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Melissa Oliveri
3.6k Plays1 year ago
Melissa Oliveri has been an artist her entire life. As an only child, she would spend hours entertaining herself by writing and illustrating stories, playing music, drawing, writing plays, making puppets and other crafts. This has translated into adulthood in the form of one person wearing many creative hats.
As a musician, Melissa goes by the stage name Cannelle. She composes original songs in a variety of styles, often compared to Tori Amos, Regina Spektor, or Kate Bush. She also writes original music for her Podcast, The Skylark Bell. She likes to take a creative approach to songwriting, often including her audience in the task. An example of this are her "Post-It Project" songs, for which she requests people assign her a set number of words that she will build the song around. The topics she covers are also varied and can range from a dedication to a lost loved one, to a song about a salt shaker or a silly song about her disdain for the long winters she has known her whole life.
After years of sitting on a series of unpublished books, a friend suggested Melissa turn one of her stories into a podcast. Being unfamiliar with podcasting, Melissa was hesitant, but the thought of composing original music for the podcast, including sound effects, and finally getting the story out to the world eventually won her over, and The Skylark Bell podcast was born. The podcast has not only proven to be a great success, it has inspired Melissa to imagine expanding The Skylark show beyond all dreams!
https://melissaoliveri.com/about
Follow on Instagram @cannelle.music
Link Tree with all the things: https://linktr.ee/theskylarkbell
We highly recommend you listen to the Skylark Bell Podcast
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Transcript
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
00:00:03
Speaker
You are listening to something rather than nothing. Creator and host, Ken Zalante. Editor and producer, Peter Bauer. You need to say it in French, though. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right now? Yeah.
Intricacies of the French Language
00:00:24
Speaker
Okay, yeah. So in English, it's a trip to the moon, but in French, it's le voyage dans la lune.
00:00:30
Speaker
I'm just going to have you on for 45 minutes and I'm going to give you phrases to say in French. What's fun in French when speaking about the moon is we say dans la lune, which doesn't translate to on the moon or to the moon. It translates to in the moon.
00:00:52
Speaker
I know. That sounds like a French thing to do. I'll do respect that. How did it end up in the moon? In the moon. Like when you're kind of daydreaming or zoning out, in French you see... I'm in the moon. That's how you just... You're in the moon. Is that cool? Yeah. Yeah, I've always liked that. I'm like, oh, I'm in the moon. See, if you say that in English, people will be like, what?
00:01:17
Speaker
I was, I get confused on those things. Cause like in the French you would call it the, the Apple of the earth, but I want to know why the Apple is not called the potato of the sky. Oh yeah. These are the things that maybe you or I could, or counting in French, you know, 20, like 10, 20, 42 or whatever. I don't remember what the, like, I can't think of the translation right now, but when you get to like, you know,
00:01:46
Speaker
upper numbers, it just gets weird because they're just naming like all the numbers that are in the number. Like you don't say 94, you say like 4 2010. All right, do people on the count of French give up at a certain number? I think the non-natives, yeah. Like nine's about good.
Guest Introduction: Melissa Oliveri
00:02:06
Speaker
When we get to like 50, they're like, hey, we're done here. That's awesome. This is Ken Vellante with the something rather than nothing podcast and we have
00:02:17
Speaker
Melissa Oliveri, who is a friend, podcaster, creator, musician under Canel, the Skylark Bell, which is a beautiful, well-loved podcast. Melissa, happy to have you on something rather than nothing. Thank you. I'm really glad to be here.
00:02:42
Speaker
We are thinking about podcast and talking music and stuff, but one of the things is lately the show has been on a jag or maybe it's always been on a jag with live performance, music.
The Return to Live Music Performance
00:02:58
Speaker
It's really, for me, doing the podcast a sweet thing to hear songs, to hear the people that create them.
00:03:08
Speaker
And so I've had a lot of singer songwriters. And as you know, I love the work that you do. I also am in touch with some of your influences in songwriting. I think I like Polly Jean Harvey and Tori Amos and that. I've been excited to see that you got like a live show coming up and we're talking music off the bat. So what's going on with Canal?
00:03:35
Speaker
and performing in that kind of development of your music. Yeah, it's terrifying and exciting at the same time. I haven't played live in front of a live audience in the same room as me in over 15 years. So it's kind of a big deal. It's a small venue and I'll be with two other really amazing local women musicians.
00:04:02
Speaker
Katie Tessman and Annie and a king and they're both wonderful and so we're I was invited to join them for this and I'm really excited. You know, I'm scared Not gonna lie, but it's gonna be fine and it's just giving me a whole new kind of angle to
00:04:21
Speaker
look at my songs and really be more mindful about selecting not only what I hope the audience likes, now I'm going to be playing in front of people who've never heard me. Whereas when I live stream on Instagram, for example, all those people who are following me, they know what to expect. So it's easy. And if I mess up, we laugh. And it's just between friends almost. But now it's a room full of strangers who may or may not be there for
Musical Heritage and French Canadian Culture
00:04:45
Speaker
me. A lot of them are going to be there for those other two more seasoned performers.
00:04:49
Speaker
And so i have to think about okay how how am i gonna charm them you know and so it's it's been really great and i've had to you know we get to pick a few covers and i picked
00:05:02
Speaker
Regina specter song and a Kate Bush song of course and but then the third I picked a French Canadian really obscure Nobody will know this song in the room But I felt like it was important if I was going to introduce myself to these folks Oh, yeah to include that which is such a huge part of who I am and not very apparent here in America where I speak English all the time, but that French Canadian culture and so I'm hoping to share that and Maybe spark something with them. Yeah, I
00:05:32
Speaker
The French American culture, and one of the things listeners might not know is that from my background, I have ancestry from Quebec and on my mom's side. And my grandmother, my Nana spoke French, spoke French, like I could hear her speak French, you know, that close to it.
00:06:02
Speaker
Growing up in New England, in a particular area that I did, these were French towns, like French American towns, with the language in the newspaper being in French and the language on the street being French.
00:06:18
Speaker
I've always had a strong connection to Montreal and the connection of these cultures. So I mean, even when we first met, there were some components there that I just had a lived experience that nobody, a lot of people don't have necessarily around that. Yeah.
00:06:37
Speaker
And it's really nice to be able to connect with you in that type of way. Even on this simple inflection of moving between English and French, like my Nana could or would is just like, that's fun. And I think you're the special correspondent for the podcast. If I need a French word pronounced, I know you said. Let me try it. La socieres.
00:07:00
Speaker
Oh, yes. Good. See? All right. That was a song title. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I was wondering why you needed that. And then I didn't expect you, but the band, the Doom Metal band, Faytooth, had La Saucier. That's awesome. That's that's perfection right there.
00:07:22
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think that United States America realizes how heavily the influence and the connections were with the French, not just in Canada, but in America too. There's a huge history there. Even here in Minnesota,
00:07:42
Speaker
Lake Mille Lacs is French for a thousand lakes. You know, Grammaré means big swamp. It just goes, Eau Claire means clear water. These are all French names. The motto for Minnesota is L'Etoile du Nord, the North Star. But the motto is in French here. That's where the North Star comes from. Okay.
