The Sound of Gold with guest Thia Muilenburg and Soulshine band

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0:51 Hi, welcome to the Sound of Gold and I am thrilled to be here. I'm here with Calli and we are welcoming some great people on our show today. But before we do, I want to thank you for being here and let you know that the reason we do this show is to focus on music, musicians, music venues, music teachers, and music schools. And the idea is we want to keep music original, and we want to keep it going, we want to keep it moving, and so venues that have live musicians and live bands, it's just so important to keep that thriving. And as a musician myself, I know I love to play. I love to perform.

1:39 It's a passion. It's what I love to give from my heart. And if you've heard me play before, great, If you haven't, you may hear me a little bit today, But really the show is not so much about me. It's about who I get to connect with. It's about who I get to have on my show. It's about who I get to represent and uh and today I have some very special guests. I have the Soul Shine Band joining me, and I just found out there's two bands with that name, but the only Soul Shine Band I know of has lead singer THEA Mulenberg and Tommy Strauss and Nick Fallon and al Johnson, and they are such a fabulous local band that plays Their harmonies are great, they play a lot of original pieces and I'm so so thrilled to invite them on. So let's welcome THEA and Nick and Tommy and I think al Is is not able to join us today, but that's okay, we will have him next time. Welcome. Thank you, thanks, yes, thank you much for making the time. If you haven't met, this is CALLI. She's going to be joining us for the interview here for a little bit anyway. So I was just mentioning how important music is and how the whole purpose for my show is not so much for

3:10 me but to help her present all these all of you, all of us local musicians that have this passion to play and passion to share our heart because music is not just something we play. It's something we express and it's something that we feel. And I know, the more we feel melodies and the more we feel what we play, the greater it's received by the audience. And I mean, there's so much I could just keep going on and on about THEIA. I wanted to start with you. I know, we just recently told me soul Shine. There's two different bands named soul Shine, but in my world, I no offense to the other soul Shine band. But I don't know that band. So I'm welcoming you. I'm welcoming the soul Shining band that I know and I heard you guys play. There's so much information I want to get to share with our audience about all of you, and starting with youth, the I mean, what where did you begin your life journey on music? What inspired you to get to where you are now?

4:16 Oh wow, that's a big question. So I have been a musician since I was seven piano lessons and way fast forward, I decided to become a music therapist after I was in a horrible car accident, and I healed myself through music and art and other creative means. It was a fatal car crash, so it was a lot to heal. So that spurred me on to becoming a therapist because I wanted to use the arts to help people. And so I was a music therapist for over twenty years. And all that time I was using my music and other art and drama and so forth, but using my guitar and my singing for various reasons to help people of all ages. And I wasn't performing. I was. I was helping groups and individuals. So at some point after I stopped doing that, I realized that that was one thing I really had not done very much of, was performing, and that I had a desire to do that. I also had a desire to write songs and record them.

5:31 And so all around the same time, when my kids had finally flown the coup and I found myself like an empty nester, Okay, it's time to really focus on that more in my life. And in twenty nineteen I started gigging, solo gigging, and there was this wonderful little cafe called the Garden City Cafe, which you all know always been supportive of musicians, and I was invited to come play there on a regular basis and that just one thing led to the other and I just loved it, and I formed the band in twenty twenty two. That was three years ago, Soulsheim and we've had some different members over the years, but Tommy, are percussionist, joined in twenty twenty three. And it started out as an all female fronted band with harmonies, and then you know, various changes happened, people moved away and so forth, and now we have also a focus on harmony. I'm the only female though, but it's been a fantastic, fantastic experience to work with this group and I'm looking forward to hearing what they have to say to Nick and Tommy. And I'm really sorry that Al Johnson can't be here. He is working and something came up, unfortunately, but he and I joined forces in January, and he has considerable experience

7:06 led a couple of major bands that toured around the country and they played and performed for I think over sixteen seventeen years something like that. So very talented singer, songwriter, guitar player, plays the harp, harmonica, and we've just had a wonderful time being open to the genres that we both feel comfortable that could be considered different. He's more of a country rocker, I'm more of a folk rocker. But we've found our middle ground and we love to harmonize, and I think we both really appreciate the kind of music that we each love, and so that's worked out really nicely. We're all acoustic, we focus mostly on the harmonies, and I think we're offering something that no other band around here offers, which is really fun. And it's been inspiring to work with Al because he is so so gifted and so experienced, and I feel like the band has really kind of come up a notch because or maybe two or three notches even because of him being a part of it. So I'm so so grateful for that.

