Elton And Me | Salvadore Liberto

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Transcript

1:30

Welcome back to another episode of Mosaic Minds. Tonight we have a returning friend of the show and someone who's been a great supporter of the podcast. We have Salvador Liberto. Every time I see your name, Sal, I have to I w I want to say it super Italian, be like Salvadore Liberto. You know, like just getting get real Italian with it. But you like that? I was like, okay. If you caught if you caught our episode with him before, you saw that Sal, he's he's a piano player, a singer behind Elton and Me, which was here. Um about a year ago. I think it was about a year ago now, right? Like i you June, right? and and he's coming back again this September, September twenty fifth, I believe. And I'll be we'll have all of that here on the on the screen and everything here in a sh in a little bit. But he'll be coming back and he does Elton and me, where he does Elton John classics, he does some of his own his own originals. and he's gonna be flying into from Boston to Carmel to do that on the twenty-fifth at the Allied Solutions Center Performing Arts. So um again we'll have more information about that here in a little bit. But welcome back, Sal. Good to see you as always. Well, pleasure to be with back with you guys and congratulations on your continued success on the podcast. And I I still love the name. I love the name. Mosaic Minds, 'cause it's it just opens up so many possibilities and so many I different ideas. Every time I think about it, uh there's a whole mosaic of concepts that I that I want to entertain. So congratulations on that. And great to be back with you guys. So what's been tell us what's been up with you. What's what's some some new things going on in your in your life and and your career and your your performances, whatever. Like what's some things that you've you've been up to? Well, I'm super focused on this show coming up. um, you know, been recording some new music, working on some new music. And then conceptually in my show Elton and me, you know, bringing some new Elton John songs, songs I've never played before into this show, um, or some songs I haven't played for a while. And then in this show I'm also gonna be doing some some songs that I didn't perform last time in Carmel. So if you came and saw me in Carmel, you're gonna get a at least a slightly different show this time. Of course I'm gonna play, you know, Rocket Man and I'm gonna play Tiny Dancer and your song. Um Um but I I've got a couple of a couple of different Elton John songs. I I'll give you one example. So every every time I think about Elton and your region of the country, Indianapolis, there's a name that always comes to mind and it's Ryan White. You guys remember uh Ryan White. So so Ryan White, of course, uh a pioneer uh in the fight against AIDS and Um was bullied in school, all those all those terrible stories and then you know he's he's like this brave hero that gets in front of Congress, obviously passes away, very sad uh circumstance. But what a lot of people may not remember is Elton John befriended the Ryan White family. And uh I'm gonna I'm gonna perform a song. In fact I'll play a little bit of it now. I'm gonna perform a song called Skyline Pigeon, which Elton sang at Ryan's funeral. So it's a beautiful song about I was thinking of, but go ahead. Yeah, I was thinking the candle in the wind, yeah. Sal and Sal and Spirit right before you get started to give you a few seconds to prep there. There's a kind of a I don't know, uh a video that they're doing now. I think they use it in Europe, but they actually roll out the red carpet. So with that spirit in mind, we're rolling out the red carpet and you take it from there. Well thank you. I appreciate that, Jason. So uh this is this is it's called Skyline Pigeon. Turn me loose from your hands, let me fly to distant lands overgreen fields, trees and mountains, flowers and forest fountains. Home along the lanes of the skyway for this dark and lonely room projects a shadow casting gloom and my eyes mirror. To the world outside, thinking of a way that the wind can turn the tide. Shadows turn from purple into gray. For just the skyline pigeon, dreaming of the open, waiting for the day. He can spread his wings, fly away again. It's beautiful song, and then it goes fly away, skyline pigeon fly, toward the dreams you left so very far behind. Fly away, skyline pigeon fly, toward the dreams you left so very far behind. So yeah, that'll be that'll be nice to play. And just to remind folks of Ryan, I think that'll be r a really nice tribute within the tribute. Um so that'll be good. I'll I look forward to that. So you're gonna are you gonna talk a little bit about Ryan White then? About the can I okay. Very cool. And and you know, yeah, Elton became so what was really interesting too is Elton became close with the f white family, they went through that tragedy and then Elton turned his life round after that 'cause he said, Look, I'm never complaining again after I saw what these people went through and cleaned himself up, got off alcohol, got off the drugs and you know, and then started the Elton John Aids Foundation, um, which has raised, you know, probably close to a billion dollars now to to fight AIDS, especially in countries where they don't have the kind of medical care that we have here. So um yeah, really an insp inspiring story and just someone that, you know, made the best of out of out of a very difficult situation, both he and Ryan in that in that case, yeah. really inspiring story. And that was something