Unknown Speaker  0:00  
This is a production of km media dot pro Welcome back to positive talk radio. Our goal is simple to explore evolving ideas one conversation at a time. So come on over into our world. I know you'll like it. Because on today's show, boy oh boy have we got a show for you today ladies and gentlemen Tommy T guys with us again and schizophrenic is with us as well. There are a couple of singer songwriters that are featured in the album, Born Free and we're gonna talk to them about the the album and we're gonna play some music, we're gonna have a good time. And we've also Tommy has now added something else to his resume. Not only is he a singer, songwriter, he is now an author. And so we're going to talk a little bit about his book as well. So Tommy, welcome to the show. How are you?

Unknown Speaker  0:58  
Doing? Good. It's great to be back. You know, it's a couple of weeks. I'm so used to doing these things. I miss you guys.

Unknown Speaker  1:04  
i I miss you, too. Then what do you think of the new opening that I have?

Unknown Speaker  1:10  
I love it. I don't know who wrote it, but that guy is a genius.

Unknown Speaker  1:17  
And he is and that that song is written and written, produced song, everything by by Tommy Tikka. And I am lucky enough to be one of the first people to hate get my little grubby little mitts on it. So it's a great song. And I'm using it for everything now. And I'm getting rave reviews about autonomy.

Unknown Speaker  1:41  
All right, awesome. Hey, that's wonderful. I mean, I love hearing that.

Unknown Speaker  1:46  
Yeah, I'm getting I'm getting reviews like like, wow, that's a beat that's positive and Fitch, what you're doing and all of that, and except for the only ones who didn't like it so much as the producer on Wednesday. His name is Eric and he is what I would lovingly term a music snob. laughing because he totally is. He knows he knows his music, that's for sure. Yes, he does. He knows what he likes. And he's a bit of a music snob, but that's okay.

Unknown Speaker  2:19  
Well, clearly, clearly, he doesn't know what he likes. If he doesn't like this song.

Unknown Speaker  2:25  
He doesn't know what's good if he doesn't know like, right now. Sorry. That's alright. He is ears are burning somewhere. So anyway, I told me I would like you if you would be so kind as to introduce and introduce our guest for today.

Unknown Speaker  2:45  
Well, schizophrenic is is a songwriter from singer songwriter from Toledo, Ohio. And we've we've become Twitter buddies. Because we're on the same fundraiser album called Born Free. It's once again the the album that's been recorded and released to raise funds for the Born Free Foundation. And her songs. It's one it's the song we've got the queued up, right, we're going to we're going to hear the song later on our songs on the album, and so is mine. And, and so, you know, through doing PR for the entire album, then I've gotten to know quite a few of these guys and, and, and in her case, we're we're Twitter buddies. But the like I said this the first time that I was gonna say we meet each other live, but it was it's not live. It's through zoom. But good enough these days. COVID has changed the definition of meeting people live.

Unknown Speaker  3:46  
Yes, we want to meet people live from a distance nobody wants to make it doesn't make anybody sick. And so that you know, and even though it's a bit more under control, it's still out there. It's still out there. Yeah. Yeah. And this is still causing trouble. So in any event, welcome to the show, skits. Oh,

Unknown Speaker  4:08  
how are ya? Fine.

Unknown Speaker  4:13  
That's, that's outstanding. Now I gotta I gotta ask you before we get into the interview, would you like us to play the song so that you get a good idea of what the song was about? And then we can talk about it? Sure. Tom, is that work for you?

Unknown Speaker  4:26  
Guy works works wonders. Yeah, let's do that.

Unknown Speaker  4:29  
All righty then. So tell us the name of the song. Schizophrenic

Unknown Speaker  4:34  
waking dreams. And it's

Unknown Speaker  4:37  
beautiful piece. I gotta tell you I listened to it earlier. So it really is pretty. So why don't we Why don't we play that right now and we can get a good idea what what they can get if they buy the Born Free album.

Unknown Speaker  8:25  
And that is schizophrenia. Again, the name of the song again is waking dreams. That's really pretty. That's really pretty. That would be a great meditation piece, I think.

Unknown Speaker  8:37  
Yeah, most people say that about my stuff.

Unknown Speaker  8:40  
Was it designed? Is your stuff designed to be that way?

