You are listening to the PianoPod, where we talk to the brightest minds in the industry
about how they are bringing the piano into the 21st century.
Hi, everybody.
Welcome back to the PianoPod.
I'm Yukimi Song.
I'm Clara Jem.
And I am Eric Hunter.
All right.
How are you guys doing?
Hi!
Mike, is this?
Here we are.
So let me explain.
This episode is a special episode, bonus episode, to celebrate our 10th episode of...
Oh my gosh, we made it to 10.
Yay!
10th episode!
So what are we doing today, Eric?
Oh, so we are having happy hour.
Hey, cheers everyone!
That's right.
This is called the PianoPod happy hour episode.
And basically, that's right, we're basically reviewing the past from the introductory
episode to episode number five.
We're gonna just talk about them and laugh about them, our success and failures.
Yeah.
Funny failures in the early episodes on our part.
For sure, even recently.
But you know, we learn from the failures.
So I'm excited about this episode.
And well, basically, we are good friends, right?
Totally.
Yeah, even before we started this podcasting, we were really close friends.
We got to know each other.
And then just, you know, this past summer, we just decided to do this.
Well, pandemic hit, we had to, we're so used to being productive, right?
So we had to do something.
For the world, really.
And good for our souls too.
Yeah, I mean, I'll say it's been really great for me.
I mean, this podcast has become, it almost feels like my full time job.
I mean, it is and we do a lot of other things, all three of us.
But we're just really dedicated to it.
And we put a lot of time into it.
It feels like really satisfying.
We get to talk to amazing people, become better friends, learn so much.
And once again, we have to thank you, Kimi, because it was her brainchild.
Exactly.
Oh, totally.
Honestly, I, somebody told me when I wasn't studying at NYU, back in 2007, 2008, this
professor, and he said, you should do podcasting.
I was like, all right, what is podcasting?
At the time I was like, cool, less.
And he said, it's basically a radio show, but it's a little bit more casual approach.
And I was like, okay, because he knew that I had a communications background in terms
of my degree.
So I was like, well, but you know, I just moved to New York City.
I had basically, I had no one.
So I had to start my own life before I can launch anything.
So that idea was there, but it was just gone, you know, for at that moment, at that time.
Then obviously the pandemic happens and I was trying to do a video, V-log, or hoping
to do a podcast for my own piano studio and featuring my student.
However, the thing is, it was great.
It went very well.
But after XO2-3, it's like, who is going to be on my show?
Because these are all my students and I have only, you know what I mean?
And then some students are only nine, 10.
What are they going to talk about?
How was your day?
Good.
How was your piano practice?
Good.
So then, you know, I was like, oh, but I wish I could do this in a podcast.
I wish I could continue.
Then one day it hit me, hmm, you know, we usually meet once a month.
Well, this is Eric's idea, the open forum, where we talk about piano, you know, in so
many topics related to piano.
I was like, why?
How can we, why don't we bring this into a different platform instead of just meeting
together as a group in New York City?
That we can, you know, do this globally, globally, eventually.
So yeah.
Yeah.
And we have been.
Yeah.
I'm going to talk about this more, but we've had some great global outreach with this podcast,
which I'm very proud of.
And it's really amazing, the people that you can reach through the power of the internet.
Right.
Yeah.
But, but yeah, I just, you know, open forum was really nice and we were having it in person
and I've tried to continue it virtually.
And we've had some very good conversations, but you know, like the previous summer we
had a barbecue here.
Oh my goodness.
We had like wine on the rooftop and that was really fun.
And so yeah, it definitely left a hole and we couldn't get together anymore.
But this podcast has turned into a whole new thing.
You know, it's taken on a life of its own.
I know.
And actually I am, this is more than what I expected.
What I am, I am learning or gaining from this whole experience is such a passion project
and yeah.
Oh my gosh.
Every episode is like a masterclass.
I mean, in a way I almost feel like we're more connected now than ever before.
Right.
I mean, I always go came to the forum when Eric used to have it for breakfast at his
house, you know, he cook us great breakfast and we talk about piano or related.
Kimmy is always there.
And I remembered the very first time I couldn't make it.
I was like, well, I would just call in, you know, and then after that we started to have
more calling in and the pandemic hit and everything was just online.
And you know, I mean, really like you can restart this and this is just amazing.
You know, we get to be so close and kind of motivate each other and you know, some days
are good, some days are not great, but yet we have each other.
That's right.
That's the best, you know, so we're not alone in it.
Yeah.
I should mention to our audience that you guys don't know because we only put out content
once or twice a month, but the three of us are talking all day long about piano pot because
there's so much to do in editing episodes, finding new guests, setting up interviews,
social media takes up a ton of time, which is mostly Clara and Yukimi, I have to say.
Newsletter, newsletters, Spotify playlist.
And even finding guests sometimes, you know, takes, starting at the first episode, we had
to read the whole book, a psychology book, and I was like, oh my goodness.
Yes.
Yeah.
Fortunately that was during the summer.
Although it was well worth the read.
It was good.
I loved it.
Yeah.
It was just funny.
But honestly, he's the one.
Well, so because of the podcast, V-LOG I was doing and he saw the link, our first guest,
Dr. John Skidmore.
Did you talk about that?
Yeah.
And he's the one, he says, I want to be on the show, but I told him, well, this is, this
show V-LOG I am doing for my piano studio.
It's called Conversations with a Piano Student is for piano students.
So not for, right, cheers.
So not for, you know, professionals.
So you know, then that actually gave me, you know, idea of, let me talk to Eric and Clara,
you know, they're really close friends and I trust them.
