Episode 3 Transcript: How Songwriting Can Boost Mental Health
There’s a Lesson in Here Somewhere Podcast
Episode 3 Transcript
Guests: Peter Carucci & Becki Davis, The Four26 (https://thefour26.com/)
There’s a Lesson in Here Somewhere is a podcast hosted by Jamie Serino and Carlos Arcila that features exceptional people that have compelling stories to tell. Whether it’s a unique perspective, an act of kindness, an inspirational achievement, a hardship overcome, or bearing witness to a captivating event, these are stories that must be heard, and from which we can draw important lessons.
How Songwriting Can Boost Mental Health
Join us as we speak with Peter Carucci and Becki Davis of the band The Four26 (https://thefour26.com/) to discuss their initiative, Share Your Story, where they guide diverse groups—including veterans, seniors, youth, and prisoners—through the songwriting process. By delving into personal experiences, memories, traumas, and emotions, participants create songs that serve as a definitive expression of their stories, as well as a catharsis. Learn more about this impactful program that discovers and celebrates individual narratives through music. Listen here and watch here. Hope you enjoy it!
Intro
You're listening to. There's a Lesson in here, Somewhere, a podcast featuring compelling conversations with exceptional people. Whether it's an inspirational achievement, a hardship overcome or simply a unique perspective, these are stories we can all learn from. Here are your hosts, Jamie Serino and Carlos Arcila.
Jamie SerinoHost00:30
Hello and welcome to. There's a Lesson in here Somewhere. I'm Jamie Serino.
Carlos ArcilaHost00:37
And I'm Carlos Arcila.
Jamie SerinoHost00:38
And we're here today with Pete Carucci and Becki Davis from The Four26. The Four26 is both a band and a studio. I've known Pete since the 90s. Since the last century Pete and I were in some bands together. We recorded some music, we had a lot of fun, I think, produced a lot of good art, and Pete and I have stayed in touch.
01:09
Over the years, parted ways, had different bands and other bands, other projects, but we always stayed in touch, we always stayed friends and one day Pete told me that he formed this studio with Becki and we'll hear a little bit more about how they met and we'll hear a little bit more about how they created that studio and then how they formed the band and then also recorded an album and really, really great stuff. But the bigger reason why we asked them to be with us today is because they do this wonderful project where they help people write songs, and I had first heard about it as songwriting for veterans and it ends up being this therapeutic process, even helping with PTSD. But then I learned that they also do this with seniors and other groups of people. So we're going to talk to Pete and Becki about that project as well. So, pete and Becki, I'll turn it over to you. You could do a fuller introduction. I'd like to hear more about how you met and how you formed the studio, the band, and then we'll get into this songwriting project.
Carlos ArcilaHost02:13
Before we jump in there like The Four26, what is that? I mean? Start off with the name. That's a good place to start. Yeah, Very interesting. I heard you guys before play and so I always wonder like what, what is, what does that mean?
Becki DavisGuest02:28
yeah, probably the most common asked question, so we're happy to start there. It's a good place to start and it's, uh, our origin story actually. So it all starts on april 26th, 4 26. It's the day that peter and I very first sang together as a duo. We had previously met two years before that at a concert that we were both doing with our respective bands for a local nonprofit, and we saw each other singing. I think I did some backup vocals for this group that day.
Peter CarucciGuest03:00
Well, actually it was an event hosted by Paul Schaefer, and so when we were, my first memory of Becki is we were rehearsing and it was what's the song?
Becki DavisGuest03:11
A Little Help for.
Peter CarucciGuest03:12
My Friends and all these guys were. You know, there's like how many guitarists were there? Like five guitarists.
Becki DavisGuest03:19
Yeah.
Peter CarucciGuest03:20
And I heard someone play an F-sharp minor and she's the only girl, mind you, playing guitar way over on stage right and I'm standing next to Paul Schaefer and I stop and I go oh, hold on, he's like what. Someone over there is playing an F sharp minor.
Becki DavisGuest03:37
Yeah, guess who it wasn't, Wasn't her.
Peter CarucciGuest03:42
It was someone else, one of our friends, who will remain nameless, and I kind of knew it was him. But all the guys went like this and then she looks over like right at me. That's my first time, yeah first yes, so it's kind of funny that way we do do joke about F sharp minors.
Becki DavisGuest04:02
You hear that. That's why.
Jamie SerinoHost04:07
The band could have been F sharp minor.
Becki DavisGuest04:09
It really could have been. So that's how we met, but we didn't really end up playing together until two years later. And then it was on April 26th, when we got together in 2017 and we were thinking, oh, could we start to sing together and let's see if we still, you know, remember each other's voices and like how we sound together. And we did. And then, a year later, we were incorporating our studio to go beyond just playing, performing, to do our studio, and we're trying to come up with names.
Peter CarucciGuest04:39
We can't come up with a name for the studio and I was like, well, today's april 22nd, why don't we just call it april 22nd? And she don't. Well, actually, right, we're going in to incorporate on the 26th, a year after the first rehearsal. So it was like it was like what's the term kismet, or right, you know? Like yeah, to fit, and so instead of april 26th, if you don't put up a sign, come see, april 26th on may 1st, you know. So she's like 426, probably cooler.
Jamie SerinoHost05:10
I was like it's great, so we're The Four26 yeah, that's great, and and so, just so everyone knows the website, though, is yeah, can, can you, can you spell it out for?
