TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Well, hello friends, we're back at it again in Graventown.
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There's a nice long one for you.
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Ho ho ho ho.
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It's September.
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We're rolling.
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We're into it.
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It's effectively and almost officially autumn.
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Now we all want to believe the summer extends until September 21st, as that's what it says on the calendar.
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But you know, everything kind of revolves around the school schedule.
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My nine-year-old kid is back to school.
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She's just starting grade five, loving it, really enjoying the pace, really enjoying life.
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And uh I can't say that I'm not happy.
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Wait, too many double negatives.
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I can say that I'm happy.
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There you go, way better.
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That summer is over.
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It was a really strange summer.
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It was a strange time for me.
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A lot of upheaval, a lot of things just percolating, a lot of life changes that just kind of forced me to be a little bit stagnant, a little bit inward.
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Going inward is great.
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You got to do the work, you gotta look at the things that are going on that are stewing in your pot.
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But when you get too um stagnant in the ingredients, when you're spending too much time, you know what I'm saying, over the stove, okay, sprinkling in too much garlic, too much salt, then taking it out, then redoing.
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And I'm talking about that in terms of your inner work and your heart and your health and your soul and your mind, it gets a bit scrambly-wambly, you know.
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You start to go, oh, what am what have I done?
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What am I doing?
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You know, too much of anything, I truly believe, is not a good thing.
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So all things in in balance and in stride.
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And I feel like we're hitting the fall kind of running.
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I don't know if you guys feel that, but the the clock just starts ticking.
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Um, I'm getting different sort of shows together, I'm getting some different projects and ideas together.
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I actually today uh reorganized my room, and that's something that for some reason the last couple weeks I'd wanted to do.
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And on days where I wasn't having gigs or I didn't have Sloan and I had some time, I would just fucking put it off completely.
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I don't know.
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Did any of you feel this late summer kind of malaise coming over you?
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Where it was just like, I don't have the energy or the ability or the momentum or motivation or anything, it was just grappling for some kind of life force to push you forward.
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And I I I just had had a hard time finding it.
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And then today I just was like, nah, fuck it.
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You gotta do it.
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And so I just made myself basically what I did, and this is my trick for when I need to do some things, and I gotta get some serious shit done, like just elbow grease, cleaning things up, cleaning up work areas, uh, rearranging admin, maybe sending some emails.
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Here's my trick.
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Because I have a TV in my room, a widescreen, a smaller widescreen, but I'm not, it's not a brag.
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But I put on a movie that I know and love and that I've seen before, and I just listen.
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I I keep that on the headphones and I watch from time to time, but I'm just mostly listening to it.
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And for whatever reason, that kind of like the soundtrack, the music, the dialogue, everything that's happening, it just kind of pushes me forward.
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It like it does something to my inertia level.
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It just changes the chemistry and the alchemy in there slightly.
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So I got things going.
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Yeah, I changed around my bed where it lies in the room, changed around my desk so it's more accessible now.
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And I I, you know, I've been really thinking about how I need to do some writing um, probably on the daily, just in terms of, you know, maybe a book, maybe a book idea, or just getting shit out of my head and thoughts and experiences and things that have happened to me, because I think that, you know, I have a pretty interesting story to tell, and I should formulate that, you know.
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I'm almost 50.
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Um, I've had an idea for a kid's sort of not totally kids, but maybe a little bit more hard sci-fi sort of story for a long time.
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And uh that's been since I've been 25.
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So yeah, I'd say it's about time now to get that ball rolling.
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Um, so yeah, hopefully this new workflow will inspire.
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I'm feeling good.
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I'm feeling good about it.
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Here's a little uh can crack for you.
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Oh, that felt like a nice one.
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Thunderous.
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I think I actually
Load full transcript
peaked the audio.
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Yeah, I did.
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So I'm gonna have to go back and change that.
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Awesome.
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Well, that's what you get for being a uh addicted to the bit, Maddie.
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Yeah, good job.
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And here is your ASMR sip.
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So good.
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Needed a little caffeine, some drinking a diet, a Pepsi or no, a Pepsi Zero.
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Um I was talking with my friend uh Steve yesterday about all the different pops, and he's like, just drink the sugar stuff, man.
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Don't do the diet.