And actually I've known Clara for a long time.
Oh my God.
A long time.
I know.
I remember I came to your house for Christmas one time.
Yeah.
It was like the most miserable year in my life.
I didn't know too many people yet here.
We all just moved here.
You're like, and I'm not that social person, but can you just, would you like to come to
my house?
I was like, she's so nice.
Okay.
We were all a bunch of lonely people that Christmas together.
We came to New York with a simple dream to be a musician, you know, and I think we should
be so proud of ourselves.
You know, that's right.
By the way, guys, what are you drinking tonight?
Okay.
I'm drinking red wine blend.
It's a blend of Merlot and something else.
I ordered a case from this company.
So yeah.
Well, it's a COVID style.
We're inside.
We can't be.
That's right.
What about you?
I am going to pour a little out.
I started last time when I had our happy hour.
It's a blue note.
I figured it has music on it.
It's bourbon.
I don't want to drink something this heavy for our show.
We have to.
Eric, what about yours?
I'm going to have a good time.
So I have to admit I'm not really a beer drinker, but I have here a Schaffer Hoffer.
Sorry.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
I like that one.
But I mean, this is basically juice.
It's grapefruit beer, you know, right.
But it's, it goes down really easy.
I like it a lot.
Hey, great.
Anyway, so before we get too drunk, so let's get going.
Yeah.
What I want to talk about is what went wrong with the first episode.
Do we start from what went wrong?
Yeah.
We have to admit to our mistakes.
Dr. Skinmore was a great guest with amazing material.
And we had a pre-meeting where we had multiple pre-meetings, right?
I don't think we had so many meetings with subsequent guests and read the book.
So excited.
And guys, anyone who's listening, seriously, if you haven't checked out his stuff yet,
you really have to.
It is absolutely life changing.
His book is Conquer Anxiety.
Conquer Anxiety.
And it was our first interview.
We actually even recorded it before we did the intro to the piano pod.
This is Who We Are.
And boy, we messed up a lot.
Okay.
What's the big number one mess?
What's the number one problem?
Okay.
So first of all, just to like cut ourselves a little bit of slack, it turns out it's actually
very difficult to do an interview show online because we don't want to be talking over each
other because it's Zoom.
It's not like we're together in person with a single camera where that kind of thing works
itself out.
We were worried about like messing up the audio feed by having people, by having crosstalk.
It turns out it's not that much of a problem.
But because of that, that made us very shy about jumping in and talking over anybody.
And then we kind of...
Well, yeah.
It's a very serious topic, right?
To begin with.
Yeah.
But we let Dr. Skidmore talk for 20 minutes straight, which is like, yeah, that was like
hard on him, first of all.
I think he just felt like he had to keep going.
And we kind of just didn't know how to get in there.
I mean, we were not experienced interviewers at the time.
And I think all three of us were just kind of like, what do we do?
I also want to say we're respectful, right?
It's like when I talk to my third cousin, I don't even want to jump in sometimes, right?
When you listen to a lecture, you don't want to just interfere, right?
I mean...
Well, yeah, that's the thing.
That was the other thing.
He didn't stop long enough for us to kind of catch our breaths and get in there again
because we were inexperienced with that.
So he just kept going and going until finally we're like, oh my God.
And another funny thing is, some reason, all the shots, all the speaker view on Zoom is
sensitive to the sound, right?
So basically whoever is talking is on a speaker view, but some reason the microphone of...
Or maybe the squeaky sound of your chair.
Yeah, that's what I suspected.
Yeah, catching...
The microphone was catching the squeaky sound.
So every single second of the speaker view was on Eric.
That was before we did recording both speaker view and gallery view, right?
Exactly.
So we only had one recording and it was of my face half the time, not saying anything.
So that was pretty embarrassing.
It was hard.
That was one of the hardest episodes.
Yeah, that was the first episode that Ukiime ever edited because Ukiime does all the video
editing, which is a huge job and she had the biggest job with this first episode.
Which is a disaster visually.
Yeah.
And it was like hot summer day.
Everybody's out partying and Ukiime is spending 10 hours a day at home editing.
Oh yeah, totally.
Yeah.
So for anybody who's just listened to it and has not checked out our YouTube channel, if
you want to see me looking totally incompetent, there you go.
Well, also...
Go ahead, Claire.
Because it's just coming to the point that we didn't really know how to chime in.
And I remember so vividly, I had that episode.
I keep on seeing that green box, keep on going to Eric, but I didn't have the courage, let's
say, to even just speak up because I was just so worried we're recording.
I did about to mess up.
But had I just said something, everything could have been fixed.
So it's just talking about experience.
Yeah, live and learn.
Right, exactly.
And also what makes me laugh is the introductory video.
Oh yeah.
So that was our next taping.
Right.
Oh, Mr. Percival.
I'm like so nervous, right?
So and then reading every word on that script that we created.
So I was like, yeah, hi, my name is Yuzumi.
Nice to meet you.
That's the way I would say it.
I just watched it right before this because I wanted to go back.
It wasn't so bad.
Really?
Yeah, it wasn't so bad.
But it is true that we've tried to really figure out a better balance between how to
script things and how to be more spur of the moment because scripted stuff generally doesn't
turn out well.
But of course, we want to make sure we hit the most important points with every guess
so we have our notes at least.
That's something we're getting better at.
Right.
But you know what jumped out to me when I watched it was that you were tiny.
Oh, I was really far.
Yeah, far away.
Yeah, that was before we kind of adjusted where we were sitting.
Exactly.
