Transcript
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Speaker: um I was always trying to talk music with people, even when I was nine years old. It makes you ah appreciate the music so much more. but I work better under pressure, good.
Speaker: That is the beauty of this, is that our process can look entirely different and we can both make beautiful pieces of art that come from such a real place. I'll say this, especially on the note of AI, there's a lot of fear-mongering going on right now.
Speaker: You could never recreate Michael Jackson in that aura you just felt around him when he was speaking. You know, I will literally have people just comments on my post saying, you'll be nothing.
Speaker: Because if you're willing to go out there, even if you don't have the right amount of wisdom, the courage in the action that you're taking is what's going to build that wisdom.
Speaker: Not being able to go to sleep till three o'clock in the morning because I didn't make a song today. If I can impact someone with that, That's, that's, that's, I've done what I need to do.
Speaker: Do not fall into cynicism.
Speaker: Charlie Gilder. Everybody hears the songs, everybody sees the the accolades and all the outward stuff you do. Tell us a bit about the inward side. What is it that drives you and gives you excitement about the music you write?
Speaker: That's a great question. For me, personally, I'd have to say I'm um'm a firm believer in God, the universe, whatever you want to call it. I believe that, especially as artists, whether you're an actor, a musician, or director, a writer, i believe we're we're simply just a vessel.
Speaker: You know, I don't believe it's really coming fully from us. I believe it's coming from another source. And I'd say a big part of my process is just trusting the emotion that comes with it, right? Not forcing it.
Speaker: If I sit there in front of the microphone for an hour and nothing comes out, it wasn't meant to happen. But forcing it and just trying to push something out, you know, that's how you got something awful.
Speaker: So I believe your inner state needs to just be kind of a flow state of just letting it happen. And that's where the magic really happens. I love that. i'm ah I'm a big believer in the flow state. And if ah if you just allow things to happen, sometimes they happen in beautiful ways.
Speaker: really Rather than try to force. I mean, nothing wrong with forcing it, nothing wrong with being tenacious and and putting your nose to the grindstone, but there's also a lot to be said ah surrounding just kind of letting it flow.
Speaker: Have you always been musical or or give us a ah background of maybe your your history, your childhood? ah absolutely. So when I was seven or eight years old, I was the kid of if someone had a grand piano at their family's house, I was just hopping on it, even if I didn't know how to play at all.
Speaker: I was always hopping on the grand piano. um i was always trying to talk music with people, even when I was nine years old. And i think that's why the content clicks so well for me.
Speaker: i know that so many artists really complain about making content for their music, but for me, I was always going to people's houses, even in elementary school, and asking my friends to film a movie.
Speaker: They used to have like the iMovie templates. i was always I was always trying to film something. And I think that with the music and the content element, it it is very, I don't want to see easy, but like we said, it's a very big flow state for me to bring it all together. So...
Speaker: Are there any artists that you really admire or look up to? And I'm going to try to separate the artist from the music because you can have ah musician that, I mean, you like them, but they may not be your favorite.
Speaker: They might be, but you might also see a band that you really love their music, but they're not really specific on the musician. Is there a musician that you really look up to? oh absolutely. I'd have to say,
Speaker: a big one is David Bowie. I know he's been gone for a long time, but that era, like David Bowie, Prince, I believe that you kind of hit the nail on the head that it it really is separate. You know, you see an interview of David Bowie talking about what drives him, talking about where the music is coming from.
Speaker: It makes you appreciate the music so much more. And I've used this example before, Tyler, the creator. He's a a firm example of that, that you look at his interviews and you want to listen to his music 10 times more because he just has so much raw, unapologetic personality And I believe strongly that that that has to be how it is.
Speaker: You know what I mean? You make great music, but you're boring in your interviews. You know, it's hard to connect with you on a human level. So I'd have to say a big one is David Bowie, Prince. Yeah, that's that's, if you think about Prince and the legacy he left, I did some work back, i don't know, a long time ago in in Minnesota, and I had the pleasure of driving by his studio.
Speaker: I didn't go in. I mean, he was actually still alive at the time, but it was... ah just a monument of, he really transformed that that neighborhood, that city because of what his dream is. And what I tell my kids, what I tell the people I meet is there's nothing more powerful in this earth than an idea.
Speaker: Absolutely. An idea realized. What is it about your music that you want people to take away when they listen to your music? Is there something in particular?
Speaker: I want them to know where it's coming from. and want them to know that it's coming from a very real place. A lot of it, i'm sure I'm sure you could tell by my discography, a lot of it was very emotion-based.
