WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.520 Okay, let's unpack this. I want to start today 00:00:02.520 --> 00:00:05.700 with a bit of a psychological test. Oh. Or maybe 00:00:05.700 --> 00:00:07.940 it's more of a riddle. If I show you the punctuation 00:00:07.940 --> 00:00:11.519 mark, just a single, bold exclamation point, 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:15.640 what sound do you hear in your head? Immediate 00:00:15.640 --> 00:00:19.190 volume. Yeah. It's a shout, a command. It's alarm. 00:00:19.570 --> 00:00:21.289 It's like the visual equivalent of someone yelling. 00:00:21.410 --> 00:00:23.710 Exactly. It demands attention. It screams, look 00:00:23.710 --> 00:00:26.690 at me. This is urgent. But today we are looking 00:00:26.690 --> 00:00:29.149 at something, a cultural artifact that takes 00:00:29.149 --> 00:00:31.390 that symbol, slaps it on the cover, and then 00:00:31.390 --> 00:00:33.950 tells you to pronounce it as, well, sound of 00:00:33.950 --> 00:00:36.590 total indifference. You are, of course, talking 00:00:36.590 --> 00:00:39.350 about the Blah album. I am. The album is titled 00:00:39.350 --> 00:00:41.890 with the symbol, but the artist, Claudia Paschal, 00:00:41.950 --> 00:00:44.909 insists you pronounce it Blah. It's her 2020 00:00:44.909 --> 00:00:47.359 debut and... Honestly, the more I looked into 00:00:47.359 --> 00:00:49.179 the notes on this, the more I realized this isn't 00:00:49.179 --> 00:00:52.359 just some quirky pop record. It's a masterclass 00:00:52.359 --> 00:00:54.939 in identity crisis, artistic rebranding, and 00:00:54.939 --> 00:00:58.000 just terrible, terrible timing. That is the perfect 00:00:58.000 --> 00:01:00.000 way to frame it. Because on the surface, sure, 00:01:00.079 --> 00:01:04.480 it's a collection of pop songs. But the mission 00:01:04.480 --> 00:01:08.099 of our deep dive today is to really dismantle 00:01:08.099 --> 00:01:11.739 how an artist goes from being a contestant. you 00:01:11.739 --> 00:01:14.640 know, a face on a TV screen, to being an artist 00:01:14.640 --> 00:01:18.060 with a capital A. How do you reclaim your voice 00:01:18.060 --> 00:01:20.439 when millions of people already think they know 00:01:20.439 --> 00:01:22.859 who you are? And doing it while the world is 00:01:22.859 --> 00:01:25.599 literally shutting down around you. Oh, yeah. 00:01:26.040 --> 00:01:27.859 We have to talk about that release day later. 00:01:27.959 --> 00:01:31.719 It is. It's harrowing. It adds this whole layer 00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:33.939 of context that just changes how you hear every 00:01:33.939 --> 00:01:36.400 single song. But first, for anyone listening 00:01:36.400 --> 00:01:38.299 who might not be tuned into the Portuguese music 00:01:38.299 --> 00:01:41.200 scene, let's set the stage. Who is Claudia Pascal? 00:01:41.400 --> 00:01:43.400 Why does she need to reclaim anything? Well, 00:01:43.439 --> 00:01:45.060 she's a singer who found herself in the center 00:01:45.060 --> 00:01:47.659 of a very specific whirlwind, the Eurovision 00:01:47.659 --> 00:01:50.549 Song Contest. She represented Portugal back in 00:01:50.549 --> 00:01:53.269 2018. Okay, so for those uninitiated, Eurovision 00:01:53.269 --> 00:01:55.810 is massive. It's camp. It's a spectacle. It's 00:01:55.810 --> 00:01:57.890 hundreds of millions of viewers. It's like the 00:01:57.890 --> 00:01:59.930 Super Bowl of music, but with, you know, more 00:01:59.930 --> 00:02:02.530 sequins. It really is. But it's also a bit of 00:02:02.530 --> 00:02:04.329 a golden cage. If you're known for Eurovision, 00:02:04.450 --> 00:02:06.829 you're often seen as a performer, not a creator. 00:02:06.989 --> 00:02:09.050 Right. You're the person who sings the song someone 00:02:09.050 --> 00:02:11.669 else wrote, wearing the costume someone else 00:02:11.669 --> 00:02:14.889 designed. You're a vessel. And breaking out of 00:02:14.889 --> 00:02:17.490 that box to release a serious personal debut. 