that um I mean i i if somebody wrote a script and and just wrote that whole story, they couldn't have wrote it any more perfect for that cause because he he like his was some fluke thing anyway, it came from a a blood transfusion. You know, and it's and so it was so so Yeah, yeah, little kid, yeah. he lived to about eighteen or nineteen, but yeah, just terr terrible, terrible circumstance. And then and then brave bravely, you know, making the case and I think because of Brian, you have you have you know, the disease has been I wouldn't I it's not been cured, but you know, it's been kept at bay, you know. There are people alive now, plenty of people alive who have it and there's still, you know, Magic Johnson among them. Um who are still alive and doing quite well. So, you know, great job, Ryan White. Yes. Absolutely. Yeah, we're I can't even remember what what part in Indi do you remember what part of Indiana he was from? Was it um South Bend? I thought he went to Marion High School. I could be wrong on that. But sin we're gonna call it Central Indiana. I think is a safe because he was within about a half half half hour radius of Indianapolis. I think in a town of sports legends, honestly, the way that he presented himself and the bravery that he had, I mean, he was a warrior. You know, not only did he show grace, but it he was speaking on something that was far greater than just him. And I think that transcends, you know, your music as well. When you look at the you know, the feel goodness, the the tempo, the excitement you get out of that, and then the music that you play, the songs that you play, I think it's a high energy show. I think I think everybody should come off to Carmel and kinda enjoy the fun. It's just kind of a trip down memory lane over the multiple errors that you perform under. Yeah. What you. Thank you. why Sal, why did you just curious people will go to a different venue or whatever. Why did you choose the same one that that you did that you went to last time? Because I made a mistake. The first time I c it was the first time I came it was on a Sunday it was the show was a Sunday, a matinee. Which I which has had you know, I I've done that off and on. I've had some success with that. But I I found that that at that in that market that wasn't necessarily the time to have that show. So I switched it now I've switched I wanted to try the Friday night. But you're absolutely right. Yeah, you would you would mix and match. but because I thought, you know, I think I c I I I sort of said, Well, I think I can do better, so I'm gonna do the the Friday night show. but also the But some A/B testing. But also they're they were very good to me and um very supportive what we what we were trying to do. And, you know, I f I I felt like that's a kind of venue that's a sort of venue where I'd like to return. you know, and I've I've got several venues around the country th where I've been a few times. Like the there's a center in um just outside of Dallas in Richardson, Texas that's been really good to me. There's one in Ocean Springs, Mississippi. There's a library in Louisiana that always put on a pretty big show and lots of people come out for that. Yeah, so there always there are a few different venues that are pretty special to me and that's that's one that's quickly becoming special to me. And hopefully, you know, I mean they have a fog machine, you know. Uh and uh really beautiful we got me really beautiful Yamaha grand piano to play on. And so, you know, there are lots of venues in your in your area that I could try out and would love to hear your suggestions. That was the that was the first time that I'd been to um I I keep wanting to call it the Palladium, but the Palladium is actually a separate building in that same campus. But but but yeah, to Allied, that's the first time that I'd been there. Um but yeah, it was it was really nice. I really enjoyed it and I was looking at some of the lineups that they even have for this year. Like in in um August they have uh Gladys Knight and th yeah, it's a they're gonna have some big time performers. Um, yeah, and they have different I think they have two or three different venues and so yeah, mine's in a smaller setting, so we'll have a hundred you know, it's a little more than a hundred people can can fit in there comfortably and I think that you know, that's perfect for my show. But yeah, Gladys will probably play to fifteen hundred people, something like that. Sal, I gotta say though, regardless of the genre of music, when you see your name on the mezzanines on the lights, it's just a perfect name for presenting and and showing uh a happy tone, an upbeat tone. And uh, you know, I I think you played up well. One of my favorite outfits was I'm gonna call it glitters the wrong term, but the turquoise outfit that you wore that kind of had a little flair to it, a little excitement to it. I I thought that flowed with the music. Talk to us a little bit about your uh your choice of wardrobe. Well sure. And you know, we gotta have the glasses too, you know, Jason, I gotta bring the glasses out, you know. So uh, you know, we'll do do some star glasses and various other El Elton esque kinds of glasses. We'll have some shiny clothes. And I I think, you know, this show will probably be a split between some shiny and um something really slick that's a nice suit, you know, that's kind of like more the me version, rather than the Elton piece. But the funny thing is about that is a is is I you know, in within the studio or the theater you can set the temperature way down and so you can be cool, or it'd kind