Vocal jazz, doo-wop, and a little melodica: In the Still of the Night (I’ll Remember) (Johnny Mathis)
Listen to the song
- YouTube - https://youtu.be/Hr1M6wWBei0?si=ygI48sWUK1WvFumB
- Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/track/20DUr5qMlguUSIeVsquajt?si=90324010b59a4cc7
- Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/song/in-the-still-of-the-night-ill-remember/270027184
- Amazon - https://music.amazon.com/albums/B00138JBLM?marketplaceId=ATVPDKIKX0DER&musicTerritory=US&ref=dm_sh_nzxPmWqf3yYHOkPUPqfx65MuE&trackAsin=B001389W7A
Other links
Key takeaways
- Trist and Elaine discuss Johnny Mathis' rendition of "In the Still of the Night (I'll Remember)" with Take 6, highlighting the unique arrangement and the contrast between Mathis' wide vibrato and Take 6's tight, straight-toned jazz harmonies
- The hosts analyze the distinct features of Take 6's arrangement, including close vocal harmonies, walking bass lines, syncopated backgrounds, subtle jazz chord tensions, and the use of vocal techniques to mimic instrumental sounds
- In the mailbag portion, Trist and Elaine discuss different approaches to merchandise, such as limited runs, and how these strategies can help artists create a sense of exclusiveness and urgency to purchase. They also touch on evaluating the return on investment of merchandise sales, especially for indie artists
About us
Trist Curless is a Los Angeles-based vocalist, educator, and sound engineer. As a performer, Trist has toured worldwide as a co-founder of the pop-jazz vocal group m-pact and a 10 year member of the Grammy-award winning The Manhattan Transfer. In addition to these two vocal powerhouse groups, he’s also performed with Take 6, Bobby McFerrin, New York Voices, Vox Audio, Naturally 7, and The Swingle Singers. His latest venture, The LHR Project, is a new vocal group collective celebrating legendary jazz vocal group Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross.
As an audio engineer, Trist has toured nationally with several vocal groups and bands in a large variety of venues, working for Grammy award winners Pentatonix and Take 6, as well as prominent a cappella vocal groups Straight No Chaser, VoicePlay, and Accent.
Elaine Chao, M.Ed is a San Francisco Bay Area-based vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, vocal percussionist, and songwriter whose career spans a cappella, contemporary worship, and classical music. She has leveraged her training in classical and choral music over the course of her contemporary performance, including in orchestras for musical theatre and in sacred spaces. In addition to music, she also is a martial artist and published author. She currently leads a product management team at a major software company dedicated to creative expression. All statements in this podcast are her own and do not reflect the opinions of her employer.
Transcript
Elaine: Hey, Trist!
Speaker:Elaine: What do we have this week?
Speaker:Trist: Elaine, Elaine, Elaine, we have something exciting.
Speaker:Trist: I think this is already going to be a record breaker.
Speaker:Trist: And we're only on the what, sixth or seventh or eighth
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah,
Speaker:Trist: podcast
Speaker:Elaine: this is episode
Speaker:Trist: that
Speaker:Elaine: seven.
Speaker:Trist: we've done,
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: number seven.
Speaker:Trist: So I think this will also be the record.
Speaker:Trist: Whenever we're done, we can look back.
Speaker:Trist: And this will still be the
Speaker:Trist: record for the artist that we
Speaker:Trist: include that has made the most
Speaker:Trist: albums.
Speaker:Elaine: Okay.
Speaker:Trist: And that is Mr. Johnny Mathis, who
Speaker:Elaine: Ooh,
Speaker:Trist: recorded
Speaker:Elaine: okay.
Speaker:Trist: 74 albums.
Speaker:Elaine: 74?!
Speaker:Elaine: Holy cows!
Speaker:Trist: I mean, just the budgets for the albums that he's made could
Speaker:Trist: probably fund a small country.
Speaker:Trist: Anyway.
Speaker:Elaine: I mean, 74 is a lot.
Speaker:Elaine: And he's still alive, right?
Speaker:Trist: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Alive
Speaker:Elaine: Oh,
Speaker:Trist: and kicking.
Speaker:Elaine: yeah.
Speaker:Trist: He only
Speaker:Elaine: It's.
Speaker:Trist: just recently retired, even from performing.
Speaker:Trist: So he did it his whole life.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. And I'm thinking even if you started at like 18, 19, 20,
Speaker:Elaine: somewhere in there.
Speaker:Elaine: That's more than an album a year
Speaker:Elaine: if you just think about it that
Speaker:Elaine: way.
Speaker:Elaine: That's incredibly productive.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah. Started very young in life.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, which track are we listening to?
Speaker:Trist: We are going to listen to In the
Speaker:Trist: Still of the night (I'll Remember).
Speaker:Trist: The
Speaker:Elaine: Okay.
Speaker:Trist: the I'll remember is actually to differentiate it from a very
Speaker:Trist: famous song from Cole Porter in
Speaker:Elaine: Okay.
Speaker:Trist: the still of the night, like an old Cole Porter tune.
Speaker:Trist: Then this other famous song just
Speaker:Trist: called In the Still of the
Speaker:Trist: Night.
Speaker:Trist: So to avoid confusion, oftentimes they would put the
Speaker:Trist: "I'll Remember" in parentheses, sometimes before and sometimes
Speaker:Trist: after the song, but this is the doo wop kind of song that you
Speaker:Trist: might remember from the Five Satins, I think it might be?
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. That's the version I know.
Speaker:Elaine: So as we get settled into listening to this, can you
Speaker:Elaine: remind everyone how we should be listening to music?
Speaker:Trist: Well, I always like to encourage folks to, uh, since this is all
Speaker:Trist: about the listening and "The Musician's Loupe," so taking a
Speaker:Trist: closer look at the music and maybe hearing something you
Speaker:Trist: didn't hear before in a song.
Speaker:Trist: I just like to recommend that everyone gets the best listening
Speaker:Trist: situation they can.
Speaker:Trist: Maybe it's not the case.
Speaker:Trist: We're just thrilled you're listening regardless.