Unknown Speaker  8:45  
Most of it, yeah. But that song was created to basically get people to listen to how the earth might cry out. What the What's happening to it from light pollution and what we're self destructing the earth as what the meaning behind it is.

Unknown Speaker  9:11  
So that's really cool, because that works for the name of the album, and for the album and what the album was attempting to accomplish very, very, very well. How did you meet the folks that are and Tommy remind me again, the the producer of the album,

Unknown Speaker  9:28  
feel Gardner? That's the right. The guy who's who's put out these albums of three minds behind the music son, he's the CEO and the owner of the label.

Unknown Speaker  9:42  
And where did you meet fill?

Unknown Speaker  9:46  
Me? Yeah. He kind of popped out of nowhere. Twitter, tweeting, and he just came out of nowhere and said how would you like to Write a song for a fundraiser fundraiser. I said, Sure, why not? And then he said, How would you like to write an album? I said, Sure, why not? That's how we met. He just came out of nowhere.

Unknown Speaker  10:13  
Oh, very well, it didn't come out of nowhere. He had done his research on you, apparently.

Unknown Speaker  10:20  
Yeah, I think so. Yeah. Which,

Unknown Speaker  10:22  
which is really cool. Now. Did you write the album as well?

Unknown Speaker  10:26  
Yes, I did. To what, what

Unknown Speaker  10:30  
are they called?

Unknown Speaker  10:32  
The first ones called buys. And the second one is called her at event horizon.

Unknown Speaker  10:38  
Oh, very good. Have they been released yet? Yes,

Unknown Speaker  10:41  
they're on Spotify and everywhere else?

Unknown Speaker  10:44  
Oh, good. Well go and buy them, please. If you'd like her music, and so that she can actually I don't know, get paid. That would be nice.

Unknown Speaker  10:54  
Yeah, everybody's just streaming these days. And I mean, it's, it's great. The whole world is doing it. But of course, the problem is that musicians are getting paid less and less for, for what they do. And I'm just, I'm just scared that at some point that's going to have have an effect on the quality of the releases. You know, if you don't get paid for what you're doing, and you just keep investing money, because obviously labels aren't really, the big, big labels are, but a lot of labels aren't really paying for artists to record anymore. They're just releasing stuff. And actually, on the contrary, we have we don't have time for this topic. But of course, internet is filled with fake PR services. And and, you know, if you're an artist listening, do your research before you give anybody money. Who's offering to promote your music. But back to the actual topic of the day? Well, just climate change, right?

Unknown Speaker  11:52  
Do climate change, but but I think the change in music is indicative of the changes all over the world. And some of the things that we have to deal with. i There's a band that's local here that signed a contract with a music, a music company that put out their songs, and they didn't read the fine print. And 10 years later, they're still paying them back. For all of them. That happens quite a little bit from what I understand.

Unknown Speaker  12:22  
Yeah, it does. It does. It has. You always got to check the contracts very carefully.

Unknown Speaker  12:29  
Yes, indeed. But so if you're a musician out there, the first investment that you make isn't with a lawyer to make sure that the, because that'll actually save you a lot of money down the road. So in any event, that's a beautiful zone, and where did you get the desire to write this kind of music?

Unknown Speaker  12:51  
Um, well, I didn't start off writing this kind of music, I kind of started off writing just mainstream kind of music. And until I met Phil, Phil kind of drove me in another direction that I was already in because I was really writing guitar music, a lot of like, meditations, guitar music. And he kind of pointed me in just another direction, and he had confidence enough in me that I could work with, with other genres. So that was the genre I kind of fell into and got really good at. And it's like meditation music. Right now he's got me doing Celtic music. So that's probably going to be my next album. It's gonna be a Celtic album, like, sort of like India kind of stuff. And it's more instrumental than it is beat bass kind of music.

Unknown Speaker  13:59  
Now, did you do the vocals as well? Or did that did somebody else do that for you?