8:23 And we have a lot of exciting things in store for the future, I'm sure. And then, of course, you know, I want these fine fellows here to introduce themselves, but I just feel so grateful to both of them for being part of this project. Nick is an incredibly gifted, outstanding musician, all self taught, and he will tell you about that and he plays the piano and he sings gorgeous harmony with us. He has a great year. Tommy is just an affixado on drums, but I have him playing does because we're doing an acoustic thing here and so it's just so great have someone who's really adept at that join us and it is somewhat fun and I've loved having a part of it for so many years.

9:09 Yeah, I want, I want everybody. Everybody's going to have some time to chat and to tell us their part. And I'm so excited to get to know each of you. I wanted. I had one other question before I wanted to move along. Vieah, I'm I have this belief that we are a product of our environment, and you, your family is I love both you and your husband. You are so supportive of our community when it comes to music and musicians. Not only that, but your family core base, I mean you have I'm not going to give away the little like tidbits that that I know, but how can you what what would you want to share with the audience about like your family core because you so much that you you stick together with and you've grown with and there's so much your you know, you've accomplished, and your daughter has accomplished, and and your husband has accomplished, and you've been there for each other and it's just it.

10:19 My heart swells would love to see. Yeah, thank you. Oh that's so sweet. You know. I think that it all started with my mom and my grandmothers, who were both musical, and I just grew up with a lot of piano playing and singing in the house, you know, mostly Broadway show tunes and stuff. And my grandmother was a singer and played the piano and wrote music that was published. Some of it was made famous by other singers. But you know, and so I actually have her piano in my house, my grandmother's piano, and my girls play it and I play it. It's really amazing. But but but we grew up with music, and it was it was fostered and encouraged. Luckily, you know, when I when I wanted to take lessons, they gave them to me. When I wanted to switch to guitar, they bought me a guitar. I was very fortunate that way that we had the means to be able to get a guitar and get lessons and all that, and so and I think there was an understanding that music was a good thing, you know, that this was something they wanted to promote. And so I think that makes a big difference. And having a parent in the house that is a musician to model, that makes a huge difference.

11:34 And I understood that. So when I had my children, you know, as a music therapist now, you know, and having got a master's degree and really focused on music being a healing modality, I understood how important music was inside and out, you know, and and so I just, you know, even before they were born, I was singing to them while they're there in the womb, and you know, just surrounding them with classical music and playing the piano while they're going to sleep at night because the piano was in their bedroom, you know, just surrounding them with music all the time. And I also was teaching music to for early childhood education. In my home. I had a studio with you know, kids coming and the moms would come and my kids would be part of it, and they were just it was saturated with music. And they both started lessons of four and they're you know, a piano and my older daughter still plays the guitar.

12:34 And sings and performs sometimes at open mics. But my younger daughter is the one who became a musician and songwriter, and she's actually has a career in that right now in LA And I've always just felt like it was my role in life to promote music in others and to kind of bring the music to, you know, to party, bring the music to the party, help each other in the community, you know, by supporting them in their creativity to be songwriters. I run a songwriting workshop and weekend every other month and it's been really successful. And now bringing it to the stage and expressing through the music that I've written, that Al's written, hopefully that Nick has written.

13:24 Someday We're gonna do your songs. Maybe even Tommy, We're gonna, We're gonna. I just love expressing through song, you know, my experiences in life and El's. It's been a wonderful thing to be able to do that and then also other people's songs, to just dive in and interpret other wonderful songs and provide that for the audience, because the audience really responds to music. I mean, I've had people over the just the last week alone, I've had two people who I know, friends of mine in the audience breakdown in tears during a performance.

