Your Happy Hour - Episode 14: Freedom through the Arts

Episode Date: March 8, 2024

Happy Friday everyone!  Tune in to episode 14 and let’s chat about Freedom through the Art.In this episode, we are joined by Alex Madeline, French born and New York City based musician and composer who has just released two singles of his debut album “Unexpected Direction” and shares with us his journey with money as a creative solopreneur.We unpack topics like: hustle culture, the approach of passion, making authentic choices towards success, Spotify is killing it and being open to the unexpected directions of financial freedom as an artepreneur.We’ll be here - every Friday - celebrating with you!Connect with us @ friday-feels.co▶ Podcast Chapters01:11 Welcome to Alex Madeline!03:19 Being an Artepreneur: Opening doors into Unexpected Directions06:16 Finding financial freedom10:50 Hustle culture: The Cliches of Creatives 12:34 Making Music in the USA15:05 Authentic choices in the world of art21:20 Spotify is killing it and artists are paying for it24:39 The Approach: All’s fair between Talent and Passion 28:40 Creative Projects: Producing an album34:12 Best professional advice: Follow what you have36:46 What do you count as success?39:20 A year from now…41:05 Thank you for listening and being honest.44:34 Gems of the week!48:00 Final Thoughts, Question and Farewell!

Happy Friday beautiful people and hello to you all out there tuning in for your first sip of the weekend. You're tuned into your happy hour with friday feels we're celebrating all you working professionals out there doing your crazy craft embracing the beauty of being human and connecting authentically and we are host sarja nicole we're living and working around the world holding space for you and keeping it raw and real as we share fresh content with you every week. Follow us on LinkedIn at Friday Feels and Instagram at These Friday Feels for updates throughout the week. In our last episode, we kick-started the theme of money positivity by exploring our money truths, when it is that we walk with worth in the world and what are the fallacies that we

as humanity potentially have brought into and also sometimes allow to control our lives. And this week we are taking this a step further with a very special guest, friend and fellow working professional who has been an entrepreneur from age of 16 when he picked up the saxophone and knew that this would be his life for sharing the spirit of music. So a very big welcome to Alex Madeline. It's really great to have you on here with us. And for our audience out there, it's a very quick peek into your world before you tell us a little bit more. You were born in France, realized at an early age what your passion is, studied jazz and classical music at two very prestigious conservatories in France, and then followed your heart to Boston, where you got a

scholarship from Berklee College of Music. And now you've been touring, and you've been playing in the Big Apple with gigs, and you've just released two songs of your first debut album unexpected directions so a massive congratulations on that and yeah tell us a little bit more about your journey welcome hey thank you yeah man already said a lot so uh uh yeah i want to know there is actually one thing there is a third single out there now. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, the journey, it's like, yeah, I started, as you said, picked up the saxophone and, like, 14 years old, I guess. Something like that, like early 14 years old.

I remember because I was, like, I learned only, like, three notes at the first lesson, you know? Like, you have to use two hands, and I was using only the first hand, you know, like you have to use two hands. And I was using only the first hand, you know, because you have to put like the thing in your mouth to get the air. So, you know, it took time. And I remember going home and just like play for hours, like just trying with just only three notes, you know. And I kind of fell in love with that. So the year later, I was already in conservatory and I was like, okay, that's what I want to do in my life.

So my high school was like, I took a special program where you can have half of the classes at conservatory, half of the classes at school. It's a music special program, so yeah. And I've never stopped loving it. It's like you open a door, and the room is bigger, and then there's another door, and you you open a door and the room is bigger and then there's another door and you open the door and the room is bigger and there's another door so here yeah and now here i am in new york and that's still still the same thing it's you know

opening doors you know still going in unexpected directions through each door yeah yeah this is i think this is uh what we try to do in life you know i choose music with different people issues like everything you know passions and directions yeah a lot of people don't really think about creatives as like entrepreneurs you know i think a lot of people talk about like when you're moving out of corporate and you make that big leap of faith into entrepreneurship. But as an artist, you've been a solopreneur from day one. What's that journey been like? You know, kind of having your own brand, your own company, everything that's you in the world. Yeah, I mean, everyone is an entrepreneur. I don't think people would be happy to be like that.

This is why the people who go to corporate and don't like their job, I'm not saying everyone don't like their job, but, you know, this kind of cliche, or they go home and they're like, finally, I hate my job. The thing is, it's because they are not entrepreneurs during that period of time, but when they go home, they make their own decision,

and they became their entrepreneur. Everyone is. is I don't think human being would be satisfied if he wasn't making his own decision overnight you know but um the thing is like from to me I was to me I wanted to do that all that like every day all the time which is like following orders is is cool it's not like you know it's not like I want to be an entrepreneur because I hate orders. It's just like I was like, yeah, I was like, I want to do my own choice and life's too short.

