April 2, 2025 • 44 mins
Dom L'Amour speaks with Christopher Shank about our creative process, being more organized, working on ourselves and so much more.
What if the secret to creativity isn't waiting for inspiration to strike, but simply showing up consistently? In this thoughtful conversation with screenwriter and friend of the show Christopher Shank, we dive deep into the mechanics of the creative process and challenge the notion that artists need to wait for the perfect moment of inspiration.
Shank shares how breaking down his scriptwriting into manageable chunks—sometimes just a single scene during lunch—has transformed his productivity while preserving his mental health. Meanwhile, I've discovered that continuously moving between projects—songs, poems, musical scenes—keeps my creative muscles active without feeling burnt out on any single endeavor. We both agree: consistency trumps intensity when it comes to sustainable creative work.
The conversation takes a fascinating turn when we explore the relationship between creators and their tools. I detail my practice of designating specific pencils for specific tasks—drawing inspiration from Japanese perspectives on objects having their own energy or spirit. There's something powerful about treating creative tools with intention rather than mere utility. As Shank puts it, "Everything has its own energy."
We also unpack how ideas evolve in unexpected ways. Shank describes a story he's worked on for nearly two decades that finally clicked when he found the right metaphor, while I recount how a song inspired by "Cherokee" transformed from an attempted tribute to Native American history into a personal reflection about living off Cherokee Street. Creative ideas rarely arrive fully formed—they need time and space to evolve.
Whether you're a seasoned creator struggling with blocks or someone just beginning to explore your creative potential, this episode offers practical wisdom for sustaining your practice through both inspiration and drought. Subscribe now and join our continuing exploration of creativity, emotion, and the human experience.
Opening quote by Aldous Huxley
Opening and Closing Theme song: Produced by Dom L'Amour
Transition Music from Mad Chops Vol. 2 by Mad Keys
and
from Piano Soul Vol.1(Loop Pack) by The Modern Producers Team
Featured song : "Nothin" by Dom L'Amour
Cover art by Studio Mania: Custom Art @studiomania99
Please subscribe to the podcast, and give us a good rating. 5 stars please and thank you. Follow me on @doml_amour on Instagram. Or at
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I got that from a couple of things In Japan, of
course, they hold things higherlike personal items.
They hold them higher on adifferent level.
They look at them as if they'retheir own spirit.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Everything has its own energy and so when you are
in these environments where youhave something that's special to
you, giving it that energyhelps.
It continue to help you.
And another thing I think aboutI think this came from the
Braden Sweetgrass book I readlast year, where they were
talking about how you got to berespectful to the earth.
(00:37):
Earth will show you the samerespect and I truly believe that
works with inanimate objects.
It's so weird to say that outloud, but it's the truth.
Like you could put bad juju onsomething.
You can have something that youhave cursed yourself because
you have been so negative aboutit, and every time you see that
thing, some reason, somethingbad happens and you blame it on
(01:00):
that thing again.
You're like it's because ofthat, it's because of this thing
, this is unlucky, and it's likeyou're doing that.
You're giving the power to thisitem.
Ladies and gentlemen and anyoneelse who is here my name is dom
(01:20):
lamore and you are listening tothe black man talking emotions
podcast on today's.
We speak with friend of theshow, shank Christopher Shank,
to be exact about our creativeprocess being more organized,
working on ourselves and so muchmore.
There's only one corner of theuniverse you can be certain of
(01:46):
improving, and that's your ownself.
I feel like I get you on heresometimes and we have great
conversation and we talk aboutvery sad stuff, and I wanted to
(02:09):
talk more about the craft withyou today, because something
that we always talk about isfinding that inspiration to
create, and I read a book, theWar of Art.
That's the name of the book,the War of Art.
Yeah, steven Princefield, yeah,yeah.
So the idea that, as a creator,you create, you got to keep
creating.
(02:30):
Even when you finish something,the next thing to do is to make
something else.
That really hung with me because, there will be so many times
when I'll be writing music orI'll be putting stories together
, arranging a show, gettingstuff prepped for the podcast,
doing something artistically.
While I'm doing all of thiswork, I get to the end and it's
like, okay, now I don't have towork anymore.
(02:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Oh, I'm finally done with that.
I'm going to take a break.
I deserve a break because I'veworked so hard and months go by
or some time go by and I'm likewhat's wrong?
Why am I kind of, oh, I'm notcreating, I haven't created
something.
I stopped creating because Ifelt like I needed a break from
creating and so I kind ofswitched that in my brain, where
I finished writing a couple ofsongs for my album and I was
(03:11):
like I need to keep writing.
So I started writing stuff forthe musical and then I would
write a song that I'm thinkingfor the musical, but I'm like,
actually, this might go betterwith the album.
Then I'm writing poems and I'mlike, oh, these are random, I
can put these on the podcast.
Just me, continuing to createhas allowed me to keep that
muscle working.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, kind of just collecting ideas from the muse
and just slotting them whereverthey feel most appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And it truly has elevated my happiness.
It has completely destroyed anyof the naysaying of I need a
break.
It's like no, I don't.
I enjoy this.
This isn't something that's atask to me.
This isn't something I have todo for a deadline.
I'm doing this because I loveit.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, when it feels like a task, that's when you
want to step away for a littlebit, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
But the thing is I forget which book I read so much
last year.
There's one book in particularwhere they really spoke about
the idea that you can dictateyour feelings.
If you want to be happy, justbe happy.
And I know that sounds verysimple and ridiculous, like no,
if you're sad, you're sad.
But it's true.
If you sit down five minutesand in your head say I'm happy
(04:23):
right now, I'm so happy, andforce yourself to smile At the
end of that five minutes and inyour head say I'm happy right
now, I'm so happy, and forceyourself to smile At the end of
that five minutes, you mightactually be smiling, just
because you're like I can'tbelieve, I just did that.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, I mean, that's why I started every day with
like a gratitude practice too.
Yes, yes.
Even if it's the same thingsevery single day, I'm happy that
I have a house or a roof overmy head.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh bed, I have food in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah yeah.
I got a dog that gives me a lotof happiness.
I got a wife that has built agreat life for me and for us.
That's enough to get me starteda lot of days.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So the reason why I bring all that stuff up just to
kind of paint the picture is toturn to you Okay, have you been
finding ways to keep thatinspiration?
Do you think you are strugglingwith finding inspiration?
Or putting pen to paper Likeare you working through anything
, or has it been dope as wellfor you?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Honestly, if you would ask me this 24 hours ago,
I'd have a different answer.
Yeah, I was texting with afriend yesterday and he was
asking me like have I writtenanything recently?
And initially I wanted to belike no, I took a couple of
months off, but then I thoughtabout it.
I just finished a feature.
I just started another feature,finished a short, I finished a
(05:36):
pilot, like all of this in thepast, like 45 days.
So I mean, it's all workinglike it.
May not look like me sitting atmy computer writing all the
time, but you know, I'll make myway through a draft of of
something and I'll send you thedraft and while I'm waiting for
your notes, I'm working on thisother draft of this other thing
yeah I'm always hopping aroundfrom thing to thing, like you
(05:58):
were talking about with yoursongs, like sometimes I'm like I
have to write.
I have to write something.
Okay, what's what's going on inmy head right now?
Go to your idea notebook or youknow idea document and just see
if something speaks to you andlike, a lot of times, that'll be
enough.
Even if nothing comes of it,I'll get a couple of pages going
and then I'll figure out whathad stopped me on this other
thing and I'll table that andcome back to it eight months
(06:21):
later.
But I mean, that's a longwinded way of saying, like I
said just yesterday, I would belike, no, I'm not been feeling
inspired, but you know, the datais there to show the like.
I'm keeping it moving, keepingit together, yeah, k-i-t.
(06:41):
But yeah, yeah.
And after I'm done with thisdraft of something I'm working
on right now, we got anotherstory that I'm kind of
repurposing for present.
Some things have happened thatreally color the story
differently in life.
So I'm trying to like repurposethat into something a little
bit more true.
After that I've got anotherstory lined up, so I've got
three features I'm trying towork on this year.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That's incredible.
I will go back, though, becausesomething that was very
interesting that happened whenyou were talking was your first
instinct was to be like actuallyno, I didn't write much to the
friend when you obviously had.
Why do you feel like you werein that?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
headspace, you know artistry, with somebody who's
like absolutely obsessed withtheir craft yeah, and somebody
who, like forgets to eat orbathe and just like sits their
computer, sits at their keyboard, and adrian dana, whoever you
know is around, is like, don'tbother him, he's in the zone
right now yeah but for me, Ifound I get a lot more done and
(07:40):
I feel a lot better about whatI've done.
If I just break things down, youknow, not try to write a
hundred page script in a weekend, but write a hundred page
script over the course of fouror five weekends or four or five
weeks.
So you know, all of a suddenit's 20, 25 pages a week.
Divide that by you know, sevendays or even four days.
(08:00):
You know you don't want towrite every single day.
All of a sudden it's like youknow what.
Three to six pages, yeah.
And if you know what you'redoing, I have a whole document.
Like I have 49 scenes to do inthis script.
I'm on number 12 right now.
I know what 13 and 14 are goingto look like.
