October 21, 2022 • 46 mins
In part 2 of this conversation, Clare Bowen and Brandon Robert Young discuss how they decided to actually become a singing duo. The duo also told Kelly and Chip some really great tips on marriage, how they maintain such a strong love in a long term relationship and find that work/life balance. They also describe the chilling home invasion that left them traumatized and thinking their lives may be ending and describe how they channeled those emotions to hopefully help others during times of darkness. Plus some really fun rapid fire questions at the end!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Conversations on life, style, beauty, and relationships. It's The Velvet's
Edge podcast with Kelly Henderson. Well, let's talk a little
bit about Bow and Young. How did you guys decide
like a duo is the way to go after having
you know, your own individual careers and you were riding
together for so long. But were you Was it just
like a very clear moment or Um? Was it something
(00:24):
you kind of grappled with for a while. Um, It's
something that I had wanted for such a long time,
and it was I guess I I let other people
make decisions for me because I was so exhausted all
the time. Um, when I was doing the TV show,
that this thing that kept being like, oh yeah, I'm
(00:47):
gonna do it, gonna do it, not Bran, Like we
both wanted to be in a duo, and I, you know,
I was trying to spear ahead that and it was
just I don't know, A let other people make decisions
because I was exhausted and I trusted them to be
going in the direction that I wanted to go in.
Then the pandemic happened and I reevaluated everything, which was
(01:11):
really hard and one of the best things I could
have done for myself and us possible. And and then
we're sitting in it was Tracy Gershon's place, Tracy's backyard,
Susan manager, Susan Bank, and we were all talking, listening
(01:31):
to the new music. And Brandon and I always played
together anyway, like it was silly that we weren't ado.
We were ye, some reason wasn't allowed to be on.
I don't know, it was weird. Um and Tracy and
Susan I think as just about the same time listening
to the music, and they said, have you guys ever
(01:52):
thought about that? You do it? And I just remember,
like my soul of plex is like lighting up, like yes,
like every day for the love are we allowed? And
we were allowed? And they were like, why haven't you already?
I was like, I don't want to talk about it. Yes, yes, yes,
yes yes. And it was the most wonderful, It was
so so lovely. And then we did the first tour
(02:14):
after the pandemic ended, so we we had written all
of these songs, and like Brandon wrote my whole first
album with me. I couldn't have done it without him.
And he's actually the reason that I being able to
go out more and be around people is a whole
lot easier for me immediately. It was easier when Brandon
came about and we went out on this little city
(02:38):
winery tour after the pandemic, and I remember standing behind
the curtain waiting to go out for the very first show.
I think it might have been really I don't know,
and I realized for the very first time I was
about to walk out on the stage and I didn't
feel lonely, and everything just felt right because he was
(02:58):
going to be standing in the spotlight with me, not
just off to the side like just out. He was
always sort of kept there and it was it was
so beautiful. Just burst into tears and he's like, what's wrong.
As you're about to go on stage. I think I
(03:19):
said something like I'm unlinely, and he was like, okay,
well we have to go out and sing songs now.
Are you going to make it like we just table
this for later. I mean, I was raised by people
who cry in KFC, and so he's very emotional sincere,
(03:42):
so he was very supportive. And I was like, okay,
but like, let's go sing songs now. Those people are
here for you. It was everything just felt right. And
so Bow and Young has been the most incredible project
to work on, and we're so excited that we get
to released the next single soon. Skeletons has gotten really
(04:02):
wonderful responses. Um, and so the next one is Dangerous Love.
And I don't know, it's just like every it just
feels the world feels right to me. Now, do you
feel like, now that you guys are married, that being
in a duo is it's just like an extension of
your marriage almost like you know each other so well
that it's easier to work together. Or is it that
(04:25):
thing where you're like, whoa, We're like always together, doing
everything together? Like which one is it? Or is it both? Yeah? Okay,
I think it's it's special because you know, obviously we
have a unique relationship where we're both creatives. Um, we
both right, we both sing Claire acts, you know. Um.
(04:47):
But you know, I feel really fortunate that we get
to if she's you know, booked a film somewhere, like
I can go with her and I'll write songs in
a hotel room while she's shooting, and you know, and
then we get to go on tour together and then
we get to write and make records together, and you know,
I feel like that's such a a beautiful thing. And
(05:09):
I know other people's relationships are different, so and and
that's that's fine, But for for me personally, I just
think we couldn't get any luckier to get to do
what we do together. And and you know, there's no
pilot in this thing. There's we're both each other's co pilot.
(05:34):
Like we're we're a team. So if it's Claire reading
for a new role, I'm the guy off camera reading
the other lines of the other characters. Or you know,
if I'm working on music for a film or a
television show or an ad campaign, you know, I'm bouncing
ideas off of Claire. So we really truly are a team,
(05:57):
whether it be music or acting or or you know,
just life. Um, so I just feel like, you know,
we're so lucky. Yeah, we really quite like each other.
So it's being around all the time. Well, how do
you guys find the balance to Like, I mean, obviously
(06:20):
you take this very seriously, the this part of your relationship,
not letting the stress of it being everything that you
wanted to be affect just the romantic side, like because
obviously you have to turn it off at some point
and just be each other with each other and not
be work. So how do you find that balance, um?
(06:42):
With the work thing? For me, Like, you never play
a character at home, you can't. I don't know how
people do that. Like if you're if you're not just
you laid there at home with your person, I don't.
I don't know how to do that. That sounds really
lonely to me and exhausting as well. And like Brandon
(07:04):
was saying, you end up looking at like we've looked
at each other. I look at him and I'm like,
they're They're really wonderful things we get to experience together.
And then there's really hard stuff and I just want
to do it with you if it's even if it's awful,
if I have to go through it. Not that I
want him to go through it too, but he's the
I want there and I'm not afraid to just be
(07:26):
me um, And I think that's one of the things
that we sort of I mean I already knew that
about ourselves that we were we're best friends were I
love him for exactly who he is and I couldn't
be more blessed, Like I just I'm still just amazed
that I'm married to you. Or sometimes I wake up
and I'm like, here is it pretty? But I don't know,
(07:53):
there's I don't know any other way to do it
except to be completely genuine, because the other thing sounds
really scary. Um. But I think, you know, for us,
it's like, you know, every day is different, and so
there are some days where we just want to sort
(08:13):
of be in the house and we don't really want
to see anybody else, and we just, you know, honestly,
we'll just play Nintendo, you know, like just like open
up on the line and play Ingintendo. And then there's
other times when we're like we don't want to look
at a TV, and so we'll go to a bar
and we'll just sit at the bar and we'll have
drinks and we'll talk about whatever there is to talk about, um,
(08:35):
And it's just kind of you know, I don't it
just works for us. So I think, you know, we're
not clearly we're not vacation people, because I don't think
we've been on vacations since we've been together. Yeah, we
still haven't, don't even Yeah, but we we just kind
of try to live every day to its fullest, and
(08:58):
some days are are much harder than others. Um, you know,
when I'm really dark and and it's sad, you know, Um,
you know, Claire does her best to pull me up,
you know. And if she's having a dark day or
a sad day, then I do my best to pull
(09:20):
her up. And it's like it's a team thing. I mean,
life is hard, like the world is, you know, going
through so much turmoil and sadness. And to have a
partner that you get to walk through all the good
stuff and the scary stuff with is is just an
(09:41):
incredible thing. And to have an ally in this life, um,
is amazing. And so you know that might be sitting
at a bar, or that might be playing Nintendo, or
that might be on stage playing in Germany or Australia
with all of the UK's it's all got its own
version of beauty and it's just great that we can
(10:03):
do together. Yeah, And I love I just love that
idea in general, because like you just said, life is hard,
and so if you can find companions, I mean, whether
that's through deep friendships or a partner, whatever it is.
I do think that something we miss a lot of
times is like how much we need other people to
hold us up on the hard days or the hard times.
(10:23):
And and to me, that is the biggest way that
I've overcome any fears in my life. And so I
hear a lot of that in your story, that you
just have each other regardless of what the day looks like. Well,
you know, it's funny too, because obviously the jobs that
you guys do are so different than what you know,
most people grow up and do. For jobs. Like if
(10:46):
you were a couple that owned the corner store together
and went there and looked at the store and sold
whatever and then came home and had family dinner, Like
no one would be like, well, how how is that?
But because it's entertainment and creativity, all of those public yeah,
it is, um, I mean, I guess to me. For me,
(11:06):
the question is like how do you separate? Like when
something happens in your life, do you look at each
other and say, like we should write a song about that?
