MikeyPod 355 | Pianist Sophia Subbayya Vastek

Pianist and composer Sophia Subbaya Vastek joins me today to discuss her new album, In Our Softening. I am completely enamored with this album, our conversation about Sophia’s music, and the magnificently imperfect instrument that inspired it. Enjoy this conversation, and be sure to check out the entire album as well! Based in Troy, NY, …

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Mike Epod podcast,
episode 355 for January 2nd, 2023.
And happy New Year. On this episode,
pianist Sophia Saba sek joins me totalk about her gorgeous and fascinating
new album in our softening,
which was written on and for a pianothat she discovered in a church building

(00:21):
basement that had been sharing spacewith a well-documented hate group. It's,
there's a lot to talk aboutwith this instrument. Um, uh,
this is just the intro to the show. Ican't get too much into it. Uh, the,
the music though is intricatedelicate, and it's really intriguing.
And hearing her talk aboutthat creation of this album,
the discovery of the piano,all of these things are, uh,

(00:43):
outstanding. This is a greatconversation. By the way, I'm your host,
Michael Herron. I'm a composer,pianist, electronic musician,
and storyteller based in NewYork City. On this podcast,
I have conversations with fellow creatorswho use their creativity to change the
world. I've been sending this podcastto your ears for well over 17 years.
If you like what you hear,
subscribe using the colorful buttonsin the sidebar and [e-mail].

(01:06):
Or you can just search Mike epodin your favorite podcast directory.
If you'd like to know more about me,
you can stop by [e-mail].
Hit me up on social media everywhere ish.
I'm on and off social medialately, um, at michael herron.com.
And you can always send mean [e-mail].
So, hello, happy New Year. Uh, it'sbeen a little while since podcast,

(01:29):
the holidays, et cetera, et cetera. Um,
I am curious what's going on, ,
what's going on with you this year?I've been really thinking about, I,
I have a very casual relationshipwith, uh, new Year's resolutions,
but I do like some things were sortof like getting in process for me

(01:49):
already before the new year.
So I'm feeling happy that alot of it has to do with like,
the structure of running the business of my life,
and the business of my business,and the business of, uh,
this podcast and the other kindof creative work that I do. Um,
I am focusing this year ona single word that was, uh,
this idea was shared with meat a party the other night. Um,

(02:12):
now I forgot what my word is.What's the word for like a, uh,
let's call it abundance. Uh,that's not the word I chose,
but actually I like it better. Maybethat's why that happened. Yeah.
I'm focusing on abundance and feelingabundant, and I don't know, like,
just to put it in a short way, alot of my life I've spent, you know,

(02:33):
as an artist, as a waiter, as a teacher,
finances for me havealways been sporadic. Um,
and, um,
something you can't always count onbeing consistent and being an artist and
growing up in a society and in a worldwhere, um, that's sort of considered, uh,

(02:53):
not a good hobby.
I I haven't really taken my life assomething that could be abundant or I
never thought of it that way. And,um, just over the past year or so,
I've been really shifting in that way.
So a lot of like behindthe scenes structuring and that sort of thing has been
happening.
And I really pushed the last week beforethe end of the year because it felt
like, okay, January 1st, all this stuff,

(03:15):
it's time to like keep getting thestuff in action and really, uh,
embrace it. So I don't know whetherthat's even something you care to hear,
, but that's whereI'm at with the new year. Um,
and I really would love to know whatthe new year is looking like for you.
You can always comment on this podcastor on my social media or email me mikey
pot gmail.com. I really, Ireally want to hear from you.

(03:38):
So if you're listening to this podcast,
you have even the shortestcomment to make. Let me know.
I'm really excited to hear from you. Uh,
another thing that's going on in PodcastLand is that I am going to work on,
um, doing some bonus material that'llcome through the Apple Podcast app.
I'm gonna be settingthat up this week. Uh,

(03:59):
I'm not sure what that's ultimately gonnalook like and if I wanna stick to it,
um, but it's gonna be fun to sort ofexperiment and see what that's like.
And that's really it. That's my middleof the show check in for you. Um,
before we get on to the interviewand some music from Sophia Zaya Vae,
I do wanna make sure that I thank mysubscribers on Patreon for powering this
podcast and all the othercreative work that I do.

