Shaun Newman Podcast - #323 - Paul Brandt 2.0

Episode Date: October 3, 2022

He is a Canadian country music artist, has his nursing degree & is the founder of Not in My City an organization taking action to prevent & end human trafficking. This is Paul's 2nd time on the podcast and this time around we recorded from his man cave on the farm.  November 5th SNP Presents: QDM & 2's.   Get your tickets here: https://snp.ticketleap.com/snp-presents-qdm--222-minutes Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500

This is Brian Gitt. My name is Patrick Moore. This is Dr. William Macchus. This is Bruce Party. This is Tom Oolwango. This is Steve Barber, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Hey, welcome to the podcast, folks. Happy Monday.

What a weekend we just had. Man alive, that was fantastic. And I want to remind everybody that we are quickly, slowly, I don't know what we're doing. We're running out of time if you're wanting to pick up QDM and Tew's tickets that are now on sale. We've been on sale for a bit. November 5th here in Lloyd Minster at the Gold Horse Casino. You can get to see these two do some stand-up. A great meal, and then afterwards, a live podcast on stage.

So it's going to be a fun evening. And if you want to get tickets, just check out the show notes. And the link for tickets is sitting right there. We're running out of time. We're into October. Like, geez, where did the days go? Who knows? But I would love to have you all there.

I think it'll be a fun night. and well hopefully you click on the link buy some tickets and we'll get to run a new one another today we got a great one on tap for you but before we get there let's talk about some sponsors right canadians for truth that are a non-profit organization consisting of Canadians who believe in honesty integrity and principal leadership in the government as well as the Canadian Bill of Rights Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Rule of Just Laws I was on stage with them for their unveiling a couple weeks ago man like where did that go a couple weekends ago already cheese louise and they've teamed up with Jamie Slay, Joseph Borgo, Jamie Slay, Theo Flurryer.

There's three different shows that are going to be coming online, and I'll keep you up to date on exactly what they're working with. But if you want to see for yourself, go to CanadiensforTruth.ca. Or head over to their Facebook page. Everything is always up and live there as well, so you can kind of check out where they're going. Clay Smiley, a team over at Prophet River. they helped get me Terry Bryant, the Alberta Chiefs Firearms Officer.

You should go back and give that a listen. It's definitely an interesting hour and change on the world of guns and some things going on in that world. Well, if you're in that world and you're looking to import some firearms in the United States of America, I suggest Profit River. They pride themselves in making the process as easy for all their customers as humanly possible. they work across all of Canada so it doesn't matter where you're listening to this

if you're trying to get a firearm into your hand legally that is I don't know why I had to say that because there's a whole bunch of you try to do it legally anyways just go to bravertriver.com they are the major retailer of firearms, optics and accessories serving all of Canada I don't know why I get so goofy on Sunday nights

when I record these as you all know Sunday nights well you probably know usually Sunday nights is when I sit down down and rattle one of these out. And I swear, I haven't been drinking. It's just, it's, I'm excited for the week or something. I don't know. I got good interviews coming up, and I'm looking forward to hearing what you guys have to say about them. Tyson and Tracy Mitchell with Mitchco Environmental, family-owned business that has been providing professional vegetation management services for both Alberta and Saskatchewan, the oil field and industrial

sectors since 1998. They're going to be, you know, slowing right down here as we are quickly approaching. I hate the W word, but I'll say it, winter. their main season is through the summer. So all you college kids put it in the back of your brain for next summer when you're thinking about, man, I wonder what I could do for the summer to make some coin. Michko Environmental, they're always a phone call away and always looking like they grew up at the start of about May. So if you're interested in something like that, put it in the back of your brain. MitchcoCorp.ca, or give them a call 78024-4,4004 to find out if that's going to be something that can fit you.

because once again when you're in need of work they can put you to it and you can make some very, very good money. Carly Clause and the team over at Windsor Plywood Builders of the podcast studio table. I'll be suiting up again against Mr. Clause and I've been chuckling playing against him in noon hour, but he did build the first table, the only table for the podcast. It was in the first studio and now is a hallmark of the new studio and you've got to come see it. I mean, honestly, it's a piece of work. And if you are interested in stuff like that, you should go on to their Instagram, check out some of the cool projects they do when it comes to, like, lumber, wood.

Like, man, they got some just chunks of wood with some character. And whether we're talking mantles, decks, windows, doors, sheds, or a table, Windsor Plywoods, the team here, I give them a call, 780875-9663. Gartner Management is a Lloydminster-based company, specialize in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs, whether you're looking for a small office or you got something a little larger in the horizon. Give way to call, 7808, 808, 50, 25, he can get you hooked up. Now, let's get on the tail of the tape brought to you by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years.

They've been an industry leader in bulk fuels, lubricants, methanol, and chemicals delivering to your farm commercial or oil fuel locations. For more information, visit them at Hancockpatroleum.com.com.c.a. He's a Canadian country music artist who graduated in 1992 from Mount Royal. University with a degree in nursing. He's released a total of seven albums, been voted CACMA Song of the Year, male artist of the year in 1996, 98, 99, 2000, 2002. He's been awarded a total of eight Juno's, a 2005 CMA's Global Artist of the Year. He is the founder and not in my city, an organization raising awareness and taking collective action to prevent and end human trafficking and sexual exploitation. I'm talking about Paul Brand. So buckle up because here we go.

Hey, everybody, this is Paul Brandt, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to Sean Newman podcast today. I am, man, this is pretty cool. Sitting in Paul Brandt's, I assume, man cave, is that what we could call with that? It's my barn. This is a, it's actually, it was built in 1908 by New Yorkers, and they took the steam train and decided they were going to try and make a little bit more out of their, their fortunes in New York. And actually, the fellow who built our place was an architect.

He had a kennel in upstate New York, and his brother-in-law was the rich one. His brother-in-law had the patent for rail car refrigeration. So he owned the Internet back then. It was a big deal, I guess. And they thought they'd come out here and try and see if they could start a sheep operation to rival New Zealand's. And the first winter, they got their asses handed to them, and it didn't work out very well.

And they just kept trying. Probably 128 people lived in this area. And of all of the people who used to live in this area, there are only really two buildings that are left. You know, one of them is the one we're in right now, and the other one's the house. And so I don't know, there's something about this place that's special to me

because it was built, you know, using great materials and on a firm foundation. And so it stood the test of time. And that's one of the things I love so much about being here. Did you know that story walking into this place? No, no, I had to learn. You know, actually the fellow that I bought it off of, he was... Do you need to take it?

Yeah, I might really quick. No, no, take it. Hey, hon. I'm in the bar and I'm shooting, or we're doing a podcast right now. Me and Sean, he just drove in. Newman. Are you doing okay? Yeah.

Okay, my... Sorry about that. No, it's all good. It's all good. So you started, wait, I'll go back. So you didn't know the history of your house? Yeah, so my wife, Liz, and I, we were trying to figure out where we were going to settle when we moved back from Nashville. And we were living in the city at first and, you know, just kind of keeping our, you know, options open, looking around at different places.

We took a drive one day and we were coming up past this area and you just drove in. And so you can see the view and there's mountains. you know, it's a beautiful spot. But there was a for sale sign up. And so we looked at it and thought, oh, man, I don't know if we can, this is, you know, the place we can afford. We're just trying to figure it out. And I called a buddy and I said, look, you know, I know you're thinking about moving.

You want to have something that's sort of rural, but you're kind of close to the city. This might be the perfect place for you. And so he came in from, he lived in a small town, you know, just out of Calgary and took a look at it and went, you know, this is. this is actually a really cool place. Maybe we should split it. And it was like something I never had even been on my mind before, but he was interested in helping us to get into this place.

