The Sound of Gold with guest Sally Maple Fox

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0:52 Hi, welcome to the Sound of Gold. This is our sixth episode and I'm so glad to be here with you. If you're just tuning in, if you have not joined us before. My show, The Sound of Gold is based on music musicians, local music venues, music teachers, music schools, and other venues that offer services like live musicians. So welcome, welcome, Welcome, wherever you are, and it doesn't matter whether you're local or out of state or out of the country. The purpose of my show really is to keep music alive. All musicians have.

1:33 This gift of giving from their heart and their passion is playing an instrument, playing music, and some of us have this great opportunity where we meet people or we're at venues and we make connections and we get to perform at places we really didn't imagine we'd ever be in and. Not all of us get that. So today I can't wait till you meet our guest, and I apologize for the sound. We have some thundering and lightning going on back here, so I can hear it loud and clear here, so if you hear it, it's not drums, it's Mother Nature playing. So today my guest is Sally Fox Maple. And I don't know why I always say Sally Maple Fox, but it's Sally Fox Maple and she is lead singer of Foxes and Foes, and she performs here locally in Florida. She's played at some big venues and some small venues and also venues I don't even know about. And I can't wait to introduce her and to share more with you and get to learn with you what she's done and what's inspired her and how she continues to grow and move around.

2:49 The state and perform. Sally, are you here with us? I sure am, Hi, welcome, Hi, Thanks for having me. Yeah, you bet. I'm so glad that you had opportunity to join us today. And I have to tell you I know you, but I don't know you, but I absolutely love your energy. You are such a positive inspiring person. I love to listen to your shows. I don't get out that often to hear you play, but I just like you ever like meet people where you just like connect and you're like you like you feel like. You've known them forever. So to me, you're like to me like you're. Extended family to me, like like months could pass and we could reconnect and like see each other, and it's just like I feel like like.

3:31 Hey, you know it's been a while, you know, like how are you? And so I just I love you. You are just you just mean so much to me, and I've never said that to you. So again, thank you for being on the show today. And there's so much about you that I don't know and that I can't wait to share with the audience, because not only are you a positive, like this positive inspiring person, but you're a lead singer of a band, and you perform at various venues locally. You've performed that South Florida Fair. I mean, there's so many questions I have, and I guess, to start off, when did you start performing or singing or what inspired I guess what inspired you to begin this journey of music.

4:13 Yeah, and by the way, the feelings mutual that way, I love you too. You're awesome talking about good positive energy. That's that's you all day. So yeah, but music, you know, I was raised around, raised around music, and uh, first instrument was harmonica. Second instrument with saxophone, very limited success on those. I quickly moved to the piano. My mom played piano and then moved into stringed instruments and kind of stayed there. So guitar was. Yeah, the guitar was first instrument I played on the string family, unless you're going to get super technical and consider a piano a string, which some people do. But yeah, I loved it, and I took lessons, did some performing as a young person, and then I took an eight year break for music.

4:58 I played a little bit, but I was playing high school and college sports, and when I got out of that, I was playing professional sports, started playing again, and I was in the metal and punk scene down here when I first got to Florida, So that was very different than what I do now. And it was very limited, very limited venues, like, very limited opportunities. There wasn't a whole lot that I could do with that. So during COVID, we couldn't play anywhere, so we just started playing in the garage, just acoustic, and that's where Fox and Fields was formed, was in a garage during COVID. That's kind And then I just started going to venues, and really it was born out of visiting venues and hanging out there and then asking if if I wanted to play, and then that turned into me new venues and doing cooking in person and just wanting to you know, in new places and experience new areas. So it all kind of happened really fast. COVID started, and then as soon as we opened back up, I was pretty regularly and I felt I had a lot of lost time to make up for taking eight years off more than that really of performing. So I've squeezed a lot of shows into a little amount of time since then, trying to get my entertainment chops up in my performance to count up.

6:16 So that's awesome. Now are you a five piece? Are you like five people band? Four people banned? Well, Fox and Pos is mainly a trio, and it's an acoustic trio where there's not you know, there's not really like a whole lot of like electric elements, and we obviously we use a PA, but it's more of a like rootsy acoustic it. We call it Southern jam rock because it's like a mix of southern rock, jam band and you know, just just classic rock kind of elements. And Fox and Pos has been on a mini hiatus since since I got hurt, so we only play right now, we're only playing once a month, which is a huge departure from before we were playing you know, five, six to ten times a month. So my my band has taken a little bit more of my focus recently. So my band, you know, we just booke under my name Fox Maple, so so that's been getting a little bit more attention from me, I guess you could say. But Fox and Fills will definitely have more shows coming up, like in the next few months.

