When you start believing in the law of attraction it changes your life completely - Taig S

The band Near Mrs guitarist Taig O' Shea joins the Creativity series and in this episode he talks about learning how to play the guitar, music and friendship.

An incredible musician, Taig who is currently a student, shares events that have happened to him over his life and discusses challenges that he had at university, his understanding of creative expression and what it means to him.

Connect with Taig on Facebook and follow the band Near Mrs on Instagram. 

Guest: Taig O' Shea
Host: Urmi Raval
Sound Editor: Maja Pronko   

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to Eternal Paradigm. Together, we're uncovering human experience by exploring physical, mental, emotional and spiritual stories. With me, your host, Ermi Ravel. Welcome to the Creativity Series, where we explore creativity as a human experience. Hi, welcome to this episode of Eternal Paradigm. I hope you're enjoying your journey to find you. And yes, we are still in the creativity series. So thank you so much for listening to this episode, for connecting with me on socials, and also for listening to previous episodes and Keep your feedback coming. I absolutely value everything you have to say. It's so important. What's also really exciting is what is coming up for the rest of the year and I am going to be sharing more information with you on that. So watch this space. But while we're backtracking or moving forwards, I just wanted to give you a quick heads up, okay? Make sure you're following Eternal Paradigm on Instagram. It's Eternal Paradigm Podcast. You can also find Eternal Paradigm on Facebook, obviously called Eternal Paradigm. And if you haven't already, why have you not joined the Eternal Paradigm Facebook groupies? Yes, it's the group. So come and join us. Come and share your comments, share posts. Please do that. Remember, you can find Eternal Paradigm Podcast on every podcast platform. We have some incredibly exciting new developments on their way for the website. Keep a lookout for that as well. More details to follow. And now we're moving on into this week's episode, which is looking at music and more specifically, one person's connection to music and the musical world for him. And so last week, we had Bhavya talking very much about music and singing, especially, and how she comes up with this creative expression and how it all forms together and comes to her. But her day job was very different. You know, she's studying to be an aerospace engineer. But as we're now moving on into this episode, this episode is about Tiger Shearer. Now, he's an incredible energy. He is one of my podcast mentors. Let me start from that point. And that's how we connected, Tyg and Anthony. Now, Anthony, if we go back to January, guys, we are doing a little bit of time traveling here. So Anthony was one of my guests on the meditation episode, and he's incredible. And that's how I met Tyg and Anthony. They come as a team, right? But what was really, really incredible is having the opportunity to speak to Tyke on a one-on-one. And what becomes apparent is, and I want to kind of share with you here, okay, I am in my early 40s. Now, 22, 23, 25 years ago, had I actually spoken to someone who was older than me in the context of work and said to them that I can bring them value, that would have been absolutely dismissed. I wouldn't be able to add any value, would have been the thinking. Nowadays, things are very different. And I'm so grateful to be part of a time where people are really, really understood for the people that they are. They're not dismissed, not necessarily, not anymore, for their age, or they're not dismissed for their background, or they're dismissed for having a certain faith, belief, or being however they choose to show up. And I say that, and I say that very cautiously because I know that this is still a challenge, okay? Not everybody really understands that it's okay to be who you are. But before I digress, I want to kind of say that speaking to Tyg was really eye-opening for me because he talks about so many things that have happened to him. He talks about his musical connection, the universal language of music, and he talks about the law of attraction. And what's really interesting is how he started to learn the guitar, what happened, what triggered him to do that, and what that has meant. He's an absolutely exceptional guitar player. He tells us about his band and also you'll get to hear more from his band. If you are not already following them on Spotify, please do that. More details can be found at the end of the episode where Tighe shares how to connect with him and hear the music. Let me speak no more. I'm going to leave it there. So here we go.

SPEAKER_01: 4:56

I'm Tighe, Tighe O'Shea, and I'm currently in Nottingham studying there. I'm in my third year doing music performance, and I'm nearly finished actually, which is kind of crazy to think, really.

SPEAKER_00: 5:07

Three years, flown by.