Peter CarucciGuest05:21
everybody, the T, h, e and then four spelled out F, o, u, r and the numbers two, six, Okay. So it's like April 26th, fourcom. https://thefour26.com/
Becki DavisGuest05:33
And then our studio pages. That that same thing for 26 studios. So F O? U? R spelled out in the numbers two, six. So we have two websites. Because we like to be complicated, I guess, right, right, so we have two websites because we like to be complicated.
Carlos ArcilaHost05:45
I guess, do you put yourselves in the genre or genre agnostic, or how do you? How would you describe your?
Becki DavisGuest05:52
sound. Our studio is very genre agnostic because we, when we do custom songs or when we do our share your story program, those genres really depend on who we're writing with and who we're writing for. But our own original music, which is what's under The Four26.com, that's our Americana duo, our band, and we just released an album just this past April.
Peter CarucciGuest06:16
June, yeah, we released our single on April 26th.
Carlos ArcilaHost06:19
Look at that.
Peter CarucciGuest06:20
We like to be thematic.
Jamie SerinoHost06:25
So you launched a studio first, and then you formed a band.
Becki DavisGuest06:28
We formed the band first.
Jamie SerinoHost06:29
You formed the band first.
Becki DavisGuest06:32
I actually joined the band that they were part of. It kind of slowly morphed into The Four26, and then we set up the studio.
Peter CarucciGuest06:39
Yeah, we had originally decided to start writing songs in our studio to be custom songs, which we still do. Like a client will come and say I really we had a really sweet one this past Father's Day where someone hired us to write a song to surprise her husband on Father's Day from her and her daughter, which was really sweet. And so, like we were like we're gonna dive into writing and crafting custom songs and producing them in our studio and then the next thing, you know, we wound up playing so many different gigs here and there and we're trying to break into TV and film and sync stuff and so I think, strangely enough, we returned to doing that kind of custom song work through the share your story program, where each song is so specific and it really has a, you know, has a I don't know like a specific uh space, you know so what does that?
Carlos ArcilaHost07:43
share the story, share your story program. What is that you've? You've said that twice like what is that? Maybe so?
Becki DavisGuest07:50
share your story is different. So custom songs is that's when we write a song for someone, so they would hire us to write a song for an anniversary, or we write the song um. The share your story program is different, so it kind of has two parts. We go to the participants, we sit down with them and they are in a songwriting session, just like in Nashville when you go to a co-write and you say we're co-writing from one to three on Thursday and everybody comes to the room ready to write. So we do that with individuals. We started off, we kicked it off with a veteran and, um, we met him and he brought his wife, she came into the songwriting session actually she brought him that's true, he didn't want to do it.
08:31
Yeah, he didn't want to do it.
Peter CarucciGuest08:33
Then he winds up saying it was like he literally said when we wound up performing, it was like one of the greatest experiences of his life. And then it's like what about me?
Jamie SerinoHost08:43
Was he a musician?
Becki DavisGuest08:45
No.
Jamie SerinoHost08:47
So these people don't even have to be musicians, not at all.
Becki DavisGuest08:50
Okay, you just have to come with your story. So we're the musicians and we bring the artistry and the craft and the individuals their contribution in the songwriting room is their story.
09:04
And it's our job as songwriters to elicit their story and to just basically we just ask them to talk. We can ask them questions, but people tend they tend to get going once you're in the room and they start talking and we write it live. So that's a pretty magical part of the program and I think that's the thing that probably takes the participants by surprise the most the fact that we walk in cold, we don't send a questionnaire in advance, nothing, and we just warm up with them by asking them like who's your favorite artist?
Peter CarucciGuest09:36
What are?
Becki DavisGuest09:36
your favorite songs and Peter kind of starts playing some of them. We kind of get everybody loosened up. We find a genre that way, we kind of find what they love that way, and then Peter will start noodling on a melody and then we'll start to ask them about their story. They start to tell us I start to grab some words, we start to craft some things and we try it on with them and we just go. It's just, you know like how, about this for our first verse? And is that hitting? Does that sound like it's right? And without fail.
10:05
They're pretty stunned because people just don't normally get to see the songwriting process yeah and then also to have your story come back at you that someone has just listened to yeah and crafted it into something that is put to music.
Peter CarucciGuest10:22
It's a very moving experience it's really special too because, like some of the genres, like the first one that we did with with uh larry cowden, a retired submariner, was really into johnny cash so it has that kind of feel.
10:35
We did one with a 93 year old um senior from uh holland who literally escaped a nazi um onslaught where she had to sleep in ditches, but she was talking about how much she loved her husband. The next thing, you know, it's got the sinatra riff, you know, and the whole song isn't about necessarily the experience during world war ii, but her 70 years of marriage and love with her husband, and so they all have this and they're all resonating with the truth of your experience coming out and um, and it's very magical because you go in, I don't think we've seen it. They're always like what happens now, or they think they have to show up and I'm going to write a song with you right it's really the opposite.
11:24
and then they're all okay, what happens now? And then they're just talking and then, and then there's like a verse and a chorus, like my favorite one is probably when you kind of surprised the 93 year old when, like, I had this cool riff and she goes, I think I got something and then she just sang like basically the exact words that, um, she had experienced when she met her husband and we just then we massaged it and and then the chorus and it's great.
