Peter Moore Live at the British Trombone Festival!

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right.
So hi, you guys can hear me,all right.
Oh, wow thanks, we'll justpretend we're walking out right
now.
So, welcome to the TromboneRetreat podcast of the Third
Coast Trombone Retreat.
We have to say that at thebeginning of every episode.
So we're doing a live podcastrecording here.

(00:21):
So feel free to applaudwhatever and enjoy yourself.
Feel free to throw things at,nick, that's.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Nick, that's.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Nick, no big deal.
But if you're not aware of whowe are, nick and I started a
festival called the Third CoastTramone Retreat about 12 years
ago now, 2014.
Wow, see, that's what Nick'shere for.
He remembers things.
It's a week-long seminar in abeautiful area of Michigan,
right on the coast of LakeMichigan white sand beaches,

(00:51):
dense forests, deer runningaround and it's this little
oasis where we have a week-longseminar for aspiring trombonists
and we keep the enrollmentsmall and really focused.
And from that we just had a lotof amazing conversations with
all of our guest artists thathave come in and all of our
people we've known, and so aftera few years, we decided to

(01:12):
start a podcast.
Nick lives in New York.
He plays bass for Moe in theNew York City Ballet.
I live in Pittsburgh, which isabout a six-hour drive away, so
we often record these online andsometimes we're interviewing
someone in Malaysia and a 12hour time difference and you
know you just make it work.
But we've had about 50interviews now at least, and you

(01:33):
can find our podcasts anywherethat you download your podcast.
Just look for Trombone Retreatand I think that covers kind of
who we are.

Speaker 4 (01:41):
That's a good elevator pitch.

Speaker 1 (01:43):
Okay, cool, for no money down.
I don't know if they say thathere there's gonna be a bunch of
stuff.
We say today that I don't know.
If you guys know that, we sayso, we'll see.
So we are supported by HoughtonHorns, which is an amazing
music company located in Texas.
I have a signature mouthpiecethat just came out with them
that I have upstairs, so pleasecome visit and try it out.

(02:06):
Nick is supported by LongIsland Brass and has his
signature bass drum andmouthpiece.
Come visit.
We also have stickers.
Come get a sticker.
But yeah, so we were thrilledto be invited to come here.
Originally, we were thinkingabout doing it online, but we
thought, hey, that'd be reallycool if we could figure out how
to do this in person.
Were thinking about doingonline, but we thought, hey,
that'd be really cool if wecould figure out how to do this
in person, and we thought it'dbe really neat to to interview

(02:29):
the guy to our right my left toyour.
Oh good, good, we sorted thatout and we would.
We thought we were going tohave him walk out with all this
pomp and circumstance, but, uh,I think this is way better and
it's nice that we're in a jazzclub so we can talk like this,
our next tune.
I think we first came acrossthis guy on you'd have to tell

(02:53):
me, nick, but the viral videosthat went around during the BBC
Young Musician competitions.

Speaker 4 (02:59):
Oh, I can't remember what year that was.
I think you know 2008.
2008, okay, you were 12?
.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, wow.

Speaker 1 (03:07):
Wow, so we'll get into that.
But I'm like who's this youngtrombone player on my TV?
People actually want to watchtrombone players.
That's a thing that's awesome.
So that was really exciting.
So, longest intro ever.
Please welcome Mr Peter Moore.

Speaker 2 (03:30):
Thanks, guys, great to be on your podcast.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
Thanks for inviting me.
You have some fans in theaudience.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Yeah, god, yeah, hundreds of them Might be,
thousands.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
I can't see that far back so it's hard to really do a
good head count we try to keepthe groupies in the back.

Speaker 1 (03:48):
Like the security is pretty tough here and this jazz
club it's hard to get into.
So you've had, you've had along day already.
You, where'd you wake up today?

Speaker 2 (03:56):
yeah, I was.
I work on the scottish borders.
Today I had a recital in alittle place called kelso,
really beautiful part of theworld, in a really nice church.
So it was fun, but, yeah, a lotof driving and yeah, but nice
to make it here for this andalso be a part of this festival
and kind of relax and enjoy ittoday, because there's loads of
great stuff going on later andI'm not playing it till tomorrow

(04:19):
.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
So support all the work that everybody here has
done in organizing it and yeahalready it's quite a successful
event now I have a question alittle bit off topic.
Why is it the scottish borders,not the border?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
why are you asking me questions I can't answer?

Speaker 3 (04:36):
I don't know I mean, yeah, I'm not sure okay, but
it's, it's very much a territory.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
I think scottish borders is a territory wait, I'm
getting.

Speaker 4 (04:43):
I'm getting nods from the audience.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's not like a line, like a border, it's like a
territory we know you see a signsay welcome to scotland and
then it says no, it doesn't saywelcome to scottish borders, not
so, see I think nick's askingbecause we would.

Speaker 1 (04:57):
We would just call that a border, not borders.
I wonder if that's related towhy you guys call it maths and
we just call it math.
No, I still have never metanyone that can explain why.
I guess you can make theargument.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
There's a lot of types of math you also call it
zucchini that's what it's called, instead of court Corgette is a
courgette right, okay, nowwe're just.

Speaker 1 (05:20):
That's a completely different eggplant instead of
aubergine.
See, I know this Aubergine yeah.
Welcome back to the foodpodcast.
Hey you know?

Speaker 4 (05:29):
okay, I have an American accent, you have a
British accent.
We're just going to have tomove forward.

Speaker 1 (05:35):
Oh, you're British.
Yeah, tell us about that.
What's that?

Speaker 2 (05:38):
like.
I'm a bit of a hybrid.
I was born in Belfast and grewup in Manchester, and then,
since the age of 18, I've livedin or around London.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
So is your accent like a blend of all those places
.
It depends who I'm talking to.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
So if I'm talking to people from Belfast, I will go
Northern Irish quite quickly,and if I'm talking to people
from Manchester, I'll goManchester quite quickly as well
.

Speaker 1 (06:00):
So since we're from America, are you going to start
speaking in an American accent?

Speaker 2 (06:04):
I don't think so no as well.
So since we're from America,are you gonna start speaking in
it?

Speaker 1 (06:07):
I don't think so no, I need to spend a bit more time
around you.
I think that'll happen soon,all right, okay, so when did you
, when did trombone kind of comeinto your life?

Speaker 2 (06:15):
really early on.
I was very adamant that I woulddo it.
I think my parents tried tosteer me away from it because
they're musicians themselves andthey sort of thought why we
wanted.
We want to make him realizethat there is something else
possible.
You can.
You know, he doesn't just haveto do what we do, because my
brother and sister played aswell.
Brother still does, oh that's anoisy household yeah it was.

(06:36):
Yeah, it was at times, yeah,especially when we got my
brother his drum kit.
But yeah, it was noisy and andbrass bands were very much the
the thing and my parents wereinvolved with them a little bit
as well.
So we used to go down to thethe local park and see the local
brass bands play and I said,what's that big slidey thing?

(06:56):
I want to do that and that wasit really love at first sight.
Your parents were your musicians.
Yeah, they were both frenchhorn players.
Yeah, they actually met, satnext to each other in an
orchestra what's it, what's?

Speaker 1 (07:08):
oh, my god, what's up with the french horn couples?
It's always french horn thatyou see, the, the, the couples
happening is it yes, I've seensome trumpets you've seen some
trombone couples.
I don't know.
I just feel like, of all thesections if you this is, this is
my scientific, I did mydissertation on this the couples
that have the most.

