thing that had happened in the United States was Rovey Wade.
19:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that was me.
19:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, when I was in college, I had friends of mine that had gone into religious life, and I thought about it.
19:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I wasn't like seriously considering a particular path and going into the no wish it or anything like that, but I was exploring and open to it.
19:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And at twenty four, I fell in love with a woman and my whole life.
19:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And where did you meet at the University of Texas Catholic Center?
19:48
[SPEAKER_03]: I eat the Catholic Church at UT Austin.
19:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Look what God has done.
19:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I know.
19:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I know.
19:54
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so beautiful.
19:56
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so I mean, that's
19:58
[SPEAKER_03]: I think in a lot of ways, I've lived both lives.
20:03
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I voted for Bush.
20:06
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, Bush senior.
20:08
[SPEAKER_03]: I voted for, sorry, I voted for Bush.
20:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, for W. Yes.
20:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Born in an eighty two, just like me.
20:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
20:16
[SPEAKER_03]: So like, I've lived both lives.
20:20
[SPEAKER_03]: And I get it when people don't get it.
20:22
[SPEAKER_03]: I was neck deep in a same sex relationship and I was unwilling to see that I was gay.
20:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And if I had not been blessed with queerness, I don't think I would be where I am right now.
20:40
[SPEAKER_03]: And I say blessed because I'm like, thank God, I am gay.
20:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank God.
20:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's very much God's, you know, like literally I fell in love with my wife in adoration and I'll let people Google what that is if they don't know what it is, but it's like one of the most Catholic things, you know, it's essentially sitting with Jesus.
21:00
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it was like me, my now wife and Jesus, like that's where our relationship was formed and founded.
21:10
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's a beautiful thing.
21:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And our relationship is gorgeous.
21:15
[SPEAKER_03]: And what, like every day, I get to wake up next to her and be like, wow, we did it.
21:23
[SPEAKER_03]: We're married, we have this beautiful life together.
21:26
[SPEAKER_03]: And thank God, thank God for that.
21:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And you are still a Catholic.
21:34
[SPEAKER_03]: I would actually,
21:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I, we stopped going to church when row fell.
21:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
21:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I am very compelled by the person of Christ.
21:50
[SPEAKER_03]: I would definitely still call myself a follower of Christ.
21:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know that I identify with the term Catholic anymore.
21:59
[SPEAKER_03]: I honestly have no desire to step foot in any kind of institution related to Christianity at the moment.
22:09
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
22:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
22:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
22:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's a little bit, you know, I think with Texas, it's like, I...
22:18
[SPEAKER_03]: That's the thing is, you want to go toe to toe about Christ and what Christ's life was like.
22:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm like, let's go.
22:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's go there because all of the stuff that you're doing at the federal, at the National, sorry, the state and the national level.
22:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's the fact that they try to use the cover of Christ to do that stuff is it's a poor it.
22:41
[SPEAKER_03]: It's anything but Christ got killed for loving too much.
22:46
[SPEAKER_03]: That's the call.
22:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a choir kid, weren't you?
23:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
23:03
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a good pivot.
23:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
23:06
[SPEAKER_00]: You're a choir kid of the nineties and had some hesitation joining because it was not cool.
23:13
[SPEAKER_00]: However, you love to sing and you discovered you were amazing at it.
23:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks to choir.
23:20
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is like a question about choir and not a question about choir.
23:24
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what did that experience
23:26
[SPEAKER_00]: of not wanting to join something because of like perceptions, teach you about like potentially missing out on opportunities, like what did it teach you about being too cool for choir?
23:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Never had that question.
23:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, you know, it's funny because I remember when I was that age, I was probably like, what, ten fifth grade?
23:49
[SPEAKER_03]: What is that fifth sixth grade?
23:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, eleven, twelve, something like that.
23:54
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
23:56
[SPEAKER_03]: So, eleven.
23:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
23:57
[SPEAKER_03]: There we go.
23:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
23:59
[SPEAKER_03]: So, you know, I remember as a kid,
24:04
[SPEAKER_03]: I think I always knew I was kind of different and of course hindsight's twenty twenty I was in love with so many women before before I met my wife she was just like a steam train that I couldn't draw a stop but um you know she didn't make me gay I was just way gay before that you know but
24:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I remember as a kid embracing the concept of being weird.
24:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think it was part of my way of hiding and playing site because I was a different kind of kid.
24:37
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that was a part of moves like, yeah, well, normal's boring.
24:40
[SPEAKER_03]: Like who wants to do that.
24:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And so there was a way in which I was like,
24:44
[SPEAKER_03]: saying that and not really believing it, but on some level, I think deep down knowing, like, yeah, who wants to be normal?
24:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Like on some, you know, like my head, I think that made sense.
24:54
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I don't mean normal.
24:55
[SPEAKER_03]: I still feel that way.
24:56
[SPEAKER_03]: That's boring.
24:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Like it really is.
24:59
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I feel like in a way where I'm at now is I'm reconnecting with that kid.
25:09
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I guess I've never really thought about like what specific lessons I learned from that, but I think I look back at that time and I
25:19
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm so grateful that at a young age I was able to discover something that I was good at and that I liked.
25:28
[SPEAKER_03]: Because I think that's a real such a blessing for young people is to find something you like, but then also to be good at it is like, you know, that's a that's a boon, that's awesome.
25:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think it gave me permission.