SPEAKER_01: 5:09

Yeah, it really has flown by. I started off doing maths as well, so it's been a bit of a ride.

SPEAKER_00: 5:14

Okay, what happened with the maths? Is that still part of the equation?

SPEAKER_01: 5:19

No, it's... Ah, see what you did there. It's really not part of the equation. Maths was always the subject that I was best at in school. I wouldn't necessarily say I enjoyed it, but I... I found satisfaction, I suppose. I kind of liked how everything was... logical and there's an answer that you're trying to find whereas i've really never been good at writing and expressing myself through writing i was always so badly explaining your answer questions back in school

SPEAKER_00: 5:42

do you have any examples of answers that you've written or tried to write

SPEAKER_01: 5:47

like but yeah anyway yeah so so math so it was kind of the thing that i was good at and that i didn't mind the most basically but i didn't really know what i wanted to do when i finished sixth form well I did because I'd always known at the back of my mind that I do want to play music. But I kind of never really thought that was a viable option, really. I kind of just thought it was like, ah, you're probably just going to be poor and the chances of anything coming are pretty small. I kind of just always really dismissed it and always thought of it as a side project. So I chose to do maths at uni. But then I got there. And I was obviously no Anthony. I was living with Anthony. And at the time, we were both getting into all this law of attraction stuff, just believing in universal forces, all that kind of thing. And it really picked my hopes up, I suppose. It really just made me think that actually there's really nothing stopping me from succeeding in music, apart from myself, really. It's not to do with chance at all. So yeah, then I dropped out of maths about three weeks into uni. 9am starts every day probably

SPEAKER_00: 6:49

didn't help either. It wasn't working out.

SPEAKER_01: 6:50

No. No,

SPEAKER_00: 6:51

it really wasn't. conditioning wouldn't have allowed any of that to come in so what happened to you what showed up for you that allowed that to happen

SPEAKER_01: 7:29

yeah that's interesting you say that because I do really see what you mean I just feel like the way just society is and like the way especially like just going through education and stuff as well put through schools we're really not meant to believe that you can do whatever you want or have whatever you want or that there's basically anything more than what meets the eye. And I wouldn't necessarily refer to myself as really, really spiritual or religious or anything, but I do definitely believe there's universal forces. I suppose what did it for me is... honestly probably Anthony's persistency the guy was mad about it and then he just he just got me on it so he was watching um yeah yeah but you can imagine yeah he was watching loads of videos on um really successful people about how far they've come like Conor McGregor and his success story about him visualizing himself on stage and loads of other stories like that and basically he just wouldn't shut up about it he just drilled it into me until I had to say yeah okay yeah it's real and then we also had this thing and it started just before uni it started in sixth form actually where every time some i guess law of attraction incident happened he would ring me and be like oh this happened like he thought of this person and then he hadn't seen him in a year then he saw him the next day and just just things like that and the same thing would happen to me like i remember one time when i rang him and i was like wow it's really real so um when i had this dream it was just during sixth form his dream about um i was like i was in a room and i had i'd missed the math exam so i was doing the math exam like a day late with one other student in the class out of 30 who had also missed that exam but obviously it was just a dream and I didn't know who had missed the exam because I wasn't there and then the next day I went into school and I redid the exam and the same girl was there like it was just me and her in the room doing it and I was like wow like I don't because I don't even talk to her anything so I had no idea she was off so there was just moments like that that we just shared together I suppose so I'm waffling but to answer your question I suppose we both kind of fed into each other and because I spend so much time around them in first year of uni so we lived together in a flat of eight and it was me him and six other girls which we had great fun with and we still talked to like three of them regularly but obviously you can imagine a lot of the time it was just me and him so I feel like we just kind of fed into each other just talking about that kind of stuff

SPEAKER_00: 9:42

oh my god so that's interesting the dynamic of because when my husband was at uni he was the only guy that was living I I think he was with six other women as well. And he has a very interesting take on what that experience taught him. What did that teach you? It

