Latest / Almost Famous Enough / ep31 Terra Lightfoot is charm(ed)(ing)
Transcript
- 0:23It is not very often I get to geek out about something I love with strangers.
- 0:29Well, it's not often I get to do so with my friends much either anymore, let alone a stranger.
- 0:35How rare is the opportunity to connect with someone you don't know around something?
- 0:40You both not only love.
- 0:42But have shared understanding of historical context or nuance influence.
- 0:49I've shared these rare moments over my love of Screenprinted Band posters over the band, Buffalo Tom, over growing up in Rosetown, Saskatchewan, over the level of snobbery needed to be a logo designer with taste.
- 1:04I don't know if I'm always presenting myself as a very open human.
- 1:08To strangers, to people on the plane or in a lineup?
- 1:12I'd like to think I do, but then I am pretty sure of when I intentionally don't.
- 1:18So maybe I miss more of these rare human experiences than I should.
- 1:22I should really work on that.
- 1:24Terra Lightfoot is an artist originally from Hamilton, now the quieter country of Halliburton, Ontario.
- 1:32But sometimes an artist gets some distinction like when they are really.
- 1:37Good at guitar or something on their own right, and it clearly becomes a signature in their sound.
- 1:44And guitar players like to geek out.
- 1:47About guitars.
- 1:48Not all guitar players, but a lot of guitar players.
- 1:52There's a little dance at first, you know, to see what level the geek is, or if there's any overlap, and then it's a full on rabbit hole of brands and years and amps and tone to the styles and influences and decades and eras.
- 2:08For maybe the first time on this podcast, I started to go down a rabbit hole with Terra.
- 2:14I wanted to.
- 2:15I felt it, but we were strangers really.
- 2:19But inside the shared experience of the music industry.
- 2:23And we could find some shared passion for an instrument as well.
- 2:29But then in reflection, I realized there were actually multiple rabbit holes.
- 2:34I could have gone down with Terra.
- 2:37What kindness as a practice in life, regardless of status, really looks like.
- 2:42How to get off the hamster wheel of chasing pictures of success that don't actually make you happy.
- 2:49It was a podcast episode that could easily have been a flight between Toronto and Edmonton sitting and chatting in our seats in order to get it all in.
- 3:00These are good moments, human moments.
- 3:04Terra Lightfoot is a good human, and while it seemed her guitar playing, led her way into her successful career.
- 3:11However defined as an artist, I can't help but feel being an incredible human.
- 3:18Might have done more of the leading.
- 3:21My name is Glen Erickson.
- 3:23This is Almost Famous Enough.
- 3:25Thanks for spending your time with us.
- 3:28This is Terra Lightfoot.
- 3:40Glen Erickson: Uh, I appreciate you taking the time, Terra.
- 3:43Glen Erickson: We've never met, we've never met before.
- 3:45Glen Erickson: I have seen you play here in Edmonton.
- 3:48Glen Erickson: My good friend Steve Derpack, uh, often promotes your shows when they come through and has always been a champion of you.
- 3:55Glen Erickson: So I remember, uh, watching a show at his invite, quite a, it's a number of years back.
- 4:00Glen Erickson: This is pre COVID probably for sure.
- 4:02Glen Erickson: So it feels forever.
- 4:04Glen Erickson: Steve is fantastic.
- 4:06Glen Erickson: He's a great guy.
- 4:07Glen Erickson: But I'm really excited about this.
- 4:08Glen Erickson: When I was talking to publicist Ken about all of this, I, uh, I jumped at the opportunity.
- 4:14Glen Erickson: So I appreciate you having, uh, an hour or so outta your, outta your day for this.
- 4:19Glen Erickson: so you obviously, this usually surrounds promoting a, a new album and a new record, which I wanna be able to talk about with you, especially'cause it's.
- 4:28Glen Erickson: of a shift where it seemed like the trajectory had been going a bit of a change in just style, theme, all of those things.
- 4:36Glen Erickson: Um, but what I often like to do is sort of like trace a little bit of timeline to get to where, how you got to where you're now, and just sort of the thing that's always not as fun for you as an artist, which is have to say the same stories over and over because you assume you might be talking to a new audience.
- 4:55Glen Erickson: So you have to say some of this stuff.
- 4:56Glen Erickson: So I totally get it.
- 4:57Glen Erickson: But why don't you start by just giving us a little Canadian geography lesson for a second though, about where Halliburton is in the, the Ontario Tundra.
- 5:07Terra Lightfoot: Uh, well, it is the tundra.
- 5:09Terra Lightfoot: Can you see the snow
- 5:10Glen Erickson: I do see some snow back there.
- 5:12Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 5:13Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 5:13Terra Lightfoot: there's, there's a lot.
- 5:15Terra Lightfoot: Um, so Halliburton is sort of, if you were going to Huntsville in Ontario, you would get off the highway and drive for an hour into the forest.
- 5:25Terra Lightfoot: That's Halliburton.
- 5:26Terra Lightfoot: Or if you're in Peterborough, you would drive two hours into the forest and that's Halliburton.
- 5:31Terra Lightfoot: Or if you're in Toronto, you drive two and a half.
- 5:33Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 5:33Terra Lightfoot: Whatever.
- 5:34Terra Lightfoot: Whatever you want.
- 5:35Glen Erickson: just keep going north ish into the tundra is the way it works.
- 5:39Glen Erickson: Or, or a little off.
- 5:41Glen Erickson: 'cause like I feel like nobody does the drive anymore.
- 5:45Glen Erickson: Like the, the, the Sioux Sudbury Drive.
- 5:49Glen Erickson: Like everybody just goes through the states to get to Toronto.
- 5:52Glen Erickson: Now, coming from the West,'cause I'm a Westerner.
- 5:54Glen Erickson: Right.
- 5:55Glen Erickson: Um, but it's more accessible in a sense like that, that curve highway.
- 6:01Glen Erickson: Right.
- 6:02Glen Erickson: That kind of goes over and around
- 6:04Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 6:04Glen Erickson: is kind of like the quicker jump off.
- 6:07Glen Erickson: If, if that was part of your regular circuit.
- 6:09Glen Erickson: Is that
- 6:10Terra Lightfoot: Well, here is the deal with, of course we don't like to go through the states all the time, but we have when we go to Wisconsin.
- 6:17Terra Lightfoot: And that is extremely beneficial'cause it's such a chill drive, so relaxing.
- 6:22Terra Lightfoot: but to get to my house, like honestly, we're not that far from Toronto, although we do get a blanket of snow where Toronto does not, which I love because it, you just feel like you're in a different place.
- 6:34Glen Erickson: Yeah,
- 6:35Terra Lightfoot: completely removed from where I used to live in Hamilton.
- 6:37Terra Lightfoot: Like it's a, a different growing zone for vegetables.
- 6:40Terra Lightfoot: It's, that's my main, one of my main markers of success is a vegetable growing zone.
- 6:45Terra Lightfoot: Um, joking.
- 6:46Terra Lightfoot: Joking, but, uh.
- 6:48Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, so it's, it's, it's a different landscape up here, although it is not super far north.
- 6:53Terra Lightfoot: Like my grandparents, I grew up visiting them in North Bay, which is like four hours from Toronto or five, and uh, that's a bit of a hoof, but where I live is like the perfect, perfect medium.
- 7:06Glen Erickson: But this is the great Canadian thing.
- 7:08Glen Erickson: Right.
- 7:08Glen Erickson: So you've obviously been all over the country an awful lot, in your career as a musician.
- 7:13Glen Erickson: So I think one of the interesting things about the landscape is like I grew up in Saskatchewan for a long time, which is really only inhabited.
- 7:21Glen Erickson: In the bottom third and the bottom on the top half considering how flat and everyone knows and thinks of Saskatchewan, then you go to Prince Albert and North and it's just Forest and the Churchill River running through it.
- 7:32Glen Erickson: And um, it's like a whole different world.
- 7:35Glen Erickson: And I feel like that's just, so Canada and Ontario obviously has a, a couple of like, such distinct landscapes to it, so that's a pretty cool little move to get out of the city but not be too far from the city.
- 7:49Glen Erickson: That also feels very Canadian, maybe also.
- 7:52Glen Erickson: Well that's not just Ken.
- 7:53Glen Erickson: Well you said Wisconsin, it feels very bon of air too.
- 7:55Glen Erickson: So, um,
- 7:57Terra Lightfoot: Is he from there?
- 7:58Glen Erickson: that kind of move, he is a Wisconsin guy and then he, of course his breakthrough record was out in the woods in a, a cabin that an uncle or grandpa owned or something.
- 8:07Glen Erickson: I'm losing the story, but something like that.
- 8:11Glen Erickson: There's some relativity I guess is all I'm saying.
- 8:13Glen Erickson: But, is this a, is this, um.
- 8:16Glen Erickson: Is this a, a veteran musician move to like get to a point in your career, do you think to, and then you sort of don't feel like you have to be so deep in the heart of the industry that you actually feel comfortable enough to get away from it and move somewhere.
- 8:35Terra Lightfoot: Well, as a Hamiltonian, a proud Hamiltonian.
- 8:41Terra Lightfoot: I will say that I spent the first part of my career, like I moved to Hamilton when I went to university from not too far down the road, like 15 minutes down the road, uh, from the town I grew up in.
- 8:52Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, you know, like being in Hamilton and spending all my time in my twenties making my way, uh, in the music industry just within that city was a thing far removed from Toronto.
- 9:03Terra Lightfoot: And then when I started touring.
- 9:06Terra Lightfoot: Everybody in Toronto was like, oh, well you kind of have to be here when things are happening.
- 9:10Terra Lightfoot: You know?
- 9:11Terra Lightfoot: That's, that was the message.
- 9:12Terra Lightfoot: And uh, I moved there for six months.
- 9:16Terra Lightfoot: I, uh, started playing basketball.
- 9:19Terra Lightfoot: I was already playing basketball weekly with these guys, uh, that I knew.
- 9:23Terra Lightfoot: But for much music, it was a whole thing.
- 9:26Terra Lightfoot: Anyway, I go to the game in Toronto, there's a lot better and bigger guys playing basketball in Toronto there.
- 9:32Terra Lightfoot: And I immediately sprain my ankle.
- 9:34Terra Lightfoot: I end up with my leg up in Toronto in this terrible basement apartment for six weeks, and that is where I write the record.
- 9:42Terra Lightfoot: Uh, that brings me on tour to the rest of the world.
- 9:45Terra Lightfoot: That got me like, signed to Peck in, that got me all these wonderful things.
- 9:49Terra Lightfoot: And then I immediately moved back to Hamilton because it was such a terrible, like, personal experience.
- 9:56Terra Lightfoot: But, so for me, I've never ascribed to a need to be present in any one place, like living there to be part of a scene like.
- 10:04Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 10:05Terra Lightfoot: Because I just, I, I think that some of the best people in Canada are not living in Toronto that are making music.
- 10:11Terra Lightfoot: You know, Winnipeg is like a hotbed,
- 10:14Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 10:14Glen Erickson: I just, I just met with, I just interviewed Begonia and uh, Alexa.
- 10:20Glen Erickson: So, and, and Boy Golden Liam earlier, uh, on the season too.
- 10:25Glen Erickson: They've always just been a hotbed.
- 10:26Glen Erickson: But I love that you actually said that, Terra, because we, that's become a trope in Western Canada.
- 10:32Glen Erickson: Like tho that rhetoric out of Toronto and the industry itself.
- 10:36Glen Erickson: So to hear that it's like also just down the road in Hamilton, which in the scope of Canada feels like it's literally next door, like bedroom community.
- 10:45Glen Erickson: What?
- 10:45Glen Erickson: It's actually not, but Western Canadians would think it's, um, pretty a lot closer than it actually is.
- 10:51Glen Erickson: Um, which is, which is something I want to get to talking to you about, but let's go back a little bit further.
- 10:56Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 10:56Glen Erickson: Because, I have an interest.
- 10:58Glen Erickson: I don't always ask people how they started and, and like right back to the beginning.
- 11:03Glen Erickson: 'cause then you always hear that I started singing when I was four years old story, which isn't everybody's favorite, but, because you have a reputation as a musician, not just a singer performer, like your guitar playing is like part of the identity so strongly.
- 11:19Glen Erickson: I end up having a great curiosity about how that started.
- 11:22Glen Erickson: Obviously I've read some things online about you already and having a great aunt who was a guitar player in a band and giving you a first lesson.
- 11:31Glen Erickson: So as a guitar player myself, I'm curious about that evolution, about how, was that always a curiosity or did it, was it just sort of like, your aunt is gonna give you a lesson now and you're like, oh, okay, and then it turned a light on.
- 11:45Glen Erickson: How did, how did the guitar become sort of a thing for you?
- 11:51Terra Lightfoot: Well.
- 11:52Terra Lightfoot: I was revolting from my classical piano lessons.
- 11:56Terra Lightfoot: Uh, so I started, this is the classic story, my grandmother, who you can see in that picture, uh, in that photo, she's playing on a via train.
- 12:04Terra Lightfoot: Uh, that was her job in the
- 12:06Glen Erickson: Wow.
- 12:07Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 12:08Terra Lightfoot: so she was the entertainer.
- 12:09Terra Lightfoot: So cool.
- 12:10Terra Lightfoot: Uh, also had seven kids, powerful woman.
- 12:14Terra Lightfoot: Um, but so I was like destined to play the piano.
- 12:18Terra Lightfoot: That was supposed to be my
- 12:20Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
- 12:20Terra Lightfoot: And by the time I'm 12, I've been doing piano every week for seven years.
- 12:24Terra Lightfoot: And I just, I feel so bad for my parents because they always would, they'd basically have to force me to go to the lesson, get in the door, sit with the teacher, play like the whole thing.
- 12:35Terra Lightfoot: Like it was all I, I, uh, like a golden retriever puppy did not want to go.
- 12:43Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, so then my mom got me a guitar at a garage sale and I was like, oh, this is a thing I can do.
- 12:49Terra Lightfoot: Let's do that.
- 12:50Terra Lightfoot: And then I got into punk rock.
- 12:53Terra Lightfoot: through high school.
- 12:53Terra Lightfoot: I had friends that wanted to hang out after school and play guitar.
- 12:56Terra Lightfoot: And I spent every afternoon, all night, like falling asleep with my guitar.
- 13:04Terra Lightfoot: Like, and that is when I really wood shedded between the ages of 12 and 16, 17, I guess.
- 13:12Terra Lightfoot: Um, that was all I would do,
- 13:14Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 13:15Glen Erickson: And who are you listening to?
- 13:17Glen Erickson: Who are you emulating?
- 13:18Glen Erickson: Who are you?
- 13:19Glen Erickson: Like, this is what I need to sound like.
- 13:21Terra Lightfoot: so in the days of HMVI was so excited because I could go and pick different things.
- 13:27Terra Lightfoot: So there's a band that I don't ever know what happened to them, uh, called Zucker Baby that I picked up.
- 13:33Terra Lightfoot: I don't know where they were
- 13:34Glen Erickson: that Ben?
