#144 - Lindsey Stirling (Electronic Violinist, Dancer and YouTuber)

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can see threats you might miss. Life flock dot com orlock promo code Bones for an extra ten percent off your first year plus Amazon gift card with annual enrollment. That's promo code Bones and terms apply. Okay, in studio now, we're doing this from Los Angeles with Lindsay Sterling, who I think we should start with how we met first, because which as you came on the radio show, right, we didn't know each other. That was that like three years ago. It was four for like four years and

two months in fourteen days, but I'm not counting. Um. Yeah, So we were doing the c MT Awards and we got paired together. We're going to announce the winner of some categories. You remember it at all? I do well. I remember going on your show first right that morning, yeah, the morning, good morning of and then it was like

we did a interview. I played a little literally on the violin, and then that night right we went and presented together, and I do remember you went off script because I was super nervous to read the tell a prompter. I don't like, I have dyslexia and so I don't read super well. So I was so nervous. And then you went off script, and I'm like, when do I come in window? Oh, No. I got in trouble for that too, because you're really, when you're doing live television

not supposed to go off script. Absolutely not. Yeah, but I wrote a joke right before we went out that I thought was so funny that America did not tell me. I didn't, but I didn't really know you either, And if I told you, I thought maybe you would tell on me to one of the producers, like run Side Station, just to tell a joke, maybe because you've been like, hey, Bobby's doing something, I'm not quite comfortable, and so then they would have cut. It was just a strategic Okay,

I gave it to you. That was fine. We we handled it beautifully. No one would Ann. I don't remember the joke. I don't remember anything about the actual anything. I remember talking to you afterward and going out. She's really nice, and she was really because you played the show that morning and then you were just kind of gone for a while. Then you disappeared pixied away. But we had talked a little bit online. But then when Dancing with the Stars came up, I was like, hey, lindsay,

what do you think about this show? And you said, I said, a hundred percent, it's the most amazing experience. But I also told you it's not easy, and like, why it wasn't easy? And so did I help prepare you at all for how hard it is? I don't know if I could have been prepared. Really, yeah, but everything about you was I don't believe everything Lindsay says,

not because you don't tell the truth. Because you worked so hard and you were doing five different things because you were touring, you were making music, you were doing Dancing with the Stars. So they were going, well, you don't do as much as Lindsay. That is not true, but they didn't know at the time when they were so they were like, but so don't listen, it's not that hard. So they were telling me this was the Dancing with the Stars team. I'll see they always like

talk it down, and I was like, don't. Yeah, if don't listen, you better clear your schedule if you're going to do that show, because it is so they told me, if you have four days and you can do four hours for four days a week, you'll be fine. And I'm thinking to myself, Oh, I can do that's a lot. I'm thinking myself, Wow, that's a lot, but I can do that, but now I can hear I have. I've done seven days a week for six weeks, probably six hours a day, at least six hours. Yeah, well they

don't tell you. They tell you about the dance rehearsals, but then they don't tell you about all the camera interviews you have to do, which takes like two hours, and the costume fittings, and then the extra group numbers that you have to like it adds up to at least six hours a day. Well, then you ended up dancing in our trio group because when they said you have treo, I was like, oh, I have tovite Lindsay,

because one, you're really good. You finished. Second you should have won, but you don't have to respond to that. I thought you should have won. And then you came and dance with us, and that was really nice of you because that you have to get yourself into a whole different mind frame and you're about to be on National TV. Two. You know what's funny is when you asked me to do it, I was like, oh, sure, that'll be fun. I didn't realize, like I almost forgot

how intense the show was. It was only a year ago, but like being put back into the ballroom, getting back in my els, and just remembering the highs and the lows of it. Like I don't think I've ever had any experience in my life other than that show where I've felt so like joyous and happy and terrified at the same time. And that's the best way I can describe and exhausted like so because I'm so happy to do it. Yeah, I'm so just scared. My guts jump every show. You, I mean, the part that gets you.

The people at home don't hear. But when we stand on that dance floor, you see like this little video play of your week and kind of the first time you see it, and then all of a sudden, when it ends, you just hear this click click click, and your mind goes blank. It's like you forget everything and you just have to rely on adrenaline and muscle memory because the click track. Again, you don't hear it at home, but for us what it is, and we're us in a music some too, because we'll hear it in our

ears and it will keep us on beat. Like the audience won't hear it on a stage show, but they played in the dance room because in case you have to be on the first note or know the first note. Yeah, it allows you to be right on It's like it that's the purpose of it. But I don't think I would have done Dancing with the Stars without you and your advice, because I'd have been like, oh, I don't know, I'm not really a dancer. Would be fun, but I don't know if I can dedicate this much time to it.

But I think I said that in the package to the thing they run. I was like, I I don't think I would have done without Lindsay telling me to do it. So thanks for all of this. Like, I actually have kind of calves now for the first time in my life, for the first time ever, I noticed. It's like when I was twelve, I started doing push ups and I started to notice like bulges in my arms. Now I'm not twelve, but I'm starting to see bulges in my calves and have a really bad bird legs. It's kind

of a breakthrough for me. So you just have to do more jiving and waltzing in your life. Was that what you feel like? That's the hardest one yet for my calves. Really, they're all terrible. None of them have happened where I go. Yeah, that was a good one. Really well, you're killing it, making me proud. I hope you're not cursed me for suggesting that you do. No, No, not at all. It's one of the craziest experiences of my life, good and bad. That was just not why

I actually brought you here. You have a Christmas record that we're gonna talk about, but it will do one song first year and play some of this. This is Carol the Bells from your Christmas record, which is called what's the record called? It's called Warmer in the Winter. All right, here we go, so on this that do do do? Is that your fingers plucking the strings? Yeah? Okay, tell me talk me through this. You're plugging the string. You play a violin like a kind of a guitar. Yeah,

you still hold it like a violin. Um, but they called pizzicato in the classical world, and you're basically plucking the strings as if similar to a guitar. Come on, could you play all this right now? If you could, you pull up your violin and play right now. If I had it in the studio, I could play. I'm not saying would you play it right now? But you could do. You know, do you know every song on your Christmas record? Absolutely, you could play it, yeah, because

you're going you do a whole Christmas show. We do. We're actually in rehearsals right now for it, and it's it's so much fun. Like this was actually my favorite album I've probably ever done. I had so much fun just like getting in the Christmas spirit and putting my spin on Christmas. And then for me, writing music is so much about the experience of it, and that is the live show, Like that's kind of where the end

