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#2- Bass player Jordan Scannella's Path to Healthy Plant-based Living
9 Plays7 years ago
Bass player Jordan Scannella is a force to be reckoned with. Jordan constantly tours internationally with the group Tortured Soul and manages to do this while living a plant-based lifestyle focused on health and maintaining wellness. Years ago, Jordan had a crazy experience of a 3 month prison stint in Japan for a minor offense and during that time he wrote all the lyrics for his first solo album, which grew to him fronting his own hiphop/funk band- Jorscan. In this conversation:
- Jordan's path and why/how he went plant-based and how that decision has affected his overall wellbeing and ability to thrive on the road.
- How a juice fast propelled Jordan into a higher state of awareness of diet and how that transcended into his musicality and all aspects of his life.
- Jordan's run in with the law and incarceration for possession of a tiny amount of pot in Japan. How he took something that could have shook his psyche and derailed his career and turned it into a truly positive force in his life that continues to affect him daily.
Beyond being a extremely gifted bass player and overall musician, Jordan is great human being with much wisdom to offer to the world. His path is an inspiration and I hope you enjoy the second episode of the Tourganic podcast.
Please take a moment to rate and review the podcast in iTunes and visit www.tourganic.com for more info on this episode and living healthy on the road!
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Transcript
Introduction to Torganic Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the tordanic park. Yo DB, I was thinking a little bit more about our conversation the other night and realizing that I guess like what I talked about after the juice cleanse where your body is really like fresh
00:00:24
Speaker
uh receptacle and you feel everything you put into your body and how good that is especially after a cleanse same idea should go kind of in the inverse when we're talking about playing music in the best of my moments i'm extremely aware listening
00:00:46
Speaker
and not thinking but really being conscious of what notes I'm playing, my phrasing, my time, my rhythm.
00:00:56
Speaker
So it's the same thing that should be going out, you know what I'm saying? So what you're bringing is your body. You can hold sacred, and what you send out of your body while playing music should be just as sacred in the best possible moment.
Focus on Plant-Based Diets and Health
00:01:10
Speaker
This is the Torganic Podcast. I am David Bayless, your host. In the podcast, I speak with touring musicians about how they live a healthy lifestyle on the road. While many of the conversations are about how and why my guests live a plant-based vegan diet on the road,
00:01:24
Speaker
The content of these conversations will have a diverse and holistic approach to focus on health of mind, body, and spirit. My goal is that the podcast will give you a window into their life and offer you some insight that will inspire you.
Featuring Bassist Jordan Scannell
00:01:37
Speaker
This week I'm happy to have the great bass player Jordan Scannell on the podcast. Since I met Jorscan years ago, he has continued to be an influence on me as a musician and a bass player. Simply put, he has the ability to make everyone alongside him on stage sound better. And on top of that, he lives a plant-based life in NYC and while traveling all over the world with the band Tortured Soul.
Journey to Veganism
00:01:59
Speaker
In this conversation we get into Jordan's journey to becoming a vegan, what influenced him to go in that direction, and how he has maintained that lifestyle on tour.
Creative Discovery from Adversity
00:02:08
Speaker
We also get into his creative process, important and life changing moments, and how an arrest and jail time in a foreign country for possession of a tiny amount of pot led to a creative discovery, and how he channeled something so negative into a truly positive force in his life.
00:02:32
Speaker
All right, George Scan, how you feeling? What's up, DB? The Torganic podcast. Torganic representing. Honored to have the great Jordan Scannella here, sitting down with me to talk health, bass, music, all good things. Amazing. Yeah. Sounds like life. So George Scan, I want to dive in. You've been an inspiration to me as I've seen you kind of be a healthy,
00:03:00
Speaker
healthy musician on the road in New York City, it's not an easy thing, live in the hustle and bustle of the musician life.
Influence of a Vegan Drummer
00:03:08
Speaker
Maybe we could just talk a little bit about a moment where you kind of all of a sudden it just happened. Well, yeah, I mean, I think like most individuals or, you know, a lot of healthy minded individuals, we go in and out of like having periods of
00:03:27
Speaker
self-care and going in on an exercise routine or a diet. And I think I've always done that probably most of my adult life, you know, falling on, falling off, but always been into running. I love throwing Frisbee, you know, biking all around New York's always been important to me. But I think the part that really changed my actual dietary
00:03:51
Speaker
This was in 2012. I always try to be a conscious eater, but a few confluences happened things. For one, I had a good friend of mine, who you know as well, a guy named Tom Garrington, who was a drummer.
00:04:07
Speaker
Actually, the first guy who was actively vegan, and not necessarily evangelical vegan, but he promoted it, and if you were interested to ask him about it, he would happily talk to you about his choices. And I think it was the summer of 2012, I remember we went to an Indian restaurant, I noticed that he was getting all these vegetarian choices, and he also was making sure with the
00:04:33
Speaker
the restaurant that there is no ghee or any butter used in it, so I started asking him about it.
Impact of Gary Yourofsky's Video
00:04:38
Speaker
And he hit me to this, he talked about a lot of things, but one thing, he talked about a YouTube video by a guy named Gary Yourofsky. Yes. Gary Yourofsky, and it had a pretty pretentious title, it was called The Greatest Speech You'll Ever Hear. Yes. But he definitely, he implored me to go check that out, which I did, and
00:05:00
Speaker
And while it may or may not be the greatest speech I ever heard, it was definitely a profound hour and 20 minutes of facts about both vegan health, eating, animal care, and factory farming conditions, and basically all the factors that would
00:05:22
Speaker
like influence one to take a good long look at vegan lifestyle is really, really powerful. And so I recommend anybody who hasn't watched it to check it out. It's a great tool to talk to people about it or tell people who aren't familiar with it because it really, it talks about everything from the conditions in factory farming to what actual eating meat does to your body, how we can get protein and other these myths that you can't like
00:05:49
Speaker
live a healthy lifestyle without animal products, and then debunks a lot of stuff, and it's really powerful.