You know? Like how do you get to terms peace off? Yeah?
I mean, obviously it's very beneficial at some point, but
if it was like the whole relationship was constantly like
let's throw that into a song, each other so it's UM,
(11:31):
and I would fear that that would come to be UM,
because it's obviously you you both are very driven and
you want to be successful and UM, you've you've overcome
a lot of things through probably through art, you know,
so you know that would be a fear of mind.
So it's it's really beautiful to see that you guys
(11:52):
like are able to find that sort of balance and
just be together. UM. Protecting each other to speak to
exactly what you're saying is like sort of protecting each other.
You know. There are times where I just know Claire
doesn't want to watch a series or a movie, or
(12:12):
she just doesn't because she sees things through a different
lens than I do. She's about dialogue and lighting and
make up and tear and wardrobe and sent in all
these things that she's literally like thinking of it like
a director and like an actor and all these things.
And sometimes I just know, like that's not really where
(12:34):
her head wants to be right now, So let's go
do something completely opposite. And then there's other times where
she knows me and I will do the thing that
you just said. You should read a song about that.
It's a good line that's constantly pulling my phone out
and writing down, you know, notes or seeing a voice
(12:55):
memo and Claire will put on like music in another
language because it goes. I can't understand it, and it's
not going to put my brain into that place where
I'm thinking through the that like oh that's that's really good.
That's It's like, you have to figure out where you can,
like you said, kind of shut it off and be
(13:17):
in the space together and enjoy each other's company without
it having to be sort of through this lens of work.
Maybe they have space. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how
else to do it. And my granddad said to me
a long time ago, like long, it doesn't matter how
long you're together or married or whatever you want to do,
(13:38):
you should always say please and thank you to each other.
There's this weird thing that happens where people forget how
much how magical they thought the person was in the beginning.
And with Brandon, it just keeps getting better. He's like,
I mean, we've been through some some ship together and
where we I mean, I love him more every day.
(14:00):
I don't know what I would do without him. Um,
And I don't understand why why someone would be impolite
or like he always opens my car door for me,
and UM always like, oh my goodness, you always opened
the car door for me. I've always say please, and
you know what I mean. Like it's always that that
(14:20):
level of courtesy and politeness, not as a UM, not
as an unfamiliar thing, but you can have that familiarity
with each other and at the same time, I have
really deep respect for each other. It goes away, if
that makes sense, deeper respect and I think I hear
it's just so much caring for each other, which I
(14:41):
think it's lost when life starts to happen and and um,
relationships go on for a long time. So that's beautiful,
and the you know, the career stuff is really important.
But like I feel really lucky. We live in a
house on the lake and it's wonderful. But if Brandon
didn't live here with me, it would just be a
box near some water. I don't, yeah, I don't. Like.
(15:05):
There's Hollywood and the music industry are very strange places
to work, and you can have all of the success
and they're you know, the things that it's the stuff
that happens throughout a career. Um, there are lots of
ups and downs, and it's wonderful when it's wonderful, and
when it's not, it's really dark. Um. And none of
(15:26):
it matters more than my relationship with him. No, it
doesn't without that. Without him, I wouldn't want to do that,
because this is what actually lasts. Well. One time that
you guys have collaborated recently about a life events that
(15:48):
um turned into music, was you said, during the pandemic,
there was a home invasion that happened, and you've written
a song called Dangerous Love about that experience. Can you
tell the listeners a little bit about what happened? Yeah, Um,
do you want to? I'm happy too. Well, it was
(16:11):
a little over a year ago. Um. It was a
Sunday night. Um, it was midnight, Yeah, almost midnight. I
had just finished watching Sunday night football. Clay was already
in bed, Um, and came upstairs and you know, got
into bed, and we have a two pound Irish wolf
(16:31):
found that sleeps at the foot of our bed and
I had literally just gotten into bed and our dog failing.
He picked his head up and he made a peculiar,
peculiar sound. It was it was It wasn't a bark.
It wasn't a growl. It was I hear something that
is unfamiliar to me, and I don't like it. So
(16:54):
I just slipped out of bed and went to look
out the window on to the front of the house,
and there was a man in front of our house,
sort of almost right at our front door. And um.
So I quickly went back in the bedroom and Claire said, baby,
there's somebody out front, and I said, I see him.
So I was looking on like she was looking on
(17:15):
the rain camera. So I'm pulling my outloves on and
she gets out of bed and says, failing, come and
so the three of us go down down the stairs
to the front door. Um, and we're looking out this
little window in the front door. And you know how
sometimes kids will check car doors and then they'll just
(17:36):
move on if the car is locked, you know they
sometimes we didn't really made some noise with the mail
slot and just you know we're here, can you know,
you know kind of thing. Um. And then Brandon went
down to these So I'm just gonna go and check
the mid level make sure, like with the living rooms,
(17:56):
I'm just gonna go and check it out. Um. And
you were so quick. I guess you heard them. As
soon as I got down the the stairs to the
mid level, I was rounding the turn into the kitchen.
Claire was still in the landing with the dog, and
I heard the security system go beepep beep, and I
(18:16):
heard the back kitchen door slide open. That's where we
we hang our recycling, so I could hear like the
aluminum cans slide across the tile floor. I just I
turned around and I said, he's a Claiy's in the house.
Get upstairs, and so we ran upstairs to our bedroom,
closed and locked the door. Claire called one and was
(18:40):
on with nine on one dispatch, and she she had
the Falin was like right at her head, like he
was plastered to the side of her. But he was
very aware that things were pretty gnarly. And we just
waited for a second and then yeah, like talking to
the dispatch and m we heard the guy walking around
(19:02):
pretty calm downstairs for a little bit. And because we
were we were dead quiet, and the dog's whole body
was shaking, and I'm thinking I couldn't let him like,
I couldn't let him go, because a dog like that
will go for the person who is trying to hurt
that person. That's all like, I don't care about here anything.
So I had a hold of the dog and we thought, okay,
(19:26):
the guy's like, we're fine. The guy's gonna go to
the music room and he'll take the guitars. There's a
bunch of stuff in there that you have to walk
past to get to the front door, so he'll take them.
And I had seen him hunting around the truck, so
he'll take them in the truck and that'll be it,
and this will be a you know, I can't believe
this is happening, but it'll it'll be over. And then
(19:49):
we heard him walk past the music room and start
up the stairs to where we were, and that was
terrifying my because I realized then it was like, oh no,
he's not here for them, okay, because there's only a
couple of rooms up at the top of the house
and he had to walk past all those things to
(20:11):
get to us, so he'd seen them and ignored them.
And we've heard him methodically come up the stairs, very calm,
And then I watched I was sitting on the floor
and I watched the door handle to our bedroom turn
once kind of like a like he tested it and
it was locked. Um, and he spent. But I just thought,
(20:33):
this is not happening. I had to tell dispatch, like,
he's at our bedroom door and I think, as I said,
and he's trying to open it. The guy started, he
didn't yell. Brandon said to him, don't come in here.
We could you come here and hear something really bad
is going to happen, and the guy told him to
(20:55):
go fuck himself. UM, and I just dreamed at the guy,
I don't know what that was gonna do. You just
get taught in Catholic school to be very loud and
someone's something terrible to you. And he very calmly said
you're going to open the door. Open the door, and
then spent the next I think it was only eleven
(21:16):
minutes that it took the police to get there, thank goodness,
just trying everything he could to get in and hitting
it and kicking it, and we had to screw the
door back together afterwards. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm
watching the door like start to bow in from what
he was doing. And Brandon was very calm called our
(21:38):
neighbor Trey, who's wonderful and came running over his ex military,
an ex policeman, um, and so he was on his
way over as well, and I'm looking at the door
and I'm listening to it. It was making this cracking
noise like when you hear would snap and splinter, and
I'm thinking, oh my god, he's he's going to get in,
(21:58):
and I'm going to have to do where both going
to have to do something terrible so that he doesn't
take my whole world away and Brandon, Um, it was
just and I've had my life threatened before, UM, so
that kind of boundary with they had already been broken
and that was it was rough. But having Brandon's life threatened,
(22:24):
that was a whole other thing. And I used to
feel really terrible about the things that I knew that
I would do if somebody hurt him, um to try
and stop them. And I don't feel bad anymore. It
was something that just kind of changed just and all
of a sudden, like a movie that I wasn't getting
paid to be in, which was frankly just rude. We
(22:47):
heard that we could hear the sirens that they were
just too far away. They're not going to get here
in time. The door is cracking. And they got there
and everything just stopped, like we heard the cruise just
pulled next to the driveway. Everything stopped and went very quiet,
and the guy went answered the door for him, thought
for the place and what. Yeah, they removed him that
(23:09):
He tried to tell them that it was his place
and that they should go away, and made a big
fuss about they were infringing upon his rights and it
was his property so that he could come back and
finish doing what he was going to do. Um. But thankfully, Yeah,
it was that. It was just as the door was
starting to give. It was really very strange. Um. And
(23:31):
so we were up until I think four o'clock in
the morning with the sergeants. That detectives and sergeants. They
were so lovely and our neighbor was so so wonderful,
both of our neighbors. Yes, huge, huge thanks too. They
were incredible and they were amazing. They were It would
(23:53):
have taken them half an hour to get to us.