(04:21):
These are people who subscribe for $5 ormore a mu month and get special perks,
like tons of free downloads of mymusic and zines and bonus podcasts.
As I mentioned earlier, there are 90,
over 90 of them that you'll haveimmediate access to when you subscribe,
including this week's bonus episode,
which will feature an extendedconversation with today's guest,
Sophia Zaya Vasa. So,

(04:43):
I mentioned in the beginning of theshow a little bit about this album,
and I did it in a reallyclumsy way, and you'll,
I was feeling very clumsyabout describing this album.
Uh,
you'll hear the music I'm about to playwith track for you and the conversation
we have about it. The,
the piano itself is soimperfect sounding. And, um,

(05:04):
the thing that I really loveis that the, the music is,
and the imperfections of the albumbecame part of each, uh, sorry,
the imperfections of the piano became a,
a compositional part ofthe, of the music. Um,
that, yeah. I'm gonnaleave it at that. Um,
there's so much great stuff in thisconversation, but before we listen to it,

(05:28):
here's a track from the album.
This is called The Seas That Made Us,and following this we'll hear, um,
an interview with Sophia Saba,

(10:34):
That was the Seize that madeus from Sophia Saba Sek,
who is joining me right now.
Thank you so much for joiningme on the podcast today.
Thanks so much for having me.
Um, this album is really interestingto me. I'm also a pianist.
I don't know if you gathered that already.
I did, yes.
I, I gave a little backgroundwhen I introduced the piece,

(10:56):
but I'd love for you to talk about thispiano that you recorded the album on and
these pieces were written on.
Wow. So this piano is, I think, well,
certainly the first timethat I had ever like,
encountered a piano or an instrumentin general and just kind of immediately
fell in love with, like, we reallyjust started a relationship from,

(11:20):
from the first moment,um, which was very, uh,
unique experience for me, you know,as pianists. I mean, you know,
we played so many different pianos andit's kind of like this weird relationship
where, you know, we have aperformance and then that's it.
You kind of leave the thing. Um, andmusic that's written for the piano,

(11:40):
there's just this expectationthat it'll be performed on,
on a lot of differentinstruments. Right, right. Um,
and so this was really the first timethat I encountered a piano where it felt
like there was music that neededto be written just for this piano
. Um, and so yeah, this kind ofimmediately started writing music for,

(12:02):
for this very idiosyncraticinstrument. Um, but it had been,
so, I guess just a little history aboutthe piano itself. It had been in, uh,
former church building in thecity where I live, Troy New York.
Um, and, uh,
a friend of mine had bought the buildingand turned it into his artist studio.
And so this is how I firstcame into contact with it.

(12:24):
He had told me he had this piano,he was trying to get rid of it,
and I played it. And, you know, I thinkI'd giggled a little bit. I was like,
oh my god, Howard, I haveto have this piano .
Um, but yeah, it was, itwas a very kind of magical.
The thing that's so cool about it, andI'm sure this is what grabbed you too,
is that there's so manyimperfections about this piano,

(12:45):
but listening to the album,
especially when I listened to it withheadphones and I was on the subway of all
things like letting like this subwaysound sort of drift in through my ear
air, uh, AirPods and like,
really like experiencing the sounds comingfrom the piano that were not what we
might typically classify as music,
the sounds of the mechanismof the piano and the, um,

(13:06):
these things that really are apart of the pieces, like the,
they feel like an integralpart of the piano.
Like the piano is making an appearanceas a performer in this album.
Am I like overstating that?Or is are you feeling it too?
No, I think that's actually a reallygreat way of putting it. You know, there,
there are a lot of incrediblepiano recordings out in the world