Unknown Speaker  14:04  
The vocals is not me. There's no way I can sing that high. But they're their samples. But there, there's a plugin that you can get called arcade. And it will Sing Sing your vocals according to the key and pitch to your, to what you write. And they get like 1000s upon 1000s of samples that you can get, and that you can choose for whatever genre you want it for. And that's what I use for my main vocals. That's what I use for waking dreams. And it's, this is totally amazing what this thing can do. I can sing in a mic and then play it in different keys with it, and then have my own voice voice over with it. And like background singer or something like that, but there's no way I can sing the way these things sing. And

Unknown Speaker  15:07  
that's, that is amazing. Tommy, I know that you are a producer, you're a singer songwriter. And you do all your own instrumentation, you do all your own vocals and all of that. And the state of the art has really changed over time. Because like when my favorite band, The Beatles were there, they had a four track, there's everything that they did was on a four track and now it's like a billion tracks. And you could do almost anything, including auto tune and all that kind of good stuff.

Unknown Speaker  15:36  
Yeah, I mean, it's, it's all changed. I I'm probably one of the last people in the whole whole universe. That's, you know, when I'm sitting in a producer's chair, whether it's myself that I'm producing or somebody else that I, I just I want countless retakes. I try to use auto tune and samples and everything as little as possible. I started using them a lot more though lately, during the past couple of years simply, for all the reasons that schizophrenic just mentioned, there, especially for the background vocals. They're quite effective. And you save time and time is money when you're in the studio. I when I do my own stuff, and I have my home studio in my home studio, and I don't have to pay anyone. I'll just sing it as many times backing vocals included as as need be. But that's that's because I'm old school.

Unknown Speaker  16:33  
I forgot to mention that you are actually an award. Let's see, I should have said singer songwriter Holon award winning singer songwriter, and an author and a musician I should have I should have said award winning because you are the 22, recipient of which award

Unknown Speaker  16:55  
I SSA Male Vocalist of the Year and this this this year. Yeah. Which

Unknown Speaker  17:01  
you which is pretty cool. And you actually got your trophy in the mail?

Unknown Speaker  17:05  
I did. I did. And I still downstairs, you know, I should have gotten it. I'll yeah, but yeah, it'll be with me.

Unknown Speaker  17:16  
Yes. So schizophrenic is really cool that you decided to donate to this album, as did Tommy, as did. What was it 10 or 12 other artists that wrote about that now, we're free. And so Tommy talks about the album a little bit, and what it does for people and why that they should invest in?

Unknown Speaker  17:36  
Well, it's been put together by a group of like minded musicians, we've sort of all baskets. So finally, just pointing out her inspiration for the song was, you know, that if Mother Earth could cry, and complain a little bit about what he's done to her, that's probably what it would sound like. So we're kind of like minded in that sense that we're all rooting for the environment and trying to save the environment and pitch in and do whatever we can. And in this case, do whatever we can to raise funds. And all the proceeds from the album are going to the Born Free Foundation. So folks out there who are listening, if you want to contribute to saving Mother Earth and putting putting an end to climate change. By the album, it's enough even to buy one song, then you've already contributed. And basically, that's what the album is all about. Kevin, you and I talked about how the weather's changing? Yes. And and, and I think in each and every episodes that we've, we've, we've done, I've mentioned the fact that glaciers are melting. In Europe, there are glaciers that you went to 20 years ago, you went there with your in your winter gear, you had your you know, very thick clothes on wooly cap and winter jacket nowadays you go check these glaciers out you're wearing your shorts and so I mean it's we're losing glaciers we're everything's changing climates changing they've got remember when we talked to the remnants from from the UK and they were basically they had extreme temperatures still at the end of September. And, and I don't remember what they said the temperature was then but it was It wasn't 40 or something Celsius. So it was like 110 Yeah, Fahrenheit and and so it's kind of crazy in Finland. Now finally, we've got sort of autumn appropriate weather, if you will, but all the way up until the end of end of September. It's kind of came and went where all of a sudden we hit these peaks where it was like, incredibly warm. And obviously, everybody knows that something's up because we're not used to that kind of weather. So, whenever we hit 35 Over here, people are suffering, you know, I'm not because obviously, being from California, I'm used to that, but there's no air conditioning in Finland, most houses won't have air conditioning and so when you get that 35 There's nowhere to escape and folks are kind of getting it finally that you know, something's up we got to wake up, we got to do something before it's too late. And that's really what the album is about. It's us saying look, we've we've contributed the songs, please buy the album make a difference, the proceeds are going to Warren Freedom Foundation and this is our way to help the wildlife as well as the planet

Unknown Speaker  20:51  
that is perfect. And I want to remind everybody that the Born Free Foundation comes out of the movie and I know Benny This is precede you a little bit but in the middle 60s was a movie that came out called Born Free and it was about a couple of lions and and people had the benefit of them there actually was a song that like made it to like into I think the top 10 or something called Born Free and we tried to pull it up when Nathan was here but he couldn't find it the appropriate one but but that's that's the that's the nature of where they started so this has been going on for guild 50 Well knows 60s over the years and they have a preserve down in Texas where they they work with lions and and to try and protect them and stuff so it is a it's a real good charity it's five star charity and so if you buy and all we're all they're asking you to do is buy some great music and and if they want to do that Tommy how do they take can they go anywhere to get this and get the music?

