June 27, 2018 • 41 mins
Clare Bowen @clarembee and her husband Brandon Robert Young, take time to sit with #GeekingOut to discuss her fascination with a topic that might make you a little queasy. Clare challenges Kristian to figure out how the Kangaroo got his tail. Whilst leaving you with a false ending…
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, this is Christian Bush and welcome to episode twelve,
the last episode the cliffhanger of season one of my
podcast Geeking Out. Every episode, I invite a new person
to talk about one thing that they're obsessed with that
has nothing to do with their job. The only requirement
(00:20):
is that they're totally geeking out on it and they
want to talk about it. From cosplay bowling leagues to
custom pet picture speedos, from do it yourself tiki huts
to murder mystery train rides, from spooky haunted hotel overnights
to collecting vintage beanie babies. Tell me about what you love,
why you love it, how you got into it, and
(00:40):
what makes it awesome. Each episode is presented in three chapters.
In chapter one, my guest and I will have conversation
about their passion. In chapter two, we play a game
I call trade Jo, where my guest and I turn
each other on to one thing that we've found that's cool.
And in chapter three, I close the show by talking
(01:01):
about music that I'm currently geeking out on and why
I believe that curiosity is contagious and life is better
with a soundtrack. So let the geekon begin Chapter One.
Today's guests are Claire Bowen and Brandon Robert Young to
(01:22):
get Claire, you might recognize from her role as Scarlett
O'Connor on the CMT Hulu hit TV series Nashville. Growing
up in Rule, Australia, Claire worked on stage and screen
(01:45):
before landing her big breakout role on Nashville. In addition
to acting, Claire is an accomplished singer songwriter who brings
a unique joy and spirit to her own music. You
should also know that she was diagnosed with cancer at
four years old and spent a child hood in and
out of hospitals. Claire's husband and musical partner, Brandon, is
a remarkably talented guitarist and singer. He moved to Nashville
(02:08):
in two thousand with a guitar he didn't yet know
how to play. He represents in many ways the country
singer songwriter's dream, having spent years paying his dues and
learning his craft, and with Claire, he's found his creative
and life partner. Claire and Brandon are currently performing as
an opening act on Sugarly and Still the Same Tour,
and I took the opportunity before show to get to
(02:30):
know them. Both a little better and deep dive into
her dark side. Oh my gosh, welcome to the podcast.
I am so excited that you're here and that you
guys have agreed to do this. Okay, so first thing
we're gonna do is you need to introduce yourselves, because
(02:51):
you know the rules of the podcast are. I want
to know what you're geeking out on that has nothing
to do with your job. So first tell everyone who
you are, where we are, and what your job is.
My name is Claire Bowen, and we are sitting on
the beautiful bus of the beautiful Christian Bush, one half
of sugar Land. And where are we in the world today?
(03:15):
We Rapid City right now? I think so South Dakota.
It happens we're near Mount Rushmore. We are near, Yes,
we're Mount Rushmore adjacent adjacent. Yes. Uh. My job is
to sing and tell stories. And this has been the
most wonderful tour to be on because it's it's so easy.
It's just me and and my sweet husband Mr Brandon
(03:36):
Robert Young here, and my job is basically two show
up singing, not suck. It's a good it's a good
way to you know, live. Just don't suck. Okay, So
your job is in the entertainment business. I would also
add that you're an actor, right, and and our brand
(03:57):
do you act? Is that something that you do? Well?
I kind of feel like I've been acting since I
moved to Nashville, pretending to be a musician. That's everybody's insecurity.
But he's actually very good. So we've there have been
a couple of projects that haven't come out yet that
I've nudged him into, and he's done a very very
(04:17):
good job as a as an actor, storyteller. Awesome. So
you understand the rules that what you're obsessed with can
have nothing to do with singing or acting or any
of that precisely. Okay, So I I kind of know
what's coming, But tell me what what are you get
gonna have on? I? Well, I grew up in a
(04:39):
children's hospital, and I guess that has probably prompted this.
But I'm fascinated with medical history and just the function
of the human body and anatomy in general. Um. I
think medicine, like the way it's developed is incredible. Um.
And going back to like from the ancient Egyptians that
(05:00):
kind of that far back in history and the way
things have been lost and found again. Like the Egyptians
knew that washing your hands was a good idea, and
they knew that germs existed, they didn't know how to
deal with them. But um, it was like Victorian times,
I think what germs were still not not a thing.
(05:21):
And there was one doctor, gosh, I can't remember his name. Um,
he insisted that this isn't you know, I could probably
try and find it. He absolutely insisted that people should
wash their hands, and surgeons thought that he was insane
because they didn't believe in germs yet. This is like
I think eighteen eighteen eighteen, I think he was born.
(05:43):
Um he was, Oh there is um ignis semmelweis. He
was this outlandish idea that doctors should wash their hands
and he was commended to a mental institution for because
people thought he was just nuts. And it's something common
practice now and at medicine. So sorry, this is awesome.
(06:07):
I've never heard of this. So, um, how does this
manifest like in your day? How I can tell you
how it manifests in her day? How does it manifest
in her? Number one Christian, don't look at her Instagram
because there are multiple medical images that will pop up
(06:34):
at any given time. She follows all of these different Yeah,
I don't. I don't tell me about some of the
ones you follow. Um. Well, there are a couple who
are morticians. Um, there are a couple who are followed
by a lot of medical students. UM does gosh people
who oh god, what is that book called. I can't
(06:57):
remember the name of the book, but it's it's all
about Oh it's called the book youring Art. Um it's
and it's about human the history of human dissection and UM,
the job of a mortician, like throughout the ages. It's
quite fascinating and just the way UM disease moves through
the body. And I'm not those things don't gross me out.
(07:18):
I don't have I don't have a gag reflex when
it comes to blood. My flight or flight instinct, which
my doctor says I apparently live in all the time, fantastic.
I will. I'm a fight person, so I'll go towards
something instinctively that's maybe other people couldn't handle visually or
(07:40):
mentally or um. And that's that's a good thing and
a bad thing, because well, I I don't know. I
figure if you can if you can stand to look
at somebody who really needs your help, if they have
like a compound fracture, or if you know their symptoms
are something that someone else might not recollect people who
are about to have a story. There are certain ways
(08:01):
that you you recognize that and not everybody knows them. Um,
if you can handle that kind of environment and situation,
then you might as well learn about it so that
you can help people. MH. Well, And I think a
lot of the your level of comfort in those types
of environments is because you grew up in a children's hospital.
(08:22):
You grew up around kids who were as sick as
you were, or sicker, and a lot of them didn't
make it, and you were exposed to, you know, a
lot of scenarios that a four year old never would
have seen. Have you ever seen anybody pass out when
you didn't? Do? You mean, like other people passing out?
