Dans Tous Les Sens
Brian*, storyteller quadragénaire franco-américain exilé à Genève, est expert des projets inachevés.
Il s’est donné pour mission de réaliser 100 podcasts en franglais.
Avec ses invités (ou en solo, quand il se fait iech), les discussions s’étalent sur des thèmes profonds, légers ou random : l’introspection, le seum, les traumas, les souvenirs de jeunesse, le spleen, la musique, le sport, les gens inspirants (ou relous), les petits plaisirs du quotidien… et bien plus encore — toujours dans tous les sens.
(*) not in the kitchen
Dans Tous Les Sens
Ep. 020 - Lucia's Heart
Brian celebrates his 20th episode with a very special guest — his sister, Lucia ♥️
Together, they dive into childhood memories, their love of music, family, the keys to stability, more music, connecting across the Atlantic ocean, and lots more!
Welcome to my studio, Lucia.
SPEAKER_04:Thank you very much for having me in your studio.
SPEAKER_01:This is uh this is a big deal because you are my sister.
SPEAKER_04:I'm a big sister.
SPEAKER_01:Big yep, and my godmom.
SPEAKER_04:That also is true.
SPEAKER_01:And also, this is the 20th episode.
SPEAKER_04:Wow, and I'm 20. That's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. Times times three plus one.
SPEAKER_02:Down tool is in all directions.
SPEAKER_00:In those sentidos.
SPEAKER_01:This is the first time that we're in this new new setup.
SPEAKER_04:Okay, I like it.
SPEAKER_01:I still need to get a chair.
SPEAKER_04:You have the comfy IKEA chair.
SPEAKER_01:I've got a desk chair.
SPEAKER_04:Okay. Sorry, sucks to be you. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But you're the little brother, so speaking of which, uh we always start with um, do you remember the first time that we met?
SPEAKER_04:I'm pretty sure I remember the first time I met you because you were a baby. Um I had been at egg long, I had been at boarding school when you were born. I remember, of course, it was well before mobile phones and stuff. So I had to get a long distance phone call from our dad to make the announcement that we'd had another little brother. And I was super excited. Um and I believe he called during lunch to make the announcement. So anyway, there was a lot of anticipation. But when I actually laid eyes upon you for the first time, you were in a stroller. You were in Minneapolis. I saw I arrived at the Minneapolis airport. So excited to see my new brother I'd never met before. You must have been eight months old because your birthday's December. So yeah, I think you were eight months old or so, or pushing eight months. And your mom stood there. I walked past because again, early days, you could walk all the way to the gate to greet your people. You didn't have to wait after the luggage and all of that. No security necessary. So I arrived at the Minneapolis airport, you were in your little stroller. And the funny thing was, I was 13 and a half. I was almost 14 at this point that I met you. So when I had last seen everybody, like your our dad and your mom, it was maybe even a year before. So I had changed a lot. That's the time where a girl really changes. And your mom's reaction was funny. She went, Oh! When I tapped her on the shoulder, she had not recognized me.
SPEAKER_01:Oh boy.
SPEAKER_04:So anyway, but I didn't care about that. I just wanted to see my new little baby brother, and you were super cute and round in your stroller. So that's that's yeah, that's when I met you. That's when you met me. I bet you didn't know that story.
SPEAKER_01:Not exactly. I didn't remember that you were you were in Aigrons, so you were in Switzerland and we were in the US. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, that's weird.
SPEAKER_01:That itself is kind of a reverse.
SPEAKER_04:It is very strange because dad and Crete lived in Minneapolis for two years.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:At which time you were born. The other funny thing, a little trivial pursuit thing, is that the same doctor delivered me and you.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:Because we were b both born in Minneapolis, as was our older sis, but she had a different doctor deliver her.
SPEAKER_01:And that was Dr.
SPEAKER_04:His name is Dr. Hal Meeker. And he worked with our grandpa, who was an obstetrician. I later on went to find out that Hal Meeker's wife was from Canada and was best friends with my neighbor from Vancouver. Like very bizarre. Yeah, it's a very tiny world at times. Very big and very, very small.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, maybe I should, for people who don't know us, um so our dad, we've got the same dad. Yep. And um so he had our sister, Dina. Uh then two years and a half later, or two years, nine months, which I think is the same diff.
SPEAKER_04:Well, pretty much. Okay, so two years, nine months between our sis and me. And then ten years later, had Oliver. And then I think it's like two years, nine months later, you were born. So it's kind of interesting. Yep. Yeah. Two girls and two boys, but ten years apart.
SPEAKER_01:Ten years apart. Uh so you so you were born in Minneapolis. Yep. Then um, yeah, just maybe in a nutshell, where did you live? Because you moved around quite a bit.
SPEAKER_04:I did. And it wasn't my decision. Of course, I was dragged along, probably kicking and screaming. I was told I was a um I had a lot of tantrumps as a j as a child. But anyway, uh before I turned a year old, my dad, our dad, I mean, and and my mom moved, they were transferred with with Cargill, they were transferred to Memphis, Tennessee. And we stayed there until I was about four years old and then moved to Geneva. So I was four, moved to Geneva. Our parents split up when I was five, and my mom moved our sis and I back to Memphis, Tennessee, which was weird because she did not grow up in Memphis. But I guess she had that was her first time to sort of be an adult without her parents, and she made lots of friends she really enjoyed, and she married a man from Memphis. So we moved to Memphis for about f almost four years. And then when I was almost, I guess I was 11 still, moved to Geneva or to Switzerland, I shouldn't say Geneva. We went to boarding school at Aiglon up in Villar. And um I went to school for two years there, and then I went back to Memphis, sort of for my third time, and lived in Memphis for the four last years of high school. Yep. Then I moved back to Geneva because I really wanted to spend time with you guys. And I took what was, I guess, technically called a gap year between high school and university, and I stayed in Geneva and studied various things like French, um, dance, theater. I did a bit of modeling. I was I did some theater work. It was a great year. I had a great time. And then I went to university and um Sarah Lawrence College outside of New York City before I got married, and then I moved to Dubai. And then I moved to Vancouver in 1989, where I have been ever since.
SPEAKER_01:Wow. Yeah. I did not um register, remember that you were that young when uh uh dad and and Jean and your mom separated.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I was only five.
SPEAKER_01:You were only five. So do you have any memories from them together?
SPEAKER_04:I do, actually. I have some small little snippets of memories. I remember being in Memphis when we were little. I remember the house a bit. Um but the thing when you say the word divorce and our parents, I remember I went to La Gradelle. I remember saying something to mom and dad about oh, you didn't kiss goodbye. And they said, Well, divorced people don't give each other a kiss.
SPEAKER_05:Oh.
SPEAKER_04:And I was only five. But obviously, if I remember that, and I'm 61 now, it made an impact on me as a little five-year-old kid. I remember washing my hands in kindergarten, telling my friends, my parents are divorced, and they said, What does that mean? And I said, I don't know, but they're divorced. Isn't that weird?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's really weird. I remember the yellow soap. Do you remember? Oh, they still have that soap. They have it, it's like a metal bar.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:And the soap, it's it looks like a hot dog bun or something.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Between a banana and a hot dog bun.