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And here's my thinking with that, and I don't know, I don't know if it's medieval, I don't know if it um even works, but I think there's enough sugar in one can of coke that is your supposed to be your daily intake of sugar.
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All right.
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I don't want diabetes.
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I think my sugar and stuff is pretty good.
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I'm not a big dessert guy.
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So for me, having one of these once in a while with the chemicals, and I get it, the chemicals are bad, right?
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Like cigarettes, like everything else, we know it's not good for you.
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But I just think, well, I think it tricks my brain into thinking I'm having something sweet.
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But S, I agree.
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If you were to drink many, many, many diet pops in a day, I don't think that's good.
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Because there's there's stuff in there, you know?
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You can only take so many chemicals in the old meat wagon for uh for a 24-hour period.
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But listen, friends, I digress and I'm on a tangent, and uh I wanted to tell you a little bit about the shows that I played this past weekend with Ron Hawkins.
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Man, they were so great.
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They were lovely.
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It was really great for me to be back on the road driving, you know, down to the GTA.
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I was just kind of taking it all in and appreciating the fact that yeah, I could drive.
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I could really, you know, be the kind of master of my domain again.
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I could be on the road and you know, plan my own schedule, have my own space in the car.
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Don't get me wrong.
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I had some great trips and rides with people this summer, and connecting in that way is lovely, and it's good for me because I think it pushes me out of my comfort zone.
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I can get really introverted, but oh, it was like, you know that operatic song that plays in Shawshank?
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Whatever that is.
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I think that song was legitimately playing in my head for the whole car ride.
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I was just like, oh, open highways, little bit of traffic, grab a coffee in this town, take a pee in that town.
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Great.
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I loved it, and I love the fact that I could just do be on my own accord, right?
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Travel, do the things that I needed to do, but not be stuck, um, not be stuck in in someone else's schedule and timing.
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So that that felt great.
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And then yeah, I got a little hotel room the one night in Burlington, and um then the next night I just I headed home and uh actually I didn't even head home.
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On the second night, I stayed with my friends Sagan and Shelly.
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That was so nice.
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I was so wiped when I got to Sajan's place.
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I think I had like one beer, and I was just crashing and left fairly early the next day to just get a move on, get going, you know, avoid the Labor Day traffic.
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But I gotta tell you, friends, for Labor Day weekend, I was really envisioning a lot of people on the roads, a lot of people on the highways.
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It wasn't that bad.
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I left Friday morning thinking, okay, this is gonna kind of be hell.
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There were some long lines on Highway 7, but it wasn't, I don't know, just the usual Labor Day volume didn't seem to be an issue.
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Now, I don't know if that has to do with in Canada, tons and tons of schools this year went back a week before Labor Day.
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Um, not universities and colleges, I think all of those went, you know, there's they're still on the Labor Day schedule.
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But regular schools like public schools, um, grade schools, high schools, I think all those went back.
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A lot of them did.
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So I don't know if that affected the flow, but at any rate, I digress.
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The shows with Ron were were so great, we're so soul-filling in the way that we all hope and want shows to be when you're out there playing your music, your own original music to people.
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And oh, I love, by the way, I love playing an opening set.
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I think if I could just be an opener the rest of my life, to be fair, I love that.
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I love playing eight songs, eight, nine songs, picking the best ones, being like, you know, oh, I'm just gonna cherry pick a set of all the songs that A, I want to play and
the ones that I feel will connect and hit.
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And that's the best.
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You get in, you get out, you're done.
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Um, Ron basically played, excuse me, two of those sets as the closer.
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Like, he played, I think, about 20 songs each night.
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And Unreal.
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Like, it's so many songs to play.
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But he has so many fans and so many people that love him from different iterations, whether it's his lowest of the low stuff, his solo stuff, his um Ron Hawkinson The Do Good Assassins.
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Um he's just got so many different songs he's written on in so many different albums.
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So, yeah, I I think it was really special.
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Those shows were really like cake and ice cream, and you can't have cake and ice cream every day or every meal because you know, you would just probably never eat real food again.
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So those were really special, and uh, I I'm still treasuring them, tasting the remnants in my mouth from a beautiful, beautiful weekend, and so many friends that I got to see who are friends of Ron and um fans of his and who have become sort of fans of mine too.
