Our guest today joins us from Hollywood, he is Justin Connor. He is a filmmaker, actor, director, and producer. His latest film is currently out on Amazon Prime called The Golden Age: The Life and Times of Maya O’Malley. 

The soundtrack, also written, performed, and produced by Connor, is available on all streaming platforms, with a double vinyl album. 

THE GOLDEN AGE, a musical rockumentary shot over a decade in California and India, introduces us to the character of subversive pop star Maya O’Malley who, after a string of controversial remarks, gets dropped from his music label and sets out on a spiritual pilgrimage throughout India in an attempt to resolve his troubled past. 

Winner of the Audience Award at the AWARENESS FILM FESTIVAL and winner of the Best Performance Award at the NEW HAMPSHIRE FILM FESTIVAL, Connor is also releasing A DAY IN THE LIES, a memoir novel that delves deeper into the life of the film’s main protagonist, Maya O’Malley, which will be released on Amazon later this Summer. 

Justin Connor currently lives in Los Angeles, and splits time between music and painting, and prepping the release of his third album, MATERIAL LIFE. 

You can track the film’s progress on social media as well as at www.justinconnor.com. 

Justin says that he started as an actor but then veered towards music, released an album, and then for this second album as he was trying to figure out how to adjoin writing and directing a film that intertwined music without relying on lip-syncing. He wanted songs that helped tell the story in an organic way. He was also watching a lot of documentaries at that time and decided to play with the ideas of what’s real and what’s fake. 

The character of Maya is born in these moments, he wanted to have a more substantive dialogue on the permutations of fame and pop culture and substantive songwriting. Something similar to Bob Dylan and Roger Waters did. He wanted to tell a story that was partially autobiographical about his own past. The whole document ends up being a comedy, but a comedy that also is supported on reality. It's a satire about material life, documentaries of artists and how artists are broken. He tried to approach the story with sincerity. 

The form of the documentary proved to be challenging because you play a little trick by satirizing. 

The Filmmaking Process 

The process of making a film such as this along with music and the collaboration of a team Justin also said that it was a healing exercise for him. As a survivor of abuse, Justin says that there is an immense amount of shame that people end up struggling with. Those wounds don’t necessarily go away per se but people eventually learn to bridge a different connection with them. Justin got to really challenge himself while making this film. 

Justin also talks about how sometimes the stories that stayed with him after going through a dysfunctional household also make him feel that he had to heal from them like it was a mandatory thing. Which is something that he also wanted to reflect on in this documentary. Victims can heal and grow, just on their own terms and time. 

Currently, Justin is also finishing a book that will accompany the film and will go even deeper into it. He hopes that this story can help others heal. So this whole process has helped Justin heal a lot and come to terms with his wounds. This is why in part the film took so long before he was really wrapped in this and now in the end phase he feels like he is finally starting his life over. 

His multiple roles in filmmaking 

Justin is the creator, director, and actor in this film. He also made music for it and a book.  Justin talks about how his role as a writer is different from his role as a filmmaker. In the film, scenes may need to be cut, which is something that Justin was careful about since he wanted the story to be as complete as possible. 

However as filming goes forward and the time for editing comes, as a director he is able to synthesize the information needed to deliver great storytelling to the audience. As an author, he got to write each scene in detail, as painful as they were. But this also allowed him the liberty of not being limited by time as he would’ve been in a film. 

Advice from Maya

When it comes to what advice the character of Maya would offer, Justin says that his big mantra would be to march to the beat of your own drum. There are a lot of expectations and inclinations about what works with other artists or musicians, actors or filmmakers, whoever they are. And following those expectations may mean that you’ll be going through your life differently from what you want. But you have a life already that is different, embrace it and march to the beat of your own drum. 

Stream Justin’s film on Amazon Prime. The Golden Age: The Life and Times of Maya O’Malley (add link)  is available now.  

THE GOLDEN AGE — Written/Directed by Justin Connor

Synopsis: THE GOLDEN AGE is a musical rockumentary about subversive pop star Maya O’Malley who, after a string of controversial remarks, gets dropped from his music label and sets out on a spiritual pilgrimage throughout India in an attempt to resolve his troubled past. 