Speaker:Trist: But if you do have the option to
Speaker:Trist: grab those better headphones, go
Speaker:Trist: to the cool listening room that
Speaker:Trist: you have in your palace, etc.
Speaker:Trist: and listen to the selection for
Speaker:Trist: the day.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: So we are going to drop the links into the show notes.
Speaker:Elaine: So give it a listen or two or
Speaker:Elaine: three or four and we'll be right
Speaker:Elaine: back.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: And we are back.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh!
Speaker:Elaine: Holy cows.
Speaker:Elaine: I was listening to this and thinking, "Wait a minute.
Speaker:Elaine: You said doo wop, but this sounds like Take 6."
Speaker:Elaine: And then I looked at the people who were singing in it, and I'm
Speaker:Elaine: like, "That is Take 6.
Speaker:Elaine: What?!"
Speaker:Trist: That's right.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think a big part of that was the arrangement, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Not just the voices and the quality of the voices, but also
Speaker:Elaine: there was something very distinct about the arrangement
Speaker:Elaine: that reminded me.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, wow.
Speaker:Elaine: This is Take 6.
Speaker:Trist: Absolutely.
Speaker:Trist: Um, for those not in the know listening there, Take 6, a
Speaker:Trist: six-man a cappella group specializing in gospel, R&B,
Speaker:Trist: jazz, pop, all kinds of things.
Speaker:Trist: Definitely steeped in the close
Speaker:Trist: harmony tradition of most jazz
Speaker:Trist: music.
Speaker:Trist: This is very much almost like, okay, it would be very similar
Speaker:Trist: if he commissioned a jazz band arrangement, like a big band
Speaker:Trist: arrangement, a lot of the a lot of the chords, the voicings, the
Speaker:Trist: figures, the feel, kind of feels almost like a little jazz band
Speaker:Trist: playing with them.
Speaker:Trist: But it is indeed Take 6. I feel like I remember a conversation
Speaker:Trist: about the fact that his assignment was great, yep.
Speaker:Trist: We want you to do this with Johnny Mathis.
Speaker:Trist: The only thing that we ask is you let Johnny Mathis just sing
Speaker:Trist: the song as it is.
Speaker:Trist: You can do anything you want in the arrangement, but we want
Speaker:Trist: Johnny not to have special instructions, you know.
Speaker:Trist: "Oh, on the bridge.
Speaker:Trist: You need to sing this melody different.
Speaker:Trist: Or you need to change stuff because we did this cool
Speaker:Trist: reharmonization and you have to sing a different note."
Speaker:Trist: None of that.
Speaker:Trist: Just whatever you do.
Speaker:Trist: We want Johnny Mathis to be able
Speaker:Trist: to sing the song that he knows,
Speaker:Trist: the
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: doo wop song that he knows.
Speaker:Trist: So that was so even though all that stuff around him is
Speaker:Trist: different, the melody is like, if you took it out, you could
Speaker:Trist: put a whole other basic doo wop arrangement and it would sound
Speaker:Trist: what, like what you used to.
Speaker:Elaine: You know, that is exactly what I wrote down.
Speaker:Elaine: I
Speaker:Trist: Mm.
Speaker:Elaine: wrote down that he sang it very straight.
Speaker:Elaine: But the rest of I mean, it was it was incredible.
Speaker:Elaine: I don't want to say like, it was bananas, but it was just.
Speaker:Elaine: Wow.
Speaker:Elaine: It was incredibly interesting behind it and just hearing the
Speaker:Elaine: story just adds so much flavor to what I heard.
Speaker:Elaine: Now,
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, it
Speaker:Elaine: it
Speaker:Trist: makes sense.
Speaker:Elaine: yeah, it was really interesting to me because I, I was listening
Speaker:Elaine: to this thinking, all right, I can hear that this is Take 6.
Speaker:Elaine: And to be fair, I have heard of Take 6 long before I started to
Speaker:Elaine: actually listen to Take 6, and
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: the first time I actually saw them in person was, I think,
Speaker:Elaine: just like a year and a half ago.
Speaker:Elaine: So it was quite a surprise to me
Speaker:Elaine: to be able to recognize what a Take 6
Speaker:Elaine: arrangement really sounded like.
Speaker:Elaine: But one
Speaker:Elaine: of the things that I was thinking about in the Take 6 arrangement was
Speaker:Elaine: what makes this a Take 6 arrangement? Like, what
Speaker:Elaine: was it that really sparked my
Speaker:Elaine: recognition of the style? Because
Speaker:Elaine: I
Speaker:Elaine: had grown up with the Five Satins version. That was
Speaker:Elaine: something that my dad played a
Speaker:Elaine: whole lot when I was growing up.
Speaker:Elaine: So I
Speaker:Elaine: was very, very familiar with the song.
Speaker:Trist: It was very popular.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. And so I was taking a look at this Take 6 arrangement, and
Speaker:Elaine: I wrote down a whole bunch of things, mostly based off of, I
Speaker:Elaine: think, their Christmas album, which you had recommended to me
Speaker:Elaine: a few years ago.
Speaker:Elaine: But there was the walking bass with a syncopated background.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: There was a whole lot of close vocal, like close chords, which
Speaker:Elaine: is what you
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: were talking about before.
Speaker:Elaine: And there was a lot of what I would call the subtle tension
Speaker:Elaine: that comes with jazz chords.
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Elaine: Of the addition of the inner
Speaker:Elaine: notes that aren't on the basic
Speaker:Elaine: chord structure.
Speaker:Elaine: So what I'm talking about 1-3-5.
Speaker:Elaine: And that was something that is so distinct from doo wop, right?
Speaker:Elaine: If I think about doo wop, there's a lot of 1-3-5.
Speaker:Elaine: You don't hear a whole lot in
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: classic doo wop
Speaker:Trist: Pretty
Speaker:Elaine: without,
Speaker:Trist: basic.
Speaker:Trist: Pretty
Speaker:Elaine: you know.
Speaker:Trist: basic chords
Speaker:Elaine: Exactly.
Speaker:Trist: in doo wop.
Speaker:Trist: The occasional dominant seven chords is
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: about it.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. So I hear that.