- 13:35Terra Lightfoot: know nothing about them.
- 13:36Glen Erickson: They had cool record covers, though.
- 13:38Glen Erickson: I can still see it in my
- 13:39Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, like Semisonic, that's a classic.
- 13:42Terra Lightfoot: That was a good one.
- 13:44Terra Lightfoot: Um, I was listening to No Effects as one does, but then I also was able to go,'cause I was in the jazz band at school, so I was listening to Billie Holiday, I was listening to Chet Baker, uh, this kind of varied musical approach.
- 13:58Terra Lightfoot: And then I was also doing the classical thing still with the piano and my, and my grandmother.
- 14:04Terra Lightfoot: Um, so I had this really kind of wild, uh, all over approach,
- 14:10Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 14:10Terra Lightfoot: but the guitar became my like wild sort of outlet and I think that's why it became my instrument of choice.
- 14:17Terra Lightfoot: And
- 14:18Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 14:18Glen Erickson: The rebellion thing's funny, but I mean, I, so I carried this like, and it's not a resentment, but I, like my two sisters were forced through all the piano lessons and I watched the incredible power struggle in the World War going on in my house over them for years.
- 14:35Glen Erickson: And then I was the youngest third child and a boy.
- 14:37Glen Erickson: And so my mom was like, do you wanna take piano?
- 14:39Glen Erickson: Well, of course.
- 14:41Glen Erickson: I said, no, thank you.
- 14:42Glen Erickson: And so she didn't make me, which then became a regret later to have that foundational theory.
- 14:47Glen Erickson: Right.
- 14:48Glen Erickson: Whether I played piano or not.
- 14:49Glen Erickson: I'm sure for you, the crossover of theory and all the things that you were probably able to apply quicker kinda gave you a bit of a headstart, I'm presuming in that way.
- 15:01Glen Erickson: Um, although you weren't applying that at all, if you were emulating No effects, riffs and just probably a lot of downs, strum and, uh,
- 15:10Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 15:11Glen Erickson: and such.
- 15:12Glen Erickson: And, and were, was it like straight into electric guitar pretty early?
- 15:16Glen Erickson: Like were you having to like figure out tone and pedals and things, all that stuff that kind of immediately your world opens up to when you do that?
- 15:26Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, I mean, I was so lucky.
- 15:28Terra Lightfoot: I don't know if there's a guitar store in, in Watertown now where I grew up, but when I was a kid, that's where you could go, you could get pedals, you could buy, I bought like a sixties k bass and rode at home on my bike with my friend, with no case.
- 15:40Terra Lightfoot: Like, just like one handed bike riding.
- 15:42Terra Lightfoot: Like that's the kind of stuff I was doing at like 12 and 13.
- 15:47Terra Lightfoot: Um, but there was also lessons there.
- 15:49Terra Lightfoot: So that's where I learned, uh, power chords.
- 15:52Terra Lightfoot: That's also the teacher.
- 15:53Terra Lightfoot: There was a drummer, Pete, this great guy.
- 15:55Terra Lightfoot: I know him like personally now we're buds.
- 15:57Terra Lightfoot: But, uh, he was teaching me some punk stuff and that was exciting too.
- 16:04Terra Lightfoot: But I think like, you know, my first lesson there, I remember the guy saying,'cause I, I, I, I had no.
- 16:12Terra Lightfoot: Sort of root with guitar playing.
- 16:14Terra Lightfoot: I had nobody teaching me anything.
- 16:16Terra Lightfoot: So my first lesson, I'm kind of plucking away, but not really that well.
- 16:21Terra Lightfoot: And he says, why don't we just stick to rhythm?
- 16:23Terra Lightfoot: Don't you don't work on the fingering stuff yet.
- 16:25Terra Lightfoot: And so I carried that thought with me into my early twenties and I never attempted any guitar solos.
- 16:32Terra Lightfoot: And that is, you know, it was definitely a regret.
- 16:38Terra Lightfoot: Um, and I realized the error of that as I progressed in my musicianship.
- 16:42Terra Lightfoot: And now of course I really value that kind of guitar playing, like being able to do a solo or improviser.
- 16:48Terra Lightfoot: But those were things that I didn't focus on at first.
- 16:51Terra Lightfoot: And so I think I had a different,
- 16:53Glen Erickson: Hmm.
- 16:54Terra Lightfoot: bass than a lot of guitar players who start with the milli milli.
- 16:57Glen Erickson: Yeah, I mean, that's so interesting, Terra.
- 16:59Glen Erickson: Like, I had the exact same upbringing.
- 17:01Glen Erickson: I've never talked to somebody who spelled their story out the exact same way I would.
- 17:06Glen Erickson: So I'm finding that really interesting.
- 17:08Glen Erickson: 'cause I, so I took it through high school and this was the late eighties, early nineties, so it was, I had nothing but head bangers with GNR shirts and quiet riot shirts and the black with the white half sleeves.
- 17:22Glen Erickson: And, and we all only had classical guitars to play on in the school, and they had all carved like slayer logos into them with their pens and stuff.
- 17:31Terra Lightfoot: That's terrible.
- 17:32Terra Lightfoot: I love
- 17:32Glen Erickson: And I know it's amazing.
- 17:34Glen Erickson: And I was like, uh, I was kind of closeted because I was, I was still into the heavy stuff.
- 17:39Glen Erickson: I love playing the riffs or whatnot, but I was like secretly getting into like U2 and the unforgettable fire and like, like that sort of influence of courting and stuff.
- 17:49Glen Erickson: But I never soloed either.
- 17:51Glen Erickson: Like, because all those guys were just trying to rip solos on the nylon strings.
- 17:55Glen Erickson: And, um, and I didn't know what I was doing.
- 17:58Glen Erickson: It's amazing.
- 17:59Glen Erickson: It was like, the pictures in my mind still are hilarious.
- 18:02Glen Erickson: Like, um, and it was an oversimplified teacher who didn't know a thing about guitar, but they were offering it in school.
- 18:10Glen Erickson: So we would mock the whole process by
- 18:12Terra Lightfoot: Oh,
- 18:13Glen Erickson: playing, um, like what, what's the big, um, oh shoot, the Big Kansas song.
- 18:19Glen Erickson: Um, carry on My Wayward Son.
- 18:22Glen Erickson: Um, I think or something.
- 18:24Glen Erickson: So we were playing the thing and I was doing a little like.
- 18:27Glen Erickson: Notating or whatever, but we were standing on one foot on a chair while we were doing it just to make a point that this was over easy of what we were being given to do.
- 18:36Glen Erickson: But anyhow, that whole, that whole formation process for me, like I didn't learn the soloing either and I regretted it'cause I got into bands later and then I didn't come out as a front man ever, and I really wanted to, and it was a lot more effort.
- 18:51Glen Erickson: So, uh, I never heard somebody else express it similarly.
- 18:55Glen Erickson: Um, were you getting into bands and all that kind of thing in that process, in that normal way?
- 19:01Glen Erickson: Or was that hard for where you were and located?
- 19:03Glen Erickson: Was there a lot of access to,
- 19:05Terra Lightfoot: yeah, there were a lot of bands.
- 19:07Terra Lightfoot: I had, uh, my band in grade nine was called the Imperial Order Daughters of the Empire, which is a name that we picked from the dictionary.
- 19:15Glen Erickson: Wow.
- 19:17Terra Lightfoot: but, you know, I was in a band with some guys as well.
- 19:19Terra Lightfoot: I remember, I, I missed practiced once.
- 19:22Terra Lightfoot: Uh,'cause I went out with my boyfriend after basketball practice or something, and they fired me.
- 19:26Terra Lightfoot: They were like, you're, you're cooked.
- 19:28Terra Lightfoot: You didn't come to practice.
- 19:29Terra Lightfoot: That's it.
- 19:29Terra Lightfoot: And I remember thinking like, my world is ending.
- 19:33Terra Lightfoot: It was so horrifying.
- 19:36Terra Lightfoot: But yeah, there was, there was always a band to be a part of.
- 19:38Terra Lightfoot: I took a little bit of a break between 18 and 21.
- 19:43Terra Lightfoot: I mean, I was in university, so I was studying.
- 19:45Terra Lightfoot: But, uh, then I kind of started writing songs, like writing songs seriously, at 21, um, and playing more in Hamilton.
- 19:54Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, yeah, it wasn't too long before I was making my first record.
- 19:58Glen Erickson: And was that McMaster
- 20:00Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 20:00Glen Erickson: before I make an assumption is, I'm trying to think.
- 20:03Glen Erickson: Is that the only Hamilton institution?
- 20:06Glen Erickson: Maybe it is.
- 20:07Terra Lightfoot: think so.
- 20:08Glen Erickson: It'd be pretty hard to exist alongside McMaster, probably
- 20:12Terra Lightfoot: yeah, I don't
- 20:13Glen Erickson: city, the
- 20:14Terra Lightfoot: oh, there's Mohawk College.
- 20:15Terra Lightfoot: Sorry.
- 20:16Terra Lightfoot: That is, that's the jazz.
- 20:18Terra Lightfoot: That's actually the jazz school, which I did
- 20:19Glen Erickson: Oh, there you go.
- 20:21Glen Erickson: Exactly.
- 20:22Glen Erickson: You would've been playing, playing your guitar much higher up if you had, but, um, um, okay, so you, you, you moved into the more pursuit of songwriting and the whole thing kind of after that little gap of studying and stuff, which is sort of blending into what you talked about, your incident in Toronto and then writing a record and it's kind of that whole first record.
- 20:47Glen Erickson: So here's one of my big curiosities for you, which is like, that very first record was put out on Sonic Onion, right?
- 20:57Glen Erickson: So how did you make that connection?
- 21:00Glen Erickson: Because like back then we kinda only had a couple, a handful of like reputable indie labels in the country that you had tried to get attention or, or stuff.
- 21:11Glen Erickson: So how did.
- 21:12Glen Erickson: How did that connection get made?
- 21:14Glen Erickson: That the very first thing you make ends up on a label.
- 21:17Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, I mean if we really zoom out, I worked at Long and McQuaid in
- 21:23Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 21:24Terra Lightfoot: and I made friends with a lot of like pals of course, but people that came into the store as customers and one of them was Pete Hall from a Northern Chorus, which is a Hamilton band.
- 21:36Terra Lightfoot: Um,
- 21:37Glen Erickson: group.
- 21:38Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 21:38Terra Lightfoot: And so Pete needed somebody to move into his house.
- 21:41Terra Lightfoot: He had a four bedroom house and he needed an extra roommate.
- 21:44Terra Lightfoot: And so I ended up moving in and we became buds and he was like.
- 21:48Terra Lightfoot: I think we were jamming.
- 21:49Terra Lightfoot: He was playing drums on the songs I was writing and then he kind of made all the connections for me.
- 21:54Terra Lightfoot: He was like, we should go to the gas station in Toronto and make a record with Dale Morningstar.
- 21:59Terra Lightfoot: So we did that.
- 22:00Terra Lightfoot: Uh, and then he was like, we should call Sonic Onion.
- 22:03Terra Lightfoot: And I would not do it'cause I was so deeply afraid of rejection.
- 22:10Terra Lightfoot: And eventually the guys in the band said, if you don't send this record to Sonic Onion, then we will send it for you under another name.
- 22:18Terra Lightfoot: So it's your choice.
- 22:20Terra Lightfoot: And so then I did it.
- 22:21Glen Erickson: that's a, that's a power play.
- 22:23Terra Lightfoot: It was a major power play.
- 22:25Terra Lightfoot: They were great.
- 22:25Terra Lightfoot: They're all my great friends still.
- 22:27Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, yeah, Adam Melnick, Kim Malcolm, Dave Dunham played with us for a bit from Chore.
- 22:33Terra Lightfoot: yeah, wonderful musicians.
- 22:34Terra Lightfoot: And so that's, that was the connection.
- 22:36Terra Lightfoot: And then, a couple years, I think it was two years after that, then we started, uh, the next record with Gus Van Gogh.
- 22:44Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 22:45Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 22:46Glen Erickson: So from the outside perspective, Terra, that seems like a big leap also.
- 22:50Glen Erickson: So, number one, there's a leap of, uh, I mean, just because there's, there's people with the same story that you have in every town and city across Canada, right?
- 23:02Glen Erickson: Uh, who are like.
- 23:03Glen Erickson: Aspiring musician, like sort of different paths, but a lot of, I think commonalities where you, you build at least the momentum off, the validation maybe of your family or your peers or, or some small nucleus group that at least makes you keep going.
- 23:20Glen Erickson: And then at some point you sort of branch out.
- 23:23Glen Erickson: And sometimes I just always have this curiosity of did the branch out happen?
- 23:29Glen Erickson: Because it always ends up looking like a big leap for people in their story, in their timeline to go from the nucleus to all of a sudden, um, in there.
- 23:38Glen Erickson: And you gave me a hint of it there when you just said, well, zoom out.
- 23:41Glen Erickson: I worked at Long McQuade, so there's a, I'm making a guess early as we talk about your timeline, that there's a lot of really good natural friendship, community networking, just skill in your personality and character that has probably built a group around you that is like, continue to open your opportunities.
- 24:02Glen Erickson: I, I mean, tell me if I'm wrong or not, but it, I'm gonna make a guess because you just, when I read your stuff, you have so many collaborations.
- 24:09Glen Erickson: You've played with so many people.
- 24:10Glen Erickson: It just, that stuff doesn't just happen because some guy in an office said, you should do this with so and so.
- 24:16Glen Erickson: You, you build like, this is the world we live in, right?
- 24:20Glen Erickson: The industry we live in.
- 24:20Glen Erickson: You make those connections yourself.
- 24:23Terra Lightfoot: Well, I will say one thing that really affected me at the very beginning of my touring career in Hamilton, I was playing.
- 24:33Terra Lightfoot: In a country band called The Dinner Bells, and we were playing Dan Landis's, uh, festival in Water down at Christie Conservation, what was it called?
- 24:41Terra Lightfoot: The Greenbelt Harvest Picnic, I think.
- 24:44Terra Lightfoot: And Laua told me, he was like, you know, you meet the same people you do going up the mountain as you do, coming down the other side.
- 24:55Terra Lightfoot: And so that sort of changed my entire approach to how I should treat people if I want to have a career, because I, I need to be kind to everyone in, in that case, right?
- 25:10Terra Lightfoot: I don't want to meet somebody and sever a connection because I was not feeling like being nice.
- 25:18Terra Lightfoot: You know what I mean?
- 25:19Terra Lightfoot: We, there's so many opportunities like that throughout our day.
- 25:21Terra Lightfoot: You can choose, either be kind to somebody, kind to the cashier at the grocery store.
- 25:26Terra Lightfoot: Not, and I know we don't always have the power to bring out our best selves, but I, I did try my best in that regard.
- 25:35Glen Erickson: And I mean that coming from a guy like Land Wa, it's got a land pretty hard obviously too, like Oh my God.
- 25:43Glen Erickson: Right.
