Episode 237 | D Piano Girl - Corie Sheppard Podcast

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:18):
I'm great, you're good.
It looking like every time wetry to link up is to be heavy,
torrential rain and dongpo workwasn't that true, but I think we
in that season I feel, like wein that time but, um, we made it
today we made it, we made it,we made it through all the
dongpo we made it.
Last time you're supposed tomeet it was yellow alert.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Congrats on forever true, thank you it sounds great,
it sounds great I'm now findingout that you actually came to
be part I did, I did, I did ofthe heart in this semana so I
don't tell people this storyabout this right.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
We connected some time ago.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
We bonked up on las cuevas quite coincidentally, we
could do our bongs.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
You know, I like when things are thoughts and then
they become things.
So it feels good to be herefrom bonking up.
Then you know, and you sent mymessage and you say you're doing
this video, you have a new songyou're going to release and so
on, and um, I should comethrough, yeah, say that's
something like good.
But when I say come through isbehind the scenes, I'm not the
front of the camera guy, despitewhat this might say right you

(01:15):
did say that you wanted toobserve.

Speaker 2 (01:17):
Yeah, I just wanted just to make for a better
episode too.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
So we have the conversation.
So you told me quite clearly,with all the notes and all the
different things that I needed Iwas going to be in the Savannah
opposite Napa and as a headlinekind of guy, all I see is Napa.
So, driving to Napa with allconfidence, I say I'm here for
the video shoot, the peoplelooking completely lost.
But I did see the video.
In the end I saw what the heartwas about, because even when

(01:41):
you said it then I was like okay, what do you mean by a white
heart?
I didn't understand, but it wasgreat how it went, how was the
video shoot and everything itwas good.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
It was good.
I wanted, like I knew thatthere was going to be part of
the song and the message of thatpart of the song was put your
hands in the air, throw yourhands up, because love is
everywhere.
And I really wanted to kind ofdrive home that feeling of like
coming together with differentpeople, different faces,

(02:09):
different races.
And so I had this idea to formthis heart in the savannah and,
you know like, have it shownfrom above and yeah it.
It ended up being good.
I, I, I think I originally Iwanted like 30 people in it and
I was like no, it could workwith 20 and 19 people yeah

(02:31):
there's some famous people cameout.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Joshua.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Regrello showed up Koryan Maaz.
I wanted a famous TikTok coupleand some other friends and yeah
, it worked out well.
So 19 people showed upbeautiful.
There's actually one part ofthe heart that has 18 people and
then another shot that has 19people because one guy like he
just rushed yeah he probablywent now, but yeah I was

(02:57):
responsible song but I'm good.
I think it's good.
Everyone says they like it.
You know we were chattingbefore.
Like you said, it's veryemotional.

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Instantly.

Speaker 2 (03:07):
Yeah, For me too it's quite an emotional thing to
like put together and create.
Some people are like this songis fire.
Like you know a lot of people Isent it to.
They're like the beats, they'relike it's been good.

Speaker 1 (03:21):
It's been good.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
That's good.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
I want to shout out 95.1.

Speaker 1 (03:26):
They've been playing this a lot, so it's 95 kind of
music, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
So you know, um, that's great for me to hear it's
on here.
People say that they've heardit's on the radio, and I want to
just like say thanks to allthese stations that support my
music yeah, I want to tell themthanks to.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
It is one of those songs where, like for me,
sometimes you hear a song and ittakes a while for the song to
soak in, to become a party, evenif you like something.
But I don't know if it's theforever and ever and ever and
ever.
It just feels like it hits yousomewhere.
So you would have been theperson who wrote it, you.
How do you come up with it?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
yeah, so probably like a year ago.
Well, I actually have groupchats with myself on my phone
and whatsapp.
Say that again.
You have what group chats withmyself?
What do you mean?

Speaker 3 (04:07):
like who's the?

Speaker 2 (04:09):
group.
The group is me and me um well,I do have another number right
so I sort of like create thisgroup with me and okay myself so
use your own accountabilitypartner yeah, like it's like
this the board of directors,everybody just in here you know
it's like oh, it's the team youknow what I have?
to pull together team.
I pull together team but, in alot of the lead up like this is

(04:31):
the, this is the team you knowthey say there's no I in team
and I'm like it's not.
I t e a I m pronunciation itworks, that's hilarious.
So yeah, like I have these groupchats and they're all called
the Piano Girl Song Dash andthen the name Of the song that I

(04:52):
think it's gonna be.
So I have like About 15 ofthose Existing Forever was one
of them that I started about Ayear ago and just me, a lot of
them is me Like sitting on thepiano Playing and or go um, and
just me, a lot of them is melike sitting on the piano
playing and with the lyrics andwhatnot right and so it was just
in my head.
I um, I like I heard this thing.

(05:13):
I think this song did not comefrom me, a lot of people are
like you know how did it feel tocreate this song, but I feel
like it's existed somewhere inthe ethos.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
Right.

Speaker 2 (05:24):
And I just happened to be the person to like grab it
and like bring it into thisreality where we could hear it
and listen to it and see it.
But it could have been anybody.
That's how I feel about this.
So I kept hearing this forever,ever, ever, ever, ever.
And I'm like is that lame, like, is that like too basic?

(05:44):
And I was like no, no, it'skind of catchy.
And you know, then I had thechorus and then just kind of
like fleshing out the verses andI knew I wanted it to have this
bollywood feel, which is, youknow, something different for me
, right different yeah and sothere's some Hindi in there.

Speaker 3 (06:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (06:07):
And I had to get someone to translate it and all
of that, and so the unfolding ofthat was beautiful.

Speaker 1 (06:13):
Yeah, to help us with that.
You know, because, as Trinnies,we are accustomed to wrong
lyrics in English.
We sing people lyrics wrong allthe time.
Yeah, me too.

Speaker 2 (06:19):
You know it was something I was kind of like
crap, I need to get this right.
So I actually linked up with afriend of mine who's fluent in
Hindi.
So one of the lines in his songI hope I'm saying it right,
because I'm not fluent it's oh,my love, my heart deal is my

(06:45):
it's hot is yours.
So that's that line.
And then later on in the songthere's the um to marry being an
?
Uh.
He sucked the surgeon.
Uh, which is the bridge.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
So that's just a word , for that just means beloved.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Gotcha.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
Um, there's another one later on.
I say mahiya, same name tomarry be, to marry be nana, he's
acting mahiya.
Mahiya is another word forbeloved or my love, but it means
I can't without you, like Ican't do without you.
Those are the two main partsand the second verse too.
There's um uh to marry, tomarry, duniya, who I think that

(07:23):
one is you are my world or youare my life, and another one to
mary's and dougie, who you aremy life, you're my world.
So just like these littleinfusions of hindi in there
right and then the beat of, likeyou know, the start of the song
, would I kind of like a kind ofremember, like what I would
hear in woodbrook growing uplike jose, jose am I saying that

(07:44):
right, yes, I grew up inwoodbrook.
I say, yeah, jose, yeah, I grewup in st james, okay, all right
, boom okay, yeah, woodbrook andst james, it's just like
wonderful culture, like you'rejust immersed in it.

Speaker 1 (08:01):
Yeah, you can't escape.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Yeah.
So you know, like those rhythmsand stuff, like the beginning
of the song kind of reminded meof that.
And then we're just so blessedhere we're exposed to like all
kind of genres pop, rock,hollywood, chutney, soka, soka,
junibad, rap, hip-hop, likeeverything.

(08:23):
So like you get influenced from, by you know.
Just, I feel like I was talkingfor a long time.
Yeah, I was.
You know, I like that, that'sme okay.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
But I'll like you are bringing in woodbrook explains
a lot like for st james, and Itry to explain that to people
because the influences ofeverything just kind of
converges around woodbrook inparticular and it's it's
carnival.
You can't escape carnival ifyou live in Woodbrook, like you
might remember so many timeswhere, um, when the avenue
really starts to pump and becomea liming spot, it used to be

(08:55):
real problems with peopleparking in front of people gates
.
You can't leave when it's time,and I remember crowbar and them
having issues.
Remember them times.
Yes, yes and you're immersed init.
Whatever trinidad is doingculturally at whatever time of
year where there's cycling andit happened is either you like
it or you don't like it honestlybut you're in it, but you're in
it regardless, yeah, so eithersomething about it moves you or

(09:19):
you're just like listen, this istoo much for me, too noisy for
me, yeah I tell my father theother day, like as somebody who
loved kaisan soka, I didn't likethat 90s era super blue road
matches at all, because you justhear it over and over and when
you live in st james orwoodbrook this would have been
the same.

Speaker 2 (09:36):
Yeah, you can't escape them things yeah, like a
lot of, I feel like a lot of therhythms that I picked up was
actually from face two, pangroove, because it's damien
street is where I grew up, okay,and you could hear that like.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
So you have with brook halfson, james, a little
bit.
They're trying to claim youknow.

Speaker 2 (09:52):
No, I mean, there's plenty of that, there's plenty
of that to me and all of those.
Like you know, I would likedrum a table on my lap or like
feeling that um because I have,I mean, I have training in
western classical music, right,but we don't get.
You don't get exposed to any ofthese type of indigenous

(10:13):
rhythms or anything in inwestern classical music right,
you know, you have like verystraightforward, you know
rhythms yeah so I would say likethat influenced me a lot I
would too.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Yeah, I want to go back to those early days of you
and music, but first I want togo back to the first message I
ever sent, joanna right, okaywhich stood out wait, you sent
me a message.

Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah, I sent you a message long, long time ago.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
You want date something, the 11th of march.
I know what date is coming out,but okay I say, joanna, this is
quarry shepherd, who's opal aswell, reaching out to see if we
could schedule recording thepodcast and so on.
So you send all thepleasantries and so on.
But I said part of it was likewhat are we going to talk about?
And I say, well, I want to talkabout like where you're working
on, where you're workingtowards as well as who you are

(10:58):
and so on.
And he said sure sounds good.
I'm presently working on beinghappy oh my gosh, I love it but
that is something that, um, themore I talk to you is, the more
of that energy that I get,because when you send that, I'll
tell him.
The initial reaction was ohlord, I wonder if she's not
doing music or if she's in agood place, because when
somebody said they're working onbeing happy, it sounds like.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
It's like why do I need to work on this?
Why?
Why do we need?
Why do I feel like I need towork on being happy?
Really interesting, right,can't I just be happy?

Speaker 1 (11:31):
I would think so.
I would think so, but the moreI talk to you and your energy
and your spirit, it seems likesomething that you put a lot of
energy into.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Yes, there have been times in my life that have been
very chaotic and I am movingtowards really like being in
alignment, with a lot of peace,a lot of contentment and a lot
of joy, a lot of bliss, a lot offun, a lot of just happiness.
Being silly, understanding thatlike it's a blessing to be here

(12:06):
.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
Right.

Speaker 2 (12:07):
Like to experience what we experience, to learn
different lessons.
So being happy for me iswhatever that means, Whether
it's working on music, whetherit's resting, whether it's
hanging out with friends whetherit's being on a Coreyory
shepherd podcast where he'smeeting everybody behind the
scenes on, like you know,talking, dancing, chatting,

(12:28):
laughing, like, yeah, like Ithink that we have this
wonderful compass withinourselves which is our emotional
feeling, and it's like a guideon system that kind of alludes
us like, hey, this is not like agood space to be in.
In my mind, in my heart, in myenergy.

(12:49):
This is not a good space to bein.
Let me see how I can come outof it.
Or just, you know, raise myvibration a little bit.
So when I say like we cannot beunhappy, I think I think that's
what I mean.
So when people ask me what's mynext step or what's my next
plan, it's to do whatever itmeans to really just keep being

(13:10):
happy, like just keep, you know,being peaceful content and
being around the people thatmake me feel that way.

Speaker 1 (13:17):
That's important to you.

Speaker 2 (13:18):
Yeah.
Being in the environment thatmake me feel that way, like I
love nature, like you're talkingabout how we met we met on the
beach right like I love, likejust you know, the ocean and the
sun and so much abundance, likeyou know, like I could be upset
with the sun I'd be like hey,son, like what you do today, get

(13:43):
up the next day.

Speaker 1 (13:44):
Son's still there, A hundred percent Like the son's
still there.

Speaker 2 (13:47):
You know, it's like.
It feels to me likeunconditional.
Yeah, nature feels likeunconditional love and like
peace, you know.
So, yeah, being happy, Iremember an old guy.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
Once I was working TSTT at the time and I used to
work late all the time.
Right, there was no sense oftime.

Speaker 2 (14:04):
What did you do at?

Speaker 1 (14:05):
TSTT.
At that time I used to be in adepartment that um where they
print all the bills.
There was this huge machinethat used to envelope all the
bills okay and then we had tokind of gather them and take
them to TTPO so that was our jobthousands of A whole month.
So when your bill prints let'ssay your bill prints today, yeah
, that will not.
It cannot print again until amonth from today because of how

(14:27):
much bills coming after that.

Speaker 2 (14:29):
Right, so it's just like in the queue, because
that's landline days, right,yeah, like in the queue.

Speaker 1 (14:33):
In the queue.
You're already in queue, yeah,so that it takes a full month
cycle, maybe 19, 20 at this time.
So I'm now joining the workingworld and you're learning how to
adult a little bit, right.
And I come to work later in themorning and I tell him I say
boy, heavy rain, and he tell meif it's not the rain, it's going

(14:53):
to be the sun, and that'sthrown to my lot.
It's the same thing you sayabout you could be upset with
the sun for real, but thelikelihood is that if you're
upset with this and you'reprobably upset at a lot of
things it's probably from within.
So I was telling you before westarted there was a book that
shifted my perspective on someof these things, a book called
the road less traveled yeah, I'mgood of it something else.

(15:14):
The first line in the book islife is difficult do you
remember the author of that book, scott peck?

Speaker 2 (15:19):
yeah, I'll send it to you I'll send it to you.

Speaker 1 (15:20):
I'm better ats.
Let me put that out there onetime.
I can't read so well.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
No, me too I fall asleep.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah, I fall asleep on the audio too.

Speaker 2 (15:28):
I get to like two paragraphs and I'm just like,
but with the audiobook Corey youare right in that, like I find,
like you can put on headphones,you could do other things while
you're listening to it drivingLike a podcast.

Speaker 1 (15:40):
Yes, yes, what I've learned is that, like, I used to
be a little bit attention spanshort, so I might listen to the
audio book and realize that Iwasn't listening for a stretch,
but I've started to realize nowthat you absorb a lot of it even
if you're not paying fullconscious attention.
So, deliberate about the kindof books that I listen to and
the kind of things that I listento or take in because of what

(16:02):
it could do, you know and Ididn't think you're paying
attention, but maybe you'realways up, yeah, so that that
message stood out to me.

Speaker 2 (16:09):
What we're brainwashing ourselves with
right, so you're in this thingover and over, you know.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
That's why I don't tell you right I like how you
say that, joanna, because Idon't tell you, joanna listens
to people, thoughts or thethings I say, so every time I
say something that could bedeemed to be lower vibrational
negative or talk about myself.
You pick up on it quickly.
Is it something that you payattention to with your own
thoughts.

Speaker 2 (16:32):
It is something I have started to and something I
do, you know, I guess, with myfriends.
I don't know if it's annoying.
Is it annoying to you?

Speaker 1 (16:40):
No, when I do it.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
Okay, like when I do it.
Okay, you like it.
Yeah, of course, okay, it helpsme because I don't see it so
many times.
Okay, but yeah, it is because Ido believe that we create, like
I.
I think we are such powerfulcreators like, such powerful
manifestors like, and we doingthis thing instantly, so we go
from like vibration, the thought, to thing, and it happens right
, and like if I could catch thatNow some of us really like,
have a wonderful way of, youknow, just moving in a very

(17:14):
positive and enlighteneddirection.
Me that had not been had.
Not, I'm talking in past tense.

Speaker 3 (17:21):
Back then.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
Had not been when you say back then it's like 2024.
Okay, okay, I was like January2025 Was kind of like A turning
point for me, I see.
So this is all new.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
I'm a lot older than Joanna.
I didn't say a lot later thatwe established that's how I'm
going to be 12 whole monthsActually.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
No, when is your birthday?

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Which month.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
February 17th.

Speaker 2 (17:40):
So it's less than 12 months.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
No, it's a lot, because I'm in May.

Speaker 2 (17:43):
I'm in May.
So it's like it's a long 10months.
How many days I can't do thatmuch.
A lot, a lot, a lot.

Speaker 3 (17:49):
But it's like you are so much older.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Yeah, a lot, yeah, Like I could just you know see
it in a way.
In normal in spirit.
Sorry about sidetracking it.
No, this is fun, it's fun, it'sall good fun, cory, it's good
fun.

Speaker 1 (18:12):
Um, I don't know what I was talking about, but it's
great to laugh yeah, so it's agood way to get us back on track
, but you see that you payattention to those thoughts,
right, and you're shifting 20,yeah, like and because I think
it starts in energy and then inthoughts and then in things.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
You know things start to happen.
So I try to catch it.
I try to catch it for myselfand I try to find something a
little better.
You know, they say like bekinder to ourselves.
I really feel like if you couldfind like just a little
different perspective that justchanges, like I feel a shift
within myself and then when Ishift, people around me start to

(18:47):
shift and like I start to getlike free fries and saying
you're gonna take a note of that.
No, like no, because I, theenergy I bring into something, I
find it really affects peoplearound me and scenarios around
me.
And so if I could catch it andI could like lift myself,
everything just seems to likeflow better.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
I think so.
I think your social media showsthat.
I think your radiator energythere that people could feel via
social media.
I spent a lot of time on yoursocial media over the last few
weeks.

Speaker 2 (19:19):
Thank you, I appreciate that.
Thank you for the views.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course, ofcourse, I Thank you.

Speaker 1 (19:23):
I appreciate that it shows.
Thank you for the views.
Yeah, yeah, yeah Of course, ofcourse.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
I know I'm watching myself, so I was talking about
TST and corporate life.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
You are a parent's dream.
You're in the energy sector.
You have engineering trainingand so on.

Speaker 2 (19:34):
Yeah, did you say a parent's dream?
That's what parents want.
Patron daddy.
And parents want you to domedicine, law, engineering
professional.
Am I not a professional?
No, cory, yeah we are, we are.
Wow, we have some.
I think parents want the bestfor us and sometimes the best

(19:55):
for us is what they knew, um,but that doesn't necessarily
have to be what resonates withus or what we feel connected to.
So I did.
My first degree is inengineering.
I have a degree in electricalengineering.
I worked in the industry formaybe like 10 or 12 years, found
that I wasn't really alignedwith me so much.

(20:17):
And so then I moved into humanresources, so I have a master's
in HR management.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
So you went in the energy sector doing engineering
at first, yes, and then, withinthe sector, I moved over into
human resources, so I have amaster's in HR management.
So you went in the energysector doing engineering at
first, yes, I see.

Speaker 2 (20:25):
And then, within the sector, I moved over into human
resources, where I worked onlike curriculum development for
technical staff and corporatestaff as well.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
And you say you trained in that area as well.
Yes, in HR.

