1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:19,280 Welcome to Students Incorporated, a podcast where we dive into relevant topics and issues 2 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:23,600 related to the world of business, technology, education, and design. 3 00:00:23,600 --> 00:00:25,600 I'm your host, Mr. Jason. 4 00:00:25,600 --> 00:00:29,980 Episodes include student conversations, interviews with thought leaders, and inspirational stories 5 00:00:29,980 --> 00:00:31,980 with an international flavor. 6 00:00:31,980 --> 00:00:35,920 This podcast is created and produced with the help of students from the International 7 00:00:35,920 --> 00:00:37,920 Community School of Bangkok. 8 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:51,600 In today's episode, we'll be interviewing a local celebrity, Mr. Jonas Andersen. 9 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:56,040 We'll be discussing his career and what it's like to be in the entertainment industry. 10 00:00:56,040 --> 00:00:59,600 But first, let's hear the quote of the day and get some headline news. 11 00:00:59,600 --> 00:01:02,320 Our quote of the day comes from our celebrity guest. 12 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:03,320 He says, 13 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:05,240 Fame and acclaim are fickle. 14 00:01:05,240 --> 00:01:09,720 If we measure success by popularity and public affection, we will be disappointed. 15 00:01:09,720 --> 00:01:12,360 Focus on having a passion for excellence. 16 00:01:12,360 --> 00:01:16,120 This is how we can make a difference and have a lasting impact. 17 00:01:16,120 --> 00:01:19,840 These are very wise words and great advice from Mr. Jonas. 18 00:01:19,840 --> 00:01:22,520 Now, let's hear our headline news. 19 00:01:22,520 --> 00:01:27,280 SpaceX's Starship, which was the most powerful rocket built, launched in South Texas but 20 00:01:27,280 --> 00:01:28,460 exploded midair. 21 00:01:28,460 --> 00:01:30,280 This was the rocket's first test flight. 22 00:01:30,280 --> 00:01:34,680 The super-heavy rocket booster was scheduled to separate from the spacecraft after two 23 00:01:34,680 --> 00:01:35,680 and a half minutes. 24 00:01:35,680 --> 00:01:39,080 But once the flight reached 39 kilometers above the ground, it exploded. 25 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:43,280 The SpaceX team will continue to review the data and solve the problem before their next 26 00:01:43,280 --> 00:01:44,280 flight test. 27 00:01:44,280 --> 00:01:48,080 A lion has been spotted in Chad's Sina Aura National Park. 28 00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:53,680 Lions have not been seen there since 2004 and were believed to be extinct until this 29 00:01:53,680 --> 00:01:54,680 sighting. 30 00:01:54,680 --> 00:01:57,640 There are fewer than 1,000 northern lions in West and Central Africa. 31 00:01:57,640 --> 00:02:01,700 The region witnessed a period of poaching around a decade ago, but the governments of 32 00:02:01,700 --> 00:02:04,440 Cameroon and Chad have committed to conservation. 33 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:09,200 Our final headline news is related to news company BuzzFeed News, which had launched 34 00:02:09,200 --> 00:02:11,480 in 2012, is shutting down. 35 00:02:11,480 --> 00:02:14,880 This is because of a 15% workforce reduction across teams. 36 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:18,120 Due to these layoffs, BuzzFeed News can no longer be funded. 37 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:24,640 BuzzFeed will have a single news brand health post, which BuzzFeed acquired in 2020. 38 00:02:24,640 --> 00:02:26,860 Thank you for the quote and headline news. 39 00:02:26,860 --> 00:02:31,720 Let's begin the first part of our interview with Mr. Jonas Andersson, a local celebrity 40 00:02:31,720 --> 00:02:33,440 here in Thailand. 41 00:02:33,440 --> 00:02:36,460 Our first question is, how did you become Jonas Andersson? 42 00:02:36,460 --> 00:02:37,460 Is that your stage name? 43 00:02:37,460 --> 00:02:38,460 Okay. 44 00:02:38,460 --> 00:02:39,460 Well, hello everyone. 45 00:02:39,460 --> 00:02:40,540 This is Jonas here. 46 00:02:40,540 --> 00:02:44,680 This is an interesting story actually, because my heritage is Swedish. 47 00:02:44,680 --> 00:02:49,240 So I'm from Sweden and we pronounce things a little bit differently in Sweden from an 48 00:02:49,240 --> 00:02:51,720 English or certainly other parts of the world. 49 00:02:51,720 --> 00:02:58,260 So my name, my surname is actually Vod and Holm, which written in English or American 50 00:02:58,260 --> 00:03:03,480 pronunciation would be Waddenholm or Wade in Holm or something like that. 51 00:03:03,480 --> 00:03:09,160 And so Waddenholm didn't work real great in Thailand. 52 00:03:09,160 --> 00:03:11,080 It would be like Waddenholm. 53 00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:18,120 So next up presenting, Jonas Waddenholm somehow just didn't have the right ring. 54 00:03:18,120 --> 00:03:24,000 So it was not a very involved process coming up with a stage name. 55 00:03:24,000 --> 00:03:28,200 It's just like, okay, I like the name Andrew and I need something Swedish. 56 00:03:28,200 --> 00:03:29,820 So it's just going to be Andersson. 57 00:03:29,820 --> 00:03:32,180 And that was the extent of it. 58 00:03:32,180 --> 00:03:33,240 And that stuck with me. 59 00:03:33,240 --> 00:03:35,840 I guess I didn't expect it to stick so long. 60 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:37,880 Our next question is more lighthearted. 61 00:03:37,880 --> 00:03:41,880 Who is the most famous person you have in your contacts or that you have ever met in 62 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:42,880 person? 63 00:03:42,880 --> 00:03:47,800 I'm happy that I heard about this question in advance because it's a tough one. 64 00:03:47,800 --> 00:03:50,680 I'll just go with a dual and surf. 65 00:03:50,680 --> 00:03:56,280 So the most famous person I ever met, Thais will know him. 66 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:57,920 His name is Nadet. 67 00:03:57,920 --> 00:04:05,340 So Nadet is like a major A-lister actor, actually presently very, very famous. 68 00:04:05,340 --> 00:04:06,340 He's not a singer. 69 00:04:06,340 --> 00:04:07,560 He's an actor. 70 00:04:07,560 --> 00:04:11,640 But even if you're not Thai, if you've been spending any time in Bangkok, you will have 71 00:04:11,640 --> 00:04:13,960 seen him on billboards or here or there. 72 00:04:13,960 --> 00:04:16,540 So he's a, he's a big, big actor. 73 00:04:16,540 --> 00:04:20,680 And I actually had a chance to sit down with him and have a, have a meal. 74 00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:24,220 I wasn't with him one-on-one, but it was a small group. 75 00:04:24,220 --> 00:04:26,280 So that was an interesting experience. 76 00:04:26,280 --> 00:04:34,260 And the most unexpected place I met another huge, huge celebrity in Thailand who is an 77 00:04:34,260 --> 00:04:38,560 artist from the nineties was in a supermarket. 