(07:29):
The section that has the mostcouples is always French horn.
So someone write in to ourpodcast and let us know why.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's unusual because they're normally the
most kind of loner of the brassinstruments as well Interesting.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Interesting.
Maybe that's because theirjob's so hard and they're
stressed out all the time.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Yeah, it's that kind of rule.
You don't mess with a hornplayer, do you?
You never mess with the firsthorn player because they've just
got enough to worry about.

Speaker 1 (07:53):
That means Nick probably messes with them more,
a little bit.
So you would be hearing brassbands a lot.
You were fascinated by it.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Was it the.

Speaker 1 (08:02):
You just saw the trombone and you were kind of
into it, or you're just kind ofinto the idea of being a
musician no, I thought everybodywas a musician.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
I didn't realize.
I used to go into my primaryschool and ask people what they
played I didn't, I didn'trealize and until suddenly my
mom said to me you've got tostop doing that.
So, yeah, I realized prettyquickly, I think, but I thought
everybody played an instrument.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
And how old do people typically start playing in this
right here?

Speaker 2 (08:32):
I think it depends.
I think in the days it totallydepends.
There's people that havestarted in their kind of
mid-teens and gone on to bebrilliant.
There's people that startedmuch earlier than that.
I think probably it's maybegetting later these days due to
maybe music servicesdisappearing and junior bands
disappearing, sadly.
But I started when I was.

(08:53):
I saw those five on the but Ididn't start in the trombone.
I started on a barrier tonebecause we couldn't get I'm
sorry and then and then.
I had an alto trombone when Iwas six Because we couldn't get.

Speaker 1 (09:03):
I'm sorry, and then I had an alto trombone when I was
six.
So I'm way less impressed byyou winning this big competition
when you're 12 now, because Imean, you've been playing since
like seven years, that's likecheating yeah.

Speaker 2 (09:15):
I mean do you know what?
Actually it was that brass bandstuff in the early years was
absolutely brilliant, Becausethe development that I just had,
like a rapid development, justall thanks to that, really just
turning up and twice a week andreading all this music and you
know, like learning how to readmusic very quickly, um,
internalizing pitches, you know.

(09:36):
So that, yeah, I definitelyhave a big part to that.

Speaker 4 (09:40):
I think it's one thing that generally is done
well in this country is theearly music education through
the brass bands, because wedon't have I mean, we have early
music education but we don'thave brass bands really not not
in the scale that they have here, and I think that's really
great for brass players it isgood it's it's it's making, it's

(10:00):
helping people to realize thatthere's still a lot of bands
available because they're notreally linked to schools or
anything you know it's.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Uh, they are brilliant.
I think they're still well over100 in this country wow, that's
amazing um, it's fantastic thething we talk about that a lot.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's just, you see, such a clear difference in a
young person that you know, in abrass band, your challenge
challenged, I mean endurancewise you're.
You're challenged melodically,technically, way more so than
you know an 11 year old who isjoining a wind ensemble and
probably just playing wholenotes for quite a while until

(10:40):
maybe you're older and you startplaying different keys and
stuff.

Speaker 2 (10:42):
Like you're challenged with the brass band
from the beginning you are andyou don't realize that actually
the trombone is a lot harder toplay fast or even or much harder
to play slow, as well than manyother instruments, because the
brass band writing is just kindof the same across every
instrument pretty much.
You know the technical demandsand then you go and sit in an
orchestra and you think, oh,it's nowhere near as challenging

(11:02):
as, but then there'schallenging as, but then there's
other things that are hard,like the sound and the blending
and all that sort of stuff.
So it's.
Yeah, I think I remember beingable to sort of play quite
demanding stuff quite early, butthen when I turned to a little
bit more of the orchestral sideof things, I realised there was
a bit of a hole there in termsof that kind of style, you know.

(11:23):
So there, in terms of that kindof style, you know.
So yeah, it's just, it'sinteresting and everybody has.

Speaker 1 (11:29):
Everybody goes their own way.
And yeah, so were you studyingwith your parents first, or?

Speaker 2 (11:32):
no, I went to my dad's junior band, but I didn't
he never really sort of, I wasnever, you know, in a room with
him doing a lesson or anythinglike that.
So no, my first teacher waskind of in Manchester when we
moved there, a guy called AndrewBerryman who was at the time
principal trombone of the HalléOrchestra in Manchester, and I

(11:54):
started to take lessons from himwhen I was about eight or nine
years old For the next four orfive years.
So yeah, he's my first teacher.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
Sounds like a great teacher to have at a young age.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
He's fantastic.
I mean just, you know,everybody knows who he is in the
business, he's a bit of alegend, but he, yeah, very, very
infectious personality and very, very inspiring.
And you sort of find yourselfhanging on to his every word.
You know, and he was verycareful with me not to, I think
I sort of said I want to playthis and this and this and he's
like nope, we're gonna, we'regonna wait, we're gonna.

(12:28):
You know, he said he'd say yourslurs weren't very good, so
we're gonna this, we're justgonna do basics this week, you
know.
And then, and then we kind ofwhat about this piece maybe,
maybe in a few months time?
So he was actually trying toget it off my face more than he
was saying do this, this, dothis, do this, this, you know?

Speaker 4 (12:51):
now I was grateful for that.
Were you, were you challengedby like you know?
You know, for a young person,for their teacher to say, oh,
like we're just going to focuson fundamentals, we're going to
do Arbenz or we're going to doClark studies or whatever.
It is something that's, youknow, maybe not as fun, but it's
obviously.
It's like taking our vitaminsyou know it's good for us, but
as a young age we would justwant to do the fun stuff.
Was that discouraging for you?

Speaker 2 (13:09):
or did you find that challenging?
No, it wasn't discouraging atall, because I think the reason
why he was saying it but it wasbecause he knew that I was doing
already quite a lot of playingoutside of these lessons and a
lot of demanding stuff.
So he was anxious that I didn'tpush too hard too soon and made
sure that I was kind ofproperly set up.
So yeah, no I, it wasn'tfrustrating at all really you

(13:32):
weren't.

Speaker 4 (13:32):
You weren't the type of person that needed to be told
to practice no nobody ever saidthat yeah I was.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
I was playing.
I was.
I was never very good atsitting in a room and doing
hours I do that more now than Iever have, to be honest but I
never did that when I wasgrowing up.
I did my warm-up and then Ijust played.

Speaker 4 (13:55):
That was it.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
So I didn't really you know little technical things
that I had to figure out.
I sort of figured out as anadult, not as a kid.
So motivation was not a problemno, I remember when I was about
15, 16, I had a little dip.
So I know, sure I'm gonna do,you know, but that was that
lasted about four or five months, but other than that, no, not

(14:18):
motivation is not a problem, youknow cool, so okay.

Speaker 1 (14:22):
So you started baritone when you were like five
and then out.
See that, I really I thinkthat's really cool, starting
young people on alto trombone.
We've talked about that before.
That's something you don't seewhere we come from as much, but
it makes a lot of sense and itseems like a way you could
really start someone, becausetypically where we are, people
start like 10, 11, 12 and ifwith an alto trombone, you could

(14:46):
probably start a lot sooner Ithink I'm not sure what the
thinking was behind it.

