THE TALK TONIGHT PODCAST

TRANSCRIPT

00:00:19
LEE HOUSE: Hello everyone. Welcome to my first podcast. I’m really pleased to get this started. It’s the Talk Tonight podcast. We’ll be submitting a podcast out to you every couple of weeks with guests from all walks of life, and I can’t wait to get started. And brilliant news. Over the last few days, I’ve been able to get my friend on Alice, who joins us now. Alice, how are you doing?

00:00:46
ALICE ANDERSON: Hi, I’m good. How are you?

00:00:48
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, good. How are you? First question really is how are you coping with lockdown.

00:00:53
ALICE ANDERSON: And good and bad days? But hasn’t everyone.

00:00:57
LEE HOUSE: And what’s been keeping you going each day? I know you’ve got a dog. Has that been a problem?

00:01:02
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah. The the puppy has been an absolute godsend. It makes you it doesn’t give you time to just lay in your bed and feel sorry for yourself that you have to get up and go for a walk. And that’s been making me actually go out and get some exercise and feel a bit better.

00:01:15
LEE HOUSE: So getting that routine in is quite key. With a dog you have to keep every day. My mum says the same thing. So yeah, you take it out. That’s good. So. Well, you’re officially the guest on the Talk Tonight podcast. Um, I don’t know what that means to anyone, but there you go. Hopefully it’s going to be a good thing.

00:01:35
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, it’s exciting.

00:01:36
LEE HOUSE: So yeah, it’s cool. I’ve really wanted to do this for ages, so if anyone doesn’t know Alice is in a band called Youth and Young and they’re based in Dunfermline, shall we say. Is that right?

00:01:47
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah. Dunfermline, Edinburgh. Now I think more of us, most of us stay in Edinburgh now, so that’s cool.

00:01:52
LEE HOUSE: So before we get into like some of the questions about you and your life and your career and your music tastes and things like that, what is the latest with the band? What’s been going on? I know there’s not much at the moment, maybe, but what are you planning for the future?

00:02:05
ALICE ANDERSON: We are. We are writing a lot of new stuff at the minute. Um, and we’re looking to be kind of just doing a new swing on things, getting some songs that we have been thinking about for a while, getting them down and just working on them really. It should be exciting. Get some new recordings done and hopefully we’ll we’ll get back into the studio and get things sorted, hopefully sooner rather than later.

00:02:29
LEE HOUSE: You must be gutted because festival season is coming up. You guys are always like festivals.

00:02:35
ALICE ANDERSON: We’ve had a few a few gigs that obviously had to be rescheduled and stuff, but you know, like it’s only going to make it better when we get back in and we get back gigging and we can get rid of all our energy that we’ve built up over this time.

00:02:50
LEE HOUSE: I think this period is such a good thing, really, in a way. I know it’s terrible what’s going on, but it’s reconnecting people together and being creative. And we’re spending time more with our families. We’re talking like, you know, it’s just brilliant. I think a lot of positives to come out of hopefully when this all ends and it can.

00:03:07
ALICE ANDERSON: But absolutely. I mean, we’ve had the band and stuff. We’ve had some Zoom chats and it’s been nice just kind of catching up like sometimes obviously quite a lot of it’s talking about kind of music and what we’re planning on doing and stuff like that, But it’s nice just to be able to still see them, obviously, because it’s like my second family, like I miss them.

00:03:27
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, I think we’re all feeling that way about like just people we love and wanting to just, you know, spend some time together and hopefully this will all come to an end pretty soon. But in the meantime, listen to podcasts like this one. Once this goes out, I’ve got some questions for you and we’re just going to run through. So this podcast is all about music, people’s lives, mental wellbeing. It doesn’t have to be in any order. It’s going to be talking about all different sorts of things and there’s going to be some similar questions probably in every podcast. I like to end on this question about a song, so we’re going to get cracking. I want to find out from you. Alice, What was your first experience in music that you can remember?

00:04:09
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh God, my first experience in music, like Gigwise was I went to see Steps. Do you remeber steps?

00:04:17
LEE HOUSE: I remember Steps – five, six, seven, eight.

00:04:21
SALICE ANDERSON: Yeah. I went to see them with my auntie. But I mean, I was always I was brought up around music. My dad and my mum, like absolutely loved music. My mum was kind of more into like The Smiths and The Cure and my dad was more kind of punk stuff, but we were always brought up, My sister and I, when everyone was listening to the genetic stuff that they were listening to when they were younger, Spice Girls and stuff. We were listening to, um, Johnny Cash and Elvis and the Rat Pack and just a mixture of all these songs. So that’s the first gig I remember going to, um, but I’ve been listening to music since I was tiny, just all different kind of sorts of music.

00:05:02
LEE HOUSE: Do you remember the first song that like, like really just made the hairs on your neck stand up and just think, ‘Wow, I want to get into music’?

00:05:10
ALICE ANDERSON: I think it must. It was probably Elvis. Not going to lie.

00:05:14
LEE HOUSE: Remember the song?

00:05:16
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, no. I’m going to forget the title of it now because I’ve been put on the spot.

00:05:22
LEE HOUSE: But just hearing his voice and thinking, that’s something I want to do. I want to sing and I want to totally.