SPEAKER_01: 9:57

taught me that girls can be very petty. Yeah, to be honest, it just taught me a lot about human emotion, I suppose. I can't really think of any specific examples, but just a lot of things that I wouldn't have thought annoyed people that I can actually now see how they do. It basically just made me a lot more self-aware, I think. But the number one takeaway was definitely that girls can be so petty it kind of this obviously I have six of them and by the end that it kind of split into two distinct threes that just I wouldn't really talk to each other and me and Anthony were definitely better friends with one side of the three but obviously we was just still kind of the mediators and the whole thing so yeah it is an interesting experience

SPEAKER_00: 10:36

yeah I bet yeah I bet I mean there are always stories right when you're how sharing with anyone I'm sure I could go into loads but I won't because that's not what we're here to talk about so tell me let's come back to music because you said you had this idea at some stage that music probably wasn't you know it was at the back of your mind

SPEAKER_01: 10:57

yeah

SPEAKER_00: 10:57

and then this whole law of attraction thing happened and there was some resonance by the way that's a really powerful visualization of you having this idea of the exam and then it actually happened yeah

SPEAKER_01: 11:09

right it's really interesting

SPEAKER_00: 11:12

yeah and I guess we call those some of those moments I don't know like deja vu or I've been here before but But actually, they're your vibrational abilities telling you that this is a possibility and it's happening.

SPEAKER_01: 11:23

Yeah, 100%.

SPEAKER_00: 11:25

Yeah, that's so cool. But actually, I am getting a bit tingly. But just so you know, because I'm kind of like, oh, my God, it happened. I'm one of those people that gets very excited about stuff like this. It's like, whoa, come back to music. I'm going to stop talking because that's what we're talking about. What happened? What was that moment, that realization when you decided 9am starts weren't good for you, maths wasn't cutting the mustard, and it was music because it's gone from the back of your mind to the forefront of every day? What happened there?

SPEAKER_01: 11:55

Yeah, just you saying that, going from the back of my mind to the forefront every day. Ah, that was such good times in first year, just being able to fully focus on that. But what it was, was I don't know if there was a specific moment, but it was just a very concentrated period of time, like literally like probably one week, maybe 10 days or something. And me just thinking, hmm, actually, I'm not that good at maths as I thought. It's not going to be a breeze. So then thinking... This is so boring. So then thinking 9am, which obviously isn't a good reason not to do something by the time it was. And obviously on the other side of the spectrum, there's like just me thinking about myself on big stages, just playing music. And it was another thing because where I'm from is quite a small place, Kings Lynn. I'd never really jammed with people and just played instruments with people much. So the idea of coming to a city and just being in a band and stuff was just like, I just had to do it. And I was getting in a band regardless of whether I switched to music or not. Yeah, I'm not sure if there was a specific moment where I just thought, okay, yeah, no, this is it. I've just got to do it because I can do it. I'm waffling again, but I guess it was kind of a week to 10 day period where I went from thinking it's just only the stuff of dreams to thinking that actually it's literally completely in my control. So why would I not do it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 13:10

I love that. why would you not do it because that's such an important question like it's one of the biggest questions and you mentioned that you were going to start a band or join a band regardless tell us more about the band

SPEAKER_01: 13:24

yeah so I'm in a band called Near Misses spelt MRS and we are yeah horrible name horrible

SPEAKER_00: 13:33

name okay you have to tell us where the name came from

SPEAKER_01: 13:36

oh god I was hoping you wouldn't ask this you know what the worst thing is

SPEAKER_00: 13:38

there's always a good story come on

SPEAKER_01: 13:41

Angela out a website, honestly. Really? Yeah, seriously. It wasn't me personally that picked it. And to be honest, there wasn't really a huge fan of the name, but I was outvoted and I thought, I don't mind it. So there is also another story that we tell people, depending on what mood we're in, that we walk down the street and outside a pub, there was like a blackboard outside a pub. It said, what did it actually say? It said, what do you call a nearly... I can't remember what it was, but it was something to do with like a marriage that was about to happen, but didn't. And it was near misses. And then, and it was a true story. We did walk down the street and see that one day, but it was after the band generator thing. So strictly speaking, it's not.