78 00:04:38,560 --> 00:04:41,560 So not in my stage place. 79 00:04:41,560 --> 00:04:45,040 But in that case, we just bumped into each other. 80 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:46,400 And of course we both knew each other. 81 00:04:46,400 --> 00:04:48,800 So we just said, and said hello. 82 00:04:48,800 --> 00:04:54,120 An interesting thing about that story is that Darren was actually with me that day and Darren 83 00:04:54,120 --> 00:04:56,160 remembered him from billboards and stuff. 84 00:04:56,160 --> 00:04:57,880 It's like, dad, dad, look at that. 85 00:04:57,880 --> 00:05:00,120 Isn't that this guy we saw him on the, oh yeah. 86 00:05:00,120 --> 00:05:01,120 Yeah. 87 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:02,120 So I walked over and said hi. 88 00:05:02,120 --> 00:05:05,840 And I said, you know, my, my son's here would like to take a photo with you. 89 00:05:05,840 --> 00:05:12,080 But in my contacts, the biggest name artists that I have in my contacts is at Carabao's. 90 00:05:12,080 --> 00:05:15,640 So Carabao is a rock Thai rock band. 91 00:05:15,640 --> 00:05:17,040 They're living legends. 92 00:05:17,040 --> 00:05:19,000 It's a huge, huge band. 93 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:23,560 And at is like, yeah, one of the biggest selling artists of all time in Thailand. 94 00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,560 So moving on to your early career, what was it like going on tour and what countries did 95 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:28,560 you visit? 96 00:05:28,560 --> 00:05:32,680 Well, actually my, my career in music started out very local. 97 00:05:32,680 --> 00:05:37,900 I actually had zero expectations that I would tour internationally whatsoever. 98 00:05:37,900 --> 00:05:44,280 So in the first year after launching my first album, it was really grueling travel. 99 00:05:44,280 --> 00:05:48,480 I spent most of my life in vans on the road. 100 00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:53,920 In fact, I think there's, there was a month where I only slept in my own bed for like 101 00:05:53,920 --> 00:05:57,900 two nights or something that whole month out of the 31 days. 102 00:05:57,900 --> 00:05:59,600 So that was pretty grueling. 103 00:05:59,600 --> 00:06:03,280 We were pretty much just on the road for a few months. 104 00:06:03,280 --> 00:06:04,280 It's seasonal. 105 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:09,440 So it's basically like in Thailand for this type of music, it's after the end of raining 106 00:06:09,440 --> 00:06:14,400 season through the new year up to about the water festival or songkran. 107 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:19,920 So during that period in the first year, it was, it was pretty full time on the road. 108 00:06:19,920 --> 00:06:26,000 However, as it turns out, I ended up touring abroad a bit, not in the traditional sense. 109 00:06:26,000 --> 00:06:30,960 It wasn't like go on tour for three months or six months, but it was on trips because 110 00:06:30,960 --> 00:06:34,100 there's a big Thai community in the U S for example. 111 00:06:34,100 --> 00:06:39,100 So I did quite a bit of touring in major cities of the U S, especially LA where the biggest 112 00:06:39,100 --> 00:06:44,760 Thai community is, but also Houston, New York, Chicago, all these big cities. 113 00:06:44,760 --> 00:06:47,080 And that wasn't something I expected to happen. 114 00:06:47,080 --> 00:06:51,340 For our next question, we'd love to know what were some of your favorite songs you produced 115 00:06:51,340 --> 00:06:54,240 and performed and do you have a favorite album? 116 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:59,920 So whenever I get the favorites question, uh, the challenge with that is that generally 117 00:06:59,920 --> 00:07:05,720 speaking my favorite songs or favorite records have not been the most famous ones. 118 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:12,360 Uh, like I've had some relatively big hits and of course I love all of the songs and 119 00:07:12,360 --> 00:07:14,400 the process and everything. 120 00:07:14,400 --> 00:07:19,740 Probably looking back, one of my biggest hits was actually about 10 years ago when I released 121 00:07:19,740 --> 00:07:23,320 this tongue twister song, which was quite big in YouTube. 122 00:07:23,320 --> 00:07:28,400 And my first album was as far as actual CD sales or album sales was the best selling 123 00:07:28,400 --> 00:07:31,880 album. And it was also very big on the charts. 124 00:07:31,880 --> 00:07:33,120 At the time it was radio. 125 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,960 It was no, no views or streams or anything like that. 126 00:07:36,960 --> 00:07:40,000 That album charted on the radio all over the country. 127 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:45,320 So I would say that that was my favorite because it was kind of my initiation and my baptism 128 00:07:45,320 --> 00:07:47,320 by fire into the whole thing. 129 00:07:47,320 --> 00:07:52,000 As far as favorite songs, usually they've been special songs that I've produced for 130 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:53,880 a special purpose. 131 00:07:53,880 --> 00:07:59,600 Like for example, when his majesty King Rama the nine passed away, I wrote a song and produced 132 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,220 a song in English. 133 00:08:01,220 --> 00:08:02,680 It was a legacy song. 134 00:08:02,680 --> 00:08:05,900 It was to celebrate his life, his accomplishments. 135 00:08:05,900 --> 00:08:07,120 And I really liked that song. 136 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:08,120 I liked that project. 137 00:08:08,120 --> 00:08:12,520 It felt very personal to me and the whole experience was quite personal. 138 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:18,840 And actually just last year I wrote and produced a song also in English, uh, which was a tribute 139 00:08:18,840 --> 00:08:20,900 to people with Down syndrome. 140 00:08:20,900 --> 00:08:24,720 I think my favorite songs have been the songs with more of a story. 141 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:29,800 It's not just about entertainment, but it's, it's using music as the medium to communicate. 142 00:08:29,800 --> 00:08:36,200 But in both of those cases, those were not at all my most famous or most successful songs. 143 00:08:36,200 --> 00:08:40,120 Moving on to the today, what's it like trying to balance your personal life and professional 144 00:08:40,120 --> 00:08:42,200 life while having music on the side? 145 00:08:42,200 --> 00:08:43,200 Okay. 146 00:08:43,200 --> 00:08:47,880 Well, it's always been a bit of a juggling act with having a personal life. 147 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:49,160 You need a safe space. 