game of where I'm writing the music for. And so when I'm putting together the show, it's like this is how the music was always meant to be heard, is in a visual storytelling way. And so like I'm in the you know, I'm in the studio right now with the dancers learning all the choreography, and it just makes me so excited to take this show on the road. We did it last year and now we're totally switching the show up and and doing it again this year. So you start playing the violin win when I was

six years old. By the way, I'm gonna ask a lot of questions. I already know the answer too, because I read your book. So just even though you know, I know, all right, so you start playing it. Win six years old? Your parents play violin guitar, No, but they love classical music. And so when I was really little, they would play these old classical records, like on this scratchy record player, and then they used to take me and my sisters to classical concerts like Orchestras in the park,

you know, and um. And I noticed that the violinists always got the solos, they always got the fast, melodic like exciting parts. And I was like, oh, that's a star, Like that's the one that gets all the attention. I want to play that wooden thing. And I started begging for violin lessons as like you know, when my when I was like five, and by the time I was six, they finally were like, A think she's serious. So you're six years old, you want violin lessons. That's a I mean,

that's a mature instrument for a six year old. I think when I was six, I wanted a trash can lid, a stick, you know, I was wanted to beat something to time. But you want to violin, and do they give you they buy you a real violin because they're expensive at six years old. Um, we rented one. We rented this little and they're a lot less expensive when they're only like, you know, six inches long. They make

kid violins like, yeah, they're they're adorable. They're like little tiny they look like toys, but it's because there's no way a child can play, like your arm won't even fit to reach the where your fingers are supposed to go on the board. Um. So yeah, I had a little tiny violin that we rented, and I rented um until I got to a full size violin. So what was the part about, I'm gonna go to the book

where you had a cardboard violin for a while. Oh so that is just before they give a tiny six year old, like, you know, an expensive instrument for what it is. Um. They first gave me a serial box with could like a paper towel roll as the board where the fingerboard, and so that would teach me how to hold it. And once I proved that I could hold the cereal box and the paper towel roll, well, um, they upgraded me to a real violin. Was there a

time where you said I'm kind of down with Violin definitely. Actually, yeah, there was a couple of times I almost quit. Um. One main time was when I was a teenager and I um told my mom I wanted to quit, and she kind of sat me down and she's like, I've paid for lessons for you since you were a kid, and that was not you know, that was a huge sacrifice for my parents. And she's like, just play until

the end of the year. Just do that for me, and if you still want to quit, you know, in four months, you know, in the end of the year rolled around, she's like, you can quit. And you know, because we all go through like ups and downs and slumps and lows and things. And by the time the new year rolled around, I had kind of gotten through this this slump and I didn't want to quit anymore. When you were in high school, you were the what kid,

the blank kid? I was. UM. I was kind of a kid that did every thing like I did sports, I was on I was in a video editing class, and I like was super nerdy about video production and editing videos. Um, I did orchestra, I did banned. I mean, I was little bits of everything is what I would call. Were you a good athlete. I was actually pretty decent, Like at soccer and cross country. It wasn't the I was never the best, but I was, you know, I could. I was on all the varsity teams. And were you

the best musician in your band? Um? Yes, I was. At what age did you start to separate from people your peers? At what age did you start to go and not in any way of like I'm so good, but you've noticed a difference of Wow, I'm actually performing

at a higher level than my peers that are pretty good, right. Um, well, I think since I started when I was six, most most people don't start the violin with private lessons when they're six, and so as soon as I went into school, I was always way ahead of the other kids in the orchestra. Um. However, that was like being the big fish in a small pond, you know, with your public

school orchestra. I also did like these extracurricular orchestras where all the kids that started when they were six were in those orchestras, And that was the place where I was like, oh gosh, you know, my humility check of I'm actually very middle of the road here, And I think that is one of the reasons. I was about to go to college to to study music, and I even I was offered a scholarship, and I realized one that I didn't really love the violin anymore, and that

was the second time I almost quit. But also I kind of got to the realization of I'm just going to be, you know, playing in the back of some orchestra for the rest of my life. And I kind of had to think about it of what can I do that's different so that I can do this in a way that at won that I love it and can rEFInd my passion, but also so that I can have a voice in this and I'm not just begging to be accepted as the back chair player for a

public orchestra. UM. And that's when I started to write my own music and be creative with it. UM. And you know, it's I'm so glad that I wasn't just a little bit better, because if I've been just a little bit better, I would have been getting the solos and I would have been the first chairs of like the really good orchestras, and that's where I would still be. But thank heavens, I was just not quite good enough. So I had to think outside the box, and I

had to get really creative with it. So you're thinking, Okay, I'll do something different, But what do you do? You know you want to dance, to play violin, or maybe you want to juggle. How did you kind of end up in doing what you do now, which you play electric violin and dance at the same time, which is pretty crazy. That is that accurate? You play electric violin? I do I play the What would your title if

you had to give yourself a job title? I mean, I usually just say I'm an electronic violinist, you know, but you don't play the normal non electronic violin. That's the thing I do, but I don't know what to call myself. So when that usually quickly paints a picture for people of like, oh, she does the violin in a different way, because I do still play like leaku

stick violent. All my recordings are done with an acoustic violin, um, but a lot of my shows are with electric violence, just because I can make them sparkle and they look really cool. How many violences do you have at your house? I probably have about seven violins in my house. Well that's how I thought you'd have, Like I know, everyone's always surprised. I'm like, I'm a moderation kind of a person, you know, I don't I have like really nice violins

like and also violence. If you get to like really nice violins, they're very expensive. And so like I have my one really nice violin, and then I have some you know, fully like I have two violins that are fully Swolvorskiki crystal hy even say Swolvorski crystal. So you know, I can't have a million of them if I want them all to be really special. Do they have violins from back in the like Beethoven days? Are they still around? It?

All there? And that's why violins, a good one is so expensive, is because the wood gets better with age and sweetens, and so the best violins you can get are ones that are, you know, a hundred plus years old. Really, yeah, have you ever played a hundred plus year old violin? Do you have one? That's what my mind is about a hundred years old. And you know that's why I'm like so careful with that thing, because you can't replace it, Like no violence sounds the same, and also it's it

was it's a hundred years old. It had to wait till it was a hundred to be what it's worth.