00:05:29
ALICE ANDERSON: And we used to listen to like my dad used to get tapes made for us for the car, and we used to listen to them all the time. And, and Elvis was like a big one for me. And I was absolutely obsessed with Elvis when I was little and had a little Elvis lunchbox and stuff, which was cute. But the song was. What was the song? Now you put me on the spot.

00:05:50
LEE HOUSE: It’ll come to you later on.

00:05:51
ALICE ANDERSON: Well, it’ll come to me later on.

00:05:53
LEE HOUSE: So Elvis had his own obviously unique style, and everybody knows, you know, there’s so many impersonators who was singing. You know, when you’re singing now and you’re in your band and you’re playing live and things like that, do you think about your inspiration? I know you don’t have time. You’re in the moment and things on stage, but do you think about before you maybe go on stage or you record a song, do you think about these people that have inspired you and how has it shaped the way you sing or, you know.

00:06:19
ALICE ANDERSON: Totally. I think not so much the way before. I used to kind of try and hide my accent when I was singing and which isn’t really easy to do. And because if you’ve got a strong accent, it’s going to come out anyway. So you kind of have to just embrace it. And since starting the youth and young and it was definitely I was more I was more confident to just sing normally, not try and hide like my the kind of flaws in my voice as such. And and always I’ve always been obsessed with Stevie Nicks. And I think that that’s actually helped me a lot in my stage presence. And I’ve been told that they were like, ‘Oh, you keep doing these hand gestures like Stevie Nicks’. But yeah, like I quite like it though. I would love like I would, it could be washed, it could be compared to someone else. I absolutely love Stevie Nicks. And I think like when you watch her on stage and stuff, she just looks like she totally owns it, like she owns the place. And I just think it’s so cool and she’s so empowering. So I always, I always kind of take. Take note from her performances.

00:07:23
LEE HOUSE: I’m quite a lot wise, but I never thought I was sort of good enough. But I always like, Do you do this as well? This might be a daft thing, but see, if you’re out walking with my music on, do you like visualise like sometimes that you’re playing that song? Is that only me? It does that or.

00:07:38
ALICE ANDERSON: No, I totally do that all the time. I totally do that all the time. Walking up the glen with the dog thinking I’m seeing it. Yeah.

00:07:45
LEE HOUSE: Yeah. I’ve. It used to be Thom Yorke for me when I was young, I was always pretending like I was same sort of clothes and I was just obsessed with Radiohead and it’s quite crazy. But thank God I’m not the only one that did that.

00:07:57
ALICE ANDERSON: But no, you’re not. Unless we’re both just absolutely nuts. But never mind.

00:08:04
LEE HOUSE: Probably. I know I’ve called this Talk Tonight podcast. We’re actually recording this in the morning, but there you go. It’ll air at night.

00:08:11
ALICE ANDERSON: So yeah, that’s fine.

00:08:13
LEE HOUSE: One thing I’m going to ask most people who are in music and play live is that I’m always intrigued by like when you’re singing the song songs that you wrote, you know, what are you like? I know that a lot of people just get lost in that moment. You said about Stevie Nicks being an inspiration, but do you see if you’ve wrote a really personal song and you’re singing it, how do you control? I’ve always wondered how people control that emotion about if it’s a really personal song, how you hold it together. I mean, I would be in a mess.

00:08:40
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, for sure.

00:08:41
LEE HOUSE: What do you feel like when you’re singing? How does it affect you?

00:08:44
ALICE ANDERSON: We we record you the song on our first EP, and it Was Unsung, which was a song that was written by my dad and I, um, when my grandfather passed away, um, I had no idea that this was actually going to be on said EP and stuff. So when we started gigging and obviously playing this song, it was insane. Obviously you’re so excited because it’s your song that you’ve written and you get emotional anyway, but I think it’s more like you just kind of. I think you perform it because you even know you’re you are emotional and stuff. You just want everybody to listen to, like how raw it is. And you just want everybody to know, like, that’s your lyrics and there’s a reason why. And you just kind of think you just want to perform it because you’re so excited to let everybody hear it because it’s yours. Even though it’s sad or it makes you emotional and stuff. I mean, the first time I played it in front of my dad was the hardest. Not gonna lie. Yeah, because I could see him, and I kind of had to, like, avert my eyes and just look elsewhere. I couldn’t really look at my dad at that point, but, I mean, it’s okay to be emotional when you’re singing those kind of songs as well, because, I mean, you’ve written them with that emotion in you and it just it only leads to the performance, I think.

00:09:58
LEE HOUSE: I always say I’ve always wondered because you do see a lot of musicians that like playing like maybe, maybe it’s this thing where it’s the listener that’s feeling it more than the singer because they’re in that moment of trying to, you know, play the guitar or remember a key or a vocal. So maybe that’s the focus rather than thinking it’s about your dad and things like that. So maybe that’s where I’m I’m more of a listener. I’ll go to concerts and maybe that’s where I’m always wondering, Oh, I wonder how they’re feeling about that because, you know, it’s always kind of kind of sat with me like just like you. I thought they would be more emotional at that song. But maybe again, you’ve played many gigs. You’re playing it every night. Yeah.

00:10:35
ALICE ANDERSON: And I think. I think you’re just what you do. Get used to singing it and and stuff like that. But it’s kind of more exciting the more gigs you do. Like, I would rather know that somebody was standing in the crowd listening to what I had put down. And I would rather get it right so that it made an impact on them.