SPEAKER_04:It's really ridiculous and probably pretty gross.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:But I remember washing my hands and saying, I I don't know, but they're divorced. Like, trust me on this one. I'm just telling you they're divorced. And I was five. That's so weird.
unknown:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Oh. And at at the time, were there less divorces, you think?
SPEAKER_04:Or I actually don't know, but I think they were pretty new. The divorce thing, like the trend, I guess if it was trendy, they would be kind of the early ones, the the newbies in getting divorced. And then it started to happen with more frequency that I had friends whose parents were divorced. But I obviously at that point had no idea what it meant, nor did my friends. So I'm assuming it was not the norm.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Yeah. Because um we as you know, um with um my son Sam, who's 10 years old with his mom, so we we weren't married.
SPEAKER_06:Right.
SPEAKER_01:It was more a priority to have a kid, yeah, I think. And I'm sure glad we did because uh we love him and uh can't imagine life without him. No, no, no, no, no. So great to have kids. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, but we we separated when he was about one. Um so we were amongst the first uh in school to have parents who not not the only ones, but we that you weren't together, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And because um all the kids in school, they've been together since daycare, a lot of them. Okay, which is really cool because Sam is like in fifth grade now, and there's maybe like half a dozen kids he was in daycare with. So we've known them since they were six, seven months. So we've we've grown to know the parents pretty well and even become friends.
SPEAKER_04:That's so nice and so constant for your son.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I I mean, uh yes, definitely.
SPEAKER_04:Stable, it's stabilizing, I think, to have the same peer group is really great, especially if your parents are not together. However, Sam would not remember you and his mom being together under one roof, sort of thing.
SPEAKER_01:Exactly. And so for him, it was normal to and and we were lucky that we um had a system and I Geraldina mainly responsible for finding the right system for us.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Uh the great thing is that we both wanted and agreed on split custody, so it was 50-50. Yeah. Yeah, we're both working full-time and with fairly sim similar income, so there wasn't that financial aspect also that could complicate things. So the practical stuff was fairly easy.
SPEAKER_03:Great.
SPEAKER_01:And um with a kid that's that young, I don't know, I mean Geraldina came mentioned the idea that instead of doing one week, one week, yeah, all to uh split the week in half. Yes. And then every other weekend to trade weekends kind of thing. Uh and then the other condition is to live in the same neighborhood. It's actually uh legally to to have split custody.
SPEAKER_04:You have to stay in that same neighborhood.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Again, stability.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, stability.
SPEAKER_04:The focus on stability. And I think of all the parents I know, you and Gerald Dina are the most solid co-parents who don't live together that I've ever heard of.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I I you I hear such a nice um sort of sympatico thing about you two. How you raise your son. Also, he's an only child. The fact that he doesn't have siblings and has his parents co-parent well would be so important. And it doesn't always work out that way. So that's great. That says a lot about you and Geraldina. I think that's excellent for your son.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, thanks.
SPEAKER_04:He feels like your priority, and I'm sure he benefits from feeling like that.
SPEAKER_01:I I think so. And um in in a way, the the decision to to separate early enough, soon enough meant that we didn't just stay because of our, you know, say, oh, we gotta stay together because of our kid.
SPEAKER_04:That really backfires as much as I think. I think it can.
SPEAKER_01:I think it really can. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I mean, I'm divorced, right? Uh Lucas and I divorced. We were together nearly 18 years. Or we I think we were married 18 years, technically. We'd been together a couple years before that. We did not have a sense of we've got to stick together for the children. We had actually been together a very long time. It was not, you know, it's never anyone's first choice, isn't it? You don't think, oh, how about we get divorced or we do something else? It's not like that. It's like, okay, it's not working out. And you know, the the reasons are always quite personal and quite challenging, I think. And I think tension is in the air if you don't separate, you know, if you just stick together for whatever reason you think it's a better idea and you make a big effort to stick together, everyone feels the tension in the air, and that's very stressful. And kids are amazing at picking up stress.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I think.
SPEAKER_01:It's not to recommend to anybody, like, oh, you're having trouble in your marriage, get you know, separate before he gets back. But but I think in in in our case it it worked out for the best. And and and in a way, because Sam was so young, that was normal for him and stable because we got along. So of course we don't always agree. The the first year is more difficult, I think. But uh yeah, he uh it's not that long ago, I think it was maybe three years ago, that one of the girls in his class asked, why, like, like what's the deal with your parents? Why are they together? And so he he asked me uh the question, and you know, I explained explained, I said, Yeah, you know, we just um agreed to separate, but we're we're yeah, we agreed to disagree, and you know, but we're friends, and we we you know we both love you, and and I still consider Geraldine a family. Uh we're still in a way a family, but not in maybe in the traditional sense. His reaction when Mathilde, his friend, asked you this the way that Sam explained it, he was like, Oh mais je n'en sais rien, Mathilde, mais je sais pas.
SPEAKER_04:It's sort of like I don't know what it means. Yeah, but we're divorced. It's kind of the same reaction. It's a child the child's not supposed to know the intricacies of the parents' relationship, I believe. Right? So it's like if there's a word divorced or not together, what have you, I think the fact that they're okay, all their needs are met, and it's stable. My sense is that everyone does the best, the most important things for the child, and the child's gonna be okay.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I'd like to believe that.
SPEAKER_01:Me too. I'd like to believe it, believe that. And then, you know, if I start questioning too much, I can sometimes I wonder, I was like, you know, especially since then we've had both Geraldina and I had relationships, uh, and you know, and then it didn't work out. So I just hope that Sam's image of being in a couple. Yeah, the concept.
SPEAKER_04:But you know, I mean uh I mean you can't see as much as we want to as parents. You want to protect you want to put them in that glass bubble and show them all, you know, it's all sunshine and roses and you know, whatever every day. And it's not like that.
SPEAKER_01:It's not reality.
SPEAKER_04:But he knows other couples who've been together, like Dina and Ian, our older sis and her husband have been together for 40 plus years, and he know, you know, so he would know other couples and stuff. And I mean, think about we're talking, you said you're not um conventional in your relationship or something like that. I can't remember the word you just used. I should. But you think about families today. There are two daddies, there are two mommies. I've heard of thruples, I've heard of all sorts of things, which can you imagine what our father would think?
SPEAKER_01:Oh boy.
SPEAKER_04:Or his father. I mean, you know, the generations, the concept of family has become very diverse. Whether you like it or not, it's just some some people live like that, some people live like this, some people, you know. So again, I think that the main thing where children are involved is stability. And as you said, we still love you for the child. To know that they're the love for the child is never altered by whatever's going on with the parents. They the child always comes first.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Children, yeah. Definitely. I just want to come back to when we met.
SPEAKER_06:Yep.
SPEAKER_01:So what um so of course I don't remember when I was eight months, but I I I remember the visits, and I I really remember that time when you came and lived in in Geneva.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:Because you you stayed with us.
SPEAKER_04:Yep, I lived with you in the same house.
SPEAKER_01:In the upstairs little bedroom.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. And then they called it the toilet flush room. It was by the toilet. Oh, yes. We could I could enjoy the sound of the flushing of the toilet.