Jamie SerinoHost11:53
That's awesome. So when you were working, so when you worked with that first veteran, did he get into like, did he get into like stories of war and did it get like that?
Becki DavisGuest12:11
Or was it about something else? Well, so Larry didn't see active wartime duty, he was a Cold War submariner. Okay, and their missions?
12:26
that his particular submarine fleet ran was considered to be the beginning of the beginning of the end of the cold war. They were tracking subs. I mean, I didn't know anything about submarining before we sat down and chatted with him, so he was explaining how they were tracking subs. And you know, water conduct sound so quickly and easily. So they have to be dead silent and at that time there were no digital clocks. So everything have to be dead silent. And at that time there were no digital clocks, so everything was analog and so they couldn't even have clocks and so they had to mark the hours, as he said, minute by minute. Someone was in charge of counting to 60, marking a minute. Counting to 60, marking a minute, can you imagine? Because you can't make a noise, you can't have a clock ticking, because they are literally stalking a soviet club that doesn't know that.
13:08
You know they're on the tail of the baltic, yeah, yeah so, yeah, he talked a lot about the, the mental um, yeah, the mental um toll that that takes not to see sunlight, yeah, for 60 days, to not be able to speak, to not be able to make any sounds, um. And he did talk about a story. It was during a training, but a story where it things went south and he thought he was going to die and that was very emotional the.
Peter CarucciGuest13:37
The submarine lost power and was sinking. And when he started telling it it was, it was. I mean, he was tearing up, we were tearing up. He didn't think he was going to make it because he came down to what's called crush depth.
Jamie SerinoHost13:51
Right Ship implodes.
Peter CarucciGuest13:55
And I think there was even a fire right.
Becki DavisGuest13:57
That's right.
Peter CarucciGuest13:58
And only one transistor was still working to signal the emergency. I guess buoy air thing. It wound up just in time. And I mean he was. He was so emotional about it. And here's a gentleman who had kept all that in since he retired 1982.
Becki DavisGuest14:18
I think that's right, and his wife had never even heard that story wow sitting there.
14:22
I mean, he was emotional, he was crying, we were all crying and um, because for him to recount that story was very traumatic for him, yeah, cathartic for him. Yep, you know he, he told the story and his wife was like I, you, I never heard that story. There were so many stories. She said I never, I never heard that, I never, never knew that. And the second part of the program is that we record the songs in our studio for the individuals and then we play them live out in a public forum. To have their story witnessed is so important when you share something like that. And Larry, we played, we wrote his song over Memorial Day, we played his song on 4th of July and his daughter came up and his grandson and they had never heard the story and we had taught it to the whole.
Peter CarucciGuest15:19
We have a backing band. Even though we're a main duo, we perform a lot as a duo. We have a backing band and we talk to them and so we. He comes up on stage and there was like four or five hundred people there and and he's and I'm crying, I don't know how we got through the song. Yeah, it's a fun song too. It's called crazy like a fox because he's like when you're down there, you gotta be crazy like a fox. You know to go into a submarine for 20 years, you know, and um. And so that's when he I think they all came in and and he said this is like the greatest experience of my life. And then his wife's like what's wrong? What about me?
Jamie SerinoHost15:56
yeah, yeah, that's amazing. Well, it reminds me of this short story uh, just, I can't remember the author, but it's a pretty brief story. It's this kid talking about his grandfather and his grandfather keeps telling him this story from World War II and it's a really traumatic story and the character in the story had to do something. That was very disturbing and he kept telling the grandson the story and at one point he pulls him into a closet and shuts the door and tells him the story and then kept telling the grandson the story and at one point he pulls him into a closet and shuts the door and tells him the story and then they exit the closet and that's like the end of the story and it's this whole thing of this like repetitive telling of the story, and but something is not clicking for this person, you know, and so I was just always just reminded me of that.
16:44
So I think it's it's amazing to take a story that might either be buried or not often told, and then you're putting it into a different context, putting it into a different art form. You know you're involving music, different parts of your brain, so it really can be healing, it can be, you know, as you're saying, cathartic, therapeutic, um and so yeah yeah, and so when, when the woman brought her husband in, was it?
17:12
was it just like this novelty thing, or was it because she felt like he had this story that he had to tell? Or like, did she talk about, like, why she brought him in?
Peter CarucciGuest17:24
well, well, what I remember is that, um, you know, when it was put out there because we, we partner with the main street community center in windham, new york, shout out to them and when it was put out, you know, I think, uh, let's see, she was in like one of the women's groups there and uh, she saw this and was like this could be fun for him and I mean he'll he'll tell you like I did not want to go right, he dragged me in there but he had such a blast we had fun.
17:52
Like he comes to our shows, we see him, we play his song still that's great. Um, you know, given I wanted to say something that I hadn't really thought of, but speaking with you, jamie, not only a musician carlos was musician but also I know you're you know artist and etc you know what I?
18:09
what I find through this process is it's not just music, it's not like we're just playing a song and teasing out a couple details. It's like we're really getting to fully dive into, with someone to their life's journey yeah, get out and yeah, we write a song, and then what Becki was saying before is that it's performed, it's celebrated, there's a right that they have like like uh, joanne had it on mp3 and all those other you know, so they have it, you know, yeah.