00:08:00
Speaker
But we hear a lot about in Minnesota the Scandinavian heritage and yet so many of the place names are obviously Native American and but there's a lot of French too. So Yeah, it's just interesting that and a little bit sad Maybe that that history got has been kind of lost, you know, but but it's it's the signs of it are still there Yeah, one of my favorite I might have told you this before just some
00:08:29
Speaker
I adore Leonard Cohen as a writer and as a spiritual, as a spiritual being that he was. Complicated dude. But I love, you know, even his songs of moving between the French and the English is just something so satisfying for my soul to like hear that, like moving back and forth. Oh, it's the same and it sounds so different this way. And he did that a few times and
00:08:58
Speaker
And of course being heavily influenced by Jack Kerouac, not so much as the overt use of French maybe all the time, but the French, Canadian-French culture. So big show, you got that big show coming up.
The Skylark Bell Podcast
00:09:13
Speaker
Good luck with that. I know it's a big deal. Let's be straight. I know it's a big deal for you to... It's a big deal for me. But I know what I can see and what I know with you is that
00:09:26
Speaker
you just go back to the point that you need to like, I see that you, like you, you laugh in, you laugh even though I know your brain is saying that was imperfect. Yeah. It's very different words than that, that we won't say here on air, but yeah. Oh yeah. Uh, you just gotta dive back in, you know, so, um,
00:09:51
Speaker
Now, the other thing is I've sheared from the something rather than nothing Instagram page, Skylark Bell, which I've told you before. You're writing the voice that does it, the musical accompaniment, and the sounds. And honestly, the ghostly atmosphere, the passage of time, the people who are there or are not there,
00:10:22
Speaker
um it's just truly a world to to enter into and you're you've been doing it for for a while and um moving towards yeah at least finish in this you know that this stage of of the story but what has been your experience telling this story that is yours in this way
00:10:49
Speaker
for this long like where is it at now for you and how do you think about it yeah yeah it's it's um
00:10:58
Speaker
You know, when I initially wrote, so basically, The Skylark Bell is a series of three books, which I'm releasing each year. Each book takes up one year, basically, of the podcast and one season. A season is basically a full year. And so when I wrote the first book in my head, this was like 10 years ago. My podcast wasn't even on my radar. And I shelved it, and it wasn't that great. And when a friend suggested turning it into a podcast, and I realized that each chapter would be an episode,
00:11:28
Speaker
You know, when you read a book, you want a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter, but it's not essential because you just keep reading. But if there's going to be a week between each chapter, you want those people to come back the following week. And I basically rewrote the entire book.
00:11:45
Speaker
with that in mind and had to add more suspense and more intrigue and more mystery. And it made the book so much better than it would have ever been if I hadn't turned it into a podcast. So that was huge.
00:12:02
Speaker
You know, when I write, I see it all plays out like a film in my head. And then I have to write and describe what I'm seeing. And so the comments I've had from a lot of people is, wow, your writing is really visual when I'm either reading or listening to it.
00:12:19
Speaker
I can really see. And that's why. It's because before it's written, it's essentially a scene in my head. But to really convey that, words are great, but I think that's where the sound effects really come in. And there's not a boatload of them. They come in once in a while at key points when there's something that makes sense, like a door closing or gravel footsteps or a horse or whatever. And then also the use of echoes or reverb in certain parts.
00:12:49
Speaker
um, you know, there's an episode actually that just came out last friday where One of the very few sound effects in the whole episode is this character really mysterious character It looks at a different character and just goes
00:13:04
Speaker
and then vanishes into thin air, and that shh, I just bump that reverb so high, and it's the creepiest like two seconds of probably all three seasons. Yeah, yeah. But you know, it doesn't take much, but you just add those little things that just like kind of make your spine tingle a little bit like, oh, and it's not gory or scary or even that unnerving, but it's just enough to kind of make you
00:13:29
Speaker
pay attention, I think. That's been the mindset behind producing this story. Ultimately, my goal is I want other people to visualize what I was seeing before I wrote it down.
00:13:49
Speaker
That's what I want. I want other people to experience because to me, what I'm basically watching a movie in my head, it's super cool. It's super exciting and awesome. I want other people to see it and short of finding a scientific method to plug nodes on my temples and project it onto a screen, this is the next best thing. That's what I've been trying to do.
00:14:13
Speaker
And I've seen, you know, I don't know how often you do. I've seen, I don't know, it might've been watercolor or some of those visual pieces that you've done. When you do that, I'm just thinking about your process. You're talking about the process of the visual to the words or the audio, but how does that work for you when you're trying to paint? Is it that is a much different, more difficult or easier process? It's harder for me because the things I see in my head
00:14:42
Speaker
I can type and describe them with words, but to actually do the right shape and put the line in the shadows in the right places and things, that's more of a struggle for me. And I've had great friends who can look at something and draw it, and it'll look like a photograph, and I wish I could do that. But I can't, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that. And now, I work around those
00:15:10
Speaker
I guess, faults or things that I can't do, and I think it makes my art kind of more unique.
00:15:17
Speaker
Um, because I, I don't, I don't let those things that I can't do stop me. Now I build on those. And so, you know, I'm not good at drawing faces. I've got a bunch of drawings of faceless people. I call them the faceless people. And I wrote a song about it, but you know, like instead of fighting those things that I can't do, I just roll with them now. And that is part of the beauty of getting older, but it's, it's, it's turned into a positive. So.
00:15:44
Speaker
Well, I wonder that I really do deeply wonder about the can't do when it comes to art. And I just want to mention something. Like I've been in the situation because of practicing art and doing the podcast and being an artist of just coming into kind of revelations or honestly, the quick reveal that
00:16:10
Speaker
perceptions of myself were untrue and unfounded. So it's like that discovery. And one really cool thing that happened say six weeks ago is I
00:16:22
Speaker
As far as the depiction and the figurative, like me, like if you handed a picture of something to me and said, can do something with that, that's the can't do phase for me. That's the can't do. But what I've realized is that there's habits in the ways that this brain I'm pointing to is process things or dump things or trapped itself.
00:16:45
Speaker
And I was given by Susie, Susie DeVille, who's been on the show this task in class of it was an image, but it was just upside down. So you could tell what it was, but it was just upside down. And the instructions were that I could look at it, but just sketch it. Just sketch it that way. Just you're sketching upside down and.
00:17:14
Speaker
I could do it so easily where others were like impossible task. But for me, I don't understand it all. I could do it and do that and then see. I like that you're touching on the brain difference and how it can pose challenges in so many situations. And all of a sudden you get in this, in this other situation and it's like a top notch strength. By flipping the image,
00:17:43
Speaker
I almost immediately knew as one pressures off. Yep, completely. And that was the big piece. The other piece was
00:17:51
Speaker
in ways I don't understand, because I've only done it a few times since I started doing it a few weeks ago. I did it yesterday, for example, with an upside down elephant. And I do it so there's less pressure on myself. And also, whatever is going on in my brain, I can understand the connections of the lines in a way where it's shown upside down that I can't see or be sensitive to when I see it the right way. And that's...