00:10:52
LEE HOUSE: So that’s more of a yeah, more of an effect for them and that’s more for you. You can take that away and go, Well, that’s what I wanted somebody.

00:10:59
ALICE ANDERSON: Because somebody else can relate to it for sure.

00:11:01
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, it must be nice to have that feedback after people saying that really affected me. I would if I was a real top like superstar musician, I would. I know you’d get so many millions of fans these days following these big stars, but I would always love to take the time and hear their thoughts and things. I know there’s probably so many comments they can, but it must be a real nice thing to hear someone say it changed, it changed their life or it helped them get through something.

00:11:24
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that’s what is that what it’s all. You can only hope when you write a song, you can only hope that that becomes one of those kind of songs for someone.

00:11:33
LEE HOUSE: I’m going to ask this to a lot of the musicians and people that come on in music, you know, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth once said that ‘People who perform so people go to in the crowd, basically, they pay to see people believe in themselves’. What do you think about that as a as a quote from a legend and Kim Gordon and Sonic Youth? But what do you think about that when I say that to you? Do you think that’s true?

00:12:00
ALICE ANDERSON: Um. I mean, I don’t know. I agree to disagree to a certain extent. I think people go to see the the bands that they choose to go and see are the singer songwriters that they choose to see because of how they impact them. Yeah. Um, and I think yeah. When. I think it gets more enjoyable when someone has stage presence. Not gonna lie. And when you see someone up there absolutely owning the stage and stuff, you’re like, Wow. Like, look how confident they are. Like. That kind of that kind of thing. I do get that. Um, but I don’t know if it’s necessarily believing in himself because. Only from my experience, like as, you know, like I’ve suffered from really bad anxiety. So when I get on that stage, it’s a it’s a place for me to just not be me. And I can cut away from everything and from the person that does not believe in herself at all becomes this person that does when she’s on stage. So I don’t necessarily think that they believe in their self even before they step on and play their first song. And I think people can just change when they’re on stage and that can be their escape.

00:13:11
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, I just when I had the interview with it, it really just struck a chord. I was just really interested in like, I wonder what other people think about that who perform music, that people come along and pay money to see that it’s people that, you know, need that. I suppose there’s two ways from it. You go away. I went away for many concerts, you know, thinking, Oh, if I’m a musician, I like to write some songs. After that that’s really inspired me. Or yeah, it’s made it’s made me think you feel good about myself and things like that. So like you say, I think I agree with you. It’s kind of both ways. But I’ve seen guys like, you know, um, Scott and and Frightened Rabbit, who, you know, had basically had a breakdown on stage or struggled with performing. And like you said as well, you have the anxiety we don’t see really what’s that mask that you put on when you perform?

00:13:57
ALICE ANDERSON: Absolutely. And I mean, like you never you never know what’s going on behind closed doors and you never know what’s going on in someone’s mind. But I think sometimes when it comes to being a performer and and being on stage, that gives you that little crutch that you can just be like, actually, no one knows who I am right now, so I can be whoever I want on the stage.

00:14:19
LEE HOUSE: But when we touch on mental wellbeing as part of this podcast, I’m intrigued with musicians as well to ask, Do you think there’s enough, like for touring musicians and performing musicians, record musicians, enough support for mental health?

00:14:34
ALICE ANDERSON: I don’t. And in fairness, I think it’s more so like you’re really, really popular, um, pop songs and your pop artists and rock bands and stuff like that, um, think that they’re so affected by like kind of like the body shaming and the like, the constant nitpicking at them as a person, I don’t think it’s related to their music. Yeah, and you can like a song and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to listen to it. But I think people are really, really harsh on those people that because they’re because they’re famous and they have money, they don’t have feelings.

00:15:14
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, they don’t have issues or don’t have problems.

00:15:16
ALICE ANDERSON: Like anyone else matter. It doesn’t matter if they have a mansion and you come home to a one bedroom, it doesn’t matter. We’re all we all go the same way when we leave. And I think it just needs to everybody just needs to be a bit kinder and there needs to be more support for, um, especially online trolling and stuff like that. Because it’s. It’s just insane. Some of the stuff that you see comments that aren’t even relevant to that person.

00:15:40
LEE HOUSE: What would you say? I’ve noticed through online trolls just even just going on a famous person’s page and seeing some of the messages. There’s a lot of jealousy there, I think as well with people. And that’s I kind of go back to like always being taught if, you know, if you want to, if you want something, you you need to work hard. It doesn’t just fall in your lap. And these people, you know, there is some people that it’s been handed to, you know, on a plate and they’ve had opportunities. But I think you create you create that a bit of hard work. So when I see these people trolling people, it’s easy to sit behind a computer and just kind of comment on someone say, you know, like, you know, Mariah Carey with Britney Spears, some of these big records down the years who are still putting out music, but they’re getting a lot of abuse, I’ve noticed. But yeah, it’s just like they’ve worked hard. I mean, I mean, I wouldn’t want to know what Britney Spears schedule was when she was a pop star at the start.

00:16:27
ALICE ANDERSON: Know exactly when she was probably like 18.

00:16:32
LEE HOUSE: Every interview, 24 hours a day, crazy.

00:16:35
ALICE ANDERSON: And then when she had a breakdown, that’s when everybody focussed on her.

00:16:38
LEE HOUSE: That’s exactly that’s.