SPEAKER_00: 14:19

Okay. So it was like a sign. It was kind of consolidating the fact that this is a good way to go.

SPEAKER_01: 14:24

Yeah, I suppose so. Yeah. It's a nice, nice bit of reassurance, but yeah, we met right at the start of uni. It was this, I guess, kind of a Tinder for musicians really in Nottingham. It was like a, a meetup for the uni where you go write down what you play and write down what kind of music you like, write down what you're looking for. And then you put in this big book and then you can just contact people that you see fit out your choice. So I met my drummer and bass player there and we actually jammed with another singer, but we just didn't really connect to them, so to speak. Then a week, maybe two later, when I did switch to music on my course, I met an amazing singer and another really great guitarist. And then I kind of merged the two groups together. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 15:00

Check you out merging. I like that. Okay, we know what normal Tinder is for and you have a Tinder for musicians as well, right? So obviously the creative capacity and the energy for Tinder for musicians is quite different. So tell me, What was the energy like when the group first came together? Was there like an energy where you're still quite unsure or was it like this eclectic kind of burst of excitement? Because that matters, right? That energetic synergy between everyone.

SPEAKER_01: 15:28

Yeah, I think probably a bit of both of those feelings you just described. But more than anything, well, definitely on mind, it was definitely just that burst of excitement because as I was saying before, I didn't really have anyone to play music with back at home. And then on my first jam, I was like, wow, this guy can actually play drums. I've never actually met someone that can play drums really well. So I was just like, this is crazy. So I was just loving it. And then I met just an amazingly talented singer as well, who's just a mad songwriter too. And we just had never songwritten with anyone before. And we sat in a room, just me and him really early on. And I just played something on guitar. And he was like, yeah, keep doing that. And then he just wrote lyrics within like five minutes. And I was baffled because lyric writing is something I've always really But some people, I've met a few people like this, some people just do have the gift of it where they can just bash out really meaningful things within like five minutes. So I was just absolutely in awe. And I guess it all kind of came together around then we were just all so excited about writing music together and actually being in a room with people to play music as basic as it sounds.

SPEAKER_00: 16:27

See, that is really, really interesting, because obviously the playing the instruments, that's one skill in itself, playing them together to get them to work together and sound seamless as if they're supposed to be. supposed to be there together is another skill and then when you add in the component of lyrics of meaningful melodies and everything what is that process like for you and for the group because obviously now it's probably more natural

SPEAKER_01: 16:51

yeah for sure

SPEAKER_00: 16:52

but while you're learning together how was that it

SPEAKER_01: 16:56

was interesting because In terms of musically, we had three guitars because the singer also plays guitar. He's the best guitarist I've ever met. And maybe he'd say the same about me, but we were just basically so in order to have met each other. And then Will, the other guitarist as well. So we had three guitarists and one singer. So making that work is kind of unusual because normally it's two guitarists in your typical lineup. So that was definitely... Back then, we didn't really have a clue what we're doing. We thought it sounded good merging the three guitars, but we didn't really have a clue. And I think that's just happened really naturally over time in terms of lyric writing until not that long ago it's only really been Ryan that's written the lyrics and it's done I guess it's happened in a weird way because Ryan will just be playing something and looping it and he'll just listen and then he'll just like write something on his own within five minutes and it's actually really frustrating but he likes to do this thing where he just leaves it till the last minute so there's been times where like we're having a gig we've got this new song and he hasn't written a verse too and we don't know what the verse lyrics are and he literally writes them like in the taxi and then he just sings them on stage and we're like we're only hearing them for the first time as well So to be honest, it's been quite exclusive, the lyric rhyme, because we haven't been too much involved in it. Yeah, it's funny. It's become definitely more of a group thing of recent times, and we've all been chipping in and doing it together. And in fact, yesterday in rehearsal, we were sitting there for about probably about 45 minutes when we didn't play anything. We were just trying to group lyric rhyme, which is difficult when you've got five of you together. And we definitely found that the starting place is always to... define what the feeling needs to be first and then let everything come after but yeah it's very much a work in progress though

SPEAKER_00: 18:35

yeah but that's kind of part of the fun right because it's a journey it's an exploration you know if everything was easy and there would just be boring

SPEAKER_01: 18:45

yeah of course

SPEAKER_00: 18:47

you mentioned that you play the guitar

SPEAKER_01: 18:50

I do indeed

SPEAKER_00: 18:51

When did that start? Tell us all about that.

