SPEAKER_00 0:01

Well, hello. Hello. How's it going, Christy? It's good. We're here at the uh Creative Download Podcast. We're back. Yeah, episode five of season two. No, we've done two seasons. We're I am like so proud of us, Chelsea. I am too. I'm really proud of us. Um we had a great guest last uh week that we that spurred on what our topic today is going to be obstacles, getting through the obstacles in art and our experience with that. And but I we always want to see what we're working on. So what are you working on right now, Chelsea?

SPEAKER_02 0:40

Um let's see. So I'm still working on the song. I think I mentioned it last time. It's kind of a Nordic, um sort of chanting, you know, cinematic-y kind of piece uh that would be good, like for Game of Thrones or or that kind of thing. It's really fun. It's it's something it's not something I've ever done before. So, but it just kind of started coming to me. And I was like, ooh, okay, I'm gonna see where this goes. Um and then uh I actually I I had some fun. Uh I've been wanting to kind of get more into product photography. Um for those of you guys that are listening that maybe haven't, you know, don't know us. Um I do real estate photography kind of as my day job, and uh I but I really want to kind of get into product photography. I think it'd be really fun. And I actually I I volunteer with a local um animal rescue here that they're the best. Shout out to Parker's Animal Rescue, they're so great. Um so yeah, I got to do the they're doing a silent auction, and so um they asked if I'd want to do the photos for the items. No, yeah, so I got to like set them up and you know, do all so it was really fun. So cool. Yeah, so what about you? Well, and then working on our TV series, of course.

SPEAKER_00 1:51

So yes, this our TV series. I you know, this has been such a fun uh experience doing the TV series, but it's um a bit a big learning uh experience for right, you know. So um, yeah, it's so cool. Um, and we're getting we're moving along. That was so I'm working on the TV series and um just finished Black Sheep, the song that I've been working on for months. Well, yes. So we have um our our musician partner George just got us back the music, so we did you know one more run. You know, here's the thing with songwriting that I've never done before and recording. Once I made the decision, like a couple years ago, that I really wanted to focus on songwriting, I really wanted to focus on recording and um and also going into sync licensing, which is we've talked about this before, but you know, writing with the not writing for sync, because I don't think that works for me, and I don't think songs come out as well, but writing with that in mind, so we really do have a theme, and this song was very like a lot of my experience that, but the lyrics were all written by my co-writer Lori, and then I do the melody, that's my job, and the vocals, and George, you know, uh writes the music, and the amount of revisions that we do now on songs is and there is a point where you have to say enough, and I think that we finally got this is it. Like, I can't go anymore. This is the final one. We can make a few tweaks on the mix, and that's it. Because you can go in a whole bunch of different directions with the song, but it's so different than what how I did uh my recording in the past, and um it's just been really like amazing. Like we did we've we've completed six songs, um, and our project name is 2am Epiphanies, and in a year, and there's a part, it's you know, I think that's good, but there's a part of my brain that's like, oh, I could we could have done so many more, but actually, no, because with each song, the rewrite and getting the key right, the the everything that needed to go on, and then I was doing all the vocals, so I've learned in this year you've been recording to do and produce all my own vocals, which is so new for me, but I love that because now when I work with a producer, um, I don't have I have a little bit more autonomy on that. I can get help from them, or I can say they may add stuff effects to my vocals, but I can really control it. And um, man, but I did am a bit of a perfectionist. And on this song, I really wanted it to come out right. So I did a lot of vocals. A lot of work on vocals. Yeah, so that was nice. That was good. I'm not sure we're gonna release this one. I'll have to we have we don't release all the songs, you know, that we do because some of them we want just specifically to pitch for uh television and film. Oh, true. And and then if it, you know, once it's placed, we would release it. So we we haven't decided on this one, but um, so been doing that, and um what else have I done? Work. I've been really busy with work as well, um, which has been great. And um really just you know, music and TV series and work right now. Um oh I did do, you know, and I'm gonna talk about this on our our um this will kick us off into the obstacles in our art. So um currently George is not doing music right now, he's taking a break. I hope he doesn't mind that I'm saying that. I mean, break from what we were doing.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:53

