Tom Ameen’s Disney Music
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Tom Ameen moved from Cleveland to Los Angeles to move his career forward!
Connect with Tom Ameen!
tomameen.com
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Growing up, Tom, loved Disney World, and Disney music. His parents encouraged his musical growth by taking him to piano lessons, which gave him more exposure to Disney music. As Tom got older, he realized that being in a musician in Cleveland, Ohio wasn’t a good location for him to be able to support his career has a musician.
Tom was encouraged by a friend to move out to California to gain exposure and money for his music. Being a Disney fan, it made sense for him to be close to Disneyland and to embrace the area that Walt Disney himself spent much of his life.
Tom has several relaxation albums, as well as two Disney albums, available for purchase below. In this interview we talk about his musical career, but also his road blocks of moving across the county, and how he overcame them.
Music Selection: Tom Ameen – Let’s Go Fly a Kite Buy Now
Episode 23
Transcription
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this is the dreamers podcast where
dreamers shared their stories to inspire
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you
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now join host Joe Pardo as he interviews
a dreamer who’s living their dreams
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yeah
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yeah
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welcome to the dreamers podcast I’m your
host Joe Pardo and today I’m
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interviewing Tom I mean who is living
his dream through making magical disney
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music welcome to show tom thanks Joe
thanks so much for having me it’s great
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to be here
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it’s great to have you here I really
appreciate you taking the time out of
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your busy music scheduled to be a part
of this when we get started by giving
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the audience some background by yourself
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okay uh my name is Tom as you said
before and I’m a musician that lives in
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California I’m from Ohio
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I grew up in Cleveland Ohio but now I
live in California
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I’m a piano player and I’ve been doing
it for a really long time and I play I
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release a bunch of albums i have a lot
of relaxation CDs out that you can find
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like I’m online and in stores not could
stop and but I’m also a huge disney fan
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so I’ve always loved Disney since I was
a little kid and then I started to learn
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music it was such an integral part of my
life so I decided to release disney
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albums as well but that’s basically just
a music I here in California trying to
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live the dream and you definitely are
living the dream i would say thank you
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look definitely expensive to be living
out there to be living the dream
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it is quite expensive let me tell you
moving from Cleveland Ohio to Los
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Angeles was quite a culture shock and
the prices i remember because I moved
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it’s been a long time I mean I moved out
back in 1999 but i will tell you it was
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sticker shock it everything your sticker
shock for me
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so what would you say inspires you i
would say you know there’s a few things
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that inspire me the first one is I’m
actually kind of a nature guy i love
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nature
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I love to look out and see you know
trees and animals and the ocean here is
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gorgeous i try to get to Vermont once
every other year during the fall i have
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good friends that live up there and it’s
beautiful and I’ve always been inspired
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by that that’s like number one and then
I also of course I’m inspired by music I
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love listening to music I listen to all
different kinds of music and of course i
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love disney music so the Disney stuff
really inspires me
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especially the movies that have recently
come out like frozen you know i love
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tangled was great the princess and the
frog i really liked so that kind of
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stuff inspires me as well and then of
course i just i love getting inspired by
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people and their stories and what they
tell me about it and I love talking to
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other Disney fans about their memories
of digital you know like the first time
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they went and what they remember
specifically from their very first ride
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or you know what was their first dealing
like when they met Mickey Mouse for the
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first time at the parks like what was
that like I’m fascinated by those kind
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of stories we both know i love disney
and and I’m sure the audience by this
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point knows that I love Disney
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yes I especially Disney World
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mhm it never gets old seeing people
experience things for the first time and
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and especially taking people down with
you that you know and love for the first
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time their first experience yes there’s
nothing like it
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yeah definitely and that’s what makes it
all worth it no matter how much they try
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to keep us out by raising the prices
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I know the tell about talk about sticker
shock even the price out here they
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raised at disneyland they’re really
raising the prices out here and I love
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going there but it’s so expensive but
they’re doing that out here because
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Disneyland has so many locals it’s like
it’s a big Park here for our locals so
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everyone goes there all the time so I
think they’re raising prices to kind of