And so we partnered on it and, you know, eventually kind of figured that out as time went on. But the fellow who lived here was a goaltender for the Maple Leafs way back in the 30s. And he actually, his name was Dawn Sutherland. I was going to say, oh, here's some hockey trivia for the hockey folks. And Don, you know, he kind of chuckled. He said, I made it. a lot more money as an engineer after I left hockey than I did ever in hockey, because you didn't

have the big contracts back then or anything. But he actually sat through as the backup goaltender. He sat through a Stanley Cup game as the backup goaltender in that game. And back then in the 30s, if you were the backup goaltender, you were the backup goaltender. So if either goalie went down, you went in for that team. And because he didn't, neither goalie went down, and he didn't have to go into the game. He didn't get his name on the cup. What? Yeah, that was the way they did it back then.

But yeah, just really cool history, all kinds of different people that have lived here. There have actually been a couple of NHL players that have been here, a publisher, an explorer. And we actually hired a historian and kind of just, you know, scour all these books, trying to figure out everything about it. It's called the Buck Spring Ranch. And it was named by those original New Yorkers. And it's got a lot of cool history to it. So you're telling me, though, you're living in Calgary.

You just moved from Nashville. You're looking around the area. And you see, you know, you drive down this road and you're just like, oh, that's a nice spot. Yeah. And nothing. And then we just knew. I mean, I looked at it and I thought to myself, this is a money pit.

And I was kind of right. But my wife wanted it. And so it was like, yeah, we're going to, this is what we're going to take. So, you know, I've learned a lot about fixing things. That's for sure in a hundred year old place. And, and, well, if I may say, yeah. You know, when I roll in. I don't know what I

never know what to expect. It's probably better not to expect anything. But it feels very Paul Brandt. You know, it isn't like, I don't know, Kim Kardashian or whatever they live in. And I have no idea,

right? I have no idea. I want to say that very early on this. But I just feel like it's very down to earth. Like you drive in, you're like, hmm, all right. And in a good way.

Well, I mean, we'll take a walk later too and I'll show you around a little bit. But I think that the thing that I love the most about this and that Liz loved the most about it, is, you know, and we had options to live in a lot of different areas. And you don't notice the house and the barn.

You notice everything that's around it. You notice the beauty of nature. And it's not, you know, we didn't want to have anything that was going to be, you know, intimidating in any way. For us, it's really important. I think relationship is probably one of the most important things. And so when people come over here, the first thing that they do is look out the window and they notice the beauty of the surroundings.

And I love that part of living here for sure. When you say the most important thing is relationship, what do you mean? Relationship with... I just think in general, like I think community and relationship with people. And, you know, I think that, you know, if you walk up to a place and, you know, it's the first thing it does is make you go, oh, man, this is really impressive. That kind of, it sets a tone, you know. And I mean, I like a nice place that's... well kept, but I don't want to intimidate people. And so, you know, I find that this place right

away, it sort of just puts people at ease. And that's one of the things that's wonderful about the career that I have, too. I mean, I can be at a grocery store and, you know, grabbing some cheese. And it's like people walk up and they want to talk. And I love that. Like, there are no barriers, right? And we didn't want any barriers with the place we lived either, really. Well, I'm short story here. So for the listener, you know, I do the, I'm down at the white Western Standard and do the little round table. And the way here, I haven't eaten all morning. I've been up since 4.30 this morning.

Drove from Lloyd, not a big deal. Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is Western Canada. And I live in Lloyd Minster. We drive all the time. I felt bad for my wife, you know, as I'm rolling out of bed, you can hear a kid crying and she's dealing with that, and I've got to get on the road. Anyways, fast forward, I haven't eaten breakfast.

I've had a cup of coffee. I've done a, I just can't. I relate this to hockey. Before, as a kid and somewhere in my late teen years, I learned that I can't eat before a big performance. And I'm talking hockey playing. I'm the same way with shows. Oh, well, it transforms because now I get in front of the camera.

I can't, I don't know if it, I don't know. There's probably a whole bunch of science in it, or it could just be mental. I don't know. So here I am. I'm off at 4.30. Drive all the way to Calgary, get into the Western Standard early, talk to myself for the next two hours, the guy that's, you know, sitting there and he's going to help with the show.

I just say, you're probably going to see me say some wacky, things. Just think Anchorman, you know, Will Farrell, you know. I'm warming my mouth off. I'm getting the lines down. Anyways, you get the point. So I get out of that. It goes well. And I'm on the road here. And all of a sudden I realize, like, I haven't eaten. And, you know, it's like two o'clock. I'm like, it's probably stop and eat something.

And by this time I'm out of Calgary. And there's this Tim Horton's just down the road. And I'm like, listen, me and Tim's got a little love-hate relationship because I got nothing too bad to say about the entire organization. I can think of better coffees, but regardless, but I had a morning breakfast burrito once upon

a time, and it sent me over the rails. So I don't love getting food from there, but I thought, you know, I'll stop in, I got an extra 20 minutes. I haven't eaten anything. I'll be terrible. So I stop in, man, if it wasn't the greatest experience ever, nobody in there. It's just this busy, huge little, it's like, for the listener, it's a gas

station off the highway, and it's got a Tim Horton's on there. And a drive-thru, obviously and the drive-thru was just jarred 20 vehicles but nobody sitting inside so i go in and it's almost like they they have nobody who come in so they get me my food and there's this one lady singing to every song that goes on the radio she's got a great voice that's cool and then all of a sudden she says something and looks over and you can tell she is embarrassed because there's somebody watching her that's me and i'm like please do not stop on my account this is this is fantastic like when was last time you had dinner and a show you know you're outperforming now but for how long i haven't seen anyone

singing live. I'd go to Tim Horton's just down the road. That's great. You get a live concert. Absolutely. You know, how has the show's been? Yeah,

it's, you know, it's been really wonderful. I mean, for me, it's kind of hard to even describe it. I put out a, you know,

a social media message right after the first show in, in two years, you know, really. And it was, it was just one of these things where it's like,

you know, you realize what you've been taking for granted in a lot of ways. You, you see the gratefulness from the audience. And there's this, it's a bit of a different spirit, you know, just something, you know, that was, I don't know, like a little bit, there was, there was more of an air of gratefulness than I think I felt in, you know, a long, long time. Because people are like, man, finally we're out here doing this.

And so there's this sense of relief, a sense of, you know, people just, you know, overdue, you know. And actually, in some of the shows, I saw probably more of an emotional response. Like literally, people crying during so. songs and that kind of stuff than you normally would or that we would have, you know, prior to the pandemic. And I think a part of that is we just have so much stuff pent up with what's been happening in society that people need this. Music is very healing and it's a, it's a real release. And I noticed that over these shows that we've been doing over the summer too, right across the country. So that's, that's been wonderful. It's been a great thing to be a part

of. When it comes to concerts, I've heard that, I've obviously been to concerts, but from the man on the stage's perspective, that it's spiritual-like, the interaction you have with that group of people, you on the stage, songs, interaction. Is that your experience? Just as like a group of, you know, like... That's a great question. Yeah, I think that there's a real spiritual connection to music on a number of different levels. You know, I think that people in general, like we tend to respond to, you know, it's almost like we want to put something on a pedestal. You know, we have things that we love, and that becomes the thing we think about all the time. You know, when you walk into the barn, you see my motorcycle, and it's like, you know, it's right there. and it's like, okay, that's a passion of mine. It's something I really enjoy.

Well, if it gets out of balance, it becomes the main thing in your life. And I think that people are always looking for something to sort of fill that void. And I think that music is one of those things. And also, if you strip it back to the songwriting side of things, I think, and one of the templates that I have in my head is that music tends to also elevate something. Every song has an object that it's elevated. whether it's the girl or a moment or a memory, love, whatever it is, it's elevating something. And so, you know, I've done a lot of reading on that and thinking about it over the years.

And one of the first times that music has even mentioned historically is a mention in the Bible. And it was a mention that talks about a guy named Jubal. And, you know, I imagine that that name and Jubilation have something to do with each other. but it talks about how music was created to worship. And it's really interesting to me. Like when I walk out on stage, it doesn't really matter what I'm playing. I mean, you play the first three notes, a convoy. Like, is it a breaker one nine?