25:46
[SPEAKER_03]: I think maybe that's what being
25:49
[SPEAKER_03]: being good at it gave me some kind of permission, some kind of influence that, you know, Carrie's, Carrie's both
26:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Angel and double with it, you know, influences an interesting thing.
26:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Obviously, I think it makes for more comforts in life, but there are times when I step back and I'm like, man, if I weren't who I am in this community, I don't think they would treat me like this.
26:21
[SPEAKER_03]: The church being one of them, you know.
26:25
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's interesting.
26:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, okay, so then at some point I kind of looked and I said, all right, I feel like I've been given.
26:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I have like some kind of a superpower.
26:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Let me use it for good.
26:36
[SPEAKER_03]: If you've got a microphone and you're going to listen to me, I'll say some stuff.
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
26:41
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
26:43
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like every answer is like a meal.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's keep going.
26:48
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
26:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You did not pick up a guitar until you went to college at University of Texas at Austin and you brought your dad's guitar with you.
26:57
[SPEAKER_00]: You went to study journalism, but you were writing songs in class.
27:01
[SPEAKER_00]: You've also said, the songs I write show me who I am.
27:05
[SPEAKER_00]: My lost Latin roots, my deep faith, my beautiful queer heart.
27:10
[SPEAKER_00]: What did you know about why you wanted to write songs when you first started and how do you connect with that original desire to write now?
27:18
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though I hear you hate writing.
27:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Now this is turned into a therapy session.
27:29
[SPEAKER_03]: These questions are so good and you've done such great research.
27:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
27:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I love it.
27:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
27:36
[SPEAKER_03]: I, it really is true.
27:38
[SPEAKER_03]: I started writing songs because I was like literally too lazy to learn other people's songs.
27:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I, you know, I was a baby guitar player, so I could barely switch from C to G, you know.
27:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And I know this, this is a weird song choice, but for some reason, I chose to try and learn that song more than words, which is actually a very creepy song.
28:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Just gonna put that out there.
28:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And it has like eight visually chords in it.
28:04
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I, you know, it's like I got through like a phrase and I was like, oh, this is dumb.
28:09
[SPEAKER_03]: This is gonna take me forever.
28:10
[SPEAKER_03]: So, and so I thought to myself, I was like, I'm just gonna write a two chord song and it's gonna be great.
28:17
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's kind of what I did, you know?
28:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, I just started where I was.
28:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And as I'm saying that, I'm like, oh gosh, why is that the lesson I just keep needing to learn?
28:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Just start where you are.
28:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Start where you are.
28:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Start where you are.
28:32
[SPEAKER_00]: You just don't, you just don't want to, you know, in between parts or you're like, I'm picking up the guitar.
28:37
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm the best at guitar.
28:39
[SPEAKER_00]: Right.
28:40
[SPEAKER_03]: the journey in between is like uh totally yeah so i think that's that's the part i have to re re learn every fricking day is just that it's okay to be where i am and start now um meaning like i'm at a point in my career now where it's like i know the door behind which all the information i want about music lies and
29:11
[SPEAKER_03]: So it, and I'm allowing that to stop me on a lot of levels.
29:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Like the idea that I, you know, I don't quote like no music theory or I don't know the neck of the guitar or whatever, right?
29:23
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think in a similar way to what you phrased at the very beginning of the interview, the idea that it's like there's a knowing inside of each one of us.
29:34
[SPEAKER_03]: of what step to take next.
29:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think a lot of where I'm at and a journey I do believe all of us have to take at some point or I invited to take is kind of deprogramming all of the stuff that's been piled on top of us to tell us.
29:53
[SPEAKER_03]: We're not enough or we don't fit in or look this way or do this or don't do this, you know, all of the boxes that we're told we have to fit into on some, you know, at some point.
30:06
[SPEAKER_03]: I, hopefully, we get to see, oh, there's no box, like it's all just a construct.
30:12
[SPEAKER_03]: It's all just made up.
30:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's what makes children so beautiful is they're not boxed in yet.
30:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And so if we can embrace that, you know, that child in each of us and just be like, oh man, let's just go play, let's go play.
30:38
[SPEAKER_00]: You are kind of silly, you're kind of goofy.
30:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Where does your playfulness come from and how do you see it working hand in hand with your artistry and your social justice work?
30:53
[SPEAKER_03]: So a few things came to mind.
30:55
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so funny before I started learning anything about astrology.
31:00
[SPEAKER_03]: We're driving down the street, I'm with my wife.
31:02
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, those, like, those, like, wavy tube things that are, like, in front of, like, a discount tire?
31:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
31:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
31:10
[SPEAKER_03]: I was literally like, I was like, babe, that's me.
31:16
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I learned that I'm just full of air and mercury.
31:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, oh my god, that is me.
31:23
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what I am in this world.
31:26
[SPEAKER_03]: There's so much air inside of me just floating around.
31:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And I think one thing I love about those things is they're always smiling.
31:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Even if they're deflated on the ground, they're just like...
31:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's not to say that, you know, I'm always smiling these days.
31:44
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm actually probably, I'm less, I'm less of that performer person persona because I've realized that that too is a, you know, we all have a mask and that's the one that I put on very easily.
32:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, but anyway, so that, as you ask in that question, that came to mind.
32:05
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I do think that when I'm really the most me, there's a freedom that, like, again, like, that way be two persons.
32:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, there's a freedom to that motion, right?
32:18
[SPEAKER_03]: It doesn't care if it looks stupid.