14:04 Yeah. I mean it's touching something deep inside that is healing. And I don't have to know what that is. I just know that whatever I'm doing is opening up that door for someone who needed that in a moment, that maybe the music helped them in a way that they felt supported enough to be able to cry, you know. And that's a beautiful thing. So not making music, but I mean writing it and all that, but performing it is a really powerful thing. And just doing it in a way that soothing that is in harmony harmonies itself. I mean, when everyone is lined up with the different parts of harmony, it's and you're getting into the same you know, vibration and harmonizing. It is an amazingly powerful thing to write right down.

14:58 How would our listeners if they want to book book you guys to come in and play for them, or a venue wants to book you, how would they reach you? Oh, that's a great question, Thank you. They can just reach out to Soulshine Songs at gmail dot com. That's maybe the easiest way. Or they can d m us on all the socials we have Instagram and Facebook pages that are called soul Shine and they can see us. They can see our videos. I post videos up on YouTube on the handle is the soul Shine Band on YouTube, so they can hear what we sound like. And yeah, we have lots of ways people can get in touch with us, but maybe the easiest to remember is the email soul Shine Songs at gmail dot com.

15:49 Okay, good to know, Good to know, Nick telling me I want to hear from both of you. Do you have a preference of who wants to chime. In first Europe? Okay, fair, I've I know I met you at a couple of shows and I know you played keyboards fabulously. But tell us a little bit about your history, about what brought you into the music world and what you know what keeps you moving in that direction, and how you met how you met THEA and got involved with Soulshine. Well, you know, it's I kind of think of it as two different things. So music I've always been I mean as much, almost as far back as I can remember eight ten, I was I wanted to play the piano, and I was constantly playing music, but mostly for myself.

16:41 I started working out classical stuff by year and then became more contemporary as time went by, and it seemed classical wasn't so cool to my peers. But but I didn't really. I don't feel like I joined the music world or the music community until I came down here and I started going to the Mondaday nights with Gary Frost at Angelo's uh the open Mic, and I would also go to the sitting in with Gary on Thursdays. And that's that's when I started to define this community and this music world and start sharing a little bit of my music with others. I've been playing UH pretty really pretty solidly from about ten on UH most I was at that time piano, then shifted into the guitar because again, the guitar I could carry around with me, and I think it was cooler uh in the high school college years.

17:34 But yeah, the community is just unbelievable fabulous. It was so so supportive. I never thought I would be joining bands. And then out of out of the blue, I got involved with another one off off the coattails of a chance yard sale encounter. They said, hey, you, why are you interested in this drummer seat as well? I just got a new piano and so we we need a piano player. And I got an interview or an audition, i should say, with with the tally Men, of which Tommy Straus at the time was not a member. This was the previous drummer that I was buying the chair from.

18:14 But before I knew it, he was out and Tommy was in, and one thing led to another. In two bands playing piano when really I'm a prime Primarily I'm a guitarist. I'm very comfortable on the guitar, been playing that a lot more. That's definitely my primary instrument. But bands, they have too many guitarists as it is. That's true with the Taliman, that's true with the so with sol Shine as well. And I love the piano. It's my first love. And I'm trying trying to I'm faking it till I make it, but I'm trying to get back. In Okay, all right, and yes in Italiman. Yes, I've reached out to Scott. I've invited him on the show, but he hasn't responded, so. I'm sure he will up. Yeah, yeah, we could get yeah, yeah we have we have the pole.

18:58 Yea. Now tell me, I know I know you for a while and my husband. I both you and you are a fabulous drummer. In fact, when we came by your house and we saw the drug played the drums, I mean you kind of blew us away. We had no idea the talent that you keep undercover and it's just you know what you bring to the table and that the drumming, it is just we're always like only. Timmy, I appreciate that. Yeah. So yeah, I actually started on piano. Okay, it was seven years old. My mom played piano and sang a little bit. She's an artist. I have some of it because she passed away, but I have some of our work in my house and she's just saying, you know, in the house and played the piano, and I actually have the piano now it's a third generation piano.