(08:45):
Is there no level that can freak you out? Like
like if it's if it's a person, like somebody that
you know and love, I mean even then, I mean,
my there was in a really terrible car accident and
my he's okay. Um, it was right before he was
diagnosed with cancer. Actually, and I think the car accident
(09:08):
is what jolted his system into shock, which made the
cancer kind of weird disab But thank goodness, we started
to see the symptoms of it because my brother and
I both had a different kinds and our bodies are
very good um suppressing symptoms for some reason, so we're
both we were both diagnosed in very very late stages
of our illnesses. Anyway, he had this car accident totally
(09:29):
like destroyed Mom's car and it was just this old
man who drove out in front of him and tim
was going down the freeway, so the car was like
it looked like no one could possibly have survived it.
Timothy did, thank the sweet Lord in heaven. Um. And
Dad pulled up a photo of the car right like
(09:50):
the photos from the insurance company that the police took,
and it is a mess. And Mom, poor mom, she um,
she he didn't mean, Dad didn't mean to show it
to her, but she walked past his computer, took one
look and just passed out. So that's it's aye. And
(10:11):
I was in the other room. Dad's clare kind of
and for him seeing her in that way was you know,
he was he was so good. But she's his his person,
you know. So he was really shaky and like we
all were. But if you can be and so far
(10:32):
it's worked, if you can be clear headed in a
situation like that. Not to say I'm any kind of
better than anybody else or nothing like that, but um,
my mind works medically at the same time as working emotionally.
So I can see Dad's in distress and mom is too,
and she was going to she was gonna wake up.
We just needed to get a cold towel and let
her sit there for a minute and tell her it
(10:54):
was all right, and waited out and poured. It's hard
when you're watching somebody that you love go through something
traumatic and that that's something that's often forgotten. People get sick,
but there are the people who take care of the
people who are sick, and they often get sort of forgotten.
But yeah, I don't know, I just don't really. Um
My grandmother died in my arms when I was about
(11:15):
eleven years old. My dad was there too, and it's
actually quite I wish that we understood a little bit
more about how we depart from the human body and
how it's actually just like being born. Because everyone talks
about birth so wonderful. Nobody wants to be around when
somebody dies. Everybody wants to be there to celebrate the baby, right. Yeah.
(11:36):
But if somebody in our family dies, I'm the first
person they call because there are certain things that have
got to happen with you know, bodies. They call you
just because they know it doesn't frighten me. And there,
you know, it's really hard to you said you want
to go deep. It is really difficult to get somebody's
eyes to stay closed if you don't close them like
(11:58):
straightaway and dead. He's very They move, they grow, and
they they you know, the intestines role. You can see
them moving and they're gone, like the person is that.
I think they do hang about in the room for
a bit. You know they're there and they're listening and
they're watching. So hearing is the last thing, uh usually
(12:18):
to go. I think that's improven, but I believe it.
And if if somebody you're with passes away, speaking with
them is one of the most beautiful things that you
can do because they really can still hear you. But
it's just like, you know, just like somebody is there
to catch a baby, you hope. I feel like like
(12:38):
a midwife for people who are passing away. Actually, there's
such a job. One of the things I want to
do in my life. I really would like to become
a midwife. And I'd really like to become an end
of life, if you will, kind of like an end
of life. You should find out what the name of
(12:59):
that is or make one up. It's I think it's
well people say end of life coach, um, end of
life doula, Like doula is like a birth coach. So
it's there's this beautiful story. There are two sailors standing
on a dock and the young sailor that they're you know,
they're farewelling a boat. And the young sailor asked the
older sailor um about passing away and what he couldn't
(13:23):
understand it and being very afraid to die alone. And
then the answer is nobody dies alone. The older sailor says, well,
you see how that ship is disappearing across along the horizon,
and we've stood here waving at it, you know, waving
our loved ones goodbye. Over that horizon where we can't
see there are other people and they're they're not waving.
They've got their arms outstretched, so they can't see us
(13:44):
and we can't see them, but we know that they're there.
And when that ship reaches the point where we can't
see it anymore, it goes into the realm of the
people who can see it, and there's nobody's ever really
alone at the end. Well, that's a beautiful thought. Is
that something that hangs out in your brain when you
are looking at dissections? I mean, this is let's back
(14:06):
up for a second. Alright, there's something super strangely exciting
about very diminutive, beautiful voice, blonde hair Claire Bowen obsessed
with like a skull half cracked open or like or like, uh,
the guts folded open somewhere like that's kind of like
(14:27):
I would have never thought that girl wasn't that thing.
But that's also one of the reasons I wanted to
talk to you is that I think that that's awesome
because it weirdly sounds like it gives people permission to
be that. Thank you, But have you been to a
cadaver lab um No. I really wanted to take systemic
(14:48):
anatomy when I was at university, but the timetables didn't
line up with my bachelor of creative arts, which I'm
I'm not the most useful person in the world. My sister,
my soon to sister in law, is a doctor, and
we have the most amazing conversations and actually, like we
send pictures back and forth with like amazing medical discoveries
(15:09):
like that. There is a man in the sixties who
performed how old he was he was like I think
he was only almost thirty, maybe stuck in Alaska with
a pendicitis and performs his own appendectomy on himself. Yeah? Crazy?
Could you do that? I have a very high pain threshold,
so I've never I don't know. She could. She could?
(15:29):
She could definitely stitch herself closed. There's no question. Definitely
stitch herself closed. And poor Brandon, he saw me looking
at He went to, Um, I was like, oh, look
at this, and it was like it was like kittens
and puppies or something, and I scrolled too far down. Yeah,
don't look at the instagram A brain case. Avert your
(15:52):
eyes open, brain case? Did you just say that? What
is that? Um? Well, they were was an autopsy of
a woman who had had a massive aneurism, and they
were basically looking at the what the cross section of
the brain and what an aneurysm does. Um, So it
(16:17):
I am not. It's not like a sick obsession. I
find it truly fascinating and I would have liked to
have been a doctor. But I can't count. I have
some cognitive things from my experimental chemotherapy, so I can't
tell left room right very well. And I can't I
can't count. It's really hard to tell the time on
(16:37):
an analog clock. We're talking about that the other day.
So there are some things that I have a photographic memory,
but it's broken, so it reverses things. So I would
be a dreadful I'd be the one to take the
wrong leg off. It's better than I do. No. I
just find it fascinating it and I think like my surgery,
(16:59):
the the biggest one that I had was a ten
hour total Um. I suppose, I don't know what the
technical term for it. I suppose it's like an advisceration
where they had to take they took my entire all
everything in my abdominal cavity out. They sliced me in
half from my belly button to my spine um on
(17:22):
my side on the table, put everything in a bucket
or a basin. Sure, there's a better word for that
than that. UM took away all the cancer quaterized. It's
a lot of stuff, so there's a lot missing. Um
Phil put it all back in, filled my body cavity
full of chemo wash, sealed me up, rolled me around
(17:42):
for a bit, and like you know, they did the
swish thing and then suctioned it all out and sewed
me up again, and then I had a seizure and
my stitches. Um, it was bad. So the one thing
that is kind of difficult, not difficult to look at,
but I think I had to get over it is
um disembowment, like when yes guts outside the body um
(18:06):
and throw it stuff. Because I had tubes coming out
of my neck for the longest time when I was
a kid. But it is fascinating even I don't know.