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Um, great people like Angela, who comes to all of his shows, Melissa, Nick, um Halzi and Jeff, this great father-daughter duo from London.
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Uh Sheila, Claude.
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Well, I don't think Sheila was there.
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Claude was there um with his lovely partner, Adam, um Josh, so many people.
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So great to see.
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Oh, Sandra, who works for um Tap Creative in London.
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Just beautiful, so great.
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And it was like seeing old friends and people who just wanted to support you, people who wanted you to do well.
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It's like sometimes on my shows, like Dan Harmon says in his um documentary, he's like, I'm so used to coming out and throwing myself onto the jagged rocks of my own self-hatred.
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But when you get a crowd like that at your shows, it's literally like you can do no wrong.
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They're like, you're already off the hook, you can do whatever you want, and you're gonna kill it because we love you.
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I think that's just gold right there.
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You can't bottle that, you can't jar it, you can't really do anything.
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You just have to be you.
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Um but yeah, it's those so those shows were so great.
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And it was great to drive again because it showed me that you know things change, like you things go back to normal.
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They they do the pendulum always swings the other way, even if you're in the most hellish moment of your life.
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Um it's just going to be okay.
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Like whatever you're going through, you really, really have to believe that it's gonna be okay, and it's a hope that you can hold on to because it's just true.
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It will, and it does.
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And things change, and you you you know, you grow older, you get older, and you and then you get even more grateful for when things go well because you're like, fuck, you know, this life is so finite.
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We're just here for a short time.
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You know, what am I doing worrying about all this shit?
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What am I doing spending all this energy, spending all this time taking up all this mental real estate on things that aren't serving me, you know, and things that are just sucking the wind out of my sails.
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Um, speaking of sucking the wind out of my sails, if you want to keep the the great, the good ship graven alive, um, you can go to my ko-fi at ko-fi.com slash graven canada.
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That's ko-fi.com slash graven canada.
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There's only one tier, it's eight bucks a month.
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And if you want to be a part of that, that would be incredible.
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It just keeps me alive, keeps me afloat as an artist, and appreciate you.
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Um, yeah, I I just appreciate anyone who's in there.
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I think there's only maybe 30 people.
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And um it's it's it's tough these days, you know.
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Finances are really tough.
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Um people who work in my line of work in the music world talk about how hard it is to sell advanced tickets.
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It's a real thing, you know, it's very difficult.
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So I think more and more artists are gonna have to move to more models like the Patreon, like the Ko-Fi, like the thing that's just if you can support me in this way, that would be amazing.
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It would it would keep me alive.
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And also it I think it just connects you to people, you know, it makes you friends with these folks.
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Um, and it it's just a great thing.
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So if you're able to support, I would really, really appreciate it.
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It's easy to sign up.
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You just need a PayPal, or I think you can just use a card or whatever.
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The Ko-Fi is really just a payment system, and then it puts you onto a mailing list, uh, email list, and
I I do not abuse it, I only send out things once in a while.
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Probably you'd probably like to hear from me more, but I'm a bit uh mercurial at the best of times.
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But um, yeah, appreciate your support.
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That means a lot.
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Thank you to any of you who bought stuff on Bandcamp Friday last week or the previous one in August.
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There was a lot of people who showed up to buy some things, and uh yeah, just appreciate you.
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I have some ideas for some for some stuff coming up.
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I think I'm gonna uh put out an acoustic version of geographics called geacoustics.
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Ooh, how's that for a drop?
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But yeah, I have the the tracks, and I just want to, you know, make like a version that would just be very acoustic-ish and and a lot more stripped down.
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There are some songs with some drums that get pretty heavy, but I I've I'm interested to hear like kind of what that would sound like.
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So it would take a little bit of work from me and some doing.
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Uh, but I think that would be a fun, fun project to work on.
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I'm um I think I'm gonna be at I'm doing kind of the ads or whatever midway through, but I think I'm gonna be at uh Ontario, I don't even know what it's called, folk Canada.
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There's a folk conference in Hamilton uh at the um middle of October.
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I think it's the 17th, and I will be there just to do uh one showcase.
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So I um just found out about that.
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It's very cool, and uh we'll see you there.