Speaker 2 (20:38):
Yes, Well, a master's in HR management.
So undergraduate.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
You like engineering?
Yeah, in well, master's and hrmaster's.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
So undergraduate uh, engineering, yeah, hr was like.
Training was the the.
The schooling was so differentto engineering yeah, like so
different because engineering islike black and white.
You're like principles provenfor hundreds of years, and the
hr training was like we.
I had to learn to write likethis may, of course, help

(21:06):
improve employee morale.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
That must be uncomfortable for you.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
That may and should and ought to well once I learned
it it was good it was good onceI learned like what the field
required of me to be more youknow, fluent and fluid, and less
like you know, because you'redealing with people now yeah,
yeah, so it was interesting itwas it was interesting
interesting um.

(21:31):
The first engineering was ueand the hr management was
university of uh.
Is it harriet what?

Speaker 1 (21:40):
sbcs.
So yeah, gotcha, gotcha, yeah,gotcha, yeah, we'd have been
around the same time you seewhat I mean.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
I'm a 00 ID number, oh man, I'm 99 yeah, yeah,
alright, so much youngeradvanced education so much
younger, right.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
So 10 whole months younger, 10 whole.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
A lot could happen in 10 months, though yeah, a lot
could happen in 10 months,though, yeah, a whole next
person could happen in 10 months.
Yes, yes, so getting in thatfield, how difficult is it for
you mentally to shift fromengineering the working world to
hr?
You already feeling that shifthappening?

Speaker 2 (22:15):
yes, within my department, like I would.
There were things about my jobthat I really enjoyed, like I
enjoyed project management, Ienjoyed working with other
people.
I I enjoyed like trainingyounger engineers, some of the
core work.
I would see my coworkers belike whoa, a transformer, and
I'd be like you know, I don'treally feel this enthusiasm.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Oh, you mean a transformer?

Speaker 2 (22:40):
Yeah, like a piece of equipment.
Oh no, like Optimus Prime.
I'm into, that'm into, I mean,like I mean.
But robotics and stuff is basedon engineering you know, of
course, but yeah, like pieces ofequipment or, you know, a
substation or I mean it was good, but I I I didn't feel very
connected to it and I think Iwas good at what I did.
I think I made a lot ofdifference.

(23:01):
I think, you know, I enjoyedworking as part of a team and
and I decided to say like okay,can I like move into something
that resonates it a bit morewith me?
Now I was always doing music,like like some years ago, like I
performed as part of IsaacBlackman's band in Barbados

(23:21):
Gospel Festival, like I feellike jump it up to the ceiling.
Yeah, like I you know.
So I was doing like things likethat.
I performed, you know,different things like weddings,
functions, um, but I did notcome out and step out as like a
soloist right, I see which wasthe change around 2019.
Okay, so yeah, like I was alwaysdoing music, but there was a

(23:47):
definitely a marked differencein 2018 2019 where I was just
like okay here's what I can do.

Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, all the way to the edge, right?

Speaker 2 (23:56):
yeah, it was kind of like a time of like nothing to
lose and, um, I was like, well,yeah, let me just have some fun,
I'll put a piano in thesavannah, of course, you know
like that's how we introduced alot of people in Trinidad that
piano in the savannah, but youcan't get there, it'll get there
, just so.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Where did classical training start?
You had to be playing fromyoung yeah, really young.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I was fortunate to be sent to lessons on stuff, to be
sent to lessons and stuff whenI was like four or five years
old.
Um, I have a sister.
I have an older sister wholives in the states and she was
doing piano lessons as well.
So we would kind of like youknow, you have a sibling doing
it and you know you're doing ittogether, we play duets together
, you know.
So, yeah, it's um, I did have.

(24:41):
Um, where's this formaltraining like grades?

Speaker 1 (24:45):
in music from five up till, I think, around 13 oh
there's 13, I thought there'sstop and two where I stopped
where you stopped probably two,two years ago.

Speaker 2 (24:55):
I'm a real rum shop musician.
I play when I hear people play,but listen, I heard you do a
whole like you are a writer am Iyou are a producer.
You are a writer.
Am I?
You are a producer.
I heard, like you do, a wholesong that got very popular over
the season.
There's quite a novel concept.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
The Lazy Rum Shop concept.
You know, when you grew up inSt James, you had to be able to
come up with something.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
It resonated with a lot of people.
It resonated with me.
So I mean, training or not.
We have musicians, and veryfamous musicians, who have
absolutely no training in music.
It was funny to bring that up.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
I had lou here, uh, from free town, a few episodes
ago and you know, something hesaid sparked a thought in me
right, because you have trainedclassical musicians or trained
in any, any, any genre or field,uh, but he was saying that so
many of our musicians learn byrote.
Yeah, like I learned bywatching somebody else play
quattro.
Yeah, figure out what they'redoing, try it, and when you do

(25:51):
that, you almost have to developyour own style, because it's
years after, after I reallycould play.
I start seeing the people who Ilearned from and I realized
what I was hearing and what Idid is not what they were doing,
but against a similar, similarsong.
Yeah, and I wonder if sometimesit doesn't, if there's not room
for us to retool the educationsystem to help the people to

(26:13):
learn, like, formalize the roadto learning.
Right, you know maybe there'sthe opportunity to do that.

Speaker 2 (26:18):
So I do think now within the secondary school
curriculum like music is a.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
I think music is our subject.
I have not been in in thatsystem.
My son is in form one.
He does music.
He's playing keyboard too.
Yeah and um so there is.

Speaker 2 (26:31):
I think there has been a move to kind of they're
doing it better.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
It's better than when I was in school people complain
and lewis complain about it.
So the recorder thing right but, um, yeah, I think it takes
some time to learn whatinstruments you really like and
what you want to play.

Speaker 2 (26:45):
Oh, yeah, yeah, because that's a whole discovery
process of course, of coursebecause I tried playing guitar
and I was not drawn.
I love guitar, I love to listento guitar, but I was not drawn
to it in terms of like how itfelt and how I.
My mind sees things like thatthat was not working for me and

(27:06):
it was kind of big for me tohold when I was, you know,
tinier.

Speaker 1 (27:09):
Of course yeah, because you start from five
years old yeah, yeah so you'realways drawn to piano, like from
that young age you wanted to doit, or wasn't there anything
your parents made you do I?

Speaker 2 (27:18):
did, I think because my sister was doing it.
It's like okay, somebody doingit, I think because my sister
was doing it, it's like okay,somebody doing it.
So I'm going to do lessons,right, gotcha?
And then it was a very naturalthing for me.
I had a lovely teacher as myfirst teacher, just a very
gentle she's passed away now,but very gentle.

Speaker 3 (27:35):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:36):
Who really kind of like, took you on, instilled
like music, in just a wonderfulway, like I'd have a big
scrapbook, like drawing, liketreble clef, different signs,
cause when you're that small,like young, like reading and
writing, you know.
So she was just reallynurturing.

Speaker 1 (27:56):
I think that was it what was her name Yvonne James.
Yvonne James.

Speaker 2 (27:59):
She used to live on O'Connor street.
Oh, I to live on o'connorstreet.
Oh, I see, yeah, in woodbrook,yeah, okay, and um, I had
several teachers after that too,but I think she really
introduced that in it and theremay have been a time when I
wanted to stop, probably likearound nine, ten years old, and
I do think my mom would havekind of pushed me to continue.

(28:21):
Um, I didn't even stop forcommon entrance, like that's
nice yeah that's not mostpeople's story, right?
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (28:28):
you usually stop any extracurricular yeah, which I
feel to be a mistake.

Speaker 2 (28:33):
Yeah, but I think that you know, it was kind of
helping me, like in terms of mybrain development and stuff like
that, and I did stop theory, soyou have practical like playing
and then theory and at the time, like you had to do up to grade
5 theory to continue inpractical and I was like listen

(28:54):
after grade 5, that is it for me.
I don't know why.
I want to know all of thisbecause my friend who was doing
like he was he is doing his PhDin music education was telling
me, like grade five, grade sixis actually like a university
type, you know.

Speaker 1 (29:11):
So imagine like you like 12 years old or something
and you do like this kind oflike a one complex thing and the
thing is for context, from fiveto nine ten, you play and
playing at that point in timeYou're playing.
Yeah, I was playing.

Speaker 2 (29:25):
Yeah, so I actually like I'm a music festival winner
, so I would have in theNational Music Festival I would
have won my category in pianosolo for under 12.
And at that point I was awardedthe most outstanding
instrumentalist of the festival.

Speaker 3 (29:41):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (29:41):
Like at 11, you know, and then I continued to win,
like in under 15 and and youknow other categories as I went
on.
But you know, like,interestingly, you know at that
time, like I didn't really thinkI was good no, no really yeah,
I had to go through a lot oflife experiences.
I think the first time Ithought I was good at music was

(30:06):
pretty recent around, likeprobably that same time, like 17
, 2017, 2018.

Speaker 1 (30:13):
Yeah, yeah yeah, I'm sure you experienced people
telling you a good long time,because the first time I saw you
play, like you say, when we sawthat on the some, you know
you're still dealing withsomebody who played then I knew
okay, what I was capable of buta lot of people tell me you were
winning all these things andyou were always doing music in
school and always doing what youdidn't know you were good.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
I'm like no, I don't recall ever having an experience
where I knew that this wassomething above average or like
some.
There was never anybody pull measide and say, hey, you know,
I'll get out of this, that neverhappened in my life.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
That's what the awards were supposed to be
saying.

Speaker 2 (30:52):
Yeah, I know, but I was just like okay, well, I did
this thing and I win this thing,Okay well, you get used to it.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Well, I didn't think it was anything you, it was
anything you know, until Irealized well, listen, I think
I'm, I think I'm pretty good, Ithink I'm pretty good,
interested in life from whereyou were there.
So that message you send me,where I just working on being
happy, is a big shift yeah,perspective right yeah big, big
shift.
So classical.