I have a rough idea of how manypages they're going to be.
I know what I want to happen ineach of the scenes.
(08:22):
So I just sit down and say,okay, what's up next?
Okay, I remember that and justclick, click, click and I'm done
like an hour later with thatscene and I just move on to the
next one.
So it doesn't really feel likeI'm doing a lot because I'm
knocking it out in a half anhour, an hour.
Sometimes I get it done overlunch.
That's a lot better for me andmy mental health and my overall
health than trying to do it allat once.
(08:43):
In my 40s now I have to look outfor my physical health and I
got to get to the gym and I'mgetting back into running and
you have to do all these thingsjust to stay afloat.
I don't have the capacity oreven the ability to forget about
the world.
For three days I got to stay ontop of stuff and I have to
break down my projects intomanageable chunks, and the same
(09:05):
thing goes with physical stuff.
You see people in the gym thatare there for two or three hours
.
They go two, three times a week.
And then there's me who I'll bethere for 45 minutes to an hour
.
Sometimes.
I'll get my work done.
I'll just carry on with my life.
I think it's the expectationthat we have to really hone in
on what it is that we're tryingto accomplish and give it our
(09:26):
100% of the time, instead ofcompartmentalizing it and say,
okay, now's the time to work onthis, but at six or whatever
time, hang it up, move on to thenext thing.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I think that has been really helpful to me as well.
I have my planner and I've beenwriting everything out.
So whatever I need to scratchoff the planner is priority that
gets the first attention.
And trying to avoid scrollingon social media.
It's helped when I have tasksI'm like, oh, I need to scratch
this off the list and, like yousaid, trying to make it so that
(10:00):
you're not overwhelming yourself, where today, as soon as I
finished my final interview, I'mgoing to go eat dinner and hang
out with Adrian's parents andhave a normal night and then be
in bed 10, 30, 11 o'clock, likeI normally am, and then wake up
at seven and do it all overagain tomorrow.
So staying focused on my mentalhealth, that has really helped
(10:21):
me.
Breathing, especially when I'mfrustrated, just taking the time
to extra breath, remindingmyself of what the reason is
that I'm doing all this stuff.
I feel like that's kind of beena common theme with a couple of
conversations, because asartists, you got to have that
definition.
You got to have that elevatorpitch, that understanding of
exactly why you're doing whatyou're doing and the reason why
(10:45):
you keep going.
I feel like being inspired iskind of overrated if that makes
sense.
When I was younger, I wouldn'twrite a song because I just
don't have an idea.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
But now if you put me down and you're like, okay,
dominique, write a song, it'snot a matter of I don't have an
idea.
It's like, okay, let's figurethis out, let's just put some
words on paper and see how I cancreate and test myself, because
something incredible might comeout, something bad might come
out, but when you go through theprocess and you continue to
(11:21):
work on that process,inspiration will come.
Just because you're sittingdown at that point.
And when you stand around andyou go out and you're in the
world and you come home andyou're too tired to even think
and you're like I'm not inspired, you're the one that's shutting
down your ideas.
You're not going to be inspired.
Because you're saying I'm notinspired, you're creating the
(11:44):
spell that is literally castingno inspiration in your brain
because you're saying I'm notinspired right now.
I truly think the older I get,the more I start to read
different books, differentthings that give me different
perspectives.
(12:05):
It's really you were going todo every day, and in college you
had a planner and so you kneweverything, or you at least
(12:26):
should have kind of tried toknow where you're supposed to be
and when you're supposed to be.
You were supposed to keep it alittle more together.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Nine o'clock in the morning on Tuesdays you're in
voice class.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yes, yeah, you know exactly where you're at and I
missed that so much.
And now I'm starting to gain alittle bit of that routine back
and I'm creating it myself,which kind of makes me feel more
proud, because it's like I amcreating this routine and I am
actually staying true to it andbeing disciplined about it.
Have a clearer mind through theday.
(13:04):
I don't have foggy brain asmuch as I used to when I was
drinking and when I was out lateand when I was staying up on
Instagram or I was listening toYouTube videos before I go to
sleep, while I was trying to goto sleep having headphones on
because I couldn't sleep withoutheadphones.
It's like take all that stuffaway, stop overthinking, just do
what you want to do, and ifyou're not enjoying these things
(13:27):
, why keep allowing these thingsto control you?
It's been a really fascinatingjourney for me, and I'm always
curious to ask other artists andperformers about their journey,
because it's really somethingthat I don't even think we
really think about, you know,yeah as artists.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
it's cliche, like it's as natural to me as
breathing, like I don't thinkabout breathing, you know.
But like, for me, creativity islike going.
It is like going to the gym,honestly, like it's something
that you do every day because,like, you have to keep that
muscle going or else it justatrophies and goes away.
It's really hard for me to getback into writing whenever I've
(14:06):
taken some time off, even justtwo days, and I know exactly
what you mean.
If I'm out and about and anidea comes to me, I might just
say you know, that's dumb, notright now.
Idea Like, yeah, I'll rememberyou for later and then I won't
remember it.
Keeping a notebook or a notesapp on my phone or something at
the ready is always somethingthat, like, it's useful to keep
(14:27):
that kind of stuff around.
And getting back to somethingyou were saying about, like you
know, sitting down and doing thework, that's like.
I know people that they have achair that they just use for
writing or for performing.
You know, like, like it's notsomething that's in the living
room, it's in the studio, butyou don't use it unless you're
sitting down to play piano.
So when your butt hits thatchair, it's like, okay, it's
(14:48):
time to go now.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
That's something that I've always done too.
I have a pencil that I keepright here that I only use that
pencil.
I have literally at least 50pencils in front of me, but I
only use the one pencil whileI'm writing the music that I'm
working on on the computer.
Then I have my one pen for myplanner.
I have my one pen for myjournal.
(15:10):
It's like I give things purpose.
I got that from a couple ofthings.
In Japan, Of course, they holdthings higher like personal
items.
They hold them higher on adifferent level.
They look at them as if they'retheir own spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Everything has its own energy and so when you are
in these environments where youhave something that's special to
you, giving it that energyhelps.
It continue to help you.
And another thing I think aboutI think this came from the
Braden Sweetgrass book I readlast year.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Where they were talking about how you got to be
respectful to the earth.
Earth will show you the samerespect, and I truly believe
that works with inanimateobjects.
It's so weird to say that outloud, but it's the truth.
You can put bad juju onsomething.
You can have something that youhave cursed yourself because
(16:07):
you have been so negative aboutit, and every time you see that
thing, some reason, somethingbad happens and you blame it on
that thing again.
You're like it's because ofthat, it's because of this thing
, this is unlucky.
And it's like you're doing that.
You're giving the power to thisitem, this jacket that you wear
.
You say you always missopportunities when you put this
(16:28):
jacket on and it's like Stopwearing it.
Exactly, stop wearing it or tryto make it something positive
instead of something negative.
Don't blame it on that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
This is one of my good things right here.
Yeah, just like a nice.
I don't even light this thinglike it's a candle for anybody
listening.
Yeah, when I take a whiff ofthis thing, I'm like I'm right,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'm like I get that.
I get that and I feel like,especially with your senses,
like something that you smell,that that gives you a good
feeling that that's another wayof creating those positive
(17:14):
moments that smell is a memoryin your brain and when you smell
it you're like all right, I'mgood a soundtrack and I'll just
kind of like have it playing ina loop while I write.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Do you have anything you do there?
Is it like I'm writing thistype of song so I'm going to
listen to some stuff like it,just to kind of get maybe like
somebody's horn charts in yourhead or something like that.
Or is it like you just kind ofsit down and let the music flow
through you without any sort ofinspiration?
Or it's like like, since yourstuff's all about the sound, you
find having a maybe not asoundtrack, but something else
(17:44):
with a different sensory sort ofexperience helps you get to
where you need to go I don'thave like a playlist or
something like that I do have.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, let me take that back.
I have playlists dom's mspoplaylist that I listen to.
That is like it's music that Iwant to create.
That's kind of the idea.
But when I sit down and writeunless I'm focusing on a certain
type of, on certain music likeI was doing this one thing last
year when I was writing myhundred songs where I would
(18:13):
listen to Instagram videos ofpeople creating loops and I
would use those loops to createsongs so in that sense, I'll
listen to it over and over, andover, and, over and over again
until something pops and I'mlike okay, let's go to it.
Or there's this app called iRealwhere it has every chart you
(18:34):
can possibly think of.
If you want to play a FrankSinatra song, you want to play a
Johnny Mathis song.
To play a Frank Sinatra song.
You want to play a JohnnyMathis song.
You want to play Bill Withers,stevie Wonder, anything.
You could find the chartsusually on this community in
this app and it has the abilityto play the charts to you.
(18:54):
You could change the keys towhatever keys you want.
I've let that help me findinspiration before just playing
the chords and having thesedifferent chord progressions.
What does this make me feellike?
What is this giving me vibesabout, and then I'll write it.
But I've never sat down and waslike I want to write a samba,
let me listen to a couple ofsamba songs.
It was first.
It was I was listening to abunch of samba songs and I was
(19:15):
like, oh, let me try to writeone of these, and that was kind
of the way I approached it, andI feel like now it's a lot
different, because I do writemore now than I used to.