I'm like, if I can do it all my life, I will do it no matter what. Because everyone, my my family my friends back back in France before I did music they are not musicians so you know when I wanted to be a musician they were like wait wait they had this cliche of the poor guy you know the guy will struggle with his life and you know my parents are are you sure and my friends they were like they still don't really understand sometimes because my music does not really speak to some of them, you know.

But the thing is, like, if you work, if you work, you'll get somewhere, you know. And the thing is, like, since I love it and I make this choice and people support me making this decision, it's also a duty to work and find something, find, you know, find stability, find something in that. So, yeah. So the theme of this month is money positivity. And like you said, you know, everyone has this idea that creatives are poor.

And the topic we spoke about for you this week is freedom through the arts. So do you feel like you've found freedom, financial freedom through doing your art? Yeah, I mean, to be honest with you, you make your own choices. Like this happened to me. A couple of years ago ago I was living with five people in New York, you know, like smallest bedroom ever, but rent was okay for New York, but my rent was fine. I was playing only small jazz gigs, a few private gigs, but not much.

I was teaching a few students and very not much i was making no money i was super happy i was playing all the time i was practicing 10 hours a day um yeah it's nice the only thing is just like i was like okay let's let's put my music out oh cannot cannot do why the thing is like first thing is financially it's like i could have i i started i wrote the music already everything was there i put everything was ready the only wall was the money so yeah of course you need some and the thing is like i was super happy covid hits and during that time went back to france sat down and took notes i was like okay it's time for you to record after this so you know i started to put numbers and then I figured out that these numbers couldn't be

reached with, uh, couldn't be reached with my, my, um, jobs. Cause you know, I didn't make enough. So I started making calls, got some teaching. Um, I work for a private agency now that they send me everywhere in, uh, in different states in New York to play like corporate gigs, you know, like wedding gigs, like Nobel Prize, all these kinds of events that I'm not... it's an amazing job, all right, don't get me wrong, but this is not what I like in music, you know. But you know, I took this decision to do it in order to make the money, in order to have a better situation, in order to be able to do order to have a better situation in order to be able to do my project so that's how it happened and now the thing is now it's too much now i have

too much work i was talking to my friends yesterday about that you know now it's too much so you know finding the balance is very um finding the balance i think it takes years I went to the extreme of no money now I'm going to the extreme of having money but but having a few not having much time anymore you know so I put my music out and now if I have to perform the music I would have to quit some of the jobs that I have. All of the jobs are music related. It's playing, teaching music, recording, you know, but it isn't. I want to say on 100 percent, it's there is only like 75 percent of that. That really matters to me. The rest is purely, purely financial.

That's not true because i matter matter to my students you know what i mean uh but you know and sometimes i get tired i just think about this album how good or bad it is you know it's like it's just i made it you know i sat down three years ago and i'm like let's do it and i couldn't have done it without that so yeah i mean the financial you can and then people are like oh no you cannot i'm like okay so when i tell my story some of my friends are like yeah but i don't want to wake up at 6 a.m i'm like then then it's not that it's impossible it's because you don't want to make the effort to do it and i'm pretty sure you can do everything.

He can find a job which is not in music, really. There's amazing musicians who are like waiters, bartenders. You know, like this is, I have a friend. He doesn't like to touch music if it's not like something he loves. So he decided to cut his life in half. He has his musical aspect. Andy is great. Andy Louis. You guys should check it out. And he has his musical aspect andy is great andy louis yes you guys should check it out and um he has his music and then he works in uh restaurants because it's easy it's close to his

house it goes and also in told me he's like he likes to go there because he empties mind musically you know then when you get back to music he's fresh fresh. I want to do it. So finance, you can find it. You can find it. Yeah. I like the hustle culture that you bring to it, Alex. By any means necessary. The thing is like the hustle culture is everywhere. We talk about that.

It is true, but it is a cliche that has been turning around for so long. I had so many people like, you know, the hustling, the hustle, the musician. Like when you talk about the musician, the guy in the street, the guy who lives in a car, the guy who, you know, doesn't make money. And because people like to hear this story, they don't want to see a musician, you know, dressing shirt and be like, oh, I'm super fine. I have like a mention. But who is not like a rock star? You know what I mean? It's like, oh, I'm just a random guy that you don't know, but I make like five times more money than you playing an instrument you know no it's not dreaming you

know people they want to dream they want the guy who's like oh man like i drank a bowl of whiskey until 5 a.m and i have this gig i don't know i don't have money so i'm gonna no you know it's um it's a big cliche it's a big it's a big cliche but It's a big cliche, but it's true. And at the same time, a finance guy is also hustling. You know, like this guy, Wall Street, they wake up early morning, they drink 20 coffees, and then they yell at each other for hours. They have like a 10-minute lunch or they don't eat. So, you know, they hustle too.

