Planetary Gig Talk

Bruce Blaylock began piano lessons when he was very young, but he wasn't that into it because the teacher never asked him what Bruce wanted to play. Later, his friend Chip encouraged him to start guitar, and Bruce hasn't stopped playing since, currently with his band Beat Hotel. He says he has met so many remarkable people in his life through music and it has opened many doors. Bruce went to colle...

Congressman Jamie Raskin is a Member of Congress representing the 8th District in Maryland, the home of the worldwide headquarters of the Planetary Gigs Society, and also plays piano. So, Jefferson Glassie caught up with him to ask a few questions about music. Raskin says there was always music in his home growing up, because his father was a classical music prodigy on the piano. His father saw th...

Peter McClard was born of the 60's, that time when black and white became color and music exploded. He had a voracious appetite for music even when very young. He took lessons on viola in first grade, moved on to guitar when 9 years old. He remembered listening to his brother's twelve string acoustic with a stethoscope and was blown away. There was a "rainbow of overtones, and the sound of metal a...

Fia was ten years old when she went to a Christmas concert at a cultural school in Sweden and first heard an oboe. "I got so enchanted, I said I want to learn," and she started taking lessons. She began writing songs, in both Swedish and English, and as a writer she writes about her life, the people she meets, and the stories they tell. She was in many bands and different genres, but a few years a...

Billy Presnell started playing music when he was really young, about five years old. Piano was his first instrument, and he got a guitar when he was eight. Billy says, "Music has always been a part of my life," and he was still learning to talk practically when he first started. He has played many different styles and instruments, though he says, "when I read The Music Lesson by Victor Wooten, it...

Julie Rust grew up in a house where there was a lot of music; her father played trumpet and her mother was a big band singer, and Julie grew up with a piano in her room! She realized that she wanted to play piano at age seven, and was writing songs by the time she was sixteen, majored in Music at college, and ended up playing coffee houses all over the country. She says that she writes songs by li...

Vivienne Aerts grew up in The Netherlands, and started piano at age 5, and by age 12 was the choir conductor. After performing all over, she got a scholarship from Berklee College of Music, majored in voice and the global jazz program. While there, she met Kenny Werner, author of the book Effortless Mastery. Since then, she has performed often with Kenny and administers the Effortless Mastery Inst...

Qiaoli Wang remembered the old Buddhist music from growing up in China, but then she had to opportunity to help preserve the music for posterity, and she did it. She listened to the call to make a movie about the monks in an ancient monastery who still played music that was over 1,000 years old. She says, "The music itself refused that I make it short." There had been no audio or video of this old...

Peter de Koning from Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is a drummer and also the creator of Live Earth 2020, which will happen on August 29-30, 2020. Peter was only 6 years old when he started tapping on everything and was 8 when he got a drum kit. His sisters were in the marching band and it inspired him, so he joined marching bands and then the drum and bugle corps and it became his passion. He says,...

Anni Beach grew up in a musical family; her mother was a harpist, her sisters were musicians, as was her husband. She took piano lessons as a child, but the mandolin really grabbed her at age 50. She would take her mandolin to class as a substitute teacher, and one day a couple young boys came to her house and asked her to play some more music. That was the start of the Jam Pak Blues 'n' Grass Nei...

Dr. Pramod Kumar is the Founder of the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh India. Dr. Kumar is a philosopher, but his focus is not on metaphysical matters but on solving practical problems. He does not play music, but loves music. Dr. Kumar says music is the highest form of harmony of sound, which is very powerful. Harmony in music brings peace to the mind. Dr. Kumar's children were very good musicians...

Biko Casini is the percussionist with my favorite music group, Rising Appalachia. Biko turned me on to The Music Lesson book by Victor Wooten and that changed my life and led to the founding of the Planetary Gigs Society. Biko is a profound player and spiritual thinker. Biko grew up in an intentional community outside Nashville, where he lives now, and he says it gives him the space to dream about...

I met Neeti Kumar at the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India. She teaches classical Indian singing and dance at the ashram. I have been so enamored by the concept of music ashrams; there should be millions of them! I posted some short videos of performances at the ashram, including a couple of Neeti singing. Neeti's family has been coming to Rishikesh for most of their lives. Neeti and her siste...