Here's a rubber duck. You got a copy on me, pig pen, come on. And I look out in the audience, and you see what probably musicians have been seeing since the beginning of music. You see people raise their hands. And it's the same thing that I remember seeing when I was a kid growing up, going to church. You know, I've seen a number of different documentaries. There's a popular one out right now, a popular movie out right now about Elvis.

And a lot of those, you know, background moments in those movies about Elvis take him back to those early days in church and people raising their hands and dancing and everything. And so, yeah, there is this spiritual connection that happens. And then, like, you take it one step further. I think that there's almost a deity moment that happens when you're on stage because, you know, you imagine, Like you walk out on stage, the smoke billows out, your voice is amplified, the lights flash, the artist appears whenever they want to, wherever they want to. And it sort of creates this moment for people to look up to something.

And so, yeah, I mean, I think that there's a ton of connections to spirituality when it comes to music, for sure. That's actually when you paint that picture, it's pretty powerful stuff. Yeah, it is. And, you know, I think that, you know, for me, you know, with my, my beliefs, you know, you look back, you know, I think, you know, what our civilization was built on Western civilization and, you know, British common law and taking that back to the roots of the Ten Commandments. And, you know, one of those commandments is to, you know,

you don't make any other false gods, right? And so as a kid that was raised, you know, in a Bible-believing church, I thought about that pretty seriously when I got up on stage and started doing that I was like, man, am I doing something wrong here by doing this? Like, I literally wondered about that. And when did you answer yourself? Well, you know, there's another moment

in the Bible in the Old Testament where Moses is talking to God in the tent. And God says to Moses, and I'm paraphrasing, but basically he says, I'm going to make you as though you are a God so that the people will look up to you and follow you. And so in that moment, I realized, well, wait a minute, you know, maybe this is an opportunity for me to, you know,

shine a light on certain things by attracting people's attention. And as long as I'm not, you know, making myself the center of the focus all the time, or I knock myself off that pedestal every once in a while, maybe this can be a good thing. And that's sort of how I've, you know, I don't know if I'm thinking about it the right way or not, but that's sort of how I've kind of thought about this issue. And, and I love it. So I think maybe in some ways that's part of what made me feel like doing what I do as a responsibility. You know, it's, it's, you're a role model and literally a role model and you're, you're using this platform to do something that hopefully is going to be helpful to people in some way. Yeah, the, um,

responsibility of, of, uh, of the position you hold or, or the, you know, the guy holding the mic on this end. I fully understand that. Um, one of the things I admire about you is you, uh, you've talked openly about some serious issues. You know, last, if people are listening and they haven't realized by now, Paul's been on the show once before. And we talked about not in my city, which is, you know, it's a hard subject to talk about. It just is. And yet, um, if you don't talk about it, it still gets to persist and that is what's worse, right? Right.

Being uncomfortable talking about something or actually shining a light on a serious matter and trying to remedy it. and make sure it doesn't happen. Totally. Yeah. I mean, human trafficking is a, a brutal topic. And I think modern day slavery and what we see in the issue of human trafficking today, it's not exactly like, you know, the kind of thing you want to bring up at a party, you know, like it's, it's, you're not going to be the most popular guy, you know. But like you said, I mean, I think it's important stuff to at least touch upon.

And I think one of the things that makes any topic, you know, difficult for people to manage, that's a big topic like this is it just seems too big to do anything about. And so I think that you do have to try, if you're going to talk about this kind of thing, to offer some kind of hope. And, you know, I was at a conference, a couple conferences in this last week. I spoke, the Calgary Police Service put on an international conference on cybercrime,

and I had an opportunity to speak there about some of the work we're doing with Nott of my city and some of the statistics of what specifically is happening online with exploitation and trafficking. and then I had a chance to go to another conference that just brought together people from all over the country that were working in the sector of fighting human trafficking. And there were two survivors of trafficking there. And one, I've met a number of times before Carly Church.

And she's just incredibly inspirational. We talked a bit about her last time. I reached out to her. Yeah, she's awesome. And Carly was there. And, you know, I always try and, like, remind people that there are people like Carly out there who've been through the most difficult moments that you can imagine because of the crime of human trafficking, but now they've moved on and they're doing something that's actually changing it.

And we can do things that are going to make, you know, make this crime harder for people to commit and hopefully be able to prevent people from actually being impacted by it in the first place. Well, here's a, I don't know if. if you have the answer to this. But how do you get good people to talk about difficult issues? I mean, there's plenty right now. We can go any which way you want. There are difficult subject matters where even if the person from their perspective

believes they're right, they're probably another person's perspective where they believe they're right. And you get, you know, confrontation or worse, they just don't talk to each other. They separate themselves from each other. and they're just like, no, you got, how do you get people to talk about a complex issue that is not easily resolved together? Because one of the thoughts I have in my head is if you take the good people from one spot and talk to the good people from the other spot, they probably will not agree on everything. But by doing that and starting to facilitate that, you start to open the

door of communication. I don't understand a lot. One of the things I do understand is if you don't communicate, like that's the end of that's going to disaster. Sure. So if you can facilitate getting good people to talk, it's going to open up ideas and understanding and all these lovely things that everyone can benefit from. Yeah, I mean, I think that if you lose the civility, then just anarchy ensues. And I think that, you know, a couple thoughts come to my mind. There's a great quote, and I, you know, I think it may have been misattributed or it's, the story was a little bit different, but the way that I heard the story was that the London Times put out an opportunity for writers to write and explain their answer to the question,

what is wrong with the world. And a number of different writers wrote in, they wrote long, huge, you know, essays about what is wrong with the world. And, you know, I mean, this has been a part of history since time began. I mean, people sit around and talk about stuff, you know, and philosophy and ideology. And there is one author that was quite famous then at that time and still today, G.K. Chesterton. And he wrote a nine-word response to the question, what is wrong with the world. And, you know, the editors were excited to get Chesterton's, you know, know, submission, and they open it up, expecting it to be this, you know, monumental, you know,

thing that there was going to take some time to read through, and it was nine words, and it said to the answer, or the answer to what is wrong with the world, just said, dear sirs, I am, sincerely, G.K. Chesterton. And I think that civility begins with humility. I think it begins with the idea that maybe I don't have the answer. Maybe, you know, as much as I believe in what I believe, I have to be open enough to listen to what other people are saying and come into it with enough humility that I actually am listening instead of just throwing it, you know, in front of people. And I think that that's, you know, we talked a little bit about relationship, you know, and how important that is. I think there's a gentleness and a respect that we're missing today.

And one of the things that I've done over the years, like 25 years in the music business, you know, I try to go to places where people want to listen. And, you know, I remember when we did the Small Towns and Big Dreams tour, I was coming off of selling a million records with Warner Brothers, trying to figure out what the next step was in my career, wasn't sure if I was ever going to be able to get up on a big stage again, if my career was even over. And I thought, I'm going to go to places where people don't go.

I'm going to go play Weyburn and Yorkton and Morden and, you know, Flynn-flon. And like barely anybody goes to places like that to play. Surely they're going to be interested in hearing what I have to say. And it was a cool lesson. You know, you just, you show up and go to places where you know that people are going to be civil. And I think that that's part of it. You know, you don't want to discount people. And I think when when discourse breaks down and it's obvious that ideologies aren't jiving with each other,

that can be a really difficult thing. And we're seeing more and more of that today. And a lot of times I choose not to debate. I'd rather just go and let my actions speak the loudest. And sometimes that means serving people who disagree with me, looking for ways that maybe we can create a relationship again. And a part of that is just building trust. You know, you build that relational currency with someone who maybe disagrees with you

and they might give you a chance next time. So I don't know. There are tough times right now for sure. Yeah, the reason I bring it up is I just see it as such a glaring, problem. I don't have the answer to it. If I had the answer, you know, probably be, I don't know, millionaire, bestselling author

or something, you know, I mean, maybe not. I don't know. I just look at it and I go, you know, I'm a glass high, a full guy. Yeah. Right? Everywhere I go, I meet wonderful people. You include it. Your name is more known than some,

but at the end of the day, anywhere I go, I just keep running into good people. And yet, all I hear about is, you know, the divisiveness. And certainly that is not wrong. There is divisiveness. Not going to go act like that isn't there. I just look at it and I go, we've stopped talking to one another.