FILM:

USA: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08M98K6NJ

U.K.: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08M9Y1MB6

AUSTRALIA:  https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B08M3W4WSF

Official Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tozcS1RShdc&t=7s

Devotional Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-U-GN6LiZ3w&t=2s

SOUNDTRACK: https://lnk.to/tgafilm

PRESS KIT:  http://tiny.cc/obp1tz

SOCIAL:  https://linktr.ee/justinconnor

Facebook Film: https://www.facebook.com/tgafilm

Facebook Music: https://www.facebook.com/iamjustinconnor

Instagram Film: @tgafilm

Instagram Music: @iamjustinconnor

Music tracks are copyrighted, provided by the artist, and used with permission.

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AUTO GENERATED TRANSCRIPT

Welcome back friends to our podcast, unlocking your world of creativity. This is the podcast where we talk to creative experts and practitioners literally all over the world about their creative process, how they get inspired, how they organize their ideas, and finally how they gain the confidence and make the connections to launch their work out into the world. And our global travels virtually in a way, take us to LA today. We've stamped our creative passport at lax. We're driving up to Hollywood. We're talking to filmmaker, Justin Connor, Justin. So glad to have you. Thanks, Justin is, as I mentioned, a filmmaker, he stars, he directed, he produced a great film. That's out on Amazon prime now called the golden age, and then the subtitle is the life and times of Maya O'Malley. And so Justin, tell us a little bit about Maya O'Malley, the creative inspiration behind this documentary.

Um, sure. Um, I started as an actor and then started veering towards music, released an album. And on the second album, I was trying to figure out how to adjoin writing and directing a film that intertwined music. And, um, but I didn't want to do any lip sinking. So I was, I wanted like the songs helped tell the story in like an organic way. Um, but it was also, I was also watching a lot of documentaries at the time and I wanted to kind of play with the idea of what's real and what's fake. And so I created, as I started singing some of the songs, it was like this, uh, for those that have watched the film, like there's like, um, kind of a screaming or a shouting or needing to get released, you know, some of his old tape in his life.

So I started to loosely dub this character Maya for some reason, him and, um, and that's how it started and came about. And, um, basically I wanted to just like have a little bit of a more substantive dialogue on, you know, the permutations of fame and pop culture and, you know, substantive songwriting, similar to like, uh, the, you know, the Dillons and the Roger Waters and the Beatles and the Harrisons. And Lennon's like, I was really inspired by that movement of music. So I wanted to, um, kind of offset some of what's being sung these days to tell a story that's partially autobiographical about my own past and tell it through song as a way to heal.

And it is quite a commentary, I guess you talked about the musicians themselves, but also I guess the music industry that goes along with that, the pressures, the, you know, you have to be somebody, maybe you aren't, uh, all these things are expressed in the movie, aren't they? Yeah,

They are. And it's funny because, you know, as a musician actor and all these things, it's like, there's this inclination of wanting to become something in this fame and glory and such. And then you look at the people who have attained that material life around the west or globally, and they go through their own madness of sorts. And I think I'm more drawn to not only trusting my own path, but following some of those artists that kind of have a, a higher lens to just creating really substantive work throughout their lives and playing sort of the long game of thing. So, I mean, part of the film was not only satirizing the madness that happens through all these musicians that go on tour and their drugs and their former lives. And trying to put the pieces back together that, you know, the thinking man and me was like, this is insane.

Like this is what I'm gearing towards doing for the rest of my life. So I kind of started just owning that. I might be a different artist in that light, in the sense of just making compelling albums or compelling pieces of creative expulsion or creative works that, you know, talked about more substantive themes that might not potentially tap into the zeitgeists at this very moment. But I think eventually it will catch up just show that I was thinking a little bit ahead of the curve and it's hard to be in a place like Hollywood or LA where everyone's so, you know, social media and I'll that urban. So entrenched with wanting to become something. And I'm kind of almost moving in the opposite direction where I want to just really pound for pound, you know, serve the work and sort of the themes that you know, are more integrative to how we're all shifting. And on some level, you know, the film in my opinion is like a comedy, but no one really

Gets, but it's a con

It's really a comedy. It's a satire about material life. It's a satire about documentaries of artists. It's a, it's a satire on how so many artists are broken. And they think that this elusive fame will put the pieces back together when we all learn throughout their trajectory, that it destroys them. It may even be a satire about religion on some level. Although I tried to approach it all with like a sincere context in light, you know, because I went through my own wounds as a child with my parents and especially my dad who was an alcoholic, and that was tough. And it was like, I, you know, there was an element where I had to take a long look at it. So I wasn't trying to make fun of anything, but by any means, but we're living in a day and age where it's so hard to ascertain what's real and what's fake and shooting a film with a narrative structure.