And so Lori and I are still working together, but we don't have the music side right now to work with. And so I don't know if you saw there was a brief, you know. So Chelsea and I are in, um, I hope you are okay if I say this. Oh yeah. We're in a uh coaching, a music coaching program, elite music coaching, and it's uh it's a coaching program for sync. So get it, you know, learning how the business, all these aspects of what television and film look for in songs, right? And so there might be briefs that come out, and there's a brief that came out like overcoming. I don't know if you saw the brief, but um, I think I missed that one. Well, so we don't have the music person. So Lori and I were like, well, let's just do a song where the obstacle we don't have I could do, but we're gonna do it with no music. Yeah, so I did a whole vocal song. Well done. And it came to me always doing the dishes. I don't know why I'm doing the dishes and I'm singing. I sing a lot when I clean and do the dishes, and I was like singing and humming this little tune, and I just decided I kind of got this melody with the it's like a chant, kind of like a chanting vocal, but it's like you know, it's like kind of what you would imagine somebody like running up a mountain, kind of yeah, you know, in a way, and so I just went right in and now I can do my own vocals. So I just went right in and I um recorded it and I did some harmony to it, and um, so we'll see. I don't know if I'll submit it for the listening session, but um, that's so I'm so proud of you because you did submit yours to the listening session. Um, and now I realize like, oh gosh, if I submit this, it's all me. I'm the musician, my I'm the vocalist. I do everything. The critiques, it seems like a little overwhelming. I, you know.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Oh, I get it. Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 7:54

I don't know if I'll do that, but yeah. But yeah, let I'm sure so that's overcoming an obstacle. The obstacle is we don't have our our musician that we usually work with right here. Just so that doesn't mean we give up and we don't do it. Right. We have to find another way. That was kind of like the idea. And so Lori and I even thought we might do five songs like this where um no musical instruments. Yeah, the whole all the song will be vocals, all five songs. We're gonna do five of them. All five songs will be vocals, and then I we can do rhythmic, we can make sounds like uh that with non-instrument um things. So um I can collect sounds, you know, and use them and just see how that comes out. You well, you remember the sound design stuff that we watched. Like it really encouraged that. So yeah, that was so fun. Yeah, so that's a way we're we're starting that to overcome that obstacle for right now, you know. So we're working with another producer, which we have one, we have somebody lined up from Sync Titan, Steve Peckman, who's gonna do our next two songs. Yeah, yay, but not till next month. So we're gonna work on these other ones. Yeah, I love that.

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, so great. Well, and I I had a similar obstacle to overcome um for one of my songs that I'm working on. Um, and you and I have talked about this, but uh a little bit, but um uh let's see. So this piece is it I I think I've I think I've mentioned this song before, um, but it's it's would be really good for a Grey's Anatomy or you know, drama, things like that. Um uh for for you know, if it was in placed in uh film or television. Uh and that's the one that I submitted for our listening session, and you know, so I got a lot of feedback on it, and and I was pleasantly not necessarily surprised because there I'm getting better at not us just immediately assuming if I create something that it's well, I'm not sure that's gonna be good enough. Uh that used to be my mentality, and gosh, there's another obstacle we can we can come back to. But um I'm getting better. Internal obstacles. Internal obstacles big time. But I'm getting better at you know, when I finish something, or or like get it to a stage where I'm like, okay, I'm ready for somebody to listen to this and get feedback. I'm getting better at, you know, is this you know what? This has this has some there's there's something here, you know, versus, you know, I I enjoyed writing that song, but I'm just not I don't feel it for anything. Totally fine. You know, that maybe that was just a to get me to the next song, you know, type of thing. Right. And so this song, um I really felt like when I got done with it, I was like, uh okay, there's something here. And uh and so then I submitted to a listening session, got some really good feedback. Um, but my obstacle was I don't I don't have a producer. Um I'm trying to, I mean, I'm I call myself a budding music producer, but it is I am very, very much in the budding phase, you know. Yeah um there's so much that I that I need and want to learn. Um, but I really wanted to find somebody that that might be able to come alongside me, you know, and say, okay, you know, listen, listen from a you know, five foot view versus like you know, inches away like I am right now. Um and so I reached out to somebody in our community and um very excited because they do they're a producer, like they and they and they're a musician, you know. So they were a good option to to like reach out to and um you know, so hoping we'll work together like in maybe in the next month or two. He's working on, he's got some other projects he's finishing up. Um he was very excited and encouraged and was like, yeah, if you know, when I when I finish some of these things up, let's let's work on this. And in the meantime, he gave me, you know, while you're working it on on it on your own, try, you know, X, Y, and Z. And so he gave me kind of you know, small little checklist of things to to focus on, to work on, which helps me become a better producer. So that was a huge obstacle because I it's not at all that I don't want to work with people, like we've talked about that. Like you and I both now know and understand and realize the importance of collaborating. Oh, yeah. You know, and again, for for those of you out there that, you know, not in the music world, you know, your art is something else, like collaboration can be huge. Um so I just haven't had the right community up to this point, you know. But ever since being in Sync Titans and and and some of my other communities that I've involved, involved in, you know, different, you know, people in the industry. Um it's been really cool because that's you know, other people have helped to be what gets me through the obstacles, you know, the some of the external ones.