So in some scenarios I'm justin the room about to go to bed
and melody pops in my head, Ijump out of bed and write down
and record what I was thinking,and maybe three weeks after that
(19:37):
I'll pull that note up and boom, I got the idea, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, it's like you keep your phone nearby, not so
you can scroll Instagram late atnight, but so you can pick it
up and be like I'm not surewhere this goes.
But and then you just like singa little motif.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Well, the thing is I purposefully put my phone at a
distance away from me that Ihave to get up and get it.
So that also helps me.
If I have an idea, I'm like, isthis worth getting up right now
?
Is this worth leaving thecomfort of my bed to put in
there?
And if it is, I'll get up, grabit, take it in the bathroom
(20:16):
while Adrienne sleeps so shewon't hear me singing randomly
into this phone, and then I'llget back in bed and go to sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Does that help more than it hinders Like we're
talking about the artist's waything, the whole like resistance
.
Do you ever find yourself goinglike, ah, this is crap.
And just like going back to bed?
Or do you with me if I have anidea, no matter how dumb it may
be, no matter what time it is, Igot to get up and just like
write it down or speak it into avoice note or something.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I don't view it negatively, though, if I tell
myself it's worth getting up.
It's worth getting up, and Imight listen to it the next
three weeks or the next day orwhenever I listen to it and be
like, oh, that was a bad idea,and then get rid of it.
But it's never negative to doit, because usually, if I did it
, it was because I knew thatI'll be able to build from that,
(21:04):
and it's very weird how thathappens, like you kind of just
have this feeling of, actually,this is pretty good.
I need to write this, or I needto at least hum this melody, so
that when I hear it later,future Dom will be like, oh damn
, that was good, that was a goodidea.
Let's do this, though, andswitch it up.
(21:25):
I feel like that is somethingthat I really do enjoy, and when
I was younger, I forget wherethis reference came from.
It might have been how I Metyour Mother.
It was how I Met your Mother, Ithink, where he kept a notebook
next to his bed, and if he hadideas in the middle of the night
, he wrote them down and lookedat the notebook the next day to
try to figure out what the hellhe was trying to do and I used
(21:48):
to feel that was the purpose tokeep my phone close to me.
But, honestly, if I get off ofthis pod and I say, okay, let's
start writing a song, I'm goingto start writing a song then and
later on tonight I'll be ableto sleep comfortably, knowing
that I was creative and wrotesomething earlier and I'm not
jonesing to have to write again.
You know, usually because it'salways an accomplishment when I
(22:09):
get through a full project or Icome up with a full concept and
an idea and I put it down and Iadd the chords together and I
record the demo.
Like, if I do anything likethat musically or creatively, I
tend to pat myself on the backand be okay with that.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Is there a way that it normally comes to you?
Does a tune come to you, does alyric come to you, or is it
just going to vary depending onwhat you're working on?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I don't even know how to describe the way songs come
together.
Here's a great example, allright.
Know how to describe the waysongs come together?
Here's a great example, allright.
I loved this tune calledCherokee by Bucky Pizzarelli and
it's one of these incrediblejazz standards and they do it
more as a guitar kind of Latinguitar kind of feel to it.
And I remember hearing that songyears ago, thinking I want to
(22:58):
try to put lyrics to this.
It'd be really cool to try tofind a way, put lyrics to it.
So I put it in my notes rightto this song at some point.
And then month later I look atthat and I'm like Cherokee, okay
, and I start thinking of NativeAmerican things.
Maybe I can make this about theearth, maybe I can make this
(23:20):
about the way that we vieweverything.
And like, cause BradenSweetgrass was fresh in my mind.
So I'm like maybe kind of usethat as the inspiration to
create something on it.
But then one day I finished upstuff down here in the basement.
I was like, okay, let's, let'stry to write something.
And I went back to that noteagain and it was like Cherokee.
And I'm like how does Cherokee,how's that apply to me and I
(23:44):
was like, well, I used to liveright off Cherokee Street and
boom, that was the line thatinspired the song that I wrote.
That was maybe three, fourmonths after I initially had the
idea of I should do somethingwith this song and I had gone
from trying to make it aboutNative American history and
(24:06):
struggles and things that wouldbe incredible about the earth
and it had this whole journey.
But then it just came to apoint where I was like, oh, I
used to live off Cherokee Streetthat's an incredible way to use
that word and it'd be relevantto me and I can truly create
something that felt fresh, newand different.
And that's one way.
(24:26):
Another way you know themusical I'm writing.
I read the book the Eight Rulesof Love.
I had started writing thismusical years ago in my head and
then put it in on notes and Ihad the premise and the idea,
idea and I just wanted it to bea love story.
But I didn't start to putscenes together and actually
write songs for it until I readthat book.
(24:47):
Because I read the book and Iwas like what if the musical is
based off of this, the eightrules of love you follow in
these couples and they'refollowing the eight rules of
love and that's why they staytogether, because they actually
go through the process, worktogether and truly engage with
each other on their issues andtalk through things and they
(25:08):
understand that it isn't justtheir partner's job to be better
, they have to be better.
It was like wow, and then, outof nowhere, that was enough to
inspire four songs, five scenes,and I added some music from my
old songs in there and I'm likeI'm still moving off of that
inspiration to finish thatmusical right now.
(25:29):
So I say it's hard to say when,because honestly, every song,
every poem, every idea has cometo me different.
It's never the same routine.
It's always me attaching to anidea randomly.
It's always random, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
The story I'm working on right now is a very old
story.
I've written several versionsof it.
It's called the Reservist.
I don't know if that soundsfamiliar to you, but it was
right after my brother died backin 2006.
So we're talking coming on 19years now.
I had this idea of a guy thatwas himself in the military and
(26:08):
he found out that he was goingto get deployed and then one of
his best friends died in the warand he was like struggling with
the whole, like well, what ifit's me too?
Like I don't want to go off todie.
It's scary, it's like the guyfacing mortality.
I could never really hook intohow to make that into a story.
And then I just started gettingon to a Google document and
(26:30):
just writing out personalstories from back when I was a
kid, from after my brother diedand everything like that, and I
realized that there was a verysmall little kernel that could
grow into something and it wasthat my brother used to have
this like this car heart jacketand I have one that's similar.
It kind of grew off of that.
(26:52):
But like then the story that I'mwriting now, this this guy like
snaked his brother's jacketafter his brother went off to
the army and he just kind ofmade it his own, put patches on
it and things like that.
Um, yeah, and then over thecourse of the story he stops
seeing it as something thatbelongs to him, but something
that used to belong to hisbrother yeah and he slowly but
(27:16):
surely starts removing thepatches off of it and at the end
, his brother's girlfriend wantsthe jacket and he hands it over
.
to the end, his brother'sgirlfriend wants the jacket and
he hands it over to her.
So the jacket becomes ametaphor for his own growth.
And even though that has almostlittle to nothing to do with
the actual story, I'm like okay,that's it, I know how to tell
(27:36):
this now.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, let's see.
In that scenario and you askedme the question, do you feel
like there is a specific way howstories come to you too, or is
it just random like that?
Because I honestly think well,not think there was a book I
read and one of the lines withinthere they spoke about was you
have to let the unknown happenwhen it comes to being an artist
(27:57):
, meaning that moment whenyou're writing something, you're
like I don't know where thatcame from, I don't know how that
happened.
You have to continue to writeand continue to create so that
that moment happens more,because that moment is something
that helps artists create, andif you don't do it enough, you
won't have those moments.
Yeah, so you got to keep doingit so that you can continue to
(28:18):
surprise yourself.
I personally think that being anartist is as random as it gets.
It comes to you through theworld in different avenues and
it's never really the same way.
So, before we get off thisbecause this is still just
(28:39):
incredibly fascinating to me, ifyou were to say, dominique,
what's your routine of writing,it really starts with my planner
.
I write in a journal everymorning One of the journals that
you gave me, actually and I usethe Boscott pencil with it
because I love I used to writemy journals with pens.
(29:00):
But but having a pencil hasreally taken me back and I don't
know where I think it was,maybe as a kid.
You know you use pencilsbecause you're in elementary
school and then you became amiddle schooler and you have
pens now and you're cooler andyou're an adult now of
gravitated away from why Igravitated away from using
(29:20):
pencils.
But I'm kind of reverting backto like, oh, this is nice to be
able to just erase and to thefeeling of sharpening the pencil
.
Everything really kind of helpswith writing in the journal and
(29:40):
writing my music and everythingit makes sense to use a pencil.
I don't know why pens were sucha thing in my head, but I I'm
saying all of this because theroutine for writing for me.
There is a lot of things that Ihave in place already.
Another, how much a motherreference where future Dom will
(30:04):
handle that.
That's a problem for future Domkind of thing and I never
really I never tried to set upfuture Dom negatively.
I know how forgetful I can be.
I know how clumsy I can be.
I know things that I do.
I know the way that I think.
So usually my goal is to placethings around me in areas that,
(30:27):
if I forget exactly where it is,future Dom will be able to be
like, well, wait a minute.
I think this way I would haveput it right here and I'll go
look in that area and be like,thank you, past Dom, because
he's always considering whatwould I do in the future.