18:42
Fourth, it's like I want to say it's multi-dimensional kind of art in a way, for, for, for. For me I feel it especially like when we we did a performance, we wrote this last cadre of songs and wind them. And then we did the performance like, like we're, we're tearing up, everyone's tearing up. I mean, it's so powerful.
Jamie SerinoHost19:03
Yeah, and cause it's, it's. It's not like they would get up on stage and tell that story, you know, and especially sing that song or write that song or whatever, especially if they're not musicians but even just to get up on stage and tell the story, and it seems like with that one guy he didn't even tell his wife that story, you know. And so here's this different forum and so I think it's wonderful. So you've worked with veterans so far. You've worked with some senior citizens. Are there any other groups or are you planning to work with any other groups of people?
Becki DavisGuest19:49
songwriting room and we wrote a song with those two them together and that's something that you know. It was really great. We were a little worried about like, oh, how are we going to do that? Right, because everybody's stories are so unique. But when we sat with it, one of the things that we realized was the process of telling your story. If you do it right, people can see themselves in your story, because we are all way more common than we are separate, right? So there is something universal to be found in most stories, whether it's just, oh, I've been scared or I've been sad, or you know, it may not be this specificity.
20:21
So we really challenged ourselves with those two particular co-writes because, just to say, how do we find a common theme that they can write a story around? And so once we figured that out, it was great. And then we had great co-writing sessions with both of them and that was very interesting to do. So it was fun to write with teens, to hear their perspectives and what they would want to talk about, and to write with seniors in the room with teens, because a lot happened in the co-write room that never even made it to the song, right?
Jamie SerinoHost20:54
right right.
Becki DavisGuest20:55
But built a little bond between those two individuals in that community. So also, you know, with the Main Street Community Center, it really helps advance their mission of building community because they're now building bridges intergenerationally within their community center, within their community. It was really that was like a side bonus that we weren't anticipating, but it was really great.
Peter CarucciGuest21:17
That's great, Becki has this amazing gift of like somehow finding the main theme of what that commonality is. And then it's the title or something Like hard landings. So we had an older dude and a younger kid. Maybe they have nothing in common, but the hard landings in life which is actually in that particular song like a joke about one guy jumps off the barn and the other guy actually Well, they had both lived on a farm right, so the common experience and it's like but then they both started talking about, like the hard things that have happened to them in their life.
Becki DavisGuest21:57
You know and had some similar, very, very unique, but but they had that was similar to the two of them, so was that was very special to see that.
Carlos ArcilaHost22:07
It seems like you keep uncovering this like human element in the in the song writing process. It seems to be common and not only are you kind of pulling that, it's actually very unique in like the music, it's like you're building a music niche as well with it. So you're finding commonality in this new story of how you extract people's story. But then there's very much a like a niche in here that I'm I'm hearing um I haven't heard that from other, uh, particular bands or anything like that and um, are you doing that like intentionally, or is it just falling? Is it just happenstance that you keep bumping into this Like? Maybe you could talk a little bit about how you're seeking these opportunities.
Peter CarucciGuest23:01
You know it's interesting.
Becki DavisGuest23:02
I'm glad that you brought that up because a lot of people have asked us. When we play the songs out publicly, they say you know, can we find them on Spotify? Are you guys going to put these online? And we'd never. We did not think about that when we started. I mean, that was just not something. We were just going to record the songs and perform them. But that is something that we're very interested in now, partly because, like when we we've played Larry's song, the veteran, the Navy veteran we saw somebody in a crowd once that had a Navy retired Navy hat on and so we said, oh, can we play a song for you? And he said, sure, we kind of explain, you know what it was. And we played it and by the end he was in tears.
23:43
He was falling and took off his hat and showed us the double dolphins which he was a submariner. We had no idea he was a submariner as well, right.
Peter CarucciGuest23:52
He was.
Becki DavisGuest23:54
And he said that the song. He said it wasn't his story, but it was his story, you know like. And then whenever we play it out for vet and anywhere they're veterans, I mean people always resonate with it. So you're right, there's something about it and I feel like we have to give credit where credit is due. This idea came about because I was reading Mary Gaucher's book.
24:16
She's a songwriter, a folk songwriter. Saved by a Song is the name of that book. It's an excellent book and in it just one tiny little bit she talks about a program that she's involved with called Songwriting with Soldiers, and it's a national nonprofit that's based in Tennessee and they're a therapeutic model. I mean, they have therapists, they hold retreats, they have trauma informed therapy, PTSD therapy, and part of their therapeutic process is songwriting. And I thought how amazing that is and thinking, oh, I wish we could get involved with something like that. And then I thought, well, no, we could just do that in our own community. We don't need to go to a, you know, and we could do it with anybody. It doesn't have to be therapy, we don't have to be therapists, but we can just offer this as as something that would be, you know, therapeutic and cathartic. So's a long way to say um, it is probably some kind of niche, we're just not sure what yeah, and we also toyed, not toyed, we're.
Peter CarucciGuest25:15
you know, when we have enough songs, perhaps maybe there'll be like an album of of them. And uh, like, even crazy like a fox a song we wrote with, uh, larry cowden the submariner, you know, I remember we had a show called music on the mountain and winda mountain, where you know, I remember we had a show called Music on the Mountain and Windham Mountain, where you know, it's a big stage, there's a lot of people and our drummer, frank Frank Piccarazzi, goes. Wait, guys, we're not, we're not doing crazy like a fox, like he. He didn't even realize that the song. He didn't. He didn't necessarily fully realize it was part of our share your story program. He just thought it was one of the songs we just wrote.