(31:19):
Anybody who trained music wouldknow that typically when you're
going through those gradesyou're playing mostly classical
pieces yes, you are where did itchange for you and you used?

Speaker 2 (31:28):
you always used to play a lot of local music or
different genres of music orinterested in it yes, I think I
was always interested because,um, I would have had that
influence like living so closeto face, to pan groove and hair
and, nissan, you know, like lenbooksy shop compositions like,
oh my gosh, like I know someintros to stuff by heart like,

(31:48):
is mind your business?
Yeah, I mean, this is like wepick out the chords you know
what they're doing.
You're figuring out, yeah likewe work and I'm figuring all
these things.
So like being able to mesh it,yeah, I would always.
And then in school we wouldConvent Port of Spain is where I

(32:10):
went to school.
St Joseph's we would where we,you know, met our mutual friend
Adele of course yeah we were inclass.
We were in class together for awhile got it got.
It Is where, like, we would haveschool calypso competitions,
Right, and I would do, like youknow, fun funny things with like

(32:30):
the.
I was like okay, well, thisperson will enter through the
Mission Impossible theme, Likeyou know, and we mesh that in
with our calypso, or you knowlike.

Speaker 1 (32:40):
So you're playing for the?

Speaker 3 (32:41):
people who sang.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
Yes, I, I think I wanted to sing on.
My calypso was toocontroversial, I know, sure, um.
So it was a time when, um doyou remember, there was this
thing with a young girl wearinga hijab I remember yes it was

(33:03):
sagged oh no, the convent wasone too.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
There are a few, there are a few instances of it,
actually but we were notallowed to wear really any
religious um things so I couldnot.

Speaker 2 (33:14):
So um.
I grew up catholic.
Now I'm more much spirit, morelike spiritual, open-minded
person, but at the time like Iwould have wanted to wear a
cross.
Um, I mean, people wear symbolsfor different things, whatever,
whatever it means, and I had asong called If she Wears she
Hijab, I Wear my Cross.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
Oh, yeah, so yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
You want me to sing a little piece of it.
I mean, yeah, it's kind of whatwe like.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Do you remember it?

Speaker 2 (33:41):
I'm wearing my big gold cross and I'm playing boss.
They can't tell me what to doBecause I have my rights to a
playing boss.
I ain't taking it off.
If she wears she hijab, I wearmy cross X of Johanna.
No way, johanna, you cannotcome up here in a Catholic

(34:03):
school.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
That is not in Kipiluragad.
Convergill Johanna.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
So, no, I did not sing that song and I support
wearing all forms of whateveryou want to wear, you know, but
there are rules to play withinwhen we are in systems and we
are.
That's how it goes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:22):
You think about the song and the idea behind it.
It would be a good conceptbecause it's such a big issue in
the country at the time.
You should give somebody to goup in the monarchy.
Somebody would sing it.
Yeah, somebody would sing it,yeah.
So those, those that thatalmost in you innately.
So the local music I like.
I like the, that hearing thatbugsy is so interesting.
You just they're beating thatwhen they're rehearsing, yeah, I

(34:43):
mean 20 times and I'm playingit slow too yeah of course, I'm
playing it fast.

Speaker 2 (34:49):
I'm learning the whole thing I learn in it.

Speaker 1 (34:55):
So even while you're doing your corporate job, you're
gigging and stuff.

Speaker 2 (34:58):
At that point in time , yes, off and on On weekends,
like weddings, funerals,memorial things, little
functions, things like that.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Is it typical trinidadian home where everybody
come home they say oh, theyplay, yeah, yeah yeah, all your
siblings play instruments.

Speaker 2 (35:18):
It's just a brother and sister um it's three of us
right so I have an older sister,few years older, not that old
10 months times of you.
Her name is Christine.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
Right.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
She plays piano, pan, I think.
She plays a little bit ofguitar.
She sings too.
She works in the States, soshe's a scientific consultant.
Nice and myself and my brother,yeah, so we all play, we're all
very musically inclined.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
And you all play multiple instruments.

Speaker 2 (35:49):
Yes, but I mean, piano is my strength.
I mean I could play a scale ortwo on a steel pan actually did
exams on thing on on pan like uecreative arts center exams.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
But I can't you know something like the same thing
you say about piano in theearlys and like nothing special
and.

Speaker 2 (36:09):
My voice like my voice is something that I really
gained a lot of confidence with, probably in the last two years
.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
But where did it start?

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I was a member of the marionette chorale for many,
many years, so I'm a choralesinger.
I was a singer too, turning two.
But I felt like when I wasthere I more like to listen to
harmonies, how harmonies soundall together and like we would
sing.
Like gosh Corey, there werethese very intricate, like eight

(36:43):
part harmony acapella songs.
Right, so no accompaniment.
So when you sing in our part onthe inside, like you have to
hold your own there and you'rehearing like you know, and one
of these things that, um, thechoir leader would do, actually
like to get a better sound,would be to like mix us.
So it's not like sopranos here,altos here, tenors, like you

(37:05):
mix it next to anybody yeah andyou like.
For me it wasn't like opposing,it was like me singing my part
and hearing how it blended withthe other two.
So I enjoyed that aspect ofsinging and singing in a choir
and I, you know, I had all thesesongs in my head like forever,
like other.

(37:26):
There are other songs too um andI was like, who can sing this?
Like it had to be me.
So actually, in terms of, likethe Savannah Grass cover, I
wanted to write arrangements ofsoca music for piano for people
to play.
That's really how that ideastarted, and I still I'm working

(37:48):
towards actually making thosearrangements available, which is
something that and I still I'mworking towards actually making
those arrangements available,which is something that, yeah,
I'm working towards, um, butthen I was like who's gonna play
this?
Like how do you know how itsound?
like I had to play it.
So that's how I end up playingthese things to say like let me
show you, like, let let me showwhat this could sound like,

(38:12):
because I don't think Ioriginally wanted to like be
seen or be in the forefrontdoing this right but when I was
like, who else, who else?
who you going to give thisarrangement of Savannah Grass?
And what's the other thing,plenty girl, have man, like all

(38:34):
of these songs, forget if Isingle Orlando Octave, orlando
Octave, who are you going togive this?
Which pianist are you going tosay here?

Speaker 1 (38:42):
Yeah, you do it.

Speaker 2 (38:43):
Like you play this, I'm like, well, it had to be me
to push this vision Like I hadthe vision.
You know, it's kind of hardsometimes for people to see your
vision, because it's yourvision.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And it's different when youexecute on your vision than when
you do it through people.
So I appreciate you taking thatstep.
Always saw it as you know,seeing it initially played.
Maybe it's the way my mindworks.
When you see somebody play aswell as you do and you're silent
vocally throughout the wholething, it's almost like you see
that person as they don't talk.
That's how my mind is, likethat person yeah, exactly, right

(39:15):
, exactly.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
And so for a long time, like I wasn't comfortable
really with like talking, I liketo talk a lot more now.

Speaker 3 (39:23):
I mean, I'm always talking my personal life like
I'm one of those people likealways on the phone and we just
like exchanging thoughts.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
And you know, Got you I love to talk For the public
talking yeah.
And so finding my voice singingactually helped me speak up
more and also, in my personallife, helped me speak up on
things that I wasn't able tospeak up for a long time.
I was doing a lot of peoplepleasing.

(39:51):
I was, you know, in these rolesof, so that you know.
People tell me, like what isthis?
I don't know much about chakras, but they say, like my throat
chakra cleared in a way.
So now you know, and some of itwas because I wanted to sing my
own stuff, Like who I going togive forever to?

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Yeah, I can imagine.

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Actually, I wanted to collaborate on this song with a
Soka artist Because I had adifferent idea for it and it
would have been a song more likemore fused, sorry, and the
person wanted to buy it and turnit into pure Soca, which is a
kind of I love you forever, ever, ever, ever, which is beautiful

(40:36):
.
And I'm like why don't youremix this song after?
Like, I don't mind if you, youknow, remix this, but he didn't
have a collaboration in mind.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Right.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
And I really wanted to stay true to it and what it
felt like to me.
So I was like oh well, joanna,you had to sing now.
Yeah, you had to sing yourstuff now because it's your
vision, like you have to put itforward in the way that you see
it, and so, yeah, I had to likefind out what is my voice now,

(41:06):
not in a choral setting whereyou are sort of trained to blend
with other voices because Ididn't know what my voice was
like, and when I first startedsinging I thought I was shouting
oh wait, this was went to thechoir, I mean no um singing solo
.

Speaker 1 (41:22):
Okay, gotcha, yeah on my own.

Speaker 2 (41:24):
I actually um, you know, because I would have
worked with a lot of singers.
I was so blessed that, you know, I know people that could sing
so I'm like, and I want to getsome coaching sessions, I want
to get some guidance yeah, we'rebetter to start on marionette.

Speaker 1 (41:38):
It explains a lot.
I saw you one time at umperforming with etty and charles
at a show in queensville rightand he had opened the show right
, yeah yeah, and I remember well, two things stood out.
No, so again, senior play forthe first time.
I said right, she didn't knowhow come she played.
And when I saw you sing there Iwas like, okay, yeah I did sing
there too.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
I did the um thinking oh lord passion, militant
passion, mashup, I think oh,that's what it was I think I
like to feel your body with theway how you're walking in I
think it was that one Amo Dupé.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
Yeah, it did a few because you stopped.
Right, that's right, that'sright.
And when I hear you sing, I sayno, she's just vocally trained
too.
This is not by guess either.
So the marionettes and so onmake a lot of sense.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
Yeah, I think possibly.
Yeah, that training, that one Ididn't have like much form, I
didn't do grades or anything inin singing or anything like that
.
But then even before that,corey, I could remember like in
primary school when you you knowsongs and stuff like yellow
bird you had to lie, we used tolay down, I had to play it on

(42:44):
the recorder.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Okay, we used to play it on quatra same thing, right
right, right.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
I could hear harmonies in my mind your love
for harmonies.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
It explains a lot about even forever.
I love harmonies oh gosh, Ilove them.