00:05:58
Speaker
Like I said, it was that on top of actually a breakup that I went through at the time as well. And as we break up, it's obviously a big life change. So I felt like, I don't know, there's like a bunch of things that clicked with me. I was like, I saw this video, I was single again and all of a sudden I was just like, I think this is like a good moment for a change, like take something on. And I'm a type of person where I would love to like,
00:06:23
Speaker
you know, I need that, that like inaugurational point, you know, I'm not, I'm a good like New Year's resolution guy. Like, give me, I need this day and then I'll be on it, you know? So it's, it was just, I think it was those things all came together. I was like, okay, I'm, I'm breakup and I'm going to do this and I'll, I'm going to start being a vegan next week, you know, Monday, come Monday, you know? And it was like not that much more thought than that.
00:06:52
Speaker
Can't be living life like a game of King of the Hill that makes you mentally ill Add into my cognitive landfill. Must it be at a standstill? Clean up this mess. Release the message.
00:07:26
Speaker
My name is Jorscan. You do not know me, but I've known you since forever. So it's time we got together. You've been moving up for millenniums. A global currency for every creature in the whole galaxy. But that was then. Now it's just the two of us, right? We'll hang. I'll get inspired. You'll sound good. We'll be tight. I'll grow old and retire without a conflict or a fight.
00:07:46
Speaker
I awoke from my dreams and you had other schemes It seems all my friends know you too A stranger's on the street be singing I hear you my ears be ringing They tryna break us in two While I swim at the service they be in the deep blue Promiscuous by nature I try and hate you but the beauty of your sound It brings me back around I'm green to think that you could be red And I hear your sweet song even from my death bed
Transitioning to a Vegan Diet
00:08:10
Speaker
When you had that moment of, okay, you're having the breakup, you want to look good maybe, it's kind of a rebirth in a sense to kind of starting fresh. But how do you even know what to do, how to eat vegan? Did you have other resources and other inspirations that you pulled from?
00:08:31
Speaker
get into that? Yeah, that's a good question. I'm trying to remember exactly. I mean, I think obviously we live in the internet age. Of course, you can Google good vegan recipes. A hundred percent. But I think I took a step back and just kind of
00:08:52
Speaker
you know looked at some super basic things like okay what what is an old one thing that gary raspy talks about and a good portion of the end of that video is just like talking about all the products explaining and introducing a lot of products that you can use to substitute for regular animal based products milk
00:09:14
Speaker
I mean, we're not even talking about then you get into the fake and bacon and all the different meat substitutes that are made from soy or from gluten or things of that nature. Which can be kind of almost a transitional thing for people that are heading in that direction. Right, and I think that's a really important and good step because we don't
00:09:39
Speaker
I think people are scared about it or they think like there's no way I could stop eating meat or there's no way I could give up cheese and then there's. There's all these there's all these products that actually are pretty you know that I mean texture wise taste wise it's like you wouldn't really know in fact you could probably. Swap them off on an unsuspecting customer they wouldn't even know the difference about it so.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah, I think I stepped back and looked at, okay, milk, I like cereal, what can I do? So I investigated almond milk, and I think at the time, I had actually recently gotten a Vitamix, so then I started making my own almond milk, which was a liberating sense, too.
00:10:23
Speaker
All you have to have is almonds in the house and you can have fresh milk all the time. It's amazing thing, you know, and then like I got into the consistency of it and you know, it might be a acquired taste for some but so like almond milk, coconut butter, things like that, you know, I looked at like the basic things that how can I just like.
00:10:41
Speaker
ease my way into this without making too big of waves. And I can't remember exactly, I mean, I think I kind of went pretty cold turkey though. I, you know, I didn't really ease myself into it. Like I said, I just, I need that, that jump off point. And I just kind of put my head down and did it. A lot of ways it was just like, I'll take a burrito, but no cheese, you know, just like leave out the stuff that, you know, it's not, that doesn't fit with the diet. And that's kind of,
00:11:10
Speaker
That was the basic start of it.
00:11:30
Speaker
Getting into the music thing, because I think that there is an element of discipline in health. And I'm curious if you see any parallels with your
Discipline in Health and Music
00:11:40
Speaker
discipline. I mean, you're a master of the electric bass guitar. And I wonder if you see any parallels in the discipline of
00:11:50
Speaker
getting to where you are and maybe as more of a youngster, probably, you know, when you're younger in your formative years, maybe you weren't on a healthy diet tip or fitness, you're going through your teenage years, whatever, but I would imagine you might've had that same level of discipline to practicing. I wonder if you see any parallels there between music and music.
00:12:13
Speaker
Your diet. Yeah, that's a good question. Well, first of all, I'll be I'll give you that check for the for the master's label Thank you. Appreciate that. But uh, no, I don't It's funny. I don't know if i've ever thought about it, but I used to say that you know, well when I became a vegan And for me it was kind of I mean a lot of it
00:12:35
Speaker
A lot of it at the base of it had to do with, like you were saying, health, fitness, appearance. I lost some weight when I became a vegan, which was, you know, I'm not going to lie, that was a selling point for me. And I think it also helped me. I kind of thought of it as like a safeguard to make good choices. You know, like, you're like,
00:12:54
Speaker
You know, maybe you've had a couple drinks and you're out late, you know, we make we make bad decisions at those times. You might get something that you shouldn't be having anyway, especially not at three in the morning with like a gallon of beer in your belly or something. But I use it. I was like, OK, well, I can't eat any of this, so I'm not going to eat it, you know. But but I think as it as that relates to to music, I mean, I think.
00:13:20
Speaker
It's hard, you know, it's it's hard to progress and push yourself through those hard times. Like when I when I was, you know, I'm still shedding. We're all learning all the time. And when we're creating like we have those days when you're just like, it's just not happening. It's just not, you know, you're not connecting your ideas, whether it be a technical thing or whether it be a creative thing. And just like it's not happening. But it feels like the
00:13:50
Speaker
Oh, how does that explain it? I mean, it's my way of the safeguard of looking at the next day. I know this is the decision I have to make and I'm going to come back to it the next day and return to that idea and power through because I know that I'm going to feel better.