7:17 What inspired you to name name it Fox and Foes? That was kind of a joke. I remember it started with somebody was talking about, you know, remember that game that was on the phone, so Words with Friends. Yes, I said it would be a lot more entertaining if it was Words with Foes. I just thought that would be like a way more fun game. And then there was like a show that like a morning political show. It's not about that. I just thought it sounded good. Fox and Foe so their show is called like Fox and Friends, which I don't know, I don't watch it, but that like I thought it would be just a fun play on words, but it started with like the words with friends joke. Like that's how it actually started. Guys that were in that band always would kind of give me on kind of worked out to be a perfect name.

8:02 It is a great name. It is a great name. And just your name, Sally Fox Maple. I don't know why I keep thinking of you as Sally Maple Fox, but Sally Fox Maple. Your name itself, you have such good I don't know what. It is, but it's just like I hear your name and it's like like everybody knows your name, and it was, oh yeah, Foxes and Fox and Foes. So like, whatever you're doing, keep doing it. No, you don't necessarily. When I've seen you play or senior band, you sing right and then you have a couple others play guitar. Is that still how it goes? Or do you sometimes play an instrument or are you just singing right now? Oh?

8:42 I always play an instrument always. I play mandolin if you can see I don't know if you can see how well you see my background, but I've got two big mandolins back there, so i play what's called an octave mandolin primarily, and it's just a way, way bigger version of a mandolin. And then sometimes I play that little ovation in the background and down then when I'm with my whole band to play my four string electric mandolin. But I'm a mandolin player. I do play other instruments, so I'm only really stage for fission and maybe three, but most of the time I play. I blame, but it's really hard for me to sing without an instrument in my hands. I don't know what to do with my hands. It just it makes me super awkward. Well, you always do awesome, and I have cats visiting where again, so many questions. I'm like jumping back up and all around. You mentioned the kind of music that you sing, it's kind of southern country. Do you sing any originals or do you just kind of focus on certain certain original pieces that have already been created.

9:44 Yeah, I'm an original artist. I'm also recording artist, so I have a new album coming out imminently in the next probably two months, and we have put out Yeah, I've put out i think five singles and one double release and also one EP which was a five song EP, and that was one and yeah. So this is my full length album coming out. It's produced by Ben Childs. If you know him, so's he's awesome, So that'd be great, and that's what I try to mix it up. It depends on the venue, depends on the crowd on the night. You know, if I'm playing with my full band, I'm absolutely playing thirty to forty percent originals. If I'm playing with Fox and Fos, it just varies. If I'm playing solo again, it's like it's just crowd dependent. It's it's just some nights, you know, people really are in the cover mood and that's okay. But whenever I'm building a show with a venue like and we're talking about it being an original original performance, then that's going to be primarily originals. I do have enough music to play like two thirds of a three hour set original. Once this album's out, I'll be playing that more. But the goal is the band a lot more and the originals the focus.

11:01 So that's something that takes years to build, and we're really right there on the on the cusp of that now where we're starting to be able to have a lot more original shows, which is that's definitely the goal. Awesome. Now, if somebody who's listening wants to connect with you and schedule you to play, what would be the best way to reach you. I got a website, Foxmaplemusic dot com can certainly reach me there. I'm on Facebook, Instagram, I'm now on TikTok, and I'm not good at it, but I'm getting better, so I've got some good reels on there now. I think I'm still learning this. I mean, I'm a I do know social media and I know social media promotion and all that, but the short form video content's a little new for me, and TikTok itself is very new.

11:48 I did try Snapchat. I'm not doing that. I just I can't figure it out. I don't like Twitter, So if you find me on the socials I do use that's totally a good way to reach me too. Okay, great, Yeah, Snapchat, I think I did for a minute. At Twitter, I did for two minutes and then yeah I get it. Yeah, Facebook and and Instagram seemed to be the easiest. In TikTok, I can't tell you. I'm on it, I can't figure it out, so but oftome Okay, so yes, so tell me or tell our audiences. Well, tell our audience as well. You've played at local venues. You've also gotten into South Florida Fair. How was that possible? How did you make that possible?

12:29 Well? Yeah, I mean anything's possible if you just reach out to people. They have a process like anyone else. But also depending on who's in your band at any given point in time, you may be playing with people that know people at certain venues. Okay, at the time we were playing there, I had someone in my band that knew them. Well. They have also changed the people that run that, so we'll see what happens with that one in the future. But we did also last year we played Martin County Fair, so we did that instead, And so I did four years in a row South South Florida Fair, which was great, certainly loved it, would definitely go back. And then last year we did Martin County Fair instead and that was really cool too. Very different.