Speaker: You know, even if it had a ah very upbeat kind of melody, like when you drove away, has a very like upbeat, feely energy. but it comes from a very real place if you listen to what I'm talking about.
Speaker: And you know, I'll tell you this, with that song specifically, to answer your question, I literally was sitting exactly where I'm sitting. I had made that beat and it wasn't even fully done. I just kind of had the the basic instrumental layers.
Speaker: Once in while, I'll forget now. Until I see some girl. I just had to bring it up just to get you. I know. that That's a special one too. And um I was literally just sitting here. And this is one of those moments where the pressure of getting something out came together perfectly with that flow state.
Speaker: I was like, you know what? I was literally about to leave to go go out with a bunch of my friends to dinner. And I was like, why don't I just like record something for like 40 minutes, right? And then I'll head out.
Speaker: And if nothing happens, nothing happens. And I literally just started recording. And I kid you not, that was done, fully recorded and everything within 35 minutes of me sitting down to record it.
Speaker: I didn't write a single lyric. Honestly, for all my songs, the only song I've ever actually written in a notebook is I Always Break My Own Heart from about a year and a half ago. But Yeah, that that's that's a very special one. And like I said before, that comes from a very real place.
Speaker: Sometimes those sort of off-the-cuff, quick things are so beautiful. You know, if you look at um some of the yeah people that have recorded music in the past, some of these some of these songs are like almost like afterthoughts.
Speaker: Like, I'm a big Rush fan. i don't know if you know who Rush is. course. Canadian. And Tom Sawyer, that is basically one of their more iconic songs, was literally throwaway song.
Speaker: they They kind of threw it together. It was like they needed a filler, and they they did it quickly. They recorded it in, like, a day. And they were like, eh, you know, this is going to be, like, the throwaway song. And it turned out to be their one of their top songs. Yeah.
Speaker: There's also that that example of the Somewhere Over the Rainbow. um The song was recorded. it was, i think the story goes that he called the recording studio at like midnight or one or two in the morning. They answered.
Speaker: He says, can I come record a song? He went. He sat down. one take. One take, and that was it. Iconic song, you know? And you hear so many stories like that, too. Like, I feel like it's time and time again. Benny Blanco and all these producers are talking about how these iconic songs were made. And they're like, oh, yeah, we were just like, we just have like 30 minutes. We were all just like sitting around talking.
Speaker: And that just came out. You know what i mean? You hear like these, oh, it happened in 20 minutes. It was an accident. And I believe there's something to be said about that. You know, that's exactly what I'm talking about.
Speaker: Sometimes, when you just sit back and let it happen and you don't feel as much of that pressure, that's when the magic happens. But you know what? For all of the artists listening to this that hear that and say, yeah, but I work better under pressure, good.
Speaker: That is the beauty of this is that our process can look entirely different and we can both make beautiful pieces of art that come from such a real place. It is so so it's so subjective and I think that's one of the most amazing things about it.
Speaker: you know? Yeah. ah For me, music is a lot of and an emotional journey. There are songs on, actually on a regular basis, that bring me almost to tears. I just get this giant lump in my throat. I'm very driven by music, and particular songs, because they take me to a ah place, whether it's a physical place I might have remembered listening to the music, or just something emotional inside a place.
Speaker: Is there a song for you that that does that for you, that just kind of goes down and triggers some deep emotional state? A big one for me is Just Like Heaven by The Cure.
Speaker: Why is that? It always reminds me of me and my mom driving when I was like, I had to be like six years old.
Speaker: And she would she would always play it in the car. And every time I hear that song, it it just teleports me. Like I'm sitting in the backseat of that car again. and there was this cover by this girl at the time.
Speaker: And I would always say, oh, this is the girl version. And it's just, it's so funny how music goes across all ages. Even at that age, I was feeling something from it. And little did my six-year-old self know that I'd be looking at it a certain way when I'm 22 years old.
Speaker: But Just Like Heaven is is the first song that came to mind for me. with With all the things happening in the music industry, and really it's changed dramatically. It's a constant evolution from taking these vinyl records, pressing them, you know, 75, 80, 90 years ago.
Speaker: and all through the radio era. And now it's just so different. we you know We're on Spotify. There's even AIs creating music as well. How do you protect your voice?
Speaker: How do you protect your artistry going forward? That's a great question.
Speaker: I'll say this, especially on the note of AI. There's a lot of fear mongering going on right now. And I know that so many producers, so many artists are are petrified about what is to come. You know, are they going to lose opportunities to AI?
Speaker: is it going to take over so much that artists are going to be falling by the wayside? And my answer is, I don't believe it is at all. If anything, more than ever, people are craving human connection.