Speaker 2 (42:59):
And um, you know like no, there are a lot of terms
that I don't know in music, likesome of my friends who are have
had tertiary level training.
They would say like this iscounterpoint melodies.
I'm going to Google it, yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:13):
Chad should be teasing a friend.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
Yeah, it was counterpoint you know, and
finding all that, some of thethings that I would do,
naturally, like they are.
You know words for it, you know.
So it's been like a realinteresting journey and
expansion and forever.
I Well, interesting journey andexpansion and forever.
We spoke about this and Iproduced this song as well,

(43:35):
which with that was somethingnew for me.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, you told me that Outsider, kyle Peters, who
played on it.
Yes, shout out to Kyle, he's amess.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Yeah, kyle is brilliant.
Kyle is really really brilliant.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
In so many ways yeah.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
Also, you know, as a producer as well.
Yeah, so this, like I wanted toget forever to the point of a
demo so that I could take it toa producer, that was my whole
thing would start and to kind ofyou know, fiddle along.
And then, as it went on, I waslike wait, I could do this, I

(44:12):
think I could do this, I think Icould do this.
And then, um, I got access toum splice do you know splice?
it's a sound library okay I feellike that was a missing link.
So you have beats loops.
I mean, I think a lot of ourproducers locally and
internationally are using Splice.
You could type in Indian beatflute and just like preview all

(44:39):
of what you want.
It lists it like according tothe BPM and the key.
You download the sound that youwant you bring it into your
project.
I would have had to tweak someof them a little bit to get it
in time or to get it in theright key of the song right but
this now you're learning as yougo along.

Speaker 1 (44:56):
You just figure out the production thing as you go.

Speaker 2 (44:58):
Yes, yes, there was also.
So there's a friend of minecalled janine ruiz um, a
wonderful, also producermusician.
I did do like a few sessionswith her to help me with
software.

Speaker 1 (45:09):
Gotcha, because I'm like it's a new world, right,
you're going right back intoengineering.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
Yeah, yeah.
And now I would use Logicbefore to record piano.
Right, I've played piano onvarious things, some songs you
hear, some of the piano is mine,sometimes on some popular songs
you must tell us.

Speaker 1 (45:29):
Which was one that came on like Apple Music and
Spotify do a great job tellingus the instrumentals there's one
called.

Speaker 2 (45:34):
There's one called Best Friend, that Nyla and
Viking Ding Dong released thisyear.
Um, I play keys on that, yeah,yeah.
So you know I would have usedLogic before to like put down my
keys and bounce the track, saveit and send it to a producer.
But to say, like to put, andI've done a few things like
strings and whatnot and with it,but to say like a whole song

(45:57):
and it really beats anythingright.
So I mean there had times when,like in terms of like data
management, like my projectcrash and saying I get corrupted
, I'd be like yo, janine, likewhat to do?
Hashtag johanna, relax, take adeep breath, send me a file.
You know she actually, like,helped me retrieve some of my

(46:20):
files because, like a few daysbefore thing, crashed and all
you will, you're gonna love it.
Yeah, so yeah, but that was sucha beautiful, beautiful
experience for me.
I really learned like some moreof my capability and I feel
like that song and all I went toit is more in line with what I

(46:45):
can do and what I want to do.
I challenged myself to not usepiano I used it towards the end.
But I was like can I build asong that doesn't have so much
piano in it?
just step in out of your comfortzone a little bit yeah, yeah, I
mean everything I built using akeyboard right, because I just

(47:08):
yeah, you know, makes sense butum, yeah, and the introduction
of, like the sound library, withsplice with these beats like
just mmm, mmm yeah when I findthese beats mmm it comes in here
, sorry boy, like final productis something else because people
are saying you know, likeJoanna, we listening to your
music, are we doing meditation,are we doing yoga?

(47:28):
Great, which is great, which isgreat.
That's really good.
I want to like have some, youknow, have some vibe, like I
have some Samadhat in me andyeah, like the beats, I like the
beats gotcha.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
So again, samadhat out, there was also with Long
Time right, because Long Time issoka soka yeah, there was long
times reminding me about.
Korea I forget what.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
I do that's when he used to do a lot.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
I don't know boy.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
You said 10 months, 10 months younger but in mine,
like I just like right, longtime was 2023.
I think and that was I alsoco-wrote that song With Kyle
Phillips, right, who's a bad?
John Republic, of course yeah,um Kenny Alright.

(48:18):
Shout out, shout out.
It's another Kyle.
I was talking about how youknow this.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
So many calls.
We have a Kyle.

Speaker 2 (48:25):
Yeah, it's true, off stage what we call Off camera,
off camera.

Speaker 1 (48:28):
Yeah, that's his brand himself.
Make sure you have water too.

Speaker 2 (48:32):
Yeah, so what we were talking about right long time?
Yeah, that was Soca.

Speaker 3 (48:38):
Soca, Soca.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Yeah, and I wanted to do a Soca song and then, coming
towards the end of long time, Idon't know if you listen to the
whole thing, but it goes intolike all the time, kaiso whole
thing, but it goes into, likeall the time, kaizo as well it's
it you had done it as aseparate

Speaker 3 (48:56):
track as well.
Yes, I like it a lot I did.

Speaker 2 (48:57):
I love the feel of it version.

Speaker 1 (48:58):
Yes yeah, I like it a lot, so it's real.
Real, I mean, when you learn toplay music.
I learned from, I learnedcalypso it's have quatra.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
In there there's a janine ruiz same girl I'm
talking about she.
Can she play just?

Speaker 1 (49:11):
just the feel of it, that that kind of case of you.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
What do you call that ?
Again, I forget it.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Have a weird feel there is yeah tell us in the
comments, tell us in thecomments but that, that, that,
that feel and everything.
So, when I heard the, becausethe soaker is like power soaker.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
Yes, it is power soaker.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
And then it's get a lav way.
Feel like a lav way.

Speaker 2 (49:39):
There's a lav way.
It switches into that.
Have you seen a video of it?

Speaker 1 (49:43):
No, I didn't see the video video that you put
together.
You're scripting and coming upwith your ideas.

Speaker 2 (49:48):
Yes, yes yes, and of course the videographer also has
their creativity in it andwhatnot.
But yeah, I could see.
So when I write and arrangemusic visually, I have an idea
of what I want it to look likeas well.
So putting out a song is kindof expensive Probably.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
I imagine.

Speaker 2 (50:08):
No other do a video too and the quality of videos.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
I was telling you is aces, thank you, thank you so
I'd ask you about that what doesit take to make that step, to
do that Savannah Grass cover?
How do you move it from thelittle girl who's listening to
Boogzy Home to being on theSavannah stage to do that?

Speaker 2 (50:26):
wow um stage to do that, wow um.
I want to say, like I will tellyou what I think happened, but
I don't want to say that that isthe route that it has to happen
by, because I feel like it wasa hard and somewhat traumatic
route and now in this part of mylife, I have been trying to

(50:46):
like line up more with, raise myvibration and like come into
alignment more with these typesof projects and stuff.
I think I went through like alot of personal traumatic events
in my life.
Um, really, there was a pointin time when I was just very,
very broken and putting myselfback together.

(51:08):
I sort of remembered, like hey,like I like music and hey, I
think I'm good at music.
Like new thoughts started tocome into my mind.
Sorry, in 2018, the company Iwas working with closed and I
started interviewing for otherpositions in HR.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
This is 2019 now.
I did two interviews.
I was unsuccessful, you know,like johanna.
We regret to inform you I wentto like a recruitment agency and
I was like sitting theretalking, I like I just kind of
feeling that like something off.
I just had this feeling likesomething is off, almost like a.
They were really nice with mein the recruitment agency.

(51:52):
Everything was going and I justwanted to like get out of it
and I started to think like howdo I wrap this up?
Because I don't want to be here.
And at that time, going on, itwas like I didn't have anything
to lose and I was like, well, Iwant to do this cover of this
song.
Um, it's not an originalconcept.

(52:15):
There.
There is a group called do youknow the piano guys?
no, the piano guys it's a guyplaying piano and one playing
cello I see and they have theirinstruments, like all over the
world, like in differentlocations, and they cover songs,
and I was like trinidad andtobago.
We have beauty here.
We have such wonderful spotsand iconic spots here and I want

(52:40):
to showcase one, something setto music.
It's like okay, savannah grass,let's go in savannah.
No, interestingly enough, thatwas not the song that I thought
would get popular no that day Idid.
I covered two songs trinity boneand savannah grass.
Trinity bone was the one like Iwas really, like you know,

(53:04):
geared up for and whatnot and Ilike, I changed my clothes and
we repositioned the piano.
So there is Trinidad, and Bondgot striked from YouTube did it.
Yeah, copyright right yeah andI had to attend YouTube school
oh nice which is just like.
It's really just a few, a fewminutes where it takes you

(53:26):
through.
You know you're not supposed todo this and answer some
multiple choice questions.
If you get three strikes too, itsuspends your call yeah, yeah,
yeah so that is quite a a songthat you know just heads up.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
Be careful covering Chinese Ribbon.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
Yeah, so yeah, and people liked Savannah Grass a
lot.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
But Savannah Grass would have been that year.
No, people liked Savannah grassa lot, but Savannah grass would
have been that year.
No, yes, 2019.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
It was 2019.
And then all sorts of thingsstarted happening after that.
Like I remember watching thisvideo go viral on Facebook.
I was like wow.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
The Savannah grass video yeah it's like this is
crazy.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
And then I was playing in Kess Tuesday on the
rocks.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
And then I was playing in Ubersoka Cruise, the
rocks and then I was playing anuber soca cruise and then I was.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
I was like so it kind of take off from there.
Yeah, so that's where it's intothe piano girl.

