Speaker 1: My Heart Radio presents Inside the Studio. I'm your host
Speaker 1: Joe Leading. Now. The Aretha Franklin fans among you probably
Speaker 1: remember her great hit Who's Zooming Who, which these days
Speaker 1: has taken on an entirely new meaning. Everything from work
Speaker 1: meetings the cotail parties. The interviews for this podcast has
Speaker 1: migrated over to Zoom, which is part of the reason
Speaker 1: that the Inside the Studio team has put together this
Speaker 1: home edition of the show, bringing you into the bedrooms
Speaker 1: and living rooms of your favorite artists to find out
Speaker 1: how they're coping with lockdown and how it's impacting the
Speaker 1: way they make music. This week, our Quarantine correspondent Jordan
Speaker 1: ront Hog caught up with Sam Harris from ex Ambassadors
Speaker 1: to talk about how the pen dam it has been
Speaker 1: affecting him and how he put together his excellent new
Speaker 1: song Zen Over Zoom with Ka Flay and Grandson. And
Speaker 1: just to make sure your Zoom never runs out. Once
Speaker 1: you've checked out this episode, give a listen to the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts, rivals Music's Greatest Feuds,
Speaker 1: which is available wherever you find your favorite shows. Hello, everybody,
Speaker 1: my name is Jordan run Tug. But enough about me today.
Speaker 1: I'm joined by Mr Sam Harris, composer, multi instrumentalist, activist
Speaker 1: and lead singer for Ex Ambassadors. The band followed up
Speaker 1: their latest album, twenty Nineteens O'Ryan with an EP in
Speaker 1: March called Belong. The three song collection bears the influence
Speaker 1: of soulful icons like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker.
Speaker 1: In May, they released the song Zen, which was written
Speaker 1: and recorded in Lockdown. It's a track about finding peace
Speaker 1: among the isolation of quarantine and uncertain me of COVID nineteen.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for being here. It really is
Speaker 1: a pleasure. Thanks particularly. Yeah, man, No, it's it's it's
Speaker 1: my pleasure. Uh. Now you recently teamed up with ka
Speaker 1: Play and Grandson for the song Zen, which gave voice
Speaker 1: to so many people who've been having a really hard
Speaker 1: time with the isolation of quarantine. How did that song
Speaker 1: come to be? Because I'm having a really hard time
Speaker 1: with isolation in quarantine. You know, uh that that song
Speaker 1: came about, it was really nice. It was very as
Speaker 1: organic lee as things happened these days. You know. It
Speaker 1: came about because I had a session of virtual session
Speaker 1: booked with Grandson and I was like very real with him,
Speaker 1: and I was like, man, I don't know how good
Speaker 1: I am at doing, you know, writing songs over zoom.
Speaker 1: And he was like, you know, it's all good. You
Speaker 1: don't have to put the pressure on ourselves. We can
Speaker 1: just write a dumb little song about you know, these
Speaker 1: uncertain times they were living in. And I got off
Speaker 1: the phone with him and I just had that line
Speaker 1: in my head, someone give me fucking zen. And so
Speaker 1: I came up with just this rough, little acoustic demo
Speaker 1: and I sent it over to him and he immediately
Speaker 1: came back with like a whole verse. And then I
Speaker 1: suggested getting our friend Christine on it because she had
Speaker 1: come up in conversation, and it just, like, I don't know,
Speaker 1: fell into place from there. It's amazing social distance songwriting.
Speaker 1: I've never really heard of that. What is How is
Speaker 1: that different? It's honestly not too different from the way
Speaker 1: we've operated already. You know, like the last time Christine
Speaker 1: and I collaborated on something, we were on tour and
Speaker 1: she was just emailing me her parts, uh, And it
Speaker 1: was the same deal with this, you know, like I
Speaker 1: I would you know, we kind of have like back
Speaker 1: and forth they someone would send, you know, a lyric,
Speaker 1: idea or melody. I mean actually, for the most part
Speaker 1: this song, it was just like they both came up
Speaker 1: with what ended up on the record right off the bat.
Speaker 1: Um so uh but yeah, I mean when we're working,
Speaker 1: usually it's ailing files back and forth with people. I
Speaker 1: it's rare for me to ever, you know, it's rare
Speaker 1: for me to create something with someone that comes out
Speaker 1: where we're in the same room together. It's always like
Speaker 1: postal service style. Yeah, how do you find zen in
Speaker 1: times like this? What keeps you grounded? Man? It's hard.