Speaker 2 (14:50):
I think I understood the thinking behind the baritone
because it's the same kind ofblowing, same mouthpiece or
something.
I can't remember how this allhappened, but I just remember it
as it is, and I think the altowas just because I was just so
small it wasn't.
It wasn't like a, you know, itwas tiny.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
So well, your parents play an alto instrument, so
they wanted that in the familyokay.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
So when did so?
You were motivated, you had agreat teacher, awesome.
You're, you know, set up forsuccess.
You have supportive parents,all things we, we, we wish for.
When did you start, you know?
So you were 12.
How to explain to especiallyour american listeners that
don't know about this, thisyoung music competition, how

(15:33):
does it?
What's the process like?
Are there a lot?
Are there prelims or recordings?
Like, how does it go?

Speaker 2 (15:38):
well, I should say at this point, from the age of 10
11, I went to a music school inManchester called Cheatsums,
where it's a normal schoolexcept that about a third of the
day is focused on music.
So there's music ensembles andmusic training.
You get your lessons and so Iwas there, and every time the

(15:58):
kind of young musiciancompetition comes round, you
know like heads of department orwhatever or teachers would put
forward people.
So that's kind of how ithappened.
And then, yeah, you just go anddo a, an audition, you to go
and do a first round in I thinkyou have to be grade eight or
something, and then you go anddo a first round audition in

(16:18):
regional and then just go fromthere, you know good experience.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
It was just all solos with piano or solos with piano
yeah and they had brilliantpianists at chet's.

Speaker 2 (16:28):
So that's my cheatings in school.
That was kind of the best thingabout being there.
They had four or five staffpianists that would just play
with the students all the timeand they were all fantastic, so
yeah and at some point.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
So this is televised right, or is it just the?

Speaker 2 (16:48):
no, it's not it's not televised until.
Are you really making me thinkthat's going back a while?

Speaker 1 (16:53):
we can.
We can watch the video together.

Speaker 2 (16:54):
That'd be fun it's only televised when it gets to
the final instrumentalcategories, which is like the
fourth round.
They've changed it now.
I don't I'm not exactly surewhat they do now, but it used to
be that you have one of everyinstrumental category in the
final that they'd select fromthe television round before that
, but they've changed it.
Now I think they only havethree the three players in the

(17:15):
big final now.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
So but you, you'd been doing some work to get to
that point where most peoplestarted seeing you yeah,
absolutely.

Speaker 2 (17:22):
I mean I sort of I didn't.
It was all really easy at thatage to be honest.
There was no like I didn't getnervous.
I didn't really go above andbeyond to practice more, I just
did what I normally did.
I just did what I did and justdid my warm-up and played my
pieces and you know, teacherswould suggest things.
I didn't.
There was no pressure of fromanything, it was just I wanted

(17:45):
to do it.
You know pressure comes later.

Speaker 1 (17:47):
Yeah, you look, yeah, once we have expectations right
exactly yeah you looked verycomposed.
I think that's what was socompelling about seeing you know
, a 12 year old on tv, just likein playing at a very high level
.
You're just like, wow, he'sjust, he's just doing it and I
think, what, what was it?

Speaker 2 (18:03):
it was a sang to a lot of and tamasi yeah, it was
the whole of the tamasi and thenthe, and then the.

Speaker 1 (18:09):
The sang to a lot of the next day yeah I was
definitely not playing thetamasi when I was 12.
Yeah what?
Were you doing when you were 12nick.

Speaker 4 (18:17):
Well, I was wearing a lot of vests.
I had a vest forward wardrobeat that point.
They were pretty cool in 1992or whatever that was.

Speaker 1 (18:26):
I think vests are like cool here, right, don't
people wear vests a lot?
These were not cool vests, youcall them something different.

Speaker 2 (18:32):
I was gonna say you have to explain what a vest is
over that, because we've gotdifferent.
I'm sure we've got differentideas of vests sleeveless button
down.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
You wear it like over a shirt yeah, like a jumper
like a jumper I don't even knowwhat a jump.
Okay, welcome back to trombonefashion talk.
I I actually was just readingthis random article written
about you when you were playingat lincoln center and the you
probably saw this article.
This the person was very he'svery flowery language, but

(19:02):
talking about the most electricblue suit they'd ever seen that
you were wearing or something.

Speaker 2 (19:07):
Yeah, I've had to put that away for a bit because I
was getting known for it, ohreally, so I've changed it for a
bit.
Now it's in the wardrobe.

Speaker 1 (19:13):
You can't be typecast is that weird trombone player?

Speaker 4 (19:15):
you should just get different electric colors, you
know, like electric yellow,electric red yeah, that could be
your thing.

Speaker 1 (19:22):
I mean yeah, and then you don't have to sound good at
the trombone, you can just belike a presence, just be that
person yeah, I mean good to knowthat they've commented on
something that wasn't theplaying you know they.
I mean the very compliment ofyour playing in that as well.
Okay, so tell, what do you?
I mean?
I?
I checked out that videorecently.
It's got like hundreds ofthousands of views.

(19:42):
How's it.

Speaker 2 (19:43):
I don't get any money from that either someone else
put it on someone else?

Speaker 1 (19:46):
someone is the bbc?

Speaker 2 (19:48):
no, it's not the bb.
Some random person, it wouldn'tbe the bbc someone ripped it
off the tally.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Okay, you should snag it andjust put it on your channel, see
what happens can you do that?

Speaker 2 (19:59):
I think so.
They did.

Speaker 1 (20:01):
Yeah, exactly um, no one listens to this podcast
story, so what do you rememberfrom the actual, like the finals
.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
Loads of big cameras coming like that in your face.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
And that didn't make you nervous.
No.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I didn't get nervous at all for it.
I find that quite hard tobelieve now, because I get
nervous all the time now.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
Yeah, I mean, I guess when you're young you feel
invincible somehow.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
You just don't think there's no awareness.
I think even if it had beenfast forward, like I was, the
other people in that final was17, 18.
So they already had like twiceas much life experiences as I
had.
So they were probably feelingdifferently.
Yeah, yeah, and just a chanceto play with a, with a full
orchestra, is was a thrill.

(20:50):
You know something which Inever take for granted you know,
I'm lucky.
I'm lucky to be able to do itstill, but it's still a real
buzz.
You know to do that, I rememberthinking, remember realizing
how loud I had to play as well,because I could, I could play
really quite loudly as a kid.
But I remember getting therewith the orchestra and thinking,

(21:11):
oh wow, like I've got it up iteven.
You know, because even if theconductor is sort of managing
everything, you've still got 70,80 and the tamasi's quite
cleverly scored.
It's quite light, but stillyou've got to really project.
You know, I remember thinkingyou played the whole thing, yeah
, wow yeah, so okay.

Speaker 1 (21:32):
So how, let me like, how popular is that in you know
pop culture, that event inengland, so like, were people at
your school like knowing youwere on it, or is it more?
Because it was a music school,yeah, so, oh, so you're pretty
cool yeah yeah, I mean it was,it was a thing.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Yeah, it was like a couple of days after that I was
on, you know tv channels andradio stuff.
I don't know, I'm not sure.
It's still quite like that, I'mnot sure, but it was.