(13:28):
that are so pristine and,and clean and, you know, I I,
those are amazing too, , I'mnot gonna say it one way or the other,
but I think that is kind of the,the magic of this, of this piano.
And what we really wanted to capture inthe recording was all this other stuff
that's going on that I think justkind of gives it this, this layer of,

(13:49):
of, I mean for me, it,
it just feels like all thestories inside the piano are,
are coming out in all ofthose additional sounds.
And some of the stories are, like,
one of the things that I thought wasreally interesting and really grabbed me
about the history of this pianowas that there was like a,
a hate group that met in this same room.

(14:09):
Yeah. It's really like,I don't know, I, yeah, I,
I've been kind of living withthis story for a couple years now,
and I still am just sortof taken aback by, by this,
by the story of this piano. And yeah,so you're exactly right. There was, um,
uh, yeah, uh, they call themselvesa church group, but it's really, um,

(14:30):
a hate group and, you know, very welldocumented in, in these parts. Um,
unfortunately they've gotten alot of press, which, you know,
these kinds of groups thrive onattention. Yeah. Um, but yeah,
I just like thinking about this piano,
sitting in that room and hearing someof the things that were said. You know,
it's a very, uh, humbling, um,

(14:50):
feeling that this piano now is, uh,
for me, it's,
it's transforming what it had beenabsorbing into something positive
and and beautiful and bringing peopletogether in a way that that group
was never gonna do.
I really relate to what you're sayingabout kind of releasing or helping

(15:13):
the piano to release its stories,
but it's so hard to likeput that into words. Um.
It really is. Oh my gosh, thank youfor saying that. Because ,
I also have a hard time talkingabout it cuz it feels so,
so loaded. And alsolike, you know, I don't,
I don't wanna get too like,woohoo about this .

(15:35):
But you can if you wanna like.
. But I do, you know, for,
for me that this is why I'm amusician is about that moment
of connection and, andbringing people together and,
and having music be the sortof catalyst for, for, for,
for connection and community.Um, and so, you know,

(15:56):
the fact that thisinstrument was in that room,
which really was the antithesis ofwhat I feel like music is about and
instruments, you know,it felt like a very,
it just felt very importantthat this piano be used for
something that was the opposite of that.
I've watched the liveperformances of, um, oh,

(16:18):
I forgot the name of thepiece. We just listened to the.
Cs that made us.
the Cs that madeus That's okay. Sorry.
No.
No worries. And well, in the,in both videos is that, I mean,
it must be the piano, like that's thepiano that you're playing in those videos.
Um, well, there's one live videothat is on that piano, yeah. Mm-hmm.
. And then there'sanother one that's, you know,

(16:38):
a more music video of that samepiece that we shot outside.
And that is actually not thatpiano that you're seeing,
but it's the recording from thealbum. So it is what you're hearing.
Oh yeah. So the video, thatvideo is great. Um, well,
both videos are great. Others, I, I lovethis kind of conversation. I'm like,
oh yeah, I, when talk aboutthat video. Oh, but wait,

(16:59):
I wanna off talk about that otherbit. The, um, official music video,
not the live performance.
It was really interesting the way it wasfilmed and I didn't catch it the first
time, strangely, because now that I watch,I'm like, oh, obviously this is, uh,
it, it appears to be in slow motion.
Yeah.
What, this is just a, like, how'd youdo that? Like, could be, cause you're,

(17:19):
you're playing with therecording like the, it's the,
the studio recording of the piece. Um,
you know what I'm talking about Betterthan I can explain it. So how, what did,
how, what was entailed or wasentailed in creating that video?
Um, yeah, . So basically,yeah, we shot it in slow motion,
which meant that we had tomake a track that was sped up

(17:42):
to the right, you know, ratioof time for the slowing down.
Um, and yeah, I, I had topractice playing it fast,
.
Oh yeah. Which.
You know, and so likeobviously, um, if you're,
if you're really payingattention, you know,
you can see it's not reallylining up and that's okay. Um,

(18:04):
but we wanted this,
this kind of gauzy dreamlikesense and that there's this piano
and this pianist playingoutside. Um, and so I think it,
it honestly doesn't even reallymatter that it, it doesn't, you know,
cuz it's kind of dreamlike,
so it's not like you're really seeinga performance of this, of this song.