Speaker 1: It's hard. Like some days or some days are okay,
Speaker 1: some days I can do my regular routine, you know.
Speaker 1: I I try to have a couple of things that
Speaker 1: I do in the morning that that ground me. Um.
Speaker 1: I journal, you know, I do three pages in a
Speaker 1: journal every day, and then I make coffee, and I
Speaker 1: make breakfasts, and I walk my dog and and you know,
Speaker 1: doing those those things every day helps ground me a
Speaker 1: little bit. But sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it you know,
Speaker 1: it takes a little extra work to ground myself, you know,
Speaker 1: as much as possible. Getting getting outside is really important.
Speaker 1: Just walking around my little neighborhood. I'm actually today is
Speaker 1: the first day of a week of quarantine of like
Speaker 1: real self imposed isolation before we get tested so that
Speaker 1: we can go visit my brother and my um my
Speaker 1: nephew and my sister in law because he's immuno compromised.
Speaker 1: Um so, uh yeah, I mean it's gonna be extra
Speaker 1: hard for me to find them this week. You know,
Speaker 1: the isolation is hard. It's it's it can really take
Speaker 1: a toll on you mentally. And something really awesome that
Speaker 1: I've seen you do on Instagram was have meditation time
Speaker 1: with fans, which is so cool. Yeah, it was, you know,
Speaker 1: it was an experiment. Uh. You know, it's something that
Speaker 1: I have, I have worked into my daily practice. I've
Speaker 1: kind of I've been on and off with it, um
Speaker 1: but I thought it would be a nice kind of
Speaker 1: thing to share with with our fans, and and um
Speaker 1: yeah it was. It was interesting. It was really interesting.
Speaker 1: Um I I loved doing it every morning and being
Speaker 1: able to meditate and play a song for for everybody.
Speaker 1: That was a lot of fun. Meditation is one of
Speaker 1: those things I've tried so hard to get into, but
Speaker 1: I just I can't stop my brain. I can't do it.
Speaker 1: It's never really, I've never been able to get to
Speaker 1: that place. What would you say to someone like me
Speaker 1: who's really struggling to incorporate meditation in their life. Well,
Speaker 1: there are some tricks, UM, And I think I think
Speaker 1: that one part of it is too allow your brain
Speaker 1: to do what it's going to do. But just acknowledging
Speaker 1: that moment of like, oh, my brain is is going
Speaker 1: all of these different places when you have that. Whenever
Speaker 1: I have that moment of acknowledgement of like oh I'm
Speaker 1: thinking about death or I'm thinking about my bills right now, UM,
Speaker 1: acknowledging that brings you immediately into the present. And so
Speaker 1: I would say, if you sit down for five minutes,
Speaker 1: close your eyes, try to count your breaths, you know,
Speaker 1: inhale exhale one, two, three, four, up to ten, and
Speaker 1: just repeat that. That's kind of a nice trick to
Speaker 1: to use. That's what I do. UM. But yeah, you
Speaker 1: know there are apps that people use, Insight Timers one.
Speaker 1: I use Headspace, UM. And guided meditation is always really
Speaker 1: helpful to have someone's voice. They're kind of reminding you
Speaker 1: to come back. Oh definitely, no, I gotta I gotta
Speaker 1: give those a try. Man. The songs in came out
Speaker 1: just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month, and then
Speaker 1: within a short time later, George Floyd was murdered. And
Speaker 1: since then you've been very active in in demonstrations on
Speaker 1: the street and using the band's digital platform online to
Speaker 1: amplify voices. I'm just wondering if you could talk a
Speaker 1: little more about about that, the activism that that you've
Speaker 1: been doing. I've always looked at ourselves as a band
Speaker 1: that's not afraid to show our activism and show our
Speaker 1: support for movements like Black Lives Matter or you know,
Speaker 1: abolish ice or any of these cultural moments that are happening.