Where would I go?
So, with pencils, with my musicjournal is right here.
You know what I'm saying.
(30:48):
I don't have to go searchingfor it.
I don't know how people live,where they just throw shit
around and then they just comeback and they're like oh, I know
.
No, I need it in a specificplace.
I need it to have this next toit.
I have my permanent markersright there.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
This next to it.
I have my permanent markersright there.
Everything is in a place sothat when I come down here and I
want to be comfortable writing,I'm already comfortable because
everything is in position forme to be comfortable.
Do you have some type ofjournaling and that just kind of
like primes the pump, yeah, asit were, and then I look at what
I'm going to work on that dayand I spend the day thinking
about how that's going to playout.
Like the next scene I'm writingand the story I'm writing right
now it takes place out in themiddle of an open field.
(31:41):
A bunch of guys are going mud.
Yeah, that's not something thatlike I did too many times when
I was a kid but I am familiarwith like all the stuff that
happens there.
It's not just like everybody'sstanding around watching like
somebody get their truck caughtin some mud, like there's you
know group over here doing thestuff.
So like I'll spend three orfour hours trying to figure out
(32:01):
like okay, what, what is thing athat's happening, what is is
thing B, what is thing C, whatis thing D?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And how do they connect toward the end.
And then, once I have all thosethings in place, I hit it.
But going back further thanthat, I'll just kind of start
with an idea and then break itout slowly but surely into
smaller, smaller pieces.
What's this idea I'm working on, okay, where does it begin,
where does it end?
Where are the acts?
Where are the beats?
(32:28):
How do we connect the beats toone another?
What is the conflict in eachplace that gets us from A to B?
Who are the characters?
You just kind of start fillinga bucket with more and more data
and then you just go in, ladleout some, and just go in, ladle
out some and just go but it'snot all that different from from
what you were saying like.
(32:49):
It seems to me like we're bothkind of trying to and I feel
like not too many people knowwhat this is like anymore, but
back when we had like antennason our tvs yeah, get the
frequency right yeah, you got toget the frequency right.
You had to take the rabbit earsto a certain part of the room
and you had to crunch thetinfoil onto a specific part and
(33:12):
hold it just so In order forthe frequency to come in.
Yeah, but you had to do allthese things and you had to do
them in this order.
It would work.
That's the way it works with me.
It sounds like yours is justlike you turn on the TV set, see
what it looks like and thenjust kind of like maybe start
playing with things around theroom until something comes in.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
For sure.
I feel like I miss a lot ofolder routines.
I miss a lot of things that hadmore process to create.
We live in a world now wherefor this podcast, if I want to
put together a description, Icould either write it out the
way I want to write it out or Ican have an AI machine just do
(33:56):
it for me.
And it's like you take away somany elements that in some ways
you looked forward to back inthe day.
You looked forward to puttingtogether the cover art for this
album.
You looked forward tocontacting people about your
project and saying hey, what doyou think?
I want you to check it outbefore anyone else.
You look forward to all thatstuff.
(34:17):
But now there's so many avenueswhere, if you want to check if
your poem has the proper Englishin it, you could just put it on
chat, gpt or whatever and havethem edit it and they'll make it
so that it sounds a certain way.
You can tell them to make itsound like it's in the New York
Times.
You can tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, copy paste.
Does this make sense?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And I feel like looking back and taking back
those old traditions.
You know, this past week greatexample of that.
I've been trying to figure outdifferent ways to eat a little
cleaner and one thing that Igrew up with was popcorn, but
not like movie popcorn, not likeyou put it in the microwave and
it's pop.
I had that as a kid but when Ilived with my great grandparents
(35:00):
, my grandma would pop popcornon the stove and she had the
whole process that she would gothrough and it really is one of
the more healthy snacks.
And if you put the right stuffon it not too much salt, use
olive oil instead of butter,stuff like that it could be a
more healthy snack.
I sat down and thought about Ineed to go buy this, buy some
(35:22):
chips, buy this and I'm like no,no, let me.
I have popcorn seeds at thehouse.
I don't make it as often as Iused to because I don't want to
go through all of that process,but it's like maybe I need to go
through that process because ifI do that I can have so much
popcorn in so little time andhave so much more of something
that's more healthy, somethingthat has a purpose.
(35:45):
And if I'm like I need somemunchies, I can just grab that
and that's good.
And I think I'm like okay, andso I've been making popcorn all
week and it's been amazing andit's.
It's something that luckily Iwas raised by my great
grandparents because that wassomething I experienced when I
was with them.
But even then, like if I wereto just go buy popcorn and put
(36:05):
it in the microwave, that'sstill a routine that I could go
through the process and it'llmake me happy.
But doing it the older way,just for me, it works and I
don't feel like I need to changethat, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, I mean it kind of connects to that breeding
sweetgrass book, right, Like,yes, just the thought of popcorn
like imbuesues you, imbibes youwith the story of your grandma,
and so it's like the past isbeing like funneled into these
kernels and it means more to youwhen you make it yourself.
Yeah, instead of just going outand getting the bag, putting it
in the microwave for threeminutes and just munching on it.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
The memory of my grandma.
You know, my grandma taught mehow to do this.
So I'm going through thisprocess that someone that I
really love and miss helped medo, and I could do it so easily
just getting it and putting itin the microwave.
I could do that, but also I dothis and it just takes me back.
It helps me clear my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It shows me that it's not that big a deal to do extra
steps, especially if you'regoing to have the best outcome
it ties to creativity, like chatgbt could write you a song and
you can perform it, but it's notgoing to mean as much to you as
if you just if you write thething yourself and you're using
memories, stories, even thingskind of like cherokee street,
you know yeah once that all tiestogether and it becomes a thing
(37:25):
like all of a sudden, it's thatmuch more important.
You have to write it One, two,three, four.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Time stands still when you're around, Life is full
of smiles.
I've found Red lip stains andwonderful sounds.
When more could I ask for now?
Skies are blue and flowers justbloom, Crazy little characters
(38:13):
in brand new costumes.
Mississippi mud meets Julio'sdoom.
Oh and more.
Should I have to assume?
Absolutely nothing.
You're all that I need.
(38:34):
I repeat there is nothing Ichange, baby.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
This is my tune.
Nothing that I wrote for mysecond album, new Art.
I played the ukulele a lot whenI lived in Chicago to inspire
me to write more music, and thisis one of those tunes that came
from messing around with theukulele, so I wanted to put it
on the album to represent me.
You can listen to all my musicon all streaming platforms and,
(39:06):
if you want to check me out formore information, go to
DonMemoircom where you can getanything and everything.
Don Memore, you know what I love.
I love Legos and that is such arandom thing, I know, but this
Christmas was the first time Iput Lego sets on my Christmas
(39:31):
list.
Since I was a child I haven'thad a Lego in any of my homes
that I've ever had, by myselfmeaning from the first apartment
in college to now, I never hada Lego in any of those houses
and that's something that I justkind of identify with being a
kid and I'm going to avoid that.
(39:53):
But I love puzzles, I loveusing my hands, I love brain
teases, I love following rules,I love all that kind of stuff,
stuff.
So I was thinking about, I waslike I kind of I would love to
like put together the starcruiser from the mandalorian, I
would love to put together theinfinity gauntlet from, you know
(40:16):
, marvel like I can do that withlegos.
I would love.
I would love to just do it tosee.
And I got two sets this yearand I put them both together
literally the day after I gothome from Christmas in St Louis,
and so that right now is kindof the highlight of what I've
been enjoying, one of thehighlights I've been enjoying.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So I pose the question to you honestly, I love
(41:08):
silence, but a specific type ofsilence and um, and it's a,
it's a thing that we'veexperienced a little bit here in
the past couple days.
Here in Georgia, snow silence,yeah, yeah, that, yeah yeah,
nobody.
It seems like they're in tooterrible of a mood.
Like you, can you just, I don'tknow.
It feels like everything isjust like humming at the correct
(41:31):
wavelength.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
And that's uh, that's just something that I could.
I could deal with a lot moreand I know that's a little bit
of a downer, but man, that isthat's the last time.
A couple of days ago, when Istepped outside at five o'clock
in the morning, it was just nocars on the road, no trains
coming, no planes in the airthat I could see or hear.
(41:56):
It was just silence.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
We've made it to the end of the episode.
I always appreciate talking toyou and having you on here.
I talk to you every day, almostwith the jam text, but it's
still great to see your face andto catch up.
You know how we do this.
At the end of the episode.
We've spoken about everythingwe want to speak about.
All I have to ask now is how doyou feel?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
These days I feel a lot better.
Last time we were talking, wewere talking a lot about grief
and sadness and sorrow and painand things like that.
But I have a lot of optimism forthis year.
I'm feeling like I have a goodhandle on how I'm gonna tackle
the next 11 and a half months.
Now, okay, and I love, I lovethat, uh, that you're part of it
(42:42):
every single day.
Yeah, man, by the way, anybodythat that's listening to this,
find one of your closest friendsand send them songs you like
every single day.
Yeah, you have no idea how muchthat helps out people.
So send the stuff you like tothe people that you like.
Cheers to you, man.