19:59 When I I actually the recommended a tuner, so. I had a tuned after a few years and he said, this piano is from like nineteen twenty eight a camp. So I started with piano and then when I'm ten years old, when I was ten, I kind. Of revolted and gravitated towards drums. So that's how it started. The piano teacher would leave the house I was banging on the drums and kind of revolting towards drums, and then by that was like fourth grade. In sixth grade, we had elementary school graduation for sixth grade. Actually, it's interesting and ironic that I'm in a band that's based upon vocals and harmonies, because I really can't sing at all. And you know, I made mouth a little bit when we're playing, but I'm not a singer.

20:54 And the funny. Story is, in the sixth grade graduation, there was telling ten people in this elementary school class. It was almost like going to private school, and it wasn't very nice, but they made me mouthed. The singing and the graduation ceremony. It made me mouth it. But I made up for it because I had my double based drum kit on the stage and I blew everywhere and away when I was in the program too. I played the inner guttadavita drum solo. When I was ten. I kind of blew people now. And then fast forward. To a fourteen years old I was asked to play in a band and on drums in a classic rock band.

21:34 And I don't know if it's called classic rock band because it was just rock, and these kids, most of them were in private school, so I was fortunate in high. School to play. In high school dances. They were a lot of fun and they were pretty good paying. Then they kind of paid what people are paying now. And it's fifty years ago, but I really enjoyed that. I went to college. I started shipping out my drums a little bit, but I really just kept the. Drums in mind. And then things passed forward to maybe just under forty years. Old, twenty five years ago. I really I found out about an open mic where I used to live in New Jersey, and I started playing in a blues jam there and started going once a week. And about the same time, I got asked to join a band, which I hadn't.

22:21 Been in a band in years and years, So it all came to fruition around the same time. And then I was in. This classic band rock band cult common Ground before I joined the other bands in New Jersey, and we really just played about once a month and maybe. A little more in some private parties. But really enjoyed that. And then Sandy and I were snowbirds in Florida a little bit, and Sandy's Michael, what's holding back? Or really maybe would like to be in Florida, And I was like, well the music community, blah blah. But it turned out that I was fortunate to meet the music community down in Florida and South Florida really by going to open mics. I believe I first met there maybe a Double Roads and started playing with her and kind of then I've had these congas. I've traded a couple of them, but they were from like nineteen from like nineteen eighty. I've traded a couple of ins, a couple of them in with new ones that I'm playing with. Soul Shine and Thea like a few years ago approached me maybe five years ago.

23:23 You know, I really was looking for congas well. I'm really not a conga player. I'm more of a drummer, but I've. Kind of adapted myself and doing more and more percussion, so I feel much more comfortable playing percussion. And I mean I'm more comfortable. I'm comfortable on the drums of color. Of course, we just the talent man had a nice gig over the weekend with Nick on keyboard. But so I feel like I'm versatile on drums and percussion. But I really enjoy It's kind of ironic. And the point is that I'm in a harmony type band. I don't think they're looking for four part harmony at this time, but looking.

24:04 When you can't you do your counting. That's what we're looking for. You know, asked me to play with her, and I haven't turned back since then. I really enjoyed playing with this band. And there's a lot more to come with this. We've got some exciting shows coming up. Yeah, I think I could show my versatility, you know, playing congress. I'm percussion with me, So thank you and thank you. Soul Shine and d M May mentioned who I recommended to join us on this band. I think it was Nick. So we're looking for a bass or a piano or keyboard, and I recommended Nick just for a few months playing with him with that other band. We don't have to mention it. So gold Shine band we're talking about.

24:48 So we all wanted dm A want to discuss, you know, upcoming shows. I believe we have one this Friday, but we'll get to that. But so there's been no turning back with the music. And you know, I found point being once I was in Florida, I really found there's a great music community in South Florida, all kinds of band, some good venues, and you need to support the local venues to keep this going. Really, they could always use support. Yes, So that's what I have to say at the moment. Thank you, thank you for having us, and thank you for thea for asking me to be part of this band. I appreciate. I'm so happy to have you.

