EXPERIENCE 206 | Harpist to a King and Winner of Britain’s Got Talent 2011 - Meredith McCrindle and Jai McDowall drop by The LoCo Experience podcast!

Harpist Meredith McCrindle was in Northern Colorado for a few weeks this winter, visiting her parents on an extended trip away from her transplanted home in Ayr, Scotland.  For a portion of the trip, her close friend Jai McDowall joined her - his first time in Colorado.  I met Meredith when she was at our Rotary Club one morning, promoting her upcoming concert with Jai in Fort Collins.  She agreed (and voluntold Jai) to come on the show, and it was a lot of fun!

Meredith’s album, When Walls Speak, is a study on Dumfries House - home to King Charles when he’s in Scotland, and where she has been resident harpist for many years.  She’s also resident harpist for Trump Turnberry, Glen App Castle, Culzean Castle and more - if you need an amazing harpist in Scotland, or around Europe and the world, you’d be wise to call on her.  She’s also the founder of a festival called Tamfest, a serial entrepreneur, and a business consultant!  

Jai McDowall grew up in music, and performed on stage with his father going back to his teenage years.  After he won Britain’s Got Talent in 2011, his life changed forever - and he caught amazing traction during his first year.  When he went independent however, he had much to learn.  Equipped with Meredith’s friendship and insights for business, he’s crafted an extraordinary world-ranging career from those first opportunities, and he’s a great case study on how talent alone - isn’t enough!  

Inspiring and entertaining as always, and this time with one of the world’s most famous harpists, plus a friendly baritone with a fun Scottish accent.  Enjoy.  

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Music By: A Brother's Fountain

Transcript

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Harpist Meredith McCrindle was in northern Colorado for a few weeks this winter visiting her parents on an extended trip away from her transplanted home in Ere, Scotland. For a portion of the trip her close friend Jai McDowell joined her his first time in Colorado. I met Meredith when she was at our Rotary Club one morning, promoting her upcoming concert with Jai in Fort Collins. She agreed, and Valin told Jai to come on the show, and it was a whole lot of fun. Meredith's album, When Walls Speak, is a study on Dumfries House. Home to King Charles when he's in Scotland, and where she has been resident harpist for many years. She's also resident harpist for Trump Turnberry, Glenap Castle, Culzean Castle, and more. If you need an amazing harpist in Scotland, or around Europe and the world, you'd be wise to call on her. She's also the founder of a festival called TAMFest, a serial entrepreneur, and a business consultant. Jai McDowell grew up in music, and performed on stage with his father going back to his teenage years. After he won Britain's Got Talent in 2011, his life changed forever, and he caught amazing traction during his first year. When he went independent, however, he had much to learn. Equipped with Meredith's friendship and insights for business, he's crafted an extraordinary, world ranging career from those first opportunities and is a great case study on how talent alone isn't enough. Inspiring and entertaining as always, and this time with one of the world's most famous harpists, plus a friendly baritone with a fun Scottish accent. Enjoy. Let's have some fun. Welcome to the Low Cove Experience Podcast. On this show, you'll get to know business and community leaders from all around Northern Colorado and beyond. Our guests share their stories, business stories, life stories, stories of triumph and of tragedy, and through it all, you'll be inspired and entertained. These conversations are real and raw and no topics are off limits. So pop in a breath mint and get ready to meet our latest guest. And Welcome back to the Loco Experience Podcast. My guests today are Meredith McGlynn, McCrindle, McCrindle, I was, see, I was supposed to ask how to say it again before we started. Meredith McCrindle and Jai McDowell. And, uh, Meredith is Harpist to King Charles, of sorts. I know you're not supposed to say it quite like that. No, you're really not supposed to say it. But I can say whatever I want. You can correct me. And Jai is the winner of Britain's Got Talent season Five. Season five. And, uh, they were going to be doing a concert here in Fort Collins in a few days for one of my good friends and Rotary Club members and her non profit. And so I had a chance to come into the podcast. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having us Kirk. Jai, what's uh, how would you describe your musical style? Like, what, what got you the prize? Just a big voice? Yeah, pretty much, pretty much. No, I, um, so I, I've been singing since I was very small. And, uh, and because of that I sort of picked up a lot of styles along the way. And, uh, Right before Britain's Got Talent in 2011, I had joined a few amateur dramatics groups in the area and one of those groups happened to put on a musical called Chess, which was written by Tim Rice and, uh, and Bjorn, I can't say his singing name, but the guy from ABBA. Okay. And, uh, and there was, and I, I ended up getting the main part in, uh, in that musical then that kind of ignited my love for musical theatre. And, and as a result of that, the song that I sang on my very first audition was called Anthem and it's from the musical chess. And so I, uh, I sort of, because I went on with musical theatre, I then sort of transitioned into this crossover world which was like pop but with orchestra. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and for the listeners, you know, if you've ever, uh, come across Josh Groban or Susan Boyle, it's sort of the similar style to that. Okay. Okay. You're going to find out I'm not very cultured. And, um, but I say I have an inch deep in a mile wide. I know a little bit about a lot of things. Nice. I like that to be fair. Um, it's good. It's good. And, uh, yeah. And so I, I sang, so I sang Anthem from a musical, uh, I then sang Bring Me To Life, which was an Evanescence song, but um, but instead of being rocky, uh, again, it was with an orchestra. So it had a slightly different feel. Uh, and then in the final, uh, of Britain's Got Talent, I sang To Where You Are, which is a Josh Groban song, uh, and it was written by, uh, the songwriter Richard Marks. So it's a, it's a very lovely song, uh, very touching and, uh, and yeah, I'd still sing it. Again, with an orchestra backing? Yes. Yeah. So that sounds like kind of the. Hey, check me out. I got a voice that's big enough to contend with an orchestra. I mean, I'll take that. I mean, it seems like the formula just for my, you know, I've been very lucky to have performed with many an orchestra in the last. 13 years. And it's, it's not something I take for granted. That's for sure. Um, you know, even though I, I do have a big voice and sometimes people turn me down because I'm too late. Yeah, you never know. I've, I've, I've almost broken some PAs, but, um, be nice to the sound engineer. They make you sound good, or bad, depending on where you're at. And so when was this? Uh, so, I was on Britain's Got Talent back in 2011, so It was 11. Almost 14 years ago. And then you've just been riding the coattails of that success since then? Yeah. You get to travel all around and do stuff? Yeah, pretty much. Um, I, yeah, pretty much. No, I've, uh, I've been, uh, all over the world. Yeah, I've been everywhere. I've been to China. I've, I've came here to, do they all like get careers like that? Like if you're actually the winner, you're pretty much got some kind of a golden goose ticket or do, or are you just better than most of the other winners that kind of, kind of sucked after that. I don't know if that's entirely true. To be fair, my journey wasn't, uh, it wasn't all plain sailing. It, um, you know, it started off really well and, uh, I had such a good career for about a year and then it sort of died down for a little bit and it became something that, uh, because I, I went from being, uh, how I would term it, a Joe Bloggs, so a normal guy to, to being in the music industry pretty much overnight because of the show and, uh, and so. In the first year, you are assigned like management, and you're assigned to Sony, uh, BMG, or whatever it may be, Syco, which is Simon Cowell's label, and you have people around you who do things for you. And know what the industry is like. Yeah, yeah. So, they take care of everything, and then when they go away, it's just like, oh my god, what is this? Interesting. Um, and, and I, it was, it was almost, you know, trial by fire. And I had to learn really quickly, um, not only What the business was all about, but also how to conduct myself, um, sure. And how to deal with sound engineers and, you know, tour managers, right. And venue managers. Well, if you built your career over 10 years or 15 years of slaving and out starting in clubs for 50 bucks, plus free drinks, you know, then you know all that stuff, then you know that, and, and I was, I mean, you know, it wasn't, I was very fortunate. My dad, uh, as a, as a singer, he, he's played in bands my entire life. And, uh, and so I actually did start singing with him when I was about 14. So I did the, the pub circuit and the working men's clubs. And I don't know if you have that in this country, but, um, we, you know, we, I, I wasn't totally foreign to, um, and, and I think, you know, although it was a bigger beast and the industry was bigger and it, it did open up a lot of doors to, to the rest of the world, basically, um, it was, uh, I, I wasn't green at performing as such, but it was just different. And uh, and so, yeah, so it's just been a lot of hard work and perseverance really. Um, and then, you know, you meet wonderful people like Meredith here and they bring you to the States to do gigs and it's just, it's just magic. Yeah. What a neat thing. We've done a lot of things. I've made you do a lot of things. You have. I learned a whole new word when I was, when I've been here in the States. Servant of sorts. He kind of is. Yeah. I've, I've just, I've adopted him. Do what Meredith says in my life is just easier. To be fair, you're not wrong. Um, I don't know. Easier I, uh, that's a great word. I learned a, a new term, uh, here in in America. Since I've, I got here about a week and a half ago, and it's called, it's Voluntold. Oh yeah. Not volunteered, Voluntold. And Meredith likes to voluntold, volun tell me? We, uh, make up a lot of words, and one I was just thinking about was, uh, perspiverance. That's a perspiration plus perseverance. So you gotta sweat for a long time. Like, you gotta work hard for a long time, and then eventually you get your business to work, or whatever that looks like. Yes, yep. Alright, Meredith, uh, the, the, not officially the I'm definitely not officially the King's Harpist at all. You're gonna get me beheaded. It's um, no, I, I have played for, um, King Charles. I have. Um, and I think I could have kind of officially say that, but you have to be careful. Like how many times you've played? Yeah, it's all very You can't really talk about who was there? No, no. Um, it's Yeah, I got in trouble for it. Yeah. Many times. And can you share that? Well, I, I can, well, I can share that story. So let's, let's just talk about why you're here in Fort Collins, Colorado in this podcast to do that. I think a little bit, maybe it's worthy that, that's a good segue too, from being fallen told. Well,'cause you were like, I, I'm gonna go to Colorado. Ja. Why don't you come with me and Yeah. Do some sing stuff. Well, and so my family's from Colorado. My mom was born and raised in Aurora. Um. I have a huge family in Loveland, and they were actually all originally from Berthed, um, and Fort Collins, and, um, so Northern Colorado is, is kind of my second home. Um, I grew up in Texas, but we spent every summer here. Oh, you were those kind of Texans. Yes. Gotcha. Yes. I like those kind of Texans. Oh, thanks. Well, I'm glad. Thank you. Like, they're way better than Californians. Um, but no, I mean, Colorado is definitely in my blood, and, um, so I met Jai, of course, in Scotland. I moved across. Um, to St. Andrew's in 2009 and then to Asure in 2011, the same year that Ja won Britain's Got Talent. Okay. I didn't actually own a TV though, so I didn't know who you were. I know. I'm really sorry. Terrible. Right? Terrible friend. Um, and were you studying music at St. Andrew's? I was. Studying, uh, management in the creative industries Okay. For my postgraduate degree. Okay. In 2009, um, it, the reason for that was I went to my undergraduate degree in New Orleans, in Louisiana. Mm-hmm Um, before, during, and after Hurricane Katrina. Oh. So I moved there in 2004. Um. Katrina hit 2005, uh, in August, and then I, I was, you know, we, we all left. So, New Orleans is a beautiful place. The people are beautiful. The food is amazing. The music scene is awesome. Um, I went there to study jazz. Jazz is really hard, especially on harp, and it's like, and it is a thing. Um, but I, I turned more orchestral and, um, Hurricane Katrina hit, of course, and I actually spent that semester at CSU. Oh, is that right? Yeah. So I moved up here. Um, and then I finished, I graduated in New Orleans and it was, it was a dangerous city. I mean, post Hurricane Katrina, it was really hard. It was hard going. Is it still tough? Or less bad? I haven't, I haven't been back. Right. Right. For a long time. I mean, like even downtown Denver ain't what she used to be. Yeah. You know, Minneapolis, Chicago, even. Yeah, it's, I mean, I think all cities have their, their spots. I mean, I grew up outside of Houston, Houston's very similar. A lot of them had a rotten spot and the rotten spot just got worse. Really bad. Yeah. Yeah. So I think the final straw for me was somebody got shot in front of my house and I thought I should probably move. So I started looking for safer places to live and the safest place that I found was indeed Scotland. Is that right? Is it still? It's, it's really safe. I mean. Well, cause we hear so much about the rape gangs and stuff in the UK. England. That's England. But the Scottish are like, no, you can stay over there. Yeah, they built a wall for a reason. Hadrian's wall is up for a reason. Uh, it's a joke. So I thought they were kind of subject to whatever Britain said. It's just too cold for the, for the Yeah, yeah. You have to be pretty strong to Too cold? It was minus 21 here like two weeks ago. I know but it's a different kind of cold here. It's dry. I mean to be fair I went to the gym this morning and I wore shorts. I know. You're a tough Scot. Your dad was like, what are you doing? I listened to a podcast recently that said that kind of the, the reason America prospered in so many ways is because the Scotch Iris blood that came over here kind of infiltrated lots of different places and made everybody tougher and smarter. That's totally true. I'll, I'll take that. It's true. The alcohol consumption was the only downside to all that. That's not a downside. Surely, no. Surely not. You've got to get through life somehow. I know. Well, and most interesting fact that I found from living in Scotland, and I love history, like wherever I go, I want to know about the history of the place and the people. And that was when Scotland's fight for independence, which we lost to the English, unfortunately. I know, I know, I know. But they were shipped out to America. They were sent on ships and said, you know, get out. And those were the same people that fought in the American Revolution. Same guys. They fought two wars. Scotland. They were kicked out. They lost. They were like, we're not losing this one. know we we're out. You get to fight those sons of bitches, kid. Yeah, let's do it. And they did. And they won the second time, you know, and we haven't met them. So really, you didn't really like research the whole world and you were like, okay, I'm moving to Scotland'cause it's safe, or you pretty No, no. It just happened that way. Some other stuff too. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I moved out of, do you have family roots maybe. You have kind of a British looking face, Scott, for, for Scottish for sure, or whatever. Not British looking face. British looking. Well, I assumed you are white. Know what you mean? I know what you mean. Rele. I don't know if that's a maiden name or not, but it sounds a, a very, uh, it not uh, no, no, no, no. Les kind of a name too. Yes. No. Ryle is a, is a Scottish name. Is it? Okay. My former husband was. It's Scottish. Um, or is. Well, he's still alive. He is Scottish. He remains Scottish. Just no longer your husband. Correct. I've got it figured out. It's a very small clan. Um, but it's a very nice name. So, um, we're going to keep the name. But, um. But that was part of the draw, at least. It was totally the draw. I mean, you could have moved to Minnesota, or. Yes. So I, I, my parents made a deal. They said, look, you know, move out of New Orleans. You can go anywhere you want for your postgraduate, for your master's degree, but get out of New Orleans. And I was like, that's fair. That's fair. So during the summer I went on tour with spinal tap. That was a fun story. And then, um, they said, okay, you've had fun. Let's, Let's get serious. What do you want to do? Um, as the harpist for spinal tap as I was not the harpist, I was a production coordinator. So it was actually on crew. Um, great fun, like best summer. Uh, and then I said, I want to go to London. I love London. London is brilliant. Um, to visit, to live. I didn't feel safe. I found an apartment, and I just thought. That was 15 years ago. It was not safe then. I don't think I do feel now. Yeah, I know. But at least there's cameras watching everything you do at all times. Yeah. Sorry. Everywhere. Everywhere. Yeah, that's totally a thing. Can't pee in the street anymore. Are you sad about that? Yeah. Actually, that's not true. I don't know why I'm bringing this up. You actually can pee in the street in London. They have urinals in the street. Stop it. Oh, I swear to God. Really? And certain points of the city. Do you know where they all are? Have you like, mapped them out? Maybe. Cause when I drink, I like to pee. I don't want to go into a place without beer yet. Anyway moving on. Are we though? You were telling a story. I don't think so. Um. I'm from North Dakota, so. Like public urination is like you just pee on the tractor tire or whatever, right? Like there's no bathrooms for eight miles at times. It must be great to be a man. Well, I flash to a thought of my wife and I take in exchange students pretty regularly because we don't have any kids of our own and just short periods of adulting, I like to call it. And we've got a young man from Finland now. Oh, nice. And, uh I don't know, months ago now, maybe in the first month he was here, Jill wasn't, Jill had a technique of going in the bathroom immediately after Lenny came out of the bathroom. of his bedroom to wake up in the morning and had to go pee. Uh huh. And I'm like, dude, pee outside. Like, there's a whole corner over there that's super private from the neighbors. It's all, whatever. He's like, no. I'm like, dude, you gotta punch your man card. You're 18 now. And, just pee outside. Just go pee outside. Like, you need to I mean, I have two boys. I, I do understand. They should. I mean, everybody should have. I mean, it doesn't mean you should do it everywhere. It's easier for men. It is easier for men, and I try to avoid, like, neighborhoods, even, like, sometimes in a commercial district or something, be like, Oh yeah, I can pee here, yeah. He might get arrested. He might get arrested. You have to have a high confidence of not being arrested. That's kind of the, that's basically the criteria. How bad do I have to pee and what's my likelihood of being arrested? I've learned so much already. I'm so sorry. I love that. I love that. That was a good segway. Is it a segway? To what? I don't know. See, that's why people listen to this podcast is the squirrel chasing. So you got hooked into this kind of Scottish music scene and, uh, And then I found this one. Um, yeah. I mean, the Scottish music scene was. I mean, I went there for a management degree, and then I met, I met Simon, my former husband, and he moved me across to the West Coast, to Ershur, where, where Jai is from, um, and so I You said I met this one like that was Like this one right here, Jai. So, um, So you're, so you are No. No, no, no, no. You're just friends. Professionally. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Yeah, no, we're good pals. And do you have a girlfriend? Do you have a boyfriend? Uh, no. Single. Very, very single. And you're both that way? We did decide that we would have beautiful children. We did at one point. Yeah. Mm hmm. And then I realized that you potentially could move away to Colorado. Yeah, I know. But you could follow her and then you could I'm sorry. I love it. It's beautiful. It is not. It is. It's freezing. Dude. The snow. I'm trying to make a snowball. Have you been here in any time from April through October? He's never been here before. No, well then you shush. You're wrong. Like I guarantee you, if you spent a year in Colorado, you'd be like, oh my god, the weather is It's so much fucking better here all the time. It is beautiful. Fair enough. And it's sunny. I mean, I find it beautiful right now with all the snow, so I'm pretty sure in the sunshine. You guys are here, uh, this week and leaving pretty soon, like in a week from now or less. Uh, go back to the Back to Scotland. Yeah, back to Scotland. We leave on Monday. Um, but I mean, I've been here for three weeks and Jai came across and then you went up to New York and um, and visited some people and I've, I've been working. You're like, you're like someone's gran. Are you winching son? Are you winching? I don't think Kurt knows what winching means. Yeah, yeah. It's kind of like. Good Scottish words. It's a good Scottish word. I thought I'd get it. It's a good Scottish word. But um. No, I, so, just business, business stuff. I was trying to get big gigs and stuff and all that stuff. No, but you ask the question, it's fine. Uh, and then I saw some shows and, uh, yeah, met some friends. Take it, yeah. It's probably quite a interesting community to be a part of. Right, like, that kind of orchestral, like there's only What, a few thousand people that are really kind of on the front edge of that scene in the cities around the world. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, maybe you're not on the front edge. I'm not trying to network, but I mean, you've, you have performed with some amazing people who are on the forefront of that. Yeah. And I, um, and I think, you know, it's, it's New York itself. Like I've only ever been, I actually only went to New York last year for the first time. And uh, and it's one of those things as a, as a creative person, it's such a. A melting pot of just I don't know, just creative energy, yeah, just all that kind of stuff, chaos and power. All of that too. A bit of chaos. Well, but that's kind of what power is. It's really chaos. It's the word that puts it into order. Yeah. But, I mean, your story about Josh Groban's a really good one. Is it? Yeah. Okay. Because you. Oh, he out saying Josh can't, gr can't see. What if Josh is listening to this? Josh is a good guy. Well, good. Josh. Josh. Practice more. Yeah. Okay. Out. Say you anyway. And it's online. You can go and see it. Okay. Well, you're never gonna play the heart for Josh Grob, are you? I, I still, I love Josh Groins work. I'm not saying that anyway. No, I, um, so I was, um, so as I mentioned before, uh, the musical anthem, uh, yeah. He performed the part that I. I eventually played. Oh, okay. Mm-hmm So when I was practicing for that, I listened to a lot of Josh Robbin and then became a Josh Robbin fan. Oh, wow. And, uh, and then as I said, I sang, you surpassed him Now his song Well, it's a good story though way. I, I, I sang his song on Britain's good talent. And then, uh, Twitter was in its infancy then, and he tweeted that I'd just sang his song on national TV, and I was like, oh my god, this is, oh my god, and uh, and so then, anyway, fast forward from June till I think October time, I had actually already bought tickets to go and see him in Glasgow, because he was on tour. And, uh, and I thought, I'm going to be really cheeky, I'm going to text my management, and I'm going to be like, can I meet this guy, because I'm a massive fan, and he tweeted about me, and blah, blah, blah. And, uh, and actually at this point, so I'd been working solidly for months at this point, because after the show, you just, you get management, they're like, can we have your diary? And you're like, yeah, can you make me money? Of course you can. And, uh, And so I did, and I hadn't really been home and hung out with my mates, you know, in a long, long time. So I was at a house party, I had a drink in my hand, I thought I'm going to be really cheeky, I'm going to text my manager and ask him if I can meet Josh on Sunday. And uh, and he says, Oh, let me, let me make some calls, see what I can figure it out. And about 20 minutes later, he texts me back and said, how do you, oh no, that's a lie. He, he, he. called me and said, how do you fancy singing with josh on sunday? And I was like, fuck me. So I then put my drink down and all my friends were like, oh, what now? Come on. And I was like, I can't tell them. I can't tell them. I can't. And then I just ended up having to tell them so that they left me alone because they were still trying to give me a drink. Right, right. And uh, and it was, it was incredible. But one of the things that I remember because on the show, they take the song that you sing and they cut it down. So that it's, you know, good for TV. Sure, sure. Then I was like, Oh, I'm going to have to learn the whole thing by Sunday. So anyway, turned up on Sunday and I, at the time, coming off the show, my gig uniform as such was like ripped jeans, a t shirt and a leather jacket. Okay. And I turned up in this, uh, these jeans, t shirt and leather jacket. My mum's absolutely furious because she got, managed to get tickets to come. Oh, she thought you should be upping it a little bit. Suit. Yeah, so Josh is there in his lovely suit and it's his tour so he's dead relaxed, whereas I'm like, oh my god, this guy is pretty much my idol at this point. Yeah. Um, and I'm, I'm genuinely, I'm shitting myself. Like, if you go onto YouTube and you see it, he's swanning around and I'm standing there holding the, the microphone with two hands just staring into this massive audience. Terrified. Yeah, pretty much. Not really terrified, but intimidated by the scene at least. I was, I was definitely nervous anyway. And I mean, Josh was lovely. We, we ended up meeting before the show to run through the song and, and it was lovely and he was great and he was so relaxed. Whereas I was just like, Oh my God. No. Um, and yeah, and then it got recorded and put up on YouTube. It got recorded, put up on YouTube and to be honest, there are points in the song and even my mom and dad say this, they can't tell if it's him or me and even I can't tell if it's him or me. So were you going back and forth? Yeah. So we were singing different bits. Okay, cool. And I'm like, is that, is that me? Is my mouth moving? Um, that's really cool. That's a really neat bit. There is a, there is a bit in the song, which. Does make me feel a bit proud because you can tell that he's obviously went holy shit that guy can actually sing this song Yeah, yeah, because I went for a big note and then he comes in and goes What the fuck? But no, he was great and it was such a lovely experience at the time. Yeah. Yeah, and Cool thing. Yeah, and have you ever connected with him further? I assume you have some Yeah, just social media really, um, I, I don't know, you know, he's been on Broadway and things like that, but I've never been around at the time, um, to, to kind of go and catch a show. Well, in Scotland, it's probably not the, in Britain even in general, is it leading edge for? culture these days, or? I mean, we get, we, we do pretty well. I suppose London always is, because they've got the aristocracy that always goes and does that stuff, because they've got money coming from some side channel from the crown from who knows how long ago. But, um, but no, we get. Yeah, we already talked about that. We have a good music scene in, in like Glasgow and Edinburgh and things like that. Like, we've, we've got, Fantastic venues and a lot of big artists like, you know, we've, we had Taylor Swift last year, Hattie Stiles, you know, like massive, massive artists from around the world. How big is Glasgow? Um, you're pretty, she's probably bigger. I can tell you the population of Scotland. Of course you can't, I can't. Which is 5. 