Unknown Speaker  22:04  
Well, the absolutely the the album is not just on all streaming platforms it's on all platforms that sell music like iTunes and and pretty much everywhere. So you can definitely find it in places where you can download the mp3 and obviously then also pay for the track or the album and that's what really what we're really after. So that so that well you know, I guess I really should say don't stream it by it because that's what we're doing here and that's the only way we can help the environment.

Unknown Speaker  22:40  
Exactly and you're doing all the promotion for the album. We were one of them doing all the promotion and you're doing it for free. And so I thank you for that for taking your time taking the effort to putting this together so that people can find out more about the album now this is actually the second born free album there was one that was the first does it say Born Free one and Born Free do or is it just one free?

Unknown Speaker  23:04  
No the first albums called one world if I remember one world oh just had it here. I just had it here but now I lost it of course. Hold on one world one voice one chord. Oh cool.

Unknown Speaker  23:20  
And there are a sample and and that album was it had the same thing the Phil went to different folks and said will you please you know write a song for the album that you have a great story about how he came to you Tommy

Unknown Speaker  23:37  
Well yeah, I Michael Stover sent me an email and said that there's this guy and he's he's putting an album together of of pop tunes to save the environment and and I had a tune called fly to the moon which was which was basically moralists about how we should wake up to the fact that rain forests are going and nobody's doing anything and I sent that to Phil and the guy was Phil Gardner and and and he said that it's a great tune but it's already out and for us to work this charity animal world the proceeds are going to Born Free Foundation. It cannot be a released song and it definitely cannot be a published song so he's not a said that write me another one. That's that's as good as this one. It will be on the album. And so I wrote the song and feel liked it and ended up it ended up on the album. And but the funny thing was that this was just before Christmas that I woke up to the fact that feels looking for songs. And I remember recording the last backing vocals on Christmas Eve. So it was it was a tight deadline that the between between you know Um we were eating or the whole family was eating downstairs and you know once we once we we ate the the starters after the starters I just ran upstairs and sang those high beats those Brian Wilson bits. And then that's that was it then you know, before the actual dinner I pressed sand and it went to mixing and mastering and but I worked my buns off on that track and it's taken me a long while to enjoy it to be honest with you wrote it with my wife, I was sort of guess I was doing a zillion things and so I went to her because she's also someone writer, and I said, help me out with this one, that you know, I need somebody to finish the lyrics for me and write a kind of beginning with sort of African flavor. And so the beginning of the song was hers and stuff. And so we collaborated on it, which was fun, but but the actual recording face then took a bit longer than I had anticipated, those notes are high. And the harmonies are more difficult than I thought they sounded perfect in my head. But by the time I got to the microphone and started seeing I realized, oh my god, you know, it's gonna take a lot of work, hence Christmas Eve, but you know, it's for good cause. And, you know, Santa didn't mind I got a few presents after all.

Unknown Speaker  26:18  
So there you go, there you go. And we needed to take a break here in a couple of minutes. But before we do that, I'd like it's good. So can I call you schizo? Was that okay?

Unknown Speaker  26:31  
schizo fine.

Unknown Speaker  26:35  
I would like you to just speak about the reason why you chose to collaborate and do this album. And because I think I think your perspective will be important to some folks.

Unknown Speaker  26:48  
Well, my, I just had a feeling about all my life, I couldn't stand no walking down the street and seeing plastic and garbage everywhere. And it just disgusts they, to see that mankind can do that to where we live. And it's just bothered me and bothered me so bad that I just felt like I needed to give back to the earth, from what man is taking from the earth. It through that song. And the pollution is getting so bad, no matter where you're at. It's getting so bad that it's just blatantly in front of your face. So the reason why I wrote the song is because of what I see every day. Every day I leave the house. And

Unknown Speaker  27:50  
you live in the great US of A

Unknown Speaker  27:52  
Yes.