Speaker: Live shows in the next five years, mark my words right now, are going to be booming. yeah And I honestly, i believe strongly
Speaker: that AI music is not going to work out the way the industry is hoping. I know it's a big money grab, it's so easy to produce, and it's very easy to do at mass consumption, right?
Speaker: but I don't think, I think it's going to backfire on them because I think human beings in the end will always want other human beings. There's always going to be the small percentage, you know, of people who do just want the fast product and that's fine to each their own.
Speaker: But, I think for the most part, people are going to want to connect with human beings. Like we said before, you could never, ever with AI recreate Prince's charisma, the way he spoke in interviews.
Speaker: You could never recreate Michael Jackson in that that aura you just felt around him when he was speaking. Like it was coming from this raw, authentic, almost almost superhuman way.
Speaker: you could never recreate that with AI. i so I'll finish it off with this. For all the people that are scared that AI is going to start stripping away their voice,
Speaker: I do believe at the end of the day, it's very new, right? So I believe that we're still finding ways every day to protect our voice, but I'm sure that laws will start coming up. As you know, like copyright was very different in the 50s as it is to now.
Speaker: I feel like it's the legal system is just going to have to keep up, you know, and we're just going to to go with it. Yeah, if you if you would have told me when I was ah maybe in high school,
Speaker: If you would have told me that the world we live in today, it is much, much bigger and much, much smaller at the same time. Here we are, you and I, 5,000 miles apart or whatever it is, 4,000 some odd miles apart, having a podcast, which is a new thing.
Speaker: And I'm sitting here in my living room and this is going to be produced and put out so that anyone anywhere in the world can hear it and watch it. And the end this is just, it's ah such an exciting time. i I'm very much a glass is is overflowing full kind of guy, because I just see so much, so many things happening. Creativity, like you and I could probably do a jam session right now.
Speaker: if i If I still had my bass, we would pull it out and we could have a- I'm sure we'd go crazy too. Yeah, and so this is this is crazy, like how you can do all these things. Is there one element of of what you do today Well, let me rephrase this.
Speaker: Is there something that you don't you haven't done yet that you want to do with respect to music? Live shows. Live shows. And very soon, too.
Speaker: I'm sure you've been seeing through my social media that it's growing more and more every day. And I'm really connecting with people. And to all of you watching that are fans of me and you're joining the Gilder era,
Speaker: I'm connecting with you guys too. You know what I mean? it's it's very It's very both ways for me. And I'd say live shows, and I'm so excited to connect with you guys in person, to feel your energy and then just feel all of our energy just bounce around the room. It's gonna be amazing and I'm so excited for it.
Speaker: Have you had any naysayers? People that have said, what are you doing You know, you're crazy or anything like that? Oh, of course. I mean, i'm sure you could assume just by how much I put myself out there on social media that I have plenty of people DM me some crazy stuff.
Speaker: You know, I will literally have people just comment on my post saying, you'll be nothing. Like, just... It has nothing to do with me. you know It's not a reflection of what I'm doing. We're all mirrors. you know when When you see someone putting themselves out there like that, completely opening themselves up to shame and ridicule, and they're just doing it with a smile on their face, it reminds people that they're not willing to.
Speaker: and I mean, regardless of just that, I have my own family in a lot of ways doing it, very critical and scarce about it. um I've had people I've graduated high school with make certain comments and it's just a part of it. You know what i mean?
Speaker: it's It's completely unavoidable. And the more successful the more successfully become, the more you climb the ladder, the more you're going to get. So it's always a sign to me that I'm doing the right thing. You're totally going to get that as you start to take your...
Speaker: career to the next level. And if you didn't have that, you wouldn't, uh, you wouldn't be successful. i mean, the way I see it is that a plane takes off sort of against the wind.
Speaker: Yeah. Right. When you're taking, so you, you have to actually fight through that. And, uh, I always remember that. I also remember also remember that a strawberry is sweeter and is just more robust if it's if it has to suffer it a little bit in other words if you have ah a strawberry in a perfect condition they're not going to be very sweet but if you have it if you sort of make it struggle a bit when it comes out it's a lot sweeter and a lot better overall absolutely i love that have you ever heard of stoicism oh i'm a big big big believer in stoicism
Speaker: Yeah, there are four sort of cardinal values, if you will, of stoicism. I'm going to read them off, and then I'm going ask you to, in your own thinking, put them in order of which one is the most important to you, okay?
Speaker: Okay. The first of which is wisdom. pretty straightforward, basically the ability to navigate through life based on your own um wisdom, which you've learned experiences, all that.