00:14:11
Speaker
I'm going to feel better the next day when I make that dietary choice. I'm going to feel better the next day when I practice, even though it's uncomfortable and I don't want to. I want that cheese slice, but I'm not going to eat it.
00:14:28
Speaker
You know, I'm- No, I do. I think I kind of have a sense that you're saying a connection there is that sort of seeing the big picture in both. Exactly. And knowing that, you know, the choices that we make right now, if you believe in those choices, they're gonna continue to flower down the road. Thank you. Thank you for translating my gobbledygook. Yeah, that's the idea. It's just like, I mean,
00:14:55
Speaker
When I think about creativity and playing music, there's nothing that's more rewarding than powering through on something when it's not happening and then seeing it come out on the other end. I've had so many of those days where
00:15:15
Speaker
I've been like, man, my writing is crap. I can't put anything together. And then the next day, you'll hit something and it'll just resonate. And I think you have to go through that day of hardship in order to get to that other side. So when you find that nugget, that idea that resonates. And I think with health, I know, how many times have we done that?
00:15:43
Speaker
I don't want to go for a run or I'm like too tired. I don't do this and you every time you do it or every time you make that decision, you know, you all end up feeling better on the other side and you're so happy that you did it. So yeah, I don't know. Like finding that finding those parallels I think is is yeah, that's cool. I'm bringing that up and kind of having faith in yourself.
00:16:05
Speaker
you know, is a huge thing, having that faith in yourself, like, oh yeah, this might be difficult, playing wise.
00:16:14
Speaker
recording wise, writing, health, something I'm trying to do, whether it's traveling in all these crazy places you go and having faith, being like, I'm good. I'm gonna be good. I don't need to make a choice that's wrong. I don't need to be frustrated in the moment right now. This is gonna happen. It's meant to happen. And I also really appreciate what you said about when you make the choice of being vegan, how,
00:16:40
Speaker
You use the example of being out late and just saying, oh, I already know I don't have to make that choice. That choice has already been made. It's already been made. And that's an important thing. If you have faith in yourself, you believe you can follow through on this. It might sound extreme of me to say, people ask me like, oh, you don't eat fast food. Like most bands are having fast food. Like I will starve.
00:17:07
Speaker
before I'll have fast food. I don't have to starve because that's the whole idea of tourganics is that I've developed a system and I've developed a method and after years and years of touring, I don't have to starve. I eat great on the road and I feel great on the road. But just that idea of like, there's not even,
00:17:26
Speaker
one cent of possibility that I'm ever gonna go in a direction that I'm gonna regret later because I have 100% faith in myself. And I think music, you need to have that to go in the direction and really go all in in music and be like, yeah, this is me, this is my life.
00:17:47
Speaker
I'm gonna be a musician. You have to have that faith. You can't have doubt. I'm sure, you know, we all have days where we, you know, don't feel great or you see someone and that's amazing. And you're like, I'm so humbled right now. Like, wow. But nevertheless, you have faith that you're on a path that you're supposed to be on. And I think those two things certainly connect. Do you think that your health and, you know, you made this transition, you said in 2012, do you think that that's affected your playing?
Effects of Vegan Diet on Energy and Focus
00:18:17
Speaker
That's a I'd have to I have to think about that one I mean I know that I know that I know something that I definitely experienced when I went vegan is
00:18:30
Speaker
is just a different sensation post meals. As a meat eater, an animal product eater, I would feel oftentimes super drowsy after meals. I'd be tired. The post-lunch haze and drowsiness was super real.
00:18:52
Speaker
nap prone you know like it would happen and I definitely that was one of the immediate like byproducts I felt is just less tired after eating I didn't feel like super stuffed rarely I mean like you could eat like
00:19:08
Speaker
Shit ton of pasta, maybe, and get that sense of fulfilling this. But in general, I felt really good. It's not a direct line to your question, but I think it impacted just my general energy level, which helps them maybe focus on other stuff.
00:19:29
Speaker
When it comes to practicing, I know like practicing could be another thing that can drain you. I mean, I remember reading a Michelle and Diggie Yoke cello quote, who it was either Michelle or Richard Bono, or maybe they both commented on it, but they were talking about like when you should practice and when you shouldn't like, if you feel tired, just you know, don't don't force it like don't force yourself to practice through like, you know, if you're feeling drowsy and stuff, it's like that's not what music is about. You shouldn't like
00:19:55
Speaker
feel like you have to regiment yourself to do this. And I think I took that to heart, like, if I would get tired, you know, I'd be like, okay, well, maybe I shouldn't be practicing. And so maybe in general, it's like, yeah, I have more energy, less drowsiness, and now it's like more willing to jump on the base or like sit down and like feel like I could just focus and play without getting tired. And so in that way, maybe it has affected my playing, like actually helped in a clarification of mind as well that went along with that, like,
00:20:25
Speaker
In 2013, January, I did a 14-day juice fast that was like, so this was about three months after I became vegan. And I think that was the point that I really kind of doubled down on this because if for anybody that has or has not or believes in the idea of juice fasting, I know it can be a somewhat controversial topic.
00:20:47
Speaker
I can say, and I chose January 3rd to do it. It was cold as balls in New York City. And like, that's not often the recommended time to go into juice fasting, but I did, I stuck with it. I did a 14 day juice fast, mostly green juices, the occasional cashew milk at the end of the day, which is kind of like, you know, liquid. Your reward. Jesus, at the end of the day, it's ridiculous. But yeah, your reward for sure. And like, but that, there was a massive change. When I finished that,
00:21:16
Speaker
Not only did, I don't know, there's just a lot of things that clicked in my life, and I won't go into details, but I felt really good. I was way more aware
14-Day Juice Fast and Life Improvements
00:21:25
Speaker
of what I was eating to, because after you drink juice for 14 days, you're like, I'm not putting that in my body. It's a sanctuary. It is a sanctuary, but it helps you really realize how heavy it is.