And that's why they're so valuable. Do you ever go in to a music store and you just go and you're just like looking around and you grab a violin and you kind of want to show off a little bit and you want to make people like look, Because that's what I would do if I had like some extreme talent, I would go into like if I was a great singer, I would go into a karaoke place and just wail and have no one know it was me, the great singer, but just be amazed that someone singing

great was on the karaoke stage. Do you ever go into like that? Do they have a guitar They have a guitar Violence of car center they have those. They don't you ever going to violent center just grab a violin and not tell them that you're like super proficient at violin. You know, violin shops are very they're very different. They're not like a guitar center. They're like old houses where there's just violins lining the walls and they're all super old and like really cool and so but there's

all I had to say. It was a little bit of a snobby community, so like I would think it was a snobby it's snobby community. So like walking into that kind of shop, you don't get mediocre players that walk into a shop like that. You know what I'm saying. Could I walk into one of those shops You're like, hey, I'm really interested. Can I see the one year all violin? Probably not. I wouldn't let me hold it. I mean

probably not. No, if you've never played, you know, they'd be like, heck no, when I hear violin, I think are really rich people, because like to me, that's a did you grow up rich? No? Absolutely not. It was actually Hue. That's why it took my parents so long. You know, I begged when I was five years old for lessons, and it wasn't until I was six that they were like, I think, okay, you know most parents are like, our child wants to play the violin, like

get him something, get him a violin. Um. But it was such a sacrifice, Like my parents really were struggling so much financially to make ends me. Like my mom talks about how we couldn't afford sour cream, you know, like every penny was accounted for and so it was a huge sacrifice to rent this violin and pay for lessons. And you know, my mom found a student, a college student that was willing to teach me every other week for only fifteen minutes, because that's all she could afford.

But I think because of that, I knew it was a sacrifice. And I knew as a child that if I did not practice, the lessons were going to go away. They weren't. You know, it wasn't a casual thing, and my parents told me that, and um, so I think that's part of the reason that I was diligent with it as a child. When we were doing Dancing with the Stars and we just had a week, not even a week, four days, we were working together. We would train and this is all going to come back, but

we were trained together. And then I would have to

go to work. But people working on the set would text me and go, hey, Lindsey still here practicing, and she's by herself, by myself, and she's over in the corner and she hasn't left, and it's and I would be at the studio for two three hours and I would get a text like they said, Lindsay hasn't left, and we would do split practices where I'd practice all day, would do radio, and then I would go back in the evening and you would rejoin, but except you never

stopped practicing. And what a lot of people would see in you on the surface is oh wow, she's so talented, like how great she It just must all come so easily. Myself included, if I'm being completely transparent, I thought, oh wow, it must be nice to just have that and this this innate ability to hear and be good at something. However, what I saw, and just the dancing thing, is that you work and harden a lot. Yes, So where does that work ethic come from? How was that instilled in you? What?

What was it? You know? I I'm not quite sure where. My parents always really instilled in us, like a value of work. Since we were kids, we had to earn things if we wanted them, like I said, because my parents didn't have money to just like give us things. It was something where like I mean, I started my first business when I was like a kid, selling cookies, and or my my friend and I started doing a

business where passed out business card. We were called the ready to work Girls, and we would offer to clean people's houses like when we were kids and we had business cards like as little children, and people thought it was so cute, But you know, that's how I earned money for anything I wanted, um, outside of just like your two outfits for school that year, you know. And so I think it from a very young age, I just had instilled in me that you know, life takes

work and um. And I think that's what I attribute to like all my success is I'm honestly, I wasn't the most talented violinist. It's just that I've put in the hours. And same with Dancing with the Stars, like Mark and I were the last to leave the studio almost every single night. We put in the time. He worked with me relentlessly, and you know, because that was the first time I'd ever had dance training, and not only did I want to do well in the show, but I'd wanted to dance since I was a kid.

You know. My parents actually took me to a violin lesson and a dance class because I asked for both when I was a child and they were like, you gotta choose one, like we can't afford both. And so when I was on Dancing with the Stars, it was the first time like something I wanted to learn my whole life. I was getting a chance to learn from one of the best ballroom teachers in the world. You know, for however much time I wanted to put in and I didn't take that for granted. I wanted to be

as good as I could possibly be. Yeah, that's interesting, And that was a realization to me. Watching you work was that I was wrong. I judged wrong and unfairly because you're good. But I watched you work to be great, and I thought that was pretty cool, Like like really, I was like, I was like, that's cool. Like she she's very gritty. I think that's what I told me, You're very gritty. You grew up where Gilbert, Arizona. What's Gilbert Arizona About Gilbert Arizona. It changed so much since

I grew up there. But when I, you know, I was a child, it was full of corn fields and cotton fields and dairy farms. And to this day, the smell of cowmaneure was like my childhood home. Your neighbors cows, Yes, my neighbors had cows. We had chickens and horses in my backyard, and you know, we gardened. We went picked corn, you know, in the cornfield, Like I was a little country bumpkind. We like to play in the ditch for fun. Like That's what I did as a kid, and I

wouldn't trade that childhood for anything like one. It taught me to be kind of gritty and like getting the mud and make things happen, you know. And uh. At the same time, though, um, it's crazy how much it's changed now. It's like a booming city. It's it's almost like I don't even recognize it when I go home. But it was a great way to be a kid. Your mom still in Gilbert, My mom is still there, same house. Yeah, do you have Is your bedroom still

the same? You know? It's funny my bedroom is the only one that's still the same because my mom has kept our rooms until the kids getting married and then she'll like like she's like, I always want you to feel like you have a home until you, you know, have your own family and build your own home. But so my room is the only one left. Do you sleep in it when you go home? I do? And do you have posters up of John the Taylor Thomas?

Those those did get taken down Okay, so you grew up in Gilbert, Arizona, and you go to college for a bit. Um I did. I went to by U and graduated by U, the whole thing. Yeah, you finished school and you think, what do you want? What are you gonna go do? What's the idea? Well, by the time I finished school, I had you know, I started out as a film major, studying film, wanting to be a director, and you know, I loved it, but I

just didn't feel right. So I ended up switching degrees halfway through and becoming a recreational therapist is what I wanted to be. Wait, what is that? What is the recreational therapist? Oh, it's the best thing ever. I wanted to work with troubled teenagers and treatment centers, and you're

the person that plans all of their activities. But like, for example, you would do maybe an art project, but you're getting the girls or the you know, the kids to express their emotions and their feelings through a painting, because sometimes these kids don't want to express it verb

or they just can't. But it was amazing how much they would open up when you get them to do it, either artistically or get them outside on a horse, or get them rock climbing, and you know, comparing climbing a wall to like climbing over the challenges, it's like making it physical for them. So you want to do that. But you finished school with a degree and recreational so I could be a recreational therapist. But then you go, Okay,