They hustle too. You know, but the big difference is like Wall Street. You put that name on it and people are like, no, no, they hustle too. They hustle too. You know, they are. But the big difference is like Wall Street. You put that name on it and people are like, no, no, they're fine. They're fine. So, you know, everyone hustles at some point. So can I ask what brought you over to the U.S. rather than doing your music in France? Is there some opportunity here or people or was there a reason that you really

feel very strongly about the U.S. debuting your music and sharing that here versus your home country? Yeah, I've always been attracted by that. When you play jazz, most of the heroes, they're Americans. So first, first it's something that you're like wow um i should go there one day then then there is also a friend of mine a good friend of mine on twin cats amazing bass player he's touring with uh roosevelt right now uh very good music he is to check it out Roosevelt right now. Very good music, I guess. Check it out. And he went to Berkeley first.

So we did my first conservatory. I did it with him. And actually, we were in the same high school too. And we had a group together when we kind of toured at an early age. It was very cool. We were the only one around to play that kind of music. And we were the only one around to play that kind of music and we were like young so people loved us you know what i mean like young people old people so that was pretty cool so with this band played a lot and we create like a real bond we are like very serious about it and um and this guy decided to move to berkeley because he was more he was more into he wanted to play music professionally in in like pop rock i mean i don't want to say because it plays everything but not in a classical and jazz oriented perspective like in france when you study music the study of the music like years ago it's um it was mostly classical and jazz you didn't have a pop school.

It was rare. In the US, you have. If you go to Berkeley, you can study all kind of music. You have more opportunities for that. And also, I think he was dragged to go there. And he's American, too. French American. But anyway, he went there.

And we keep having news. And two years later, he's like, dude, you should come. Because I think this school looks like you belong to that place like you'll love it like fuck it let's try so did the audition blah blah and i went there i was supposed to stay one year and 10 year in the country now that's awesome so yeah this guy was the one who pushed me to do it That's awesome. So yeah, this guy was the one who pushed me to do it. You signed with a really cool, very young label, fresh and up and coming.

And yeah, I'm just curious, you know, like what does that look like? A lot of people don't really know what the artist journey is like once you start putting your music out there. They have these massive labels, you know people like taylor swift has even moved away from like a big label doing her own thing like why is that why why go with a label that's not as massive or you know what what kind of gets taken away from you financially or doesn't what's the benefit um there is many options first you know there, first there is label I would dream to be, but you know, I didn't even ask, but I'm pretty sure if I ask them, they're going to be like, come back later, you know, like Blue Note records. But then also I got other options, you know, I got other offers and it's not what it was.

Everything is money. World is becoming a little sad with that, which is because every creative aspect becomes like a transactional thing. It's not. People fake it. I'm sorry for the people who are going to listen to that and dream, but keep dreaming

because it's going to happen again. But right now, it's very bad. So the thing is, they're all going to sell it and be like, oh, yeah, you're going to be in our catalogs. We're going to help you because we love art. We love what you do. But you have to give us $5,000. And I'm like, yeah, I mean, it should be the opposite, right?

Before, the label would pay for the studio, would pay for everything. You put the studio out of your pocket. You put everything out. And then you have to pay your label. Wait, wait, what? So that's how it is. So you give money or they take your rights. So that's what they used to do.

Studio used to pay the label. They used to pay the studio, pay the musicians, everything. And then the music belonged to them. Then after in the deal, you can say, okay, I can take a cut of this. But I think it's like CDs don't sell. Streaming is horrible. Spotify is horrible.

I just share my song on Spotify for the people to listen because they're all on there. But get away, get out, get out of that. Like the artist has to pay to get there. And the artist earn 0.0000000 I forgot but there is a lot of 0 before you see the numbers you know

if you want to make $1 you have to have New York City listening to your song it's not fair it's a game so this is taking the musician for a joke anyway for the record labels now they cannot have a deal and be like okay we take your music and if we're

gonna make the money on the streaming you know they're not making money so they're trying to make money some somewhere else so the artist pays but it's not what the label should be now you know so this is why i searched for that i got offers i'm like no i don't want to pay more and also ethically you know i don't care about being a big thing you know so many people are like oh look i'm in this label i'm sorry if i open uh the label magazine and i see the face of like a non-guy next to a famous guy i just look at the famous guy because i know and turn my page so i was like if i go to this label in his catalog i'm going to feed your next like a super big artist nobody's going to look at my at my thing now there's not a lot of people anymore doing this you know the time spent on on the frame on something it's like a few seconds so

so i was like let's go to like an healthier environment. And I had this guy, Lion Hill Records. It's based in Brooklyn. Just call him. He's super happy. I'm like one of his first, I mean, he has guys. He's been working, but one of his first guy, which was doing kind of this and already had like big projects and it just went single.