Speaker 1: You know, we are paying attention to and and um yeah, man,
Speaker 1: look I it's been a really really tough and challenging
Speaker 1: couple of weeks for the whole world. Um, and we're
Speaker 1: looking at ourselves differently. A lot of you know us
Speaker 1: are are reevaluating how our privileges have have worked into
Speaker 1: our lives and and uh, and the injustices that have
Speaker 1: existed and especially in this country for for so so
Speaker 1: long that you know we have just as you know
Speaker 1: that I, as a white person, I've been blind to
Speaker 1: you know for for a long long time. UM. So
Speaker 1: right now, what we're trying to do is see where
Speaker 1: we can focus our energy best UM to make concrete
Speaker 1: change and and UM it goes from small scale stuff
Speaker 1: to big scale stuff like you know, we live in California,
Speaker 1: and uh, I'm I'm really curious about this guy who's
Speaker 1: up for d A here, George Gascon. You know, our
Speaker 1: current DA, Jackie Lacey, has been really really she's kind
Speaker 1: of done everything hand in hand with the police union
Speaker 1: and and the police the lap D here and has
Speaker 1: done nothing to UM to help stop the murder of
Speaker 1: black people in in this city and people of color
Speaker 1: in this city at the hands of the police. I
Speaker 1: want to try and elect a new DA who will
Speaker 1: take a look at what's going on and think about
Speaker 1: defunding the police and think about restructuring and trying to
Speaker 1: think of a new way to UM create a safe
Speaker 1: community here in l a UM and then also thinking
Speaker 1: about big picture stuff like you know, voting and voting rights,
Speaker 1: and you know, with COVID, it's gonna be really hard
Speaker 1: unless we get enough money in some one of these
Speaker 1: stimulus bills to UM make it so that voting from
Speaker 1: home is actually plausible. Um, it's going to be really
Speaker 1: hard to to get voter turn out to where we
Speaker 1: need it to be for the selection in order to
Speaker 1: elect someone you know, for the general role and for
Speaker 1: in the in the House, and people who will actually
Speaker 1: fight for reform, not just reform like the big sweeping change.
Speaker 1: You know. It's someone said this to me the other day. Uh.
Speaker 1: And and I'm I'm paraphrasing here, but this is what
Speaker 1: we're experiencing right now. Is is is not just uh,
Speaker 1: it's not just a moment. This is this is really
Speaker 1: a revolution, and this is really an uprising. And I
Speaker 1: think we have to be very you know, transparent about
Speaker 1: that and calling it what it is and uh um
Speaker 1: and doing our part. We're going to continue doing our
Speaker 1: part in whatever way we can. And uh, I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's it's weigh and heavy on me this morning. Man.
Speaker 1: I'm listening to you know, the news and listening to
Speaker 1: the reforms that that the Democratic Party is trying to
Speaker 1: fight for, and those are going to be met with
Speaker 1: resistance by the Republicans. And these reforms are like, you know,
Speaker 1: they're just not enough. We we really gotta I think
Speaker 1: aim aim a lot higher. Uh, you know, and and
Speaker 1: that's the only way to actually get tangible and reforms
Speaker 1: to pass that will make a difference in people's lives.
Speaker 1: Aiming kind of like being like realistic has been kind
Speaker 1: of the m O of a lot of the Democratic
Speaker 1: Party for a long time, and that's just gotten us nowhere.
Speaker 1: I think, aiming high and and and really like embracing again,
Speaker 1: embracing that this is a revolution that we need. We
Speaker 1: need major, major change in this country in order for
Speaker 1: people to be safe and to not die. It's so real.
Speaker 1: But you know, back to using the band as as
Speaker 1: um to try and make change. I look at it
Speaker 1: as an imperative and I, um, I don't know, it's
Speaker 1: just on my mind all the time, you know. So
Speaker 1: if if it's on my mind all the time, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna be speaking out about it and taking it back
Speaker 1: to zend the song Zen for a moment. The message
Speaker 1: of the song is self care. In the face of
Speaker 1: these grave injustices, systemic racism, police brutality, self care tends
Speaker 1: to become less of a priority, and you're almost tempted
Speaker 1: to sort of view it almost as selfish or something
Speaker 1: to feel guilty for. What are good ways to balance
Speaker 1: self care with community action. Um well, if you think
Speaker 1: about it like getting you know, this is a this
Speaker 1: is a long, a long fight that we are all in.