And the form of a documentary is very challenging because you're trying to, on one hand, play a little trick by satirizing. Hence why I say it's a comedy, but you also have to own it and be very present and real with the angles and how we're trying to decipher you walking along the story as if it's real, because on some level, you know, some people think it's like a photo documentary is this real, is this fake. And that was kind of like the satire of the whole thing. And, you know, it's really hard to even know what's real and what's fake in this day and age. And, and even having finished the film and had some context or had some space between it's released and me processing it in the aftermath. I don't even know the difference because so much of it is reflective of my own life.

And yes, it was all scripted and narrative of sorts. But it, I think there's a there's room for space between a pound for pound narrative film and a documentary. And there's like a little bit of leeway in between that. And I think that's where I like to explore in terms of trying to be a bridge between, you know, this confusion we all have with being entertained where it's like, we're entertaining ourselves to death with stuff that we know isn't real and the stuff that is real, we can only take in small doses because it's so real. And I thought, well, maybe this is a way to narratively combine the two without being disrespectful.

Yeah. Yes. It's so interesting, Justin, that you're talking about this because now all of a sudden it raises the question of the veracity, I suppose, of almost any documentary that you're watching. Do you think this is a news program and yet the power of the storyteller to weave this documentary almost in any direction they want?

Yeah, totally. It's like, even if you're watching a pound for pound documentary, that's quote unquote real, you're still making educated or creative decisions on the cuts of how it portrays to elicit a certain feeling from an audience. So, you know, I can't remember who said it now, but I love this quote. It's like, uh, you know, art is the truth, exaggerated, you know, an exaggeration of the truth. And it's like, even when you're telling something, that's absolutely pound for pound, what we know to be true. And we're trying to get to the bottom of what it is. There's still an angle there's still manipulation with it. So there are a lot of elements within the film where I tried to hold on the character, our characters in different parts to make it like, we're not trying, I'm not trying to subvert the direction at which I want to lead you down. I want you to just, just to be, you can take from it and reflectively on whatever want yeah,

Well it's and the clash here. Uh, and again, I I'm curious about the purposefulness of these techniques, but you, you were mentioned mindfulness and there's a consciousness kind of thread throughout this. The music is very, I don't know, it's, uh, it's soft rock it's, it's got a seventies, George Harrison inspiration for sure. And yet some of the imagery very loud, very, you know, and the, obviously the acts that the character and the, you know, the anger and so forth. Interesting dichotomy, I guess, as I'm asking how you were able to meld those two feelings.

Yeah. Um, it's funny, you mentioned Harrison because his guru from the east, Shreela probably upon, he started the hurry Christian moment and I'm here in the west. In the late sixties. I got turned onto him through a friend of mine. And, and that was sort of the impetus for a lot of my life. A lot of the songs on the album, as well as the next album I do. And there's been that like script, like devotional bedrock at which I've kind of learned to hang my hat. So there's an element of not only one of the songs to help tell the story, but you know, my only critique, I guess, of what's happening musically these days is it's a lot of like trying to, whoa. Some girl are talking about materialism and et cetera, and this, a place for that. And kids love it. And I don't want to poo poopoo that or take anything away from that.

But these emotional themes about the chaos of us, our material life, and trying to make room for the devotional path, not only as a way to help guide our trajectory, but to heal some of the wounds that we're all kind of walking around with. So I think a lot of this was part and parcel of reflecting my own wounds and using the devotional path as a tool to, um, to heal it in the way that, you know, you know, therapy helps or different doses where people do meditation or yoga, and I do them all and it's great, but I think there's the one healing solve that continues to provide the most healing is, um, the devotional path. And I think I want it to offer those who have been through the same, whether it was any kind of physical, emotional, sexual abuse, or being raised by a narcissistic parent or an abusive parent or an alcoholic parent, like I'm right there with you and I'm falling apart at the seams. And I'm going to tell you my story as viscerally and as nakedly as I can, because I needed to heal my own stuff, but I also wanted to reflectively, um, give others permission to heal their in the event. They weren't as crazy to be as transparent.