It was only that one of the officers that UM
a mistake on his roster and he thought he was
off that night, and I guess one of the other
blokes called him and said, night, where are you, and
he was like, Hi, I'm off and they're like, no,
you're not. And he got into his cruise and he
lives two miles from us, so he got into his
car and as he sat down, alcohol came in. And
(24:15):
the reason he got to us so fast. Yeah, they
would have it would have been another twenty minutes, and
oh my god, it would have been. It was like
eleven minutes, like from the time we called nine one
one to the time that the police removed him. And
the nine one one dispatcher was was wonderful. I don't
know her name, but thank you if you're listening. Ah.
(24:37):
So we had a we had a right two days later, yeah,
I think. So that was Sunday night, and I think
that I think writing session with Sean McConnell was Wednesday
at eleven am. I think it was either Tuesday or Wednesday,
and we drove out to his studio and he was, yeah,
(25:00):
produce our record, and so we were just writing for
the record. But we were just shredded, like lately, just
a mess. And it's been a couple of days of
dealing with everything. They hadn't I hadn't like burst into
tears yet or like neither of usn't really crapped yet. Yeah, there,
(25:21):
it wasn't. It was just shocked. And so we pulled
into the driveway and Player just sort of melts and uh,
you know, and and I was like, you know, Sean
will be in in a minute, and just give us
a second. So anyway, we we went in the studio
and he was just Sean and every day she's just
brilliant and sweet and and wonderful. And so we made
(25:45):
a pot of coffee and we sat down on the
studio and and just talked and he said, you know,
he's like, guys, I can't believe you're even here, and uh,
you know, it was one of those decisions that we
were just kind of like, you know what, we're not
gonna like this rob us of you know, of what
we're here to do, you know. And we're thrilled to
(26:06):
be making a record with Sean, and we're thrilled to
get to write songs with him, and and you know,
and so we're not going to be robbed of those
experience experiences. And so we probably talked for two or
three hours not I mean, I was not feeling creative
at all, and Claire sort of had these this percolating
idea that she sort of was tossing out into the
(26:27):
room and and uh, maybe two or three hours in
she said something and Sean picked up the guitar and
started picking and said, you know, but if it goes
a little something like this, And within an hour we
had written the song. And yeah, it's it's really honest.
It's a very honest song. That's one of those moments
(26:49):
where Chipped like you was saying, something happened and you
know that should be a song. Really happened like that
most of the time with us, So it was difficult
to be sitting there and I'm thinking, like I usually
write about whatever we've been talking about in the session,
where there might be an idea that you've been holding
(27:10):
onto something like that, and it may have come from
one of those experiences where you're like, oh, that needs
to be a song, but I could agree about it
first or whatever. Um. But sitting there, I felt so
useless and uncreative and it was like, I have, this
is the only idea I have, and I don't know
if it's anything, And it's okay if we don't write
anything today, um, but I just I have no words
(27:33):
I can't believe what just happened to us, and for
no good reason whatsoever, and that's what they picked up
one and there was a mad team effort from there
on in. But it created this song that we're really
proud of, UM, and the more we sing it on
(27:54):
stage two, whether it's like thousands of people or like,
I don't know, two hundred and fifty at the City Wineries,
there's a little bit of I don't know if it's
healing or something else, that you start to understand about
your own experience that happens UM, And I guess it
(28:17):
was a couple of shows in on the first tour
we did out after it happened that we realized that
it can actually become a vehicle for anybody out there
who might be struggling with something that they don't know
how to talk about and something somebody did. UM. We've
done so much trauma therapy over what happened. It has
(28:39):
become a vehicle for us to say, like, it's it's
not weak to talk about your feelings and the things
that terrified you and the things that hurt you. It's
really brave and really strong. So proud of Brandon for
all of the all of the sessions that you've done
really really intense trauma therapy because it was I mean
it was the end was like it was him or
(29:02):
us and that's terrible. But Um, if something good can
come out of something so horrible, it's being able to
let other people know that it's it's a good thing
to go and talk about for things that you need
to talk about. And he'll probably you know yeah, I
mean shift when you listen to that, are you like, uh,
Kelly is like freaking out right now really my motto
(29:24):
for life. I'm just like, that's exactly why I want
to do this podcast. It's I agree with you. I
think it's the bravest thing that any of us can do.
And to face the hard feelings and not just you know,
suppress them. That was the big reason we picked that
this theme for this month even was just to really, um,
you know, kind of embrace the things we've all gone through.
(29:45):
And I love that you guys are utilizing your creativity
to put it out there to the world and as
a healing experience for both you and us as listeners. UM,
tell the listeners what else they can look forward to
musically from you guys coming up up. Oh my goodness, Well,
we have the whole record coming out and we really
sing it in bits and pieces. Do we know that yet? Well, Chip,
(30:12):
as you know, it's a brave world putting out music,
and uh you know, we thankfully have the wonderful, brilliant
Susan Bank to uh to guide and direct us. But
as what I know is the Dangerous Love comes out
in November. I know at some point the rest of
(30:33):
the record is going to come out. There may be
another single to follow, but um, you know, I'm I'm
just along for the ride. Yeah, you're like, I'm going
to write the songs, you guys figure the rest out
making the record with Jowan McConnell um. So we're really
excited for that to come out, and we're like looking
(30:54):
towards tour dates and things like that. I just came
a film set, so I'm I'm still like friedad. There
was a Christmas movie coming out next month, really excited
about it. It's called hashtag Christmas and I read the
title and was like, oh read this was like, Oh
it's so lovely. I love Christmas movies. I think they're beautiful. Yes,
(31:18):
it was really fun. I just came back from filming
in Canada. That was lovely. I'm just still like in
the middle of re entries. I'm just weird and crispy
from you know, sixteen hours of days on set a
day on set for you know, however long it was.
But we're we've actually started the next project. We've been
writing UM with. Well, am I allowed to know, I'm
(31:43):
not I'm not like scratch that right, it comes out
twenty something, Okay, Yeah, it was really really fun to
do UM. But would just I think the music industry
is such an evolving and shifting creature. You can release
(32:07):
a whole bunch of singles UM, or we can release
the entire album. We're not sure which one we're doing
right now. There are just a few things that we're
looking at but may or may not fall into place,
so that will dictate more of like the schedule of
releasing things things like that. A little about that, Yeah,
(32:30):
well we can always and you know, you guys know
I always link social media platforms and the descriptions of
these podcasts. So I'll put both of you guys individual
pages as well as bo and Young page and we'll
just stay tuned for the updates wonderful, Thank you so much.
I do, and I know we have to go because
(32:50):
we're out of time, but I did, Chip and I
came up with a couple of rapid fire questions and
we were wondering if you guys would rate on a
level of fear these moments in your life, like, were
they as zero to attend of fear and what was
the one thing you said to yourself to get through
that fear in this moment. So the first one we
have is for Brandon proposing at the Opry, what was
(33:11):
your level of fear that day? Uh? One? Just you know,
I wasn't I wasn't nervous. You know, Nashville is the
hardest place on the planet for me to play live music.
Nashville is Nashville. So any time you're playing in Nashville,
it can be a bit nerve racking because you're surrounded
(33:33):
by your peers, by people who are quite frankly, just
better than you are at what you know that at
the at writing songs and singing and playing and all
that stuff. Um. But the Grand but the Grand old
Opry is a special and special like interesting kind of
place in Nashville that just feels like home and it's
(33:58):
so welcoming, So you know, I guess there would be
a little bit of like nerves about the fact that
you're like, oh, this is like a huge life moment,
I'm going to ask the love of my life to
marry me. But all in all, it was more just
excitement and and just being thrilled to get to experience
(34:18):
this all, you know, together at the opry and then
hopefully she said yes, and she did, yeah, sort of,
she said it after she said a couple of um, Claire,
you posed nude for allure back in the day in
a in a spread called The Naked Truth about empowering
women with their bodies. What was your level of fear
(34:40):
for that? Really? I don't know. I had very very
long hand so that, you know, Yeah, there are the
important bits that people get fussy about, and I don't know.