Speaker:Elaine: And then there was something
Speaker:Elaine: that was very rhythmic, like
Speaker:Elaine: where, where the background
Speaker:Elaine: vocals filled in in the empty
Speaker:Elaine: spaces.
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Elaine: Where an electric guitar would
Speaker:Elaine: fill in in some kind of an
Speaker:Elaine: arrangement.
Speaker:Elaine: I don't know if there's a technical term for it, is
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: there?
Speaker:Trist: Well, that's just the key to incredible arranging and why
Speaker:Trist: they're so good at what they do, whether this was Cedric or
Speaker:Trist: whether it was Mervyn Warren or whether it was Mark Kibble, all
Speaker:Trist: of them would know.
Speaker:Trist: Okay, we're kind of replacing the band.
Speaker:Trist: So they walk that line of like,
Speaker:Trist: even in the way they'll change
Speaker:Trist: their sound.
Speaker:Trist: It's like, oh, the role of this is we're singing what the
Speaker:Trist: background singers would sing.
Speaker:Elaine: Mm.
Speaker:Trist: And then on the very next thing, oh, we're going to do this
Speaker:Trist: close, we're going to hum or sing a quiet ooh, because we're
Speaker:Trist: doing what the piano player would do, or the strings would
Speaker:Trist: do, or what the saxes would do, maybe do syllables that are more
Speaker:Trist: like what horns would do.
Speaker:Trist: So they're like hearing what
Speaker:Trist: instruments would happen and
Speaker:Trist: then placing that within their
Speaker:Trist: voices, not only harmonically
Speaker:Trist: but rhythmically.
Speaker:Trist: Again, because since there is no other instruments, well, other
Speaker:Trist: than the solo that we'll get to, there's no accompanying
Speaker:Trist: instruments, that is.
Speaker:Trist: So they kind of have to do all
Speaker:Trist: of the harmonic structures, as
Speaker:Trist: well as the rhythmic feel of
Speaker:Trist: what's going to change in the
Speaker:Trist: sections, etc..
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah, I think the word I was looking for was interstitials.
Speaker:Trist: Okay.
Speaker:Elaine: You know, the the things that happen in between.
Speaker:Trist: Great.
Speaker:Elaine: I also heard what you were
Speaker:Elaine: talking about in their voice
Speaker:Elaine: quality because I wrote down,
Speaker:Elaine: you know, there there were
Speaker:Elaine: points where the placement in
Speaker:Elaine: their voices was much more
Speaker:Elaine: brassy.
Speaker:Elaine: So it was much more, you know,
Speaker:Elaine: I'd say, like from a vocalist, a
Speaker:Elaine: little more in the front as
Speaker:Elaine: opposed to more smooth or more
Speaker:Elaine: legato.
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's a really good illustration of exactly what you
Speaker:Elaine: were just talking about.
Speaker:Trist: Yep, indeed.
Speaker:Trist: And throughout their repertoire, on their own as well with
Speaker:Trist: others, it's kind of like okay, what is this spot right here.
Speaker:Trist: It's still these six humans
Speaker:Trist: singing, but my role here is,
Speaker:Trist: oh, the four of us are like,
Speaker:Trist: what the horns would do right
Speaker:Trist: here.
Speaker:Trist: So it's this different vowel.
Speaker:Trist: It's this different brightness,
Speaker:Trist: different placement, different
Speaker:Trist: syllable.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: And then this is just like, oh,
Speaker:Trist: this is like all six of us are
Speaker:Trist: just the filling in what a
Speaker:Trist: keyboard pad would do, just
Speaker:Trist: filling in what the chords would
Speaker:Trist: be.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. And I love that because it, extrapolates to what I wrote
Speaker:Elaine: down about the bass, because the bass singer had this little
Speaker:Elaine: staccato section instead of more of a legato feel.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: just before the key change.
Speaker:Elaine: And that little bounce was very
Speaker:Elaine: much more like a plucked bass,
Speaker:Elaine: or
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: I don't know if it was plucked bass, but it just had a little
Speaker:Elaine: more space in the bass vocal.
Speaker:Elaine: Um,
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: was there anything that you heard as another bass vocalist?
Speaker:Elaine: Right?
Speaker:Trist: Well, that would make sense.
Speaker:Trist: Just, uh, doing little things to rhythmically set up a key change
Speaker:Trist: or a new section,
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: etc., so that totally, that totally makes sense.
Speaker:Trist: And the nice thing about that as a bass, again, my role is
Speaker:Trist: mostly: "Okay, I'm what the bass player would play.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: And then every once in a while you can just oh, now I'm going
Speaker:Trist: to be the lowest version of a group of singers.
Speaker:Trist: So I'm going to sing the words with them,
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Uh, I'm going to sing homophonic kind of the same figure, almost
Speaker:Trist: like you're the bari sax that comes into a sax section.
Speaker:Trist: And then instantly
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: you can go back to your role of
Speaker:Trist: being what the bass player would
Speaker:Trist: play.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah I wrote down it was like a
Speaker:Elaine: reminder of oh hey I'm also a
Speaker:Elaine: human.
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: There's in
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: there.
Speaker:Trist: Shout out Alvin.
Speaker:Elaine: Do you think and I just don't know enough about choral music
Speaker:Elaine: or vocal music in general.
Speaker:Elaine: By the time I entered into vocal
Speaker:Elaine: music, there was very much this
Speaker:Elaine: role of the bass singer as the
Speaker:Elaine: bass guitar.
Speaker:Elaine: Like more of a vocal band kind of experience.
Speaker:Elaine: And
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: I see that Take 6 from a very
Speaker:Elaine: early time was doing exactly the
Speaker:Elaine: same thing.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: Where in and now I'm getting into kind of music history here.
Speaker:Elaine: Where do you see that being
Speaker:Elaine: introduced versus a more choral,
Speaker:Elaine: "Hey, I'm singing the same words
Speaker:Elaine: as everyone else, but maybe
Speaker:Elaine: delayed, or I'm holding a part
Speaker:Elaine: of the word like you do in some
Speaker:Elaine: of the more traditional choral
Speaker:Elaine: pieces?"