The album is there, you know. So he was very excited. And he told me, he's like, he's a jazz very excited and he told me he's like he's a jazz musician you know and he's like man i want to go back to what it was before he doesn't want to make profit you make his money differently but you know he's like i want to create a community of musicians let's say like he has people now let's say that you want to record your second album now you ask me and i can introduce you to the guys maybe if you pay this money for this guy because of me i can ask this guy to get to play your album for half of what you paid before you know like stuff like that you know like a sharing community

and um the deal is taking only a few percentage on the streaming only i kept all my rights everything that is related to my music is on me if i'm like profit wise you know very healthy then you deal with um then the thing is like they don't have anything yet so you know it's not like everyone will uh well no but little by little and it's a journey it's a story you know and i'm not like a big rock star raper so you know i don't care it's like i play a music that touches a few amount of people and most of these people they are not really paying attention of the records like my family they're like oh cool yeah do you know any label what is the label so you know um yeah yeah and and it's healthy we call all the time we give ideas it's like it's a

it's a it's a baby it's a project and to be honest with you i'm following the title of my album which is an expected direction you know like i told you when i sat down i was like okay you're gonna record you're gonna have a label you're gonna do this this and it really didn't go like that direction is there but it wasn't expected you know it's like whoa so you know i was like let's just do it all the way so labeled is the same um and um and i'd say it's it's it's new to me i mean i've seen that with friends but uh so it's new to me and i really hope this guy this guy will make it since i signed with him it's funny a couple of friend of mine in new york they already asked me questions about him

so you know i hope like you know you spread the word you spread the word and then after like this guy's gonna grow uh so yeah yeah i think that's so great that you like shedding light on that because as a new creative to the industry as well, I'm only learning this kind of stuff now too, you know, that since Spotify has gotten adverts that you can listen to music for free, you know, no one's buying CDs anymore. Like how are you supposed to fund yourself? How are you supposed to make money when you're putting all that energy into it.

So I think it's really great that you took the authentic route. Yeah. You make, you make your money by performing. Yeah. That's, that's, that's the thing.

There is, there is a different thing. There is different things. You can also write music for commercials, movies and stuff like that. So movies is more towards film scoring, but commercials you can... I have a lot of friends, they do commercials. Then the music they play, for example my music, I don't think it would work. So I would have to make another type of music. But I have some friends, their music matched what the commercial environment they wanted to.

So the music fits more. So I have some friends, they have a catalog of songs that they never really put out, never really wanted to perform live, but they're there. So now they just use them for that. They produce, they use them, they rework on them with the software and they send them and they make money like that. This is when there is other, there is other stuff,

but the musician by itself, I want to say performing is one of the big thing and the CDs and the music that you record is just like a business card but a very expensive one to me but it's a business card my I'm not gonna make money here what I want to try to do is to roll you know the CDs nobody listen to them so printing a hundred CD cost me like this I already sold like 25 CDs I paid back this for printing so now i can print again but i print mostly to send and give to the press you know it's my business card take it take it take it i'm here now i'm here you know uh in france they want a cd just they want like a physical copy and

email it's not enough i don't know why they probably won't even take the cd out but it's i guess it's traditional i don't i don't know, you know, over the 100 CDs I printed, I just already like prepared 60 CDs to send for free, you know. So I'm just going to, I think I'm going to give more CDs than sell. But luckily, if I sell my CD at a certain price, about 20 CDs pays back for the 100. So, you know, I'm always trying to think like that to not be lost all the time, you know. But I'm never going to make my that to not be lost all the time. But I'm never going to make my rent selling the CDs. But then the CDs might get me to a gig. That's the goal.

That's the goal. And it looks better. No, I'm going to go. I have some gigs coming up. I was taking a break. But I have some gigs coming up. I'm going to bring the CDs. We're not going to play the same music. It's not the same band, but I'm there.

I have some things to give some people. And if no one wants, I can always say, hey, guys, I recorded a new album. Here is the CD if you want. I like your approach because it's not like you're all or nothing. If I can't do my work like this, I'm not going to, you know, I'm just going to keep pounding the pavement until somebody kind of cracks to and succumbs to like what my view is.