00:18:19
Speaker
that's those neurons in the brain again, I'm pointing to like, that's the things that are aligned in a certain way. And I guess what I'm saying positively, like there are multiple paths. And I, the not being able to do is certainly for me become much more of a suspect thing to say, or for me to say, like, I would tell you two years ago, I can't draw
00:18:47
Speaker
And that's just not accurate. It's just not an accurate statement. It's also closes down possibility because you've already stated that the thing is not capable. So next topic. Right, right. Um.
00:19:08
Speaker
So excited about your live performance coming up. I wanted to chat you a little bit about your network of podcasts. I bumped into a lot of folks in the podcast network. My show is a variety show.
00:19:26
Speaker
I hate that you might have to try to describe it to somebody, but you could say like true crime, there's spooky stuff, there's spooky paintings, there's weird painting, there's all these type of pieces and elements to the show. But I was just wondering, I was just wondering from you,
00:19:54
Speaker
about working with a network and where there's some other folks doing some spooky stuff and sharing that.
Collaborative Podcasting Ventures
00:20:02
Speaker
I know, I don't believe they're part of the network or they might be Mums, Murders, and Mysteries, our friends. They are part of, yeah, they are part, we call it the Bupod Network, and they are part of that. And those ladies are amazing. It's a true crime. Well, kind of, they're true crime, but I feel like they've done some sort of
00:20:24
Speaker
Yuri unexplained stories too on their I thought it was a life skills podcast Maybe I've been listening the wrong way. Hey Marty and that's just we get to have jokes If folks it's a great it's a great podcast mums murders and mysteries covering your amazing mostly like true crime of murders mystery in Australia for the most part in Scotland so you have a yes thing and
00:20:51
Speaker
combo there but tell us more about about the boo pod and hooking up with some folks doing spooky stuff yeah well I was invited into it by my friend Amy who does a podcast called the activity continues actually she's the one who
00:21:06
Speaker
Actually, I wouldn't even have a podcast if it weren't for her. She's the one who said, you should take that book you're releasing one chapter at a time on Patreon. So Amy, thank you. Amy is, she lives here in Minneapolis and she's a dear friend and she's just a lovely, lovely, amazing, hilarious, brilliant person and I adore her. There's so many cool people that live in Minneapolis just to break in here, but go ahead.
00:21:33
Speaker
This is true. So she one day said, oh, I'm part of this network, and it's True Crime and Paranormal Podcasts, and you want to be part of it? And I'll go ask. And I don't honestly know who within the network started it, because I came in where there were already people in it a little bit. It's Oz. It's the Wizard of Oz. It's what? The Wizard of Oz. There we go. There we go. It's the Wizard of Oz.
00:22:00
Speaker
So yeah, I came in when they already had kind of started, but basically it's a bunch, and by a bunch, I mean, I think maybe there's a dozen of us, of totally independent people. Some of them work alone, like me. Some of them are pairs, like Mums, Mysteries, and Murder. And it's True Crime and Paranormal Podcasts. Some of them touch on both.
00:22:22
Speaker
And basically it started out with us each creating like a promo reel, like a 30 second or one minute promo reel for our own podcasts. And then we would insert each other's reels into each other's podcasts to kind of cross promote and grow our audiences. And that was huge. And then over time,
00:22:41
Speaker
At one point, Halloween was coming up and we said, hey, we're all doing kind of spooky stuff. We should collaborate somehow. And so collectively, not every podcast was part of it that's in the Bupod Network, but I think there were eight of us. And we just picked a topic. It was the Bridgewater Triangle, which quite honestly I had never heard of.
00:23:01
Speaker
And we each chose an aspect of that topic and each released one episode on our respective podcasts in our own styles. And then the listeners could kind of bop around all these different podcasts and collect all the pieces. But what's interesting is I'm the only fiction podcast.
00:23:20
Speaker
And so at first I was really... Yay! It was cool, but also like how am I gonna like, how am I gonna do this? Like talk about this Bridgewater Triangle area, which if listeners haven't heard of it, it's a super bizarre geographical area out east that has all the things. It has cryptids and ghosts and sects and devil worshiping and whatever, true crime. So
00:23:49
Speaker
Eventually I landed on, I cooperated with a podcast called The Haunted UK, which is super phenomenal by the way. And he covered a ghost story, a true ghost story, which is generally what he does on his podcast. And then I took that ghost, that character, and wrote a fictional story from his perspective. And that's what aired on my podcast.
00:24:17
Speaker
And he and I have now done a couple of collaborations like that, and it's been really, really great. But I never would have done a story like that if it hadn't been for that context and that kind of push of, OK, how are you going to problem solve this? You're part of this network. What you do is totally different. You need to somehow fit your piece of the puzzle into this puzzle.
00:24:38
Speaker
And so that's that's how I did it and um, and everybody in that group is first of all hilarious They're all funny. Yeah, I'll talk about terrifying horrendous topics and yet We're all funny and cool and nice. So it's it's been pretty great, you know and everyone's just trying to do their thing and they're doing their best with the time that they have and the lives that they have and and everybody respects each other's boundaries as far as participation and what we can and can't do
00:25:06
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's great. I'm just curious, how do you balance knowing you? I would know that you'd have very, probably discrete, powerful ideas about how you want to do things. Of course, there's always the question of working within the group, but then massaging or moving around with that. What's that experience like? Because I would say for myself, looking at it, I would be like,
00:25:37
Speaker
I'm fine until I heard, I'd be fine until I heard something weird that hit me the wrong way. And then I get weirded out about it because there's an imposition. There's other people to respond to. There's another idea that's in my realm. Like how, how was that the balance or did you feel that too much or? Um, I haven't really felt that. I think, yeah, I think,
00:26:05
Speaker
If I'm interpreting your question correctly, I think that I'm going to liken it to being an only child. Because I'm the only one doing what I do, how I do it within the group, there's not really a competition. Whereas somebody who does true crime and there was
00:26:22
Speaker
Yeah, there wasn't just one, but let's pretend there was only one incident. Well, okay, who's going to do it and how are they going to do it and are they going to overlap and are they, you know, I feel like that adds a different dynamic. Although everybody in there has been really kind of conciliatory and flexible and oh, well, how about you do this piece and we'll take this from this angle or there hasn't been.
00:26:41
Speaker
any conflict, even though everybody, I believe in that group, has their very clear ideas of what they do and how they do it and how they present their show to people, to their audience. Yeah, there's just been no drama. It's really cool. Well, can't sell any tabloids, but it does help. Yeah, we're boring. It does help independent folks. Well, I think within podcasting, and it's something that I've learned
00:27:12
Speaker
just a lot about, and I'm very far from an understanding of podcasting as a whole. It's just, I read about it, you know, each day and, and, and do it and you do it and, you know, kind of keep an eye on what's going on. But, um, I think it creates some interesting or unique opportunities to, to organize such as, you know, I'm an organizer, I'm a union organizer in my blood.