And how my head was like, oh, the camera.
I remember showing to my mother and she was like, where is your forehead?
Oh yeah.
So that's funny.
Well, we're learning, you know, step at a time, right?
Yeah, exactly.
We're getting better.
That's right.
So that was the first episode.
So that was the intro.
And then episode two is Vera Anselmo.
That's right.
Who, which I knew personally, because Vera was my boss for three years when I first moved
to New York and, you know, we kept a good relationship.
And I think Eric brought, you know, Vera out in the beginning.
And I mean, she's kind of well known piano business owner and she owns a lot of schools.
So we brought her in and it was great episode, except there's so many ideas and we had, you
know, we wanted to make it casual, but it just ends up being story after story after
story.
And I think it also became kind of difficult for Yukimi to edit later on because we didn't
really have a defined.
Like now we kind of have, you know, for those audience that are have been following us for
a while.
Now we kind of have a sort of a setup, right?
We have a past, present, future, and we have, you know, how we come in.
But in the beginning, we were just, especially after the first episode, we were like, oh,
let's try to be a little more casual.
And I remember I had to stop the interview in the middle, which I think eventually did
help a little bit.
And we were like, okay, let's take a chill pill for a second.
And then we restarted.
And I remember that was, you know, that was the first time we were kind of even brave
enough to do something, you know?
Right.
Yeah.
What was your experience with this guys?
This is like an absolute.
Honestly, that's the episode I realized, maybe we shouldn't have had that really long, meaningful
pre-interview meeting because the pre-interview meeting was just so amazing.
I mean, it was great.
Yeah.
Don't get me wrong.
But it was great.
So I think that's the time.
Hmm.
Maybe we can have, but we kept going with going on with this long pre-interview meeting for
a while anyway.
But I think that's a time that I realized maybe.
Yeah.
But I think, you know, Vera, Ms. Anselmo is an experienced interviewee.
That's true.
She was so great.
She was amazing.
She was a great speaker.
Yep.
And I love her toughness in terms of building the business and managing even during the COVID.
Sure.
But.
She has such a great attitude.
I know.
Oh, I love her strengths, but she has this such a warm quality, like almost like a mother,
like motherly quality.
I really love that.
And she says something amazing, amazing thing, you know, toward the end of the interview
about COVID.
And it was a good timing too.
I thought the way she spoke about COVID and like, you know, so many musicians are suffering
through this, but the way she talked about it, she had so much grace, you know?
And it was just really beautiful.
Just take it in stride, you know, see it as a time to reflect.
I mean, okay.
I understand there are people who can't pay their bills and people can't eat.
It's like, my brother is on, he's an unemployed musician.
He's literally on unemployment.
It's stressful.
That's a lot of musicians these days.
But I think her point was, you know, there's only so much we can control.
Right.
Try to get something out of this.
That's gonna, you know, so you're going to be better off.
Right.
Things go back to normal, whatever the new normal may be.
Yeah.
So, I mean, really it was a perfect candidate for our second episode.
You know, it was even inspiring for us, right?
Like we just started this project.
And then, I mean, also Vera, you know, again, I know her so all these years, she often works
with young musicians who just came out of school.
You know, she took a call from me or she took an email from me and she just called back
like next morning and gave me a job.
And I remember, you know, like, so you're so inexperienced when you first moved to New
York and she was like, okay, let's do it.
You know, you took a call and so that was really good.
And yeah, I was glad.
Well, I'm sure she picked up on your good energy.
You know, there's no way she just does that with anybody, you know.
Sure.
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah.
So nice.
You guys always encouraging.
So let's talk about Mike Grande, episode number three.
What do you think about that?
Cheers to that.
Yes.
Cheers to that.
Yes.
All of that finally, that was that was like the first step for me to discover what we
want to do and who we are.
Like like really the first step.
Like, okay, we wanted to do podcast about piano and beyond for sure.
But there are so many other podcasts out there about piano.
Yeah, I think my ground days episode really open up to our own niche or branding, but
we are not quite sure yet.
But that was like the first step.
What do you think, guys?
Yeah, I felt it was the first time we got our stride as our hitter stride as interviewers.
And it's interesting because Mike is just he works all day long on rock out loud live.
I mean, he's just you can just see his online activity.
He's all over the place.
So we actually we didn't do okay, we didn't do a pre interview.
We did the demonstration of the software with him.
Right.
But this is the first time we didn't do a pre interview.
So we're kind of less prepared than usual.
And that actually helped because he's like a very experienced public speaker and really
engaging.
And and it was it was really easy.
And of course, we had figured out a few things by that point, right?
We were getting better.
But yeah, that was the first time we were actually all able to kind of crosstalk.
Exactly.
You know, that was he made it easier for us.
You know, he did.
Yeah.
I literally like got energy off of him.
Yeah.
And it was like early in the morning, too.
Yeah.
Came in there looking like he had just gotten out of the gym, like full of energy and just
oh, my God.
Yeah.
I needed that boost that day.
Yeah.
I remember I was up skills at my friend's house.
So like I was recording outside and I was so worried about my bike and everything on
my phone.
You know, my phone turns out working better than my computer that day.
But I just remember that was the first time we start we felt OK to laugh, you know, even
during the year.
Yeah.
Right.
And that really like helped really lighten us up.
Oh, totally.
Laughter is so important.
Exactly.
Yeah.
And also that episode.
OK.
So for those who are listening and watching, we're talking about episode number three,
my grand day rock a lot live, which is the software for basically music teaching.
Right.
Yeah.
Lessons and concerts now, you know, concerts.