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maybe thin out the park a little bit
because it’s always crowded at
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disneyland always well they have an
awesome product so yes they do they do
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you don’t move your disney world was the
only thing I had experienced growing up
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as kids because we look in ohio and so
we went down to Walt Disney World in
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Florida for our vacations then when I
moved out here I started going to
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disneyland and it took me a while to
really love it and learn to respect it
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for what it is because Disney World in
as you know is so huge I mean it’s a
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whole world but out here Disneyland is
much smaller
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there’s only two parks you know I think
our whole disneyland could fit inside
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the parking lot of epcot I mean I think
that’s how it is but it’s so magical and
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really nice here because it’s it’s
Walt’s park you know it was the first
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one who did that he saw through
completion
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and they have a lot of really fun things
that go on in the parks and i have to
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say i love the the haunted mansion right
here though the Haunted Mansion overlay
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for halloween is amazing where they do
all the jack skellington stuff it’s
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amazing and the Pirates right here is
really cool too it’s like really long i
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think the pirate Ranger Walt Disney
works in shorter to me but the one here
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is really long so I I really have
learned to respect it and love it for
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the charm that it is
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yeah definitely tho those things that
you mentioned I haven’t been out to
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Disneyland but from everything I’ve
heard it’s pretty amazing for on a ride
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to ride basis compared to walt disney
world which is a shame because the whole
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point of disney world was space right
exactly exactly
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well disney world has epcot though so
that’s my favorite part
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that’s a lot of people’s favorite Park
yeah it’s it to me apricot has always
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been crazy because if you drop up cot
away from everything else I don’t know
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that he would stand on its own like if
you dropped it in like the middle of
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Detroit or or anywhere really right with
me what people go to experience that cot
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outside of disney world that’s a good
question and I’ve never thought of it
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felt really owe their growth they’re all
great as a team but if you know if you
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take any single one out and dropped it
into a bubble and it stand on its own to
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have the kind of star power
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well that’s interesting I don’t know so
how did your dream of becoming a
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musician full-time come about well I had
been working i had studied piano you
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know since i was about 12 years old and
I had a good natural knack for it and I
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had a good ear for it as well it took a
lot of lessons and I study classically
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for a while and it was all really great
but I love pop music I loved you like
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Broadway stuff in jazz and that kind of
thing so i worked in Cleveland times
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about 29 years old and I decided to make
a move to Los Angeles to kind of broaden
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the career a little bit and let myself
have more opportunities because you
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either in Los Angeles or somewhere like
New York there’s a lot of opportunities
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for musicians so i decided to move to LA
first be
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as my sister lives here like she had
moved out here two years before me so
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it’s nice to have a family member out
here and then I had met don’t know if
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you know who Jim Brickman is but he’s
another pretty famous pianist he travels
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all over the world and he’s had a lot of
number one hits on the radio and he did
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a disney album for disney as well once
but I had met him because he’s from
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Cleveland and he really encouraged me to
come out to LA to say hey look you can
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you know there’s a lot more you can do
here and I said okay so that’s how it
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all came about I decided to do it moved
to Los Angeles and then just started to
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find whatever work I could you know play
piano restaurants you know pick up gigs
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I did some music directing when I first
got here for theatre anything I could
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get my hands on music and of course it
was really cool to be I live right by
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burbank so that’s where Walt had all the
studios like real like Walt Disney
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Studios is there the disney animation
and it’s just so wild to be like it’s
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literally five minutes from where I live
and it’s just wild to think like this is
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where Walt you know spent most of his
time here in Burbank is where he created
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all these studios and making movies and
it’s really it’s really fun but that
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that’s what made me move out here was
just the two say why not try it you know
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and see what happens
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I was just going to say that it your
story actually sounds very close to
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waltz seven does because you know with
his brother already being out there
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right right that’s true and yeah
sometimes when I go to Disneyland or