13:10 They're definitely different, but really fun experience. Different lineup totally different kind of a show. So we'll see what happened with that with that this year. But the main focus is as much as we love everything we get to do here locally and finding the best venues, the best stages we can, we're also trying to get on the road more. So that's a big priority for next year. That was supposed to be a priority for this year, but I don't know if you know. I think you know that I was hospitalized for a week and with the things it's the same to think about how much everything changes when you go through a medical emergency. So now we'll be working on that, you know, for January, February, March like season down in South Florida, hopefully be in different parts of Florida all through season and still at some of our good local venues.

14:05 Now, would you venture to go outside in Florida as well or you just kind of want to stay in Florida. Yeah, seeing in Florida is more an accessibility situation. But we've already talked to several venues outside of Florida. We have a few venues in South Carolina. We've talked to Atlanta area. I'm actually from Atlanta area, I've been here twenty years, but I was born there, so I know some clubs around there. O a good friend and little good couple good friends in Nashville, So we'll see. But the places that are the easiest for us to swing coming into the beginning of the year there. But I did just get back from Wisconsin. Frank and I play my boyfriend. You probably know, he's a very accomplished blues musician, and we just went up to Wisconsin and played in Wisconsin.

14:53 We've done three years in a row. I think he's done it five years in a row at a cool little It's a really fun mini festival they do there. It's primarily blues. Okay, then yeah, he plays in Chicago. I did play in Chicago last year with a full band, so I had a band up there last year, and probably, you know, if we go back up there next year, I'll have my new band with us. So yeah, I'll play anywhere. I love Wisconsin, but I'll know we'll go have and we'll travel. That's awesome. You mentioned something about when I asked you about reaching out to venues. You know, it's so true. I do a lot of different work.

15:35 I would do a lot of work in the music industry and I'm finding maybe because. How do I say this. I don't know if it's just like I'm just starting to grow up, but I fine, Like if you reach out and you ask, more than likely you'll get to yes. Or if somebody asked me for like an opportunity shows up. Instead of being afraid and saying no because I'm not sure if I could do it, just saying yes gets. You in the door. And I mean, I think some of us are bold, and. I'm not saying I'm not saying you particularly, but there are others bolder than me, I think, and I can be bold, but yeah, I think the message to the audience from what you shared and what I'm experienced is, you know, step out there, ask for what you want.

16:25 Don't be afraid to ask for what you want, because more than likely you'll receive it. Right Because they because also there's that energy thing in the spirit world, like you know, be careful what you ask for. Well, if you're more determined, like more centered and really know what you want, ask for it. Don't be afraid because more than likely it'll come back with yes. Right, I mean more than likely, I would think. Yeah, I mean every venue is different, and there's venues that are more like community based, and those are they're more approachable, and they are people that employ musicians of all levels. And then there's venues that are up to your professional venues, so they have a different system for their booking. They're looking for different things. They might be bringing in out of Veria artists, they might have a focus in original music. But you do have to try.

17:12 I think that one of the main things is wanting to do it obviously and asking for it, but also being prepared and trying to put a professional product together. And if you're asking for money. Now, there's plenty of venues that you can go and play and they have open mic opportunities or they have like songwriters and the round opportunities. But if you're going to make a value proposition to a venue that I'm going to come perform there, you want to you know, be professional and put together a good product and you know, be on time and bring people, spread the word, promote and all that. So booking is like a whole you know, hour long conversation. And I learned so much ready and I have so much to learn, and I do work with a couple of booking agents and they are true masters of their craft.

17:59 I'm just trying to fill the gaps. But booking is a whole whole different planet. If you're just looking to get out there and play, there's a lot of venues built for that. And then once you want to get, you know, to that next level, then it's our job as professional musicians to put a really good product together and be approaching them with the right amount of professionalism and having all of our promotional materials together. So that's a whole nother Like there's people teaching classes on this, you know, like that are way better at explaining it than me. But yeah, so it's just know your venue, go there in person, get to know what they like to do. If you're a heavy metal band like I was when I first came down here, you're not going to go play at the coffee shop down the street. Yeah, people are going now on Sunday morning. So know your venue and do the research. But yeah, absolutely, you're never going to get if you don't ask. I do get people that contact me and you know, approach me, but it's not like that's something that happens every day, and no one should expect it to happen at any point or at any level. You know, if you're unless you're one of the top top names in the world, you're not going to just get constant unsolicited offers. You definitely have to ask.