Speaker 3 (54:21):
So uber soca cruise I was.

Speaker 2 (54:21):
I was looking for a name um, that would mean piano,
but that would not limit me toone genre.
Because people were saying socapianist.
People were saying limit me toone genre.
Because people were saying socapianist.
People were saying and on uber,soca cruise.
People kept coming up to me andsaying are you the piano girl?
Because I have my whole name,you know johanna chukari.
Johanna chukari is quite a longname and they're like you're

(54:44):
the piano girl.
I was like yeah, you're thepiano girl.
I'm like I go on online, isthis name taken?
And now is it the piano girl?

Speaker 1 (54:51):
the little like Trinisa the piano girl.

Speaker 2 (54:53):
Yeah, the piano girl, and now that was the end of
that.
I didn't think too much aboutBrandon I didn't think some
people don't like to say thename they think is.
I think they feel like they'redisrespecting me to announce we
now have in these corporateformal functions the piano girl
I would have think so, to behonest that's like the brand,
like if you come up to meoutside and you're like a piano

(55:16):
girl or a that is very true tothe idea and people say hey,
wait, now use not the piano girl.
Yeah, that's it, that is me,that's me, so call me it like I
want you to use that name.
I love when people actually Iwant that necklace in dpg, like
you know.
You know, like I love whenpeople use the name with the

(55:36):
introduction of singing.
I was, like you know, peopleask me are you gonna like,
change or rebrand?

Speaker 1 (55:41):
and produce.

Speaker 2 (55:42):
Yeah, I was like you know, you know what?
No, I'm here already this isjust, this is, this is what it
is, and everything is under thatbrand I love it.
I love it there's somethingbigger than me, of course, yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
Yeah, that's how it goes right with brands, right.
So I will turn it to the bone,I guess.
Yeah, I guess it makes sense.
I would have thought that wouldbe bigger too.
Uh, maybe it's just myreverence for that song and the
people very patriotic too.
But you know, funny enough,savannah grass as a song itself
started to become that.
Without saying isa trini, itbecame a signatory of the trin

(56:16):
big onion in its own way.
Yeah, a lot of things happened.
Savannah grass that year too,because I remember the song well
, is reminiscent of the severalsongs that were there before.
Right, right which song is onyeah, well, that's which song is
called structure is familiaryeah so, um, that was that.
And it started to pick up andthe kind of ode to the savannah

(56:39):
resonated with a lot of peopleand it started to resonate with
people outside the carnival,because that's somebody who grew
up where you grew up, you knowkite flying in the savannah and
what easter is like, and itstarts to build and build, and
then it was the pooey right, andthen kes did a video and then
his father had a dance and itwas dedicated to his father and
it just and you gave that song,did you just elevate it again?
thank you only if you you acceptthat you would have had it a

(57:03):
whole lot?

Speaker 2 (57:03):
do you know?
I didn't until there was aconversation that kes had with
me on uber so Cruise.
It was, you know, just a lovelymoment where you get to enter.
One of these things about thatenvironment is like you get to
mingle with like guests of thecruise.
Mingling with like artists justeverybody just all together.
And he said, you know hisfather had passed away, right.

(57:26):
And he said, you know, when hestarted to see like people
covering his song and theversion that I did, it sort of
like fueled him, it gave him aninfusion of energy which he then
gave back out.
And this is the thing withinspiration it's not a one-way
street.
Like I, I am inspired heresitting today talking to you I

(57:47):
think you are, I hope you areinspired by me and like it goes
back and forth and it is justthis wonderful exchange of
energy and like I, I kind of Ido understand that what I did
with this song and how it movedpeople.
I think I understand that nowand I mean it was like my honor,
like to you know, to be ablethat.

Speaker 1 (58:09):
Yeah, let me lay it on a little more there too,
because I think more than justgood, bring it, bring it, I'm
taking it, I like that, I'msoaking it up like in the sun.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
You are my sun.
That's what we're here for.
I like that.
Shine on me.
It's one more time.
Shine on me.

Speaker 1 (58:31):
I think one of the things that powerful for me too
is it's just that the experienceof learning music in school
right it is.
So I feel it to be a little bitlimited even now looking at my
son grow up, because he had thisexperience the other day where
he was.
He's playing keyboard too andhe's good.
I guess his grandfather and themusical people he have it in
him.
Yeah any blood I hear any touch.
You know, when I hear him playI say, well, you, you could play
.
But yeah, just like what yousaid about theory, he gets maybe
a little bored or frustratedwith the kind of pedantic

(58:52):
process.
But you gotta go through that,fingers gotta get wise.
That's just what it is yeah but,um, I saw something light up in
him recently when he wasplaying.
I was practicing for somethingI had to do for the podcast and
I think this song was also akiss song his miss how she name
and I was practicing forsomething I wanted to do
practicing and I think this songwas also a Kess song it's Miss
how.

Speaker 2 (59:11):
She Name and I was practicing for something I
wanted to do.

Speaker 1 (59:13):
You were practicing, you know, more like a quattro.
I was on the quattro in thenext room.
Okay, okay, just playing it out.

Speaker 2 (59:15):
I feel like we should have had our instruments today.
We had to do our next one, Allright good.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
I'm glad I didn't have to ask.

Speaker 2 (59:20):
Okay.
So I chords and he could playall the chords nice, because he
told me, you know school boys,so they have a teacher named
miss fortune.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Okay, so every time she leave the class all he will
class him is fortunate.

Speaker 2 (59:40):
I love it and how they fit it in.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
So, yeah, that works sweet.
So I say, well, I let him playthe chords first.
And when he was playing it, andI play along with him, uh, I
started singing it and he saidwhat you could play that with
this?
And I was like, yeah, music ismusic.
The genre thing is a marketingthing, but music is music.
Oh thank you for saying thatthat genre is because I find it
quite a limiting word yeah, ofcourse I would.

(01:00:02):
I would imagine for you inparticular.
I would imagine you would findit limited.
Yeah sorry, go on with the storybut no, I just saw how it
unlocked in him because this isright, yes, is guess means a lot
to him, right, and the songmeans a lot to him.
And misfortune, they mean a lotto him and when it, when it
localized or made it relevantfor him yeah I saw a different
energy when he come frompracticing next week because

(01:00:23):
when he when he went he say Iplay it for them anything and
all the boys sing misfortune.
I said that's what music is.
Music is plenty borrowing,plenty learning, plenty
experimenting, and it's moresimilar than we think this whole
genre thing.
So I felt like if you unlockeda lot of that in a lot of people
, by playing that song.

Speaker 2 (01:00:41):
Somebody told me like I make piano look cool, this is
what I mean.
Somebody told me and I neverthought about that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
That might be why the thing went viral with Savannah
Grass, because it's relevant topeople who the younger people is
always making viral right,despite what we like to think.
So when they latch on to ityeah and they share it with
their friends.
It's like look what the song'slike.
And I think it didn't just, itdidn't just play the song, it's
at the front arrangement the wayit introduced it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
I worked real long on the introduction.

Speaker 1 (01:01:09):
You did.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
The introduction to the song, which is just like
probably 15 seconds or something.
I feel like I think I worked onit like maybe a week, like a
little bit at a time, thinkinglike what could really introduce
a song of this magnitude.
Like you know, there areelements of this.

(01:01:31):
I sing it wrong here, but ithas the chorus in it.
The introduction is and it wasalmost like I remember somebody
saying this song is like acalling of people to come out so
that like I thought of like acommunity and so have some

(01:01:52):
gospel like a chord progressionin there which almost feel a
little like communal call, andcome together yeah, and you know
, then have some little you knowthings in there, sprinklings
which are me.
But yeah, I really thoughtabout this introduction.
You know people talk.
There were several people Ishowed it to who kind of told me

(01:02:14):
, like you know, we don't likethis.

Speaker 3 (01:02:16):
I mean like industry professionals.
This is always.

Speaker 2 (01:02:19):
By the way, I want to see when you're doing something
different on out of the box.
Please don't listen to anybodyplease like because it's your,
my, it's your vision is myvision, is our vision is.
Only us know what it's going tolook like and it's very hard at

(01:02:41):
least for me, it was very hardto find people to line up with
that.
So people thought I needed tochange that.
I needed to, and I was justtrue to myself and I feel like
when you're true to yourself andyou really believe in yourself,
like I'm saying, cory, we haveto believe in what we are doing
so much and so like,unapologetically and with such

(01:03:05):
conviction that the peoplearound us have no choice but to
believe in us we feel thevibration.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
Yeah, yeah, is you tell me about these streams of
success?
You know, yes, so if youbelieve in yourself, there's no
feeling there's no feeling and,and you know it's so reminiscent
when you tell me how long youwork on the intro yeah, and then
you also tell me it was alittle girl listening to bugsy.
Yeah, it kind of makes sense,because that's one of the things
that Boogzy is known for whathappens in the opening.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
Listen you like.
Okay, okay you, I did not putthis together.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Me neither, but I put it together now.
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (01:03:42):
Not true?
Let me just take a moment tofeel that the beauty of what you
just said.

Speaker 1 (01:03:55):
The intro, that, the beauty of what you just said.
The intro, yeah, the intro.
Yeah, yeah, bugsy, don't playwith that.
This is what he's known forwhen he starts, you gotta listen
.
And it's exactly what happened.

Speaker 2 (01:04:01):
Savannah grass wow, no, I did not from nowhere right
.
I did not realize until you sayit.
When you, when you song start,you just have to listen.
Yeah, it pulls you.
When your songs start, you justhave to listen, yeah, it pulls
you in, and that is what IWanted to do With that intro.