(18:26):
But, but in any case, yes,
I had to play it fast and onthis piano that was outdoors that just
sounded so incredibly terrible.
And everyone around me ,I was just like, oh my God,
I'm so sorry for what you'rehearing right now, .
Was it, were you worried that I've,I'm just imagined myself playing it,

(18:47):
like wanting to tell everyone,Hey, everyone, this isn't, this isn't the record.
This isn't the thing thatyou're hearing. Yeah.
, this is something else. Like,neighbors walking by and I was like,
this isn't actually, I like, yeah.
. Yeah. But, you know, youachieved, and I think part of like,
I was kind of joking that I just didn't,
didn't realize at first that it wasslow motion, but that kind of was,

(19:09):
is what's so cool about theeffects because I didn't realize it and it did just
have this dreamlike qualitythat I didn't really register.
Something different was happening.It just felt very dreamlike.
But then I realized like, oh wait, thisdancer is moving slowly but fat. Like,
yeah. So yeah, it's a,it's a really cool effect.
Will you ever perform these pieces ona different piano? Like, does that,

(19:32):
or they feel like they're justreally attached to this instrument?
Yeah, that's, I've been gettingthat question a lot and I,
I have actually played some ofthe pieces on different pianos.
Um, both, both grands anduprights and yeah. At,
I think some of the pieces work betterthan others on different pianos.

(19:52):
Like the ones that are more textual, um,
don't work as well, I feellike mm-hmm. .
Cause there's also a lot of sounddesign in the recording, um,
which I think a lot of peopledon't realize perhaps on first, listen, you know,
they were very intentionally recordedand then also produced in a certain way.
Um, so yeah, I'm,

(20:13):
I'm definitely wrapping my mind around how
to perform these piecesout in the world and,
and I've done it and I'll, I'll keepdoing it, but I'm also in the process of,
of reimagining them. Um,
so I've been just thinkingabout how I can play

(20:34):
these in, in ways that are justreally very different from the album.
So it's not like, it feels like a lesserversion, you know what I mean? .
Yeah. Yeah. That makes perfectsense because a lot of, I mean,
I was thinking of whenI was listening to it,
the lot of the characterof the pieces would not be
represented on a brighter, more like I,

(20:58):
anything I wanna say. Like,
the thing I love about the piecesand the way the piano sounds are it's
imperfections. . Yeah.
So I'm trying to find a way to talkabout the imperfections in a way
that they're perfectly, they're perfectlyimperfect , but you know, like,
but there's a sound to the,
to the piano that you perform on that

(21:18):
isn't, yeah. Anyway, I think I'm restating what you already said. It's.
Okay.
But that does make sense and it's reallyinteresting to think of the pieces
themselves having a differentlife and being reinvented
for a different instrument.
Yeah. Yeah. It's,
it's a big question in my mind rightnow because I feel like the, you know,

(21:39):
so much of my creative output for thelast like two years has been centered
around this piano. And it really tookme through the pandemic and, you know,
some very dark days.
And I was at home with thisinstrument making music and recording,
and now it's like I have to ,I have to journey beyond that the,
the safety of this instrument. And, um,

(22:02):
and I think it's, it's, it'snew music, but it's also, uh,
yeah. Re-imagining what I'vealready written for that instrument.
Part of this album. And thecomposition of this album, um,
relates to your processing of somegrief. Did I read that correctly?
That you'd lost your dad?
Yeah, yeah. You know, the, um, so that was in,

(22:26):
in 2015 and it was, it was pretty sudden.
And then I, um,
so then my f my last album Histories,uh, was really a very like,
direct kind of synthesisof, of that experience and,
and trying to connect to, um,
my family and ancestry that ina way because of him being gone.