32:20
[SPEAKER_03]: It's just like waving around.
32:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And I feel like on some level, even when you see it, for a brief second, you're probably like happy for a moment, you know, just like,
32:29
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, like nothing, whatever.
32:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And let's see what was the other thing that came to mind when you were asking that question.
32:38
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so I guess part of my answer is like, I think that too comes from the stars.
32:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I also think that as far as I'm at the point now where I try to connect that to my creativity, I've spent a lot of my career.
32:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I think at a certain point, I basically made my music career a business.
33:02
[SPEAKER_03]: and not a creative endeavor.
33:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the things that I prioritized were like booking shows and sending emails and booking tours and buying flights and all of the admin stuff and doing websites and writing my own bio and like all that kind of stuff.
33:24
[SPEAKER_03]: and running away quite literally from the actual creative process.
33:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I'm now at a point where I'm like, oh my gosh, I have a whole career based on the thing that comes out of my body.
33:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And if nothing comes out of my body, like I don't have a career anymore.
33:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And so yeah, I'm trying to relearn how to
33:49
[SPEAKER_03]: or unlearn, unlearn all the junk and just kind of get back to making music while also holding that even in a new understanding of music is that, you know, it really was never meant to be a commodity.
34:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
34:11
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, and so there's a weird part that's like, okay, I have this career based on this thing and like, I'm selling tickets and we have to sell beer and we have to, you know, it's like, all the things that just to be in a capitalist society and then at the same time, I'm like, yeah, but we just have we have heart beats.
34:29
[SPEAKER_03]: We're all walking around and we are all music.
34:32
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what we are.
34:35
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's not, it's not meant to be bought.
34:39
[SPEAKER_03]: and sold and, you know, so it, I don't know.
34:44
[SPEAKER_03]: What a conundrum.
34:45
[SPEAKER_03]: I want a conundrum, I know.
34:51
[SPEAKER_00]: That constitutes its own podcast series.
34:57
[SPEAKER_00]: What you were talking about.
35:00
[SPEAKER_00]: I see you use the word wife in a lot of places.
35:03
[SPEAKER_00]: I use it too.
35:05
[SPEAKER_00]: I too have a wife.
35:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know about you, but I feel like for people our age born in the first Reagan administration, it's kind of like still a bold choice to make.
35:18
[SPEAKER_00]: What are your feelings about the word, how long have you used it, and why do you and Jodie use the word wife?
35:25
[SPEAKER_03]: I love these.
35:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I love these questions so much.
35:28
[SPEAKER_03]: So, so intriguing.
35:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Congrats on having a wife.
35:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Thank you.
35:32
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe we all have wives.
35:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe I'll be so lucky.
35:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Maybe I'll be so lucky.
35:38
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's see.
35:40
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's funny because again, this kind of goes back to the church where I actually, I love the word wife because it's
35:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It's obvious.
35:52
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like girlfriend.
35:54
[SPEAKER_03]: There's a nebulousness to girlfriend, right?
35:56
[SPEAKER_03]: This is my girlfriend.
35:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
35:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, if I'm at a Catholic retreat, like you're probably going to assume we're just friends.
36:03
[SPEAKER_03]: And she's my, she's girl.
36:05
[SPEAKER_03]: If I, you know, and so I loved when we got married, I was like, ooh.
36:11
[SPEAKER_03]: I could just say the word wife and like no one's gonna think, oh my god, she did she mess up, did she like make a mistake?
36:18
[SPEAKER_03]: Cause even in Spanish, the word you could say novia and novia actually means like betrothed.
36:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It means girlfriend and it can mean wife.
36:29
[SPEAKER_03]: And people could just think, oh, well, she meant novia.
36:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Like I have a novia and they would probably be like, oh, she doesn't know what she's saying.
36:36
[SPEAKER_03]: She has a novia.
36:38
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
36:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So there's like, uh, there's a, a grayness to it.
36:42
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I love that's why I use the word wife because I remember specifically being at our church.
36:48
[SPEAKER_03]: And once we got married, I was like, oh, this is my wife, Jodie.
36:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And then we just like walk off because I was like, I don't need to explain anything to you.
36:57
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
36:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I remember a friend of mine before I should have before my wife and I even really connected.
37:05
[SPEAKER_00]: She was she had been married for like a decade and she would use the word wife all the time and I don't think I'd ever like she's my best friend now.
37:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think I'd ever been around somebody who'd use the word wife so much and so she was like my inspiration be like I should use that word too because it like really does mean something.
37:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
37:23
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, in the partner, I hate partner because of that.
37:26
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, it's like specifically meant to be nebulous.
37:31
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
37:31
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
37:32
[SPEAKER_03]: You're like, are you business partners?
37:33
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you like partners in life?
37:36
[SPEAKER_03]: Are you like, what does that mean?
37:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
37:39
[SPEAKER_03]: So that's why I love wife because it's it's clear.
37:43
[SPEAKER_00]: So we went through some fertility like we went through IVF and the IVF clinic would would it like call and be like oh you're partner blah blah blah blah like they just would use the word partner and I was like dude it's my fucking wife like I married this lady she's my wife I know they're just like saying every partner to everybody but still I was like a little like come on guys yeah yeah totally
38:09
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, cool, fun discussion about the word wife.
38:13
[SPEAKER_00]: You and your wife, Jodie, Jodie Granado.
