When I got into thinking how mindset and, in particular, how an experimental mindset was fundamental to navigating a complex and volatile world, I was intrigued with the way scientists approached their work – for example, not being tied to goals, or pre-determined outcomes and analysing the data from their experiments – and how this could be the blueprint for our own life journey – living your life as a series of experiments, using the findings from these experiments or experiences to take to the next experience. This then led me to thinking that musicians have long lived with that uncertainty and volatility that many more people with hitherto linear lives are now facing, so I should explore the role that all the characteristics of an experimental mindset has played in their lives.

And here we are with this podcast!

Ok, so what’s the link to Simonne Jones?

Well, she is a musician, producer, composer, scientific researcher, humanitarian, visual artist, multi-instrumentalist, public speaker, and since 2021, a Sneaker Pimp (I wish I’d been a Ramone but, hey, wrong time, wrong place and all that. I’m not bitter).

To me, this is a fascinating, multi-hyphenate, polymathic approach to living life, one very much in keeping with the multi-stage, multi-experience lives that we are now seeing much more of, effectively usurping the traditional three stage lives of education, work, retirement.

It was a privilege to listen to Simonne's amazing journey and fascinating take on the world through the lens of all her experiences and attributes.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

I’m always trying to work out why certain artists hit me as soon as I hear them. There are some that are a mystery as to why the fuck I like them. Like, why am I still in love with Anastasia’s Welcome To My Truth after all these years? But I can tell you what I love about N8NOFACE's @N8NOFACE music – it’s primal, raw, subversive, underground, heavy, manic, chaotic, stuttering, exciting, surprising, and propelled massively by so many influences and musical styles that you could easily spend a day amusing yourself reading all these descriptions of his music like synth punk, techno punk, punk-hop, cyber chiptune punk, rave punk, fucking psychosomatic firestarter punk, I dunno. I made up a lot of those. Maybe being so clear about what it is that I adore about his music will help me understand why adore it. I mean, I have a few ideas….

His LP, L’s Up, is 20 minutes and 10 tracks worth of all of the above and more. I think it’s his best yet of what is an enormous output, particularly over the last 7 years or so.

NOTE: Since we recorded this episode, he has released Crime Partner….and boy, is that another scintillating piece of work, again showing another departure from previous sounds

His story, to me, is one of never giving up, of the power of just putting your stuff out there, no matter how long it takes you to do it, of just giving it a go and keeping on fucking trying to find your niche, find your tribe of people who love what you do.

Doesn’t take a genius to work out that Nate is one of those artists that just hit me and I’m really excited to try to understand what’s made him the person he is and how he navigates through the world.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

I’m really into this notion of music being your friend for life and how certain songs represent a particular point in your life, good or bad. There’s one song that sticks in my mind which represents such a dark time in my life. And now, looking back at it, I can see how much I’ve changed and sometimes it’s hard to play that song. I’ve played and sang other composer’s songs in front of people - let’s just say that it was a few years ago – and I know that if I sang them now, it would be like getting into a time transporter, but the part I’m missing is writing those songs and how I’d feel if I’d written them and gone through the massive personal evolution and identity shifts of the last few years?

The other thing I’ve found about shifting identity is presenting your new self, presenting things you’ve not done before, stuff you’ve not talked about before. It’s interesting how some people will be used to the “old” version of you and how they react to the “new” version of you – or perhaps that should read the “real” version of you. And whether the people, whose reaction to all of these things we fear, do actually give a fuck and how we are perceived is all in our mind. Moreover, why should I care? I went through all of this when I started doing this podcast, started writing, started doing graphic design…ok, so I basically get this whenever I start anything new!

Jennifer Clavin has written and released music over the last 20 years or so, with Mika Miko and Bleached, that is raw, beautifully exhilarating and has that ability to take you to your own time and place – I find this so powerful - and is now steadily releasing a bunch self-recorded, stripped down, incredibly personal, lo-fi songs as “dear francis”, the latest evolution in an emotional musical story.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

One of the pages on Leigh Heggarty's website is called “Me Me Me, it’s all about me”. A cursory look through this and the other pages would most clearly identify someone who has lived a substantial part of his life very much NOT promoting Me Me Me, rather being very self deprecating and perhaps uncomfortable talking about himself or what he has achieved in life. This all sounds very familiar to me, I’ve often used self deprecating “humour” to lighten situations where I’ve felt I’m a bit of an imposter. I’m tons better but it’s a battle….

And it is a battle, but a battle for what? It makes me wonder about all the characteristics that make up our very unique personality and why some traits are stigmatised and others – like confidence, self-belief - are seen as the symbol of success, whereas others such a shyness even introversion are not. Is society at large’s definition of success fucked up? Please write your answer in no more than 8,000 chapters or just one word.