Speaker 1 (01:04:16):
And the intro.
Congrats, you did it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:17):
Thank you, the intro became used by like Kes was
using it To introduce theirsongs.
You know, I get a messagesaying hey, could you send us
that intro?

Speaker 1 (01:04:25):
No Kes Tuesdays.
Now I forget the new name forit not tuesday is we, is we yeah
?
Yeah, yeah but yeah, you hearhim using it when he performs.

Speaker 2 (01:04:33):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so I get a message saying, hey,
could you send us the way youfile the mp3 and low quality
like send us.
You know the rip, you know, andso it's really nice when you
have artists who kind of likesee that and they realize, like
you know, you work together andof course there's.

Speaker 1 (01:04:52):
At this point, when I look at the amount of people
who we have worked with,collaborated with, contributed
to nobody no, there's no artiststhat not on the list.

Speaker 3 (01:05:00):
Yeah on the list yeah where you getting this list.

Speaker 2 (01:05:05):
I just make more listen, since you talked to me
in last few episodes.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
I'm making a lesson.
I don't stop making lessons,wow.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
But I see everybody, almost everybody, in that space
there's a lot, and there's a lotof it's like mixed genres too
of course they have like the inthe classical world, like John
Thomas, wendy Shepard, you know,like different yeah, so I
really like yeah, any thoughtson that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
When you're a child, learning and stuff, that you
have ambitions to be the pianogirl you ever thought you'd be
here.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
That's a great question.
I mean, I didn't think that itwould be this, what it is, but I
would say that I did feel thisdesire to create, a desire to
have fun.
Really, you know, like thereare things about the piano girl

(01:06:02):
that I liked the only time Irefer to her in third person a
lot of times, like in my notes,to the videographer.
I'm like.
I don't like how she look inthere.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
Or in your group chat too.

Speaker 2 (01:06:13):
Yeah, yeah, boys, like real, like you know, you
know, could we and it helps meto like separate myself from?
That because that's not.
You know, there's a whole lotmore to Johanna than some.
In a lot of ways, that's a rulethat I'm playing.
There is a lot of me in it, butit's not all me gotcha.
So you know, like I rememberbeing younger and like dressing

(01:06:34):
up with my sister, like puttingon stuff, like fashion.
That's something I like toexperiment with as a piano girl,
you know in that last video,like I dressed up in like this
Bollywood style and then she hadlike this hoodie and you know,
like different, you knowdifferent things.
Like today I came wearing myhair in two Like you know, I
like to, you know stuff likethat, a little bit of fashion in

(01:06:57):
there.
So, no, I don't think I knewthat this was what it was going
to be like, but there areelements of it that you know,
like you kind of resonate withyou or things you like doing or
things you have fun doing.
Arranging music, writing musicwas something I liked when I was

(01:07:18):
younger.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Like poems.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
I have books with you know things and little songs Of
course, songs that we mightstill hear.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:07:27):
If it forever could come out, we could hear some
more.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah .

Speaker 1 (01:07:31):
You said that the choice of doing it at iconic
locations is deliberate, BecauseI saw San Fernando Hill Temple
on the sea savannah stage, or somany of them yes I think it
helps to enhance everything elsethat you're doing, because
people connect with those thingsin different ways.
It's just like the songs yeah,you know which one.
You remember which one?
It did on san fernando hill,god bless our nation god bless

(01:07:53):
our nation.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Yeah, that's a big tune, of course I was like where
do I do this one.
I haven't done something insouth.
Like you know, let me honorsouth trinidad, um, and I was
like this hill.
Like you know, you, we getshots to the hill and it's
really a powerful place to belike around this monumentous

(01:08:13):
piece of rock that is just likethe earth, you know, like, yes,
there's a lot, and when I recordin locations, I feel a lot of
the energy there.

Speaker 1 (01:08:24):
That's good.
That's good.
I was going to ask about thatbecause our iconic video to me,
ricky J, had done some intro upthere, which was his first real
breakaway hit, one of the firstsongs that I really called
Chutney Soaker.
You know before that they wouldhave said Indian Calypso Right,
and Kenny was talking a lotabout that.
He was our main contributor.
I like to tell Kenny he's oneof the inventors.
He don't like when I say that,but he's one of the inventors of

(01:08:50):
Chutney Soaker I so KylePhillips mixed the song forever.

Speaker 3 (01:08:56):
Don't worry.
Yeah so well, I recorded.
You have both Kyles on it.
Yeah, Kyle squared.

Speaker 2 (01:09:01):
I was like well, I say well, peters is only play on
hits Right and Phillips is onlyrecord hits, so I real good
here.
I going real good here, but no,but as I say that, as I walk
into that studio because Irecorded Forever Vocals at I
think it's KMP Music.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Lab in Palm East right.

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Very true.

Speaker 2 (01:09:19):
As I walk in there, like I'm thinking, like so many
hits make hair like Marshall,like you know people, yeah like
the energy of a space is reallysomething I mean, and you could
get that anywhere Like, that'snot to say like in your studio
at home, of course, of course.
You know, because the rest ofthe song creates in my studio at
home, well, on a desk.

Speaker 3 (01:09:40):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:09:42):
But yeah, like just to be around that good energy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:46):
Yeah, yeah important, and I like that you're
continuing to do it.
I have a Fort George requestbut at your own time.

Speaker 2 (01:09:56):
I have a Tobago request at your own time.
No, listen, tobago.
Listen, I want to.

Speaker 1 (01:09:58):
you have to come with me you just tell me when,
because we're going in the nylonpool oh, there's more than a
bargain, for I had some ideasfor Tobago, but that is way
better than anything I couldhave come up with when the tide
is so low?

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
yeah, when the tide is so low that is like two
inches of water.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
I want to ask you about that logistics-wise,
because you go to a grand pianoand stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:10:20):
Well, I have a shell Now Savannah grass is an actual
piano.
An actual piano will I don'tknow 500 pounds and you're like
nine people on a hydraulic Shoutout to.

Speaker 1 (01:10:33):
Simon's Musical Supplies because he was the one
that brought the piano there inthe Savannah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:38):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (01:10:39):
I have a baby grand piano shell.
It weighs 150 pounds.
The legs come off, a keyboardsits in it.
I see when you see a lot of myvideos, so beyond, probably
beyond 2020, anything beyondthere is a shell.
Okay, well, it makes sense.
Yeah, easier, right, lessstressful.
It's still had to go on a truckit's expensive, but yeah, I

(01:11:00):
would imagine.

Speaker 1 (01:11:01):
Yeah yeah, a lot less manpower for it yes so I want
to fast forward to one of your,one of your.
A place on the soil, uh, a pillwhere I felt really really good
was you and von at bigfoot on12 and under.
Oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:11:15):
I was actually a 12 and under semi-finalist a bus, a
bus in the semis boy, oh coolyeah, and I didn't make it to
the finals, but I won my prelimsand I went on to semi.

Speaker 1 (01:11:28):
So, yes, I would have been around, uncle Morris yes
yeah yeah, yeah, playing, and soy'all, what was this like like
now for you all to be doing thisin your own space, in a whole
new era.

Speaker 2 (01:11:40):
That was a really great, great, great experience
and for me like interacting withyoung people.
I enjoyed some.
I enjoyed a lot of that.

Speaker 3 (01:11:50):
I enjoyed.

Speaker 2 (01:11:51):
I enjoyed that a lot.
I'm working with Bonnet.

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
It was it was great, so you all seemed to mesh.
Yeah, you know, it looked likeOli was hosting something for a
long, long, long, long time andthen Oli gets again.
It looked like Oli bent to it.

Speaker 2 (01:12:04):
I will tell you like I really like connecting with
people.
I like connecting with people.
I mean, what did you see?
A connection.

Speaker 1 (01:12:15):
Yeah, okay, we didn't know each other at all no, so
like I I thought I was mr pianogirl.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
No, no, I mean shout out to jeremy.
Jeremy is a model um, I thinkhe was mr kanupia, some some
years ago um, but yeah.
So just to bring it back to that, like I love connecting with
people and if there's somethingthat me and you could connect on
um whether it's music, whetherit's young people, whether it's

(01:12:44):
like so you know, like I want sand I would have just connected
and brought that energy to dowhat we had to do and supported
each other to get to get it done.
I mean, we had.
There were some challenges,like for myself, like there was
this time.
There's one teleprompter and Ihave to like play and read the

(01:13:06):
teleprompter and watch this wayand I was like what?

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
it was.
It was good, it's live huntingor it was recorded.
Yeah, you did it some of theepisodes.
Well, no, it was recorded okay,good but um, yeah, I mean I
guess you still want to flowstraight through.

Speaker 2 (01:13:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah so it was good, we had a good vibe.
And then there was also um timtim, right behind the scenes,
and he had real good energy too,and it was just it was awesome.

Speaker 1 (01:13:39):
Yes, it's not going on anymore.
What happened to it?

Speaker 2 (01:13:42):
I don't know.
I didn't get no call, but Ididn't see it happening at all
yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:13:48):
For somebody who would have come through that
system very young with yourtalent, how important you feel a
space like that is for littlechildren.
Oh, gosh.

Speaker 2 (01:13:55):
Yes, it is to have the opportunity to just even
like be on a stage and show whatyou can do and be behind a
camera and have that experience.
Yeah, it really is.

Speaker 1 (01:14:08):
That really, really is yeah, so much of the people
who we look up to now are starsin trend that started off on
stages like those you know themore people I talk to here.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
It's amazing to hear how much people was on teen
talent or 12 or whatever it'slike, there's my son they have
um these different festivals fortalent they used to be best
village and better village andlosing several festivals.
We have things going on still,though, right well, I am not.
I don't keep up.
Well, I live in my own littleworld.