How do we solve that? How do we remedy that? This is certainly an opportunity to try and remedy it. But then I get down my own rabbit hole and, you know, pretty soon you're not talking to said person or said group of people or, you know, you can balloon that wherever you want to go. And I just, I look at it and I go, so how do you get back to solving one of the main issues we have right now, which is growing, whether you're talking any issue? You know, when I first started, it was all about community and community and small town stories that weren't being told in my area because, you know, we're kind of in this world.

When you talk about, you know, all these little small towns, it's like, well, it's because over time, at least I think, over time, the stories are no longer told. Everybody goes to the big centers. You know, you want to play a show. You go to Roger, if you're a big name, you go to Rogers. And I mean, is there anything wrong with that? No, no. I mean, and so that's where it's gone.

So all these, you know, when you talk about the small town tour, you're like, what's cool about that is that's kind of how I got my start is by explaining some stories of really fascinating people that didn't have to come from Calgary or Vancouver or the other side of the world. It was like right in your backyard. Here's some wonderful people. And we built this, I don't know, it was like really cool. And then what happened? COVID.

And now, you know, speaking for myself, Paul, people who used to love what I do, who absolutely hate me. And there's people who used to hate me that love me now. And I'm like, I don't need either. I'm still the same guy. I'm just coming home. I'm asking questions. I see a problem.

Do I fuel it sometimes? Sure. I'm human. I think we all could jump on that grenade a little bit. Do we feel it? Yeah, I don't think anyone's perfect. But how do you fix it? I don't know.

Music, Daryl Sutter said, there's three things that bring people together. Religion? I think he said church. Church? Music, sports. And he was talking about the Battle of Alberta. And I was like, man, leave it to Daryl Sutter to be so poetic. Yeah, yeah.

You know? And what you do is bringing people together. You know, a year ago, and I'll get off my little tirade here. No, that's good. A year ago, we'd come out of the first stint of, of nobody around each other, that type of thing. And we broke the rules a little bit. It was a bike for breakfast at the time.

And we were raised money for breakfast programs in the city of Lloyd and surrounding area. And we had an outdoor, open mic night where people got to come on. I hadn't heard live music and, like, it had been a year. Anyways, why I mean we broke rules is we're out on the street all distancing, like, you know, whatever. It doesn't matter. We're so far past that now. But at the time, it was over the numbers or whatever. But here was this group of no-name artists, and I don't mean that as a doubt.

They were just open. And they got up and they belted their hearts out. And some of it was just good for the soul. Was the thing that was the recurring thing going around? And I hear that. And I like, okay, so Darrell Sutter ain't wrong, right? As much as people hate the Oilers and hate the flames, them two playing, the best thing it could happen was a game seven, and it didn't go there.

But it brought the community together. Music, when people sing and are in that moment, brings people together. And then I can bring it back to church. And, you know, three of the things that really got attacked, whether it was downright blatant or the consequences, or the three that Daryl Sutter talked about, I'm like, are those the three ways you start to pull community back? That's interesting. Yeah, I think what I look at is, like, what are the things that, like, when you look at sports and church and music, what is it about those things that draws people? That's the next step that I would go to. It's a story, you know, I think in a lot of ways. And I've always seen that people respond to story. You know, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, there's, as a writer, I've always been really fascinated with words from the time I was probably six years old.

I was a total word nerd and read the the thesaurus and wrote poetry. You did not read the the thesaurus. I did. I was like so into it. And I started writing poetry at a very early age. And then, you know, as I learned more about writing and I was really passionate about just language and story arcs and the way that that works. And I came across this one resource that talked about mega themes and how there are certain stories that just stand the test of time. And, you know, when you look at like some of the biggest blockbuster movies like, you know, Star Wars or Titanic or whatever, right?

What is it? Like tear it apart to its essential and it's, you know, Star Wars is the epic battle between good and evil in unseen realms. you know, Titanic is sacrificial love in the boy giving up his life for the girl at that movie. And there's something about those stories that resonate with almost everybody. Well, I mean, they become worldwide sensations for a reason. And that suggests to me that maybe there is a grand story that resonates through all of us. You know, we even see that with church. and the story of, you know, a savior that would lay down his life for his friends.

You know, we see that in sports, in the epic battle that's going on, and there's something about it that draws us to going to see that, you know. Plus, you know, you want to sit and have a beer and a hot dog or whatever, right? I mean, and do that together as a community. And so I think that when you look at those three things, there are actually similarities there that just draw humans. and make humans want to go and do that. And I think for me, in my travels around the world,

opportunities that we've had, not so much the shows, but like I think about one experience that I had in Malawi in southeastern Africa. And it was, that was the first time that I'd ever been to a developing country. We went there with an organization called World Vision. And, you know, they called us and said, hey, you know, we know that you used to be a registered nurse. We know that you have a platform with music and thought maybe you'd like to come see some of the projects that we're doing.

And I've never seen so much need and just pain in my entire life. It was horrible. My wife, Liz, and I were both there. We saw children six and eight years old that were eating dirt to fill their stomachs. They had AIDS sores on their heads, and they were caring for infants because their parents had died. And they're just wandering across the desert, you know. We were in a clinic that didn't have running water, didn't have windows, it was dirt floors, just filth everywhere, eight beds, and people were lined up for miles to get into this clinic because it was the only thing that represented hope. And they were literally boiling an IV tubing behind the building to use between patients because they had no resources. They had nothing. And, um,

I remember going to one area where people were living in these drought conditions in these little shanties, tiny little shelters made of sticks with like maybe some material or plastic that they found pulled over the top. And it was just hopeless. Like it was so brutal. And I saw one guy. He looked like a skeleton. He's just sitting there kind of that blank expression in his eyes. It was just silent.

and then I heard singing all of a sudden and I looked up just up the hill a little ways and it was the same scene there was another guy standing there who looked like a skeleton he was going to drop dead any minute probably but he was singing and so I went over to him and there was a translator there and I said

like how can you be singing like right now and he looked at me he was so emaciated that like his teeth were kind of protruding like he just was in really rough shape but he's singing and he said, well, we always sing in our culture. That's how we greet people who are new.

And I said, yeah, but look at what's going on around us right now. How can you sing? And he said, oh, he says, and this is amazing to me. Like, I'm in the middle of Africa. I had no idea who this guy was. But he says, oh, he says, I know God. He says, I know Jesus. He said, I know that this world isn't what it's all about.

He says, I'm only passing through. I'm only going to be here for a little bit. He says, so I sing because I have joy in my heart. And I'll never forget that because there's this sort of this transcendence that was there for him where it wasn't about what he was going through. But all of those people that we met on that trip, all that they wanted was, you know, water and food and a shelter and something better for their kids. And you can take that anywhere. You know, I mean, it doesn't matter where you live.

That's kind of what people want. You know, we want a great story. We want something that's going to overcome. We want to have a better life for our families. And so for me, it's always about looking for those common denominators and figuring out what makes someone tick and whether or not we can find that common ground. And I love that about, you know, community and getting to know people for sure. That's a pretty powerful story, you know. Some days, you know, you could argue world leaders are trying to fix that problem.

Other days, I certainly don't think they're doing anything about it, you know. I'm forgetting her name right now. Oh my goodness. North Korea, though. She escaped it. And once again, I just... Oh, yeah, I heard that. I heard that story.

Oh, my God. Sorry, listener, because I can hear you yelling at the radio because that's what you do. And I'm glad to provide that for you. But she escaped North Korea. And my wife and I on her anniversary last summer listening to it. And I don't mean to say that that was the first time she'd ever talk. That's the first time I'd ever heard. And I'm listening to it, hearing all these horrendous things about what North Koreans go through living conditions, everything else.