25:49
Yeah, he loved the song. So it's like, and he goes, I love that song. And I was like, wow, that's great, and you know, and then I don't know if Dear Me applies, but it kind of does. I mean, yeah, so we, we were interviewed by a magazine which is now called Connect to Northern Westchester and at the time it was called katona connect, and this young lady who's in high school, who's amazing, um, just when we were telling her about what we're doing, she was like hey, you know, I just started a chapter in my high school another chapter a non-profit called Dear Me that deals with eating disorders, and it had gotten to a point where they have enough interest and she winds up partnering with the National Alliance for Eating Disorders.
Becki DavisGuest26:45
I think that's right.
Peter CarucciGuest26:47
And so she asked us to perform at a benefit, and would we be willing to share her story.
Becki DavisGuest26:53
To write a song with her.
Peter CarucciGuest26:53
With her, and so we did, and actually I think, Jamie, you might have heard that actually we might have played that.
Becki DavisGuest27:00
Yeah.
Peter CarucciGuest27:02
When you guys were there. But it may be my favorite song we've ever written, but it's one of it's. It may be my favorite song we've ever written and it's so powerful because you know, the music starts kind of acoustic guitar and a voice and then when the next verse comes in it's like intense. You know, the music's just great. And so we're proud to say that that song, you know, for us it was great, for her it was great. We got to perform it in Manhattan for her fundraiser. And not that the song is related, but just kudos to her. She worked so hard that I think she was recognized by the United Nations like a few months ago.
27:45
You know, it's like you know, know, and so you never know what. What happens when you're, when you go down right this path? Yeah?
Becki DavisGuest27:53
and that song that when we play that song out a lot I mean that is a song that people that hits, like it really hits people yeah and so it's.
28:02
It is an interesting thing. I mean, I think that there's something to be said about real honest, vulnerable messages in general, and when you put it to music, I think it kind of gets in there a different way. And I just think, in a world where everything feels so fractured and scattered and it's just, there's something resonant about when you hear someone's struggle and how they made it through, or just even a happy song about their life, how it can uplift you as well.
Jamie SerinoHost28:34
Mm-hmm. Yeah, so, pete, I've seen you write songs, and I've seen you write songs like all of a sudden, the song was there, and then I've seen you write songs that took a long period of time, and so what I just thought to ask is, like, as artists, as songwriters, what's the difference between sort of writing a song, having a song come to you and sitting down and saying I'm going to write a song right now? Could you talk about like the differences there? Because that's what you guys are doing here now. Someone's coming in cold. We're going to write a song right now in this session, versus you're walking around, you're going for a jog and a melody gets in your head or a verse pops down. You write it down. You know what's the difference there?
Carlos ArcilaHost29:24
Or even just to kind of jump in there like the um, like a writer's block. Imagine getting writer's block in a situation like that, and that's all part of the process big fear yeah, you know, and we need more coffee.
Peter CarucciGuest29:39
Jump way back. There are some songs. There's a song, jamie, that we used to perform 20 years ago that I had based the lyrics on Gandhi's motivating and galvanizing Indian national consciousness, and then the lyrics never worked out and I remember during COVID we tried to rewrite that Right and this and that.
Jamie SerinoHost30:08
I forgot about that, even though it was done. Yeah.
Peter CarucciGuest30:12
It's never hit its mark, you know.
30:14
Yeah, it's going to take a long time to write. And I think and you know from a personal note, this perspective which actually Becki has shared with me, more so than me with her, I think is when you're in a Nashville songwriting room, you're done, you know, and you've got a three hour block and you've got to write to X. Yeah, it gets done. But one of the things that we we find we have to do is is tease out and articulate the truth of that experience and we've gotten really good at distilling that kind of quickly. Like she said, it's like there's a genuine reality that comes out. It's not just the truth, it's like a candor and a genuine honesty that in this kind of fractured world where we just hear it and we put it together and we've gotten really good at it. You know, um, during kobe we were well, even after and a little before, we were doing some corporate things where we did an activity where we go straight over a song.
Becki DavisGuest31:17
So it might be a song like a popular song, yeah like um.
Peter CarucciGuest31:21
So we just did uh sweet, caroline sweet caroline, so she'll take a group in one room and I'll take the group in the other, and then, instead of the lyrics to Sweet Caroline, it's distilling the mission statement of the company.
Becki DavisGuest31:34
Or the work they did that day, or whatever.
Peter CarucciGuest31:36
Into verse one and verse two and there's a competition.
Becki DavisGuest31:39
Right.
Peter CarucciGuest31:40
And then clearly her group always wins.
Becki DavisGuest31:44
That's a lot of fun.
Peter CarucciGuest31:45
It doesn't matter, I'll lose anyway. That's a lot of fun. It doesn't matter, I'll lose anyway.
Jamie SerinoHost31:50
That's a lot of fun, and then we sing it.
Peter CarucciGuest31:51
We synthesize, we put it back together. So it's a skill we just keep doing and I think we just get. I mean really not that you get better at it. There are impasses, like when we did that last batch of songs.