Instead, you're adjusting to your environment. You see what works. You try things, which is that is the role of entrepreneur, right? It's constantly changing, figuring out, you try things, which is, that is the role of entrepreneur, right? It's constantly changing, figuring out, you know, how to make things work in different environments. So very interesting. I mean, I know a few creatives, but it's nice that you don't shy away from the financial part of it, because it's part of it. It's a big part of our lives. And so thank you for sharing that and also showing people kind of a behind the scenes look of what it looks like to be financially responsible and also aware of what it actually takes to succeed in this business.

It's not only having the talent, but it's also the other side of it, knowing how to kind of tap into the business side. Yeah, I mean, the talent is a few percentage. To me, a talent, everyone is talented. So many people are like, I'm not, I'm not. The talent is related to passion. When you're passionate about something, you're talented. It doesn't mean you're good. There's a people that are not good, but they're very talented. Why? Because they're passionate about something. So many people were so bad in math,

mathematics and memories. Oh, you don't remember things. But then there's this boy, he's in love with this girl and then she share away like a phone number and address one time and he remembers it why because that's the girl no but you know it's like and he it's a weird example but it's kind of it's kind of the same i that's why my my work i always try to work on something i like and if i don't like it i'm trying to find a way to like it because i realize that my brain opens my brain opens differently for that yeah i've been you know i've been remembering things at school when you don't like something it's just come here

and go away come from one here and go to the other um if you like something you're a sponge, you know, you're a sponge. So this is talent. Then the thing is like the sponge doesn't feel it by itself, you know, you have to put it underwater, so you have to put yourself to work. So the talent and passion is like 10%, 5%, 2%, 98% is the work and work can be technical on your instrument technical about the music but also financial like if you want to if you want to do your project in life you have to sit down and you have to be financially able to do it so you have to find the money this is work too then there is people they don't need i have a lot of friends and in this in music it is it is uh there's a lot of people they don't really need money so they escape this part but it doesn't mean they can do everything

i have friends who are like very very rich and they are the best some of the best musicians i've seen they practice like 13 hours a day they never stop but they they don't go teach as much they don't do this thing they don't work for the money to create their project you know so that's that side but but but their life is the same they still work crazy you know they still work crazy i want to do this with my life you know the thing with the passion everything you know so because i don't want to be in my dead bed and be like oh you don't like what i did in my life no i want to be like wow and i'm using life for a cool life you know so yeah i think that's

so inspiring you know for everyone listening like being able to follow your joy and we often talk about this on here but you're really a living example of that you know you are following your joy you're following your passion and you're making it work do you want to maybe tell us a little bit about the music about unexpected direction like where did it come from what like what's your mission to the world you know what what's your music saying to the world uh yeah i mean i started writing these songs at berkeley like about like eight years ago i guess yeah it's just like i mean it was a natural process for me i just sat down on piano you know was practicing saxophone at berkeley the rooms were filled on piano so you know

sat down on piano and then just like you know it was the morning i was like probably still like sleepy and uh and i start playing and then a song comes comes in and um the song direction was like you know i played like a voicing on the right hand which is like a special way to play some notes but i was repeating this in the bass and i was like kind of tired with the coffee and i was moving around what I was hearing. And the bass took this direction and created the song. So I was like, oh, cool. This is a song. And then I created direction because of the bass.

Anyway, then I started with that. Then I had a second song. And then, you know, more and more, I started putting songs together. Then I started to really try to compose to sit down with like not being sleepy you know but being like okay let's make it work like let's try to find a form so i wrote these songs and uh and uh that's it that's how i do and i wrote way more than that i recorded only six but i wrote like probably like 100 songs in in my life or more i don't know but then direction took another perspective because I always wanted to record something with strings and not all the songs are the strings but there's three with

strings with the and something like this I used to play and write very like jazz songs this one was a little more songwriting in a way even if it's not it's it's not really but it is a little so that was something that I got inspired when I moved to the US in France I had no clue of that all my friends were classical and jazz in the music or some pop rock that I used to play with but they were not like the hang. Like the people I was hanging with were jazz and classical. At Berk is different. I started meeting some writers. Thing I never, it's not I've never been interested in,

I never like really liked it as much, but I was like there's some cool stuff to take it from there and I was like I want to mix jazz with that. And then I started to have like a non-really general music, you there and I was like I want to mix jazz with that and then I started to to have like a non-really gender of music you know I was like how do you call my music a classical because the strings jazz because rock pop so there's no really no name let's call it jazz because it's jazz oriented but and yeah and that's it couldn't write the lyrics of the first one. So I asked my friend Russell, Russell Johnson, go check him out. And my friend Russell wrote it.