I think maybe living in a body that is half
there and has so many like I'll go to if
I go to a new doctor there, they're really intrigued by,
like how how do you even walk straight? Because everything's
(18:29):
missing there? But I don't know. It all kind of
feeds into wanting to be able to help people and
I can't be a doctor. But I can. I don't know.
I could stitch somebody up and learn how to suit
her and all that kind of stuff. And working with
animals you kind of end up up to your armpit
(18:52):
and cow sometimes and it's horrible when they squeezed trying
to check work up. Is there's something up to your
armpitt and cow? Yea, yeah, I love cows. I would
let's speak about that for a second. You love cows. Yeah.
I used to musta cattle before Nashville, before acting, really,
(19:14):
I suppose, and on horseback, and I just really like
cows and horses every other animal. Probably. I really don't
like ticks. They're probably do in the end of even
those house centipede things they eat spiders, they're all right. Sorry,
this is the most fascinating thing ever. Would you consider
(19:36):
ever being an e MR person, like an emergency responder,
I think because you have this lack of fear of
the body being broken. I would love to. I would
be wonderful. I'm just I'm very small and not particularly strong,
(19:59):
but um, even just being able to sit with somebody
who's yeah a calm voice, yes, very powerful, that's one
thing in tragic situations. No, I didn't even know you
could do that that that you just gave me another
here comes some fun questions you ready if because this
(20:19):
is something that you are truly obsessed with, right, would
you get a tattoo of anything like this or do
you already have one? I talked to Brandon about this
the other day, and I was saying, when when we're
really old, maybe we'd get tattoos or something. But I'm
covered in scars and I really love them, and that's
(20:39):
you know, maybe that's it. They're my like they're you know,
and they're quite substantial. But I love every one of
them and I can't imagine looking at myself and not
seeing them. Um, So my scars are kind of like
maybe the equivalent of a tattoo. I think tattoos are
absolutely beautiful. I was just like, you know, like a
(21:01):
tattoo of a brain skull open or I don't know.
I was just where's the line. So my question is,
when you have an obsession like this, right, and I
get to talk to people about this, what they're passionate about,
where where's the line where you've gone too far? Like
you have to tell yourself, hey, when I'm printing out
(21:24):
these things from Instagram and posting them on my wall
so I can just look at them all the time.
Is that the line, like, where's the line for you?
I don't watch horror films, I I think part of
because I've seen like Brandon said, and this does not
make me any better or worse than anybody else, or
any more learned or any of that stuff. It just
(21:46):
is my experience. I grew up watching children, like somebody
passed away every single day in my wood, and I
don't know of anybody else in my who got out.
Um And like I've had spinal taps, and I've worken
up during surgeries, and I've had seizures, and I've seen
(22:10):
my own insides and um, So the glorification of horror
pisces me off. It really ticks me off. And the
there is so much that is really horrific about life
that doesn't necessarily have to be blood exploding in your face,
which has also happened to me. It was really gross.
(22:31):
It was my own blood, thankfully, but stepped on a
six inch nail and it went through my artery in
my foot and I was like, what is that? Because
I can't feel my feet properly because I've got neuropathy.
I was like nine and like spurred it into my
face anyway. Um, but I don't know, I just I don't.
(22:52):
I don't post those things on my like, I would
never repost something that could because you're looking at it. Yeah,
my followers and like people who follow me on social media,
I don't like. I don't even subject brand into that.
I don't let him look at things that you can't
unsee things, but when you cannot, I'm so sorry. I
love that you you were so comfortable with it, though,
(23:12):
I think you've got to be sensible about it. That
The line for me is when people into acting, Yeah,
they're fascinated with horror. Okay, so you don't like horror films,
But if you had to, or if you were asked,
or if it was a lot, you know, like a
big budget movie, would you know, would you act in
(23:34):
a horror film? I'm not sure it would depend on
the script. Um. I was in a film a long
time ago where uh, my character died and my mother
and a couple of actually my best friend and my
mother saw the part where I was being transported in
this wheelbarrow to be disposed of. And it was awful,
(23:59):
and I don't. I think there's I respect that there.
This is the horror genre, and one of my hobbies
used to be watching B grade horror films when I
was very young, just probably the beginning of like seeing
what I could see and be okay. I don't know,
because I part of my childhood was seeing some quite
(24:22):
confronting things, so wondering. I went through a lot of
life thinking there might have been something wrong with my
brain because I didn't respond to traumas that were right
in front of me in a panicked way. I went
to work on them and made sure people were okay.
But with horror films, the more I watched, the more
I it just made me angry that somebody would glorify
(24:47):
people being torn apart and that. Yeah, so I yeah,
I don't know. I'm not sure if I think a
thriller is much more entertaining and the it's just like
the illusion of nudity is so much more. Oh yeah,
of course, of course address that goes blow the knee
holding down chapter two. In every episode of Geeking Out,
(25:18):
I see if I can trade one thing that I've
discovered recently with one thing that my guest is discovered
anything is admissible, and this friendly exchange I call trade you.
So chapter two, this is a little game I called
trade you. Um, I'll go first. I'm gonna turn you
onto something that I'm just kind of into right now,
and you can take it or leave it, and then
(25:39):
in return, you will turn me onto something that you're
totally into right now. Um. I have had a particular
obsession with BBC television. Okay, it's been going on for
a long time. I have a deep relationship with myself
watching I mean I went from Doctor Who to Torchwood
to deep, deep, deep strange. Um and right now, but
(26:00):
pause of the way they're marketing their stuff. I am
currently into a TV show called Jamestown and Jamestown was
the first settlement in Virginia and apparently, first of all,
forgive me for what I'm about to do to you,
but um, these guys, the setup is, this is a
(26:21):
BBC America show about First of all, let's get the meta.
This is hilarious staging the first settlement of people from
Britain into America and the first time that when they
came over they were all men, right, and so they've
(26:41):
been there for months like twelve months, eighteen months, something
like that. They've set up camp, they've now got a wall,
and they've got places that they live. And then suddenly
they've all written back because apparently you can. There were
ships going back and forth and asked for women. So
(27:02):
this is the story of the of the boat docks
and the first women get off, and many of them
have been requested as wives. Goodness, and then um and
then the Native American stuff, and then the actual story
of Jamestown, and hilarity ensues. Right. I just I know
that I might be too much because you act things,
(27:25):
and you're translating America for her right, and this is
going to be a real discussion point. I can imagine
in my mind that you guys are sitting up on
your pillows at night and you're watching this together. Hey, honey,
Christian said to do this, and you get halfway through
and everybody's hitting the spacebar. Can we talk about this?
Why is this happening? What is this? These are Brits
(27:46):
talking about America, which I think is hilarious. That is
really funny, and it's super serious, you know, like they're
trying to make this right. And I'm watching someone else's
version of history. Go down then East Tennessee history right exactly,
you know, and it's pretty fun. We're got to get
into it. Okay. What you got for me? Well, all right, Well,
(28:10):
when I was when I was little, if I did
something good, I would I could choose a like if
I wanted to buy something, you know, if I did
well in school, I'd get a little present. Um, and
the presence that I always wanted were books on stories
(28:32):
of Aboriginal spirituality in the dream time. And they range
from all the different kinds of bunyips and the rainbow
serpent carving out the earth and making it what it is,
to how the kangaroo got his tail why the liebird's
tail looks all burnt? Um, And I have to I
haven't read a book in a really long time because
(28:54):
I've been shooting a television show that has kind of
took over my life for six years, which I'm very
grateful for. But those stories were the ones that I really,
I don't know, I feel very lucky because I went
to Catholic school. Um, and Indigenous spirituality is a totally
(29:14):
different thing to Christianity and Catholicism, but we were taught
it all the same, both at home and at school.
