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Speaker 1: Taking a Walk Nashville.

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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, this is Sarah Harrelson, your host of Taking

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Speaker 2: a Walk Nashville. Today's episode is brought to you from

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Speaker 2: the Russell, a historic East Nashville church transformed into a

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Speaker 2: one of a kind boutique hotel. The Russell's mission is

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Speaker 2: to give back into the Nashville community through their Rooms

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Speaker 2: for Rooms program by donating a portion of each day

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Speaker 2: to local nonprofits who are helping those experiencing homelessness. Visit

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Speaker 2: russell Nashville dot com to a book your experience today.

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Speaker 2: So here with me in the Russells podcast studio is

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Speaker 2: Will Pequin, a musician originally from Boston that gained widespread

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Speaker 2: recognition in twenty twenty when his guitar riffs and debut

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Speaker 2: song Chandelier went viral on TikTok, accumulating millions of streams.

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Speaker 2: His indie rock and alternative songs blend elements of classical

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Speaker 2: guitar with heartfelt lyrics and energetic instrumentation. I'm really excited

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Speaker 2: to dig into Will's story today and discuss his upcoming

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Speaker 2: album ha ha ha. So thanks for being here today, Will,

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Speaker 2: How are you?

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Speaker 3: Of course I'm good.

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Speaker 2: So it sounds like you just moved to Nashville a

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Speaker 2: few days ago, right, So what brought you here to Nashville?

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Speaker 3: I would say love, Love brought me to Nashville. I

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Speaker 3: met my now girlfriend. I was out here recording an album,

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Speaker 3: the album that is coming out, ha ha.

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Speaker 2: Okay.

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Speaker 3: I was recording it here in Nashville because my friend

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Speaker 3: lives here and he's an engineer, so he engineered the

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Speaker 3: whole thing. But while I was here, I met my

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Speaker 3: girlfriend Kabby, and I was living in LA at the time.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so he came from LA, not Boston, right, Yeah.

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Speaker 3: I grew up in Boston, went to school in Boston,

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Speaker 3: but was only in LA for a year.

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Speaker 2: Okay. Nice. How's your experience of Nashville been thus far?

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Speaker 2: Even though you're new.

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Speaker 3: I have spent a lot of time here, Okay. I

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Speaker 3: spent like three months maybe writing the album here and

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Speaker 3: recording it, so I kind of got to see a

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Speaker 3: little bit of Nashville. But I am still pretty fresh.

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Speaker 3: I don't really know the spots yet. I don't have

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Speaker 3: many recks. People are always asking me like, oh, what

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Speaker 3: would you wreck, like, what would you recommend going to?

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Speaker 3: I just I don't really go places or at least

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Speaker 3: I haven't been in places.

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Speaker 2: So yeah, there's definitely a lot to explore in Nashville.

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Speaker 2: And a little bit about your backstory. Just curious when

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Speaker 2: you posted your music on TikTok in twenty twenty, were

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Speaker 2: you trying to go viral with your music at that time?

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Speaker 3: It's funny, well it's it didn't know, I guess, short

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Speaker 3: answers no, because I didn't really. It was more just

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Speaker 3: a fun pastime for me to do while covid was

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Speaker 3: happening and school was on Zoom, you know, I would

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Speaker 3: just play guitar all day. Yeah. And my sister is

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Speaker 3: the one who told me about TikTok, my little sister,

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Speaker 3: and she's like, you should just make you should put

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Speaker 3: your videos up here. And I was like, okay, I

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Speaker 3: guess so. So I downloaded TikTok and kind of it

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Speaker 3: took off pretty much within the first video that I made. It. Wow,

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Speaker 3: it kind of caught on. It was kind of new

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Speaker 3: to be playing guitar, I think on TikTok when I

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Speaker 3: came into it, so it was kind of like a

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Speaker 3: new thing. I don't know, within like four months, I

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Speaker 3: think it really, it only took four months until Chandelier

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Speaker 3: got released from then on, So it really only took

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Speaker 3: four months for me to get that idea for the

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Speaker 3: song and then end up recording it and releasing it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, at that time, quick before you went viral, were

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Speaker 2: you trying to become a full time musician and make

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Speaker 2: that your career?