He went to like another stuff. He went to like a love story, like about direction and love and making mistakes. And I was like, probably something happened to him. I don't know. But it was cool. And, you know, the writing was something I would never be able to do that. First of my English and second, because I'm not a songwriter but then i wrote the other songs i was like i want to try i want to try um that's not as cool as russell's writing but you know at least i did it and uh and yeah and i was like okay i want want to do that. I don't want to recall like a pure jazz that I used to do before, trying to explore a little different.

And yeah, so when I had this whole concept in my mind, then I was like, you have to put it on the table and write it. Writing for strings, it's like it's a real job. You know what I mean? It's like there is rules that you cannot do there is things and you know you have to know the rules but it doesn't have to sound like it is an exercise it has to sound like it's music it's way more complicated it's way more it's not just about putting five or four notes together it's there's an old art form of counterpoint of uh harmony. There's a lot of knowledge behind that.

So, you know, I had to get back to this because I kind of quit learning at some point, you know, when I left Berkeley. So my friend Martina Livier, which is an amazing writer, she came to my house. She started giving me lessons, you know. I already wrote direction on my own and it was not enough. So when I wanted to do balance for the strings, I asked her to give me a lesson. And then, you know, she was like, start with that. And we meet again.

So, you know, I met with her again, and she was like, oh, that's cool. But, you know, be careful. You can do that. And, you know, she cannot share her entire knowledge in one or two sessions. But, you know, she's excited about what she does, like every musician. So she was like, oh, but you can also do that. And then we kind of collaborated at some point. Like I was writing a line, she transformed it.

Then she wrote something. And then at the end of the song, balance the strings is half her. You know what I mean? But I learned so much you know i learned a lot and this takes time takes a lot of time so the journey has been like it's been been crazy yeah i feel like there are a lot of creatives out there that are feeling so inspired by what you're saying and like do you have any kind of things you've learned you know like words of wisdom for for anyone kind of taking this journey that's still early days like what's the best professional

advice you've received along the way i don't know i think there is one thing it's do not that people told me that many times it's famous actually it's a famous thing that actual people told me um do not i mean listen to the others but do not do never forget to follow what you have inside you you know what i mean does not get discouraged but what people say um and this is something that i've seen i don't know why it's so weird but like since day one in music in jazz especially in jazz not in music in jazz always people say I'm making wrong decisions like I remember my first teacher was like just one of my first jazz teacher it's always like

don't do why did you do that don't do that don't do this don't play like this don't do this I went tokeley and he asked about me he was like how was your first lesson i'm like it's great studying with this guy and we saw this court and you know there is a chord that's called this way and he's like why do you call it this way like not even like wow that's cool he said right away was like no no no we don't call it this way why do you and you know at some point they were like people were like you're too creative when you play you don't have jazz you don't play licks like like jazz try like traditions and licks you know and then i started to play like that and right after people were like man you play too much

too many licks you know like you don't you know what i mean and it it's they they never they it's like they don't want you to succeed. They always put you down. And, and I met people who were like, you never forget, never forget. And now when I'm, I'm not a kid anymore. So, you know, I don't care. I don't care about these people. You know what I mean? Is that they, if they, if they think like that, they, sorry for my language, but they suck, you know, it's like, it's like they're not good. So, so,

you know, the, the guys who told me that the people who told me follow, always follow what you have and what you want and what you have, like, don't, don't get down by the people who's going to like put you down, like trying to,

this is real. This is real. This is real this is real this is real how how do you measure success what do you consider successful for yourself is it just going on a journey every day is it following your passion or is it milestone what do you count as success success is uh accomplishment for me. There are so many ways to describe success. It's what makes you happy. If success for me was to be a billionaire, if I'm a billionaire, I'd be happy.

Success, yeah. For me, it's the... You want to go from point A to point B, and you arrive at point B, and the success was not getting to point B. I realize it's the journey between point A and point B. So my album, I told you, is not what I wanted it to be. It took so many unexpected directions.

So, you know, some things were good, some things were not good. What I thought before. And, you know, at some point, I just wanted to do it again. But, you know, I worked too much financially. I don't have the financial to just book another studio and put the band again.

I kept it. And now I'm like, Alex, Alex, no but you did it and you learned so much and you know you achieved that. You sat down three years ago and you're like you need to do it. And you know when you sit down you have this little story of you sitting down sometimes later with your album and that's i did i did it i did it you know that's it so this is already like a big success for me you know but it isn't like successful at all for like regarding to what i can give to the world you know there's no fame yet so the next success for me is to play the music. The first success was to write when something I like, when there is a song I like, it's a success. But then I realized that some songs I wrote and didn't go anywhere led me to somewhere else than actually like succeed.

So actually the mistake is a success too, you know. This is very hard. So on the moment I was frustrating, but now I'm thankful I made that mistake because it led me to another thing, even more interesting. So this is success to me. And this is, this is what I want to do on my life. You know, I want to, yeah, I want to do that. So a year from now, where do you see yourself? I don't know.