Yes. There you

Go. Well, and do you feel like the process of making a film like this, uh, along with the music, along with the collaboration of, you know, your team, was this a healing exercise for you? Do you feel like you made some ins inside progress? Sure,

Sure. I think what happens when you're the survivor abuses like this, um, or like these, you feel there's a, there's an inordinate amount of shame that, you know, you end up struggling with those wounds. No don't ever necessarily go away per se, but you learn to like sort of bridge a different connection with them. So, um, I was most concerned or not most concerned, but I think the impetus was to have a better relationship with them. And, um, and to really challenge myself too. Sometimes I think that the stories that we've held from, you know, going through dysfunctional households, there's an imprint that we have that we unfairly we're meant to imbue by proxy of just being a child in a chaotic situation. But for me, I, and I'm not one of these people that wants to like, Hey, I'll tell you my whole story and put all my cards on the table, but I felt like it was mandatory for me to heal.

So it has an a in a lot of capacities, I'm actually finishing a book that accompanies the film right now. And that goes even deeper because you can only tell so much in a film, but this whole journey, it's almost like been my PhD of my former life. And hopefully it can help, you know, serve as a doctorate to others that are trying to heal from their own, but I had to announce it all and confront it. And if I hadn't, I felt like I would have been constantly harangued by these wombs, if that makes sense. So I kind of had to just ax, you know, like just have a full expulsion with them, even though it was wildly uncomfortable for me too. And even still knowing that I was so viscerally, honest about my pains and my wounds. Cause it's embarrassing. That shame comes up a lot, but I had to do it in order to move on.

So I'm, it has healed a lot, but it's still like a learning process because this whole film took so long, like almost a decade. So it's like, I was really wrapped up in this and now that I'm coming to the end phase of its release and then working on the book to release that you then have to like care for yourself outside of this creative expulsion and really deal with the fact that, oh, you're starting your life over having released this. And who are you now without that as a thing that's been so like a crutch of sorts. So it's, it's, it's been a, it's been a challenging year. So especially in relation to COVID, but, um, but, um, I'm so grateful to it. You know, the biggest caveat I think, is seeing so many people that have watched it, hit me up and saying, oh my God, I had the same father or my dad left me when I was four. And haven't been able to stay in relationships my whole life. And it was like, it was really sweet when people were able to heal from their own story by reflectively watching mine, but not letting their story or mind get in the way of each

Other. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you're also describing this sort of multihyphenate role of a creator. You're, you're making a film, you're acting in the film. You've made the music you're talking about now, uh, a book that's going to accompany this, uh, there's a lot of canvas to fill, to tell that story and use, are you using those mediums differently? I mean, the acting is different than the writing or the writing is different than the, you know, writing for film versus writing for book. Uh, how is all that working for you to kind of keep it straight, but also keep the story continuity throughout?

Well, that's a good question. It's like, it's, they're all wildly different yet. All equally. Almost the same, if that makes sense. But with the film and

The context of this discussion, it makes

Sense. Yeah. I know exactly. It's like upside

Down though, but you know, with the film, it was like, you have to, I had to write it. And even like this scene in the kitchen where I'm talking about my father, which was kind of a painful same, right? Some people will wash it. Like you need to cut this it's long. I'm like, no, I don't want to do any cuts. Cause if I cut it, it looks like I'm filtering to try to get someone, to get the parts of the story that I want. I'm like, no, I'm just going to let it be. So there are elements like that. And I, and I mapped that whole scene out as well as the whole film, even though there's maybe about five or 10% improv and throughout. But so I had to know, not only where I was singing the songs as an actor, you know, you have to know where you were coming and where you're headed, but it was hard with the songs to be like, okay, this is where I'm confronting this thing, but I just came from that and no I'm heading here in the film.