Speaker 1: If you are for the Black Lives Matter movement, if
Speaker 1: you are for social justice, here for you for equality,
Speaker 1: if you're if you're for you know, self governance and
Speaker 1: and people and us collectively finding ways to dismantle the
Speaker 1: systemic racism in this country, then it's a it's a
Speaker 1: you got a long fight ahead of you. So if
Speaker 1: you want to be able to be at your best,
Speaker 1: you gotta take care of yourself. That's how I look
Speaker 1: at it, you know. But it's look, it's hard. It's hard, man,
Speaker 1: It's hard. You know. Like first thing in the morning,
Speaker 1: I want to I want to know what's now, what's
Speaker 1: going on in the world, and and what what's the
Speaker 1: next fight? And uh, I have to keep reminding myself
Speaker 1: to uh, you know, wake up, to take a shower,
Speaker 1: drink some water, because I'm just going to be a
Speaker 1: mess if I don't, And I'll be more effective if
Speaker 1: I if I'm you know, if I'm taking care of myself.
Speaker 1: The last three months have just been so transformative on
Speaker 1: a micro level and a macro level. What have you
Speaker 1: learned about yourself in this time? Oh? Um, Someone's asked
Speaker 1: me that question already, and I still don't really have
Speaker 1: a good answer to it. I think I'm still figuring
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff out about about who I am,
Speaker 1: and I I think that, Um, this has been an
Speaker 1: oddly productive time for for me. So I've had the
Speaker 1: distraction of my work, you know. But the thing is,
Speaker 1: like my work is is my life, and my work
Speaker 1: reflects my life. So you know, one thing that I
Speaker 1: am learning about myself is that I'm a little afraid
Speaker 1: sometimes of saying no to things. I'm I'm saying no
Speaker 1: to to more things now and and and really kind
Speaker 1: of reprioritizing what I want to what I want to
Speaker 1: work on, and what I want to do, and and
Speaker 1: the music that I want to make and who I
Speaker 1: want to make it with. I think what this this
Speaker 1: is all reminding us of is that life is short
Speaker 1: and at time that we are given here on this
Speaker 1: on this planet, how are you gonna spend it? What
Speaker 1: are you gonna do? You know? Like I want to
Speaker 1: make stuff that's exciting to me and that I really like,
Speaker 1: and I want to work with people that I really
Speaker 1: like and really admire, and I don't really give a
Speaker 1: ship about the rat race so much anymore. I still
Speaker 1: do obviously when it's when it's right in front of me,
Speaker 1: when I'm faced with it, and then I I spiral
Speaker 1: out for a second and then I But what I
Speaker 1: always lately have been coming back to is like, look,
Speaker 1: I only got this one life and this one time
Speaker 1: here on my planet. I can't predict anything. I can't
Speaker 1: really control anything. The only thing I can control is
Speaker 1: like how I'm spending my time and who I want
Speaker 1: to spend my time with, and uh, and what I
Speaker 1: want to make. So that's been something that I've I
Speaker 1: don't know if I've learned about myself. But um, over
Speaker 1: the last months, two months, two and a half months,
Speaker 1: how long are you in this something like that? Well?
Speaker 1: What what work are you prioritizing? What are you working
Speaker 1: on now that you're really proud of? Well, we're finishing
Speaker 1: up you know, we finished up our new record, which
Speaker 1: I'm really really proud of. I think it's really cool
Speaker 1: and really different, and uh, we are working on a
Speaker 1: narrative podcast that that goes along with it. So it's
Speaker 1: a concept record and and the podcast and the album
Speaker 1: are are going to be coming out around the same time.
Speaker 1: And it's it's cool, it's in the it's in the
Speaker 1: gestation period right now, but we're working with an amazing
Speaker 1: company and we want to do something different. You know,
Speaker 1: my other and I grew up listening to lots of
Speaker 1: books on tape together, and he listened to a lot
Speaker 1: of radio dramas, and you know, that was one form
Speaker 1: of entertainment that we could really share together because you know,
Speaker 1: when we're watching movies, unless they were descriptive audio films
Speaker 1: like he wasn't really getting much out of it. Um.
Speaker 1: So this was a medium that that we shared growing
Speaker 1: up and that I'm really interested in in now how
Speaker 1: people are using it, and I I feel like it
Speaker 1: hasn't been used to the degree that it could be,
Speaker 1: so working on that. I've been working on a feature,
Speaker 1: writing a feature with a partner of mine, writing partner
Speaker 1: of mine, old Buddy, and working on that new album,
Speaker 1: working on new music with a couple of different artists.