148 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,120 You need to retreat from the public eye. 149 00:08:52,120 --> 00:08:56,680 And I know that this is a challenge for many entertainers, especially if you become quote 150 00:08:56,680 --> 00:09:03,480 unquote a celebrity, you know, then it's a challenge to kind of, uh, not make that identify 151 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,220 you too much. 152 00:09:05,220 --> 00:09:10,200 Because if you allow fame to identify you as a person, then you're in a constant roller 153 00:09:10,200 --> 00:09:13,600 coaster ride because the nature of fame is it's up and down. 154 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:19,080 Like you'll have these peaks where like everyone is singing your praises and everyone's, you 155 00:09:19,080 --> 00:09:23,160 know, you know, not falling at your feet, but you, you get all the laurels and the, 156 00:09:23,160 --> 00:09:26,120 and the, and the acclaim and the news media and all this stuff. 157 00:09:26,120 --> 00:09:28,360 And then you'll just have a time where it's just gone. 158 00:09:28,360 --> 00:09:31,600 It's just like dead and dry. 159 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:39,120 So if you tie yourself to that too much, it's very emotionally stressful and it can be even 160 00:09:39,120 --> 00:09:40,760 psychologically damaging. 161 00:09:40,760 --> 00:09:46,940 So, so I always needed to have a kind of roots and I always had to have somewhere to escape 162 00:09:46,940 --> 00:09:52,480 to where I could just be another guy, you know, and thankfully having a family allowed 163 00:09:52,480 --> 00:09:57,760 that because your kids can be your biggest fans, but also your biggest critics, right? 164 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,520 And they definitely are not going to treat you like a celebrity. 165 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,240 They're going to bring you down to earth. 166 00:10:02,240 --> 00:10:06,040 And I actually really embraced that because I felt like that was my safe space and that 167 00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:09,640 was my, my sort of ballast in life. 168 00:10:09,640 --> 00:10:14,200 Looking back again, what have been some of your favorite moments of your career? 169 00:10:14,200 --> 00:10:18,320 Some of my favorite moments have been the unusual experiences that this whole thing 170 00:10:18,320 --> 00:10:20,640 has brought about in my life. 171 00:10:20,640 --> 00:10:27,800 Like things I never expected to happen because of the unique dynamic of a, of a white guy 172 00:10:27,800 --> 00:10:30,000 in Thai, they call it Phu Lung, right? 173 00:10:30,000 --> 00:10:37,440 A white person who's the most unlikely person to be found in the local Thai country music 174 00:10:37,440 --> 00:10:38,440 scene. 175 00:10:38,440 --> 00:10:45,720 And, you know, having me be there allowed me to tell my story in rather unusual places. 176 00:10:45,720 --> 00:10:50,560 So early on in my career, I actually got interviewed by Time Magazine Asia. 177 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:55,160 So nowadays, time is probably not that major of a thing, but back then this was really 178 00:10:55,160 --> 00:10:57,560 huge and it wasn't time USA. 179 00:10:57,560 --> 00:11:02,800 So it's not maybe quite at the level of Time's person of the year or anything like that, 180 00:11:02,800 --> 00:11:08,360 but time anything is, was, was huge, you know, and I also actually appeared on CNN and some 181 00:11:08,360 --> 00:11:14,520 of the big news outlets at the time, which more than making me feel special or important 182 00:11:14,520 --> 00:11:19,300 actually made me feel like, okay, well, this is an amazing opportunity and responsibility 183 00:11:19,300 --> 00:11:25,600 more to, to kind of present things in a wholesome way and, and a meaningful way, something that 184 00:11:25,600 --> 00:11:31,760 brings it more about exchange, about, about cultural connection between cultures. 185 00:11:31,760 --> 00:11:38,280 And also at one point I was invited to perform at a theater, which happens to be the oldest 186 00:11:38,280 --> 00:11:41,480 theater in Sweden, my birthplace. 187 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:47,040 So the thing about that is that this is a stage that Thai acts don't go to perform, 188 00:11:47,040 --> 00:11:54,020 you know, it was a theater, which in the present day actually does feature more diverse performances 189 00:11:54,020 --> 00:11:59,280 and so on, but they actually hadn't had a Thai act of any kind in this theater. 190 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:03,680 And then somehow through some series of events, they kind of connected with me and they said, 191 00:12:03,680 --> 00:12:09,920 oh, we'd love to have you be the sort of representative for Thai culture in Sweden in this 150 year 192 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:10,920 old theater. 193 00:12:10,920 --> 00:12:13,760 So it was very surreal. 194 00:12:13,760 --> 00:12:19,480 And actually that was the only time I got to tour outside Thailand with a full entourage 195 00:12:19,480 --> 00:12:22,840 of musicians and dancers in this place. 196 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:27,920 And not because we were paid loads of money, but because the situation allowed for that. 197 00:12:27,920 --> 00:12:32,080 And in fact, the theater said, uh, your normal gig is not going to work here. 198 00:12:32,080 --> 00:12:36,160 Because normally when I tour just for practical reasons, I would use backing tracks and sing 199 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:40,080 live and they're like, we don't have backing tracks in this theater. 200 00:12:40,080 --> 00:12:41,080 That doesn't happen. 201 00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:42,800 So we're going to have to figure this out. 202 00:12:42,800 --> 00:12:48,520 And so a group of just four Thai band members traveled with me to Sweden. 203 00:12:48,520 --> 00:12:53,520 We had to do the whole thing and it was really amazing even for them because it was like, 204 00:12:53,520 --> 00:12:57,760 wow, we're in this ancient theater and this seems so classy. 205 00:12:57,760 --> 00:13:02,480 It was an amazing experience and the event was a big success, which also was a rewarding 206 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:03,620 feeling feeling. 207 00:13:03,620 --> 00:13:09,120 And in that process, we also did more of your typical type of media touring, you know, visiting 208 00:13:09,120 --> 00:13:11,040 big media outlets. 209 00:13:11,040 --> 00:13:15,900 And in fact, the whole team appeared live on a morning show, the biggest morning show 210 00:13:15,900 --> 00:13:20,360 of Sweden, which meant that after we had arrived with jet lag, we had to get up at 4 AM the 211 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:27,000 next morning to go into a TV studio to prepare, set up, plug in and practice and perform. 