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
I want to thank you for listening to the black man
talking emotions podcast.
The opening quote.
Credit goes to Aldis Huxley andshout out to Shank for being on
the pod.
Chris keeps to himself, so hedoes not have social media.
I appreciate him for letting usinto his world.
Please subscribe to the podcastand share the podcast.
Give us a good rating fivestars, please and thank you.
You can support the show byclicking the link at the bottom
(43:32):
of the episode description.
If you liked this episode, youshould check out our previous
episode titled Grief.
It's a great listen.
Check it out.
Follow me at D-O-M underscoreL-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at
DomLamorecom.
I'm Dom Lamore.
Much love.
I got that from a couple of things In Japan, of
course, they hold things higherlike personal items.
They hold them higher on adifferent level.
They look at them as if they'retheir own spirit.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Everything has its own energy and so when you are
in these environments where youhave something that's special to
you, giving it that energyhelps.
It continue to help you.
And another thing I think aboutI think this came from the
Braden Sweetgrass book I readlast year, where they were
talking about how you got to berespectful to the earth.
(00:37):
Earth will show you the samerespect and I truly believe that
works with inanimate objects.
It's so weird to say that outloud, but it's the truth.
Like you could put bad juju onsomething.
You can have something that youhave cursed yourself because
you have been so negative aboutit, and every time you see that
thing, some reason, somethingbad happens and you blame it on
(01:00):
that thing again.
You're like it's because ofthat, it's because of this thing
, this is unlucky, and it's likeyou're doing that.
You're giving the power to thisitem.
Ladies and gentlemen and anyoneelse who is here my name is dom
(01:20):
lamore and you are listening tothe black man talking emotions
podcast on today's.
We speak with friend of theshow, shank Christopher Shank,
to be exact about our creativeprocess being more organized,
working on ourselves and so muchmore.
There's only one corner of theuniverse you can be certain of
(01:46):
improving, and that's your ownself.
I feel like I get you on heresometimes and we have great
conversation and we talk aboutvery sad stuff, and I wanted to
(02:09):
talk more about the craft withyou today, because something
that we always talk about isfinding that inspiration to
create, and I read a book, theWar of Art.
That's the name of the book,the War of Art.
Yeah, steven Princefield, yeah,yeah.
So the idea that, as a creator,you create, you got to keep
creating.
(02:30):
Even when you finish something,the next thing to do is to make
something else.
That really hung with me because, there will be so many times
when I'll be writing music orI'll be putting stories together
, arranging a show, gettingstuff prepped for the podcast,
doing something artistically.
While I'm doing all of thiswork, I get to the end and it's
like, okay, now I don't have towork anymore.
(02:50):
Now.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
I'm done.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
Oh, I'm finally done with that.
I'm going to take a break.
I deserve a break because I'veworked so hard and months go by
or some time go by and I'm likewhat's wrong?
Why am I kind of, oh, I'm notcreating, I haven't created
something.
I stopped creating because Ifelt like I needed a break from
creating and so I kind ofswitched that in my brain, where
I finished writing a couple ofsongs for my album and I was
(03:11):
like I need to keep writing.
So I started writing stuff forthe musical and then I would
write a song that I'm thinkingfor the musical, but I'm like,
actually, this might go betterwith the album.
Then I'm writing poems and I'mlike, oh, these are random, I
can put these on the podcast.
Just me, continuing to createhas allowed me to keep that
muscle working.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, kind of just collecting ideas from the muse
and just slotting them whereverthey feel most appropriate.
Speaker 1 (03:37):
And it truly has elevated my happiness.
It has completely destroyed anyof the naysaying of I need a
break.
It's like no, I don't.
I enjoy this.
This isn't something that's atask to me.
This isn't something I have todo for a deadline.
I'm doing this because I loveit.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, when it feels like a task, that's when you
want to step away for a littlebit, exactly.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
But the thing is I forget which book I read so much
last year.
There's one book in particularwhere they really spoke about
the idea that you can dictateyour feelings.
If you want to be happy, justbe happy.
And I know that sounds verysimple and ridiculous, like no,
if you're sad, you're sad.
But it's true.
If you sit down five minutesand in your head say I'm happy
(04:23):
right now, I'm so happy, andforce yourself to smile At the
end of that five minutes and inyour head say I'm happy right
now, I'm so happy, and forceyourself to smile At the end of
that five minutes, you mightactually be smiling, just
because you're like I can'tbelieve, I just did that.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah, I mean, that's why I started every day with
like a gratitude practice too.
Yes, yes.
Even if it's the same thingsevery single day, I'm happy that
I have a house or a roof overmy head.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
Oh bed, I have food in the refrigerator.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah yeah.
I got a dog that gives me a lotof happiness.
I got a wife that has built agreat life for me and for us.
That's enough to get me starteda lot of days.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
So the reason why I bring all that stuff up just to
kind of paint the picture is toturn to you Okay, have you been
finding ways to keep thatinspiration?
Do you think you are strugglingwith finding inspiration?
Or putting pen to paper Likeare you working through anything
, or has it been dope as wellfor you?
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Honestly, if you would ask me this 24 hours ago,
I'd have a different answer.
Yeah, I was texting with afriend yesterday and he was
asking me like have I writtenanything recently?
And initially I wanted to belike no, I took a couple of
months off, but then I thoughtabout it.
I just finished a feature.
I just started another feature,finished a short, I finished a
(05:36):
pilot, like all of this in thepast, like 45 days.
So I mean, it's all workinglike it.
May not look like me sitting atmy computer writing all the
time, but you know, I'll make myway through a draft of of
something and I'll send you thedraft and while I'm waiting for
your notes, I'm working on thisother draft of this other thing
yeah I'm always hopping aroundfrom thing to thing, like you
(05:58):
were talking about with yoursongs, like sometimes I'm like I
have to write.
I have to write something.
Okay, what's what's going on inmy head right now?
Go to your idea notebook or youknow idea document and just see
if something speaks to you andlike, a lot of times, that'll be
enough.
Even if nothing comes of it,I'll get a couple of pages going
and then I'll figure out whathad stopped me on this other
thing and I'll table that andcome back to it eight months
(06:21):
later.
But I mean, that's a longwinded way of saying, like I
said just yesterday, I would belike, no, I'm not been feeling
inspired, but you know, the datais there to show the like.
I'm keeping it moving, keepingit together, yeah, k-i-t.
(06:41):
But yeah, yeah.
And after I'm done with thisdraft of something I'm working
on right now, we got anotherstory that I'm kind of
repurposing for present.
Some things have happened thatreally color the story
differently in life.
So I'm trying to like repurposethat into something a little
bit more true.
After that I've got anotherstory lined up, so I've got
three features I'm trying towork on this year.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
That's incredible.
I will go back, though, becausesomething that was very
interesting that happened whenyou were talking was your first
instinct was to be like actuallyno, I didn't write much to the
friend when you obviously had.
Why do you feel like you werein that?
Speaker 2 (07:16):
headspace, you know artistry, with somebody who's
like absolutely obsessed withtheir craft yeah, and somebody
who, like forgets to eat orbathe and just like sits their
computer, sits at their keyboard, and adrian dana, whoever you
know is around, is like, don'tbother him, he's in the zone
right now yeah but for me, Ifound I get a lot more done and
(07:40):
I feel a lot better about whatI've done.
If I just break things down, youknow, not try to write a
hundred page script in a weekend, but write a hundred page
script over the course of fouror five weekends or four or five
weeks.
So you know, all of a suddenit's 20, 25 pages a week.
Divide that by you know, sevendays or even four days.
(08:00):
You know you don't want towrite every single day.
All of a sudden it's like youknow what.
Three to six pages, yeah.
And if you know what you'redoing, I have a whole document.
Like I have 49 scenes to do inthis script.
I'm on number 12 right now.
I know what 13 and 14 are goingto look like.
I have a rough idea of how manypages they're going to be.
I know what I want to happen ineach of the scenes.
(08:22):
So I just sit down and say,okay, what's up next?
Okay, I remember that and justclick, click, click and I'm done
like an hour later with thatscene and I just move on to the
next one.
So it doesn't really feel likeI'm doing a lot because I'm
knocking it out in a half anhour, an hour.
Sometimes I get it done overlunch.
That's a lot better for me andmy mental health and my overall
health than trying to do it allat once.
(08:43):
In my 40s now I have to look outfor my physical health and I
got to get to the gym and I'mgetting back into running and
you have to do all these thingsjust to stay afloat.
I don't have the capacity oreven the ability to forget about
the world.
For three days I got to stay ontop of stuff and I have to
break down my projects intomanageable chunks, and the same
(09:05):
thing goes with physical stuff.
You see people in the gym thatare there for two or three hours
.
They go two, three times a week.
And then there's me who I'll bethere for 45 minutes to an hour
.
Sometimes.
I'll get my work done.
I'll just carry on with my life.
I think it's the expectationthat we have to really hone in
on what it is that we're tryingto accomplish and give it our
(09:26):
100% of the time, instead ofcompartmentalizing it and say,
okay, now's the time to work onthis, but at six or whatever
time, hang it up, move on to thenext thing.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
I think that has been really helpful to me as well.