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even if I FL drive to downtown disney i
drive on the freeways and i really do
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think like this is the freeway the wall
drove on you know that he would take the
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five to go to Anaheim and this is the
road you take to go back it was like
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it’s kind of surreal when your disney
fan but that’s kinda like my quirky mind
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things like that but I think that
sometimes when i’m driving on the
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freeways back from disneyland so how is
your dream received by your family
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members
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well they always been very supportive
because they’ve supported my music since
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I was a little kid well since I was 12
when I started playing and when they
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first started taking lessons they put me
into a class just to see how well i
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would do and the class had a lot of
disney music that’s how I really started
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to learn now at the time you know I’m a
little
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holders oh this was like in the
seventies and early eighties so the time
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it was like Mickey Mouse Club and Pete’s
dragon you know and the Aristocats and
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the rescuers it was like all that kind
of music but I i really loved it so they
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were very supportive in and they were
very supportive of me coming to
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California because they knew they would
probably be more opportunities here for
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me just the worst cleveland you can let
go so much if you’re a musician you know
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and so they stay thought will come out
here and try to make something for
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yourself and they fully supported it was
really really neat was really great and
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they know that i love disney and they
love i love music and they thought it
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would be a good fit for me and they were
excited because my sister lived here as
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well sell I had a family member here
which was nice
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so what steps did you take to get
started becoming a musician and then
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what steps did you take to get started
moving and and how was adjusting to all
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that I know you mentioned as like a lot
of sticker shock that’s pretty obvious
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to anybody that knows the Californians
expensive
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yes it’s so true well what I started to
do was of course I tried to save as much
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money as I could so that was like just
practically speaking that’s what i did
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and saved as much money as I could I
tried to make as many contacts as I
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could in California before i move there
because I knew some people in Cleveland
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that had some context in LA so they
would give me hey try this person when
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you get there all my cousin you know he
lives out there now he’s from Shaker
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Heights Ohio you’re trying to get with
him and see if there’s any ideas you
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know and stuff like that so that I
really that’s what i did so i tried to
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contact a bunch of people to try to make
the transition a little bit easier
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because it was a big transition i mean i
have to admit when I first moved here I
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wanted to go back home like within two
weeks i’m like what the heck am I doing
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here you know I’m from Cleveland Ohio
and this is like so different and again
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my parents are very supportive of my mom
said you know give it a few months like
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you already moved out there giving a few
months and then if you don’t like it
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just come back so by the end of a few
months I i fell in love with it and
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loved it but that’s kind of the prop i
did was i just i just tried to make
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contacts i got all men
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music to their because i only had one
album out at the time but I made sure I
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had enough copies to bring everything
like my resume everything that would you
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know try to get me a job i prepared with
that and once I moved here I was lucky
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because I had my sister here so when I
was looking for a place to live like she
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could help me look in certain areas all
that good stuff and then as soon as i
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got a little bit settled i would just
try to venture out and try to get music
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work know whether it be through these
contexts I had or you know the theater
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that I somehow got hooked up with a can
remember exactly how that worked but I
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got hooked up with a musical theater and
then as you meet new people here then
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that spreads out like people know people
and people know other people you know
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that kind of stuff so it was kind of
like it took a long time though it took
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a long time to get adjusted me took me a
good year before I was even comfortable
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on the freeways here because that the
frequency here are crazy so I mean it
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did take me a good year to like get
comfortable enough to drive securely on
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them but that’s kind of what i did in
preparation
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so whether any roblox with getting out
there or once you got out there that you
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hit and had to try to overcome the only
thing I was pretty lucky in that there
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weren’t any like major roadblocks the
only thing that happened was when I