00:16:40
ALICE ANDERSON: That’s the kind of that’s what it is. It’s it’s almost like people push, push, push, push, push. And then when these people snap or they have a mental breakdown and it just gets too much, that’s when they are at their weakest and that’s when they kind of they use all of that to be like, oh, look how weak she is. And but she’s probably taken years and years and years of this abuse in the background that we don’t see.

00:17:02
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, exactly. Well, we’re going to touch on some music now. I’m interested to hear about some of the albums and different things that have kind of inspired you. So my first question on that is, is it an album in your life that changed everything? That just changed the way you thought about maybe life, about recording music, performing music? What would that album be? As These days, I think albums are, uh, it’s all about individual songs on Spotify and streaming, you know. When was that last album that really affected you?

00:17:37
ALICE ANDERSON: It would have to be Midnight Organ Fight for sure. By Frightened Rabbit.

00:17:42
LEE HOUSE: That’s a big record for a lot of people, isn’t it?

00:17:44
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, it’s. I mean, it’s huge. I never actually, I hadn’t started listening to, um, Frightened Rabbit until I was. I was about 20 when I first started listening to them. Um, and the first song I ever heard was Pork. Um, and didn’t actually, like, really click with it, which sounds insane because I absolutely love it now, but I didn’t really click with it. So I was like, I’ll give the album like the rest of the album a bit of a, a bit. Alison And it’s just, it’s just insanely good. I mean, even if it’s obviously it’s a, it focuses on A Break-Up and stuff and everyone’s had a Break-Up that you go through and at that stage in my life that was my my kind of Break-Up album as well. But I think it kind of just it forced me to believe in something more than what I was letting myself in for, if that makes sense. Yeah.

00:18:34
LEE HOUSE: I remember actually the first time I listened to that record, um, and I heard Floating In The Fourth.

00:18:42
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, Floating In The Fourth. Yeah.

00:18:43
LEE HOUSE: I just, like, had to stop me in my tracks. I mean, it was that the sort of feeling you got from that record? It just stopped you?

00:18:51
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, like, even like, Good Arms versus Bad Arms and stuff was another one for me where it’s easy to still want to hold on to something that you don’t necessarily need. And it kind of just made me realise like how important like things are that are around you, not what you want. And it was just it’s just a hard hitting album in general. And I think obviously with the horrible loss of, um, with Scott, I think it makes it even more powerful now.

00:19:21
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, it’s more profound now, really. When you look back at the songs and see what he was going through, but.

00:19:26
ALICE ANDERSON: What he probably he probably just thought that it was I’ll just put this together kind of thing, like it’s just a Break-Up album. But he has obviously now he has no idea. The fact that he’s actually made in people’s lives and how he’s changed people and.

00:19:39
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, I mean, that’s really emotional in itself. Is it to think about that?

00:19:44
ALICE ANDERSON: Right, Exactly.

00:19:45
LEE HOUSE: I want to ask you as well, you touched on there about a big trauma in your life or A Break-Up, a death, anything like that. You know, anything can be a trauma. But what would you say? You know, you’ve listened to that album and you were what were you going through at that time? It was obviously quite traumatic. But how do you what sort of advice would you have for people who struggle to move forward in life? You know, sometimes I found that I know we’ve talked about this with the hummingbird stuff. We did like I can wallow in it a little bit if I find an album that just kind of soothes me and I just want to stay in that moment. But what was the big thing for you that kind of moved you on from that trauma?

00:20:23
ALICE ANDERSON: I think you have to you can’t you can’t stay put if. If you want to if you want to be able to fight through it, you’ve got to find you’ve got to find a way. It won’t. Like you were saying earlier, it doesn’t come on a plate. You need to you need to help yourself.

00:20:40
LEE HOUSE: You’ve got to want it, don’t you? You’ve got to.

00:20:41
ALICE ANDERSON: You have to. You have to you. You have to try and help yourself because nobody can help unless you are actually prepared to listen to yourself and listen to the help that people are giving you. I mean, back then, obviously I was going through a bit of a hard time Break-Up wise, but I was going through a lot of stuff with my dad’s mental health, and I think it played a big part in my life that I was almost kind of shielded from a lot of the stuff when I was younger. And and obviously I was older then and it gave me a view of my dad that I necessarily never wanted, never wanted to see. Um, but I’m glad I did because. I now know that that was something he was struggling with and I can help him. And and think you’ve just got to no matter how hard it is, you’ve just got to admit to yourself like, okay, this might be an absolutely rubbish day, but stop being so hard on yourself and stop, stop giving yourself a hard time because, oh, I had a panic attack. Today wasn’t a day like I should never have done that. You should be. You should be angry at yourself for what happened. You should be really proud of yourself for getting through it. Yeah. Just look at what you’ve done that day. Like, yeah, you’ve had a rubbish day, but you’re in your bed, you’ve had a shower, you’ve got your jammies on and you’re watching TV. And then tomorrow starts and you start fighting again.

00:22:02
LEE HOUSE: That’s really powerful. I love that, Alice.

00:22:04
ALICE ANDERSON: For sure you have to. You have to fight again.

00:22:08
LEE HOUSE: So when you listen to that album now compared to obviously then how do you how do you feel about it now? Does it does it feel like you can listen to it and or does it take you back to that moment? Or is it is it a bit more healing now?