SPEAKER_01:Wonderful. That was uh it was a weird house because it only had one one bathroom. But anyway, we digressed. Yeah. But um, no, what I remember is uh also I remember that you you came in with cassette tapes of um the first video music videos that I had seen. So it was Michael Jackson.
SPEAKER_04:For sure. It was a thriller album. Thriller? Yeah, it was a big deal.
SPEAKER_01:So there was the the video of Thriller and Bad.
SPEAKER_04:Bad was later than No, sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_01:Um Beat It.
SPEAKER_04:Beat It. Beat it. Of course, because at dance school we had a dance routine to that.
SPEAKER_01:To beat it?
SPEAKER_04:To beat it. I could perform it for you now, but then the listeners wouldn't be able to see it. And that would be such a shame.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:No, um, and the other really big one when videos came out was Eurythmics. Um Sweet Dreams Are Made of This.
SPEAKER_01:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:That was also on there. The show I think that we watched a lot was called Les Enfants du Hawk.
SPEAKER_01:Ah oui, les enfants du Roc.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, that music video was a way to see performers. We you know, you didn't get to do that until that time. Unless you went to their concert. And went to your you would listen to music on a record or on a tape, but the only chance you had to see them, what what the performer looked like, what the singer, what the musicians looked like, is if you got to go to their concert.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I never be a recorded something that would be aired. Right. Right. It's hard to think of that now because everything's so instant. But um videos were so creative and so like fun to watch because you felt much more connected to the artist. It gave everyone an opportunity to see while you listened.
SPEAKER_01:And it was a chance to experiment, also, I think when you look at those music videos in the 80s and the the start of I mean, Thriller was like there were many movies.
SPEAKER_04:They I mean that was such a cool album for Michael Jackson, like or Quincy Jones was the producer of that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:What a powerhouse.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And and also during that time there was uh Prince and Purple Rain. Right. You you were more Michael Jackson than Prince.
SPEAKER_04:I really I think I only really developed um an appreciation and admiration for Prince through you. I know you're a massive Prince man, but now I look at some of the you know the clips of his dancing. I did go to see a live concert of his. I blew my mind how talented the man is and was, and always during award shows, and I think he played at a Super Bowl halftime show. I mean, whoa, he was tiny, minuscule guy, but so electrifying, you know, to see and all those instruments he played and stuff, and just the theatrical aspect of what he did, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:His it's like he was in costume all the time.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he had this persona kind of the the he went through different phases, uh the the the style and what he'd wear and his haircut and everything. But yeah. Michael Jackson was the first superstar that I can remember, and I I you know I I loved Beat It and I um really ad admired him as an artist, and and then Prince it was later. Um but yeah, these these megastars. Uh we were talking about this just before the podcast, but when you look at if you look at Prince at Michael Jackson, uh many others uh who were just so into their music and performance, and it was almost extreme to the point where it affected their health.
SPEAKER_03:True.
SPEAKER_01:And also just the being and I, you know, having everybody just go crazy around you.
SPEAKER_04:Must be crazy. I mean, I another thing just popped in my mind. I had seen Michael Jackson with his brothers. So they were the Jackson Five performing live in Memphis, Tennessee. Really? I was really young. I mean, I must have been, I don't know, like 13 or so. I can't remember my exact age. Thirteen doesn't sound right. But anyway, something quite young, 14 maybe, or before that, I can't remember. But my Arcis had a friend who worked at for a recording studio in Memphis, and he could get really good um concert tickets. And I got to see him, and I was in the center row, about four rows back. No. Yes. And not only was I very close to the stage, but no one sat down, of course, because talk about stage presence and just the visual of this Jackson Fire, like how they were. You didn't stand on the floor, you didn't stand on your seat. Even you wanted to get as high up as you could, so you stood on your armrest.
SPEAKER_01:Really?
SPEAKER_04:And that I remember just being like, whoa, this is absolutely crazy. Everyone is trying to get like, we're like lifted. It was it was it was really um, I don't know how to even describe it. It was so electric, you know, it was so crazy. And they were so talented and so in sync with each other the way they danced. But Michael Jackson had something that's like he was the lead singer, of course, and he wasn't the oldest. He was I mean the youngest, maybe.
SPEAKER_01:I think so. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He was just off the charts, you know. He's just something your eye just went to him, just drawn to him.
SPEAKER_01:Wow, I think it's pretty lucky I got to see him. How old was he at the time, do you think?
SPEAKER_04:Well, he and I are he I mean, he was the same, he's about six years older than me. So it lets I'm saying I was thirteen, fourteen, but I really can't remember my age.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but it was the ja it was the yeah, the Jacksons.
SPEAKER_04:So he he had done his off the wall album, I think. It was maybe it was right before that came out, so we need to look at what that time was. But I mean, yeah, he was young. They were young guys, and it was before all of the alleged plastic surgery.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So anyway, that was just yeah, I feel pretty old when I can say things like that. But I I feel like that was cool to be able to see him.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, no, definitely. I uh well actually that was one of the questions I wanted to ask you because you love music, you play piano. You played the flutes?
SPEAKER_04:I did play the I mean piano, I could honestly say I played. I was supposed to be about a grade 10. I practice the piano all the time. My parents, our parents didn't have to tell me to practice. In fact, I practiced so much my mom would tell me to stop practicing. I loved it, but you know what it was? It was soothing to me. It was like therapy. I didn't love performing in front of people. I don't think I have a an ear for playing, like I can just say, let's all come around the piano, we're gonna sing Christmas carols because I know all of those. I could pick out the melody, but what I really loved was playing classical music. Beethoven's my favorite composer to play, and just reading music. I love reading music, and I'll even like to look at a score of um, you know, symphony and and look at it and read it, follow it along. I thought I felt exciting. Yeah. So I can read music, but I I just love music. I can't get enough of music.
SPEAKER_01:But when you see like a a score, because I don't I can't read music. I love music, but I've you know never was able to get to that stage. But when you read music, if you're not playing the piano, you can hear it in your head?
SPEAKER_04:A little bit. A little bit. Like I can I can get the general gist of it, but it depends on what the instrument is and how many instruments it put together and stuff like that. But yeah, I can I can see what it's gonna sound like.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, that must be cool.
SPEAKER_04:It is.
SPEAKER_01:It reminds me of that you you see the movie uh Amadeus.
SPEAKER_04:Yes. Oh my god, that was good.
SPEAKER_01:And there's a scene, I don't know if you remember that scene when uh it's left off. Um I'm thinking of the one where what was his name? Salieri? Salieri, yeah. Salieri kind of plays the he's the voiceover, I mean he's the narrator of the story. And he finds partitions of uh multi-partition, and and he's not supposed to look at it, but he opens it, and then as he opens it, we hear like he goes crazy because it's so good and he feels like well you can see, and it's very mathematical, right?
SPEAKER_04:When you study music, which it's hard because it's a language, you can see that things are working out, and it's like a mathematical equation. Doesn't mean all music is, obviously. But yeah, it's it's interesting. Obviously, the more you know, the more it seems um effortless, right? When people are playing and you think, oh, that looks so easy. Or when you see a beautiful painting, you think, oh, I could do that, and you totally can't. They make it look like it's easy.
SPEAKER_01:Um as you know, my favorite band is Radiohead.
SPEAKER_04:Yes.