00:27:39
Speaker
primarily, but an organizer amongst people. And I think with art or the network that you're talking about, when people have true fun and enjoy listening to wacky stories and feel,
00:27:54
Speaker
I don't know, less alone. And then there's another show that's kind of like, that's like the wild cousin of it, but they both probably like this one's more calm. And I love her because like, I need to talk to her to calm down. And then the other cousins just like, yo, there's ghosts here. But you feel that you're around this
The Supportive Podcasting Community
00:28:19
Speaker
group. I felt that because
00:28:22
Speaker
I mean, I do a variety show, so you don't know from one week to the next what I'm going to do, but I can go to you or I can go to Mums, Murders and Mysteries. We did a live recently, for example, and I can like tap into the juice. Like I can't, like the questions I had to talk with Mums and Marty, I was like,
00:28:43
Speaker
can we talk about the poltergeist film set and how cursed it was can we talk about like it was just it was just a long list and we got on and I'm like. I'm excited to talk about all these things but just to be able to vibe and even though you're not doing exactly same thing and you're in different spots that you're able to vibe for a while be like that shit's cool man that's you know.
00:29:08
Speaker
totally that yeah, absolutely, I think I think there's a mutual respect based in Partly we know how much work goes into it and how much effort But also in just seeing like oh wow that person did that that way that's that's cool You know and it's inspiring. I I just think the inspiration has been huge and motivating the one
00:29:34
Speaker
I imagine again, you might be sensitive to this, but some of the some of the serendipity or the connections that I'm particularly sensitive to, like, and maybe as an organizer or sensitive to how people connect, like I just network the entire thing of people in my head in terms of organizing and how
00:29:54
Speaker
Not to use but just to see how people could relate to other people like that and It's just been so cool to see within podcasting independent do-it-yourselves like
00:30:11
Speaker
There's a reality to podcasting where people, you know, it's a funny, I think any time you get a new media, I think the jokes are actually stupid and funny about podcasts. Because it's something new to make fun of, but it is not reflective of reality. Because when it comes down to it, folks like you and I who continue to make podcasts over years, there are very, they're not very few. The number of podcasts drops precipitously of
00:30:41
Speaker
what is continually being made. So it's a serious form. And our approach, though laughing and funny and we can hang out, is serious about what the intent is. And I think those who know about what podcasting is or can be,
00:31:01
Speaker
whatever you're using it for, whether it's politics or health or whatever. I think those who are doing it know that it's a powerful thing. At least I feel that. And the jokes are titillating, but that's all they are.
00:31:15
Speaker
Because, you know, and so I mean, it should kind of point out the sustained effort because I'm going to say something. I know because there's been a few nights for me, even with that sustained effort, even with that love, and it's at 1130 at night and you're looking and you're working on things. You're like, why the my doing? Yeah. Well, yeah.
00:31:38
Speaker
Yeah. So I hear you. Oh, there's days where I'm like, man, I'm screaming into the void. And then and then I hug my dog and I'm like, but I'm going to keep screaming. Yeah. You're telling a weird, sustained, wonderful ghost story. And I'm asking people, why is there something rather than nothing? You know, that's not that that's position. You only stake out independently, I think.
00:32:09
Speaker
Um, okay. So, uh, I wanted to talk about, um, a couple of musicians we like a first of all, I want to say declaratively on the show that, uh, Polly Jean Harvey PJ Harvey is. Well, she's a goddess.
00:32:30
Speaker
Yeah, not gonna disagree. True and true. I wanna start light, you know what I mean? Like, I wanna start. Yeah. I've listened to everything Paula Jean has done. She's a philosopher. She's a multivariate artist, photographer, poet, the modern instruments that she can play, all these type of things. These are things she can do. I found it to be the most amazing, brilliant,
00:32:58
Speaker
music and catalog that I've been able to enjoy for a long time now of 30 years. And I know you really love Polly Jean. I wanted to talk about that and about some of the energy, just the sheer energy of some of the women in rock and in songwriting that you enjoy. I know Tori Amos, Regina Spector,
00:33:23
Speaker
Yeah, we love Amanda Palmer. Amanda Palmer. That's when some big ones don't even get it. But what? Tell me about that because I know we've we've vibed on that. Yeah, yeah, I think.
00:33:37
Speaker
So, I was a teenager in the 90s when PJ Harvey and Bjork was one and Tori Amos and so many others, but that was kind of the trifecta at the time. And it was cool to see these women
00:33:53
Speaker
So PJ Harvey's a little more rock, so she maybe fit in better with some of the male-led bands that were popular, and even that I liked, you know, Pixies and Nirvana and all those guys. And I loved all of them, and they were great, and they fulfilled something for me, and it spoke to me, and it was awesome. But then when I discovered, you know, a couple few years into that type of music that I had started listening to, when I discovered the women who were part of that world,
00:34:22
Speaker
P.J. Harvey was probably the most similar, but she's still really unique. And what I loved was they were each so different, and they were each so individual in what they were doing in their sound, and it felt to me super strong and confident. Like, this is what I'm doing, and I'm doing it like this, and you know, you're either gonna like it or not, and it's gonna work or not, but this is what I'm doing. Whereas, you know,
00:34:52
Speaker
When I saw that, and then I looked back at what I had been listening to with a lot of the male-led bands, which were great, again, it's not a criticism of them, but to me that was almost more of a homogenous sound. All those bands, I could kind of lump them together. You could tell them apart, obviously.
00:35:07
Speaker
but just overall compared to these women that I was listening to where they were completely different from each other. I really gravitated toward that and it took me a long time to start writing my own songs. I started out playing all of their songs. I'm maybe going off on a tangent here a little bit. The show is tangents. Yeah, okay, tangents.
00:35:37
Speaker
Um, that was to me a really pivotal time for women in music when these women were coming up and doing this and being embraced and being criticized and left at also by mainstream, generally, you know, media outlets about music. But overall, I think as far as just the human beings that were listening to their music, they were well-loved. And then came, you know, I won't name names, but pop
00:36:04
Speaker
female pop stars that were treated more like products and songs were written for them and outfits were picked out for them and they were taught what dance moves to do.
00:36:15
Speaker
took over and almost kind of washed away what I feel was progress. And it's just been like an uphill battle since then, but I feel like there's a bit of a shift the last few years.
The Role of Music in Life's Challenges
00:36:29
Speaker
And I know Amanda Palmer has been fighting that fight since she started, but I think it's important. I'll be honest, I go on iTunes. I still download music because
00:36:42
Speaker
I'm old and also I feel like that supports the artists better and
00:36:47
Speaker
Apple just put out a Happy International Women's Day or something graphic on Women's Day this year. I thought, that's cute because when I go to iTunes and I try to find women artists who write their own songs and perform their own songs, I have to dig so deep through the content that's in iTunes because it's not on the front pages of any of the categories.