I think when you maybe it's being in me, being
(35:01):
in theater or being in hospital a lot. You kind
of there is a level of self awareness, and I
don't maybe self consciousness. I was like, well, this thing's
not gonna look this good forever, so I might as
well make fun, have fun with it. And I'm I'm
the first person to make fun of myself. There's nothing
(35:23):
anybody can say about any of the surgical scars that
I've got that could offend me. And actually talked to
the people who were taking That was Patrick Demaetia, who
passed away from something, who was taking the pictures um
and I said to him, please don't let them edit
out my scars, please, because to show that a body
is beautiful when perfect and it's missing pieces and you know,
(35:48):
I've got some pretty Narli stuff happening. Now. Yeah, that
was actually I don't know. I guess it was supposed
to be empowering, but it was. I guess that wasn't
it sounds like it. I think that's empowering. You embrace yourself. Yeah.
I sat down with the the person who was interviewing us,
(36:09):
or like one of the people, and she said, so,
did you go on a special diet to do this?
And I was like no, I literally had had ice
cream for breakfast. I'm so jealous. Well, I mean, I
get it, But then she said, what's the part of
your body that you hate the most? What would you change?
(36:29):
It was a really weird word to Frisen. I was like, well,
I'd like my fucking kidney back if I could have that, right. See,
that's that's what you got from your young childhood experience.
I think maybe an appreciation for your body and the
fact that that our bodies do the things they do
every day, Like it's so amazing. It's amazing. This thing
(36:50):
is like an old car. It's like you replace one
bit that puts pressure on the other bits and then
something breaks down. You just have to be really gentle
with it and roughly and it's all good around and
scary and Patrick was lovely. So yeah, that's amazing. Okay,
Brandon showing up to Nashville with a guitar that you
didn't quite know how to play, what was your level
(37:11):
of fear? Um? I would say there was a there
was a good amount of fear. Yeah, you know that
at least an eight, eight or nine out of ten.
You know, it's a to move to a town or
I didn't know anybody, um, not knowing what I was doing,
(37:36):
not having a song. You know. I think some people
would just say it was I was an idiot, you know,
I was just stupid, you know. Um, But yeah, I
mean that that was well. At the same time, I
also didn't know any better, so there was sort of
(37:58):
this like, you know, I don't know. I was just
kind of floating around, going I don't really know what
I'm getting into, and there's I don't know any of
the rules, so I'm just making it up as I
go along. So in a lot of ways, I've sort
of felt like an impostor for twenty two years and
then just faking it till I make it, you know,
(38:20):
and uh, and knowing that you know, making it what
even what does that even mean? Making it is this
sort of moving target. I've been here twenty two years,
and to look back, there are some beautiful things that
that I have had the opportunity to accomplish, but I
still feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of
what I want to do. Yeah, I think the I
(38:44):
think you're incredibly brave. Firstly, but when John Carter asked
you to finish his father's song, Brandon came home and
he's got these two little spots of like pink that
happened on his cheeks. When he's next he came on,
he was very pink. I'm like, what the funk happened
to you? I'm cloud of just asked me to finish
one of the Forever Words songs, which is a compilation
(39:08):
of pieces of writing that John Carter had found that
Johnny Cash had not finished. He whittled them down to
maybe from thousands to maybe two and asked Brandon to
finish one's that was incredibly right. It was a moment
for sure, that's yeah. Yeah, And I just hear a
(39:34):
lot of two. And I was kind of touching on
this earlier, but in overcoming fear, it's just like, what's
the next right step and like just keep going, you know.
And I hear a lot of that in the story,
and it's like I love that idea that there isn't
some finish line that you're going to get to that's
going to be like, oh and now I've made it.
It's just all part of the journey. Yeah, like I
(39:56):
have arrived, right. We all think that though, you know,
like the we're in our head, we're like when I
get to that moment, and then if you do get
to that moment, it's sort of like you've already forgotten
about that moment because you're onto the next moment. And
it's so I love the idea of just I'm just
on the journey. I'm gonna keep going and um figuring
it out as you go. I think we all are
(40:17):
doing that. I really do. Yeah, and do the work,
you know, really? Yes? I read Nick Cave wrote in
yesterday's install one of the Red Hand Files that you know,
inspiration comes because I put in the work. And you know,
it doesn't mean you're going to get up every day
and just feel like you're walking on a cloud of
(40:38):
inspiration and you just want to write this next song.
Sometimes you just force yourself to put a guitar in
your hands and a pencil in your hand, and you
write for the exercise of writing, and you put in
the work. And you know, I think being prepared. The
only way to be prepared is to put in the work. Yeah, yeah, Claire.
(41:03):
My next question was gonna be from when you moved
from Australia to the US. I think you've kind of
already answered how scary that was because you said you
were like hibernating in a little cottage to get away
from everyone. But what do you think the moment, what
was the shift that you felt in changing that narrative
for you of like, Okay, this isn't gonna be scary anymore,
I'm going to lean in. Oh, it happened gradually. Uh.
(41:29):
I've went through some stuff in two thousand and fourteen
that almost killed me, and I had to address why
I didn't feel like I deserved to be treated any
better than being treated. Um. And I didn't know what
survivors guilt was. I didn't know. I hadn't like no
(41:51):
one gives you therapy after childhood cancer, not not and
these like um, when I got better, when like now
there are these wonderful organizations like Guilder's Club that we
we do events for and we love them, who support
a whole like the spectrum of a family and friendship
group who have been affected by cancer. Like there's the
(42:12):
person who has cancer, then there's the person who's taking
care of the person who has cancer. Then there's the
person taken care of the person. Like you know what
I mean? There was there was none of that. My
parents were handed this tiny little pamphlet that was basically
like your child was dying. Um, so the operative was
just survived. When all you're doing is surviving, you're basically
(42:33):
living on like fear hormones and you know, cheap food.
Because I was broke um. But coming here my whole
life it changed, and I met so many I met
my doctor who has helped me so much with all
the post effects of the chemo stuff that no one
(42:55):
no one talked about, um, no one talked about being
one of the only children on my ward who lived,
and so addressing all of that stuff and figuring out
why I didn't like myself or why I thought as
long as I'm breathing, it's fine, and it's a really
unhealthy way to think. It was that. So it was
(43:18):
one of the reasons that I avoided Brandon for a
really long time because I've been through this terrible thing
and I didn't want to I knew I was really
messed up, and I didn't want to get any of
it on him. So I did a lot of work,
um to address why certain things had happened, not that
they were my fault, but how to learning how to
(43:41):
love myself because I knew that he had been through
some really bad stuff, and like I wasn't I already
loved him so much. I wasn't about to allow anybody,
not even me, to hurt him ever again. Um. So yeah,
that was doing the work part was pretty scary, but
(44:04):
also at the other end of it, you're like, I
have the manual for life. Feel with that now, So
I don't know. Fear is not I don't really even
fear death. I don't never have. What I fear is
(44:25):
m missing out like being with my family and being
with him. That's that's my greatest fear. Like when you're
on a plane it's really king like ship and you're
saying Hail Marys and stuff. I think I'm not. I'm like,
I'm not getting able to feel if this thing goes down,
but I'm going to miss out, then I don't want to.
I don't want to miss I'm with them, so I'm
(44:46):
kind of I don't know. That was an annoying, roundabout
answer to that question. So it was beautiful. I think
it's actually the perfect place to end, because fear loses
its power when we just embrace all the things we
have to be grateful for. And I'll denover on this.
So you guys were so fun to talk to. Thank
you so much for being here with us. I think, Chiven,
(45:07):
I could ask you a million questions, but we won't
take any more of your time. Thank you. That cops
looks so comfortable, by the way, it's cozy up in
the music room. And yeah, my parents last night in Nashville.
We were part for about three years because of the pandemic.
(45:28):
So we're going to take them to our favorite pub,
have some dinner. And yes, oh, we're going to keep
up you guys. Follow Bowen Young on instats at bow
and Young, and I will link everyone's Instagram page, will
link the website. We'll keep up. I can't wait to
see what you guys do and what is um to
(45:49):
come for the rest of the year and everything. Thanks
again for being here with us. Thank you so much,
and hopefully we'll see you guys around Nashville. Yeah, we
would love that. Thanks for listening to The Velvet's Edge
podcast with Kelly Henderson, where we believe everyone has a
little velvet and a little edge. Subscribe for more conversations
(46:10):
on life, style, beauty, and relationships. Search Velvet's Edge wherever
you get your podcasts.