Was this the gymnast? Now you're going to make me look it up. I tell you what. There was one gymnast, Kim Wu-Ju. Wasn't Kim Wuzhou? Okay. Bear with me, listen. We got the Google out.

Look out. Get the Google machine. Yomni Park. Okay. You know, me and Park went through sex trade, a whole list of things. And I listened to it and I'm looking at my wife and I'm going like, okay, don't get me wrong. COVID aside, we can just store that there for the time being. But I'm like, we are arguing about such, like, what she's talking about, we should be going to war over, like tomorrow.

Like nobody should ever have to go through that. and I hear your story and I'm like I know at some point philanthropical people such as yourself have you know you talk about world vision and you know I don't know why 100 Huntley street pops in my brain but mom used to watch it still probably does

shout out to mom I'm sure she's listening to this there's all these organizations that try and fix this and I know if I you listen to Jordan Peterson or something he'll talk about how starvation on if you follow the statistics is getting less and less and less. So it's becoming better and better and better living conditions on the planet. But somewhere human ego gets in the way of all this and we are where we are, you know, we're arguing, well, I mean, our own government is, you know, I'm pretty hard on the liberals

and Trudeau and many different facets of it. I'm following the Alberta election that's, you know, closing in with open eyes to see what comes of it. But I hear your story. I think it's like very powerful to people, for people to hear, not only myself, because I go, like, what does he know that we all don't know? And I think you shared some of that. You know, it's interesting because I think that, you know, after getting involved in more of the, I guess in some ways philanthropic world through the work that we've done with,

not in my city. But then having the opportunity to travel with different organizations around the world, that are doing, you know, really wonderful things to try and help people. One of the first things that anyone in humanitarian work asks is, you know, what's the agent for change? What is the thing that's going to make this problem better? There's one story I love that it was in an area in Ethiopia. We had visited Ethiopia and someone was telling us the story about how they had gone to a remote village where they had water that was not fit for consumption and there are all kinds of crazy diseases that you can get from drinking

bad water bad water and over there especially like there's stuff like guinea worm and and like it's just it's crazy all kinds of things river blindness and and so they were like well they need clean water we're going to dig a well right in the middle of this town i mean the women in that in that village they were walking 14 miles a day to get water that was killing them but it was the only option so they would like walk to the river and walk back from the river. I met a girl in one of the villages that we were in there who was only nine years old, and she was carrying this huge, you know, jug to go down to the river and get water. And it was almost bigger than she was.

I like, like, is this normally your job? Is this what you do? You know, you're the water gatherer? And she's like, well, actually, it used to be my older sister, but an alligator got her last week. And she said it so matter-of-factly. It's like death was just a part of their everyday existence there, right? And so in this village, the women would walk 14 miles to get water, so they thought we're going to build a well right in the middle of the village and everything will be fixed.

And about a month later, they came back to check on the project and the well was broken. And so they fixed it and showed the people what they had done to fix it. And then a couple weeks later, they get word, the well's broken again. And this just kept happening over and over again. So they left a representative from the organization in the very, village to see what was happening. And he hears a ruckus in the middle of the night. And he goes out on all of the women in the village had gathered around the well. And they were, they were dismantling it. They were actually sabotaging the well. They said, like, what are you doing?

Like, this is bringing you life. This is helping you to, like, your kids are healthy again. Like, why are you doing this? And this one woman walks up sort of meekly and says, well, sir, you see, the trip to the river every single day for 14 miles, that was our only chance to get away from our husbands. So, and so like he realized, wait a minute, you know, if we would have just built a well a little bit farther out of town, they still would have had all of the things they needed, that escape from home a little bit, all that kind of, so that's what they ended up doing. But you have to ask what's the agent for change. You know, you hear the phrase, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for the rest of his life.

What are the things that are actually going to change it? And what is causing the problem, you know, is the problem being caused by? lack of education? Is it being caused by poor decisions by people? Is it being caused by evil? Is the world that we're living in just broken? Or are we able to fix it and make it perfect? All of these things are things that different organizations start to ask themselves when they go in to solve a problem. You mentioned evil. You believe evil exists? I do. Absolutely. I don't think you can look at this world and, you know, I don't think that, I don't think, you know, I guess for my own personal experience, when you look at even a crime like human trafficking

and how deliberate it is, how pre-planned it is, how when you talk to traffickers, there's sort of this amazing lack of empathy and almost a pride in tearing a person down. I don't have any other explanation for that except for evil. And so, yeah, I definitely would say that it does exist. As I get older, I think it's naive to believe there isn't evil in the world. If you believe they're good, they're most assuredly is the opposite. And unchecked, that can be pretty, we've seen what human beings are capable of. You hear the stories and you're like, oh, wow.

right? Yeah, I mean, even as a parent, like, I look at my kids and, you know, I love them to death, obviously. And, but like, I, you know, when they were tiny before they could even talk, I didn't have to teach Joe to try and sneak a cookie out of a cookie jar. I didn't, I didn't have to teach him to, like, you know, look both ways and see if he was going to get away with hitting somebody. Like, there's something about us that wants to do things that are wrong, you know, and I know that. And I know that from me. I can't let your kids fall on. the, you know, one of the lovely things about a podcast as I go along is eventually if my kids

want to go back through everything, they most certainly can. Sure. So this happened a week and a half ago. Got my son a switch. This is, you know, a while back, you know, very, I think, family friendly, you know, Mario Kart, that type of thing. Anyways, he had his, his, my nephew over, his cousin. And they played it all morning on a Saturday.

So I said to him, okay, boys, no more, go and enjoy the day, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yep, sure, Dad, not a big deal. Get off those screens. So away they go and they're playing. And, you know, an hour passes and they're back in the basement, not a big deal. They're building a fort. Oh, geez, that's a great idea. So they built a fort.

And then my niece, who's younger than them, so Shane Mason, if you ever listen to this year, you were six years old. And they got their, you know, little cousin, a little sister in the room with them. And my wife and I are thinking, oh, great. Like, they're playing with her. They got a fort. Oh, they're having a grand old time. And then I'm sitting there and I'm like, well, where is the switch? And then we're both like, I don't know.

And we walk in there and they've built a fort so they can hide themselves playing the switch. Yeah, dad's never going to know. You know, and you look at that and you're like, on one hand, I'm like upset because you're lying to me and you're, you're, you know, going against what you've said. On the other hand, I'm like, give you points for credit. I mean, like. It looks pretty good ingenuity there. Ingenuity. If we build a fort, and I wonder if they realized if they say, oh, I was just going to build a fort, if mom and dad are like, oh, great idea.

So you guys have fun. Yeah. And away we go. Because, man, young kids, you know, you talk about the cookie jar and certainly things like that happen in the Newman household. But their ability to soak things in and then their ability to understand how things work at a young age is impressive. Yeah.

Well, and I think that there's also a propensity for good, you know, like, I mean, you know, and, and so, like, you look at that. Like, I think that's one of the things that's really facing us as a society today is, you know, you just think about the issue, the concept of virtue, and what classically has been seen as good and as not good. You know, ideas like humility and hard work and self-sacrifice. And those have always, you know, been upheld throughout, you know, generations as things to look up to.

And those ideas are being challenged today. You know, the ideas that we have always, thought of as being the good thing, the question being asked now is, well, is that really true? Is it really good? And, you know, I think that those same questions have been asked in one way or another since time began. I mean, if you take it back to even biblical accounts, you know, you look at, you know, the story of Adam and Eve and the serpent talking to Eve, you know, there's rules and he says to Eve, well, did God really say that? He's only saying that because he doesn't want you to be like him, right?

You'll be just like a God if you do this. And so, like, you look back at it and there's always been a questioning, you know, throughout literature of what is truth. And I think that, you know, we're going through that same cycle again right now in a way like, you know, that's in some ways unique in a way that we've never seen. I think social media fuels a lot of that, the ability for people to get their opinions out really quickly. and yeah, I think that we're going through that in society right now in a huge way.