(22:51):
And then, and then thisalbum, I actually, um,
hadn't originally really thought ofit in that way, but then as I was,
as I was coming to the, to thefinish line of working on this album,
and, and it's really sodifferent from histories, but as,
as I was thinking about it,it, it's like, wow, this,

(23:11):
it's all the same themes, ,like, whether I like it or not,
like I feel like I'm still kindof processing, um, you know,
what it means to, to lose a parent,
what it means to lose aconnection to um, you know,
to their, to their family, to theircountry, um, in this case for me.

(23:33):
And, uh, it's just a, yeah. So yes,
and I didn't, I didn't realizethat until kind of late in the,
in the process.
Yeah. It's the, it's,uh, it, yeah. You know,
it's a process and it's a thingthat we think, yeah, I, there's,
I did some work about the, um,

(23:54):
like some creative work and other kindsof work about the loss of my mom and,
and a lot, it was a very healing process,
but also like making art aboutsomething like that really
reveals more than .You might, you might realize,
well you probably realize cuzyou've in that process too.

(24:15):
Yeah, yeah. Totally. Um,and of course this is, um,
I mean this is why wemake art, right? Like the,
the most personal thingsthat we can imagine
are actually what brings otherpeople in Right. And connects us.
And, and of course, grief and lossand death is really like .

(24:37):
If there's one thing that ev we canconnect with, with everyone, it's,
it's that. Right. Um,I mean it's such, uh,
an all-encompassing thing that everysingle human being goes through.
Um, so yeah, I think there, I'vegone through stages of like,
wow, this feels so gratuitous.Like I'm all of my art,

(25:00):
all of my music is about like meand these very personal things,
but of course that's, that's what it isand that's what other people connect to.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a, that'sa ongoing challenge,
especially being a, a solo artist. I,
I know you're not entirely a solo artist,
but like doing a lot of work that'sjust your music and you performing it.

(25:24):
And I'm relating to thatcuz I do a lot of that too,
that it's easy to fall into.And maybe even those, uh,
I always forget the RuPaul has aperfect name for like the inner,
inner inner saboteur, um, thatlittle inner critic that's like, oh,
here you go again. Making your artabout you that you're going to,
you know, well do, do youexperience that level of,

(25:48):
um, the, uh, self self-criticism?
Oh my gosh, of course. Yeah. of course. Um, I mean,
yeah. You know, like leading up to analbum release, I feel like, you know,
it's not a real release if youdon't go through at least like,
a few, fewperiods of just like, wow,

(26:10):
I can't release like, this should neversee the light of day, like ,
you know? Yeah. Um, andit's, I mean, it's intense.
It's really intense and I think, you know,
an album that comes out like all peoplesee is this beautiful finished product
and it's like, man, you know,
there were two plus years ofjust like going through these

(26:31):
cycles of, of writing andfeeling really great about it,
and then cycles of just despair,
that you've spent all this timeon something that you don't feel good
about. Um, and I don'tknow, it's, it's, uh,
it's like we know everyartist goes through this,
but I also feel like it'snot always talked about.

(26:54):
Yeah.
Yeah. And it's hard even,
even after having experiencedmy own version of that,
it's hard to remember how real itis when it starts happening. Mm-hmm.
and that feeling like thatfeel I like am so connecting with that
feeling of like, oh my God,what is this? Like this.
What have I done? Yes.