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Speaker 3: Certainly? No, certainly not. I was just going to school

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Speaker 3: for advertising. I went to be U Boston University, and

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Speaker 3: I was just getting a degree in advertising, which I

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Speaker 3: was like fully prepared to be in that industry. I

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Speaker 3: had like an internship. So it was definitely a switch

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Speaker 3: when I had to make the decision to kind of

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Speaker 3: stop focusing on that career path which I'd been kind

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Speaker 3: of prepared for my whole life. Yeah, and within like

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Speaker 3: pretty much overnight, had to really decide what I wanted

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Speaker 3: to prioritize. And it took me a while actually to

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Speaker 3: fully accept that maybe there is a chance that I

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Speaker 3: could be a musician full time, Yeah, because that was

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Speaker 3: kind of a dream that I had that had kind

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Speaker 3: of died years and years ago because I just I

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Speaker 3: don't know where I grew up. It seemed like not

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Speaker 3: an option like where I people just didn't They just

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Speaker 3: like weren't musicians. They weren't really playing music or listening

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Speaker 3: to the music that I listened to, So it just

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Speaker 3: didn't seem like a thing.

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Speaker 2: Right, So you could say social media definitely helped influence

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Speaker 2: your career path in that way.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it definitely created the career path for me, I'd

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Speaker 3: say so, yeah, I mean that was it was definitely

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Speaker 3: a big shift for me that year.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, and advertising can definitely like having that knowledge,

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Speaker 2: I'm sure helps you a lot with your own career.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it's probably subconscious. I don't it's I always think

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Speaker 3: about how much that has helped me, and I think

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Speaker 3: it has. It's just hard to determine what I learned

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Speaker 3: in school and what I had just already known, right.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. So a lot of your music features finger picking

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Speaker 2: and rips on the guitar and even the recorder, which

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Speaker 2: is cool. Some of your musical influences and what did

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Speaker 2: you listen to growing.

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Speaker 3: Up, Well, I was kind of all over the place

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Speaker 3: I grew up. I mean, my dad was really into

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Speaker 3: music and still is really into music. So he introduced

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Speaker 3: me to a lot of stuff from when I was

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Speaker 3: like born onward. He's still turning me onto new music.

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Speaker 3: But forties through sixties pop music was what I kind

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Speaker 3: of grew up listening to, and I still listened to it,

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Speaker 3: but that was really the foundation of where my earliest

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Speaker 3: influences came from. I think like my first musical awakening

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Speaker 3: was when I kind of started listening to the Beatles

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Speaker 3: a lot. Okay, I'd say the Beatles were like the

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Speaker 3: first musical, like major musical influence in my life. And

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Speaker 3: that was when I was like eleven or something. And

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Speaker 3: my friend Will, who produced this album, he's my childhood

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Speaker 3: like best friend. His name's also Will, but he's the

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Speaker 3: one that got me into the Beatles, and we just

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Speaker 3: spent fourth and fifth grade just only listening and talking

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Speaker 3: about the Beatles. That's like all we did.

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Speaker 2: Were you playing guitar at the time.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, Yeah, I started playing guitar when I was around eight.

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Speaker 2: Okay, so you could just emulate the Beatles on guitar

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Speaker 2: and we would like write like Beatles copy songs and

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Speaker 2: sing harmonies.

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Speaker 3: But yeah, I started playing guitar before that. It was

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Speaker 3: kind of a My dad played guitar before that, but

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Speaker 3: he hadn't really been playing since I was born, so

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Speaker 3: it was kind of I didn't really associate guitar with

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Speaker 3: him until like he showed me he had like an

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Speaker 3: old guitar that he had from when he was in

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Speaker 3: school and playing in bands. It was kind of like

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Speaker 3: a classic. I pulled it out from under his bed

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Speaker 3: and would like play it in secret. Nice yeah, and

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Speaker 3: I kind of did just fall in love with it immediately.

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Speaker 3: I was like obsessed with it, like pretty much that

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Speaker 3: day forward, and I still kind of am. I'm still

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Speaker 3: learning new stuff as much as I can.

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Speaker 2: Were you doing shows at all at that point before

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Speaker 2: you started doing TikTok?

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Speaker 3: I mean shows is a stretch. I was playing like

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Speaker 3: in my friend's backyard. I had a little band that

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Speaker 3: was oh. I was in two bands early on. I

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Speaker 3: like had my own band where we'd play like bluesy

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Speaker 3: covers like rock led Zeppelin, what else. We played like

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Speaker 3: Freddie King And but then I was I played drums

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Speaker 3: in my friend Will's band, and we were doing more

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Speaker 3: like beatlesy type things so cool. I was kind of

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Speaker 3: doing both of those at the same time. And then

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Speaker 3: once I hit middle school, I pretty much stopped writing

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Speaker 3: my own music and like taking my own creative stuff seriously.