19:16 Excuse me, for our musician listeners, I don't know. I know you do real estate, right, so I don't know what else you do other than perform. But I do know other musicians have us, say, full time jobs or part time jobs, and I also work, so I don't always play out or don't get the opportunity to because my bread and butter is coming from teaching, right, So that's kind of like my main thing. I think if I was full time, like out there looking for venues to play at, and I don't know that it's so easy for a piano player than it is for a full band or singer. I guess one of what I'm getting to is for listeners that are musicians that are working full time jobs but kind of do this on the side but want more.

20:04 I mean, there's that juggle. I mean, do you do you have comments about where I'm going with all this. Yeah, the transition from being like a part time musician to a full time musician essentially, you just you know, it's just like anything that you're going to do, you have to put the time in to become really good. So I go out all the time and see all sorts of levels of bands, and I see certain people that are extreme like technical wizards. They are really really good, like at it. Maybe they're really good at their instrument, but maybe they're also really good at their equipment, and they put on a certain kind of show that free technical in nature, and that's awesome. And then there's people that they sound more they keep it a little more simple, but there's a lot of soul and impact and entertainment like quality, a lot of showmanship. And if you're out there singing soulfully and you're getting the song you know right, but you're you're singing it in a way that's emotionally powerful that sometimes you know, it's more bookings than the extreme technical type of stuff. It depends on again, who you're approaching, what's your venue, know your venue. So there's a lot of different levels. But the people I know that are full time musicians, the one common thread is they're always trying to be better. They're never ever satisfied.

21:20 They're always trying to become a better musician, because it's not just like you can't be a full time musician unless you are obsessed. I mean, you have to be obsessed with it. It's just and some people maybe don't feel emotionally obsessed about it because it's a job, but they're still obsessed with it to the fact that they're going to work at their craft constantly. It's just what they do. So if you're going to approach it in a way that, oh, I only want to play a couple days a week, I don't really want to work on it, you know, that's better kept as the sag. So you're going to do it. I mean, it's a I've only been on the road, you know, maybe fifteen twenty times. I've only played out of area maybe twenty thirty times. I'm still really green myself. But it is tough out there. I mean it's brutal, and going on the road is super confusing. It takes a ton of planning, it takes a ton of coordination. Keeping a band together is so difficult. It's a huge task. And then there's some guys that they can't keep a band together because it's so hard. They just are hiring other professional musicians, which and that can work too, But you just have to know what you're getting in through and you've got to be ready, and you do have to have the ability to do it because financially speaking, it's extremely difficult to pull it off, especially this day and age with the cost of living. You know, I work in real estate.

22:36 I have for fifteen years. It's absolute chaos and it makes me want to scream on a given day. But obviously know more than anyone how hard it is for people to find a place to live right now that's affordable. So working as a musician, sweating it out, it's hard. So it's something you have to plan for and you have to commit to and then you've got to just do it. At some point, you got to just do it. Bet. That's why you can do it. On a real estate and music note is get your cost of living down as low as possible. Go run a room from your friend, hopefully he's a musician too and he doesn't practicing all the time, and get rid of the expensive car, get your get your cost of living down as low as possible, and then get your product quality of your music. I know I don't like using that word. A lot of people like using that word, but get your comments to your craft or whatever you want to call it. Yeah, is good performance and that's very marketable. And please, once you are out there and you want to be a pro, don't play for nothing. Know your know your worth and and bring a good show and and you know, play for a legitimate amount of money. Don't don't just say I'll do it for free or I'll do it for tips.

23:43 Like if you're trying to be a professional musician, and other people in this town are trying to be a professional musician, you've got to you know, understand that you have value and you have to ask for that. That's one of the things asked for. You can't you can't get if you don't ask for it, ask for for conversation, because that you're you're worth that it's an art. You're putting your art out there, so you know, know that value a little bit. Absolutely, this is easy. No, no, it's not easy. And one of the reasons I'm also that I also do this show is because I think I get the sense I should say that musicians are underrated. Like if you go to if I go out somewhere and there's a band playing, and let's say the place is going to pay two hundred dollars and you got to split two hundred dollars between five play you know, three or five musicians. The audience doesn't know that, and so you know, the audience may tip, they may not tip. But I don't people that are not musicians that come out to listen to musicians, I don't think they realize the passion.