So there was like this performance with, in terms of directing myself and knowing where I was going with that. But the end with like editing a film, you have a cut and you're like, oh, I like this. But the more you take time, this is the irony of the film business. Right? I think creative projects in general, it's the more time you take away from that canvas that you started to throw paint against. Once you think you have it locked and done, the more time you take away from it, you can come back and be like, oh, we don't need that. We don't need that. And that's the irony of being in Hollywood where every they're like selling trailers before they even looked at the source footage to cut the film. And that's why so many films are full of crap because they're doing them so fast and that's fine, but it's like, there's something to be.

So even though people are like, oh my God, you're insane doing this for this many years. You know? And I'm like, well, the more time you take away from the more you're able to gain real clarity on what it is that needs to be said. So on that same flip argument, what I was talking about, how they're completely different, but the same, the book has been wildly challenged. And in many respects, the hardest one of all three in terms of the album film, and now book, because the more time you come away from it, the more you realize, oh, I'm repeating that thing. Or I really need to just say that. So it's this constantly editing process of which I'm finishing right now. And I've been working on it for a few years, but yet it's the same thing. Because with the film, it's like, you're continually like taking out some frames are realizing, this is maybe a little long, or maybe we can like really punch in that section and let it like sit with them.

But you can only tell so much in a hundred minutes of a film, but with the book, you can get much more viscerally, honest and more detailed. So I would say on some level the book, maybe it's just because it's the last of the three and it's been such a long journey, but it's been very challenging because there's so much more you can say, and it needs to be very concise and specific. And sometimes in writing a book, you use the same words over and again. So it's like trying to reframe it all, but I'm most proud. I don't know. I love them all, but it's like, the book has been very challenging because when you step away, you see what you didn't, you couldn't see two months ago, whether you were staring in front of your computer, like trying to figure it out. So I think what I take from this whole project and what I'm learning to now do for the next album or on the next film or whatever comes next is like, time is your ally. And the irony of this day and age is it's like, everybody wants to get stuff out there and move it. And it's like, that's why so much media is crap these days, because it's moving so quickly that we're not giving it time to gestate to find that like perfect balance between what you've captured and what it is. You want the audience to see

A non-manipulative cycleway, you know? Sure. But you're describing a editing process as much as a creating process that, you know, it's like the old sculptor analogy that, you know, Michael Angelo is just removing all the unwanted stone around David to make a beautiful statute, but you're describing, yeah. Do I really need all these words or do I need this scene or do I need this? Yeah. And

I think time is like your best ally as an, as, as an artist on some level. And it's funny how everyone's so quickly trying to just get it all out there. And, you know, I had to take time with the project because I want it to look like AI with a gene throughout it, versus like having some makeup artists like make, make me up. But if they do in Hollywood and it's like, you never buy it, it looks like crap. It's like, whatever. But, you know, it's like rare to pull that off, but I want it to have like a natural progression and that context, but just taking space away from what you've thrown against the wall, you can see it better. The more you take breaks from it and come back to it. So I think that's been like a nice metaphor for my life.

And then equally wanted me to like equally wanting to find more of a balance in my life so that these creative products are reflective of that balance. Then, then I'm trying to rush, rush, rush it all out. That's like I say, like playing the long game with fame, like people are like, you know, you should go on tour. This should be, and I'm like, I might, but it's like, I also just love the studio and the process of it so much. And seeing how many people like are just going crazy touring 200 to 300 days a year. Although that's something that I could do and I might do, but it's like, I just enjoy, you know, I think, I think one of the aspects of why it was a documentary and why I liked that, that mode of telling a story is there's a certain being ness.

And I always think of myself first and foremost as an actor pound for pound, but there's so much of an artifice with acting or it can Lee lean that way. And some of the biggest stars in the world, you watch them on screen, like other acting in their pants off that there's a, there's an element of like being this that I'm more drawn to than anything. And being this isn't something that's dependent on time except for the moment itself. So I think that's what I'm exploring more now in my life. And hopefully I can gravitate or, or, and be that into my creative process.

Wonderful. Well, let's start with my guest is Justin Connor. He's the writer director actor in the golden age, the life and times of Maya O'Malley. So Justin let's turn the page a little bit to some of the, I guess, business logistics, the messiness of actually putting this creativity out into the world.

No. I think I repressed that. I was going to say,

I, I think I just said the words, writer, actor, I didn't say manager finance director.