25:29 Thank you. Yes, and local venues, you know, there's a certain amount of money you mentioned like getting paid, like kind of still getting paid today what you got paid back years ago. That's kind of true for most venues. Yes, yes, and at the door, I have to be right back okay. In some ways that makes me really sad because local, I mean, music itself is energy. It's so healing and it it brings us together in unity. It doesn't matter what religion, what your political views are, or what country you live in. Music brings us together and it's just so under rated and underlooked. I think when it comes to getting paid, and as musicians, myself included, I have no problem paying for tips or playing for tips or playing just to play. However, I think the people that do not play music do not have that understanding that where like, we put so much time and work into this, but it's a passion that keeps it going, and it's something that in generations to come. I hope to in this in our generation or in my daughter's generation, I hope to be somewhat of a voice that speaks out to say, hey, you know, don't overlook us, like we're here to not only share our passion, but our and

27:00 but our good energy and are entertain the masses because we want to keep us together in unity and in love because you take it everything else away. Again, energy is is love and peace, and that's that's what we're all here to keep alive. And we want to all stay happy and do what we love. One of the biggest questions I have is I didn't get to ask, and I already know, but I don't know if the audience knows. What kind of music is your focus? What do you what you like to play when you're out? Do you play originals? Do you play covers? What what is your go to music when you play?

27:41 Are you asking me? It's okay, answer, I can answer, Okay, all right, I'll answer this one. We have all and I have written a bunch of originals. El has written way more than I have, but we have our music on Spotify and Apple Music and all that, so of course we want to play our own music as much as possible, but we do understand that the audience may not be familiar with those and it's wonderful to hear them when they get to hear them, but I think they really do enjoy hearing covers, maybe even more until they get to know our songs. So we mostly play covers, and we do it with a smattering of originals in there, and it's Americana and folk rock, because I would say Al's side of the story is more country Americana. He actually had an Americana band called Americana Jones for seven years here in this area, disbanded and then I've been more Oh it's something just happened with the sound. Can you hear me?

28:51 Okay? Okay? So I've been more focused on folk rock my whole adult life when it comes to play guitar and singing. So so we we actually combine the two of those together, so we have some more country Americana and we also have folk rock more of a rock and sound. We do a lot. I think one of the things that we do that probably I have never heard really anyone else do around here other than in bluegrass bands. We do some really beautiful old emil O. Harris songs that have harmonies, some two and three part harmony that are just classics that are beautiful. We do you know, some band and and and I'm blanking on names here, Tom Petty, thank You, thank you, Cross Steels, Mashing Young three part yeah, and and a lot of fun sing along kind of songs that people know the words too. But we try not to play a lot of overplayed songs, uh, you know songs and all the other bands play. We're playing, you know, things that are touching like I'll do Get Together by the Young Bloods or you know, Leaving on a jet Plane by Peter Palm Mary, things like that that are really touching. And then more rock and stuff like Jambalaya or you know, Woodstock. We do the Carspills

30:22 National Young Version, which is kind of rocking things like that. So we have a nice mix of up and down suite and rocking and you know, more country to more rock folk. It's really it's really a good mix. And I don't know of any other band who's really doing that at this point in our area. So I think we offer something different that people are enjoying, and we're we're starting to build a little bit of a following now and we're really pleased about that. We hope it keeps growing. No Where are you playing this weekend? This week we're going to be actually al and I have a duo. The two of us play just the two of us as a duo. And we've been playing a bit at the Speak Easy at Double Roads, which is a members only club, and we'll once a month for a few months now, and that's a wonderful place to play. We'd love it. There a great, great place to be a member, but I mean you don't have to be a member to come in and listen to the music if you want to stay for a bit and listen, certainly. And the next night Friday night, that's on Thursday the eighteenth, and then Friday is at the old Garden City Cafe, which used to be called that where I got my start and a lot of musicians around here did it's they've been so supportive along the years.