I really don't want to do that either. Yeah, it was my last year in school I realized I was like, you know, what's all I thought about was music. I had finally kind of discovered my voice, you know, I had, like I said, decided not to study music, but I didn't ever stop playing. I kept playing with bands or writing music and you know, trying out all these different styles. And I didn't know what I wanted to be. I just knew I was excited about music and wanted to

kind of reinvigorate my passion. And once I found like a sound that I loved, I was obsessed again, like the way I was when I was six years old and I first held that cereal box, like I was consume by it and in like a really cool way, the way that I hadn't felt in years. And so I was just basically trying to finish school because I was like, I'm the kind of person I was, like,

I paid for my own college. I put myself through college while while working, and I was like, I'm not going to not get this degree that I am so close to. So it's almost like I was walking two very different paths that we're getting farther and farther apart, as I was trying to start a music career but also trying to finish school and um. But so by the time I finished school, I had already started a YouTube channel, and I had already like I was already planning my first or I think I was about to

start planning my first ever tour. The YouTube thing is so interesting to me because like you're a real life like you thrived in new YouTube, yes, like when YouTube really was launching people into their desired area. Like you're one of those people who figured out YouTube early. Thank heavens, you know, sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. And thankfully I met um Devin Graham, who's a cinematographer who has a YouTube channel, and he saw

what I was doing. He had seen I had posted one video on YouTube solely to get it to the Ellen show like. I posted it and then sent them a link. But the only way I knew how to get it to them was by putting it on this thing called YouTube. And that video went viral for lack of a better term. I have since taken it down. It's still survived. Someone else put it up, of course, as all things do on the internet. Um it's so bad. It's um me dancing to the black Eyed peas pump

it while playing the violin. It was the first time I really was like, I mean, and the funny thing is is now people look at me and I'm I'm a dancer. Now you know. I've I've taught myself to dance and after Dancing with the Stars, escalated myself quite a bit even further. But at the time I'd never tried to dance, so it was like it was like as if you were like, oh, go out there and

play football, Lindsay, it's the same thing. I was a terrible dancer, but I just really this idea and I was like, if I could dance and play the violin, no one's doing that and it would be so cool. Um. So I posted this video where I played over the actual black Eyed piece pump at track like this little violent line I wrote, and I'm dancing my little heart out in my living room and it is so bad. See if you can find it, Mike this Google it's let see Lindsay Sterling pump. It would probably come up.

But I don't know why I'm telling you this. It's it's hilarious because it's one of those things where it's like, wow, come along way and it went viral. What was viral back then? So that's the funny thing. Back then viral was it got about half a million views, which is a lot for the time, Like this was two thousand and seven, I think when I put it up, and

you know, that was a massive amount of views. I remember everyone, all my friends being like, what, you're like famous, You've got you know, half a million views on this video. And I didn't even understand yet that YouTube was like a thing that was like I didn't understand that you

could have your own channel. I just thought, oh, I posted a video and like now what And so I didn't even touch it for a while until I realized, um, oh, this is where you can like I started to realize there were all these other people with platforms with fans that like subscribe to them and wanted to see more.

And these people were celebrities by playing videos online. And at this time, I've been going to all these record labels trying to get people to believe in my stuff, trying to get people to like think that I was cool, and nobody saw the vision at all. And suddenly there was this world without gatekeepers, where you put it up and if people like it, they share it. And that's where my career was born. Is it called Lindsay hip hop violin? Oh? It probably? Is it a black and white?

I think the sugar poem Faery song is playing. I think there's still the album's playing. This is in our studio we're working on okay. I think we'll probably have two roll in here on the computer. This is an our computer. Give us a break here, Lindsey startling. I'm judging so hard, so hard. So it's black and white. You look m M nineteen, Like, look at that outfit. You're in cut off shorts, but no, it's cut off sweats. It looks like tall black socks. Like my hair. Your

hair's kind of cool. You was my peacock hairstyle. Let me hear this which one? Is this too bad? The folks at home can't see. They can make up Lindsay hip hop, Violin, Lessy Darling and you don't like this, it's terrible. I mean, does that not bad to you? Mike? Look pretty good to me, But they can't the dancing though, the dancing is it looks just looks like it's So that's better than what I do on National TV right now, if that says anything. So you put this up? And

where are you shooting this? What room is this? This is my college apartment. My roommate was pressing record on the tripod for me, and yes, and that's the first one. And you took it down. You don't want to leave it up for the Smithsonian well partially actually the real I am all about like, hey, people should know, Like it's cool that people see where you came from, I think,

But I took it down for copyright purposes. I used the actual Black Eyed Peas song, which now there used to be a huge gray area and YouTube where you're like, if I don't monetize it, it's okay, not okay anymore? What's up now on this guy's channel? Yeah, but he's not rack like he's not a YouTuber. He's like one point three million views, but that's like, you know what I mean, he's not a YouTube personality, like no one's

watching his anyway. He maybe now out of comments say I love this, they should more should be like that comment on that thing. Let me read someone says, Lindsay's first video found out when I was in sixth grade, and I loved it so much. So cool to see she's so famous and producing such amazing work. Your fans are hardcore too, by the way, and they're all from all over the world, Like you tour all over the world. Just so cool. Do you ever go to like Outh

America and tour like places like that? It's just different language, completely different culture, absolutely, like we do South America. We've gone to Eastern Europe and Russia and we've gotten to Asia. And what is it like to go to somewhere like Russia and you're playing music for people that you don't speak the same language. Yeah, and but you still speak

the same language. And that's what's so cool about being a most you know, nine pcent of my stuff is instrumental, and so to be able to go to a place and be able to have no language barrier in the music. It's pretty cool and I think that's why I've done so well on a global platform. Um. But also it's just insane to me, Like, I never traveled. I'll be you know, my family didn't have any money when I was growing up, so I like, I didn't really leave Arizona.

And then suddenly, you know, I am in Europe on tour and doing shows. And it was the weirdest thing. That first tour in Europe. It was, you know, I did a little tour in the US and then I went straight to Europe and I just couldn't believe. I would show up to a venue in Paris or France or wherever, you know, wherever we were, people would be there and they'd be like chanting my name in their accent, you know, and say and I was like, this is insane.