of be medium. But some a lot of the clothes we wear on stage are they make us kinda hot. So we've gotta figure out so I was actually thinking I might I might wanna get a light suit for this one 'cause like you say, it gets kind of up tempo and you could you could be sweating up there. Here, I'll play a little too. Thank you. Yes, the lights are hot too. So it's it's just finding the right temperature. You get sometimes you get inside your own head and then you're like, you know what, just stop. Just play your songs, enjoy yourself and it'll take care of itself. I grew up in the south, so I'm I'm used to being hot, it's okay. But let me play a little of this one. This is called Now's the Time and 'cause Jason mentioned upbeat, this is a pretty positive song I like to share with everybody, one that I wrote. I don't care if you're young or old, I don't care if you're fast or slow, you still have a calling, your heart doesn't beat in vain. Doesn't matter if your life's been tough or if you have given up as long as there's tomorrow can find a better way. Here we go. Now's the time. Don't be scared. God lay it on the light. All the while go and set the word, set it on fire. So that always gets a pretty good round of applause. I think I think I wrote that, you know, Jason, trying to think about all of us, you know, the things that we all need to work on and make sure that we're living out to our callings, you know. Sal, answer this for me because that kind of piggybacks that thought. Um, talk to me a little bit about in in sports we call it repetition or practice, however you want to call it. You know, scout team. There's a lot of things I could go, but bring me into playing that song in that environment versus playing the exact same song in front of an audience. Hey Nick, Nick's uh Nick's prepared, it looks like there you go, Sal. I know if these are Elton John glasses or like uh Flava Flav I'm not really sure. We'll we'll we'll take the hybrid. of his err no d in one of his eras definitely that was very the mirror or the or like the dark glass. Absolutely. No, I think you're I think you're on point here. This is good. This is good. Now, I think they say "Pimp" on the side, but I don't know. Ps well, you know, I i when in Rome. But or Amsterdam, I don't know which. But but Jason, yeah, I think you know, I think there's there's always an element of muscle memory and every in and you wanna I think any any good practitioner you know, can deliver their song in in sort of any conditions. Um, I'm among friends, so I'm feeling good. You know, you play in front of an audience. Sometimes an audience doesn't know you very well and so y there's a a little bit of a hesitancy and so I like to lean in on, you know, a song they know like a Tiny dancer or a uh she packed my bags last night pre-flight like a rocket man or a candle in the wind. Goodbye no. Gene. Um so I like to lean on those songs that they're gonna know early in the show to build up that familiarity. And and then I like to hit them maybe with something that they weren't expecting. Like I I have a song I wrote about, you know, someone who was super important to me. That's a very emotional song. It's clear that the person has passed away. Um it's a song called Mary Beth, and the lyric is uh no one could love you like Mary Beth. gather you up in a bundle of hope and peace, take you shopping. Or bar hopping, take you dreaming of all the ways to be. She was the last one there when everybody left. No one could love you like Mary Beth. And uh that's a very that's a very emotional song. And I I I invite people in the song to reflect on the first person in their lives that they felt love them unconditionally. And and so I think at that point you start to build that rapport and also that trust with the audience, and also at an emotional level, there's kind of an understanding of what's happening in the in the space. and Often I wouldn't I hate to say it's formulaic or strategic, but it's just this is just some of the building blocks of how you get an audience a little bit more comfortable and feeling a little bit more open emotionally. And then when you get to that song now's the time a song they they need to hear that song at that point 'cause maybe you've you've brought them on a little bit of an emotional journey and now they need that reassurance from a song or they need that they want to feel that joy that comes from a song that says, Look, live live from your purpose. There's really not much else you should be doing. Um and I think that's something reassuring about that. But I think there's a bit of an emotional journey that has to happen before you can get to the side. You can't open the show with now's the time if there's especially if they've never heard it before. Now if if you're a f if you're you know, I'm and I would never presume not famous or anything, um, just a a guy working on trying to trying to get a trying to get people excited about his show, i if if tha if millions of people know that song then you can lead with it fine. But um you've got a my show is about bringing people along a little bit with a combination of familiar and new. So that's a really great question in terms of like, you know, how you approach what you expect the audience reaction is gonna be and and then just myself, how I'm feeling.'Cause I I you we feel different day to day. We all, you know, as much as we try to be really consistent in our routines, every day is different from the last. So You know, you know, so I I don't think I don't know if I asked you this last time or not, I don't remember, so why Elton? You know, of