SPEAKER_00 12:56

So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I know I'm so excited and he's so positive. I know who you're I know who you're gonna work with. Very positive.

SPEAKER_02 13:04

Yeah, very good dude, but also like has a lot of things to his name, you know. So like he's got, you know, and he's I don't get the impression that he's going to just fluff somebody up, you know, like he'll be honest, but he is very positive about it, which is nice.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

Yeah, okay. So that and that's a whole other let's talk about the obstacle of criticism. Or not criticism, critiquing. Critiquing. So yeah, so you know, um, because that's a big art. I think that is a big one for artists and and songwriters. And I think any writing, anything that we're doing, right? So, like this, what our program that we're in with Sync Titans is very safe and it's a it's it's uh, but it is a place that you come and you bring your art, your song in this case, whether it's an instrumental or or just a vo, like a, I shouldn't say just, but the vocal uh chant that you did and all the harmonies that you did with that, which were really great. Um, or it's a fully, fully produced song with uh you know, vocals and all these instruments. Right. And you and we put it forward to what we call a listening session with everybody, and we are in this listening session listening to it for the possibility of it being picked up for uh a song in television or film to be licensed, and then you receive the critique. And um, and it can be that it to it really took me a long time to be able to get to that point. Same. Because the obstacle of that critical inner critical voice or whatever that is gonna really take it, take the critique that I need to get better. There is a line that Mike Myers did say to us a lot in that coffee meeting that we met, where we met. Do you want to grow or do you need validation? And I have to ask myself that. And that is a really great tool that he handed us when you really sometimes I just need somebody to listen to my song and tell me, like, good job. Like, this was a hard song to do. Good job. Right. And I don't need the critique, but I need to know what I need to know that. You know, like that's my job to go, and I don't always, but I've learned how to like check in with myself and to know like where I'm at in the stage of the creation of the song, right? Because that's where I'm working a lot. So I now know, like the first time we went to a listening session, Lori and I had just come out of a really intensive songwriting critiquing. So we were used to the songwriting, like the actual just the song itself. This is not about production. So we were comfortable with that because we'd just gone through like two months of serious critiquing. Right. Where you know, there were times I thought I wanted to quit, which that's another obstacle, right? Quitting or not quitting. Yep. And like, what do we do when we want to do that? For me, I've been like, let's just go to sleep on this and not quit yet. Right. You know, and because there's been a lot of times I've been overwhelmed to want to quit. And what we took a song that was just me and a guitar, and the look on everybody's face and Sink Titan at that listening session was priceless because it was we didn't get it at first. Like they aren't gonna critique our song, they're gonna critique the production. Yeah, and that was a whole different thing we had to learn, you know, and that and then to be told that. Like we kind of were like, it's a to be vulnerable, you have to be vulnerable to get better, yeah. And the obstacle to that is oftentimes the fear of vulnerability for me, the um fear of being told I'm not good enough. Yes, um, that's a big one for me. Yes, and um, you know, I think because of the upbringing that I had, which was so like like not encouraging in this area for me, I did something that my grandmother would always say, You're always leaping before you look. And my response to her was because if I looked first, I'd never leap. Right. I have to leap. Yep, and then be able to like hopefully deal with whatever's coming at me. That's kind of how I've done my art. And now I've wanna be a little bit like I need to part of that leap. I said then, okay, I'm leaping, but then where do I need to learn from this? You know, right.

