And Sometimes ... Why? with Rob Szabo

In this final episode, I give some insight into why this is the final episode and thank listeners, supporters, guests and our fearless editor Todd Donald for a great 65 episode, nearly 2 year ride.---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREMako Funasaka is passionate about interviewing musicians. He hosts the Talkin’ Blues Podcast & hosted the TV show and has been documenting music since 2001. He explains his goal of reaching 300 episodes with Talkin’ Blues and extolls the virtues of self imposed deadlines. We talk about his reticence to include himself as part of his video interviews and he describes the experience of initially hearing himself speaking on his podcast as “torturous”. He shares the “life-changing” experience of his first time interviewing a musician and explains how connecting with people through long form podcast conversations is what drives him.“This is the thing that I love to do. There's no doubt about it. The fact that I could talk to somebody new every week and get to know them a little bit, the fact that I can do that is amazing. Everybody has a story. I just recently got the chance to talk to a zookeeper. And this was his dream since he was four years old. And you think: ‘how lucky are you to do this?’ That you become who you wanted to be when you were four years old? I just think people like that, if you can tap into that and get their stories and talk about their passion and what makes them happy, it enriches my life.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---MAKO FUNASAKAWEBLINKEDIN---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREBob Barlen is the writer of PAW Patrol: The Movie, Bigfoot Family and Escape From Planet Earth among many others. We dig into his life writing movies and talk about the huge success of PAW Patrol. We also talk about his time working on the George Stroumboulopoulos show and his love of magic. He shares insights about the benefits of having a writing partner and the importance of working without ego. “The best idea wins. It doesn't matter who's suggesting it. It's not like only certain people on the team are allowed to have thoughts on the movie or thoughts on the process. I mean, we really are open to hearing from everybody because I think we are confident enough in our vision that if something makes it better, we're the first to admit, ‘Hey, great. Let's jump on that.’ And it doesn't need to be a radical rewrite, it can be just a small suggestion. Throughout the entire production, every artist on our team is someone who we respect their opinion as an artist. We want to make the best movie possible. When it comes to notes that we disagree with, it's a conversation. A lot of times when someone is making a note, maybe they just didn't understand. If it's like what you'd call a bad note, maybe we weren't clear enough. So it's actually just exposing something that we need to clarify, because I do think that, especially for family films, but I mean, in all storytelling, clarity Is really important. And if you are being unclear, a note that comes in that you think is strange, it might actually expose, ‘Oh, wait a minute, someone is interpreting this differently’, because you haven't done a good enough job of communicating what you wanted to say.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---BOB BARLENLINKEDINTWITTER---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREChristine Bird is the Community Engagement Coordinator at the University Of Waterloo School Of Pharmacy. She describes her role helping students think about better serving vulnerable populations and shares  challenges working from home over the lock-downs. She talks about how she became known as “the bully lady” when she was speaking to grade-school kids in her work for John Howard Society and we touch on her work with people who’d been convicted of DUI and strategies around alcohol. She shares the challenge of her experience of being a college professor with a 2 year old at home and how her roles have organically evolved from working to improve kid’s lives directly to more of a systems level. She reminisces about playing music with the late Matt Osborne and talks about losing her husband and how having a young son at home at that time was an incredible gift.“How do you get through losing your husband? You have a five-year-old who needs you to get out of bed, make breakfast, and sort of keeps you going. I don't know how you do that when you don't have a little one kind of pulling you out of it. He pulls you out of your head and back into the stuff that has to get done right now. It doesn't matter how upset or depressed or sad you are, you still gotta make pancakes. It's kind of the 'fake it till you make it'. It's like he pulls you out and makes you live your life and go through the motions of just the stuff you have to do to carry on. And that act alone helps you to carry on. Kids are good that way: They bring you into the moment, whether you want to or not.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---CHRISTINE BIRDLINKEDINFACEBOOK---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERETimothy Abraham is a Juno winning producer, engineer, mixer and composer. We dig into his creative process and the meditation-like alpha wave brain state he gets into when working on a mix. He stresses the importance of setting up plugin chain templates and workflows that allow him to work fast and stay in this purely creative zone and how, as a mixer, one of your most valuable tools is the mute button. We talk about the confidence it takes to stay open to other people’s ideas, listening to your inner voice and the importance of communication between artist and mixer. He details how the process of having to rebuild his studio 3 times within a five year span has been resilience building and he also shares insights he’s gained through self reflection in the past few years.