32:07
The one I was worried about the most was going to be distilling this 93 year old's experiences of world war ii, you know, she tells us a story about she had to sleep in ditches and nazis are shooting over her, you know. And they took over her parents house as their headquarters in their Dutch town and that was one of the quickest ones we did, right.
Becki DavisGuest32:29
It was yeah, but also like to your point, carlos like yes, when we go into each one of these, yeah, we're feeling a little.
32:38
There's a little bit of anxiety, right, because we don't know, right.
32:43
And the thing that I think has been the most challenging and eye-opening and exciting, I guess, for me in experiencing this is that going into the room and having full-out trust that what needs to be said is going to be said and what needs to be written is going to be written, to be written is going to be written, and really trusting that the right song is going to be written for that person and it has not failed us once.
33:14
And I think it's going in just with that genuine open mindset, because oftentimes, when we are approaching our own music, our own songs, we get way too precious about it or we we think we have an idea in our head about what this song is supposed to be about, right, or what would go with that melody, and we get a little attached to our own ideas, right, going into these songs songwriting rooms, it's not about us at all, not at all, and in so many ways, it's liberating for us to allow what is supposed to be coming through to come through and, as artists, that's a really energizing. It's a really energizing and it actually, for me, it informs my own songwriting and allows me to be a little more free with my own songwriting and not to hold things too precious and just allow the truth to be the truth.
Peter CarucciGuest34:10
Yeah, and then, just to put a little bow on that, there's a song, there are two songs that I've been writing for about a year and a half or two years probably, or maybe more, I don't even know and I have changed the lyrics, the entire lyrics, other than maybe the first verse of this one, probably five times because I know it's not where I, I need I, where I, I need it to feel, when we leave these rooms with the share your story program, like we feel that feeling of we, we, we did, because, like she said, like there's a part of me that's so tied up in the song I'm writing and when it's their story, we get to just just kind of, uh, bring that skill to honoring that story and so that to me is a big distinction yeah, yeah, that's pretty.
Carlos ArcilaHost35:07
That's a really interesting perspective. You know, there's something to be kind of learned there when you think about it. It's like, as artists, as writers, as people that are maybe good at their craft, liberating yourself when you do it for others puts you in a different mindset that then sharpens your own skills. I think that that's that's a very that was very insightful.
Becki DavisGuest35:32
Yeah, and it's also, you know, you could carry it into just life in general, of that I think. A lot of times we come to interactions with people and we have a set idea of what the interaction is going to be like, or what should have to be said or what needs to be said. Or, instead of approaching it a little more openheartedly and saying whatever is supposed to be said or whatever I'm supposed to learn, or whatever is supposed to be brought to the table, I'm going to receive it and try to see where the truth is in that, so that I can find the way forward. I mean, that's what we're doing in each one of these songwriting sessions we are finding our way forward, we're finding the melody, we're finding the verse, we're finding the course. I mean, it's a process of discovery. It's a never-ending process of discovery.
Peter CarucciGuest36:16
And just to really showcase that, I keep going back to the song we wrote with the 93-year-old I shouldn't keep saying her age, I know I shouldn't say her age as the lead, but the young lady who survived the Nazis.
Becki DavisGuest36:34
But has been married 70 years in February.
Jamie SerinoHost36:38
That's all she wanted to talk about.
Becki DavisGuest36:40
That was easy to find the truth of her story because she just wanted to talk about that and her husband and their story. She just kept talking about it.
Peter CarucciGuest36:47
It was wonderful and just to put a perspective, musically that may be the most complex. It's like jazz chords with a once, not one, four, you know it's. It's really calm and even lyrically, like melodically, how it flows. It's really complex and and I think we wrote that the quickest- of 45 minutes.
Becki DavisGuest37:06
He wrote that song wow fell out.
Peter CarucciGuest37:08
But truth, it comes out. You can't hide a torch under a basket. It'll just burn itself out, and it's just um, you're gonna let it out.
Jamie SerinoHost37:18
It's amazing, yeah, and you? You were just reminding me of my, my grandfather.
37:23
Um, and he remember him yeah that's right, you, you got to meet him and so, so he, he was in World War II, but he, he was like older, he, he signed up, he was, I think, in his late twenties, um, you know, and he said, yeah, I heard that they bombed Pearl Harbor.
37:40
I went right to Times Square and I waited online, I signed up for the war, um, and he was a part of the liberation of dachau. And well, you know, he, he would, he would tell me stories, but he would always, of course, as a kid I'm asking all sorts of stupid questions, you know, and he would stop short of like details, but he would, you know, tell me stories and stuff. And it was finally, when he was like 94 or 5, when he had heard a story of someone saying that the Holocaust never happened and it annoyed him so much that he then just had this outpouring of stories about what he saw at Dachau and he began crying, and I'd never seen him cry. So I thought he was actually made out of rocks, this guy, right? Yeah, he's like this old school. I tried to hug him once and he didn't understand what was happening.
Peter CarucciGuest38:40
He just kind of, because I came back from college, right, and I was hugging everybody. I was like oh, and I go to him. And he was like what's?
Jamie SerinoHost38:51
going on right and so so he he told this story. Just see a point of telling the story. So you know, there are times when it's like context. You guys are creating this context, this bubble, and getting people to tell their stories within that bubble, and sometimes that's what's needed in a therapeutic process. Other times it's happenstance, which is how it happened with my grandfather, because something happened in the news and then we started talking about it and then the next day my mother calls me up and she goes your grandfather wants to apologize for crying in front of you. So that's like how, how, how he was, but so so just your, your stories reminded me of that. It's just really interesting.