00:22:23
ALICE ANDERSON: I mean, I think all songs have got a way of bringing you back to that and it makes you think about all kind of sorts of things. I mean, especially now with what happened with Scott and stuff, it makes you kind of think about like, I had met Scott a few times and I’d seen him play live and they were just incredible. And I remember like I went to see Frightened Rabbit with Jason and that was one of the first gigs that him and I had kind of let our music taste come together because it was kind of different. Yeah. So now I kind of look at it like, Oh, I saw, I saw I got the chance to see them with Jason, and now Jason listens to their albums and absolutely loves them. So I also brought that into his life. So when he listens to that album, he thinks about me.

00:23:07
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, so there’s different meanings now for it.

00:23:09
ALICE ANDERSON: It. Yeah. So it’s a totally different story now for me.

00:23:12
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, I love that because that album, you know that you’ve carried that through your life now and it’s got, it’s like it’s like places as well for me. Like if I go back to a certain place, it hurt a lot. But then I went back and had some new experiences and it doesn’t hurt so much. It’s like an album in that way is where, like for me, I’ve got a few albums that around about when my dad passed away and now I can listen to them and think, Oh, actually that that makes me think of my wife or a sunny day or things like that. So yeah.

00:23:42
ALICE ANDERSON: You can give it new meaning for sure.

00:23:44
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, that’s cool. I like that idea as well that people do that and not just sit and go, I can’t listen, you know, get some people that go, Really? That’s a tough album to listen to. My big one, my big one was the Ben Howard Every Kingdom.

00:23:57
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh yeah.

00:23:58
LEE HOUSE: I struggled like to go back to that but had it on out walking yesterday, actually. And I was just like, Wow, this is like, keep your head up, keep your heart strong. I mean, what a line for people.

00:24:10
ALICE ANDERSON: And I think as well, you you get to the point where you just start enjoying the songs again because you forgot about the song.

00:24:17
LEE HOUSE: Oh, you should be doing podcasts because that’s exactly what this would be your podcast. Yeah. It makes you like, Oh wow, That’s like some of the guitar playing on that album. Both albums really are like, Wow, that’s amazing. I think you lose for me, I don’t know if you’re the same, if you sometimes you lose yourself in the melody or you lose yourself in like the emotion of the song and you don’t actually you miss all the nice guitar parts, vocals, quite.

00:24:43
ALICE ANDERSON: We are quite self-centred creatures, us humans. So I think when a song makes us sad or an album makes us sad, we always revert back to that and you kind of get lost in all of that. But you forget about the fact that you really like that song because the riff or because of the piano intro or whatever. And then when when it kind of all dulls down and passes over, you’re like, What a tune. Like when you put it on.

00:25:06
LEE HOUSE: For me, I like when it’s hit a song for the first time and it goes like, This is great words, but it goes the way you want it to go. So the chord changes. You got it in your head, you listen to it, it goes, Oh, I hope it goes to like, Yeah. And you’re like, Oh, mine’s done it. I’m going to sing this song for it like. That’s class. That’s really cool. So my next questions are going to be around like records self in terms of what do you think makes a good record? I know I mentioned earlier on about what people just listen to Spotify one track, the playlist that they don’t listen to albums in full. A lot of people buy vinyl, I think do. But what’s what makes if you were making a record with your band in the coming weeks, what would you be saying to the guys? What makes a good record for you these days?

00:25:50
ALICE ANDERSON: So this is strange. So this is something that Jason and I. Jason is my boyfriend, by the way. So this is something that Jason and I talk about a lot and we have a lot of conversations about what makes a good album, and there’s albums that we’ve brought up that he’s been like, Nah, I wouldn’t say that was a great one or blah blah, blah. But the way I judge and the way Jason has taught me to judge an album which might be really strange, is that you never want to skip a song. So you can listen from start to finish and you don’t. You haven’t skipped any and you can’t wait for it to start again. I just want. To put it back to the start over and over again and then write through. That for me is like when you’ve got that album and mean Midnight Organ Fight that that album was that for me. Um, Rumours by Fleetwood Mac. You never want to skip any of those.

00:26:40
LEE HOUSE: Um, why do you why do you think that it isn’t that way? Is it purely streaming in the way that things have changed now? Do you think?

00:26:46
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, I think there’s a lot of focus on just kind of like one, one kind of one song releases from albums. And obviously you’ve, you’ve heard it yourself and you’re in the car and stuff that you could literally write down what’s going to come on the radio before. They get it. Um, it’s just constant and only one song seems to be repeated quite a lot. So it gets quite tedious. And I think.

00:27:09
LEE HOUSE: I know what one you’re talking about.

00:27:11
ALICE ANDERSON: Are you talking about dance monkey.

00:27:14
LEE HOUSE: Then my daughter loves that song. Unfortunately, I need to play it.

00:27:17
ALICE ANDERSON: My nieces are absolutely obsessed. And don’t get me wrong, think she’s an incredible musician, but. Yeah, they just play the same song over and over on a loop on.

00:27:28
LEE HOUSE: Don’t you think? Like the radio stations? Obviously it’s a lot of these radio stations. It’s purely to satisfy the execs and the PR and marketing teams and all this sort of stuff, but like it’s such a stale format, I think like I do like streaming and things, but I like to see like what people are doing online. And like Tim Burgess of Charlatans has been doing a lot of listening parties and they’ve been listening to albums. I love that idea that people go back and we talk about an album and do you do that with Jason? Do you have a record and chat through it and things?

