Latest / Basic Folk / Alela Diane: Gold in France, That 1990s/1890s Life, and Michael Hurley

Transcript

Alela Diane: Gold in France, That 1990s/1890s Life, and Michael Hurley · Basic Folk

0:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Hi and welcome to Basic Folk, where we have honest conversations with folk musicians on the Bluegrass situation.
0:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It's your host Cindy House.
0:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks for listening today.
0:21
[SPEAKER_02]: We have Alila Diane on the show today, very excited about her new album and return to form on this record, get to that in just a moment.
0:32
[SPEAKER_02]: There are a few different ways that we can stay in touch as Basic Folk friends and family.
0:38
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0:46
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0:54
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0:57
[SPEAKER_02]: That link is in the show notes as well or you can go to basic folk.com.
1:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
1:03
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's do it.
1:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Back in the mid 2000s, Alila Diane's gospel pirate album was ringing my bell.
1:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And apparently, it was ringing a lot of other people's bells too, especially Europeans.
1:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Alila's debut album went gold in France, and she's been able to maintain a pretty decent audience and career across the Atlantic.
1:25
[SPEAKER_02]: Meanwhile, at home in the states, she's based in Portland, Oregon, after 2013, she remained relatively unknown and undiscovered, and that was just fine with her.
1:36
[SPEAKER_02]: She worked on her music, occasionally flew over to Europe to tour, played local gigs, and raised her two daughters with her husband in their 1892 Victorian mansion.
1:46
[SPEAKER_02]: while they were renovating their crazy old house, they also got their daughters a landline and a CD player each along with their old CD collections.
1:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Everything was pretty chill and great, then her friend and mentor Michael Hurley, the godfather of freak folk, died last year at the age of 83.
2:07
[SPEAKER_02]: After paying a tribute show to Michael, she started connecting with her Portland music community.
2:12
[SPEAKER_02]: She would go to shows inviting people like Anna Tivil over, starting to collaborate with others in town.
2:18
[SPEAKER_02]: This all led to her new album, Who's Keeping Time.
2:21
[SPEAKER_02]: This time around, she's really going full stop on a huge tour where she's going to be gone roughly 40% of the year from May through December.
2:30
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels like a huge return for the singer-songwriter who is feeling inspired by creating collaborating and being in community again.
2:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Let's take a listen to a song from Alila's new album.
2:41
[SPEAKER_02]: This is Dusty Roses, and then we'll get to our conversation with Alila Diane on Basic Folk.
3:02
[SPEAKER_00]: The road horses it don't Came on every morning to the TV Ain't blue eyes long straight here Some dark sea Hill like a kill The steam roses Strong up on the wall The steam roses
3:48
[SPEAKER_00]: Black pants and crisp sweatshirt table for you Hardier too, it's one AM, she gets on foot It's downtown whiskey, ground fine, some stranger It's cold, black and clear Dusty roses, strong up on the wall Dusty roses
4:42
[SPEAKER_02]: Alila Diane welcome to a basic book.
4:44
[SPEAKER_02]: It's so nice to see you.
4:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you for having me.
4:47
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to first of all start by talking about your wonderful style that you have you are always looking so fly you have like a vintage like it the style it's like vintage and crisp and neat but like not too neat.
5:06
[SPEAKER_02]: always like great coloring, attention to detail like to me, your style inspires like a certain type of slowness and peace and quiet that like I always want and I never have.
5:19
[SPEAKER_02]: So how do you feel about your style and where it might intersect with your musicality?
5:26
[SPEAKER_02]: And like when I say style, I mean like clothing, album artwork, your house, like your album covers, etc.
5:33
[SPEAKER_02]: and so on.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think my music is so deeply intertwined with just who I am and part of who I am as I'm a very visual person and my home and what I wear and everything is so connected to my being and my creative aesthetic as well, but it's all just one and the same which I think is why my music inherently feels connected to.
6:05
[SPEAKER_01]: That's style too.
6:08
[SPEAKER_02]: How did you develop your fashion psychic?
6:12
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, my wife and I, like, own a house and, like, styled it together, but it was like very difficult to get there, but I'm just wondering, like, what your fashion journey was like.
6:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's always just, it's been an ever evolving path and it's something that I enjoy.
6:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, my house, we live in this bizarre, wild, crazy old Victorian in Portland.
6:38
[SPEAKER_01]: was the perfect example of like this is this is my aesthetic.
6:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I need to live in this house.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And when I was a kid, I had a Victorian doll house.
6:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, when we met 20 years ago, I was very into vintage fashion and I still am.
6:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think I was more like my outfit cost $5 because I got everything at the thrift store, you know, 20 years ago.
7:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I really prided myself on that hunting and gathering and collecting treasures everywhere that I went, and then as I've gotten older, there are other pieces that have come into the fold, I think I kind of rejected vintage for about 10 years when I was really in the deepest part of parenthood, it wasn't.
7:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it wasn't suiting me as much, but just in the past couple of years I've like really gotten back into it and it's a lot of it's it's fun because now I'm incorporating some stuff pieces that I've had for 20 years and I'm like, oh, it's cool denim vest I'm going to start wearing this again, but it's something that I used to wear when I was you know, 25 and
7:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been fun to re incorporate stuff that I've been holding on to and I'm also always just collecting little bits like wherever I travel so that to big part of.
8:02
[SPEAKER_01]: that aesthetic through line as well.
8:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm a little bit of a hoarder as I mean, low key.
8:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so impressed that you have all these things still.
8:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I feel like I've just gotten rid of so much stuff.
8:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I've gotten rid of things too.
8:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I have let go of a lot.
8:18
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think because there's this constant collecting, it's an ab and a flow.
8:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And I have gotten rid of some things where I'm like,
8:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Our house is pretty, it's a pretty big old house.
8:34
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I finally live in a place where things that I had been hoarding in my basement for years actually have found a home here.
8:43
[SPEAKER_01]: They have a spot to be so it doesn't, it doesn't feel crowded or overwhelming here because everything like has its little place.