SPEAKER_02 18:04

So yeah, and that that makes me like that. That's a great point on the on the leaping before you look. Um, because I I feel like sometimes that's the easiest way to get over an obstacle, like an like maybe maybe an internal obstacle, you know. Yeah. I think back to um when I went to grad school and it was so funny because after after we graduated, so my husband and I both got our our master's, and after we graduated, uh, you know, I was looking, I was trying to get jobs, I was looking at different things, and I and I kept asking him, I was like, man, I just I just wish I knew where I was going or what was happening next, blah blah blah. And basically he was like, Would you have gone to grad school if you knew what was coming? He's like, all the project that you had to do, you know, when you're in those, he's like, think back to some of the harder moments, you know. Would you have gone had you, would you have leaped had you looked first? And I'm like, oh damn, that's a good point. No, you know, and I think sometimes with our art, we kind of have to do the same thing. And and I catch myself all the time, and this is something this is a an obstacle that I am working through currently as an artist, is I quite often will look too much and not leap enough because and then I'll and then I'll get myself, you know, caught up in, oh gosh, and then I need to know how to do this and make sure I get it into this platform and then you know, and then metadata and all these different things that that you know, even if you guys listening don't know what that is, just the the tedious stuff that's with sync placement, you know, and if I I will totally get myself completely stuck in that when I don't even have the dang song finished, you know, and ready to go. Yeah, you know, and it's like okay, so leaping into okay, this is what I know I need the very next step I need to do with this song, you know, one one of the the song that I'm working on with this producer in the future is it needs cello and it needs and it has to be its own cello part, you know, and I feel like I have a very specific thing that I just need to leap into, you know, because I don't know what that sounds like yet until I get back into the song and listen to it some more. So, anyways, um, yes, I think that's a really good point because like I think too many of us, just in life in general, but especially as artists, we look too far ahead or we just or we look at to what we think is is going to happen without actually leaping, like without actually just just dive in. And I I mean I can throw it back to our podcast, like and and you know, not to pat ourselves on the shoulder like in a oh look at us go, because good lord, we you know have issues with our podcast. We have you know, we had a I had an audio issue with the last episode, you know, but we fucking leaped.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

Yeah, like we leaped. Robin would be so proud of you, yes.

SPEAKER_01 21:12

Yes, she would.

SPEAKER_00 21:16

Oh, she was so but it's true. Yeah, I mean, if we would have thought about the podcast too much, we would have but so that's the other thing. It's like I uh uh to to go along with that. One thing I've learned about myself that I get stuck on. So why I I think I learned a leap so much is because I have this, and I think it's a defect, I think it's a dysfunction personally, yeah. That I should know stuff before I know it. Oh that makes sense. I do the same thing. I can't know stuff before I know it. You can't know what you don't know. And so, and and and and actually, um one of the uh one of the the the gentlemen that you're working with, Rick, that you're gonna that you've been talking to, he He was very inspiring and saying once that he's been working on Pro Tools. Pro Tools is a um program of production, right? That a lot of producers use. And he's been doing he's been on it for 25 years and he still has stuff. He'll he'll never learn all of it. He's still learning. And I thought, oh my gosh, thank you. Because what happens to me sometimes is that I think I especially with this kind of stuff, like with my vocals, you know, and like learning how to do my own vocals and like and like overcoming the obstacles that need to happen. Like maybe if you can't find a cello player, okay, you're gonna have to do the cello part, right? So um you're not gonna go learn cello, but you're gonna learn how to do it on the um MIDI, right? Or you're gonna learn how to do it in production, right? It could you find if you could find a great cello player, great. If not, that's the obstacle to overcome, right? Like is you have to find a different way.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

Yeah, and I have a cello player that I'm gonna use, but I still need to come up with the melody that I want.

SPEAKER_00 23:06

Well, okay, right. And so there's there's that, so the vulnerability is there, but then the other thing is allowing yourself to make some mistakes because we're not gonna know everything, yes, right? So that's where like I um feel like I'm so sorry, I've developed this leaping before looking because sorry, hold on.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

I'm so sorry. My I told my mom we were recording and she's calling him.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

No, hey mom. Yeah, how are you doing? Oh, I'm sorry. Yeah, it's loud. It's okay. I can't we won't make too much longer.

SPEAKER_00 23:47

Was she vacuuming or something?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

No, she's she's putting something up in her bathroom and she's using the drill, and I'm like, Oh, I didn't even hear it. That's so oh good, okay. I'd say I wasn't sure. I was like, I don't know if we can hear it, but um I don't, but maybe it picks up. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah, it was loud enough, so I was like, I don't know. Okay. Um so I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 24:08