00:21:38
Speaker
So I was very picky about what I ate and I just, I don't know, I seem to carry this lightness into all other aspects of my existence too.
00:21:50
Speaker
I got a couple cool touring gigs with some other bands around that time and I think I brought something special to the table, was able to come in and be me and also contribute to them musically. A few things that, I don't know, now that I'm thinking about it, I do think that the diet along with the juice fasting really actually helped just to clarify and focus me in a way, both within my health and musically too.
00:22:17
Speaker
And spiritually it sounds like. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I certainly feel, you know, great when I'm on the road and even though one thing we do lack in general on the road a lot of sleep,
00:22:31
Speaker
Nevertheless, I'm waking up, if it's gonna be seven a.m., whether it's gonna be six, eight, whatever I have time, I'm gonna get in my 10-mile run, I'm gonna get my workout in. You're the king. And certainly then before the show, I'm exhausted. Everyone else has probably slept three hours more than me, and I'm tired, but the second we hit that stage, I'm fully energized and I'm there. There's not one bit of me that has that fatigue.
00:22:58
Speaker
whether that comes from the exercise or the diet or something just within me, I think it's probably a combination of all, but I certainly think that the diet and the fitness is a huge part in my energy levels, which in general are quite high. Well, yeah, and just in case our listeners don't understand, I spent like six weeks in a van with Dave Bayless in 2010, and I think he's even probably gotten even more serious about his
00:23:28
Speaker
His plan and his diet since then but you were an inspiration back then. I mean like every time we stopped it's where's the gym Where's the nearest, you know, like always looking for the good food stops. We went to a really random raw Raw storefront in Houston. You remember that spot amazing place. Yeah that have you been back there ever since I want to go back there
00:23:54
Speaker
It was literally like a block of houses and we were like, is this the right spot? And sure enough, someone turned their house into a raw food, all homemade stuff. And our band leader at the time was not feeling it. I remember that pretty well.
00:24:11
Speaker
Yeah, you searched it out, man. You always went the extra mile to find the good spots and make sure that you're taking care of food and exercise inspiration.
00:24:31
Speaker
Seems like yesterday, everybody workin' a scheme The elusive pursuit of the American dream You had neighborhood stores, unpolluted shores An underpaid allowance for your household chores All men created equal with the same opportunity Ghetto poor, working class or breastfed till puberty Sounds good on paper, and actuality dissolves like vapor Can you unravel this caper? Don't take Sherlock or Watson to understand The government is plottin' big, brother be watchin'
00:24:58
Speaker
a big business and big money they doing big things not concerned when the fat lady sings the country ain't listening anyway damn fools they busy building stadiums they should be building schools many more infected terrain like weeds in the grass carbon copy facade identical to the last
00:25:19
Speaker
Making the jump over to something that you just mentioned, sort of like our band leader at the time wasn't feeling it. He wasn't happy that day, right? We had let him stray into what he felt was some extreme vegan raw food thing. You know, I think that's an interesting topic as you tour and is there a dynamic there being like the healthy guy in the band and how do you handle that?
00:25:43
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I did encounter it from certain random people, you know, like just random occurrences coming across people who would like, you know, almost take offense to the idea that you were trying to be a vegan or vegetarian and like, and would want to like,
00:26:00
Speaker
front you about it it's funny because I mean I knew why I was doing it I mean ultimately I knew I was doing it because at the very basic form that I felt better like I felt just better form for me but like a lot of people would like want to push me on that
00:26:19
Speaker
So I actually felt the need to educate myself. The Gary Yourofsky video touches on a lot of things. I remember the specific thing about how, oh, I'm going to mess this up now. But meat, using calcium from the bones to break down the meat. And this idea that we need milk and stuff for our bones. It's what we grew up to believe. You need milk for your bones.
00:26:44
Speaker
Whereas actually aspects of the digestion of meat takes that nutrients out of your bones and contribute to osteoporosis more so. Absolutely. Which was like, whoa, you know, that was crazy, like flipping it all upside down. So I don't know, like I'm not a very confrontational person.
00:27:07
Speaker
But much like my friend Tom, who hit me to this, I wanted to educate myself so I could defend it for one, or I could more and more, hopefully, educate, and people wanted to know more about it. People have times, certain people may never
00:27:26
Speaker
They may never find the time that they want to investigate this lifestyle. I knew many people who were vegetarian, and it just never really resonated with me until it did one day, and then I wanted to know about it. Luckily, I had a friend who was capable of sharing that information with me.
00:27:43
Speaker
I haven't had to confront that much animosity. It's an interesting thing for listeners out there who don't necessarily tour in bands. It's an interesting dynamic. You're traveling with, say, five, six, seven, sometimes more, sometimes fewer people, but you're seeing these folks that you work with more than your family. They become integrated into your life, so these choices that you make
00:28:08
Speaker
like it or not you affect them and they affect you in in a substantial way i think everyone uh... on the road no matter what their choices are whether it has to do with health were all living this balance and and
00:28:23
Speaker
hopefully to do it successfully, you have found a balance with your other bandmates. And I think it's always an interesting thing to explore, especially with people that are trying to live this healthy lifestyle and how they do it in a way with their bandmates or other people that we meet that might be skeptical or have questions. It's funny because as vegans or plant-based diet or all the connotations that these words have, people have a view that vegans are preachy. Right.
00:28:52
Speaker
I really want to get away from that and really with the Torganic, I don't want it to be exclusive. I think that's always a big thing that I push. This is not an exclusive thing. I really want this to be an inclusive thing and let's talk about health and not about why what you're doing is wrong and what I'm doing is right because certainly we're not going to get anywhere if we have that outlook.