00:27:56
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, I mean, we were we’re kind of we were supposed to be going to see Nathaniel Rateliff in Manchester, but obviously due to the lockdown and stuff, we weren’t able to do that. So it has been rescheduled. It’s not been cancelled. Um.

00:28:10
LEE HOUSE: I was supposed to. Go to Bon Iver last night.

00:28:12
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, no, that’s so sad. Oh, no. I’ve seen him be scheduled though, so. I’ve seen him before and it was incredible. Um, it’s so good. But, like, we. We talk about albums all the time, but I think it’s just. I don’t know. I mean, all these songs that get played on the radio and stuff like that, I think it’s amazing. Like, I wish I was one of those people that was the song that was stuck in someone’s head was like, Oh, that’s that. That’s a bloody youth. And young again, Like, I would quite like that. Not going to lie. I’d be okay with that. But, um, yeah, we listen to like albums all the time and kind of just chat it out and, um, Jason’s kind of the worst for it. And we always have this discussion where if we’re going to go and see someone like live and it kind of just ruins the whole gig because he sits and listens to the albums on repeat for like weeks before we go. And I’m like, Mate, it’s not going to be anything special now because I’ve heard it a million times. Um, so we kind of do that most nights. Our, our nights revolve I’m talking about music at some point for sure.

00:29:16
LEE HOUSE: I like, I try to I’m the worst for it at times, but I tried it at one of the last gigs. It was I can’t remember who it was and it might have been. And soaked it up. Do you think a lot of people at gigs and that get they lose. They don’t enjoy the moment and they try to record it so they can watch it back instead of just living in the moment?

00:29:39
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, yeah, absolutely. Don’t get me wrong. I’ve been the one that’s taken a cheeky little Instagram video, or an Instagram picture, but I think we actually lose a lot. I remember Jason and I had gone to see, I think it was Noel Gallagher and we’d gone to see him and my phone had completely died and so did his, and we just kind of shoved him in the back of the bag like it wasn’t, we weren’t bothered, put them in the back pack and kind of just spent the whole day like just chatting nonsense, drinking and just spending time with each other. And when we got to the gig, you could see all the phones and the flashes and stuff, which is which is kind of cool when you see it like that. But we were standing and it was for the first time we actually walked away from it like, Wow, we actually paid attention there. Yeah, we weren’t too busy trying to like get a nice photo on Instagram.

00:30:30
LEE HOUSE: I think I remember moreas well, like, like I think sometimes. But on the other side of it as well, there’s nothing better sometimes than waking up with a hangover and looking back at your videos and go, Oh my God. So I’m maybe you’re the same as me. I’ve got a love hate relationship with social media. I love it. Like at the moment I love it because the situation with loads of cool stuff. Sometimes I hate it. I go off of it, you know, I take time off. I think it’s regular breaks are quite good to do. But how do you feel about social media and and things like that in your life? Just leading off that little link there to that question.

00:31:04
ALICE ANDERSON: I kind of think like social media is awesome. Not gonna lie. It has its ways connecting everybody. Like you’re saying, like what we’re doing just now and you see all these, these like, kind of celebrities are doing mash ups of songs and stuff, which is amazing, but I feel like it should be used for that more often. And more often than not, it’s used for fake news. It’s used for spam. Kind of buy this. From this place. And yeah, I think, I think social media in itself is really empowering, but it can also be dangerously, dangerously powerful for some people.

00:31:41
LEE HOUSE: Really, really think.

00:31:43
ALICE ANDERSON: I think people need to be, um, I think people need to be aware of their like, cyber knowledge and how you’re making people feel. Again, it doesn’t take much to be nice to someone. And so if you if you have a particular reason for not liking something and stuff, again, don’t read it, Don’t listen to it. Don’t comment on it.

00:32:04
LEE HOUSE: Exactly.

00:32:06
ALICE ANDERSON: Go away and do your own thing. You’re wasting your time by telling everyone that you don’t agree with that person.

00:32:09
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, I’ve found myself. I’ve done it. At times you see something you don’t like and you feel like you need to comment on it. But like I’m saying, well, what’s the point in that? And I tried, especially since the little one has arrived just to try and like, I feel like she’s changed me a bit. I don’t feel like a moan as much now. I do it more in a like a jokey way, but um, but yeah, I used to go online and just like if I didn’t like somebody put up something I didn’t like or a TV program I like, this is rubbish. Like, why did I waste my time like saying that? Like, I should have just said it wasn’t for me or. But I hope you enjoy it or, you know, something like that. Yeah. I just like it’s easy to get wrapped up in it though, isn’t it? It’s really.

00:32:49
ALICE ANDERSON: It really is. It can it can be quite dangerous, I think more so for younger people. And I think obviously we’ve we’ve been through we’ve kind of been brought up around this social media and stuff. And we’ve we know what’s what’s happening and we know what people say and stuff. But it can a little tiny comment on something can be absolutely damaging to somebody. So I think we just need to take time and just remember that somebody somebody else is there reading that it’s not just the case of writing it on a a comment or posting it on a video and having a bit of a laugh with your pals. It’s there’s a person behind that screen, you know.

00:33:28
LEE HOUSE: Exactly. Absolutely. 100% agree. And if you listen to this, be nice, be kind.