Yeah.
Really?
OK.
Great.
And then he said, I didn't make this for, you know, for this pandemic.
I was planning on this for three last three to five years.
Right.
So I was thinking, oh, wait a minute.
You know, people actually think about what's ahead of most of us do.
But in terms of this, you know, bringing this music lesson into homes by digital, right?
You know, and then people are actually thinking that way before that actually this pandemic
brought us the future a little quicker and sooner than we expected.
That's what it is.
Yeah.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
The future came a little soon, too soon.
You know what I mean?
But it was supposed to be happening like within a year or two.
Then boom.
So there we go.
Yeah.
That's the lesson I learned.
And even outside of music, you know, the whole working from home revolution, that got a real
kind of kick in the pants because a lot of people do not want to go back to work in the
office now and still remains to be seen how that's going to work itself out.
Right.
See, you know, after the vaccine is, you know, taken by most people.
I mean, but I was even thinking this week, you know, I even was talking to some of my
students about this.
If you really think about it, online teaching can be very productive and effective, too.
And a lot of times it's more fun.
You know, whatever I have here, I can show to my students right away.
We have two pianos, especially with mics.
You know, his technology even reduces all these delays.
Even Zoom these days are quite good, you know, and you reduce the travel times, you reduce
all the hassles and time.
You know, after all we have is time.
Right.
Like when we live on this earth for, you know, whatever time we have.
And that's it.
So I agree.
Yes.
I hope that the things will go back to normal.
But at the same time, I hope this kind of way of communications and piano lessons and
beyond.
Right.
Also still remain, you know, after the after covid.
So right.
Completely, at least, you know, partially, most part.
It's just New York kids, especially we live in the city.
They're so busy.
And I think a lot of my students, I see some more improvement, you know, learning more
pieces because when they don't have to spend so many hours on the road every day and they
can concentrate more reading, reading books.
The amount of focus has changed.
Right.
Yeah.
They're prepared.
They're ready to go on time.
I love it.
Yeah.
I'll share that.
I recently started teaching an old friend of mine, like 20 years on dating myself, but
going back to undergrad who used to live here.
And then I know that's painful.
But but yeah, he moved out to L.A. recently.
So he's three hours behind even.
But but we started lessons a couple of months ago and it's just been amazing.
I mean, first of all, he's an excellent student.
He's really good and making a lot of progress.
But also because we've known each other for so long.
I never had lessons before.
But you know, this is just something that probably wouldn't have happened otherwise.
Right.
And it's proven to be incredibly fulfilling.
So that was actually the pivot point for me, the episode three.
Well, I will say it felt like that for me, too.
And then with episode four, Chantal Balestri, this was my first time being host.
And I felt like I backslid quite a bit because why?
Because I started I introduced the episode and then I was like, oh, my God, I don't know
how to start this conversation.
It's like because like, you know, we're all friends with Chantal and, you know, we knew
she was going to be great.
And we're just used to like talking like friends.
And then all of a sudden, like, oh, wait, no, I got to introduce her to people that
don't know who she is and never heard from her before.
Like, wait, what do I do?
What do I do?
And it's like we had some questions and stuff prepared, but I had not put enough time into
thinking about how do you start that?
You know, how do you get your listeners involved right from the beginning?
It's like you don't want to just like read a history book of their life.
Right.
And so, yeah, I got nervous and it was not my finest hour.
Sorry, Chantal.
But of course, Chantal did amazingly anyway.
Right.
But I felt well, intro is a different ballgame.
But I think in terms of questions, I think we were really, we have strategies to ask.
I really like the way we ask questions.
And there were some tough questions, you know what I mean?
Oh, yeah, for sure.
Especially, I think.
And I felt like, I think that might have been the first episode where I realized, oh, we
need to be telling a story, right?
That's, and it's, you know, in subsequent episodes, it hasn't always been linear.
You know, it doesn't always work out best just to go from the beginning to the end with
no diversion.
Like it can jump around and stuff.
But I think you want to come away with portrait of a person, journey they've been on.
It's like, you know, there needs to be a narrative for it to be a satisfying interview.
And that was the first time I started experimenting with that.
But actually, Eric, I have been enjoying you being the main host for the last two episodes.
You have more energy and also, yeah, right?
Yeah, yeah.
For sure.
Okay, so that's, well, you know, we'll skip ahead a little bit because we were just going
to do up through episode five tonight.
But yeah, so episode six was Palo Marchettini, who again is another great friend of ours.
And we had a wonderful pre interview that was just full of good stuff and so much fun.
And then very close, it's a couple days before our main interview.
Right.
And then we did the main interview, which was pretty late at night.
And he was tired, I was tired.
And then I watched it back later.
And I and you keep in Clara were great.
But I was like, Oh, my God, no, no, no, no, no, like, I need more energy.
Like, holy, like this is so that Eric fail again.
But ever since then, I like tonight, for example, like, frankly, coming in here tonight, again,
it's Saturday night, been with my family all day as pretty beat.
But you know, this is helping.
Right?
Yeah, hey, whatever it takes.
Yeah.
But but yeah, you're on camera, you got to like energy to the max.
Right.
It shows and it's not good.
So no, but it's funny.
I just but last two episodes or so you the way you were starting the episode was just
very creative.
I love exactly.
Yeah, right.
Yeah, very much.
Yeah.
I've been putting more thought into that lately.
Yeah.
And that's great.
You know, we I think as a team, you know, our so I mean, we are going to improve, we're
going to just evolve.
We're like, we're just, we're not going to stay the same.
You know, this is kind of a live thing.