212 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:28,440 And that was amazing too. 213 00:13:28,440 --> 00:13:31,960 So it was, it was a stressful occasion, but very memorable. 214 00:13:31,960 --> 00:13:32,960 Okay. 215 00:13:32,960 --> 00:13:43,280 With that, we will be right back after this short PSA. 216 00:13:43,280 --> 00:13:46,440 Today is May 4th, which is known as Star Wars Day. 217 00:13:46,440 --> 00:13:51,440 This day comes from the fun May the fourth or May the force be with you. 218 00:13:51,440 --> 00:13:58,520 This phrase may the fourth be with you has been used from 1978 one year after the release 219 00:13:58,520 --> 00:14:00,760 of Star Wars A New Hope. 220 00:14:00,760 --> 00:14:06,200 Since Disney bought the franchise that day has been celebrated in Disneyland and Walt 221 00:14:06,200 --> 00:14:07,200 Disney World. 222 00:14:07,200 --> 00:14:12,320 To any Star Wars fans, happy Star Wars Day. 223 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:16,640 We are back with part two for with our interview with Mr. Jonas. 224 00:14:16,640 --> 00:14:21,200 What's it like being a celebrity despite having kids and a family on a practical level 225 00:14:21,200 --> 00:14:26,920 what's a little bit funny about being a quote unquote celebrity and having kids and a family 226 00:14:26,920 --> 00:14:31,760 is that when you're in the public eye, then you're always kind of noticeable and you're 227 00:14:31,760 --> 00:14:34,760 always recognizable in any setting. 228 00:14:34,760 --> 00:14:41,000 And so for me in Thailand, there's not really much of a buffer between you and fans. 229 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:45,560 Like pretty much you're sort of on call for a photo for an autograph or whatever. 230 00:14:45,560 --> 00:14:48,320 Nowadays, autographs are a little bit out because they'd rather just have a selfie. 231 00:14:48,320 --> 00:14:52,560 I mean, who needs a paper with a name versus having a picture with a person. 232 00:14:52,560 --> 00:14:56,840 And everyone has close at hand a camera in their phone where they can just do a selfie, 233 00:14:56,840 --> 00:14:57,840 right? 234 00:14:57,840 --> 00:14:59,060 So then selfies are big. 235 00:14:59,060 --> 00:15:04,880 So for the whole 20 plus years that I've been in the public eye and I've been in entertainment 236 00:15:04,880 --> 00:15:10,480 and all that I have had to be accessible because it's not a good look to kind of reject people 237 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:12,280 with a selfie. 238 00:15:12,280 --> 00:15:17,000 Even though you know, a lot of big name celebrities from Hollywood, they'll have bouncers, they'll 239 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:20,720 have a team, you know, they'll protect them, they'll keep people at an arm's length. 240 00:15:20,720 --> 00:15:23,360 But for me, that's never been my experience. 241 00:15:23,360 --> 00:15:28,520 Not that we didn't have security, but it was always a lot of accessibility. 242 00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:30,640 So people would come up at any time. 243 00:15:30,640 --> 00:15:35,080 And of course, like I was talking about that wave dynamic where you have these really big 244 00:15:35,080 --> 00:15:40,920 highs and then some lows, you know, so on the highs, the recognizability just like skyrockets 245 00:15:40,920 --> 00:15:41,920 as well. 246 00:15:41,920 --> 00:15:43,320 So it can be a bit stressful. 247 00:15:43,320 --> 00:15:49,200 I kind of get to sort of rationalize that or manage that emotionally by saying, well, 248 00:15:49,200 --> 00:15:54,280 it comes with the territory, you can't do music and release music and hope that it's 249 00:15:54,280 --> 00:15:58,320 going to be successful and then whine about people wanting to take selfies with you. 250 00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:00,520 That doesn't come that doesn't go together. 251 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:05,480 And if that is your response to it, then you haven't conditioned yourself to what you need 252 00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:06,480 to expect. 253 00:16:06,480 --> 00:16:09,600 Like what every artist wants is they want their music to get out there. 254 00:16:09,600 --> 00:16:10,600 They want it to be famous. 255 00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:11,600 They want it to be light. 256 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:14,800 They want people to listen to it, to buy it or whatever. 257 00:16:14,800 --> 00:16:18,520 Well, what comes with the territory is that people also want to engage with you and they 258 00:16:18,520 --> 00:16:22,040 want you to be a real person that they can access. 259 00:16:22,040 --> 00:16:26,960 So I'll just enter into the conversation here that the type of music that I've been doing 260 00:16:26,960 --> 00:16:32,600 my whole career, which is called Luk Thun or Thai country, the culture in that in that 261 00:16:32,600 --> 00:16:39,000 genre of music is that it tends to be very artist driven and there's a certain amount 262 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:42,680 of privacy that you get in terms of your family. 263 00:16:42,680 --> 00:16:46,680 So as a person, you don't really get a lot of privacy, but it's not been traditionally 264 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:51,560 the case that people have paraded their wife and kids around if they have them in that 265 00:16:51,560 --> 00:16:52,560 setting. 266 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,000 It's kind of like you're just the artist and then if you happen to have a family, it's 267 00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:58,480 kind of on your terms how comfortable you are with. 268 00:16:58,480 --> 00:17:00,160 Okay, do you want to expose that? 269 00:17:00,160 --> 00:17:03,000 Do you want to bring that to the media, to the public eye or do you not? 270 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,400 Do you want to bring your kids up on stage? 271 00:17:05,400 --> 00:17:09,320 And most, almost all Luk Thun artists choose not to. 272 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:14,240 They choose to kind of keep compartmentalized to keep that family life as a private thing, 273 00:17:14,240 --> 00:17:19,120 as a separate thing, even if it's widely known or accepted that they have a family. 274 00:17:19,120 --> 00:17:22,920 Nobody really steps in there and demands of them that they need to do something with their 275 00:17:22,920 --> 00:17:28,440 family and at first that was a little bit funny for me coming from a Western mindset 276 00:17:28,440 --> 00:17:32,720 because you would expect that everything is just public record. 277 00:17:32,720 --> 00:17:35,920 It's just available and accessible to the public. 278 00:17:35,920 --> 00:17:39,920 At first, industry insiders told me like, no, no, no, you need to keep that private. 279 00:17:39,920 --> 00:17:41,200 You don't need to talk about that. 280 00:17:41,200 --> 00:17:42,280 You're an artist. 