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Speaker 3: But I still played drums in my friend's band, and

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Speaker 3: that was just like a nice creative outlet.

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Speaker 2: Well, you definitely wear a lot of hats between songwriting,

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Speaker 2: playing multiple instruments, and also audio production. You've been known

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Speaker 2: to record songs and unconventional places like your car and

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Speaker 2: a closet. So did you teach yourself audio production and

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Speaker 2: why did you choose these places to record versus a

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Speaker 2: studio at the time.

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Speaker 3: Well, my friend Will. I keep giving my friend Will

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Speaker 3: shout outs, but he got really into recording music around

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Speaker 3: twelve or thirteen. He had like a little track that

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Speaker 3: he I remember when he showed me the first song

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Speaker 3: that he ever recorded back then, and I was just

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Speaker 3: blown away that that it just didn't seem like a

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Speaker 3: possibility that you could just record your own songs. I

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Speaker 3: just wasn't aware that you could do it right. So

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Speaker 3: that kind of turned me on to recording really early stuff.

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Speaker 3: Like I recorded some demos when I was like thirteen

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Speaker 3: on garage band. That was like my first intro to recording.

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Speaker 3: But I mean the unconventional places was a lot of

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Speaker 3: out of like insecurity, I'd say, because I have always

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Speaker 3: kind of kept my music stuff a secret because a

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Speaker 3: lot of my friends don't they're not really music people.

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Speaker 3: They're not into music. It was just always like a

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Speaker 3: or My own writing has always been such a personal process,

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Speaker 3: so I think back then, I was like really scared

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Speaker 3: to have someone hear something that wasn't finished yet, right,

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Speaker 3: So I would like record in my basement closet when

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Speaker 3: I was like thirteen, or I would turn my amp

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Speaker 3: up really loud and play and then record vocals on

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Speaker 3: the sly so that no one would hear me singing.

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Speaker 2: Like was your earlier music self produced? Like Chandelier?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah, so this was all when I'm only talking

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Speaker 3: about when I was like thirteen, but right, I mean

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Speaker 3: I pretty much stopped through high school and pretty much

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Speaker 3: into college until COVID hit. But yeah, Chandelier, I recorded

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Speaker 3: a lot of it, like in my car because that

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Speaker 3: same type of insecurity. Like all my friends were rugby players,

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Speaker 3: like I was on the rugby team, and they were

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Speaker 3: very not like music forward, right people. So I was

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Speaker 3: like again just finding myself, keeping it a secret from everybody.

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Speaker 3: I'd recorded most of my my first like four songs

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Speaker 3: I recorded in my car at night.

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Speaker 2: Well it shows you you don't always have to record

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Speaker 2: in a studio because the quality of it is sounds

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Speaker 2: really good.

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Speaker 3: Oh well, I listened back and I'm like, oh god, yeah,

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Speaker 3: that was definitely. It was always I always had like

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Speaker 3: a DIY approach. I always thought that a DIY or

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Speaker 3: it was. It was the only option that I had,

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Speaker 3: so I didn't really consider doing anything else, right, I

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Speaker 3: really just had like a computer back then.

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Speaker 2: Was this your first time in a studio recording your

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Speaker 2: new album? Okay?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 2: How was that experience compared to you know, you're used

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Speaker 2: to doing everything on your own.

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Speaker 3: It was really nice, Honestly, It's like I did miss

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Speaker 3: aspects of having full control over stuff. And also the

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Speaker 3: real major difference was I'm playing with a full band on.

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Speaker 2: This okay, so there's other musicians on it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we're just doing like live takes, and that's the

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Speaker 3: cool foundation of the song. When before I would have

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Speaker 3: to just do everything like I'd play the guitar, and

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Speaker 3: then I didn't have a drum set, so I would

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Speaker 3: have to figure out some way to go around making

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Speaker 3: a beat or making some sort of percussive element. That's

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Speaker 3: why none of my songs have drums in them until no.

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Speaker 2: Okay, And you're a co producer on the album right

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Speaker 2: with your friend Will.

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Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, but yeah, I mean Will kind of took

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Speaker 3: control over the engineering aspect. My band I've been touring

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Speaker 3: with for years, so we're pretty jelled already. And I

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Speaker 3: just sent demos to them that I did my I

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Speaker 3: did my little DIY demo album that I sent to

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Speaker 3: the band, So I got that little like I was

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Speaker 3: able to scratch that di y h.