31:45 Now it's called the Rusty Hook Tavern in Juno Beach and the new owners are equally supportive, and so we're playing there and then the following week we'll be playing at the brew House Gallery in Lake Park on Friday, the twenty sixth, and they Joe and Miller. Joe Brockman's the owner. She's been incredibly supportive of us. We've had a monthly gig there for most of this year. So we're so fortunate to have that opportunity to rely on because it gives us a chance to get out there and perform and have more experience doing that and to build a following. So that's been great. We have some more gigs coming up next month that are new. We have some new venues that we'll be playing at. We're playing at Swamp Glass Willie's, We'll be playing at Angelo's Restaurant.

32:32 We have Northwood Arts Warehouse in Northwood. Next year, We've already gotten the R. Bradley's in downtown West Palm booked. Wow. Yeah, so really excited about that one. So yeah, we're very excited about how things are evolving. It is so darn hard to get booked around here because there's so many musicians, but I feel like we're making some headway, So that's good. Yeah, we're definitely expanding upon our venues coming up to Yeah, right. That's great. No, do you it's a question for our audience.

33:12 I guess it's kind of two questions for musicians that are just getting out there. What is the best tactics to take to get booked? Do you? Is it friends through friends kind of figure it out that way, or do you you know, is there one of you that manages the band and manages the. Booking well all of that management stuff, but there are opportunities to come up for the other band members to to you know, have to get a booking for us, And that certainly happened, which is I really appreciate that. And so everyone's on the lookout obviously for a new venue or a booking opportunity for us, which is great.

33:57 But I'm I'm I work at I have a spreadsheet. I go through the spreadsheet and I make contact with people by text, by emails, by phone calls, and sometimes I don't hear a thing for months, and I'll be getting to them like every other week or something subtly out of the blue, they email me, Hey, can you you know, can you do this that's okay, So it's working. This is actually working, but it does take a lot of perseverance, and there's a lot of you know, banging on doors and not getting anywhere at all, which is very frustrating. I think probably if I had some advice for somebody who's just getting started, like I did in twenty nineteen, you know, having people letting your friends know that you're interested, and then maybe they can suggest a place for you that maybe you have a friend who's a musician who plays out or gives can give you a recommendation to a person who owns a restaurant or whatever, and then or going in there and introducing yourself, but certainly having since they've never heard you before, or if you can show them what you sound like, that would be great. You know, like give them a link to a YouTube video that you you've put up there somehow getting it across what you sound like. And you know it's not going to be you walking in with your guitar and playing a song. More than likely you're going to have to give a link to something or give them a little thumb drive or something to listen to, and that will sell. It's how you sound that's going

35:28 to sell them. And then also how professional you are. You know, if you're blaky and you don't give back to them, they're not going to want to hire you. But if you are persistent and you're light and you're very grad grateful, they'll probably want to do business for you. You know that they'll figure that you're going to be easy to work with, right, and so offering marketing, you know that you're willing to do the marketing, you know, putting up the Facebook event, inviting all your friends, making posts, all that stuff. They really want that because that's that's going to bring the customers in. Nice, nice and it makes sense and it makes sense. Nick and Tommy, Yes, what do you when do you guys all get together? And I mean do you have like an agenda for when you practice together or do you just kind of like know your songs and then just know like, okay, we're going to meet Friday night and we'll just play that.

36:27 But we pretty much have a set day usually Tuesdays at dias and we you know, I try to put that night away for rehearsals personally, So that's really you need. It's good to have structure with that instead of just winging when you're going to have rehearsals, so then you know and you could plan for it right and if you can't make that one, they're going to be a little late. You know, we're pretty good comedy. But I try to put. That aside, okay. And then just to add one thing to what THEA said before as far as marketing the band, Like if you're in a new place supporting a friend's band or something you know, and you're supporting there about having dinner there or something, you say, well, who can I speak to here about? You know, then we have a band, or you have a business card, or you can tell them about yourself and get the contact that way happening.