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first moved out here well I guess this
one is a roadblock when I first here i
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had come from a two-bedroom apartment so
I had movers move all my stuff and it
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was being driven across the country so
once I got here I live with my sister
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for a little while but you have to
understand at the time she had she lived
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in a guest house so it was like 500
square feet it was very very tiny so I
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came with just a suitcase and a couple
things in my computer and we set up shop
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there but I i said i only need to stay
here for a month or two something I’m
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going to find a place so i did find a
place in Hollywood which I was going to
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move to I put down a deposit
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i bought a refrigerator because out here
usually departments don’t have
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refrigerators you have to bring your own
so that was being delivered so i get to
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the apartment that I’m supposed to move
into and I hear this huge dog making
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like a ton of noise in the apartment
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next to me I’m thinking oh my gosh like
that’s going to be loud and the dog
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actually had jumped over the the balcony
onto mine and he went to the bathroom on
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my balcony and I was like I have a cat
at the time he was only three years old
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but I just have a little cat and I was
like my cat is going to go crazy and be
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00:14:51,810 –> 00:14:55,859
so scared I was like I can’t I can’t
live here i can’t India you know I just
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moved out here everything was so new I
think that had something to do with that
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you know i just kind of panicked i said
i can’t live here so I I broke the lease
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why haven’t signed it yet but I broke
the guy let me get out of it
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I had to deny the refrigerator with it
like got there that day i said no i
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can’t accept it and then all of my
clothes all of my stuff was coming on
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the trucks from Ohio so i had to divert
them they have to go put it in stores
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like an hour away somewhere and it had
to be held there for another month until
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I found a better place so i guess that
really was a pickup for a barrier or a
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00:15:29,220 –> 00:15:32,970
roadblock that was probably the biggest
one but then once i found the apartment
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I’m and now it was just it was much
easier everything was fine and moved in
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and everything was good from there was
gonna ask how you overcame the shyness
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of moving i think the shyness of moving
here was i’m from like a smaller town
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outside of Cleveland so that’s what I
was used to and then once I moved to Los
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Angeles it was so big and there are so
many people here and there’s so much
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traffic you know it’s just it’s like
overwhelming for me to come out of that
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shiny shell what I had to do is just
start exploring stuff on my own little
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by little like I remember one night I
said you know what I’m gonna drive to
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borders this is still borders were still
you know the thing I was like I’m gonna
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drive to borders in west hollywood and I
lived in sherman oaks which was kinda
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about a half hour away and I thought
that if I could do that drive myself not
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have to use my sister you not have to
rely on her to do it just do it myself
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take my car and go that’s what i did one
night and I was very proud of myself
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like it was a big achievement for me
about that ok i drove to borders and
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then drove home so I started to do
little things like that i started to
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drive and explore the different
neighborhoods in the city i would ask
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I had a couple friends by this time I’d
made a couple friends I through the
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theater job that I had done that I
started to do I met one of the director
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was a friend of mine and I said you know
can we go explore griffith park or can
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you take me to santa monica i just want
to see it and I started to do things
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with other people that helped me get out
of my shell because it was really easy
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just to stay in the apartment because I
was so overwhelmed you know and since
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everything was so new it was kind of
freaky but then i would just try to
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think you know try to calm myself down
and think what I’m here for a reason and
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I want to do music I’m five minutes from
from disney studios you know this is no
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this is not a bad place to be little so
and then as I started to do things on my
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own and get more work you know and meet
people on my own
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not just for my sister or the job things
just seem to start to fall in place for
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me
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so has there been any parts you dream
that haven’t quite worked out
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let’s see well there’s been I mean
there’s a couple things because you know
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when I first got here I thought well I
want to do this and I want to tour
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internationally you know I want to
record with so-and-so blah blah so some
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of that stuff hasn’t worked out i don’t
know if it ever will but I mean I
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00:17:56,399 –> 00:18:01,110
someday I would love to tour around the