6 million people. Okay, so just about the same as Colorado, really. It is. Which is also about the same as Finland. Oh, there you go. Yeah. Nice. Yeah. It's also about the same as Houston. Right. Yeah. I mean, that's, that's how I equate it, but it was called in such a small country. If you laid out Houston, metropolitan Houston, it would stretch from coast to coast. No shit. Yeah. Like Houston could just about cover just Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. So Scotland is almost as dense in population as Houston. Yes. Oh, that's insane. Because when I think about Scotland, I think about all these little ranchettes and stuff and whatever. And there is a lot of that, but Houston also just sprawls. Houston, you are in city. Like there's a lot of unbuilt stuff for a long ways in Houston too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Huh. What a fascinating thing. Yeah. Well, I guess we won't play Scotland trivia with, with you though, John. You can play with me though. I genuinely have said this many, many times, Meredith knows more about Scotland and Scottish history than I do. And I grew up there like it's mental and it's not because I don't listen in school. Yeah. Well, the things you took for granted. She was researching. You're just used to it. So that's it. And I, and I actually, uh, met at the stud and I went to Jack's today. I bought myself a nice set of jeans. Oh, it's a nice place, isn't it? And, uh. It used to be literally like a military surplus store. Oh, really? Okay. Like, they had like that kind of stuff when it first opened and a little bit of other stuff. Now it's all like Patagonia and fanciest fishing rods. But it's a great story. Well, yeah, but I went and bought myself some nice new jeans. Okay. Is it those ones? No, it's not. Those ones look really nice too. Um, thank you. I will take that. I don't know where they're from, but here we are. Anyway, nice pair of Wranglers. I like it. However, I, uh, I actually had that very conversation with your dad today about, uh, Um, the fact that because I'm here in Colorado, my Instagram feed is all, you know, Colorado, but it keeps coming up and saying, you know, my morning commute and then I realized I live in Colorado and it just opens up into the mountains and I was like, do you know, it's one of the things that although. You know, I live in Scotland. The reason I still live there, like, as I say, I travel around all the time and I constantly get asked why I don't live in London or why I don't live in New York or why I don't live in LA. Um, and I'm like, cause do you want to see where I live? Do you want to see the beaches and the mountains and the hills and just, and yeah, it's cold and it's wet, but we wouldn't have the landscape we have if it wasn't. So it's, um, It's such, it is such a beautiful place to live, um, but also, I mean, as I said, so is Colorado, like, coming over the mountain. It's so different. Oh, it's so beautiful. Oh, we're just a desert, though, in comparison, you know, that gets fed by a few veins of water that come out of it. Yeah. Out of those mountains. Yeah, but you have a lot more sunshine, and that's true. So, Meredith, talk to me about Scotland. Like, from an American standpoint, because you've lived there, what, most of the last 10 years? Uh, this will be my 16th. 16 years. Dang. Yeah, 16 years this year. Yeah. So, I mean, are you, do you have A green card? Do you have citizenship? I actually, I have a passport. Yes, I have citizenship. You're dual citizen. Is that allowed because of family heritage in Scotland? Or because you went? Because I paid for it. I've done my time. I didn't know America allowed you to do dual citizenship. They do. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can have dual citizenship with Great Britain. Um, but I have twin boys who are also dual citizens. So we kind of go back and forth. Um, so I really wanted to have citizenship. Um, and then I went through five different visas. I mean, I've, I've, I've done my time, but now I have the passport, so I don't have to ever do it again, which is great. Uh, Scotland's a great country. It's, it's beautiful. The people are great. Um, the, the food is, Questionable. Questionable. Uh, haggis, haggis. Is it just bad ingredients? I know, I was going to say. They just don't really have any good vegetables? No, we do have good vegetables. We do have good vegetables, to be fair. Just bad recipes? It's just variety. We were kidding. We were kidding. It's just like, there's not much of a variety. Do you like shepherd's pie or the bagers and mash? I mean, shepherd's pie. I love shepherd's pie. British kind of style. Yeah, both of them are. That's more like England. England. Yeah, it's definitely English. I want to hear from you more, especially like, talk to me about the dynamic among, like you said, there's not an immigration problem in Scotland and there is in England. Is it really just because it's too cold? Oh, I don't know. Or it's not really. Or it is. There actually is challenges there, too. Like, how much independence does Scotland have from Oh, man. That's a whole nother kettle of fish. Yeah. The independence movement in Scotland, well, I mean, it got a lot of traction. It did. About what? It failed. It failed again. Um, about six years ago? Yeah. About six years ago, there was So the Scots would like to Many Scots, at least, would like to be independent, but That is the conversation. I, I don't know. I mean, they didn't win. So there wasn't a popular vote, it just, it didn't win. Do you think the Brits are, by and large, happy about Brexit? Or do they think, shit, we fucked up there? You can answer that one. Oh, well, I personally am not. And only because You think it was a bad idea? Well, it's harder. Yes, it's harder from, well, from a visa point of view. Totally. Um, musicians Well, maybe just from an economic, uh, competition. Because you could kind of be the big swingin dick in the European Union, and now you're just a little wussy England. Yeah. No offense to the language. We don't live in England. Right, yeah, exactly. I can't get thrown in. I'm not gonna go visit anyway. But no, I think, you know, from Again, from my personal point and from friends points of views, things like that as musicians. It's just difficult. It makes things so much harder and costlier to travel and tour and all that stuff. So yeah. And there are, there are other implications, like, you know, import, export, all that stuff. Sure. Yeah. And so How much you gotta pay for your eggs, whatever. Yeah. Well, and that Whether it's eggs or your They've been good about that, and that's something that I've noticed between the states and the UK. The UK's been great about keeping, kind of, some cost of living items down, like food. Okay. So our, I mean, you can buy a loaf of bread for 85p, which is great. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. However Our utilities, like gas and electric is astronomical. I pay like$360 damn pounds a month. It stupid. And your dad was explaining to me about, do you just call it gas petrol? Like gas? Gas, gasoline. So talk. Oh, yeah. Okay. Felix talking about gas. We are petrol and diesel, but Uhhuh, he was like, here, user by the gallon and we By the liter. Oh yeah, by the liter. Yeah. Same price. So it's, yeah. So I'm like, Oh my God, you figure out how much we get four times as much almost for the same. So in some ways, you know, it swings and roundabouts, it's just, you know, whatever. We did have an increase though. Was it last year? Maybe this year, 45 percent tax. Oh, that was, was that last year? That was last year. On gas? No, in general. In general, 45 percent tax. So it's been increased. Oh damn. Uh huh. Yeah. And so I'm going, Colorado looks really good right now. Right or Wyoming? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. One of the things I, I, I read a monthly blog, um, and after like, I guess it's been going on for like six, seven years now. And after, like, Germany shut down all its reactors and then, you know, all the climate stuff and this and that. And I, I wrote that, uh, Europe has cut its hands off, cut its own hands off to save itself from sinning. Wow. Like in its attempt to be climate aware and stuff, it's like, Oh, let's just ruin our manufacturing industry. Uh, sorry, BMW, Mercedes, uh, Siemens, um, all these other things. It's like, you're going to have to live with, you're going to have to try to compete with energy that costs four times as much now. Yeah. Well, and, and Aberdeen is, is our oil city in, in Scotland. Oh, you do have one. So that's good. Yeah. Well, but I mean, we also have a huge green initiative that's, That's, that's championed by the Scottish government, so it's Right, well, then there's policies that say, well, trees are sustainable, if you grow trees and burn them, that's sustainable energy. And you're like, well, yeah, it's a whole, it's a whole thing, like, like, like God turned the dinosaurs and some trees into oil for us. Like, we could just go straight to that. Yeah. Anyway, it's really interesting. And I'll kind of circle back. It's that So, in Ayrshire, where, where we live, um, Which is what, like an outer suburb from the big city? Well, it's about, it's 45 minutes south of Glasgow on the coast. So we live really close to, to the beach. Kind of the sweet spot. It is, it's gorgeous. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The choice city of Scotland, if you will. Ayr. Like we're the choice city of, uh, I don't know, I think Edinburgh would be, but, but, oh, no, Edinburgh is beautiful. Glasgow people are amazing. But my point is about climate change is that, it's okay. I know you, um, so where we stay in Errishire, it's not really a tourist destination. I mean, it can be, and a lot of places are, and I think that it should have more tourism to it. What I found amazing from living there is It's all of, not only all of the sites, but there is initiative happening within Dumfries House. And Dumfries House is owned by the King's Foundation. Um, and that's one of King Charles's residence in Scotland. Yeah. Um, but he is a, a huge advocate for climate, you know, eco friendly materials and, and building things that are Well, I kinda am too. Like, I like really good insulation. Yeah. Right? Well, especially when you live in Colorado. Walking. Yeah. Walking when you can. Yeah. Do that instead. Like, I'm definitely a limited use, but it's also utility. Well, and it's reducing the carbon footprint. Right. And, and I think Scotland's really good at that because we do grow, especially in Ayrshire, we do grow a lot of vegetables. There's a lot of farms. There are a lot of, I would say, ranches. You're not importing your vegetables from China. No. I mean, we, we do, but it's not. It's not as prolific as you would find in other areas. Um, and that's one of the champions of, of being in Ayrshire. I really find Ayrshire potatoes. Like, you know, you know where they come from. They come from the farm. Right. Well, that's one of the things I love about Northern Colorado is, well, just in general, like localizing economies, like we've got this whole movement towards globalization. And that's nice that I can get stuff off of Timu if I want to, uh, the quality might not be there, but there was a. 40, 000 square foot warehouse that burned a Timu warehouse and 800 worth of inventory was destroyed. Oh, well, I mean, keeping costs down. So, anyway, where was I going with the prior statement? I left it off at, uh, You were talking about farms. I was talking about localizing the economy. Yeah, like within about 100 miles of here, we've got all these vegetables. We've got oil. We've got energy industry, we've got universities, we've got culture, we've got music, we've got a bunch of different, like we've got beef, and pork, and a ton of, uh, product. And so we have really everything we need within a hundred miles of here, by and large. Yeah. You know? Yeah, for sure. Um, and so that's a great way to be thoughtful about how far away do you have to get your stuff from, because when you get it from locals and those people, Get money yeah, and they can spend it at your business exactly. No and the same thing in Scotland And that's part of the strength of Scotland. I assume just in general is because it's Expensive to bring something over to that island so might as well try to figure out how to grow it or make it here Yeah, yeah, definitely the sustainability is the big initiative that has happened, but isn't that the right thing to do? Even without rules, does it say you have to do it? I don't know. Yeah, I would say so. Yeah, I think, I, yeah, I mean, I, I've Feels like you do more with awareness than you could with rules in that space. So, when I was a kid, and you probably wouldn't have had it in this country, but there was a show called Captain Planet. Oh, yeah, we had Captain Planet. No way, did you? Of course it is. I'm so happy about this. Captain Planet was American. Was he? Yeah. I don't remember this. I was tiny. Anyway, so I, um, so basically I loved that show and from a very young age I was, you know, a letter picker. I was, you know, I'd do all that stuff and then when recycling, I was recycling before recycling was a thing. Sure. Do you know, and it was because my mom and dad would always be like, oh, you better pick that up. Captain Planet's going to get you. Right. And, uh, And my mom and dad just like, my mom always tells stories about how my, my, my trousers would always be full of rubbish. She'd have to empty, you know, like all that sort of stuff and so that, I love it. That's sort of, um, it's sort of been a thing since I was a kid. I know, like I've got kids in the family and they grow up and, and at school they have like, you know, eco warriors and all these sort of things. And, and, and it's nice just to see that initiative continuing, um, because. It's hard, especially like, because I, not so much my parents, they're pretty good at it. My mum is like, which bin? Because we've got like 15 bins for stuff. We do. It's mental. Yeah, that's Oh, which recycling bin? Oh yeah, so it's like white, or cardboard, or glass, or We just put all of ours in the mixed recycling and then they send it to Indonesia where they burn it for energy. Good luck! Yeah, no, they've really gone deep to recycling. But in a way, it's nice because Hopefully it's being recycled properly and, you know, it's been done the right way, the right way, whatever that is. Um, and yeah, and it's just, it's all that awareness like there, there's also, you know, um, what do you call them when it's an allotment? Oh yeah, allotments, there's allotments in, in the local town, but even, you know, I grew up in a small village and, uh, there was things like that just out people's back doors, just, you know, they'd always have, Oh, sorry. It's a veg patch or a place where you would grow your own food. Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Community garden. Community garden. Yes, that's exactly what it is. Community garden. I love it. Yeah. And so that has also kind of played a part in sort of People being a bit more sustainable and having that. And, and, and it's a shame because I don't any of where we're from there, there have been a few shops pop up where it's, you know, like bring your own glass jars and we'll fill it with rice and they don't, sadly they don't last long because people just I don't know, it's just, it's either an inconvenience or a business model. We were programmed to just buy a box of laundry detergent, you know, and it's hard to break those habits, but useful. But actually, your mum's pretty good at like, I've loved, your mum like, cooks a lot of her own, makes her own bread. She, um, You know, makes a lot of run jams, stuff like that. And I just think all these little things, you know, I grew up on a ranch outside of Houston. Like we didn't, we, we lived out chickens by the way. We had chickens. I had chickens growing up. So I don't have a big enough garden for chickens, but I am an advocate for chickens. I love eggs. I'm a vegetarian, but I love eggs. Well, they'll turn your, and I'm just like, like you'll, they'll turn your like leftover salad that you wish you would've got back to. But it got a little yucky. They'll turn that into eggs. You don't have to put it in your trash and put it in the landfill. You don't have to put it down your garbage disposal. You can turn that garbage food into eggs. Like everything. I like it. In my opinion, that's one of my favorite. Like sustainability things is just having something that because I hate, you know, I didn't, I hated composting. I did it for a while before we got chickens, but that sucks. It's stinky and it's a pain in the ass and the avocado peelings never go away. Um, you can just swing that thing out. Oh, okay. So, so you'll find no argument from me and the fact that, uh, living with a unintentionally. Modest footprint is, is, is a positive for sure. Um, and there isn't a lot of, like, the globalization, the, the control unit that they're looking to fix the climate by is a, is a global control kind of a World Economic Forum kind of mechanism. But the actual function, the, the, like action is all local and the localization of the economy is actually would do more probably to fight climate change than would having carbon credits trading and. Cameras to make sure you don't leave your 15 minute zone and stuff like that. Well, you think about it, and a long time ago, and actually not that long ago, that's how we operated as a society. Sure. We were, we were all localized. Yeah, yeah. And so I think it's just going back to a natural order of things. Yeah. And one of, one of the And then the other hats that I wear, the other jobs that I do is I work at Sunrise Ranch in Loveland. And they are one of the oldest intentional communities in the United States. They were founded in 1945. They've been there. They've raised their own, you know, vegetables, to, they had chickens. They have their own beef still. It's grass fed. I've been a fan for years. Oh, then you know that, you know, that kind of, Mentality and living is so natural to, to who we are as a society. So it's like, well, we're just going back to, to how it should be. Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Which is great. I want to talk more about Sunrise Ranch and, uh, the other things that you've dabbled. And we haven't even talked about Harp much. Oh, well, I'll talk about Harp. I'll talk about Sunrise. But I want to take a break. Uh, first, because my drink has been empty for a while. Oh, no! Kurt! I could probably use a break, too, so. Go for it! And we're back. Um, Meredith, you were just starting to talk before we took a break about your, uh Involvement with Sunrise Ranch, but also you, you do some business consultancy stuff, too, so you're not just King Charles Harpist. You've got other skills. I'm really not King Charles Harpist. I'm getting in so much trouble. Um, well, that is a good story that you can ask me about later, about not being King Charles Harpist. Um, but with Sunrise Ranch, I've, I started working for them in 2023. Oh, wow, okay. And it was one of these, I was at kind of a, um, I don't know, a turning point in my life, and I wanted to move back home, obviously that didn't happen, but I was looking for a job, and having grown up on a ranch, I was just like, oh, a ranch, oh, that sounds really fun, and very different from what I had been doing in my career as a harpist. But I had run businesses before my husband and I had a business and, um, I had multiple other things that I did in events. I ran a non profit. I saw there was some festival action. I did a festival, which was awesome. I really loved. Um, it was. It is. It's still going. I mean, I'm actually going to tell that story. So when I, Meredith and I met, sorry, and, uh, And I went round to practice for something, or just probably to have tea, I don't really know. Yeah, I think you were there for tea. Yeah, that's fine. And, uh, and I saw a coaster on the table for her, well, for the festival, which was called Tamfest. And I love Halloween and I thought, this is incredible. I can't believe someone has thought about. amalgamating tamfe or halloween with tam o'shanto which is uh oh yeah it's an old poem yes yeah yeah well done yeah i've read it before even it's hard it's a hard read yeah it's impressive And I thought it was great. I'm saying, Oh man, it's been amazing. And I went down last year. I read the English version. Yeah, you have to. I did too. Terrible behavior. You're the only one that could translate it. I, well, give me now. No, I, um. All right, we'll just finish the rest of the podcast. Oh yeah, it would be 25 minutes of Tam O'Shanter. But, um. Yeah, so I was, I was gushing about this, this, this festival and how much I loved it and how much it just, yeah, it just was great. And she's like, Oh yeah, I don't know. And I was like, Oh, fuck off. No, you don't. And she was like, yeah, yeah, I did. And I was like, Oh my God. And I was like, I don't know, shit. So incredible. You guys have grown to be friends or whatever through other channels and whatever. And years later you're like, you know, what was the best? Was this one festival we had with the Tamu and Shanti on Halloween? By the way. Yeah, by the way, that was all me! That was me. Well, it certainly wasn't all me, but, um, yeah, the Tama Shanter Festival was great. So, by the way, I've, um, I've been acquainted with Sunrise Ranch for a while. I've known some of the people out there, um, and even, cause I was a banker for 15 years, and so, even just through a few conversations and stuff, and I was doing math in my head, just trying to figure out what A proper sustainable business model looks like for an agricultural operation of that scale. You know, like just growing enough food for your people to eat is a pretty big Undertaken. When already. Yeah. You know, but then if you're also trying to make some revenue on the place and, you know, it's a, can you build a brand of, you know, locally sourced beef or chickens or some shit or, you know, it takes a little something, something to be different. And they've been, they've, I mean, COVID hit them really, really hard as it hit everybody. My food trailer served at the Arise Music Festival actually at Sunrise Ranch years ago. So you know, do you know Paul then? Paul Bassin. Mhmm. Probably not. Okay. Well, he is Mr. Arise. Okay. He put on the Arise Festival. So I probably did communicate with him at the time. Yeah. So Paul is the new events director at Sunrise Ranch. Oh, that's wild. So, so I work very closely with Paul. Yeah, welcome back. Yeah, exactly. Because Larry McConaughey was kind of Bye bye Arise. Well, Arise, yeah, it's, Arise is not coming back, but what is coming back, um, are major events. So yes, you know, Sunrise was known for its agricultural, um, aspects of, of it, mostly to serve the community, but it has since moved to Uh, events. It's a retreat center as well as an intentional community. So they, it has all of these different facets of, of an, of a business. Um, what's really exciting and it's a really exciting time to be at Sunrise right now is because they have a new, um, a new development that, that we've been talking about and that I've been brought in to consult on. And that's expanding the ranch and expanding how we do things. Like by acreage or by room rentals? Or Um, and it's like Sunrise 2. 0, so we're calling it a dreamscape, but effectively it is, it's growing that, that idea of what society really Should be and has been. Because intentional communities are, you know, are clans or tribes or How society has been for thousands of years and we've gotten away from that By living in you know, these urban areas, right? Cities and things. Yeah. Yeah, I actually had a very kind of mmm, I wouldn't say a vision but an imagination at least of a of a commune type of thing that I might be involved with at some point in my future. It hasn't happened yet, you know, I lived in an old town. But like, like to be able to put the people together, which represent the pieces of a, you know, I'm a big fan of some of the old, uh, Ayn Rand and, you know, Fountainhead, Atlas Shrug kind of things. Yeah, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Can you put a sustainable Yeah. Out of what? What's it take? Atlas Shrug is a really impressive book. It's a really big book. It is. Yeah. Yeah. It's impressive that you know it. Oh, I, yeah, I read that when I was like 14. Wow. Like, I was like into that kind of stuff at the time. Yeah. Yeah. And well, it's taking those ideas and those models and putting them to work. Yeah. And that's something that Sunrise has been doing for decades. Oh, yeah. Um, and I think, you know, now we are at the precipice of a new way of living, um, as a society. That's something that we've been kind of moving towards for quite some time. Um, and it's, it's now it's time to kind of regenerate that and look at it in a new way. Well, it feels like with the rise of not, not staycations necessarily, but, um, like intentional learning environments and just VRBOs. And I know, I know there's a lot of competition right now, but it seems like. inviting more kinds of people to come and take a sip. Like, cause I don't know if Sunrise Ranch was ever, it was like, it, it always had kind of a religious connotation, like there was kind of a services thing, and the community was kind of built around that, at least to some level. If you wanted to live there kind of thing and stuff, at least that's what it perceived. Yeah, it was religious, it was totally founded as a religious community. Yeah. Um, in 1945 by its founder. Um And has gone, undergone several iterations of something like that, but ultimately it's an intentional community. So it's, it's people that come together to have that way of life as, as a unit to work together. And does it remain that? Um, I, I think that it's moving back towards it. You know, that it has kind of undergone different iterations of leadership and has changed over in management and has, has. It's been in flux for quite some time. Right, right. But what's really exciting now is that they have a really solid trajectory. Okay. Um, and that's what I, I think, gets me most. We signed up for it to help figure that out. Yeah, absolutely. Because it's, again, it's going back to kind of the way that it was. And can you paint that picture some? Like, I'm sure it's, like, lots of little steps to make big progress, or is that allowed? I feel like I have the most controversial stories, because I'm, you know, not playing for King Charles, but have playing for King Charles, and now talking about things that I shouldn't be talking about. Well, I mean, um, Well, if you don't, shouldn't want to talk about it, then don't, you know. No, no, it's really exciting stuff. Um, so, You're talking about Old Town, Fort Collins, and Old Town, Fort Collins was actually, I guess, how do I say this, sketched out, drawn, designed by a man called Ed Goodman who is from Fort Collins, born and raised. He went off and lived in California for many, many years, worked for Disney, really Interesting, amazing imagination, great guy, and he was actually brought in for this project specifically, and using all of his knowledge, expertise, and brainpower to reimagine what Sunrise could be. Oh, is that right? Interesting. So it, it really is. It's his vision, um, coupled with what the community would like to bring. So you're talking about a real development here. A full blown development. Like a raising capital and like you're Yellowstoning this bitch. Yeah, we are. So Sunrise, it's big. It's a really big project. Yeah. And it's, it's really exciting. And, um, just to have Ed's brainpower backed with the community and the enthusiasm of, of Sunrise Ranch communities. I think your property. Neighbors with the other ranch there that's more famous, uh, Sylvandale, Sylvandale. Yeah, so that, they're up on the ridge. The lady that owns that was telling me how her parents and the Sunrise Ranch people were such close friends during those early years when they were both building their ranches up and stuff like that. Right, yeah. And just their resonance, um, is one of the things that she shared. Like even though that The Sunrise folks weren't Christians per se. Oh, no, they were. Oh, were they? Oh, yeah, totally. I didn't realize. Mm hmm. I thought it was kind of a, at least an off shooty kind of thing, but it is. Uh, well, at least they don't boo poo Jesus. Anyway, she felt like they were a little different, but they had. So many more similarities and that they were very much, uh, Total similarities. Kind of in the same vein. And I would have to think that Sylvandale's struggling too. I don't know. I'm sure it is. I don't know, I know. Like as long as you're blowing this shit up, why don't you buy that and save her and blow that up all the way down. I'll, I'll talk to their investors and see what happens. I don't know. I'm just saying, I'm not saying Sylvan Dale is struggling, but it doesn't seem like it's prospering either. Yeah. Neither through their base operations nor through dude ranchie things and stuff. Um, yeah, I think it's been hard for them since COVID too. It's, it's a hard, it's a hard time. Um, I mean, Sunrise Ranch is already enormous. It's 450 acres, so it's, it's a big, it's a big process. Oh, was it? Well, there you go. You have more space, um, but for Sunrise's development, what we're looking to do, like I said, is that there is already the main campus that has, it was basically built up in the 1970s, 1980s. That was the main development area. Functional rooms, some great sunlight. Really beautiful, um. And they also have the dome. So it's a Buckminster Fuller designed dome, um, for residence and for great acoustics. And so right now we're in the process of getting everything landmarked. So they have some beautiful history that needs to be preserved. And I'm really keen on seeing that project through so that when we move forward with the dreamscape development that, you know, we have that history. We're in the present looking at the future and moving forward with it. So, um, is there like a timeline? Like, when should, when would we expect to hear things about this in our community? It's imminent. So, yeah, we're looking to go full fledged forward this year. And, and what's, so the, the, the dome becomes more of like a venue? It's always been a venue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 405 seats. Oh, is it that big? Yeah, it's a good venue. Alright. Um, the historical landmark. stamp on it will help a lot. Um, there are renovations that need to be done to bring it back up to code and to make it safe and open again to the public. But we're, we're in process of that. So, yeah. Well that could be a high functioning space just in itself. Totally. I mean honestly like there's bands out there that could, that could fill a 400 seat. Place, but they, you know, the Aggie doesn't trust them. Yeah, or whatever. They don't have a place to play. Like, this is it. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. And probably it's like, will you make food for them and stuff too? Like, is it full service operation? Sunrise Ranch is known for their food. I know. We were there over the weekend and it was Well, I mean, they were former chefs. Uh, go on to be famous restaurant chefs here locally or vice versa, you know, hire people and they always have great. Yeah, they're brilliant. So that's, that's a big part of our community. Okay. Yeah. Other, other major things that you can. Like get in trouble over telling us no. I haven't signed any NDAs yet. So I mean, I think we're okay But no, I mean a that whole project is we've been planning it for about a year and a half Oh, well, okay moment. And so we're just like I said at the precipice of moving full steam ahead and it is So the one of the reasons I like Sunrise Ranch so much is because I'm a motorcyclist and so You drive by there all the time. Way too fast, yeah. No, it's one of the best roads to go fast on over there. That's a beauty. Yeah, so anyway, that whole Eden Valley stretch is just awesome. Yeah. So, you're a festival creator, and let's talk about harp. Yeah, let's talk about harp. I mean, that's ultimately how, um, you were introduced to me as the, whatever harp is for King's harp. I know, master harpist. So talk about, let's talk about your harp career just a little bit. And is that, like, how you earn the most of your income now? Um, most of it now is business consulting, but I mean, I've, I've had a, such a big career as a Harpist. Um, that that's what you're most famous for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's how I'm introduced to the American Harpist. Jay often introduces me as, is that right? Yes. American Harpist. Or the American Harpist in Scotland. Yeah. Oh, totally. I met. Yeah. Pretty much. Yeah. You are. The list is you. Yeah. That is, that is. So, uh, like. Talk to me about the development of that path, like, uh, were you like a piano girl that then was like, Oh, I want to harp instead mom and she's like, oh, come on. We already have your Yeah, it was very much along those lines. Um, I, I spent a lot of time, um, when I was really little at my great grandma's and she had this beautiful painting in her, I think it was in her guest bedroom or something. And it was of a beautiful woman in a beautiful dress in a castle playing harp. And I thought, that's what I want to do. I want that. And I actually, I think I wanted the dress. Right. More than anything. You're like seven or something. I was totally little. I was very, very little. Princess era. And, um, I was like, I want the dress and I want to live in the castle. Princess era. I know what you're going to say. Well, in America, in America, like the three to four is the beginning and then up to seven to eight, kind of, when every girl wants a princess party for her birthday every year and as many princess things as they can get in between. Yeah. Meredith? He's 39, will be 40 soon. He outed me! So you are older. And she is still a princess. Yes, he reminds me. I am still a princess. Still a princess. I have a loud voice. In fact, I think your 40th birthday should be princess themed at, yes. Okay. I am gonna organize this. Oh yeah, your 40th, for sure. When is your birthday? Oh no, you've gone away. But I'm still going to have a massive party. I've actually rented out a huge estate house. Oh, wow. Already. I know. I'm insane. In Scotland? In Scotland. Okay. Yep. I dig it. I dig it. Yeah, it sleeps 16 people. A bunch of us turned 50 this past year, including myself. Oh, I like that. I in St. Lucia. A couple of us went down there with our family. Amazing. St. Lucia's beautiful. Oh, it was really cool. Um, a lot warmer than Scotland. Yes, yes, definitely. An October. Do you know that the that St. Lucia has been controlled by the British and the French seven times each? Really? Yes. Like in like back and forth. They fought over it back and forth. And so the the local language is a is a Pigeon language, a mix of British and French. Wow! But you can't understand it because it's almost as bad as Scottish to understand on the pigeon side. Excuse me. Excuse me. Do I need to translate? So, so you had this, your grandma's picture inspired you and then like. Oh yeah, so I wanted that, I wanted the dress. Middle school, high school, you were like the harp girl? I was totally the harp girl. Yeah, I started playing when I was 10. And, um, went to university for it in New Orleans. Um, and played professionally since really, I mean I played my first wedding when I was 15. Yeah, yeah. And then that was it. Like, I didn't do the babysitting thing, you know how, uh, teenagers have odd jobs. Yeah, yeah. Or, you know, when you're younger you can play this. You just made 500 bucks once a month at a show. I played weddings. And that was always my job. I was never a very good babysitter. I'm sure that was actually my, my, uh, My nephew, my wife's oldest nephew, um, has been lead chair on the flute for Colorado Christian University. Okay. And, and has been like state ranked, kind of like the lead flute, and he was a piano guy and then he changed to flute and now we go down there. for his Christmas concerts and stuff. And he, he goes down to Arizona with the lead of the music college to go shake donors down for money. And yeah, so he's a little bit on the edge of the experience you had, although probably a lot easier to get. Weddings with a harp than it is with a flute. I, I play a lot of weddings. Yeah. 120. You still year? A year? Yeah. Still? Yeah. Well, last year it was, I think it was a little less than that. I think it was about 90. Um, but that's a lot. It is a lot. But, but that's almost a third of the day. But I guess it's only a few hours you go. It's only a few hours and it's usually on the weekend. Right. So it's like Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Those are my, my busy times. And so the rest of the week I'll, I'll do, you know, work for sunrise and, and business consulting. You think, yeah, event, event consulting is another, okay. Interesting. Another thing that I do. And what's your, like, why do you have a special talent in the space? Like are you quick processor, just marketing, understanding, like it seems like you've been like trapped. Learning how to play the harp good and, and being King Charles's moving furniture piece and stuff like that. That was one of the highlights. It would seem like your focus would be hard to build kind of that diverse skill set that oftentimes business consulting needs. I, I like the challenge. Yeah, yeah. You know, I really like, I like having the challenge and I also, uh, I like being busy and I get bored very easily. Fair enough. As Jerry knows, cause he's been voluntold to too many things in our time. Well, you just keep doing what she tells you to do and you'll be just fine. Yeah. It's fine, that's how I got to Colorado, so I'll keep doing it. I mean, I got him, I got this Scotsman in a kilt up a mountain and for a video. I like it. And it was fun, we did have a good time. I'm gonna do a quick time check. Oh, I was actually, I found a picture I was gonna show you guys, because I was the emcee of a movie premiere this weekend. Oh, sweet! On Run. Wild, a documentary about the Wild West Relay. Cool. Which is a running race from Port Collins to Steamboat Springs. Oh my gosh, that's a long way. And I wore my, my running gear on the bottom and my checkered flag jacket on top. That's hilarious. Look at that. Ava, I'll get you that picture so you can weave that into the, into the show here. That is a costume. It was uh, yeah we had like 220 people in the theater and the movie was really good. Nice. We don't really know what we're doing, but it's cool and it's fun. I mean, none of us really know what we're doing. Right. No, but we always have fun. That's our rule. That's the rules. True. Um, I guess if you're talking to a business putting on an event, um, since you're an event consultant especially, kind of, but what, uh, what are some of the don't be dumb, don't I'll do this for sure. Um. I always go for the creative authenticity hooks. So be real and authentic. Absolutely. Anytime you're making an event because that's what people will respond to. Um, that and details. I'm big on details. That and like, like his talking about that poem plus Halloween was like this amazing thing. And somehow you, like, you were early in Scotland even probably at the time, relatively. I guess so. Yeah. So the first one. Fascinated by this poem? Like, what was the why of that? Yeah, so 2015 was the first Tam O'Shanter Festival. So the first Tam Fest. Um, it was one of those things that, for me, loving history and being in the space that I was. It was natural. I was like, I love Halloween. Like this, and this story is the best Halloween story that I've ever read. And we're not doing anything with it. And it takes place in air where, where we live. And so it was, it was tying up all of those, again, authenticity. Was Halloween a thing in Scotland? I mean, it is a thing. Not really. It's bigger now. It's certainly bigger now than it was. Because the world has gotten globalized more. Totally. In some ways. Yeah. Everybody sees TikTok of your cool Halloween costume. Yeah, I love Halloween. We would always go, we called it guising, but we'd always go guising. Guising. Disguise. Halloween. Um, you know, even, even since I was a kid. So it's, we, we, we would always do that trick or treating almost. Yeah. Okay. Um, but the Kind of, as you say, globalization or commercialization of Halloween has gotten bigger because of, you know, things like Amazon and sure, you can get whatever you want. Yeah, big, massive inflatable. So it's just, yeah, it's, it's, um, I think a lot of people at home would say it's been Americanized as such, because obviously you guys go back here. We do a lot of holidays and, uh, And I think just because it's easier for us to get things in Scotland, you know, they now do that. Well, and what I love is that really that kind of festival is Scottish, you know, having Halloween is all Hallow's Eve. That is British. That's from the British Isles. So for me, I was going, you guys should like do more. Yeah, this totally fits. I mean, I, I always say that it's amazing that it took an American to come here and do all of this stuff. Like we're just so annoyingly laid back. Um, but it's also like, you know, when I went to, I went to New York for the first time last year for a, uh, uh, a festival called tartan week and uh, and on the It takes place in April, because it's all about the declaration of Arbroath, which is kind of like Scottish independence, almost. Kind of. It's like a constitution. Yeah. Okay. And so. That's very cool. Um, but it was really funny because my friend that took me over there, he plays a bagpipes, and his name's Craig Weir, and he, uh, he actually said, you know, I live not too far away from Arbroath. And we're in New York. We're currently doing a parade down 6th Avenue. Do you know what's happening in Arbroath? Nothing. And it's just mental because it's like why? It baffles me. It's part of the Scottish mentality of like, don't Don't shine too bright. Yeah. Yeah. Don't go too big. You know, keep humble. Stay, stay me. And of course I'm like, no, like this is amazing. Shout this from the rooftops. Yeah. We have Tam O'Shinter and everyone's like, man, I'm used to it. And I'm thinking this is such a great story. Like let's have a parade through the high street. And then obviously something like me goes, that is absolutely fucking amazing. Right. So, right. Cause you thought it was. Uh, flamboyant and wonderful and beautiful, right? Like it's like this big thing. And it's all those things that I wish sometimes Scottish people could be or Scottish culture could have. I mean, we have a lot, but sometimes, you know, it's not that we don't have anything. We do. Yeah. Yeah. But. Well, it's probably a lot like Finland and like North Dakota, where you kind of grow up with the mentality that you just kind of suck compared to other people in the world. No, that is part of it, because why would our people live here if they didn't suck? Because this place is kind of cold and miserable. I mean, it's probably less so in Scotland, but So, I'm going to tell a joke from my late high school years, I think, but Because Minnesota is You know, it's got Minneapolis, and it's a lot more kind of progressive in general and stuff, and then North Dakota is right next door, and North Dakota's one seventh the population, right, and there's barely anybody that wanted to be there, you know? Anyway. But they would say that, uh Get a bucket of crawfish from Minnesota and one from North Dakota and you don't have to put a cover on the one from North Dakota because as soon as one gets close to climbing out, the other ones will just grab it and pull it back down. Yeah. Um, because of that kind of mentality that, you know, you don't deserve to be out of this bucket. Wow. That's a little bit like what you're describing and a little bit what I've heard from, from Finland too, from our exchange student from Finland. And then I, you know, I was, had to be at college for like a year before I realized it. Oh shit, I'm just as smart as these fuckers from Minnesota, you know, or whatever it was. And I was kind of that expressive, you know, there's a reason I got a podcast and I came from North Dakota because I wanted to tell stories and be interesting, you know, see interesting things, meet interesting people. And as it's, it's, it's difficult because as you say, like, you know, one scene that I remember, uh, so obviously I went onto the TV show and, and when I won it. A lot of people would be like, don't you get too big for your boots now? Right. And I'm like, whoa, give me a shot. Just give me a chance. Right. Just, you know, and it can, I try to get three gigs that pay, right? Is that going to be okay? You know? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Same mentality. Yeah. And it's hard because, you know, I love my country. I absolutely adore it. And as I said earlier, you know, I haven't moved away because of that, because my heart will always belong to Scotland and, but at times it's just really difficult because you meet people at Meredith who do. So much and she shines so bright and she's so good at everything she does and it's just amazing. And then you're like, Oh man, give me a piece of that, give me a piece of that. That's why you hang out with me. That's why you're alive. It's not because we both have ADHD. It's nothing to do with that. In America we have this thing that's called absence makes the heart grow fonder. Also, basically when you come here, I don't speak to you for a couple of years and then I'll come and visit you. Well, what I was thinking is maybe you should leave Scotland behind for a year and do like a world tour. Oh, right, fair do. So yeah, I like that idea. And then you'll come back to Scotland just appreciating it that much more. Yeah, I would agree. World tour. If anybody's listening and wants to put me on one of those, that'd be great. I've got a harpist. We're gonna have to, uh, start working our way towards something. No, we're not done yet, but we're gonna have to start working our way there. I'm glad you're having fun, actually. Yeah, we always have fun. We always have a good time. Um, I want to go, uh, in the time capsule to you at Seven years old and you also at seven years old and just kind of get an idea of as you were turning into a little person yourself, like what was your, like, did you have siblings? What were your parents up to? Were you a smart ass? Were you a singing singer already? All those things. And then I'll shift the same question. Well, okay. Uh, I'm trying to remember. I have siblings. Yes. Okay. You can be five. You can be seven, whatever. Good memory on that pace. Um, seven. God, I would have been Justin, maybe like primary, we do, we do different school systems, but primary three and seven. So, I was quite a quiet wee boy. I think I was quite, you know. You were pretty small. Yeah, oh yeah. I was very small too. I was five foot one at the end of my sophomore year of high school. I was a, I was a small guy. Really little. With uh, Potentially a mullet still at that point. My mom and dad did that to me. All right. All right. Um, I had a mullet too, but I was popular. Yeah. Well, I mean, it was, it was kind of popular back in the day as well. And my dad was an old rocker who had a mullet. Um, and so it was just one of those things. And what did he settle into? Uh, I assumed it was, was he a musician your whole growing up? Yeah. Oh, is that right? Okay. Yeah. So my, my dad. That's cool. That's quite a different experience too. So, you know, I kind of grew up with that. Yeah. And, and although. I, I was singing from a very young age because as I say, my dad's a singer, but also my, my Nana and Papa, his mum and dad were also singers. Oh, wow. So they used to have this really lovely, like, tape recorder that had a microphone attached to it. And we used to just sing nursery rhymes with, you know, and it was always, you know, the cousins and, and, and things like that. And we'd always just go up and we'd get this little thing out, sing lots of different, uh, nursery rhymes into this tape recorder. And that was sort of where it all kind of started. And then, you know, as I got older, I think it just sort of progressed, you know, and as, as I was saying earlier, you know, you kind of stop things for a while because you don't, you don't want to be seen or too much attention. But I mean, it's seven years old. Can't be striving too much. No, no. Seven. Oh God. I was just. I was into. Captain Planet. And lots of, uh, and lots of other stuff. And, uh, it's called a callback in the comedy world. Were you early in the sibling? I was, I was, so I, we come from a bit of a blended family. Um, my, my dad was married before we met my mom and my mom was married before she met my dad. So I have four older siblings, uh, three of which were my dad's, one of which was my mom's. Um, and. Then I would have, at seven, had a younger sister as well, uh, Diane, and um, I was technically in the household. So that's a pretty big crew. Yes. Was that big for Scotland? Yeah, yeah, when you get, yeah. It's pretty normal to have big families, isn't it? Are the Scots They kept the Catholics out, pretty much, right? It's mostly Protestants. Catholics versus Protestants. It's still a lovely conversation for another day. We could spend two hours on that. Oh, we could. Easily. But yeah, I, so, so, my, my older siblings on my dad's side, they lived with their mum, and they came at the weekends. And, uh, my older brother and younger sister lived in our house. So, I was the middle child, basically. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And, uh, So, I obviously, you know, didn't like being ignored, so I was like, I'm gonna go on a fucking TV show and I'm gonna show you all and you're gonna look at me. Um, no, I, um, but no, at seven, I was a quiet kid. I had, you know, a best friend who, who was just seven doors down the road and we were kind of inseparable, um, you know, me and Ryan and, and, uh, and yeah, just. Yeah, just a normal kid played down the, the woods and you know, in the village, things like that. In the, in the village. In the village. And, you know, and that's to take it back to, you know, sunrise Ranch. You know, I. Um, I said to Meredith the other day, you know, I love that community feel because at home we have a saying, you know, it takes a village to raise a child and uh, and it really does because you know, I was, I was always at other people's homes like we have another saying, you know, you'd get a jam piece at anybody's door. Hmm. Um, and I was that kid, it's like a piece of toes with some jam.'cause your dad was off doing music gigs and different things. Lot Yeah. Mean stuff. He gigged at the weekend and, and he worked through the week. Oh, okay. Um, and, you know, and my mom was always, you know, and because obviously they had three kids at home, it was like shift work. So one would be in the morning and one would be overnight. And it would, yeah. And then we'd go my granny and grandpa's or we'd go down the street to anybody's house. Um, I, I, I grew up in a village of about a hundred people. Yeah. And like when you got. To be five, you've got a bicycle and a pass, basically, you know, good luck, don't die. Yeah. Yeah. And that's exactly the same. And even at a young age, you know, it was just such a nice place to grow up just because everybody knew who I was and everybody looked out for you. Yeah, it was just nice. And that sense of community, it takes, you know, it's why places like Sunranches, you know, a commune living or, you know, a community where you just, yeah, where you just all coexist and, and, well, and hopefully probably you saw a lot of the same kind of notion at the Rotary Club the other day. Yeah, like it's pretty cool, even though we're only together for that hour every week, you know, they have other engagements and stuff, but those people love each other a lot, you know, and they're from a very diverse backgrounds and senses and all that stuff, and they still love each other. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, so to answer your question, my, my upbringing actually was, was similar, but different. I mean, I grew up on a ranch outside of Philadelphia. Outside of Houston. Outside of Houston. Okay. Yeah. And, um, and a and what was the circumstances? Like a, a real working ranch, like you're It was okay. It was, it was actually my great great, not a ranch with oil, oil ranch with oil wells. It was a ranch with oil wells, That's why you were able to get a harp. Yeah, exactly right. Um, it was actually my great grandfather's ranch. That's cool. It was very cool. And, um, and he had umpteen anchors. And after he died, my great grandma sold off the plots. Mm. And it became this makeshift neighborhood. So by the time I was born, we had loads of houses and kids and so we were, we sat on five acres and we could see, you know, the nearest house was 10 acres away because everybody had acreage. It was, it was brilliant and we had like girl gangs and we would terrorize the neighborhood and go karts. It's all young families pretty much. Exactly. And you were in a gang? Girl King. It was girl power era. Um, you know, they had, we had, we had chickens. So my mom raised chickens and we had our own vegetables. And then my neighbor had horses and raised their own vegetables. And another one had a trout. Pond and. So we had, I had the most incredible upbringing and then my dad taught me to shoot when I was, I don't know, eight. He would take me out and we'd go all the way down, you know, to the very end of the cul de sac. Yeah, exactly. And we'd save the gallons of milk for weeks and then dad would take me out. Do you feel a little bit of water too? Oh, absolutely. Well, you only explode when you do that. Yes, exactly. So, I learned how to shoot from a very young age and play piano and, you know, uh, live free. And what did your dad do for, like, income and employ? Yes, my dad is an optometrist. Oh, that's right. I actually met him. Yes. I remember now. Yeah, he was there. He was there. So you had a professional career. He did. He did. And so did my mom. So my mom was, um, um, she worked in, um, psychiatric hospitals and she was a therapist and, uh, she did that for a really, really long time. It was not very easy. So she retired very young. And, um, and help my dad with his work. And then other siblings too? No, it's just me. It's just me. I also got a harp. Princess. I was like, yeah, this, you know, gun toting thing is great, but I really want to live in a castle and play harp. Well, I think, I mean, I mean, frankly, every man kind of wants a princess that can shoot. Well, there you go. I am that, I am that woman. So, um, let's uh, let's do quick, we're going to do the quick hitters because we always talk about faith, family, politics. Okay. And we already talked about Catholics and Protestants in Scotland and stuff. So we've got some ground set here if you want, but do you have a preference on where we start? No. All right. I don't know. Open book. Let's talk faith. Okay. Yeah Texas is like the home of the Baptist. Yeah. Oh, yes. Yeah devout. Yeah, my great grandmother. I would go to church with her She was a devout Baptist. Okay. Um, I was I wasn't really less so in your race Anything so my parents were old hippies. So very spiritually based, but also very open to all religions. So when I was a kid, I learned about Hindu and I learned about everything. I mean, I always had this joke that my, my godparents were Jewish. My grandmother was Baptist. I went to Catholic school and my best friend was Muslim. And that's all true. Um, and it is, it's, it's very, very diverse. growing up. Um, which I think is, is the best way to remain that for you. Have you, I think it has, um, I've been going, I went to Catholic school, personal faith. Now that you, I could say I, I'm, I am a regular person. Power of prayer. Like I, I, I love, um, my, my prayer, um, especially when I, when I need it most, it's there. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but I, I would say meditation is really where my mind goes most of the time. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and that's been very, very powerful for me. Is there a, a creator being. In your understanding of the metaphysical? Oh, for sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, that's across science and Whether his name is Yahweh or Jesus or Buddha or It's all the same thing. The universe or, you know, I think Yeah, kind of universality. You don't think they're different as much as they are the same in some respects? Exactly. Fair. Yeah. Alright. Jai, would you like to take on the same topic? Uh, yeah. Yeah, sure. Um, so I Almost similar. Uh, I I grew up and I was christened, uh, Protestant. Okay. However, my mom, I hope my mom doesn't list us. Just Protestant? Like, do they have, they don't have the divisions like we do here in America? Oh, they do. Like the Methodists and the Baptists and all that? Not as diverse. Yes. Not as diverse. There's probably Church of England and then those that said that's a bunch of bullshit. It's the Church of Scotland. But we're also Protestants? Yeah. Okay. Church of, yeah. Okay. So it's, uh, it would be Church of Scotland. Yeah, I think. Um, but it would be, I would be Christian, uh, by instead of Catholic. Like we still agree that Martin Luther was right. Mostly he, he and a lot of others. Right. Um, okay. But, um, but yeah, I, so my, that was from my mom's point of view and I think, this sounds really bad towards my mum, but it's not, it was sort of the, the thing that people done. Right. Um, it wasn't, she did, yeah, she did go to, to church when we were kids, uh, and then fell away from it as she's, she's gotten older. My dad grew up, uh, quite similarly to Meredith. His parents, uh, allowed them to grow up and choose their own faith. Um, and one of my aunts is Catholic. The other one is, uh, Christian. But, well, my dad and my uncle are nothing, technically, so they didn't really, and I'm sort of, if I'd been left to my own devices, I think I'd have been the same, like I, same as your father, yes, yes, sorry, yeah, and I think because, and it's not, I believe, and you know, spirit, universe, that sort of thing. Um, obviously there is, there is something. Something spun it all up, it seems. But, do I have a specific faith? No. Not really. Um, and I have, like, you know, I have, um, high school for us, but it would be secondary. We did do religious education. And I, um, You know, I found myself drawn to many different faiths and, and, and I loved listening, like hearing about different, the way people, different people, uh, would Kind of approach those hard challenges, if you will. Yes, and do, uh, and, and how they deal, dealt with life struggles and all that sort of thing. So, I wouldn't say, I don't specifically go to, Sort of prayer, but yes, meditation would be something that I would go to. Um, you know, and finding just the stillness and the quiet within myself rather than Yeah. Yeah. Outwardly. Uh, yeah. Well, I think that's frankly very biblical because there's like a still small voice that's commonly mentioned, you know, you just, oh, it totally, it's prayer or meditation, I believe we're