00:29:13
Speaker
Bigger resonate and resonance for that that type of dialogue should exist within this country in general You know, it's like we need that more than ever sir at this point. So certainly yeah and in things that are Happening at are much bigger. Yeah, certainly then, you know our day-to-day diet But our day-to-day diet does affect the world in big ways it does and I want to just
00:29:37
Speaker
quick circle back to what you said about influences, and I think it is important to have facts. And I never wanna be rattling off facts for people, but I think it is important to have those facts. And I was wondering if you have any other, you mentioned the Gary Yourofsky video, if you have any other,
00:29:54
Speaker
documentaries, books that you have found inspiration along the way that have sort of helped you along this path. Right, right. Another documentary that I watched that was really profound to me was Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. And I watched that I think prior to embarking on that juice fast that I mentioned earlier. And that was a super heavy
00:30:20
Speaker
You know pun intended you know and i don't know if anybody knows about it but it's. It's basically following the lives of two guys who are the guy who made the film was australian guy who is like three hundred and said excuse me three hundred twenty five pounds maybe six two six three.
00:30:36
Speaker
He had a belly that like, you know, not unlike you see pretty much all the time, you know, like you wouldn't look at the guy and be like, wow, he's like very super obese, overweight, just like, beer gut, like, you know, good majority of the American populace does. But like, he was amazing, he was really sick, you know, he had like, he was taking, he was on like 12 or 14 medications. He had a skin condition. Skin condition, diabetes to certain, he was definitely suffering and,
00:31:06
Speaker
He did a 60-day juice cleanse while going across the country and documenting the whole thing and talking to people. It was like, I won't ruin it for you, but that was super inspiring.
Documentary Inspiration
00:31:21
Speaker
Talk about, I don't know, if anyone ever attempted a juice cleanse, the first two days are rough. They definitely suck.
00:31:31
Speaker
You're just like, it's super easy to like abandon ship. So I think watching that and you know, seeing him go through that, but also seeing like how positive the experience was. And then he shares it. There's another guy that he meets who's even worse off than him who takes it on. It's like very profound. It's an amazing movie. I highly recommend it for sure.
00:31:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's an inspirational story. And he's active on Instagram. Oh, is he? The protagonist. I think I want to say his username is Joe Juice or something like that. Okay, yeah. So it's cool. You can continue to follow his path out there. And I'll have a link in my show notes to The Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. Any other books?
00:32:11
Speaker
I started on the China study. Yeah, I was going to mention that. But I didn't finish it. It was a little bit too in the weeds from like a detailed standpoint. But in general, I mean, the whole idea, and this is something that my friend Tom and Gary Rothsky talks about a lot too, is that study, which is, I mean, you can help me out, but briefly, it was like a group of individuals in China that basically had a super low rate of cancer.
00:32:38
Speaker
and based on their, you know, the variable was the lack of, you know, very low or lack of animal protein in their diet. Yeah. And in varying studies, like it was like a 30 or 40 year study. Did they track these people? So yeah, you know, that was a
00:33:00
Speaker
It just, these are all things, like I said, like helped to confirm my beliefs. It's always good to see that, you know, when I first became a vegan, I went, you know, I had just gotten health insurance again and I went to the doctor.
00:33:15
Speaker
and I had lost about 10 pounds maybe after the juice cleanse and everything. I was just making sure that everything was cool and the doctor, she's super cool. I was like, I know I haven't had a physical in a while, I wanna check it out. She's like, well, I've been doing this vegan diet. And she's like, well, you're actually amazingly healthy. And this vegan is a health-promoting diet. You're absolutely great.
00:33:43
Speaker
These little affirmations here and there just to know that it's easy to be like, oh, I lost all this weight. Am I sick? Am I doing something wrong? But I knew how I felt. But a little backup never hurts as well.
00:34:00
Speaker
Jordan, I love how when we have a rehearsal together, you always have your little cooler. I think you're famous for your cooler goodies of juice and your day-to-day life on tour, your day-to-day life in New York, obviously those, I'm sure, drastically differ, but if you could talk a little bit about your day-to-day life on tour and your day-to-day life in New York and how you get around and stay healthy and maybe give people a little bit of insight as to how you do it.
00:34:28
Speaker
Let's start with on tour. OK. Well, as you said, it's always a challenge.
00:34:36
Speaker
just like maintaining any sort of consistency and with all the factors given you know your travel schedule where you end up what's being provided for you uh... you know i mean there's basic stuff like we start with the rider you know if if you're lucky enough to have a rider for your band making sure that there's like you know some vegetable and fruit options on the rider which is just to translate is the hospitality rider which is uh... advanced sent out by uh...
00:35:04
Speaker
your management to the venue and the promoters and they provide snacks and food and fruit and vegetables. You scroll down past the tequila and the saki and the 24 pack of beer. Yeah, there's some hummus and some...
00:35:20
Speaker
things on there i i try to um i try to always be aware you know like i've i've even brought some tupperware on the road you know like pack up that stuff it's like they'll you know they will throw it out if you don't eat it so it's always best to like try to uh try to save it for later or uh this happens also like
00:35:43
Speaker
continental breakfast buffets, you know, like they have a little nut and dried fruit section that will come in very useful later on if you can pack it up and get all the bang for your free hotel buck as you can anyway. Yes, in our band, that rider disappears quickly at the end of the night from
00:36:02
Speaker
various bandmates, you gotta act fast. Oh yeah, right, right, you're gonna squirrel it away, you better do it for sure. Actually, something that I, going back in but staying here, there was another movie I watched called Tapped, I believe, which is about the bottled water industry.
00:36:22
Speaker
which is like a super profound, heavy movie, talking everything about the policies of some of the big bottled water people like Pull and Spring going into these small, small, main neighborhoods and tapping into their sources and kind of draining communities with their water source to cook coal and PepsiCo, like filtering water, like Aquafina and Dasani and packaging it as bottled water.
00:36:52
Speaker
In general, and just really showing how bottled water is really like a scourge that we need to deal with. And one of the things they recommend is getting a filtered metal bottle so you can put tap water in it and it filters it as you drink.
00:37:15
Speaker
clearly filtered is the bottle that I got and I get a new filter every six months. And that's been huge. I take that everywhere I go. You see this, especially festivals and stuff. We need to drink water and we know that water is extremely important. I see huge differences in my own well-being when I'm drinking lots of water.