00:02:17.710 --> 00:02:20.409 Incredibly difficult. So difficult. You have 00:02:20.409 --> 00:02:21.889 to convince people you have your own thoughts. 00:02:22.129 --> 00:02:25.129 So fast forward to 2020. She's ready to drop 00:02:25.129 --> 00:02:31.449 her debut. She titles it A .I. So what? Is she 00:02:31.449 --> 00:02:34.479 bored? is she trying to be difficult i don't 00:02:34.479 --> 00:02:36.280 think it's difficult i think it's subversive 00:02:36.280 --> 00:02:38.340 i mean think about the pressure we just described 00:02:38.340 --> 00:02:41.159 you're coming off this massive tv platform the 00:02:41.159 --> 00:02:43.139 industry expects you to come out swinging loud 00:02:43.139 --> 00:02:45.460 poppy desperate for attention an exclamation 00:02:45.460 --> 00:02:48.639 point right i'm here buy my record look at me 00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:50.919 exactly so she puts the exclamation point on 00:02:50.919 --> 00:02:52.919 the cover to acknowledge that but then she just 00:02:52.919 --> 00:02:56.219 she undercuts it completely she says no pronounce 00:02:56.219 --> 00:02:58.879 it blah it's a shrug it's a shrug it's dismissive 00:02:58.879 --> 00:03:01.319 it's a signal that says I am going to take this 00:03:01.319 --> 00:03:03.460 seriously, but I am not going to take myself 00:03:03.460 --> 00:03:05.819 too seriously. It feels like an inside joke with 00:03:05.819 --> 00:03:08.840 the listener. It's disarming. It is. And the 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:10.599 sources mentioned this wasn't just a title, it 00:03:10.599 --> 00:03:13.759 was a persona. To promote the album, she didn't 00:03:13.759 --> 00:03:16.580 just do the standard press tour. No. She introduced 00:03:16.580 --> 00:03:19.580 a fictional character named Blah. Wait, explain 00:03:19.580 --> 00:03:22.539 that like an alter ego, a Ziggy Stardust kind 00:03:22.539 --> 00:03:24.800 of thing. A little less glam rock, a little more 00:03:24.800 --> 00:03:27.520 absurd. But yeah, essentially, she created this 00:03:27.520 --> 00:03:31.680 character, Blah. to handle the loud parts of 00:03:31.680 --> 00:03:35.280 the promotion. It's a brilliant coping mechanism, 00:03:35.419 --> 00:03:37.879 if you think about it. How so? If you're anxious 00:03:37.879 --> 00:03:40.939 about releasing super personal music, you create 00:03:40.939 --> 00:03:43.620 a buffer. You create a character to take the 00:03:43.620 --> 00:03:45.780 heat. That actually ties into the source's description 00:03:45.780 --> 00:03:49.099 of the album's goal, which was to be highly personal 00:03:49.099 --> 00:03:51.740 and expressive. It seems contradictory, doesn't 00:03:51.740 --> 00:03:53.879 it? You'd think so. To be personal, but then 00:03:53.879 --> 00:03:56.340 hide behind a character named Blah. But I'd argue 00:03:56.340 --> 00:03:58.560 it's the only way to be truly personal inside 00:03:58.560 --> 00:04:01.500 the pop machine. By acknowledging the absurdity 00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:03.599 of it all, the marketing, the look -at -me culture, 00:04:03.780 --> 00:04:06.280 you buy yourself the freedom to be honest in 00:04:06.280 --> 00:04:08.240 the music itself. So she's setting the ground 00:04:08.240 --> 00:04:10.860 rules. Exactly. We can be silly, but the emotions 00:04:10.860 --> 00:04:13.520 are real. It's almost like she's saying the marketing 00:04:13.520 --> 00:04:16.860 is the joke. The music is the truth. Precisely. 00:04:17.060 --> 00:04:20.199 And to get to that truth, she didn't rush. This 00:04:20.199 --> 00:04:22.319 is a key detail from the notes that stuck out 00:04:22.319 --> 00:04:25.319 to me. Eurovision was 2018. This album dropped 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:29.209 in 2020. Two years is a lifetime in pop. Yeah. 00:04:29.290 --> 00:04:31.209 Usually you want to strike while the iron is 00:04:31.209 --> 00:04:33.430 hot, right? You get off stage, you drop a single 00:04:33.430 --> 00:04:35.329 the next week while your Instagram is peaking. 