Speaker 1 (21:59):
Yeah, it was a thing, it was in the papers and you
know, so you start wearingsunglasses everywhere and like
telling people not to make eyecontact with you and have a
writer with demands not so much.
People seem forgot about it,apart from you guys, it's a
trombone after all, you knowever since that day I'm like I
must meet him, and interview himyeah, I was over half my life

(22:21):
ago.
Wow yeah well, I, I don't Igotta do the maths and figure
out how long ago that was, thankyou.
Thank you for laughing at that,okay.
So yeah, that was gonna be mynext question like, how did your
, your life, your musical life,change from that moment, or did
it kind of just kind of wentback?

Speaker 2 (22:41):
to school, did thing, and then there was a really
nice little circuit of kind ofconcerts that I did Go out and
do recitals, concertos, did alot of travel, traveled abroad,
went to Australia, did a bigtour there, went all over Europe
.
So it was, yeah, it was busyand still kind of keeping up
with school whilst you're doingit as well wasn't easy.

(23:03):
And then you kind of realisethat that all kind of stops and
you're still only 14, 15.
And then it's like what do I donow?
Because somebody else is doingit.
Then you know.
So that was kind of, oh okay.
And then I remember feeling alittle bit lost.
Then, you know, because it'slike there was this idea that it

(23:24):
would kind of you'd just be onthis trajectory and you would
just, you know, there would be acareer waiting for you.
But of course I was still soyoung, it didn't really work
like that.
So I was kind of I rememberthinking, feeling like I was
treading water for about acouple of years.

Speaker 4 (23:37):
You, know, I think a lot of musicians struggle with
you know, we we chase kind of ahigh there is with performance,
you know, and then afterwards,either after one performance or
especially after like a longstring of performances, maybe a
tour like you're mentioning,there's a real crash afterwards
and I think it really affectsmusicians a lot because totally

(23:58):
we're kind of adrenaline junkiesin a certain way.

Speaker 1 (24:01):
What goes up must come down, that's true
especially being that young Imean, yeah, you're still
figuring out who you are, youknow and you're like I'm getting
all this attention you're Imean, was the recital tour and
all that performing afterwards,did you still have that same
mindset of just enjoying it andnot feeling nervous?
Yeah, I loved playing.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
I just loved playing.
Yeah, so yeah, still the samemindset.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Awesome.
Okay, so that happened and youstarted school shortly after
that, like a few years afterthat.
You guys call it university.
I never went to university, younever went, no, so just
straight into the job.

Speaker 4 (24:45):
That explains a lot yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:48):
But you have to remember, like where I already
was, that was kind of like amusic college kind of Right, you
know, for younger kids.

Speaker 1 (24:57):
So was the London Symphony one of your first
auditions.
It was the first one, yeah.
And a thousand.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
Well, I did one for the same job a couple of years
before it, but I was too youngto really do any work.
They said no.

Speaker 4 (25:10):
I mean.
So you took one, well, I mean,I guess, two auditions.
So what was the official resultof the first edition?
You said that did you.
Would you have won if you wereolder?

Speaker 2 (25:22):
I don't know.
No, I'm not sure, but you know,it was like, it was very much
like well, it's great to hearyou, but come back when, when
your feet touch the ground.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, come back well you were.

Speaker 2 (25:35):
You were always tall, right like once you, once you
yeah, yeah, I was about thisheight when I was 15 really no,
yeah, wow yeah it's like a rail,yeah okay, you take this
audition a couple yearsbeforehand.

Speaker 4 (25:47):
So you were what?
16, 17, yeah, and this is thetime they say come back when
you're a little bit older, right?
What?
What drove you to take theaudition?
Did someone say, hey, youshould audition for that also?

Speaker 2 (25:59):
yeah, philip cobb, who's principal trumpet there,
he's okay not much older than meat the time.

Speaker 1 (26:03):
He got the job when he was 21 oh okay, that's a good
person to recommend you yeah,yeah, and kind of already kind
of a bit of a hero of mine, youknow.

Speaker 2 (26:12):
So we had mutual friends and I, so so, yeah, why
not?
He's very much like a why notmoment, you know was it
something?

Speaker 1 (26:21):
was this?
Because I was just interviewingIan Bousfield and he was
talking about how, at a youngage, this was like in his mind.
From when he was young, he waslike I want to be principal
trombone of the LSO someday.
Was that kind of something thatyou were aspiring to, or was it
not at all?

Speaker 2 (26:37):
yeah, not at all.
I actually was.
I I felt like I was a soloist,not an orchestral player.
I didn't feel comfortable inorchestras really for a long
time, so it wasn't.
It was just very much somethingthat came up at the time.
Um, I remember chatting to areally close mentor of mine.
He taught me piano and I justlove this guy.

(26:59):
He's called Jonathan MiddletonFantastic guy and he was telling
me when an opportunity likethis comes up, you've got to do
it.
He said, get on the train, doit.

Speaker 1 (27:11):
You do a lot of that in music.
Right, it's just like, oh,that's what I've seen other
people do, that's what I'msupposed to do.
But you had the uniqueexperience, especially as a
trombonist.
You had a unique experiencewhere a lot of your first
experiences were getting to bein front of the ensemble and
getting to perform and seeingwhat that's like and seeing how
it feels to be a soloist.
So I guess you got the bug froman early age.

Speaker 2 (27:35):
Yeah, yeah of I guess you got the bug from an early
age.
Yeah, yeah, totally, and I justkind of I wanted to play, you
know.
So if there was anotheropportunity to play, why would I
not do that, you know?
So, yeah, it just kind ofhappened.
It happened by accident really,and and they offered me the job
and I still, you know, I stillkind of I didn't accept it
straight away because I was, Iwas obviously over the moon, but

(27:56):
I had a place at the, theacademy down in london, you know
, and I thought maybe should Ido that?
I'm not sure you know, and a fewpeople told me not to take it.
Actually, yeah, a few kind ofpeople that I really trusted
tonight.
Why don't take?
It because they thought I'd bein the middle of london,
completely swallowed up by thisorganization, always working,

(28:17):
not having the chance to grow upand find my feet.
And do you know what?
They made a good point.
They made a very, very goodpoint, but I still did it and I
don't regret it.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
How long did you stay ?

Speaker 2 (28:29):
10 years 10 years yeah including a sabbatical and
COVID.

Speaker 1 (28:34):
What's that?
Describe that to our audience?
Yeah, Okay.
So 10 years, that's a goodchapter of life.

Speaker 2 (28:42):
It is.
And actually, do you know what?
The first four or five yearswere brilliant because it was an
education for me, because I wasco-principal trombone there.
So I was kind of the lesser ofthe two principals and Dudley
Bright that was.
I was kind of the the lesser ofthe the two principals and
Dudley Bright.
That was just a kind ofeducation for me in terms of
orchestral trombone playing.

(29:03):
It's just, yeah, I sat on stageand quite a number of times and
was kind of blown away by that.
And then you had Phil Cobb aswell and so, yeah, the great
thing about that orchestra isthere was always something
special going on around theorchestra.
So if you weren't playing verymuch or you know you're in a
piece that you're not reallyrequired for much, and there'd
always be something special, youknow, special oboe moment or

(29:24):
cello moment, and that was quiteinspiring.
And I don't think I onlyrealised recently how much of a
profound effect that had on mymusicianship.
You know, I wouldn't say Ibecame a better player after
joining that orchestra, but Idefinitely became a better

(29:45):
musician and and and had a lotmore I concept of what I wanted
to say and how I wanted thingsto sound and I have to just
thank the orchestra for that.

Speaker 1 (29:48):
You know, well nick, he listens to the oboes.
He's like a real musician Ilove music.