Speaker: The second of which is courage. This is the mental strength to go out there and do what hasn't been done, sort of despite whatever other people say, but even more important, despite what you say.
Speaker: Cause that courage sometimes is like crazy when you actually have to step ah outside yourself. Right. um The next one is justice. Justice is the ability to discern and look at things in a very fair and just way.
Speaker: um the last one is temperance. This is, self-control, ah discipline, yeah your ability to pause and also kind of let things play out.
Speaker: How would you organize those in your in your mind?
Speaker: I would say, above all, the top one would be courage. Because if you're willing to go out there, even if you don't have the right amount of wisdom, the courage in the action that you're taking is what's going to build that wisdom, you know, at the end of the day. And I believe, for me, it would be courage,
Speaker: Wisdom, justice, and then temperance. And I think courage is the most important of them all. But, and I'm sure you'll agree to this too, when you take away one of those, it all falls apart.
Speaker: And that's one of the most beautiful things to me about the power of stoicism is it's not about just courage. It's not about just wisdom. It's all of them combined. And when you bring all of those combined, that's what truly makes success.
Speaker: Yeah, if you if you think about the way that we're wired as human beings, it's kind of, a it blows your mind, right? We're experiencing life only through our eyes, but are you Charlie or are you somebody inside watching and directing Charlie, right? Am I Manny?
Speaker: And you can kind of go back, back, back into like, who actually are you? And so this is what the philosophers have always been sort of toying with. And what's interesting, especially as we go into the AI revolution and people are saying, well, AI will become sentient one day.
Speaker: um That is the point where it now can see itself making decisions. I'm throwing all this out there because wanna challenge and I wanna ask you a question regarding kind of a really weird concept.
Speaker: If you had the ability to take your creative brain and download it onto a machine and and do this multiple times so you can have like your own band, if you will.
Speaker: Number one, would you? And number two, if you if you did, how would you use it?
Speaker: Answer would be no. And not because I don't think it would work out well. I think it could work very well. I just value human creativity way too much.
Speaker: And I do see where this is headed for the most part. And i want to hold on that creative human energy And I believe, and i mean, look, being on stage with the band is not just about how how well everyone plays their instrument.
Speaker: It's about the chemistry. It's about how well you guys know each other. It's about the connection that you guys bring to the table. So like I said, I'm sure it could do a great job. i'm I'm not fully saying that AI is just horrible and it doesn't have the ability.
Speaker: But I believe there's nothing like just the human energy together.
Speaker: I probably know the answer to this, but you'll fill us in. If you could have a um a four or five hour day conversation, you know, dinner, what whatnot, studio recording, whatever you want to do with this person for four or five hours, who would it be and why?
Speaker: Michael Jackson. Like without hesitation. And my main answer although there are a million, would be his dedication to the process because i don't think Michael Jackson had a choice whether or not he was going to be who he was.
Speaker: i I believe if he could do it all over again, he would do it the exact way that he would. And this ties in exactly what I'm saying. He wasn't just doing it because he loved making music. I believe Michael Jackson really cared about the impact.
Speaker: He really cared about me and you sitting here still being impacted by him 17 years after he died. I believe that. And 17 years?
Speaker: Yeah. Has it? Yeah. I don't know. It might have been like 2009. Good grief. Yeah. That's I know. Wow. Because I was young, but I believe he would be. Just his dedication to the process. I mean, there was no sleeping for that guy.
Speaker: No, not at all. I mean, that that guy is, he was a mover and a shaker, and he was obviously very misunderstood in some ways. But if you think about his life growing up, I mean, he was really...
Speaker: under a microscope from the time he could sing. And yeah, that's a crazy story if you've really looked into it much. Absolutely. And he still chose to do it anyway.
Speaker: If you could ah meet one of your fans and share with them, i guess, a um if they could have a day with you.
Speaker: How would you spend it with them? Just was one of your fans out of the blue, you somehow connect and you spend time with them. What would you do
Speaker: My first thought is just to go out to lunch with them and really connect with them. Not just talk about my story, not just talk about why I make music. That's all great, but I'd want just talk to them and hear how I've made an impact on them, hear about their backstory, you know give them an ear.
Speaker: And that's one of the main reasons I do what I do is because, look, if I can make an impact on one person, that's all I really care about. But the more people I can make a true impact on, that's why I do it.
Speaker: You know what I mean? If I can use this gift and this this this thing that doesn't let me sleep at night, just just thinking about this, not being able to go to sleep till three o'clock in the morning because I didn't make a song today.