00:37:12
Speaker
You know, there might be one or two, but there's like 25 male artists for every independent female artist. And I find that unfortunate and frustrating, but I think that it's also inspiring to see women just plow through, you know, and keep doing what they're doing and keep building on it and having people gravitate toward it. Yeah.
00:37:40
Speaker
Yeah, and I really appreciate what you had to say and I there's a subtle point there that that you mentioned. I hadn't really thought about as much as like within.
00:37:50
Speaker
Bjork and Tori and Paula Jean Harvey. There was somebody talking about their styles and how uniquely developed and very particular and brilliant, but unique in particular about what they were doing. And I hadn't really thought about that and those terms about how using them as three big major influential female artists at that time
00:38:13
Speaker
being truly distinct and I think that can be exciting because I would say in each of those categories and which one do you point to more than the others between Bjork or Tori or Polygene is that
00:38:32
Speaker
there's a female, particular female brilliance and punk and bravado. And I will say what I need to say at the end of it, it will be said, whatever that is, that is extremely powerful. And I, I was around, I didn't connect with it at the same time being the young twenties, you know, guy and, and, but I was around women.
00:39:01
Speaker
who were very influenced and very empowered by that. And I think it's right to point it out as a particularly unique in what those artists noticeable development. So it was so funny when I was talking about that, like Bjork as a thinker, as a thinker of sound, I've listened to her podcast where she talks about
00:39:27
Speaker
each of her albums and what's going on and the considered thought and it's like, it's kind of like a peek inside creation. So yeah, love that stuff. Love that time and they're all still putting out
00:39:45
Speaker
putting out music. It was another thing. I had Sharonova on the show who's sung with the Decemberists, who's sung in many formats and collaborations in a group, My Brightest Diamond, just a true honor.
00:40:09
Speaker
to come in contact with kind of discrete intelligence and creativity in that way. There's the power that's in that. And I think that's, that's what's exciting. Heck, that's why I have you on this podcast here.
00:40:23
Speaker
Yeah. Well, I think what I gleaned from all those is just to don't be afraid of using your own voice. I think a lot of artists try to sound like other artists that they like or they almost like hide behind like how many Eddie Vedder's are out there, you know? Yeah.
00:40:45
Speaker
A comment that I've received a couple few times now in more recent years about my songwriting is just, there's nothing, it doesn't sound like anything out there. It sounds different than, and I'm like, yeah, that's, because I'm me and I'm the only me and this is what I do. And I think that every artist should do that. Everybody should just be, somebody will love it somewhere. It's gonna speak to somebody.
00:41:13
Speaker
The word that I've been using my vocabulary for months, and I've just been trying to just be sensitive and notice certain developments. And it's been conspicuous all the time, whether it's what I'm trying to do or the people that I'm around or who's trying what. I notice the conspicuous effort or when things are good.
00:41:35
Speaker
or something's really good and the times are tough. Times feel super weird to me right now. It's felt so for a long time. And I think a lot of people that I talk to just fucking weird. But just there's these other areas where things are changing.
00:41:57
Speaker
There's some openness, at least in my head, and you might say it's openness towards the apocalypse. All right, the sun's going to come out for a minute. Or you can say things are shifting and transforming and things are not the way that they were in other humans. I'm sure it felt dealt and seen these trends, but we're in it.
00:42:15
Speaker
Something has shifted and something is changing. I don't have the explanation, but I know as a subtext doing a podcast about art, that's how I'm surviving this shit. Honestly, like deeply, you know?
00:42:31
Speaker
Yes, yeah, yes same club same club. No, yeah, yeah, yeah, i'd say i'd say the last 6 to 12 months music has just Been a lifeline, you know and during earlier in the pandemic writing was the lifeline I knocked out two novels and a half, you know, so I I yeah, I think creatives
00:42:53
Speaker
when everything's going to shit that that is your lifeline is creating or or other people's creations or a little bit of both but definitely um Yeah, because you can I think shut out the world a little bit shut out the noise make your own noise Yeah, I'm tired of everybody else's noise. I don't want to hear all the arguing and bickering and stupidity I'm just gonna sit and write a song about what snow
00:43:21
Speaker
Well, I wanted to mention something about music, and this is a unique thought that I had, and I just wanted to mention it to you. I've adored the music of Katherine Paul, KP, Black Belt, Eagle, Scout for some time. And her last album, I believe the title is At the Party with My Brown Friends. I might have that slightly off, but I listened to that album
00:43:52
Speaker
kind of like every day when it came out for like three months straight. So if I encounter an album that sets right in, whether it's mood or lyric or tone, if it's there two or three days, it might be there every day because I'm just like relying on it.
00:44:13
Speaker
And things are getting tough and she dropped her album, which we saw the first day she performed the whole album live before going out on Europe. I mean, there was all the, there was these things that just came together, which were partially planned. I did a podcast with it, but I listened to this album and I find it so strange. Cause this is the thought I ended up with. I listened to this album every day for about a month now. And, um,
00:44:42
Speaker
My thought was, I can't imagine a world without this complete album in it at this point. As far as an album in an art piece and how I've used it for a month, I'm like, yep.
00:44:59
Speaker
How was this thing not here before? And what was I doing then? Yeah, I love that. And it makes complete sense to me. Yeah. You know, my longest thing is, I'll admit this, my longest streak of, you know, dropping in and playing it every day. I don't know if the other people do this. And I don't do it all the time. But when I do it, I do it for a long obsessive time.
00:45:26
Speaker
was 1989 by Taylor Swift. Listen to every single day for 18 months. That might be a record. That's impressive. I'm the girl who will rewind and listen to the bridge of a song 18 times in a row. Wow, you win that prize, man. That's great. A little bit more in context with me in the thank you.
00:45:56
Speaker
I like that. I'm the clear winner there. Maybe I'll talk to somebody else and see how I fit in. No, I think if something speaks to you, another thing I noticed in the music world that doesn't seem quite as bad now, but I feel like there's a lot of judgment about what people like or don't like in music or what they listen to. It's so stupid because if something speaks to you,
00:46:23
Speaker
Who gives a shit? Honestly, who cares? If something speaks even Nickelback, I don't like Nickelback. Somebody likes Nickelback and we can make all the jokes we want, but to that person, it's bringing something positive to their lives. I'm glad Nickelback exists for that person.
00:46:42
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That weird thing about judging people for what they listen to is just, I've always thought was so bizarre. It'd be like judging people for what foods they do or don't like. Well, it's powerful though for identity because I could say, I could say when, you know, when I was younger, I, uh, I grew up in the city and my parents moved to a, uh, a better, a wider,
00:47:07
Speaker
suburb, you know, not that that's better, but within 1980s, you know how those things are looked at. And when I was younger in elementary school and middle school, I was culturally black amongst my friends because I didn't listen to rock. Like my parents would, and I didn't not like it, but my music was early rap music.
