September 27, 2025 • 15 mins
Astrid Jorgensen used her love of communal singing to build Pub Choir - a concept she took all the way to America's Got Talent.
The idea involves turning a theatre of regular people into a choir and with Jorgensen's tuition and a PowerPoint, any group can sing a three-part harmony.
She used her experience to craft a memoir - Average At Best.
"Can everyone learn to sing and win a Grammy Award? Absolutely not. But can everyone physically sing? Yes! If you can talk, it's the exact same mechanisms that help you to sing."
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Okay, how many of you have heard of pub quir.
My Aussie friends just go on and on about pub Choir.
For those who haven't heard about it, it's become a
bit of a global craze. Craze created by Kiwi turned
Ozzie Astrid Jorgenson. Basically, Astrad turns a theater of regular
people into a choir. With tuition from Astrad and a
(00:32):
PowerPoint to follow the words, the audience become a choir
singing a three part harmony. To give you an idea
of how it works, have a listened here to when
Astred entered pub Qui into America's Got Talent.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
He prays you are the act you try.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Here comes the first follow your arrow.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Just fantastic. So not only is Estra the founder of
pub qua, she's written the book. It's called Average Beast.
And Estra joins me now from Brisbane.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Good morning, good morning, so nice to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Oh, really good to talk with you as well. So
I'm priests with what you've achieved and loved the book.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Oh I was so glad.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Actually, it hasn't come out yet, it's two more days,
so I feel like I could melt with anxiety about
people reading it.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
But I'm so glad that you liked it. You're you know,
you're one of the first people I've talked to about it.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh oh, I had a great laugh. And it's a
really interesting story. Can I go a wee way back
to start with? And this is what took me back.
This is probably the first thing that took me back
reading this book. At sixteen, you flew on your own
to Zambia to live in a convent and become a
Catholic nun. Now, yes, how did that work out?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean, well, spoiler alert, I'm not a nun.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I run a very rowdy, chaotic event now and it's
not religious at all. But I mean, I grew up,
you know, my family is Catholic. My parents took us
to church every week, and I used to get such
a rush singing the hymns and I sort of loved
it how every week they were like, you know, top
hits from the congregation that people really loved to sing,
(02:21):
and everyone would be vibing together and I would feel
so overjoyed every single week singing at church. And it
took me a little while to kind of extract out
that the joy I was feeling was not actually the
presence of God in my life, but music. I mean
not to discount that in other people's lives, but it
was difficult for me to kind of figure out what
(02:42):
the feeling was. And as I got older, I realized
it's actually music. And I did discover that while in
a convent.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
As you say, as you say, you didn't become a nun.
But I think we've all had those moments where we've
we've felt that joy and hope and a communal singing.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's the connection with others as well, because you know,
you can never be a choir alone. You can never
sing in harmony by yourself, so harmonizing with in literal
harmony with others is something you can never do alone.
And so that was the only place that I could
get that feeling.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Was at church.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But I guess my life since then has been a
series of adventures trying to recreate that feeling of making
stuff with other people.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Do you prefer to sing with others as opposed to
singing on your own.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I think there's a time and the place for both.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
But I certainly feel like the joy of singing with others,
and that like really primal connection that you feel deep
somewhere in your soul when you sing with others and
when you harmonize with others is kind of unbeatable. You know,
you can choose to sing alone anytime you want, but
the harmony thing, it feels rarer and more special.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
This is quite an interesting fact that I learned about
you as well growing up. But as the youngest of
five kids, your house was always noisy, and you struggled
a lot with noise. You have misophonia, which means that
you're distracted by the sound of other people doing normal
things like breathing and eating. And I'm gonna I'm a
member of my family has this as well. So when
(04:15):
I read the list of things that do your hidden
we were both raw and was laughter reading through this list.