38:18
[SPEAKER_00]: founded Nina Sadeba after spending eight months volunteering at a school for girls in El Salvador, and you have talked so much about this online in podcasts.
38:31
[SPEAKER_00]: And it sounds like such an incredible life-changing epic time.
38:40
[SPEAKER_00]: You were in a rough part of the country, which is home to the MS-Thirteenth Gang,
38:45
[SPEAKER_00]: and there are not a lot of opportunities there for girls to go to college.
38:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You created the college fund and you have sent, sent, sent, sent, girls to college with this fund.
38:57
[SPEAKER_00]: How many have you sent?
38:59
[SPEAKER_00]: We have our eighth who is finishing her studies right now.
39:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, so rad.
39:07
[SPEAKER_00]: So what has running this fund given to you that you couldn't even imagine when you first started it?
39:13
[SPEAKER_03]: I think just the idea that I feel like at least in my mind, and I do feel like a lot of people think they have to wait to make something of themselves to make a difference in the world.
39:30
[SPEAKER_03]: I think this has taught me, you just, again, start where you are.
39:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's the great thing about Nina Sarriva, is we just started before we even knew what we were doing.
39:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And this, I credit, Jodi, one hundred percent, because she had this idea, we were in El Salvador, we were talking to our senior class, we were teaching English there.
39:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And, you know, she's the one that was like, hey, babe, what if we started a college fund, you know?
40:02
[SPEAKER_00]: And my thought was like, I'm like, yeah, went through your mind when she brought that up.
40:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, how do we do that?
40:06
[SPEAKER_03]: That sounds complicated, like, you know, and she was like, I don't know, we'll figure it out.
40:11
[SPEAKER_03]: And when you're faced with people who have become your family, it's a different thing than if you're just thinking of some nebulous idea of helping, you know, amorphous people you don't know.
40:23
[SPEAKER_03]: And so these girls were like our sisters and we were like, we want them to go to college.
40:29
[SPEAKER_03]: They want to go to college and no one's going to help them.
40:32
[SPEAKER_03]: So what if we do it?
40:34
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the only way we knew how to do that was, I was like, well, I'm a musician.
40:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's throw benefit concerts.
40:41
[SPEAKER_03]: That's what we can do.
40:43
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it really ended up being such an incredible to see how that
40:52
[SPEAKER_03]: seemingly kind of like random idea actually became one of the things that really was one of the best things for not only these young women but also for my music community for our fans.
41:08
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, people loved it.
41:09
[SPEAKER_03]: The idea that you can be a bridge to somebody else.
41:12
[SPEAKER_03]: And that's kind of what we felt like.
41:13
[SPEAKER_03]: It was we were a bridge to El Salvador, to this very small community in El Salvador, and suddenly people get to know them, you know.
41:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And I also don't think it, you don't have to go to El Salvador to do that to make some kind of a change.
41:27
[SPEAKER_03]: Like we'd make those changes here in our communities.
41:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I think that's what it showed me is just that, you know, just start where you are.
41:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's not a big fund.
41:37
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, it's a very small fund, but that's honestly what makes it beautiful because we can very much share who these young women are with our, you know, with our family and friends and fans.
41:50
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the thing that got me, I watched the video for Nina Sariba and the thing that got me was how little, like how little it took to like send a girl to college.
42:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
42:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, that was the other thing.
42:02
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I was like, if we were trying to raise the kind of money that we pay here in the States, like, that would be different.
42:06
[SPEAKER_03]: But we were like, oh, this is affordable.
42:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
42:10
[SPEAKER_00]: Like crazy affordable.
42:11
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
42:12
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, I immediately opened the donation box.
42:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like, here we go.
42:15
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it.
42:17
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, yeah, it's so compelling.
42:26
[SPEAKER_00]: Another thing you say with Nina Sadeba is that you say I learned the value of just being a champion.
42:31
[SPEAKER_00]: So as someone who's had a lot of champions, what have you learned about the best way to support someone who's like on a particular path, like what definitely works, what definitely does not work?
42:50
[SPEAKER_00]: as far as being a champion for somebody?
42:52
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, being a mentor like how, what have you learned about how to be a good mentor?
43:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Or champion?
43:01
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
43:05
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it just means allowing somebody to have a voice.
43:12
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I don't really love that phrase.
43:14
[SPEAKER_03]: I think it means hearing somebody else's voice.
43:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Just, you know, because I think there's this idea that like, oh, we can be a voice for people.
43:21
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's like, no, you can't be a voice for somebody else.
43:25
[SPEAKER_03]: You need to let their voice be heard.
43:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And so we start by actually just listening to the voices that are already out there.
43:33
[SPEAKER_03]: They may not have megafones.
43:36
[SPEAKER_03]: But they have a voice, they've got something to say.
43:39
[SPEAKER_03]: They've got a point of view, right?
43:42
[SPEAKER_03]: So yeah, I think a lot of times it actually might just mean making space for somebody else to have their voice be heard, which might mean being quiet.
43:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, so El Salvador has been in the news a lot lately.
44:03
[SPEAKER_00]: Do you have any feelings about that?
44:08
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, man.
44:09
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
44:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, something that, you know, your listeners might not know.
44:14
[SPEAKER_03]: So it was interesting.
44:15
[SPEAKER_03]: I, I was at the University of Texas of the journalism major and I had gone to like doing an extra credit thing.
44:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I would, I had gone to
44:26
[SPEAKER_03]: a photojournalism presentation by a woman named Donna De Chessere.
44:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And she is an award-winning photographer who essentially, the presentation that I saw, is she documented the deportation of LA gangs to El Salvador.
44:45
[SPEAKER_03]: in the eighties after El Salvador had been ravaged by a civil war.
44:51
[SPEAKER_03]: And so you can imagine a war-torn country, people had fled from that war-torn country and found places, found homes and places like LA.
45:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Their kids grow up on the streets of L.A.
45:07
[SPEAKER_03]: They pick up gang culture.
45:09
[SPEAKER_03]: The United States then deport children of Salvadoran
45:18
[SPEAKER_03]: People from El Salvador who are now in the United States, people who are deporting citizens, essentially, citizens who are people we don't want because they are gang members, right?
45:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And they deport them to a war torn El Salvador.
45:33
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I see this presentation.
45:36
[SPEAKER_03]: And then years later, I find myself going to El Salvador with a Catholic mission program called Vides, and that's the program that took us to, so I up on goal.
45:46
[SPEAKER_03]: So I contact Donna to Chesa Ray and because this was such a compelling I'd never forgotten this particular presentation.
45:53
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like what?
45:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, and so we became great friends and a lot of the photos you actually see on our website are from a trip that we took with Donna and she you know, she's in one of our documentaries.
46:04
[SPEAKER_03]: She's amazing.
46:07
[SPEAKER_03]: But I think it's just that people don't understand
46:10
[SPEAKER_03]: why a place like, you know, like, sea caught even exists, the roots of that are in the U.S.
46:18
[SPEAKER_03]: We deported gang culture to El Salvador and the gangs started to run that place and then a person like Newt and Iy Buckele comes up and he basically throws due process out the window in order to, you know, make the country, quote, quote, safe again.
46:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And now the United States is in bed with Buckele and looking to do the same thing, are already doing the same thing to our citizens.
46:50
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's all roots that we plant it.
46:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Jeez.
46:59
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for laying that out.
47:02
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard.
47:05
[SPEAKER_00]: So you did a TED Talk about your latest EP, Lekimenda, which means the woman in charge.
47:13
[SPEAKER_00]: And if you have not watched Jeena's TED Talk, please go watch it.
47:17
[SPEAKER_00]: You performed two songs, and you tell the story of you finding Lekimenda in the studio, where you had like, thirty takes of the song, but everything was like, too pretty.
47:29
[SPEAKER_00]: So you just decided to scream in the studio.
47:35
[SPEAKER_00]: So listening to that story, it sounds like you wrote it before you learned how to sing it, which goes with our theme of knowing something but not knowing how to actually do it.
47:45
[SPEAKER_00]: So how did you write this song before you knew how to sing it?
47:50
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I mean,
47:53
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's funny actually just the other day like a week ago.
47:56
[SPEAKER_03]: I was talking to somebody about this and I pulled up the original like version of that came on that and I was like, oh my god, like it's not that different, but it's different enough that I'm like damn it's
48:10
[SPEAKER_03]: you know so it's like the the the the the bones of it are all there a lot of the other stuff too you know but it was so funny because I yeah I had two days in the studio was during the pandemic and
48:26
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I had all the words we had written everything.
48:28
[SPEAKER_03]: I had this little like app called Afro Latin drum machine because it's hard to find apps that are not necessarily built on like the Western understanding of music.
48:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And so anyway, so I was trying to like I found this app that's Afro Latin drum machine and it's free.
48:46
[SPEAKER_03]: It's awesome.
48:47
[SPEAKER_03]: It's got all these like really cool rhythms from Africa and Cuba.
48:51
[SPEAKER_00]: The link in the show notes.
48:52
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that's awesome.
48:53
[SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, so I just picked a random beat, and I was co-writing with one of my co-writers, and I was basically like, she's awesome, her name's Andrei Akorona.
49:07
[SPEAKER_03]: She's from Puerto Rico, but completely fluent in both languages, and so, and it's hard for me to write in Spanish, because I'm not completely, like, I'm highly proficient, but I would say fluent as far as writing poetry is a different thing.
49:19
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I was like, yeah, you know, she's like, what do you want to say?
49:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was like, oh, I mean, you know, I want to say, like I used to bury my dreams and now I don't.
49:27
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, it's like the song is very simple.
49:29
[SPEAKER_03]: There's not a lot of poetry to it.
49:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And so she was just kind of like translating it.
49:35
[SPEAKER_03]: We start writing it.
49:36
[SPEAKER_03]: We kind of like come up with a melody.
49:37
[SPEAKER_03]: So that was kind of what we had working with.
49:39
[SPEAKER_03]: I get in the studio like a couple months later.
49:41
[SPEAKER_03]: And
49:43
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, yeah, it just, I came home with this rough cut of it and I was like, okay babe, I'm gonna play it for you and I played it for Jody and she was just, she just literally looked at me and she was like, yeah, that's not it.
50:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I was like, I know you're right.
50:02
[SPEAKER_03]: Like inside is like I knew that, but I was also like, I have one more day in the studio, like it has to be it.
50:07
[SPEAKER_03]: Like, we have to, you have to pick something.
50:09
[SPEAKER_03]: You don't even, you can't.
50:10
[SPEAKER_03]: At some point, you have to just decide it's ready.
50:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's when I went into the second day and I was like, all right, I'm just, just roll the tape.
50:18
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm literally just gonna scream.