You know, are the things that we always thought classically were good, are they really good? That question's being asked all the time right now. What's one thing you're paying attention to right now? I mean, obviously, you're back on the road. Yeah. You're getting to sing again. Yeah. But if there's something that Paul's paying attention to.

Yeah, I mean, it's funny. Is it the Calgary Flames? Yeah, I mean, I don't know what's going on there. Holy Dina. I mean, it's like, I don't know what kind of team we're going to be looking at. It's exciting, but it's going to be a whole new team. I went from being like the Oilers are going to stomp on you, my college room. Right, right, right.

He's a Calgary Flames guy. Yeah. To all of a sudden, they make like a few trades and all of a sudden, wait a minute. What the heck is going on here? It's going to be interesting to see. But I'm a diehard flames fan. And, you know, honestly, I've, I've got this memory, you know, and it, it, it's, was the Stanley Cup win and Lanny McDonald and that epic, you know, just classic iconic picture

of him and the big smile in his face with the mustache. And I'll never forget that as a kid, you know, getting to see that. And then, you know, years later, because of the career that I ended up in, getting to meet Lanny and actually hang out with him. I mean, he's just a wonderful guy. So it doesn't matter if they're winning or losing. I've got a flaming C on my chest. I mean, that's just the way it is. I won't hold that against you. No, it is what it is, right? But I love, I love hockey. Like I just, I love the game itself too. And, and, yeah, I think that in our family, you know, probably a lot of families across the country, we've been thinking a lot about politics. You know, I, I tend to be the kind of person who doesn't like to get, you know,

too vocal about political things. I, you know, I like to sing for people who are on both sides of the spectrum when it comes to politics. You know, I've played on Parliament Hill under Jean Crechin's prime ministership, and I've, you know, gone and, you know, spent time at the throne speech with the Harpers. And I love that, that I've had the opportunity to spend time with world leaders and leaders of our country, and that they all find something about who I am and my music that to them says that's what being Canadian is about. And so that's something that's really important to me. You know, for as much as what's going on in politics right now and all the different shifting that we see happening, I'm just very interested in seeing what candidates are saying

from an ideological standpoint and how that resonates with the roots of Canada. I've never really been a real visionary, like dreamer type person. I like to think, you know, think up new stories and, you know, and all those kinds of things. But I've never been the kind of person that has really lived on the things that I dream about at night. But I remember probably six or seven years ago just having this dream that I couldn't get out of my head. And it was of a pine tree. If you ever been down the Bow River, it's about a half hour from where we live here, or a half mile from where we live here, just down the hill. You'll see on certain riverbanks as those floods come through, it can undercut the riverbank. And if there's a tree on the edge, you'll actually see the

roots of the tree kind of start to get washed away. And the tree might still be standing, but it's not going to be there for long. And I had a dream about that one time. I spent a lot of time down at the river. I love to fly fish. And so I've probably seen this a few times and just hadn't really thought about it. But I just, I watched as in that dream as the river just kept undercutting the bank and it kept going underneath this tree to the point that the tree just fell into the river and got washed away. And to me, that was always this image of, you know, and a warning that we better pay attention to our roots. You know, we better pay attention to where we came from to what we were built on. And Canada, as much as it's a very open and accepting nation

when it comes to, you know, being not a melting pot, but a mosaic. It also was built on some very obvious Judeo-Christian roots. And we talked a little bit earlier about British common law and what that was built on originally. And that sort of, you know, classical liberalism, you know, where things like logic actually are not violence. They're just logic because they show what's how. happening in the real natural world.

And I think that there are politicians in this country who've forgotten that. And would like to try and find ways to erase the system and replace it with something else. And whenever I hear people talking about the need to change the system, I'm asking now, well, do you mean improve it or do you mean get rid of it and put something else in its place? because Canada is an amazing place and there's always room for improvement in any system but if what we're talking about is completely removing the system

and replacing it with something new, I think that's a huge mistake. I mean, and that's just the way I live my life. I'm living in a barn that's over 100 years old right now. You take things that were well built and you improve on them. You don't just burn them to the ground and start from scratch. And so, yeah, we're paying a lot of attention to politics these days and, you know, I think that just like anybody else,

we're checking out social media, interested in what people are thinking and saying, and at the same time, try not to just let life pass us by while we're staring at a screen either, you know, and still get involved in our community and get involved in, you know, building relationship. Yeah, the social media, I've turned off all notifications, like everything. And actually...

It's probably a good idea. And actually, I... I'd be a turn off, you know, cellular so it wouldn't work unless you're on Wi-Fi, right? And still on cellular, I'd be getting a notification from Twitter or something saying, oh, this person tweeted or you got to know. And I'm like, how's this, like what is going on with my phone? And then you dig into notifications. And if you turn those suckers all off, it doesn't matter if you're on Wi-Fi or cellul anything.

Yeah. It doesn't show any red, like you've, oh, you've got this message missing. Right, right. And so for me, that's framed because if I do open my phone, I don't all of a sudden see all these reds that you got to go, you know, you know, how addicting that is. Yeah. It's like, I don't know, maybe somebody's, you know, kids, to me, this, what we're doing here is more important than anything I can do on social media. I don't mean in the sense that social media won't spread it faster because, I mean, you hit on something. We just, you know, I was just literally today doing a round table on Trudeau must go, right? which was a picture of a man telling his story and saying Trudeau thinks I'm an extremist, right?

Right. And what did that do? That set off a firecracker and away it went. And two million tweets later and, you know, it'll cross. Anyways, you get the point. But to me, this is the most important. Like, you know, being where your feet are. I think Ray Ferraro was the guy who said that on the podcast, you know.

Don't forget, be where your feet are. Yeah. Enjoy the moment. Be present. I mean, stand up for what you believe. Absolutely. Yeah. But at times, you've got to.

look around and enjoy, you know, one of the things that scares me the most. And this is, I live my life under the presumption, or not the presumption, the idea that the most important thing in my life is my family. And I might even take that one step a little closer that I have to take care of myself first, because if I don't, sure, then you can't take care of them. That's right. And by doing those two steps, then I get to help my community, essentially. And that's the building block of humanity, I think, I think. One of the scary things I see right now, and I've seen, you know, I think all of us has seen a lot over the last two years, but I hear about a ton of divorce because married

couples couldn't weather the storm. And I don't know what that is. That could be, you know, vaccinated, not vaccinated, right? And there, oh, that could be vaccinate the kids, not vaccinate the kids, I don't know. But I hear that and I go, the problems that come from not taking care of yourself and your loved ones. I don't know where that goes. But that's a, that terrifies me a lot because my kids are going to inherit those problems, obviously, and all I can do is look after them and instill them my values and believe me, I once again will say this, I am by far not perfect. I've just ran into

a couple brick walls along my way where I go, ooh, better watch out for that one and re-establish, you know, taking care of myself, taking, never stop communicating with your wife. Um, and hopefully that grows and hopefully society can, because I, I don't know, I'm rambling a little bit, all, but you get the idea. Yeah. Yeah, it's, you know, it's, again, like, I mean, it all kind of comes back to the agent for change. What's the thing that you think that you can base your, well, what's the agent for change then,

Paul? Right. Because that's a lovely, that's a lovely, that's a lovely, if you can get to the root of the problem. Sure. What do you think, like, what do you, what do you, what is the thing that you can, you think you can count on. Like I, you know, I did this talk. I had, uh, I love it now. Like, it's almost become a meme, you know, welcome to my TED talk. But I did have a chance to do a

TED talk. Yes, you did. And, um, one of the things that I talked about in that was, um, you know, making sure that the thing that you're, you're building your life on, that you're basing your life on is something that you really feel like you can trust. Um, like, are you going to trust science? Are you going to trust the science? So, you know, with the quotation marks around it, right? Um, are you going to trust, you know, a self-effort? Are you going to trust money? Are you going to trust God? What is the thing that you're going to build it on?