SPEAKER_01:And the so the main composers are um basically Tom York, the singer, guitar player. He also plays the piano, but he he's not classically trained and you cannot read music.
SPEAKER_04:A lot of musicians I know do not. It's crazy.
SPEAKER_01:It's crazy, but the then there's Johnny Greenwood who's uh the get well guitar player initially, but he's plays the org and does modulate. He's like one of those multi- and he's a classically trained, and now he he he does uh movie scores. Uh that's so good. And I heard an interview of both of them, and and they were talking about this, and Johnny Greenwood was saying he told Tom York, do not try to learn music, uh, because what you're doing, his it might it would alter it. Alter it. Yeah. But in a way, the fact that Johnny Greenwood is so classically trained and can do these these uh orchestral and and violins and both of them just kind of mesh.
SPEAKER_04:They do, they probably um complement each other. Yeah, but that's fascinating. That is so cool.
SPEAKER_01:I always find it cool when you know, like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but also uh uh Ringo Starr and um George Harris. Thank you. That they were all great musicians and and and somehow they they probably you know became better together, but also each brought something something else.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It is amazing. How does a band form? I mean, my I don't know.
SPEAKER_01:Actually, uh sadly there's less and apparently there's less and less bands because now we've got the ability to do music alone much easier.
SPEAKER_04:Somebody's in London and the other guy's in California. The other yeah. And then you I've I've sat beside musicians saying, Oh wait, I just need to finish this like riff on the drums or whatever it is, and they plug in and they play that, and then it gets it gets tossed into the mix, and there you hear it on the recording, and you're like, What? I was sitting there in that room and we were talking we were having a chat and a cup of coffee, and then that's just a part of that sound over there. Not not the coffee, but the what they played. It's crazy. It's crazy. So yeah, you're right, people don't have to perform. I mean, again, back to going to concerts, right? I love go going to concerts of performers, I love.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Because it's like the multisensory experience. It's like the visual, the audio, the like all of it, you just get so much out of it than just, you know, it's like if you're just listening, that's one thing. I don't know. I I think it's still very important. I like to go to a movie, see it in a movie theater. Kind of old school that way.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. Yeah, me too. I mean, it's uh it's uh it's a collective experience and uh and tuning other things out, putting your fucking phone down so you can actually pay attention and be, you know, immersed in what you're doing.
SPEAKER_04:I think you get so much more out of it. I feel for all those um, you know, all the actors and the directors are saying, you know, to please go to the cinema, please, please, please keep that as you know, a way to see a move motion picture is to actually go to the cinema. And I I agree. It's so fun to escape as a m you can't escape things. Not that I need to run away, but just that it's nice to put your phone down.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I know, absolutely, absolutely. I totally agree. I remember so when you were living with us, seeing those music videos and and yeah, sort of doing that mu musical, like contemporary music education because our dad was great and loved music, but it was like jazz, like old jazz.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. But you know, as much as he was very I don't want to say stuck as it's a negative connotation, because I don't mean that, but he was very knowledgeable and very, you know, he loved His jazz era that he loved Dixie Dixieland jazz. But he really appreciated that anyone had a passion for music. It didn't really matter what it was. He wanted you to love it as much as he loved his era that he loved, I think. So he was great at, you know, encouraging me to continue with my music, I guess. And I'm no massive talent by any stretch, but I just got a lot I derived a lot of pleasure from it and he could see that. So he, you know, he really wanted me to be able to study and to enjoy it. And I loved that actually. It felt good that he had an appreciation for music. He was a as we know, he used to go and listen to live music and he he just really loved it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and he he would he would share stories about the you know, anecdotes about the recordings.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Just made it more interesting. It's not just music that we're listening. You know, it's like, okay, this is from Chicago, this is the New Orleans sound, and this is like Vicks, and this is Django Reinhardt.
SPEAKER_04:And yeah, he taught us things about it. I you know, it's really funny you mentioned that because I remember he would quiz you and Oliver on which saxophone was playing. It would kind of like a pop quiz. So which which instrument is it? And I don't do that with my grandsons now, but when I take my grandsons to school and they are so cute, and they're four and seven, Dennis and Roger, I take them to school every Tuesday morning in Vancouver. And as a part of it, and they say, Can we put the music on? And so I say, Okay, what do you want to hear? And we each kind of get a turn. It doesn't always work out in my favor, but we try to, you know, let the others in on what we're listening to lately, and it's very silly. But uh, we have a good time with it, and I must have gotten that from our father now that we say that. That's interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, yeah. We do we do that in the car with Sam where it's uh in chanson papa, in chanson Sam, in chanson papa.
SPEAKER_04:That's nice. Because it could drive you crazy. They like a lot of repetition.
SPEAKER_01:Uh kids? Yeah. Do you think it's more the case now, or it's just gen generally.
SPEAKER_04:I think kids in general like repetition.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's comforting. It's comforting. Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. It's comforting and it's a way to really appreciate it on a deeper level. I mean, you know, I'm here visiting grands three grandsons who live here, and they are uh well almost three. Not even two. So they're right now, currently they're under one. Uh one and two. But next week they'll be three, two, and one.
SPEAKER_01:Almost. Almost.
SPEAKER_04:So yeah, they're really very young. And they listen to music, and then they before it's even over, they're saying the word again. Even Henry, who's not even two, says again, again, again. They want to hear it again. I think they're familiar with it. It feels good when you know something. When something's unfamiliar, you're at you're not as confident, right? You're not as sure about it. So they they want to wrap their little brain around it and get into it. It's I love that. I love how they respond to music. It's super cute.
SPEAKER_01:Speaking of kids, so you have four boys.
SPEAKER_04:Yes, I do, but they're not boys anymore. I do have four sons.
SPEAKER_01:Four sons and and uh pretty close in age.
SPEAKER_04:They are had four sons in seven years. So that's yeah, pretty pretty close together. And they're all married. So I also, because I raised a family of boys, I have four daughters-in-law, and I love them all. I'm really lucky.
SPEAKER_01:That's great.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I'm super lucky. It was a kind of almost a fear I had when I had all sons. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. But I'm really lucky. I have four wonderful um daughters-in-law, and then they all have children now. They all have families of their own. It's just amazing.
SPEAKER_01:And you have how many grandchildren? Ten.
SPEAKER_04:Yay! I told my sons that my goal was to have ten grandchildren, and clearly they pay very close attention to every single thing I say now.
SPEAKER_01:Good men.
SPEAKER_04:No, I have 10 and counting, I think. I'd no one's pregnant that I'm aware of, but I don't think we're gonna stop at 10.
SPEAKER_01:We're not gonna have breaking news either.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. I'd love to announce twins or something like that. No. So far, I don't have any information.
SPEAKER_01:But that's when you say it was your goal to have 10. I mean, was that actually something you consciously thought about at some point in your life?
SPEAKER_04:Great number. I thought, what the hell? You know, at that point, I probably only, you know, I had six or five.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so it was it wasn't like at the start.
SPEAKER_04:It was for inspiration.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. For them.
SPEAKER_04:I was trying to inspire them. No, I mean, you know, the thing is, I think four is kind of a magic number. I don't know why. I guess we came from four from our father's side. And then Lucas was the eldest of four kids. And so that was fairly easy for us to come up with four as being our number of the number of children we wanted.