00:33:34
ALICE ANDERSON: Be nice.

00:33:35
LEE HOUSE: Just be nice. Well, we’ve got I’ve got to say, we there’s only me here, my cat. It’s not like a team behind me. I’ve got a few questions left and I’ll let you go and get on with your Saturday. And I wanted to ask you about this is probably the deepest question. What do you feel is important in life? Now, that might sound quite straightforward to some people, but I know that some people struggle with that to find an importance in life. What what do you feel is important in life right now?

00:34:05
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, my. Right now in the situation that we’re in. And I think, if anything, what it’s made me realise is how unimportant some of the things that you give yourself in life are the goals that you set yourself. And I mean, I’m really bad for when are we getting engaged? When are you getting married? When we’re getting a mortgage and like all this stuff. And I’m sure that’s normal for anyone growing up, that that’s the way you kind of are meant to live your live your life and all this. But I think what’s. What’s made me realise is I come home, I haven’t I have a card, I have a job, luckily, still in my job with Whitbread and stuff just now. They’ve been absolutely amazing. I have a job. I have a roof over my head. I’m in love with someone and. And I have a family that I cannot wait to cuddle. I don’t know how much I have missed cuddles. It’s insane. And I just think important right now in my life. And obviously I’ve got my little puppy and stuff, which is she’s changed my life. Um. And I just think we need to let go of all this drama that we think is important and we think it’s important to kind of bottle up our our feelings and not be kind of soppy and stuff. But over this kind of lockdown period, we’ve seen so many people actually reaching out and telling people what they mean to them.

00:35:32
LEE HOUSE: I’ve seen a lot of that.

00:35:34
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, that needs to happen more.

00:35:35
LEE HOUSE: I think there’s been a lot of like people I’ve said a couple of Instagram things about people repair, a lot of repairing of relationships and things like that. Like I’ve, I that just what you said there, just even hearing you say like what’s important in my life is just that I love someone. I mean that’s so like moving that people could express that without worrying. I think a lot that’s helped the situation has helped people come out more and not be so scared about saying how they feel.

00:36:03
ALICE ANDERSON: And yeah absolutely. And I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure Jason’s got tweets that I’ve made that he would change quite rapidly after lockdown and I’m pretty certain that I’ve got some that I would change for him. But I come home every day to a family that I adore and they make it very clear that they adore me. And I’ve got two young nieces and a young nephew, and there’s an absolute light in my life. And I mean. Why am I like, why am I looking for more when I’ve got everything I need? Like everything I need right here is the fact that I could lose all of the things that I think are important. I could lose the whole the job. I could lose not having any money. And you can. You can. Yeah. You can have a mental breakdown. You you lose your your sense. You’re kind of sense of belonging. You lose your path and what you think you’re supposed to be doing. But at the end of the day, I’m still coming home to my family and I’m coming home to a man that I adore. And it just it just makes things so much worth more worthwhile like that. You remember what you what you actually achieved before you started making really silly goals for yourself.

00:37:19
LEE HOUSE: See, when you see that as well, when you even just hear yourself say that, it’s like that’s that can change your mindset so much. Just like admitting these things, not admitting these things, but like being honest about it. And like, I think especially for people who maybe are listening, hopefully or maybe struggling with different things, that they can even just write that down as a start. Like that’s what I used to do, right? Just write it down. And when you read it back to yourself like, God, I can’t believe I said that many times in my life. I probably, you know, I think should have done things that way rather than just hold it in and think that what you’ve said there is like, I think that really hit home a lot of people. So thanks for being so deep, Alice.

00:37:59
ALICE ANDERSON: That’s okay. I hope so. I hope it helps someone. I mean, you set yourself such unrealistic goals in your life. Sometimes things that you know that you probably aren’t going to achieve and. We come into this life the same way and we go out of this life the same way. So why are we competing to be better in between?

00:38:17
LEE HOUSE: Now that is one of my favourite songs and you’ll know it because I’m guessing Jason loves the Verve. On your on your own. Again, we come in on. Your own and you leave on your own. That’s a beautiful song and I love the second part. Honestly, even just to say the line and it’s giving me shivers down my neck is that I think the second verse he says, Um, oh God, it’s just I’ve talked to your mind. Blank. I’ll leave it up. I’ll think I’ll find it out. He says, Tell me if I need you or something like that. He says in the second verse, Is it true? Tell me.

00:38:49
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, tell me if it’s true.

00:38:51
LEE HOUSE: Do I need you? Oh, my. Oh, my God. That gives me like that. Love that song. I know we’re just on a tangent there but.

00:38:57
ALICE ANDERSON: And and the obviously to, just to add to that song, the, um, um, tell me what you’ve seen. Was it a dream and was it in it. Amazing. God, that’s amazing.

00:39:09
LEE HOUSE: That’s cool, man. Individual songs. You gave me some ideas for, like future podcasts. I’m sorry I haven’t shared that with, you know.

00:39:17
ALICE ANDERSON: But anyway, that’s it in a way that’s kind of like what it is. Like you’re, you’re going through your life being like, This is what has to happen. And it’s sometimes it can be all a massive fairy tale. So just just kind of burst the bubble and get back to reality and be like, Actually, I’ve been happy for the past. How long in my life? So let’s just focus on those things rather than what I don’t have.

