Speaker 1: You're tuned into Heat Check with trust a quick.
Speaker 2: On this episode of the Heat Check, we have a
Speaker 2: very special guest here to break down all things La Lakers.
Speaker 2: Let's welcome Claire to Lone, musician and writer. One of
Speaker 2: the best follows on NBA Twitter at Claire Mpls, give
Speaker 2: or follow. Check out her band Tiny Death on Spotify.
Speaker 2: She also writes for The Guardian. She's here to tell
Speaker 2: us whether the Lakers' recent form is going to continue,
Speaker 2: whether to the fall back to Earth, and whether Anthony
Speaker 2: Davis might just be the twenty three MVP. Let's get
Speaker 2: into this, Nick, So do me a favor and drop
Speaker 2: that beat. How did you get into music?
Speaker 1: Well, some music I've been doing since I was a
Speaker 1: little kid. I've been writing songs since I was like
Speaker 1: in kindergarten, and I started playing music professionally in high school.
Speaker 1: So that is that is, like, you know, been the
Speaker 1: kind of through line in my life. I always knew
Speaker 1: that's what I wanted to do from the time I
Speaker 1: was really young, and and yeah, it just sort of
Speaker 1: is like I've said this before, but I feel like
Speaker 1: writing songs is sort of just the way.
Speaker 3: I like synthesize the human experience.
Speaker 1: Like it's just the way I deal with my feelings
Speaker 1: and like, you know, deal with existential dread and all
Speaker 1: of it. So I yeah, I don't really remember a
Speaker 1: time before I wrote songs.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny you don't know this about me,
Speaker 2: and I didn't know this about you until I was
Speaker 2: doing some prep about you. But me and you both
Speaker 2: were in a.
Speaker 3: Hip hop group.
Speaker 2: No way, no white girls in hip hop groups.
Speaker 1: Everybody needs that, right, That's like there's a real shortage.
Speaker 3: That's what everyone is clamoring for.
Speaker 1: They're like, you know what, I wish there was more
Speaker 1: white girls in hip hop groups.
Speaker 3: From white real earth of that.
Speaker 2: Right. You were in Minneapolis, I was in Portland.
Speaker 3: Yeah, those are the hip hop capitals.
Speaker 1: Although honestly, there's an amazing hip hop scene in Minneapolis
Speaker 1: because there's like rhyme sayers and like you know, I
Speaker 1: mean they are kind of known for it a little bit.
Speaker 3: But we got a oh yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I saw him shopping at a grocery store in Malibu
Speaker 1: once and I was like, oh, hey, I mean he
Speaker 1: had like a cart full of junk food.
Speaker 3: It was really funny.
Speaker 2: So that's really interesting to me because that's not really
Speaker 2: your genre now, not at all, And I don't even know.
Speaker 2: And if you don't want to talk about this, we
Speaker 2: don't have to because it's not really I couldn't really
Speaker 2: find anything about it on your profile, like so like
Speaker 2: in the like micro print, right, it was like Claire
Speaker 2: Daloon in a hip hop group called The Chalice yep,
Speaker 2: the Chalice with Lizzle.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, No, I mean I absolutely will talk
Speaker 1: about it, I just like, don't.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I feel like it.
Speaker 1: First of all, it kind of feels like another lifetime
Speaker 1: because we stopped being a group in twenty thirteen, so
Speaker 1: it's like almost ten years ago, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've done a lot since then, and I feel like
Speaker 1: I've honestly been like several people since then in some ways,
Speaker 1: like I was in my early twenties. It's just like
Speaker 1: such a different time in my life. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it was I loved it. It was a really
Speaker 1: fun group. I mean obviously, like any band, I'm sure
Speaker 1: I could tell you, like, there were for sure ups
Speaker 1: and downs, and like especially in you know, like a
Speaker 1: group of twenty something women, there's like plenty of dramas.
Speaker 3: As I would imagine.
Speaker 1: It's pretty obvious, but besides that, it was a blast,
Speaker 1: Like we had so much fun, and you know, we
Speaker 1: it was all of our first taste of sort of
Speaker 1: like any level of six us, Like we had like
Speaker 1: national management and we went on tour and like that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, and none of us had ever done
Speaker 1: that before. So I have super fond memories, like it
Speaker 1: was great. I was never super into the music, to
Speaker 1: be honest, it wasn't really my vibe. It didn't feel
Speaker 1: I felt sort of like I was like playing a
Speaker 1: part or something acting almost because it was very I
Speaker 1: would say it's kind of similar to like what Lozo's
Speaker 1: music is now. It's very like bombastic, sort of like
Speaker 1: like I'm gonna go out in the town with my
Speaker 1: girls like kind of music, and my music, if you've
Speaker 1: ever heard what I do now, is like basically the
Speaker 1: exact opposite of that. It's like very like moody and
Speaker 1: contemplative and like just not that at all. And I
Speaker 1: had a lot of fun kind of like trying on
Speaker 1: that like role, but it just never really felt like
Speaker 1: true to me. So it wasn't rewarding in the same
Speaker 1: way that releasing music is for me now because I
Speaker 1: didn't really feel like me.