And, you know, I remember early in my career, you know, I was probably, oh man, it was probably 24, 25 years old, had just been married. And, you know, life's coming at you fast. I mean, you're even talking about it. You know, you're doing all these podcasts right now and things are moving really, really quickly. And you don't really have time to just sit back and go, okay, well, what am I going to do here? Like, you're almost reacting by instinct when life really starts moving fast. And I remember I went and talked to the pastor that actually introduced me and my wife. He set us up by asking us

both to sing at the church that we go to. He didn't know I was interested, but I was smitten. I knew who she was the one. And he asked us both to sing Christmas Eve 1995, and that was how we met. But I went back to talk to him, and I said, you know, I think I'm doing pretty good. He asked me how I was doing. I said, you know, I think I've got everything,

you know, all my priorities straight. You know, like you were talking about it too. Like, you know, first, like for me, you know, first I'm, you know, it's focused on God, and then it's my wife, and then it's my family, and then it's my job. And I've got all these priorities.

And he looked at me and showed me, his head, he said, man, you are so screwed up. And I'm like, what? And so it was really, it was, this was really an interesting thing. And I'm not necessarily, you know, I think that free will is such an important concept. You know, we've talked a lot over these last two years about things like freedom, like bodily autonomy, like the right to choose. You know, all of that stuff is, I think, really central and really important in society. So I'm just, talking about my own experience and I'm talking about, you know, what I've decided. And he said to me, he said, well, really the way that you do it, the way that you prioritize it is it's God first and then

it's God second and then it's God third and then it's God fourth. You put him first in everything that you do. And then your priorities start to just align the way that they're supposed to instead of you trying to juggle them all the time. And I heard another exercise. It was actually in this book called Half Time. It's an older book by a guy named Bob Buford. I wrote it down from our last conversation. Yeah, we talked a little bit about it. Actually, no, that's a lie.

I downloaded it on Audible. I started listening to. So, you know, similar situation that he went through in that book where he had to pick the one thing. Because if you don't, like if you don't pick one thing that you're about in life, you're always going to be kind of running in a bunch of different directions trying to make everything line up. And I think that that's been a really good exercise for me.

in my life, you know, as someone who from the time I was about six years old was first introduced to the, kind of that, that classic idea that, I guess some people think about when they think about the concept of Christianity. That was introduced to me at the age of six years old. And it wasn't, it wasn't about, like what was interesting about it to me as I got older and started to understand the faith more. It wasn't about what I could do to please God. It wasn't about, like, checking off a bunch of boxes and going, okay, if I just, you know, help little old ladies across the street and I give some money and, you know, give back and, you know, try and make a difference and all that kind of stuff, then God's going to wink and

go, yeah, you're good enough and you're going to make it. That's not what we were taught when I was young. What we were taught was we can never be good enough. We need someone who can stand on our behalf. and so it becomes more about what God did for us rather than what we do for him. And that was what I based my life on and have continued to base my life on. And it's the same for my wife, which is really cool for us because even when we hate each other, and trust me, this is 25 years married now, even when we want to strangle each other,

we still have that in common. And it's the thing that pulls us back together. It's that, you know, we're pursuing our faith and trying to live our lives in that way. So, yeah, I mean, that's really been a guiding principle for me. You know, one of the things I remember in that early church that we went to, it was very legalistic, and I think that there was a lot of wrong emphasis put on a lot of different things. And I remember they would go down to Speaker's Corner on 8th Avenue in Calgary, and they would preach to the people who were addicted to drugs and alcohol,

these health fire and brimstone messages. And even at six, seven years old, I used to think to myself, man, like, wouldn't it make more sense just to buy them a sandwich? Like, I mean, couldn't we just, like, you know, develop a relationship with these people? And then maybe at some point, we might have the privilege of being able to share our ideas with them. But first, you've got to meet them where they are. and I you know so I think for me as a person who's in the public all the time

I mean it's it's an honor you know and you know to be asked some of these questions and be able to talk about it but I tend not to be the kind of person who wants to go in and ram ideas down people's throat I've seen people do that before and it usually doesn't end well I heard someone say that if you can argue someone into heaven you can argue them out of heaven too and and or they can argue their way out and it's never going to be based on argument it's going to be based on relationship. And then it's going to be based on people looking at your life and figuring out whether

or not you're the real deal or not, you know, whether when you screw up because you will, you admit it and say I was wrong. And they see the evidence of the way that you're living in your life. So, yeah, it's been really interesting being in the public eye and living as a person of faith in the public eye and trying to find ways where I can just develop relationships with people so that I might have the opportunity and like I said the privilege of sharing the things that I believe so that people can make their own decisions. You know, I think that at the end of every interaction, one of the things I try to ask myself is, did I create an opportunity for a person

to ask themselves what they believe? Because ultimately it's a personal decision, you know. Do you think people actually ask themselves what they believe? Do you, I don't know. I wonder. Like, do you think that people are asking that question more today than they have before? I think I do. I think the last two years is forced it upon us. Yeah. If the last two years hadn't happened, I think it was becoming less and less. Yeah.

The world has... Well, it's moving so fast. It's easy to not have to think about things like that. You hop in the river or whatever we're calling it and the way you go. And pretty soon you wake up and, you know, I just look at myself. I've got three kids and one of them's six. And I know to young parents, maybe that doesn't sound like much, but I think to older parents, oh, yeah, it snapped by and I'm a blink of an eye.

And if you don't enjoy those years, if you don't pay attention and blah, blah, blah. But I know how busy it is because I'm living it. And you go, how many times do I actually sit down and go, why do I actually believe? And put some thought into it, maybe some research. Yeah. Write some things down because writing things down, I don't know how many times I've written something down and been like, That's really stupid.

And then been like, okay, not stupid in the sense I wrote it down. Just that isn't how I want my thoughts to go. So I need to reorder that again, you know? And as you do it, you can almost make sense of some of your jumbled thoughts. It's reflection. Correct. And that's something that we don't do in modern society very much. Most people don't.

I'm horrible at it. Honestly, I think writing for me is reflection. And it's always kind of been a bit of a therapy. And over these last two years of the pandemic, I've actually found it harder to write. I write, and there are writers who will say that I'm lazy because of this, because there are a craftsman when it comes to writing and, you know, people who write every day no matter what. I've never been one of those people. I write from inspiration, and I found it really hard to find inspiration over the last couple of years. I know that there's stuff happening.

I know it's working itself out in my brain there somewhere, but I've been finding that challenging. And as we're coming through these last couple of years, I'm finding I'm getting more inspiration. I'm starting to remember what that feeling was of being excited about an idea and wanting to get it out, you know, in a song. But journaling has always been really hard for me. And that reflection thing, it's really important. I think it's really important for people to do. Because like you said, you order your thoughts that way. Yeah, ordering your thoughts.

You know, you talk about, you know, you just didn't have any, I don't know if it was hope or percolation or what you said, but you're just talking about the last two years and not being a whole lot you wanted to write about or sing about it. boat or, you know, get down and whatever. And all I can think of is, man, Paul Brandt riding in the convoy to Ottawa, you would have saw some things. Yeah, I'm a little kidding, right? You're freaking mind. I bet. I bet. I'm definitely no writer, but the things that I saw along the road there were like, I didn't, I say this probably in one breath too much, and then I think probably not often enough. But the level of humanity,

humility, all the things. I'd never fit the homeless before. In Ottawa, I got to feed the homeless. Now, that sounds like I'm grandstanding or something. No, no, no. But, but, but, and yet I haven't followed it up, which I think about that and I'm like, well, why, anyways. But in Ottawa, that's what everybody was doing.

It was just like anyone, anywhere you went, food. Food, there was so much food, it was, it was insane, to be honest. But the level of, like, humility of people just, like, taking their time, people coming off work in Ottawa or a surrounding area, driving down for the night, opening their stand and just feeding everybody. And homeless, everybody, just food. Now, it comes after two years where, do I want to be next to you? And now you see people crying and hugging.