24:49 And the commitment that goes into the craft. And I want to so bring that out to the forefront because even actors and actresses. You know, they we see them on TV. They think, oh, you know, they must live. In the big houses and this and that, but they put so much time, just like musicians, so much time and so much work into their craft to grow and to be better. And like you said, and I understand that completely. I'm always as a musician too. I'm always wanting to do better and to play better. And I'm you know, I'm still taking lessons even though I'm teaching, I'm still the student. And you know, it's a it's a forever growing craft music. And I think those, like I said, those that are not. Musicians don't realize how much passion and how much we how much sweat we put in.

25:43 Yeah. Now, I think it depends on the generation. I think some generations they react to music better than others. I think some young, younger generations they're not so used to it yet. They're not used to like the live music venues and being out there a lot, whereas certain groups of older people, they come out and they have been interacting with live music at bars and clubs their whole lives, so I think they sometimes engage a little bit more. But there's always going to be those people that are at the venue that have live music and they're just kind of there and they're hanging out and they're socializing, and maybe they're not tuned into the music, and that's that's okay. I mean, they're still supporting the venue and they're still out there and shouldn't get offended by it. It's it's hard for some artists. They don't they don't like it when there's those people there that aren't engaging, but they're still think about it. They're still keeping that music venue open, so there's still a part of it all and it's important too, and that again, you know, it depends on the venue. There's certain venues where you're playing and you're there and you're almost a bit of like an ambiance for them. And then there's venues where it is a dead music room. So right, so if you go into a place and you know it's a dedicated music room, you're going to walk in there and typically people are there to just see the music and the fact they have food or wine or shots all just extra. And then there's tons of venues, tons of venues that they have like music, but they're primarily you know, a bar, brewery or club or whatever.

27:10 So just know your venue and approach it the way that is right for the venue, not just for us. And then as patrons, as long as you're just you know, if you just want to exist in the background and you don't want to interact with it, that's okay. But as long as you're not like heckling people, then that's like, that's not okay. Tippic is awesome, and it's it's like musicians haven't. So I'm not going to get into like pay too much because it's such a controversial topic. But if you think about like the national average of the better bands in any city. Bands really haven't gotten a raise like per man like in fifty years like on average, So a lot of bands are still working for the same money that they were working for when they were in college and crazy. You know, that's not really a good thing. Us as artists. We can improve that by you know, saying I need to be paid more for my time. But also as patrons, it's super cool to tip because just like any starving artist, you know, we're all starving artists out there. So if I go to any place where I feel like I'm in that starving artists mentality, I'm going to buy a piece of a piece of art. If I'm out of fit craft fair, you know, if I'm at some kind of an art festival, I'm going to purchase something. So we're all supporting other starving artists and at the same time, we're all maybe we're all working towards helping to get you know, better pay.

28:35 It's some of these some of these venues, but again knowing the venue having a value proposition for them, bringing new people to that venue, those things all help the cause. But tipping is always good. Tipping is always always welcomed, right. Not in Europe right now. It might be in Europe in a few weeks, or someone might be traveling, but right now we're here. Tipping is good by all means, keep it going. I think it was you know, David Goodman. I think it was David Goodman that had he might have posted this somewhere in Europe, or it might. Have been England. He was there and he went to go tip the musician, and they they found it very insulting because they get paid well where they don't live off of tips. And I go, whoa, I go, wait a minute, how come we don't have that here?

29:25 Oh well, it's just cultural differences and just the way that things happen and all that. I mean, I know a lot of musicians that like playing in Europe for a lot of reasons. They certain places in Europe, in certain places in Canada, certain place in South America. Like a lot of people don't know that Mexico is like a heavy metal hub, Like they have tons of big, huge metal shows and festivals, so you can go down there and see all kinds of bands that you haven't seen in a while. And just random places are into certain things as far as like that particular artist and him like being offended. My only question is was there a tip jar on stage? If he had a tip jar on stage, it would be really strange that he get insulted. If he didn't. Then, like that's sometimes when I'm in a room that doesn't have if I don't see a tip jar, I'm like, okay, maybe that's the situation that the club doesn't like tipping, or you know whatever.

30:15 So there's certainly clubs that you don't get tipped, Like there's certain rooms that you don't put a tip jar out, or if you're at like sometimes if you're at like a charity event, you don't do that. So it just depends on where you're at. But you know, hopefully he wasn't mean about refusing. To I don't remember it completely, but I just remember specifically that in England or somewhere he mentioned out of the country, they paid well and they go, oh, okay, that's great, we should have that here. I don't think that blanket rules for all of Europe, though, I wouldn't assume that I'm just gonna whenever I go to Europe next, if I see that, I'll just look for a tip jar. If I don't see one, I'll. Be like, OK, so, out of all the places you've played, do you have a favorite place?