50:20
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't know.
50:21
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I have all these other versions that I've tried night.
50:24
[SPEAKER_03]: I have no frickin' idea what to do with this thing.
50:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was that moment in the studio where at some point I landed on, you know, what it is now and my producer and I were like separated by plexiglass because it's during the quarantine and everything and he's across the room and we both look at each other and we're like, whoa, what is that, you know?
50:46
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I don't know, like I think
50:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm still, it's so funny.
50:52
[SPEAKER_03]: I've had this question twice this week.
50:53
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like, what have you learned from that moment of like unlocking?
50:57
[SPEAKER_03]: And I'm like, can't dang it, just need to get out of my own way.
51:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Just like, get out of my head, man.
51:05
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, listen, it's hard when you grow up at the tail end of third wave feminism.
51:14
[SPEAKER_00]: So you said this felt like probably a volume one.
51:20
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, volume two.
51:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, that's a good gosh.
51:23
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't remember saying that.
51:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, it's funny because lucky Amanda originally it was gonna be a full-length album, but then the pandemic happened and I was like, alright, well, we'll just we'll call it.
51:33
[SPEAKER_03]: We'll call it good.
51:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, yeah.
51:41
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's the rub.
51:42
[SPEAKER_03]: Here's the thing about me.
51:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So I'm definitely very deadline driven.
51:47
[SPEAKER_03]: And so as an independent artist with no current like, you know, real team to speak of, I know label, no manager, nobody breathing down my neck.
52:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's like that's not a great recipe.
52:06
[SPEAKER_03]: because it's like I need a deadline to get those things done and at the same time I'm also at a point in my life where there is a lot of deprogramming happening and so I think it's great when you do like that I have space for that I have space to kind of
52:20
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, have a meditation practice and I'm like, you know, doing a lot of inner work.
52:25
[SPEAKER_03]: And so that's been really beautiful.
52:27
[SPEAKER_03]: But I do think I'm, I'm in a like, coming out of that.
52:31
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's time to like, kick my own button to gear.
52:35
[SPEAKER_03]: I have a lot of English songs that I want to record, but quite honestly, my English songs don't really do a lot for me.
52:43
[SPEAKER_03]: Career wise.
52:44
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like, as an indie artist, you don't have, you know, a spray gun to like throw money at everything.
52:52
[SPEAKER_03]: You kind of have to shot gun it.
52:53
[SPEAKER_03]: And so, you know, there's a lot of English songs I'm sitting on that I'm just like, do I invest in them?
53:01
[SPEAKER_03]: Is it worth it?
53:03
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, and then there's, you know, so it's like I know that if I had a lot of Spanish stuff that it would actually be a great luck in Monday, volume two.
53:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And at the moment, I don't have that material.
53:17
[SPEAKER_03]: So I don't know.
53:17
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's say we can wait.
53:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Take your time.
53:23
[SPEAKER_00]: No rush.
53:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I do want to make that song for sure.
53:28
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, right on.
53:29
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
53:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Cool.
53:30
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe with some drag queens.
53:31
[SPEAKER_00]: There you go.
53:32
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
53:33
[SPEAKER_00]: Great.
53:35
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, Olivia travel.
53:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes.
53:37
[SPEAKER_00]: When we were booking this interview, I suggested a date, I think, last week.
53:43
[SPEAKER_00]: And Becky, who is helping me book the interview, she was like, oh, no, Gina will be on a cruise or river cruise.
53:52
[SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, what the what?
53:54
[SPEAKER_00]: So this was an Olivia travel cruise.
53:58
[SPEAKER_00]: So you have done some shows on cruises and you have one, a show coming up on a resort into loom for Olivia travel, which organizes vacations for lesbians and LGBTQ plus women.
54:13
[SPEAKER_00]: So I first heard of this when Margaret show was talking about it in her, like, I'm the one that I want stand up where she was talking about the Olivia cruises.
54:21
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a great episode of hacks where they kind of parody the Olivia Cruz.
54:28
[SPEAKER_00]: There's the L word episode where they all grow on a cruise and Sean Colvin is playing in the theater.
54:36
[SPEAKER_00]: So this is, I'm interested in this.
54:40
[SPEAKER_00]: What has that experience been like for you, like, how are the crowds different on these trips?
54:45
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there are lesbians.
54:47
[SPEAKER_03]: There are lesbians.
54:50
[SPEAKER_03]: It's so awesome.
54:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
54:55
[SPEAKER_03]: There, I will say that like, it's definitely like an older, in general, it's a bit of an older crowd.
55:03
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, Olivia travels, actually Olivia records, you know, started as a record company.
55:09
[SPEAKER_00]: I did not tell me everything.
55:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, well, I, I shouldn't tell you everything because I don't know everything, but it was started in the seventies.
55:16
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh, did they put out women's music?
55:19
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, but it was also particularly, I was actually looking at have to see who some of the early, because I feel like a lot of the people that like really started to take off with Lilith Fair and stuff, they were originally signed to Olivia Records because they couldn't get a record deal with anybody else.
55:38
[SPEAKER_03]: So Olivia Records basically was like, hey, we need some women in the music industry and specifically lesbians.
55:44
[SPEAKER_03]: We need a place for them in the music industry and so they started in the seventies and then at some point they they like took that and put it on a cruise like they they did a show some kind of an experience with like music on a cruise and then that blew up and I think the as people like Natalie merchant I can't remember who exactly got signed to Olivia Records but
56:08
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like fairly like fair and and like Chris Williamson.
56:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, I think Chris Williamson you're right that was one of them.
56:18
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so they I think certain of them started to get picked up by bigger labels because things like Lilith Fair were like taking off and so I think Olivia Records started to not be as viable but then the travel agency was born.
56:33
[SPEAKER_00]: got it.
56:33
[SPEAKER_00]: They saw the end of the music industry and they were like, we're going to vote.
56:38
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, the answer is cruises.
56:40
[SPEAKER_00]: This is two birds one stone.
56:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Boom.
56:42
[SPEAKER_00]: The ocean levels are rising.
56:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
56:45
[SPEAKER_00]: And the music industry is collapsing.
56:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Although now the ocean levels are falling.
56:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, dang.
56:52
[SPEAKER_03]: We actually was so funny on the riverboat.
56:53
[SPEAKER_03]: We had the switch boats because climate change, the river, the rain river was so low that the ships were couldn't pass the certain parts.
57:02
[SPEAKER_03]: We literally had to like change ships.
57:05
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my, anyway.
57:06
[SPEAKER_03]: So anyway, it was great.
57:07
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the thing that I love about it is one of the things I love about it is especially like the resorts.
57:16
[SPEAKER_03]: I mean seeing a ginormous pool full of lesbians just being themselves and not feeling judged is like one of the most beautiful things ever.
57:28
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, I think swimsuits for women in general is it's just
57:33
[SPEAKER_03]: It's not a great thing.
57:34
[SPEAKER_00]: It's played out.
57:35
[SPEAKER_03]: It sucks.
57:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Everyone's sick of it.
57:37
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, so to go to a place where you just feel, you're like, not worried about how you look amazing.
57:43
[SPEAKER_03]: You know what I mean?
57:44
[SPEAKER_03]: And so the the resorts are cool because it's like, fifteen hundred to two thousand lesbians just take over the resort for the entirety of a week or something.
57:52
[SPEAKER_03]: And so into loom, that's what's gonna be.
57:55
[SPEAKER_03]: And the freedom to just like walk into a place and be like, oh my God, this is what the world would be like if women ran the place.
58:03
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, look it's beautiful and accepting and everybody's having a great time and no one's like crazy drunk and like throwing slurs at you or whatever.
58:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Awesome.
58:13
[SPEAKER_03]: And then I think on the on the riverboat crews, one of the really cool things is we just had so many it was it's small enough where you like over the course of eight days really got to know people.
58:24
[SPEAKER_03]: And oh my god, there were two women that they had just recently lost their wives and I just got to hear their stories of like what their life was like and pictures and
58:39
[SPEAKER_03]: Then here they are exploring the world, you know, deeply feeling like they're missing a part of themselves in at the same time, like they're out, they're living, and I was just like, oh, just so moved.
58:51
[SPEAKER_03]: So moved.
58:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Wow.
58:55
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so this is a question that Lizzie, who also hosts basic folk with me.
59:00
[SPEAKER_00]: Lizzie and I have been asking ourselves, I would love to hear your opinion.
59:04
[SPEAKER_00]: So Gina, if you were to plan a women's music festival, taking any blueprints of Lilith there, Michigan Women's Festival, Olivia Travel, etc., you are the executive producer of this women's music festival.
59:19
[SPEAKER_00]: Resources are bottomless, top to bottom, like what would be the ideal ingredients.
59:25
[SPEAKER_00]: who are the artists you would want headlining and who are the ideal attendees?
59:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh gosh, this is an intense question.
59:33
[SPEAKER_03]: I think the first thing that comes to mind is that I just do not see in the places that you've mentioned is more people of color and more just like other
59:55
[SPEAKER_03]: Languages, ethnicities represented.
59:59
[SPEAKER_03]: Even those types of spaces to me can be just so white that I still am kind of like a checkbox on those, because it's like I'm like half my sets in Spanish.
1:00:18
[SPEAKER_03]: but I look palatable to be singing in Spanish, you know what I mean?
1:00:22
[SPEAKER_03]: And so it's like, it's hard not to feel like a token.
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_03]: And so I would love for those spaces to not feel like a token, right?
1:00:35
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's like this whole line up and you're like, oh, there's an artist from Cuba, or whatever, whatever the thing is, you know what I mean?
1:00:43
[SPEAKER_03]: No, like we did it international.
1:00:46
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
1:00:47
[SPEAKER_03]: So it's a little bit of a, because honestly, the vibes at so many of these types of places, I think are there.
1:00:54
[SPEAKER_03]: It's great.
1:00:54
[SPEAKER_03]: And we do just women in general, just having women on stage playing the things and doing the things like you've, is such a huge feat.
1:01:05
[SPEAKER_03]: But yeah, I'd just, I'd love to see more of the world represented on those stages.
1:01:10
[SPEAKER_03]: Right on.
1:01:11
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah.
1:01:12
[SPEAKER_03]: I'm trying to think of a specific.
1:01:15
[SPEAKER_03]: Actually, I should mention there's a really cool artist here in Austin, but she's from Belfast, her name is Andrea McGee, and she has started a festival called She Rises.
1:01:25
[SPEAKER_03]: Yes.
1:01:27
[SPEAKER_03]: It's in town.
1:01:28
[SPEAKER_03]: And anyway, I've been, I've actually performed at all three of them.