Exactly.
Yeah.
Right.
But it's a go ahead.
No, I was just going to say also back to Chantel's episode, you know, it's funny, I actually
know Chantel through Apollo and you know, and by the Chantel was the very first episode
that she was overseas.
She actually was in Italy.
So we also had that to adjust.
That's a good point.
Yeah.
And she just finished teaching and you know, we were like here totally different times
of total different atmosphere really, you know, and with the pandemic, everything, I
think, you know, there's just a lot to be to adjust, you know, and sometimes like this
Paul was absolutely again, back to that.
He is very dear friend of mine, like such a good friend that I was worried to be too
casual on camera.
So I tried to be like, really formal and that didn't work too well either, you know, so
it's like all kinds of things could play out.
So well, since we're talking about power, I will say that that was the episode that
we decided, you know what?
Enough with the pre interviews.
We're giving away too much good stuff off camera.
And so now we try to keep it to half an hour or less just to work out logistics and get
comfortable and save all the best stuff for the interview itself.
So everybody should see it uptick in the quality of our interviews from that.
Hopefully.
Yeah.
So I want to focus a little bit more on Chantel herself.
Recently, like she was posting something on Facebook.
So it's been a year since the pandemic happened and a lot of people's life have changed for,
you know, I don't want to say for good, but you know, for that big time.
Yeah.
Especially for those who are artists who come to the United States, you know, visa, all
that things and they have to decide the last minute, very, very short, you know, the time
was given like really this much of time, short time to decide like a white kind of a decision,
right?
Right.
So for sure.
That's right.
Exactly.
But I just wanted to really tell Chantel, if you're listening, that no matter where
you are, you're going to be great and even this the worst situation may happen, but you
can turn that into something great.
I believe in you.
And I myself had tough situations, but I just wanted to always say, you know what?
What can I get out of this?
Really this war situation because I don't want to lose, you know, being a loser means
you don't learn anything then might as well, you know, the worst moment in your life.
I want to be the winner.
What do you do?
Learn.
So I believe that quality in Chantel more than I do.
I'm not as strong, but I think you can make it through.
And one of these days the gates will open, then people can go in and out of the countries
and you know, Chantel can come back to the United States and do all the performances
of her dreams.
So I really have this positive.
I'm sending this positive energy from New York to her.
Yes, me too.
You know, also that being I actually just remembered on camera, that's not true that
I how I met Chantel.
I actually met her in Miami.
I keep on forgetting this and that's how strong she is.
She's Chantel is quite young and we won't tell her age, but you know, she has her festivals
and even during the lockdown or this pandemic, she was able to keep it going.
And so long ago, one year, a few years ago, I just went to Miami for just to chill out.
And then I got bored and I went to a festival and she was actually performing.
I went to a master class and she was there and I think I couldn't go to her concert.
And then later on we met again in New York.
And you know, really she hasn't been here that long, but yet and she's been to so many
different countries and it's just this time that she just decided to go back and, you
know, add that movement and all of the things that she's teaching her students here, you
know, and all these things, you know, for any young people, it's like almost hard to
imagine.
But yes, she's doing it, you know, and that's like people say New Yorkers and she is now
a New Yorker.
I think New York train us to be stronger and stronger no matter what situation we're in.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Well said.
All right.
So, so Ray Mack.
Yes.
Episode number five.
Oh my goodness.
Thank you, Claire, for introducing him to us.
What a little student.
What an energy that guy has.
What an individual.
What?
Oh my goodness.
By the way, I don't know if you guys saw Facebook yesterday.
Oh, yeah.
We're in the hospital and a couple hours ago he was like, we have a baby.
The second baby.
Yes.
He just had a second shot.
Congratulations.
Everybody's son Ray, you're congratulations.
That's right.
Ray Mack is a sensational YouTube star and we wanted to feature him because we can learn
a lot from him.
Yes.
So what did we learn from him?
Oh, so much.
Yeah.
Don't we?
Eric?
Where to start?
First of all, it was just a ton of fun to interview Ray.
And I will say that we had a long pre-interview with him and then an even longer actual interview
with him.
Because it was live.
It was live.
Yes.
It was our first live stream.
So first and only so far live stream episode.
We thought about live streaming this one, but then we were like, we're going to be drinking.
Maybe we'll say something so he won't like it.
But yeah, we were just having a ton of fun.
But there were a couple of things that stood out to me because he doesn't have the mentality
of me and some other classical pianists who are a little bit nervous about, let's call
it publishing because that's really what it is, which is just putting yourself out there
for other people to consume your content.
He taught me a really good lesson about that.
And I kind of always knew it in a way, but consistency of output, if you're trying to
be known is so important, especially in this age when anybody can put up anything anytime.
Before he was a YouTube sensation, when he had a viral hit or two, basically, he committed
to making a video every single week.
That is a big commitment.
I still couldn't do that.
And then he did it for how many years?
That was like back in 2006 or something, maybe 2005.
Every single week, not just one video, sometimes two or three even.
And I've been in the music industry a while.
I've met a lot of people, some who became famous, some who switched careers, and that
type of commitment is very rare to find.
That's really what it takes.
If you can do that, you will go far.
So that was the biggest thing that I learned from Ray.
I mean, I would say this, Ray has been a good, good friend, a good student.
I still call him that.
To this day, he still calls me teacher, even though he's like a year younger than me.
He is Malaysian.
He lives in Malaysia with his family now, but he studied here in Massachusetts for a
few years for his undergraduate.
And that's where we met.
And he was doing his undergraduate while I was doing my masters.