39:37
But it just brings me back to this idea that you are creating this bubble and you're almost like accelerating this process of like getting to the heart of something which you know is really powerful. So this is not really a question, I guess. Just going back to my previous question, I'm curious about just your own songwriting styles and you know what are they in general, and you did touch upon the fact that you feel like maybe they are changing a little bit based on these experiences, and if you want to talk a little bit about that. I think just it's good for people to understand, if they're not musicians or artists or whatever, what is that process like? To create, you know?
Peter CarucciGuest40:20
I feel like I started every one I don't mind, I like when she starts. It's interesting because I find myself there were periods in my musical career where I got really folky and finger style guitar and really ornate and really deep vocals, and then I go and I feed off of the musicians around me, like when, when, jamie, when you and I started different bands I won't name their names you know the gathering chasing Sunday, you know, and, um, like, even the musicians that are around you like I find myself responding to, and I don't know if you remember Mike Skinner.
Jamie SerinoHost41:11
Yeah.
Peter CarucciGuest41:11
Drummer right. So when he wound up playing with Miracle 86 and Kevin Devine and he and I formed like this duo, I think right before you or right around when you and I started playing, and it was just magical. And then I remember I dove back into folk as he got into heavy metal. So, like I find myself, I'm really like a folky, but I love to rock, you know, and I love the world sound and I love, I love percussive sounds. So, like some songs I find myself writing now, like on our album I wrote my friend years ago, honestly, jamie, based on is if you were playing percussion while I were playing it, and so that's definitely how I write.
41:57
And then some things, honestly, the more Becki and I have been writing songs together, songs that I'm writing now are almost too honest, truthful to my heart, that it comes out, and I didn't tell you this, but I've been playing a couple songs at a couple of recent shows where I'm just singing these lyrics out loud and at the end people are clapping. They have no idea that I wrote that song. They had no idea that I just wrote that. You know. They thought, oh, that's a great song.
Jamie SerinoHost42:30
Yeah.
Peter CarucciGuest42:30
That's a good feeling, because it means they're responding to the genuine quality of what's coming out, you know. So I think this process of sharing your story is definitely helping me evolve, you know.
Jamie SerinoHost42:42
Yeah Well, I'll never forget. When you know. Yeah Well, I, I remember well, I'll, I'll never forget when you wrote the song, the month, and you, yeah right, and. And you came into the rehearsal and you were like, yeah, I may have a new song, you know, and you played it and I just remember being like that is a completely polished, perfect song, like you may have written a new song, and it was like, and it came from pain that you had, you know, and then boom, the song was done and I remember, like not wanting to ruin it with the drums, I was like, I don't know, maybe we should. You know, it sounded so perfect, like it just came to you, right.
43:26
And then there were songs that took two years, like, for you to to finish, you know, and I watched you do that as well, and that was interesting. And then there were some that you know, maybe were more organic. So it's just, you know, and it's interesting to hear about what your, what your style is now, or the way you're writing songs now, and I find it fascinating. So, Becki, how about you?
Becki DavisGuest43:47
You know, I came to songwriting later in my life and I'm very much through a process of processing things, I guess. So I don't write. I mean, I write folk. That's my main way.
43:59
I write and I don't write. I thought at first I should write to be more like commercial and more, you know, acceptable that way and certainly that's what you know. Like Nashville, songwriters are really good at doing. They write commercial songs that that have hooks and all these you know different pieces of craft in it, um, but I don't really write that way.
44:22
I write, um, you know what's what's honest and I I feel like that's probably why I was so drawn to do a program like share your story and why we even got into custom songs to begin with is that I like I like to give witness to the real process of something, or the real person or the real story of what's going on, and it's going to be pretty personal and it's not always going to be completely universal, although you do use some craft to try to build that in so that you're not sitting up there writing about you know something so specific that your audience has no relationship with whatsoever. But all my songs always come from that place of of real honest process. And yeah, I find when I get tripped up in my own songwriting it's because I'm getting too much in my head about what it should say instead of what it is meant to say.
Carlos ArcilaHost45:16
Yeah, so so what's next for you? Like, what's you know, where do you see 2024, 2025 going?
Becki DavisGuest45:27
good, good, that's a great question.
Peter CarucciGuest45:29
You know, we just came out with an album a little while ago, kind of the culmination of us writing songs, and the irony is some of the stuff we may be writing now or maybe sounds more singer-songwriting or more folk or more like bands in my head, more like maybe like Wilco of old or maybe other different sounds. But the album probably sounds more like the band meets Fleetwood Mac with some Americana grooves and as much as we're proud of it, I think we're still even evolving sound-wise in what we're proud of it. I think we're still even evolving sound-wise in what we're doing. And for me, I know that that definitely happens and you know, I remember actually, jimmy and I might have been talking about this 20 years ago. But you take a band like the Beatles and you compare them to a band that was their peer, like I'll just think of a random name the Dave Clark Five. So the Beatles come out and so did the Dave Clark Five, and the Beatles keep taking over the world and the Dave Clark Five just kind of fizzles away Because the Beatles kept changing and growing, not only responding to culture but being honest to the artistic process and putting a step forward where no one else would, whether it's John Lennon being quirky or Paul McCartney taking a musical risk, you know, and so I think that's like that's. That's an ideal.