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Speaker 2: That's cool. And you recorded it here in Nashville with studio.

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Speaker 3: At Last Dollar OKAYO, it's very nice, very nice studio.

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Speaker 3: My friend is the he's the engineer there, so we're

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Speaker 3: able to get in there. Cool for like a month.

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Speaker 2: Did your band come into town with you or are

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Speaker 2: they already in Nashville?

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Speaker 3: They are spread out. My bassest Abby lives in La

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Speaker 3: now and then my drummer seb lives in Seattle. Cool,

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Speaker 3: but they're coming to Nashville in a few weeks to

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Speaker 3: rehearse for this tour.

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Speaker 2: Coming on nice. What inspired you to write this album?

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Speaker 2: What does this album mean to you?

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Speaker 3: I was kind of feeling a lot of angst post

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Speaker 3: releasing this EP that I recorded last summer. It was

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Speaker 3: all like really acoustic, really quiet, introspective, thoughtful, Yeah, songs

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Speaker 3: that I really love, and I really love the way

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Speaker 3: that came out, But I think I just after releasing that,

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Speaker 3: wanted to do like the total opposite.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, it's definitely a big contrast. Definitely more rocking.

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Speaker 2: I've heard the singles that have come out already and

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Speaker 2: haha ha is a fun one. Yeah to jam too.

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Speaker 3: It's definitely more rocking. I was listening to like a

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Speaker 3: lot of Fugazi and just more loud stuff as well,

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Speaker 3: so I think that kind of inspired it. I was

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Speaker 3: also about to go on tour and wanted songs that

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Speaker 3: I could have fun blowing on tour. Okay, that was

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Speaker 3: like a major inspiration for the sound of the album

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Speaker 3: was just I wanted it to sound like we were

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Speaker 3: just playing it live, because that was kind of a

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Speaker 3: thing I've never really done before. It's not meant to

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Speaker 3: be listened to, like in a live setting. Like a

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Speaker 3: lot of the songs that I'd recorded, I didn't have

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Speaker 3: live in mind, right, So then going to try to

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Speaker 3: convert them into like live performance songs, I had like

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Speaker 3: kind of a lot of trouble.

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Speaker 2: Right, especially if there's so many different layers instrumentation on it.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, some of my songs have you know, fo guitar

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Speaker 3: layers and I can't have four guitars on stage, so

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Speaker 3: I had to either cut the song off my set

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Speaker 3: list or try to come up with a way to

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Speaker 3: make it work live. Yeah, so this album, I didn't

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Speaker 3: want to do that with this album. I just wanted

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Speaker 3: to be able to play the songs live, and that

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Speaker 3: is essentially what the entire song is. Yeah, so kind

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Speaker 3: of minimal production on it.

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Speaker 2: Do you ever play the recorder on stage? Played on

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Speaker 2: your TikTok videos?

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Speaker 3: No, that is a new hobby of mine that who

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Speaker 3: knows how that will last.

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Speaker 2: Be kind of fun to pull that out on stage.

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Speaker 3: I know. I've thought that recorder would be an easy

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Speaker 3: thing to learn the basics of it, or it's really

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Speaker 3: easy to like first begin playing it, but then if

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Speaker 3: you want to get more complicated with it, it's actually

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Speaker 3: such a hard instrument to really learn. And I've hit

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Speaker 3: a wall I think on my recorder player.

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Speaker 2: I think that's most everyone's first instrument from taking it

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Speaker 2: in like elementary music class.

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Speaker 3: I still have mine from when I was in kindergarten

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Speaker 3: or whatever.

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Speaker 2: Nice. That's cool. Well, you mentioned you have a tour

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Speaker 2: coming up in a few weeks. Is there a stop

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Speaker 2: on the tour that you're most excited for?

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Speaker 3: Boston because I've never played a headline show in Boston before. Cool,

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Speaker 3: so this will be my first and all my friends

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Speaker 3: will be there, my family.

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Speaker 2: What's the venue again, It's the Red Room. Is this

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Speaker 2: your first time playing there?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, And I've seen a bunch of shows there. I

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Speaker 3: went to shows when I was in college there, so

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Speaker 3: it'll be cool to be on the other end of

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Speaker 3: you know that venue.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Are you looking forward to your Europe tour? Your

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Speaker 2: Europe shows?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Yeah. We went to Europe in the spring and

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Speaker 3: it was super fun. It's like a very different energy

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Speaker 3: playing shows there. So yeah, very excited to go back there.