8:51
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
8:51
[SPEAKER_02]: What's the square footage?
8:53
[SPEAKER_02]: What do we talk about here?
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like 5,000.
8:56
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like 5,000 square feet,
9:00
[SPEAKER_01]: So okay, is it finished in the base of basements not finished so that's probably 1200 square feet you could take away from the house, but it's three stories and where I'm sitting right now is is my attic studio, which is
9:20
[SPEAKER_02]: That's amazing.
9:21
[SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of wild.
9:23
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It's terrible if you lose your phone in here, though, or it's all over your hiking up and down stairwells.
9:32
[SPEAKER_02]: So you grew up in the Gold Rush town of Nevada City, California, also for those keeping track at home, the hometown of Joanna Newsom.
9:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Or at the town, you have mentioned it's winding rivers, and you've also said, no matter how much time passes, part of my heart will always live among those golden hills.
9:51
[SPEAKER_02]: So how has the landscape of your hometown impacted you throughout your life?
9:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's something I'm always reflecting back on.
10:01
[SPEAKER_01]: such an incredibly beautiful place.
10:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And having spent my whole childhood there and just absorbing the nature and going to the river and the sun shine, the California sun shine, the flowers blooming.
10:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll always, I always will carry that with me.
10:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And now in the northwest, I live in Portland,
10:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's a different landscape, but it's still beautiful and the seasons change and every spring, but the Portland spring times are just astounding.
10:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything really comes to life and is in bloom.
10:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think for me, it's those like, it's the passage of seasons that feels really crucial for the marking of time.
10:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And...
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's wild that I never went back to California, yet my life kind of just got established here I have a family and I'm raising kids in Portland my husband's from Washington.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: you didn't want to move to Nevada city, you know.
11:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And we've created a life here that touches on those things that I did have in Nevada city.
11:22
[SPEAKER_01]: We have a half acre.
11:23
[SPEAKER_01]: We've got a big yard.
11:24
[SPEAKER_01]: My kids are running around free in our yard.
11:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Our little dog has space to roam.
11:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's beautiful here too, you know?
11:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you grew up with parents who were artists and musicians.
11:38
[SPEAKER_02]: So how did their example influence how you have come to feel about art and music, whether you're creating it or you're experiencing it?
11:47
[SPEAKER_01]: I think having, having creative parents, my mom is a painter and a singer.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: And my dad is a great musician because they were both in a lot of like bluegrass bands and folk projects when I was growing up.
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: My dad's been in a grateful dead cover band since I was like 12, and I think music and art were always such an inherent art of my life when I was a kid that I think it was quite normalized.
12:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it felt very natural for me to then start pursuing a creative career.
12:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I love it.
12:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
12:32
[SPEAKER_02]: I also loved it.
12:34
[SPEAKER_02]: You had a post a while back that mentioned that you were making music with your dad again.
12:39
[SPEAKER_02]: I think this was like last year.
12:42
[SPEAKER_02]: He has been like a big part of your musical journey, working with you on some of your albums, even like playing guitar with you in your band.
12:51
[SPEAKER_02]: I heard he quit his day job while back.
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
12:56
[SPEAKER_02]: So what has music
13:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I think music has been a place that my dad and I can drop into and connect on and that has been a very beautiful thing to have with my dad because there there aren't a lot of other places where we can easily like drop in but music has always been that it's always the excuse to have a visit.
13:23
[SPEAKER_01]: The next time I'm going to see my dad, he's coming up to play with me for pickathon in Portland and, you know, he's excited to play the gig and he's also excited to see me, but to encourage him to come up, it was like, oh, well, come up for pickathon.
13:39
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's kind of just how it is with with my dad and.
13:45
[SPEAKER_01]: The most recent project I did with him has not been released yet, but he and I recorded really stripped back duo versions of a handful of my old songs and a handful of my new songs and some cover songs and it's the kind of project that it was just special to make with my dad we just sat there across from each other and recorded it in two days.
14:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't think it's the kind of record that will have a big like press push or it's not going to be like this is the next album it's more a special thing that we made together that I think my deep bands will really appreciate and so at some point probably in the next year or so I will strategically, you know, press it on vinyl and
14:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Do a small little release around it or maybe release a digital version that's just an EP and then have the full length beyond a 12 inch vinyl or something like that without branding it as my next full link that makes sense more like a side project yeah that's cool yeah.
15:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So your musical career kind of got started around 2004.
15:08
[SPEAKER_02]: You self-released your debut album, the Pirates Gospel, and you worked on it with your dad, and on your sub-stack.
15:15
[SPEAKER_02]: It's an album which more people listen to than anything else that I've released since then.
15:21
[SPEAKER_02]: It's strange to be known for who you were rather than who you've become, which is intense.
15:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
15:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Totally.
15:29
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you reckon with that statement and that album?
15:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, it has been interesting.
15:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So my career has been weird because in America, I'm not very known.
15:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I don't, I have never had a certain amount of success or whatever in this country.
15:49
[SPEAKER_01]: That just has never happened for me.
15:52
[SPEAKER_01]: But in Europe, I developed a really strong following.
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And I can go
15:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Over there, and I've continued touring in Europe for the last 20 years, because that first record was quite successful there.
16:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It went gold in France.
16:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still my most highly streamed music.
16:10
[SPEAKER_01]: The Pirates Gospel, the lead single off that record.
16:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I think gets like post to 500,000 plays a month a month.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: yeah, which is crazy.
16:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
16:23
[SPEAKER_01]: So people over there are still listening to that.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And these are recordings that I made when I was 21 years old.
16:30
[SPEAKER_02]: A golden oldie.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
16:33
[SPEAKER_01]: With my dad, we did not know anyone would hear that record.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And so over in Europe when I tour over there, I have to play a lot of
16:49
[SPEAKER_01]: of that original flash in the pan success that I had over there, and it's been interesting, like that that's been the case.