00:04:35.370 --> 00:04:37.689 You don't just disappear. Correct. Taking two 00:04:37.689 --> 00:04:40.629 years signals intent. It says, I'm not churning 00:04:40.629 --> 00:04:44.350 out content. I'm crafting a record. And she didn't 00:04:44.350 --> 00:04:46.310 do it alone. She brought in Tiago Bittencourt. 00:04:46.639 --> 00:04:49.019 Now, for the listener, Tiago Betancourt isn't 00:04:49.019 --> 00:04:51.879 just some guy. In Portugal, he is a heavyweight. 00:04:51.939 --> 00:04:54.620 A massive heavyweight. Singer -songwriter, producer, 00:04:55.019 --> 00:04:57.339 very respected. Not the first person you'd expect 00:04:57.339 --> 00:04:59.220 to produce a pop record for a Eurovision alum. 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:02.079 He brings a certain gravitas. So she teams up 00:05:02.079 --> 00:05:04.160 with him, he produces, helps with songwriting. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:06.480 But the liner notes are stacked. You've got David 00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:09.399 Fonseca, Samuel Uria, Nuno Markle. I mean, they're 00:05:09.399 --> 00:05:11.279 the cool kids of the Portuguese music scene. 00:05:11.420 --> 00:05:13.459 If you're building a fantasy league of songwriters, 00:05:13.639 --> 00:05:16.089 that's your team. Here's my skepticism, though, 00:05:16.209 --> 00:05:17.589 and I think the listener might be wondering this, 00:05:17.670 --> 00:05:19.870 too. If you're Claudia Paschal and you're trying 00:05:19.870 --> 00:05:22.550 to prove you're your own artist, not just a television 00:05:22.550 --> 00:05:27.139 singer. Yeah. Why? fill your album with other 00:05:27.139 --> 00:05:29.759 people's writing. Doesn't that risk drowning 00:05:29.759 --> 00:05:31.860 out your own voice? Doesn't it just reinforce 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:34.759 the idea you're an interpreter? And that is the 00:05:34.759 --> 00:05:37.379 central conflict of this entire project. The 00:05:37.379 --> 00:05:39.879 notes specifically say she wanted to move away 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:42.480 from television formats, which are all about 00:05:42.480 --> 00:05:45.040 interpreting other people's songs. Karaoke with 00:05:45.040 --> 00:05:47.750 a budget, basically? Harsh, but yeah. That's 00:05:47.750 --> 00:05:50.310 the stigma. So how do you use these heavy hitters 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:52.910 without becoming their puppet? Paschal used what 00:05:52.910 --> 00:05:55.110 I'm calling the filter method. The filter method. 00:05:55.250 --> 00:05:57.350 OK, break that down. So the source material quotes 00:05:57.350 --> 00:06:00.709 Paschal saying she reinterpreted their work to 00:06:00.709 --> 00:06:04.170 suit her own voice. That word reinterpreted is 00:06:04.170 --> 00:06:07.269 doing a lot of heavy lifting. It implies that 00:06:07.269 --> 00:06:09.870 even if David Fonseca wrote a melody, it didn't 00:06:09.870 --> 00:06:12.629 make the cut until it sounded like Claudia. So 00:06:12.629 --> 00:06:14.129 it's the difference between a cover band and 00:06:14.129 --> 00:06:16.439 a jazz standard, maybe. Or think of it like a 00:06:16.439 --> 00:06:18.459 film director. A director doesn't write every 00:06:18.459 --> 00:06:20.980 line or hold the mic. Sure. But the movie feels 00:06:20.980 --> 00:06:23.279 like their movie because every decision passes 00:06:23.279 --> 00:06:26.579 through their specific creative lens. Pascol 00:06:26.579 --> 00:06:29.600 acted as the director. She took these inputs 00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:32.319 and filtered them through her blah aesthetic. 