So you were talking about more with the little Well, just that we can't know what we don't know, right? So sometimes when we're learning an art, that's part of it is like experimenting and just like going for it without knowing. Yes, and then and then but like maybe reflecting on what did I learn in this? Yeah, you know, like what could I have done different, as opposed to like, you know, I can be really hard on myself and feel like it's not happening fast enough or it's I'm not, you know, uh I'm not good enough. Like just really watching that critic, yeah, like the obstacle can be that critic, but but then I'm not gonna know everything, right? Right, like I'm not gonna know everything. I'm not gonna know everything about vocals, I'm not gonna know how to do everything right, I'm not gonna know how to do everything in production. And if I can let go of some of that stuff and just kind of like like I did this vocal thing, I just was like, I have to trick myself sometimes and be like, oh, let's just pretend like we're playing. Like I have to like say things. Oh, yeah. That's pretty much through elegical critic. Yeah. Like, you know, just don't get so far down the road, just create the song, let what's coming through come through, uh-huh, and then see what happens. Yeah, try some different stuff. Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_02 25:30

I uh yeah, I I love that. I'm I'm I'm getting better. I'm learn I learned from Robin from last week. Yeah. Um, she would take notes as we were chatting because she wanted to make sure that she was able to be a part of the conversation and listen. Okay, but things would pop up, and she, you know, wanted to remember that. So I'm that so those of you guys that are watching this, I'm sitting here writing down notes. Um, because one thing that you made me think of was okay, so I I have another like kind of prime example of overcoming an obstacle. Um before, so maybe about three years ago now, um, I started learning Logic Pro, which again for for you musicians or you non non-musician artists out there, um, that's just a it's a digital audio work, what is it? Workspace, work face, workspace, workspace, not workspace. Um and you know, like Pro Tools you were mentioning earlier. So that's what that's what I use. I know that's what you use, Christy. Yeah. But I used to think that like my understanding of a DAW, digital audio work workface space, was it's for the final product. It's for the you know, when you've got the song ready to go, you just need to get it recorded. You jump in Pro Tools, Logic, whatever. So I kept getting really stuck A, because some of the things that I do musically, I don't know how to do on an instrument, um, or or I don't have the skill, you know, the the ability um to get out what's in my head. Um, or you know, I have multiple things going on. Like I can I we usually when I do an I any kind of melody or lead line, I I almost always have a harmony that's like in the back of my mind that comes up pretty quick. And, you know, so all all of that I'm going, oh, and I hear us like sometimes I'll hear a very specific, you know, drum beat. Um so I realize, I'm like, oh my God, okay, well, that's one of the big obstacles for me. You know, again, like this was like three to four years ago. Big obstacle for me was being able to take an idea in my head and get it to the level, even if the production quality itself wasn't amazing, getting that whole idea down, you know, each of the parts. Um I really didn't know how I I didn't know what I didn't know. I didn't know what I was missing, I didn't know what I needed to overcome that obstacle. I was like, how do people do this, you know? And um it just so happened at that time. That's when I met Mike Myers, songwriting for guitar. And I was like, you know what? I'm gonna do some coaching for music. And that was that was a scary, scary leap. Um because I'd never spent, you know, like a deal, you know, a significant amount of money on on anything for music aside from my instruments. But I something like my gut told me, like, you need to do this. This will be a huge leap forward in your uh music life. You know, I don't even want to say career because who knows what will ever happen with music, but my my music life needed that, you know. So fast forward to working with Mike, he helped me realize you know, the DAW, you know, the this the system needs to be utilized kind of right away. Like when you sit down to play with music, I mean, unless you just genuinely, you know, want to sit down and you're just gonna fiddle around on the guitar because it feels good on your fingers, totally great. If you're an art, you know, you're a painter and you're just gonna sit down and play with color because you just need something bright, you know, but you're not doing anything with it, great. But I knew that most of my stuff I wanted to sit down and and you know, access it and build it. So he taught me how to use the DAW, you know, how to use logic. And that opened up where I'm like, oh my God, that's something I didn't know that I didn't know was using the DAW was what I needed. I mean, and and looking back on it now, I'm like, well, that's sound, that seems like, how did I not realize this before? You know, but I'm finding that I'm not the only musician out there that's realizing that, you know. Like even you and I have talked, where I'm like, yeah, this is how I do this, you know, X, Y, and Z. And, you know, back when we first met. And you're like, oh, okay. So I like I remember having those conversations, you know, and I talk with other musicians where I'm like, this is how I do this. And especially now, like that kind of is what's unlocked and opened up my chanting songs for for lack of a better word, right now. My chanting cinematic stuff. Because now that I have an a really easy way, because I've because I've worked on and practiced with using Logic Pro, I know the basics and and a and a little bit beyond the basics. Now I can sit down and I can get out that melody, and then that harmony that's that's flying on the wings right there, you know, and X, boom, I can get that out. And usually right at that point, I'm like, there's the low harmony. Oh, and here's the percussion, you know, track, track, track, yeah, you know. But I didn't know that's what I needed. I but I took the leap when I found what I thought would guide me, aka Mike, yeah, to to that point of figuring out what it was I needed. That was a huge obstacle.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Well, you know what? I want to say that one of the things you're pointing out is, and I went through this a lot with music, is you're a songwriter. So, like, once you know, like the thing with musicians, and I mean, I feel like creating songs, it like using a tool like garage band. I use garage band. If you have a Mac and you're listening to this, you have it on your Mac. You have automated program. And I when I taught songwriting to middle school kids, that's one of the things we learned. I learned that we did we did exactly that. Get out your your um Mac, put up your garage band, get your song that your idea recorded there, so you have it. Here's the thing with songwriters, I feel like that well, at least my experience, how where what I do to improve the songwriting, yes, taking music lessons is helpful, but it's what kind of music lessons I take is what is important. So, like having a class or and I because I've done the songwriting for guitar too, where you're learning how to use the instrument for your purpose, which is to write a song. I don't want to learn Beethoven personally, right? I don't want to learn classical music on guitar or on piano. I'm sorry for anyone listening that you love it. I like to listen to it. Yeah, I like listening to it, but I don't want to play it. And you know, it's funny, when I was a little kid, my mom, I could I mean, no one knew, I didn't even understand I was a songwriter until way later in my life. Yes, um, that's part of the problem. Like, you know, so if I'd go to take piano lessons, I was so bored. Yeah, I mean, I don't know how many times I've gone to take piano lessons, and the piano teacher has done the same thing.