SPEAKER_05:Yep.
SPEAKER_04:And, you know, it just kind of works out that way. I think it's a great number. It's not a great number in a car. You need a big ass car to get around to, you know, that's the only drawback. There's no real perfect car there out there for driving a family.
SPEAKER_01:Because I only have one boy, I don't have the experience of having kids who have different personalities. And and I was wondering about that, how how did like how do you approach that to see, well, you have your first kid, and then maybe you expect the sleeping pattern or the the personalities or the interests to be the same? Or yeah, I mean you had studied child psychology.
SPEAKER_04:I studied developmental psychology. And I had this idea that I celebrate individuals early on. I think I really enjoyed like being around you and Ollie and how different you two were, even from waking up in the morning. Ollie would start off with, Quick dad, we're going to be late. And you would say, I need to sleep. And it was so funny how one was like hyper, hyper, hyper, and you were less hyper, and there's no judgment call. It's just one is you know, raring to go, and the other one's like, I'll see you later. And I think it's interesting. I think individuals are are appealing. So I think as I had kids of my own, I was very curious to see what made each person tick. Where the differences were was going to be interesting to me and find out each little subtle nuance that makes them who they are. The funny thing is they look very much alike, wouldn't you say? My sons are easily identifiable as being brothers.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:It's obvious. They look so much alike. Yeah. People confuse them for each other.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Especially Jack and Jack and Will. Jack and Will.
SPEAKER_04:Jack and Will look a lot alike. And sometimes Adam says people call him Harry and vice versa. Harry corrects him and says, I'm I'm Harry, actually. If people call him Adam. Adam doesn't. So they carry on thinking they just talk to Harry and then you know. But anyway, no, it's and again, that's a difference between the personality types. One is more a stickler for detail, the other one lets it slide. You know, I find those little personality traits super interesting.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, yes, and that's um, you know, it's something that I I noticed, and you it's like you never try to format your kids into boxes or like uh uh you should be doing that. You like you always I think encouraged them to go in a direction, whether it's for activities or interests. I mean, like for example, I know that um uh Lucas liked some pretty intense sports and that it's some of your kids also, and then it's it's scary as a parent, as a mom, but you support them.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Well, sometimes there was no other way, Brian. You know, it's like okay, I can, you know, what is that? I can I can fight this and make myself really miserable, or I can try to see what it is they like about it. And I mean, I think you and I are both thinking right now of like motocross racing or rally, I don't even know what it's called. I honestly I c I try to tune out things that terrify me. Yeah and I'm pretty good at it. But um but yeah, I I try to figure out what makes each individual tick, what makes them interesting, what makes them happy. And the boys have had very, you know, they've all kind of been close to each other and good friends, which makes me so happy. But they're interested in similar um careers. They're interested in a lot of things, but they'll go about it differently. And that's I find it just great. Like, why not? You know, why why do we all have to sort of march to the same drum? I don't think we should. I think the world is so much more interesting if we're diverse and we Yeah, we bring something else to the table.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and there's like there's that common force and I think the what's the nickname? Yeah, like the force. The for the force. F-O-U-R-C. F-O-R-S, which is perfect, I think.
SPEAKER_04:I call it the force because I think with each one having their individual strength, if they come together, it's a much stronger force field than if it's just okay, guys, we're all gonna get, you know, be math geniuses and we're all going to wear the color blue and we're all you know, and I d I wouldn't fight against them to try to conform to what I wanted them to do. In fact, I didn't. I had to just let things go.
SPEAKER_01:Absolutely not. I mean, that's you know what I noticed.
SPEAKER_04:And I'm glad you noticed. Well it's pretty obvious. No, my it's pretty obvious that they are strong characters and they have their um talents and their traits and their skills and their just their motivation to do things. I think I've learned a lot more from my sons than they ever learned from me. And I'm okay with that.
SPEAKER_01:I think that's cool. I'm I uh I mean I think that they've you've they've learned from you like a lot. And probably m definitely more than you realize. But it resonates with me about when I look at Sam and learning from him because I think when when when he was younger, there's a lot of that thing like, oh, this is more like his mom, and this is more like his dad. And as he's growing, I'm like, he's his own person.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And of course, there's gonna be traits from both of us, but it's it's fascinating to witness, like, whoa, what a unique you know, way to approach something.
SPEAKER_04:It's very cool when you learn from your kids. I was gonna go back to something we were talking about, being in the car and listening to music, and also the fact that I moved a lot as a child. One of the things that used to um, I don't want to say bother me, but that I felt that my wings were a bit clipped as a kid, that I was in the backseat of the car and and there was an adult driving. And there was it's kind of an analogy for how I felt like I don't get to have a say, I don't get to decide where I'm going. I'm kind of I was the youngest, you know, in the first batch. So when I learned how to drive a car, I was super pumped to drive a car. And when I was a mom and it was my family, I was so excited. I like had the keys to the car and I, you know, was driving the car and I could turn on the music I wanted to listen to. And I mean, the boys can tell, fill you in on that. I think Jack made a playlist of mom's music or something like that, which is really funny. You know, it's filled with Sarah McLaughlin and a lot of Lilith Fair artists and stuff like that, if you know that who that is. But I was really happy when I got to have that privilege of being in the driver's seat. I'm probably a control freak maybe, but but I've just also told you that I like to let things go and and see what individuals are gonna come up with. But in my own life, I think potentially because I did move a lot and because there were splits and remarriages and stuff like this, I really felt like a kid that didn't have a voice or didn't have a say, didn't have control, I guess. And so the car, there's something about being in the car and having music and having a family and and Jack, my third old uh third oldest son said something really funny once. He said, Mom, I don't mean this in a bad way. There's nothing bad and but it's just different. It's when you drive, we know where we're going, we get there on time and everything's okay. When dad takes us, we get a flat tire, we get we get lost, we have a flat tire, something happens, it's an adventure to finally get there, and you know, we've we're missing some something. But we get there, and he just said, it's not bad, it's not good, it's just it's different. And I was like, I love that. He got it.
SPEAKER_01:Ah, it's cool that he expresses it.
SPEAKER_04:It was so cool when he said that. He was little too. When he said that, I was like, that's it.
SPEAKER_01:The communication with with with your sons, they're able to talk to you. I mean, yeah. I mean, I'm sure it's more complex than that, but that it it's it, you know, it's not always easy.
SPEAKER_05:Right.
SPEAKER_01:But that you have that rapport with each I hope so.
SPEAKER_04:I mean, you know what, again, having a pack of boys as I do, and they they work together in a family business. They are they're on the phone with each other all the time. I'm not a needy person. I don't have to talk to them every single day, you know. Um I think about them all the time. I would love to talk to them every day, but it's not essential for me. I I think we know where we are and we can pick up the phone and talk to each other. I think they're busy, you know. I don't want to hassle them.
SPEAKER_01:You you respect their I feel that you respect their well, their privacy and also now that they're family men.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. But of course, uh I mean moms always want more.
SPEAKER_04:Let's let's say and I think that's tough on kids when they know their mom can never get enough. But no, I I yeah. I I think we have good communication. I hope so. I hope they would agree with you.