37:25 Happened to be in that venue and meeting somebody there. That makes sense. Yes, absolutely great idea as a band. But then again, individually you have some great original pieces and I know a lot of them are already on Spotify and what have you. However, with new pieces that you're working on maybe now or new pieces in the future, Nick Tommy, when you're working together as as a band, but in practice you and this is a silly question. I know the answer, but maybe for some of our listeners, they don't know this. When you're working together as a band, do you all kind of bring your own cards to the table, per se? Like I have my own style of playing right, So Tommy, you have your style of playing drums, if you have your style for playing music, and you know, we each have our own way to maybe jazz it up ard or bluegrass it up board or tune it up or change it down or what have you. So when you're together as a band, do you kind of work on songs where you're working on it together or do you or theo let's say, do you have like a like a certain particular way of how you want a song to go or I mean collaborating together? Is it a collaboration or is it kind of a collaboration of building the song together. I guess

38:57 that's a long way of asking. That you want to answer. Nick I was thinking, more often than not, it's the former and not the latter. There there's a we're bringing our cards to the table. So you will have a song that she has done with previous iterations of soul shine and has an idea for how it wants, you know, how she'd like it to be or the key and that that sort of structure. There is definitely flexibility and and a collaborative uh uh environment, very supportive about changes here and there, but to with within within a set of parameters. We don't don't suddenly make it a. Salsa, you know, out of the blue, although that could be very interesting and maybe, you know, maybe we would try that down the line, but in general, I'm thinking of the example with with my my Randy Newman tunes.

39:48 I don't think that that was definitely out of the blue. It was a card in my deck that I played and everyone. Said, oh yeah, I think we could do this, no problem. It was very very well received, so a veryigh. But even that we did some alteration. I have this I'm gravitating towards wanting to play it the way that the writer, Randy Newman plays it, and the thought process from the band is that no, no, no, it's three Dog Night. That's what the people know. That's that's the syncopation that they're expecting, so they're you know, it's there's a collaborative process. Can I add to that? Yeah, I think everything he said was right on. I just wanted to add because Al's not here and maybe I should add im he would not be comfortable saying this himself anyway as well.

40:35 He's got so much experience, you know that we can rely on him to come up with some great ideas for how to work our way into a song or make it better and and you know, whether it's an intro or you know, a type of harmony or whatever. And so it's just. Really been wonderful having him be in this collaboration with us. I think he really I can trust his musical got on whatever, he you know, his hunch on how to do it better, and that's really great. I feel like, yes, Nick has particular you know, strengths and the way he plays and how he hears things, and we definitely want to draw that out and feature it because he's incredibly talented, gifted musician. And you know, I don't want him sitting up on stage and just you know, being behind us.

41:31 I want him being out front and then audience enjoying what he has to offer, you know. And I feel the same way about Tommy. You know, we want him to be out front when we can, you know, give him a solo or whatever, so that the people in the audience can see what he's got to offer, you know, and we all have our strengths, and I think that's part of making a band really solid. You know that everybody has a chance to express themselves musically, and you know there may be songs that one of them don't really feel like. I wouldn't listen to this song on the car radio. You know, maybe it's not my favorite song, but we're playing it. But we're gonna make it even better because we're doing it like Soulcialine does it. You know, we put our own spin on stuff. Yeah, a three part harmony or whatever we're doing, you know, to make it ours.

42:22 But in terms of practice, I think we we do. We're expected to work that song out, you know, on our own, learn learn it, and then come to the table to then come together as opposed to we don't know the song, you know, blindfolded, we all come in and well, you know, kind of work it out. On the spot. That would take you I might consume an entire practice. So you have to practice, be so careful with your time because you only get that one three hour practice a week. And and so we do end up, like sharing a recording of a song that we want to learn either one that you know we wrote, then it would be would be a video of us playing it in the past with a different band, you know, iteration that kind of thing, or you know, if it's a popular song of some kind, sharing that and then I'll even share lyrics and chords a lot of the time so that we're all on the same key working those kinds of things out. Sometimes it doesn't stick and we change it. But I think preparation, good preparation, really makes a difference because you have so little time and you don't want to waste it. So I always have like a prep sheet for our rehearsals of the songs that I think we need to go over, and then we don't usually get to all of them. But and then I do a set list and we decide whether we do want those songs in the set list, or we're going to add some more from a rehearsal in there or not. That kind of thing. So it's just doing it in a systematic way that really helps us with