SPEAKER_02 33:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:03

Okay, we're gonna learn ode de joy, and we're gonna learn right, nothing wrong with that. Great, right? Learn all those things, but that is not was was not what I wanted to do because I wanted to write, I had these songs coming out. I needed the tool to be able to do that. The obstacle in my way oftentimes was I was not being taught, so I'd quit, you know, I'd quit, or I'd you know, I don't know how many keyboards I've bought. Oh, same. So I I really would prefer to write songs on the piano. I love piano, yeah, but guess what? The obstacle was for me that every time I'd go take piano lessons, I was being taught how to do something I had no patience for, no wanting to do it. And then so I went to the guitar because I could do chords on the guitar, and I'm actually a rhythmic person. Same. So I write rhythmically and then I sing my melody. So like I have figured out I've had a lot of obstacles to get around that I felt like I needed to get around. Like, okay, I can't do music, so I'll take dance. I can't like, do you know what I mean? I'll be in the chorus, I'll do this. Um, you know, wanted to be a drummer in fourth grade. I know I talked about this before. Wanted to be play the drums in the school, and they told me that the girls couldn't do that. Oh, I got to choose clarinet or flute. Hey, you know, so it was like, but so I just did chorus because I liked the melodies and I could sing it. So it's I think I'm saying all this more so that like as artists, we have to do our art. Yeah, it's gonna come out one way or the other. So the overcoming the obstacle is uh doesn't matter really what happens, I'm gonna find a way to do this. Yes, and that's what I like about this little project that we're doing, which is just like the obstacle could be you could take everything from me, everything and throw me in a jail cell. Right. God forbid that's never gonna happen.

SPEAKER_04 35:08

Right.

SPEAKER_00 35:10

And you could not take away my voice. Yep, you could not take away my sound. Yep, you could not, I could still write a song. Now, maybe I couldn't record it in there, right? But unless you like cut my vocal cords and tied my arms down, I could make sound. I could make a song. And that's like to me, like part of like it's almost like a performance art thing that I want to do with the song. I want to prove like you can't take this away from me. In fact, the funny, the best song, the first song I ever sang live in my my uh first uh vocal class in front of the was You Can't Take This, You Can't Take That Away From Me by Herschwin. Loved it. So I I'm much more and now I I'm looking for a vocal coach who also will teach me how to piano for songwriting. Yes, because that's a whole different way of learning piano. And I'm very visual and I've learned, and my actually my guitar, old my guitar teacher who was teaching me different types of uh ways to write songs. I was like wanting to so I took flamenco guitar so I could learn a little bit of a different style of picking to change up my songs, yeah. And um, she ended up teaching me a little bit more of how to do it on the piano because it was making more sense to me on the piano. So all of that that I'm saying is that the obstacles that might appear to be obstacles, if you're really, really going to do your art, you're gonna do your art. Yep. No matter what. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 36:56