There was no um, you know those we find in
a lot of religions there is this um disclusion of
other people's other cultures beliefs, But in Australia it is
I mean, we're from the country, so maybe it's different
(29:36):
in the city. I don't know. But I went to
a school in a very low socio economic area of
Sydney which is now super trendy of course, um. But
we were taught about the dream time as well as
Catholicism um. And it was just the most beautiful way
to be brought up. And it's part of my belief
(29:57):
system and it always will be. So they're really interesting stories. Okay,
well I would love to How do I find them? Um? Gosh?
I think Amazon. A lot of books turn up on
our doorstep from Amazon because I don't get I haven't
had time to go to bookstores and I much prefer
(30:19):
going too. Are they are they children's books or are
they there are children's books? Um? There and that that's
where we started, Like if that it's actually a beautiful
children's book called The Rainbow Serpent um, and it's this
gorgeously illustrated um. I don't know, there's the the story
of how how the mountains and the rivers came to
(30:39):
be um, because yeah, it's really wonderful, and the different
tribal totems um, and just indigenous life in general, the
way like before white people came and bugged everything up,
and it's fascinating and truly beautiful, Like in the Australian Bush.
When you go there, you can spirituality is everywhere. It
(31:04):
can be quite a terrifying place, um, but in the
most intriguing and beautiful way. UM. And just the way
the Aboriginals lived off the land and um there there
cultural base is it's just really beautiful. It's something that
I grew up with and when we go back to Australia,
(31:24):
it's lovely for me to be in. I don't know,
there's there's nothing like the Australian Bush. It's a beautiful place.
So it's and there there is some very sad history.
There is a book called Blood on the Wattle that
actually documents what happened to the Aboriginals and a lot
of well personal accounts from farm hands who couldn't bear
(31:46):
what was happening. UM. And that's a totally different side
of it. But it's we're not taught those things in
off in school. But thank god we were taught about
the dream time. So dreamtime stories except it would beautiful.
I'm going to totally read them. And when people start
looking at them me having kids books on the bus
and my children are in their teens, blame it on Claire.
(32:08):
It's but they're mine. I will claim them as my own.
Read about how the Kangaroo got his tail, How the
Kangaroo got his tail? Awesome. Well, thank you all both
for being here. You're absolutely the most interesting people ever.
I just I've never had any of this kind of
(32:29):
conversation with anybody like this, so thank you, thank you
for having absolutely okay. Well. Chapter three me geeking out
on music the false ending. One of the most important
building blocks of rock and roll is the thrilling feeling
(32:52):
that you don't know what's going to happen next, the
suspicion that what you're listening to or seeing live is
a group of people. Well they're playing so intensely that
they might explode their amps, that the guitar player might
smash his guitar, that the band will get so loud,
that something overwhelming, something unpredictable is going to happen. This
(33:13):
anxiety and thrill is what makes rock bands legendary and
what draws us in as listeners and fans. Today, I
want to talk about something that I'm exploring in my
own recordings right now. As a producer, I'm attempting to
create a live moment, a moment that's recognized by the
players as unplanned, so that it will resonate with the
(33:36):
listener as a moment where anything could happen. The rock
and roll mystery, the false ending. The first time I
was aware of a band sounding like they're barely being
held together in a recording was the Replacements. They were
famous for getting so drunk on stage that watching them
(33:56):
try to pull it off was as entertaining as anything
else they were doing. Here's their song Bastards of Young
from a club in Hoboken, New Jersey called Maxwells. Listen
to how reckless it feels like this band is falling
downstairs the songs, So I saw a second. The next
(34:51):
time I was exposed to this energy was in Bruce
Springsteen's recording Born in the USA. Yeah, at the end,
the band puts in a false ending. Now, depending on
who you ask this was planned versus this was not planned.
(35:12):
It's as debated as if Han solo shot first. The
story goes that the Street Band were ending the song
and they held out the last note, and at some
point Bruce just started counting back in and then the
band followed suit. It's an amazing thing to hear suddenly
the well rehearsed musician is off script. The Street Band
(35:34):
are so talented that they read the indicators and they
were brave enough to start playing again and confident enough
to make it up as they go. Listen. I've always
(36:17):
been fascinated with this moment in this recording. I think
it puts something special into the song. So this brings
me to Lindsay L's album The Project. There's a song
on the album called Wildfire. I kept encouraging the band
in the studio while we were recording it to extend
the ending so that Lindsay could play a guitar lead
(36:38):
over the top of it. I tried to make sure
we didn't rehearse it too much. I wanted the chaos
of a band trying to communicate with their instruments. I
wanted it to feel like the musicians found a wave
paddled it and then decided to stand up and write it.
Here's our false ending. So because I loved this idea
(37:35):
so much, I asked if we could consider a false
ending with a song from the New Sugarland album. The
song in question is called not the Only It's the
last song on the record. Let's listen and I'll walk
you through. Tell me all all right in this sing song, Okay,
(37:57):
tell me you'll be clear. I think what's beautiful about
this is that we do this as our first encore
on tour right now, and all of the same feelings
(38:20):
and rules apply live. I can feel the push and
the pull and the release everything. This is the moment
for me every night that we play simply as a
band on a stage. It's never planned what we will
play or for how long. We are the underdogs to
(38:55):
count it out once you don't see comment remands under
leaves the hearts that we want to wake up in
the world we always sell sleeping. You want to live
and give it all to love. We can believe this
(39:22):
gotta be more like me. It's gotta be more like me.
So the next time you feel the band you're listening
to cross the line into the beautiful land of we
don't know what's going to happen next, Listen to watch
with Reveries. Let the hair on your arm to take
(39:45):
it in. It's the promise of rock and roll that
something is happening right in front of you. Let it
remind you that life is not always planned out, and
like the band that you love, if you take a
chance and leap something amazing, it happen. I hope you
(40:13):
enjoyed this episode and this entire season of Geeking Out.
I am grateful for you sharing your time with me
and all of my guests as we explore the passions
of people everywhere. Are you obsessed with something amazing? Want
to tell us about it? Right to us at Geeking
Out with KB at gmail dot com and you might
be a guest on an upcoming episode. Come find out
(40:36):
more about me and this podcast at Christian Bush dot com,
Christian with a K, follow me at Christian Bush on Twitter,
Christian Bush on Instagram, Christian Bush on Facebook, and Christian M.