- 25:44Glen Erickson: But I mean, I,
- 25:45Terra Lightfoot: as the Bible, you
- 25:46Glen Erickson: yeah,
- 25:47Terra Lightfoot: oh my God, whatever he says.
- 25:49Glen Erickson: that guy, yeah.
- 25:50Glen Erickson: Anything that guy says I would've followed too.
- 25:52Glen Erickson: Um, speaking of unforgettable fire and, and such, I mean, that also aligns with what I think is usually the number one rule of being a musician, which is don't be a dick.
- 26:03Glen Erickson: So it seems to line up
- 26:06Terra Lightfoot: Wonderful rule.
- 26:07Glen Erickson: So help me with the jump from first record to second record, and, and all of a sudden you're working with Guess Van Gogh and kind of putting out a real deal record, for lack of a better term, at least the way indies would feel about it.
- 26:20Glen Erickson: Right.
- 26:20Glen Erickson: Rather
- 26:21Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 26:21Glen Erickson: you, I mean, you've obviously been playing for a while and playing shows, and you've got a few years of building some things up and working towards that before a record like that comes out, but that's still pretty quick in an early trajectory for people in this country, I find.
- 26:36Glen Erickson: Um, how did that, how did that sort of come together?
- 26:40Glen Erickson: Was that just more connections or just things kept opening for you?
- 26:45Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 26:45Terra Lightfoot: I mean, there were more connections.
- 26:46Terra Lightfoot: So Sonic Onion had history with Frank Black, so when Frank Black came to Hamilton, he ended up, or I ended up opening for Palon Francis for my first record release.
- 26:59Terra Lightfoot: So that's a big.
- 27:00Terra Lightfoot: Moment that I got to hang out with Charles.
- 27:02Terra Lightfoot: And like again, we had like the most amazing chat and time together in Hamilton that night.
- 27:08Terra Lightfoot: I'll never forget it.
- 27:09Terra Lightfoot: It was a wild, it was a wild one.
- 27:12Terra Lightfoot: It was so fun.
- 27:13Terra Lightfoot: Uh, but I learned a lot from him as well as somebody that I deeply respected his career and his personhood and all that stuff.
- 27:21Terra Lightfoot: Uh, but so first record comes out, I'm completely disorganized as a human.
- 27:26Terra Lightfoot: Uh, you know, just starting my foray into the music world.
- 27:32Terra Lightfoot: I was still walking dogs.
- 27:34Terra Lightfoot: I was still teaching music.
- 27:36Terra Lightfoot: Right.
- 27:37Terra Lightfoot: And I guess basically what happened is Monster Shuck and Whitehorse and a couple other people connected me with Gus Van Gogh, and they said, you should work with her.
- 27:47Terra Lightfoot: And eventually we met for lunch.
- 27:51Terra Lightfoot: And at that point my label went with me and they were like, okay, it's gonna happen.
- 27:56Terra Lightfoot: You have to.
- 27:57Terra Lightfoot: Go away for four weeks.
- 27:58Terra Lightfoot: And I was like, well, I can't walk dogs or teach music.
- 28:02Terra Lightfoot: And they were like, you have to just, you have to take a month off.
- 28:06Terra Lightfoot: And so I had to like make that in Incredi.
- 28:08Terra Lightfoot: That was the call.
- 28:09Terra Lightfoot: That was the leap.
- 28:10Terra Lightfoot: I was like, okay, so I'm gonna have no income for an entire month.
- 28:14Terra Lightfoot: I'm gonna go make a record and I'm gonna pay the band and do all these things.
- 28:19Terra Lightfoot: It was an exorbitant task and that was the moment.
- 28:23Terra Lightfoot: And then I never ended up going back to those jobs after that, which is
- 28:28Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 28:28Glen Erickson: That's definitely, yeah.
- 28:29Glen Erickson: Well, I mean, that's definitely the moment, and I mean, that's the moment I think the aspiring musician.
- 28:35Glen Erickson: Is scared of, doesn't know when it's coming.
- 28:39Glen Erickson: A lot of people aren't prepared for, can't make that choice.
- 28:42Glen Erickson: Don't make that choice, right?
- 28:44Glen Erickson: Like they, they try some other option that feels safer than, than, you know, financial destitution and risk over, you know, one thing or one event.
- 28:56Glen Erickson: So, I love how that's a common thread.
- 28:59Glen Erickson: Like, and that's, you know, that's part of why I'm doing this podcast here.
- 29:04Glen Erickson: I'm trying to draw threads through people's stories that I think are really interesting.
- 29:08Glen Erickson: And I think that's one of them is that there's these moments where it's like, I have to sink or swim, jump the cliff, do whatever I, you know, this, this moment comes where you make that choice and it's pretty foundational.
- 29:21Glen Erickson: So that's like 25th, 20, is it 2015?
- 29:25Glen Erickson: That record about?
- 29:27Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 29:28Glen Erickson: And then, and then.
- 29:31Glen Erickson: Your story looks like a, a very, that, uh, fits more into the common Canadian trajectory, I think, where you're obviously become a bit of a road warrior and start playing shows all over, which, you know, in Canada alone, before you even start leaving it, you know, you have to drive so far to get to another club.
- 29:50Glen Erickson: But at least at that time, even, well at the 2015, some of those classics were starting to close.
- 29:58Glen Erickson: So it probably was a little bit harder by that point to kinda just be able to hit those classic venues in all the main stops across the country.
- 30:05Glen Erickson: Right.
- 30:06Terra Lightfoot: honestly, that first, that first year of putting out, every time my mind runs wild, I had, there was nothing scheduled and I had no agent as of the first day of release for that record.
- 30:19Terra Lightfoot: Not one thing.
- 30:20Terra Lightfoot: It was like no festivals.
- 30:22Terra Lightfoot: 'cause I had no agent, so nobody to book the gigs.
- 30:25Terra Lightfoot: And we had talked to Paquin and it just didn't, you know, like they came to a showcase and they were like, you're really great, but like, we're not interested in signing a new artist right now.
- 30:35Terra Lightfoot: And I was like, okay.
- 30:37Terra Lightfoot: sad.
- 30:38Glen Erickson: we just say we know is not true.
- 30:40Glen Erickson: Like, that's just the line, right?
- 30:42Terra Lightfoot: Well that
- 30:42Glen Erickson: they're always signing a new artist if
- 30:45Terra Lightfoot: they might be, it wasn't me at that on that particular day, let's say.
- 30:49Terra Lightfoot: Um.
- 30:50Glen Erickson: not shade on Paquin, because that's the business.
- 30:52Glen Erickson: I get it.
- 30:53Glen Erickson: Like they're great people, but
- 30:54Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 30:55Terra Lightfoot: Well then they're looking for some, you know, a specific thing in a specific moment.
- 30:59Terra Lightfoot: But, so I'm going into this record, nothing's happening.
- 31:02Terra Lightfoot: I go out in Hamilton, I party hard with my buddies, and I wake up on one morning and I look up my phone and it's a message, uh, for my manager.
- 31:12Terra Lightfoot: And they're like, Hey, you're playing at the Horseshoe with La wa tonight.
- 31:15Terra Lightfoot: And I'm like, oh, what?
- 31:18Terra Lightfoot: Because I think somebody dropped off his CMW show or something.
- 31:22Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.
- 31:22Terra Lightfoot: So I get my stuff together, figure it out, get down there, and it's like one of the turning points, that's the TSN turning point, where pecan comes to that show and they're like, we're in 100%.
- 31:33Terra Lightfoot: We love this.
- 31:33Terra Lightfoot: What can we do?
- 31:35Terra Lightfoot: Let's book you your first festival.
- 31:37Terra Lightfoot: And then in the fall I go out, I get a tour with my friends and longtime supporters, Whitehorse, um, they bring me out and at the end of the White Horse tour, I get a note.
- 31:46Terra Lightfoot: You're opening the Blue Rodeo tour next year.
- 31:49Glen Erickson: geez.
- 31:50Terra Lightfoot: it was just like, bam, bam, bam, one thing after another, and then it was just done.
- 31:55Terra Lightfoot: It was like that nine months was, that was such a a, a turning point really.
- 32:01Terra Lightfoot: And then it was just like, you have a career now, you're fine.
- 32:03Terra Lightfoot: Go ahead.
- 32:04Terra Lightfoot: Enjoy your life.
- 32:05Terra Lightfoot: Go, go tour
- 32:07Glen Erickson: Those are, those are some big dominoes to fall in a row like that for, for you, for anybody.
- 32:13Glen Erickson: Um, okay.
- 32:16Glen Erickson: That's ki like, that kind of puts you right in the middle of like taking off to where you're at.
- 32:21Glen Erickson: So.
- 32:22Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 32:23Glen Erickson: Before I get to just like making some new records and what you've learned from a couple of those things.
- 32:27Glen Erickson: 'cause there's a couple of cool moments that I've read about you that I wanna ask about.
- 32:32Glen Erickson: But here's the thing I wanna ask you particularly about Terra, because, so you, by that point, you've established obviously who you are to, like, you have the full team now, you know what I mean?
- 32:45Glen Erickson: Sort of assembled.
- 32:46Glen Erickson: You don't have to go back to some, any version of a walking dog or the,
- 32:51Terra Lightfoot: I loved walking dogs,
- 32:52Glen Erickson: I'm not saying you didn't love it, I'm saying the, the what do I have to do to keep paying the bills?
- 32:57Glen Erickson: 'cause music doesn't pay the
- 32:58Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 32:59Terra Lightfoot: Yes.
- 32:59Glen Erickson: And you have two things and I love to hear how people have overcome things.
- 33:05Glen Erickson: There's two things that, from my assumption only from the outside would be big things to overcome and that you've probably had to deal with your whole life and talk to.
- 33:15Glen Erickson: In every press interview, you know, C, B, C, you know, brand new podcaster, all of them.
- 33:24Glen Erickson: Um, number one, your namesake you've probably had to deal with all the time.
- 33:29Glen Erickson: And number two, being a quote unquote female guitar player.
- 33:33Glen Erickson: Like two things that aren't terribly fair and probably have been points of conversation all the way through.
- 33:39Glen Erickson: And so I have a curiosity, not just about I, I guess in the middle, I'm curious how some of these things are affecting you or whether they're not affecting you at all or whether they bother you.
- 33:52Glen Erickson: 'cause I just, I'm so curious about how they've probably hung with you.
- 33:56Glen Erickson: Like I read an article last night from, I can't remember how many years, I forgot when I read it on Americana uk.
- 34:02Glen Erickson: They literally asked you about being a female.
- 34:05Glen Erickson: Guitar player and you handled it a little tongue in cheek, but with grace, obviously in your answer, um, or at least how they wrote it, who knows how they edit, I dunno how they
- 34:13Terra Lightfoot: yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 34:14Glen Erickson: it's it's a, it's a bigger online press, but, so like the, first of all, the thing about the namesake to Lightfoot, I mean that's the equivalent of having the last name Cash and playing Americana in, in the States.
- 34:28Glen Erickson: Right.
- 34:29Terra Lightfoot: Totally.
- 34:30Glen Erickson: I guess my, my point of interest question,'cause I can make all kinds of assumptions about what it's been like just to get asked that over and over and over again'cause you're a musician, but I'm wondering, do you have any story or instance when someone has just made some massive assumption when they're like, introducing you somewhere or said, you know what I mean?
- 34:51Glen Erickson: And some sort of grandish foot in the mouth assumption about, about that.
- 34:57Terra Lightfoot: Oh yeah, it happens all the time.
- 34:59Terra Lightfoot: So when I went to school, like when I went, started going to kindergarten, it started.
- 35:05Terra Lightfoot: So every time the teacher would do attendance, if it was a substitute teacher, they'd go, oh, Lightfoot, are you related to Gordon?
- 35:11Terra Lightfoot: And
- 35:11Glen Erickson: Oh, wow.
- 35:12Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 35:12Terra Lightfoot: no, I don't have, I don't know anybody named Gordon.
- 35:15Terra Lightfoot: But moving on.
- 35:16Terra Lightfoot: And I didn't know that Gordon Lightfoot was a musician.
- 35:20Terra Lightfoot: I didn't know anything about that as a young child.
- 35:22Terra Lightfoot: And then my mom started explaining to me.
- 35:25Terra Lightfoot: It's this musician and no, we're not related to him.
- 35:27Terra Lightfoot: So in the convenience store, we'd go to buy milk and they'd be like, it would be, they'd know my mom and they would ask the same question like, everywhere we went, it didn't matter.
- 35:36Terra Lightfoot: And uh,
- 35:37Glen Erickson: I
- 35:38Terra Lightfoot: so I was just used to it.
- 35:39Terra Lightfoot: And then
- 35:39Glen Erickson: So you're, yeah.
- 35:40Glen Erickson: You're seeing it in your parents and everywhere.
- 35:42Glen Erickson: It's not just you.
- 35:44Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 35:44Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 35:46Terra Lightfoot: And at this time we really weren't connected with our Lightfoot family in Scotland, so I couldn't come up with the actual truth, which is the Lightfoot are from outside Edinburgh, and that's where our name comes from.
- 35:57Terra Lightfoot: It's nothing to do with Gordon Lightfoot.
- 36:00Terra Lightfoot: but there's been so many times, I mean, like I get messages all the time being like, uh, well, especially when Gord was alive, like, tell your dad X, Y, Z or tell
- 36:10Glen Erickson: Oh my God.
- 36:10Terra Lightfoot: Y, Z.
- 36:11Terra Lightfoot: And you know, I'm friends with his actual daughter and she gets a different.
- 36:16Terra Lightfoot: Brand of that kind of thing, uh, being his kid.
- 36:19Terra Lightfoot: But it's like, and people also thought her and I were the same person.
- 36:23Terra Lightfoot: So that's been a really funny piece of both our careers.
- 36:26Terra Lightfoot: 'cause she, uh, her name is Meredith Moon.
- 36:30Terra Lightfoot: Um, and my name is Terra Lightfoot, but she's actually the Lightfoot in the, in those terms, you know what I mean?
- 36:37Terra Lightfoot: She's actually
- 36:38Glen Erickson: percent.
- 36:38Terra Lightfoot: kid.
- 36:39Terra Lightfoot: So it was really fun.
- 36:40Terra Lightfoot: As soon as I met her, I felt like Kindred spirit.
- 36:42Terra Lightfoot: We understood each other.
- 36:43Terra Lightfoot: She's an amazing, she has a new record of too, actually.
- 36:46Terra Lightfoot: It's really good.
- 36:47Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 36:49Terra Lightfoot: but yeah, so the name thing after a while just gets, you get used to it.
- 36:54Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 36:55Glen Erickson: Um, yeah, that was just my curiosity'cause I can imagine all the other stuff, like, I'm just, I've always thought like people must have really put their foot in their mouth sometimes with that
- 37:05Terra Lightfoot: Always.
- 37:06Glen Erickson: uh, which I hope would at least provide you a little entertainment for having to suffer through it all the time.