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I'm not always a fan, and I can you know say I like sometimes conferences aren't always my thing, man, and they're they can be really expensive.
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Um, but I did go once in 2023, and I made some, I think maybe even 2022, can't remember, but it was in London, whatever year that was, and I made some really good friends that I'm still friends with today.
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One thing about music conferences that I always say to people, because they're like, what should I do?
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Should I go?
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Who should I connect with?
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Like, should I get trying to get my foot in the door somewhere?
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I'd say don't spend your time doing any of that, but find some like-minded musicians who you like.
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Because you know what musicians always want to do?
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Set up shows in different towns.
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Musicians are always looking to tour, they're always looking to get on the road, play shows in different towns and different cities across Canada, even into the states, internationally, too.
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So find some people who are like-minded, who are like musiced, if that makes a sensical loop.
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Um, yeah, it's a great time to to find friends and at those things.
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You know, a lot of people are just sort of unsure what to do or how to connect or what you know, like figure out what they should be doing.
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So yeah, um, I'm gonna be there, and then I think October 23rd and 24th, it's pretty certain that I'm gonna be doing two shows up at Parkwood um in Owen Sound.
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And each night I'm gonna feature different musicians.
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So I think it's gonna be called Graventown and the Sound, and uh that should be a lot of fun.
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So would love to see you there, and there'll be more info and and tickets and stuff like that coming soon.
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At the end of November, I'm doing a benefit show for my friend Chris, who passed at Irene's um with another band and um probably one other musician, I'm not sure, but that should be a lot of fun.
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So I would love to see you there.
00:19:54.960 --> 00:19:59.599
And yeah, let's uh let's just keep on rolling.
00:19:59.680 --> 00:20:02.960
And here we are at the 20-minute mark.
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I'm I'm looking at the lyrics to the song Worst Case Scenario.
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I really love that song by Maddie Diaz, and I figured out sort of a way to cover it.
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I covered it on a video a long time ago, but I've slid it into the set recently.
00:20:18.799 --> 00:20:24.079
I don't think I did it, I didn't do it this past weekend with Ron.
00:20:24.240 --> 00:20:25.519
Actually, no, maybe I did.
00:20:25.680 --> 00:20:27.279
Maybe I did on the first night.
00:20:27.519 --> 00:20:28.319
I can't remember.
00:20:28.559 --> 00:20:53.119
Anyway, um, I think I did it one of the nights, and I tried to make the sets very different each night, and the pr problem was I didn't um practice one of the songs very well, and I kind of did a half version of this new song because I I just didn't spend the time and I thought, oh, I have it, it's gonna be okay, but it wasn't to my liking, you know.
00:20:53.599 --> 00:20:55.599
So that happens sometimes.
00:20:55.759 --> 00:20:57.279
But people were still very friendly.
00:20:57.440 --> 00:21:00.559
Thanks to everyone who came, thanks to Ron for having me.
00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:14.640
Um, thanks for buying vinyl, buying stickers, buying everything CDs, you know, all that stuff makes a huge difference and just keeps the the good ship graven afloat for a few more um months.
00:21:14.880 --> 00:21:16.880
And that's kind of the way it goes these days.
00:21:16.960 --> 00:21:21.920
When
you're when you're a full-time artist, you have to um be smart.
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:33.039
You've got to find ways to connect, you gotta find ways to to make passive income, which isn't the easiest thing because artists are not good at that.
00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:57.279
Artists are only think about how can I create a product and then sell that product and then put every all the eggs into the basket of that thought, and that can be tough because if it doesn't go well or it's not selling to your expectations, then you feel sunk because you're like, Well, I just spent months getting this album out, and people aren't liking it, or it's not connecting, or whatever.
00:21:57.599 --> 00:22:05.680
But you know, there's got to be some things in The background still moving, and I'm trying to get better at at focusing on those things.
00:22:05.759 --> 00:22:15.119
I'm trying to get better at you know just being open-minded and being open to you know the way the road looks.
00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:17.440
I'm just looking at this album by David Miller.
00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:21.200
Shout out to David Miller, uh Wolf Island musician.
00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:22.799
Really nice dude.
00:22:23.039 --> 00:22:24.960
Um, where did I see him?
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:30.160
Oh, he came to a show in my garage a couple weeks ago where Stephen Stanley played.