Speaker 1: Two artists in particular have been working with lately, an
Speaker 1: artist named Jensen McCrae. She has a song out called
Speaker 1: Wolves right now, another song called The Plague and another
Speaker 1: song called white Boy, and those are the only three
Speaker 1: songs that she's put out. And she's absolutely incredible. She
Speaker 1: reminds me um kind of of like um Phoebe Bridgers
Speaker 1: and a little bit of Tracy Chapman. I don't know.
Speaker 1: She's so unique and so cool and and uh and
Speaker 1: her voices insane and the lyrics are insane. So I've
Speaker 1: been working a little bit with her and another artist
Speaker 1: named Terrell Hines. Um. Terrell Hynes is also incredible. He
Speaker 1: put out new songs recently called The Promise or Promise
Speaker 1: I think, but he has an EP out and we've
Speaker 1: been working on some new music with him that we're
Speaker 1: really excited about. We took him out on tour with
Speaker 1: us in in Europe right before this whole thing hit
Speaker 1: the Fan. Also just writing some new X Ambassadors stuff.
Speaker 1: But like that's you know, like that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Like I'm I'm prioritizing artists who I really genuinely like,
Speaker 1: I love. I love these artists. I think narrowing that
Speaker 1: list is helpful for me because then I can really
Speaker 1: put like a lot of my time and energy into it.
Speaker 1: And I'm not just it's very easy. In the song
Speaker 1: right her world UM and producer world to like have
Speaker 1: a million different starting points with a million different artists
Speaker 1: and then just kind of like see what catches and
Speaker 1: go with that. But I don't like having unfinished things around,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I'm I have so many of my
Speaker 1: own unfinished demos lying around that I want to be
Speaker 1: able to if I'm working with an artist, I want
Speaker 1: to be able to really like commit to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I want to finish it. I want to finish it.
Speaker 1: And like, look, if we write a song that's not
Speaker 1: great and the first thing, the first thing we write
Speaker 1: is not great. Cool, Let's write another one that's not great,
Speaker 1: Let's write another one. You know, you gotta put that
Speaker 1: work in your last album or Ryan from the Fall
Speaker 1: felt to me like such a growth album, turned thirty,
Speaker 1: getting married, becoming an uncle. What is the message in
Speaker 1: this new album that you're working on now. I've been
Speaker 1: really interested in in Um the Youngion idea of the
Speaker 1: Um the Shadows self, and uh, it's kind of like
Speaker 1: a Jackal and Hide story, you know, figuring out how
Speaker 1: to to grapple with the parts of yourself that you suppress,
Speaker 1: the parts of yourself that you were most afraid of
Speaker 1: and grappling with that as as broad as that is.
Speaker 1: That's that's kind of what the new record is is about.
Speaker 1: It feels very much like sort of a quarantine theme.
Speaker 1: Do do you consider yourself a homebody? Do you get
Speaker 1: your inspiration from looking in word looking outward? I think
Speaker 1: I I think I'm like you know how people are saying,
Speaker 1: like I've realized that I'm like a fake extrovert or
Speaker 1: you know the Meyer's Briggs stuff like yeah, I think
Speaker 1: I'm a fake extrovert, but I think I'm actually an
Speaker 1: extroverted introvert or an extra or an introverted extrovert. I
Speaker 1: get an introverted extrovert. I I really like I I thought,
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, you know what, that makes sense.
Speaker 1: Like I spend so much of my time like out
Speaker 1: in public. You know, I'm I'm I'm putting myself out there,
Speaker 1: but like you know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: having alone time is really important to me, and I
Speaker 1: like being I like having that, you know, these moments
Speaker 1: of quiet and peace by myself where I can think,
Speaker 1: I like, I do like working by myself, but then
Speaker 1: I get a chance to, you know, have like a
Speaker 1: socially distant interaction with a group of friends, and I
Speaker 1: just feel reinvigorated. And I'm like, what's happening to me
Speaker 1: right now? Why do I feel so good? And I
Speaker 1: think it's because I'm hanging out with people and interacting
Speaker 1: with people. And I also missed the ship out of
Speaker 1: my band. I really missed my band. It sucks, you know,
Speaker 1: like we've been a band for over thirteen years and
Speaker 1: this is the longest that we've gone without seeing each other.