SPEAKER_01:Oh yeah, I think so. I definitely. I mean, for for me it's interesting because the the age difference between you and me is what?
SPEAKER_03:13 years.
SPEAKER_01:13 years. So and me and Dina is 16 years. Yeah. And then my n nephews, yeah. Well, Harry, it's seven, seven years. That's hilarious. Uh, and then Will. So your your eldest, Harry, and then Will is 30.
SPEAKER_04:So, yeah, he's 32.
SPEAKER_01:Two, okay. So the age difference I'm like halfway between. Yes, exactly. And uh, I remember it I was so happy when I was an uncle at seven when Harry was born. I felt so cool that I was.
SPEAKER_04:I love it. It's fun to have closer generations because you know people wait longer to have kids now too.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, yeah, yeah. And and and and what was interesting in in our case is that so you you had four boys, and our sister had Jenna and and and Axel. So there were there was really a generation of six kids within what like ten ten years or so.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, because uh Jenna uh is in between Harry and Adam, in between my two, and then Axel is a year younger than Adam, so they were all her kids were within my seven years of having kids. Yeah. So they're all super tied. And they look, of course, like siblings.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and they're like super uh brosins. Brozins, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Because they've got um yeah, because we were two sisters married to two brothers. We didn't marry our brothers people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, always look a little cross-eyed. Yes, when I explained this, they kind of wait, what?
SPEAKER_04:I know it sounds like we're really creepy from Tennessee somewhere, but no, no. No, no, we married men who were brothers.
SPEAKER_01:Yes. And uh, but yeah, so there was that generation, and then then uh also their their cousins, uh so I mean their cousins are about the same age too, I think. Like uh Nico and Mona's kids. That's true, and then like no kids for a while.
SPEAKER_06:True.
SPEAKER_01:Then I had Sam.
SPEAKER_06:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And then after Sam, it multiplied. Yeah, and even though the gen it's one generation difference, right? But I once I had Sam, well then Jenna had Rumi, and then then I guess Dennis was next. And yeah, now there's like 15 between the five. Yeah, 15, yeah, my sister has grandchildren and us.
SPEAKER_04:I used to say that since we don't live in the same town. I'm just I realize I live without extended family oops in Vancouver. And so I'm always saying my this, my that, my whatever. And now with you, it's like our dad, our sister, our this. It's very nice to be in the same room as you. It doesn't happen often enough. But um yeah, having a big family and another round of family members, it's like what could be better?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:So great.
SPEAKER_01:To come back on the fact of the age difference is that um now Harry turned 40. I know. And so the message I sent him was welcome to the 40s club, because we're we're in the same, we're both in our 40s. I'm in my 40s, and I'm not. And uh and just to see how my relationship with my nephews and niece uh develop because I, you know, the older one, uncle, like Uncle B and sort of the young uncle. And then suddenly, and I think having kids is was definitely like a turning point where we're we're like almost the same generation and that are it's very cool. I really appreciate how they you know it's like I I'm I'm still the uncle, but but we can talk a bit more in terms of uh they can give me advice. Like peers, exactly. Exactly.
SPEAKER_04:And then because you share some common interests like your love of sports.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, definitely.
SPEAKER_04:It's very good. I it's very good for you to have one another because again, you grew up, I mean, you were born on the States, but you grew up here in Switzerland, and my boys were born and mostly lived in North America. They have that fondness for sports too. And so you've got that connecting you absolutely too. I mean, you've got other interests that you share, I know, but I think sports really solidifies that relationship.
SPEAKER_01:Also, we both lost our dads and and unfortunately also their grandfather, but it's the the the sport, you know, especially the Minnesota sports, I think of of dad first, and then very often when something happens in Minnesota sports, I I get a text from Harry.
SPEAKER_05:Oh, good.
SPEAKER_01:And uh so so but uh no, yeah, sports for that is is just great.
SPEAKER_04:Uh and my grandson Dennis will be there too.
SPEAKER_01:Super gifted.
SPEAKER_04:He w he's he's a really phenomenal little athlete, super coordinated. I'm so impressed by him. I mean, he was running on the soccer field and he had this look. I'm so sad I did I didn't catch it like as taking a photo of him, but he had like, you know, he was going for the ball, and you could see he would meant it. It wasn't just like I'm gonna go kick that ball that's rolling over there. It was like so determined to get it. But yeah, the love of sports thing is really very fun to see. And being a team player, yeah, self-seating. Being an individual, like Jack liked playing basketball. He he played on a little basketball league too. I mean, I don't I shouldn't say little, there were there were men. But he did do some team sport for the flight. He did rugby. He did rugby. They all four of my sons played rugby of some form or other. Um thankfully not, you know, to to the point where they got injured too terribly or anything as a result because it's yeah, it's a ears, nose, and noses, things. I mean, Will broke his humorous, but um and had a concussion as a result of rugby. But what of three? I think Will has had three concussions. But the point of individual sports versus team sports. I think Adam is a big fan of team sports, he's a great team player, he loves people, he loves he gets a charge out of being around people, he's a bit of an extrovert. He's actually also a bit needing downtime. He has to shut down. And it's interesting to watch that. Like he's very good, he's very athletic too. But he definitely got a lot out of playing on a team. And then Jack loves being around people and he's very engaging socially. His sports that he does, it he relies on himself. You know, he he's um you know, we we mentioned the rally uh motocross and stuff like that. He's not racing against um anyone. He I mean he's racing against everyone, but he's really in it for himself. He's he's trying to achieve a his own goal, which is pretty great. And then um Will did sort of both, but he's a phenomenal skier. And he can just ski all day by himself and probably get what he needs out of it, you know. Like some people need to you you like to play baseball, but you need all your other team members in order to go and play baseball, right? So I I always feel like it must be cool to be a part of a team. I'm not a great team player. I mean, I I I never really was very agile or coordinated on a team. But I yeah, it's interesting. Being a member of a family, yeah, you have to be a team player to a certain degree.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And and and the importance of a coach also uh be the coach. Yeah, genuine.
SPEAKER_04:I was usually the manager or the the gal that cut the oranges for you know breaks for the boys' teams. But no, I I I think you know, sports are important. There's a lot that comes out of sports.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I mean, and if it's not sports and you know, being part of a dance, uh well, dance is a sport, really, because just what you have to yeah. Having something else from school or extracurricular. Extracurricular, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, well, we said music or band, or you know, if you're a member of a chora choir.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, like our our brother was part of the a cappella singing grape at Harvard, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:The Did and Tonic.
SPEAKER_04:He really, I mean, he speaks well, he sings well. Wow. It's a real gift.
SPEAKER_01:Have you seen him live with the Did and Tonics?
SPEAKER_04:I never got to see him live.
SPEAKER_01:It's really cool. I got to see him at Harvard. Nice. Oh, it was so cool. I mean, it was so beautiful just in one of those auditoriums and they're singing and and the students going like Yay Ollie! Oh how cute and the choreography and all.
SPEAKER_04:I would have loved to have heard him sing live. That's too bad I did miss that.
SPEAKER_01:And and karaoke, you never did karaoke with Ollie?