281 00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:45,240 You just need to be you and the family side. 282 00:17:45,240 --> 00:17:46,360 They don't even know about that. 283 00:17:46,360 --> 00:17:51,360 And it felt a little bit fake to me at first, but then that dynamic actually ended up being 284 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:54,960 a blessing because then I could actually have roots. 285 00:17:54,960 --> 00:17:59,160 I could have like another alternate life where I could just be me. 286 00:17:59,160 --> 00:18:03,400 It could just be dad and it really helped to navigate through that. 287 00:18:03,400 --> 00:18:08,680 But when it becomes a little bit of a balancing act is when you're in public, right? 288 00:18:08,680 --> 00:18:13,000 I wasn't going to be like hiding off and we only show up in public in some other country. 289 00:18:13,000 --> 00:18:15,320 You know, that wasn't real life for us. 290 00:18:15,320 --> 00:18:16,320 We had to do life. 291 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:20,840 We had to just, you know, go to the mall or go to a restaurant or go to an amusement park 292 00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,720 or a swimming place. 293 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:27,840 So at that time I was Jonas with the family and people just kind of were really quite 294 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:29,200 natural about it. 295 00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:31,600 You know, they didn't really encroach upon that. 296 00:18:31,600 --> 00:18:33,280 You know, they still want to do the selfies. 297 00:18:33,280 --> 00:18:36,320 They still want to do whatever, but they didn't like, oh, and who's this? 298 00:18:36,320 --> 00:18:37,320 And what are they? 299 00:18:37,320 --> 00:18:39,520 You know, they just kind of leave that space, you know, OK. 300 00:18:39,520 --> 00:18:41,620 You know, they respected that privacy. 301 00:18:41,620 --> 00:18:48,480 So it's been interesting and unexpected, you know, how to navigate it between the celebrity 302 00:18:48,480 --> 00:18:52,080 persona and the individual private family guy. 303 00:18:52,080 --> 00:18:53,960 This next question is for Darren. 304 00:18:53,960 --> 00:18:56,000 What was it like having a famous dad? 305 00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:01,480 Well, I would definitely say that my dad just explaining that two part thing where there's 306 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:07,040 a bit of a famous life and a family life definitely makes a lot of sense because growing up, I 307 00:19:07,040 --> 00:19:10,080 never felt deprived of any fatherhoodness. 308 00:19:10,080 --> 00:19:11,720 I didn't feel like he wasn't home enough. 309 00:19:11,720 --> 00:19:14,320 I didn't feel like I didn't get to do normal things. 310 00:19:14,320 --> 00:19:16,600 Just like he said, we would just go out like a normal family. 311 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:20,220 We never had to worry about, oh, we're not going to go to this place because this. 312 00:19:20,220 --> 00:19:23,600 And you know, I do definitely agree with what he said in the sense that that is the Thai 313 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:25,480 culture is that one day. 314 00:19:25,480 --> 00:19:28,840 Even though him having a family wasn't public to the media, people weren't surprised. 315 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:33,880 I'm thinking now in my head about more like Western ice culture, about celebrities over 316 00:19:33,880 --> 00:19:34,880 there. 317 00:19:34,880 --> 00:19:38,280 If it was found out that they had children, let alone an entire family, and the media 318 00:19:38,280 --> 00:19:40,120 didn't know about it, they would like freak out. 319 00:19:40,120 --> 00:19:42,680 It would be like, well, like you have this man. 320 00:19:42,680 --> 00:19:46,240 But like you there, they would all just come to me and they're like, oh, you must be you 321 00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:47,240 must be his son. 322 00:19:47,240 --> 00:19:49,200 Like, you know, it's nothing like a surprise. 323 00:19:49,200 --> 00:19:51,160 They're just like, oh, this must be his son. 324 00:19:51,160 --> 00:19:52,520 This must be his wife. 325 00:19:52,520 --> 00:19:54,280 But there definitely have been some funny moments. 326 00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:57,600 I mean, now as a high schooler, you know, occasionally someone will come up to me and 327 00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:59,320 they'll be like, oh, your dad is that person. 328 00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:00,320 Right. 329 00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:01,320 And I'll be like, yeah. 330 00:20:01,320 --> 00:20:04,320 But it was definitely the biggest when I was in elementary, when I was in Thai school, 331 00:20:04,320 --> 00:20:08,400 because that's when he did release that tongue twister song, which was called Gwang Kao. 332 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:12,560 And I remember there was three songs that they played at every party at every group 333 00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:13,560 assembly. 334 00:20:13,560 --> 00:20:16,280 Oppa Gangwon style, another famous Thai song. 335 00:20:16,280 --> 00:20:17,280 And then Gwang Kao. 336 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:20,320 I don't remember the name of a second song, but that's the song they would always play 337 00:20:20,320 --> 00:20:21,440 because it was. 338 00:20:21,440 --> 00:20:23,680 And it wasn't even just because he was my dad. 339 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:24,680 I mean, they were playing it everywhere. 340 00:20:24,680 --> 00:20:25,680 It was a hit. 341 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,480 So that was definitely a funny moment because they would have dance competitions with that 342 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,080 song, playing it with like Gangwon style. 343 00:20:31,080 --> 00:20:32,760 It all kind of came out at the same time. 344 00:20:32,760 --> 00:20:36,240 So it was just funny moments like that to be like, wow, like I heard this song when 345 00:20:36,240 --> 00:20:37,240 it came out. 346 00:20:37,240 --> 00:20:39,680 Like I heard the I was there when he was like making it. 347 00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:42,680 So you know, there are definitely funny moments like that where it was like, wow, this is 348 00:20:42,680 --> 00:20:45,020 crazy that this is my dad on this song. 349 00:20:45,020 --> 00:20:47,520 Have you and Darren sang together? 350 00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:50,120 We've done our family, private family thing, right? 351 00:20:50,120 --> 00:20:55,520 You know, just like at home and just monkeying about, you know, sometimes we've done some 352 00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:58,480 makeshift karaoke night thing, you know, with the family. 