17:01
[SPEAKER_01]: And my hope for this new record is, I mean, who knows, but like, this is the first release that I've had on a US record label, since I was dropped
17:16
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't had any U.S. supports since then and we'll see, but I'm hoping that I'm able to get back out there in my own country and actually play shows that people show up too.
17:31
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, you know.
17:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
17:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, okay, yeah, I'm also excited to see what happens.
17:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Me too, very curious.
17:39
[SPEAKER_02]: So right around the time that the Pirates Gospel came out back in 2003, 2004, your family of origin, your parents, and your brother were all going through their own hard times.
17:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you want to read more about it, again, I will refer them to Elila Diane's sub-stack.
17:57
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a really great post called Reoccurring Dreams, Songs and Trust Passing in My Childhood Home, which like
18:03
[SPEAKER_02]: hopefully that's an intriguing title because it's just really cool post.
18:07
[SPEAKER_02]: So a back to your family like you sum it up by sharing it wasn't a great chapter for any of us and talk about basically like that's right around the time where your childhood ended.
18:20
[SPEAKER_02]: How do you look back on those times of letting go of your family through the lens of being a parent yourself?
18:28
[SPEAKER_02]: And what does it make you hope for your daughters when they are on that journey towards adulthood?
18:35
[SPEAKER_02]: When their childhood is dying?
18:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: That was a really hard moment for me.
18:41
[SPEAKER_01]: My parents divorced at that moment as well and they sold the home that I grew up in.
18:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was right around when I was 20, 20 years old.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: And everything that I had known and that the stability of that childhood, you know, all of a sudden
19:07
[SPEAKER_01]: But that's the thing that caused, that was the catalyst for writing songs.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: That's why I started writing songs.
19:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It's because I had this heaviness that I needed to process.
19:17
[SPEAKER_01]: And I don't know that I would have become a songwriter if that hadn't happened.
19:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And now I think that that pain has eased largely because I have my own home.
19:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I have my own family now.
19:31
[SPEAKER_01]: My daughters are 12 and nine years old.
19:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm getting to live that childhood alongside them with them as the parent now and my hope and my intention is to not have everything blow up for them when they come into early adulthood and that hopefully we will still have this home that they can come back to and always be
20:06
[SPEAKER_02]: So you started your family, 2013, you got married, you had the first daughter, Vera, excellent name.
20:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
20:14
[SPEAKER_02]: And you mentioned this while you were pregnant, you were dropped by your label, and then you were also passed on another, because you were going to have a baby.
20:23
[SPEAKER_02]: And you said it was learned, you learned that it's hard to trust a system that values youth and trends, and that the antidote is to keep showing up and keep doing it anyway.
20:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Keep putting up music anyways.
20:35
[SPEAKER_02]: So before we started our chat, we had a little bit of a discussion about your, so this is like inside baseball over here.
20:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I was reading a legalist press release and it said something about how like you were over a decade into your career.
20:49
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like wait a second, isn't it two decades?
20:52
[SPEAKER_02]: And you were like, we debated it and it made me sound old.
20:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So I decided to put a decade in.
20:59
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope it's okay.
20:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I bring I'm happy to talk about it.
21:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I love this sort of thing.
21:04
[SPEAKER_02]: So like what was your relationship to youth and like those fleeting trends prior to like getting dropped by your label and then like how like how was that relationship to youth fleeting trends like trying to get the clicks and that I guess like you weren't getting streams back in 2013.
21:25
[SPEAKER_02]: But like how has that change by that experience?
21:33
[SPEAKER_01]: typically and historically youth obsessed and what I learned pretty early on after the release of my third record, which was a record called wild divine, and then I was dropped by rough trade and not given the opportunity.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: I had fallen pregnant like things had changed but.
21:57
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, it felt like, oh, you're done.
22:01
[SPEAKER_01]: You're done, lady, you've been giving your chance.
22:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And you had three records, and we don't need you anymore.
22:09
[SPEAKER_01]: You're replaceable.
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: There's another girl with an acoustic guitar that we will put on our roster instead.
22:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Any festival opportunities.
22:18
[SPEAKER_01]: There's always another folk you girl with a guitar that they can put on the festival next year, and it's not going to be you again.
22:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And that was a that was really hard that was there have been peaks and there have been deep dark valleys in this career and for the past 12 years, well, I've been raising kids, I've essentially gotten no opportunities or very limited opportunities and limited press and anything.
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: in my own country for the fact I've been quietly releasing records in the states, but they kind of are like, oh, well, you're old.
23:02
[SPEAKER_01]: You had a shot.
23:03
[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't work.
23:04
[SPEAKER_01]: You never reached that milestone.
23:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I think especially labels like larger pool hip indie labels.
23:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like they give you a couple
23:18
[SPEAKER_01]: big, successful thing.
23:19
[SPEAKER_01]: They're very unlikely to continue rooting for you.
23:24
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is, it's, yeah, it feels really like not great.
23:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know so many artists who, especially women who have, have experienced just that.
23:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's, yeah, it's pretty messed up.
23:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it also is like,
23:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if you were like feeling that before this experience was happening, but like it just goes to show like how important it is to like work with people who are like real, who like, right, who see the value in investing in an artist that is going to be solid and sturdy, long time, yeah, long term, because they're,
24:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, these places do exist, but they're fewer and farther between, for sure.
24:15
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, for sure.
24:17
[SPEAKER_02]: That's sure we could, I'm sure we could have a coffee and date.
24:21
[SPEAKER_02]: I want that.
24:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, for sure.
24:24
[SPEAKER_01]: But it does, it's interesting now, kind of giving it on their shot and having signed with
24:31
[SPEAKER_01]: one of those more long game boutique, small, very invested record labels called Luff and Gravy in the U.S. And it feels really positive to be working with John who's a one guy at Luff and Gravy.
24:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And his whole heart is dedicated to this.
24:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I honestly
25:02
[SPEAKER_01]: 10 years ago, you know, when I had a newborn baby in a three year old.
25:07
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah.
25:08
[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, I feel good to be makes sense.
25:10
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
25:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming back into myself.
25:14
[SPEAKER_02]: So your two daughters Vera and Una, you mentioned your house.