of of I'm sure you have plenty of uh influences or icons that you liked, you know. Why why Elton John of of the of all of of the people that that you may have looked up to? Well, so I never I never considered being a musician until I was uh maybe fifteen or sixteen years old. And I heard his uh live in Australia record, which most people don't know, but there's like It's it's the most complete record I had ever heard to that point in my life 'cause it has everything. It has rock and roll in it, has ballads. It is he he even has like pieces of music that sound classical. This piece of I'll play a few notes of this. This is a song called Tonight that's on that record, which is not a well known song of his, but listen to what this sounds like. mean that's uh that's got a real classical feel to it. Of course that's and that's his his first influences. But when I heard that record I was like, Ooh, maybe I could play the piano, you know, and maybe I could be a musician and and then I started learning his songs and so my origin story really is i it really as a musician really is his music first. And then I remember I was in college and I was d I had started dabbling with writing but not really. And I was in this this big chorus group and we had all these uh events and stuff and so invariably someone would go over to the piano and start playing and so one night I did and people were paying attention and, you know, maybe a year and a half into this and I'd act like a ham mostly and make up make up s silly songs. Like I made up a song called Moo Goo Guy Pans, like a Guy Penn, you know. And uh and I remember one of my friends pulled me aside and she said, When are you gonna start writing original music? You know, and I was I and it that didn't really occur to me. And then suddenly, you know, I I thought I I tried a little bit and uh, you know, but then she saw something in me that maybe I didn't see in myself, and then Soon after that I was start I was writing tons of songs and and sh and sharing my ideas and it just always felt like that's what I should be doing. And so you take the so they take that origin story of like and so then I'm learning all this Elton John early on and then getting better and better at it. Then bringing my own music into it and then it just it's always felt like um the two are connected and it's hard to separate them out. It's always been hard to separate myself out from i as even my identity as a musician it's hard to separate myself out from that early influence. So that's why Elton. And yeah, there are plenty of Yeah, go ahead. I was just gonna say there are other musicians I play, but I don't play I don't play nearly as many as much as their of their catalog. And so there are times when I brand myself as my own show, but invariably three or four Elton still sneak in. So you know I I may as well I may as well do both. I enjoy doing both. And so and I don't feel limited by it necessarily, but I do like to I do like to sometimes just be just advertise as me and then just do my own show and sometimes I do that. One of the things I love to do is bring the mosaic attitude into the thread of thread of the show. So when you walk down the lane here and you look at I'm gonna be safe, he's definitely been an artist for every bit of forty years. I'm probably ten to twenty years light on that, I'm assuming. Elton John. Yeah. he's he's seventy he's seventy nine, so almost pr you know, coming on like in terms of being world famous, he's he's more than fifty years into that, yeah. There you go. So when he transcends that, I believe that if you were fifty years from now, you would still listen to his music, right? So he he transcends generations. So when you develop and you kind of fortify yourself into your own your own thread of music as well as the influence of him and given your show, how have you taken yourself from this tenure set to this tenure set and then over the next 10 years? How how does that look for you from an artist standpoint? So it's an interesting my my life my life in music is more jagged than I than I care to admit, in part because just my obligations have been the way they've been, you know. and so, you know, you have jobs and you have family and so I do think the next few years I'll be focusing more on music and so that'll so it'll be interesting to see what the platform looks like over you know, say five years from now. But I I I'll answer that question. I'll so in terms of like market share, you know, I s you know I'm on Facebook, I do some shows, people come to my shows. I'm not sure there's a huge difference over the last ten, fifteen years, but I think I'm a better player. You know, and I think I think I keep getting better and um keep stacking hours and you know, what's the is it ten thousand hours to being an expert? I've got uh maybe thirty thousand hours on the piano and so um there are things like like I y like five years ago I probably couldn't have performed this song, but I can perform it now, you know, pretty well. You can never know what it's like. Blood like winter freezes, just like God's and there's a cold of only light. Shines from you. You winding like the wreck, you hide behind that mask. You okay, I'll cut to the chorus. I'm still standing better than I ever did. Looking like a true survivor, feeling like a little kid. I'm still standin' after all this time Picking up the pieces of my life without ya on my mind. I'm still standing You know you wanna sing that yeah, yeah, yeah, Nick, you you wanna do that. So do so yeah, so I th I just think I've evolved as a player and a and and I hear notes better