I really don't, you never know. I don't think you can, I mean, you can expect, but a year from now, I don't know. I hope I'll be playing the music. I hope a year from now I'll be actually setting being in the setting setup of the tour this next time you know like yeah you have to program the venues it's like the big ones because my band is ten people on stage it's like an impossible band to tour if you're not famous you know so it's gonna be very difficult for me to get but if I can get it music won't be played before a year from now.

It would take another full year because it's seasonal. You know, they already prepared the programmation for the next season. So, you know, you have to apply for seasons 25, something like that. I hope everyone does take a listen to your music. It's an Alex Madden music experience. And I didn't appreciate jazz the way I do now. And that's thanks to you. I've had the privilege of working with you on your press and your website and all of that.

Yeah, thank you. And it's really a sonic journey. It really takes you on a journey. So as much as you've had a journey creating it, it's a journey listening to it. So big congrats for creating something amazing in the world. Yeah, we can be very proud. I've listened to it.

It's very good. I'm not a big jazz person, but you could recognize when people put a lot of effort into something. It's beautiful. It sounds beautiful. Very calming. Yeah, I mean, thank you for listening. You know, that's the first thing.

I never do a thing for, I mean, yes, I want the people to like it because if they like, they come back, and then I have more gigs and I play more. But, you know, I don't want to offer something to like it. That's why I was talking to the people like to some friends yesterday it's like honesty in life life is full of dishonest people that I'm gonna smile in front of you I was telling this this because they're like why don't you play more pop music with the DJs or something and you know it's like listen like if I if I talk to you and I smile to

you I constantly smile and then you know I go home and I tell my friends, who is your friend, like, oh, I hate her. And he tells you, how do you feel about me? She would be like, yeah, that would not be nice. I would not like you. And I'm like, or I'm just very honest with you right now. So I don't really smile and I say weird things. So you might think I'm weird, but interesting in a way, but weird. And then I go home and I tell oh this person she's

amazing I love her and then my friend tells you how you feel about me she would be like oh yeah be happy it's an honesty I'm like that's what I do in music I don't want to create a music for you to like I want you I offer me to you like it's me like Paul that's it's lit it's me like it's me like Paul that's it's me like it's purely creation I didn't do anything to please you what do you think and then you're like I like it I don't like it and you know when someone comes to me after a show and be like hey man like interesting I really didn't like your song but interesting and I'm like at least you listen at least you're not pretending like, oh, that was amazing. And actually, in the back of your head, you're like, oh, I hate that. So, no, so it's great if you listen. Thank you.

I like your French candor. Like, you're just very candorous and honest about how you feel about everything. No, but that is true. This is why you have friends compared to not friends. It's two humans together. The difference between a friend and not a friend, it's like you can tell the truth from your friends. Why don't you do that with other people?

Of course, there are rules. You cannot be so friendly with someone right away. But you can be honest. Not too much. Don't go to see a person in the street and be like, oh, you look horrible. This is not nice because the results won't be nice but when you offer a craft when you offer a craft you should always do it with love and if love guides you to not pleasing the

person you should do that because if you try to please the person but it's against what you want then you're gonna you're not gonna do something a hundred percent because you always have this kind of i have to do it for for this and you're back on your head so you know um and i'm pretty sure this is i'm pretty sure people think of that at the end of their life you know i'm pretty sure you have this moment when you think about regrets and not and you know i'm pretty sure if you this moment when you think about regrets and not. And, you know, I'm pretty sure if you did some, if you worked and act in an environment where you were pleasing people without pleasing yourself on top of you, you also show them a fake thing.

So it's not respecting them too, you know what I mean? It's a hard topic and actually so easy too because it's life you know yeah yeah c'est la vie

c'est la vie yeah so we do this thing every week where we talk about our gems of the week and they basically the things that help us

like that fill your cup you know that help you be the working professional that you are so Saj do you want to kick us off what that fill your cup, you know, that help you be the working professional that you are. So, Saj, do you want to kick us off? What's been your gem of the week?