Speaker 2 (29:53):
I listen to music all the time.
I love it, I'm obsessed with it.
I, yeah, breathe music, yeah,so I just yeah, unashamedly so
probably, that's probably good,as you're a musician, right yeah
, but I'm always amazed at howmany people don't actually right
aren't, don't seem to be thatinterested in it.
That's true especially inpeople actually working in the
business.

(30:13):
A lot of them don't seem toactually like music.
Speaking for AOP on yourpodcast can you?

Speaker 1 (30:18):
name, some names Absolutely.

Speaker 4 (30:21):
That would be a whole , nother podcast episode to talk
about that, because I agreewith you 100%.

Speaker 1 (30:28):
Tell us everything you hated about the LSO.
Top five things.
But I mean, with any job it'slike you know, from the outside
perspective someone's like, ohmy gosh, principal trombone,
london symphony, and they, theycan't imagine anything better
and that's such such somethingwe aspire to.
But with any job and we talkabout this a lot on the podcast

(30:48):
there's no perfect situation andbut we can take the good from
everything and it sounds likeyou had an amazing experience
and, yeah, like you said, youlearned a lot on the job.
I mean, there's so much, it'sso hard to win a job and you
have to play well enough.
But just playing well enough islike the first step.

(31:09):
Once you're on the job, right,you're learning how to be an
adult and how to be a leader.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
Well, there's all that stuff as well, but also
even just with the playing part,I felt like I had to learn how
to play the trombone again.
It was just a completelydifferent way of playing that
I've never done.
Just, you know, like startingnotes in the right way and you
know, making sure that you'reabsolutely right there, ensemble
wise, paying like superattention, super clear attention

(31:35):
to intonation, things like this.
Not that I never didn't do thatbefore, but it's just another
level of focus in terms ofblending and ensemble playing
and fitting into a machine.
Because as a trombone playeryou don't.
You might get in the orchestra,you might three, four, five
percent of the time get a momentto really shine, and that's

(31:56):
first trombone.
You know.
The rest of the time you'recontributing something on a more
, on a kind of deeper level.
So it's learning how you fitinto all that.
And that was hard, because thatwas hard for me, because I'd
sort of been doing the 3% and 4%stuff.

Speaker 1 (32:12):
You know, or you could be like a bass trombonist
and think it's always your timeto shine yeah, they, yeah, they
do, they do do that, when is itnot?
Yeah everything is a solo.
That's, yeah, that's a reallyinteresting way to think about
it.
Did you have, if you lookingback is was there a it's a hard
question in 10 years, but like,was there a moment or a concert

(32:34):
or a weekend that really stuckout as being really meaningful?

Speaker 2 (32:39):
yeah, I can give you, I think, two or three examples.
One of them was playing theright of spring with valerie
gogiev, very controversial manbut absolute genius musician.
And then anything with bernardheitzink, very fortunate to have
worked with him before hepassed away.
We did some brilliant.

(32:59):
We did a couple of brillianttours with him Europe and Japan
and then we did Marla 3 at theproms.
Never heard of it, I didn'tplay the solo, but I was in the
concert and really, reallyspecial, One of those that just
really stuck with me, you know.
And then we did.
You know I had a great four orfive years as the kind of the

(33:21):
only principal player there,doing everything with Simon
Rattle as well, and therepertoire was mad.
I mean the diversity in hisrepertoire.
We did everything, absolutelyeverything you know, from epic
Mahler symphonies to light SouthAmerican infused concerts to
big band things, to everythingyou know, modern music, and

(33:43):
generally it was all great youknow, brilliant, brilliant
experience.
So you know, sometimes peoplesay to me oh, was it not?
Is it not a little bit tedious?
You know, sometimes playing thetrombone in an orchestra I was
like I was never bored playing.
I was never bored playing inthose four or five years because
we just did so much big stuffwhile you were always playing

(34:04):
you know.

Speaker 4 (34:04):
So that was good, that was good.
Yeah, now, what part of the jobdid you find the most rewarding
and what did you find the mosttedious?

Speaker 2 (34:14):
um.
Tedious is sitting inrehearsals, where you're not
playing true you get conductorsbig part of our job.
You get conductors who arequite good at telling you when,
when you needed, and you getconductors that aren't.

Speaker 4 (34:26):
That couldn't care less about that yeah, brahms
four, and they get up there.

Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, first movement okay, yeah, and, and then I
found it frustrating, becauseI'd get more frustrated and then
you'd have something reallyreally quiet and pearly to play
and you wouldn't be feeling goodand then you wouldn't play very
well and I think it's all of asudden it becomes hard.
Yeah, so I learned a lot aboutmindset and kind of getting in
the zone and focus and all thatsort of stuff which is vital to

(34:52):
what we do you know, and thenthe most rewarding part is just
sitting there in the concertsand being kind of caught up in
the middle of, or something likethat, very lucky to have seen a
lot of the world as well.
And then you know this, theother things that it brought me
as well.
It gave me a profile thatopened up other work, other work
for me, so I was able tocontinue my, my solo work, which

(35:13):
became more and morechallenging to do both you know
you said you were thankful tosee the world.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
I mean, how did you find touring?
Because I know the group toursa lot.
I loved it for the most partyeah, but that gets old,
sometimes too right.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
Sometimes, yeah, when it's like too much in a row
yeah, it can be if you're in,like you know, the sixth stop in
germany and it's like the sixthcity in six days.

Speaker 1 (35:37):
Why don't you like Germany?
Peter.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Well, it just came to mind, I do like Germany for the
record.
But you're exhausted and you'requeuing to get your hotel.
The worst bit is queuing forthe elevators to get up.
Oh that's the worst.

Speaker 4 (35:49):
Oh, I know exactly what you're talking about.
I hate that.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
But then you go and do the gig and then find someone
to have a beer and you're fine.
Nick and I just spent the lastcouple of days in London and
maybe the smallest elevatorsI've ever been around in some of
these hotels we were like bellyto belly.
We don't have a lot of space inLondon.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
That's a problem with real estate.

Speaker 1 (36:10):
But I was going to ask you so, on the other side
being an 18-year-old year oldagain a time in your life where
you're still figuring out whoyou are making money, consistent
money on your own, beingprofessional first time in one
of the greatest cities in theworld.
How do you balance being an 18year old and having fun and
living life with this bigresponsibility you had at work?

Speaker 2 (36:34):
it was a struggle.
It was a struggle you had atwork.
It was the struggle.
It was the struggle.
Yeah, it was hard to.
Yeah, it was hard to never toreally kind of let loose and
discover who you are.
When you've got thatresponsibility, yeah, you can
look after yourself and lookafter the way you play and
you're figuring out how to getby in a new city.
You know, I was living on myown as well.
So, yeah, and you mentionedabout the money.

(36:55):
Yeah, the money was coming in,but I didn't see a lot of it.
It just disappeared, you know.
So I didn't really know what Iwas doing with that as well.
So there's a lot of things tolearn about, you know well, it
could go either way.

Speaker 4 (37:06):
You said it was hard to let loose and find yourself,
but another 18 year old couldeasily just go too far in that
direction well, I'm sort ofslightly holding back what I say
okay, hey, nobody's listeningto this.

Speaker 1 (37:19):
I promise you're in a safe place.
No, I, I did, I had a good timethat's good time but I did
struggle to balance life becauseyou're allowed to drink at 18
in england.
So yeah, 16 is there.
18 or is?