But explain to us how it does affect you. And
you wear headphones a.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Lot, I like, I'm high functioning with this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I know I've learned to adapt, but I am, you know,
let's be honest, pissed off a lot of the time
with the sounds of other people. Being alive. But in
the book I try and explain I understand that everyone's
allowed to breathe, so I'm trying not to be angry
at others. But it's sort of this involuntary response, I
guess because I feel like I would describe it as
I can't.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Filter out sounds.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I hear a lot, and so rather than spending all
of my days being annoyed at everybody else, I've tried
to channel this for good and not for evil, which
is sort of how I do pubqoir. I listen to
the room, and I try and hear everyone and everything,
And in that instance I enjoy hearing so much and
trying to figure out what's going on and how to respond.
But in my everyday life, I feel like if someone's
(05:12):
eating a really sloppy meal near me and I'm trying
to do some work, I can't think anymore, because the
sound is the most prevalent thing in my environment. You know,
if I go to the movies and someone is smacking
popcorn with their mouth open, I can't understand the plot
very well. So sound, for me is a really powerful tool,
(05:33):
and it's a really you know, it's the most salient
thing in my environment. So yeah, I guess I try
to do my best channeling that into pub choir, but
outside of that, I'm probably annoyed.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, that's okay. You'd be fine at our house. We've
all been talked to eat without making any noise.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Good.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, but that is really interesting how that became actually
quite a positive for what it is that you do.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I didn't have a choice
to turn off my brain, and so I decided to
try and try and wield this. It seems like a
really intense power because I feel like I can hear everything.
You know, someone breathes in another room and I'm sighing
about it. So yeah, at pub choir, two thousand people
in the room all singing a different note is actually
(06:17):
a fun challenge for me because I think, oh, well,
I now know how to help. I've heard where everyone's
gone and it's not what we discussed. So I will
redirect the crowd and see if I can get the
note that I was looking for.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, can everyone sing or learned to sing?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Absolutely, that's a different concept from can everybody sing? Well,
I probably not. Can everybody learn to sing and win
a Grammy? Award, Absolutely not. But can everyone physically sing, Yes,
if you can talk, it's the same exact mechanisms that
help you to sing, just with a bit more variation.
I think this is kind of the central point of
(06:56):
my work, and it comes up a lot in the book.
And you know the title average at best. Being brilliant
is not a birthright, and so a lot of people
who go to sing and aren't incredible at the first
go feel really disheartened and like they're terrible or whatever.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
But I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Did you expect if you've only ever sung loudly in
the shower. That's not training, that's fun. But I think
it's time to separate out the idea that being brilliant
and just having a nice time are linked together.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
They're not the same thing. And so I'm trying to
encourage people to sing at all.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't care how ugly your voices, it doesn't matter
to me. The thing is it's unique to you, and
I think that's a good enough reason to use it
and to contribute something, because when you sing, it will
necessarily make the choir sound different, for better or worse.