Speaker:Trist: Hmm. Well while they're not like
Speaker:Trist: the first is happening before
Speaker:Trist: but I think, I think Take 6
Speaker:Trist: themselves are very integral in
Speaker:Trist: that.
Speaker:Trist: Other groups before, like the group, The Bobs,
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: uh,
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: The Persuasions,
Speaker:Elaine: Oh
Speaker:Trist: the
Speaker:Elaine: yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Persuasions did quite a bit of that, and they were a little
Speaker:Trist: closer to doo wop, but they would have some things where.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, it was the, uh, the bass was more like a bass player.
Speaker:Trist: More like half and half maybe.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: Um.
Speaker:Elaine: Did we
Speaker:Trist: Mm.
Speaker:Elaine: see a lot of that in doo wop?
Speaker:Trist: Well, here's the main difference.
Speaker:Trist: So in doo wop, in more traditional classic doo wop
Speaker:Trist: stuff, boom badoom boom boom badoom boom, that
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: sounds like a human singing the
Speaker:Trist: part that a bass player might
Speaker:Trist: play.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm. Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: Whereas if badoom-da-dm dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum dum
Speaker:Trist: dum, that sounds like a human trying to sound just like what
Speaker:Trist: the bass player would
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: play, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. And that
Speaker:Trist: I'm
Speaker:Elaine: was
Speaker:Trist: not
Speaker:Elaine: definitely
Speaker:Trist: trying to sound.
Speaker:Elaine: um.
Speaker:Trist: I'm not.
Speaker:Trist: I'm taking an effort to try to sonically get you to the place
Speaker:Trist: where you believe you're hearing the instrument, whereas doom
Speaker:Trist: doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom doom, it's like, oh,
Speaker:Trist: that's a guy.
Speaker:Trist: We
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: know that he's doing what the bass part is.
Speaker:Trist: They don't have a band.
Speaker:Trist: He's like
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: doing the bass part.
Speaker:Trist: But it's not taking you sonically to a place where like,
Speaker:Trist: oh, I'm hearing them sing and I feel like I'm hearing an upright
Speaker:Trist: bass player with them.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: There's not that sonic journey that you go on in doo wop.
Speaker:Elaine: Let's switch gears a little bit and talk about the recording.
Speaker:Elaine: can we talk a little bit about the type of effects that were
Speaker:Elaine: placed on the voices?
Speaker:Elaine: Because it wasn't just flat.
Speaker:Elaine: I heard a little bit of echo in there.
Speaker:Elaine: I couldn't tell whether it was a delay, like, what did you hear?
Speaker:Trist: Oh, wow.
Speaker:Trist: Not knowing, um, you were going to ask about that specifically,
Speaker:Trist: my best guess would be there's really just some reverb and,
Speaker:Trist: like, some delay a bit.
Speaker:Trist: And they probably doubled their parts?
Speaker:Trist: So not singing another note, but you sing your part and then you
Speaker:Trist: sing your part again just to have it be a bigger sound than
Speaker:Trist: just the six guys.
Speaker:Trist: A lot of times you won't do that with the bass part, but
Speaker:Trist: sometimes you will.
Speaker:Trist: Especially being at the end of the 80s, lot more reverb than
Speaker:Trist: they might do now.
Speaker:Trist: Maybe some delay just also to widen the amount of sound.
Speaker:Trist: Something that it's just occurring to me that kind of
Speaker:Trist: strays from your question.
Speaker:Trist: Something that's interesting is, Johnny Mathis is very well known
Speaker:Trist: for that vibrato.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: He's got a very wide vibrato.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Right?
Speaker:Trist: Big vibrato.
Speaker:Trist: It stands out even more because
Speaker:Trist: the guys in Take 6 because of
Speaker:Trist: the tight structure of the
Speaker:Trist: chords.
Speaker:Trist: Even if their voices want to do that naturally, a lot of times
Speaker:Trist: with those kinds of harmonies, it's pretty straight.
Speaker:Trist: The tone production is pretty straight.
Speaker:Trist: You might hear some vibrato happen at the end, just at the
Speaker:Trist: very end of a chord kind of shimmer at the end of a phrase.
Speaker:Trist: But for the most part, all of
Speaker:Trist: those oohs and ahs, all the
Speaker:Trist: background parts they're
Speaker:Trist: singing, are going to be very
Speaker:Trist: straight, which makes the
Speaker:Trist: contrast of his vibrato even
Speaker:Trist: greater.
Speaker:Trist: It's a pretty pronounced thing in his singing, anyway.
Speaker:Trist: But, that occurred to me, it's like, oh, wow.
Speaker:Trist: And then against all these very straight toned voices, the
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: vibrato really, really stands out.
Speaker:Elaine: Let's go back to the doubling of voices.
Speaker:Elaine: And you were talking about and the delay as well.
Speaker:Elaine: You were talking a little bit about widening the tone.
Speaker:Elaine: Can you talk a little bit about why doubling helps with that?
Speaker:Trist: So in recording, especially with
Speaker:Trist: just an a cappella group, live
Speaker:Trist: in an a cappella group is
Speaker:Trist: effective because it's
Speaker:Trist: experiential.
Speaker:Trist: People
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: are in the room with you.
Speaker:Trist: Sometimes they think there's even other instruments or
Speaker:Trist: recordings playing because they can't believe they're
Speaker:Trist: experiencing this thing where they see you standing there and
Speaker:Trist: they hear all of this sound, and there's this disassociation with
Speaker:Trist: like, what you're doing.
Speaker:Trist: Oh, well, it must be another recording because they're just
Speaker:Trist: standing right there.
Speaker:Trist: But I hear drums and I hear the bass and I hear other sounds.
Speaker:Trist: So you have that live experience now on a record?
Speaker:Trist: There's those six voices just on their own.
Speaker:Trist: As good as they are, it sounds just like six more voices.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: It would be nice if you could make up for the experiential
Speaker:Trist: thing that you lose live.
Speaker:Trist: And you'll sing again your part a second time.