Yep, find a way to do it, find a way to do it, and and you know, and I've I've kind of I've kind of already talked about this a little bit on that chanting song that I'm that I'm doing and some of my other like chanty cinematic-y stuff, but um, yeah, that was exactly it. I would not have gotten to that point if I hadn't pushed through some of the obstacles of um like my why it's so funny because like it was it was actually kind of a subconscious thing in this regard, because my brain was like, no, we can get this idea down, you know, but but the idea was more of like for a full orchestra and you know, um, you know, multi-vocals and stuff, you know, and I think my brain knew that it was like, okay, just don't think about it because you're you're gonna get overwhelmed and you're not gonna do it. So then my brain was like, okay, here's what we're gonna do. We're gonna give you just this little vocal piece. You don't know what it's for, just record it, you know. And I was like, oh, I really like this melody. I don't have any lyrics to it. I'm just doing uh, you know, the ah or the ooze or whatever. Yeah. And then and then my brain, so it was like my brain almost like took over and was like, okay, we're gonna be your friend. My brain is not always my friend, but it was my friend in this case. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Then it would give me the next piece. I was like, oh, you know what would sound good with? I mean, I'm not kidding. This is almost like how it felt. Oh, you know what would sound kind of fun with this melody? Oh, we've got this harmony here. Go ahead and get this down too. Oh, oh, you know, oh man, you know what? This would this would be so fun if it had this like ding, you know, like part beat, you know. And then all of a sudden I've got these like five tracks, and I'm like, and I think it took me a couple of months and before, and I did a couple more of these, and I was like, well, they're fun to get out, and I don't know what they are, but I'm just gonna do it. That was obstacle number one was wow, what am I gonna use this for? I don't know, just do it, just get it out. And then obstacle two was thankfully my brain took care of because I didn't realize that I was orchestrating. That was me orchestrating a song. Yes, because I I don't play tons of instruments. I I you know I can play guitar and piano to fool people, but people that don't play, you know. Yeah, um I don't play any other instruments. I love drums, but I've I've barely touched them before. You know, and all like all these other different and and I love cinematic pieces that have, you know, the clarinet, the oboe, you know, trumpets, and but I don't know how to actually play those. I know how to do them on my MIDI keyboard and get the sounds, you know. But but that doesn't mean that you know how to just because you have access to the sounds doesn't mean you know how to orchestrate it. You know, that is a very magical thing. And so I just think it's funny that my brain knew that I wanted to orchestrate these songs, but I didn't know how. And if I thought about it too hard, I wouldn't do it because of that. I don't know how to do that. What am I doing? So my brain took care of the obstacle for me. So I think sometimes yeah, sometimes we do just have to trust ourselves that you know, sometimes subconsciously, you know, just whatever is hitting you artistically, even if it makes no sense or it sounds like the dumbest idea, like I will forever be a proponent of when you are in the brainstorming phase, uh and even sometimes down the road, but like when you're in the brainstorming phase, when you've got that quote unquote blank page in front of you, you put down whatever is coming to mind because you never know what that's going to then lead to. You never know what that's going to become in and of itself. Um, and you don't need to know in that moment. Right. So I I think that's one of the things with overcoming some obstacles, internal or external. Well, I guess the that I guess that this is more of an internal, but you know, overcoming those obstacles, one thing you can do for sure as an artist is don't question yourself in the creation, in the moment. Just get it out. Turn off that inner critic, uh let yourself play, let yourself have fun, whatever's coming to you, even if it makes no sense, if it's something you've never done before, especially if it's something you've never done before. All the more reason to just do it, you know.

SPEAKER_00 41:15

Yeah, and that's kind of explaining which is beautifully said, the creative world, you know, like um, and we really need that. Like you said, your music life earlier, right? So I like that you say that. I'm like, I'm gonna I'm gonna steal that from you because it is my songwriting life, my music life, my art life, my creative life. I need it. We all actually need it. We all need it. But we really live in a culture, the big there, there are the obstacle, but obstacles on the external off often is that, and and George actually talked about this a little bit when we had him on of the productivity. Yes, you know, like, and you just mentioned like it doesn't matter where it's going. Like you can to get into to be able to allow yourself into a creative space, to be able to let that flow is such a part of humanity and human life that we need to have music in our life. We need to have art in our life in different ways, all of us different, you know, and to have different ways of creating. And we do it just to be creative. We don't do it for an end result necessarily. Now, sometimes we hope there's an end result, right?