Bush on Snapchat. Thanks to Bobby Bones for this incredible
opportunity to build this podcast, Brandon Bush for the editing
and the soundtrack, Tom Tapley for audio Wizardry and Whitney
(40:58):
Pastoric for being a great producer and making this whole
thing possible. I am Christian Bush. I'm geeking out. Thank
you for listening. H
Hello, this is Christian Bush and welcome to episode twelve,
the last episode the cliffhanger of season one of my
podcast Geeking Out. Every episode, I invite a new person
to talk about one thing that they're obsessed with that
has nothing to do with their job. The only requirement
(00:20):
is that they're totally geeking out on it and they
want to talk about it. From cosplay bowling leagues to
custom pet picture speedos, from do it yourself tiki huts
to murder mystery train rides, from spooky haunted hotel overnights
to collecting vintage beanie babies. Tell me about what you love,
why you love it, how you got into it, and
(00:40):
what makes it awesome. Each episode is presented in three chapters.
In chapter one, my guest and I will have conversation
about their passion. In chapter two, we play a game
I call trade Jo, where my guest and I turn
each other on to one thing that we've found that's cool.
And in chapter three, I close the show by talking
(01:01):
about music that I'm currently geeking out on and why
I believe that curiosity is contagious and life is better
with a soundtrack. So let the geekon begin Chapter One.
Today's guests are Claire Bowen and Brandon Robert Young to
(01:22):
get Claire, you might recognize from her role as Scarlett
O'Connor on the CMT Hulu hit TV series Nashville. Growing
up in Rule, Australia, Claire worked on stage and screen
(01:45):
before landing her big breakout role on Nashville. In addition
to acting, Claire is an accomplished singer songwriter who brings
a unique joy and spirit to her own music. You
should also know that she was diagnosed with cancer at
four years old and spent a child hood in and
out of hospitals. Claire's husband and musical partner, Brandon, is
a remarkably talented guitarist and singer. He moved to Nashville
(02:08):
in two thousand with a guitar he didn't yet know
how to play. He represents in many ways the country
singer songwriter's dream, having spent years paying his dues and
learning his craft, and with Claire, he's found his creative
and life partner. Claire and Brandon are currently performing as
an opening act on Sugarly and Still the Same Tour,
and I took the opportunity before show to get to
(02:30):
know them. Both a little better and deep dive into
her dark side. Oh my gosh, welcome to the podcast.
I am so excited that you're here and that you
guys have agreed to do this. Okay, so first thing
we're gonna do is you need to introduce yourselves, because
(02:51):
you know the rules of the podcast are. I want
to know what you're geeking out on that has nothing
to do with your job. So first tell everyone who
you are, where we are, and what your job is.
My name is Claire Bowen, and we are sitting on
the beautiful bus of the beautiful Christian Bush, one half
of sugar Land. And where are we in the world today?
(03:15):
We Rapid City right now? I think so South Dakota.
It happens we're near Mount Rushmore. We are near, Yes,
we're Mount Rushmore adjacent adjacent. Yes. Uh. My job is
to sing and tell stories. And this has been the
most wonderful tour to be on because it's it's so easy.
It's just me and and my sweet husband Mr Brandon
(03:36):
Robert Young here, and my job is basically two show
up singing, not suck. It's a good it's a good
way to you know, live. Just don't suck. Okay, So
your job is in the entertainment business. I would also
add that you're an actor, right, and and our brand
(03:57):
do you act? Is that something that you do? Well?
I kind of feel like I've been acting since I
moved to Nashville, pretending to be a musician. That's everybody's insecurity.
But he's actually very good. So we've there have been
a couple of projects that haven't come out yet that
I've nudged him into, and he's done a very very
(04:17):
good job as a as an actor, storyteller. Awesome. So
you understand the rules that what you're obsessed with can
have nothing to do with singing or acting or any
of that precisely. Okay, So I I kind of know
what's coming, But tell me what what are you get
gonna have on? I? Well, I grew up in a
(04:39):
children's hospital, and I guess that has probably prompted this.
But I'm fascinated with medical history and just the function
of the human body and anatomy in general. Um. I
think medicine, like the way it's developed is incredible. Um.
And going back to like from the ancient Egyptians that
(05:00):
kind of that far back in history and the way
things have been lost and found again. Like the Egyptians
knew that washing your hands was a good idea, and
they knew that germs existed, they didn't know how to
deal with them. But um, it was like Victorian times,
I think what germs were still not not a thing.
(05:21):
And there was one doctor, gosh, I can't remember his name. Um,
he insisted that this isn't you know, I could probably
try and find it. He absolutely insisted that people should
wash their hands, and surgeons thought that he was insane
because they didn't believe in germs yet. This is like
I think eighteen eighteen eighteen, I think he was born.
(05:43):
Um he was, Oh there is um ignis semmelweis. He
was this outlandish idea that doctors should wash their hands
and he was commended to a mental institution for because
people thought he was just nuts. And it's something common
practice now and at medicine. So sorry, this is awesome.
(06:07):
I've never heard of this. So, um, how does this
manifest like in your day? How I can tell you
how it manifests in her day? How does it manifest
in her? Number one Christian, don't look at her Instagram
because there are multiple medical images that will pop up
(06:34):
at any given time. She follows all of these different Yeah,
I don't. I don't tell me about some of the
ones you follow. Um. Well, there are a couple who
are morticians. Um, there are a couple who are followed
by a lot of medical students. UM does gosh people
who oh god, what is that book called. I can't
(06:57):
remember the name of the book, but it's it's all
about Oh it's called the book youring Art. Um it's
and it's about human the history of human dissection and UM,
the job of a mortician, like throughout the ages. It's
quite fascinating and just the way UM disease moves through
the body. And I'm not those things don't gross me out.
(07:18):
I don't have I don't have a gag reflex when
it comes to blood. My flight or flight instinct, which
my doctor says I apparently live in all the time, fantastic.
I will. I'm a fight person, so I'll go towards
something instinctively that's maybe other people couldn't handle visually or
(07:40):
mentally or um. And that's that's a good thing and
a bad thing, because well, I I don't know. I
figure if you can if you can stand to look
at somebody who really needs your help, if they have
like a compound fracture, or if you know their symptoms
are something that someone else might not recollect people who
are about to have a story. There are certain ways
(08:01):
that you you recognize that and not everybody knows them. Um,
if you can handle that kind of environment and situation,
then you might as well learn about it so that
you can help people. MH. Well, And I think a
lot of the your level of comfort in those types
of environments is because you grew up in a children's hospital.
(08:22):
You grew up around kids who were as sick as
you were, or sicker, and a lot of them didn't
make it, and you were exposed to, you know, a
lot of scenarios that a four year old never would
have seen. Have you ever seen anybody pass out when
you didn't? Do? You mean, like other people passing out?
(08:45):
Is there no level that can freak you out? Like
like if it's if it's a person, like somebody that
you know and love, I mean even then, I mean,
my there was in a really terrible car accident and
my he's okay. Um, it was right before he was
diagnosed with cancer. Actually, and I think the car accident
(09:08):
is what jolted his system into shock, which made the
cancer kind of weird disab But thank goodness, we started
to see the symptoms of it because my brother and
I both had a different kinds and our bodies are
very good um suppressing symptoms for some reason, so we're
both we were both diagnosed in very very late stages
of our illnesses. Anyway, he had this car accident totally
(09:29):
like destroyed Mom's car and it was just this old
man who drove out in front of him and tim
was going down the freeway, so the car was like
it looked like no one could possibly have survived it.