Your voice will add something that only ever you could
have added. And so that's the reason to join, and
(07:56):
that's what I'm trying to communicate with people.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
It's okay to be terrible and still have a nice time.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Estra, Why does some people find it easier to pick
up some We might say, oh, they've got a good ear.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I don't know what gives us our human variations, all
sorts of things nature and nurture, But for sure some
people can hear and categorize sounds in our brains. I
can do that, and I've always been able to do that,
like listen to a song and understand how it's working,
how it fits together. But you know, I can't do
(08:31):
most other things. So you know, it's like, of course
there's people who are naturally talented in some way, but
I do think anyone can learn to be better. And
even though I grew up understanding music, singing in tune
and playing piano songs by ear or whatever, I still
had to learn how to hone that craft and how
(08:53):
to how to understand and process that skill set. So
it's no matter what's going on with everyone and what's
going on with you musically, you can still learn to improve.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Gosh, how did it feel, because I know that there
were quite a few jobs before you kind of landed
on this concept that it grew. How did it feel
to find something to go Actually, this is what I
want to do that conducting a choir, This is what
I meant to do.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, well, I had to try almost everything else on
the way, you know, like, but.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
In a strange way. I don't think I could have done.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Pubchoir without doing all of those other things. You know,
I have this huge list in the book. I was
a funeral singer for many years. I sold bed sheets,
I was a cleaner, movie attendant, a school teacher, all
sorts of things. But each one of those jobs, it
turns out, has given me this tiny ingredient that I'd
put into the recipe soup of pubchoir. And it makes
(09:51):
me realize that kind of everything counts, not in an
oppressive way, but just it's amazing to me how my
school teaching days, how my funeral singing days, how it
all counts in.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
The recipe of pubchoir.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
It's this strange mix of comedy and performance and listening
and responding and teaching and all sorts of things. But
I mean, I wish I was brilliant enough to say
that that was the.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Plan all along.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I can't this happened because of the crazy things that
I and adventures that I was going on, and it's
an outcome of that, and I'm just so glad that
it all counted for something.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What do you think the key of you know, the
key to its success has been because it's become hugely successful,
and I know that it's a concept that is sort
of constantly changing and has changed a lot from when
you first began. What do you think is that key
to it growing the way it has.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I feel like this is naughty, Like it feels really
naughty to say what I'm about to say, but I'm
starting to believe that it might be successful in a
large part because of me. Like I know that that
seems outrageous to be so ambitious out loud, but I mean,
if it was easy, there would be more of it
in the world.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I'm not, by any stretch, claiming to have done it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Choir has always existed, pubs have always existed. The method
that I'm doing and teaching these audiences is a new
thing and specific to me, and I guess I at
the beginning, I thought, Wow, what a miracle that the
crowd sang what I taught them. And then after the
hundredth show, I thought, oh god, it's still happening.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Lucky me.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And then by now, like eight years later, I've sort
of collected all of those shows and those experiences and
it always works out, and I've put them in sort
of my backpack of confidence, and I think to myself,
when I go out on stage.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I'm pretty sure I can do this.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, And so I think that's the exciting thing. I
think I've found something to contribute to the world. It's
a small thing, it's not much, but it's honest work,
and I, yeah, I don't know. I think as well,
it's helping free a lot of people from their own
shame of singing. Look, I think everyone's being told that
their voice is a bit, a bit ugly at some point.
(12:04):
It's impossible to sing in tune all of the time.
And so I think everyone's got like a memory of
someone laughing as they're voice cracked at school, or a
teacher telling them they were singing out of tune and
to sing to mime in the choir or something like that.
I think lots of people have internalized that singing shame
because it's so personal when your singing voices not good
(12:25):
because you made it, and so people think that there's
something wrong with them. But I hope that pub choir
or any choir, any group singing experience helps people kind
of chip away at that self consciousness and realize that
it doesn't matter. It's not illegal to sing out of tune.
You're allowed to have a nice time and it feels
really good and it's good for you. There's lots of
(12:47):
studies out there singing with others is very good for
your mind and your actual health and your body and
everything like that. So I think that's a big part
of it too, kind of freeing people from that singing anxiety.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And you've been able to perform with some amazing artists
like The Rolling Stones.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Yeah, it's been a pretty wild ride.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
The Rolling Stones was pre pub choir, but I'll, you know,
put it in the mix as well.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
But yeah, it's been crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I've I've had interactions with Neil Finn and Dave Dobbins
and Kiwi greats, you know, but it's like that's always fun.
It's great to get validation from Mariah Carey when you're
sing her Christmas song, but it's sort of not about.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That as well.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Like for me, the miracle of pub quarries just regular people,
the idiots, you know, I include myself and that singing
together and making stuff. I think that's the miracle, is
that anyone can make art, and I think it's important
that we try and remind ourselves of that. And like,
I think we spend a lot of time hero worshiping artists,
which is fine, there's a place for worshiping in other
(13:50):
people's talent alter but I think it's also important that
we remind ourselves that we are artists just by existing,
and that's the miracle of the show.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Oh, I love it. Estrad One quick question. I meant
to the beginning that we saw you in America's Got
Talent and you've got through. I don't know what happened though,
How did you progress?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I did get the yes's and was invited to go
back to the quarter finals. But I guess for so
many reasons, like there's only so much time and energy
in life. You can't do everything. Popqui has the craziest schedule.