SPEAKER_04:No, and he sang at Adam and Caitlin's wedding. And somehow I think I was outside, he was inside. I don't know. I missed he sang, Isn't she lovely? Oh. To Jenna. No, he sang it to Jenna, not it wasn't the Caitlin. It was to Jenna and Mert's wedding, and he sang, Isn't she lovely? And I missed it like an idiot. I don't know. I was doing something.
SPEAKER_01:I'm so ashamed I don't remember.
SPEAKER_04:I'm so ashamed I didn't pay attention.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, well, sorry.
SPEAKER_04:I know.
SPEAKER_02:Sorry, sorry.
SPEAKER_04:But yeah, I mean, I've definitely listened to um oh what was the the Angel in the polyester uniform, one of the songs, and it was about he was in love with uh Angel in a polyester uniform. She worked at the the drive-thru at McDonald's, I think it was. He liked to call her Patty or something. Anyway, no, I listened to his his singing on this Harvard Dinatonics CDs, I think it was.
SPEAKER_01:Yep. When we did karaoke in in London, it's it's so fun because he gets so into it. He can actually and just that, you know, doing the levels and like, oh and I've never ever sang like I know.
SPEAKER_04:I think I would probably well, I would hope that I would be as ridiculous as when Cameron Diaz sings super badly and it's my best friend's wedding or something like that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I don't remember that too.
SPEAKER_04:Oh my god, and she's brilliant because she sings in this movie really, really badly, but everyone's laughing with her because it sucks so badly. But she's like it's it's funny. I think I'd probably I'd hope I'd be funny about it, but I know it would sound awful. But yeah, to be able to sing must be a wonderful thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I we I wish I could. And I did uh in Minneapolis, I uh there was uh a bar close to MCAD, the art school where I went. It was called Porter's. It was a bit of a dive dive bar, and we played darts there, and and you know, bought like three dollar pitchers of beer, and it was just one of those late-night hangouts we like to go to with with my friends Matt and uh Steve. Yeah, and uh one one evening was karaoke night, and uh we uh we had like a couple drinks in us and felt like yeah, you know, let's do karaoke. And uh my roommate Steve um did a Pearl Jam song. Yeah, daughter really nailed it, and then I did uh Little Red Corvette. Oh, speaking of Prince, yes, and I mean that's not an easy song to sing, and then I I just went overboard kind of knowing I wouldn't nail it, and you know, Prince gets really into the Yeah, and I hadn't before I sang the song, I didn't remember how kind of racy it was and a bit um and I remember seeing Steve and Matt like rolling on the floor laughing, literally, they just loved it, and uh because I was really making I I was like, I don't care, this is gonna be That's how you gotta do it, I think. Yep, and then I I I go back and there was another table with about 12 people and they were laughing and I had a few drinks in them too. And a girl comes, uh woman comes, and she hands me a piece of paper, and on it it was written, uh straight, by or gay. Oh and I look at that and I say, Oh yeah, I'm straight, but I've got a girlfriend, which I did at the time. And she goes like, Oh no, no, no, it's not for me, it's for him. And then she points to a guy and he waves at me, and I was like, Okay. So I was flattered, but I guess my Prince cover uh Well, it could be confusing, Brian. Yeah, it could be confusing because you chose that song.
SPEAKER_04:But that I mean, I think it's really to not be inhibited by sort of you look at a performer. I mean, they have so many shows now, right, in North America. I don't know if they're here. Vo The Voice.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, we've got we've got all of them. Yeah, all those shows.
SPEAKER_04:And I think these young kids are so brave to go out on like national or international TV and sing to a very wide audience and to just belt it. I like to have the ability to just let your, you know, open up your throat and just belt this music that somebody else has written, usually. And it's incredible. And some of those judges are very encouraging and supportive, and some of them are nasty. But I think that would be terrifying. Something about having an instrument you can kind of hide behind.
SPEAKER_05:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:Playing an instrument. But if it's your voice, you're like staring at the audience. You can see their eyeballs looking at you, and I think it would be really scary.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. You you uh you're well, you're friends with Sarah McLachlan.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Do you talk about performing and we do talk about performing?
SPEAKER_04:She um she gets a big rush out of it. She loves her.
SPEAKER_01:I can imagine must be crazy.
SPEAKER_04:Speaking of voices, she's got one of the most amazing sounds. Her voice is spectacularly beautiful. In fact, I listened to a podcast the other night, and it was with do you know Nora Jones?
SPEAKER_05:Yes, of course.
SPEAKER_04:So she has um, I've forgotten the title of her podcast, we'll look it up, but she It's like Let Me Play With You or something like that. Anyway, she interviews Sarah and then she starts to sing with her. She asks for permission, and Sarah is all over it. She's just like, yeah, do as much or as little as you want. She's uh she's a very open person, she's very kind, and she has a music school. She has three music schools, but she gets a huge rush out of performing. And she said it's just the most amazing thing. And she's she speaks well. She says it's more awkward for her to speak to an audience, I think it is, than to s sing to an audience. To sing that means usually she's written a work, she's performed it, she's practiced, she's very she went to music school and stuff like that. But she um she's very gifted. And the sound that comes out is just it's life-altering. It's beautiful. So yeah, she gets a lot out of it. But I think to look at eyes looking at you would be terrifying. Or we both know you've met him too, is Brian Adams, who's one of the really great singers. He's always on, he's never off key. He has a rasp in his voice that's interesting. As one of my sons said, it was Will said How come he sings like this? He doesn't talk like this. And it's like it's true. He doesn't rasp when he speaks, but his his musical uh vocal sound is very raspy. But he's always on, and he just he was lucky he could sing.
SPEAKER_01:It's it it looks like it's so natural to him. I remember seeing um in Geneva when we saw that concert, and so cool to meet him before that. And I can't say the e it looks easy for him. It's so natural.
SPEAKER_04:He doesn't look like he says he doesn't really get stage fright.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:He's in command as a performer. He's a very generous performer. Um he just turned 66 and he's still selling out like Madison Square Gardens not that long ago. That's huge. That's massive. Um, he can fill an auditorium at his age, and he's got an enormous amount of energy. It's incredible. Sarah's had trouble with her voice. She's she's gotten a couple of colds. It's bothered her voice. She's had to take time off. It's been a lot of work. And she's a very fit person, you know. She's in great, phenomenal shape. She loves she's got a very full life. She has two daughters and uh a wide circle of friends, and she's she does a lot. Actually, we walk our dogs together occasionally. She's a real outdoorsy person. She surfs. She's a very cool person. But I think to have a complete life and as well be a performer, I don't get it. I don't understand. They're not normal.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_04:They're from somewhere else.
SPEAKER_01:They're from somewhere else, totally. But yeah, no, a big huge respect for for yeah, for these artists and and and you and you see in in concert those who give more and maybe they enjoy it, or maybe it's more natural to them. Like I know I I can tell sometimes when you see performers on stage where they'd rather be somewhere else. And I I don't think it's necessarily that they're dismissive about it, but maybe you I don't know.