25:18
[SPEAKER_02]: It's an 1892 Victorian house.
25:21
[SPEAKER_02]: You have a landline.
25:23
[SPEAKER_02]: we have a landline do your daughters have cd players in their rooms they do you said we have created a life that is in some ways a strange combination of 1890 and 1990 was just so fun
25:37
[SPEAKER_02]: So I have an 11-month-old daughter and I am like so freaked about the way people like consume media and consume music through screens.
25:49
[SPEAKER_02]: So can you, Alila tell me step-by-step how you did this and like where are screens in your life and in your family's life?
25:59
[SPEAKER_01]: So my girls are at Waldorf School which is very limited on screens.
26:04
[SPEAKER_01]: They don't use screens at all at
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And you basically sign a contract that says your kids not going to watch TV during the school week, like weekends are different.
26:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So having that kind of parameter up from the school and having it not be our decision, but have being able to say sorry, you can't watch school on weekdays or watch TV on on school days because.
26:29
[SPEAKER_01]: The school doesn't want you to.
26:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not my decision.
26:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Sorry, kid.
26:32
[SPEAKER_01]: They just get used to it.
26:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And they know that that's off the table.
26:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And it has allowed us to
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: just have more freedom in the physical realm and have the kids less whiny about the screens because it's just off the table.
26:48
[SPEAKER_01]: And then on the weekend, I mean, of course, even was like, mom, it's Friday, can I watch TV?
26:52
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, and she can watch some TV on the weekend.
26:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, the screens exist.
26:59
[SPEAKER_01]: My older daughter is 12 now.
27:01
[SPEAKER_01]: She does not have a phone yet.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: She has been whining about getting an Apple watch
27:07
[SPEAKER_01]: you know, she has more independence now.
27:09
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of times where she gets dropped off at soccer or she goes on a walk or she goes to grocery store by herself and she's like, I want to be able to call you if something, you know, if I feel scared or nervous or you don't show up when you say you're going to show up.
27:24
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's probably going to happen pretty soon, I think.
27:30
[SPEAKER_01]: But it feels a little better than a phone because she's not going to have endless internet access.
27:37
[SPEAKER_01]: She's not going to be surfing the web on an inch by inch little thing on a wrist, you know, it'll be more for like, it's more like a weird little walkie talkie that you can follow your parents on.
27:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But you can also like stream music on it.
27:53
[SPEAKER_01]: So,
27:53
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids do have some playlists.
27:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Now they've been listening to as well.
27:57
[SPEAKER_01]: But the CD players were great.
27:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that is an awesome way to get kids into music and also like have it be a bit limited to what they have access to.
28:09
[SPEAKER_01]: They really have been enjoying the CD players.
28:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're mostly listening to our old CDs from the early 2000s.
28:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So bless their hearts.
28:17
[SPEAKER_01]: It's funny.
28:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You're like, oh, listening to cat power.
28:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, cool.
28:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
28:23
[SPEAKER_02]: That's another thing.
28:24
[SPEAKER_02]: I got rid of all my CDs one day.
28:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I just dropped them all up for me.
28:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh yeah, you know, and I, you can always go back to the goodwill and collect some new ones.
28:34
[SPEAKER_02]: That's what I've been thinking about.
28:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
28:48
[SPEAKER_02]: So you have been mentioning that you have made records and toward Europe these last few years, but like, have not really been doing anything or getting much coverage with those records in the U.S., but like this time for this record, it seems different.
29:09
[SPEAKER_02]: You said that your kids are older and you like felt a shift towards music.
29:14
[SPEAKER_02]: When did you feel that shift and was it easy to turn towards it?
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt the shift about a year ago, maybe a little more than a year ago.
29:26
[SPEAKER_01]: I was writing these songs starting up this, I recorded it last August.
29:32
[SPEAKER_01]: So the previous fall, I had started writing songs and I was going up to my studio every day during school hours to like work on writing.
29:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I felt really isolated in it and I was doing I was making demos and they were solo recordings and I would play them back in the guy that was helping me record them his name's Ross he was just like yes this is it this is the record like this is great.
30:03
[SPEAKER_01]: you solo, that's all you need.
30:05
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just in my deepest heart of heart, so I was like, this isn't the record I want to make.
30:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't, I'm so sick of doing this alone and I'm so sick of having to tour alone out of circumstance because it's too expensive to go with a band and dada dada and just be on my own island in this.
30:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the writing hat that was happening and then last spring when Michael Hurley passed away, I was invited to perform one of his songs at his memorial.
30:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And what happened is I went and I saw all these faces from the Portland music community.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: People I hadn't seen in like a decade because I hadn't been going to shows and I hadn't been engaging with the with the music community here.
30:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And something in me sort of woke up and was like, oh, if I want, if I want to play music, you know, with people again and I want, if I want to be a part of something and if I want to reengage, I have to start showing up.
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I just started going out to shows more than I've been to more shows in the past year than I had been in the previous decade.
31:19
[SPEAKER_01]: and it's been incredible.
31:21
[SPEAKER_01]: There are all these people that I didn't know that are out there making great music and I've met a lot of people and that is how I met the players that I made the record with is just by showing face and leaving my house and hurli's memorial it was like that catalyst of like I mean I got to get out of the house.
31:46
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm wondering, I love this, I love the role that Michael has played in this record and in this shift in you.
31:55
[SPEAKER_02]: I was wondering if you could talk about how you still feel his presence in your life, even though he's gone.
32:01
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we have listened to his, he's a part of our life simply because we're playing his records often.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: We listen to records every morning while we're getting ready for school and we listen to records while I'm cooking dinner while we're eating dinner and so Michael's voice has been there, you know, and it's continued to be there since he passed away and
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And I hadn't even seen him for a while.
32:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Like we had connected when I was young and when I was out there in the Portland Music scene and we did shows together.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the last time we did a show was in this, like right before, it was February of 2020.
32:49
[SPEAKER_01]: So right before everything closed down was the last time I did a show with Michael.
32:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I also just have a lot of admiration for the way he continued showing up.
33:01
[SPEAKER_01]: into his old age.
33:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He always did music on his own terms.
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And he really, he set the example that there's no way, there's no one way to do a music career.
33:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You can really keep playing it.
33:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, we have bar out in our story to 20 people.
33:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Like it doesn't matter.
33:24
[SPEAKER_01]: It's about the music.
33:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that the spirit of that
33:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, also that totally lines up with the antidote to like a record-label dropping you at 20.
33:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Because you're too old.
33:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
33:40
[SPEAKER_01]: To be too old at 29.
33:42
[SPEAKER_01]: How tall?
33:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
33:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Michaels.
33:45
[SPEAKER_02]: Turing and Brooklyn.
33:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
33:47
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
33:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He's in his 80s.
33:50
[SPEAKER_01]: So possible.
33:51
[SPEAKER_02]: These these connections that you've been reigniting and these new friends that you are making like how is it felt to make those connections and make music like this again.
34:03
[SPEAKER_02]: While still like holding on to your identity as a parent like how are you holding both these identities.
34:13
[SPEAKER_01]: it's a delicate dance and it's not it's not easy but I think because my children are a bit older now and they have their own lives, they have very rich lives, they have a lot of activities and going to shows again, you know concerts, I can leave the house at 8 o'clock which is essentially when they're going to bed and they call you on their landline, they call me on the
34:39
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think it's a lot easier for my partner to be left with both children as well.
34:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think we both been giving each other the grace of like, hey, yeah, you should go out, or he goes out, or, you know, we're we're doing that juggle and for me, just like playing music with people again has felt really soul nourishing and going and experiencing live music.
35:05
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean,
35:06
[SPEAKER_01]: There's some great music happening right now.
35:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I had felt pretty uninspired by live music for a while.
35:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe because I wasn't participating, but I think May was just too tired to even like discover anything new.
35:20
[SPEAKER_02]: That's real.
35:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, there's a lot of really incredible new music right now and it's, that is very cool.
35:28
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I've been listening to way more music of contemporaries than I had either.
35:35
[SPEAKER_01]: interesting also who's ringing your bell right now but well will Oldam just sent me his new one which is beautiful and we loved the purple bird the one that he made to Nashville that record is great how yes I just listened to Kevin Morby's new album that was released today.
35:55
[SPEAKER_01]: I was listening to that on the drive to school sounds great so far
36:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Anna Tivl's new record that came out last year, so good, Lou Hazel.
36:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I discovered Shannon Lay who's going to do some shows with me.
36:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah.
36:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Her records are beautiful and I'm so excited to that she's going to be opening up some of my shows.
36:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I think that will be a really great hearing.
36:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, there's so many.
36:25
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a lot of people.
36:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a decent list because it's not only when you're like, what do you listen to, people are like, I don't know.
36:31
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know.
36:32
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, impressive.
36:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Or numerous andres' new record, super great, you know?
36:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So many.
36:39
[SPEAKER_02]: As far as I can tell, Elila, you are basically obsessed with time.
36:44
[SPEAKER_02]: I am, it's passage and also like the present moment.
36:50
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not sure I feel about the future, but, you know, right, focus on these two.
36:55
[SPEAKER_02]: How have you reckoned with being present while being keenly aware of time passing?
37:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, the challenge is always to be in this present moment because it's truly all that we really have.
37:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet in this world where everything is just common at ya and it's chaotic and we have the too many screens open and it's really distracting to be alive right now.
37:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Yet.
37:29
[SPEAKER_01]: the desire to just lay on the grass and stare at a tree is very much there.
37:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's something that most humans struggle with is how do we just exist in this present moment?
37:43
[SPEAKER_01]: While knowing that it's constantly, we're constantly moving into the future and leaving,
37:50
[SPEAKER_01]: these versions of ourselves behind and while, you know, the season's changed and the gate, the flock of geese comes back again and another year is gone and, you know, then the flowers are blooming again and the summer heat comes and just the cycles and the movement.
38:08
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think because
38:11
[SPEAKER_01]: I have been in this season of life that has mostly been at home, raising kids in my house, those cycles and those seasons and those circles have been very present for me.
38:29
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think also,
38:32
[SPEAKER_01]: mortality, Michaels passing.
38:34
[SPEAKER_01]: My grandfather was passing away.
38:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, was had cancer and was dying this past year.
38:41
[SPEAKER_01]: And he died this March about like March 17th, just a little bit shy of a year since Michael passed.
38:49
[SPEAKER_01]: And those elders, you know, making their way towards the unknown also has felt pretty.
38:59
[SPEAKER_01]: real and potent for me also as I get older.
39:05
[SPEAKER_02]: I would love to ask you several questions about death, but first I want to know what is the deal with the geese.
39:13
[SPEAKER_01]: The geese are just really around for me.
39:16
[SPEAKER_01]: They, they are at the playground at my kid's school.
39:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I see them all the time.
39:23
[SPEAKER_01]: like huge flocks and then they come, we live right by a college in Portland called Reed College.
39:29
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a huge field.
39:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, the geese.
39:31
[SPEAKER_01]: They're just there.
39:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They're up in the sky.
39:34
[SPEAKER_01]: They're they're flying by.
39:37
[SPEAKER_01]: So they made their way into the songs and they to me are symbolic of the passage of time as well.
39:45
[SPEAKER_01]: I think of, you know, the Sandy Denny song, who knows where the time
39:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Who's keeping time?
39:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, the birds certainly are, you know, the geese are.
39:57
[SPEAKER_01]: They know they just know inside of them when it comes back.
40:02
[SPEAKER_02]: I was so like want to know, all right, I was like, I don't really like asking questions about visuals on the podcast, but I feel like I like you have such cool visuals.
40:12
[SPEAKER_02]: Like there are some humongous geese on your new album cover.
40:17
[SPEAKER_02]: And you're sitting like right next to them.
40:19
[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, there is no way that this actually happened in real life.
40:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are ghost decoys that I ordered on the internet.