Anyway, you wouldn’t notice any of the shyness of childhood when he steps on stage to pick up his guitar - well, perhaps a slightly bashful smile and wave to the crowd - to play with Ruts DC, a band that has already secured a most wonderful legacy and continues to do so with each gig they play and each piece of music that they release.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

As someone who has played the cello in my much more youthful days and is ineffectively trying to resurrect past glory, I fully appreciate Kishi Bashi's love of the violin and the way he uses that instrument in his compositions. You can literally hear it cascading through every release he has done – from the Room for Dream EP to the epic music and soundtrack for his film Omoiyari.

He is an epic multi-hyphenate - songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, film maker, father, husband who has used his creativity, his energy and whole being to produce art that, well, makes you pay attention through the exquisiteness and purity of the songwriting and its humanity.

There have been so many things that have fascinated me, intrigued me, filled me with respect and admiration, not least the ever-present authenticity in his work but also how that work conjures such strong emotions in me. Even though I find myself getting emotional at the smallest things these days – it’s getting ridiculous quite frankly – and even more so with some of the horrific acts of prejudice, greed and narcissism that structurally pervade our society - there are still only a few songwriters that can do this.

Now, he’s back with what I think is his musically most diverse (and that’s saying something) LP to follow up the stunning Omoiyari. It’s called Kantos and it was really exciting to hear about it all and to delve into some of the mindset topics that I’ve noticed present in his work, like emotional intelligence, curiosity, resilience and adaptability.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

I’ve long thought about our individual persona or personas and this idea of ever evolving identities …for example, people who have work and non-work personas: the arsehole in work, nice as pie out of work; the surprising competitive aggression at the work social bowling alley do, the extroverted party goer (ok, so there might be some substance impact for that one) – kinda like Henry the mild mannered janitor morphing into Hong Kong Phooey (does anyone remembers that show?!)

What does this mean for the authentic you? Who actually are you?

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the times I’ve felt uncomfortable with the way I was behaving, was more to do with dissatisfaction with the environment and company I was keeping rather than myself and my identities, so eventually I’ve taken action to change them.

This led me to start thinking about why, for example, institutions, companies, communities, social networks seem to exhibit their own personality and employees, members or whatever can start to take on that personality and behaviours, which might be at loggerheads with their own individuality. How malleable is our individuality? How do we unearth that authenticity, when we strip away the masks and show ourselves devoid of external influences?

And do these scenarios exist in bands? And especially in artistic or creative collaborations, which is really the very essence of individuality coming together, how do we as collaborators come together to achieve common goals?

Neil Cowley has just released his first record (although it hadn't been released when we recorded this) with his two longstanding friends and cohorts who had so much acclaim as The Neil Cowley Trio prior to its hiatus 7 years ago. Their reunion and reconnection, and the making of this record, perhaps provides some answers to my most mind churning questions!

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

Over the last few years, I’ve been trying to work out why certain things in my life have turned out the way they have. Friendships has been a particular thing that’s been on my mind, in particular why I’ve tended to let some slide. I’ve had occasions where I’ve reconnected with lost friends and family and realised just how important they are. Having said that, I do think that the way we handle friendships is kinda different to that of my parents generation, when it was definitely friendships for life. More people live a nomadic life these days, so community is less of a thing, and also I’m much more aware of my own identity shifting as I get older and what’s important to me changing and I think this impacts who comes on our own journey with us. I think it makes you realise how powerful your real friendships are.

Nicolette Vilar has dedicated her life to the creative arts as a fabulous graphic and visual arts designer and also the singer in Go Betty Go where her close, tight friendships with the band members have been forever, endured the rocky road of life and have, I think, been instrumental in the band reforming and recording their soon to be released EP called Black and Blue. The title hints at the bruises, yet it’s self-care, time, friendships – and our old, great mate, music - that help you heal.


#musicpodcast
#experimentalmindset

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste

One of the things that I was looking at about 7-8 years ago was the growth of the term ‘multi-hyphenate’ and how, with us living longer lives (well, that was the case up to 2019, I think Covid has probably affected that a little), more people – and across all ages - were moving away from the stable job, linear career trajectory and into a more multi-hyphenate way of working which involves doing more than one thing, often 3/4/5/6/7/8 different things. It struck me that many creatives, particularly musicians, have always had so many aspects – roles if you want - to their lives – songwriting, playing, producing, poetry, art, promotion, DJ’ing, band management, tour management, running a label, marketing – and that if you’re gonna hold up an example of what a multi-hyphenate life looks like, musicians would be it. It’s the DIY ethic that blew up when punk started and has filtered into a whole way of being for future generations.

You can’t really talk about a multi-hyphen life without talking to Tara Rez. She’s doing all of the above and more and more, including her own band, The Duel, inspired by punk rock, free of any clichés, rules, boundaries and 100% free spirited.

https://www.iwannajumplikedeedee.com


I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

- brought to you from the mothership of the experimental mindset™
- swirl logo and art by Giles Sibbald
- doodle logo and art by Tide Adesanya, Coppie and Paste