00:37:39
Speaker
the amount that people go through bottled water and don't, you know, they'll crack it, drink two sips, throw it away, they'll forget where it is, and they'll go get another one, like, it's super wasteful, and I know musicians are really, really guilty of that, so that actually bears mentioning, because I take this bottle wherever I go, I take it on the road, don't fill it up in the airplane sink, that's the only thing, but like, you know, almost otherwise, check your water sources, I know we've been to some places in South Africa where it's like,
00:38:08
Speaker
Probably don't want to be tapping, you know, even even with the filter, we don't want to be drinking the tap water. But that's that's a huge part of of my touring both on the road and in New York to, you know, just making sure I have water accessible all the time. That is a powerful documentary. The fact that they're going to these towns is a sad aspect of what's happening.
00:38:30
Speaker
in these communities, also the element of petroleum being an element in the plastics that are making these bottles and the water is essentially sitting in these toxic containers and sitting there in heat. Cold temperatures, who knows what's happening in these
00:38:52
Speaker
with these water that we're drinking, quote unquote, because it's healthier than the tap water or it's it's cleaner than the tap water. So there is a lot to learn there.
Vegan-Friendly Cities
00:39:03
Speaker
And you mentioned South Africa. Do you have a favorite?
00:39:07
Speaker
Some favorite cities especially like in terms of health or go to like ah, like I'm happy to go back to this place. Sure Yeah, I mean you you you actually have made it around this country a lot more than I have recently I've been to Berlin a couple times which I found is extremely vegan friendly city. It's a big movement happening. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome kind of Amazing like almost every single spot will have a vegan aspect to the menu
00:39:37
Speaker
kind of reminiscent of Portland. I was in Portland in August and I was like, wow, this is incredible. We left a vegan restaurant and I was with two friends. We were gonna go get vegan ice cream and they started walking different directions because apparently there are two vegan ice cream places within walking distance of this. So yeah, Berlin is awesome, but then you have places that are culturally more suited to vegetarianism.
00:40:04
Speaker
Turkey when I've been to Turkey a few times just getting kind of getting into a little bit of a more of a Middle Eastern diet like tons of beans and like hummus and fresh festivals
00:40:16
Speaker
I know some of y'all are completely lost You're searching for answers, no matter the cost You're looking for clues, you're chasing dreams Continually asking, what does it mean? But just relax, it'll be okay I'm here to tell you about a better way There's a whole world out there, never to be found You can take the low road as you dumb it down
00:40:38
Speaker
at others' faults, they're hilarious. Keep your good deeds strictly vicarious. If you don't know about it, it must not be life experience. The reality TV, take it easy. This world can make you sick, don't get queasy. This world can weigh you down, just keep it breezy. This planet is ours, and we can keep trashing until we land on Mars. But I'll let someone smarter work that all out, because I'm busy keeping it real. Yeah, I'm saying no doubt.
00:41:09
Speaker
On this sort of bigger picture, looking at Jorscan moving forward, whether it's music and health, and we've kind of been talking about how those connect, do you have a, whether it's big picture goals, day-to-day goals, could you talk a little bit about that?
Reconnecting with Creativity
00:41:27
Speaker
I'm actually thinking, we'll check back with me in 12 weeks, but I'm thinking of embarking on the artist's way, which I don't know if any of your listeners are familiar with.
00:41:40
Speaker
It's a book and a program that's basically about reconnecting with your creativity through like a kind of, there's a book that's a 12 week thing that takes you through a number of different steps, including a journaling thing you do every morning and an art estate where you go out and kind of try to fill your creative well. And it's really something I did 10 years ago and I saw it through to its completion. And it was another moment like after I did that, that I had a really like a,
00:42:09
Speaker
burst of creativity. I'm kind of feeling like I need that because I did a lot of Sideman work, which has been great touring and meeting a lot of people and good for my pocketbooks. But I think I need to step back a little bit and kind of reconnect with stuff that I'm trying to do musically. And I think the artist's way in the past has really
00:42:32
Speaker
helped kind of like get past certain blocks that I've had creatively. So that's something that I'm going to take on. That sounds great. I'm actually not familiar with that. I'm going to have to check it out. Check it out. Yeah. I mean, there's an active community of users. Sometimes people do it in groups. They use it as like a weekly meetup thing. I have never done it in a group.
00:42:55
Speaker
A big component to it is this morning page. It's basically, I know it's probably something I know you've talked about, like morning rituals, and I know a lot of people talk about it, like whether it be meditation or exercise or everything, and I'm trying to work on my morning routine. It's a constant battle for me, not just like my meditation is basically now coming in and doing dishes, because it's like the most mindless activity.
00:43:25
Speaker
but trying to do some yoga in the morning straight out of bed. And I think before I get into any sort of media phone or computer or whatever, using this morning page idea, the basic idea very quickly is to do stream of consciousness writing.
00:43:45
Speaker
So you sit down, no agenda, just write whatever comes in your mind, even if it's, I'm writing, I'm writing, I'm writing. If you don't have anything to say, just keep writing. But you'd be amazed at what can happen in that moment as you start to like, you know, whatever's on your mind, you start to explore it. And you will like, basically, it's kind of like a garbage dump.
00:44:05
Speaker
Yeah, we all have these ideas that go around in our head all day that like, you know, oh, why isn't this person call me or I wonder how I did on this or what's happening with that? Like all these things that kind of kind of infiltrate into our focus. And with the morning pages, the ideas that you really go in and like,
00:44:22
Speaker
Flush that from the system. Get it all out. You might not come up with anything. Sometimes you have great epiphanies you might get on something and you find yourself writing four or five pages because you get on an idea and you really explore it. But it's amazing the base of the clarity that comes from it after that. It's a fantastic way to start the day in much the same way like doing yoga and working the kinks out. I mean, it physically is a great way to start the day.