I have my planner and I've beenwriting everything out.
So whatever I need to scratchoff the planner is priority that
gets the first attention.
And trying to avoid scrollingon social media.
It's helped when I have tasksI'm like, oh, I need to scratch
this off the list and, like yousaid, trying to make it so that
(10:00):
you're not overwhelming yourself, where today, as soon as I
finished my final interview, I'mgoing to go eat dinner and hang
out with Adrian's parents andhave a normal night and then be
in bed 10, 30, 11 o'clock, likeI normally am, and then wake up
at seven and do it all overagain tomorrow.
So staying focused on my mentalhealth, that has really helped
(10:21):
me.
Breathing, especially when I'mfrustrated, just taking the time
to extra breath, remindingmyself of what the reason is
that I'm doing all this stuff.
I feel like that's kind of beena common theme with a couple of
conversations, because asartists, you got to have that
definition.
You got to have that elevatorpitch, that understanding of
exactly why you're doing whatyou're doing and the reason why
(10:45):
you keep going.
I feel like being inspired iskind of overrated if that makes
sense.
When I was younger, I wouldn'twrite a song because I just
don't have an idea.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
But now if you put me down and you're like, okay,
dominique, write a song, it'snot a matter of I don't have an
idea.
It's like, okay, let's figurethis out, let's just put some
words on paper and see how I cancreate and test myself, because
something incredible might comeout, something bad might come
out, but when you go through theprocess and you continue to
(11:21):
work on that process,inspiration will come.
Just because you're sittingdown at that point.
And when you stand around andyou go out and you're in the
world and you come home andyou're too tired to even think
and you're like I'm not inspired, you're the one that's shutting
down your ideas.
You're not going to be inspired.
Because you're saying I'm notinspired, you're creating the
(11:44):
spell that is literally castingno inspiration in your brain
because you're saying I'm notinspired right now.
I truly think the older I get,the more I start to read
different books, differentthings that give me different
perspectives.
(12:05):
It's really you were going todo every day, and in college you
had a planner and so you kneweverything, or you at least
(12:26):
should have kind of tried toknow where you're supposed to be
and when you're supposed to be.
You were supposed to keep it alittle more together.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
Nine o'clock in the morning on Tuesdays you're in
voice class.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yes, yeah, you know exactly where you're at and I
missed that so much.
And now I'm starting to gain alittle bit of that routine back
and I'm creating it myself,which kind of makes me feel more
proud, because it's like I amcreating this routine and I am
actually staying true to it andbeing disciplined about it.
Have a clearer mind through theday.
(13:04):
I don't have foggy brain asmuch as I used to when I was
drinking and when I was out lateand when I was staying up on
Instagram or I was listening toYouTube videos before I go to
sleep, while I was trying to goto sleep having headphones on
because I couldn't sleep withoutheadphones.
It's like take all that stuffaway, stop overthinking, just do
what you want to do, and ifyou're not enjoying these things
(13:27):
, why keep allowing these thingsto control you?
It's been a really fascinatingjourney for me, and I'm always
curious to ask other artists andperformers about their journey,
because it's really somethingthat I don't even think we
really think about, you know,yeah as artists.
Speaker 2 (13:46):
it's cliche, like it's as natural to me as
breathing, like I don't thinkabout breathing, you know.
But like, for me, creativity islike going.
It is like going to the gym,honestly, like it's something
that you do every day because,like, you have to keep that
muscle going or else it justatrophies and goes away.
It's really hard for me to getback into writing whenever I've
(14:06):
taken some time off, even justtwo days, and I know exactly
what you mean.
If I'm out and about and anidea comes to me, I might just
say you know, that's dumb, notright now.
Idea Like, yeah, I'll rememberyou for later and then I won't
remember it.
Keeping a notebook or a notesapp on my phone or something at
the ready is always somethingthat, like, it's useful to keep
(14:27):
that kind of stuff around.
And getting back to somethingyou were saying about, like you
know, sitting down and doing thework, that's like.
I know people that they have achair that they just use for
writing or for performing.
You know, like, like it's notsomething that's in the living
room, it's in the studio, butyou don't use it unless you're
sitting down to play piano.
So when your butt hits thatchair, it's like, okay, it's
(14:48):
time to go now.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
That's something that I've always done too.
I have a pencil that I keepright here that I only use that
pencil.
I have literally at least 50pencils in front of me, but I
only use the one pencil whileI'm writing the music that I'm
working on on the computer.
Then I have my one pen for myplanner.
I have my one pen for myjournal.
(15:10):
It's like I give things purpose.
I got that from a couple ofthings.
In Japan, Of course, they holdthings higher like personal
items.
They hold them higher on adifferent level.
They look at them as if they'retheir own spirit.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
Yeah, everything has an energy.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
Everything has its own energy and so when you are
in these environments where youhave something that's special to
you, giving it that energyhelps.
It continue to help you.
And another thing I think aboutI think this came from the
Braden Sweetgrass book I readlast year.
Speaker 3 (15:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:46):
Where they were talking about how you got to be
respectful to the earth.
Earth will show you the samerespect, and I truly believe
that works with inanimateobjects.
It's so weird to say that outloud, but it's the truth.
You can put bad juju onsomething.
You can have something that youhave cursed yourself because
(16:07):
you have been so negative aboutit, and every time you see that
thing, some reason, somethingbad happens and you blame it on
that thing again.
You're like it's because ofthat, it's because of this thing
, this is unlucky.
And it's like you're doing that.
You're giving the power to thisitem, this jacket that you wear
.
You say you always missopportunities when you put this
(16:28):
jacket on and it's like Stopwearing it.
Exactly, stop wearing it or tryto make it something positive
instead of something negative.
Don't blame it on that.
Speaker 2 (16:38):
This is one of my good things right here.
Yeah, just like a nice.
I don't even light this thinglike it's a candle for anybody
listening.
Yeah, when I take a whiff ofthis thing, I'm like I'm right,
let's go.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
I'm like I get that.
I get that and I feel like,especially with your senses,
like something that you smell,that that gives you a good
feeling that that's another wayof creating those positive
(17:14):
moments that smell is a memoryin your brain and when you smell
it you're like all right, I'mgood a soundtrack and I'll just
kind of like have it playing ina loop while I write.
Speaker 2 (17:23):
Do you have anything you do there?
Is it like I'm writing thistype of song so I'm going to
listen to some stuff like it,just to kind of get maybe like
somebody's horn charts in yourhead or something like that.
Or is it like you just kind ofsit down and let the music flow
through you without any sort ofinspiration?
Or it's like like, since yourstuff's all about the sound, you
find having a maybe not asoundtrack, but something else
(17:44):
with a different sensory sort ofexperience helps you get to
where you need to go I don'thave like a playlist or
something like that I do have.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
All right, let me take that back.
I have playlists dom's mspoplaylist that I listen to.
That is like it's music that Iwant to create.
That's kind of the idea.
But when I sit down and writeunless I'm focusing on a certain
type of, on certain music likeI was doing this one thing last
year when I was writing myhundred songs where I would
(18:13):
listen to Instagram videos ofpeople creating loops and I
would use those loops to createsongs so in that sense, I'll
listen to it over and over, andover, and, over and over again
until something pops and I'mlike okay, let's go to it.
Or there's this app called iRealwhere it has every chart you
(18:34):
can possibly think of.
If you want to play a FrankSinatra song, you want to play a
Johnny Mathis song.
To play a Frank Sinatra song.
You want to play a JohnnyMathis song.
You want to play Bill Withers,stevie Wonder, anything.
You could find the chartsusually on this community in
this app and it has the abilityto play the charts to you.
(18:54):
You could change the keys towhatever keys you want.
I've let that help me findinspiration before just playing
the chords and having thesedifferent chord progressions.
What does this make me feellike?
What is this giving me vibesabout, and then I'll write it.
But I've never sat down and waslike I want to write a samba,
let me listen to a couple ofsamba songs.
It was first.
It was I was listening to abunch of samba songs and I was
(19:15):
like, oh, let me try to writeone of these, and that was kind
of the way I approached it, andI feel like now it's a lot
different, because I do writemore now than I used to.
So in some scenarios I'm justin the room about to go to bed
and melody pops in my head, Ijump out of bed and write down
and record what I was thinking,and maybe three weeks after that
(19:37):
I'll pull that note up and boom, I got the idea, you know.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Yeah, it's like you keep your phone nearby, not so
you can scroll Instagram late atnight, but so you can pick it
up and be like I'm not surewhere this goes.
But and then you just like singa little motif.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
Well, the thing is I purposefully put my phone at a
distance away from me that Ihave to get up and get it.
So that also helps me.
If I have an idea, I'm like, isthis worth getting up right now
?
Is this worth leaving thecomfort of my bed to put in
there?
And if it is, I'll get up, grabit, take it in the bathroom
(20:16):
while Adrienne sleeps so shewon't hear me singing randomly
into this phone, and then I'llget back in bed and go to sleep.
Speaker 2 (20:22):
Does that help more than it hinders Like we're
talking about the artist's waything, the whole like resistance
.
Do you ever find yourself goinglike, ah, this is crap.
And just like going back to bed?