than I ever did before. I think I sing them better. I'm still peaking I think as a singer. Like a lot of singers if they're rough on their voices, they they're I wouldn't say, you know, they're shot by my age, but you know, there's it's certainly w in Elton's case, I mean his he hammered his voice and had throat surgery in nineteen eighty seven and so by the time he was my age he was not singing much in falsetto. I still have my full s falsetto. Uh I still have my my highest range. So, you know, I still think I I still think I'm I'm probably as good as I'll ever be and hopefully I'll get a little bit better, but there's been no drop off in my performing, so that's pretty excited about that I'd say. Sal, I gotta say something real quick and then uh Nick's gonna ask you something here. But I I want to say something that like you're you're the Ponce daily own of music because you drink from the fountain of youth because every time I see you get revved up before your voice hits, you come alive through sorry, I'm not I'm not musical, but you come alive through that. To me, it's always sports, it's not about me, but you always come alive to get your hands going, and I will say this. I noticed that your hands were moving in my terms fast and furious on that classical piece. And that was amazing uh muscle memory is what I'm gonna call it because man, there's no way that I could ever get my fingers to move that way and then let alone have to sing on top of that. So tell me a little bit about how you can do both of those and blend them in together and have fun and make yourself come alive throughout your music. Well, first of all, thank you for the comment about coming alive. You said that last time too, and I remember that and I really like that. And actually what you're and what you're touching on there is very similar to what comes out in my song Now is the Time. When we're energized by something, we need to be doing more of that. Right? Like if we're enjoying something, that is something to pay attention to. And I I think too often in life we we forget to pay attention to where we're energized or where our in our intuition is saying yes indeed. So thank you for pointing that out. Um, you know, I think I think I always liked the like the great musicians. thinking of like O Oscar Robinson, George Winston, is someone I think Elton would would say same thing. They're they're all great students and they're just trying to get better and you know, like a lot of the great musicians would compare themselves to a guy named Art Tatum, or a guy named Keith Jarrett, who are just like A plus plus plus plus musicians. And some of them will say things like, Uh, I listened to this person play music and then I couldn't play the piano for a month. because I I just couldn't I couldn't even come close to being as good as him uh or her. And so I think when you have that kind of standard, um, you have to just be humble and say, All right, let me just see if I can get to the next level for me. Let me compare myself not to them but to me. And so, yeah, over time you get a lot better at being able to sing over, keep you know, you just I mean at at first it's hard just to even keep a beat and then you're trying to do some flourishes and different things and learn different elements of music, different chords. You know, Nick's a musician. I've seen I've seen Nick play really well. I'm sure you you have a similar uh story where you, you know, maybe you couldn't do some things at first and then it with as you develop as you practice and you you get better at it. And then, you know, hopefully at a certain point it becomes a little bit effortless. Like I came up with this riff in my twenties and then I didn't play this song for a long time. Then I had to relearn it. But I have a song that goes And you know, things like that are really they're really interesting. Um, to try to almost make it sound orchestral. I mean someone paid a really nice compliment to me. Uh she actually said it to my wife, not me, but she said that when I play it's like a whole orchestra, you know. And I thought that was a really nice compliment. A Billy Jewel's song, the piano sounds like a carnival, he says in Piano Man. So I always I always wanna sound a little bit like a carnival when I'm playing. Sal one of the best memories I had actually that you may not realize is when you came into Carmel, we sat in XYZ Hotel. I apologize, I don't remember it. Yeah, that was a lot of fun. But we I felt kinda like I felt like kinda like a um I don't know how to say this, but like it it was almost like it was cool to see you to see you in that environment in front of the crowd and letting yourself go, but at the same time It was also cool to see you post show, you know, decompressing a little bit, just being very natural, hanging out. And that was a cool room that we sat in because to give the audience some perspective, it was like, in my best way, it was like somebody's den, uh library, but a very comfortable setting to kind of hang out in. So I know that might be a simple offshoot of the show itself, but we really want to encourage you to get out in that caramel area because not only is the hotel and the venue beautiful. Mm. a lot of stuff that are picturesque. You've got some musicians on the square. Uh it looks like some blues blues type uh, you know, performers and stuff there that you can get your pictures in front of. So it's just it's a phenomenal venue and I I I think you fit very well for that, you know, part of the city that's kind of a I don't know, Nick, is it fair to call it maybe like an arts district or a