00:44:49
Speaker
Yeah, that's great. For me, my morning ritual is crucial to my wellbeing of getting my workout in the morning. Within a few minutes of waking up, I'm breaking a sweat in some way, which, you know, for me just sets me on the right track all day. I'll probably do other fitness and other, whether it's tennis, other running, weight training stuff throughout the day. But having that morning blast is so critical for me.
00:45:17
Speaker
Is it the same thing every, or do you have it set? In general, I do try to keep it pretty fresh and I change. I find that changing up workouts is a very important aspect of...
00:45:32
Speaker
fitness and health, but I love morning runs. Most mornings I'm waking up and I'm doing four to six mile run. And then once a week I'm doing a 10 mile run. And then once a month, maybe a 15 mile run in the morning when I have time. It's really about time.
00:45:51
Speaker
Most of the time, I would probably run a lot more in the morning, but now I have a daughter and a wife who needs to get to work. There's not unlimited time. I have more time actually on the road to work out. That's when I'm doing my longer runs in the morning. Wow. Everything needs to be wrapped up by 8 AM.
00:46:09
Speaker
in our home for my morning aspect of my workout. So I'll do tennis. When it's light earlier, I'll do two hours, six to eight. In general, it's gonna be a more cardio-oriented thing first thing in the morning to really get my heart. I love the feeling of my heart pumping and sweat and blood running through my veins. It really makes me feel alive. You just hit the pavement. Do you need to stretch? Do you do anything? Do you feel like you need to warm up? Now it's getting cold out.
00:46:38
Speaker
I do light stretching and I don't wear much warm clothing when I run. I'm pretty a high intensity runner. I'm not going for low heart rate training. In general, maybe when I do my much longer runs, I'll be a little bit more aware of the zones and all that. But for me, especially because time is
00:47:02
Speaker
is of the essence. I'm doing pretty high intensity sprints and trying to really push it. So I'm not getting too cold and I'm really getting that heart pumping pretty quick. I'll meet you at the finish line, probably leave me in the dust. There he goes. So the artist way, I'm interested if it's partly the process
00:47:29
Speaker
is what turns you on about doing this? Or do you have a bigger goal? Do you have something that you see that you're gonna achieve? Or is it kind of more not even about that, that it's more just about going through the process and just seeing what happens and the beauty of kind of no expectations? Or do you sort of have some bigger goals that you hope to achieve by doing something like that? Right, right. It's a good question. I think for me, it's very, I am a fan of the process.
00:47:58
Speaker
I'm a fan of just having a routine and sticking to it with really no other expectation besides seeing it through and that feeling of accomplishment at the other end.
00:48:15
Speaker
It's the same thing that I applied when I did the Juice Fast or if I was training for a half marathon or whatever it might be. It's like, I don't, speaking personally, I don't work well with like the five year goals, you know, the bigger picture goals, something I, and I'm not,
00:48:31
Speaker
That's not an endorsement, I'm just not good about that. But I am good at like, sticking to something and like making up my mind and sticking to it on the short term and like seeing a very like, having a definitive, you know, program process and going through it. Like, I think that's why I'm a good friend to call when you want to help move because
00:48:49
Speaker
I'll help you move because I can know that we can take everything from your house, put it in the truck, put it back in the house and that's a goal I can envision and accomplish and I'll do that and it feels good to do. So that's kind of a silly example. But you know what I'm saying? It's like I know that from doing The Artist's Way 10 years ago, I had an incredible creative outburst, basically wrote my first solo record after I finished that program.
00:49:13
Speaker
There's a couple other influences that happened that allowed that to come into place but in general I was primed to be creative so while that is like a tempting idea to do it again. I know that just going through the process and just sitting down every day setting aside this time to go through the book and then taking every morning to do the morning pages was really.
00:49:35
Speaker
really good like that that just that routine helped establish a general routine for my life which works really well for me.
00:49:44
Speaker
That's great. I mean, clearly your love of the process has paid off. I mean, I'd say you've accomplished some great things with your playing and it's certainly got to be connected to that outlook of just being in the moment and then the process and working through things and not necessarily saying, okay, I need to be here in five years because that makes things...
00:50:07
Speaker
seem much more unattainable. And there certainly is people that I'm sure thrive in that. Sure. But I can definitely relate to the concept of the process. And you touched on some other factors for that first record. What were some of the other inspirations? We might have to make a podcast number two to go down that whole road.
First Solo Record from Creativity
00:50:29
Speaker
But I encountered a little bit of legal problems when I was international. I had just done a contract gig in China and I
00:50:37
Speaker
Attempted to enter Japan with a contraband substance that was not permitted in that country. So it's been a little bit extra time there. Just as an aside, it's permitted in many areas of this country. In many areas of this country, yes. And it was an amount that would have been pretty much laughable with any sort of law enforcement that you would encounter in this country. But in Japan, it's, you know,
00:51:03
Speaker
to hold it's a different ballgame. So if you want to learn more about it, you can actually listen to that first record where I have to spell out a lot of the tale of the story in song form, which was a really therapeutic way to like kind of go through that whole process and digestion mentally.
00:51:22
Speaker
But that allowed, it gave me a consistency that I, a timeframe to work on stuff that, to be honest, I've really worked hard to try to, I've never been able to get that sense. What you mean is being stuck in the same place essentially for an extended period of time gave you that consistency, just to be clear. Yes, that's exactly what I meant. But I do think that you don't have to be locked up to maintain consistency. Yeah, but it helps.
00:51:54
Speaker
And how do you look back on that whole experience at this point? We're pretty far removed. I'm guessing this was 10 years ago. 10 years ago, yeah, 2006. Yeah, it's strange. It's a strange kind of wistful nostalgia in a weird way. I mean, yeah, I mean, it's a little surreal that it happened at all, but it happened for a reason. I'm not a religious,
00:52:22
Speaker
guy, but I would say I'm a spiritual person and I do believe that things happen for a reason and while it didn't make sense at all and it seemed very unjust at the time, I think it did allow me a certain time and clarity to kind of focus on something that otherwise I don't think I would have. And with my
00:52:45
Speaker
As far as my own personal solo career, I have my own band where I rap and I play bass and I had done a little bit of that prior to this experience. But going to that experience, it gave me an avenue to pursue writing songs.