Timothy did, thank the sweet Lord in heaven. Um. And
Dad pulled up a photo of the car right like
(09:50):
the photos from the insurance company that the police took,
and it is a mess. And Mom, poor mom, she um,
she he didn't mean, Dad didn't mean to show it
to her, but she walked past his computer, took one
look and just passed out. So that's it's aye. And
(10:11):
I was in the other room. Dad's clare kind of
and for him seeing her in that way was you know,
he was he was so good. But she's his his person,
you know. So he was really shaky and like we
all were. But if you can be and so far
(10:32):
it's worked, if you can be clear headed in a
situation like that. Not to say I'm any kind of
better than anybody else or nothing like that, but um,
my mind works medically at the same time as working emotionally.
So I can see Dad's in distress and mom is too,
and she was going to she was gonna wake up.
We just needed to get a cold towel and let
her sit there for a minute and tell her it
(10:54):
was all right, and waited out and poured. It's hard
when you're watching somebody that you love go through something
traumatic and that that's something that's often forgotten. People get sick,
but there are the people who take care of the
people who are sick, and they often get sort of forgotten.
But yeah, I don't know, I just don't really. Um
My grandmother died in my arms when I was about
(11:15):
eleven years old. My dad was there too, and it's
actually quite I wish that we understood a little bit
more about how we depart from the human body and
how it's actually just like being born. Because everyone talks
about birth so wonderful. Nobody wants to be around when
somebody dies. Everybody wants to be there to celebrate the baby, right. Yeah.
(11:36):
But if somebody in our family dies, I'm the first
person they call because there are certain things that have
got to happen with you know, bodies. They call you
just because they know it doesn't frighten me. And there,
you know, it's really hard to you said you want
to go deep. It is really difficult to get somebody's
eyes to stay closed if you don't close them like
(11:58):
straightaway and dead. He's very They move, they grow, and
they they you know, the intestines role. You can see
them moving and they're gone, like the person is that.
I think they do hang about in the room for
a bit. You know they're there and they're listening and
they're watching. So hearing is the last thing, uh usually
(12:18):
to go. I think that's improven, but I believe it.
And if if somebody you're with passes away, speaking with
them is one of the most beautiful things that you
can do because they really can still hear you. But
it's just like, you know, just like somebody is there
to catch a baby, you hope. I feel like like
(12:38):
a midwife for people who are passing away. Actually, there's
such a job. One of the things I want to
do in my life. I really would like to become
a midwife. And I'd really like to become an end
of life, if you will, kind of like an end
of life. You should find out what the name of
(12:59):
that is or make one up. It's I think it's
well people say end of life coach, um, end of
life doula, Like doula is like a birth coach. So
it's there's this beautiful story. There are two sailors standing
on a dock and the young sailor that they're you know,
they're farewelling a boat. And the young sailor asked the
older sailor um about passing away and what he couldn't
(13:23):
understand it and being very afraid to die alone. And
then the answer is nobody dies alone. The older sailor says, well,
you see how that ship is disappearing across along the horizon,
and we've stood here waving at it, you know, waving
our loved ones goodbye. Over that horizon where we can't
see there are other people and they're they're not waving.
They've got their arms outstretched, so they can't see us
(13:44):
and we can't see them, but we know that they're there.
And when that ship reaches the point where we can't
see it anymore, it goes into the realm of the
people who can see it, and there's nobody's ever really
alone at the end. Well, that's a beautiful thought. Is
that something that hangs out in your brain when you
are looking at dissections? I mean, this is let's back
(14:06):
up for a second. Alright, there's something super strangely exciting
about very diminutive, beautiful voice, blonde hair Claire Bowen obsessed
with like a skull half cracked open or like or like, uh,
the guts folded open somewhere like that's kind of like
(14:27):
I would have never thought that girl wasn't that thing.
But that's also one of the reasons I wanted to
talk to you is that I think that that's awesome
because it weirdly sounds like it gives people permission to
be that. Thank you, But have you been to a
cadaver lab um No. I really wanted to take systemic
(14:48):
anatomy when I was at university, but the timetables didn't
line up with my bachelor of creative arts, which I'm
I'm not the most useful person in the world. My sister,
my soon to sister in law, is a doctor, and
we have the most amazing conversations and actually, like we
send pictures back and forth with like amazing medical discoveries
(15:09):
like that. There is a man in the sixties who
performed how old he was he was like I think
he was only almost thirty, maybe stuck in Alaska with
a pendicitis and performs his own appendectomy on himself. Yeah? Crazy?
Could you do that? I have a very high pain threshold,
so I've never I don't know. She could. She could?
(15:29):
She could definitely stitch herself closed. There's no question. Definitely
stitch herself closed. And poor Brandon, he saw me looking
at He went to, Um, I was like, oh, look
at this, and it was like it was like kittens
and puppies or something, and I scrolled too far down. Yeah,
don't look at the instagram A brain case. Avert your
(15:52):
eyes open, brain case? Did you just say that? What
is that? Um? Well, they were was an autopsy of
a woman who had had a massive aneurism, and they
were basically looking at the what the cross section of
the brain and what an aneurysm does. Um, So it
(16:17):
I am not. It's not like a sick obsession. I
find it truly fascinating and I would have liked to
have been a doctor. But I can't count. I have
some cognitive things from my experimental chemotherapy, so I can't
tell left room right very well. And I can't I
can't count. It's really hard to tell the time on
(16:37):
an analog clock. We're talking about that the other day.
So there are some things that I have a photographic memory,
but it's broken, so it reverses things. So I would
be a dreadful I'd be the one to take the
wrong leg off. It's better than I do. No. I
just find it fascinating it and I think like my surgery,
(16:59):
the the biggest one that I had was a ten
hour total Um. I suppose, I don't know what the
technical term for it. I suppose it's like an advisceration
where they had to take they took my entire all
everything in my abdominal cavity out. They sliced me in
half from my belly button to my spine um on
(17:22):
my side on the table, put everything in a bucket
or a basin. Sure, there's a better word for that
than that. UM took away all the cancer quaterized. It's
a lot of stuff, so there's a lot missing. Um
Phil put it all back in, filled my body cavity
full of chemo wash, sealed me up, rolled me around
(17:42):
for a bit, and like you know, they did the
swish thing and then suctioned it all out and sewed
me up again, and then I had a seizure and
my stitches. Um, it was bad. So the one thing
that is kind of difficult, not difficult to look at,
but I think I had to get over it is
um disembowment, like when yes guts outside the body um
(18:06):
and throw it stuff. Because I had tubes coming out
of my neck for the longest time when I was
a kid. But it is fascinating even I don't know.
I think maybe living in a body that is half
there and has so many like I'll go to if
I go to a new doctor there, they're really intrigued by,
like how how do you even walk straight? Because everything's
(18:29):
missing there? But I don't know. It all kind of
feeds into wanting to be able to help people and
I can't be a doctor. But I can. I don't know.