Speaker 3: I felt like I was like acting.
Speaker 2: Kind of Yeah, that's a really interesting space because you
Speaker 2: know what what I had to do, Uh, well, what
Speaker 2: I did. I was with a guy and we were
Speaker 2: in a group, and like I wasn't dating like guys
Speaker 2: that were drug dealers, but I.
Speaker 3: Was talking about it.
Speaker 2: You know, like there's like, you know, we're taking first
Speaker 2: class trips and like, you know, I'll hold your chain
Speaker 2: while you're in jail. And I was like sixteen, I
Speaker 2: was like sixteen year also, I knew it. I was
Speaker 2: like sixteen seventeen years old right at this point.
Speaker 3: But that was the thing.
Speaker 2: You're just kind of trying to make music and trying
Speaker 2: to be popular and trying to be seen, and then yeah,
Speaker 2: you sort of realize I think as a as an
Speaker 2: evolution to you as a maybe this is how you feel.
Speaker 2: Maybe don't evolution as a person, as an artist, as
Speaker 2: a creative, Like it doesn't. It's not really fun if
Speaker 2: you're not doing it how you want to do it
Speaker 2: and how and who you are and what resonates with
Speaker 2: the things that you actually do.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think for me at the time,
Speaker 1: it was a really good lesson because I ended up
Speaker 1: in that group because I was sort of when I
Speaker 1: moved back to Minneapolis. Originally it was supposed to be
Speaker 1: for like six months, it was not supposed to be
Speaker 1: for a long time, and it ended up being seven years.
Speaker 2: And I.
Speaker 1: Knew people in the hip hop scene just like through
Speaker 1: social life, and so I sort of got my foot
Speaker 1: in the scene, like dip my toe in of music
Speaker 1: in that scene by just like singing hooks on like
Speaker 1: rappers songs and stuff like. That's just sort of like
Speaker 1: was my calling card. And then I met Lizzo and
Speaker 1: Lauren who's heard now DJ because we were like three
Speaker 1: of the only women I would see around at like
Speaker 1: you know, rap shows and stuff, and we they asked
Speaker 1: me to sing on one song they were working on,
Speaker 1: and that one song ended up getting played on the
Speaker 1: radio locally in like heavy rotation, and so we just
Speaker 1: kind of like got offered shows to play based off
Speaker 1: of that, and based off of that, we started writing
Speaker 1: more songs so that we would have things to play
Speaker 1: at the shows. And everything about my career up until
Speaker 1: that point from like how I ended up in hip hop,
Speaker 1: so how I ended up in that group, it all
Speaker 1: felt very like passive in a way. Like I was
Speaker 1: busting my ass, but I didn't feel like any of it.
Speaker 1: Was like I had no vision for my career. I
Speaker 1: had no vision for the music I was making. I
Speaker 1: was sort of just like, oh, I guess I'll just
Speaker 1: do this thing because it just like this is where
Speaker 1: my path is leading me, and like this is falling
Speaker 1: in my lap and tininess, which is the music I'm
Speaker 1: doing now, was sort of my first time ever really
Speaker 1: being like I want to make really intentional music that
Speaker 1: sounds exactly like the kind of music I want to
Speaker 1: listen to. And I honestly didn't ever even occur to
Speaker 1: me until I started doing what I do now that
Speaker 1: I could do that, Like, I really didn't feel empowered
Speaker 1: in that way, and I kind of just felt like
Speaker 1: that's how careers go. It's just like opportunities come to
Speaker 1: you and you mold yourself into something that fits them.
Speaker 3: And then you go onto the next thing.
Speaker 1: So I think I had to like grow up, you know,
Speaker 1: and I had to like learn that you can and
Speaker 1: should be intentional about your career.
Speaker 2: How did you get from Okay, I'm making the music
Speaker 2: that I want to make, but also you grew up
Speaker 2: in New York, right, yeah, but you became a Laker fan.
Speaker 2: So how do you get in from music to you know,
Speaker 2: becoming this sort of an important part of I think
Speaker 2: if somebody told me that you work for the Ringer,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be surprised, right, Like you're kind of a
Speaker 2: part of the sort of stratosphere of it. How how
Speaker 2: did that those opportunities come to be and how did
Speaker 2: your fandom come to be.
Speaker 1: It's so weird, honestly that I work in NBA media now,
Speaker 1: because if you had told me that, even like ten
Speaker 1: years ago, I would have been like, you're insane, Like
Speaker 1: I was absolutely first of all, I want to be
Speaker 1: completely clear about this. The obnoxious artsy kid that's like,
Speaker 1: what's a sport? Like sports ball? Like I was like that,
Speaker 1: Like I hate those people. And I was totally that
Speaker 1: I was such a little dickhead. And I was just
Speaker 1: on tour with Titus and my drummer was really into basketball,
Speaker 1: mind you, way less into it than I am. Now
Speaker 1: I've far surpassed him in knowledge at this point, but
Speaker 1: like he had the Playoffs on in the background and
Speaker 1: in our green room on tour, and I just started
Speaker 1: watching with him and I got totally obsessed and just
Speaker 1: my personality type as a crazy person. I guess is
Speaker 1: that like when I get into something, I get really
Speaker 1: into it and I like want to know everything about it,
Speaker 1: and I get, you know, like super invested. And so
Speaker 1: I just went from zero to one hundred and just
Speaker 1: started consuming so much NBA.