Conversations on life, style, beauty, and relationships. It's The Velvet's
Edge podcast with Kelly Henderson. Well, let's talk a little
bit about Bow and Young. How did you guys decide
like a duo is the way to go after having
you know, your own individual careers and you were riding
together for so long. But were you Was it just
like a very clear moment or Um? Was it something
(00:24):
you kind of grappled with for a while. Um, It's
something that I had wanted for such a long time,
and it was I guess I I let other people
make decisions for me because I was so exhausted all
the time. Um, when I was doing the TV show,
that this thing that kept being like, oh yeah, I'm
(00:47):
gonna do it, gonna do it, not Bran, Like we
both wanted to be in a duo, and I, you know,
I was trying to spear ahead that and it was
just I don't know, A let other people make decisions
because I was exhausted and I trusted them to be
going in the direction that I wanted to go in.
Then the pandemic happened and I reevaluated everything, which was
(01:11):
really hard and one of the best things I could
have done for myself and us possible. And and then
we're sitting in it was Tracy Gershon's place, Tracy's backyard,
Susan manager, Susan Bank, and we were all talking, listening
(01:31):
to the new music. And Brandon and I always played
together anyway, like it was silly that we weren't ado.
We were ye, some reason wasn't allowed to be on.
I don't know, it was weird. Um and Tracy and
Susan I think as just about the same time listening
to the music, and they said, have you guys ever
(01:52):
thought about that? You do it? And I just remember,
like my soul of plex is like lighting up, like yes,
like every day for the love are we allowed? And
we were allowed? And they were like, why haven't you already?
I was like, I don't want to talk about it. Yes, yes, yes,
yes yes. And it was the most wonderful, It was
so so lovely. And then we did the first tour
(02:14):
after the pandemic ended, so we we had written all
of these songs, and like Brandon wrote my whole first
album with me. I couldn't have done it without him.
And he's actually the reason that I being able to
go out more and be around people is a whole
lot easier for me immediately. It was easier when Brandon
came about and we went out on this little city
(02:38):
winery tour after the pandemic, and I remember standing behind
the curtain waiting to go out for the very first show.
I think it might have been really I don't know,
and I realized for the very first time I was
about to walk out on the stage and I didn't
feel lonely, and everything just felt right because he was
(02:58):
going to be standing in the spotlight with me, not
just off to the side like just out. He was
always sort of kept there and it was it was
so beautiful. Just burst into tears and he's like, what's wrong.
As you're about to go on stage. I think I
(03:19):
said something like I'm unlinely, and he was like, okay,
well we have to go out and sing songs now.
Are you going to make it like we just table
this for later. I mean, I was raised by people
who cry in KFC, and so he's very emotional sincere,
(03:42):
so he was very supportive. And I was like, okay,
but like, let's go sing songs now. Those people are
here for you. It was everything just felt right. And
so Bow and Young has been the most incredible project
to work on, and we're so excited that we get
to released the next single soon. Skeletons has gotten really
(04:02):
wonderful responses. Um, and so the next one is Dangerous Love.
And I don't know, it's just like every it just
feels the world feels right to me. Now, do you
feel like, now that you guys are married, that being
in a duo is it's just like an extension of
your marriage almost like you know each other so well
that it's easier to work together. Or is it that
(04:25):
thing where you're like, whoa, We're like always together, doing
everything together? Like which one is it? Or is it both? Yeah? Okay,
I think it's it's special because you know, obviously we
have a unique relationship where we're both creatives. Um, we
both right, we both sing Claire acts, you know. Um.
(04:47):
But you know, I feel really fortunate that we get
to if she's you know, booked a film somewhere, like
I can go with her and I'll write songs in
a hotel room while she's shooting, and you know, and
then we get to go on tour together and then
we get to write and make records together, and you know,
I feel like that's such a a beautiful thing. And
(05:09):
I know other people's relationships are different, so and and
that's that's fine, But for for me personally, I just
think we couldn't get any luckier to get to do
what we do together. And and you know, there's no
pilot in this thing. There's we're both each other's co pilot.
(05:34):
Like we're we're a team. So if it's Claire reading
for a new role, I'm the guy off camera reading
the other lines of the other characters. Or you know,
if I'm working on music for a film or a
television show or an ad campaign, you know, I'm bouncing
ideas off of Claire. So we really truly are a team,
(05:57):
whether it be music or acting or or you know,
just life. Um, so I just feel like, you know,
we're so lucky. Yeah, we really quite like each other.
So it's being around all the time. Well, how do
you guys find the balance to Like, I mean, obviously
(06:20):
you take this very seriously, the this part of your relationship,
not letting the stress of it being everything that you
wanted to be affect just the romantic side, like because
obviously you have to turn it off at some point
and just be each other with each other and not
be work. So how do you find that balance, um?
(06:42):
With the work thing? For me, Like, you never play
a character at home, you can't. I don't know how
people do that. Like if you're if you're not just
you laid there at home with your person, I don't.
I don't know how to do that. That sounds really
lonely to me and exhausting as well. And like Brandon
(07:04):
was saying, you end up looking at like we've looked
at each other. I look at him and I'm like,
they're They're really wonderful things we get to experience together.
And then there's really hard stuff and I just want
to do it with you if it's even if it's awful,
if I have to go through it. Not that I
want him to go through it too, but he's the
I want there and I'm not afraid to just be
(07:26):
me um, And I think that's one of the things
that we sort of I mean I already knew that
about ourselves that we were we're best friends were I
love him for exactly who he is and I couldn't
be more blessed, Like I just I'm still just amazed
that I'm married to you. Or sometimes I wake up
and I'm like, here is it pretty? But I don't know,
(07:53):
there's I don't know any other way to do it
except to be completely genuine, because the other thing sounds
really scary. Um. But I think, you know, for us,
it's like, you know, every day is different, and so
there are some days where we just want to sort
(08:13):
of be in the house and we don't really want
to see anybody else, and we just, you know, honestly,
we'll just play Nintendo, you know, like just like open
up on the line and play Ingintendo. And then there's
other times when we're like we don't want to look
at a TV, and so we'll go to a bar
and we'll just sit at the bar and we'll have
drinks and we'll talk about whatever there is to talk about, um,
(08:35):
And it's just kind of you know, I don't it
just works for us. So I think, you know, we're
not clearly we're not vacation people, because I don't think
we've been on vacations since we've been together. Yeah, we
still haven't, don't even Yeah, but we we just kind
of try to live every day to its fullest, and
(08:58):
some days are are much harder than others. Um, you know,
when I'm really dark and and it's sad, you know, Um,
you know, Claire does her best to pull me up,
you know. And if she's having a dark day or
a sad day, then I do my best to pull
(09:20):
her up. And it's like it's a team thing. I mean,
life is hard, like the world is, you know, going
through so much turmoil and sadness. And to have a
partner that you get to walk through all the good
stuff and the scary stuff with is is just an
(09:41):
incredible thing. And to have an ally in this life, um,
is amazing. And so you know that might be sitting
at a bar, or that might be playing Nintendo, or
that might be on stage playing in Germany or Australia
with all of the UK's it's all got its own
version of beauty and it's just great that we can
(10:03):
do together. Yeah, And I love I just love that
idea in general, because like you just said, life is hard,
and so if you can find companions, I mean, whether
that's through deep friendships or a partner, whatever it is.
I do think that something we miss a lot of
times is like how much we need other people to
hold us up on the hard days or the hard times.
(10:23):
And and to me, that is the biggest way that
I've overcome any fears in my life. And so I
hear a lot of that in your story, that you
just have each other regardless of what the day looks like. Well,
you know, it's funny too, because obviously the jobs that
you guys do are so different than what you know,
most people grow up and do. For jobs. Like if
(10:46):
you were a couple that owned the corner store together
and went there and looked at the store and sold
whatever and then came home and had family dinner, Like
no one would be like, well, how how is that?
But because it's entertainment and creativity, all of those public yeah,
it is, um, I mean, I guess to me. For me,
(11:06):
the question is like how do you separate? Like when
something happens in your life, do you look at each
other and say, like we should write a song about that?
You know? Like how do you get to terms peace off? Yeah?
I mean, obviously it's very beneficial at some point, but
if it was like the whole relationship was constantly like
let's throw that into a song, each other so it's UM,
(11:31):
and I would fear that that would come to be UM,
because it's obviously you you both are very driven and
you want to be successful and UM, you've you've overcome
a lot of things through probably through art, you know,
so you know that would be a fear of mind.