world you know doing venues or something
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or maybe even playing it like Disneyland
Paris or Tokyo Disney or you know
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00:18:06,539 –> 00:18:11,730
something like that so that question
quite hasn’t worked out yet and just
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trying to think of other things at the
time I really wanted to get signed to a
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record label that was the other really
big thing I wanted like I want to get
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signed at the time it was windham hill
records because that was still in
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existence was really good independent
label and so I want to get with them but
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that never actually happened that was a
disappointment at the time remember that
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you know things are so different now
that you really don’t need a label so I
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mean it’s so different but remember at
the time this was like 1999 really
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before the birth of the mp3’s and ipods
and all that kind of stuff came to be so
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that was something that actually never
happen for me if you were stranded on a
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deserted island with your family
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what are three things that you would
really want to have with the
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alright let’s think because I’m there
with my family all right the first thing
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00:19:00,130 –> 00:19:03,730
i would have we’d have to have some kind
of board game that’s the first thing
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because we love to play games so we have
to have some kind of board game or like
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taboo one of those so i need to have
that I definitely need to have music
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somehow so i don’t know like it’s a boom
box or her just a radio but i need to
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have that so those two things and then i
would love to have if i could and I’m
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00:19:23,890 –> 00:19:28,360
sure to very typical answer but like my
iPad it’s something like that so it’s
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the ipad a board game and a boom box or
something for radio
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00:19:32,830 –> 00:19:37,750
you know what’s funny is the ipad can do
all of that and be an ipad you know
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you’re exactly right so maybe that’s
really not the three best he said maybe
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00:19:42,970 –> 00:19:47,620
you know you know what maybe a crank
flashlight so that I have light at night
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that would be kind of nice
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00:19:49,30 –> 00:19:54,340
you said there were your Wilson shackle
it’s cracking on let it die out cranking
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00:19:54,340 –> 00:19:57,39
on exactly exactly
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00:19:57,39 –> 00:20:02,590
so do you have any dreams for the future
oh yes of course i would love when I one
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of my big dreams right now I would love
for the music the Disney stuff that I’ve
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done would love to take that to the next
level like to get it somehow in the
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disney parks have it be sold in the
disney parks or maybe do a concert there
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that’s a huge dream of mine would love
that and my other team right now is with
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my other music because when I’m not
doing the disney music I actually
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release my own albums but it’s all
original music so I do a lot of writing
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and composing but i would love to do a
soundtrack like and score for either
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like it
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00:20:34,630 –> 00:20:39,159
disney cartoon a video game or like an
independent movie like that’s what I
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would love to do next I think it would
be wonderful
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I’m a huge gamer so I love video games I
would love to score a video game i think
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00:20:46,539 –> 00:20:50,110
that would be really cool but yet or to
score like it even a short disney
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00:20:50,110 –> 00:20:53,830
cartoon would be great or even some kind
of independent movie I just think would
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00:20:53,830 –> 00:20:58,750
be so fun to do that that’s what that’s
what I’m dreaming up next so so i could
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00:20:58,750 –> 00:21:04,360
be talking to the next pharrell right
now but you never know right let’s put
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it out there
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00:21:05,620 –> 00:21:07,840
yeah hey you don’t get anything you
don’t
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00:21:07,840 –> 00:21:12,789
ask exactly that’s the truth isn’t it
yell do you have any last thoughts you’d
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00:21:12,789 –> 00:21:13,480
like to share
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00:21:13,480 –> 00:21:17,320
first I want to say thanks for listening
because every time I come on a podcast I
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i really enjoy doing them i really enjoy
being part of a disney community I think
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it’s great and I really love that the
people that people like my music I mean
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that’s it’s all I can ever ask for
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00:21:28,929 –> 00:21:31,690
so I’m really thankful for that and I
would just say keep going for your
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00:21:31,690 –> 00:21:35,350
dreams if you have a dream that’s in
your life something you’ve always wanted
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00:21:35,350 –> 00:21:40,480
to do or always wanted to try no matter
where you are you know it’s and dreams
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00:21:40,480 –> 00:21:44,890
can happen anywhere anywhere that you’re
at night I just say go for it because we
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00:21:44,890 –> 00:21:49,630
only live once you know like on this
grand and miraculous spaceship or
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00:21:49,630 –> 00:21:52,960
shipper you know the beginning of
spaceship earth like we’re only here for
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00:21:52,960 –> 00:21:58,630
a short period of time so i say go for
it go for the dreams on before before we
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00:21:58,630 –> 00:22:03,700