Unknown Speaker  27:55  
And you're right we are we are creating a dirty place.

Unknown Speaker  27:59  
It never used to be this way. I don't remember it being this way. Like as a child, you know, I don't remember or I didn't pay attention that it was like this, but you can walk down the street and just see just bottles and pop bottles and plastic McDonald things and several K cups, wrappers everywhere. It's just disgusting to me that mankind can do that to to where we live. This is our home. We only got one.

Unknown Speaker  28:40  
That's absolutely true. And thank you for doing that. And thank you for doing the work that you're doing. We I really I really appreciate it. And I know our audience does too. And Tommy thank you for doing what you're doing. And we're gonna play your songs on the album in the second half of the show. And also talk about this new venture that you have going this book that's out so I need to take a real quick break for a couple commercials. I think you recognize one of the songs Tommy and we'll be right back after these messages you're listening to positive talk radio on K K nw 11:50am.

Unknown Speaker  29:17  
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Unknown Speaker  29:56  
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Unknown Speaker  30:33  
and welcome back to positive talk radio here on K K NW. 11:50am. And I gotta tell you, Tony, that that song gives me the chills now that I listened to it more and more. You really did a nice job for me. Thank you.

Unknown Speaker  30:47  
Thanks, man. Yeah, it's it's one of my favorite tunes that I've it's one of the better ones I think I've written. And, um, and I love the music video. It's not quite ready yet, but it'll be ready. It'll it features my son's playing pirates. So it's and it we got a couple of really good shots of them. They actually went forward, we gave them wooden swords, and it looked like they wanted to kill each other. Luckily, we intervene. We still got two boys. Yes, yeah,

Unknown Speaker  31:15  
exactly. Now, now the music video is is that going to come out in wide release? Do you think?

Unknown Speaker  31:22  
Well, we kind of think you know, we're going to, really the only thing I have to do is go back and make sure that the lip sync is spot on. There's couple a couple of places where I think it needs to be improved a little bit. But but it's pretty much done. We're We're of course the impersonators album, which is the album that this track is going to be on will come out sometime in sometime in perhaps March. And we're so we're kind of debating whether to save the music video for the launch. Or just kind of release it now. That like you mentioned, I've been editing the book with the publisher as well. So I've been busy. And and so I do not I just realized when I heard the tune that oh man, the music feeder, I gotta go back and check the lip sync. I have promised to do it a week ago. I'll do it tonight before going going to bed. So it's just a lot of stuff that I gotta get done.

Unknown Speaker  32:28  
More. All right, I

Unknown Speaker  32:30  
gotta do it. Gotta do it. It's a good one, though. And I love watching my son's sons on the on the video. And they actually, they really hand it up for the camera to be honest with you. We were concerned gives, especially the the seven, seven year old one is can be a bit timid. But he he came through.

Unknown Speaker  32:51  
Now the song, the song in total is called Fire and Ice. And it is actually about pirates. Yeah, kids, kids kids game of playing pirate. And so and so I'd take the melody and the background vocals and using that, thank you very much sir. And then the then you're gonna create a video and then hopefully it's gonna come out wide release, and it'll be very, very popular that would, that would make me very, very happy. Go and

Unknown Speaker  33:23  
make me very happy to sort of, well, keeping my fingers crossed. It's always when you're working on an album and and before it comes out, you've got high hopes for it. And obviously, I mean, I've done well. So even if this turns out to be a wooden record, you know, it's it, that's fine. But you know, hopefully, hopefully, it's it's gonna follow up on the tracks the success that the impersonators had with their previous album life of grant, but you never know. You know, it's folks like it then that's, that's basically my job well done. That's really all I'm looking for is an audience that's nodding their heads to the stuff that I'm making. So,

Unknown Speaker  34:04  
exactly. So tell us about the song that you wrote for the album Born Free

Unknown Speaker  34:08  
Venetian rubber boots. Why, like I said, I had no idea what the lyrics are going to be about. Usually I do. But I had written so much in think I had to because I was writing for other artists and there was a two to two week period where I finished 17 songs in two weeks, lyrics everything because I work like crazy and I've done this forever. And