- 37:11Glen Erickson: the other part, which is always fascinating to me is the, the need for some man, to reference you as a female guitar player.
- 37:21Glen Erickson: Um, which again, I can make all the assumptions about how long you've had to put up with that from the minute you picked it up and were playing it probably in high school and all that.
- 37:31Glen Erickson: So, What I actually am curious about is if you have had any sort of, whether you've just sort of reflected or thought, like is there anything that a woman would bring to guitar playing that it's different than a man in your perception?
- 37:48Glen Erickson: Because I, I, I literally realize, like it runs out for me.
- 37:54Glen Erickson: I hit a, I couldn't, I wouldn't be able to even conceive or understand, right?
- 37:59Glen Erickson: Like a way that a woman might be able to influence your style because this is all about style, right?
- 38:05Glen Erickson: This is the joke about female or male guitar playing.
- 38:08Glen Erickson: Guitar playing is just about finding your own style so that you give a voice to your skills and it has to be you and it becomes your own.
- 38:16Glen Erickson: And that's really what, that's when you feel like a guitar player is when you feel like you have your own signature on it.
- 38:24Glen Erickson: And that's what it's about.
- 38:26Glen Erickson: And I'm just wondering if you feel like, is there any in your reflection.
- 38:31Glen Erickson: Actual difference between how you might approach it to me that I'm not capable of channeling through my guitar the way that you might be,
- 38:41Terra Lightfoot: I don't know.
- 38:41Glen Erickson: because I've never thought about it.
- 38:43Glen Erickson: This is a very recent thought.
- 38:45Terra Lightfoot: that's a very interesting, I mean, when, when you were, when you were asking the question, I was thinking about.
- 38:52Terra Lightfoot: Uh, some guitar players that I know that are so fantastic and recognizable across timelines.
- 38:57Terra Lightfoot: So like Sister Rosetta Tharp.
- 38:59Terra Lightfoot: You can hear, you can hear it a thousand miles away.
- 39:03Terra Lightfoot: She sounds like her.
- 39:05Terra Lightfoot: Uh, Madison Cunningham is another one, and she's an amazing guitar player.
- 39:10Terra Lightfoot: Somebody that I met more recently.
- 39:13Terra Lightfoot: Uh, two awesome guitar players, actually.
- 39:15Terra Lightfoot: Nilly Broch, who plays with, uh, Danny Elman in his band.
- 39:21Terra Lightfoot: I think she's amazing.
- 39:23Terra Lightfoot: Crazy metal guitar player and she plays in death clock, like, you know, the TV metal band.
- 39:28Terra Lightfoot: Crazy, crazy guitar player.
- 39:30Terra Lightfoot: Marissa Paternoster from Noun.
- 39:31Terra Lightfoot: Uh, also incredible guitar player.
- 39:35Terra Lightfoot: And these are just people that I've tho those two I met last year at a, a benefit that we did.
- 39:40Terra Lightfoot: Um, but that sort of opened my brain in terms of like what people are doing, uh, with the guitar these days.
- 39:47Terra Lightfoot: But I mean, is there a difference between men and women picking up a guitar?
- 39:50Terra Lightfoot: I don't.
- 39:51Terra Lightfoot: I don't think so.
- 39:53Terra Lightfoot: I think that we're all, this is my whole goal is to make it the same, is to, to make it so there's an even playing field for us all, and we can all start from the same spot and go, what are you gonna do with it?
- 40:05Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 40:05Terra Lightfoot: matter who you are, in my opinion,
- 40:08Glen Erickson: No, it absolutely doesn't.
- 40:10Terra Lightfoot: know?
- 40:10Terra Lightfoot: You know what I mean?
- 40:11Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 40:12Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 40:12Glen Erickson: I, and like I said, like honestly, like I didn't, that's a question that I didn't give a lot of thought to.
- 40:17Glen Erickson: I need to make sure that that's really clear.
- 40:20Glen Erickson: I just wondered if anybody else had ever thought like there might be a different
- 40:24Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 40:25Glen Erickson: that somebody might bring.
- 40:27Glen Erickson: Differently,
- 40:28Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 40:29Glen Erickson: um, but we're like,
- 40:30Terra Lightfoot: by case.
- 40:31Terra Lightfoot: Case by case.
- 40:32Terra Lightfoot: Because Sure.
- 40:33Terra Lightfoot: There's, yeah.
- 40:34Terra Lightfoot: I mean, I can think of a couple.
- 40:37Glen Erickson: yeah, but I mean, think of the world we're in, right?
- 40:39Glen Erickson: Like we all have a better understanding of the fluidity of gender,
- 40:43Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 40:43Glen Erickson: you know, you just take that into account and right off the bat you're like, well then
- 40:48Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 40:49Glen Erickson: guitar playing lands somewhere on a spectrum too, you know,
- 40:54Terra Lightfoot: I mean, like, if we're talking about gen like, uh, norms of, of things then, like Nelly's playing is a, but she's the top shelf of anybody in the world.
- 41:05Terra Lightfoot: I don't know anybody faster than her.
- 41:07Terra Lightfoot: Like, she's crazy, crazy good.
- 41:10Terra Lightfoot: And like, that's, that's not a trope that we've grown up with, that women are fast and furious,
- 41:17Glen Erickson: you're right.
- 41:18Glen Erickson: Like,
- 41:18Terra Lightfoot: know?
- 41:19Terra Lightfoot: And so she's really doing a thing that I was excited about because it's just nice to
- 41:23Glen Erickson: there was.
- 41:24Terra Lightfoot: it.
- 41:25Glen Erickson: If there was a metaphorical locker room of rock and roll like there is in sports, like that would be the thing that gets stupidly made fun of in a male patriarchal locker room for sure.
- 41:39Terra Lightfoot: yeah, yeah, yeah.
- 41:39Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 41:39Glen Erickson: roll of like, but they, but they don't play fast or whatever.
- 41:43Glen Erickson: I mean, I've, I've known of, um, the artist Lindsay l who came outta Calgary now Nashville based, who's like now playing on Shania Twain's, like Vegas tours as her league guitar player who's like, worked very hard and had to fight all of these, you know, sort of stupid tropes as well.
- 42:04Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 42:05Glen Erickson: all the way and has like a fantastic soulful.
- 42:09Glen Erickson: Style to how she plays that she also makes very melodic, which is very cool.
- 42:14Glen Erickson: I definitely feel like it's more a product of environment.
- 42:18Glen Erickson: I don't know if you've ever thought that through as far as guitar playing.
- 42:21Glen Erickson: 'cause when you hear all the guitar players tell their story in magazines or on interviews, like as a kid, I just ate up all of the much music.
- 42:30Glen Erickson: I wanted them to talk to the guitar player'cause that's what I did.
- 42:33Glen Erickson: But they always talked to the singer.
- 42:35Glen Erickson: But um, and it felt like so much was, came out of their environment, right?
- 42:39Glen Erickson: Like the styles that were, what was around them, what were they rebelling against, which even goes back to you rebelling against your classical piano, um, upbringings.
- 42:49Glen Erickson: So I think that's probably a far more interesting point that people should be taking at this point.
- 42:56Glen Erickson: Um, you've been, you've been referred to by some pretty heavyweight programs and people in the country as one of the top musicians in the country.
- 43:05Glen Erickson: How does that.
- 43:06Glen Erickson: How does that feel?
- 43:07Glen Erickson: Are the, have you had moments, have you had moments where you just felt like, I shouldn't smile too big?
- 43:12Glen Erickson: 'cause I might be on camera, but this is like, so amazing, this person just like, that's gotta feel really validating.
- 43:21Glen Erickson: I think a lot of artists, let me put it so I should frame it how I'm thinking about this, which is a lot of artists are just, they're, they're getting the feedback and the validation just for the product they put out for the records or the songs and, and the sort of the holistic view.
- 43:38Glen Erickson: but certain artists have this ability to also shine as an instrumentalist, as, as something else in their craft is particular inside of their arts.
- 43:48Glen Erickson: so has that been important to you?
- 43:49Glen Erickson: Have you felt like that's a, a part of who you are?
- 43:53Glen Erickson: Actually, before you even answer that, let me ask you this.
- 43:56Glen Erickson: Going all the way back playing guitar as a teenager, like that.
- 44:01Glen Erickson: Was the guitar kind of leading you into music, or were you always songwriting and singing at the same time?
- 44:06Glen Erickson: Was it always a blended thing, or was the guitar kind of the lead at first?
- 44:11Terra Lightfoot: Oh yeah.
- 44:11Terra Lightfoot: I think I wanted to be, the other thing I would do as a teenager, I'd fall asleep playing air drums.
- 44:16Terra Lightfoot: I wanted to be the drummer or the guitar player.
- 44:18Terra Lightfoot: I didn't, I didn't care about being the singer.
- 44:21Terra Lightfoot: Uh, I was quite bashful, you know, and about singing and, uh, super scared of it.
- 44:27Terra Lightfoot: And, and in front of crowds and everything like that.
- 44:30Terra Lightfoot: Like even at family parties, it would, my parents, I forget what my parents used to do to get me to sing.
- 44:35Terra Lightfoot: 'cause I just wouldn't, it was a terrifying experience for me, you know?
- 44:40Terra Lightfoot: But playing an instrument was fine.
- 44:42Terra Lightfoot: That wasn't a big deal.
- 44:43Terra Lightfoot: Um, so yeah, I mean, I've much enjoyed hiding behind my guitar for sure.
- 44:51Glen Erickson: But then, yeah, I guess in turn.
- 44:53Glen Erickson: I can, I'll make some guesses then that, the way I started that question off that then that must feel very validating to get that kind of feedback if that's how you kind of what led you into all of this in the first place.
- 45:05Terra Lightfoot: And I mean the, I mean, my network and my, what would you like?
- 45:09Terra Lightfoot: My community of people that I've become friends with because of my music is insane.
- 45:16Terra Lightfoot: Like, the people that I get to call friends as a result of what I do is staggering.
- 45:22Terra Lightfoot: It makes me feel so happy.
- 45:24Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, yeah, at the end of the day, that's what I love is like, is making, I have tons of people that have come to shows that have become friends all over the world, and that's also such a wonderful piece.
- 45:36Terra Lightfoot: So like, I think that that's definitely a version of success that I, that I am proud of.
- 45:43Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 45:44Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 45:44Glen Erickson: Well then let's, um.
- 45:46Glen Erickson: I could end up going down a rabbit hole and talking about guitar with a guitar player forever.
- 45:50Glen Erickson: So, um, I know I was gonna talk to you about Veronica because I, I have a, I have a epiphany.
- 45:58Glen Erickson: Sheraton Hollow Body Semi, semi hollow body that just became,'cause I don't think, I don't think every, every guitar I think comes outta the factory different, right?
- 46:08Glen Erickson: They, I think they have personality.
- 46:10Glen Erickson: Like I played an sg in a studio that I fell in love with and then I bought three and I could never get the same feeling back as this one I borrowed to play in the studio.
- 46:20Glen Erickson: And my Sheridan's been the perfect companion to my amp.
- 46:25Glen Erickson: Like, so it just became my sound.
- 46:27Glen Erickson: Like I've had a jaguar over the years that all black that tried to challenge for my affections, but it couldn't quite do it.
- 46:34Glen Erickson: So, so I was gonna chat with you about that a bit, but I'm gonna move on from that because, uh, just respect time and stuff as well.
- 46:41Glen Erickson: But, but I love.
- 46:43Glen Erickson: Guitar players and talking guitars sometimes, but maybe not.
- 46:46Glen Erickson: Everybody else wants to hear me talk about it.
- 46:48Glen Erickson: but I love what you just said about success and defining success, because one of the most interesting things I read about you is where you talked about a moment in the Swiss Alps, I think it was that you had a kind of a, an epiphany moment of some meaning and stuff.
- 47:03Glen Erickson: And I just remember the line was something along the lines of like you were sort of being shown that the version of success that you were chasing maybe wasn't the right thing for you or something needed to change.
- 47:17Glen Erickson: And I'm wondering if you could tell me a little bit about what that moment was like and what that meant for you.
- 47:24Glen Erickson: 'cause this business is like so wrapped up in a narrative that we create our, for ourselves about what success is.
- 47:30Glen Erickson: So I'm really interested in what that moment was for you.
- 47:34Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 47:34Terra Lightfoot: I mean, so I guess at that moment, the, the moment in the Swiss Alps, it was the Austrian.
- 47:42Terra Lightfoot: Mountain range.
- 47:42Terra Lightfoot: I don't know what it's called.
- 47:44Terra Lightfoot: Uh, but I was there after my first Juno nomination and my first Polaris, uh, prize long list.
- 47:52Terra Lightfoot: And those are things that I'd been striving for.
- 47:54Terra Lightfoot: As soon as I knew what they were, I was like, oh yeah, that would be good.
- 47:58Terra Lightfoot: And my management really wanted that.
- 48:00Terra Lightfoot: Like, you know, it was a thing that it would be good for the whole team, for the band, for everyone.
- 48:05Terra Lightfoot: And so it wasn't just for me, it
- 48:06Glen Erickson: on the vision board.
- 48:07Glen Erickson: It's on the vision board of most people in the country, right?
- 48:10Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 48:11Terra Lightfoot: And it's like a marker of success that can help everyone in the whole group.
- 48:15Terra Lightfoot: And so you're like, wow, that would be good to get that.
- 48:17Terra Lightfoot: And I got it.
- 48:20Terra Lightfoot: I got, well, I got the nominations anyway.
- 48:22Terra Lightfoot: And then I was like, what?
- 48:24Terra Lightfoot: Am I not a different complete person or do I not feel amazing about this?
- 48:29Terra Lightfoot: 'cause I got what I wanted.
- 48:30Terra Lightfoot: And you know, like, isn't this the thing that I was chasing for?
- 48:36Terra Lightfoot: And now that I'm here, what does it actually mean?
- 48:39Terra Lightfoot: And, um.
- 48:40Terra Lightfoot: I mean, at that time I had worked so hard to get those things that I was losing big parts of myself.
- 48:46Terra Lightfoot: I was losing my family connections.
- 48:49Terra Lightfoot: I was losing connections with my friends, like with myself.
- 48:52Terra Lightfoot: Uh, I would come home and I, I couldn't do anything for like three or four days and then I'd have to leave again because I'd be so tired.
- 48:59Terra Lightfoot: You know?
- 49:00Terra Lightfoot: It was like, that to me wasn't hitting.
- 49:04Terra Lightfoot: It was not the thing.
- 49:06Terra Lightfoot: And so when I got up there on that mountain, I saw that tree and it was like not perfect.
- 49:11Terra Lightfoot: It was not, you know, it was not big.
- 49:16Terra Lightfoot: It was the only thing growing up there, but it was growing and that is what I took from it.
- 49:21Terra Lightfoot: It's like, okay, I'll figure it out.
- 49:23Terra Lightfoot: I can make myself happy with all these things'cause I wasn't happy with it, you know?
- 49:27Terra Lightfoot: And you think you'd be happy.