353 00:20:58,480 --> 00:20:59,760 So we've done that. 354 00:20:59,760 --> 00:21:06,400 But actually the most iconic singing together moment was because of the Thai department 355 00:21:06,400 --> 00:21:13,720 of ICS here, because last Father's Day, last December, the Thai department asked Darren 356 00:21:13,720 --> 00:21:16,780 to invite me to perform with him for Father's Day. 357 00:21:16,780 --> 00:21:22,480 So we actually got up on stage together down in that sort of open flagpole area and sang 358 00:21:22,480 --> 00:21:28,040 that song that I wrote in honor of King Rama IX, whose birthday is also still Thai Father's 359 00:21:28,040 --> 00:21:29,040 Day. 360 00:21:29,040 --> 00:21:34,160 That was maybe the best way for that experience to happen in many ways, because it was a great 361 00:21:34,160 --> 00:21:41,040 place here where Darren is kind of a bit of a celebrity of his own and also that father-son 362 00:21:41,040 --> 00:21:46,960 dynamic as well as the greater subject matter of the father of the nation of Thailand. 363 00:21:46,960 --> 00:21:49,400 So it was a really nice mix. 364 00:21:49,400 --> 00:21:53,800 And I'm really happy that that was the time that we got to do it where it was the most 365 00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:55,600 meaningful and memorable. 366 00:21:55,600 --> 00:22:00,320 No, but yeah, to just add on one thing to that along the lines of the last question 367 00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:05,260 was, you know, people growing up would always ask me in Thai school, being the foreigner 368 00:22:05,260 --> 00:22:08,360 kid who can speak Thai, they were like, so you're next up, right? 369 00:22:08,360 --> 00:22:09,780 Like, what's the plan for you? 370 00:22:09,780 --> 00:22:11,000 Are you the next Jonas? 371 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,520 And I would always reply like, no, I want to be a football player. 372 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:15,280 I think I don't want to be a singer. 373 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,840 Like when I was younger, I didn't really care much for music. 374 00:22:18,840 --> 00:22:22,600 When he tried to maybe teach me, I didn't really so much interest in learning. 375 00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:27,200 But actually fairly recently, I have actually taken a love for music and singing kind of 376 00:22:27,200 --> 00:22:28,640 upon joining ICS. 377 00:22:28,640 --> 00:22:31,280 So yeah, being able to do that was really special. 378 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:34,240 Being able to sing that song, which is also personally one of my favorites too. 379 00:22:34,240 --> 00:22:36,800 Yeah, it was meaningful and a great experience. 380 00:22:36,800 --> 00:22:41,480 Darren, have you been to one of your dad's concert, if you have, what was that like? 381 00:22:41,480 --> 00:22:45,200 Off the top of my head, I know I've been to two, but I don't really remember the first 382 00:22:45,200 --> 00:22:46,200 one at all. 383 00:22:46,200 --> 00:22:48,120 I just remember that it was kind of a big concert. 384 00:22:48,120 --> 00:22:51,640 And I went there when I was really little and you know, that one had dancers and the 385 00:22:51,640 --> 00:22:56,440 stage and but I was too young to remember any more specific details about what it sounds 386 00:22:56,440 --> 00:22:57,440 like. 387 00:22:57,440 --> 00:23:00,920 But the second one was a smaller thing that I remember well, which was actually when we 388 00:23:00,920 --> 00:23:05,760 were in Sweden, when you performed at a Thai restaurant and we got to eat there and you 389 00:23:05,760 --> 00:23:10,040 know, it was a smaller group, but that was definitely probably the biggest memory of 390 00:23:10,040 --> 00:23:13,120 a concert in the height of a lot of those things. 391 00:23:13,120 --> 00:23:17,360 I was still very young kid, so I didn't really get to experience much of those. 392 00:23:17,360 --> 00:23:19,880 But the two times I did, I thought it was really cool. 393 00:23:19,880 --> 00:23:25,240 So back to Mr. Jonas, how would you say that becoming a father has affected both you in 394 00:23:25,240 --> 00:23:28,400 your career as a businessman and as a singer? 395 00:23:28,400 --> 00:23:34,640 Actually, I became a father before I became a singer and much of a businessman or career 396 00:23:34,640 --> 00:23:35,640 person. 397 00:23:35,640 --> 00:23:40,720 And I obviously I had a career, but I wasn't very career driven when I started having a 398 00:23:40,720 --> 00:23:48,240 family and it was an interesting thing that what launched my career was a very, very big 399 00:23:48,240 --> 00:23:52,480 TV show that quote unquote discovered me at an event. 400 00:23:52,480 --> 00:23:58,400 So the host like if you know American network television, you know, the night show and you 401 00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:03,940 know, these primetime nighttime shows, which are huge, you know, so pretty much when someone 402 00:24:03,940 --> 00:24:08,000 wants to promote themselves and they have the opportunity and the wherewithal to do 403 00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:13,000 so they want to show up on these types of shows, which have the highest ratings and 404 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:16,240 especially when internet wasn't so much of a thing. 405 00:24:16,240 --> 00:24:21,640 So nowadays, if you show up, you know, with one of these big name personalities, they 406 00:24:21,640 --> 00:24:26,680 have to use social media to kind of push that further and push that wider into the global 407 00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:27,680 audience. 408 00:24:27,680 --> 00:24:30,440 But they're still big, you know, they're still syndicated and they're all that. 409 00:24:30,440 --> 00:24:36,640 So in Thailand, the Thai version of night shows, variety night variety shows, there 410 00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:39,600 were just two of them at the time. 411 00:24:39,600 --> 00:24:44,800 And the host of one of these two like the show you want to be on if you want to be like 412 00:24:44,800 --> 00:24:49,800 way back then, it would be the Ed Sullivan show, which none of you guys would know anything 413 00:24:49,800 --> 00:24:50,800 about probably. 414 00:24:50,800 --> 00:24:55,200 But that was where Elvis was and the Beatles and all the biggest names, you know, back 415 00:24:55,200 --> 00:25:01,560 then, they would only feature the the up and coming chart topping hit acts, you know, so 416 00:25:01,560 --> 00:25:07,640 one of the two, the host and owner of this TV show saw me at an event where I was totally 417 00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:08,640 no name. 418 00:25:08,640 --> 00:25:10,680 I was a singer, but it wasn't anything. 