Unknown Speaker  34:37  
now while I did 17 songs in two weeks,

Unknown Speaker  34:42  
oh, I you know, and two of them actually became hits too, so not for me, but for others. So it's something I've done it forever and I love it. But at that point at that point 17 was too much this was the 17th and it never before in my entire life have I gotten to the point where I feel like I can't finish track. And obviously now, if I go back to the story that I was telling before so here's Phil waiting for the new song and the entire project waiting for my contribution because I said that it will give me it give me a couple of days to knock something off. And so, so I went to my wife, I said, Look, I gotta get this done, like yesterday. And can you can you write the lyrics because I knew that there was certain beats that I had, but it wasn't really happening. And then she came up with this whole idea of, you know, you know, Venice and people sitting in St. Mark's Square with rubber boots on because it's flooding and, and erode those bits of quiet a lot of a lot of it actually and and I had the melody and I had the basic stuff ready, but the lyrics were difficult at that point because I had written so many lyrics and lyrics aren't like melodies if you want to get them right and want to get a meaningful and good and sort of quality so that they're not just like full of AWS and AWS and I love you baby. Come on. Can't we make this work honey then that's hard. And he really came through man I mean, I was surprised when I was reading them like you know us better than I would have written so as you looked at miss that they you got to see them right I am and, but that was the tricky bit though because it's the song song was very I had to I had to have the beginning of the song very low to get to hit those super high notes. You know, the Brian Wilson harmonies at the end, and it took took forever to see it just really

Unknown Speaker  36:47  
did. Well, I'm just you know, the two of you sitting here just it's a skill that you possess that I don't know if it's like an angel came down and tapped you on the head with his wand and said, Here you can be a songwriter or schizophrenic Are you the same way can you just sit down and knock off a piece as they say?

Unknown Speaker  37:11  
Pretty much yeah.

Unknown Speaker  37:13  
Oh, that's just not fair. That's that's just not fair. You guys have that kind of talent. So this is Tommy tickets Venetian rubber boots.

Unknown Speaker  37:55  
Concrete rules pay grandma still don't recognize the

Unknown Speaker  38:00  
old labor.

Unknown Speaker  38:03  
Corner parks and trees

Unknown Speaker  38:09  
people call development to me it looks just like a misto lasagne screen

Unknown Speaker  38:22  
Don't you think that we should change our C word

Unknown Speaker  38:38  
Why is it so hard to do

Unknown Speaker  38:45  
dreams we got Justin

Unknown Speaker  38:55  
and then alleyways sometimes even in

Unknown Speaker  39:03  
the dress codes rough. waters rising the fisherman remembers seashells now

Unknown Speaker  39:22  
don't you think that we should change our sea

Unknown Speaker  39:29  
legend

Unknown Speaker  39:32  
Manny's trends Why is it so hard to write? Scenes name menu fat dreams we got jazz Take a break craft delivered to your door Never mind that carpet Don't you think that we should change our lives you Why's it so hard to dream Why is it so hard to dream

Unknown Speaker  41:39  
and that's Tommy Tikka and Venetia and rubber boots and that song is on the album born free. And it has all the proceeds of that album and the two songwriters that I have here on the show today, they've given of their talents and their work. And it's not easy to put together a song of the quality that these two have displayed today. And so they've done a really good thing for humanity. And the least, that you can do is go and buy. Either though, the entire I recommend given the entire album because every every song what I've heard from him so far is just is really cool. And it's a bunch of different genres and a bunch of different things. So it's, it's not like you're stuck in one place, but, and all these guys and gals are doing this for free. And I really encourage you to do it and Tommy Born Free, they can go to iTunes and everywhere else and they can, they can buy it. And even if you buy a song, even if you buy one of these two artists songs that it's better than nothing.

Unknown Speaker  42:49  
Absolutely, that's pitching in already. We take everything Oh, the planet planet will, will be grateful.

Unknown Speaker  42:58  
Exactly. And so as schizophrenic What do you think of that song? Nice.

Unknown Speaker  43:05  
I liked it. I liked it very much. And I heard it before I listen to the whole album.

Unknown Speaker  43:10  
Oh, it's just so so and now I have not had the opportunity to do that. So give us your your songwriters review of the album, please.