- 49:29Terra Lightfoot: Um, and so now of course I've found this, to me, this secret is having, uh, taking care of yourself first.
- 49:40Terra Lightfoot: Taking breaks.
- 49:41Terra Lightfoot: So in this, in this wonderful business that we're all a part of, it's like scheduling time off.
- 49:48Terra Lightfoot: Uh, it's not jumping from one tour into the next one right away, or if it is, then you've made a clear picture of when you're gonna have time to take a break and you end up with more energy and you end up being happier to do it all.
- 50:01Glen Erickson: mm-hmm.
- 50:02Terra Lightfoot: and you're more effective.
- 50:03Terra Lightfoot: You know, it's like, those are not things that I thought would help at the time.
- 50:09Terra Lightfoot: Uh, I thought taking a break was bad.
- 50:11Terra Lightfoot: I was like, that means I'm not working.
- 50:12Terra Lightfoot: That's bad.
- 50:14Terra Lightfoot: And truthfully, it's the opposite.
- 50:17Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 50:18Glen Erickson: I mean, that narrative probably gets informed by a few things, right?
- 50:22Glen Erickson: Which is bad probably is the combination of.
- 50:26Glen Erickson: A little bit of fear like that when I, if I take my foot off the gas, then it can all go away in a, like, overnight in a heartbeat.
- 50:34Glen Erickson: So fear is in inside of that.
- 50:36Glen Erickson: And also bad being how many people you might let down'cause you built this team to trust that you'd be successful.
- 50:43Glen Erickson: And then they're telling you, you need to go do this thing.
- 50:46Glen Erickson: And you might have to tell them I need a break.
- 50:49Glen Erickson: Um, would be a bit of a scary thing.
- 50:52Glen Erickson: Um, um, what, what I had written down was, uh, a curiosity that I had was so, well, first I'll say so it's nice that you made that really clear that that redefinition of success really had a lot to do with happiness, which I think is a, is a, a great universal point beyond music.
- 51:16Glen Erickson: You know, about people who kill themselves for a thing and how, how common in the human story it is to get the thing and then not.
- 51:24Glen Erickson: Feel anything, let alone happy, uh, about it.
- 51:28Glen Erickson: Right.
- 51:29Terra Lightfoot: Totally.
- 51:30Glen Erickson: Um, I'm wondering, in your experience, are you able to name what some of the thing, like what did it look like before that moment about what chasing success looked like?
- 51:41Glen Erickson: I mean, you just alluded to maybe being a bit on the treadmill of, of thing to thing, but I'm wondering what it sort of looked like before and then what it started to look like after when you had to start making some different choices.
- 51:54Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, I mean, I remember a moment I was lucky to bring my, my buddy along, uh, Sam Weber, who's a wonderful guitar player.
- 52:02Terra Lightfoot: He lives in Portland, but he's from Canada.
- 52:05Terra Lightfoot: Uh, but he came along with me when I was opening for Bruce Coburn just for like moral support and friendship.
- 52:11Terra Lightfoot: And that was a great choice.
- 52:12Terra Lightfoot: It was like, okay, I'm gonna bring my friend and this will be, you know, more, kind of more fun, but more peaceful and I'll be sort of connected with someone.
- 52:21Terra Lightfoot: And I remember we were sitting down to lunch on the first day of the tour and like somebody sent me the cover of, uh.
- 52:30Terra Lightfoot: Hamilton magazine, which is obviously a magazine from Hamilton, but I was on the cover and it was this great picture of me with an interview and I showed it to Sam and I was like, when did I do this?
- 52:40Terra Lightfoot: Did you know this was happening?
- 52:41Terra Lightfoot: Did I tell you about this?
- 52:42Terra Lightfoot: I didn't know this was happening.
- 52:44Terra Lightfoot: And so it was these big kind of things, these big, uh, pieces of success that before I would've been like, oh my God, this is amazing.
- 52:52Terra Lightfoot: I can't wait to see this.
- 52:54Terra Lightfoot: And they were just blowing by me, and I'd be lucky if I saw them.
- 52:57Terra Lightfoot: Like I was in Guitar Player Magazine.
- 52:59Terra Lightfoot: I don't have a copy of it.
- 53:01Terra Lightfoot: I don't know when it came out.
- 53:02Terra Lightfoot: I don't know anything about it.
- 53:03Terra Lightfoot: My dad sent me a picture of the, of the pages of it, and it's again, a nice picture of me in the Guitar Player magazine.
- 53:10Terra Lightfoot: I don't have it.
- 53:11Terra Lightfoot: And, and so those kinds of big moments were just going by me.
- 53:17Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, now I feel like I have a more.
- 53:22Terra Lightfoot: Just a more, you know, like home front, this record, I had two amazing months of touring in Europe, uh, being treated so well by promoters.
- 53:31Terra Lightfoot: Um, like an easy travel schedule, days off time to explore Matt Anderson and I went three days early to Ireland to just go hang out and, and uh, you know, listen to Irish music and tour around.
- 53:46Terra Lightfoot: And then we started the tour.
- 53:47Terra Lightfoot: Like that's what it looks like when you have that, it's not a big investment.
- 53:51Terra Lightfoot: Three days in a hotel before your tour isn't a huge amount of money, but it's something that changes your approach to the whole next three weeks,
- 53:59Glen Erickson: yeah,
- 54:00Terra Lightfoot: you know?
- 54:01Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 54:01Glen Erickson: Well, I totally know, like, when I was most active in a band, I.
- 54:06Glen Erickson: I'm so grateful for the, they're my best friends, the guys that I played with, because they somehow had this already built in and I probably wouldn't have,'cause I was a go, go, go.
- 54:17Glen Erickson: I did all the business stuff.
- 54:19Glen Erickson: I probably would never have stopped to smell the roses, but they would drive back from Beast, from Vancouver to Edmonton and insist on going through Penticton and the South Long way so that we could stop and overnight on the beach in the summer in Penticton and enjoy, you know, we would enjoy the proper parts of Canada.
- 54:40Glen Erickson: We would spend more money to stay in the Sylvie Hotel on English Bay in Vancouver.
- 54:44Glen Erickson: 'cause that's where Blue Rodeo was when they wrote one of the albums and we needed to get the, the, the juju from them.
- 54:52Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 54:53Glen Erickson: yeah, so I totally know what you're saying.
- 54:55Glen Erickson: 'cause like I, I, I credit those guys for building wellness before we even use that language,
- 55:01Terra Lightfoot: Mm-hmm.
- 55:02Glen Erickson: uh, into the way that we.
- 55:04Glen Erickson: Moved and, and lived and breathed as a band together.
- 55:07Glen Erickson: So I totally get that.
- 55:09Glen Erickson: How long, like we all know, like an epiphany, never.
- 55:14Glen Erickson: Like we don't walk off the mountain and then immediately our habits change.
- 55:18Glen Erickson: How long did it feel like it took you to start to really like, get that narrative sort of rewritten in your head and start to change the way that you were thinking and making choices?
- 55:31Terra Lightfoot: Honestly, it's still happening every day.
- 55:33Terra Lightfoot: 'cause it's something that we have to sort of fight against.
- 55:37Terra Lightfoot: Uh, you know,'cause it's still, it's still back there.
- 55:40Terra Lightfoot: It's still saying work, work, work.
- 55:42Terra Lightfoot: If you're not working, but you just learn to kind of say, okay, yeah, I hear that, but here's what I'm gonna do.
- 55:49Terra Lightfoot: And it's just, it's easier I think, um, to say.
- 55:54Terra Lightfoot: That I need time or I need this extra moment here, or, um, I'm not gonna say yes to that opportunity right now, but I'd love to later or,
- 56:03Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 56:03Terra Lightfoot: you know, I, I haven't done my longest road show, which is my, uh, touring review, which features the best band in Canada and the best artists in Canada who all happen to be women or female identified people.
- 56:17Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 56:18Terra Lightfoot: And I haven't done that, uh,'cause I haven't had the mental capacity, but next year I've built it up and it's gonna be, it's gonna be great'cause I've had the time, uh, to organize it all and make sure all the music part, you know, the music direction of it goes off without a hitch.
- 56:36Terra Lightfoot: And so it'll be
- 56:36Glen Erickson: that, is that still gonna be with Lindy and Begonia, Lindy Ortega and Begonia?
- 56:42Glen Erickson: Are you gonna have to change
- 56:44Terra Lightfoot: I might, yeah, I'm, I know the band.
- 56:46Terra Lightfoot: I know who the band's gonna be.
- 56:48Terra Lightfoot: It'll be Ana Rudick and Danny Nash on drums.
- 56:50Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, I don't know about all the different artists that are gonna, it's date dependent, right?
- 56:57Glen Erickson: Yeah, of course.
- 56:57Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 56:58Terra Lightfoot: I'm super excited about it.
- 56:59Terra Lightfoot: But this is something that I've been building up to.
- 57:01Terra Lightfoot: And so I have that excitement instead of like, the first time we did it, I had one day, uh, of rehearsal and then we just, we were in it.
- 57:11Terra Lightfoot: It was insane.
- 57:12Terra Lightfoot: It was crazy.
- 57:13Terra Lightfoot: And I'd flown home from Vancouver the day before, like it was too much.
- 57:17Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 57:18Terra Lightfoot: so these are the things we learned.
- 57:20Glen Erickson: well, let me, let me ask you this question then, because I think, uh, I think aspiring artists listening would probably commonly say that's a lot easier to have that epiphany and redefine success after you've got success,
- 57:43Terra Lightfoot: Oh, yes.
- 57:44Glen Erickson: right.
- 57:44Glen Erickson: But I totally buy what you're saying, and I, so I'm curious what the advice or how you spin the advice of like, no, you can actually make those choices and make.
- 58:00Glen Erickson: These kinds of like changes and you're not going to, you know, it's not gonna rob you of opportunities.
- 58:07Glen Erickson: Like, how do you, how would you perhaps spin that to somebody who's, you know, a little skeptical about getting off the treadmill so hard at the beginning?
- 58:18Terra Lightfoot: Well, I mean, I was one of those people, I remember texting Max from Markels.
- 58:23Terra Lightfoot: 'cause we're both from Hamilton, we both went to the same university.
- 58:28Terra Lightfoot: And we were talking around the time that the Junos were in Hamilton.
- 58:31Terra Lightfoot: This is before I had a record out, um, to be nominated or anything.
- 58:36Terra Lightfoot: But I remember asking him something and he was like.
- 58:40Terra Lightfoot: Maybe, no, we were playing basketball.
- 58:42Terra Lightfoot: That weekly basketball game, we're going full circle.
- 58:45Terra Lightfoot: He's a wonderful basketball player, by the way.
- 58:47Terra Lightfoot: Insane
- 58:48Glen Erickson: who knew?
- 58:48Glen Erickson: That's
- 58:49Terra Lightfoot: come on.
- 58:50Terra Lightfoot: Oh man.
- 58:51Terra Lightfoot: Um, but I think it was like Juno's announcement day and somebody was like, oh, max, you know, congrats on your Juno.
- 58:58Terra Lightfoot: And I was like, yeah, that must be amazing.
- 59:00Terra Lightfoot: He's like, eh, I don't really care.
- 59:01Terra Lightfoot: I'm like, how can you say that?
- 59:02Terra Lightfoot: Like, to people who don't have what you have, you know?
- 59:07Terra Lightfoot: And he was like, it's, it's just something, you know, you get there and it's not a big deal.
- 59:11Terra Lightfoot: You just have to keep working.
- 59:13Terra Lightfoot: Like, it's simple.
- 59:15Terra Lightfoot: And, and truthfully, I kind of, I was a skeptic, but I remain, I, I've been proved wrong.
- 59:21Terra Lightfoot: You know?
- 59:22Glen Erickson: yeah,
- 59:23Terra Lightfoot: It's,
- 59:24Glen Erickson: because you can't know the meaning until you experience the meaning.
- 59:31Glen Erickson: Right?
- 59:31Glen Erickson: Like, so for you to know why he can say it's not a big deal.
- 59:36Glen Erickson: It's'cause he, he puts it in a place with everything else that has meaning and definition,
- 59:42Terra Lightfoot: he's also a super humble, sweet guy, and he, you know, uh, Kels have been nominated so many times.
- 59:51Terra Lightfoot: He's like, yeah, it's kind of embarrassing.
- 59:52Terra Lightfoot: Like it's, you know, like
- 59:54Glen Erickson: time.
- 59:54Glen Erickson: I think they're nominated every time.
- 59:56Terra Lightfoot: yeah, but he's so, he's so sweet about it.
- 59:59Terra Lightfoot: And to him, he like, it's almost like he doesn't want to be recognized for it in some ways or something.
- 1:00:04Terra Lightfoot: Like he's, uh, he just doesn't act like it's a big deal.
- 1:00:09Terra Lightfoot: And that is what I took from him, for sure.
- 1:00:11Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:00:11Glen Erickson: okay.
- 1:00:12Glen Erickson: I alluded to before saying that I'm making an assumption that you've done a really good job, just whether it's part of your personality or character or the efforts you may make to be really good at building a network.
- 1:00:26Glen Erickson: Of people that ha create a lot of opportunity or like, it's, I just wanna say that that's becoming more clear as we talk on and on how, like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna say this, I'm gonna make sure I explain it after, so it doesn't come off the wrong.
- 1:00:41Glen Erickson: You've had a, a somewhat charmed life in the Canadian music scene.
- 1:00:46Glen Erickson: It feels, but I'm not saying that in the sense as in like, oh, you just got lucky because anybody who's been in the music business long enough knows that there's no such thing as like riding luck all the way through all the way to the top.
- 1:01:03Glen Erickson: Everybody needs a little luck, but it takes being true to who you are, working hard every day, being kind to every person like you already noticed.
- 1:01:11Glen Erickson: So, but on top of all those things, I think it's really cool then to sort of see.
- 1:01:17Glen Erickson: All these charming moments that have happened in your life to get you where you are, like, uh, cool people speaking very cool things into your life, is like such an amazing blessing.
- 1:01:29Glen Erickson: I can't even imagine.
- 1:01:30Glen Erickson: So that's, that's, that's been very enjoyable to hear.
- 1:01:35Glen Erickson: let me talk about Home Front then, and let's just talk about your new record, which I was gonna ask earlier when I was guitar geeking about how the changes of how you play and learn new things might change how a new record comes out, uh, since it's the main sort of source of your, uh, inspiration.
- 1:01:54Glen Erickson: So, um, maybe that ties into talking about home from which seems maybe potentially equally influenced by a stylistic choice to, to approach the record differently, but also geographically very clearly, uh, in the title and in a lot of the subject matter.
- 1:02:12Glen Erickson: Um.
- 1:02:12Glen Erickson: So tell me about when that started brewing.
- 1:02:15Glen Erickson: Like how long back did that kind of record start brewing for you to make?
- 1:02:20Terra Lightfoot: I'd say, I think in 2020 or 2021, like pandemic times, it was sort of like
- 1:02:27Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 1:02:28Terra Lightfoot: back to not playing with the band.