I know. I don't know how I did it. I'm bored. You

Know, what's funny is the one thing that I never, cause I'm not really into fashion per se. Although I respect it as a career, um, expression, but I like the best than the job that I unaware really enjoyed the most was like wardrobe, wardrobe for different members of the band or whatever. I'm like, this is kind of fun.

I did like the wardrobe, but, um, you know, I think why I wore so many

Hats, first of all, making a film, films expensive. I feel like the, and I am a little bit I'll, I'll admit it like a control freak or have like a, a lot of my hand, I have my hand in a lot of different pots, always. That's just been who I am. And I think why I wore so many hats on it. Not only because I want it to, like, I always take my stab at writing, directing and producing acting. Cause like I'm just fascinated by it all. It's just more fun, you know? It's like, sometimes it's boring. If you're just an actor on set and you're in your trailer and then you go out and you say your lines, oh, they're going to light it. And then you're sitting there for four hours. I'm like, this is stupid. I'd wish I could like, so I usually with a God on the crew and watch like what was happening, what people were doing.

And that's kind of was my on set training for preparing me to do my own film. But I think this, and I'm being honest with this and whether it was like a big TV show I was on or, you know, I had had a guest on or spot on, or it was a commercial or was it an independent film? There were times where I would watch a scene that was pivotal for the storyline that had to be sold for the storyline to work. And there were times, many times where I could see that we moved on from a scene that wasn't ready to be moved on to. And because that wasn't this episode or this film or whatever was going to turn to crap. And so I think like I protectively made sure that to the best of my ability, at least I had more control in that department to preclude that from happening.

So it was less about like, Hey, I want to do all this stuff on my film. It was more like I did it as a, I hedge to prevent what I had seen. It happened so many times and, and no fault to those people that, that does happen too. Cause it's like, you've got the location for a day. You've got everybody working, we've got to get it, the lights going down, whatever. So it's, it's, it's such an inexact science making a film, but like I literally in terms of handle this, I say, oh my God, I want to repress them. My memory in the answer to your question. Cause I worked on this literally and I think that's why I've been sleeping a lot. The last few months is I worked on this like for like six days a week, eight to 10 hours a day for like years, like maybe a decade.

And I've kinda just kind of dropped recently. So it was like preparing the scene and the rehearsal with the actor and then the wardrobe and the gear and the food at the set and this and that. And I'm acting in it and none of the songs and I'm where am I coming from? And the cameras and the lights. It was just like, oh my God. So it's, it's, it's amazing that anybody finishes a film. That's not terribly bad, let alone competently good. I champion everyone who takes on big creative endeavors like this. And I think that's kind of what I enjoy the most is taking on these big, instead of having a career of like 20 films, you acted in a director. And I dunno, I think it's kind of cool to do like two or three that you like stand behind like big time. So more than anything, the reason I wore so many hats is I was, I was fearful of my own film suffering, the same fate at which so many others had that I was an actor on, if that makes sense. And I just, I couldn't, I couldn't live with myself letting that happen. So I refuse to,

Well, I think, yeah, central to the story of this film, but also that you're describing this process. I did have a guest, a couple of episodes back on the podcast who was talking about the business, like this is a business. Uh, and so the conflict sometimes of art and commerce here that ultimately the studio is making a film and they want to make money and they want to spend the money wisely. And like you said, we had the set for a day and that's what we have. So, uh, but, but you're saying that to manage all of those, you know, lots of gears turning lots of plates spinning, but ultimately you have to have the creative product is what you're describing for sure. And

You have to protect it almost like a general on the battle lines, because if somebody is not protecting their flank or position, like it's going to get invaded. So it was more like a protective hedge to make sure that we didn't get invaded a and B when you talk about the business of it and the car. So that, that, that the challenging part of make of art these days, if you're a musician everything's streaming and you know, for those famous few who are making money from streaming, God bless them. But most people aren't making a lot from these streaming sales. So the hence they need to go out on tour. And the same thing sort of happened to the film business. And that's why I'm a little distressed about what's going to happen to the independent film movement because everything now is streaming or it goes to Netflix and they buy you out.