Speaker 2 (37:33):
it yeah, but you can do what you like before that
buddy.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
Yeah, I mean yeah because I'm yeah, finding that
balance of work hard, play hard.
It's a thing, because at thesame time, you have you know
what could be considered ahigh-stress job and you need to
be making sure you're enjoyinglife too and not stressing
yourself out all the time.
So I mean need to be makingsure you're enjoying life too

(38:02):
and not stressing yourself outall the time.
So I mean hanging out withfriends and having relationships
outside of work is it'simportant did?

Speaker 2 (38:05):
were you just mainly hanging out with people in
orchestra or no?
I had a number of friends thatwere at uni at the time, you
know, yeah, but then some peoplewith the orchestra.
Sometimes if you're on tour,you you're always with the
orchestra, obviously, so you,you become quite close to some
of them, you know, but it wasmostly colleagues there.
You know, yes, you spend somuch time with these people and
I do have a couple of friends inthe orchestra still, you know,
but mostly they're yourcolleagues and I found the lines

(38:27):
to be quite blurred at timesbecause there's this kind of
expectation that you go on tourand you're best mates and you've
got to do all these thingstogether.
But actually there's really noneed to do that, there's no
pressure, as long as you cankind of respect each other and
so yeah, so that I found thatquite tough figuring all that
out, and I think it's a lot,it's something that still a lot

(38:48):
of people in orchestras aren'table to quite work out, you know
it's a weird schedule.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
I mean, sometimes our work day doesn't start till
like eight o'clock at nightsorry, 20, 20 and it'll end late
where most people are gettingoff at you know five o'clock,
getting normal night's sleep,and we're all amped up on this
concert we just played and youwant to go out and see friends.
It's just like having thatbalance is always tough, but we

(39:15):
don't have to talk about allyour your crazy party times.
Just kidding I.
I am curious, though.
Like so 10 years, at that 10year point, had you been
thinking about leaving for awhile?

Speaker 2 (39:28):
yeah, I had.
I've been, I've beenconsidering it for a long time,
probably was about to do itbefore we had that global
pandemic, and then everythingchanged, as we know for
everybody, and all of a sudden Iwent back a little bit early
after my sabbatical.
Sabbatical was supposed to be ayear and I went back after nine
months because they starteddoing the, the streamed concerts

(39:50):
, and I know I was just gratefulto be doing something because I
had.
I did actually have a lot ofsolo work lined up, which, of
course, was all instantlycancelled.
So I suddenly thought, well,I'm lucky that I didn't leave
you, I still have this so.
And then I went back and didanother two, three years.
How long was it?
Yeah, two, three years, yeah.
So it was very, very great andI was very much one of the lucky

(40:11):
ones through all that time.

Speaker 1 (40:13):
You know but that's a big.
That's a big.
You know, trombone soloist isnot.
You know, we it's not thesurest path, right?
So that had to take somecourage to be like okay, I have
this consistent thing, but I'mgonna do this thing.
I know what is in my heart iswhat I love doing it does take a
lot of courage.

Speaker 2 (40:32):
Yeah, it takes a lot of courage and resilience,
mental strength, highself-esteem, confidence, all
these things, because you know,there's some days where you just
don't feel very good and nothappy with how you played or
anything.
Oh, what am I doing?
I'm such a fraud, you know.
But that's just your innercritic talking.

(40:52):
You remember why you're doingit and hopefully you have
something to offer and you workhard and if there's something
that you're really passionateabout, you go for it.
And certainly it was somethingthat I knew that I didn't want
to continue doing what I wasdoing.
So, you know, I feel very, verylucky to have done it and I'm

(41:12):
very grateful for theexperiences, but at the same
time, there's nothing.
There was nothing left that Ihadn't done there.
I played everything, work withall the conductors, traveled the
world, played in every concerthall, played on film sessions,
done all, done it all.
So I said what's what's lefthere?
And I thought it now's the time, you know, to really make a
push for it.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
You know, and you were, you were so, so old in
your 20s, so you're I mean yourretirement's right around the
door so you have to startthinking about this stuff.
So I'd be curious how did yougo about starting?
You're like, okay, I'm doingthis, and I'm sure you were
already getting some soloengagements while you had.
We're on the job.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
I've been doing it kind of fairly regularly for the
last well, well, 15 years, butto really really focus on it, I
knew I had to make a changebecause I wasn't happy with the
way I was playing, because Iwasn't happy with coming from
the orchestra for a week, goingstraight into a hard recital

(42:13):
yeah.
So I wasn't happy with what Iwas doing in that regard.
So I knew some more time andpractice and kind of headspace
had to go into it.
Hard recital yeah.
So I wasn't.
I wasn't happy with what I wasdoing in that regard.
So I knew some more time andpractice and kind of headspace
had to go into it.
Um, and then commissioning newpieces um, you know you can't do
these things when you're in ajob as demanding as that.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
There's no time you know it's nice having that.
There's something about havingthat healthy fear of like okay,
I'm committing to this, I needto do it, I, if I'm going to
make this work, I gotta put thetime in, I gotta make a plan, I
gotta do all this stuff.
And it makes you work harder,right it?

Speaker 2 (42:51):
does make, make you work harder because there's no
other choice, there's no option,and um christian limburg told
me that.
He said you can't do it from aposition of comfort.
I said I can see that, andpartly just from a headspace
point of view.
You know you can't.
If all of your energy inplaying is going into your job,
the last thing you want to dowhen you get home is to think
about other practices you've gotto do or there's not enough

(43:14):
hours in the day.
You know.

Speaker 4 (43:15):
So you obviously wanted to leave.
You had made a decision in yourhead.
Now, putting an idea intoaction, yeah, okay.
So you knew it's going to behard.
You knew it's going to take alot of focus.
It's going to come from a placeof like less comfort.
How did you finally get the thecourage to actually pull the
trigger and and walk?

Speaker 2 (43:34):
um, it'd been on my mind for years and you just do
it.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
When you're in the car, are you listening to the
type of music that you tend toplay, or are you listening to
just everything?

Speaker 2 (43:45):
Sometimes radio, sometimes stuff I'm playing,
yeah, everything, somethingnoise.

Speaker 4 (43:51):
Never silence.
I'm a silent driver.
Sometimes that's my favoriteway to drive.
Nick likes to be alone with histhoughts and brood no, I think,
I think it's just impressivethat you were able to actually
do that, because a lot of peoplehave big ideas of doing
something and they just can'tget to that last step of
actually, you know, jumping offthe cliff, so to speak, because

(44:14):
you know it's.
It's not to be taken lightly.
You went from a job withsecurity to something that
doesn't have security.
Inherently, you know, and for alot of people that's enough to
like I can't do that, you know.
So it's that's impressive thatyou did that.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Yeah, taking a bet on yourself, you know yeah, and
also just see what happens inlife as well.
You know it was.
It was a question of I knewthat I wanted to have a go at it
, but also I knew I didn't wantto carry on doing what I was
doing you know not to sound too,negative, but no, no, that's
great and that it wasn't anoption for me to continue where
I was, so that kind of helpedyou know, yeah, so we like

(44:52):
asking about like thenitty-gritty stuff sometimes.

Speaker 1 (44:55):
So you want to do this.
Do you think getting a manageris the best route, is it?
I just need to contact everysingle person I know and keep up
with these contacts all thetime.
As far as just the logistics oftrying to build a network and a
career for things like this,how did you go about beginning

(45:18):
that kind of?