00:39:38
LEE HOUSE: I’m a Lucky man. That’s a good. Yeah. I just realised what all the music’s about. Yeah, I think I will put some reverb on the day. Now we’ve talked about I’m probably going to do that. He is a great songwriter, Richard Ashcroft. And I’m lucky I’ve been able to see him. I’ve got to see him once at the Noel in Perth. Yeah, that was a special day. We missed our train home. It was £90 taxi. But you know, we had the best day of it. It was great.

00:40:03
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, got to see him too. But with Noel Gallagher. But unfortunately it was a little bit intoxicated. I spent most of the time just singing to this guy and thinking that I was on the stage with him. So I can’t really remember much of what he was actually doing on stage because I was too into it. But it was incredible.

00:40:22
LEE HOUSE: Yeah, the best. It does lead on to the next sort of question, but well, I’ll move that to the last one. I think I’m learning as I go here, so bear with me. I want to know about sort of before we finish up about we were talking about a lot of music in your past and things like that. But what about just now new bands that you like give us? Give the listeners, if there is any, going to be, you know, checking out some new bands on Spotify. Give me something. I need something as well. I’m stuck in a rut. What have you got for us?

00:40:49
ALICE ANDERSON: Um, I’ve been listening to the band Joseph for a while now. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them before.

00:40:56
LEE HOUSE: I will note that down. I will check them out.

00:40:58
ALICE ANDERSON: They were, um. They were actually on, um, at New Year with Jools Holland.

00:41:04
LEE HOUSE: Okay, cool.

00:41:05
ALICE ANDERSON: Um, and it’s the, it’s the one with the three. The three girls, by the way, for when you’re Googling.

00:41:11
LEE HOUSE: Right. Okay.

00:41:12
ALICE ANDERSON: Um, and they performed a song on Jools Holland on the Hogmanay programme and it was absolutely amazing. It was one of those ones that Jason and I kind of just looked at each other and were like, Wow, that was great. That was great. Um, and the harmonies, they’re unreal. So. Am definitely, definitely have a look at them and always go back to the the loyal, the loyal ones. So if you haven’t heard if you haven’t listened to Daughter. Yeah have a listen to Daughter because that is incredible and blossoms to Yeah I’m really into Blossoms just now.

00:41:46
LEE HOUSE: I’ve done this with bands as well like I do albums as well. I don’t like it and then eventually I love it. Like I’ll tell you, one band I’ve done, like I slay them. At the start, they played Glastonbury. I thought they were terrible. Is that the three girls Height has a Haim. Haim Haim? Yeah. I love it. Yeah.

00:42:03
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, they’re great. But just another one. When I mentioned, um, Nathaniel Rateliff earlier, they said we were supposed to be going. He has just brought out a new album and it’s incredible. Definitely, definitely worth worth a listen.

00:42:16
LEE HOUSE: Fantastic. You’ve gave me some music today to go and check out and we’re going to sit in the garden and I’m going to get some of that on on the old side.

00:42:23
ALICE ANDERSON: You can tell me.

00:42:24
LEE HOUSE: I’ll tell you what I think. Most question is, if we’re all the people that check this podcast out, which will be on Spotify, Apple and all the usual sort of candidates, a song, a song that we all need in our life. It might be one of these artists that you’ve mentioned, but what any song you want, a song that we all need to listen to within lockdown, it’s going to make us feel better. Serve it up for us. What we’re going to listen to.

00:42:50
ALICE ANDERSON: Oh, that is such a hard question, Lee. Um. Oh, doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. – Perfect Day by Lou Reed.

00:43:04
LEE HOUSE: You had it. You had it there. That is a perfect song, actually. Yeah. Perfect song. Well, Alice, thank you so much for coming.

00:43:12
ALICE ANDERSON: You’re so welcome.

00:43:13
LEE HOUSE: We’ve. We’ve chatted for 45 minutes. That’s like.

00:43:15
ALICE ANDERSON: Yeah, no, me neither. And I know. I know. I know. I’m now being kind of annoyed by the puppy, and she’s biting a bit, so she’s like, Take me a walk again. So I might listen to some of those songs when I’m out.

00:43:28
LEE HOUSE: Well, it’s been a pleasure having you on. I’ve really enjoyed listening to your thoughts on mental health and mental wellbeing, and you gave some really good insights into how you got past stuff, the records we’ve talked about. Actually, I really want to go and listen to Frightened Rabbit today. So you really hopefully inspire other people to do that as well. And this will be going out very soon on Spotify and you’ll be able to subscribe to the podcast, talk to Nate Podcast. We’re on Instagram and we’re on Twitter at the moment. It won’t be doing Facebook because it can’t be bothered with Facebook, to be honest. So let’s put it that way. But Alice, thank you again so much for coming on. Taking your time to talk to me. And I hope you all enjoy it when it goes out.

00:44:09
ALICE ANDERSON: You’re so welcome. And also as an American trilogy by Elvis.

00:44:14
LEE HOUSE: There you go. You get there in the end.

00:44:17
ALICE ANDERSON: I don’t know why I’ve.

00:44:18
LEE HOUSE: Got to check out today now because.

00:44:20
ALICE ANDERSON: Yes, you do.

00:44:21
LEE HOUSE: Thank you, Alice.

00:44:22
ALICE ANDERSON: And you’re so welcome. Okey dokey. Bye. Take care. Bye. Sunny day. Is.