music district? Some something. I I would yeah. I would say it's just a it it's a um It's a m it's a better side of town. It's probably the best side of town of of Indianapolis when it comes to um economically and you know, like that kind of that kind of thing. So but they I I wouldn't necessarily call them an arts an arts district, but that that area right there, yeah. I would say that all of the the architecture and everything they have going on in that part of Carmel pr it epitomizes Carmel pretty well, which is not a bad thing at all. It's a compliment. Yeah, it seems like a very livable space. And um a and the sort of place where where people can have their life in a very s in a very small area. Like you you can just walk and here's your store over here, here restaurants over here, you know, you wanna have a nice drink at the Carmichael, you can do that. If you wanna go over uh to the Allied Solutions Center and enjoy a show, you can do that. And then there's some parks in the area, there's some bike paths. So yeah, it's really really pretty. I guess it's been specially developed in some way. too um to kind of to kind of give it that sort of feel. So yeah, it's a beautiful part of the area part of part of the area and um Ally does a nice job with their shows. I encourage people to see Gladys Knight, come see me. Um and, you know, uh I also have an a agreement with them where I do plan to return to the area even after this show. Um do some more do some more performances over the next few years. So you guys you guys might get tired of me when this is all said and done. Hey, we just we'll just keep the charcuterie coming, right? Exactly. Now so la so last year I was there and the Pacers had just been in the finals and didn't quite get it done. But then but then in the fall something magical happened. into the winter. A little something called the National A little something. A little something called the National Championship in football. uh your cue there. Well, why do you think I got Hoosia Red on Sal? There we go. There we go. I mean I part of me wants I do want to come out in a Mendoza jersey, but I might be that might be overplaying it, don't you think? Nah. I don't I don't think they're tired of him yet, right? Like you still see him everywhere. Well, I'll I'll tell you this, Sal, and I'm gonna make a bold statement. We're reloading. Everybody thinks we're going away. We're top five again. We got a quarterback that threw for ninety, six hundred yards and eighty touchdowns. So if they think IU's going along going away anytime soon, it ain't gonna happen. They're that was historical though, man. Seeing them get to five hundred over the years and and not not doing it. so do you have to be like on to to be singing or do you do a lot of casual singing, like, you know, walking down the street at at work in the shower, like you whatever whatever it might be. Well so my my fourteen year old daughter and I almost always take a walk after work for me and a and after school for her. And and so today she just started singing about our dog, uh, who we were walking and we just we made up a little hymn as we were going. So uh yeah, music comes to me for sure and and so sometimes yeah, I definitely I I don't have to I don't have to l like be on to perform and I you You know, I probably play my piano you know, every day, uh just about every day. So yeah, there's I can th I I'd say, you know, maybe one in ten times I don't necessarily feel like it and try to push myself through it and then, you know, ten minutes in I'm into it. Um so yeah, it doesn't it doesn't take much to get me to play or wanna play, uh or s and and sing. But in terms of I d I would I do prefer to s I think I sound better when there musical accompaniment so I don't I probably don't sing a ton a cappella. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I'm not a s yeah y with with the proper, say, vocal coaching, whatever it is, like do you think do you feel like anybody can learn to sing? Well, I th well it's a muscle and so um you can like if someone were to lift weights for the first time and not and not feel like they were particularly strong, no one sh would be surprised by that. But for some reason with music, uh, like if y the first time you try to sing, if you don't do it particularly well, people are like, you're you're not a good singer, you shouldn't try and s I think that's not true. So the first time I ever sang publicly I was in a musical in high school, and I remember the the guy who was coach I had a guy coaching me on on how to sing and I said to him, You know, do you think I'd ever be a good singer? And he's like, No And and I didn't give him a lot of reason to think that I'd be a good singer because, you know, I was new to it and I was new to tonality and y my my dad videotaped the show and uh i uh I don't think the video's been lost to history. but I I was not a good singer in the show, but th you could hear every now and again you could hear, there's something there, there's something there. And so when I started to learn how to sing and use my diaphragm and not sing just from here, but to sing from my body, I became a lot better and got but better a lot faster. And so um I I don't you know, it's probably a spectrum where like if you start at a one you can probably get yourself to five or six. Now if you start at a seven, that's the those are the people who I up at ten, you know. And I d I don't I never would I I would never claim to be a great singer but I do think I do think I've gotten better and better and better to the point where I can be a professional singer