Speaker 2 (45:18):
thing.
Well, I had a lot of contactsalready.
So you remind people that youexist, you send them videos, you
send them recordings, you comeup with interesting concepts,
interesting collaborations, andthen you go from there.
Really, yeah, it's anever-ending thing.
You're at it all the time.

Speaker 1 (45:34):
That makes it kind of fun though right?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
I think so, and it's just being open to new ideas and
thinking outside the box.
I've got a trio with amezzo-soprano and a pianist,
which I never would have hadtime to do.
I've got commissions happening,so you just have to think a
little bit more differently.
Stop thinking about what'salready been done and think

(45:58):
about what can be done next.
And actually what's been reallypleasing in the trombone world
is that there's been a lot moregreat new pieces happening the
last 10 years or so.
That's true, that's exciting.
We've got a number of people tothank for that.

Speaker 1 (46:13):
You've been commissioning quite a bit.
Every time I look up arecording of you it's some new
piece I hadn't heard before.
How many commissions have youdone?

Speaker 2 (46:21):
so far.
I'm not sure.
There's a lot more in thepipeline, but you know, probably
in the, probably in the 20s oh,that's amazing yeah so any
particular standouts that youreally like connected with I can
.
I connect with most of thembecause we usually collaborate
as it, as we're doing it.
So they want, you know,composers, kind of they want to

(46:41):
know how, who you are as amusician.
Well, you know the composers Iwork with generally ones I've
chosen they, they work that waythey want to know about the,
about the musician.
You know, they're not justwriting a piece and say play
this.
So there's a lot of me that'skind of gone into it as well, as
well as them.
So, yeah, what?

Speaker 1 (47:04):
would you, what would you say to, to, to young people
that you know they're in musicschool and they're around
composers all the time, but theymay be a little intimidated to
try to work with them.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I think composers are looking for opportunities just
as much as music other musiciansare.
So there's no reason to beintimidated.
Just ask them, and they'd besilly if they didn't at least
entertain the idea.
You know, everybody I'vereached out to has been
brilliant.
So, and you know, even whenthey're not able to, they'll say
I'm just not able to right now,but thanks so much, and

(47:36):
everybody it's part of the sameecosystem.
So we need each other.
You know they need us as muchas we need them.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
That's absolutely true, yeah.
So what's hot on the horizonfor you?
What are you excited about?

Speaker 2 (47:51):
I'm commissioning a piece by deborah pritchard,
fantastic english composer.
I've just recorded an albumwith tradiga brass band which
will be released in march, sogoing through the edits for that
at the moment.
I've got a tour of the statesplanned in march as well, if I
can get my uh visa hey, that'swhere I live.

Speaker 1 (48:09):
You coming up anywhere where we are.
Where are you, michigan?

Speaker 2 (48:12):
I'm in pittsburgh and he's in new york um
pennsylvania yeah, I am startingon east coast and I'm kind of
working my way in cool and goingall the way to illinois and
then down kind of kentucky letme know I'm doing eastman as
well, starting in eastman andthen yeah, are you coming
through the city New York?

Speaker 4 (48:30):
I?
Haven't decided yet maybe Ihaven't decided, yeah, I might
do.
I mean, I love New York.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
I never yeah, I've never turned down an opportunity
to go there.

Speaker 4 (48:37):
Okay, we'll talk, we'll talk.
I know some people that's.

Speaker 1 (48:44):
That's super fun.
You can enjoy touring again,and well, that's awesome.

Speaker 4 (48:49):
What kind of tour is that?
Is it just you and piano?
It's a site.
Or then master class tour.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
So it's with you and piano University residencies.

Speaker 4 (48:56):
Are you bringing a pianist?

Speaker 2 (48:57):
No.

Speaker 4 (48:57):
Okay, you're picking up one on the road.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Brave man.

Speaker 4 (48:59):
Brave.
They'll all be brilliant atthese places.

Speaker 2 (49:02):
Yeah, I mean, you're going to great places,
absolutely.
You already out.
No wait till I get the visa.
I've got the guys at gets anddoing it for me, so hopefully
hopefully they'll pull through.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
But yeah, I mean just like everyone in the world,
just like everything else.
Visas have been affectedmajorly, like by after covid.
Everything takes so much longerto come go through yeah, it's a
nightmare yeah yeah, you don'tmake it easy for us it's, us
it's

Speaker 1 (49:31):
us personally yes it's me, I did it.
I wrote a letter to mycongressman.
Don't let that guy yeah he'staking all our trombone jobs
I've always been good, I'vealways behaved impeccably in the
states.

Speaker 4 (49:40):
So I don't know how that I don't believe, that I
don't believe that for a minutebut you'd have to do a lot to
get in real trouble in thestates yeah, it depends where
you are, depends where you are,that's true yeah so okay.

Speaker 1 (49:53):
So a lot on the horizon.
That's really exciting.

Speaker 2 (49:56):
You're having fun, I take it absolutely, enjoying
every day, trying to, you know,living in the moment, absolutely
feeling free.
It's great, great to be hereliving the dream well, well
great, should we?

Speaker 1 (50:09):
let's we, let's go into some rapid.
You want a rapid fire question?
So if you've heard our podcastbefore, we always finish with
our rapid fire section, whereyou have to accrue points and if
you win you get a big prize.
That's not true but, we'll lovegames.

Speaker 4 (50:25):
Don't don't lose.
That's all I can tell you.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
You don't want to find out, and this is
interesting to you, especiallybecause we talked about your
life changing so much at the ageof 18.
So this is the first questionwe ask every, every guest what
advice would you give to your 18year old self?

Speaker 2 (50:42):
oh, stay true to who you are as a musician and person
.
Learn how to manage money.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Have a social life outside of your job that was
good and actually he answered inrapid fashion I like that
because it for you.
It's a different answer thanmost people, and I hope you
understand that, just because ofyour position of when you were
18 yeah, a lot of people sayjust calm down, slow down, so

(51:10):
that's good advice as well to befair.

Speaker 4 (51:12):
My question is going to be on the opposite side of
that.
Where would you like to seeyourself in 20 years from now?

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Honestly, as long as I'm involved in music in some
way, I don't mind, I don't know.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
That's fair.

Speaker 2 (51:24):
I don't look too far ahead.
That's good too, so wherever Iam is cool.
I would like to think thetrombone will be involved in
some way, but who knows?

Speaker 1 (51:37):
Yeah, okay, so for the music and trombone nerds
favorite trombone solo you'veever played Desert Island you
can only play one more.

Speaker 2 (51:46):
It has to be one, everyone knows.
No.
Use it as an opportunity totell people how about top three?
I'd probably put the Sulek inthere.
I think that's a beautifulpiece.
I can correct you.

Speaker 1 (51:58):
Here it comes, it's a .

Speaker 2 (51:58):
Sulek, sulek.

Speaker 1 (51:59):
Wow, stepan Sulek, you didn't know you'd come here
to learn something, did you?

Speaker 4 (52:04):
I'm going to die on that hill Everyone needs to
learn.
I've learned that it's ShulikSerbo-Croatian I don't know.

Speaker 2 (52:12):
I don't know.
It's got to be something new.