I'm going to be teaching thirty thousand people across New
Zealand and Australia in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I'll be in New Zealand in November.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I just feel like I can't fit it all in,
and I guess competitive creativity has never been a huge
priority for me anyway. I think I kind of got
the experience that I wanted out of America's Got Talent,
which was to say the audience is the main character
of us. That was important for me to get that across.
I ended up on a cruise ship with Richard Branson
and a helicopter.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Instead, as as you do. Yeah, well, you know, it's
a classic relatable story.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So I feel like, you know, I couldn't choose everything,
and you know, I'm glad how it's worked out. But yes,
I'm not progressing a he has Got Talent and I'm
busy otherwise, and I hope to be singing with lots
of new friends in New Zealand and November, I'll be
in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
So that's what I choose. I choose that instead.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Amazing can't waite, Astra, thank you so much. That was
Public Choir founder Astrad Jorgensen. Her new book Average at
Best releases this Tuesday and Yees November the ninth, Auckland November,
the tenth, Wellington the twelfth of November christ which all
my mates in Australia have been to. This have absolutely
loved it, so check it out online
Speaker 1 (15:36):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, Listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb Okay, how many of you have heard of pub quir.
My Aussie friends just go on and on about pub Choir.
For those who haven't heard about it, it's become a
bit of a global craze. Craze created by Kiwi turned
Ozzie Astrid Jorgenson. Basically, Astrad turns a theater of regular
people into a choir. With tuition from Astrad and a
(00:32):
PowerPoint to follow the words, the audience become a choir
singing a three part harmony. To give you an idea
of how it works, have a listened here to when
Astred entered pub Qui into America's Got Talent.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
He prays you are the act you try.
Speaker 2 (00:54):
Here comes the first follow your arrow.
Speaker 4 (00:56):
Here we are.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
Just fantastic. So not only is Estra the founder of
pub qua, she's written the book. It's called Average Beast.
And Estra joins me now from Brisbane.
Speaker 4 (01:16):
Good morning, good morning, so nice to chat with you.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Oh, really good to talk with you as well. So
I'm priests with what you've achieved and loved the book.
Speaker 4 (01:24):
Oh I was so glad.
Speaker 3 (01:25):
Actually, it hasn't come out yet, it's two more days,
so I feel like I could melt with anxiety about
people reading it.
Speaker 4 (01:32):
But I'm so glad that you liked it. You're you know,
you're one of the first people I've talked to about it.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Oh oh, I had a great laugh. And it's a
really interesting story. Can I go a wee way back
to start with? And this is what took me back.
This is probably the first thing that took me back
reading this book. At sixteen, you flew on your own
to Zambia to live in a convent and become a
Catholic nun. Now, yes, how did that work out?
Speaker 4 (01:56):
I mean, well, spoiler alert, I'm not a nun.
Speaker 3 (02:00):
I run a very rowdy, chaotic event now and it's
not religious at all. But I mean, I grew up,
you know, my family is Catholic. My parents took us
to church every week, and I used to get such
a rush singing the hymns and I sort of loved
it how every week they were like, you know, top
hits from the congregation that people really loved to sing,
(02:21):
and everyone would be vibing together and I would feel
so overjoyed every single week singing at church. And it
took me a little while to kind of extract out
that the joy I was feeling was not actually the
presence of God in my life, but music. I mean
not to discount that in other people's lives, but it
was difficult for me to kind of figure out what
(02:42):
the feeling was. And as I got older, I realized
it's actually music. And I did discover that while in
a convent.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
As you say, as you say, you didn't become a nun.