31:00 Oh? Yeah, that's that's a tough one. I have a special place in my heart for two venues when I was first starting Fox and Foes. So I for years, for six years, almost almost seven, I've played at a place called Lafogata and yeah, just to be in here. And this is way back in like twenty eighteen, twenty nineteen that they just I just so happened to be talking to the bar manager and he said, we want to start having live music. And at the time, I had a three piece surf rock band and we became their house band and we played every Saturday night until the lockdown, and it was a blend. It was awesome. It's you know, it's a it's like certain rooms are have a big stage or whatever, and this isn't really that set up. But it's an awesome place. I still play there second Tuesday every month I play. I play there just solo. It's really fun, great people there. And then also, you know, the first place that Fox and Foes ever played live was Coastal Karma, and I don't play there as much. I have so many things going on.

32:00 They got something different every now of the week, so they have so much going on, and you know, obviously their primarily brewery, but they have like so much different kinds of entertainment that we don't really play there as much. But it's an awesome place, and please support. Both of those are local businesses, so I always support local businesses. As far as a favorite stage, the Funky Biscuit is an incredible music so and we're going to be back there in October. That is an awesome, awesome room. And then a really great stage locally, like it's super locally. Double Roads is great and owned by friends of mine and founded by another friend. So that is another cool stage.

32:44 That's a little you know, that's right in town in juniteror so. But I love all the places that employ me because they support a local artist. And then I intern for the local venue and I work really hard to bring people out, especially bringing new people. Never been there. Oh you've never been there, You've got to check it out. This is one of the the worst month for venues in this area. Everyone thinks it's August, but it's really September because it's just as hot. And back to school, so you know it's this is September is the month to go out and support any venue or business whatever you want to support. This is a great month to do it if you can. Obviously you know financial situations aside, but when when you can. September that's a rough month for venues, so it's a good time to go out and support.

33:36 Now. I've seen you play at La Fagada. The sound is great. It's been a while since I've been back there to see you play, but I did come and come out and see you. When are you playing there again? Well, thank you because I run the sound when I play there. Okay, you're welcome. The sound I play. That was just like a joke. Yeah, I'm there a second Tuesday every month, unless you know there's something going on with work or something. But right, pretty much so I'm there tomorrow, Yeah, six thirty. Okay on nor North Lake Boulevard. Is that North Pomb Is that considered North Palm Beach or Palm Beach Gardens? That's northun. Laugh Fagata. Also, I had Charlie from Coastal Karma on my show last week. I don't know if you tuned in, but he was on last week. Such a cool guy and just his place is just so eccentric and so cool and laid back.

34:27 I just love it there. Yeah, he's he's great people. All the people that on the places that I play regularly have become or started off as really good friends of mine. I mean, so I have. I think I have now four recurring venues that I've played for quite a long time, and the owners are all just excellent people, just really good people. General managers all great people, and so it's it's easy to support places that have awesome people running them. You know, it just makes it more fun. Yes, it does. Absolutely. I have another question for you, but before I ask, tell us again how we get in touch with you? If our listeners want to reach you and and uh connect with your music and find out where you're playing.

35:11 Foxmaplemusic dot com. That's my website, and then look for me Fox Maple. I don't have it under the first name. It's just too long, So I have to do Fox Maple on Instagram or Facebook. If you want to hit me up on TikTok that's really cool too, because I'm new on there, so I need friends, so fill me. I have to friend you on there. One of the last questions I want to ask is from from a human point of view, I don't know if that's the right way to terminate termin. It or terminology I've been using. We've all physically gone through something at some point in our lives. We've all been living, and then we have this zigzag of a detour.

35:55 And you mentioned and. I spoke to you during your recovery or I know you're still recovering, but you're you're in a better place. But when you have the surgery and as you've been recovering, how have you handled it that downtime, Because when we all stop to kind of like reflect and just stop and focus on stuff, you had said, and I'm sorry, I'm interrupting myself. You had said something that that just touched me. You said, you know, you could have every day a million problems and that's just how life is. But once your health is affected, it's just that one problem because nothing else really matters. And that just like that hit me so hard to the point where I'm like you are so right, Like our physical well being comes first, and then you know, when we're hit with something hard, then we're like, yeah, like nothing else matters, But how did you And I'm sorry, I'm asking in like so many different ways, like how did you deal with that that space where you just kind of had to stop?