- 1:02:29Terra Lightfoot: Right.
- 1:02:30Terra Lightfoot: So all of a sudden I'm back with my classical, I love classical guitars.
- 1:02:35Terra Lightfoot: I find them so peaceful and they sound so nice, but it's something that you just sort of sit around.
- 1:02:39Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:02:40Terra Lightfoot: I just love them.
- 1:02:41Terra Lightfoot: Like it's, it's so nice, such a nice sound.
- 1:02:44Glen Erickson: But can you rip a solo on a nylon string is
- 1:02:47Terra Lightfoot: only if I'm playing slayer.
- 1:02:48Glen Erickson: question.
- 1:02:49Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:02:51Terra Lightfoot: Oh my gosh, that's so funny.
- 1:02:53Terra Lightfoot: but yeah, I think it was also about like, uh, playing the style that I had grown up playing, like the finger picky stuff that I learned in my early twenties.
- 1:03:04Terra Lightfoot: Uh, like on hummingbirds hum I'm doing this finger picking thing that I would never do live really like, or with an electric guitar with the band.
- 1:03:12Terra Lightfoot: But there was an opportunity for that song to sit at the end of the record, and it was like a live take.
- 1:03:17Terra Lightfoot: And, um, I also, like, there's no, uh, heavy vocal editing as there often has been on my records that I've done with Gus.
- 1:03:27Terra Lightfoot: Uh, which is a normal thing.
- 1:03:29Terra Lightfoot: It's like a very normal approach to modern music.
- 1:03:31Terra Lightfoot: We edit the vocals, we try to beat our best take again and again and again.
- 1:03:35Terra Lightfoot: And you sing it like 12 times.
- 1:03:37Terra Lightfoot: And on home front it was just John in his studio, like next, right next door to this office.
- 1:03:42Terra Lightfoot: And, uh.
- 1:03:45Terra Lightfoot: know, it, it was so cozy.
- 1:03:46Terra Lightfoot: He's my husband.
- 1:03:47Terra Lightfoot: I'd love him to death.
- 1:03:48Terra Lightfoot: And he'd be like, okay, do you feel like cutting a vocal?
- 1:03:51Terra Lightfoot: I'd be like, yeah, and it wouldn't be perfect.
- 1:03:55Glen Erickson: Do you feel like some orange juice, do you feel like a wok?
- 1:03:58Glen Erickson: Like, which are we gonna do here?
- 1:04:00Terra Lightfoot: yeah.
- 1:04:01Terra Lightfoot: And, and that, that approach was so awesome.
- 1:04:05Terra Lightfoot: And it's something, uh, so unlike all the studios that I've been to where there's so much pressure, like when I recorded at Royal Studios in Memphis for Consider the speed, I was like getting in the vocal booth, uh, where Al Green recorded and like Anne Peebles, and you're supposed to sing into the same microphone and it's supposed to sound good.
- 1:04:25Terra Lightfoot: Like what?
- 1:04:27Terra Lightfoot: No.
- 1:04:28Terra Lightfoot: And so
- 1:04:29Glen Erickson: for it, and you need to get these takes done by X amount of time.
- 1:04:32Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:04:32Glen Erickson: All those things.
- 1:04:33Glen Erickson: That's a lot of
- 1:04:34Terra Lightfoot: all those things.
- 1:04:35Terra Lightfoot: And so that's all going through your mind.
- 1:04:37Terra Lightfoot: And here you're just looking out the window and your husband's going like, do you want a glass of orange juice?
- 1:04:40Terra Lightfoot: And you're like.
- 1:04:41Terra Lightfoot: This is pretty cool.
- 1:04:42Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:04:43Terra Lightfoot: but I think part of it too was like in the mixing or editing process, John and I would sit together and I'd be like, I don't want that changed.
- 1:04:52Terra Lightfoot: Like, just leave it.
- 1:04:54Terra Lightfoot: And there were a couple moments, especially where he was like, are you sure?
- 1:04:57Terra Lightfoot: I'd be like, yeah, it's all good.
- 1:04:59Terra Lightfoot: 'cause I want to present something like different and real and yeah, just a picture of the house, you know, about the peacefulness that I've found.
- 1:05:09Terra Lightfoot: Uh, and I wanna share it because it's changed me, you know, on a deep level living
- 1:05:15Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:05:16Glen Erickson: Was um, because the songs obviously sort of like dropping back as far as the layering, the instrumentation, the, the approach in general, did that open the door to sort of flowing a little more into very slight but noticeable like genre E overlaps, like the things that feel a little more, you know, Americana, but the countryside of Americana, like.
- 1:05:43Glen Erickson: There's a couple of songs, you know, that even have a little shuffle, um, you know, towards, you know, and then things that just feel like maybe an acousticy version of a, you know, it could be a rock song or something.
- 1:05:55Glen Erickson: So
- 1:05:56Terra Lightfoot: Mm-hmm.
- 1:05:57Glen Erickson: was there a freedom to just do however they came out?
- 1:06:00Glen Erickson: Um, completely.
- 1:06:01Glen Erickson: Is that like, rather than I need to sort of mix it up or any conscious decision?
- 1:06:07Terra Lightfoot: Yeah, I mean, John, so John and I produced it together and we both had different ideas of how things should be done, but his only really strong point.
- 1:06:17Terra Lightfoot: Fully produced red.
- 1:06:19Terra Lightfoot: Like he was like, this is my idea.
- 1:06:21Terra Lightfoot: I think this should be the groove.
- 1:06:22Terra Lightfoot: I think we should call Bill and get him to do a vocal.
- 1:06:25Terra Lightfoot: And that was that.
- 1:06:26Terra Lightfoot: And I was like, great.
- 1:06:27Terra Lightfoot: So much direction there.
- 1:06:29Terra Lightfoot: But on the rest it was sort of like just flowing with whatever we felt and like whatever we could get done, honestly.
- 1:06:35Terra Lightfoot: 'cause we had a deadline, so it was like, it has to be done by this time.
- 1:06:39Terra Lightfoot: And we were headed to Seattle and to visit his family.
- 1:06:43Terra Lightfoot: So it was like, we gotta get it done, so let's just like, if this song is finished, let's cut it.
- 1:06:48Terra Lightfoot: And that was sort of the approach.
- 1:06:49Terra Lightfoot: And it was like, are we using acoustic?
- 1:06:51Terra Lightfoot: Are we using piano?
- 1:06:53Terra Lightfoot: And it was just instrumentation decide and then get a good performance.
- 1:06:56Terra Lightfoot: And that was nice.
- 1:06:58Terra Lightfoot: 'cause normally you're like, what, what radio station are we writing for?
- 1:07:02Terra Lightfoot: And you know,
- 1:07:03Glen Erickson: That sucks.
- 1:07:04Glen Erickson: Oh, that's soul sucking.
- 1:07:06Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:07:06Glen Erickson: There's nothing better than feeling like someone's giving you the freedom to say, let's just get the good performance, and when it's done, we're done.
- 1:07:15Glen Erickson: We don't have to do 12 more like we know when we have it.
- 1:07:18Glen Erickson: So it's a great feeling.
- 1:07:20Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 1:07:20Glen Erickson: We, we have to talk about Red because, I'm older than you.
- 1:07:25Glen Erickson: Um, I think you were only eight years old when that first version.
- 1:07:28Glen Erickson: Came out, I was all over it.
- 1:07:31Glen Erickson: Right away.
- 1:07:31Glen Erickson: I was just, I was just like hungry for indie music in Canada,
- 1:07:38Terra Lightfoot: Mm-hmm.
- 1:07:39Glen Erickson: you know, because, uh, I mean, that's in 1994, Treble Charger put out Red and on their first version on the, on that record, and 1994 on the heels of the Seattle grunge sound, you know, in Canada, I felt people tried to turn that first Sloan record into a, a version of something that would be equitable with the Seattle sound.
- 1:08:04Glen Erickson: In Canada, Treble Charger was coming up, loud guitars in their performances.
- 1:08:09Glen Erickson: I think they were under the same pressure all the time.
- 1:08:12Glen Erickson: but I fell in love.
- 1:08:12Glen Erickson: That was like the song for me.
- 1:08:14Glen Erickson: And I, I moved to Edmonton in 1996 and between 96 and probably 2001, I probably saw every Treble Charger show.
- 1:08:21Glen Erickson: When they came through, I was a fan and that was.
- 1:08:25Glen Erickson: That was the song for me.
- 1:08:26Glen Erickson: That's the one that still lives on playlists to this day.
- 1:08:30Glen Erickson: So I was like, obviously very excited to see that you made a cover and then when I found out you actually recorded with Bill, for that song, which was really, really cool.
- 1:08:40Glen Erickson: So how long had that brewed in your life and how old were you when you,'cause you were only eight when version one of that came out.
- 1:08:48Glen Erickson: How, how old were you?
- 1:08:50Glen Erickson: Like where did you discover that song that it became something for you?
- 1:08:54Terra Lightfoot: I think I was around 12, 11 or 12 probably when, uh, my one cousin let me watch Days to Confused all of a sudden my mind opened up into
- 1:09:07Glen Erickson: that's way too young for days to confuse
- 1:09:10Terra Lightfoot: was like, whoa, so great.
- 1:09:13Terra Lightfoot: Um, but, so then it opened me up into all these different bands and so I think I heard it back then, but I wasn't like
- 1:09:20Glen Erickson: Yeah, that's late nineties for you then.
- 1:09:22Glen Erickson: So that's still the, the heart of trouble
- 1:09:24Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:09:25Terra Lightfoot: But you know, I, I think I saw the music video and everything, and then I met Bill because, uh, we have mutual friends, uh, from the band Don Veil.
- 1:09:33Terra Lightfoot: And so it started like, you know, I used to spend Christmas with those guys.
- 1:09:37Terra Lightfoot: It was like such a sweet little tradition.
- 1:09:38Terra Lightfoot: 'cause we all lived in the same spot, uh, in the same little town.
- 1:09:43Terra Lightfoot: But, uh, yeah.
- 1:09:45Terra Lightfoot: And then fast forward, I played s Saint Marie and I would always keep in touch with Bill if we were driving that wonderful highway, uh, from Winnipeg down onto Toronto.
- 1:09:55Terra Lightfoot: We'd call Bill and be like, what are you doing?
- 1:09:57Terra Lightfoot: Because he had a cottage inst St.
- 1:09:58Terra Lightfoot: Marie.
- 1:09:59Terra Lightfoot: Um, and we'd always go swimming there.
- 1:10:01Terra Lightfoot: And so this time I was like, Hey, do you wanna like, play with us?
- 1:10:05Terra Lightfoot: And thinking like, what could he play?
- 1:10:07Terra Lightfoot: Why don't we just play red?
- 1:10:09Terra Lightfoot: Um, and so my band backed up, bill, uh, and it was awesome.
- 1:10:14Terra Lightfoot: It was so cool.
- 1:10:15Terra Lightfoot: And I was supposed to take the second verse.
- 1:10:17Terra Lightfoot: He was so excited that he just sang through it.
- 1:10:19Terra Lightfoot: I mean, it's like muscle memory, right?
- 1:10:21Terra Lightfoot: 'cause he, toured for so many years playing that song.
- 1:10:25Terra Lightfoot: It wasn't normal for somebody to jump in.
- 1:10:27Terra Lightfoot: So, but it was awesome.
- 1:10:29Terra Lightfoot: It was like, yeah.
- 1:10:30Terra Lightfoot: Canadian heritage moment,
- 1:10:33Glen Erickson: yeah,
- 1:10:33Terra Lightfoot: for me and the band.
- 1:10:34Terra Lightfoot: Like we just had such a blast with him.
- 1:10:37Glen Erickson: That's amazing.
- 1:10:38Glen Erickson: That's, um, you see, you can ask a question sometimes there's a guy in my seat and you just don't know what the story's gonna be, and then you deliver a great story like that and then it just makes it even better.
- 1:10:49Glen Erickson: So, I'm so glad I asked about it.
- 1:10:51Glen Erickson: that was a great, they were a great band, I think really influential.
- 1:10:54Glen Erickson: I don't know that they get talked about enough.
- 1:10:57Glen Erickson: I think for what they were a part of was, was the band, the Killjoys out of Hamilton.
- 1:11:03Terra Lightfoot: Yes.
- 1:11:04Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:11:04Terra Lightfoot: I know Mike and Jean.
- 1:11:05Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:11:06Glen Erickson: Okay.
- 1:11:06Glen Erickson: That was another band that I used to see every time in that same era, every time they came.
- 1:11:11Glen Erickson: Through town and then it just all of a sudden struck me that I thought Killjoys was also Hamilton
- 1:11:15Terra Lightfoot: big shiny tunes?
- 1:11:16Terra Lightfoot: One, were they on big shiny tunes?
- 1:11:18Glen Erickson: They were on one of them for sure with um, I Today I Hate Everyone.
- 1:11:23Glen Erickson: Was that song they had on it?
- 1:11:25Terra Lightfoot: Raven Drool.
- 1:11:26Terra Lightfoot: I don't know.
- 1:11:27Glen Erickson: Oh, second record.
- 1:11:29Terra Lightfoot: Maybe.
- 1:11:29Glen Erickson: Yeah, I think that's second record.
- 1:11:31Glen Erickson: Uh, they did a cover of The One That I Want from the Grease soundtrack, like their semi punky style.
- 1:11:37Glen Erickson: That was incredible Live.
- 1:11:39Glen Erickson: I always wanted to hear a recording.
- 1:11:41Glen Erickson: Never got to.
- 1:11:42Glen Erickson: so how are you feeling like now, like you obviously have released tour dates and everything and the album's just been out, so I'm always curious to ask'cause the world just sees a new album come out and they think this is you right now.
- 1:11:58Glen Erickson: When it's been you brewing as I sort of spoke to it like for a long time.
- 1:12:05Glen Erickson: And it's a change.
- 1:12:06Glen Erickson: So I'm wondering how you're feeling about it being out and reactions and responses and, and all of all of that.
- 1:12:13Glen Erickson: How has that experience been so far?
- 1:12:16Terra Lightfoot: I think it's nice because I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of people that come to shows that like those quieter moments and like, we tend to deliver a loud rock show.
- 1:12:28Terra Lightfoot: Like every night I ask Eli like, what do you wanna do tonight?
- 1:12:31Terra Lightfoot: We should play something quiet.
- 1:12:33Terra Lightfoot: Or like give, you know, give people, give their airs a break.
- 1:12:36Terra Lightfoot: And he is always like, I wanna rock.
- 1:12:37Terra Lightfoot: I'm like, me too.
- 1:12:38Terra Lightfoot: Like it's a tough, it's a tough world, but you know, when you're in the energy of live performance, I've never been one of those people that can sit and play something quietly for an hour and a half, like.
- 1:12:51Terra Lightfoot: It's just not my, in my wheelhouse.
- 1:12:54Terra Lightfoot: So this has been an interesting, like I can't wait to play in Hamilton on Friday.