00:22:30.240 --> 00:22:31.839
That was a lot of fun, too.
00:22:32.079 --> 00:22:34.960
I don't know if I've I've spoken to you since then.
00:22:35.039 --> 00:22:38.160
That was also a really fun night with Steven and Chris Bennett.
00:22:38.480 --> 00:22:46.000
Um nice crew of people who came and just really wanted to listen, and and Steven just took it to a new stratosphere.
00:22:46.079 --> 00:23:01.599
He was walking around playing on the driveway, unmic'd, as he likes to do sometimes, and just up on the up on the uh there's kind of like a ledge in our driveway, and he was up there singing and hooting and hollering and carrying on like he does.
00:23:01.839 --> 00:23:02.960
I love Stephen.
00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:08.240
Um yeah, and here we are at the 23 minute mark.
00:23:08.559 --> 00:23:18.559
But hey, let's do a little um quote here from the teaching of Buddha, and this is from the chapter The Way of Purification.
00:23:20.319 --> 00:23:25.200
These things are all harmful to man, and so Buddha said, throw away everything.
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:33.119
Still further, dragon, quote unquote, indicates a mind that has eliminated all worldly passions.
00:23:33.359 --> 00:23:39.119
If a man digs into the things about him with the sword of wisdom, he will finally come to his dragon.
00:23:39.359 --> 00:23:48.559
Quote, leave alone and do not disturb the dragon, end quote, means to go after and dig up a mind free of worldly desires.
00:23:48.960 --> 00:23:57.920
Now I know that seems impossible at times, but I do feel like I'm sort of entering into that precipice.
00:23:58.400 --> 00:24:05.759
Um I'm I'm entering into a space where I don't need to care as much, you know.
00:24:06.240 --> 00:24:10.640
Social media and all those things, they they they make us care.
00:24:11.359 --> 00:24:15.839
They make us care, and I would argue too much about too many things.
00:24:16.079 --> 00:24:32.799
We have all these causes and desires and dreams and yada yada and like political aspirations that are all shooting off in different directions, and we feel like we have to voice our opinions on the daily and be educated on everything daily, and it's so exhausting, man.
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:35.759
It's too much, it's not right.
00:24:36.079 --> 00:24:40.880
Human beings aren't designed to live the way that we're living right now.
00:24:41.039 --> 00:24:54.079
I spent probably an hour and a half today just scrolling, you know, and uh let's be honest, there's been days where it's been longer than that, but I just sort of caught myself at one point where I was like, oh shit, I got things to do.
00:24:54.160 --> 00:24:59.039
I've got to rearrange rooms, got to record a podcast, need to maybe practice.
00:24:59.119 --> 00:25:03.440
Well, let's be honest, I didn't practice today, but I'm gonna uh get into that.
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:09.839
By the way, tomorrow, any Ottawa folks who listen, I'm gonna be at Cafe 1870 in Wakefield.
00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:11.839
Um, would love to see you there.
00:25:12.000 --> 00:25:20.240
I think it's 20 bucks suggested, and I'm just gonna uh play a couple sets at the cafe on uh Friday, September 11th.
00:25:20.319 --> 00:25:24.880
So on the happy anniversary of September 11th.
00:25:25.200 --> 00:25:29.359
Um, I guess it's the fifth, would it be the 25th?
00:25:29.839 --> 00:25:35.359
I think it's just the 25th year of the uh World Trade Center.
00:25:35.599 --> 00:25:36.079
Wow.
00:25:36.400 --> 00:25:42.240
Anyway, uh on to more happy things, hopefully.
00:25:42.559 --> 00:25:46.880
But uh but yeah, come out to Cafe 1870 if you're around, but love to see you.
00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:48.319
That'll be fun.
00:25:48.799 --> 00:25:57.440
And I was gonna do a show in Kitchener at the end of September, or I think not the end, but around the 19th or so, and I'm not gonna do that now.
00:25:57.519 --> 00:26:16.880
So if you've been hearing about that, um I'm gonna do some shows down the road with Nixon Boyd from Holorado, who's releasing some great music, just a stoked songwriter, really, really um otherworldly talent, and just a great dude.