I could stitch somebody up and learn how to suit
her and all that kind of stuff. And working with
animals you kind of end up up to your armpit
(18:52):
and cow sometimes and it's horrible when they squeezed trying
to check work up. Is there's something up to your
armpitt and cow? Yea, yeah, I love cows. I would
let's speak about that for a second. You love cows. Yeah.
I used to musta cattle before Nashville, before acting, really,
(19:14):
I suppose, and on horseback, and I just really like
cows and horses every other animal. Probably. I really don't
like ticks. They're probably do in the end of even
those house centipede things they eat spiders, they're all right. Sorry,
this is the most fascinating thing ever. Would you consider
(19:36):
ever being an e MR person, like an emergency responder,
I think because you have this lack of fear of
the body being broken. I would love to. I would
be wonderful. I'm just I'm very small and not particularly strong,
(19:59):
but um, even just being able to sit with somebody
who's yeah a calm voice, yes, very powerful, that's one
thing in tragic situations. No, I didn't even know you
could do that that that you just gave me another
here comes some fun questions you ready if because this
(20:19):
is something that you are truly obsessed with, right, would
you get a tattoo of anything like this or do
you already have one? I talked to Brandon about this
the other day, and I was saying, when when we're
really old, maybe we'd get tattoos or something. But I'm
covered in scars and I really love them, and that's
(20:39):
you know, maybe that's it. They're my like they're you know,
and they're quite substantial. But I love every one of
them and I can't imagine looking at myself and not
seeing them. Um, So my scars are kind of like
maybe the equivalent of a tattoo. I think tattoos are
absolutely beautiful. I was just like, you know, like a
(21:01):
tattoo of a brain skull open or I don't know.
I was just where's the line. So my question is,
when you have an obsession like this, right, and I
get to talk to people about this, what they're passionate about,
where where's the line where you've gone too far? Like
you have to tell yourself, hey, when I'm printing out
(21:24):
these things from Instagram and posting them on my wall
so I can just look at them all the time.
Is that the line, like, where's the line for you?
I don't watch horror films, I I think part of
because I've seen like Brandon said, and this does not
make me any better or worse than anybody else, or
any more learned or any of that stuff. It just
(21:46):
is my experience. I grew up watching children, like somebody
passed away every single day in my wood, and I
don't know of anybody else in my who got out.
Um And like I've had spinal taps, and I've worken
up during surgeries, and I've had seizures, and I've seen
(22:10):
my own insides and um, So the glorification of horror
pisces me off. It really ticks me off. And the
there is so much that is really horrific about life
that doesn't necessarily have to be blood exploding in your face,
which has also happened to me. It was really gross.
(22:31):
It was my own blood, thankfully, but stepped on a
six inch nail and it went through my artery in
my foot and I was like, what is that? Because
I can't feel my feet properly because I've got neuropathy.
I was like nine and like spurred it into my
face anyway. Um, but I don't know, I just I don't.
(22:52):
I don't post those things on my like, I would
never repost something that could because you're looking at it. Yeah,
my followers and like people who follow me on social media,
I don't like. I don't even subject brand into that.
I don't let him look at things that you can't
unsee things, but when you cannot, I'm so sorry. I
love that you you were so comfortable with it, though,
(23:12):
I think you've got to be sensible about it. That
The line for me is when people into acting, Yeah,
they're fascinated with horror. Okay, so you don't like horror films,
But if you had to, or if you were asked,
or if it was a lot, you know, like a
big budget movie, would you know, would you act in
(23:34):
a horror film? I'm not sure it would depend on
the script. Um. I was in a film a long
time ago where uh, my character died and my mother
and a couple of actually my best friend and my
mother saw the part where I was being transported in
this wheelbarrow to be disposed of. And it was awful,
(23:59):
and I don't. I think there's I respect that there.
This is the horror genre, and one of my hobbies
used to be watching B grade horror films when I
was very young, just probably the beginning of like seeing
what I could see and be okay. I don't know,
because I part of my childhood was seeing some quite
(24:22):
confronting things, so wondering. I went through a lot of
life thinking there might have been something wrong with my
brain because I didn't respond to traumas that were right
in front of me in a panicked way. I went
to work on them and made sure people were okay.
But with horror films, the more I watched, the more
I it just made me angry that somebody would glorify
(24:47):
people being torn apart and that. Yeah, so I yeah,
I don't know. I'm not sure if I think a
thriller is much more entertaining and the it's just like
the illusion of nudity is so much more. Oh yeah,
of course, of course address that goes blow the knee
holding down chapter two. In every episode of Geeking Out,
(25:18):
I see if I can trade one thing that I've
discovered recently with one thing that my guest is discovered
anything is admissible, and this friendly exchange I call trade you.
So chapter two, this is a little game I called
trade you. Um, I'll go first. I'm gonna turn you
onto something that I'm just kind of into right now,
and you can take it or leave it, and then
(25:39):
in return, you will turn me onto something that you're
totally into right now. Um. I have had a particular
obsession with BBC television. Okay, it's been going on for
a long time. I have a deep relationship with myself
watching I mean I went from Doctor Who to Torchwood
to deep, deep, deep strange. Um and right now, but
(26:00):
pause of the way they're marketing their stuff. I am
currently into a TV show called Jamestown and Jamestown was
the first settlement in Virginia and apparently, first of all,
forgive me for what I'm about to do to you,
but um, these guys, the setup is, this is a
(26:21):
BBC America show about First of all, let's get the meta.
This is hilarious staging the first settlement of people from
Britain into America and the first time that when they
came over they were all men, right, and so they've
(26:41):
been there for months like twelve months, eighteen months, something
like that. They've set up camp, they've now got a wall,
and they've got places that they live. And then suddenly
they've all written back because apparently you can. There were
ships going back and forth and asked for women. So
(27:02):
this is the story of the of the boat docks
and the first women get off, and many of them
have been requested as wives. Goodness, and then um and
then the Native American stuff, and then the actual story
of Jamestown, and hilarity ensues. Right. I just I know
that I might be too much because you act things,
(27:25):
and you're translating America for her right, and this is
going to be a real discussion point. I can imagine
in my mind that you guys are sitting up on
your pillows at night and you're watching this together. Hey, honey,
Christian said to do this, and you get halfway through
and everybody's hitting the spacebar. Can we talk about this?
Why is this happening? What is this? These are Brits
(27:46):
talking about America, which I think is hilarious. That is
really funny, and it's super serious, you know, like they're
trying to make this right. And I'm watching someone else's
version of history. Go down then East Tennessee history right exactly,
you know, and it's pretty fun. We're got to get
into it. Okay. What you got for me? Well, all right, Well,
(28:10):
when I was when I was little, if I did
something good, I would I could choose a like if
I wanted to buy something, you know, if I did
well in school, I'd get a little present. Um, and
the presence that I always wanted were books on stories
(28:32):
of Aboriginal spirituality in the dream time. And they range
from all the different kinds of bunyips and the rainbow
serpent carving out the earth and making it what it is,
to how the kangaroo got his tail why the liebird's
tail looks all burnt? Um, And I have to I
haven't read a book in a really long time because
(28:54):
I've been shooting a television show that has kind of
took over my life for six years, which I'm very
grateful for. But those stories were the ones that I really,
I don't know, I feel very lucky because I went
to Catholic school. Um, and Indigenous spirituality is a totally
(29:14):
different thing to Christianity and Catholicism, but we were taught
it all the same, both at home and at school.