Sandro Shankara is a very spiritual musician from Brazil, who leads musicians, pilgrims, and seekers on tours to sacred places like the Amazon, the mountains of Peru, and India. I met Sandro in Rishikesh at the Devi Music Ashram. We really connected and I was able to interview him on zoom. When Sandro was 17, he found Indian music, having played classical guitar before that. He plays many instrume...

Raj Sagonakha is with the Devi Music Ashram in Rishikesh, India. I met Raj when I walked into the ashram almost entirely by chance in March 2020. I had gone to Rishikesh to visit the ashram of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, where the Beatles visited in 1968, and I felt a profound connection with all this. As background, Raj started playing music when he was ten years old, learning the tabla, or Indian dru...

Ria Marie's mother was a singer and voice teacher, and Ria used to listen outside the lesson room at her house. "I was just captivated by singing," she says. She has always loved powerhouse singers who had soul, like Ella Fitzgerald, Whitney Houston, and Christine Aguilera. Ria says music can teach you so many things. "Music puts you in the present moment," she says. She also has learned through m...

I met Hubert Gonthier-Blouin at the Spirit of Music camp at Wooten Woods and we hit it off right away. Both of Hubert's parents were musicians, and his mother knew she was going to play piano at the age of three. Hubert's father gave him a guitar when he was young, but later Hubert started on bass and realized that's what he wanted to do. He says it is a gift to play music, and he has gotten to kn...

Allen Holmes is an excellent musician and good friend, and was one of the first interviewed for the Planetary Gig Talk podcast. He remembers me saying that Victor Wooten talked about music being a living entity and he has reflected on that a lot recently. Allen says, "I believe that music is a living spirit, it's alive, and that some people that devote themselves to it, that practice, are able to...

Brent Paschke was co-founder of Spymob and is best known as Pharrell Williams' guitarist, having worked with Pharrell since 2001. Brent was introduced to me by Linda Helms, who is a friend of Brent's. Brent says that, "Music was just in me." He knew the first day he got a guitar when he was about 12 years old that playing guitar is what he wanted to do with his life. He was always drawn to art and...

Kevin Roy Kramer has been listening to the Planetary Gig Talk podcasts, has attended Victor Wooten's camps, and reached out to me so I invited him to do a podcast interview. What a smart, eclectic, thoughtful, cool guy! Kevin started with the recorder in 4th grade, trumpet in 5th grade, guitar in 8th grade, and now also plays drums and other instruments. Kevin says, "Music is a way for people to j...

I met Linda Helms at Victor Wooten's Theory of Music camp; she's a sound bowl practitioner. I had brought my sound bowl, so the energies brought us together. She says she always loved music, and could tap into something IN the music, some vibrational essence. When listening to music, she could feel the energies around her and the musicians and, by tuning in, could deepen the feeling of the musicia...

Val Carter was referred to me because she wants to do a podcast on mid-adulting and asked if I would show her about producing podcasts. So, she came over to Studio 1 of the worldwide headquarters of the Planetary Gigs Society and we talked and did a test podcast. She asked a lot of questions about creating and hosting a podcast, and in this raw and unedited discussion, we talked about some of the...

I met Nathan at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music camp. We were talking about random stuff and Nathan said he runs a research firm and investment fund in which he focuses on volatility to understand the dynamics of markets, which he said relates to music in that volatility is really just vibrations, like music. So, I knew we had to do a podcast interview. Nathan grew up in a musical family; both of...

Great conversation with Dylan Hughes at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music Camp! Dylan's parents were theater actors and his father really loved music; even named him after Bob Dylan! Dylan knew he wanted to play music very early; at first it was the flute in 4th grade, which he played until 8th grade. But in 7th grade, Dylan got a bass, and that was it. "I just wanted to play … I just wanted to make...

Chris Anander is an amazing musician. His earliest memories are musical memories, such as when he was in a stroller at age two with Tchaikovsky's B flat piano concerto in his brain. We had a great conversation at Victor Wooten's Spirit of Music Camp. Chris started violin in kindergarten and was always an avid listener. He went to Berklee College of Music for trumpet, but played a lot of guitar and...