Speaker 3 (52:14):
I'm getting a bit tired of all the old stuff,
something crazy, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (52:19):
I don't know.
Yeah, I'd say that Shulik,shulik, because the problem is
the really great new modernstuff that I'm playing is that
it's too hard.
I wouldn't want to play itevery day.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
That's true, you're playing some hard stuff, my man.
Oosh.
Favorite composer.
If you want to do top two orthree, you can too.

Speaker 2 (52:44):
Stravinsky, ravel Beethoven.

Speaker 4 (52:54):
That's quite a soup.
Quite a soup.
I like that.
Quite a soup.
All right, here's acontroversial one.
Are mushy peas any good, andwhy not?

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Well, it depends what you mean by mushy peas?

Speaker 2 (53:08):
because mushy peas up north, as they should be.
You get a massive, great bigbowl of them and they're sloppy.
None of this kind of pea pureething that you get all right
which comes in a little pot likethat and they call those mushy
peas.

Speaker 4 (53:22):
They're not, but they are excellent yeah, all right,
I'll have to try them up northwith gravy.
Wait, they're already.
Yeah, put more on, so it justbecomes a big mess.
Yeah With, like brown gravy.

Speaker 2 (53:37):
Yeah, oh my goodness, what kind of gravy do you have?
What kind of gravy is not brown?

Speaker 4 (53:40):
Well, you go to the pie and mash shop and they have
what they call liquor.
There's white gravy.
That's not liquor, is it?

Speaker 1 (53:47):
When you come to the States you got to have some
chicken fried steak and get thewhite gravy.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
I'm vegetarian actually now, so I won't be
having that.

Speaker 4 (53:54):
Okay won't be having that.
There are places that domushroom gravy, mushroom white
gravy.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Yeah, having said that most gravies got meat stock
in it, so I probably wouldn'thave that anymore.
That's true.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
It's one of those weird things that you just you
look at stuff and it's weird.
Like nick and I were talkingabout.
You know how normal it is foryou guys to eat beans for
breakfast, which we just don'tdo, and that's only in cafes and
you wouldn't do that at home,really, oh, that's more of a
traditional.
Okay, beans on toast, though oh, yeah, I suppose, yeah, yeah,
yeah, but then you eat it.

Speaker 4 (54:25):
It's delicious and it's just like it does taste
good.
It kind of works it for us.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
Okay, there's a billboard that the entire world
can see, oh God, and you canwrite anything on that billboard
, oh God.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
You're not making this easy, are you?
It'll be a little bit one thatyou've probably read on a fridge
magnet before trying to spreadas much kindness as you can, and
but first you've got to be kindto yourself, and that's the

(55:01):
hardest bit.
That's good.

Speaker 1 (55:04):
That's good a little wordy for a billboard, but you
know we'll take it you can.
You can paraphrase it.
We were actually.
We saw this big protest.
We were walking by the LondonTower, Tower Bridge yeah, Tower
Bridge and this guy climbed tothe top and hung this big banner
of political protests and justlike hung up there for a while
and the police were just likewatching him forever.
That was our entertainingafternoon.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
But I think Sebastian brought it up because the
problem with this protest was hewrote so many words on it you
couldn't read what he wrote.
So you're sitting there looking, and we were about as close as
you could get and still lookinglike I have no idea what he's
trying to say.

Speaker 1 (55:41):
Is it worth going to?
Jail for that.

Speaker 4 (55:43):
Okay.
With 100 police officers onhand trying to deal with this
guy.

Speaker 2 (55:47):
Live your dreams, that was yesterday.
Wouldn't make it if I couldmeme, would it with this guy?
Live your dreams, that wasyesterday, wouldn't make a very
good meme, would it?

Speaker 4 (55:51):
No, it wouldn't.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
Let's see.
Okay, ask favorite composer.
Oh, here's an.
I need one nerdy trombonequestion.
Fine your favorite method bookor desert island method book, if
you can only work desert islandLike etude book.

Speaker 2 (56:07):
Oh, I kind of just like used to take stuff from all
of them.

Speaker 1 (56:11):
Really, that wasn't the question, peter, probably
the album that's a safe onebecause there's just so much in
it.
If you're stuck on an island,you can do a bunch.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
I generally make up my own stuff based on exercises
and books, just to kind of keepyour brain a bit more stimulated
overachiever.

Speaker 1 (56:28):
Okay, got it, but.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
I never write it down .
So if someone said, well, canyou send that to me?
I'd say no, because I've notwritten any of it down, you know
so all right.

Speaker 4 (56:38):
What do young trombonists not do that they
need to do more of?
Listen to other instruments andkind of a hot take at a
trombone festival.

Speaker 2 (56:52):
Huh I think it's a perfect.
I think it's a perfect thing tosay at a trombone festival,
actually, because the more wecan, we need to help ourselves
get on an even keel with theother instruments and sometimes
we don't help ourselves becausewe don't.
You know, we don't, we don'tplay like.
I have a theory about this.
I think the trombone is so hard, the fundamentals are so

(57:12):
difficult on the trombone, thatwe forget to be musicians.

Speaker 4 (57:15):
Oh, of course, Just this thing, the slide.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
You know that, in and of itself, yeah, just going
from first position F to fourthposition G is really hard, I
know.
So, because all that stuff isso difficult, we forget what
we're actually supposed to bedoing, which is expressing
ourselves and communicating.
Which is why, if you'reconstantly listening to
brilliant singers, cellists,jazz players, whatever, and
great drum and bass as well,like I'm not saying don't listen

(57:40):
to them, you must sure I'mobsessed with jazz, drum and
bass, from yesteryear, you know,and today, like like murray
mckechan, not many people haveheard of him.
No, will Bradley, tommy Dorsey,obviously it's the 40s, 50s.
Yeah, and going kind of furtherforward from that as well and

(58:00):
going back, you know, withTeagarden yeah, amazing, you
know.
And Irby Green obviously aswell, Just obsessed with the way
these guys played.

Speaker 1 (58:11):
I don't think people realize how famous Tommy Dorsey
was Like.
I'm going through an old recordstore where I live and there's
this whole section where it'slike the record is like Tommy
Dorsey and in the bottom cornerit's like featuring Frank
Sinatra.

Speaker 2 (58:25):
Like Frank Sinatra was his guest.
Yeah, absolutely, he taught.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
Sinatra.
A lot talk about talking aboutvibrato, about phrasing, you
know.
So, in closing, is thereanything that you'd like to say
in closing that we haven'ttalked about?
You'd like to say to our Ithink we're at a range of 116
countries.
Now is where the podcast hasbeen listening to.
I mean it could be one personeach one, but we'll take it,
that's fantastic In closing thatwe didn't say that you'd like
to say.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
I'd just like to thank you guys for creating
something that brings everybodytogether, like from all those
different countries, becausethat's really important as well,
and one of the beautiful thingsabout the trombone world is
that it is incredibly small.
Yeah, it certainly is, andthat's a really wonderful thing
that you know people can connecton your platform and we've got

(59:14):
to keep keep doing that and, youknow, keep meeting people from
different cultures and sharingmusic with each other, and yeah,
so thanks, thank you and andthank you so much.

Speaker 1 (59:24):
We're so excited to see we've done so far in your
career and we'll be excited tokeep following you and
supporting you and seeing whathappens next.

Speaker 2 (59:31):
So congratulations on everything and thanks for
hanging out.
It was a really lovely chat.

Speaker 1 (59:35):
Absolutely.
Thank you, all right, peterMoore © transcript Emily Beynon.

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