and that's really all all I care to be. I don't have to be anything I don't have to be Pavarotti or something. But Yeah, I I I so I mean some people probably can't hear tonality. They probably can't hear the notes and probably can't produce them. But I think if you can learn to, you know, match pitch reasonably well and can hear it reasonably well, you can get better and better at that skill. I I think it's a muscle. And then similarly, there are plenty of people Yeah, there are plenty of people who can sing. who can sing quite well and then don't don't use that gift and then they come out and they try to sing, you know, several years later and you and you hear them, you go, but it's'cause they haven't been practicing. I that happens to veteran singers or sort of so called famous people all the time. that they just don't keep it up and then they c they they come out to try to do a some some performance that you know, and it doesn't it doesn't work. You know, I think we also have to understand your limitations. Like you shouldn't be trying to sing out of range and that sort of thing, you know. you shouldn't try to sing stuff that's too high for your for your voice. Auto Tune Sal, the question I gotta ask you is is um this is not about me, but it I gotta tell about me just for 30 seconds to transition into what I want to ask you. So there's only been one or two times of my life when I've been in the zone with sports. Like I'm talking hitting like 18, 19 shots out of 20, you know, playing. just dusting people on the basketball court is the example I'm going to give you. What does it take for you to get in quote unquote the zone as a musician? Because when I was when I was in that zone, I couldn't hear people talking. Everything was slow motion. It was like something straight out of a movie. Like how do you how do you or have you have you experienced that? I'm sure that you have, but how does how does that come full circle as a musician to actually feel and and be composed in the moment? So I don't I don't want to freak you guys out. So I I'm gonna tell you this, but please don't freak out. Okay. So I so I I think I think it requires a a sequence of events that have to have to occur. The first thing that has to happen is I think I just have to be very relaxed, right? And not and not feel it n not feel nervous, not be this has happened before. I'll be playing, I'm like And I'll be like, my budget at work. I've really I I can't believe we're gonna be over budget on this on this one line. I've gotta talk to somebody about that. I'm like in playing in front of, you know, a hundred people at a show. That's terrible. So I have to I can't I have to be focused on what I'm doing. The second element is I th I think and and I think I'll be you know, I'll be very honest about this. I am what's what you might call an empath. So I take on other people's energy. which sometimes if I'm in the presence of people and like the energy is very negative, I will take that energy on and I have to like leave the room because that's that's just not good for me to be around such negative energy. So if an audience is if I feel like the audience is on my side, and almost all audiences are, but if you get to that point in the show, then that's the second element. where you feel like you're in the zone. And then you asked how do I know? So the the here's the third thing. This is crazy though. So this has only happened maybe three times. But I I felt myself I would not I'm not gonna say I left my body. I'm not gonna tell you that. But I felt a sensation of floating somewhat where where everything that I was doing physically, um I was in so in control of it that I was almost out of control with it and and almost almost not fully present in my own physical body. And I felt a sensation of floating. And that's happened I think maybe three times. Have you ever had that? Absolutely thanks so much for sharing that. Cause you you can't be more right. You're not hearing people, you're not acting. Your steps, even though you're sprinting, feels feel very faint. Like somebody asked you what happened. And what happened to me is my last name was on my basketball jersey, and people were making fun of me before I even started playing. And I was like, I'm gonna get you. And music, it's different because you're You're getting that crowd, you're getting that amped up. But but I'm telling you, I a hundred percent love that answer because that gets me super excited because to me that's a professional taking pride in your craft, being excited, you know, preparation meets pr you know, practice meets preparation, which means, you know, you're just killing it. So that was uh that was a really cool response that you gave me and and kind of correlates sports and music have a lot of correlations in my opinion. Thank you. Let me link that back to something we were talking about a little while ago when I'm getting a quick note there. something we were talking about a while ago, which is that you're that's that's where when you're when you're in that feeling, that's where you're supposed to be. Like you're not supposed to be anywhere else. That's that's where th fate is meeting you in that moment and and shaking your hand, you know, so to speak. So Yeah, I think it's a I think what you just said was awesome, yeah. And that's great that you're a I never felt that as an athlete. I I'm you know, intramural sports or something. I n I can't say I ever felt that sensation of floating, you know. had had my share of good flag football games back in the day, but uh I can't say I felt I felt like I was floating. But you