Speaker: If I can impact someone with that, that's that's that's I've done what I need to do. How important and and impactful is luck in what you do?
Speaker: Luck with with air quotes, you know? hey Luck in how you want to define it.
Speaker: I believe it's important to some degree in terms of success. You know, i don't believe it's like this super, superficial thing, right? I don't believe it's like us a spiritual thing.
Speaker: But I'll put it this way.
Speaker: You could have luck all day. You could have the opportunity to get lucky. And that could have been the one day that you decided to just cool off and take a break.
Speaker: And if you try every single day you're going to get lucky. It's it's going to happen. You know, however you however you want to view luck. You know what I mean? um i think a lot of my videos, like I was just looking for one format that I could just double down on and use.
Speaker: You know what I mean? And I found it. I found it because I just, I believe I did in some way get lucky because I kept doing it. I was posting like five days, 30 videos a day to no one when I had like 98 followers.
Speaker: So I believe you need to test your luck every single day to truly get lucky. I totally agree. I mean, the idea of luck is when preparation meets opportunity, right? You have to be ready and you have to be there, show up.
Speaker: And i get discouraged sometimes when a lot of the younger generation, they don't show up as much anymore. You know, everybody lives in in this different kind of domain.
Speaker: And i am excited for the future here when when we do more live shows and people show up and there's more of the ah IRL stuff happening rather than than living in your phone.
Speaker: um Last couple of questions for you, Charlie. What do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker: ah want to be remembered. That's the one who was kind when it's so easy to be cynical. It's so easy to tear people down.
Speaker: You know, we've never had more tension in the in the world than we have right now, at least not in a very long time. It's very easy to to choose not holding the door for someone or just putting your earbuds in and walking by everyone while they say hi i just want to be remembered for my kindness and my dedication and someone who is courageous when everyone was against him but he did it anyway that's that's what i want to be remembered for and i remember that a lot i keep that in mind all the time
Speaker: you know, when I'm about to make a decision, would I want this to be the last decision that I make? Would I want this thing to be the last conversation that I have with my girlfriend or my mom and this to be the last thing they remember me saying? If not, you can always take a second and choose a better choice of words and how you treat people because you have no idea.
Speaker: You have no idea what will happen. It's remarkable. That's very, very well said. It's remarkable how complex the world is. And, uh, like I mentioned earlier, it's become, it's, it's a big world, but it's also becoming smaller and smaller. So I totally get it.
Speaker: And, um, this is kind of reason why I do this podcast as well. It's um I'm a storyteller. I love to tell stories. love, I love to hear stories and get insights from everybody like you. And I've had other people on as well that,
Speaker: Just make me think, make me sort of pause. and And even if I'm running around during the day, I'm like, that Charlie Gilder, man, he's he's doing it. He's putting his nose at the grindstone and he's doing the best he can to to advance and to create.
Speaker: Absolutely. Is there one last message you want to leave ah our audience here with regarding your music or who you are in particular?
Speaker: Do not fall into cynicism. The world is going to try to convince you that everyone is against you and you have no shot, that you have no chance, that you're better off just cashing in your chips and playing it safe.
Speaker: It's not the truth. It's not. And if you have something, you've heard it time and time again, if you have something that sits in your stomach that causes you that you cannot sleep at night thinking about not taking action on this one thing, don't take it from me when I say this.
Speaker: Take it from the 80-year-old version of yourself that didn't do it, that you need to do it. You need not, it's it's not even a choice. You need to take a shot at it.
Speaker: You need to dedicate everything and sacrifice so much time that that you could just be going out and drinking on the weekends and wasting time away that you will never get back.
Speaker: You need to dedicate that time. And all of my audience will know exactly what I'm about to say. Don't let anybody stop you. Don't let anybody project their regrets and what they didn't do onto you as a reason that you shouldn't do it either.
Speaker: Very well said, Charlie. Appreciate your time and your insights and looking forward to see where your career goes going forward. And I'll say one last thing for my audience.
Speaker: The Gilder era has just begun and we're not slowing down and we're not stopping. And I love each and every one of you and I'm so incredibly grateful. And I thank you, Manny, for for connecting this with me today.
Speaker: It's been an honor. Yeah, I want to see where your career goes, you know, as as time progresses. I've been doing a couple of these ah early sort of ah entrepreneurial endeavors and because I see diamonds in the rough.
Speaker: And i did one last week with a woman named Leah Mandel, who is Mandel, who has huge future as well. So excited to see where where you guys go.
Speaker: Take care, man. It was great talking to you. Cheers.