00:47:32
Speaker
And it was a big part of identity. So when we moved to the suburbs, and then there was this white culture, and this is before hip hop, this is before it's made it really into white culture fully. I was like culturally black by the music I listened to.
00:47:51
Speaker
And everybody was white, like everybody. This wasn't like white time, like white boy time to be cool, listen to hip hop or anything. Like this was like, there's white and black. And I've always found like, at least early on, now I didn't like look to live by that, but you're influenced when you're a kid. Like even if you like, even if I liked that Eagle song in my head,
00:48:15
Speaker
and I knew I liked it when I was younger, I was being like, no, it's run DMC. It's run DMC. It's a powerful force, I think. Do you think it's even more now with the predominance of social media? Do you think it's more of an exaggerated form of it? Maybe. It's hard to tell. My son is 14 now, and I look at him and his friends, and he listens to a lot of really
00:48:44
Speaker
varied music styles and
00:48:49
Speaker
Recently, he was playing Bjork's song, and he'll listen to music while he's Facetiming with his friends, or they'll listen to something, and nobody in his generation that I've seen has batted an eye at anything that anybody's listened to.
Generational Shifts in Music and Culture
00:49:05
Speaker
They might give each other shit a little bit, but ultimately, there's just this acceptance with them, with that, and it seems to englobe, and it could be geographical and political to where we live and whatnot too.
00:49:17
Speaker
in part, but I would say they are more confident by far than my generation ever was. And they are more open and accepting of differences also than we ever were. And it gives me hope with everything going on right now.
00:49:38
Speaker
that it just gives me a little bit of hope. And I know that this isn't the case for every 14-year-old and that there are probably parts of this country where 14-year-olds think very differently. But the fact that even in comparison to where I grew up and how I grew up, that they're so different and open
00:49:59
Speaker
about everything from gender identity to music or whatever it is, it kind of is a lifeline for me to see that. Yeah, there's a lot of questioning. And I think for me, just seeing that
00:50:17
Speaker
as far as like younger generation at this one thing I really really enjoy is that there's a lot of old tired bullshit that they're casting out that that I know I grew up with just nonsense looking back so I've had an open mind about a lot of things that I hear because what I've discovered when people point out
00:50:39
Speaker
big piles of BS around some of how things have been, how we define things, what this country is, just somebody points out some BS, you got to deal with it sometimes, I think. And it's learning, right? It can be a little bit.
00:50:55
Speaker
I know well just just because something's been done a certain way for a really long time doesn't mean that's the best or the right way to do it and I I think we need to Get some people to like you just let it go let it go
00:51:11
Speaker
You've been doing some of the lives, Instagram lives. I love those. I started doing those this year with the show and I enjoy it. I've been very pleased when I've asked folks to come on that they've been mostly really enthusiastic, which is kind of a reaffirmation of like,
00:51:31
Speaker
Oh, this sounds fun. And I know you and I will do that soon. I love to be able to see you play a few songs. Well, primarily because they're your songs that I know and love. But when you do a cover, I might be like, oh, yeah, that sounds super as well.
00:51:52
Speaker
I have a particular adoration towards French pop over time. It's just so groovy. It's so lovely and wonderful. It's like French cheese, right? French pop and French cheese. And wine.
00:52:14
Speaker
I remember having that episode 150 with April March and just those dance songs and all that. That song, her big famous song from Tarantino movie, Chick Habit, that's on streaming now. They resolve some sort of legal around that too. And I saw that the band De La Soul is streaming now after all that legal
00:52:42
Speaker
Uh, stuff. So anyways, there's some new stuff maybe to, uh, dream not, I don't know, not promoting in particular, but new music sounds good. Reissued music. So, um, so, uh, what's the schedule on, uh, the podcast and what's coming up and what do things look like as far as, uh, Skylark bell, uh, story.
Future of the Skylark Bell Podcast
00:53:06
Speaker
Yeah, well, we're on book slash season three, which is the third and final book in the trilogy of this original story. And this third book is the longest. It has the most chapters, so it'll take probably, I think every single week, probably well into October before the story is complete.
00:53:28
Speaker
But I pre-recorded all the chapters already and I'm uploaded already into June. And I did that on purpose because of those collaborations that I did within the Bupod Network last year. I wanted to give myself the time and freedom to work on some collaborations like that. And so once the official story, the book is finished, I'll still have more content to share likely in collaboration. There's already a few things brewing.
00:54:00
Speaker
Yeah, I think, you know, I had a lot of fun and it pushed me, I wouldn't say out of my comfort zone, but it pushed me to almost problem solve creatively on something. So that's super exciting. And then the other thing that's happened with me getting this out of the way in advance is
00:54:17
Speaker
one of the members of the Bupod Network also has a music studio called Pink Flamingo Music Productions and he and I have paired up to work on some music together and it's been just a little big spark actually and it's it's been really great and I think the initial thing that I loved so much is that it made my music sound so much better my music recordings and so
00:54:44
Speaker
You know, I think when I started out sharing music four years ago almost now, I didn't know what I was doing and I didn't have recording equipment. And so it's been so incremental in building this thing and building the audience at the same time. So the ones who've been there from the start.
00:55:00
Speaker
I mean, I was putting out a crappy product in the beginning. And so kudos to them for sticking around. But it's been slowly collecting these people with their talents and putting it all together. I have a friend, Eric, in Montreal, who does these super cool videos and who is a multi-instrumentalist and is just brilliant. I know my friend Jane out in Vancouver. She's a tremendous songwriter. And so we've all kind of
00:55:29
Speaker
meshed together and and I'm pulling pieces from these people but the one missing link was making everything sound good and now I have that.
00:55:37
Speaker
And so that's been super inspiring and we've been working on music. So where I'm going with this is having the podcast totally pre-recorded and ready to go is giving me a lot of time and freedom to do all these extra things that are inspiring and I think will help me build onto whatever the future of the podcast will look like once these three books have been shared already with the world.
00:56:01
Speaker
Yeah, I well, thanks for that. And it's nice to hear how you're thinking about, you know, laying things out. And yeah, I know you work on different projects. And I felt in because I know we've talked on your other podcasts, if you want to mention a couple, maybe the things that you think about within podcasting that you do as well. And
00:56:27
Speaker
Because I know, my guess or me knowing is like, you know, with the fiction and those types of stories, you're also intrigued by some of the personalities and people that you're around too. So you love conversation as well, you know, so writing fiction being particular and time for conversation and that developing there. So tell the listeners what other pieces you think about within podcasting format.
00:57:00
Speaker
For a short period last year, I started a podcast. It was called Grab a Blanket. And you and I chatted on that podcast among a few other people. And the promise of it was to talk to people about things that bring them comfort. And I think that what sparked that was how uncomfortable the world had become at that point. Just between the pandemic and specifically here in Minneapolis, we had George Floyd and the riots.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah, well, I, um...