37:03 I handled it at the beginning, probably better than I expected. While I was in the hospital, because I essentially lost the ability to walk and sit. I couldn't I was, you know, not paralyzed in the traditional sense of the term, but I could not move because I had this terrible situation with a vertebra and nerve to where the disc fractured into the nerve. So I just lost the ability to move. So laying in a bed for seventy two hours after having a fall at home, and I was trying to still work. I was trying to go to a show to play because you know, I have financial obligations, and it's like just like that, like you said, you have a million problems. So here I am in my house with this severe pain. I'm like, I gotta go to work, you know, I gotta I gotta do what I gotta do. I got bills to pay, you know.

37:52 One am, I just got to tough it out, and I fell and now I can't. Now I can't tough it out. Now, I can't go to work. Now I can't move. And after seventy two hours of not being able to move, and I have a surgeon tell me we're gonna we're gonna do the surgery on Sunday morning, and they do the surgery. I was no longer scared of surgery, because what are you gonna do. I'm not gonna land in bed for the rest of my life being scared of surgery. Let's go, let's go right now. And then all of a sudden, after that surgery, to wake up and not have that pain anymore and be able to sit up the first time in four days, I was just so thankful, and I was just so thrilled. And there were a couple of people that helped me out while I was in the hospital, like with work stuff and covered me. And you know, obviously, once you you get out of that mindset for a second, because you get home and you're like, I still do have bills to pay, Like that didn't stop, that didn't go away, But at the same time, like I'm I'm I can walk again. So it's just it was so at first, I was just so grateful, but then after a few weeks mainly like the first week went by me at home and Frank was on tour. He was up playing show was all over the East Coast, so I'm you know, and again that's his job, so like he has to stay on tour, and I'm like, don't you dare come home.

39:08 We got to work. You know, we've had a mortgage to pay. So he's on the road. I've got friends here coming in checking on me. But what really kind of hurt was a couple or a few weeks after that not being able to play shows, and I felt like the world was passing me by and I was just stuck, Like after all the hard work and dedication and everything I've put in trying to put this album together, the absolute hell I went through to reform my band and get this really great group of guys, I got this band. Now it's like it all just stopped. So that was that was hard. It was just depression, you know. It was just like frustration and just like anxiety, Am I ever going to be able to do this again?

39:50 But then I would that would go away and the gratefulness would come back, and I'm like I can walk, Like I can walk, I mean, I can stand up like I wasalking with a cane for the first like month and a half. I was walking with a walker for two weeks. It didn't matter. I mean, I'm walking with the walker. If I have to walk with the walker for the rest of my life, at least I can walk, you know. If I'm walking with a cane, hey, at least I'm not using a walker. And now I can walk without the walker because half my leg is nun but I had some of it come back. Oh, like, oh my god, I have to use a walker cane anymore. I mean it's unbelievable. So it's just gratefulness is really important. And with life throws stuff at you, which it does for all, it's hard sometimes you lose focus of that.

40:30 So it's like every day it is important to think about, you know, what can I be grateful for? And I have friends that have diremstances that they're going through and horrible things that they're dealing with, and oftentimes they're still able to find things to be grateful for. But it's not easy. And as musicians were extra emotional all of us. That's why we're able to write. And it's hard because we're super emotional. Anything that hurts hurts us twice as much. But we just we just have to try and as hard as it is, again, everyone's situation is different. There's people going through unbelievable terrible things. But if you can try to find something to be grateful for and you know people that you can be appreciative of, that helps help me.

41:15 Yeah. I think that's that's the biggest secret I think in life all around, is just to be grateful for what you have. And I've learned to say, be grateful for what you have and be grateful for what you don't have, right because. There's things we really don't want to have. But yeah, so I think that's I think that's the secret. Just yesterday I was with some girlfriends and one of my friends she said, you know, I wake up every morning and I always say three things I'm grateful for, And no matter like how busy my day or how hectic my day is, or what my life or whatever, every day I wake up and think grateful for these three things one, two, three, and yeah, or even like we all sometimes get into a funk or we all deal with stuff, and I tried and remind myself too, like Okay, well, I could be upset about this, but I'm thankful for this. So I got to kind of like be okay with that thing.

42:09 Over here because I'm still okay. Right, Yeah, that's all. That's all you can do and then you know right about it. So that's plenty of things have happened. I haven't been writing much since I got out of the hospital just because I don't know, I haven't had the same creative desires, but just started working on a few things. And yeah, I mean, that's one thing we have as artists that some people don't have, is that creative outlet that can be very therapeutic. It can be very helpful, it can help you express what you've been feeling. Is a bit of therapy. So at least we have that. So true.