SPEAKER_04:They just don't have the stage presence, maybe or you know, I mean we all have an off night, I guess, or like a we're in a bad mood or something's you know, not right. But um, I've heard of performers who don't really introduce their band. They don't you know, they don't I mean, back to what we were saying about individuals and so forth. I really do think it's cool to be an individual, but I also believe in good manners, you know, and and people are paying a lot of money nowadays to attend a concert. And um it's an enormous privilege to see uh, you know, your fans, I would think.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_04:And to have that environment of people singing the music that you've composed pretty much in isolation. A lot of people have to sit and and you know, work very, very hard to come out with a song. And then to be on a stage and have a filled auditorium singing the song back to you must be amazing. So it seems like, yeah, the least you could do is maybe introduce your band or you know, I don't know. But again, we're all individuals. What the hell?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:I have to say I I got to see um Taylor Swift last year on your birthday.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:December 6th. It was her I think it was December 6th, and it was like her second to last show of her era's tour, and I'm so glad I got to see it. It was unbelievable that that one what that one woman does. It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01:And she plays it for hours, and at least three and a half hours.
SPEAKER_04:Nonstop. Changes of, you know, costumes and this and that. I mean, there's gonna there's a movie out now about this tour, which will be interesting to see. But I just can't believe the per you know, performing, composing, singing, piano, and then that she has this little segment within the show of the Eras tour that it's like it's different every night that she would do. I just I don't know. The b her body of work is just incredible.
SPEAKER_01:And and she's bigger than I mean, she's just huge. She seems normal in a way.
SPEAKER_04:That's that's what's polite to people from what I've heard. Yeah, I don't know. But it's yeah, she's there's nothing really shocking. She doesn't sort of, you know, pull a no-show or scandalize anyone with something horrendous. Like she's always been pretty consistent. I saw her perform live. I went I got to go to one Grammy's award show, which was really fun. There were a lot of cool performers in that. And to see because they set up the stage in in two halves. So while they're having a commercial break and setting up the other stage, there's a performance going on, and then you see the artists running around and talking to various people, like Paul McCartney was there, and you know, like and Taylor Swift was quite a bit younger. And she just was so slick as a young person, like someone else her her age would probably have been flicking their hair around and just feeling, you know, you just she just seems so solid, sort of knows her, knows herself really well, I guess. I don't know. It's really fascinating. They're people, but they're legends, you know.
SPEAKER_01:That's crazy. So, what I do sometimes is uh ask the guest, do you have a question for me?
SPEAKER_04:Question for you. Because it's all about me. It's I just want to talk about myself right now. Uh wow, that's a I should have thought of something because I have listened to your podcast. I don't know. Do you have any predictions uh for my future?
SPEAKER_01:For your future, more grandchildren. Okay, that was an easy one.
SPEAKER_04:I set you up for that.
SPEAKER_01:My children are No, I mean, something that's great is that there's like a summer home. Well, not just a summer home, but just a chance to have uh a gathering place. Yep. So a lot of happy moments and I would love for this to come to fruition.
SPEAKER_04:We have been under construction actually for some time. So yes, it's not the crystal ball that you have in front of you. You've been hearing me talk about it.
SPEAKER_01:No, no, but I see it. I can see it.
SPEAKER_04:So we're building on a little tiny island off the coast of the west coast of Vancouver. Not Vancouver Island, but in between Vancouver and Vancouver Island. I hope that we'll be creating a lot of family memories. And I certainly hope you'll be bringing Sam. I'd love for him to be a part of this place.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and Sam loves water.
SPEAKER_04:Oh, yeah, he's a little fish.
SPEAKER_01:He's a little fish.
SPEAKER_04:He can swim in the ocean.
SPEAKER_01:It'll be amazing.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, I think that'll be good. And do you okay, so my part B of my question since your name begins with the letter B. Um what do you see happening for your future?
SPEAKER_01:Whoa, okay, that's a loaded question. Well, I mean, I'm I'm I'm lucky that I'm I'm working uh with our sister at uh GL Stables, and my sister does dressage, and we had the chance of hosting the European Championship of Dressage, and I had the chance to develop that a little more into uh a documentary on dressage and on Jiva. And it's a huge project. I'm very lucky that I have the support of our sister, of my um Ian and and and and the and the family and the dressage community are really good people and interesting people.
SPEAKER_03:Especially because you don't ride horses yourself.
SPEAKER_01:No, I don't ride horses, which makes it interesting also because my perspective is a bit different. So I I have an appreciation for for the sport, but it's through the interviews of riders and people in the dressage world, trainers, uh grooms. And of course, Dina has been giving me great insights, that bond with horses. That's really and uh what it's all about.
SPEAKER_04:They probably have to explain it better because knowing that you don't ride, you're not a rider, you don't have what they call the virus. Yeah, I think it's important to let people talk about what they're good at and stuff like that. So if you don't ride, you're not a rider, you don't have you haven't caught that virus, they have to explain it in a way. And they're probably so passionate about it. You're you you bring it out of them, which is very cool.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I it it it's really cool. And I always try to have somebody with me that knows more about it so that you know I don't want to like be a complete doofus. No, you're not a but uh but yeah, it helps. Yeah, and then it becomes what I love with interviews and also the pot this podcast is I've always liked conversations that go beyond sort of a purpose. It's not just you know asking a uh an athlete like, well, how you know how do you feel about winning the gold medal? It's it's more it goes beyond that, and that's those human stories, and in this case also you add the animal element. It's pretty interesting.
SPEAKER_04:It's really interesting.
SPEAKER_01:So that I'm excited about, and then yeah, just seeing you know, just seeing Sam, my son, um develop and grow and and uh the family yeah, just living life and feeling it's exciting, staying curious and and also trying not to get too angry about changes.
SPEAKER_04:Well, change is scary, right?
SPEAKER_01:It is scary. It is scary.
SPEAKER_04:Yeah, they're shifting, and it makes us not feel like we're on stable ground sometimes.
SPEAKER_01:Definitely. Maybe quickly, and I think it's cool to end on that, is that in our communication, because we haven't lived together and even in the same time zone, I remember we used to write a lot of emails to each other, and now we leave each other uh voice notes. Right. Long voice notes, often for me long. But and we call them podcasts.
SPEAKER_04:Podcasts, they're like nano you know, podcast to our like like it's a monologue.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_04:The other person sometimes absorb it when they're ready to, which is also kind of cool. When you have the time, again, the focus, you can listen to it when you're ready to receive this wisdom, these pearls of wisdom coming from the other person. No, but it it is it's a modern way of communicating.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it's one of the ways. There's so many ways, but for you know, it's like for us it works. I agree. And there's you know, there's like I have a couple friends with who it works, and I know not everybody's into into that, but for us it's really cool.
SPEAKER_04:So we do it on our dog walking.
SPEAKER_01:We do it on our dog walking, and this this podcast is kind of a natural uh I know it's going to look at you while I'm talking to you.
SPEAKER_04:I'm looking at stuff, and I'm you know, it's we call it uh our plop of the morning. Yeah, the pop of the morning. But yeah, no, it's thank thanks for inviting me.
SPEAKER_01:Well, thank you. It's so cool.
SPEAKER_04:My first time to ever do a podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Really? Yeah, cool. You're I'm super happy. Thank you so much, Lucia, my godmom, my sister.
SPEAKER_03:Great role to play. Thanks.
SPEAKER_01:Talk to you soon.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, bye for now, I always say.