But I think we've all had those moments where we've
we've felt that joy and hope and a communal singing.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
It's the connection with others as well, because you know,
you can never be a choir alone. You can never
sing in harmony by yourself, so harmonizing with in literal
harmony with others is something you can never do alone.
And so that was the only place that I could
get that feeling.
Speaker 4 (03:17):
Was at church.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
But I guess my life since then has been a
series of adventures trying to recreate that feeling of making
stuff with other people.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Do you prefer to sing with others as opposed to
singing on your own.
Speaker 4 (03:30):
I think there's a time and the place for both.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
But I certainly feel like the joy of singing with others,
and that like really primal connection that you feel deep
somewhere in your soul when you sing with others and
when you harmonize with others is kind of unbeatable. You know,
you can choose to sing alone anytime you want, but
the harmony thing, it feels rarer and more special.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
This is quite an interesting fact that I learned about
you as well growing up. But as the youngest of
five kids, your house was always noisy, and you struggled
a lot with noise. You have misophonia, which means that
you're distracted by the sound of other people doing normal
things like breathing and eating. And I'm gonna I'm a
member of my family has this as well. So when
(04:15):
I read the list of things that do your hidden
we were both raw and was laughter reading through this list.
But explain to us how it does affect you. And
you wear headphones a.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
Lot, I like, I'm high functioning with this thing.
Speaker 3 (04:28):
I know I've learned to adapt, but I am, you know,
let's be honest, pissed off a lot of the time
with the sounds of other people. Being alive. But in
the book I try and explain I understand that everyone's
allowed to breathe, so I'm trying not to be angry
at others. But it's sort of this involuntary response, I
guess because I feel like I would describe it as
I can't.
Speaker 4 (04:48):
Filter out sounds.
Speaker 3 (04:49):
I hear a lot, and so rather than spending all
of my days being annoyed at everybody else, I've tried
to channel this for good and not for evil, which
is sort of how I do pubqoir. I listen to
the room, and I try and hear everyone and everything,
And in that instance I enjoy hearing so much and
trying to figure out what's going on and how to respond.
But in my everyday life, I feel like if someone's
(05:12):
eating a really sloppy meal near me and I'm trying
to do some work, I can't think anymore, because the
sound is the most prevalent thing in my environment. You know,
if I go to the movies and someone is smacking
popcorn with their mouth open, I can't understand the plot
very well. So sound, for me is a really powerful tool,
(05:33):
and it's a really you know, it's the most salient
thing in my environment. So yeah, I guess I try
to do my best channeling that into pub choir, but
outside of that, I'm probably annoyed.
Speaker 4 (05:44):
I'm sorry.
Speaker 2 (05:45):
No, that's okay. You'd be fine at our house. We've
all been talked to eat without making any noise.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Good.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
Yeah, but that is really interesting how that became actually
quite a positive for what it is that you do.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
Yeah, I mean, I guess I didn't have a choice
to turn off my brain, and so I decided to
try and try and wield this. It seems like a
really intense power because I feel like I can hear everything.
You know, someone breathes in another room and I'm sighing
about it. So yeah, at pub choir, two thousand people
in the room all singing a different note is actually
(06:17):
a fun challenge for me because I think, oh, well,
I now know how to help. I've heard where everyone's
gone and it's not what we discussed. So I will
redirect the crowd and see if I can get the
note that I was looking for.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Yeah, can everyone sing or learned to sing?
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Absolutely, that's a different concept from can everybody sing? Well,
I probably not. Can everybody learn to sing and win
a Grammy? Award, Absolutely not. But can everyone physically sing, Yes,
if you can talk, it's the same exact mechanisms that
help you to sing, just with a bit more variation.
I think this is kind of the central point of
(06:56):
my work, and it comes up a lot in the book.