SPEAKER_02 42:31

Right. And that's not wrong to want.

SPEAKER_00 42:33

That's not wrong to have that, but like for an example, I was so excited for my son to take art in middle school because my son's very creative, our son's very creative. And I know that they're in school, there's like you have to have, you know, there's standards they have to meet for each state or whatever, but there just really was no room for creativity. It was just like, here's what you need to learn, and here's what you need to produce. Right. And um, it's so sad to me. I think it's like a that's why we do this podcast. So we talk about just do that, just have some creativity and have some fun. Tap into that inner part of yourself. And if there are obstacles, it you we all have them. And I think this is a good spot to like kind of mention to that. Our next guest that's gonna be on is a good friend of mine. Her name's Brita Firm, and she is a she's a talented artist, uh, painter. She's a talented, very talented pianist, and she has had some really nice wonderful success, but she's also had a big obstacle in her life with her eyesight.

unknown 43:42

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 43:42

And she's gonna talk about how she adjusted that, and she's brilliant. She just she she's been such a a woman of service and have helped people. And um, I can't wait to have her on, and we're gonna have her next time. Yeah, and um, you know, and also, you know. Uh I wanted to say one other thing. I I did not still because I heard thank you, Robin. You know, if there's a book called Where the Red Fern Grows, and uh it's one of my favorite children's books, Get Ready to Cry. Oh, yeah. I haven't read it yet. He I think he had dysgraphia or something, the author. So he had this story in his he had these stories in his head. Oh, that's right. Yes. I think I've talked about this before, and he really didn't under one of the things about dysgraphia is um it's really not comprehending. It's almost like the brain works way faster than the hand.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:44

So I'm gonna use, I'm gonna say it like this because this is how I've watched it happen. That the that if someone's brain is going so fast with the creative idea that actually writing it down is the obstacle. Yes. Because the brain then kind of gets too, it's it slows down and the hand can't move as fast as the as the creativity coming in. So today we're so lucky we have ops ways to get around that, right? We have you can talk it, you can, you can, you can go on now and just you could do your whole book without having to type or pick up a pencil. But when he wrote that, and I cannot remember his name, but I know the title of the book, so you'll have to all look it up. He did not have any kind of grammar. He couldn't do that grammar, he couldn't do all of that. He would not, that was the obstacle. So his wife encouraged him to just write it down. So he went to a hotel room and he literally wrote as it was coming out no no capitals, no punctuation, no, no grammar at all. And he just wrote the whole story, and that's the only way he could get it out. And she went back and she did all the grammar for him so that he could then, and he was so uh terrified of anybody reading this because he felt like he wasn't an author because he couldn't do the grammar, but the story was coming in. Yep. So, what a beautiful way to get over the obstacle. Oh, you know, um, Albert Einstein was very much the same way. His ideas and everything would come so fast, he actually has they they say now he had dysgraphia. His wife did a lot of his mathematical writing of his um, like wrote for him, and maybe even did the math problems that were coming in his head. So he didn't do it alone, yeah. So that's another way of getting and the the where the red fern grows. I can't even believe we wouldn't have that book if he wouldn't have done that, right? It just has been it was such an amazing story, yeah. So I think um, unless you have more to add, no, this is that's a perfect overcoming obstacles yeah, yeah. So, you guys, if you're listening, thank you so much. We love that you're listening. We are on Instagram of the creative podcast download. So if you haven't liked us, download podcast. Did I say it backwards? Yeah, that's okay. Which is minimum podcasts, yeah. Um, talk about my brain.

SPEAKER_03 47:18

I know, I like my meetings.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

So please uh follow us, like us. Um, and then we also, if you'd like to watch this on YouTube, it's also under the creative download podcast. We're on YouTube, but also on all of the other platforms. So we appreciate you listening. We love we love uh doing this podcast and we love hearing from you. We do hear from our listeners, so thank you so much.

SPEAKER_02 47:43

Yeah, thank you guys, and yeah, join us. Uh join us next time. Uh, we'll have Brita on. I'm super excited to meet her. I haven't met her yet. Yes, very excited to meet her and have her on. So um, yeah, so join us next time. And uh thanks, thanks again. Yeah, I reiterate what Christy said. Thanks for joining us, y'all.

SPEAKER_00 48:01

Yeah, bye you guys. See you next time.