A long weekend thought about interviewing
+ August gig list and other happenings
I did a live radio hit on CJSF 90.1 FM radio in Vancouver last Friday. One of the co-hosts of the segment was Haleluya Hailu, known from our podcast and from the Ethiopia / Beles Band with Feven Kidane and Nebyu Yohannes and co. I didn't know when heading out to SFU for it, that I'd be on for the whole hour! We talked about Rhythm Changes and other related things.
You can listen back to it here:
And kind of like how I highlighted something last week for you from Mary Ancheta and Matt Reid's video interview, I want to pull out something I said that I'll be thinking about for the next while. It's basically in line with my concept of Rhythm Changes going back years now, but I think it bears repeating.
This is my response to the other co-host Stella's question, " Would you say your approach to interviewing has changed at all over the years?"
I have this thing that I've noticed now that the years have added up, which is, I've become aware that when I interview somebody, it could be the only time I get to hang out and have a conversation with them for years, even if we have a lot of fun.
I didn't appreciate that when I was starting out. I thought, oh, I'm making new friends by doing this, and... But really, like, if people have been on the Rhythm Changes podcast in 2021, 2022, it's quite possible - a lot of those people, I haven't spent time with them since, even if they're in Vancouver. And I'm like, man, that kinda sucks.
But I mean, it's cool. I know that the people are there, but you just ... It really makes your capacity for people kinda stark. So many things about doing Rhythm Changes have made me become aware of that. And so, I just wanna have the best time possible with that person, because in the back of my mind it's like, oh, this might be the only long conversation I have with this person for four or five years, even if I see them for five or ten seconds once every month or so.
So I really gotta enjoy this, and if we can hang out afterwards, you know, I really wanna enjoy it while this person has given me their time. And my appreciation for that grows every year. And to be real, you know, I've interviewed people who have passed away. You know, similar kind of thing.
So I think about that more. I think I'm going to be considering that more and more every year. But I just realized that when you do something like Rhythm Changes, you create this surface area for people. It's an excuse for people to come and talk to you and hang with you, and I don't wanna...
It's almost, to me, it's a more well-fitted excuse for that than playing. Because playing is a great excuse like that, for me and for so many people. It puts us in contact with people we really love and care about and wanna spend time with. But for me, Rhythm Changes can do that too, so I think about that a lot.
Here are my podcast episodes from 2023 or older with an assortment of people I feel that way about – not people with whom I've genuinely lost touch, but ones who I still see often but for seconds at a time, years after our only long conversation.