Speaker:Trist: So
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: now there's
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: theoretically, now there's twelve of you,
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: so that just sounds bigger.
Speaker:Trist: There's just more sound to deal
Speaker:Trist: with sometimes, depending on the
Speaker:Trist: texture or what you want to do
Speaker:Trist: in the arrangement, you might
Speaker:Trist: have three or four times doing
Speaker:Trist: your part.
Speaker:Trist: Maybe if you're just an "ooh" again, like I mentioned earlier,
Speaker:Trist: like a keyboard
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: playing some pads, you just want this big full sound.
Speaker:Trist: You might have each part do three or four of their "ooh"
Speaker:Trist: notes through a section, maybe.
Speaker:Trist: And this isn't just for a cappella,
Speaker:Trist: and it's not just for background
Speaker:Trist: vocals. There
Speaker:Trist: are if you start noticing in
Speaker:Trist: lead vocals some great lead vocals
Speaker:Trist: that you've ever heard, they'll
Speaker:Trist: be times where maybe during
Speaker:Trist: a verse there's not a double.
Speaker:Trist: And
Speaker:Trist: now we get to the chorus and because we want it to go up a step,
Speaker:Trist: because the chorus
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: is the big part, if you really listened, you can sometimes you
Speaker:Trist: can hear that, that lead vocal is singing it two times.
Speaker:Trist: They're trying to replicate themselves as much as they can,
Speaker:Trist: but that just gives it a bigger sound when they sing it again.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah I love that you say that.
Speaker:Elaine: I remember hearing I can't even
Speaker:Elaine: remember which track it was, but
Speaker:Elaine: I remember hearing a Madonna
Speaker:Elaine: track where
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: she was doubling herself, and
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: the only way I could tell was
Speaker:Elaine: that there was a breath that was
Speaker:Elaine: slightly interrupting it, and I
Speaker:Elaine: was like, oh my goodness, it was
Speaker:Elaine: doubled.
Speaker:Elaine: She was
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: just that good because the rest of it, you can't hear it.
Speaker:Elaine: It was just in
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: that one location where you heard a little bit of a breath.
Speaker:Trist: Mhm.
Speaker:Elaine: And, going back to what you were
Speaker:Elaine: saying about doubling, in some
Speaker:Elaine: ways it's almost the choral
Speaker:Elaine: effect, right?
Speaker:Elaine: You have
Speaker:Trist: Absolutely.
Speaker:Elaine: a whole lot of voices singing together, and there is some kind
Speaker:Elaine: of averaging out that happens as a part of each one of the voices
Speaker:Elaine: that makes it sound fuller, because you have all of these
Speaker:Elaine: different voices singing at the same time and even the same
Speaker:Elaine: voice layered over another.
Speaker:Elaine: You were talking about vibrato
Speaker:Elaine: before, and you were talking
Speaker:Elaine: about why a lot of these close
Speaker:Elaine: harmonies don't have the
Speaker:Elaine: vibrato.
Speaker:Elaine: And a big part of that is tuning, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Because like a vibrato, is the tuning going in a specific
Speaker:Elaine: slightly up, slightly down
Speaker:Trist: Right,
Speaker:Elaine: and.
Speaker:Trist: which isn't as big of a deal if you have big major minor chords
Speaker:Trist: have big, major triads.
Speaker:Trist: Easier.
Speaker:Trist: There's more room for the wiggle than, super tight, sharp nine
Speaker:Trist: chords, etc., where all the notes are within a very small
Speaker:Trist: amount of space where any wiggle makes the chords all indistinct
Speaker:Trist: and you can't hear what the tight chord is.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, and it sounds out of tune.
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: And that's something that, as someone who grew up singing
Speaker:Elaine: pretty much straight all the time, man, it is hard for me to
Speaker:Elaine: pull out a vibrato.
Speaker:Elaine: But
Speaker:Trist: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: because of all of that, training.
Speaker:Elaine: But I think it is a particular style and it has a particular
Speaker:Elaine: role in it.
Speaker:Elaine: And it's great to remind
Speaker:Elaine: ourselves about, you know, the
Speaker:Elaine: role of certain types of singing
Speaker:Elaine: in specific contexts, whether it
Speaker:Elaine: is.
Speaker:Elaine: We're trying to do something very complex here and staying in
Speaker:Elaine: tune or sounding like we're staying in tune versus something
Speaker:Elaine: that might be more stylistic.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, that's a great point and something good for everybody to
Speaker:Trist: listen to when they go back and listen to it again.
Speaker:Trist: Now that we've talked about it, listen to those differences that
Speaker:Trist: we talked about.
Speaker:Trist: Those are great points, Elaine.
Speaker:Trist: Thank you.
Speaker:Elaine: Okay, so let's switch gears and
Speaker:Elaine: talk about the instrumental
Speaker:Elaine: breakdown here.
Speaker:Trist: Ah, our best friend, the melodica.
Speaker:Trist: So one of the keyboardists, I
Speaker:Trist: assume on the session just
Speaker:Trist: played.
Speaker:Trist: I think that was an interesting choice.
Speaker:Trist: So
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Trist: as someone producing this, it's like, hmm, what can we do?
Speaker:Trist: Because we want this little interlude but what do we do?
Speaker:Trist: And so something that doesn't dominate.
Speaker:Trist: So I thought that was an interesting choice.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. I thought it was interesting as well just to
Speaker:Elaine: think about this completely a cappella piece and then
Speaker:Elaine: introducing an instrument in there as well.
Speaker:Elaine: And I think it is a choice.
Speaker:Elaine: Right.
Speaker:Elaine: But at the same time it
Speaker:Trist: It's cool.
Speaker:Elaine: has a very reedy sound that does
Speaker:Elaine: stick out because it is a reed
Speaker:Elaine: instrument, right?
Speaker:Elaine: it has a specific type of timbre
Speaker:Elaine: that is very similar to a double
Speaker:Elaine: reed instrument.
Speaker:Elaine: And so I think about the classical oboe, bassoon, and
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: the double reeds just have a a
Speaker:Elaine: particular timbre that sticks
Speaker:Elaine: out.