- 1:12:59Terra Lightfoot: Um,'cause we're gonna play the whole record front to back, so I'm gonna have to sit there and play quiet stuff
- 1:13:04Glen Erickson: For a long time.
- 1:13:06Terra Lightfoot: for a long time.
- 1:13:07Terra Lightfoot: And, uh, but I'm excited because it's like, it's an opportunity to try something different.
- 1:13:12Terra Lightfoot: And I always learn, you know, you always learn so much, um, from trying different things obviously, but.
- 1:13:19Terra Lightfoot: This'll be a big one.
- 1:13:20Terra Lightfoot: And I've been work workshopping the songs on my own.
- 1:13:24Terra Lightfoot: And with the guys, we did a big tour in Sweden and I just went out with Matt Anderson, the UK and Europe, and I played some of those soft songs like I played Counted On You from the record, which was quite, you know, it's like it's a vault, but people were like loving it and it's so quiet, like it, you could hear a pin drop.
- 1:13:43Terra Lightfoot: It was wild.
- 1:13:45Terra Lightfoot: And that gave me some encouragement because normally those aren't the things about me that are celebrated.
- 1:13:51Terra Lightfoot: We celebrate the, the Thin Lizzy part or the AC BC part and not the quiet stuff.
- 1:13:57Terra Lightfoot: So that, that's nice.
- 1:13:59Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:14:00Glen Erickson: And people.
- 1:14:01Glen Erickson: You make an assumption, people are walking in with what the press has pushed, which is exactly what you described, the loud parts, the things that you kind of had some identity built upon, uh, to get there.
- 1:14:13Glen Erickson: And I think it takes a while, doesn't it, as an artist, especially like rock and roll artist, to learn that the audience actually needs a breather sometimes.
- 1:14:24Glen Erickson: That, that we don't, I don't want a breather, but they actually like an ebb and a flow to a performance.
- 1:14:31Glen Erickson: It actually draws them in.
- 1:14:33Glen Erickson: You watch the greats do it and how they can like, like the hip maybe who are some of the greatest live performers.
- 1:14:40Glen Erickson: The way, even in a song that they extend for nine minutes, they can take everybody right down.
- 1:14:48Glen Erickson: And the payoff of course is that they'll bring them right back, uh, bring'em right back up.
- 1:14:52Glen Erickson: So, uh, but yet it still takes us so long to learn
- 1:14:56Terra Lightfoot: I know.
- 1:14:57Terra Lightfoot: Yeah.
- 1:14:58Terra Lightfoot: I.
- 1:14:58Glen Erickson: yeah.
- 1:14:59Glen Erickson: Thank you so much for your time, uh, like this has been fantastic getting to know you and your history and kind of all the things that have gotten you to where you are now.
- 1:15:08Glen Erickson: And, very excited to see sort of what's next in the future of like your career.
- 1:15:15Glen Erickson: Like you have about, I think five Studio album, well, I guess six, including your, uh, Self-Made one, which isn't on Spotify, your, your first one, but plus a studio album or a live album, sorry, that's on there.
- 1:15:29Glen Erickson: Um, which is a
- 1:15:30Terra Lightfoot: That's a lot.
- 1:15:31Glen Erickson: it's a lot.
- 1:15:32Glen Erickson: It's a great library,
- 1:15:33Terra Lightfoot: of albums.
- 1:15:34Glen Erickson: you've got, it sounds like you still have more inspiration and, and ideas and growth ahead of you, um, which is pretty cool.
- 1:15:42Glen Erickson: so thank you for the time sharing all that.
- 1:15:44Glen Erickson: I really appreciate it.
- 1:15:46Glen Erickson: And joining me and having a chat.
- 1:15:47Glen Erickson: And I just wanna wish you all the best and I, um, look forward to, uh, tapping dirt pack on the shoulder for, you know, a, a freebie.
- 1:15:58Glen Erickson: I'm just kidding.
- 1:15:58Glen Erickson: I'll pay for my ticket.
- 1:15:59Glen Erickson: Um, and to see next Terra Lightfoot show.
- 1:16:03Glen Erickson: Or if you bring the, I don't know if you bring the review.
- 1:16:05Glen Erickson: Do you bring the review show out
- 1:16:06Terra Lightfoot: I thought you were gonna say bring the riffraff and I was gonna
- 1:16:10Glen Erickson: Oh, no.
- 1:16:11Glen Erickson: Well, I don't, I don't know your guys well enough to, to call them riffraff, but, um, do you bring, do you bring the, um, the other touring
- 1:16:21Terra Lightfoot: the longest road show.
- 1:16:22Terra Lightfoot: Uh, I don't think we will in 2027.
- 1:16:27Terra Lightfoot: I don't think we will, but we might, you know, it would be something that I'd like to do in the future and that might involve also tapping in some, some, uh, more western like Midwestern Canadian talent.
- 1:16:39Terra Lightfoot: 'cause there is so much.
- 1:16:41Glen Erickson: Yeah.
- 1:16:42Glen Erickson: Well, your friend Begonia, she can, um.
- 1:16:44Glen Erickson: She's got get, she can get you going from Winnipeg and on,
- 1:16:48Terra Lightfoot: She's got some pipes.
- 1:16:49Terra Lightfoot: I've heard.
- 1:16:50Terra Lightfoot: She's got pipes.
- 1:16:51Glen Erickson: she's probably getting busy too.
- 1:16:52Glen Erickson: Like people are really liking her new record.
- 1:16:55Terra Lightfoot: She's amazing.
- 1:16:56Terra Lightfoot: She's the top of the tops and such a good
- 1:16:59Glen Erickson: incredible.
- 1:17:00Glen Erickson: She is.
- 1:17:01Glen Erickson: Um, okay.
- 1:17:02Glen Erickson: Thank you so much.
- 1:17:03Terra Lightfoot: Thank you.
- 1:17:04Terra Lightfoot: Bye Glen.
- 1:17:13Okay, and we're recording.
- 1:17:14Good Morning America.
- 1:17:17Where did that one have you been like sitting on that?
- 1:17:20You're like, I'm gonna throw'em off.
- 1:17:21No, that was, oh, okay.
- 1:17:22That was pure improv actually.
- 1:17:23Thanks for giving me theater lessons when I was a kid.
- 1:17:26You're welcome.
- 1:17:26Yep.
- 1:17:27Um, I think that's why I'm funny.
- 1:17:29That's, you think because the theater lessons you became funny.
- 1:17:34Yeah, he paid$5 every week and like now I'm a funny person that set me up really well.
- 1:17:39Was it like you just showed up and then handed some guy$5 and then you gotta be part of that theater little class?
- 1:17:45Yeah.
- 1:17:45And then I had a fake show.
- 1:17:46Isn't the class, it's like right beside where I work here?
- 1:17:48Yes.
- 1:17:49Oh, I do remember that.
- 1:17:50There was some weird kids.
- 1:17:51Some came outta the front door.
- 1:17:52Weird.
- 1:17:53At the end of your lesson, can I just tell a quick story just'cause I, everyone I've ever told this to last, we were doing an improv sketch and that place was just like weird.
- 1:18:02Like it was just like we rented that place, but.
- 1:18:04And doing an improv sketch.
- 1:18:05Lindsay and I were still relatively new to the whole like improv theater community in Edmonton and there was a couple kids that were weird.
- 1:18:11Anyways, one of them was in a scene and in this scene was like the door knob and this really weird girl and I'm gonna name drop'cause she'll never find this named, named Petra.
- 1:18:27Oh, her name was Petra.
- 1:18:29Oh.
- 1:18:29She was like five one.
- 1:18:32Like, like ginger, like redhead girl, like very, like, did not speak often, but when she did like just the weirdest things came out.
- 1:18:40But like thought she was mute for a long time because like she like refused to like speak during the scene.
- 1:18:45Like actual words?
- 1:18:46Yes.
- 1:18:46Like, just like, but like not like as a condition, just like chose to be anyways, during the scene, her chosen condition.
- 1:18:52Yeah.
- 1:18:53Okay.
- 1:18:53During this scene, um, Lindsay and I were on like a total terror.
- 1:18:57Like, we, like thought we were being so funny.
- 1:18:59She goes up to the guy being the doorknob.
- 1:19:02Grabs both sides of his head and twists like as hard as he could.
- 1:19:06As she could.
- 1:19:07And he fell to the ground and then the lesson ended.
- 1:19:10'cause he was like injured and his parents had to get called.
- 1:19:13And Lindsay and I, you know, we were upset about not him.
- 1:19:16The fact that our rule got stopped.
- 1:19:18Because you were on a, yeah.
- 1:19:19You were on.
- 1:19:19Because we were on a tear.
- 1:19:21Yeah.
- 1:19:21And I was like, man, that's crazy.
- 1:19:24I thought there was a kid in that that always looked like, you know, the kind of.
- 1:19:27Kid who would wear his winter jacket all the way through.
- 1:19:31Yeah.
- 1:19:32You know what I mean?
- 1:19:32Just not take his coat off.
- 1:19:33Yeah.
- 1:19:34There was definitely a couple of those.
- 1:19:36Yeah.
- 1:19:37Um, man, that was, that's interesting.
- 1:19:40But people paid to watch us take in.
- 1:19:42Yeah.
- 1:19:44That's crazy.
- 1:19:45I know, I know.
- 1:19:46I know exactly what you're saying.
- 1:19:48Um, man, well, congrats on being funny.
- 1:19:51Thank you.
- 1:19:51And congrats to me for.
- 1:19:53My$5 a week investment.
- 1:19:55Yep.
- 1:19:56Um, life lesson to all the parents, young parents listening.
- 1:20:00Um, so, uh, episode 31, winding down season two.
- 1:20:06Yeah.
- 1:20:06I might add, uh, conversation with Tara Lightfoot.
- 1:20:11Uh, Tara, um, this was like the first conversation I've ever had with Tara.
- 1:20:17I think we've talked about this a couple times before where I'm starting to enjoy.
- 1:20:23People you don't know.
- 1:20:24Yeah.
- 1:20:24Yeah.
- 1:20:25The whole, you know, the whole approach to it and the whole preparation.
- 1:20:29And then actually, um,'cause part of preparation, you build up, you build up a perception of the person that you're gonna talk to.
- 1:20:38Mm-hmm.
- 1:20:39Right?
- 1:20:39In the same way that maybe in a simpler way, like just listening to an artist Yeah.
- 1:20:44For a long time and watching maybe some of their videos or things online, and you'd build up a perception of.
- 1:20:51What they might be like if you were to meet them.
- 1:20:53Mm-hmm.
- 1:20:54Um, and the same thing happens at another level when you like read articles that they've been interviewed or had conversations in already, or just what people are saying about them.
- 1:21:03But it's always a little different on the other side.
- 1:21:06Well, it's also, I think you also like it, this is my speculation, uhoh, because when, no, it's not a bad thing, but when you're like doing it with an old buddy or someone like you have a pre-established relationship with.
- 1:21:19Like you're perceived already, you know?
- 1:21:22Mm-hmm.
- 1:21:22But like when there's a new person like you are going into that having not been perceived yet by them, by them.
- 1:21:32So you can kind of like frame yourself in a manner that like coincides with almost famous enough and like the parts of your personality that you pull while interviewing.
- 1:21:48And like you, like, you know, like,'cause'cause when you talk to someone, like for example, like, I guess like the we pull episode, like the, you said that was one of the best, like, I'm not saying it's a negative thing, but it's different because you're talking to them the way you talk to the guys.
- 1:22:01Yeah.
- 1:22:01And you know how they perceive you already like Yeah.
- 1:22:04Saying that was like the best for me was a different version though.
- 1:22:07It doesn't, that's what I mean, like the best, like it's not comparable.
- 1:22:10No.
- 1:22:11But even like people you, you know, like, even like Dan.
- 1:22:15Yeah.
- 1:22:15Like, you know, you know, going into that you're perceived well by him, whereas like someone else, like you have to put in that work and like, and frame yourself in a certain way.
- 1:22:24Well, I think you enjoy that.
- 1:22:25You're very sociable.
- 1:22:26Yeah.
- 1:22:26What you're getting to is the thing that I sort of joked about with Begonia, which is, um, I've sort of started to think about it and frame it like, I've just been flirting my whole life.
- 1:22:36Yeah.
- 1:22:37Like, yeah.
- 1:22:38It's like, I call it flirting because I'm like, I'm trying to influence their perception of me in a positive way.
- 1:22:44I want them to like me.
- 1:22:46I don't necessarily want them to like me, like me.
- 1:22:48So flirting is a bit of a, you know, it's just a silly way of saying it.
- 1:22:52Yeah.
- 1:22:52Good call.
- 1:22:53Um, anyhow, so I, all that is prefaced to say again, like super enjoyable conversation.
- 1:23:02Yeah.
- 1:23:02I loved that.
- 1:23:03Tara hit on.
- 1:23:06I think I, you know, I was talking to you about the core, when I get a core message that aligns with the podcast, one of the core messages or reasons for the podcast about what success actually means and redefining success and being able to articulate it.
- 1:23:21Mm-hmm.
- 1:23:22Uh, so I really enjoyed that part of the conversation.
- 1:23:26Um, I got a little.
- 1:23:28I got a little dicey, I went into a little dicey territory by, with the woman comments.
- 1:23:33Yeah.
- 1:23:34With pulling up, you know, just the fact that this is a, a burden that she has to bear through every interview.
- 1:23:42Mm-hmm.
- 1:23:42And at the risk of being, just by saying, so bringing it up in another I interview.
- 1:23:48I like when you first said that to me, I was kind of on the fence of like.
- 1:23:53Was that a good idea?
- 1:23:54Yeah.
- 1:23:54'cause it's like, it's a very fine line I think of like you framing it as like commentary on the fact that everyone brings up.
- 1:24:02Her being a woman guitar player.
- 1:24:04Yeah.
- 1:24:05Like I want to have an objective conversation, but subjectively I'm inside.
- 1:24:09You're bringing it up.
- 1:24:09I'm inside the world of another interviewer.
- 1:24:11That's what I mean.
- 1:24:12I'm like, it's a fine line of like, are you one of them or are you commenting on them?
- 1:24:16Yeah.
- 1:24:16And I was very aware that I was rolling the dice and I wasn't sure.
- 1:24:19And you're a man.
- 1:24:20And I'm a man doing it.
- 1:24:22And normally I would actually profusely apologize for that when I bring those up.
- 1:24:26But I somehow being around, somehow I skipped that somehow through, I was trying to actually talk to her.
- 1:24:32Guitar player to guitar player.
- 1:24:33Yes.
- 1:24:34Right.
- 1:24:34Is what I was trying to get at was like, don't just tell me again what it's like to be a female, quote unquote.
- 1:24:39Mm-hmm.
- 1:24:39And the, and the absurdity of that question, but it's like, tell me what it's like being a guitar player and then like, obviously a part of that is Yeah.
- 1:24:46For her experience being a female.