Speaker 1: And it's really crazy, Like how much I missed those
Speaker 1: guys because you were like mid tour right when this
Speaker 1: all went down. You were in Europe. Yeah, we were
Speaker 1: right in the middle of it. I mean, granted we
Speaker 1: were coming back from we were going to come back
Speaker 1: from that tour and have the rest of the year
Speaker 1: to finish up the record and kind of be here
Speaker 1: in l A and do a couple of shows here
Speaker 1: and there, but mostly focused on that. And um, we
Speaker 1: got what we were were, you know, we got what
Speaker 1: we wanted. But now I think it's gonna you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's obviously complicated a lot of things, And yeah,
Speaker 1: I miss him a lot. So I think I I
Speaker 1: thought I was our own body. That's maybe something I
Speaker 1: learned about myself. I thought I was more of a
Speaker 1: home body than I than I actually am. What does
Speaker 1: the typical work day I feel like for you? What's
Speaker 1: the like? I'm always curious like people's creative processes, Like
Speaker 1: did you wake up and you treat it almost like
Speaker 1: going to the office you sit down and get at
Speaker 1: your guitar and get at your piano. Or is it
Speaker 1: more of an inspiration based thing where you hear something
Speaker 1: in your head and go sit down and work it out.
Speaker 1: It's a healthy combination of both. You know. There's a
Speaker 1: there's a playwright named Jez Butterworth. He wrote a play
Speaker 1: called Jerusalem and another play called The Ferryman. But I
Speaker 1: listened to an interview recently when he was asked a
Speaker 1: similar question like what's your what's your motive of working?
Speaker 1: And he talked about, um, you know, you can't force
Speaker 1: you can't force inspiration to come, but you can always
Speaker 1: you can always keep your antent uh up. You know,
Speaker 1: you can work at that. And I try to work
Speaker 1: at keeping my antennas up. You know. By I think
Speaker 1: a part of my my morning daily practices being outside,
Speaker 1: no headphones in, no phone, just walking my dog, and
Speaker 1: being out in the world and being in my thoughts
Speaker 1: and then coming home making a cup of coffee and
Speaker 1: journaling and writing free writing for for three pages. And
Speaker 1: then usually from that I will either go into um
Speaker 1: working on a song, going going to open up a
Speaker 1: production thing that I started, or or a song that
Speaker 1: I started, start writing a little bit more of script
Speaker 1: that I'm working on. I just try to write something,
Speaker 1: you know, But I but I I try to keep
Speaker 1: myself open to like where I'm feeling like I want
Speaker 1: to go that day. I think that that's kind of
Speaker 1: the discipline, is carving out the time to do something
Speaker 1: like that. I think what I struggle with is how
Speaker 1: to because I I were I'm a workaholic. But you know,
Speaker 1: the thing is my my again. My work is my life.
Speaker 1: My work is my hobby too. My work is what
Speaker 1: I want to do in my free time. But there
Speaker 1: are sometimes where I operate out of a place of
Speaker 1: fear rather than a place of love and inspiration and excitement,
Speaker 1: where I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I am not
Speaker 1: being productive today, that this is just like a wasted day.
Speaker 1: And if it's one wasted day, it's going to be
Speaker 1: another wasted day, and I'm just gonna end up spiraling
Speaker 1: off into nothing and I will die a meaningless, empty, unfulfilled,
Speaker 1: unsuccessful life. You know, how do you come at that?
Speaker 1: It's it's awful. It's awful, you know. So I think
Speaker 1: what I'm I'm really working at, and I think this
Speaker 1: will be a lifelong struggle for me, is is to
Speaker 1: first really look for joy in what I'm doing. And
Speaker 1: you know, look, especially in times like this is really
Speaker 1: hard because there's a lot of pain and suffering that
Speaker 1: is that has been brought to the surface over the
Speaker 1: last couple of weeks globally, and you can't ignore that.
Speaker 1: You can't ignore that. So I am right now focused
Speaker 1: on the fight for justice, for equality and in my
Speaker 1: own work, letting my my ego go a little bit
Speaker 1: and and allowing myself to follow my follow my my joy.
Speaker 1: If I when I'm sitting down to work and to create, like,
Speaker 1: go with what's going to make me happy today when
Speaker 1: this is all over, COVID pandemic, quarantine, all of that.