43:55 your time management. That makes sense, That makes complete sense. You mentioned this earlier before I had asked if you had I had asked if you had some words for our audience, and you gave us a great answer, Nick and Tommy. I want to also get your feedback and I want our audience to hear from you. What advice would you give to new musicians or new bands coming together and as we're moving a head wanting to keep our music alive. You know what, what would I don't know who wants to go first? Uh, what would you advise to your new people coming into the music world or people that are musicians that are just trying to figure it out.

44:40 I would say, when you're with a band, you want to be always be respectful to your bandmates, and you know sometimes it takes some compromise and working things out and you know, feel a connection with your bandmates and really that's the first step. But then the next step is to connect with the audience. So I mean, I enjoy I love playing music. I always have to play. I kind of step it up when I'm in front of people playing live it kind of I get excited. By mid connection. Whether there's five people in the audience are fifty. You just want to connect with people, and that's important.

45:21 But the first step is to connect with your bandmates and then go from there. Thank you, and it well as I said, from my personal experience, I mean, if you're if you're a musician and you're not playing out very often and you want to get hooked up, you know, connected to that community that you keep talking about, that wonderful community. I think the open mics are a great way to do that and certainly a great place to start. And even once once you've you know, found yourself in bands, you know, continued, you meet new people, you'll play different things. You know. It's a way to workshop things you've written, things that you are are working on that you can't play with your band because they don't they don't want to do a salsa, you know what, whatever, whatever it is. Yeah, I think that community aspect that you're you're uh uh so positive about that you My experience with that has been through the through the.

46:16 Open mic, so highly highly recommend that. And and then for playing out, that's I think thea is if the really takes the reins on that. Although Tommy does a great job as well finding finding gigs. You know, once you've got a band together and you want to play out, that is oh man, that's that's it's to me, that's much much harder than the music. The music is what I focus on. I'm playing the music to for for. Myself and and God willing for anyone that would enjoy it around me. But the beaten down the doors and getting h you know, putting putting your face, I think probably in person to those managers and building that relationship. That's and it's it's beyond, definitely beyond my skill set.

46:59 The then talk talk. Further to that. You do a wonderful job and we've we've heard you play, and tell tell our audience again how we get in touch with you to find out your vanus and your your website and your songs. Thank you. But before I do that, I just wanted to say that I feel so grateful to have these amazing musicians to get up on stage with. And I feel like that is the key to making a band work, because you know, you have to have that chemistry and willingness to work together and communicate, and that's hard to do all the time. There's a lot of ups and downs, and you know, if you can, if you can keep it together as a band, that's one of the hardest things about having a band is keeping it together right.

47:47 They always break up right well, we're hoping not to break up. I think we have good a good mix right now and just feel so fortunate about that. But that is like finding the right people to work with. Is that's really key, you know, and it's hard, it can be hard, but getting out to the open mics, you will find a lot more musicians out there like yourself, right, and that's a great way to network and find the people that you know ultimately will be your bandmates. Yeah, so. We're that up for a time, so please bear with us. We get in touch with you. And yeah, they can go to Facebook and Instagram, soul Shine, the soul Shine Band on Instagram and just soul Shine on Facebook with pages for those two and then soul Shine Songs at gmail dot com if somebody wants to email me about booking or anything at all, and then they can go to YouTube to the soul Shine bands as well. It's I think it's just soul Shine band to see our videos of us playing wonderful.

48:53 Well, I'm sorry to touch you up, but we're just we're out of time for today. Thank you so much for making the time to be on our show, and I look forward to hearing you guys again. You're amazing. I love you. All and thank you. You're wonderful for having us. We really appreciate it. Right. Hopefully look together soon and we look forward to hearing you again. Soon we'll come out and see you. Thank you, thank you, Lisa, Thanks Lisa. Thanks bye, well, thank you so much for being on our show and listening in or tuning in. Remember music is energy, it's very healing, so let's keep music alive.