So it's it's really beautiful to see that you guys
(11:52):
like are able to find that sort of balance and
just be together. UM. Protecting each other to speak to
exactly what you're saying is like sort of protecting each other.
You know. There are times where I just know Claire
doesn't want to watch a series or a movie, or
(12:12):
she just doesn't because she sees things through a different
lens than I do. She's about dialogue and lighting and
make up and tear and wardrobe and sent in all
these things that she's literally like thinking of it like
a director and like an actor and all these things.
And sometimes I just know, like that's not really where
(12:34):
her head wants to be right now, So let's go
do something completely opposite. And then there's other times where
she knows me and I will do the thing that
you just said. You should read a song about that.
It's a good line that's constantly pulling my phone out
and writing down, you know, notes or seeing a voice
(12:55):
memo and Claire will put on like music in another
language because it goes. I can't understand it, and it's
not going to put my brain into that place where
I'm thinking through the that like oh that's that's really good.
That's It's like, you have to figure out where you can,
like you said, kind of shut it off and be
(13:17):
in the space together and enjoy each other's company without
it having to be sort of through this lens of work.
Maybe they have space. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how
else to do it. And my granddad said to me
a long time ago, like long, it doesn't matter how
long you're together or married or whatever you want to do,
(13:38):
you should always say please and thank you to each other.
There's this weird thing that happens where people forget how
much how magical they thought the person was in the beginning.
And with Brandon, it just keeps getting better. He's like,
I mean, we've been through some some ship together and
where we I mean, I love him more every day.
(14:00):
I don't know what I would do without him. Um,
And I don't understand why why someone would be impolite
or like he always opens my car door for me,
and UM always like, oh my goodness, you always opened
the car door for me. I've always say please, and
you know what I mean. Like it's always that that
(14:20):
level of courtesy and politeness, not as a UM, not
as an unfamiliar thing, but you can have that familiarity
with each other and at the same time, I have
really deep respect for each other. It goes away, if
that makes sense, deeper respect and I think I hear
it's just so much caring for each other, which I
(14:41):
think it's lost when life starts to happen and and um,
relationships go on for a long time. So that's beautiful,
and the you know, the career stuff is really important.
But like I feel really lucky. We live in a
house on the lake and it's wonderful. But if Brandon
didn't live here with me, it would just be a
box near some water. I don't, yeah, I don't. Like.
(15:05):
There's Hollywood and the music industry are very strange places
to work, and you can have all of the success
and they're you know, the things that it's the stuff
that happens throughout a career. Um, there are lots of
ups and downs, and it's wonderful when it's wonderful, and
when it's not, it's really dark. Um. And none of
(15:26):
it matters more than my relationship with him. No, it
doesn't without that. Without him, I wouldn't want to do that,
because this is what actually lasts. Well. One time that
you guys have collaborated recently about a life events that
(15:48):
um turned into music, was you said, during the pandemic,
there was a home invasion that happened, and you've written
a song called Dangerous Love about that experience. Can you
tell the listeners a little bit about what happened? Yeah, Um,
do you want to? I'm happy too. Well, it was
(16:11):
a little over a year ago. Um. It was a
Sunday night. Um, it was midnight, Yeah, almost midnight. I
had just finished watching Sunday night football. Clay was already
in bed, Um, and came upstairs and you know, got
into bed, and we have a two pound Irish wolf
(16:31):
found that sleeps at the foot of our bed and
I had literally just gotten into bed and our dog failing.
He picked his head up and he made a peculiar,
peculiar sound. It was it was It wasn't a bark.
It wasn't a growl. It was I hear something that
is unfamiliar to me, and I don't like it. So
(16:54):
I just slipped out of bed and went to look
out the window on to the front of the house,
and there was a man in front of our house,
sort of almost right at our front door. And um.
So I quickly went back in the bedroom and Claire said, baby,
there's somebody out front, and I said, I see him.
So I was looking on like she was looking on
(17:15):
the rain camera. So I'm pulling my outloves on and
she gets out of bed and says, failing, come and
so the three of us go down down the stairs
to the front door. Um, and we're looking out this
little window in the front door. And you know how
sometimes kids will check car doors and then they'll just
(17:36):
move on if the car is locked, you know they
sometimes we didn't really made some noise with the mail
slot and just you know we're here, can you know,
you know kind of thing. Um. And then Brandon went
down to these So I'm just gonna go and check
the mid level make sure, like with the living rooms,
(17:56):
I'm just gonna go and check it out. Um. And
you were so quick. I guess you heard them. As
soon as I got down the the stairs to the
mid level, I was rounding the turn into the kitchen.
Claire was still in the landing with the dog, and
I heard the security system go beepep beep, and I
(18:16):
heard the back kitchen door slide open. That's where we
we hang our recycling, so I could hear like the
aluminum cans slide across the tile floor. I just I
turned around and I said, he's a Claiy's in the house.
Get upstairs, and so we ran upstairs to our bedroom,
closed and locked the door. Claire called one and was
(18:40):
on with nine on one dispatch, and she she had
the Falin was like right at her head, like he
was plastered to the side of her. But he was
very aware that things were pretty gnarly. And we just
waited for a second and then yeah, like talking to
the dispatch and m we heard the guy walking around
(19:02):
pretty calm downstairs for a little bit. And because we
were we were dead quiet, and the dog's whole body
was shaking, and I'm thinking I couldn't let him like,
I couldn't let him go, because a dog like that
will go for the person who is trying to hurt
that person. That's all like, I don't care about here anything.
So I had a hold of the dog and we thought, okay,
(19:26):
the guy's like, we're fine. The guy's gonna go to
the music room and he'll take the guitars. There's a
bunch of stuff in there that you have to walk
past to get to the front door, so he'll take them.
And I had seen him hunting around the truck, so
he'll take them in the truck and that'll be it,
and this will be a you know, I can't believe
this is happening, but it'll it'll be over. And then
(19:49):
we heard him walk past the music room and start
up the stairs to where we were, and that was
terrifying my because I realized then it was like, oh no,
he's not here for them, okay, because there's only a
couple of rooms up at the top of the house
and he had to walk past all those things to
(20:11):
get to us, so he'd seen them and ignored them.
And we've heard him methodically come up the stairs, very calm,
And then I watched I was sitting on the floor
and I watched the door handle to our bedroom turn
once kind of like a like he tested it and
it was locked. Um, and he spent. But I just thought,
(20:33):
this is not happening. I had to tell dispatch, like,
he's at our bedroom door and I think, as I said,
and he's trying to open it. The guy started, he
didn't yell. Brandon said to him, don't come in here.
We could you come here and hear something really bad
is going to happen, and the guy told him to
(20:55):
go fuck himself. UM, and I just dreamed at the guy,
I don't know what that was gonna do. You just
get taught in Catholic school to be very loud and
someone's something terrible to you. And he very calmly said
you're going to open the door. Open the door, and
then spent the next I think it was only eleven
(21:16):
minutes that it took the police to get there, thank goodness,
just trying everything he could to get in and hitting
it and kicking it, and we had to screw the
door back together afterwards. And I'm sitting there thinking, I'm
watching the door like start to bow in from what
he was doing. And Brandon was very calm called our
(21:38):
neighbor Trey, who's wonderful and came running over his ex military,
an ex policeman, um, and so he was on his
way over as well, and I'm looking at the door
and I'm listening to it. It was making this cracking
noise like when you hear would snap and splinter, and
I'm thinking, oh my god, he's he's going to get in,
(21:58):
and I'm going to have to do where both going
to have to do something terrible so that he doesn't
take my whole world away and Brandon, Um, it was
just and I've had my life threatened before, UM, so
that kind of boundary with they had already been broken
and that was it was rough. But having Brandon's life threatened,
(22:24):
that was a whole other thing. And I used to
feel really terrible about the things that I knew that
I would do if somebody hurt him, um to try
and stop them. And I don't feel bad anymore. It
was something that just kind of changed just and all
of a sudden, like a movie that I wasn't getting
paid to be in, which was frankly just rude. We
(22:47):
heard that we could hear the sirens that they were
just too far away. They're not going to get here
in time. The door is cracking. And they got there
and everything just stopped, like we heard the cruise just
pulled next to the driveway. Everything stopped and went very quiet,
and the guy went answered the door for him, thought
for the place and what. Yeah, they removed him that
(23:09):
He tried to tell them that it was his place
and that they should go away, and made a big
fuss about they were infringing upon his rights and it
was his property so that he could come back and
finish doing what he was going to do. Um. But thankfully, Yeah,
it was that. It was just as the door was
starting to give. It was really very strange. Um. And
(23:31):
so we were up until I think four o'clock in
the morning with the sergeants. That detectives and sergeants. They
were so lovely and our neighbor was so so wonderful,
both of our neighbors. Yes, huge, huge thanks too. They
were incredible and they were amazing. They were It would
(23:53):
have taken them half an hour to get to us.