SPEAKER_01: 18:54

Yeah, that's, guitar is honestly like my life, really. I don't know where I'd be if I didn't play guitar. Probably hate in my life, to be honest. I picked it up when I was 10. So I was in year six. I just picked it up on a whim, really. They were just offering guitar lessons. And I think, to be honest, I think it was actually just like peer pressure because the friends that sat next to me in that particular assembly at school, just said, ah, I want to do it. I want to do it. So I was like, yeah, I'll do it too. But then I actually just really started liking it really early on. I didn't have like a games console or anything, which at the time I hated because everyone else had one and I felt so left out as a kid. But actually I can't thank my parents enough for it because it made me practice guitar for like six to eight hours a day for about two years. So I just got really good at a young age. It was some pretty fun times. I was just doing nothing but playing guitar as a little kid, just as like a 10 to 12 year old, really. And my parents supported me on the way, got me a guitar and stuff. So yeah, it was great times. And then I've always kept it as like my main thing, really, up until now. And I guess it's just evolved over time, what I do with it and stuff.

SPEAKER_00: 19:54

And so in terms of your degree, how much was your guitar playing a focal part of that? What happened? What did you learn in your degree that you weren't aware of before? You know, what did it bring to you as a musician at this stage that you're at in your life?

SPEAKER_01: 20:11

It helped me be a lot more creative with it. The tuition that I got on my guitar through my degree. up until probably the year before I went to uni. I didn't really know much. It was all very technical based while I was playing. I was just learning songs, learning harder and harder songs, learning pretty much any guitar solo I wanted to because I just sat there for like eight hours until I did it when I was 12. But it was all very just copying. And I mean, I had great fun doing it and I do have great fun doing it. But in terms of actually making my own music through or putting my own touch on things, that's just something I've learned a lot about in the last few years. It started before uni, actually, because it started when I learned music theory at sixth form, which I didn't know before that. And that helped a lot. And then at uni, One thing they do in terms of the instrument is help you express yourself more through it and get a better feeling for your instrument. That sounds like such waffle. But yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 21:06

No, no, it doesn't. It doesn't. Well, I can understand that. And anyone that doesn't should just, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_01: 21:14

Yeah. Are you musical at all?

SPEAKER_00: 21:16

Oh, this is interesting. No, I do sing a lot. That's kind of my thing. I've never really been into instruments because I can't handle commitment. Having an instrument and playing an instrument is a huge act of commitment. And I think... You know, like you said, is your relationship with your guitar is a commitment and it allows you to express yourself and learn in that. And that's one of the most important relationships that you've had. Do you feel that way, though?

SPEAKER_01: 21:47

Yeah. No, I 100% feel that. In fact, right now I'm reading a book that Anthony gave to me called Mastery. I don't know if you've heard of it. And it's just about, well, as you can imagine, it is just about mastery of any specific field or thing. And reading it, I'm not that far into it yet, but it's just making me so grateful that I've already had that thing that I've channeled time and energy and stuff into for years already. Because a lot of people don't necessarily find that until they're older. But I just found it at a really young age and it's just genuinely the thing that I love. So I'm just really lucky for that.

SPEAKER_00: 22:17

that's phenomenal I love that because so my daughter my eldest daughter is very similar in the sense that she's studying music theory that's her thing music production she writes her own lyrics she creates her own songs and she's 12 and this is her since she was five since she wrote a song that won a school competition and it was like became the school anthem and she is just obsessed with anything to do with music and then she teaches herself how to play the piano so when I was telling her that I'm having this conversation with you she was like I can't wait to hear it because To her, it's like anything to do with music, anyone who expresses themselves musically is in her world. It's just, you know, it's Midas, basically.