419 00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:17,080 But I was I happened to be singing one of these Thai look, Tom Thai country songs, and 420 00:25:17,080 --> 00:25:20,280 he loved to discover acts and bring them on his TV show. 421 00:25:20,280 --> 00:25:24,080 But it was never something you could sort of navigate into yourself. 422 00:25:24,080 --> 00:25:25,440 It had to just happen to you. 423 00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:26,620 And it did happen to me. 424 00:25:26,620 --> 00:25:31,440 And so at the time, it was actually a New Year's Eve countdown event that I was performing 425 00:25:31,440 --> 00:25:32,440 at. 426 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:34,900 And he said, like, I want you on my show, you know, and I didn't recognize this guy 427 00:25:34,900 --> 00:25:36,360 because I wasn't in entertainment. 428 00:25:36,360 --> 00:25:37,740 I didn't watch Thai TV. 429 00:25:37,740 --> 00:25:41,840 So if I had been anyone else, I would have been shaking in my boots and like, sweating 430 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:44,800 like, oh, my God, I'm in the presence of this person. 431 00:25:44,800 --> 00:25:48,400 And like, I might get to go on a show, it would have been like the stepping stone to 432 00:25:48,400 --> 00:25:49,800 success for everyone. 433 00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,880 And for me, it was like, he was a guy like, hey, yeah, cool. 434 00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:56,080 Sure, you know, here's my number, call me up. 435 00:25:56,080 --> 00:26:00,920 And you know, and he never called me until six months later, his staff contacted me and 436 00:26:00,920 --> 00:26:04,160 says, oh, by the way, you know, we want to invite you on the show. 437 00:26:04,160 --> 00:26:07,960 So then I go on the show and overnight, everyone recognizes me. 438 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,080 It was just so weird. 439 00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:15,240 Once this show was aired, I was instantly known all over the place by everyone. 440 00:26:15,240 --> 00:26:17,160 And it's that big. 441 00:26:17,160 --> 00:26:19,760 It was a it was a huge moment. 442 00:26:19,760 --> 00:26:23,200 But on that TV show, I was just a guy who sang. 443 00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:24,200 Right. 444 00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:28,360 And so he's asking me like, oh, so you have a family, you know, are you married? 445 00:26:28,360 --> 00:26:29,360 Yeah. 446 00:26:29,360 --> 00:26:30,360 You know, Thai girls might like it. 447 00:26:30,360 --> 00:26:31,360 Like, oh, no, I'm married. 448 00:26:31,360 --> 00:26:32,360 I have two kids. 449 00:26:32,360 --> 00:26:35,900 You know, it was just like totally authentic and not at all contrived. 450 00:26:35,900 --> 00:26:40,920 So I actually launched my career in one of the biggest TV shows in the country in the 451 00:26:40,920 --> 00:26:42,440 way that nobody really would. 452 00:26:42,440 --> 00:26:46,220 If you aspired to be this big name artist, you wouldn't talk about your family and kids. 453 00:26:46,220 --> 00:26:48,000 But for me, I was just talking life, right? 454 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,080 I was just telling my story. 455 00:26:50,080 --> 00:26:54,280 And after that, as it so happened, like I explained, I didn't really put that front 456 00:26:54,280 --> 00:26:56,500 and center and I was able to separate the two. 457 00:26:56,500 --> 00:27:02,000 So in relation to like, well, how does being a father affect my professional life? 458 00:27:02,000 --> 00:27:06,520 And I would say that I think I've I've kind of touched on it already, that it keeps me 459 00:27:06,520 --> 00:27:07,520 grounded. 460 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,080 Fatherhood really brings out humanity. 461 00:27:10,080 --> 00:27:14,320 You know, like you have to deal with crisis moments. 462 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:15,900 It involves compassion. 463 00:27:15,900 --> 00:27:17,320 It involves discipline. 464 00:27:17,320 --> 00:27:19,100 It involves sacrifice. 465 00:27:19,100 --> 00:27:23,560 Having a family, having kids and everything is is one of the best character development 466 00:27:23,560 --> 00:27:26,000 experiences you can have for sure. 467 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:30,880 And it's also where in many situations, you're totally out of control. 468 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:33,140 And it's good for us to be out of control. 469 00:27:33,140 --> 00:27:37,400 It's not good for us to always have it all figured out and have everything under control. 470 00:27:37,400 --> 00:27:44,920 And so when we can, on a very personal, human and emotional level, navigate through things 471 00:27:44,920 --> 00:27:49,720 in life and we can bring those experiences to our professional lives, it gives us depth. 472 00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:53,620 It allows us to handle disappointment. 473 00:27:53,620 --> 00:27:58,220 It allows us to troubleshoot and and crisis manage. 474 00:27:58,220 --> 00:28:03,000 It allows us to interact with people because there's a lot that people talk about soft 475 00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:08,800 power and and soft skills and how you need to, you know, have good interpersonal relationship 476 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:09,800 skills. 477 00:28:09,800 --> 00:28:14,760 And when you have parenting, that's probably the best degree you can go through in terms 478 00:28:14,760 --> 00:28:18,480 of having interpersonal skills because everything's there. 479 00:28:18,480 --> 00:28:22,560 There's the aspect of like, well, you don't get a free pass. 480 00:28:22,560 --> 00:28:24,620 You don't get to control the game. 481 00:28:24,620 --> 00:28:28,280 You have to negotiate. 482 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:29,560 You've got a discipline. 483 00:28:29,560 --> 00:28:30,960 You've got to love. 484 00:28:30,960 --> 00:28:32,800 You've got to say sorry. 485 00:28:32,800 --> 00:28:33,840 You got to step back. 486 00:28:33,840 --> 00:28:34,840 You got to get involved. 487 00:28:34,840 --> 00:28:36,580 All these dynamics are there. 488 00:28:36,580 --> 00:28:40,920 So I recommend it for professional life. 489 00:28:40,920 --> 00:28:42,320 Try personal life. 490 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,920 Finally, before ending each episode, we like to ask our guests for advice. 491 00:28:46,920 --> 00:28:51,680 So Mr. Jonas, what advice would you give to someone who wants to get into the entertainment 492 00:28:51,680 --> 00:28:52,680 industry? 493 00:28:52,680 --> 00:28:57,160 Well, this is a great question because I think it's very relevant to our world today. 494 00:28:57,160 --> 00:29:02,540 In today's world, we have a whole new dynamic where anybody can become a celebrity. 495 00:29:02,540 --> 00:29:04,560 That was never the case before. 