the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. So like, if you do it right, it's you, you are there. Yeah. Well, and. Depending on the faith background you're talking about, what's the, uh, manifestation? Oh yeah. Uh, there's some people that think their manifestation powers are a little bit outside the box of what really could be or whatever. It seems a little bit like wishiness, but I do think that, you know, prayer moves, whatever that force is that happens. Um, Oh, I had a thought there. I was going to ask you, Jai. Oh, it was. We're just going to octopus that out because I can't quite grab onto it, and I didn't want to interrupt you, so, um, Uh, let's talk about family just a little bit more. Let's stay on you, Jai. Uh, so, was your dad like a a median level star of sorts? Like, was he a common name in across Scotland kind of thing in the music career? Or was it more of a I mean, we, we couldn't go anywhere without someone knowing who my dad was, but it wasn't sort of like celebrity as such. It was just, he played in a lot of places and he played for a long, long time. Yeah. And he has, you know, For all he does, he has a good reputation, you know, like my dad is a, is a good musician. He works hard, you know, he, for instance, like we'll, you know, even now he's in his late 60s and he will get for four and a half hours straight. Whereas young men who do this gig, like that, that kind of job will be like, Oh, I'm going to take an hour and then a 15 minute break and then another hour and then a 15 minute break. So it's like, man up. But my, no, he, he's, he's, he's an incredible man, but he never made more than like a middle class income, probably or upper middle class, maybe a few years. Yeah. I mean, he's always had a day job as I would call it. However, I mean, I always tell like he gets more than I do, he's always on the call. He's always out. Right. Cause he loves it. Yeah. Uh, Jill and I went to, do you know who Steve Miller band is? Yes. I do. So we went to Steve Miller band at the Budweiser event center this last year and he's, 79 or 81. Wow. And that fucking guy loved to play music. Like there is nothing he would rather do than go out there and be on the road 130 days a year. Yeah. Well, that's, I always say that to people. I genuinely. Can't see a day where I don't do what I do. Yeah. I love it. And it's, it's a blessing and a curse. I think. Like I look at people like Meredith and she's like, she does so much things and I'm like, I don't want to do anything else. I'm alright. I'll just focus on this. There's a, uh, there's a band here in town you guys should check out, uh, if not this time, next time around, but it's called The Brothers Fountain. Actually, my lead in song for the podcast is, is their original music, but they've got a song recently that's kind of like, It doesn't really matter if I'm playing in my garage or playing at Red Rocks. 10 years from now, I'm going to be playing. And that's not going to change. Uh, you know, hopefully it's Red Rocks, because then we can quit doing so much other shit to try to stay alive in our mortgages. But, uh, um, family, that's where we kind of went. Oh no, we kind of started with you on family, but I think that's sufficient. Probably we kind of finished up Faith. So you've talked a fair bit about your family already. You're an only child, but you want to give some special kudos to Grandma's, mom's, whatever. Anybody that's been really significant for you? Yeah, I mean, I would say my kids. Your kids, of course. Duh. My kids, yeah. Oh shit, I forgot, Kyla. We haven't talked about that much. That's okay. I have twin boys. They are 11. Okay. They're gonna be 12 this year. Yes. And, I mean Do you want to talk about your ex husband? No. Okay. Just kidding. I asked a question nobody else answered. Um, I do have a question though. Actually, I forgot to warn you, so this is going to be spontaneous, but we ask people for a one word description of their children. Most of the time, would you be willing to do that of your two boys? Is it the same word? Are they identical twins or fraternal twins? They're fraternal. He's got his words already figured out. He knows my boys very well. Well, I'll come back to you, Ja, you can share those. Yeah, I would say rambunctious, I think is Do you have a different word for each of them, though, if you were going to try to describe them to, uh They are very different. Um, I have one that is very studious. Studious. Okay. Yeah, so Alexander has wanted to be a doctor since he was about two. Oh, wow. And he had actually a doctor's name picked out. Like, like you would have a stage name. He has a doctor name, and he is Dr. Kilmarnock. And Kilmarnock is actually the town where he was born. Um, so he wants to be a Dr. Kilmarnock, which is hilarious to me. Um, but he's dedicated that that is his path and still to this day, he's sounds like he's full of perseverance potential. He definitely is. I don't know where to get. I have no idea. Yeah. Um, and then there's William. William's my favorite. William is Jai's favorite. And likewise, um, well, I don't think Alexander would be offended. I like Alexander too. He's fine. Alexander loves you too. Um, William's just more like me. William is rambunctious. William is, is the actor. He is the comedian. He is constantly trying to make you laugh. Very high energy. Alexander is too. Um, but yeah, they're, they're just, they're very different kids. They're, they're wonderful. And I'm very lucky. What's his name? No, no. They're fraternal. They are very different. I gotcha. Yeah. They're very different. Until you give them a set of nerf guns. And then they're pretty much the same and then they will shoot you in the face. Yes. The hardest, the hardest part about being a twin mom is when they team up because then they're like twin power unite, you know, and it's, it's double trouble and it really is. It's just, yeah, it is. It's great. I love being a mom. What do you hope for them and their, kind of, next chapters, like, would you want them to have a more normal existence, or should they go have weird harp things? What's, what's normal? Like, normal? I guess there isn't really a normal thing, is there? No, I, I, I hope that they have a very fulfilling adventurous life like that's that is the life that I've I have tried to build for myself and experience as much as possible yeah and I want that for them I do definitely want that for them. Um, politics. You can have this one. We're uh, well I would be curious, I'm gonna start with you actually go back. What, what do like I'm sure I would suspect I'm gonna put a theory out there that. The average Scotsman's opinion of Donald Trump has changed quite a bit over the last 10 years. Am I wrong? Or right? I don't think it's changed at all, but I don't know. To be fair, 10 years ago, I didn't really have an opinion about Donald Trump. I think that would be fair. And then he became president. Well, it'll be what? No, does it work out? Well, it'll be 10. Well, he was 4, Biden was 4, so it was like 8 years ago plus. Um, yeah. I mean, I've obviously got to be careful because I'm here for another week. I don't think he'll deport you yet. No. We're getting on a plane on Monday. So it isn't a positive then and it still isn't now? I, I don't, right, so I don't live in America. Sure. So I don't know the impacts of How we got so fucked up that we had to choose between Biden and Trump. There's not much choice. Or Hillary, yeah. Um, however, I just, I think, you I hate to say that I shouldn't comment because I'm not from here. Because, obviously, the outreach, that sort of, power, yes. It matters, frankly. The sort of control that leaders have, it echoes worldwide, nowadays. Because of, because of everything. Um, but, uh, it depends because it, some issues, he'll be great for. Other issues, not so much. So it's, it just depends where you are. Priorities? Yeah, kind of. But yeah, yeah. What, what you focus on, it depends what you're focusing on, because I would say that there are a lot of things that I've seen in the last week or so that have upset me because of people that I care about. However, there are going to be a lot of things that will benefit people, other people that I care about. So it just depends. I mean, that's kind of the thing about being a decider, right? Like there's going to be Hard choices. Yeah. And you're never, you're never gonna please everybody. And yeah, I just, I, yeah, as a human being, I don't know him. So yeah, however, it's just that way. Would I, would I be his mate? Would I go for a drink with him? Probably not. But yeah, so it's kind of where I'm at. I, uh, actually I did speech in high school just a little bit and one of my Um, favorites was Bill Cosby who was very popular at the time because he was, and I still quote him because I'm a fucking libertarian. I'm going to quote him. It's funny shit. It doesn't matter. You know, he might have raped people or whatever. It doesn't make this line any less bad or any less good. Um, but it's, uh, I don't know this. I don't know the secret to success, but I know that secret to failure is to try to please everybody. Hmm. Yes, so anyway. Ooh. That was one of my lines that I used to have. It's really deep. But it's, but it speaks to the challenge of being the decider, being the president, right? Like Alma in my office is Hispanic descent, and she was talking about, you know, I don't, what's this ICE thing gonna happen? Like, it's great if it's criminal and stuff, but I know quite a few people that are not here on papers right now that are a little nervous about what's going to happen, you know? Oh, so that's real, you know. Stuff. And if you're listening, whatever, you know, Trump or any of your lackeys, she's not going to give up any names about where to find those people. No. No, I'm teasing. But, but I mean, it's a real concern, right? Yeah. And I was trying to be sensitive, like, I'm pretty sure they're just focused on the people with a lot of arrests and stuff like that. And, like, I can't say, I guarantee you that people that you love aren't going to potentially get caught in this too. Deported. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I can't see. Necessarily even that it's not the right thing to do because like they did break the law like with their first act to get here and a lot of other people like waited a long time to get their papers, you know, including her parents, for example. Well, for sure. I've, I've been on the other side of that. Right. I've already had to apply. How many years did you have to wait? Oh, uh, ten? Right. 10, 12, 12 years. So they at least shouldn't have a fast track in my opinion. I'm a justice warrior, I feel like, you know, and so anyway, that's just one. Um, small example of, of one topic where you're like, huh, where is, it's really interesting. Where's it going to go? I think it's fascinating. It's, it's a really fascinating topic. Um, well, I mean, I've, I've, I've, I've played for Trump, so yeah, I know I've, I've told you well in the rotary speech, um, Trump Turnberry and Ayrshire is a really interesting place and Turnberry is in Scotland, so yes, yeah, it's, it's about 20 minutes south of, of Ayr. So you're kind of the standard. Harp player for any world leader that Scotland. Yeah, that's just, that's, I think that's a better title for me, don't you? harp to royalty and to, you know, world leaders. Um, it, it Cher's amazing. Just kidding. I'm teasing. Um, king Charles is, you know, one direction and, you know, president Trump is the other direction and it's like. They're only 20 minutes. Oh, totally. They're very controversial. And I've played for both of them. And, um, and I, I said this to the Rotary, uh, as well, both wildly unpopular in their own respects. Yeah. And I remember the first time I was asked to play for Trump. I really had to think about it because he's not popular in Scotland at all. When he came over, I was thinking this could be bad for, for my, my reputation and for my career. Or not, like it was a really big question for me. Uh, I reached out to some of my colleagues. I reached out to former teachers of mine and I said, what would you do in this situation? And I got some really good advice. I am one of my harp teachers, Ian. He he's played for the Royal family for many years. He played for the Pope, like he's paid, he's played for, he was fine. So he said to me, it's, it's a job and. hotels, which of course Trump owns, um, Trump Turnberry. He said hotels go through different iterations of owners. All the time. Right. And from his own experience, he was going, this is, this is a job. And the job is, is potentially a lot bigger than the owner. And this is something that you should consider doing. And I did, and it was, it was great. And, um, can I be like super noisy? No, not noisy. Noisy. You could be super noisy. Uh, yeah. I want to hear the, no, but like, Mm hmm. Like, when you do a three hour harp gig in the ballroom at some Trump event at the castle, like, is that worth a thousand dollars? Is it worth five thousand dollars? Is it worth 20, 000 like I have no idea Right, is it worth 300 bucks? You know, I have like I have no idea like what your dollar per hour is Yeah, working for these fancy pants people. Yeah in particular. I'm sure there's some hens It depends. I mean I was hired by Dior to play for them for five nights and that was that was a That was a pretty penny. Yeah. Yeah. That was a really good gig. Um, alternatively I'll play gigs for 200 quid for, for weddings and Scotland, weddings in Scotland. Uh, all the way up. I mean the most, it is like a pound or yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. The biggest gig that I ever did, I didn't want to do. And I actually, I quoted for it a stupid amount. I was like, uh, I don't really want to do it. It was, it was a big wedding in the middle of winter. I was like, not interested. And a friend of mine said, just quote for it. Just be, just stupid money. And I was like, okay, for the day, 2, 500. Okay. And, because I really didn't want to do it. And they said, yeah, that's fine. I was like, shit. I could have asked for more. And I have to do it now. Ah, you know. Um, so it does, it just depends on the circumstances. That's a really interesting, like, that's probably one of the more fascinating things about being a musician, especially a niche musician, is, like, the price is kind of what makes sense for you and makes sense for me. Yep. Mm. And what their budget is. Right, right, right, right. And who it's for. If it's 400 people in front of Trump and, you know, and Elon Musk is paying the tab. Well, then it's ten grand, you know, or whatever. It doesn't really matter what the price is. If you want me, then this is But then there's other, like your cousin's wedding, you know, ten miles away, or even not your cousin, but your, your cousin's friend's cousin. Yeah. Because Scotland is small, and you're like, yeah, 200 quid, 300 quid, you know, compared to a lot of people, like lawyers, it's like, it's a buck 15 hour, right? Or business consultants, even to some extent, you're kind of got that timer on there. Well, how much time is this going to take? How much should I pay? Yeah, for sure. But in music, it's kind of like, uh, I don't know what you got. Yeah. Like let's hear about it. Let's talk about what makes it. It's probably the same for you. It's exactly the same. I mean, I've done exactly the same myself. I've, I've looked at a gig, thought, God, I don't want to do this, quoted silly money and they've agreed. And I've went, oh shit. Right. And then it's, it's that way. It's like, you know. And, and again, it's the old, you know, adage of like, you're not just paying for someone to turn up at your gig and do the gig on that day, you're paying for the years of experience that that person has. The hours of practice. And it's, you know. Rehearsal. For, for, for us. I mean, you know, Meredith's been playing since she was a child. I've been singing since I was a child, so we practiced for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? We know what we're doing and it, and it sometimes, you know, as you, you were saying, you know, you think it takes you a long time to get to the point of realization that actually I'm really good at what I do. Sure. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Like stepping into your brilliance in a way kind of, and it's. Well, we study longer than most other professions. Sure. Musicians, like, like Jay was saying, we start as children. Right. And if you were here, you know, next winter visiting again in Colorado, and I had a local Uh, think tank social for 45 business owners and I was willing to give you 200 bucks, maybe you'd do it. Um, so it's totally dishonoring, but 200 bucks and another swag bag. And a plane ticket. Oh, and a plane ticket. Yeah. I need to get you. You'd have to already be here. You don't have much time. You'd have to already be here. We'll see if we can work something out. We can get somebody else to play for the plane ticket. It'd be fun. If I could double book you, we could figure it out, maybe. A mini tour around Colorado. Yeah, I was gonna say, a mini tour. So, um, I guess, uh, while we're still kind of on politics, we can get off of Trump, but just get into, like, world politics. Like, we're, like, Got a lot of intense stuff. Like, any thoughts on where we go from here? What do the next two years look like? Any, any guesses? We're all going to die. No, don't say that. I mean, we could if World War 3 starts. Oh God, don't say that. I mean, yeah. I was kind of kidding, but then I realized, actually, I might not be joking. I don't think we're heading that way. Geez. But, um, I mean, I, I hope that we are heading for Better days. And I know that might be naive, but it's, the thing is people are more aware of what's going on. Mm-hmm. And I think with social media, are I say, I say they're more aware are we just being fed however that's a good question. I mean, and that's the thing like, we'll, never like my. My, my dad's a massive conspiracy theorist. Yeah, yeah. You know, he talks about loads of things and I, I, I listen to him and I'm like, I don't disagree with what you're saying, but you're literally ruining your own life and your own time here on this planet by riling yourself up. Right. Being consumed by that. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, it's easily done. It's, and I understand it because he cares and he wants, you know, but at the same time. I will, I will, uh, take this stuff in, but I don't always let it affect me because, because how much change, how much change can I, can I do and I, and I'm not, you know, I am one of many and I know that, you know, if we all band together and all that, you know, like unions and things like that, like I totally understand how all that works. Yeah, I've been in organizations before where in consulted in organizations before, but It was that mentality. It's like, well, I can't affect the bigger picture and I know that I can. Um, it's just impossible. But when you band together, you can go, well, I can only affect what, what I do and what my actions are and what the actions of those around me and can have impact there. Then I'm making a difference for, for the bigger whole. Um, but in terms of the, the big picture, I don't, I don't know. I mean, I think that this is a really interesting time to be alive. Like we're right in the precipice, probably, hopefully of the Russia Ukraine war ending. I think so. You know, to me, it's like obvious that there has to be a deal that Ukraine doesn't get to be in NATO. Uh, just part of the rules, you know, uh, that's just, uh, Ukraine's going to lose a little territory over there, the Russian speaking part. And. Otherwise, uh, things can kind of go back to where they were. please stop. Exactly, and you agree not to invade anymore. Oh, exactly. And, you know, I don't know what the stick is for that, necessarily. But, I mean, to me that's the obvious. Well, that was the obvious conclusion two years ago. Mm hmm. Um, Well, maybe now we have a chance. Well, yeah, now that we've killed another couple hundred thousand people, uh, you know, What will it take? We can go back to the same deal we had two years ago. Uh, anyway. Uh, I got nothing else for you right now. Let's do the loco experiences. Oh. Yeah, this is, uh, the craziest experience of your lifetime that you're willing to share with our listeners. Oh, wow. Presumably individual experiences. Craziest experience. I heard you punched Simon Crowell. I mean, you got your second name wrong, so I can answer that with a yes. No, I'm joking. Um, I did, no. Um, no. I, um, God, my craziest experience, I've had quite a lot to be honest. You've had a lot of crazy experiences. Like near death experiences? Or crazy? Well, I have died. I've died. You died? Yeah, I died as a baby, so I don't remember. Oh, okay. Um, I was literally born, and then I, uh, my lungs collapsed, stopped breathing, and I was dead. I was dead. And then somebody went, and I was, yep, and somebody brought me back. No shit, that's cool. So yeah, that's what I've done. You started out with a I wonder how much more normal you would be if that event hadn't occurred. I'm just kidding. You probably wouldn't have had those big, big lungs. I was gonna say. It was those, it was those big over inflated lungs from the CPR that hooked you up with that juice. I mean, what is, what is normal? I don't even like, I don't even, you know what? I spent a lot of my life trying to be normal. And you know what? See, when I accepted the fact that I wasn't fucking normal. Life got better. There's wisdom in that. Um, and yeah, God, crazy stuff. Geez. I've done, I have done so much. Um, I, I keep coming back. How about winning? Winning the talent show? Well, hey, I mean, ugh, everybody knows that. Do you know what one of the most. Liberating things, and it was a bit crazy, and I, cause I keep going back to it, you asked me straight away, and it was the first thought I had, so I'm going to go, I went to Australia in uh, 2010, my, one of my best friends moved over there, this was while you were still like a broke unknown dude, yes, I actually, I like it, severely broke, Well, I had the chance, well, that's the thing. So I was also broke when I was there because I just used all of my wages. But I had the chance to go over. My friend was like, we have time, I have space. And I thought, I'm never going to get this chance, ever. Um, so I went over and we, uh, we ended up, she paid for flights for the, there was three of us at the time, well four of us, including, uh, Katya. So you were like a gigolo at the time? Oh, yes I was. No. Still is. Still is. You'd have come to Australia with them, I don't know. No, she didn't pay for my My ticket to get there. When I got there, uh, she was in a pretty decent position. She had a good job. Um, so she paid for, uh, myself and, and my two friends that went over to go to Sydney and we hired a camper van and we went down the coast, uh, back to Melbourne, but, uh, And actually I've just realized that we could have been killed by sharks. But anyway, it's fine. We, uh, we, we ended up at night time, going onto the beach, having a drink and going skinny dipping. And it was just one of those moments where the sky was clear, the moon was out, the stars were out. It was just such a magical moment. And, uh, And yeah, I was naked in the water. So that was kind of, but it was one of those things where, do you know what, it was just liberating. I remember my first time being naked in the water. It was a hot springs for me here in Colorado. I had went to a hot spring. I did not. And I definitely came out with a vagina. It's different than being in a bathtub, like being in a public place and being butt ass naked. There's something to it. And, uh, and I've, I've done it several times since. Perfect. speak great, but very liberating. It's wonderful. Meredith, you're done. My, I don't know, I dunno what the accent's about. The other one I know. Well, you know, it's, you I don't know. I, I'm trying to think. You figured. Gassed from being the King's Harpist for like talking about being the King's Harpist. Yeah, that was probably the craziest story. Can you, uh, like, because I was at the Rotary Club we talked about, can you kind of recap it a little bit? Yeah, I can talk about that. Um, in 2018 I had released, or it was in process of releasing, my debut album. Um, when walls speak and that was, it took me three years to write. It was dedicated to Dumfries house, which was King Charles's Scottish residence, personal residence. And I put my heart and soul into this project because it had given me so much like Dumfries house was amazing for, for me as, as a Harpist. Um, as a result, the Dumfries House PR team said, we will help you promote it and, you know, we'll give you the space and the culture. I wondered culturally if it was like a little bit like, Ooh, are you trying to use your position here with Dumfries House to like, No, I don't think so. They certainly didn't. That wasn't a problem. No. No. Because it was a very sincere thing. They wanted to be. Yeah. It was. Yeah. It was honoring from your perspective. Well, that's what, that was the intention. Right. That's right. And so the team that I worked with were brilliant and they wrote a press release for me and sent it out across the UK. I mean, I was in loads of papers, um, before, before the album release and it went out to the Daily Mail and the Daily Mail took the, the press release and they basically ripped it up and they, they called me and said, Hey, we'd like an interview. And I said, well, I can't talk about. playing for His Majesty. I, I can't. Um, but you know, read the press release and off you go. And, and they basically ripped it up and wrote their own story and I ended up being in Eden confidential, which is It's the Scandal, um, section of Daily Mail. Okay, gotcha. And, um, in Eden Confidential, it basically ripped me a new one and said, oh, well, she, you know, Meredith McCrindle, and it fabricated a lot of, or it twisted a lot of the facts of reality. This American harpist that's been rumored to have spent one on one time with King Charles. With King Charles. It was really Was it really like that? Like, scandalous? You can read it. It's still online. Oh, Yeah. And the title, the title of the article was Megan Markle, not the only American to captivate. Oh, damn. Prince Charles. Oh, damn. And, uh, then it went on to, to say, you know, he spotted me at, uh, during my time at St. Andrews. Oh, gosh. Where Prince William was. Oh, gosh. And, and now he hand selected me to be his resident harpist at Dumfries House. It was all, it was all fabricated. Right. I've never even met him, really. Like. No, I, I never, I hadn't seen him. I've seen him across the room, like it wasn't an actual thing. Um, I was a member of staff effectively, but they took it and they made their own story and the ending line of the article was how long before, um, Prince Charles, who played. Cello at Gordonstoun asks Meredith for a duet in incredible innuendos, and I'm just going, you could read the article one of two ways, either I won the lottery because now I am like this amazing resident Harpist, or I'm having an affair with Prince Charles. And um, the, this, the organization that Dumfries House. chose to, chose the latter. They severed their, uh, contract with you. So they pulled me in the office and they said, Meredith, you gave this interview, and I said, I didn't, I swear, that was not me. I turned it down, um, they pulled me in, and they said, we can no longer have you play For like, it doesn't matter if it's bullshit or not. Yeah. And, and I said, honestly, it wasn't me. And they said, we know a lot of people here have been daily mailed, and that was the term that they used. Oh wow. Interesting. Um, and then there was a five year window where I did not play for, for Wow. His highness. Israel Highness at the time. Um, and then in 2023, I was redeemed and I was totally brought back and it was the best. It was actually the day that my divorce was finalized. I was in court and it was finalized because you were freed up for hanging out. I know now now it's all, it's all, it's all fine anymore. So, um, I need to write that out. we're probably gonna pick up this podcast right here. That would be great. It'll make us all. Um, and, and I went, I knew I was leaving court to meet King Charles, and I thought that was the only thing that kept me going because that was my redemption. Wow. Like, I knew that I was the only person in that courtroom going to meet his majesty. Right. So, and I, and I did, and I practiced my curtsy and, and he was lovely. He asked me if I, if I played a proper harp, and I was like, yes. I do. Yeah, I've actually played for you. It's been a few years, you know, since that incident. But, uh, you know, it was great. Well, you guys have a show for Off the Hook Hearts here, uh, this week on the 30th. It'll be too late by the time anybody hears this to see the show, but I would encourage you to check out Off the Hook. Definitely. Definitely. Great initiative. And, uh, as far as like, if people want to check you guys out, do they just check out your names and Google you, I guess? Yeah, we have a YouTube Stuff, we have YouTube stuff, and we have a beautiful, we have a beautiful music video, all of me. Yeah, well check that out too. Check out some of his covers. Yeah, please do. Thanks guys for being here. Thank you so much Kurt. Bye for now. Bye.