Was that the crowd from Ratatu the movie sound? What accent was that? That was? That's fresh? Lin say, so you go to these places and they know your music, but you don't speak the same language. What does a

show like because you're playing people don't areart singing along? Yeah, my shows are very you know, and it depends on the type of room we're playing, but especially now, like they used to be much rowdier crowds because we'd play small clubs and everybody's intimate, and they would they would jump around and like around like kind of not like, I mean, my fans aren't that intense, you know so And also, but I realized the more I've you know,

expanded as an artist, my crowds are so strangely diverse, like no one knows what to make of it. You have an older elderly couple that have always loved the violin that are there, and they're dressed up on nice You've got your guys in French coats that are metaled heads that think, oh she shreds, she's a shredder. You've got your gamers, You've got your your teenage girls, your little kids. Like it's the weirdest demographic. And so now I do mostly seated venues because I want everyone to

be comfortable. I want the elderly couple to be able to sit and enjoy. I want kids to not have to like be holding you know, their parents holding them up. And so I play very you know, seeded venues, and my shows are very much people watch like they come to watch. They're not usually cheering or chanting, like of course they'll clap in between songs, but it's not like a rowdy yeah yeah, yeah crowd. It's a very like we're dancing. There's ballet in the show. There's like it's

it's a theatrical performance. If people talk during your show to people go yes, I mean not if people are talking a little bit, but if people are like talking loud, yeah, the or like if some fans get really upset because they want to stand up in like dance and people are like sit down, sit down, you know, so I and I feel bad. But it's like a lot of the fans are there too, Like they're not there to party. Some of them they're there to sit and watch. It's

like a rock and roll dance via listen. I haven't been That's why I'm asking these questions. I've never seen your show before, but I feel like, I mean, there's so much energy. Oh, it's it's an energetic show. I mean, um, the girl, my my dancers, and I like we are probably drenched in sweat by the second song, like we are. There's full choreography, the band, it's loud, it's very loud. It's a rock show. But um, it's also like I like to think of it, I love theatricality. I love costumes,

So there's all these costume changes. There's, like I said, there's everything from lyrical dance numbers to like elements of pop to ballet like point ballet, and so it's very diverse. It's always moving their storytelling that happens in it through the dancing and you know, and then through the visuals on the screens. I try to create these different worlds and it's very much a like I put a lot of energy into not only the creation of the show, but every single night on that stage, like we come

off exhausted. Okay, so you build YouTube, you put a YouTube video up, it's on my screen in front of you. It all kind of stems from that video, like not all the work, but this the idea, this incarnation of Lindsay Sterling the performer. When could you pay your bills from getting YouTube streams? Um? I probably, Well, so this video was I think two thousand seven is when I put it up. And then honestly I took a huge like I just didn't know what YouTube was and what

it could do. So it went viral, but I had no idea what that actually meant. By the way, ever, I never got on Ellen. Would be a thing for you, like to go on Ellen. That'd be a huge thing for me. It would be like the full one. It would be one of the full circal moments, and I love a good full stortle moment. But now I haven't been on Ellen yet, which is funny because it's kind of something that spurred the entire thing. So it's like someday,

so I'll get tell um, you post on YouTube videos. Yeah, so I take a break and then um, I met this cinematographer guy Devin Graham, who basically was like, you would do really well on YouTube, and he taught a YouTube like seminar, like a one night thing at b y U where a bunch of filmmakers came and I I had been kind of discouraged at this point because

I've been trying. I've been playing open mic nights and doing these like things called NAKA showcases, which are for like college shows, and flying around the country doing these very thankless gigs, playing in college cafeterias. And I was like, I just don't know how much longer I can do this because nothing was changing. It was just everything was

the same. And then I went to this YouTube seminar where for two hours I sat there and learned, like he broke it down for you how you become a good YouTube channel and how you became a YouTuber and build fan bases. And I was, you know, when something just feels so right. It felt so right, and I knew. I even called my mom right after I left him, like I figured it out. I'm going to be a youtubert right, Yeah, she's gonna okay, that's really She was

excited because I was excited. My mom is so supportive. Um, you know, but I, I like took notes feverishly and I just I just knew. And I feel like you got to trust that inner gut, like it'll tell you sometimes when it's time to throw in the towel and switch directions slightly, or when it's time too that's not a good avenue. But this time I knew that this

was going to work, and so I tirelessly. I'm still going to school at this point, and I'm just tirelessly making all these YouTube videos and thank Heaven's I what did I do with my first two years? Of college. I went to film school, so I had all the know how of how to you know, well, I also had all these friends that could help me film the videos. I knew how to edit, I knew how to produce, I knew how to like do all of that, and so I could make these really beautiful videos for nothing,

for free. And you know, at the time, I had no money. And then it was probably about six months after doing YouTube. It happened pretty fast that I was like, Okay, I can quit my job and I can do this full time. So if you're dependent on uploading content, what kind of rules do you set with yourself? Like I must have something up every week, I must have to think of every two weeks because you gotta pay your mortgage, you gotta pay your rent, you gotta pay your car payment.

Like the practical side of it, how much were you creating and uploading so you could actually just survive? Um? You know, I thankfully I had saved up some money, so I wasn't like paycheck to paycheck anymore. At this point I kept my job until I had a little cushion. Um. And I've never I'm very unique in the YouTuber sense because most YouTubers upload like every week. You know, they have to in order to keep the content role and

keep their fans interested. Thankfully, you know, what you set as a precedent on YouTube is what your fans expect. I guess not even on YouTube in general as an artist or as a personality, Like, whatever you set, people are going to expect that from you. And thankfully I always have done like kind of sparse videos. I used

to do one a month. Now, honestly, the last three years, I've probably done, you know, maybe ten a year, which is a lot for a musician that tours as much as I do and writes original music and I produce and I concept and direct all my own music videos, so that's and edit them still, so that's a lot, but for a YouTuber that's so little. Um But also I always had a much bigger picture in my mind. I never saw YouTube as the bread and butter for me. It was wow when I put up my first YouTube video,

once I understood what YouTube was. By this time, I had like three songs online that were original, that were mine, that were my sound that I loved, and they hadn't sold. They've been up there for months and no one had bought them except for like my mom and you know, my sisters, and that's about it. And so suddenly when I put up this YouTube video, the first one after the you know beloved black and White Black Eyed Peas video, um, I saw the spike in the sales, and I like,