It was only that one of the officers that UM
a mistake on his roster and he thought he was
off that night, and I guess one of the other
blokes called him and said, night, where are you, and
he was like, Hi, I'm off and they're like, no,
you're not. And he got into his cruise and he
lives two miles from us, so he got into his
car and as he sat down, alcohol came in. And
(24:15):
the reason he got to us so fast. Yeah, they
would have it would have been another twenty minutes, and
oh my god, it would have been. It was like
eleven minutes, like from the time we called nine one
one to the time that the police removed him. And
the nine one one dispatcher was was wonderful. I don't
know her name, but thank you if you're listening. Ah.
(24:37):
So we had a we had a right two days later, yeah,
I think. So that was Sunday night, and I think
that I think writing session with Sean McConnell was Wednesday
at eleven am. I think it was either Tuesday or Wednesday,
and we drove out to his studio and he was, yeah,
(25:00):
produce our record, and so we were just writing for
the record. But we were just shredded, like lately, just
a mess. And it's been a couple of days of
dealing with everything. They hadn't I hadn't like burst into
tears yet or like neither of usn't really crapped yet. Yeah, there,
(25:21):
it wasn't. It was just shocked. And so we pulled
into the driveway and Player just sort of melts and uh,
you know, and and I was like, you know, Sean
will be in in a minute, and just give us
a second. So anyway, we we went in the studio
and he was just Sean and every day she's just
brilliant and sweet and and wonderful. And so we made
(25:45):
a pot of coffee and we sat down on the
studio and and just talked and he said, you know,
he's like, guys, I can't believe you're even here, and uh,
you know, it was one of those decisions that we
were just kind of like, you know what, we're not
gonna like this rob us of you know, of what
we're here to do, you know. And we're thrilled to
(26:06):
be making a record with Sean, and we're thrilled to
get to write songs with him, and and you know,
and so we're not going to be robbed of those
experience experiences. And so we probably talked for two or
three hours not I mean, I was not feeling creative
at all, and Claire sort of had these this percolating
idea that she sort of was tossing out into the
(26:27):
room and and uh, maybe two or three hours in
she said something and Sean picked up the guitar and
started picking and said, you know, but if it goes
a little something like this, And within an hour we
had written the song. And yeah, it's it's really honest.
It's a very honest song. That's one of those moments
(26:49):
where Chipped like you was saying, something happened and you
know that should be a song. Really happened like that
most of the time with us, So it was difficult
to be sitting there and I'm thinking, like I usually
write about whatever we've been talking about in the session,
where there might be an idea that you've been holding
(27:10):
onto something like that, and it may have come from
one of those experiences where you're like, oh, that needs
to be a song, but I could agree about it
first or whatever. Um. But sitting there, I felt so
useless and uncreative and it was like, I have, this
is the only idea I have, and I don't know
if it's anything, And it's okay if we don't write
anything today, um, but I just I have no words
(27:33):
I can't believe what just happened to us, and for
no good reason whatsoever, and that's what they picked up
one and there was a mad team effort from there
on in. But it created this song that we're really
proud of, UM, and the more we sing it on
(27:54):
stage two, whether it's like thousands of people or like,
I don't know, two hundred and fifty at the City Wineries,
there's a little bit of I don't know if it's
healing or something else, that you start to understand about
your own experience that happens UM, And I guess it
(28:17):
was a couple of shows in on the first tour
we did out after it happened that we realized that
it can actually become a vehicle for anybody out there
who might be struggling with something that they don't know
how to talk about and something somebody did. UM. We've
done so much trauma therapy over what happened. It has
(28:39):
become a vehicle for us to say, like, it's it's
not weak to talk about your feelings and the things
that terrified you and the things that hurt you. It's
really brave and really strong. So proud of Brandon for
all of the all of the sessions that you've done
really really intense trauma therapy because it was I mean
it was the end was like it was him or
(29:02):
us and that's terrible. But Um, if something good can
come out of something so horrible, it's being able to
let other people know that it's it's a good thing
to go and talk about for things that you need
to talk about. And he'll probably you know yeah, I
mean shift when you listen to that, are you like, uh,
Kelly is like freaking out right now really my motto
(29:24):
for life. I'm just like, that's exactly why I want
to do this podcast. It's I agree with you. I
think it's the bravest thing that any of us can do.
And to face the hard feelings and not just you know,
suppress them. That was the big reason we picked that
this theme for this month even was just to really, um,
you know, kind of embrace the things we've all gone through.
(29:45):
And I love that you guys are utilizing your creativity
to put it out there to the world and as
a healing experience for both you and us as listeners. UM,
tell the listeners what else they can look forward to
musically from you guys coming up up. Oh my goodness, Well,
we have the whole record coming out and we really
sing it in bits and pieces. Do we know that yet? Well, Chip,
(30:12):
as you know, it's a brave world putting out music,
and uh you know, we thankfully have the wonderful, brilliant
Susan Bank to uh to guide and direct us. But
as what I know is the Dangerous Love comes out
in November. I know at some point the rest of
(30:33):
the record is going to come out. There may be
another single to follow, but um, you know, I'm I'm
just along for the ride. Yeah, you're like, I'm going
to write the songs, you guys figure the rest out
making the record with Jowan McConnell um. So we're really
excited for that to come out, and we're like looking
(30:54):
towards tour dates and things like that. I just came
a film set, so I'm I'm still like friedad. There
was a Christmas movie coming out next month, really excited
about it. It's called hashtag Christmas and I read the
title and was like, oh read this was like, Oh
it's so lovely. I love Christmas movies. I think they're beautiful. Yes,
(31:18):
it was really fun. I just came back from filming
in Canada. That was lovely. I'm just still like in
the middle of re entries. I'm just weird and crispy
from you know, sixteen hours of days on set a
day on set for you know, however long it was.
But we're we've actually started the next project. We've been
writing UM with. Well, am I allowed to know, I'm
(31:43):
not I'm not like scratch that right, it comes out
twenty something, Okay, Yeah, it was really really fun to
do UM. But would just I think the music industry
is such an evolving and shifting creature. You can release
(32:07):
a whole bunch of singles UM, or we can release
the entire album. We're not sure which one we're doing
right now. There are just a few things that we're
looking at but may or may not fall into place,
so that will dictate more of like the schedule of
releasing things things like that. A little about that, Yeah,
(32:30):
well we can always and you know, you guys know
I always link social media platforms and the descriptions of
these podcasts. So I'll put both of you guys individual
pages as well as bo and Young page and we'll
just stay tuned for the updates wonderful, Thank you so much.
I do, and I know we have to go because
(32:50):
we're out of time, but I did, Chip and I
came up with a couple of rapid fire questions and
we were wondering if you guys would rate on a
level of fear these moments in your life, like, were
they as zero to attend of fear and what was
the one thing you said to yourself to get through
that fear in this moment. So the first one we
have is for Brandon proposing at the Opry, what was
(33:11):
your level of fear that day? Uh? One? Just you know,
I wasn't I wasn't nervous. You know, Nashville is the
hardest place on the planet for me to play live music.
Nashville is Nashville. So any time you're playing in Nashville,
it can be a bit nerve racking because you're surrounded
(33:33):
by your peers, by people who are quite frankly, just
better than you are at what you know that at
the at writing songs and singing and playing and all
that stuff. Um. But the Grand but the Grand old
Opry is a special and special like interesting kind of
place in Nashville that just feels like home and it's
(33:58):
so welcoming, So you know, I guess there would be
a little bit of like nerves about the fact that
you're like, oh, this is like a huge life moment,
I'm going to ask the love of my life to
marry me. But all in all, it was more just
excitement and and just being thrilled to get to experience
(34:18):
this all, you know, together at the opry and then
hopefully she said yes, and she did, yeah, sort of,
she said it after she said a couple of um, Claire,
you posed nude for allure back in the day in
a in a spread called The Naked Truth about empowering
women with their bodies. What was your level of fear
(34:40):
for that? Really? I don't know. I had very very
long hand so that, you know, Yeah, there are the
important bits that people get fussy about, and I don't know.