There was no um, you know those we find in
a lot of religions there is this um disclusion of
other people's other cultures beliefs, But in Australia it is
I mean, we're from the country, so maybe it's different
(29:36):
in the city. I don't know. But I went to
a school in a very low socio economic area of
Sydney which is now super trendy of course, um. But
we were taught about the dream time as well as
Catholicism um. And it was just the most beautiful way
to be brought up. And it's part of my belief
(29:57):
system and it always will be. So they're really interesting stories. Okay,
well I would love to How do I find them? Um? Gosh?
I think Amazon. A lot of books turn up on
our doorstep from Amazon because I don't get I haven't
had time to go to bookstores and I much prefer
(30:19):
going too. Are they are they children's books or are
they there are children's books? Um? There and that that's
where we started, Like if that it's actually a beautiful
children's book called The Rainbow Serpent um, and it's this
gorgeously illustrated um. I don't know, there's the the story
of how how the mountains and the rivers came to
(30:39):
be um, because yeah, it's really wonderful, and the different
tribal totems um, and just indigenous life in general, the
way like before white people came and bugged everything up,
and it's fascinating and truly beautiful, Like in the Australian Bush.
When you go there, you can spirituality is everywhere. It
(31:04):
can be quite a terrifying place, um, but in the
most intriguing and beautiful way. UM. And just the way
the Aboriginals lived off the land and um there there
cultural base is it's just really beautiful. It's something that
I grew up with and when we go back to Australia,
(31:24):
it's lovely for me to be in. I don't know,
there's there's nothing like the Australian Bush. It's a beautiful place.
So it's and there there is some very sad history.
There is a book called Blood on the Wattle that
actually documents what happened to the Aboriginals and a lot
of well personal accounts from farm hands who couldn't bear
(31:46):
what was happening. UM. And that's a totally different side
of it. But it's we're not taught those things in
off in school. But thank god we were taught about
the dream time. So dreamtime stories except it would beautiful.
I'm going to totally read them. And when people start
looking at them me having kids books on the bus
and my children are in their teens, blame it on Claire.
(32:08):
It's but they're mine. I will claim them as my own.
Read about how the Kangaroo got his tail, How the
Kangaroo got his tail? Awesome. Well, thank you all both
for being here. You're absolutely the most interesting people ever.
I just I've never had any of this kind of
(32:29):
conversation with anybody like this, so thank you, thank you
for having absolutely okay. Well. Chapter three me geeking out
on music the false ending. One of the most important
building blocks of rock and roll is the thrilling feeling
(32:52):
that you don't know what's going to happen next, the
suspicion that what you're listening to or seeing live is
a group of people. Well they're playing so intensely that
they might explode their amps, that the guitar player might
smash his guitar, that the band will get so loud,
that something overwhelming, something unpredictable is going to happen. This
(33:13):
anxiety and thrill is what makes rock bands legendary and
what draws us in as listeners and fans. Today, I
want to talk about something that I'm exploring in my
own recordings right now. As a producer, I'm attempting to
create a live moment, a moment that's recognized by the
players as unplanned, so that it will resonate with the
(33:36):
listener as a moment where anything could happen. The rock
and roll mystery, the false ending. The first time I
was aware of a band sounding like they're barely being
held together in a recording was the Replacements. They were
famous for getting so drunk on stage that watching them
(33:56):
try to pull it off was as entertaining as anything
else they were doing. Here's their song Bastards of Young
from a club in Hoboken, New Jersey called Maxwells. Listen
to how reckless it feels like this band is falling
downstairs the songs, So I saw a second. The next
(34:51):
time I was exposed to this energy was in Bruce
Springsteen's recording Born in the USA. Yeah, at the end,
the band puts in a false ending. Now, depending on
who you ask this was planned versus this was not planned.
(35:12):
It's as debated as if Han solo shot first. The
story goes that the Street Band were ending the song
and they held out the last note, and at some
point Bruce just started counting back in and then the
band followed suit. It's an amazing thing to hear suddenly
the well rehearsed musician is off script. The Street Band
(35:34):
are so talented that they read the indicators and they
were brave enough to start playing again and confident enough
to make it up as they go. Listen. I've always
(36:17):
been fascinated with this moment in this recording. I think
it puts something special into the song. So this brings
me to Lindsay L's album The Project. There's a song
on the album called Wildfire. I kept encouraging the band
in the studio while we were recording it to extend
the ending so that Lindsay could play a guitar lead
(36:38):
over the top of it. I tried to make sure
we didn't rehearse it too much. I wanted the chaos
of a band trying to communicate with their instruments. I
wanted it to feel like the musicians found a wave
paddled it and then decided to stand up and write it.
Here's our false ending. So because I loved this idea
(37:35):
so much, I asked if we could consider a false
ending with a song from the New Sugarland album. The
song in question is called not the Only It's the
last song on the record. Let's listen and I'll walk
you through. Tell me all all right in this sing song, Okay,
(37:57):
tell me you'll be clear. I think what's beautiful about
this is that we do this as our first encore
on tour right now, and all of the same feelings
(38:20):
and rules apply live. I can feel the push and
the pull and the release everything. This is the moment
for me every night that we play simply as a
band on a stage. It's never planned what we will
play or for how long. We are the underdogs to
(38:55):
count it out once you don't see comment remands under
leaves the hearts that we want to wake up in
the world we always sell sleeping. You want to live
and give it all to love. We can believe this
(39:22):
gotta be more like me. It's gotta be more like me.
So the next time you feel the band you're listening
to cross the line into the beautiful land of we
don't know what's going to happen next, Listen to watch
with Reveries. Let the hair on your arm to take
(39:45):
it in. It's the promise of rock and roll that
something is happening right in front of you. Let it
remind you that life is not always planned out, and
like the band that you love, if you take a
chance and leap something amazing, it happen. I hope you
(40:13):
enjoyed this episode and this entire season of Geeking Out.
I am grateful for you sharing your time with me
and all of my guests as we explore the passions
of people everywhere. Are you obsessed with something amazing? Want
to tell us about it? Right to us at Geeking
Out with KB at gmail dot com and you might
be a guest on an upcoming episode. Come find out
(40:36):
more about me and this podcast at Christian Bush dot com,
Christian with a K, follow me at Christian Bush on Twitter,
Christian Bush on Instagram, Christian Bush on Facebook, and Christian M.
Bush on Snapchat. Thanks to Bobby Bones for this incredible
opportunity to build this podcast, Brandon Bush for the editing
and the soundtrack, Tom Tapley for audio Wizardry and Whitney
(40:58):
Pastoric for being a great producer and making this whole
thing possible. I am Christian Bush. I'm geeking out. Thank
you for listening. H
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