Speaker:Elaine: Can you talk a little bit about
Speaker:Elaine: the melodica and the tonal
Speaker:Elaine: differences between this and
Speaker:Elaine: Take Six and Johnny Mathis'
Speaker:Elaine: voice?
Speaker:Trist: Oh, you know, that actually
Speaker:Trist: could be the reason for the
Speaker:Trist: choice rather than, you know, an
Speaker:Trist: actual regular piano or a
Speaker:Trist: keyboard solo.
Speaker:Trist: Maybe it is that reediness that
Speaker:Trist: puts it still in the voice
Speaker:Trist: category, yet different enough
Speaker:Trist: without literally being a
Speaker:Trist: saxophone Mm.
Speaker:Trist: Interesting.
Speaker:Trist: I hadn't really thought about it.
Speaker:Trist: I just always enjoyed that it was there and thought it was an
Speaker:Trist: interesting choice and just not something you hear very often.
Speaker:Trist: I think now that you ask, I think that's probably was part
Speaker:Trist: of the choice.
Speaker:Trist: Like sonically as a producer, it's like, okay, we're kind of
Speaker:Trist: it's still going to stand out.
Speaker:Trist: It's going to stick out as the solo, but it's not going to be,
Speaker:Trist: you know, a tuba or something else that's really different.
Speaker:Trist: You know, it's going to be oh, it's like in the kind of the
Speaker:Trist: family of the voices.
Speaker:Trist: So yeah, maybe that's why.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, any last thoughts about this?
Speaker:Trist: Um. I just love it, you know, obviously, I'm a huge Take 6
Speaker:Trist: fan, sung with them, worked with and for them, just great
Speaker:Trist: friends, amazing musicians, huge, huge, huge inspirations on
Speaker:Trist: my musical life.
Speaker:Trist: this is could be a whole Take 6 podcast if we really wanted it
Speaker:Trist: to be, so wanted to get more music out there, and this is a
Speaker:Trist: good way to actually sneak someone else in, like another
Speaker:Trist: genius like Johnny Mathis in and talk about him as well.
Speaker:Trist: And, give him the flowers he deserves also.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, one hundred percent with you there.
Speaker:Elaine: And for those of you who haven't heard Take 6, they are still
Speaker:Elaine: touring, so if they're coming to a city near you, definitely
Speaker:Elaine: check them out because they are amazing and hopefully they're
Speaker:Elaine: listening to this podcast.
Speaker:Elaine: Probably not, but like maybe.
Speaker:Trist: Absolutely. And still make records.
Speaker:Trist: So they have another album coming out soon.
Speaker:Trist: So
Speaker:Elaine: Ooh,
Speaker:Trist: be on the lookout for that too.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, with that, let's switch
Speaker:Elaine: gears into our next segment,
Speaker:Elaine: which is.
Speaker:Trist: Mailbag.
Speaker:Trist: Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
Speaker:Trist: Mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: All right.
Speaker:Elaine: So this week also comes from Threads.
Speaker:Elaine: It was actually not a question.
Speaker:Elaine: It was more something that I saw
Speaker:Elaine: on Threads that I wanted to
Speaker:Elaine: bring up.
Speaker:Elaine: It is from the band Five.
Speaker:Elaine: And it was a post that they had in November of 2025.
Speaker:Elaine: Their Threads handle is @itsfiveofficial.
Speaker:Elaine: Now, they did a cute little skit and it had each one of the
Speaker:Elaine: members just doing a little bit of an advertisement, basically.
Speaker:Elaine: And so my question for you is what is the role of merchandise
Speaker:Elaine: or any of these types of like marketing stuff just outside of
Speaker:Elaine: your music, right?
Speaker:Elaine: The things that are associated with you as your brand, but not
Speaker:Elaine: necessarily your music itself when it comes to building up
Speaker:Elaine: that brand or your business?
Speaker:Trist: Um, wow.
Speaker:Trist: Interesting question.
Speaker:Trist: I think mostly the role that it
Speaker:Trist: serves is it helps your fan base
Speaker:Trist: feel
Speaker:Elaine: Hmm.
Speaker:Trist: like they're helping you.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: Um, they might, you know, especially these days, even if
Speaker:Trist: they're a big fan, if they don't buy physical audio products and
Speaker:Trist: they just stream you all the time, that's great.
Speaker:Trist: And it's great to have the support that way.
Speaker:Trist: But buying a T-shirt, a mug, etc., any of the things you
Speaker:Trist: would consider merch, it's just a way for the artist, especially
Speaker:Trist: at a show, you know, you
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: can do these things online, etc. but at a show just after I had
Speaker:Trist: that experience, it's just that, man, I had that experience.
Speaker:Trist: I want to take that with me.
Speaker:Trist: And you know, they don't sell a
Speaker:Trist: CD or they don't sell vinyl,
Speaker:Trist: those things go well at shows
Speaker:Trist: because they want that
Speaker:Trist: experience again, not talking
Speaker:Trist: about their experiential, these
Speaker:Trist: shows.
Speaker:Trist: So I want to take part of that thing with me.
Speaker:Trist: Even if they're not cognizant of it, they're supporting the
Speaker:Trist: artists that they really
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: like so much.
Speaker:Trist: So I think that's one of the
Speaker:Trist: roles that it gives them a way
Speaker:Trist: to do that other than like a
Speaker:Trist: Patreon or some other kind of
Speaker:Trist: thing
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: where there's a monthly thing,
Speaker:Trist: that can work too, but it just
Speaker:Trist: helps them.
Speaker:Trist: And then of course, if it is a shirt or a hat and then people
Speaker:Trist: see it and if it's an interesting enough design, "That
Speaker:Trist: says Take 6.
Speaker:Trist: What's that?" "Oh,
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: let me tell you about this group I love."
Speaker:Trist: I think that's the main two roles.
Speaker:Trist: Obviously it's advertisement for your brand.
Speaker:Trist: So putting your name on whatever it is stickers, mugs, hats,
Speaker:Trist: T-shirts, whatever it is that you come up with.