wrap up with your plugs I wanted to ask
you about you know how awesome it is to
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you to be licensed by Disney or at least
have the I guess what would you say the
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00:22:08,380 –> 00:22:09,309
rights
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00:22:09,309 –> 00:22:13,418
excuse me the rights to do it yeah
because you know they can always say now
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00:22:13,419 –> 00:22:17,860
you know what I mean like a whoever owns
that material course a man i don’t want
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00:22:17,860 –> 00:22:22,178
to do it now that really probably
wouldn’t happen because they make money
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00:22:22,179 –> 00:22:27,850
they get some percentages of the songs
and as well but I know how Disney’s very
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00:22:27,850 –> 00:22:32,529
particular and they’re very they’re very
protective of their product and very
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00:22:32,529 –> 00:22:35,140
protective of their ownership what they
have
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00:22:35,140 –> 00:22:39,640
so to get a license what you have to do
is kind of like submit all the songs
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00:22:39,640 –> 00:22:43,600
this is what I want to do they’ll say
okay but then they they have to see your
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00:22:43,600 –> 00:22:48,459
album cover to make sure that you’re not
using any disney likeness or imaging any
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00:22:48,460 –> 00:22:52,90
disney fonts anything like that because
unless they sanction it
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00:22:52,90 –> 00:22:55,928
they don’t want you to use their imaging
which is I’m which I can understand so
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00:22:55,929 –> 00:22:59,679
as soon as they and they’ve approved
every album cover that I’ve sent in
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00:22:59,679 –> 00:23:04,000
which i’m very grateful for you know and
I was like that when I had when I first
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00:23:04,000 –> 00:23:08,500
piano and pixie dust I was like I wrote
to my guy and I was like is pixie just a
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00:23:08,500 –> 00:23:13,659
copyrighted disney turn and he said no
it’s not so I was allowed to use piano
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00:23:13,659 –> 00:23:16,570
and pixie dust you know but they’ve been
really cool
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00:23:16,570 –> 00:23:20,559
they’ve been really great and they’ve
approved everything I’ve asked for even
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00:23:20,559 –> 00:23:21,190
the last
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00:23:21,190 –> 00:23:25,810
album i did the magical moments I wanted
to put Zorro on there and they couldn’t
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00:23:25,810 –> 00:23:27,460
find the copyright for it
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00:23:27,460 –> 00:23:30,430
the guys like I know we have it
somewhere he’s like but go ahead and put
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00:23:30,430 –> 00:23:34,270
it on and if there’s any issues we know
we’ll take it up we can look at it from
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00:23:34,270 –> 00:23:38,170
a different agency but go ahead and put
it on I said cool cause I really wanted
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00:23:38,170 –> 00:23:43,60
oro on the album so they’ve been pretty
good i’ve been very happy with them on
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00:23:43,60 –> 00:23:46,750
the zero song today they still
collecting for that I don’t know because
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00:23:46,750 –> 00:23:51,940
they couldn’t find it in their system so
it’s either they own it or maybe the
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00:23:51,940 –> 00:23:57,250
different company co-owned with them i’m
not sure but i mean i don’t know i mean
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00:23:57,250 –> 00:24:02,320
don’t they release the zorro shows on
dvds and stuff i thought i don’t know i
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00:24:02,320 –> 00:24:07,750
think my I think they do because my dad
has a DVD and he got my my niece and
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00:24:07,750 –> 00:24:12,700
nephews hooked on zoro so if a new
generation of kids that are watching 0
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00:24:12,700 –> 00:24:17,350
but I they must be able to collect
royalties somehow but but yeah it but he
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00:24:17,350 –> 00:24:20,800
was real cool he’s like yeah just put it
on and we’ll deal with it if there’s an
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00:24:20,800 –> 00:24:23,710
issue but he’s like I don’t think there
will be an issue
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00:24:23,710 –> 00:24:27,640
go for it is a cool awesome well thank
you so much for coming on the show where
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00:24:27,640 –> 00:24:32,110
can people find you on facebook and
twitter all the good stuff right
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00:24:32,740 –> 00:24:40,180
if you got my website is Tom mean . com
such as my name TM am een so Tommy . com
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00:24:40,180 –> 00:24:44,620
all the links are there but you can
always just search on facebook just type
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00:24:44,620 –> 00:24:50,139
Tom I mean and then i’ll come up safety
with twitter it’s my hash my my twitter
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00:24:50,140 –> 00:24:55,480
name is just tom at Tom mean and then
I’m on itunes that’s if you wanted your
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00:24:55,480 –> 00:24:59,950
samples of the music just go to itunes
or even google play store the amazon
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00:24:59,950 –> 00:25:04,420
store has well and just type in a Tom
mean and all the stuff will come up
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00:25:04,420 –> 00:25:07,750
that’s great and I’ll get all that in
the show notes awesome this has been
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00:25:07,750 –> 00:25:11,770
really really great i love it thank you
very much i really appreciate you taking
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00:25:11,770 –> 00:25:13,150
the time to come on the show
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no problem thanks for having me thank
you for joining us for this episode of
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00:25:17,170 –> 00:25:18,390
the dreamers podcast
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00:25:18,390 –> 00:25:25,350
follow us on twitter and dreamers
podcast join us on facebook at
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00:25:25,350 –> 00:25:28,350
facebook.com slash dreamers podcast
354
00:25:29,260 –> 00:25:33,460
if you or someone you know would like to
be a guest on the dreamers podcast
355
00:25:33,460 –> 00:25:41,470
please send an email to j and j parr .
comb this podcast is copyright 2014 by j
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00:25:41,470 –> 00:25:42,550
parr . cone