46:54
As an artist, you always want to keep evolving. I think we're both very open to seeing where that goes. You know, we have a full backing band, but last year and the year before I think we did we did a hundred gigs last year, wow, together, plus maybe another 20 that she did, another 20 or 30. I did with other projects, or subbing on a bass in a band and playing drums, or she might guest star and sing a song somewhere. So it's like what did you? We calculate one every 2.7 days or something. We were gigging, yeah, and when we play it's gonna sound very modest, but, jamie, you know this, like we, we um. I think.
47:38
I think also this may be why share your story is strong, because we give it all it's like our, our one show in front of 12 people or our show in front of 500 people or a thousand. We we're so involved at least I, I think we are in our and what's going on musically on stage in that moment to try to be a catalyst for the music of, for the people that are there and for the emotive quality for ourselves that we give it all. And it takes so much energy and then to do like a three-hour show, like that, and then you know, and then pack up and then do that same night a three-hour show. It took a lot out of us the last couple of years, so yeah, yeah, I mean I think for 2024,.
Becki DavisGuest48:24
Our big goal is is for share your story is to really expand that program. We were excited we expanded it um in 2023, which was great. We got some. The community center was able to get grant funding through an arts program. We're looking to do some fundraising up um in the community this winter and also continue to get grants to expand that program because, of course, now that we've done it there for two years in a row, people are like wait a minute.
Jamie SerinoHost48:49
I want to do that, so now everybody wants to do it.
Becki DavisGuest48:52
So demand is high and we're very keen on getting this into assisted living facilities where we really feel like we try to find places that have community already a little bit established, because that witnessing part is so important. And so we really want to try to find the communities where this program would be a good complement to other things that are going on inside of that community and that would help, you know, advance their goals. So assisted living facilities, hearing those stories and just expanding the share your story program is a big focus of ours in the coming year.
Peter CarucciGuest49:27
Yeah, and the why is so important? It's like when we did the concert where we performed the songs up in Wyndham a couple of months ago, or two months, a month and a half ago, you know the audience is responding to the other participants' songs, hearing it, honoring it, valuing it.
49:58
And so think of, like an assisted living facility where, like our friend, one of our friend's mothers is in New Jersey and she's been struggling with MS for like 40 years but she's totally cognizant and she can't really do much. And so the thinking is just imagine for that person what it's like to have this awesome story and then she gets to perhaps hopefully hear that performed in front of her peers yeah it's also so edifying for a community and I think, as people get older too, like people tend to be forgotten.
50:32
I think, Jamie, you might remember my grandmother. She passed away a few years ago at the age 100. And I just remember her saying how certain people who remain nameless in my family just never necessarily reached out to her as much, and how sad she was, you know, and so I don't know. I think it's giving people a voice who not necessarily would have.
Becki DavisGuest50:57
Has it. Yeah, yeah, and also maybe a little more with their families, like your grandfather telling you, you know, finally having that moment of telling you and sharing that with you. But, you know, I think that that's a big possibility too, with some of these opportunities to write with people, that they'll share things their families never knew, and what a great thing for the families as well.
Jamie SerinoHost51:17
Yeah, I agree it's really powerful, Um, and you brought up a lot of great examples that are really powerful and I hope it does expand so one more time how people can find it.
Becki DavisGuest51:30
Yep, so the Share your Story is on our website, our studio website, which is F-O-U-R and the number is 26studioscom. That's where you'll find all the Share your Story info.
Carlos ArcilaHost51:42
That's great, some music here, right, I think, as you know that the sound that you have, so folks can experience that A little factoid right, our intro music, our actual music, also done by Peter and his talent there with 426. So a big shout out there and thank you for that yeah, that's great more Jamie's music, really right right, but you pieced it together.
Peter CarucciGuest52:19
Yeah, oh and actually I would be remiss came out with our album, not just on Spotify and Apple music and YouTube and all the things. You can digitally get it, so we encourage everyone who's seeing this or listening to check it out on all those online things. We also came out with it in a limited edition recycled vinyl and we're proud to say we did all the artwork ourselves, even though she did like 99% of it, I was like no, maybe move the.
52:57
And I'm colorblind and so for me it's like so beautiful, it's even better, you know great, you're like make the logo bigger yeah, you know yeah, but the artwork is is beautiful, the album's great.
Jamie SerinoHost53:10
The album's called broken pieces, so to be able to find that is is great um and you can get it on our album.
Peter CarucciGuest53:17
You can order it through our website, I mean yeah, get on our website order the album through our website.
Jamie SerinoHost53:24
It's great. All right, peter Becki, thank you so much. It was great talking with you guys and hearing that story and learning more about everything that you're doing.
Becki DavisGuest53:36
Thanks so much for having us.
Carlos ArcilaHost53:38
Yeah, and we'll connect again later in the year to do kind of a recap and see what other communities you've been able to build out. I know they're going to be.
Becki DavisGuest53:48
That'd be great.
Jamie SerinoHost53:49
Yeah, we should do that.
Peter CarucciGuest53:51
We could share your story.
Jamie SerinoHost53:54
Yeah, maybe All right, thanks again. Thanks everybody for listening and watching and we'll see you next time.
Peter CarucciGuest54:01
Bye, bye.