I think when you maybe it's being in me, being
(35:01):
in theater or being in hospital a lot. You kind
of there is a level of self awareness, and I
don't maybe self consciousness. I was like, well, this thing's
not gonna look this good forever, so I might as
well make fun, have fun with it. And I'm I'm
the first person to make fun of myself. There's nothing
(35:23):
anybody can say about any of the surgical scars that
I've got that could offend me. And actually talked to
the people who were taking That was Patrick Demaetia, who
passed away from something, who was taking the pictures um
and I said to him, please don't let them edit
out my scars, please, because to show that a body
is beautiful when perfect and it's missing pieces and you know,
(35:48):
I've got some pretty Narli stuff happening. Now. Yeah, that
was actually I don't know. I guess it was supposed
to be empowering, but it was. I guess that wasn't
it sounds like it. I think that's empowering. You embrace yourself. Yeah.
I sat down with the the person who was interviewing us,
(36:09):
or like one of the people, and she said, so,
did you go on a special diet to do this?
And I was like no, I literally had had ice
cream for breakfast. I'm so jealous. Well, I mean, I
get it, But then she said, what's the part of
your body that you hate the most? What would you change?
(36:29):
It was a really weird word to Frisen. I was like, well,
I'd like my fucking kidney back if I could have that, right. See,
that's that's what you got from your young childhood experience.
I think maybe an appreciation for your body and the
fact that that our bodies do the things they do
every day, Like it's so amazing. It's amazing. This thing
(36:50):
is like an old car. It's like you replace one
bit that puts pressure on the other bits and then
something breaks down. You just have to be really gentle
with it and roughly and it's all good around and
scary and Patrick was lovely. So yeah, that's amazing. Okay,
Brandon showing up to Nashville with a guitar that you
didn't quite know how to play, what was your level
(37:11):
of fear? Um? I would say there was a there
was a good amount of fear. Yeah, you know that
at least an eight, eight or nine out of ten.
You know, it's a to move to a town or
I didn't know anybody, um, not knowing what I was doing,
(37:36):
not having a song. You know. I think some people
would just say it was I was an idiot, you know,
I was just stupid, you know. Um, But yeah, I
mean that that was well. At the same time, I
also didn't know any better, so there was sort of
(37:58):
this like, you know, I don't know. I was just
kind of floating around, going I don't really know what
I'm getting into, and there's I don't know any of
the rules, so I'm just making it up as I
go along. So in a lot of ways, I've sort
of felt like an impostor for twenty two years and
then just faking it till I make it, you know,
(38:20):
and uh, and knowing that you know, making it what
even what does that even mean? Making it is this
sort of moving target. I've been here twenty two years,
and to look back, there are some beautiful things that
that I have had the opportunity to accomplish, but I
still feel like I haven't even scratched the surface of
what I want to do. Yeah, I think the I
(38:44):
think you're incredibly brave. Firstly, but when John Carter asked
you to finish his father's song, Brandon came home and
he's got these two little spots of like pink that
happened on his cheeks. When he's next he came on,
he was very pink. I'm like, what the funk happened
to you? I'm cloud of just asked me to finish
one of the Forever Words songs, which is a compilation
(39:08):
of pieces of writing that John Carter had found that
Johnny Cash had not finished. He whittled them down to
maybe from thousands to maybe two and asked Brandon to
finish one's that was incredibly right. It was a moment
for sure, that's yeah. Yeah, And I just hear a
(39:34):
lot of two. And I was kind of touching on
this earlier, but in overcoming fear, it's just like, what's
the next right step and like just keep going, you know.
And I hear a lot of that in the story,
and it's like I love that idea that there isn't
some finish line that you're going to get to that's
going to be like, oh and now I've made it.
It's just all part of the journey. Yeah, like I
(39:56):
have arrived, right. We all think that though, you know,
like the we're in our head, we're like when I
get to that moment, and then if you do get
to that moment, it's sort of like you've already forgotten
about that moment because you're onto the next moment. And
it's so I love the idea of just I'm just
on the journey. I'm gonna keep going and um figuring
it out as you go. I think we all are
(40:17):
doing that. I really do. Yeah, and do the work,
you know, really? Yes? I read Nick Cave wrote in
yesterday's install one of the Red Hand Files that you know,
inspiration comes because I put in the work. And you know,
it doesn't mean you're going to get up every day
and just feel like you're walking on a cloud of
(40:38):
inspiration and you just want to write this next song.
Sometimes you just force yourself to put a guitar in
your hands and a pencil in your hand, and you
write for the exercise of writing, and you put in
the work. And you know, I think being prepared. The
only way to be prepared is to put in the work. Yeah, yeah, Claire.
(41:03):
My next question was gonna be from when you moved
from Australia to the US. I think you've kind of
already answered how scary that was because you said you
were like hibernating in a little cottage to get away
from everyone. But what do you think the moment, what
was the shift that you felt in changing that narrative
for you of like, Okay, this isn't gonna be scary anymore,
I'm going to lean in. Oh, it happened gradually. Uh.
(41:29):
I've went through some stuff in two thousand and fourteen
that almost killed me, and I had to address why
I didn't feel like I deserved to be treated any
better than being treated. Um. And I didn't know what
survivors guilt was. I didn't know. I hadn't like no
(41:51):
one gives you therapy after childhood cancer, not not and
these like um, when I got better, when like now
there are these wonderful organizations like Guilder's Club that we
we do events for and we love them, who support
a whole like the spectrum of a family and friendship
group who have been affected by cancer. Like there's the
(42:12):
person who has cancer, then there's the person who's taking
care of the person who has cancer. Then there's the
person taken care of the person. Like you know what
I mean? There was there was none of that. My
parents were handed this tiny little pamphlet that was basically
like your child was dying. Um, so the operative was
just survived. When all you're doing is surviving, you're basically
(42:33):
living on like fear hormones and you know, cheap food.
Because I was broke um. But coming here my whole
life it changed, and I met so many I met
my doctor who has helped me so much with all
the post effects of the chemo stuff that no one
(42:55):
no one talked about, um, no one talked about being
one of the only children on my ward who lived,
and so addressing all of that stuff and figuring out
why I didn't like myself or why I thought as
long as I'm breathing, it's fine, and it's a really
unhealthy way to think. It was that. So it was
(43:18):
one of the reasons that I avoided Brandon for a
really long time because I've been through this terrible thing
and I didn't want to I knew I was really
messed up, and I didn't want to get any of
it on him. So I did a lot of work,
um to address why certain things had happened, not that
they were my fault, but how to learning how to
(43:41):
love myself because I knew that he had been through
some really bad stuff, and like I wasn't I already
loved him so much. I wasn't about to allow anybody,
not even me, to hurt him ever again. Um. So yeah,
that was doing the work part was pretty scary, but
(44:04):
also at the other end of it, you're like, I
have the manual for life. Feel with that now, So
I don't know. Fear is not I don't really even
fear death. I don't never have. What I fear is
(44:25):
m missing out like being with my family and being
with him. That's that's my greatest fear. Like when you're
on a plane it's really king like ship and you're
saying Hail Marys and stuff. I think I'm not. I'm like,
I'm not getting able to feel if this thing goes down,
but I'm going to miss out, then I don't want to.
I don't want to miss I'm with them, so I'm
(44:46):
kind of I don't know. That was an annoying, roundabout
answer to that question. So it was beautiful. I think
it's actually the perfect place to end, because fear loses
its power when we just embrace all the things we
have to be grateful for. And I'll denover on this.
So you guys were so fun to talk to. Thank
you so much for being here with us. I think, Chiven,
(45:07):
I could ask you a million questions, but we won't
take any more of your time. Thank you. That cops
looks so comfortable, by the way, it's cozy up in
the music room. And yeah, my parents last night in Nashville.
We were part for about three years because of the pandemic.
(45:28):
So we're going to take them to our favorite pub,
have some dinner. And yes, oh, we're going to keep
up you guys. Follow Bowen Young on instats at bow
and Young, and I will link everyone's Instagram page, will
link the website. We'll keep up. I can't wait to
see what you guys do and what is um to
(45:49):
come for the rest of the year and everything. Thanks
again for being here with us. Thank you so much,
and hopefully we'll see you guys around Nashville. Yeah, we
would love that. Thanks for listening to The Velvet's Edge
podcast with Kelly Henderson, where we believe everyone has a
little velvet and a little edge. Subscribe for more conversations
(46:10):
on life, style, beauty, and relationships. Search Velvet's Edge wherever
you get your podcasts.
Host
Kelly Henderson
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