Speaker:Trist: But again, I think it gives the opportunity for your fan base to
Speaker:Trist: contribute in a way.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. I love that you say that.
Speaker:Elaine: I wonder how things have changed
Speaker:Elaine: between, the late 90s, early
Speaker:Elaine: 2000s
Speaker:Trist: Oh,
Speaker:Elaine: and
Speaker:Trist: massively.
Speaker:Elaine: also how things shift between, I would say, people with more mass
Speaker:Elaine: market appeal versus maybe some of the more niche types of bands
Speaker:Elaine: that are out there.
Speaker:Elaine: Thinking about buying merch when you're at a Taylor Swift concert
Speaker:Elaine: or any other kind of thing where you're like, oh, I was here at
Speaker:Elaine: this particular tour.
Speaker:Elaine: But
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: I also loved what you said about
Speaker:Elaine: just the type of money that you
Speaker:Elaine: are giving, because I think that
Speaker:Elaine: when you buy an album or if
Speaker:Elaine: you're streaming, you know, the
Speaker:Elaine: amount of money that comes per
Speaker:Elaine: stream for an artist is very,
Speaker:Elaine: very low.
Speaker:Elaine: So for a lot of the indie
Speaker:Elaine: artists that we know, the amount
Speaker:Elaine: of streams that they have, it's
Speaker:Elaine: infinitesimal, right?
Speaker:Elaine: They're not making a ton of money
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: out
Speaker:Trist: It's
Speaker:Elaine: of
Speaker:Trist: basically promotion
Speaker:Elaine: your Spotify.
Speaker:Trist: to get you to a show, right?
Speaker:Elaine: Exactly.
Speaker:Elaine: So it's not a ton of money.
Speaker:Elaine: Now you also have buying albums
Speaker:Elaine: and, you know, physical media
Speaker:Elaine: versus, any type of digital
Speaker:Elaine: media, if you're doing some part
Speaker:Elaine: of a platform like Apple Music
Speaker:Elaine: or Amazon, you're still giving
Speaker:Elaine: thirty percent away to the
Speaker:Elaine: platform itself.
Speaker:Elaine: And then you also have things
Speaker:Elaine: like Bandcamp where a lot more
Speaker:Elaine: of that money is going to go to
Speaker:Elaine: the artist.
Speaker:Elaine: When you're seeing someone in person, a larger percentage of
Speaker:Elaine: that money will go directly to the artist generally, as opposed
Speaker:Elaine: to where you're buying online and there is going to be
Speaker:Elaine: overhead for fulfillment or for-
Speaker:Trist: Yeah, that can be the case.
Speaker:Trist: It really depends.
Speaker:Trist: Some people actually don't make
Speaker:Trist: as much at the live because they
Speaker:Trist: had to have somebody there to
Speaker:Trist: sell it.
Speaker:Trist: And they needed a percentage of the seller for
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: the house.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: Um, And if your setup is like,
Speaker:Trist: oh, we just have a company that
Speaker:Trist: does all of our online merch,
Speaker:Trist: well, of course you're not
Speaker:Trist: getting as much because you're
Speaker:Trist: not doing anything but saying,
Speaker:Trist: yep, here's the symbols that we
Speaker:Trist: use.
Speaker:Trist: Here's the things slap it on whatever you want to sell
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: and you'll make money and send us the rest, etc.. or it's like,
Speaker:Trist: oh, it's in my basement.
Speaker:Trist: And I printed them all myself and I bought all this stuff.
Speaker:Trist: And so yeah, you're going to make more.
Speaker:Trist: But you spent so much time, making them happen.
Speaker:Trist: Yes, it's probably a little bit
Speaker:Trist: more frequent that you make more
Speaker:Trist: at the show, but it's
Speaker:Trist: negligible.
Speaker:Trist: And it really is a kind of "it
Speaker:Trist: depends," I think depends on the
Speaker:Trist: artist and the situation and the
Speaker:Trist: product.
Speaker:Elaine: When do you think a band should
Speaker:Elaine: consider doing some kind of
Speaker:Elaine: merchandise?
Speaker:Elaine: When in the life cycle or maturity of a group does merch
Speaker:Elaine: come into play?
Speaker:Trist: I mean, I don't know if there's a perfect answer for that.
Speaker:Trist: There's some that just never really deal with it at all.
Speaker:Trist: These questions oftentimes are just a lot of it depends what
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: kind of music are you?
Speaker:Trist: What kind of act are you?
Speaker:Trist: Are you going to have a market
Speaker:Trist: where it's worth whatever time
Speaker:Trist: and investment for the return
Speaker:Trist: and for the gaining of the fans,
Speaker:Trist: etc.?
Speaker:Trist: What is it going to take?
Speaker:Trist: How much do we have to put out and what do we get back?
Speaker:Trist: Sometimes that's right out the gate.
Speaker:Trist: First concert you ever do.
Speaker:Trist: And you can also buy all this merch that we've got ready
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: to go.
Speaker:Trist: And sometimes it's like, well, hey, five years in, we finally
Speaker:Trist: decided to make a T-shirt you
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: know, so it just depends.
Speaker:Trist: Sometimes, artists are just
Speaker:Trist: like, no, I just want to worry
Speaker:Trist: about this.
Speaker:Trist: Let's get this good before someone's promoting a thing that
Speaker:Trist: we don't think is good yet.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah. It's interesting because I
Speaker:Elaine: have been thinking about brand
Speaker:Elaine: name recognition for a couple of
Speaker:Elaine: different groups.
Speaker:Elaine: Like one of them us.
Speaker:Elaine: Like who is going to talk about The Musician's Loupe?
Speaker:Elaine: We have stickers that we now have on hand right now.
Speaker:Elaine: And we are planning to hand out to anyone we see.
Speaker:Elaine: So if you know us in person, come and see us about stickers
Speaker:Elaine: because we have them.
Speaker:Elaine: But the other
Speaker:Trist: Stickers.
Speaker:Elaine: thing, yeah, stickers.
Speaker:Elaine: But the other group that I'm
Speaker:Elaine: looking at is for my martial
Speaker:Elaine: art.