496 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:07,480 To become a famous singer, for example. 497 00:29:07,480 --> 00:29:11,760 Well, first of all, you had to work on your craft and that hasn't changed. 498 00:29:11,760 --> 00:29:16,080 To be a famous artist or musicians, you do have to learn to sing and learn to play the 499 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:17,880 instrument or whatever it is you're doing. 500 00:29:17,880 --> 00:29:20,460 But that certainly wasn't enough before. 501 00:29:20,460 --> 00:29:23,960 After you learned that stuff, then you had to be noticed. 502 00:29:23,960 --> 00:29:25,440 You had to be discovered. 503 00:29:25,440 --> 00:29:30,240 You had to have a recording contract, which involved a lot of money. 504 00:29:30,240 --> 00:29:33,160 And then you had to be released, which involved even more money. 505 00:29:33,160 --> 00:29:37,120 And then you had to be promoted, which involved more money even still. 506 00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,840 So it was hard to become famous. 507 00:29:39,840 --> 00:29:44,300 But now, someone might pick up their phone and do a TikTok and suddenly they've just 508 00:29:44,300 --> 00:29:51,600 become viral overnight without even any plan or marketing research or even training or 509 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:52,600 anything. 510 00:29:52,600 --> 00:29:58,480 And so what's really amazing about that in today's dynamic is that incredible talent 511 00:29:58,480 --> 00:30:04,920 can become recognized totally organically and can launch into the public sphere. 512 00:30:04,920 --> 00:30:10,080 And a lot of these are people who would never have quote unquote made it back in the day, 513 00:30:10,080 --> 00:30:12,920 because the executives wouldn't release them. 514 00:30:12,920 --> 00:30:17,360 They're like, no, nobody listens to that type of music or you're not good looking enough 515 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:20,720 or you're too old or you're too young or you're too this or you're too that. 516 00:30:20,720 --> 00:30:21,920 That would never happen. 517 00:30:21,920 --> 00:30:28,340 You know, nowadays, it's just an open field where anyone can go in and become famous. 518 00:30:28,340 --> 00:30:32,680 But then the kind of the downside of that is that people get a little bit more starry 519 00:30:32,680 --> 00:30:39,520 eyed, you know, and they have this aspiration, you know, to want to be famous, you know, 520 00:30:39,520 --> 00:30:43,080 to want to be recognized, to want to be seen, to want to go viral. 521 00:30:43,080 --> 00:30:49,800 And the problem with that is that it's kind of all back to front, because if you really, 522 00:30:49,800 --> 00:30:54,360 really want to go into the entertainment industry in whatever category it is, if you want to 523 00:30:54,360 --> 00:30:58,600 be a singer, if you want to be a musician, if you want to be an actor, you want to be 524 00:30:58,600 --> 00:31:05,240 a presenter, a TV personality, an emcee, what you really need to focus on is developing 525 00:31:05,240 --> 00:31:08,560 your skills, not how am I going to go viral? 526 00:31:08,560 --> 00:31:12,960 What am I going to do to make this famous and really blow up and pop off and all this 527 00:31:12,960 --> 00:31:13,960 stuff? 528 00:31:13,960 --> 00:31:17,760 That's not actually what you need to do to become an entertainment person. 529 00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:21,820 What you need to do is, okay, well, first of all, what are my skills? 530 00:31:21,820 --> 00:31:22,920 What are my talents? 531 00:31:22,920 --> 00:31:26,960 And you need to develop those and you need to be willing to put in the time and the effort 532 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:28,400 to make that happen. 533 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:33,160 And if you do, if you make it about the craft, if you make it about the skill, if you make 534 00:31:33,160 --> 00:31:39,440 it about taking your strongest areas and developing them and being pretty ruthless about that, 535 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:44,320 then more than just being the next viral act that comes and goes, what you're going to 536 00:31:44,320 --> 00:31:46,720 do is you're going to be developing art. 537 00:31:46,720 --> 00:31:48,920 And what this world really needs is art. 538 00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:51,720 It doesn't need another viral video. 539 00:31:51,720 --> 00:31:57,840 It needs something that actually has an impact on culture and that people can be inspired 540 00:31:57,840 --> 00:31:59,960 by that they can drive further. 541 00:31:59,960 --> 00:32:05,840 So I really strongly advise any aspiring artists and entertainers out there that please, if 542 00:32:05,840 --> 00:32:10,820 you really want to be that, don't be starry eyed about success and fame and popularity 543 00:32:10,820 --> 00:32:11,920 and being viral. 544 00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:15,720 Make it about developing yourself as an artist. 545 00:32:15,720 --> 00:32:17,120 Think of it as art. 546 00:32:17,120 --> 00:32:19,660 What are you going to leave with this planet? 547 00:32:19,660 --> 00:32:22,400 What are people are going to remember you by when you're gone? 548 00:32:22,400 --> 00:32:27,080 And then what happens is all the viral stuff and the funny things and the quippy things 549 00:32:27,080 --> 00:32:31,640 and the all that, that becomes means to an end, not the end in itself. 550 00:32:31,640 --> 00:32:35,640 And if you do that, then chances are that you're going to have a lot more staying power 551 00:32:35,640 --> 00:32:37,600 as an entertainer as well. 552 00:32:37,600 --> 00:32:38,600 Okay. 553 00:32:38,600 --> 00:32:42,720 With that great advice, thank you so much for joining us, Mr. Anderson. 554 00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:47,760 It's been a pleasure to have you. 555 00:32:47,760 --> 00:32:51,600 As we end this episode, we'd like to thank our guests and listeners for supporting the 556 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:52,800 podcast. 557 00:32:52,800 --> 00:32:57,880 This week's episode will feature a conversation with a psychology and sociology teacher and 558 00:32:57,880 --> 00:33:00,500 we'll also include two top 10 lists. 559 00:33:00,500 --> 00:33:01,540 So stay tuned. 560 00:33:01,540 --> 00:33:06,400 As always, this podcast would not be possible without the hard work and support of our international 561 00:33:06,400 --> 00:33:07,760 student production team. 562 00:33:07,760 --> 00:33:11,640 All music and sound effects are courtesy of pixelbay.com, a vibrant community of creatives 563 00:33:11,640 --> 00:33:14,040 sharing copy free images, videos, and music. 564 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:16,200 And we are signing off until next time. 565 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:23,400 We're students incorporated because your voice matters.