00:57:30
Speaker
It's just been tough and uncomfortable. And so it was a podcast to talk with people about things that bring them comfort. And what was so fascinating was how different everybody was. Some people, it was like, oh, I go take a walk in the woods. And some people was, oh, I cozy up by the fire with a hot chocolate, or oh, I paint. And then this one woman, actually, Annie Enneking, who's going to be at
00:57:55
Speaker
She's a musician. She'll be at the show next week with me. She is a, I want to say this correctly, but like a fight choreographer for like the theater. Like if there's fight scenes with swords or punching or whatever, like she'll choreograph the fights and that's her like happy place is like violence, structured violence. Structured violence, yeah.
00:58:22
Speaker
Yeah, like it's, you know, which which I'm, I'm a lover, not a fighter. I'm a pacifist. So it was so foreign to me, and fascinating. And yeah, I love I
00:58:37
Speaker
you know, being kind of a neurodivergent person, understanding other people is very, very hard for me. And so the way I get to do that is just by talking to them. When you can find someone who's open enough to do that, not everybody is. And so that's what those conversations kind of became about, was just understanding
00:59:03
Speaker
People's differences from me and from each other obviously, but um, yeah, it was fascinating. It was really cool I think I did maybe seven or eight different interviews and um Each one was absolutely unique. It was awesome. Yeah, they were quite unique. Um, they were quite unique and uh Yeah, that was that was that was a nice thing. I um, I came to you know, I usually Kind of talk about some of the realizations. I remember doing that and I remember
00:59:33
Speaker
Uh facing some significant difficulties soon after that. Um, but it was very revelatory for me To hear What I was saying and part of the dynamic that I was hinting to I I felt Like around that time things are stressful things still felt stressful and i'm like
00:59:55
Speaker
kind of like how do we hang on? And in my head, it wasn't fully developed. It was like, I need the freaking colors of Christmas. I need my cookies. I need Hallmark movies. I'm going to say whatever I want that I need, I don't give a shit what anybody you think about what are the things that I need. Totally. But the lesson was this for me, because the expectation of that arriving in the way that you expect it
01:00:24
Speaker
Proved to be problematic for me meaning that the trials and tribulations I would deal through the cycles of the year Intense work during a day tied to school schedules and things like that is that I would be you know, just kind of You know tied up in in in all of that And it would be it would be really intense so I was
01:00:53
Speaker
Needed something to look forward to as simple as it was I think about it like seeing lights like you think about in simple Catholic terms or I can a votive soft dull Christmas lights presents up Mythos and nostalgia all that yes sure but all those comforting
01:01:13
Speaker
um type of things and those can't always arrive like that and i i started to look at structure in my life okay i need a good summer you know when you need something i need a good winter break and i'll be like yeah i have to look at it differently from that i need to veer towards that but i also need to understand that my days in between
01:01:36
Speaker
something has to happen differently there because it ain't always working to go to the stores and the bank that you expect at the end of the year or at different times if you have that opportunity. For some folks it's constant and there is no within that. And so things changed after that episode but it was very much part of like trying to learn within that. It was a strange experience to be honest with you.
01:02:06
Speaker
but very good, I'm drawn to strange experiences that's, you know. Now, so you do your music, we got the Skylark Bell and you didn't done that for a season. And you think of anything else related to podcasting, just ideas or just the music, we're gonna roll with the music. It's 2023 music year, crank out some more music as the other,
01:02:35
Speaker
Yeah. I have a very, very dear friend who lives actually not very far from my house. And her husband is a multidisciplinary artist. So he's a painter, phenomenal painter. And he's a musician, and he does movies. And I asked her. I know him too, but I hang out with her more. So I asked her, how does he navigate that? Because if I'm in writing a novel mode or writing mode period,
01:03:05
Speaker
You know, that's what I'm doing. I'm writing books. Sometimes it's two books. Sometimes it's a bunch of stories. And then when I'm in music mode, that's what I'm doing. I'm writing songs. I'm composing, composing, composing. And I haven't found a way. Podcasting really helped mesh the two.
01:03:20
Speaker
Yeah. Once they're kind of done. But as far as doing them, and she said he's the same way. If he's doing a music album, he might still do some art on the side and some movies on the side. But whatever the biggest project is, that's what is taking over his life in that moment. And that's how it is for me, too. So right now, I'm really in a music mode. And there's a lot of new songs coming. And I think they're going to be really cool.
01:03:53
Speaker
You know, the sand through the hourglass of this trilogy of books that's going to be ending, and I have to look forward to, okay, what's going to come? And luckily, you know, within this Bupod Network and some friends and connections that I've made in the podcasting world, you know, there's some sparks there. There's some ideas and some connections, and some of it will be just me. I have a couple of ideas to continue the podcast in a similar vein, but different
01:04:14
Speaker
But in the back of my mind, I have this
01:04:21
Speaker
It'll be different, but I think it will appeal to the same people. And then top it off with some collaborations with people that I click with, and I think that's what the future of the Skylar Bow will look like. Yeah. Oh, that's lovely.
01:04:39
Speaker
You did, when you did mention Sans through the hourglass phrase there, I did drift off the days of our lives for a few moments. Absolutely. That's where I got that from. I tried to get Deidre Hall on this show for episode 200. I love her. She won't do it? No, I mean, look, they haven't said no, so that's a potential yes. If I could get Marlena and Deidre Hall. Can you imagine?
01:05:08
Speaker
Well, my mom, there'd be a lot of people who'd be proud of me. I'd be proud of them. So anyways. I'd be proud of you. I'd be proud of you. Listen, one of our calls out to a guest, Deidre Hall, and I do this once in a while, Taylor Swift, just to put it on record, that there's the 800th time that I've invited her on to this show, just to have it out there, making sure there's records. Yeah, why not?
01:05:37
Speaker
Taylor's going to end up on this show. I'm telling you. She's going to know. But I've had... Oh, she will. She will someday. Well, the thing is, when it comes to like absolutely wildly talented guests and multitudes of them, that's a blessing for me with the work I've done on the show. I mean, it is...
01:05:56
Speaker
It is a, it's an intentional climate of let's do something. And lately people saying, wow, things seem like really messed up and shitty right now for a little while. Okay, let's do something. Let's try something.
01:06:13
Speaker
Let's put these two colors together and see what happens. Honestly, I love following your Instagram feed because I get to see, you know, all these different people that you talk to and I love checking out what they're doing. And what's so cool about your show is the commonality obviously is art, but art can mean so many different things and you touch on all of them.
01:06:39
Speaker
in it and with all different people from all different walks of life and ages and backgrounds and You know mediums that they use and it's it's really incredible what you're doing. So, I don't know. I'm glad you're here Thank you It's uh, it's enjoy I feel like you know There's realizations that I made is one is have to do with like how I submit spent my adult life and as a union rep
01:07:10
Speaker
It's just a unique experience because I will have had tens of thousands of conversations with people who are usually in some aspect of distress or revelation or need because I still haven't got my call 23 years. Hey Ken, how's it going? No grievances today. Workplace is very healthy and shiny. The floors look great. I'm happy. I just wanted to call you to thank my union.