Or do you with me if I have anidea, no matter how dumb it may
be, no matter what time it is, Igot to get up and just like
write it down or speak it into avoice note or something.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
I don't view it negatively, though, if I tell
myself it's worth getting up.
It's worth getting up, and Imight listen to it the next
three weeks or the next day orwhenever I listen to it and be
like, oh, that was a bad idea,and then get rid of it.
But it's never negative to doit, because usually, if I did it
, it was because I knew thatI'll be able to build from that,
(21:04):
and it's very weird how thathappens, like you kind of just
have this feeling of, actually,this is pretty good.
I need to write this, or I needto at least hum this melody, so
that when I hear it later,future Dom will be like, oh damn
, that was good, that was a goodidea.
Let's do this, though, andswitch it up.
(21:25):
I feel like that is somethingthat I really do enjoy, and when
I was younger, I forget wherethis reference came from.
It might have been how I Metyour Mother.
It was how I Met your Mother, Ithink, where he kept a notebook
next to his bed, and if he hadideas in the middle of the night
, he wrote them down and lookedat the notebook the next day to
try to figure out what the hellhe was trying to do and I used
(21:48):
to feel that was the purpose tokeep my phone close to me.
But, honestly, if I get off ofthis pod and I say, okay, let's
start writing a song, I'm goingto start writing a song then and
later on tonight I'll be ableto sleep comfortably, knowing
that I was creative and wrotesomething earlier and I'm not
jonesing to have to write again.
You know, usually because it'salways an accomplishment when I
(22:09):
get through a full project or Icome up with a full concept and
an idea and I put it down and Iadd the chords together and I
record the demo.
Like, if I do anything likethat musically or creatively, I
tend to pat myself on the backand be okay with that.
Speaker 2 (22:27):
Is there a way that it normally comes to you?
Does a tune come to you, does alyric come to you, or is it
just going to vary depending onwhat you're working on?
Speaker 1 (22:36):
I don't even know how to describe the way songs come
together.
Here's a great example, allright.
Know how to describe the waysongs come together?
Here's a great example, allright.
I loved this tune calledCherokee by Bucky Pizzarelli and
it's one of these incrediblejazz standards and they do it
more as a guitar kind of Latinguitar kind of feel to it.
And I remember hearing that songyears ago, thinking I want to
(22:58):
try to put lyrics to this.
It'd be really cool to try tofind a way, put lyrics to it.
So I put it in my notes rightto this song at some point.
And then month later I look atthat and I'm like Cherokee, okay
, and I start thinking of NativeAmerican things.
Maybe I can make this about theearth, maybe I can make this
(23:20):
about the way that we vieweverything.
And like, cause BradenSweetgrass was fresh in my mind.
So I'm like maybe kind of usethat as the inspiration to
create something on it.
But then one day I finished upstuff down here in the basement.
I was like, okay, let's, let'stry to write something.
And I went back to that noteagain and it was like Cherokee.
And I'm like how does Cherokee,how's that apply to me and I
(23:44):
was like, well, I used to liveright off Cherokee Street and
boom, that was the line thatinspired the song that I wrote.
That was maybe three, fourmonths after I initially had the
idea of I should do somethingwith this song and I had gone
from trying to make it aboutNative American history and
(24:06):
struggles and things that wouldbe incredible about the earth
and it had this whole journey.
But then it just came to apoint where I was like, oh, I
used to live off Cherokee Streetthat's an incredible way to use
that word and it'd be relevantto me and I can truly create
something that felt fresh, newand different.
And that's one way.
(24:26):
Another way you know themusical I'm writing.
I read the book the Eight Rulesof Love.
I had started writing thismusical years ago in my head and
then put it in on notes and Ihad the premise and the idea,
idea and I just wanted it to bea love story.
But I didn't start to putscenes together and actually
write songs for it until I readthat book.
(24:47):
Because I read the book and Iwas like what if the musical is
based off of this, the eightrules of love you follow in
these couples and they'refollowing the eight rules of
love and that's why they staytogether, because they actually
go through the process, worktogether and truly engage with
each other on their issues andtalk through things and they
(25:08):
understand that it isn't justtheir partner's job to be better
, they have to be better.
It was like wow, and then, outof nowhere, that was enough to
inspire four songs, five scenes,and I added some music from my
old songs in there and I'm likeI'm still moving off of that
inspiration to finish thatmusical right now.
(25:29):
So I say it's hard to say when,because honestly, every song,
every poem, every idea has cometo me different.
It's never the same routine.
It's always me attaching to anidea randomly.
It's always random, I feel like.
Speaker 2 (25:47):
The story I'm working on right now is a very old
story.
I've written several versionsof it.
It's called the Reservist.
I don't know if that soundsfamiliar to you, but it was
right after my brother died backin 2006.
So we're talking coming on 19years now.
I had this idea of a guy thatwas himself in the military and
(26:08):
he found out that he was goingto get deployed and then one of
his best friends died in the warand he was like struggling with
the whole, like well, what ifit's me too?
Like I don't want to go off todie.
It's scary, it's like the guyfacing mortality.
I could never really hook intohow to make that into a story.
And then I just started gettingon to a Google document and
(26:30):
just writing out personalstories from back when I was a
kid, from after my brother diedand everything like that, and I
realized that there was a verysmall little kernel that could
grow into something and it wasthat my brother used to have
this like this car heart jacketand I have one that's similar.
It kind of grew off of that.
(26:52):
But like then the story that I'mwriting now, this this guy like
snaked his brother's jacketafter his brother went off to
the army and he just kind ofmade it his own, put patches on
it and things like that.
Um, yeah, and then over thecourse of the story he stops
seeing it as something thatbelongs to him, but something
that used to belong to hisbrother yeah and he slowly but
(27:16):
surely starts removing thepatches off of it and at the end
, his brother's girlfriend wantsthe jacket and he hands it over
.
to the end, his brother'sgirlfriend wants the jacket and
he hands it over to her.
So the jacket becomes ametaphor for his own growth.
And even though that has almostlittle to nothing to do with
the actual story, I'm like okay,that's it, I know how to tell
(27:36):
this now.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Yeah, let's see.
In that scenario and you askedme the question, do you feel
like there is a specific way howstories come to you too, or is
it just random like that?
Because I honestly think well,not think there was a book I
read and one of the lines withinthere they spoke about was you
have to let the unknown happenwhen it comes to being an artist
(27:57):
, meaning that moment whenyou're writing something, you're
like I don't know where thatcame from, I don't know how that
happened.
You have to continue to writeand continue to create so that
that moment happens more,because that moment is something
that helps artists create, andif you don't do it enough, you
won't have those moments.
Yeah, so you got to keep doingit so that you can continue to
(28:18):
surprise yourself.
I personally think that being anartist is as random as it gets.
It comes to you through theworld in different avenues and
it's never really the same way.
So, before we get off thisbecause this is still just
(28:39):
incredibly fascinating to me, ifyou were to say, dominique,
what's your routine of writing,it really starts with my planner
.
I write in a journal everymorning One of the journals that
you gave me, actually and I usethe Boscott pencil with it
because I love I used to writemy journals with pens.
(29:00):
But but having a pencil hasreally taken me back and I don't
know where I think it was,maybe as a kid.
You know you use pencilsbecause you're in elementary
school and then you became amiddle schooler and you have
pens now and you're cooler andyou're an adult now of
gravitated away from why Igravitated away from using
(29:20):
pencils.
But I'm kind of reverting backto like, oh, this is nice to be
able to just erase and to thefeeling of sharpening the pencil
.
Everything really kind of helpswith writing in the journal and
(29:40):
writing my music and everythingit makes sense to use a pencil.
I don't know why pens were sucha thing in my head, but I I'm
saying all of this because theroutine for writing for me.
There is a lot of things that Ihave in place already.
Another, how much a motherreference where future Dom will
(30:04):
handle that.
That's a problem for future Domkind of thing and I never
really I never tried to set upfuture Dom negatively.
I know how forgetful I can be.
I know how clumsy I can be.
I know things that I do.
I know the way that I think.
So usually my goal is to placethings around me in areas that,
(30:27):
if I forget exactly where it is,future Dom will be able to be
like, well, wait a minute.
I think this way I would haveput it right here and I'll go
look in that area and be like,thank you, past Dom, because
he's always considering whatwould I do in the future.
Where would I go?
So, with pencils, with my musicjournal is right here.
You know what I'm saying.
(30:48):
I don't have to go searchingfor it.
I don't know how people live,where they just throw shit
around and then they just comeback and they're like oh, I know
.
No, I need it in a specificplace.
I need it to have this next toit.
I have my permanent markersright there.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
This next to it.
I have my permanent markersright there.
Everything is in a place sothat when I come down here and I
want to be comfortable writing,I'm already comfortable because
everything is in position forme to be comfortable.
Do you have some type ofjournaling and that just kind of
like primes the pump, yeah, asit were, and then I look at what
I'm going to work on that dayand I spend the day thinking
about how that's going to playout.
Like the next scene I'm writingand the story I'm writing right
now it takes place out in themiddle of an open field.
(31:41):
A bunch of guys are going mud.
Yeah, that's not something thatlike I did too many times when
I was a kid but I am familiarwith like all the stuff that
happens there.