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Speaker 2: Very cool. Well, you have certainly achieved a lot at

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Speaker 2: a young age. So after this album and this tour,

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Speaker 2: what do you hope to accomplish next with your music career?

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Speaker 3: And I've been thinking about that. It's hard to think

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Speaker 3: about it because I kind of have such a thing

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Speaker 3: ahead of me that it's hard to think what I'm

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Speaker 3: going to do after it, But I am thinking about it.

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Speaker 3: I mean, I think I want to settle down into

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Speaker 3: Nashville for a little bit, and I've kind of been

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Speaker 3: running around for the past like two years, either touring

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Speaker 3: or being somewhere else recording. Like I lived in LA

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Speaker 3: for a year and a half, but I pretty much

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Speaker 3: wasn't there ever, so I haven't had a place to

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Speaker 3: just sit down and write for months on end. That's

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Speaker 3: kind of what I want to do after this tour

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Speaker 3: in the new year, just kind of relaxed for a

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Speaker 3: sec and kind of think about what I want to

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Speaker 3: create and what I want it to sound like and

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Speaker 3: what I want to say. Do you get to working

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Speaker 3: on the next one?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Do you write most of your songs yourself or

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Speaker 2: do you collaborate and right with others.

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Speaker 3: I've never really co written something before. I've never really

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Speaker 3: done like sessions with people. Well that's not true, No,

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Speaker 3: I've there's a collaborator in La Gabe Greenland that I

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Speaker 3: wrote some songs with. I would like, take an idea

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Speaker 3: and he would help me just finish it out and

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Speaker 3: produce it, and that was fun. I do enjoy collaboration.

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Speaker 3: I want to I want the next project to be

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Speaker 3: a little more collaborative with my band. Before I kind

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Speaker 3: of had the parts in mind and they would kind

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Speaker 3: of do their thing on it, but it was mainly

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Speaker 3: just the part I had in my head. It would

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Speaker 3: be nice to sit down with a band with no

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Speaker 3: real direction.

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Speaker 2: I've never really done that before and create something from scratch. Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never done it, so I've never really had

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Speaker 3: the opportunity that I have never lived in the same

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Speaker 3: place as.

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Speaker 2: My band before, right, Yeah, that can make it a

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Speaker 2: little bit challenging.

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Speaker 3: So I'm trying to get some time and wrestle them

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Speaker 3: all together so that we can sit down and do

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Speaker 3: something together. Yeah.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, we wish you luck on your upcoming tour

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Speaker 2: and everyone should give a listen to Hahaha, which is

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Speaker 2: out on streaming platforms. And again we're here in East

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Speaker 2: Nashville at the Russell Podcast Studio. And well, since we're

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Speaker 2: on taking a walk Nashville today, I know you're new

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Speaker 2: to Nashville, but since you've explored it a bit, do

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Speaker 2: you have a favorite place you have liked to take

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Speaker 2: a walk in Nashville.

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Speaker 3: Yes, Shelby Park. I'd say that's a pretty obvious one.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we're right near there too.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, I've done I walked the entire the entire run

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Speaker 3: of Shelby Park last week, and it's a good one.

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Speaker 3: It's finally getting a little cold out so well, not

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Speaker 3: cold but temperate. Yeah, not overbearingly hot.

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Speaker 2: We call it false fall intimacy. I know.

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Speaker 3: I'm ready for the next heat wave to come.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Sometimes I wish we had Boston weather down Yeah.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, but yeah, Shelby Park, it's great. The airfield at

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Speaker 3: Shelby Park. I like it.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. There's definitely so many parks here in Nashville that

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Speaker 2: you'll have to check out while you're here. But thank

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Speaker 2: you again Will for being here today on Taking a

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Speaker 2: Walk Nashville. Is there anything you'd like to end by

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Speaker 2: letting our listeners know?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, going on tour, I'm playing. Where am I playing

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Speaker 3: in Nashville? Dark Matter? Cool in Nashville. Should be a

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Speaker 3: good time.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely look up Will's upcoming shows on his website.

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Speaker 2: If you're in Nashville, check out his show here in

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Speaker 2: Dark Matter and his other stops on the tour. Thank

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Speaker 2: you again, Will for being here today.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you for having me.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to Taking a Walk Nashville with singer

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Speaker 1: songwriter Sarah Arylson, and check out our other podcasts, Music

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Speaker 1: Saved Me, Comedy Save Me, and taking a walk. Available

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Speaker 1: on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get

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Speaker 1: your podcasts.