01:07:38
Speaker
It's just not the nature of things. I'm not complaining, but I think just tens of thousands of conversations and 75% of my membership being female, gender dichotomy here, but statistically.
01:08:00
Speaker
And for other reasons, I have been forced into or paid for, or whatever way you look at it, conversations that are going to be, whoa, and they're right there. So only in developing the show, I've been able to see how I can try to do that or why. So it's been...
01:08:21
Speaker
Thank you. It's it's it's a groovy thing for me personally. So I know that you have some you have some going to be doing some playing some live pretty, pretty soon you get some things going on. I wanted to just everybody would talk about Melissa Oliveri. And Melissa, I just wanted you to
01:08:45
Speaker
You got different things that you're doing. Why don't you point the listeners to where to look for things and what you'd like to see and hear.
01:08:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, the easiest is probably my, my website, Melissaoliveri.com because that has all the things. So start there. Um, I'm very active on Instagram as well. So that's always a good place and links to all my different platforms are on the website too. Um, but yeah, Instagram's a really good one. I like to be in touch with people and I feel like that's where I get the most engagement and connect with other other creatives and, and other people who aren't necessarily creative, but are just fun, interesting people.
01:09:25
Speaker
And then, of course, I have Patreon, which is a really great tool and I get to put out so, so, so much content. You do a fantastic job there. It's just so folks, you know, I mean, you know, when creators are on there and everybody's trying to do whatever they can, it's like, it's neat, it's great stuff. There's a lot of, so anyways, if folks have the opportunity and the chance to do it, yeah, definitely the Patreon for Melissa.
01:09:53
Speaker
oh thank you yeah i tried to you know
01:09:56
Speaker
try to give good value and provide good content or at least like advanced content or behind the scenes stuff on there. And it's fun. It's fun trying to think about what to put on there too and what people are going to, you know, what's going to speak to them. So it's a great challenge, but I'd say that's, those are my primary spots. And then of course the Skylark Bell podcast is available on all major platforms.
01:10:24
Speaker
And we're we're maybe a not quite a quarter of the way into season three here so or maybe an eighth of the way and Comes new episodes come out every Friday literally every single Friday of 2022 I released an episode I didn't skip one
01:10:41
Speaker
That's what I was saying when I was saying up at the get-go about like it's a funny joke that everybody's doing a podcast but You're doing a podcast doing it. Yeah doing it. Yeah, and
01:10:57
Speaker
And music, I have some music out. There's a soundtrack to the podcast called Songs from the Skylark Bell, and that's out on all major streaming platforms. And Bandcamp also, and on Bandcamp there's a lot of stuff that's not on streaming platforms, so that's a good spot to check out. My stage name is Canal, which is French for cinnamon.
01:11:17
Speaker
And so that's where you'll find the music is under that stage name. But with the music, I'd say the best is yet to come kind of soon. I just released a song called Elliott Under Glass, which again, Pink Flamingo Music Productions did a lot of work on that, including, lucky for me, adding
01:11:35
Speaker
some instrumentation to it and it just knocked it out of the park. It's a really cool song. It's a really beautiful song that you did there. Thank you. Yeah, I'm super attached. Elliot was a character in a story and I wrote the song about him and I fell in love with him.
01:11:53
Speaker
So Elliot is out in the world now and but along the that same vein of that song that vibe and that songwriting I've written a few songs kind of in that in that mode recently and And they're being worked on right now and I'm really really excited and inspired. It's gonna be pretty great. So stay tuned for the music stuff Love it. Thank you so much. I know you get a lot coming out and I enjoy dropping in on that and
01:12:22
Speaker
Um, couple final points, uh, your Minnesota wild hockey team has been playing very well lately and my beloved Winnipeg Jets have been sliding horrendously. But my Boston Bruins, as you might've noticed, are having the most historic season in the history.
01:12:41
Speaker
Uh, see, the trick is to not have only one team. You gotta, you gotta have two teams that you're waiting for. I, I developed my hockey affinity as I got older and then I realized, you know, I need to, I need some cover. And I know, uh, I know one place and we get along very well, but I know one place we would not would be at a Montreal, Boston hockey game, no matter what it is.
01:13:07
Speaker
The gloves would come off my face. I don't think that would go well. And I would read up on what the French swears are before that, because that's a different. We'd have to sit at opposite ends of the state of the hockey rink. I've had stuff thrown at me in a brief time in Montreal as a Bruins fan at a nearby bar for being from Rhode Island with my Bruins stuff up in Montreal.
01:13:38
Speaker
You were playing with fire there. You're lucky that's all that happened to you. The French are expressive. They're expressive. They were expressing their displeasure to you. Yeah, I was shown the directions to a more accommodating venue a couple times.
01:13:59
Speaker
Be that as it may but um, well, it's been it's been just so delightful to chat and um and to catch up and to talk podcasting and in music and uh I know we'll be connecting around um, just kind of getting this art out there I mean, I think there's a certain piece that i've come to to be unapologetic about putting the art out there and why you're doing it and because
01:14:30
Speaker
people are needing on it and they're digging on it. So, you know, it sounds like a better setup than most other setups there are in life. So it's good to create. It's good to create. It's survival.
01:14:48
Speaker
Well, we'll see on I'm sure an Instagram live soon. And of course, hour and a half countdown. Yes. Oh, my gosh. You just keep keep rocking. It'll be interesting. Thank you for coming on to the show. Great pleasure to talk with you, Melissa Oliveri. It's nice to have you as a friend in a
01:15:09
Speaker
kind of fellow comrade and trying to do something independent. We both come from the spirit of Amanda Palmer and some of the things she had to say about a little bit of a fuck you kind of attitude. I'm gonna push, I'm gonna ask for help. I'm gonna say this thing is cool and I'm gonna believe in it. So I'll trip going down that path if I'm gonna trip. I'll trip right alongside you, my friend.
01:15:40
Speaker
Thanks, Melissa. Thank you.
01:16:01
Speaker
Outside the window will the children play While Allie hits sets alone all day Allie it, Allie it under glass Snowflakes tangled in his hair He wonders about the world
01:16:34
Speaker
To walk, to laugh, to touch, to move To hold the conversation To make someone laugh and make them smile again
01:17:01
Speaker
We'll never fall down and break a bone We'll never break your heart All of us never stop
01:17:27
Speaker
have an argument here, an apology a hard fact, I'm sorry
01:18:05
Speaker
The glass fell from the grass with the crotch And we were so very sure That Elliot was no more But Elliot, Elliot finally was more than he does
01:18:41
Speaker
Leliya was real Leliya was real Leliya was real
01:19:03
Speaker
I'd like to love, to touch, to move, to break and lend some hearts and bones to have a conversation with somebody you'll find To make them laugh and make them cry
01:19:34
Speaker
Make them laugh and make them smile again I'm hit, I'm hit under the sky
01:19:56
Speaker
It wanders why in this wondrous world outside So many people never try to love To love, to love, to cry To while you do and apologize
01:20:49
Speaker
To cry, to let me die
01:21:58
Speaker
This is something rather than nothing.