It's not just like everybody'sstanding around watching like
somebody get their truck caughtin some mud, like there's you
know group over here doing thestuff.
So like I'll spend three orfour hours trying to figure out
(32:01):
like okay, what, what is thing athat's happening, what is is
thing B, what is thing C, whatis thing D?
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:07):
And how do they connect toward the end.
And then, once I have all thosethings in place, I hit it.
But going back further thanthat, I'll just kind of start
with an idea and then break itout slowly but surely into
smaller, smaller pieces.
What's this idea I'm working on, okay, where does it begin,
where does it end?
Where are the acts?
Where are the beats?
(32:28):
How do we connect the beats toone another?
What is the conflict in eachplace that gets us from A to B?
Who are the characters?
You just kind of start fillinga bucket with more and more data
and then you just go in, ladleout some, and just go in, ladle
out some and just go but it'snot all that different from from
what you were saying like.
(32:49):
It seems to me like we're bothkind of trying to and I feel
like not too many people knowwhat this is like anymore, but
back when we had like antennason our tvs yeah, get the
frequency right yeah, you got toget the frequency right.
You had to take the rabbit earsto a certain part of the room
and you had to crunch thetinfoil onto a specific part and
(33:12):
hold it just so In order forthe frequency to come in.
Yeah, but you had to do allthese things and you had to do
them in this order.
It would work.
That's the way it works with me.
It sounds like yours is justlike you turn on the TV set, see
what it looks like and thenjust kind of like maybe start
playing with things around theroom until something comes in.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
For sure.
I feel like I miss a lot ofolder routines.
I miss a lot of things that hadmore process to create.
We live in a world now wherefor this podcast, if I want to
put together a description, Icould either write it out the
way I want to write it out or Ican have an AI machine just do
(33:56):
it for me.
And it's like you take away somany elements that in some ways
you looked forward to back inthe day.
You looked forward to puttingtogether the cover art for this
album.
You looked forward tocontacting people about your
project and saying hey, what doyou think?
I want you to check it outbefore anyone else.
You look forward to all thatstuff.
(34:17):
But now there's so many avenueswhere, if you want to check if
your poem has the proper Englishin it, you could just put it on
chat, gpt or whatever and havethem edit it and they'll make it
so that it sounds a certain way.
You can tell them to make itsound like it's in the New York
Times.
You can tell them anything.
Speaker 2 (34:37):
Yeah, copy paste.
Does this make sense?
Speaker 1 (34:39):
And I feel like looking back and taking back
those old traditions.
You know, this past week greatexample of that.
I've been trying to figure outdifferent ways to eat a little
cleaner and one thing that Igrew up with was popcorn, but
not like movie popcorn, not likeyou put it in the microwave and
it's pop.
I had that as a kid but when Ilived with my great grandparents
(35:00):
, my grandma would pop popcornon the stove and she had the
whole process that she would gothrough and it really is one of
the more healthy snacks.
And if you put the right stuffon it not too much salt, use
olive oil instead of butter,stuff like that it could be a
more healthy snack.
I sat down and thought about Ineed to go buy this, buy some
(35:22):
chips, buy this and I'm like no,no, let me.
I have popcorn seeds at thehouse.
I don't make it as often as Iused to because I don't want to
go through all of that process,but it's like maybe I need to go
through that process because ifI do that I can have so much
popcorn in so little time andhave so much more of something
that's more healthy, somethingthat has a purpose.
(35:45):
And if I'm like I need somemunchies, I can just grab that
and that's good.
And I think I'm like okay, andso I've been making popcorn all
week and it's been amazing andit's.
It's something that luckily Iwas raised by my great
grandparents because that wassomething I experienced when I
was with them.
But even then, like if I wereto just go buy popcorn and put
(36:05):
it in the microwave, that'sstill a routine that I could go
through the process and it'llmake me happy.
But doing it the older way,just for me, it works and I
don't feel like I need to changethat, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
Yeah, I mean it kind of connects to that breeding
sweetgrass book, right, Like,yes, just the thought of popcorn
like imbuesues you, imbibes youwith the story of your grandma,
and so it's like the past isbeing like funneled into these
kernels and it means more to youwhen you make it yourself.
Yeah, instead of just going outand getting the bag, putting it
in the microwave for threeminutes and just munching on it.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
The memory of my grandma.
You know, my grandma taught mehow to do this.
So I'm going through thisprocess that someone that I
really love and miss helped medo, and I could do it so easily
just getting it and putting itin the microwave.
I could do that, but also I dothis and it just takes me back.
It helps me clear my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:00):
It shows me that it's not that big a deal to do extra
steps, especially if you'regoing to have the best outcome
it ties to creativity, like chatgbt could write you a song and
you can perform it, but it's notgoing to mean as much to you as
if you just if you write thething yourself and you're using
memories, stories, even thingskind of like cherokee street,
you know yeah once that all tiestogether and it becomes a thing
(37:25):
like all of a sudden, it's thatmuch more important.
You have to write it One, two,three, four.
Speaker 3 (37:52):
Time stands still when you're around, Life is full
of smiles.
I've found Red lip stains andwonderful sounds.
When more could I ask for now?
Skies are blue and flowers justbloom, Crazy little characters
(38:13):
in brand new costumes.
Mississippi mud meets Julio'sdoom.
Oh and more.
Should I have to assume?
Absolutely nothing.
You're all that I need.
(38:34):
I repeat there is nothing Ichange, baby.
Speaker 1 (38:42):
This is my tune.
Nothing that I wrote for mysecond album, new Art.
I played the ukulele a lot whenI lived in Chicago to inspire
me to write more music, and thisis one of those tunes that came
from messing around with theukulele, so I wanted to put it
on the album to represent me.
You can listen to all my musicon all streaming platforms and,
(39:06):
if you want to check me out formore information, go to
DonMemoircom where you can getanything and everything.
Don Memore, you know what I love.
I love Legos and that is such arandom thing, I know, but this
Christmas was the first time Iput Lego sets on my Christmas
(39:31):
list.
Since I was a child I haven'thad a Lego in any of my homes
that I've ever had, by myselfmeaning from the first apartment
in college to now, I never hada Lego in any of those houses
and that's something that I justkind of identify with being a
kid and I'm going to avoid that.
(39:53):
But I love puzzles, I loveusing my hands, I love brain
teases, I love following rules,I love all that kind of stuff,
stuff.
So I was thinking about, I waslike I kind of I would love to
like put together the starcruiser from the mandalorian, I
would love to put together theinfinity gauntlet from, you know
(40:16):
, marvel like I can do that withlegos.
I would love.
I would love to just do it tosee.
And I got two sets this yearand I put them both together
literally the day after I gothome from Christmas in St Louis,
and so that right now is kindof the highlight of what I've
been enjoying, one of thehighlights I've been enjoying.
Speaker 2 (40:38):
So I pose the question to you honestly, I love
(41:08):
silence, but a specific type ofsilence and um, and it's a,
it's a thing that we'veexperienced a little bit here in
the past couple days.
Here in Georgia, snow silence,yeah, yeah, that, yeah yeah,
nobody.
It seems like they're in tooterrible of a mood.
Like you, can you just, I don'tknow.
It feels like everything isjust like humming at the correct
(41:31):
wavelength.
Speaker 1 (41:32):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
And that's uh, that's just something that I could.
I could deal with a lot moreand I know that's a little bit
of a downer, but man, that isthat's the last time.
A couple of days ago, when Istepped outside at five o'clock
in the morning, it was just nocars on the road, no trains
coming, no planes in the airthat I could see or hear.
(41:56):
It was just silence.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
We've made it to the end of the episode.
I always appreciate talking toyou and having you on here.
I talk to you every day, almostwith the jam text, but it's
still great to see your face andto catch up.
You know how we do this.
At the end of the episode.
We've spoken about everythingwe want to speak about.
All I have to ask now is how doyou feel?
Speaker 2 (42:22):
These days I feel a lot better.
Last time we were talking, wewere talking a lot about grief
and sadness and sorrow and painand things like that.
But I have a lot of optimism forthis year.
I'm feeling like I have a goodhandle on how I'm gonna tackle
the next 11 and a half months.
Now, okay, and I love, I lovethat, uh, that you're part of it
(42:42):
every single day.
Yeah, man, by the way, anybodythat that's listening to this,
find one of your closest friendsand send them songs you like
every single day.
Yeah, you have no idea how muchthat helps out people.
So send the stuff you like tothe people that you like.
Cheers to you, man.
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (43:12):
I want to thank you for listening to the black man
talking emotions podcast.
The opening quote.
Credit goes to Aldis Huxley andshout out to Shank for being on
the pod.
Chris keeps to himself, so hedoes not have social media.
I appreciate him for letting usinto his world.
Please subscribe to the podcastand share the podcast.
Give us a good rating fivestars, please and thank you.
You can support the show byclicking the link at the bottom
(43:32):
of the episode description.
If you liked this episode, youshould check out our previous
episode titled Grief.
It's a great listen.
Check it out.
Follow me at D-O-M underscoreL-A-M-O-U-R on Instagram or at
DomLamorecom.
I'm Dom Lamore.
Much love.
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