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:35.000 So the blah isn't just the sound, it's the filter. 00:06:35.279 --> 00:06:38.560 Exactly. If it felt too serious, blah, too generic, 00:06:38.720 --> 00:06:43.000 blah. It had to be quirky. expressive, and fit 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:45.459 that slightly off -kilter world she was building. 00:06:45.560 --> 00:06:48.100 She made them come to her world. That makes sense. 00:06:48.120 --> 00:06:50.379 It empowers her. She's not just the singer, she's 00:06:50.379 --> 00:06:52.899 the curator. Curator is a great word for it. 00:06:53.040 --> 00:06:55.639 And what she was curating was a very specific 00:06:55.639 --> 00:06:58.560 tone. The sources describe the album's core as 00:06:58.560 --> 00:07:01.759 an attempt to lighten up serious matters as a 00:07:01.759 --> 00:07:04.060 coping mechanism. I love that phrase, lightening 00:07:04.060 --> 00:07:06.300 up as a coping mechanism. Because usually when 00:07:06.300 --> 00:07:08.519 we talk about serious artistic statements, we 00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:10.620 think of like black and white photography, sad 00:07:10.620 --> 00:07:12.920 pianos. Right, the whole tortured artist trope. 00:07:12.920 --> 00:07:15.399 We think depth requires darkness. But she went 00:07:15.399 --> 00:07:18.879 the other way. She went colorful, loud. She went 00:07:18.879 --> 00:07:21.920 with raspberry sounds. Yes, we have to talk about 00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:25.579 PPPF -FFRR. That is a real track title, everybody. 00:07:27.420 --> 00:07:30.779 PPPFFFRRR featuring Nuno Markle. Try saying that 00:07:30.779 --> 00:07:33.000 without smiling. You can't. It's literally the 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:35.079 sound of blowing a raspberry. It's childish. 00:07:35.399 --> 00:07:37.060 It's what a toddler does when they don't want 00:07:37.060 --> 00:07:39.860 to eat their peas. It is childish, but it's deployed 00:07:39.860 --> 00:07:42.600 so strategically. If you're dealing with anxiety 00:07:42.600 --> 00:07:47.050 or fear or pressure. Sometimes the most powerful 00:07:47.050 --> 00:07:48.910 thing you can do is just stick your tongue out 00:07:48.910 --> 00:07:51.610 and make a rude noise. It deflates the monster. 00:07:51.889 --> 00:07:54.149 It takes the power away from the scary thing. 00:07:54.250 --> 00:07:57.029 Its absurdity is a shield. Exactly. And looking 00:07:57.029 --> 00:07:58.870 at the track list, you see this tension everywhere. 00:07:58.949 --> 00:08:02.129 There's a song called Janan Somos Animus. We 00:08:02.129 --> 00:08:04.769 are no longer animals. Which sounds so lofty 00:08:04.769 --> 00:08:06.550 and philosophical, right? Like something from 00:08:06.550 --> 00:08:09.110 a textbook. But in her hands, delivered with 00:08:09.110 --> 00:08:12.050 her wit, it's probably playing with how we act 00:08:12.050 --> 00:08:14.269 like animals. or pretend to be civilized while 00:08:14.269 --> 00:08:17.009 everything falls apart. It's that contrast. High 00:08:17.009 --> 00:08:20.089 -concept, low -stakes delivery. And this tone 00:08:20.089 --> 00:08:22.629 wasn't just dumped on people. She teased it out. 00:08:22.750 --> 00:08:24.810 The timeline in the notes is really interesting. 00:08:25.009 --> 00:08:27.550 She started dropping breadcrumbs way back in 00:08:27.550 --> 00:08:31.170 March 2019. A full year before the album. A full 00:08:31.170 --> 00:08:34.750 year. Tere Inan Tere comes out, then Viver in 00:08:34.750 --> 00:08:39.230 December, then Espalabrasas in March 2020. She 00:08:39.230 --> 00:08:42.090 was building this world brick by brick. Which 00:08:42.090 --> 00:08:45.779 brings us to the brick wall she ran into. We 00:08:45.779 --> 00:08:47.700 can't tell this story without talking about the 00:08:47.700 --> 00:08:50.600 date, because context is everything. March 27, 00:08:50.919 --> 00:08:52.759 2020. I just want you to close your eyes for 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:54.799 a second and remember where you were late March 00:08:54.799 --> 00:08:57.759 2020. Ugh, it brings up a visceral reaction. 