Speaker 1: If you could snap your fingers and have everything tomorrow,
Speaker 1: just you could walk around, what's the first thing you
Speaker 1: want to do when this is all over? Trips, you
Speaker 1: want to take people, you want to hug. Oh man,
Speaker 1: oh god. I want to see my brother. I'm seeing
Speaker 1: my brother in like a week, so I'm very excited
Speaker 1: about that. Um, I want to play a show. I
Speaker 1: you know, I right as at the end of this
Speaker 1: tour and over the last couple of years, touring has
Speaker 1: been really really where me down. It's really exhausting. It's
Speaker 1: it's amazing, it's so fulfilling. It's like it's wild ups
Speaker 1: and downs. Because the shows themselves are always amazing, almost
Speaker 1: always amazing, and the fans and being being with my people,
Speaker 1: you know, and and to be able to touch their
Speaker 1: hands and see their faces and and and uh and
Speaker 1: talk to them like I will never take that for
Speaker 1: granted ever again. But like the actual you know, like
Speaker 1: the nature of touring is grueling, and I think that
Speaker 1: started to like abb its way into the performative aspect
Speaker 1: of it for me too, which really sucked. And I
Speaker 1: and I was starting to feel like, you know what,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know if I can do
Speaker 1: this forever. This is really this is like really like
Speaker 1: not bringing me the joy that it used to. And
Speaker 1: I think this this is just like never mind. I
Speaker 1: miss it so much. Um So that's that's the first
Speaker 1: thing I want to do. Then after that, I want
Speaker 1: to go see a movie in a theater. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: love going to movie. I love going to movies by
Speaker 1: myself and being in a room full of strangers and
Speaker 1: just you know, watching a movie together and going to
Speaker 1: dinner man being in a crowded bar. I don't know
Speaker 1: all the ship that everyone misses but that we can't
Speaker 1: start doing again right now because everyone's doing it and
Speaker 1: it's like there's still a pandemic happening. You've got to
Speaker 1: be careful. It's driving me crazy. I mean in a
Speaker 1: in a weird way. If you could say this is
Speaker 1: a silver lying in all this, It is appreciating all
Speaker 1: those little things and in your case, big things like
Speaker 1: having an audience of people who love you be right
Speaker 1: there too, But yeah, definitely makes you appreciate all the
Speaker 1: things that we aren't able to do right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1: What's the world gonna be like when people are finally
Speaker 1: safely able to like like live life again. I think
Speaker 1: it's going to be incredible. And I have mixed feelings
Speaker 1: of just like renewed optimism and faith in humanity and
Speaker 1: just like the deepest, deepest pessimism and frustration with with
Speaker 1: the foundation on which we you know, we sit here, uh,
Speaker 1: in this country. So I don't know, man, ups and downs.
Speaker 1: You know, my fantasy is always the you know, those
Speaker 1: pictures of Times Square and the war is over, celebrations
Speaker 1: of the World War Two, like hugging and everything. It's honestly,
Speaker 1: it's funny you mentioned World War Two. I've been I've
Speaker 1: been thinking a lot about World War Two over the
Speaker 1: last three months and how you know that affected everyone globally,
Speaker 1: you know, in in the same way or not in
Speaker 1: the same way, in very different ways. But but it
Speaker 1: was it was a global event that caught that it
Speaker 1: was a part of everyday life, you know, for for years,
Speaker 1: for years. Um. So it helps to think about that.
Speaker 1: Put this in perspective, you know. If I'm ever getting like,
Speaker 1: you know, anxious or like God when this is going
Speaker 1: to be over, its helpful. Sam, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for your music, and thank you for all the work
Speaker 1: you're doing just out there on your social accounts and
Speaker 1: on the streets. Hey man, listen, I'm trying to do
Speaker 1: whatever I can whenever I can, uh, And it never
Speaker 1: feels like enough. But that's part of it, that's part
Speaker 1: of this struggle. Such a pleasure talking to you. Thank
Speaker 1: you man, I really I have a great time talking
Speaker 1: to you too. I hope I didn't depress you, not
Speaker 1: at all. Okay, good. We hope you've enjoyed this episode
Speaker 1: of Inside the Studio home edition of production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio and
Speaker 1: other shows from my heart Radio, check out the I
Speaker 1: heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.