(27:15):
I can't, oh my God, what was, I thinklike yeah. All of that stuff. Yeah.
Yeah. I'm really happy that yougot past all of that and,
and have released this album.
Yeah. Well, and I willsay that I feel very,
very lucky that my husbandSam is the one who,
who produced the album with meand, and engineered it, you know,

(27:38):
and he obviously knowsme better than anyone
really. Yeah. And so, youknow, the darkest times,
like it was just good to havesomeone right there mm-hmm.
that was so deeplyin my corner and just like,
understood this music andthis project as well as I,
or even better at certain times,you know? And so having that,

(28:00):
that person there I think was,
was just really crucial Yeah.
And not everyone has that, you know?
And so I feel very fortunate thatthat was the case and I think it, um,
it also informed the music ina lot of ways and the way that,
that it turned out in the end.
Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. I,

(28:20):
I was wondering about the productionand all of that kind of stuff,
so that's interesting. Like,
it's interestingly in-house within like your relationship anyway.
Yeah. It's extremely in-house .Yeah. Everything was in-house,
which was, um, anotherbig, big difference with,
with Histories, um, you know,

(28:41):
where I went to the place andrecorded with the person and
uh, you know,
and it's just a very differentexperience for this album.
You know, I, I reallyfeel like this music, it,
I don't know that I would've gotten tothe place that I really needed to get to
in terms of the intimacy andthe, the vulnerability of it.

(29:04):
If I had been going to a studio,
and of course it would've been anentirely different thing anyway,
cuz it would've been a different pianoand whatever, that's a different project.
But just having thatexperience of being able to,
to play that this piano with thisperson recording, you know, I think it,
it made the album what it is.
Yeah. Oh, I was,

(29:26):
I did a podcast interview earlier todayand I, we both kind of confessed to,
she,
they are also a podcaster and thatwe like do podcasting to have an
opportunity to have conversations withpeople that we wouldn't otherwise.
And this is one of thoseconversations like, oh, this, um,
I love getting this type of insightabout a piece of work like your album.
So yeah. Thanks for . Side note.

(29:48):
Thanks for sharing all ofall this stuff. Course.
So the album is called Inner Softeningand you make a lot of references
throughout like your website andI think I saw it on band camp,
like different places, um, how,I can't remember the exact,
something about Softies or an albumfor Softies did I See? Or something.
Like that. Yeah. Music for Softies,I call myself a softie. Yeah, yeah.

(30:11):
Is there more than just that in the, um,
composition of the album orhow you looked at creating it?
Oh, that's a big question. .Yeah. Um, well, so as you've,
as you've gathered, I have very much, uh,
latched onto this word soft. And,and it, it happens, you know,

(30:33):
right away when I first encountered thispiano and, you know, just kind of very,
very technically, physicallythe piano is, is very soft.
Um, and, and so, you know,kind of right away I was,
I was just imagining thisvery soft piano being in this
building that had been so hardand, and hateful for so long.

(30:56):
And I just started chewing onthe word soft and all of it's
incredible meanings in, in somany different ways, you know?
Um, and it's just, I don't know, Ijust fell in love with this word and,
and all of its connotations and, um,
and I think as I was, as I waswriting the music, you know,

(31:18):
it just kept running through my mindthis idea of softness and how I can
create an album experiencethat invites people into
softness, whatever that might meanfor them. You know, I mean, I have a,
a laundry list of, ofdefinitions, um, you know,
softness of our hearts and mindsand bodies and how we interact with

(31:41):
other people. Like, I just lovethis idea of like soft bodies
squishing together. Like there's,
there's the connection that happensthere as opposed to like hardness where
things can't, um, interactin the same way. Yeah.
If that makes any sense.So yeah, it did, uh,
it really informed everythingwith this album and,

(32:05):
and it just started purely becauseof this very soft instrument.
That description of the instrument iskind of what I was trying to find earlier
when I was trying not to toinsult the piano. ,
no. Like, there's the, thepiano itself is so soft,
and I think that's what made me reallywonder about performing these pieces on a

(32:26):
different instrument because in general,
some of the sound that you achievein these pieces sounds like it's the
piano, you know, like it's,
some of the notes that arereally intentionally brought out
probably take more effort than theywould on a, on a different piano.
Just like so much of the kind of a,I think of it as like a wash feeling.