1:01:31
[SPEAKER_03]: This is like a third one or whatever.
1:01:32
[SPEAKER_03]: And she
1:01:33
[SPEAKER_03]: like the the thing that she's building is so it's small and beautiful and like the people there you know the vibes are great so that's one thing that um gives me a lot of hope is like even if it's like a just a smaller community um yeah it can it can be all of those things inclusive and awesome
1:01:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I would like to go to that festival.
1:01:58
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I would have to take three planes.
1:02:01
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'll do it.
1:02:02
[SPEAKER_00]: You'll do it.
1:02:03
[SPEAKER_03]: You should do it.
1:02:04
[SPEAKER_03]: Come on.
1:02:04
[SPEAKER_03]: You can get to Albuquerque.
1:02:06
[SPEAKER_03]: And then it's like an hour drive.
1:02:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
1:02:07
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll treat it.
1:02:14
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, let's do the lightning round.
1:02:16
[SPEAKER_00]: All right.
1:02:16
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it.
1:02:17
[SPEAKER_00]: And then we can call it J. We can be done with this.
1:02:20
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, how many pairs of eyeglasses do you own?
1:02:25
[SPEAKER_03]: What is your favorite pair?
1:02:26
[SPEAKER_03]: I am now a two person, a two eyeglasses owner.
1:02:31
[SPEAKER_03]: I don't just have one pair, so proud of myself.
1:02:34
[SPEAKER_03]: Excellent.
1:02:35
[SPEAKER_03]: Excellent.
1:02:36
[SPEAKER_03]: What is a sport you wish you excelled at?
1:02:39
[SPEAKER_03]: My first answer was beat boxing, but I don't think that's a sport.
1:02:42
[SPEAKER_00]: Pickable.
1:02:48
[SPEAKER_03]: Who popped the question?
1:02:50
[SPEAKER_03]: You were Jodie.
1:02:51
[SPEAKER_03]: I did.
1:02:51
[SPEAKER_03]: Although I almost surprised both of us and so, you know, I even stars.
1:02:57
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, that was the stars.
1:03:00
[SPEAKER_03]: It's a funny story.
1:03:01
[SPEAKER_03]: They all have to tell you afterwards.
1:03:02
[SPEAKER_03]: All right.
1:03:03
[SPEAKER_00]: When we have beers.
1:03:04
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, when we have the beers.
1:03:06
[SPEAKER_00]: If you could take any musician living or dead out for lunch, who is it and where are you going?
1:03:14
[SPEAKER_03]: Jake Wesley Rogers is, I'm obsessed.
1:03:18
[SPEAKER_03]: And he likes to sit on like mountain tops and talk to people.
1:03:22
[SPEAKER_03]: Let's say we're going to a mountain top.
1:03:24
[SPEAKER_03]: Where are the best tacos in Austin?
1:03:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Oh my gosh, my brain.
1:03:31
[SPEAKER_03]: Um, Nicsta, Tucketia, you have to go the duck taco.
1:03:37
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
1:03:38
[SPEAKER_03]: And anything else on, I'm, I'm actually don't really eat a lot of meat, but you have to try the duck taco.
1:03:44
[SPEAKER_03]: Okay.
1:03:45
[SPEAKER_03]: And if you're not just try anything else on the menu.
1:03:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
1:03:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Nicsta, Tucketia.
1:03:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Excellent.
1:03:49
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:03:49
[SPEAKER_00]: This is the last one.
1:03:51
[SPEAKER_00]: Where is the most beautiful place you've ever been?
1:03:54
[SPEAKER_00]: Hmm.
1:03:56
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm rummaging through all the things in my brain.
1:03:59
[SPEAKER_03]: You've been to some places.
1:04:00
[SPEAKER_03]: I know I have a most beautiful place I've ever been.
1:04:05
[SPEAKER_03]: The one that's come into mind is this like unforgettable sunset in Costa Rica.
1:04:11
[SPEAKER_03]: We had gone out on a boat all day and we got back to the beach right in time for sunset and it was just like, I mean, just unreal, unreal.
1:04:20
[SPEAKER_00]: Amazing.
1:04:21
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
1:04:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Gina Chavez, thank you so much for joining us on basic book today.
1:04:26
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so wonderful to talk to you.
1:04:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I hope likewise, this was fascinating.
1:04:30
[SPEAKER_03]: Can't wait for the beers.
1:04:38
[SPEAKER_00]: In this episode of Basic Folk was produced by CJ Nungesser, Dietrich Strauss composes our music.
1:04:44
[SPEAKER_00]: Basic Folk is a production of the Bluegrass situation.
1:04:47
[SPEAKER_00]: You can find all of our episodes there.
1:04:49
[SPEAKER_00]: You can listen at folkallie.com or folkallie's mobile app.
1:04:53
[SPEAKER_00]: You can check us out on the Series XM app by searching for Basic Folk.
1:04:58
[SPEAKER_00]: You can go to our website basicfolk.com or you can listen wherever you get podcasts.
1:05:04
[SPEAKER_00]: If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest sharing it with a friend.
1:05:07
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you can send it to your friend in Mexico who you met while you were on vacation and have kept in touch over Instagram and you try to practice Spanish really poorly with them and they have since learned English really well.
1:05:22
[SPEAKER_00]: Send it to that friend.
1:05:23
[SPEAKER_00]: Alright, we'll talk to you next time.
1:05:25
[SPEAKER_00]: Bye!