“There's a mindfulness and a self-awareness that I think I'm learning in my mid forties that I wished I learned when I was in my mid twenties. Just learning how to be a better man and a better communicator and a better listener. Paying attention to your body, paying attention to your mind, and being able to kind of step back from that and understand that, and also being less judgmental of yourself. And that goes with learning how to step back in a relationship and not be judgmental and drawing boundaries. And to do that, you have to understand what you want and figure out why you feel things and how to have a good conversation with another person or how to fight clean. All of that work turns around to yourself as well. And so your conversations with yourself, you can employ a lot of those same kinds of things.”---THE INTRO MEDLEY FEATURES:Liar (Mike Todd)Make It (30 Frames)Ok Ok (Beth Moore)What I Believe (Steve Strongman)Charity Case (Sean Pinchin)First Of The Last To Know (Peter Katz)---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---TIMOTHY ABRAHAMWEBSITEINSTAGRAMSPOTIFY PLAYLIST OF TRACKS THAT TIM + ROB HAVE WORKED ON---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERECaroline Marie Brooks is a singer songwriter and 1/3 of the Juno-winning band Good Lovelies. We dig into her life in music and her fantastic new solo album Everything At The Same Time. She describes how she’s been wanting to make a record of very personal music for a long time and that making this album was in a way an act of self-care. We talk about her life with Good Lovelies and how she sees her doing a solo album as being “lifted by”, as opposed to “stepping out from”. She also looks back on her experience touring as a new mother and describes how touring with a young baby can be extremely taxing but also gratifying. We nerd out about guitar playing and alternate tunings which she explains was her father’s influence. She reflects on insights she’s gained in her 40th year and how they've informed her new album."Mortality plays a big role in the songs I've been writing and thinking about a lot in relation to my own parents and my children and that continuum. My grandmother is 92. On my 40th birthday, we had this big party and it was my family and my grandmother was there and my daughter and we took this family photo with four generations. And I just thought about that line and where I am in it and my mother and thinking of my mother at my age. And then thinking about my grandmother at my age. And then what my daughter will be like at my age. And all those things feeding into each other. So, yeah, 40 feels like a milestone in that it marks a very specific time of my life. And now that I made this record, I specifically will always feel like I've captured that time."---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---CAROLINE MARIE BROOKSWEBSITEBANDCAMPINSTAGRAM---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREMike T. Kerr is a world-class guitar player going through a creative renaissance. We track the evolution of his creative spike from early lock-down inability to finish any project, to releasing an album per month in 2021. He shares some ups and downs as a gigging musician, the “aha moment” he had around being able to optimize creative input and output simultaneously and he schools us on some of the history of guitar playing as he plays on his newly beloved tenor guitar.  We nerd out about how we both thrive on relationships that are hyper-focused on specific areas of life but ultimately illuminate what matters most, the importance of the book “The War of Art” and the idea of overcoming artistic resistance. Mike also explains the inevitability of the path he’s currently following."All my life. I've taken a step in this direction and been like, ‘Ooh, should I have done that? Couldn't I have maybe gone this way instead? But okay, I guess I'm on this path now. I guess I'll take another step in this direction just to see.’ And then it’s like, ‘Oh, I took another step. The forest is getting a little thicker. Maybe I should have gone down that way instead, but I guess I'll just keep going.’  And it's been like this for a long time. And I realized that that path has been getting more and more paved as I've been going along, you know what I mean? I only get stronger as I go. It's been a long time since anyone has ever said to me: ‘Get a real job.’ Of course I've had that and I think I've realized why another path wouldn't work:  Every time in my life that I have gone down the path of, 'Okay. Here's something that offers a different kind of stability and security and a paycheck at the same time every two weeks.’ That lifestyle, which tons of people are able to just do, and compartmentalize, and then free themselves after to be the awesome person that they are,  for me, if I ever say, ‘Okay. You know what? I have to do this to make this part of my life square. So I'm going to put this thing, I don't know what to call it: my love, my art and my passion and stuff. If I say, ‘Okay. You know what? I'm going to sort of put it over here, for this number of hours a day, because I need to get serious and “get a real job”.’ This little pen that I put it in will never be large enough, no matter how much I try and compartmentalize it. For me, it will always grow and overtake whatever part-time or full-time job I got ’til the point where I have to quit that job anyways. This is what I've seen in my life over the years."---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---MIKE T. KERRWEBSITEBANDCAMPINSTAGRAM---AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREAlicia Comer is an executive assistant supporting C-suite executives, and has been for over 10 years. We dig into her work life as an EA and she emphasizes the importance of multitasking and staying flexible amidst the constant changes and interruptions. She shares tips on getting things done, dealing with difficult personalities, and explains the importance of building morale and keeping teams happy. We also dig into the evolution of her work life: from working 40 hr weeks at 2 jobs while still in high-school, to leaving her tiny hometown of Westville, NS at 19 years old to forge out on her own in Edmonton and later Toronto. She also talks about her thinking around college or university diplomas not being the be all and end all.“At the beginning, I definitely missed my family. All of them were still in Nova Scotia. It was just really cool to have the independence. ‘Cause a lot of the people that I went to high school with, they were all in university and they were wondering why. ‘Why are you not going to university? What are you going to do with your life?’ Because you're taught all through high school that you need to go to college or get some sort of diploma. I'm like: ‘I’m going to prove everybody wrong and I'm going to make it.’”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- ALICIA COMERLINKEDININSTAGRAM--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?:ANDSOMETIMESWHY.COMEMAILIGFBTWEET 

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREChrista Couture is an award-winning performing and recording artist, non-fiction writer, and broadcaster. We dig into her new book How To Lose Everything a self-described "grief bio" which she describes in point-form as "cancer, amputation, death, death, divorce and more cancer".  She shares her life’s losses from having her leg amputated as a cure for her cancer as a teen to losing 2 sons as babies to her divorce to her 2nd episode of cancer.  We discuss the need for our culture to normalize differences among people in terms of disability & neurodivergence. We also talk about coming to terms with the idea that sometimes finding meaning in suffering and loss can be elusive and she explains her thinking around shaping her life experience into a book that could be shared.“I used to sit at my piano and just banging on the piano, saying all kinds of things. Just sobbing. And it's moving through you. And those aren't moments that anyone should witness. They're cathartic. And I think how I know when it's something that I can craft or it's something that I believe won't be too much, won't be too raw is kind of by feeling: it's beyond catharsis. It's now more expression or storytelling. I don't know who said it, but there's this idea of writing from the scar, not the wound. And so I think it's also the timing. If I'd written this book sooner, it probably would have been a bit raw, a bit too messy, maybe a bit burdensome, you know. I didn't want to tell these hard things in a way that left the reader kind of stuck with them. I always had this idea that I was sort of holding my hands up saying like, 'Look, but you don't have to touch it and I'm not going to drop it on your lap. It's mine. And I will take care of it, but you can see.' And I think that just kind of came with time.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- CHRISTA COUTURE WEB http://www.christacouture.com BUY THE BOOK "How To Lose Everything" http://christacouture.com/everything/#buy IG https://www.instagram.com/christacouture--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREAndrew Katz is an English and creative writing teacher at Dawson College and the author of several children's book including: How To Catch A Bear Who Loves To Read, I Just Want To Be Super! and the upcoming A Starlit Trip to the Library. He shares the joy he experiences in the process of finding just the right word and muses about humans' metaphorical minds. We discuss how his experience of remote teaching during COVID lifted a curtain for him on the inequality among his students and explains how he tweaked his teaching approach to take into account his students' needs.“When people are in the middle of a pandemic, you cannot just launch into the subject of the day as if everything is normal. That would be like if you're in some kind of disaster situation and you just pretend it's not happening. You have to acknowledge the situation that we're all in. The way I structured my class is the first half hour was optional. It was like hanging out. So people would just come in if they felt like it, half an hour of hanging out and another 15 minutes of small groups just to get the pulse of everyone and just to kind of ease into being together in this online space. And I think once they feel like you're aware that we're in a storm, that there's water sloshing over the side of the boat, that they feel very alone and scared, once they're like, 'oh, he's aware that I'm in this situation, now I'm okay to learn about English and creative writing.'”