(32:48):
Sound like the, there's not a lotof attack on the, on the notes. Um,
yeah, that's true. So yeah, sothat's what I think really, uh,
what I was wonderingabout, which you already answered,
but it may suddenly, I'm like,oh yeah, soft , that's,
that's the compliment I wantfor this piano. .
It is very, very soft . Yeah.

(33:12):
I love when, uh, you know,
people come over and play alittle bit on the piano and
have similar reactions as I did thefirst time. And, and it's just, it,
I think it, it pulls you in becauseit's so intimate, it's so soft,
and so it just kind of forcesyou to listen very carefully.

(33:32):
And then you start hearing allthe, the clicks and the mm-hmm.
mechanical sounds,and then you hear, you know,
and so it just kind of takes you onthis journey with this instrument.
Um, and of course, listening intently and,
and carefully and softlyis also a huge part of,
of what I imagine for, for this albumand, and a listening experience, you know?

(33:55):
Yeah. And just for ,for your, for your notes,
uh, the album has the same experience,you know, as you're listening,
as I was listening, different thingsstarted to uncover as, you know,
as you settle into like,okay, here's where we are.
And you can start listeningto more different things and the different clicks of
the piano and the rhythms of the,of the clicks that, you know, like,

(34:17):
they feel separate and partof what's happening. It's,
it's, it's so cool. I really love it.
Aw, thank you.
. Uh, so speaking of, weshould listen to another piece, uh,
before we go, which it's also time todo, um, we're going to listen to, uh,
the closing of the albumafter Stardust. Um,

(34:38):
and this this will alsobe our goodbye. Um, is there any,
is there anything particular youwanna, uh, mention about the,
the piece we're gonna listen to?And there doesn't have to be.
Yeah, I don't think so.I mean, I, I really, um,
I, yeah, I, I I try notto give too much, uh,

(34:58):
you know, kind of specific narrativesto, to the individual songs.
I really just want people to goto their own, to their own place.
But of course, after Stardust, I always,
I think about Stardust as thiskind of unifying thing. Another,
another unifying, uh,
thing for humans that we all kind ofcome from the same place and, you know,

(35:18):
the first track the seasthat made us also, uh,
that we all come from the sameprimordial soup, you know, . Yeah.
Um, and so yeah, just, uh, like,
I guess the overarching idea that,
that we're all connected and listeningto this music or any music or any art,
you know, um, finding thoseconnections with people and,

(35:42):
and so yeah, after Stardust, I guesswherever, wherever it takes you, .
, uh, it has been sogreat to talk to you and, um,
patrons who are listening,if you want to hear more. Um,
we're gonna have a little second,uh, bonus, uh, exclusive interview.
Uh, that'll be on Patreonin a couple of days. Uh,
thank you so much for joining me,Sophia, on that podcast today.

(36:04):
Thanks for having me.

(40:05):
That was after Stardustfrom Sophia, Saba VAs, uh,
from her latest album in our softening.Thank you so much for listening.
Thank you, Sophia, for being on theshow today. Um, oh, thank you all.
I legitimately thank you forlistening to this podcast.
I know it's not always predictablewhen you'll hear an episode, um,
and as another thing that I'mgoing to continue working on.

(40:26):
Cause I love having these conversationsand sharing them and discovering new
artists. Uh, so it's a reallygreat process for me and, uh,
it's one that I w am going tocontinue to try to embrace. Uh,
so there you go. Thank you forlistening. If you're a patron, um,
go by patreon.com/michael Herron, uh,
later this week and you'll hear a bonusconversation with Sophia Sava VAs.

(40:49):
And, um, I think that's everything. Um,
I have a couple new interviewsthat are ready to go. Um,
so I'll be releasing those shortly,perhaps in the next two weeks.
Um, one, uh, I'm, I'm going back tomy goal of doing every Monday podcast,
so we'll see how that goes.And regardless, sincerely,
thank you for listening up.Your new year is wonderful,

(41:12):
and I will talk to you soon. Bye.