Unknown Speaker  43:19  
Well, the album is phenomenal there. It's not just one genre. It's a mixture of genre you've got like me with meditation, then you got an agent with like, trance music and then you got color and Ryan with almost like experimental rock. And those men with experimental rock. It's just, it's just phenomenal. Artists on that whole CD. It's just not you're just not listening to one genre, you're listening to multiple genres. And the message is it and the messages that you get from each one of these songs, kind of tell a story up from the top to the bottom of the song and songs.

Unknown Speaker  44:06  
That's really cool. That's really cool. By the way, I'm Ty and Tommy song sounds a little bit like George Harrison and John Lennon and are m and the Beach Boys and just a myriad of folks. And I don't know how you hit that high note. Did you have to grab something to make yourself?

Unknown Speaker  44:27  
No, I've always I've always had very high voice it's a it's actually just very wide register I've basically been able to sing just about anything but the problem the problem of course with those notes is that you got to get that full Seto sounding just right it's not just not about hitting the notes but for you to be able to mix it like you know, put it in the mix like the Beach Boys. It's got to be certain type and so you're not looking or you're not to hit the notes you're looking looking at the timbre of the voice and The quality of everything and so I'm a perfectionist that way, and I just that's why it took forever.

Unknown Speaker  45:06  
So are you one of those rare people that's got a four octave voice? Yeah, I do. That's that, that. For those of you who may not be aware, that is pretty rare that you can that you can go really low and you can go really high. And basically, you're covering the entire gamut of the musical spectrum when you have a four octave range. And that's, that's, that's pretty cool. Tommy, I tell you.

Unknown Speaker  45:34  
Yeah, it's going a little you know, it's I've noticed, especially with rubber bullets, then it's, it's it's not as wide I'm look probably looking at three and a half these days. But when when I was in my late 20s, it was it was for?

Unknown Speaker  45:49  
Very, very cool. Let's get it. Can we talk about your book a little bit?

Unknown Speaker  45:54  
Well, yeah, I mean, it's, we're in the final stages of editing it, it's gonna be called perfect reflections. And actually, I got the act of the synopsis here. I'll read it to you. Oh, great. Okay, so this is what the book is about. Thomson Dell is a former Merchant Marine and soldier who has survived the oceans of the world, and the foreign Legion, yet his biggest challenge seems to be surviving his difficult marriage and being a good father to his boys. Although he's haunted by his violent and traumatic past swindells life continues uneventfully until his wife meets an untimely death, and he receives a strange and unexpected letter, before he even realizes it. Tom is on his way to blood Osiris in search of something he thought he had put behind him a long time ago.

Unknown Speaker  46:43  
That's, that's very cool. That's very cool. And that is, I know, you were telling me one time your dad was a Merchant Marine. And that's why he had stories after stories after stories. And this is kind of inspired by him and all of the stories that he created over time.

Unknown Speaker  47:03  
Absolutely. I mean, this is, I love listening to stories when I was a kid, because he sailed all around the world. Just everywhere. And while I, you know, especially my teens already, kind of started thinking that maybe some of those stories are just sailors yarn. They still weren't great stories, and I never got tired of them. And there were especially few that had to do with, I don't want to give anything away. But Latin America and him sailing to Rio de Janeiro and when Osiris and, and getting in trouble there, that I always felt would make a great book. And, and so finally, five years ago, I started interviewing my dad, this was before he died, I got tapes and tapes of him talking about those trips. And, and I also have these journals, he kept a diary. And obviously, in when they write a book like this, which happens in three different time zones, and, you know, Merchant Marines adventure around the world, you've got to check your historical facts. So it's a difficult book to write. Because if if a Merchant Marine is part of a riot somewhere in the world, you got to make sure that it actually happened on a certain date. So yeah, so it was it was it was a, it was a journey.

Unknown Speaker  48:28  
And it is a marvelous testament to your dad and a way to, for him to live on, even though he's passed now, but he can live through the book and, and it's a it's a great way to to remember. So congratulations, do you have any idea when it's going to be absolutely released?

Unknown Speaker  48:48  
Well, that's now basically just up to me, I, I gotta, I gotta change. I've checked with everybody whose name I've used. And I gotta change two names. And I still want to go through make sure I've just read it one more time. To make sure there aren't any missing words there shouldn't be. But just like with music, just want to be absolutely certain because if you work on something for a number of years, because this is not an album, this book will book like this will take forever. And then you want to make sure that it's as close to perfect as you can make it well you are a bit of a perfectionist after all. So yeah, I am I am.