And you know the title average at best. Being brilliant
is not a birthright, and so a lot of people
who go to sing and aren't incredible at the first
go feel really disheartened and like they're terrible or whatever.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
But I'm like, what.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Did you expect if you've only ever sung loudly in
the shower. That's not training, that's fun. But I think
it's time to separate out the idea that being brilliant
and just having a nice time are linked together.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
They're not the same thing. And so I'm trying to
encourage people to sing at all.
Speaker 3 (07:34):
I don't care how ugly your voices, it doesn't matter
to me. The thing is it's unique to you, and
I think that's a good enough reason to use it
and to contribute something, because when you sing, it will
necessarily make the choir sound different, for better or worse.
Your voice will add something that only ever you could
have added. And so that's the reason to join, and
(07:56):
that's what I'm trying to communicate with people.
Speaker 4 (07:59):
It's okay to be terrible and still have a nice time.
Speaker 2 (08:03):
Estra, Why does some people find it easier to pick
up some We might say, oh, they've got a good ear.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I don't know what gives us our human variations, all
sorts of things nature and nurture, But for sure some
people can hear and categorize sounds in our brains. I
can do that, and I've always been able to do that,
like listen to a song and understand how it's working,
how it fits together. But you know, I can't do
(08:31):
most other things. So you know, it's like, of course
there's people who are naturally talented in some way, but
I do think anyone can learn to be better. And
even though I grew up understanding music, singing in tune
and playing piano songs by ear or whatever, I still
had to learn how to hone that craft and how
(08:53):
to how to understand and process that skill set. So
it's no matter what's going on with everyone and what's
going on with you musically, you can still learn to improve.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
Gosh, how did it feel, because I know that there
were quite a few jobs before you kind of landed
on this concept that it grew. How did it feel
to find something to go Actually, this is what I
want to do that conducting a choir, This is what
I meant to do.
Speaker 3 (09:20):
Yeah, well, I had to try almost everything else on
the way, you know, like, but.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
In a strange way. I don't think I could have done.
Speaker 3 (09:28):
Pubchoir without doing all of those other things. You know,
I have this huge list in the book. I was
a funeral singer for many years. I sold bed sheets,
I was a cleaner, movie attendant, a school teacher, all
sorts of things. But each one of those jobs, it
turns out, has given me this tiny ingredient that I'd
put into the recipe soup of pubchoir. And it makes
(09:51):
me realize that kind of everything counts, not in an
oppressive way, but just it's amazing to me how my
school teaching days, how my funeral singing days, how it
all counts in.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
The recipe of pubchoir.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
It's this strange mix of comedy and performance and listening
and responding and teaching and all sorts of things. But
I mean, I wish I was brilliant enough to say
that that was the.
Speaker 4 (10:16):
Plan all along.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
I can't this happened because of the crazy things that
I and adventures that I was going on, and it's
an outcome of that, and I'm just so glad that
it all counted for something.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
What do you think the key of you know, the
key to its success has been because it's become hugely successful,
and I know that it's a concept that is sort
of constantly changing and has changed a lot from when
you first began. What do you think is that key
to it growing the way it has.
Speaker 3 (10:44):
I feel like this is naughty, Like it feels really
naughty to say what I'm about to say, but I'm
starting to believe that it might be successful in a
large part because of me. Like I know that that
seems outrageous to be so ambitious out loud, but I mean,
if it was easy, there would be more of it
in the world.
Speaker 4 (11:02):
I'm not, by any stretch, claiming to have done it.
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Choir has always existed, pubs have always existed. The method
that I'm doing and teaching these audiences is a new
thing and specific to me, and I guess I at
the beginning, I thought, Wow, what a miracle that the
crowd sang what I taught them. And then after the
hundredth show, I thought, oh god, it's still happening.
Speaker 4 (11:26):
Lucky me.
Speaker 3 (11:27):
And then by now, like eight years later, I've sort
of collected all of those shows and those experiences and
it always works out, and I've put them in sort
of my backpack of confidence, and I think to myself,
when I go out on stage.