I get it. This is not about YouTube. YouTube is like the you know, the ground, my playground, so that people can go wherever I need them to go. That's and I knew that's I wanted to get on tour. That's kind of was the end goal for me, is I want a tour, And so that was always what I saw as how I sell tickets, how I sell my music, how I sell everything is all based on

this YouTube channel. But outside of it is where I make the cash to keep me afloat, because like I said, I only make you know, eight to ten videos a year. So when you get a check from YouTube, does it come from YouTube? Say YouTube? I want to say on the corner of the check, it's Google. I get a Google check. Yeah, it's so it's from like Google Inc. Yeah, Google, because it's Google that pay, like gets all those ads

and put them on your channel. And do they ads have to be cleared by you like a certain kind of ad. Um. I'm allowed to say what I don't want on my channel, and every once while new one pops up there like oh I don't want that, like add that to the list. But you know, you're you're basically allowed to say. You're not allowed to say what kind of content is in the ad. But like from example, I don't have alcohol ads on my channel or like I think I asked for no Victoria's Secret ads like, um,

like farmers only dot com, Oh that's my favorite. Let farmers absolutely. I mean I grew up on a farm. You know, those are my people. I might meet someone that's yeah, it was Okay, did you get on the dating apps? Have you been on the dating apps? I have been on the dating apps? Yeah? Yeah, I mean I'm not like, I'm not super proud of it. But why of it? That's the way people meet now, I know, but they're so strange. They's so strange people. You can

meet anyone that's strange. Yeah, you can meet strange people anywhere. But I just feel like the dating app culture. Okay, here's what I don't like about the dating is it's created the most flaky dating or culture in general, but in dating specifically, like you know, people like barely talk on them, like you message someone, and half the time they don't even message back because there's endless option of

people that they swiped through. And so like someone you'll be talking to an all of a sudden they disappear and it's like, oh, they probably found someone hotter. Okay, how would someone meet you, because they're probably listening. How how would i um? I like to go and hikes. I'll either be playing the violin amongst some trees or I'll be hiking. I was watching this video where you're in Alaska on a glacier. Yeah, that's my newest one. How do you First of all, what's the name of

the video? It's called I Wonder As I Wander. I wonder as I wanted some whimsical right now, how did you get on a glacier? So this was actually a crazy story. I in the middle of our tour, we were able to book a show in Alaska, So we had a show, flew on a plane to Alaska, and we basically had thirty hours on the ground before we had to get back to our next show, which was in l A. So it's tiny little window of time.

But I was like, I'm flying all the way to Alaska, like, and I knew I had to film this Christmas video, so I was like, I have to film on a glacier. So basically I got off the stage from this um we played the Alaska State Fair, and I jumped straight out the stage into a van. I did my makeup

in the van, jumped onto a helicopter. You know, I changed in the bathroom of the helicopter pad into this like huge head dress and whimsical outfit, and then flew on a helicopter and they dropped me off a glacier

with my camera guy. That's crazy, And like, I mean, I'm wearing snowshoes like chains on my feet to hike from location to location as we're filming this, because we had several spots we wanted to film on, and like we were jumping over little glacial streams, climbing up glacial hills, like me doing this all in this head dress and this very very flimsy dress was freezing. Now I wonder, as I wonder, It's on the deluxe edition of Lendy's Christmas album Warmer in the Winter, So what's up with

the deluxe? So you put more songs? I did? I think five new tracks on this album. That's what makes it deluxe. That's so this is one of the new songs, This is I, which turned into I think my favorite song on the album. Actually, now you're wearing an outfit, it's like why it's like you're you look like a Native American American. It's about to get married and on a glacier. It's crazy. It's kind of it's a who is this your idea? This outfit? I actually styled this

video myself. I sewed some of it and I bought the rest of it off of Etsy, like a piece it together, you know, about a body suit here, so to skirt, bought a head dress here. So you do it all, huh. I love doing it all, Like the whole process is why I love that I get to make these like small productions, you know, because I can do it all. Are you so busy all the time? Yeah, I'm pretty busy, But I like it that way because

I'm doing things that I like. I don't have to style my own videos myself, but sometimes I just enjoy it and I think it's important to do the things, not only that are going to be successful, but do them in a way that I started, Like why did I start doing this? Because I loved costume design, I love making videos, I loved editing them. So people are always telling me like, Okay, someone else to do all that stuff, and sometimes I do. Sometimes I'm like, well

this one I want to do? This? Is you singing this too? Right? Yes? Do you sing? Not a lot? I sing this? But are you a good singer? I would never call myself a good singer. I'm I'm a like mediocre singer on what scale? Though? Because I thought the black Appy video is pretty good? Hat on that I thought it was pretty good. So you're probably with real sing like great singers, and you're comparing yourself to like the Yeah, I mean like, could I pull off

a full show of singing? Absolutely not? Like, well, I think the like my range is very limited, and like I can sing like this song was in my range and it was suitable for my voice, but like, I really don't think I could entertain the crowd singing for an hour? Do you ever get up and talk in your shows? All the time? My guys make fun of me. They're like, like, tonight you were talking for nine minutes and like in one break, and I was like, and I was like, I was not, Um, I think it depends.

I mean, I was like, it's important for me. And I don't always talk for nine minutes. Usually it's five, you know, per break, not always, but um, it's important to me that if I'm on a stage and thousands of people are in the audience, might as well say

something that I actually believe in and care about. Um, you know, for example, like we were actually on a co headline tour with Evanescence this summer, and now let me just say I I am still a massive Evanescence fan, but also like growing up, like I had her Amy Lee's poster on my wall, I was a huge fan and like she and then the way that she approaches music has affected the way I approach writing music like

high contrast, and so I love her. And when we had this opportunity tour together, was this is the coolest thing ever. And so here I am on stage in front of you know, sometimes ten fifteen thousand people at night, and I would go up to the mic and I would say, you know, it's pretty cool that we're on tour Evanescence. You know, I've I've been a casual fan for years, and you could kind of see the look of like her fans being like, um, that was rude.