Or it goes to Amazon, you're streaming pay. So there's not really a lot of money in this law any more, unless you're like being funded by a Netflix or something. And that's okay, I've come to terms with that. But this business is, is sort of like, um, up ending itself in terms of like the heyday of what it once was. But what always keeps me championing forward is staying far beyond, you know, I feel like far beyond money, firstly, but I feel like the artists that I look up to admire are looking at their products in a currency that supersedes and moves beyond money itself. Because most people aren't making bread at this, unless they're like big acts that are going on tour and God bless them, but that has its own mania as well. That I just want to keep I'm following the lead of and serving and honoring it and Amash and all those directors and musicians that to this day, I still think about like on my daily walks at night or something like, wow, that film really hit me, um, and, and have that same effect for someone else to inspire them to create in the same way.

I was inspired to create this from them. You know, I mean, that's kind of like the currency or the synergy that I'm, I'm attuned to the most. And, uh, and I I'll just keep pounding that soap box in that payment until, until I die. You

Know, I love it. I love it. Well, Justin, I can't thank you enough for the time and folks, that's Justin connor.com. The film is the golden age, the life and times of my O'Malley. I can't help it ask Justin, what if I had Maya on this podcast? What a,

There we go,

Well, what creative, I guess insight advice would my O'Malley, uh, provide to the listeners about the creative process and those life and times?

Well, in terms of like their own creative endeavors that they're looking to take on. Yeah,

I think it's just mark, you know, the big mantra I always have, and this was certainly proof positive of that is just marching to the beat of your own drum. There's a lot of expectations and inclinations of what's working, um, with other artists or musicians or actors or filmmakers or whatever it is painters. Um, and I think just trusting what, like makes sense to you and that be enough. And that may mean that you have a life that's different than what you thought of by marching to the beat of your own drum. But I think when you're sitting back in a rocking chair down the road, it's like, that will, that will be more of a pleasant rock of sorts instead of, um, you know, trying to follow what the masses are doing. And, um, yeah, I think that's the main thing is like, there's no, there's no real, um, there's no real goal to attain with this whole creative game.

And I think we all get trapped in this idea of if I do this or play these rights, stepping stones, et cetera. But I don't know for me, it's just, I know what I want to do. I trust that it will find the eyes and ears as how it's meant to. And I think those that veer away from that and then try to do something more traditional in relation to what the masters are doing that has its own breed of madness too. You know? So my, my encouragement to other people out there it's like, you know, make a steady, whether it's quantity a large quantity or not like tell the story you want to tell, this is what I wanted to say. That the, the filmmakers that I'd read about that, I love so much, but I would read about when I go into final cut stage or you know, about to release their film.

And I remember them saying this, I'm like, oh my God, that sounds kind of selfish, but there would be like, all you really have at the end of the day is your barometer of what you think is great, that's it? And there were times where people are like, oh, you need to cut that kitchen scene. So I'm like, no, I'm trusting myself. And I think that's what this project did for me and will do other people to take on, you know, what they're supposed to do, like really ingrained in themselves, supposed to do as an artist is, is all you really have is your own barometer and your taste at the end of the day. And if it matches that kind of test of like, whether you think this is really sound, whether anyone else does, I think that's a victory. You know, I think what's what gets people in the struggle is I felt like I should do this thing and then the habit and then releasing it.

And they're kind of embarrassed about it because it was something they never wanted to do. So some of my favorite directors, I hear them constantly saying that same thing is that's all you have is your taste. So essentially you have to make it for yourself first, even though that sounds very selfish, but if you can't pass your own tests, then what do you expect for the results? Whether they're wildly surpassed what you want, or it fails miserably, at least like you're able to check in with yourself to say, I stand behind this. You know, I support them

Very powerful. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that. And thanks for sharing your, your experience and even your personal insight about what the story means to you. I really appreciate it.

Well, thanks for having me. Thanks for lending a hit hit ya.

Absolutely. Well folks again, Justin Conner, filmmaker writer, singer songwriter, a book writer, extraordinary, all these talents all rolled into one package. Justin, appreciate you being on the program. Thanks so much. Yeah, listeners. We're going to continue our around the world travels. We're going to go from LA to Nashville, to Broadway and all points in between talking to creative practitioners and artists about what inspires them, how they organize these ideas and ultimately how they get the competence and the connections to launch their work out into the world. As we learned today from Justin. So come back again for our next episode, I'm mark StInson and we're unlocking your world of creativity. See you next time.