00:26:17.039 --> 00:26:28.000
I I met him for the first time at um the Big Star tribute show that I was a part of back in May with all these talented musicians.
00:26:28.480 --> 00:26:33.759
And yeah, we've we've been in touch since, and we're gonna try and play some shows and do some things.
00:26:33.839 --> 00:26:36.240
I'm thinking it's gonna happen in in November.
00:26:36.480 --> 00:26:38.559
So stay tuned for that.
00:26:39.119 --> 00:26:44.880
But yeah, I uh appreciate you listening.
00:26:45.039 -->
00:26:46.480
I just appreciate you being here.
00:26:46.640 --> 00:26:50.720
If you're able to at all help me in my GoFundMe, it would mean the world, man.
00:26:50.799 --> 00:26:57.039
I'm I'm uh originally I think it was set to 7,200, I think it's set to 8,000 now.
00:26:57.200 --> 00:26:59.920
There's only about 2,500 to go.
00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:07.119
So, man, so many people have been so generous and so helpful in this legal thing that I'm involved with.
00:27:07.279 --> 00:27:18.559
And again, it's just covering, I always believe with GoFundMe's or funding models that it's like I'll come up with a lot of the other money myself if I do a GoFundMe that can help part of it.
00:27:18.799 --> 00:27:20.240
Um, but I get it.
00:27:20.720 --> 00:27:24.480
Different people are in different situations, and they might need to raise the whole kit and caboodle.
00:27:24.559 --> 00:27:32.000
But for me, I'm like, I'm just gonna raise half of it and I'll work and figure out the other stuff to make it work.
00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:40.720
So yeah, I think I'm at 5660 or something like that, and need to get to 8,000.
00:27:40.960 --> 00:27:42.960
So it's really not that far to go.
00:27:43.039 --> 00:27:47.119
It's like 2,400 and some dollars, actually 2,300 and something.
00:27:47.440 --> 00:27:51.039
So if you can help in any way, it would mean a lot.
00:27:51.200 --> 00:27:56.640
You can find the GoFundMe link in my bio at Graven Canada on Instagram.
00:27:56.880 --> 00:28:00.720
Um, and you can find it probably on Facebook as well.
00:28:01.200 --> 00:28:05.119
So yeah, any support in that way would be incredible.
00:28:05.200 --> 00:28:07.119
If you want to join the Ko-Fi, that would be great.
00:28:07.279 --> 00:28:17.680
Hey, if you want to be a sponsor of the Graven Town Podcast, uh, my irregular, erratic, neurotic podcast, um, that would be amazing.
00:28:17.839 --> 00:28:20.319
Let's talk because I am getting more clicks.
00:28:20.480 --> 00:28:21.839
People seem to be listening.
00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:25.279
If you are one of those people who are who are listening, thank you.
00:28:25.519 --> 00:28:37.759
You know, thank you so much for being here, for tuning into my mental discrepancies, my uh interstellar telepathies.
00:28:38.079 --> 00:28:43.279
I am just thankful that you know I get to do this.
00:28:43.440 --> 00:28:45.200
I get to talk into the ether.
00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:49.599
A lot of people I think feel bottled up and they don't get chances to talk.
00:28:49.680 --> 00:28:58.000
And even me, you know, when I get into an expounding mindset, I can expound, but I go through times where I'm like, oh fuck, I don't want to say anything.
00:28:58.160 --> 00:29:01.920
And I become very insular and introverted and quiet.
00:29:02.319 --> 00:29:06.240
So this is a great tool for me, just you know, therapy-wise.
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:10.640
And I've I've had some emails, I've got some really cool guests who are coming up.
00:29:10.720 --> 00:29:14.160
I'm just sorting all of that out for um October and November.
00:29:14.400 --> 00:29:26.400
Really looking forward to getting into the fold of that and the energy of having some new guests, um, some great musicians, some people I can't mention the names of yet till it's totally, totally confirmed.
00:29:26.720 --> 00:29:28.960
But stay tuned, man.
00:29:29.279 --> 00:29:34.160
Keep your dial locked in to the Graventown signal.
00:29:34.400 --> 00:29:39.440
And uh, I just want you to know that I really appreciate you a lot.
00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:44.799
I hope you have a great day, and just know you're always welcome in Graventown.
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:51.359
It's good evening, DM.