SPEAKER_01: 23:03

Yeah. No, no, I get that. It is such a wide form of expression. It's not tied down to just I play guitar and that's it or anything. I definitely feel that even on other instruments as well. Like I have a tinker on the piano and stuff like that. Yeah, I just do really feel it.

SPEAKER_00: 23:18

It's interesting you say that because once you understand the theory, it's how you then apply that to instruments is actually, it becomes quite possible quite quickly if you're inclined or focus your energy into it. Did you find that?

SPEAKER_01: 23:34

Yeah, for sure. My progress, not as a guitarist, but as a general musician, absolutely skyrocketed when I did A-level music in year 13. And it was funny because I was the only one in the class that didn't know music theory and I couldn't read it at all. And I felt so out of place because everyone there all played classical instruments, so obviously you kind of have to learn that as you go along. But yeah, once I picked it up, it just opened so many doors for what I could do. with it to be honest in terms of different chords that you can use in different places basically just really understanding what note is the value and meaning of each note in any context and to be honest I'm actually really lucky as well because I have perfect pitch so that probably just made it a lot quicker for me too once I knew that I was able to just start hearing songs and just being able to just like play along with them so that that's obviously very useful as well

SPEAKER_00: 24:22

That really is. That is amazing. And learning music theory itself is actually immersing yourself in a different language, almost in a different culture that comes with it. It's

SPEAKER_01: 24:33

absolutely a language, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 24:34

Yeah. And what you say is really interesting because in your class, a lot of people were already playing classical instruments. And that language by association is generally connected to classical instruments and classical music. But actually, the language of music is so wide. It's so vast, it's so big, and yet it's so diverse. And your story with connecting to the guitar is an example of that. So, you know, share what you feel.

SPEAKER_01: 24:59

Yeah, I do definitely find that. The instruments are just basically a vessel for it, I suppose. And then, obviously, if you focus on a particular instrument, that just basically becomes almost part of your body. Sorry, not part of your body, but in the same way that I can just talk English now without having to think about what I'm saying before, and it just comes out. It obviously becomes the same when you focus on an instrument for so long. It's not even just tied down to instruments, really. It goes a lot further than that. When I was 12 in my learning guitar, heavy rock phase, I used to think... I used to have this really arrogant opinion that... any musician that's famous but that doesn't actually play an instrument is not talented it sounds really bad I haven't had it for years I was literally 12 but I used to just not really get you know rap and stuff like that but actually now it is all just so clever because it's still kind of about how you deliver and the resonance of what you're saying and the story you're telling through lyrics and stuff like that so it goes way beyond just instruments

SPEAKER_00: 25:52

yeah I love that because 12 year old me would have some interesting ideas as well

SPEAKER_01: 25:59

so yeah

SPEAKER_00: 26:00

so are you a bit of Daniel Radcliffe then are you rapping on the side or are you just sticking to music so music and writing you know instruments and writing lyrics

SPEAKER_01: 26:09

yeah yeah that alphabet rap doesn't it

SPEAKER_00: 26:12

yeah exactly

SPEAKER_01: 26:13

yeah nah I've I've dabbled in it actually and again it's a lot to do with Anthony it's this hilarious we need to get a podcast where we're both on good it'll be funny because the first time I did was when in sixth form he just challenged me to a rap battle he literally just rocked up and he was like a rap battle tomorrow at lunchtime like I'm gonna kill you and then so that's I just I just wrote some bars down and then we had a rap battle and then it's just like a bit of fun that we just go into we in first year when we're living just me and him we used to just like try freestyle a lot and stuff but it's always just more fun than anything serious really but yeah I've definitely gone into that there's a period of time where all my friends listen to was grime and general hip-hop so I really got into it for a while three or four years ago

SPEAKER_00: 26:55

yeah I love the nature of your friendship with Anthony because having someone who is quite relentless and

SPEAKER_01: 27:03

focused. Guy's so focused.