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- Andrew Katz WEB http://andrewkatzbooks.ca LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-katz-2922b63a--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREI'm off.I'm camping.I'll be back next Wednesday Aug. 4th with another great guest.Check the links below for other stuff to listen to as I mentioned ...Thanks for giving a shit!Rob--- OTHER STUFF TO LISTEN TO: Todd Donald Show Finale Episode w Rob Szabo CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Todd Donald's New Show Prime Time Flies CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Audio Drama "Lights Over Darlington" (incl Aliens!) w/ YesYesMatt CLICK HERE TO LISTEN--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERESATE is an internationally acclaimed recording artist and songwriter. We dig into her musical history and bond over our shared love of Black Sabbath, Fishbone & Living Colour. We re-live our first meeting and the song that came out of it and she talks about her role in the COVID-postponed Scott Joplin opera Treemonisha featuring a predominantly black female team and ensemble. We also dig into her family roots: both her parents made enormous contributions to black culture in Toronto. She shares her need to balance her intense pride and loyalty to her parents accomplishments with the need to assert herself as an individual. We talk about the journey to make her new album “The Fool”, feeling and making music through her body, and coming to a place of self-acceptance. “I was starting to feel like I was making music for people to accept me. When I wasn't accepted, it felt like shit. And I realized that it had nothing to do with anybody else but myself. Self-acceptance is the word that I'll probably tattoo somewhere on my body, definitely somewhere where I can see it. It doesn't really matter whether anybody else likes it or not, as long as I do, as long as I feel it in my body, as long as it moves me. That's all that matters. And that's hard. That's hard to come to because we make art to give to people for acceptance, for belonging.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- SATE WEB http://stateofsate.com What Did I Do (Live Video) https://youtu.be/ZT8Ny2Vmcgk?t=152 Scott Joplin’s Treemonisha https://www.volcano.ca/treemonisha--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREBrad Freiheit is a luthier who builds the most exquisite stringed instruments. We talk about how his humble beginnings ripping apart his first Kent guitar in grade nine led to the genesis of Freiheit guitars and he explains how the skills he refined working as a pattern maker in a foundry brought his guitar building to a new level. We dig into his musical history and he tells stories from playing the circuit in Southern Ontario and he shares how his fanatical devotion to perfection in his guitar building is an extension of his take on life. “Everything I do is based on trying to get as much quality of life out of this particular activity or event. Because let's face it, life can be tough and we gotta field some bullshit. And so if you gotta field the bullshit, try and counteract it with as much good stuff as possible. This is an exclusive thing: I am going to pour three months of my personal self, all in, emotionally invested. I'm a kook with the perfection. Making a difference for somebody by crafting an instrument that changes and takes their playing to a new level. It advances them because problems have been solved and things have been resolved for them. That's all right for me, I'm pretty happy with that. To me, I call that success.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- BRAD FREIHEIT Freiheit Määkjäädä  Bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADg6gJpWz24 IG https://www.instagram.com/freiheitguitars--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREStacey Cooper is the Town Clerk and Deputy CAO for the Town of Penetanguishene. We dig into her role in local government and her commitment to roots level democracy. She shares her excitement for the first Climate Solutions Park in Canada, to be built in the Ecology Garden in Penetanguishene and she details the Community Well Being Committee initiative which brings together representatives from previously siloed councils. She also emphasizes the importance of relationship building, listening, and making people feel heard and authentically represented. “I've had members of Council say: ‘Oh, I can't believe that other member of Council showed up wearing XYZ’, and it's not something they would have worn to a really important meeting. I'd say: ‘I hear you. You're right. I wouldn't necessarily have worn that. Keep in mind, this person is a representation of our community, and they should feel comfortable coming in whatever way they want.’ We don't want a group of people around this table that all wear the business suits and are very well spoken and well educated. That's not democracy. We want this room to reflect the people that live here. And if the people that live here would wear socks and sandals and shorts to a very important provincial meeting, that's us. That's exactly us. And we are true to ourselves. People need to feel like the person that they entrusted with their community are like them.”