should watch the Dan Patrick interview with Rich Eisen. This was Sports Center. Um Dan Patrick talks about playing a basketball game with Stuart Scott and reminded me of what you just said about the guys making fun of you and your or your jersey or whatever and y you thinking, no, here I come So Dan Patrick's story about playing basketball at Stuart Scott's pretty pretty compelling and it's in that same kind of genre. So check that out. much of a stretch to tell you that you're an innovator, you do stuff, you take chances. Stuart Scott was just phenomenal. He bring it that brings a tear to my eye just to hear that name because he he put his heart and soul on the microphone, and a lot of that was not scripted. Like, you know, I I watch some pe there's a guy that does country music and he does mashups, but it's super cool to see him take a country song and make it into rap. It, you know, you can do stuff on cue. Hey, do this, and it's just It's nice to see I I call that ad lib even though it's not ad lib 'cause it's prepared, but at the same time it's just acting, reacting, going with it and making making a cool composition. I love that. Yeah, Stewart was an innovator for sure and and sometimes we don't realize I mean, it's so interesting to look back on that history. I think we took it for granted when it was happening, but but now what a what a great time, you know, the nineties, early two thousands for for sports media, good stuff. So the question I have for you is when you look at um when you look at a song title for where you're at in your career musically, you're on the spot just a little bit, but what's the name of that song to to show to our audience where you're at in the in the journey that you're currently on with music? Um a song called Nothing Is Perfect, I would say. Let me I'll play a little bit of that. In these moments I've seen you struggle with what you should decide. Back and forth between the lines, the voices in your mind, pros and cons and arguments that could make a senator groan. But in your life, the greatest things are those you don't control. Nothing is perfect. It's supposed to be that way from the height of your emotions to the fkleness of fate. But don't be afraid to open that destined door. It hurts like hell to see you go, but to see you sad hurts more. You know, nothing is perfect. Nothing nothing we do is ever gonna be, you know, a hundred percent, but we should strive, you know. And and as we make our decisions, make our calls on things, we just we try to do the best we can. We make a good decision and then try to make that a great decision. So I I think that's that's how I feel about, you know, my pursuit of music. never ne g never gonna be the the perfect musician, but never gonna have the perfect show, but always striving to connect, always striving to give folks a something that they can go home and be really inspired by Mosaic mind listeners, I gotta say this out loud that Sal is the only guy that we've had on here that's a perfect segue. Like I didn't even plan for you to play something and you just hit a home run with it. I mean, it was just it was almost like, you know, we we prefaced that, you know, beforehand. So I I wanna I wanna tip my cap to you because that's a that would you killed it. Natural segue, perfect song, perfect ending. with that being said, Nick's gonna talk just a little bit about maybe the upcoming show. And then any last thoughts or maybe uh you know, a number that you want to do and uh we'll we'll kind of go from there. Yeah. So yeah, so we got so September twenty-fifth, right, at the Allied, let me say it right,'cause it's like four lines. The Allied Center of Performing Arts, I think, right? Is that right? The Allied mu Allied Solutions Center for Performing Arts. Yes. Yes. And it's in the and and then there's another one too, because that's the actual room that it's in is the like Is it i the studio room, right? Or the I have all this written down and this will be on the screen on the studio. Okay. Yeah. But it's it's very nice. Very nice. They have like a night they have the nice little bar out there and um little uh I think there's a couple different couple couple different rooms near that as well. But yeah, real nice. So the twenty fifth, uh tickets I believe are thirty nine dollars if I remember correctly. and you can get the we'll have the website on here that you can get those. there there is limited seating and if you want to sit next to the person that you're coming with, you need to make sure that you get your tickets ahead of time so that way, you know, you're not all spread out. Um is but yeah, like Jason was saying, Sal, before before you we'll let you close out with a song if you'd like, but where can everybody find you? well I think the best spot f to find me is either in YouTube, which is just Salvador Liberto over on YouTube. That's where I've tons of videos you can see um and enjoy some music. And then my Facebook page is pretty active too, so look for me Salvador Liberto Musician over on Facebook. Those are probably two best options right now. And yeah, I'll play a little play a little Daniel for you to close things up. Daniel is traveling tonight on a plane. I can see the red taillights heading for space I can see Daniel waving goodbye. Looks like dangel. Must be the clouds in my eyes Daniel my brother you are older than me do you still feel the pain of the scars that won't heal your eyes of dying but you see more than I Daniel you're a star in the face of the sky Thank you, Mosaic Minds. Thank you. Pleasure seeing you guys. And I'm I'm excited to see in person.