42:49 So do you have any last minute words as we're coming to, you know, a. Slow closing to the show for today's you. Have any wisdom words for new musicians or musicians coming into you know, wanting to do what you're doing what I'm doing. Yeah, work hard, and that's number one. You've got to want to do it. You've got it. If you feel like you can't work hard and get better, then you might not you know, might I want to do it, you know, you might not have the drive to have to do it all the time. You have to enjoy to some extent work the work, because that's that's what it is. But also be humble. Don't expect anything until you know you you fight for it. I hear sometimes I have people approach me and they ask me. They're like, well, this place won't write me back, or like this place did this, and it's like, you just got to fight for it. You got to keep trying, I mean, and you can't expect it, and you can't just expect anything.

43:50 I mean, it's like you just have to fight for it and you have. And then again, like some venues like they're not going to be for you right now. So that's the other thing is like when you're humble, you know, like I can't call Madison Square Garden and like just show up there and get pud like come on so right, or like whatever the you know, some big theater that's a few counties away. I have to get to the point where I'm ready for that and they're like ready for me to be there. So be humble and understand that some opportunities are coming later. If you work hard enough, like you can get there, but be humble, don't expect it all, and just and be grateful for the ones that you have. Now make the most out of what you have. And at the beginning, because at the beginning, like we all start with none.

44:37 Unless you're like the son of some famous musician or daughter of some Broadway star, you're not being born with venues waiting for you to perform. We all just have to build. Just keep building and keep working on it. And and also the most important one is to listen to people that know more than you. I'm yeah, so lucky, I mentor. I have a music mentor who knows so much more than me. I have a producer who has been there, done that I could know so much more than me. And I had teachers and I had other I had a producer on my first album, was a studio musician, really really really accomplished. So listen to those people.

45:18 And I still have friends that have been playing live music for like fifteen twenty years longer than me. And when they tell me something, I listen, you know, I want to know what they have to offer me. So never think that you aren't going to learn from them, because there's so much to learn from from people that have have done it before. Those are the three things that I think are super important of building a music career. And then have fun, you know, have a drink, have a good time, or if you don't drink, have a bit of pop. You know, have a good time. But have some fun because it's fun, right, It's fun being out there. It is fun. And when you say work, like, to me, it's not I don't know as a musician, it's a passion.

46:00 So to me, it's not work. It's like I get to like, I get to play, I get to have fun. And yeah, sometimes if we put like so many hours into it, we can feel tired, but then like we wake up tomorrow, let's do it again. You know, it's not it's not the same. Ideas, right, like we're going to field like sorry that well. People think, yeah, you think of the word work and you think of like, oh, I don't want to go to work, right, But it's not that way when I say it, it's like it's a profession and you approach as a professional and you want to be a really good at petograph. Right, So it's like work in a good sense. It's like the positive like employment right and a profession and like a career. So it's like a good part of work, like oh man, I don't want to go to work today. It's like, oh I get to go to work today. But the more shows you play, there's still going to be days where you wake up and you're like, I'm not well, like, how am I going to do this? You're going to do the way you're going to do it. They're going to say, I do love what I do. I'm going to get there and have a great time. I just have to, you know, drink a green tea or a red Bull or whatever you drink, like I'm going to do it. But it's is a profession if you are a professional, and that's okay, and that's that's good. It's good to approach it that way and you still can love it and you can still have a great time. It's still passion, but it can also be that. So it's like, but it's good.

47:24 It's a good thing. I promise was good. Well, thank you so much Sally for being on the show today, and thank you to our listeners. And again, if you need to reach out to Sally, you can find her at let me see Foxmaple dot com. Media was at it. Fox foxmaplemusic dot com. There's a really nice uh home builder up in Canada called Foxmaple dot com. They make like wood. Don't go there unless building a house in Canada, then go there too, Fox Music dot Com. Okay, awesome, Well, thank you, Sally. I will we'll talk soon and feel better and I will come see you at Lafagatta sooner than later, I promise.

48:08 Thank you so much for having me. It's been awesome. Thanks all, Okay, take care Sally. Thank you so much, ladies and gentlemen. And as we close out, I just want to say thank you for joining me today and thank you to Sally for taking the time to share with us her expertise. And her adventures in the music world. And then look forward to our show next week. Stay tuned to find out who will be on next week's show. In the meantime, help me please to keep music alive in our world.