Speaker 1 (01:14:38):
Sometimes I try to keep up, but I can tell you now
is very, very different fromwhat it was back then okay
because you don't hear.
There are a few instances ofpeople who would be like a
prodigy, like there's a littleyouth named Zachary Rans yeah,
yeah, he's a next level.

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
He's a star, don't you?

Speaker 1 (01:14:54):
want me to see him no comparison.
Yeah, yeah, I could watch himforever but I found that back
then and maybe it's just youknow sometimes you get so caught
up with your youth that youfind it was the best era ever,
so you just look at thatfavorably compared to now right,
but I used to find I used tohave around, bubbling around,
these talent shows and differentcompetitions and different

(01:15:16):
showcases Okay.
And then sometime you're in afet or you're in a functional
and you see the person and it'slike, hey, this is a little
fellow who used to.
I find that there's.

Speaker 2 (01:15:24):
I see what you mean.

Speaker 1 (01:15:25):
I feel now we need to keep up with TikTok more
because some of these stars arethere, I feel like, yeah, they
have an avenue to get them.
They don't have to go throughnobody again yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
It's just, you know, like a lot of social media now
just decides like this is theperson.

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
I suppose you're probably right.

Speaker 2 (01:15:42):
You know like we have like people like Maya Real.
Do you know Maya Venezuela andsinging Spanish like she yeah,
yeah yeah, and I mean she was inthe One Caribbean, I guess,
contribution Festival, oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
You was booked for it .
No, no, no.
You gave all money and all that.
No, no, no.
Okay, just checking.

Speaker 2 (01:16:02):
I didn't get that call.
I didn't get that call.

Speaker 1 (01:16:06):
Yet, yeah, you never know, because it's still going
on.
It seems to be the festivalthat never ends, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
But, but yeah, like we have all of these people like
you know, um, maybe the focusis there.
Now we have social media,really people like the audience
is coming out and saying, hey,this is what we like this is who
we want to hear.
We don't need to win acompetition anymore, like the
people have spoken, we havespoken, we are using this song,
we're singing this song, we'redoing this dance we, you know
what?
I mean.
So it might be like a change toyeah, just a shift in the whole

(01:16:40):
landscape shift.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Yeah, because there's a.
I was looking at um molly whowas booked for the like.

Speaker 2 (01:16:50):
It breaks all the borders you can do it pretty
much anywhere yeah, like Gladys,I mean her remix of that song,
like we have like Stars in Dubaiand like singing, it's just
like break barriers just likeboom red tape.

Speaker 3 (01:17:06):
What is that?

Speaker 2 (01:17:07):
yeah red tape, no TikTok no more gatekeepers, yeah
the red tape is yeah, let'shope it goes.

Speaker 1 (01:17:13):
Yeah, anything is possible.
So we didn't get back.
The red tape is yeah, let'shope it goes all the way.

Speaker 2 (01:17:16):
Yeah, letting people rise to the top, anything is
possible.

Speaker 1 (01:17:18):
So we didn't get back that call for 12 hours and
you're going.
It's something you enjoy.
Yeah, I would love to.

Speaker 2 (01:17:23):
I would love to.
I would love to and also, likeyou know, talking more and like
media and like doing Like who'syou know, like you.
You know Like Like I like that.
I like that a lot yeah, it's sofunny when you say that you know
you used to talk too much andnow you know you're comfortable
talking about whatever and towhoever yeah, I kind of I feel I

(01:17:43):
used to be a little hard onmyself, corey, in terms of I
felt like I had to know all thestatistics to talk about, um,
all you know.
Just, I had to have all theinformation and then I realized
somewhere along the life I justspeak from my heart everything

(01:18:04):
would just line up andeverything goes well and the
conversation flows.
So sometimes when I'm asked aquestion and I just say like I'm
not sure because I don't, Idon't know, I don't have the
information to answer thatquestion, and that's honest.
You know, that comes from myheart and that's authentic.
Yeah, I don't know, I don'thave the information to answer
that question, and that's honest.
You know that comes from myheart and that's authentic.

Speaker 3 (01:18:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:18:20):
I don't know everything.
I can't.
You know, I can't know,everything and once I just speak
from my heart, like I think.
Once I realized like to just beme talking and talking to
people and doing things likethis became a lot more natural
for me yeah, my old fellow injamaica, kind of peanut vendor,
he tell me um.

Speaker 1 (01:18:40):
He said message don't need no direction, find the
right audience.
He says rightful audience isfind the message, message yes,
yes, the audience, yes, yeah hesaid I think he was making the
point to me.
I mean, you know, things have away Of unfolding themselves
over time.

Speaker 3 (01:18:57):
Oh yeah, the great unfolding, but yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:19:01):
I also felt it to mean like I might be the right
person For the message, but itmight be the right time for me.
So when the right time comes,the divine alignment.
Divine alignment.
Yeah, that's what I said to say.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
That was like Savannah, that was a moment of
alignment yeah, boy yeah, boy,where songs that make a big
moment of alignment or anythingyou know like.
Like I knew that day leaving myapartment I knew like my life
wouldn't be the same serious.
I had that feeling and I smiledand I closed it down and I went
don't do it like, yeah, and Iclose you down.
I went don't do it like yeah,so there are times when you, but

(01:19:37):
in your life too, there wouldbe yeah, for sure yes, you kind
of feel these shifts, of course,yeah there's these tipping
points, they come, they come.

Speaker 1 (01:19:46):
But I'd ask you as well, because I saw your post
recently where you said you dida performance you didn't do
forever.
Then somebody come and say well, why is this?

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
you know, forever yes , so I, so I performed.
What day is today?

Speaker 3 (01:19:58):
Tuesday alright, tuesday it's a day.

Speaker 2 (01:20:01):
It's a day.
It's a day during the week.
So this weekend at it's the ElDorado Lions Women's El Dorado
Lions Women's Club.
It was an event right and theevent got like delayed a bit and
I had two sets to play and Ihad, like you know, I had
forever in my second set and Iwas, you know, gonna do this

(01:20:23):
song and I, like I got tired.
You know there was some waitinggoing on and then also what
happened was because, um, we hadto shorten things, um, I had to
do my set now, while peoplewere having refreshments.
So it was a different mood, adifferent vibe, a different, and

(01:20:43):
I, just like you know, I'm notgoing to do I also had to
shorten the performance a bit.
And I dropped that song.

Speaker 3 (01:20:49):
Right right.

Speaker 2 (01:20:50):
Because it was like something new and I'm like why
are we?
Really going to put a lot ofenergy out to sing this song.
It was like something new andI'm like, why really gonna put a
lot of energy you know all tosing this song and you know, and
yeah, I didn't do it.
And then afterwards somebodycame and said like they were
looking forward to hearing itand I was like, okay, that's a
good lesson for me to havelearned, a good experience to

(01:21:12):
have, because you never knowwho's listening.
You never know who lookingforward to hear that and, as an
artist that got popular doingcover cover music, right it is
sort of like uh, you know, I, Iam working through insecurities
with performing original musicyeah, more comfortable to do the

(01:21:32):
covers.
Yeah, because people know it,and people sing along.
And what not right?
Yeah, see how you had them inQueens.

Speaker 1 (01:21:37):
All of us.
Yeah, we're singing along,going to the songs?

Speaker 2 (01:21:40):
yeah, because you know the song but how is
somebody going to know youroriginal song unless you sing it
like?
Is you how to sing it?

Speaker 3 (01:21:46):
is you?

Speaker 2 (01:21:47):
how to push it is.
You have to you know like.
I'm gonna love you forever,ever, ever, ever will you stop
singing?
Yes, I'll leave you never, ever, ever, ever ever.

Speaker 3 (01:22:04):
Oh man, I do tera, tera, tera, tera, tera I'm gonna
love you forever ever ever,ever.

Speaker 2 (01:22:13):
That's it, that's it, that's all, that's it that's it
that's all.

Speaker 1 (01:22:16):
That's it I don't know if I could have survived
that.
Yeah, no, it was good musiciansmake me nervous, and all this
everything.

Speaker 2 (01:22:23):
You are a musician.
You are a musician acceptingall your words.

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
You know, I think your words come with a lot of
weight.
I think they come.
There's something special intalking to you.
I think you did say that youwork on your own energy, the way
you listen to yourself and soon.
You're working on mine.
I've given you full permissionand consent to call them out,
you have good energy same, same,same same.
We've been looking forward tothis for a long time like the

(01:22:50):
song say long time right longtime.

Speaker 2 (01:22:53):
I feel you.
So I say I I only seeing youall on the media, I only feeling
you from a distance andeverything I do, always watching
you yeah, like me andeverywhere you move, love is
instant.
It's true.

Speaker 1 (01:23:07):
Yeah, it's true, it's always watching so the thing
about it is just like you do itforever and the person asks for
it.
Especially that's my requestthat long time, especially the
kaizo version.
Keep it in your set thank youyeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, people
are to hear more of the pianogirl thank you and she says okay
.

Speaker 2 (01:23:22):
So come up to her and say she's the piano girl.
Yeah, I'll be like oh, thepiano girl.
I love pictures, I love meetingpeople.
I love yeah, I love connectingwith people.

Speaker 1 (01:23:31):
Good, beautiful well, no better place to end on there
and congrats on everythingyou've done alongside president,
prime minister, awardceremonies, artists, traveling
for having me I have.
It's my pleasure.
It's my pleasure.
I've been looking forward to itsince you said we would do it,
so I appreciate it and we'redoing it again with instruments
next time?

Speaker 2 (01:23:51):
yes, come back, all right perfect, perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:23:53):
I'll learn to play by then.
Thanks, outro Music.

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Episode 237 | D Piano Girl

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Episode 237 | D Piano Girl