Speaker 3: And just got like really into it.
Speaker 1: And obviously very quickly I surpassed interest in as far
Speaker 1: as all my friends, Like all my friends were like,
Speaker 1: shut up, I don't want to hear you talk about basketball.
Speaker 1: So I kind of just like ended up on Twitter
Speaker 1: like to just tweet into the void about basketball because
Speaker 1: I was boring all my.
Speaker 3: Like artsy friends to tears.
Speaker 1: And that's how I kind of got in the NBA
Speaker 1: Twitter like community, I guess. And then when I moved
Speaker 1: to LA in twenty seventeen, a lot of my NBA
Speaker 1: Twitter friends became like in real life friends because a
Speaker 1: lot of and live here, and for a long time,
Speaker 1: I was like the only one of my friends without
Speaker 1: a podcast and without who wasn't working in media like
Speaker 1: I got. So I can't overstate this, Like I got
Speaker 1: so into basketball that the only people who could like
Speaker 1: stand to like hang out with me and talk about
Speaker 1: basketball were people who were professionally working in.
Speaker 3: The industry, Like it's just so ridiculous.
Speaker 1: But yeah, and then it just sort of like opportunities
Speaker 1: kind of started coming to me just from like like
Speaker 1: my Twitter following growing and stuff, and I think also
Speaker 1: just because all my friends worked in the space and
Speaker 1: I just I was just genuinely there for a good time.
Speaker 1: Like I had no agenda, I had no career ambitions.
Speaker 1: I had a whole other career as a musician that
Speaker 1: I had been working on my whole It was like
Speaker 1: my life's work.
Speaker 3: So I was like I.
Speaker 1: Was definitely not trying to like schmooze people and like
Speaker 1: like climb any sort of social ladder because I was
Speaker 1: just like stoked to have friends that were down to
Speaker 1: talk to me about basketball, honestly, and then it just
Speaker 1: sort of organically turned into a job, which is still
Speaker 1: so weird to me and very cool. But I also
Speaker 1: am still a full time musician too, like I do both.
Speaker 1: So but yeah, I feel like I was I was
Speaker 1: laughing about this with my mom because I'm like, I
Speaker 1: don't think I could give career advice in the NBA,
Speaker 1: because I don't think it'd be possible to recreate my
Speaker 1: path because I think the only reason I even got
Speaker 1: the opportunities I did was because I had no agenda
Speaker 1: at all.
Speaker 3: And I feel like if I had tried to.
Speaker 1: Reverse engineer it and if I was like, oh, I
Speaker 1: really want a job in this industry, I don't know
Speaker 1: if if I would have just had like the joy
Speaker 1: de vive of like what I was doing enough to
Speaker 1: get any opportunities to do it, you know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and like maybe would be pressing maybe exactly be
Speaker 2: trying to manipulate in some way, and you know how
Speaker 2: it is in LA It's like, yeah, there's a desperation
Speaker 2: that you can smell, and you can smell it when
Speaker 2: they're they see something from you right exactly less and
Speaker 2: that they're using that relationship to maybe expand So do
Speaker 2: you think if you wanted to be in the NBA
Speaker 2: media space you would have ever ended up in the
Speaker 2: media space. Yeah.
Speaker 3: No, that's the thing is I think it.
Speaker 1: I feel like it only happened because I was just
Speaker 1: doing I think it's a good life lesson in some ways,
Speaker 1: because I think I just genuinely was like doing getting
Speaker 1: like very passionate about something, very into it, and like
Speaker 1: genuinely enjoyed it so much and just developed real meaningful
Speaker 1: relationships with people that were just based on enjoying their
Speaker 1: company and having a mutual interest. And then those relationships
Speaker 1: just like organically ended up turning into like career opportunities.
Speaker 1: But I think that you kind of like it's convinced
Speaker 1: me honestly that the only way to achieve real success
Speaker 1: in any arena in life is to just like follow
Speaker 1: your bliss and like spend time doing the things that
Speaker 1: make you happy. Spend time doing the things that you're
Speaker 1: passionate about. Don't worry about like having an agenda or
Speaker 1: like scheming or plotting or like, oh, I have to
Speaker 1: talk to this person because they know this person, Like
Speaker 1: just lead with like it sounds so corny, but like
Speaker 1: your heart and your joy and like the opportunities will come,
Speaker 1: because I think joy is contagious and people want to
Speaker 1: be around people who are like enjoying their lives and
Speaker 1: like genuine So that would be like my best advice
Speaker 1: to anyone, honestly in any career is just like do
Speaker 1: the things that make you happy and like like follow
Speaker 1: your happiness and the other stuff will kind of maybe
Speaker 1: fall into place.
Speaker 3: I don't know