00:53:04
Speaker
and writing music. It's something I've written music before, but I've never really written lyrics seriously. So I went down this path because I just like, you know, had the time and I had the motivation to do it. And since then I've, you know, I think it's had a big part of why I am where I am now. Like I've continued to write, I put out an EP and I write with other people, you know, and like consider myself a lyricist to a certain extent, you know.
00:53:32
Speaker
So, I mean, yeah, it's a hard thing to justify why it happened, but it's almost like it was a really, really powerful, important thing that happened for me, and I'm glad it did. And you know, it's a cliche to say everything happens for a reason, but
00:53:53
Speaker
There's so much truth in that. And these things that can seem at the time as not just setbacks, I mean, what happened to you there, that was a serious, drastic life event. And I've had my serious, drastic life events with my mom passing when I was fairly young. And
00:54:16
Speaker
I think these are seminal moments in our life that, of course, there's the nuts and bolts of, okay, you were confined, so you had time and this consistency to write, but on a bigger level, I think it's important to see these things as certainly what I'm describing in yours are not parallel, but the result being some sort of awakening happened
00:54:44
Speaker
in those moments, there's a serious learning process where you're forced to just look deep within and think, wait, what are these choices I've been making all along that have led me to this point or I'm feeling this way and looking at life and these things are hard in the moment and we can laugh about your situation a bit. But I think it's a beautiful thing to think about the fact that you took that experience
00:55:12
Speaker
and it's still affecting your life in a positive way to this day, even to the point of your band is this thriving and you said you just had a rehearsal recently, like today. So that experience is still alive and well, and it's a tribute to you to channel it in a positive way. And hopefully that,
00:55:36
Speaker
When anyone encounters these difficult things in life, they can see that maybe today this is just like, I can't see any reason why this could have possibly happened to me in any positive way at all. Many of those days, yeah. But, you know, keeping the faith. Yeah, now you said it. The cliche of everything happens for a reason is hard and it is that. But I think looking at that experience and turning it into a positive one,
00:56:03
Speaker
really like, you know, that still resonates in certain ways with me and maybe in ways that I'm not totally aware of but like even musically if, you know, sometimes forced to do playing projects or do gigs that are unhappy with or not ideal.
00:56:22
Speaker
And I see a lot of negativity on the bandstand. I see a lot of darkness from musicians who are not doing what they want to be doing. But I have made choices that allow them, that make them end up where they are. But then they just, instead of just appreciating,
00:56:40
Speaker
that here we are getting to play music and have fellowship with our people. They dwell on the worst aspects of that. Even if I'm on a gig and I'm playing some music that isn't important to me,
00:56:55
Speaker
I will do my damnedest to look for the shining light, whether that's just like turning into myself and seeing how I can be better or looking to another person on the bandstand and just trying to give them a little bit of energy or just looking for a little connection musically, just like little teeny things, little sparks that I think exist in almost all situations if you can look for them.
00:57:22
Speaker
Yeah, I think you're keying in on perspective, right? It just goes to show bringing it kind of back in with, okay, isn't it so hard to eat healthy on the road? Nah, this is completely within my control. This is something I can do. Running five miles, waking up early and running when I'm tired.
00:57:46
Speaker
No, it's doable. This is 100% doable. Like I've been through things that were a lot more challenging than this, you know, and having the ability to kind of see that and embrace it, embrace these things. And man, we've talked for a while here. I'm so grateful for your time. This has been a beautiful thing to sit down and have this conversation with you. Thank you, sir. Thank you for having me for sure.
00:58:13
Speaker
Tell the people about how they can find out about Jordan Scannella, Jorescan, the links, website, anything like that. Yeah, for sure. Shout out for us. Yeah, well, the Jorescan band that I was just mentioning is just J-O-R-S-C-A-N dot com, Jorescan. And the other band that I'm actively touring with, Tortured Soul, TorturedSoulMusic.com, we play a
00:58:39
Speaker
flavor of live soulful house music, which is good for the dance parties and stuff, so check that out. And yeah, and just follow me on another band that actually working with People's Champs, peopleschamps.com, Dave Bayless, former member of People's Champs as well, so we're all Brooklyn based and active, so check that out as well.
00:59:07
Speaker
And what about, do you have any personal accounts you'd like to shout out? You do Facebook, Instagram, anything like that? Oh, yeah. Instagram slash Jorscan, it's just the same. And same for Facebook as well. I try to stay, you know, have my love and hate relationships with social media like we all do, but try to keep it relevant and keep in touch through that. So yeah, find me there for sure. Yeah, seek.
00:59:36
Speaker
this guy out. Jordan Scannella, if you're in New York or one of the bands he's in is touring in your area, please go check him out. This is a seriously great musician, great bass player, great guy all around. So Jordan, thanks so much for doing this. Thank you, Dave. Appreciate it.
01:00:10
Speaker
Alright, big thanks to Jorscan for rolling through, and thank you for checking it out. I would be so appreciative if you let me know what you think by commenting and rating the show on iTunes, and if you're so inclined, subscribe to the show as well. You can also find more of what I'm up to about how I live a healthy lifestyle on the road, and episode show notes and links by visiting tordanic.com. And come say hello to me at my Instagram page.
01:00:35
Speaker
Looking forward to another inspiring episode of the Torganic Podcast next week, and until then, peace.
01:00:48
Speaker
My name is Jorscan. You do not know me, but I've known you since forever. So it's time we got together. You've been moving up for millenniums. A global currency for every creature in the whole galaxy. But that was then. Now it's just the two of us, right? We'll hang. I'll get inspired. You'll sound good. We'll be tight. I'll grow old and retire without a conflict or a fight. I awoke from my dreams and you had other schemes. It seems all my friends know you two are strangers on the street.
01:01:41
Speaker
I hear Yuma is me ringin' They tryna break this in two