Speaker 4 (11:39):
I'm pretty sure I can do this.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:41):
Yeah, And so I think that's the exciting thing. I
think I've found something to contribute to the world. It's
a small thing, it's not much, but it's honest work,
and I, yeah, I don't know. I think as well,
it's helping free a lot of people from their own
shame of singing. Look, I think everyone's being told that
their voice is a bit, a bit ugly at some point.
(12:04):
It's impossible to sing in tune all of the time.
And so I think everyone's got like a memory of
someone laughing as they're voice cracked at school, or a
teacher telling them they were singing out of tune and
to sing to mime in the choir or something like that.
I think lots of people have internalized that singing shame
because it's so personal when your singing voices not good
(12:25):
because you made it, and so people think that there's
something wrong with them. But I hope that pub choir
or any choir, any group singing experience helps people kind
of chip away at that self consciousness and realize that
it doesn't matter. It's not illegal to sing out of tune.
You're allowed to have a nice time and it feels
really good and it's good for you. There's lots of
(12:47):
studies out there singing with others is very good for
your mind and your actual health and your body and
everything like that. So I think that's a big part
of it too, kind of freeing people from that singing anxiety.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
And you've been able to perform with some amazing artists
like The Rolling Stones.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Yeah, it's been a pretty wild ride.
Speaker 3 (13:09):
The Rolling Stones was pre pub choir, but I'll, you know,
put it in the mix as well.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
But yeah, it's been crazy.
Speaker 3 (13:15):
I've I've had interactions with Neil Finn and Dave Dobbins
and Kiwi greats, you know, but it's like that's always fun.
It's great to get validation from Mariah Carey when you're
sing her Christmas song, but it's sort of not about.
Speaker 4 (13:28):
That as well.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
Like for me, the miracle of pub quarries just regular people,
the idiots, you know, I include myself and that singing
together and making stuff. I think that's the miracle, is
that anyone can make art, and I think it's important
that we try and remind ourselves of that. And like,
I think we spend a lot of time hero worshiping artists,
which is fine, there's a place for worshiping in other
(13:50):
people's talent alter but I think it's also important that
we remind ourselves that we are artists just by existing,
and that's the miracle of the show.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
I think.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Oh, I love it. Estrad One quick question. I meant
to the beginning that we saw you in America's Got
Talent and you've got through. I don't know what happened though,
How did you progress?
Speaker 4 (14:11):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:11):
I did get the yes's and was invited to go
back to the quarter finals. But I guess for so
many reasons, like there's only so much time and energy
in life. You can't do everything. Popqui has the craziest schedule.
I'm going to be teaching thirty thousand people across New
Zealand and Australia in a couple of weeks.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
I'll be in New Zealand in November.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I just feel like I can't fit it all in,
and I guess competitive creativity has never been a huge
priority for me anyway. I think I kind of got
the experience that I wanted out of America's Got Talent,
which was to say the audience is the main character
of us. That was important for me to get that across.
I ended up on a cruise ship with Richard Branson
and a helicopter.
Speaker 4 (14:54):
Instead, as as you do. Yeah, well, you know, it's
a classic relatable story.
Speaker 3 (14:59):
So I feel like, you know, I couldn't choose everything,
and you know, I'm glad how it's worked out. But yes,
I'm not progressing a he has Got Talent and I'm
busy otherwise, and I hope to be singing with lots
of new friends in New Zealand and November, I'll be
in Auckland, Wellington and christ Church.
Speaker 4 (15:14):
So that's what I choose. I choose that instead.
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Amazing can't waite, Astra, thank you so much. That was
Public Choir founder Astrad Jorgensen. Her new book Average at
Best releases this Tuesday and Yees November the ninth, Auckland November,
the tenth, Wellington the twelfth of November christ which all
my mates in Australia have been to. This have absolutely
loved it, so check it out online
Speaker 1 (15:36):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, Listen
live to News Talks it Be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.