Yeah, I think I've just been really stressed out about being perfect in these companies this week. So this weekend I force-fed myself to kind of go out and relax a little bit. It was good. This is why I have no voice today. But I think it's a constant thing, right? Just reminding yourself that kind of success is the journey. That's something I tell myself all the time. And there's different versions of it. So just trying to make time for that this week and having those gentle reminders and realizing that you can't just do all or nothing. Even if you focus on the businesses

all week, there's still self-care, there's still food, there's still everything else that makes up a life. And just trying to balance that each week has been a gentle reminder to myself to you know kind of do the self-care do the things that genuinely kind of make you happy I think you know we're in a new environment and I was telling somebody about it somebody was asking me um over the weekend like oh did you guys move to uh miami and i was like no we're like thinking of it and it's it's been hard there's just been a lot of changes in a small amount of time but you're kind of forced to be here i reckon that show up you just do the best you can and that like just forcing myself to be like that's enough that's enough that's what your success is going to be

what about you Nicole? yeah I have had really an awesome week celebrating the launch of Swatcut Studios officially into the world I mean we've had Alex working with him before but we haven't really announced it into the world so that's really exciting and I also have a song that's released so it's really awesome to put a second one out there I similarly also understand the journey of creating and producing and writing so much and it takes quite a while to actually get them out there into the world so definitely feeling the the spotify won't uh keep on the lights feeling that we were talking about but super

happy that it's that it's out there so that's been really filling my cup this week um how about you alex this week i'm like uh i'm i have the cds the physical c physical CDs, I work with labels, I have them. I work on the album a lot, like, you know, like there's so many things. I did the investigations, I had like some journalistic meetings, how a PR, like how a PR person is doing. Because I tried to work with PR, some of them were like way too pricey. I was working a lot on that this week yeah that's exciting yeah and i have a friend visiting it's doing julia the auditions for the julia master probably it's a good fun that's amazing so a full week. A full, full week. A full, full week.

Oh, man. Well, that's awesome. And thank you so much for coming to share with us today. No, it's cool. I like to talk about it. It's very important. It's a message. It's so hard to say when you're one person, but it's true.

Everyone knows, but no one don't do anything about that you know like the the success that you said the word success success is not fame it's a blind blindness you know and it's so sad like everyone is like my friend andy andy we i told you is great and um you had like you had like like 2 000 followers like a month or two ago, something like that. And now he has like 25, you know. And he's playing covers. That's it.

He's not playing his own music much, but it's in order to do that. And that's so funny because when we hang out, so many people are like he is the same amazing musician for years now you know what i mean it's like and he's been hanging with the people and the people never said congrats you put a song out but then recently people start to be like oh congrats for the followers and like wow so actually like a musician telling to another musician congrats but not about the music so you know you realize people most of them they're not doing art or they're looking for fame and the art is the art things art works you know like like theater music paintings it's a very good opportunity for the people to try to get famous and get attention, you know.

But the real success for me is not that. The real success is the song. When I see Andy Louis, the success is the ability, his musical ability and creativity he put producing his songs when it was out. So Andy Louis has a big success for me a couple years ago when he started playing music. Not because he has 25,000 and not because he's going to have 2 million followers. No, this is not a success. And I think people they have to understand that because the world is going to a different place because of that. There is no craft anymore. Before it used to be crafty now it's not crafty because of that so i like to and thank you for letting me speak about it of course you know and and it is that's what we're here to do have

have those authentic conversations have those honest talks you know and really i mean hopefully with swat cut that is what we'd like to do, is empower people to create authentic art. You know, as AI hopefully does take over a lot of the mundane shit that we don't have to do every day. We can be creative souls in the world and actually create things from within us, like you said. So thank you. Yeah, thank you for inspiring everyone and

and also showing us that it's financially possible you just have to grind can you share with our listeners where they can find you and your music yeah all the platforms and they can go to alexmapden music.com create like the website has been made by sword cat thank you for that it's a beautiful website it is it's cool like it's very good so yeah i mean they can find me there if people are in new york there is some of my gigs that i post and um they can always come in you know it. It's a nice environment. Just the cool thing with jazz, it's like you play a lot in, like, small clubs, bars, you know, which is a very nice and cozy environment,

you know. It's a hang at the same time. It's not like you don't have your seat, and you sit, and you don't move, and then you wait to clap. No, it's, you know. Okay, amazing. Well, everyone can go check you out go be honest with Alex about your experience of his music

I'm going to miss you like a thousand emails saying I hate it, I hate it Impossible Alex Thank you again for having um shared with us today and yeah for everyone out there is there anyone that's following not following their joy because you are fearful of what that might be financially for you so we'd love to hear from you. Remember to tag us using hashtag these Friday feels to share your stories and listen to us on all your favorite platforms.

And to work with us, have us broadcast Friday feels from your space and organize your next workation. Reach out to us at hello at friday-feels.com. Next week, we are chatting with a very special lady and powerful businesswoman, Ruki Roti Balogon who will be sharing with us her journey as a senior corporate leader investor advisor mentor in the fintech and AI space and we'll be chatting about what money positivity means to her but until next time that is our mix we've had fun mingling with you and we wish you safe travels into your bed, into the night

and into this awesome weekend. So see you next week and keep it real.