SPEAKER_00: 27:06

Yeah. No, he's incredible. Really incredible. But also there's an element of playfulness that's allowing you both to explore and push your boundaries. And that's such a powerful part of who we are as humans and such an important part of our creative expression.

SPEAKER_01: 27:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:22

For everyone around you, you've mentioned like your band and the connection. you have there in terms of the creative flow and how things come together what other kind of things have happened or what other relationships have showed up for you where you've gone okay i'm learning something from this or this is pushing me or this is allowing me to express myself in a different way because you've touched on that in the a-level music and then going to university and switching course and realizing that the law of attraction is real it's possible and living with your flatmates and understanding different things so what other things have happened where you've gone you know what this is allowing me to grow or this is really allowing me to focus on what my creative expression is for now

SPEAKER_01: 28:08

yeah I think um Going back to the thing with Anthony, I think he's really brought out a lot in me, to be honest. Maybe he would say the same for me. But yeah, I feel like we have both helped each other to grow a lot, especially since going to live with each other. And it all started with that, just both changing our beliefs on, well, when you obviously start believing in things like the law of attraction, it changes your life completely. It just changes your belief on everything in life. So we've grown in a lot of other ways from that. Obviously, starting the podcast adventure is a huge thing that we've grown together. We started off just like two friends, but now we're like you know business co-owners and stuff and we're we're a pretty cohesive team when we're when we're doing the podcast and he you'd said he was really focused before the guy's incredibly focused he wakes up he's stopped uni now and he just wakes up at seven every day which in the adult life that's i'm sure that's nothing but living in a house with all your friends you know doing something different every night waking up at seven every single day is a serious commitment just watching him do that and just be so focused and committed to well just everything podcasting i learn a lot from that as well. And we do definitely grow together. So to kind of bring it back to the question, I would say that's taught me a lot about commitment and the power of focusing on one thing. And when I think about that, I have seen that in my life before as well. Like I said before, for two, maybe three years, I did nothing but play guitar and I just got good at it very quickly for that young age. So I've definitely learned that just the importance of focusing on one thing and the mad things you can do when you just focus on one thing. That's something that Anthony has definitely brought out in me.

SPEAKER_00: 29:39

Yeah. But you keep saying you're good at the guitar, but you're not. You're absolutely phenomenal. You are incredible. And I'm hoping, so tell us about what's happening in terms of the band, in terms of your guitar, you know, in terms of you playing.

SPEAKER_01: 29:56

So what's happening in the moment is, well, with the band, we've just got back to rehearsing together. So in terms of playing, it's just to be playing with people in the same room again is something that I've really, really, really missed over lockdown. It's It's so therapeutic, to be honest. So there's that. And currently we're just writing a lot of music at a faster rate than we did before, which is great. So it's just writing, developing, trying to develop our sound at the moment. Also preparing to launch an EP actually next month, which is exciting. It's our first EP. So yeah, that's good. And as you can imagine with how things are now, like social media algorithms, you just have to keep rolling with the times. And it's the same on Spotify. You just have to keep putting out singles like every other month or so. So we're just trying to adapt our songwriting so that we can actually meet those needs basically just record and put music out maximum every two months really ideally even more frequent than that in terms of guitar I am trying to improve my I guess how I kind of express myself creatively on it I'm trying to improve my songwriting on it I'm also trying to improve my technical ability on it I want to be able to play faster like on the electric guitar and it's So hard trying to do it because I mean to do half an hour's practice every day, but God, life is so busy and I find it hard. I'm struggling to match it at the moment. But yeah, I'm trying to improve technically on guitar. I'm trying to improve my own songwriting. We're also trying to improve our group songwriting. And to be honest, I really want to, something I would like to do when I've got more time is to just start putting videos of me playing guitar on TikTok every day or something like that. But I just don't have the time for it now, which is sad because it's obviously my number one passion, but that's just number one priority is It gets in the way, like uni, of course. But that's like a, hopefully a near future plan. I'd like to see that in the near future.