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:00.480 Just saying the date makes me tense up. It was 00:09:00.480 --> 00:09:03.120 the week the world stopped. It was. Lockdowns 00:09:03.120 --> 00:09:04.720 were being enforced. Portugal was entering a 00:09:04.720 --> 00:09:06.799 state of emergency. There was no toilet paper. 00:09:07.019 --> 00:09:09.179 People were washing their groceries. The level 00:09:09.179 --> 00:09:12.220 of collective fear was at a historic high. And 00:09:12.220 --> 00:09:15.230 the entire entertainment industry just... Press 00:09:15.230 --> 00:09:17.929 pause. And here's Claudia Pascal with her debut 00:09:17.929 --> 00:09:20.570 album, Two Years in the Making, scheduled for 00:09:20.570 --> 00:09:22.710 that Friday. Most artists delayed. I remember 00:09:22.710 --> 00:09:25.230 that. A lot of big names pushed their albums 00:09:25.230 --> 00:09:27.549 back to summer or fall. Everyone wanted to wait 00:09:27.549 --> 00:09:29.750 until they could tour, until record stores reopened. 00:09:29.809 --> 00:09:32.429 But Universal Music Portugal and Pascal decided 00:09:32.429 --> 00:09:36.029 to push the button. They did. And not just digitally. 00:09:36.129 --> 00:09:38.750 They released the physical CD. That seems... 00:09:39.549 --> 00:09:42.590 Who is going to a record shop in Lisbon during 00:09:42.590 --> 00:09:46.570 a lockdown to buy a CD? Almost no one. The stores 00:09:46.570 --> 00:09:49.769 were largely closed. It was commercially counterintuitive, 00:09:49.789 --> 00:09:52.590 to say the least. But they did it anyway. And 00:09:52.590 --> 00:09:54.690 I think this connects back to that theme we discussed. 00:09:54.990 --> 00:09:57.610 The lightening up serious matters. As a coping 00:09:57.610 --> 00:10:00.929 mechanism. I think the release itself became 00:10:00.929 --> 00:10:02.769 part of that. How do you mean? Well, think about 00:10:02.769 --> 00:10:05.360 it. Everyone stuck at home. The news is terrifying. 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:08.000 It's all graphs and infection rates. And suddenly 00:10:08.000 --> 00:10:12.080 this colorful, weird, joyful album drops. An 00:10:12.080 --> 00:10:15.320 album that literally tells you to say blah to 00:10:15.320 --> 00:10:17.379 the stress. It's almost medicinal. It served 00:10:17.379 --> 00:10:19.279 a purpose. It wasn't just entertainment. It was 00:10:19.279 --> 00:10:22.080 a distraction. A colorful object in a gray world. 00:10:22.340 --> 00:10:25.320 A reminder that art was still being made. But 00:10:25.320 --> 00:10:28.440 did it work? Commercially? Because sentiment 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:31.450 is nice, but the industry is a business. Surprisingly, 00:10:31.549 --> 00:10:34.529 yes. The album peaked at number six on the Portuguese 00:10:34.529 --> 00:10:37.870 albums chart. A top 10 during a pandemic. That's 00:10:37.870 --> 00:10:40.129 really impressive. It's huge, especially with 00:10:40.129 --> 00:10:43.450 no tour, no in -store signings, no normal TV 00:10:43.450 --> 00:10:46.730 circuit. It proves the audience was hungry for 00:10:46.730 --> 00:10:49.649 exactly what she was selling. Connection. Connection 00:10:49.649 --> 00:10:51.429 and lightness. You know, we mentioned the collaborators. 00:10:51.629 --> 00:10:53.730 When you listen to the track Viber to Live, featuring 00:10:53.730 --> 00:10:56.330 Samuel Uria, and you're sitting alone in lockdown, 00:10:56.610 --> 00:10:59.740 hearing two friends singing together. That lands 00:10:59.740 --> 00:11:01.600 differently. It sounds like a party you can't 00:11:01.600 --> 00:11:03.399 go to, but you're happy it's happening somewhere. 