And everybody knew Ray played the piano because he played pop songs.
And he was not shy.
He attracted a lot of girls.
All the Asian girls were like, oh my God, Ray is playing again.
And here I am.
I was the pianist, right?
But I sometimes refused to perform because I was like, all about that perfectionist.
I'm not giving a concert.
And Ray was just really, really sunshine.
He was just always there.
And he came to my class.
It was like a teacher, you know, I was like, you don't have to really call me teacher.
He was like, no, no, no, you're my teacher, right?
He was like, can you take me in your class?
Because I failed my side reading exam.
You know, I want to be music minor or something, but I can't read music and I can play anything
by ear, but I can't read music.
So he came in to study with all the music minors where I was teaching.
And he was just not only so talented, so humble, you know, so willing to learn about everything.
And we've been friends all these years, but I remember the very one of the first episodes
of the first videos that he was visiting me.
You know, we had calls parties and he was like sitting on my bed practicing on my keyboard.
And now he's like, teacher, I'm going to report this.
I'm going to put up this thing called YouTube.
I'm like, what is that?
You know, at that time it was still like my space world, I think, you know, and he was
very high in tech as well.
And you know, really, I wouldn't say like a thick face, you know, like as Asian, sometimes
I feel like, oh my God, you know, I'm shy.
Like I don't want to do this.
But he was like, you know, I'm just going to leave it here and anyone wants to watch
it.
And then, you know, to this day, it's still not his main profession.
You know, he was a trader, he was in technology, he worked for Microsoft for a while, he sold
mentions for a while, you know, who knows?
He does a lot of some multi marketing, multi network marketing even.
But I think in the end, he has a good heart and he also has a lot of so-called haters
on the internet.
But sometimes they all become his like biggest fans, right?
Because he's inspiring them to better people.
And that's what we, I think, need the most in this world.
What did you think of that episode, Ikimi?
That was just pure fun.
Yeah, just he took the microphone and he took it away.
Like he did the show.
So we were just like, you know, listening and just a little bit of navigation that we
needed, but rest of it was just his thing.
Very easy.
Yeah.
And the live show was so fun.
We've never done it before.
And we used the restream, the software restream to stream on YouTube and Facebook at the same
time.
It was just really fun.
So really he taught me how to enjoy.
I mean, that episode taught me how to enjoy music more, how not to be judgmental and just,
can we just enjoy the sound?
Can we just enjoy the day?
You know what I mean?
Right.
Can we just stuck in this little tiny room and practice hours and hours and really, you
know, be so hard on yourself.
And sometimes you get so depressed because the result is not what we want to.
But music is beautiful.
The day is beautiful.
Can we just enjoy?
And I would say also to enjoy the connection with other people through it.
It's very clear for Ray that it's such a huge part of it.
And one of the amazing things about him is he does all the things you need to do to find
success on the internet, networking with other people.
But it's like, how do I put it?
It seems strategic because he does all the right things, but it just comes naturally
to him because that's who he is.
It's the same way he has this amazing attitude with the haters.
He converts them into fans, but that's because he has this natural ability to see the good
in people and wish them well, see through their pain.
Yeah.
Exactly.
I mean, he's a real person person.
Like he's really, you know, in real life too, you know, when you meet him one day, hopefully.
But it feels like we already know him so well just through these interviews, right?
You're always talking to your great friend.
By the way, there's one thing I just want to check me since we were talking about the
live streaming, I want to ask our listeners, you know, if anyone listening, I have had
some people, Kelly, Lauren Kelly in Vancouver, I haven't even told you guys the news.
She was suggesting maybe we will do our live streaming a little later sometimes, you know,
even when the published because some teachers are still watch teaching.
And then she, I was like, well, we always have it, but she was like, it's more fun,
you know, when I watch with you guys.
So two things I was thinking, should we do more live streaming?
Well, first of all, anyone wants to join us, you know, to watch us, you know, if they were
doing more live to should we move the, uh, the, if we were going to premiere it is the
better if we do it later, you know, of the night or day, you know, she on the West coast,
right?
Yeah.
Right.
So normally we live stream at eight, which is five for them.
That's right.
All right.
So, well, I guess it really depends on who's listening because, you know, we can track
our analytics on simple cast and I will tell you right now, actually, where did I put the
stats?
I had them here.
Oh yeah.
So for anybody who's interested, um, 60% of our audiences in the U S that's by far the
vast majority and then, um, the next highest would be Germany followed by Brazil, Mexico,
Japan, um, uh, UK, Canada, Spain, Peru and Thailand.
So we're really all over the world.
That right.
So if you guys want us to live stream in your time zone, you got to speak up.
Okay.
You know, send us a message on our Instagram or Facebook.
Yeah.
Twitter, even YouTube, right?
We'll take requests, but there just have to be enough of you.
All right.
Yeah.
So my, my last, my, my question for you, both of you is in terms of all these guests.
So what's the common quality that the, what's the quality that all these guests share?
Like there was a reason that we chose these people, right?
Um, so what, what do you think is this common quality that they share?
What do you think?
I would say first of all, very positive attitude.
For sure.
You know, without exception, um, these five sex guests and our subsequent guests have
all been such positive people.
There's such a delight to talk to.
Right.
Well, what about you, Clara?
Yeah.
I want to think, you know, I want to say, sure, you know, most of us musicians, we all
have this work ethic, but it's being able to have fun as well as working crazy, crazy
hard, you know?
And I think all of our guests really, like they all, they're all obviously very successful
and very out there and yet they all seem to have this lighthearted personality and they
really know how to have fun.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You're right.