SPEAKER_00: 31:40

That sounds amazing. Yes, totally. Get those videos on TikTok. That will be amazing. I have one last question. I want to say last question. I can't be too sure. In terms of your dissertation, and I know I've quizzed you about this before, what has been the focus of your dissertation?

SPEAKER_01: 31:57

So my dissertation was the impact of variations in harmonic treatment on a listener's emotional response to music. What that means is basically take a song, take the chords that go underneath it, replace those chords with a different set of chords, but keep everything else exactly the same. So the vocal line, the lyrics, the melody, the drums, literally everything just except the chords. how do people react differently to that what is the difference in people's emotional response to that it was a pretty interesting experiment but sadly the results were just kind of mediocre there's actually not that much difference so

SPEAKER_00: 32:33

there wasn't that much of a shift in the results did you have any conclusion on why that could potentially have been or

SPEAKER_01: 32:40

yeah well um Obviously, it's all got to be taken with a pinch of salt when you're only doing six minutes worth of music on a survey. To be honest, I was going to roll it out to people and I just didn't even send it to friends or family or anyone because I just did it on this survey swap site and I just smashed out 50 responses on there. So obviously, the result size and things like that play into it. But I guess the conclusion is that chords alone don't define the mood of a song. Other stuff does just as much. So you can't change the mood of a song completely just by chords when the lyrics are the same. So, yeah, that's definitely a conclusion, which I guess probably sounds kind of obvious when you think about it.

SPEAKER_00: 33:18

Well, yes. But I mean, I don't know, actually, because, you know, people have preferences. For example, nothing compares to you. People like Sinead Connor's version, Sinead O'Connor even. But actually Prince's version was also there, but not as popular. Do you see what I mean? Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 33:35

yeah, of course. It's all completely subjective, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00: 33:38

Yeah, exactly. So that is also down to, I guess, I don't know, maybe it's the time that music was released or something happening in people's lives. That's really interesting. Yeah,

SPEAKER_01: 33:49

it could. And that's one thing that was touched upon as well that I couldn't, Basically, as a uni student, I couldn't go into depth enough to pick out those parts because I was looking at other studies. A lot of to get a really good response, what you have to factor in is like what mood people are in at the time and stuff like that as well. But I could engage that. That would be interesting to see.

SPEAKER_00: 34:06

That is truly fascinating. So I usually say to guests who come on the show is if you could leave a question. for the listeners? And it could be one that you have asked yourself or one that you feel is important enough for people to ask themselves. What question would that be? Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 34:26

How feels most natural to express yourself creatively? That's one to think about. For some people, I'm sure there's an obvious answer like music or art or anything. But for anyone that doesn't have that, I feel like everyone does have that. Some people just haven't discovered it yet. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00: 34:43

That's a brilliant question. A brilliant question. I also come from the point that I think everyone, I think we're just born creative. But again, social conditioning gets us to believe that you have to be a certain way to be a creative, which kind of goes back to the idea that you initially said, if I'm a musician, I'm likely to be broke or you have to be this rock star.

SPEAKER_01: 35:05

Yeah, yeah,

SPEAKER_00: 35:05

exactly. And it's like one or the other. And actually, that's not really how things are.

SPEAKER_01: 35:10

No, no, there's literally infinite ways of doing it. Yeah. And to be honest, I said arts, but you can express yourself creatively through anything, can't you? Like Anthony's doing it through business right now. And he is a really creative guy.

SPEAKER_00: 35:23

Yes, he's an incredibly creative entrepreneur. Brilliant. So where can people find out more about you, your music, about Near Misses and anything else? That's related to Tygo Shear.

SPEAKER_01: 35:37

So our podcasting brand, which is how we met through that, is Daniel Larson. And we have some great podcasting books up on Amazon and soon to be in other places. As for my music, Near Misses on all streaming platforms. That's Near MRS, Misses. And our Instagram is also at Near Misses Band. So yeah, thank you very much for having me.

UNKNOWN: 35:59

Thank you. so so

SPEAKER_00: 36:57

Thank you for listening to this episode of Eternal Paradigm. I'd like to take this opportunity just to remind you that your comments, your feedback and your listenership is incredibly valued.