40:30
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not real geese, they're not real geese.
40:33
[SPEAKER_01]: They look so real and they look really real.
40:36
[SPEAKER_01]: They look so real and part of so I was on a walk and I was going to use a childhood photograph for the cover of the album.
40:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And
40:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It just wasn't feeling right.
40:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody on the team thought it was the album cover.
40:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, I'm trying to avoid doing a photo shoot and spending money.
40:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And you know, I was trying to get out of that.
40:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I was like, OK, you can't get out of it.
40:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
40:59
[SPEAKER_02]: You have to figure out what you want on this album cover.
41:02
[SPEAKER_01]: I was on a walk.
41:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I saw the flock of geese by my house.
41:07
[SPEAKER_01]: And I was like, yeah, it's the geese.
41:11
[SPEAKER_01]: How do I photograph a goose?
41:15
[SPEAKER_01]: And then I was thinking about, oh, I bet they make goose decoys for hunters.
41:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, I wonder if I could track some of those down, and I think that was also right when everyone was posting photos with AI of like, what is real, what is not real?
41:34
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was a play on that as well of this time that we're in where we don't know what's real and just because there's a photograph of something.
41:46
[SPEAKER_01]: It doesn't mean that it actually happened and it doesn't mean that it's real and so for me using the fake geese posing as real geese in a very improbable setting basically having a tea party with me right.
42:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, in a field, didn't happen, couldn't have happened.
42:06
[SPEAKER_01]: How did that happen?
42:08
[SPEAKER_01]: So it kind of, for me, took it into that place of playing with reality and playing with us, not knowing what to believe anymore.
42:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think that that theme also is present on the album to some extent of just the acknowledgement
42:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow, this is how my brain works.
42:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow.
42:39
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
42:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Follow a question.
42:41
[SPEAKER_02]: Where are the decoy geese now?
42:44
[SPEAKER_02]: They live in my house with me.
42:47
[SPEAKER_01]: They, they, they're, they're, they're lovely.
42:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The children actually did name them, but they have pieces of tape on their feet so that the girls know who's who.
42:57
[SPEAKER_01]: I think one of them's name is Lucy one is Frank and I can't remember the other two pieces names, who says names we're going to need to do a follow up interview follow up about the geese there's one on the porch there's a couple in the dining room and I think one might be in a weird look at the top of the stairs.
43:17
[SPEAKER_01]: they move around and they they're surprising to people who come over to the house.
43:21
[SPEAKER_02]: That's so fine.
43:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Has your marketing team thought of doing special giveaway of the one of the geese?
43:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't know if your girls could part with them, but give it away.
43:33
[SPEAKER_02]: I like this idea.
43:34
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, with your record.
43:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So you know, give away.
43:38
[SPEAKER_01]: I am essentially the marketing team.
43:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So I think I might have to take that up console myself, console with yourself.
43:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I could console, I mean, I'm the one who the whole goose thing was all me, that was a hundred percent.
43:53
[SPEAKER_02]: The brilliant marketing mine.
43:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that was, that was just me and everything that I've been doing on the internet right now is just me being weird in my house and trying to, I think I've been trying to embrace the absurdity of
44:12
[SPEAKER_01]: where we're at right now and what's expected of artists, you know, with social media stuff.
44:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've mostly just been trying to enjoy a rather than present it.
44:23
[SPEAKER_01]: And how can I, how can I be creative with this?
44:26
[SPEAKER_01]: How can I make this fun for myself?
44:28
[SPEAKER_01]: So that has been my, my goal.
44:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I've, I've been successful at that.
44:34
[SPEAKER_01]: At least making myself laugh, right?
44:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
44:37
[SPEAKER_02]: No, they have.
44:38
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm
44:40
[SPEAKER_02]: I will thank you for explaining the album cover that we have a whole lot deeper than I expected.
44:45
[SPEAKER_01]: There was a lot there.
44:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
44:57
[SPEAKER_02]: So one more about visuals, your daughters helped you make a music video for dusty roses and it starts the three of you wearing your vintage clothes all around your house and in your yard.
45:10
[SPEAKER_02]: It's really good.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
45:11
[SPEAKER_02]: You all did a really good job.
45:13
[SPEAKER_02]: You and the 12 year olds and the nine year old did a really good job.
45:17
[SPEAKER_01]: You know.
45:18
[SPEAKER_02]: What is it like for you to be able to share an inspired creativity and a past a project like this and how do you see that impacting them?
45:28
[SPEAKER_01]: I think it's it's been really good for the girls to see their mom kind of get back to it, you know, and I think sometimes it's hard where they're like,
45:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But they really enjoyed making the music video with me, which was sweet.
45:50
[SPEAKER_01]: And we brought in one of my older daughters friends to help use the camera, the cinematographer, the cinematographer, and I think that made it more palatable for Vera, because otherwise I think if it had just been the three of us and then we did, if we had not had another child helping us,
46:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Viro probably would have been like, all right, mom, I'm over it, you know, but her friend was really excited about that we were doing this, that we were making something and so that made it more tolerable for Vira and also Dusty Rose is both of the girl's favorite songs, which oh yes, funny.
46:28
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the one.
46:30
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a very dark story, but they're like, mom Dusty Rose is the best
46:39
[SPEAKER_02]: we hope one okay now to the death portion of the song spring is a fine time to die was just like for me like a show stopper so Michael Hurley died April 1st and the song is to honor him
46:57
[SPEAKER_02]: And there is such an incredible backstory of this song, florist friend shared with you that spring really is the kindest time to die.
47:07
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a better time to grieve when rebirth is all around.
47:12
[SPEAKER_02]: And your grandfather that you mentioned just passed away in early spring, almost three days, free spring, shy of spring, yeah.
47:20
[SPEAKER_02]: Now that you've lost two loved ones in spring, how do you feel about it as being a good time to die?
47:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, I think, you know, you're gonna die in some season, right?
47:36
[SPEAKER_01]: So why not die when the flowers are blooming at the very least?
47:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And I do think, you know, grieving during that time, like when my grandfather passed this last spring
47:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Southern California and Carpenteria.
47:54
[SPEAKER_01]: And the Bocaes on his casket were astounding, and we were all there, and the sun was shining, and we had an incredible gathering to honor him, and it was so potent, and it was so beautiful.
48:09
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was his time, he was 90 years old.
48:14
[SPEAKER_01]: It was his time to go,
48:17
[SPEAKER_01]: He passed in the sunlight of his window where he would sit in his chair and it brought in a hospital bed, put it in his spot, and he had a good, he had a good passing surrounded by all his daughters in the springtime, and so I think, I mean, who knows, is there ever a good time to go?
48:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know, but it's inevitable for everyone who walks this earth.
48:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I do think it's probably better to have someone pass and then be greeted by beauty and sunlight and spring showers than it is to be in the dead of dismal winter, right?
49:05
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
49:06
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know.
49:07
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's so true.
49:08
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like I'm like, I thought about this and I'm like, I probably should be like, right as the right as the fall is just getting so beautiful too.
49:17
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
49:18
[SPEAKER_02]: And but but I feel like that's like a really selfish thought to have because it's like, well, I don't want to die when it's like nice out, you know, right.
49:26
[SPEAKER_02]: I'll miss it.
49:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, yeah, you'll miss it.
49:28
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
49:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Who knows?
49:31
[SPEAKER_02]: We had, um, I don't know if you're familiar with the artist Jeffrey Falkalts, but he lost his best friend and his drummer, Billy Conway, and his last record was a lot about their friendship, and Billy had what seemed like a beautiful death, and it sounds similar to your grandfather's death death.
49:52
[SPEAKER_02]: in that he was at home.
49:54
[SPEAKER_02]: He was like surrounded there.
49:56
[SPEAKER_02]: It was just basically like a three day party of just like 40 of his closest friends and family, just like hanging out, making food, drinking beer, making a fire, playing music, talking laughing.
50:11
[SPEAKER_02]: And you don't really, you know, and I feel like that was the first time I thought about like, you know, it's, it's really nice
50:23
[SPEAKER_01]: probably not easy whichever way you cut it and I don't I think even if it's it if it is a a good quote unquote good death or you're surrounded by all your people.
50:34
[SPEAKER_01]: It's still really hard it's a hard it's a hard task and yeah.
50:42
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think it's ever easy to go.
50:45
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I've also been thinking about this as like becoming a parent with our baby like really brings it to the surface doesn't it.
50:56
[SPEAKER_02]: That change for you like when you became a parent, how did that change for you?
50:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, all of a sudden it's not just you that you're considering it's you you've brought this precious being, you know, into the world and
51:10
[SPEAKER_01]: you want to protect them and save them from pain.
51:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You want to save yourself from the pain of losing them.
51:17
[SPEAKER_01]: So there's this anxiety in this edge that kind of comes around being the provider for and the caretaker and the parent of this little being who can't take care of themselves.
51:30
[SPEAKER_01]: The responsibility of that is just
51:34
[SPEAKER_01]: enormous and fragile and, yeah, just so delicate and, yeah, it's wild.
51:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I do think that birth and death are intrinsically linked, you know, that the feeling of that child coming into the world and seeing them open their eyes and they're, they're this little being from some some
52:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And I feel like that magic of the other side is still so very alive in newborns and babies.
52:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that is wild.
52:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And in my case, like when my second daughter, Una was born, I almost didn't make it.
52:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And I had a really harrowing childbirth experience.
52:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And that also taught me how fragile life is.
52:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think after that experience, my perspective changed a lot and nothing has taken for granted anymore.
52:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, when you're just like, oh, the edge isn't that far away, actually.
52:47
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, it's right there.
52:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's right there.
52:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, I'm sorry that happened to you.
52:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you.
52:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
52:55
[SPEAKER_01]: These little, these lessons, then things we learn along the way, you know.
53:02
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
53:04
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I wanted to ask you about your current mental state and what that looks like as you are about to hit the road for like 3,000 days the rest of the year.
53:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing pretty well.
53:15
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I think the packing up, I fly out to Paris on Sunday.
53:23
[SPEAKER_01]: the packing up and the leaving and the explaining to the children that I'll be gone for two weeks this time.
53:31
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got more than 50 shows on the calendar or the end of the year.
53:36
[SPEAKER_02]: So I will long list of shows.
53:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, a lot.
53:40
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll be gone more than I've been since I've had the girls.
53:44
[SPEAKER_01]: And I've gone for like three weeks at a time several times over the course of the year before, but never like this.
53:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Thankfully, my husband is very capable of holding it down.
53:58
[SPEAKER_01]: And I know that when I leave, they have their routine.
54:02
[SPEAKER_01]: And we also have grandma's who can help here and there.
54:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Grandma's.
54:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Grandma's, thanks grandma's.
54:09
[SPEAKER_01]: So helpful.
54:11
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think I'm mostly just nervous about like, OK, as my voice is going to be able to take
54:18
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, to do this and my body because it's it's really a physical grind to be on tour.
54:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just hope that I can remain healthy.
54:29
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that's it.
54:30
[SPEAKER_01]: That's a worry.
54:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it does take a physical toll carrying that much heavy stuff every day and being in a different city every night.
54:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think there will be a certain amount of whip lash that I experience sort of being gone, being on the road, living that life and then coming home and not really getting to rest and decompress from tour, but rather immediately being jolted into being needed by my family.
55:03
[SPEAKER_01]: and having the being in the role of mother, all of a sudden.
55:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah, I think in some ways, now that I am a parent, sometimes tour feels, I mean, it's a break from parenthood.
55:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And so I'm like, how can I make a six hour ride in a van feel like nourishing self-care?
55:28
[SPEAKER_01]: How is a long, half-light, you know, a time to decompress?
55:33
[SPEAKER_02]: Right.
55:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
55:35
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll see how that goes.
55:37
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, well, it's a good thing you're feeling so youthful.
55:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Right.
55:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
55:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, let's wrap up with a quick lightning round.
55:47
[SPEAKER_01]: All right.
55:53
[SPEAKER_02]: What is the correct number of shoes to bring on tour?
55:56
[SPEAKER_01]: The correct answer is two.
55:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay.
56:01
[SPEAKER_01]: One to wear during the day when you're traveling and one to wear on stage.
56:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes I break that rule and bring maybe three pairs.
56:14
[SPEAKER_01]: but my friend Paige from the band to runner, I took them on to her last November.
56:19
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think she had like literally 10 pairs of boots with her and I was given her hell, the whole time.
56:26
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a lot, it was a lot.
56:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a lot of boots, they were way too heavy.
56:31
[SPEAKER_01]: But I do think two is the correct answer.
56:34
[SPEAKER_02]: OK.
56:36
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm interested in what kind of shoes you are wearing during the day.
56:40
[SPEAKER_01]: So generally, I really have this down to a science.
56:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Usually I have the road uniform, generally all black, keep it simple, or jeans, jeans, and black, because you're wearing the same thing every day.
56:55
[SPEAKER_01]: You got to wear a t-shirt, like, free-take three days in a row, as you can't do laundry, and blend stones.
57:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, if it's a winter tour or spring tour, this time, that might not be the case
57:10
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll probably make a different choice.
57:13
[SPEAKER_01]: But generally, it's blendstones and genes and all blacks exacerbate like bandanas, things like that to make you feel a little spruce stopper helpful.
57:25
[SPEAKER_01]: And then fancy lace-up boots for show and dresses.
57:30
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like you should give like a course on how to do it for time pack for tour.
57:39
[SPEAKER_01]: I do have it down to a science and I'm I'm really good at packing for tour.
57:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
57:44
[SPEAKER_02]: Not to to my own horn, but I'm going to refer all of my touring musicians who have questions to you.
57:49
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes.
57:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
57:50
[SPEAKER_02]: This is an important one.
57:52
[SPEAKER_02]: What year do you predict aliens will take over Earth's government?
57:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, oh God.
57:58
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably sooner than we think, isn't it?
58:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Who's to say it hasn't happened already?
58:03
[SPEAKER_01]: point.
58:03
[SPEAKER_01]: I give it 100 years.
58:05
[SPEAKER_02]: 100 years.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
58:06
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.
58:07
[SPEAKER_02]: What's one beauty product you cannot live without?
58:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Um, chapstick.
58:13
[SPEAKER_02]: All right.
58:13
[SPEAKER_02]: Who is your celebrity crush?
58:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, God.
58:17
[SPEAKER_01]: The celebrity crush.
58:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Is it Tom Brousseau?
58:21
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not Tom Brousseau, but I love Tom Brousseau.
58:24
[SPEAKER_01]: No, it's probably someone who's no longer alive.
58:27
[SPEAKER_01]: It's it's it's butch Cassidy in the Sundance kid.
58:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, right.
58:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It's both of them.
58:32
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's Robert Redford 100%.
58:36
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a good one.
58:37
[SPEAKER_02]: And that tracks.
58:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
58:39
[SPEAKER_02]: His his color scheme.
58:40
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yes, yours.
58:41
[SPEAKER_01]: It's good.
58:42
[SPEAKER_02]: What's one song you wish you wrote?
58:45
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, comes a time by Neil Young.
58:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Ooh, okay.
58:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a good song.
58:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Love that song.
58:52
[SPEAKER_02]: This one you will like, what is your favorite season?
58:56
[SPEAKER_02]: Ball or spring.
58:58
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, interesting.
59:00
[UNKNOWN]: Ha ha.
59:01
[SPEAKER_02]: Also you'll like this one.
59:02
[SPEAKER_02]: What do you want done with your body when you die?
59:05
[SPEAKER_02]: Hmm, definitely cremated.
59:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.
59:10
[SPEAKER_02]: And then this is the last one, very important.
59:13
[SPEAKER_02]: What is your coffee order?
59:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Hmm, my coffee order is an English breakfast tea with oat milk and honey.
59:22
[SPEAKER_02]: Wow, a rebel.
59:24
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, a true rebel.
59:25
[SPEAKER_01]: I do sometimes drink a dixie cup of coffee in the morning though my husband makes it I have this little tiny ceramic cup that's like the size of a dixie cup and that's all I'm about.
59:36
[SPEAKER_02]: Like an espresso cup.
59:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, like that size, just like a taste, but I get too jittery if I do too much coffee.
59:43
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'm kind of just I kind of just can't go there unless it's a dixie cup, you know.
59:49
[SPEAKER_02]: Great.
59:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, that was it.
59:51
[SPEAKER_02]: That was a lightning round.
59:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.
59:53
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much.
59:54
[SPEAKER_02]: I had a great time talking to you.
59:56
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't remember.
59:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I knew I liked you.
59:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Yes, love it
1:00:03
[SPEAKER_02]: This episode of Basic Folk was produced by Anthony Cabrera, Dietrich Strauss composes our music.
1:00:09
[SPEAKER_02]: Basic Folk is a production of the Bluegrass situation.
1:00:12
[SPEAKER_02]: You can find all of our episodes there.
1:00:14
[SPEAKER_02]: You can also find us on folkalli.com or folkalli's mobile app.
1:00:19
[SPEAKER_02]: Search for Basic Folk on the Series XM app.
1:00:22
[SPEAKER_02]: You can go to Basic Folk.com or find us wherever you get your podcasts.
1:00:27
[SPEAKER_02]: If you enjoyed this episode, we suggest sharing it with a friend.
1:00:30
[SPEAKER_02]: Like maybe that friend who owns a very humongous old Victorian house and walks the widows walk back and forth and they need something to listen to while they're walking the widows walk.
1:00:48
[SPEAKER_02]: Send them this episode.
1:00:50
[SPEAKER_02]: Alright, thanks for listening all the way to the end.
1:00:52
[SPEAKER_02]: Talk to you next time.
1:00:54
[SPEAKER_02]: Bye!