00:11:03.700 --> 00:11:06.000 It's a documented community. Even though we're 00:11:06.000 --> 00:11:08.620 isolated, the music reminded us that friendship 00:11:08.620 --> 00:11:11.639 still existed. It transformed the album from 00:11:11.639 --> 00:11:15.779 songs into a lifeline. I want to circle back 00:11:15.779 --> 00:11:17.679 to the filter method one more time in this context. 00:11:17.980 --> 00:11:20.799 If she hadn't established that strong blah persona, 00:11:21.200 --> 00:11:23.340 do you think the album would have survived that 00:11:23.340 --> 00:11:27.149 chaotic release? I don't think so. If it had 00:11:27.149 --> 00:11:28.950 been a generic pop album, it would have been 00:11:28.950 --> 00:11:31.590 swallowed by the news cycle. But because it had 00:11:31.590 --> 00:11:34.610 this strong, quirky hook, the blah, the raspberry 00:11:34.610 --> 00:11:37.950 sounds, it cut through the noise. It had a distinct 00:11:37.950 --> 00:11:40.909 flavor. And that's the lesson. You can't control 00:11:40.909 --> 00:11:43.629 the timing. You can't control if a pandemic hits. 00:11:43.769 --> 00:11:46.809 All you can control is the filter. Is your voice 00:11:46.809 --> 00:11:49.070 distinct enough to be heard even when the world 00:11:49.070 --> 00:11:51.779 is screaming? That's a powerful takeaway. She 00:11:51.779 --> 00:11:54.740 bet on her own weirdness. She bet on her weirdness 00:11:54.740 --> 00:11:56.799 and she bet on the intelligence of her audience 00:11:56.799 --> 00:11:59.360 to get the joke. And they did. Number six on 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:01.340 the chart. They absolutely did. So we have the 00:12:01.340 --> 00:12:04.279 history, the production, the crisis. I'm looking 00:12:04.279 --> 00:12:06.259 at the track list again and I keep coming back 00:12:06.259 --> 00:12:09.500 to Aspala Brasas. That was the single released 00:12:09.500 --> 00:12:12.440 right in March 2020. Right. A spell of process 00:12:12.440 --> 00:12:14.879 essentially means someone who stirs things up, 00:12:14.879 --> 00:12:17.799 a fire starter, a rowdy person. Which is perfect. 00:12:17.899 --> 00:12:20.259 She's releasing a song about stirring up trouble 00:12:20.259 --> 00:12:22.620 while everyone is being called to stay calm and 00:12:22.620 --> 00:12:25.500 stay inside. It creates this wonderful friction. 00:12:26.440 --> 00:12:29.240 And that's what good pop art does. It rubs against 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:31.460 the reality of the moment. It doesn't just reflect 00:12:31.460 --> 00:12:34.980 the world. It challenges it. And Pascal challenged 00:12:34.980 --> 00:12:38.960 the gloom of March 2020 with neon colors and 00:12:38.960 --> 00:12:41.279 nonsense sounds. It brings to mind the role of 00:12:41.279 --> 00:12:43.340 the jester in the royal court, you know? Yeah. 00:12:43.539 --> 00:12:45.220 The jester was the only one allowed to tell the 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:47.419 truth to the king, but they had to do it with 00:12:47.419 --> 00:12:51.019 a joke. That is a fantastic analogy. Claudia 00:12:51.019 --> 00:12:54.639 Pascal, with her blah and her p -p -p -f -f -f 00:12:54.639 --> 00:12:57.799 -r -r -r, was playing the jester to the tyranny 00:12:57.799 --> 00:13:00.159 of the virus. She was looking at this terrifying 00:13:00.159 --> 00:13:02.879 situation and blowing a raspberry at it. And 00:13:02.879 --> 00:13:05.179 we needed that. We didn't need another sad song. 00:13:05.299 --> 00:13:07.460 We needed a permission slip to laugh. We desperately 00:13:07.460 --> 00:13:09.700 needed it. So let's zoom out. We've done the 00:13:09.700 --> 00:13:13.080 deep dive. We've unpacked the punctuation. What's 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:15.100 the big picture here? The big picture is about 00:13:15.100 --> 00:13:18.279 agency. Agency. Yes. When you come from a reality 00:13:18.279 --> 00:13:20.779 TV background, you have