Absolutely.
They don't take too serious about things.
Exactly.
We need to learn to not take everything personally.
And they're willing to take chances, like taking a chance on us in our first season
of this podcast.
You know?
That's right.
I was going to say the same thing.
They take chances and they also, they seem to invest in themselves.
That's right.
I think that's very important.
They're not just sit down and get used to their normal stuff.
Right.
They are edgy people.
They are anti always like, what else can I do?
Absolutely.
They literally invest time and effort in something else.
And that's really, I learned a lot.
Yeah.
I'm learning a lot.
All right.
So kids, is it time?
It is time.
Yes.
Oh my gosh.
Time for the piano pop rapid fire questions.
Are we ready?
We are ready.
Who's going first?
I am going first.
I'm scared.
This is really fun.
Are you ready?
Okay.
What is your guilty pleasure?
Guilty pleasure.
Eric, go.
Okay.
So I'm going to start with you.
The first thing that jumps to mind is the TV show trailer park
boys.
I have no idea.
Yeah.
So, well, it's kind of an old show now, but it's a mockumentary.
Which, you know, like, like the office, but.
About a trio of drunk degenerates living in a trailer park.
And Nova Scotia.
And I'm like, I'm not going to do that.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to do that.
And especially when I'm down or something that show always makes me
feel better. So.
That's it. That's my guilty pleasure.
All right.
What about you, Clara?
Well, for me, I think for those listeners out there,
if you ever see our crazy Instagram posts,
that's all come from like mostly from the crazy Clara.
And I'm like, I'm going to post this, you know,
I'm going to post this.
And then I'm like,
I'm going to post this and I'm like,
I'm going to post this and I'm like, I'm going to post this.
And then I'm like, I'm going to post this.
And I use all these filters and make these like pictures, you know,
you too, like really crazy little characters.
It's almost like imagine our world.
That we live in with all the filters.
And that really somehow it takes time,
but it kind of calms me down, you know, because.
Really calms you down.
Okay, good.
Hey, what?
I'm sorry.
Yeah.
Everybody wants to know what you're.
Oh my God.
Okay. It's easy.
Oh yeah. Okay.
That is my guilty pleasure.
That can't be the answer for me because I don't feel guilty.
Yeah, you're right. But sometimes I feel guilty. So, Hey,
that's my guilty pleasure.
Okay.
Who's next?
Oh, we're passing her. Okay. Go Claire.
Favorite restaurant in New York city.
Oh, go first.
Oh, geez.
Honestly, I haven't been to restaurants in a long time,
but there's one Japanese place right underneath where Eric.
I think it's a Japanese restaurant.
Yeah. It's called me. I think it's me, but that's one.
It's not restaurant, but that's one of my favorite place.
Okay. Yeah.
That's the first place we have to go after the.
Right.
All right, Eric.
So unfortunately my favorite restaurant closed.
No.
Or maybe, maybe they.
I think it was a restaurant in New York city.
And it was called.
I think it was a favorite restaurant was right up the street.
And it's called char Sue.
See you.
Char Sue.
And it was this amazing fusion restaurant that was super
inventive and everything was really delicious and quite reasonably
priced and amazing drinks.
And my wife and I would go there for dates. Oh, sorry.
This is rapid fire.
No, I know why it's so hard.
I mean, it's because it's so expensive.
And it was, well, maybe it's still there.
Wolf gun.
You know, when I used to still eat a lot.
Okay.
So great.
Go ahead.
Eric.
Okay.
What is your most embarrassing performing experience?
Okay.
I'll go first.
But that was 14.
That was the first time I forgot my music on stage.
But now I learned.
I'm sorry.
Okay.
Very good.
All right.
That was when I was.
Take getting my master's and was a big stage.
Really literally thousands of people watching.
I started off the lower.
I was nervous.
So.
Hey.
Oh, you started an octave lower.
That's not so bad.
Okay.
I got a good one for you guys.
Yeah.
There wasn't, it wasn't a big concert, but it was an audition.
And I was like, I'm going to do this.
And then I recently got in contact lenses again,
which I gave up on soon after.
I can't wear a contact lenses. My eyes are too weird.
And so I was like, I was, they were not sitting well in my eyes.
And I was blinking. My eyes are watering the whole time.
And then it started doing weird things with the light in the room,
which was pretty dark to begin with.
And I was playing Stravinsky's.
I was like, I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this. I'm going to do this.
I'm going to do this.
And then I was like, because of the contacts in my eyes,
something happened with the light and the shadows.
I thought something was going to fall on me.
I like.
I was playing and I look up like this.
And then, and then I suddenly realized that there was nothing there
and like went back, like nothing happened, but it was.
I don't know if that's my most embarrassing, but it was pretty weird.
If our students are listening, listen to all of us.
We have all had our.
Stop happening. It's okay.
I'm not going to do that.
Next question.
Who was your cell?
Celebrity crush when you were a teenager.
Something.
That's a teenager.
Leonardo.
Okay. All right.
What are you?
Probably all the babes on Baywatch.
I'm not sure.
Yeah. Okay. Me, me.
This is very famous.
You can be song loves drinking wine, loves Michael Jackson.
Oh yeah.
Interesting.
All right.
Next question.
Let me ask them.
Cause this.
I'm not sure.
All time favorite classical album and all time favorite non-classical
album.
Okay.
All time favorite classical album is.
You know, there's this 20th century piano series.
Albums. Do you know it's.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Great.
Right. Exactly.
Nelson prayer.
Oh, okay.
And then there's a fantasy and C major.