And I'm like, it would have been a writer's dream to be in the middle of that. You would have had, I don't know, I think of, I guess, inspiration. It was just like the amount of people that were crying. And I mean, there's just, there's so much there that I still don't understand. But the level of like living in Alberta and being born and raised in Saskatchewan, you always have this idea of the East, we're taught, the East sucks. They're out to get you. Politics maybe. But the people, when I bike Canada, when we were out East, Quebec people were fantastic.

Language barrier was a language barrier. Sure. The nicest person we met was in Ottawa. It literally not saved our lives, but really helped this out of a bind. And just saw the beauty of the country and how all of us people are all the same. And I've heard the story that anywhere you go in the world, it's the same. It's politics and the power mechanisms that really get in the way of what have you. But the one cool thing about the convoy was all the flags, you know, they focused in on a couple of bad ones.

but the flags that everyone saw there, at least me, was the flirtily. Yeah. Um, there was a couple that were First Nations that I'd never in my, in my entire history of reading and listening everything about Canada. Yeah. They were like, uh, early, early, early, early, first nations flags with the French and with the settlers. Oh, cool.

And I was like, wow, this is a history lesson on top of seeing all the provinces come together in such a unique way that was so, I don't know, human. human amazing and I think when you talk about inspiration and finding some things as we go along

I'm happy to hear that yeah because I know a lot of people really lost hope through this yeah yeah anytime I create anything you know

for me it's primarily writing and writing music I tend to start with asking the question what is the world need and I was what do you think the world needs then right now if you're if you're getting

the juices are starting to flow. Yeah. Does it need more convoy or does it need? Well, see, that's actually a really great question because I was like, do people just need to cut loose and just have fun? Like, I mean, is that what needs to happen right now or do we need to tackle some of the bigger issues? And is there an appetite after two years of thinking everything through to tackle some of those

bigger issues? I don't know. You know, I think that for me, you know, we talked about those main. mega themes and the things that move people and how there are commonalities between all of us. One of the inspirations for me when I write has always been, there's a verse in the Bible that says eternity is written in the hearts of men. And there's a lot of different ways that you could take that. But for me, what that means is there are certain things that are just written into our DNA that bind us all together, that connect us all. There's a

certain things that, you know, all of us have experienced, like we're looking for a greater meaning, meaning, we're looking for purpose. There's, there's, people have to have purpose. If we don't have purpose, we, we languish. We start to destroy ourselves if we don't have something that we're driving towards. And that's just part of the human experience. It's the, it's the way that we were made. And, and so, in all of my songs, I try to look at that, you know, yeah, we need to have fun. All of us need to have a good time and cut loose and just enjoy life. We also need to have those reflective moments. And I think right now what I'm trying to do is figure out from a theme standpoint, are we going to lean more towards the just having fun stuff or are we going to lean more towards

the serious stuff? Maybe it's a mix of both, you know. But yeah, it seems like things are starting to take off again here. Balance. It is. It is. It's moderation and balance. I think you have to have a little bit of both. I think for too long we didn't focus on the serious things. Maybe. And for me, serious, what I equate serious to is politics. Yeah. Or it doesn't even have to be on the grand stage. It could be community politics, right?

I mean, geez, there's school boards and there's, you know, small town in Saskatchewan, there's rink boards, and there's, believe me, there's enough boards for all of us to get involved. Sure. And letting your hands off the reins. and I use that figuratively because I don't know any better way to explain it I just look at, you know, in the last couple years and I go, a lot of people are concerned.

Well, if you're concerned, get involved. Yeah. Because getting involved is the best way to start to understand the problem. Yeah. And if we get different people involved in understanding the problem and talking, that solves part of my problem,

which is how do you get good people together to discuss things? And I'm doing the Jordan Peterson thing here where I'm thinking and talking at the same time, but geez, maybe I've stumbled on something because if you get involved, that's a good step. Yeah, it's like not being, not being afraid to let people see who you are and to take a step out there and, you know, try. You know, I think, I think that being outward

looking is a really important thing rather than being inward looking. And, you know, I think there's been a lot of navel gazing, a lot of people staring at their belly buttons during this last, last couple of years. And I think it's, yeah, you know, and I think it's important for us to be outward focused. We drive ourselves crazy if we're not thinking about other people. And, you know, we had a really cool experience over the summer. Me and my wife and the kids, Joe and Lily, we took off for Vancouver and we went to East Hastings. And, you know, it's one of the poorest area codes, you know, or, you know, in all of Canada, you know, and, and it's right next to one of the wealthiest.

and, you know, there are a lot of people with addiction issues down there, and it's brutal. I mean, it is, like, you're seeing people walk around looking like zombies with open wounds on their legs and syringes hanging out of their arms, and it's a very hopeless place. And, you know, I tell you, if you want to teach your kids not to do drugs, that's a really great place to go. But we went down, and we were with a group of people who attended the church. that we go to. And we spent the week cooking hamburgers and hot dogs for people and just getting to meet them and to hang out with them and to hear their stories. And it was amazing.

Like there's a gal there who is a huge country music fan and she spends a lot of time down at East Hastings. She has some health issues that have kind of made life really rough for her. But when she found out that I was there, it was like the coolest. thing that had ever happened. And it just so happened that the city of Vancouver actually had a karaoke day, the day that we were down there. And they had this whole karaoke set up. And they happened to have my song, My Heart has a history on the karaoke machine. And so the two of us stood up there and sang the song together. And it's a moment that I'm never going to forget,

you know, because we found something in common. And, you know, we got to hang out with people and, you know, hear the stories that could be common to anybody that brought them to that place of homelessness and addiction. And not everybody that we met down there had addiction issues. They just had really bad things happen in life, you know. And it was incredible. Like, you know, I think that that outward-looking thing is one of the things that can really help make this country even better than it is right now

when we're looking to the needs of others. And historically, we've been known as a country like that, a country that tries to make peace and goes out to try and help. And I think all of us focusing on some of that would probably be a really good thing for this nation. Yeah, we just need, and I'll bring up politics one the last time, we just need somebody you can fall. Somebody who isn't, I don't know, sewing unity is not going to be any easy thing in today's climate.

Yeah. And yet, that's, It's what we need. I just, I talk about Steve Eisenman all the time. He's favorite hockey player. Okay. The way the man conducts himself to this day in the NHL, I just watch that and I go, man, wouldn't you love to have Stevie Y, put on the politics suit for a couple of years, and just say, no, we're just not going to do that, and this is why.

And, and be firm and yet a leader. And with, you know, you mentioned a word earlier that I once heard, we lacked vision. And, you know, you just, you need a little bit of, you know, a Canadian. hockey player at the front would be really cool. Yeah, it would be good. But I appreciate you giving me some time. I don't want to keep you all day. Thank you.

No, it's great. You know, and, you know, just to, we had, we did get a chance to sort of dabble a little bit on the politics side of things, but I, I, I don't think anybody should get any ideas that Paul Brands getting into politics anytime soon. I, uh, it sounds a lot like being a country singer, except everybody hates you. And I, that doesn't, doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me, but, um, you know, I'm going to continue doing my thing, making music. and just trying to continue to make relationships

because I think that that's one of the things that can really help us out of the bind that we've found ourselves in over this last couple of years too. Well, either way, it's been an interesting couple of months. Obviously, the first time I had you on to coming here and getting to meet you in person, which this is a thousand times better,

not the first one was a ton of fun. I don't mean that, you know, that sounds terrible. Better face to face. It's always better. It's always better having the human interaction, especially after the two years we've had and everything else. I think all of us are tired of looking at screens and need to get interacting with one another again.

Yeah, for sure. But I appreciate you having me out to your place and everything else has been super cool. And I assume somewhere down the road we'll bump past again. It'd be great. But either way, thanks, Paul, for having me out. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thanks.