Unknown Speaker  49:35  
Well, but you need to be you need to be and schizophrenic and I would like to you. We're coming to the end of our time together. First of all, I'd like to thank you so much for coming on the show your music with us. And I want to give you the opportunity here I'm gonna step aside and let me give you the opportunity to tell our audience those are listening throughout the Seattle area, and the ones who will be listening to the podcast on positive talk radio.net To tell anything that you'd like them to know.

Unknown Speaker  50:04  
Just try to take it, take some time out and take a look around you and see what's really happening. Look up, we've got some time, she works really around, you just pay attention. And maybe you can make a change. Just even if the little change, just try to make a change. And whatever you do, that's the best advice I could give to anybody.

Unknown Speaker  50:32  
That's pretty sound advice right there. I do have to say, and thank you, thank you so much for that. I really appreciate you the work you're doing the songs you're writing, I don't know how you do it, but you do it. And Tommy, I give you the floor for the same thing.

Unknown Speaker  50:48  
Yeah, I just basically, schizophrenic took the words out of my mouth, I was also gonna say that be kind to each other. And aside from the climate, if something isn't working for you, this is what I learned. From my dad, you know, because I was sitting by his deathbed. And, you know, he wasn't happy man, you died a happy man, he had lived a fulfilling life. But of course, make sure that you do the same thing. So if something isn't working for you change it before it's too late. Whether that be your job, your marriage, anything, just be happy. Because at the end of the day, that's really all that counts. And if you can save the planet, while you're being happy, all the more power to you.

Unknown Speaker  51:36  
Exactly, exactly. Because at the end of the day, you need to not have any regrets.

Unknown Speaker  51:40  
That's why that's what it's all about. I think that, you know, somebody said that the saddest words in any language are what if, or what might have been, what might have been, I think it was. And I think, I think you know, just better to find out better to be brave and live the way you want to live. Because at the, at the end of the day, really, you know, money is important, but it's just, it's important to have enough of it, but it's not gonna, it's not gonna make you make you happy, or it'll make you happy for a short while, but. But for you to be truly happy, you need to make some tough decisions every once in a while and make sure that you strive for happiness.

Unknown Speaker  52:27  
Yes, indeed. And you remember that, that? That old joke, where man was talking to his wife, and he was a very, very wealthy man. And he said, You know, I'm tired of everybody. I'm taking my money with me, I want you when I die, I want you to bury my money with me. All of it, every penny of it. I don't want to give it to anybody. And she said, Well, okay, not even me. No, not even you, everybody. Everybody gets cut out, everybody. Oh, well, okay. So and he died eventually. And it was an open casket. And so she said, Well, here you go, honey, here's everything that you own. And she wrote him a check. And then they dropped the check into the coffin. And that was that. That's supposed to be funny. It was, it was.

Unknown Speaker  53:13  
Yeah, I'm just wondering that that is a joke. But that's probably reality to some get out. There's another wisdom. And I have time for this. I'm keeping time on keeping an eye on the clock. But what if you want to find out the meaning of life. And this is an old Eastern wisdom guy climbed the highest peak in the Himalayas? Because he was told that there's a guy, a guru sitting on the on the, on the mountain top, and he would tell this guy the meaning of life, right? So he goes all the way to the top almost dies four times getting there. And there's a guy sitting there for what's true. He's there. And the traveler asks him like, you know, what's the meaning of life, I hear that you can tell me the meaning of life and the guy looks the guru looks at the guy and says that the meaning of life is ultimatum. And the guy gets really upset, like, what do you just spent two months getting here and almost died. And I'm standing here, and you telling me that the meaning of life is old male, and the girl looks at the goddesses. So to know something I don't? So the idea, of course, that Easter, and I think it's Buddhist Wisdom is the fact that the meaning of life is different for everyone.

Unknown Speaker  54:24  
Yep, the Gospel according to city slickers, go rent that movie, and you will enjoy it because life is about one thing. And Benny, thank you so much for producing the show today. And Tommy Tikka and schizophrenic. Thank you for being here. And by the way, everybody, be kind to one another because you know each other is all we got. We'll see you Wednesday at four o'clock.