- 1:24:48Yes.
- 1:24:49But I, I want, but I think we all that's can make our assumptions about that, centered around that.
- 1:24:54Yeah.
- 1:24:54So I was trying to go.
- 1:24:55A layer past that.
- 1:24:57Right.
- 1:24:57Which is like, we don't need to talk about the absurdity of that, that trope that gets thrown around.
- 1:25:04Yes.
- 1:25:04I said, can you just tell me a little bit about whether you think there is actually any part of like how a woman would approach, because there's a lot of things in the world, you know what I mean?
- 1:25:20That are the exact same activity.
- 1:25:22Mm-hmm.
- 1:25:23That.
- 1:25:24Y you know, depending on, again, this whole spectrum conversation, you know, the, the how much presence of what we would probably define as quote unquote femininity versus masculinity would have itself imprinted on the activity.
- 1:25:41Yeah.
- 1:25:41Um, but there was just too many hairs to split in that and know she was.
- 1:25:46Awesome gracious about talking about it, and I was thankful that she just thought about it and then said, no, I don't think there is a difference.
- 1:25:53And, and I, and I admitted that I said this, like I kind of, this is a little bit off the top of my head, so.
- 1:25:58Mm-hmm.
- 1:25:59So then I was thinking about it and I'm like, yeah, this is actually the point about how gender fluidity and the, and the spectrum ness of it actually relates, relates to.
- 1:26:13Actually what I would want to get at, which is like the expression of guitar playing and how you try to imprint yourself and create a style is really what it's about.
- 1:26:22Yeah.
- 1:26:22When you pursue it, it's gonna fall at different, it's more about that.
- 1:26:28Yeah.
- 1:26:28Anyhow else.
- 1:26:28Yeah, and that's probably coming more from like nurture from how, where and how you were raised in your worldview and all this kind of stuff.
- 1:26:38So.
- 1:26:40It was a rabbit hole that actually I opened up that I would actually love to think about more was, but I had to stop myself in the middle of the conversation from That's not what people were there to listen to in the episode.
- 1:26:51You were like, this is about to be a three hour episode.
- 1:26:52Yeah, it could have been, but uh, didn't need to be.
- 1:26:55Anyhow, she's very gracious.
- 1:26:56She had some great things to say, so I'm really thankful, um, that the conversation went the way it went in a couple of places and, but I love that that's something to think about and I love that.
- 1:27:09She brought up a couple things to think about, like even just bigger than music.
- 1:27:15Just the, the, the pervasive notion of relationship building and how, you know, a lot of people could just, um, diminished the concept of like success via.
- 1:27:34Relationship building mm-hmm.
- 1:27:35As like, oh, it's, it's not what you know, it's who you know.
- 1:27:39Yeah.
- 1:27:40But that's, that's not fair because there's just some real, like nice human truth to like, good people can succeed because they're good people.
- 1:27:53Right.
- 1:27:54And because people want them to succeed.
- 1:27:56And when you build a good community and when you're kind to people everywhere you go and you're really good at building.
- 1:28:02Connections and relationships.
- 1:28:04Like those people are gonna want you to succeed.
- 1:28:07They're gonna want to help you.
- 1:28:09Yeah.
- 1:28:09And you, you know, that should be celebrated, not like, yeah.
- 1:28:13Anyhow, that's kind of some of those things that I was left thinking about afterwards, which I like it when there's things that are bigger than just music that mm-hmm.
- 1:28:23That are just really nice.
- 1:28:24Get your thinking.
- 1:28:25Human moments.
- 1:28:25Yep.
- 1:28:26Um, real quick, we can just have a super fast.
- 1:28:31Uh, Spotify RAP came out.
- 1:28:33Yes, we are excited about Spotify rap.
- 1:28:35It's like my personal Christmas just coming out today.
- 1:28:38We're recording this.
- 1:28:40The night before posting.
- 1:28:42So, yep.
- 1:28:43Uh, everybody by saying Spotify wrap, they will know that anyhow, if they're paying attention.
- 1:28:47Uh, so this is just a little promo plug for us to say.
- 1:28:52Next week is episode 32, and that will be a wrap on season two.
- 1:28:59Mm-hmm.
- 1:29:00Just before Christmas and New Year.
- 1:29:02And so season two finale will be next week.
- 1:29:06And then the week before Christmas, the 18th of December, we are going to have a special post fame plus episode post fame plus.
- 1:29:15Very good.
- 1:29:15Thank you.
- 1:29:16Thank you.
- 1:29:16You're sharp.
- 1:29:17And we are going to just do a quick review on our Spotify wraps and, and, and stuff.
- 1:29:24So that's why I was thinking I shouldn't.
- 1:29:27Don't go look at my Instagram stories today.
- 1:29:29Did you already?
- 1:29:30I looked at some, but I also like, I can't because I realized I posted a bunch of stuff and then I was like, oh, but we should have maybe, well, I only posted one thing on my close friends, and you're not even on that, John.
- 1:29:41What?
- 1:29:42Yeah.
- 1:29:43Okay.
- 1:29:43This is a big revelation for everybody.
- 1:29:45I'm not, everybody tells me how wonderful they think it is that we do this together and how sweet it is, and now they're gonna be like, because you don't wanna see that, that's boring for you.
- 1:29:55No.
- 1:29:56That means that you're posting weird or inappropriate things that you don't want your dad to see.
- 1:30:00That's all that means.
- 1:30:00Don't see what I posted today.
- 1:30:02Just wait.
- 1:30:03No, I don't.
- 1:30:03Now I'm worried.
- 1:30:03Well, first of all, no.
- 1:30:04Well, first of all, I showed you my story the other day.
- 1:30:05It was about people using AI on essays.
- 1:30:08And then, okay.
- 1:30:09Don't look too hard.
- 1:30:10But look it, it's just the playlist of it made for me.
- 1:30:13And I said, putting this John on repeat.
- 1:30:16Oh.
- 1:30:16Because it's all the songs I listen to.
- 1:30:18Okay.
- 1:30:18Isn't that so scandalous of me?
- 1:30:19Why are you making me feel so old?
- 1:30:21What is it?
- 1:30:21What do you mean by John?
- 1:30:24Because like Blake, if it's not the name John, I grew up where that means it's a man who just purchased a prostitute services.
- 1:30:32What?
- 1:30:32That's what the slang term was.
- 1:30:34That is for a dude that got arrested or awful is someone who uses it.
- 1:30:38No, John is like just another, um, way of like referring to like anything basically.
- 1:30:47Like if, like if you were like if on your laptop and you needed like a password, I could be like, pass that John over.
- 1:30:54That makes no sense.
- 1:30:55But for guys, it's like, good for you guys.
- 1:30:56You're referring to like the, like object.
- 1:30:58Listen man, every, every object is a genre.
- 1:31:01Well, any, it's like the, the, the topic that you're discussing anyways, not let's back on track.
- 1:31:06Focus on your story.
- 1:31:07Okay.
- 1:31:08And I didn't post intentionally on my public story.
- 1:31:12Um, good.
- 1:31:14Yeah.
- 1:31:14The only people I've talked to about it were some people in my class and the.
- 1:31:18Um, front desk worker at the gym this morning.
- 1:31:20Okay.
- 1:31:21So here's what I will tell you without giving anything away, okay.
- 1:31:25What I will tell you is that in my five top songs Yep.
- 1:31:29Where we assume that they're probably not songs from this year, a lot of the ones,'cause we just keep playing some of our favorites.
- 1:31:36Yeah.
- 1:31:36Solid three of the five are songs that were for sure in last year's.
- 1:31:41Okay.
- 1:31:41For me.
- 1:31:43Two, were not, both of them actually surprised me.
- 1:31:46And the two that aren't are one and two really.
- 1:31:50So interesting.
- 1:31:51Also, the artist that they said was my top album.
- 1:31:57Mm-hmm.
- 1:31:57Listened to by minutes.
- 1:31:59Very interesting.
- 1:32:00Which we'll have a conversation about.
- 1:32:01So I'm happy that there's interesting things to talk about, but did you like, my question is, did you like the new little inclusion with these listening reports?
- 1:32:09Okay.
- 1:32:09Like the biggest day in, in, you know.
- 1:32:13Your, you know, what your, like your loudest day or whatever that you would call it or whatever, stuff like that.
- 1:32:18Yes.
- 1:32:18I have two things to say.
- 1:32:19My first one is regarding that also.
- 1:32:21This is gonna be a 20 minute episode and you said, let's make it five, but do this.
- 1:32:24I'm a ya.
- 1:32:26Um, okay.
- 1:32:28The little files.
- 1:32:29Yeah.
- 1:32:30I, I'm Snoopy, I love to know things, so I, I have to be a fan.
- 1:32:37Like the two that I have saved were like biggest music listening date.
- 1:32:43Like love that me and a bunch of like people in my class were showing that and like, not to get too much into those'cause we're gonna have an episode.
- 1:32:49Yeah.
- 1:32:49But like my, I love that it tells me like how many minutes, how many tracks, how many artists.
- 1:32:53Like I love that.
- 1:32:55And then the other one was like, biggest indie folk day.
- 1:32:57Like that kind of stuff.
- 1:32:59Oh, I had the same, um, I don't love and indie rock my in.
- 1:33:02Okay, but did you love the way AI actually wrote you a little story?
- 1:33:07No.
- 1:33:07And name dropped like tunes and pretended like you started doing this and then you did that.
- 1:33:12You know why?
- 1:33:12Because I've been pretty on my anti AI grind.
- 1:33:15I, I know.
- 1:33:17But so then I was like, no, because they have such cool, like designers and people on their team who do.
- 1:33:24This.
- 1:33:24Well, it's a nice style.
- 1:33:25The whole thing's a, I like the style, I like it, but like, so that's a person I think.
- 1:33:29I don't think AI made that style.
- 1:33:30No, that's what I'm saying though.
- 1:33:31I was like, it could have been pure, it could have been, uh, it could have, you know what, but I still enjoy it.
- 1:33:38Also the friend I was talking to, his biggest music listening day was awesome.
- 1:33:42It was just like banger after banger and it was my birthday, but we didn't know each other yet, and I told them that's why.
- 1:33:48Okay.
- 1:33:48You wanna know One of the tidbits about my two of my days, like my most nostalgic day and my biggest music listening day, I think are both when I look at the playlist.
- 1:33:59Days that I made some funky choice at work.
- 1:34:03'cause I'm off the one who plays Yeah.
- 1:34:05At work.
- 1:34:06That's funny.
- 1:34:06If I'm at work for like nine hours, you're like, and I've been playing it and then it's like the day you let the nineties soundtrack from sunrise, noon to midnight.
- 1:34:15Well it's, that was the day I specifically, I know for a fact.
- 1:34:18Anyhow, do wanna hear my funny tidbit?
- 1:34:20Yeah.
- 1:34:21Um, and it's the only one that,'cause it doesn't matter.
- 1:34:23I said this last year, so.
- 1:34:26And I said this in the car this morning, every single year since 20 18, 20 19, whenever we started focusing on these.
- 1:34:31Mm-hmm.
- 1:34:32I've had the same top song and I was like, guaranteed I'm not having it this year.
- 1:34:38Because I like didn't listen to it as much and I didn't, but it was my top song again, guess how many plays.
- 1:34:45I had on this one song on the year.
- 1:34:48Oh, I don't know.
- 1:34:48It's always a ridiculous number to me.
- 1:34:50789.
- 1:34:51Yeah, that's a lot of plays.
- 1:34:52And you know what?
- 1:34:53I don't sleep to the song anymore and yet.
- 1:34:57And yet.
- 1:34:58'cause last year that number was in the nine hundreds and it's'cause I, I sometimes fell asleep to that song on repeat.
- 1:35:03Yeah.
- 1:35:04And I thought I was so well bathed.
- 1:35:05Nope.
- 1:35:06And I, that was on like that little playlist I posted on my close friends under each song.
- 1:35:10In the playlist, it shows you how many lessons you had on the year and everyone regretted how awesome my playlist was and only commented on the fact that the top song had that many.
- 1:35:21And I said, people need to stop perceiving me and my psychopathic repeat behavior because they're missing that my music, they're only is awesome.
- 1:35:29They're perceiving because you go around telling everybody about your Spotify wrapped.
- 1:35:33I do not.
- 1:35:34Well, how else would they know?
- 1:35:35Because they come and ask me.
- 1:35:38Yeah.
- 1:35:38Okay.
- 1:35:40I actually did not bring it up today.
- 1:35:43Okay.
- 1:35:43Other than with you, because you love to know.
- 1:35:45I don't know if that's, I can believe that it is.
- 1:35:48You didn't bring up your Spotify wrapped at all.
- 1:35:50You were, people came to me the first, you were talking about it to the, to the.
- 1:35:53A person behind the gym desk this morning.
- 1:35:56She brought up this morning.
- 1:35:56She brought up, she brought it up?
- 1:35:58Yes.
- 1:35:58I, I brought it up to you.
- 1:35:59'cause I said, oh, my workout just got interrupted because it came out.
- 1:36:03And then I said, do you know why?
- 1:36:04And then you bluntly ignored me and then I didn't, I didn't even hear what you said.
- 1:36:08No, you bluntly ignored me.
- 1:36:09And then she put her hands up and went Spotify wrapped.
- 1:36:12Yeah.
- 1:36:12You were down.
- 1:36:12And then we, then we went a girl gab ses.
- 1:36:14Yeah, because my, she was like, wow, that girl just got like shunned by her father.
- 1:36:18Time for me to leap in.
- 1:36:20This is why you're not my close friends story, by the way.
- 1:36:23Oh.
- 1:36:23Well, he shun me at the gym.
- 1:36:25Well, we've, well, we closed, we put a bow on all of it then by, yeah.
- 1:36:30Wrapping that part up.
- 1:36:31Anyways, everyone should get really excited for that episode because Yep, we, we'll, it's pretty awesome.
- 1:36:37Compare some notes.
- 1:36:39Yep.
- 1:36:39On some things and some surprises.
- 1:36:40I'm gonna write some predictions I have for yours.
- 1:36:43Oh, that'd be good.
- 1:36:44And then, we'll, I want you to like, send me some of your screenshots and we'll like put a couple of our, like our lists on the.
- 1:36:50Not before we read the episode.
- 1:36:52This not before.
- 1:36:53Oh.
- 1:36:53When we do it.
- 1:36:54Okay.
- 1:36:54Yeah, because sound good.
- 1:36:56It's a static.
- 1:36:56Yeah.
- 1:36:57Okay.
- 1:36:58Cool.
- 1:36:58Cool, cool, cool.
- 1:36:59Okay.
- 1:37:00Goodbye.
- 1:37:00America.
- 1:37:00Dog's looking at us.
- 1:37:01We need to get off before she picks up.
- 1:37:03Yeah.
- 1:37:03'cause she's like, it's bedtime.
- 1:37:05Okay.
- 1:37:06Okay.
- 1:37:06Bye.
- 1:37:07Goodnight.