very little agency. You're 00:13:20.779 --> 00:13:23.799 a product. This album was Claudia Pascal seizing 00:13:23.799 --> 00:13:26.960 agency. She chose the collaborators, the producer, 00:13:27.139 --> 00:13:29.580 the weird title. And she chose to release it 00:13:29.580 --> 00:13:32.299 during a crisis. And she chose to define herself 00:13:32.299 --> 00:13:35.279 not by the volume of her voice, the exclamation 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:38.700 point, but by the attitude of her delivery, the 00:13:38.700 --> 00:13:41.840 blah. Exactly. She redefined success on her own 00:13:41.840 --> 00:13:44.919 terms. She took the expectation, be loud, be 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:48.399 a star, and twisted it into be real, be yourself. 00:13:48.799 --> 00:13:51.440 It's a case study in authenticity. We throw that 00:13:51.440 --> 00:13:53.940 word around a lot, but here it meant not polishing 00:13:53.940 --> 00:13:56.299 the rough edges. It meant keeping the weird parts. 00:13:56.500 --> 00:13:58.240 And realizing that the weird parts are actually 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:00.620 the most valuable parts. That's what people connected 00:14:00.620 --> 00:14:03.039 with. Not the perfect vocals, but the personality 00:14:03.039 --> 00:14:05.440 behind them. So for the listener who's maybe 00:14:05.440 --> 00:14:08.340 stuck in their own Eurovision box at work, in 00:14:08.340 --> 00:14:10.600 their creative life, where people expect one 00:14:10.600 --> 00:14:13.399 thing from them, what does this teach us? It 00:14:13.399 --> 00:14:15.559 teaches us that you can use the resources of 00:14:15.559 --> 00:14:17.740 the system, the big producers, the established 00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:20.519 writers, without becoming a slave to them. You 00:14:20.519 --> 00:14:23.340 use the filter method. Right. Take what works, 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:25.220 filter it through your own unique perspective, 00:14:25.539 --> 00:14:27.500 and don't be afraid to give it a name that makes 00:14:27.500 --> 00:14:29.490 people scratch their heads. Even if that name 00:14:29.490 --> 00:14:31.889 sounds like a shrug. Especially if it sounds 00:14:31.889 --> 00:14:35.110 like a shrug. A shrug is a powerful position. 00:14:35.610 --> 00:14:38.450 It says, I am secure enough in what I'm doing 00:14:38.450 --> 00:14:40.370 that I don't need to shout about it. I think 00:14:40.370 --> 00:14:41.929 that's the lingering thought I have from this. 00:14:42.129 --> 00:14:45.190 We live in a world that is so loud. Everything 00:14:45.190 --> 00:14:48.649 is breaking news. Everything is urgent. It's 00:14:48.649 --> 00:14:50.889 exhaust. Everything is an exclamation point. 00:14:51.230 --> 00:14:53.429 And maybe the healthiest thing we can do sometimes 00:14:53.429 --> 00:14:56.289 is look at all that urgency, all the chaos, the 00:14:56.289 --> 00:14:59.610 expectations, and just say, Blah. Embrace the 00:14:59.610 --> 00:15:01.889 indifference. Not because you don't care, but 00:15:01.889 --> 00:15:04.509 because you refuse to let the noise control you. 00:15:04.629 --> 00:15:07.409 Blah. As an act of rebellion. I like that. It's 00:15:07.409 --> 00:15:09.590 a powerful tool. So here's the question I want 00:15:09.590 --> 00:15:12.370 to leave you with today. In your own life, amidst 00:15:12.370 --> 00:15:14.549 all the notifications and the demands and the 00:15:14.549 --> 00:15:18.250 serious matters, where can you find your blah? 00:15:18.490 --> 00:15:20.710 What part of your life needs to be taken a little 00:15:20.710 --> 00:15:22.950 less seriously so that you can actually survive 00:15:22.950 --> 00:15:26.090 it? And once you find it, maybe make a raspberry 00:15:26.090 --> 00:15:28.179 sound at it. Couldn't hurt. Thanks for diving 00:15:28.179 --> 00:15:29.379 deep with us. See you next time.