And then immediately this music video of me starts playing when I was as me as a fifteen year old like rocking out to Evanescence and like with my two best friends, you can tell we think we are so cool. It was my really early editing days and um, actually the first music video ever made. And so you know then I would as soon as that went away, I would say, well, I guess obviously I am not a

casual fan. I'm a huge fan. And that created a moment for me to be like, no one would have ever looked at that girl, that awkward girl in that screen and thought that she would amount to anything, but guess what. That girl had really big dreams and that

girl was willing to work really really hard. And I fell down many times when I got back up and I and this was the moment right after I had just played a song with Amy Lee and then to be able to be like then, all of a sudden, that momentment so much more and for me, like the talking moments like are to make people one relate to me and realize because also when I perform, it's very like kind of like that music video we just watches, very epic and very like you know, ah, and I'm

kind of goober like in real life, so it's like I'm this whimsical, magical creature. And then I go to the mic and they're they're all very aware that I'm just a normal awkward girl. Are you awkward? Oh yeah, I'm so, I'm super I mean, yeah, definitely. How so

I mean together to me? I mean, I guess I'm put together, but that doesn't mean I'm not awkward still, you know, like I I guess I'm just goofy, Like I'm just a goober, and you know, I'll do a lot of swinging MSS like, I'll really go for it and and try to be funny sometimes and it's not funny, um, but uh. And then also sometimes just being myself and being a little bit goofy and kind of playing into

the awkwardness makes people laugh. Like people like that, and you know, they always say it's the best when you're just yourself. And I stopped. I used to get so nervous those moments going up to the mic. That was the part that I like fear the most of the entire shows. I have to talk to him. What do I say? Um? Because I felt like I had to be so put together, and the more I've just been like, yeah, I just need to own what I am. And uh,

it's made it like now, I love that moment. It feels like I get to connect with the audience in a totally different way, especially because I don't get to use my voice at all through the show, and people connect through the voice, and you know, I'm playing a violin, and so when I get to finally like use my voice and talk to them, I think it fills a gap that could be very apparent in the show. Yeah,

that's wilder. You're not You're not wearing a mic at all, no headset, mike And where is your Where is a mic? It's up in the top corner of the stage stage right, if you will. And what one time I got stuck on something like in the middle of the stage in

the middle of the show. I was like super high off the ground and I was stuck and it was just a funny moment because everyone's looking around like what do we do, Like she has no mic, Like I couldn't explain to the audience like having technically, I couldn't even be like goofy or awkward about it or joking

to make it fun. I had nothing. I'm like up there in silence, and luckily my keyboard players hilarious and so like, you know, he would really it turned into a really funny moment, but it was just a man. It would be really nice if I had a mic right now, but it's like thirty ft away. That's crazy to think you're performing on a stage and people can't. You can't just flick something on. You don't wear like a no secondary headset, mike nothing. Oh I don't know.

I mean, I've got so many packs on. I've got the violin or I've got the inner monitor pack already that you gotta hide in the spandex costume. How do you hide a micro or a in your monitor pack in a Spandex costume? I don't know. But the last thing I want is the second one. So, so yeah, who's your favorite artist? Cannot Pink is one of my favorite artists. And I'm saying that, like all one you

get one, I'm only gonna be one artist. There you go, it's Pink and it's music, it's performance, Like who why is it Pink? It's because it's mostly because I feel like she is throughout everything she does. I love what she stands for. I love the way she presents herself to the world. Um. And you see that you hear in her music, you also see it in her life show. Her live show is the best life show I've ever

been to. And like, you know, when I leave and experience either listening to Pink talk or seeing her on stage or hearing her music, it's like, yes, you just feel good about owning who you are. Young girls look at you. What do you want them to see? You know? I want them to see someone who who has worked really hard to love herself, because that's something that didn't

come natural naturally to me. Um when I you know, I went through some anorexia and call and severe depression and I finally woke up to the fact that I deserved better and that I had a problem. And I think a lot of people look at me the same way with like dancing at the stars. They just see me as this like happy pixie violinists that like, oh she looks you know, ever, her world looks so perfect, But it takes work to love. I think it takes work sometimes to love yourself and to be okay in

your own skin. And it's something that I put a ton of work into for years to go from hating myself, like I'm talking, hating myself and thinking I was hideously ugly. And it's not that the girl in the mirror changed at all, like physically, like, nothing changed to make me love myself and feel beautiful. It was a it was a choice, and it was effort, and it was learning

the tools and the skills. And so I hope that when young girls look at me, no matter where they're at and their emotional awareness or how they feel about themselves, they realize, well, Lindsey learned to love herself and works hard still to love herself, and it must be possible for me to do this same thing. Do you get a lot of feedback from young girls let's see you and hear your message? Did you do you read those

messages at all? Yeah? I do. I mean I get I get letters at shows and you know, or get sent letters um or comments online. And I think that is the thing that makes me the most like proud of not proud, that's the wrong word, but just this was one of the most gratifying things I think is for me as an artist, because it's something that I struggled with and to see that maybe in a way

I'm helping, you know, not only young girls. This is something that the boys struggle with too, and that maybe I'm helping someone realize that it's worth the fight, it's worth the effort, and that there's hope. Because when I was struggling, that was the hardest thing was you know. You hear sometimes that mental diseases are like kind of incurable, especially on a rexya. They say it's incurable, and I kind of now I see what they're saying, but it's

like it's it's not a thing anymore for me. I've I've learned to cope with it so well that as long as I stay on top of it, it's not I don't, it doesn't It's not a factor in my life. Your tour rider is something that you walk into a room at a venue and they have all these things that you've requested. Things, what's on the Lindsay Sterling tour rider.

You know, mine's so boring, it's very minimalistic because I got really annoyed at how much stuff goes to waste, and so I have a very minimal, very small writer. But some of the more interesting things on there. I've recently fallen in love with chocolate coconut milk. It's so good chocolate chocolate, so not real milk, like like squeeze coconut water. It's like coconut water. But they have coconut milk and you can get a chocolate version and it's

got whaleless sugar in it and whaleless calories. So it's it's like kind of guilt free and I can drink a tone of it minimal guilt. It's like, yeah, it's like little guilt instead of like oh I shouldn't have had that, It's like, oh, maybe you shouldn't have had that. So you have chocolate coconut milk, cocon milk. We also have We occasionally put NERF gun bullets on there because we like to have NERF gun wars. Do you take your own guns? Though, yes we do, we have our

own guns. Do you take you have your own guns? We request the bullets. You know, we keep having to rebuy the guns because they keep getting broken. They're not made to last, so usually we just buy new butt guns every tour. Um. Yeah, we request the bullets because you can't reuse those things. Once you shot him a couple of times, they they're kind of done. I didn't know that. I'm not fluent in NERF bullets. See that's

why I'm telling you. I didn't notice until I became a new NERF gun connoisseur um, and then you know. And then our writer has the other things like Thomas and veggies and um apples and one of the funny things whenever you came to Dancing with the Stars for the week that we were there, is that grosser store Joe is on the show, who's a super nice guy. Yeah, And you were like, oh, I know him from the show.

So you guys watched The Bachelor and Bachelor Paradise. Yes, we actually watched it on tour religiously, Like me and the girls on tour would look forward to it and we'd we'd record it and after the show on like Monday night, we'd go watch it on the bus and you would see grocery store Joe and go, I like that guy from the show, or no, oh, we love grocery store Joe. What was his thing because I haven't I know on the Batch when he went home early.