---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- STACEY COOPER FB https://www.facebook.com/stacey.m.cooper.9 LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacey-cooper-she-her-7147909a--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREPat Lackenbauer is a man of many passions: podcast host, visual artist, lifelong salesman, zine publisher & indie music label head. We talk about his “Movin’ Air” podcast and Rob fesses up to freaking out and bailing as a guest. We dig into his life as a salesman, positivity & confidence, and hash out our differing views on the law of attraction. We also chat about sharing inspiration through our friendship, his visual art,  his zine “The Wandering Artoholic” and his “Breeding Ground” compilation that played a pivotal role in nurturing the early 90s KW music scene.  “I guess I do just have to express myself. I don't want to think: 'I gotta get up in the morning. I gotta punch a clock, punch it out, and then my life begins'. I've never wanted that life. So even though a lot of it has been sales or whatever, I want to enjoy that aspect of it, and I do enjoy it. But I've always been searching for a way to live my life. I can make a comfortable living, still enjoy what I'm doing during the day, bring that energy and that approach to things and then still have those creative endeavors. I've always said I don't want to know what day it is. I don't want to know what time it is. I want to get up when I get up. I want to go to bed when I go to bed. I don't always have that luxury but I have had times in my life that I have had those things. And they're always 'cause of something I chased. I was working from home before anyone was doing that. I went looking for those things. I negotiated with people to create that life.“---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- PAT LACKENBAUER POD http://movinairpod.com IG https://www.instagram.com/the_wandering_artoholic IG https://www.instagram.com/rocknbauer---SCOTT COOPER SINGS ROB SZABO: https://scottcoopermusic.bandcamp.com--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERENicole Palmquist (a.k.a. booleep) is a visual artist who works in many mediums: she does murals, she draws on paper, she paints people’s bodies and she is the studio manager at JSA Studios. She shares the roots of her fascination with anatomy (working with the REAL body parts of cadavers!) and describes the process of using other people’s bodies as a canvas in her body painting work. She also shares the magic of living in L.A., taking part in the art scene, getting to work with pioneers in comic art and TV and film including attending halloween parties with a crowd of film SFX people. She shares insights about her “fear of words” and perfectionist tendencies that slowed her down at points and emphasizes the importance of staying open to opportunities.  “How would I describe my work? I like thinking that it simplifies the expression of human behaviour. I think just using the language of anatomy, it talks about human beings. I've always found meaning in the actual anatomical parts and how they work together and how similar those relationships are to real relationships. When people try to talk about religion, I'm like: ‘anatomy is my religion’. The concept of thinking of the human body and all the cells within it … who knows?“(Illustration by Jason Shawn Alexander)---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE--- NICOLE PALMQUIST (booleep) WEB https://www.booleep.com IG https://www.instagram.com/booleep Here is an illustration she did of me ... me=honoured to be her subject: https://www.instagram.com/p/CNZDcZDJIVT--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREBrad Marshall is a true iconoclast. He’s a mainstay behind the scenes in the KW music scene and he is a tech pioneer and newly minted ice-road trucker. We dig into his history in music including time with reggae band Crucial Vibes and our time together in KW music in the early 90s. Brad shares regrets over being very early to the streaming game but not capitalizing on opportunities and also shares his recent victories in his weight loss journey: losing over 100 lbs in the past year. I praise Brad for being one of the only true rebels I’ve ever met as he breaks the 4th wall with the audience and marvels that anyone would listen to our private conversation for entertainment. He details his experience driving 18 wheelers on ice roads delivering supplies to the Northwest Territories’ Gahcho Kue Mine and articulates why he continually chooses to live his life outside of his comfort zone. “I wanted to do something that's way out of my comfort zone and change my perspective. Nothing is stable … I’m living in a truck right now. I'm in a yard. I don't live in a hotel room. I live in a truck. All my food’s there, my water … everything. It’s just a different perspective. Doing the same thing, the routine, every day of your life ... kills your life. Time flies by. Before you know it, it's over. The only way to stop it is to step out of your comfort zone. We're human beings and we're here for a short period of time, right? It's not like we're here forever.