Speaker:Elaine: I happen to practice a martial
Speaker:Elaine: art that is a little bit less
Speaker:Elaine: known.
Speaker:Elaine: And so getting our name out
Speaker:Elaine: there as a system is something
Speaker:Elaine: that we are really looking at
Speaker:Elaine: developing.
Speaker:Elaine: And so, thinking about merch as being a part of that solution is
Speaker:Elaine: a big part of it.
Speaker:Elaine: And this is also coming from a
Speaker:Elaine: martial art that has a fifty
Speaker:Elaine: year background.
Speaker:Elaine: So we're not talking about, oh,
Speaker:Elaine: we've just started last week,
Speaker:Elaine: you know.
Speaker:Elaine: And so we are going to think about branding and
Speaker:Elaine: merchandising, but that is something that I think every
Speaker:Elaine: musician should think about.
Speaker:Elaine: What is the thing that you want
Speaker:Elaine: to have associated with your
Speaker:Elaine: brand, and how do you express
Speaker:Elaine: that?
Speaker:Elaine: Social media is one way of doing it.
Speaker:Elaine: Merch is another way of doing
Speaker:Elaine: it, and it is one of those
Speaker:Elaine: things where if you have been
Speaker:Elaine: well established, you can begin
Speaker:Elaine: to think more about how do I
Speaker:Elaine: broaden my income streams beyond
Speaker:Elaine: just music?
Speaker:Elaine: And I think that's something that everyone should be thinking
Speaker:Elaine: about, especially as we're looking at both active and
Speaker:Elaine: passive income streams.
Speaker:Trist: And again It's just different for everybody.
Speaker:Trist: Our first song from Vulfpeck, in
Speaker:Trist: a lot of ways they use a
Speaker:Trist: scarcity model, both in their
Speaker:Trist: live performances and like, in
Speaker:Trist: their merch.
Speaker:Trist: For the longest time, I think
Speaker:Trist: still, right now, I think if you
Speaker:Trist: go to the website, if it's even
Speaker:Trist: still there, there's a black
Speaker:Trist: T-shirt with their logo in
Speaker:Trist: white.
Speaker:Trist: That's what they've got.
Speaker:Elaine: Mm.
Speaker:Trist: For a while, I think.
Speaker:Trist: You can buy their font.
Speaker:Trist: And I think you can buy an
Speaker:Trist: effect to use in recording, like
Speaker:Trist: a compressor.
Speaker:Trist: That's their merch.
Speaker:Trist: They have a compressor and a font and a T-shirt and that
Speaker:Trist: works for them, I love that for the variety of "just different."
Speaker:Trist: And yet I've bought T-shirts of theirs
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: at concerts because I know that
Speaker:Trist: online they don't have all those
Speaker:Trist: t shirts.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: I know that they only have the
Speaker:Trist: one, oh, this one is for this
Speaker:Trist: concert.
Speaker:Trist: So I'm more likely to buy that because of the scarcity.
Speaker:Trist: Oh, I'm not going to be able to find this.
Speaker:Trist: This is the only place I can get this.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: I think I mentioned before
Speaker:Trist: where, you know, they go into a
Speaker:Trist: whole seasons where it's like,
Speaker:Trist: oh, this year we're going to do
Speaker:Trist: six concerts, but they're going
Speaker:Trist: to be at Red Rocks, Madison
Speaker:Trist: Square Garden, these huge
Speaker:Trist: places.
Speaker:Elaine: Mhm.
Speaker:Trist: So even when they do their records, they don't just go with
Speaker:Trist: the label and they're available in stores like, nope, we're
Speaker:Trist: going with this place and they're going to make them,
Speaker:Trist: we're going to sell them for a month, however many we sell,
Speaker:Trist: that's how many are going to be printed and that's all there
Speaker:Trist: will ever be.
Speaker:Trist: They'll occasionally do a rerun, but they're not just in record
Speaker:Trist: stores everywhere, like a normal artist might be.
Speaker:Trist: So for them, they like the scarcity model.
Speaker:Elaine: instead of scarcity, maybe exclusivity is a better
Speaker:Trist: Yep
Speaker:Elaine: word for that,
Speaker:Trist: yep.
Speaker:Elaine: where you are talking about
Speaker:Elaine: exclusive runs, you think about
Speaker:Elaine: handbags or any type of luxury
Speaker:Elaine: goods, that type of high end
Speaker:Elaine: production.
Speaker:Elaine: But also, you know, what you were saying about scarcity, but
Speaker:Trist: Limited.
Speaker:Elaine: also the exclusiveness, whether
Speaker:Trist: Yep.
Speaker:Elaine: it's an invite only type of thing, it helps people to feel
Speaker:Elaine: like they're special and that they're getting something that
Speaker:Elaine: is truly one of a kind.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
Speaker:Elaine: Cool. Well, with that, any final thoughts before we wrap up?
Speaker:Trist: Um. That's it.
Speaker:Trist: Thanks for listening.
Speaker:Trist: We love some Take 6.
Speaker:Trist: Again, maybe I'll start a whole separate just Take 6- No, I'm
Speaker:Trist: not going to do that.
Speaker:Elaine: Well, please feel free to reach out to us.
Speaker:Elaine: You can get a hold of us via
Speaker:Elaine: Instagram or Threads at
Speaker:Elaine: @themusiciansloupe L-O-U-P-E.
Speaker:Elaine: Or you can email us at themusiciansloupe@gmail.com.
Speaker:Trist: Please do so.
Speaker:Elaine: Awesome!
Speaker:Elaine: And with that, we will see you next week.
Speaker:Trist: almost like we know what we're doing.
Speaker:Elaine: About that.
Speaker:Trist: I'm like, about that.
Speaker:Elaine: Sorry.
Speaker:Elaine: I'm totally going to cut all of that out.
Speaker:Trist: Well, it's for our doo wop.
Speaker:Trist: It's a doo wop version.
Speaker:Elaine: Oh, yeah.
Speaker:Trist: mailbag.
Speaker:Elaine: Yeah.
Speaker:Trist: It's like that.
Speaker:Trist: Yeah.