Out of this world.
That's my.
That one.
Yeah.
It's incredible.
Okay.
Check out our spring fruitless.
Yeah.
And then.
We're going to have to put all this.
No classical non-classical is very hard to choose.
I have a favorite.
The best mode.
I don't know the title of the album,
but I love the behind the wheel. So it's one of those album with the name.
Anyway, I'm old.
So Clara, what's yours?
Well, I have.
I was thinking I can't choose.
So I have a two favorite of classical. I have.
The.
One of the gopro recreation by going good.
People used to come far. Good. I was addicted to clean.
Yeah, that's still, you know, if I don't feel good, I go to that one.
And also the all show pen.
Album by.
Rubenstein.
That also was my first album that I was able to buy.
And then I was like, I'm going to go with the classic.
Okay.
And the non-classical.
I love Johnny cash. I don't know why.
Okay.
Great.
Yeah.
What about you, Eric?
I don't know. You know,
I'm actually sitting here looking at MP3s on my hard drive,
because even though I thought about it earlier,
when I thought of this question,
I don't know how I could just pick one classical album,
especially because.
It was.
It's a thing that's been around since I was in high school.
I had that influential on me when I was younger.
I don't like anymore.
I outgrew those pianists.
But I feel like let's just say.
When I was a kid,
the Tchaikovsky symphonies were very influential on me when I was in
about fourth and fifth grade and it was probably the Philadelphia
it would probably be Led Zeppelin IV
and or Dream Theater Systematic Chaos.
I don't know Dream Theater that one.
I don't even know what that is.
They are classically trained for what it's worth.
All right, check out our playlist.
I'm sure it's all gonna be there.
Oh yeah, that would be a trick.
All right, so Clara, what's your question?
All right, serious question, but in short words,
where am I on the team on piano?
Ah, I start out with Chopin etude, flying very slowly.
Right now I am reviewing Opus 25, number 11.
Rendy just started it.
Yeah.
This week after the recital.
Well, that's a very hard one.
Oh yeah.
What about you, Eric?
So I don't really have a warmup routine.
I don't, I certainly don't ever try to warm up technically,
but I would say kind of my warmup is
whatever I feel like doing
that's gonna get me to eventually practice.
All right, so whatever kind of suits my mood.
Sometimes I manage to get to work right away,
but more often I just need to play something
that's gonna pull me in and eventually,
you know, some part of it is,
sorry guys, this is rapid fire, I know,
but part of it is sometimes you have to slow your mind down
from everything else that was going on in the day
to get into that space where you can work.
Working at the piano, it's like,
we talked with, I think it was Frederick Chu, you know,
right, like it's a different kind of work
than like being on your computer,
answering emails and Facebooking and things like that.
It is physical, but it's also just so,
well, for me, I mean, I really,
I also don't have exactly a routine,
which don't tell my teacher, I'm sure Dr. J is watching,
but I start with Bach mostly,
I try to start with some Bach,
and but if my finger really need to pick my finger up
and I go to some Chopin,
and if it really doesn't work,
I go to good old Hennan.
Oh wow, okay.
Yeah, so, all right, keep on going, who's next?
All right, so let's make this a last round.
Yes, sounds good.
I have a very last question for you.
What is your dream piece to play?
Goldberg revelation for me to play.
What is it?
Okay, Goldberg.
Goldberg, oh yeah, okay.
You know, I never finished the Rachmaninoff second concerto.
I think it's gotta be that,
to finish that and have a chance to play it with orchestra.
Yeah, either that or Gaspar Delannui,
which I also never,
I performed only the first movement so far.
Probably one of those two.
We are still young, we still have time.
So I would say Prokofiev Sonata, all of them.
Oh, all of them, okay.
And then Rachmaninoff, piano concerto number three.
Who do you guys feel you owe the most to
among important people in your life?
Me.
My mother.
My grandparents.
Okay.
Well, for me, it would be hard to pick between my parents,
my wife and all the teachers
that have left a profound influence on me
because I've really had a lot of really amazing teachers.
It's been a huge blessing.
Great.
All right, so Clara, very, very last question.
Apple, cake or chocolate?
Or what kind of cake?
Doesn't matter, choose.
I choose chocolate cake.
All right, why do you choose?
Because I chose.
I choose apple, not because I try to look like
I'm a healthy person, I am healthy,
I'm trying to be healthy,
but because I don't go for sweet stuff.
I don't eat sweet stuff, so apple.
Yeah, Clara.
Good, chocolate.
Chocolate makes me happy,
but because I chose chocolate,
because I chose chocolate,
last question, landmark question.
All right, we did it.
Yeah, all right.
So this concludes this episode of the PianoPod.
We wanna thank you to our audience for tuning in.
Wanna remind you that we have an exciting guest lineup
for the next few episodes,
such as Selena Distoressi from Notable
and Jim Riddle, Jazz Pianist,
which those two episodes will be published in April,
and Madeline Bruiser,
who is the founder of the Art of Practicing Institute,
which will be released in May.
That's right.
If you enjoyed today's episode,
please read and review
on whatever podcasting platform you use.
If you're watching it from YouTube,
please hit the thumbs up button right here,
and be sure to subscribe to our channel.
Oh, I love it.
You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
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The links are in the description below.
Wow, Clara, I think that bourbon's starting to hit, huh?
As always, we welcome your feedback for us in the comments,
DMs, email at the pianopodnyc.gmail.com.
Hope to see you for the next episode of That Piano Pod.
Bye, everyone.
Bye, everybody. Bye.
Peace.
Bye.
Peace.