No Bachelorette, right, yeah, the Bachelorette. He didn't make it through the first episode. So what was it on batchlor in Paradise that made people go, I really like that guy because he's super likable and I like him Listen, I like him as a person, but I didn't see him on the TV show. He's very he comes across as so sweet and just so real, and he's kind of awkward, but like in a very endearing way. And so I think that's why America film love with him,

because he was just like he was. He was kind of awkward and you could tell he was really uncomfortable, but he was just so kind and genuine. I think that's how he is in real life, and that's how he is in real life. Yeah. After now I can say that I know Grocery store Joe. I heard that Jenna, his dance partner, was like, oh my goodness, I'm getting groceries toward Joe, like before they danced. She was actually jenn Is a friend of mine, I mean obviously from

the show. Um, and she was telling me that she was like, I was genuinely so excited, and then he liked me, cannot dance. We're the lowest as you hear this, we're the lowest two scorers on that show. But go ahead. People love you so that you know, that's the most important thing, is it? Though, like it's got to be a mix. Well, it's definitely a mix, but like those I gotta get a little better though. Right, Well, you're working hard, so that wasn't the question. That wasn't the question.

Let's startling, I have to get a little better, right, I'm feeling this week you're going to kill it. Why don't you answer my question? I have to get you have to get a little better. Okay, there you go, but you improve every week, so I have no doubt that you will. So diplomatic with your answers. Here's this, you're a mean one, Mr Gretch. Here's some of this from Lindsay startling and the Christmas album that is called Warmer in the Winter. Right, all right, but how can

you just do your meal? Mr? Granted to pay for this? Um? Yeah, it's well, you don't pay for it, pay for it by what people pay you exactly. You're Sabrina Carpenter love her the teen singer, a teenager. Yeah, yeah, maybe she's with twenties. I don't everybody everybody that, How do you get an artist to play with you like this? Dude? Just ask him? Call her up? Well, actually I don't have her number, um, but through her management, you know,

we've tracked her down. I met her at the Disney Awards and we talked about doing something together, and then a couple of months later, I, you know, called in for the favor. All right, Well, as we record this, what is it October? A month it is? I'm so underwater with all this stuff. It is October as we record this hasn't even been Halloween yet. I'm inappropriate. I'm so sorry. No, you're getting ahead of it. So the records out that you're gonna be on tour win starting Wins.

We start the day after Thanksgiving, November Sacramento. Uh is that right? I think we we start in Nevada. Okay, it's well, it says here Nearest, Oh nearest shows what that says? Okay, got it? Got it? Got it? You pulled that schedule off. We do play Sacramento. Listen, We've done an hour here you and I talking. We've been talking an hour. We've done one hour, and is there anyone still listening? Of course of course, and your people are very patient. Let me just say, well, we're not live.

Well I know that. What if she thought it is a live show the whole time? I'm like, how many? Let's take you some callers? Okay everyone? November Reno is your first show? Your second shows in Sacramento. Okay, there we go there. It is Salt Lake Broomfield, Colorado, which is at Denver. Okay. A lot of places on our shows. One uh oh maaha, which you talk Kansas and Intrust, Like are you spring Film Missouri? Yeah, crazy Minneapolis, Madison Blue Man. Come on, she'll be on on all Christmas.

And you may be hearing this way after Christmas too. She's probably doing something right now, we've done an hour. Let me say this, I appreciate your candor through this interview. It's very refreshing. Um. I appreciate your guidance through my last couple of months because I've definitely leaned on you as as with the dancing with the Star stuff, and even a bit at being in California and being in Los Angeles. What do. I know, I'm from freaking Arkansas.

I'll take you to the best. Yeah, So I appreciate that, and uh yeah, good luck. I hope you sell lots of Christmas albums, thank you, and hope people come to your shows because it's going to be such a good show. So I hope people come. But thank you so much for having me, and thank you for your thought out, thoughtful questions. There's a reason you're good at what you do. I get it. I don't have any notes in front of me. I know that, but you're just very thoughtful.

I did read your book and see you did your homework and it's called only Pirate at the Party. Yeah, and it's and it's so funny. Let me see if I can tell the story paraphrased. You're get invited to a party right when I first moved to l A. Right, So it's really you're like part in the USA, Miley Cyrus. Right. It's like hopped in the cabin l A. I don't even know what's going on. You're trying to be cool. And it was um a themed party for hold on

not parts of the Caribbean. Hold On wait, oh, Peter Pan, that's what it was Peter Pan. Thank you, there's Peter Pan, And so you assume everybody's gonna be dressed. There's a Peter Pan party, now costume and you show up as a full dressed pirate and nobody was dressed. Like I'm talking. I had just done a music video as a pirate, so I had a like legit Captain Hook costume. Amazing, And you have to make the decision do I go

into the party fully dressed? Because I believe it said in your book maybe one person had a Peter Pan T shirt. I can tinker about T shirt. That was it? Yeah, Because I opened the door and like, no one is dressed up, but no one had seen me yet, And I was like, okay, I have I could get in my car and I could go home. No no, a foult like no one saw me. And I was like, or I can go into the party and just like really on this and I've decided to go into the party.

And then how do people react? Oh? People got the biggest kick out of it, Like people were like, oh my gosh, like what's your name? Like, oh my god, this grow up. But as as a pier, oh my gosh. I ended up making so many friends. I was the conversation starter of the night, not purposefully, you know, And I feel like that was such a perfect metaphor for my wife. It's not like I go through life trying to be like, how could I be super different? But I just by like the standards I live by, by

the kind of art I create. That's a metaphor for my life. I'm just a little different. I'm a little left of center. And I could neither be ashamed of it and go home, or I can be like, you know what, I'm going into the party dressed as a pirate. And the lesson is what go into the pirate dressed the party? Be yourself, like, don't be ashamed of who you are. Um. People told me when I first was starting that I would never succeed because I was too different.

Over and over again. You're just too different. We don't know what box to put you in, you know, from record labels and whatnot. Now, when people say they love my art or they come to my shows and they fly across the country to come, the reason they're they're so different. It's refreshing. It's so different. And I think that the very reason I was told I was never succeed is the very reason I have look at that,

and we should end on that. Letty Starling, you've been a real treat to talk to and she's doing it. Thank you very much. Motion about her hand which does not play well through, dang it, Thank you very much. Alright, what episodes, Episode one the Bobby Cast, and thank you to LifeLock, our sponsor, and Linsie Startling. Thank you, Linds, thank you.