“---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---BRAD MARSHALL WEB https://cyclingforsalvation.com YOUTUBE https://bit.ly/2QEeJVw--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREJen Ochej is a tour manager for touring music artists including Lights, Jessie Reyez and The Good Lovelies. She gives us a behind the scenes peek at her tour experience from van tours in clubs to festivals & amphitheaters. We talk about how she got her start tour managing, the power of persistence and  how she deals with unforeseens by planning meticulously knowing that nothing will go according to plan. She tells tales of waking up on a broken down tour bus stranded in the Rocky Mountains half an hour before soundcheck hours away, finding fill-in musicians with less than 24 hrs notice and flagging down the headlining act's tour bus to escape a California wildfire on a day off. She also shares tour hacks like day-off lone Target trips and the importance of green room snacks. "Live music, touring, tour management: It's what makes my heart sing. It makes my eyes light up. It's the thing. Maybe you loaded in at nine in the morning and your band doesn't go on stage until nine o'clock at night. You've already worked 12 hours. And that moment when they walk out and the lights come up, the whole room, just roars. I'm getting goosebumps now, remembering those moments ... like that feeling. We made that happen. We pulled it off again and we get to do it again tomorrow. And again the next day. And again the day after that. (And then hopefully a day off) But then again the day after that. You're creating those moments for all of those people in the crowd. But it's also a moment for you. I guess I do it for that moment. That one moment when the band walks out and the room just explodes."---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---JEN OCHEJ WEB https://www.jenochej.com IG https://www.instagram.com/jenochej--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HEREJeff Bryant is a musician, actor and standup comic. He is formerly one half of the folk-pop duo the Human Statues and is now forging out on his own as a solo singer-songwriter. We chat about gaining wisdom around achievement as we get older and letting go of externally imposed ideas of success. He shares experiences of heartbreak and a health crisis that added up to a “now or never” moment in his life. We also dig into ideas around letting go of certainty of outcomes and how that plays into stage fright and how some musicians look down their nose at playing covers. (Jeff reminds us The Beatles started as a cover band.) He also gives us a behind-the-shades view of his experience being an actual human statue and shares his daily journaling practice that focuses on hope.“Like any other human being, I very much struggle with despair versus hope. Up until this point in my life, I think I frequently imagined (that) how I feel is just something that happens to me. And now, at this stage of my life, I understand hope is a muscle. Every single day in the morning I journal. And one of the first things I do is rate my hopeful mood. And that’s just an example of me being attuned to why I’m hopeful or not and for what reason. I notice the impact it has because what I do is I review my journal entries every week or two. One of the most interesting things I find is that there’s times where the despair can seriously kick my ass. And when it happens, it feels like my world. And what you realize when you look at the data is, no no, that was something that was going on that day, and it was temporary. The more your awareness evolves around that, the more you appreciate that there’s a fluid experience of optimism, pessimism, hopefulness, despair. And your job, just like how you eat, exercise, all these things, is to try to orient yourself around being a good shape.“---SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: CLICK HERE---JEFF BRYANT WEB https://www.therealjeffbryant.com IG https://www.instagram.com/therealjeffbryant SPOT http://spoti.fi/3vAXd4f--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod

Samantha Martin is a Juno-nominated songwriter and singer with a voice of unmistakable texture and power. We talk about her new album with her band Delta Sugar "The Reckless One" and the trials and tribulations that informed the songs including a grueling few years of touring that put an immense amount of stress on her and caused her to “almost mentally breakdown”. She gives advice on making tours work financially, the upsides of European touring including trying local cuisine like Swedish horse sausage and how chasing the live music high is like an addiction."It’s not the other 23 hours in the day, it’s that one hour on stage. It’s powerful, it’s moving, it fills my soul. Connecting with an audience is magical. Live music is magical. I think it’s also an addiction if I’m gonna be completely honest. Because it’s a high. You just chase it ’til you either get that high again or you surpass it. The first time I played a festival we were the ‘tweener. It was so exciting and my Dad’s right down in front of me and he’s crying tears of proud joy. He’s like “Sam, you did it, you made it”. Because of that then I pushed myself ‘I need to do that again’, but instead of being a ‘tweener, I want to be the band. So then I get that. So the next thing I wanna do is I want to tour. Then you do the tour. It just keeps snowballing. I’ve done a lot in the last 15 years but you know what I haven’t done? I haven’t played on a stadium stage. I’d like to do that one day. I’ve never played Letterman or SNL or whatever. I’d love to do that. I’ve never done the Super Bowl … “--- SUPPORT THIS PODCAST: https://bit.ly/aswKO-FI--- SAMANTHA MARTIN WEB https://samanthamartinmusic.com IG https://www.instagram.com/rootsnroll SPOT http://spoti.fi/2NWQz7p--- AND SOMETIMES ... WHY?: WEB https://www.andsometimeswhy.com EMAIL mailto:andsometimeswhypod@gmail.com INSTA https://www.instagram.com/andsometimeswhypod FB https://www.facebook.com/andsometimeswhypod TWEET https://twitter.com/sometimeswhypod