Finding & Perfecting Your Craft with Jack Aldous

Episode 24 • 26th August 2025 • The Akkeri • Matt Howlett

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;23;04

Jack Aldous

It looks like sacrificing a lot of my social life. It was just always this constant thing in the back of my head that was like, if I don't have any plans, I'm going to make music, put my phone away, do whatever you need to do, because if anything's holding you back from really feeling alive as a result of working on your craft, and it's like a really necessary part of that process.

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Jack Aldous

It's really trippy on a psychological level to be like, this is amazing, and I can't wait for every single person who works here to go from that to being like, I think it needs work.

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Matt Howlett

You're listening to the akkeri podcast, the show about men and masculinities, the challenges that modern men face, and how to chart a better way forward. I'm your host, Matt Howlett, mental health coach and founder of The akkeri. Finding a vocation is one of the most important tasks for any man. We want work that makes us feel alive. Provides a strong financial foundation and has a positive impact on the world.

00;00;55;08 - 00;01;16;29

Matt Howlett

And we find that by pursuing our passions, perfecting our craft, and sharing that work with the world. Jack Aldous, my friend and solo artist, is doing that work right now as he has recently released his debut album, inertia. Under the artist name white Cricket. In this episode, Jack shares how he discovered his passion for music production and what producing his first album has demanded.

00;01;17;01 - 00;01;36;03

Matt Howlett

Jack talks about the vulnerability required for any creative endeavor and how he manages the self-doubt and self-criticism that often arise in the creative process. He also shares the story behind his choice of artist name, and it makes a lot of sense once you listen to his music. Jack's music draws inspiration from artists such as on Tom Cruise and John Hopkins.

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Matt Howlett

Pairing Mr. Jack Grealish from Lush Sounds Jack Smith, otherwise known as inertia, available now, has internet chat, but for now, here's my conversation.

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Jack Aldous

To Jack white. Connected.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, okay, so let's just start with that one. Where did that come from? White cricket.

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Jack Aldous

White cricket actually comes from I have the book. Let me just grab the book one second.

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Matt Howlett

Okay. Jack's going off camera. We're still rolling man. I don't know if I can entertain the people for this amount of airtime. Okay. You're back.

00;02;08;26 - 00;02;39;04

Jack Aldous

I'm back, I'm back. The white cricket. The name comes from this book, which is called The Dirt Eaters. It's like, Okay. It's like a teen fiction. Fantasy, novel. And it's it's great. It's like the white cricket comes from, like, the main character is on this journey, and it's kind of set in this like future, like dystopian, non dystopian.

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Jack Aldous

It's like a wasteland kind of future. Okay. Where, and he is like a solo traveler. He's kind of he's just on his own journey and he travels around with this white snow cricket, which is this fantastical creature in the novel. And whenever he's anxious or whenever he's kind of stressed about something, the white cricket comes out of his pocket and it sings a song like the first.

00;03;04;10 - 00;03;27;29

Jack Aldous

The first line, like the first paragraph in the book, is it mentions the white cricket singing a sweet, resonant note. And anyway, it was the, I guess when it came to picking an artist name, I wanted something that was easy to say and easy to spell. That was like, rule number one has to be both those things. Yeah.

00;03;28;02 - 00;03;49;22

Jack Aldous

Because when you're talking about an artist that you really like or, you know, an album or something, if it's really hard to pronounce the artist's name, and it's also really hard to spell it out, that just instantly becomes a barrier, you know? So that was kind of like my rule. And then I was thinking also like what was already what was not taken already.

00;03;49;24 - 00;04;02;00

Jack Aldous

Sure thing. Because there's so many artists, we just there's tons of artists out there these days. Yeah. And yeah, white cricket kind of just popped into my head. It's must have been like, I think this was like 6 or 7 years ago.

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Matt Howlett

I don't know if I ever asked you about that before. It's not ring any bells for me, I like that.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah, that's very cool. So. Yeah. So it's kind of it kind of the name came from the book and it was without realizing it, it was kind of like how the music.

00;04;19;06 - 00;04;36;27

Jack Aldous

The white cricket for the main character in the novel, it becomes this kind of companion where he, he travels around with it everywhere he goes. And it's always there in times of stress and in times of need. And it's kind of like his, like, guys, it's almost like a spirit guide, I guess. Cool. And then so.

00;04;36;27 - 00;04;43;11

Matt Howlett

That makes sense for me, for the type of music that you put out, is that kind of what you were thinking, what you're going for in a sense?

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Jack Aldous

Well, I wanted something that didn't sound aggressive. Like, first of all, you should make coming out ambient music and have like a really intense sounding, aggressive name.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah, white Cricket does. Doesn't sound like it's going to be anger. Yeah.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah, yeah. It's not like, you know, heavy metal or anything. But yeah, I just thought it's, it's yeah, it's easy to say and it's easy to spell and it's like there's something that I've actually been rereading the novel and the themes that come up within the book and like the kind of the way that the white cricket becomes this kind of symbol of like, peace, and it becomes a symbol of like it almost becomes like a compass for the main character.

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Jack Aldous

Okay. And so it's very it's more and more it's like very fitting that I chose the name white Cricket because music has essentially been my compass, you know, and the album, inertia has essentially been like this companion with me the whole time. It's been like the soundtrack to my life over the past 5 or 6 years.

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Jack Aldous

Right? But in times where I've been stressed or times where I've been feeling low or whatever it is, it's like the music is something that I continually turn to when I kind of want to shut the world away. Yeah, the music is always there. It's kind of like it always has this, like, outstretched hand being like, I'm here when you need me, you know?

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. Nice. What was the name of the book again?

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Jack Aldous

The book's called The Dirt Eaters.

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Matt Howlett

The Dirt Eaters by Dennis.

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Jack Aldous

Dennis. Finn.

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Matt Howlett

Dennis Boone. Very cool. Okay, so I'm from Vancouver. Oh no way.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

No way. I've never heard of the guy. I've never heard of the book either. But I'm very much like that. It's very aligned with your music. But before people are wondering why we're talking about cricket so much, can you give us, like, a just cause notes version? Who you are. Why? You have a second name? Yeah, that is a cricket.

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Jack Aldous

So. Yeah, my actual name is Jack. I'm originally from Bristol, UK, and, I've travel around quite a bit. My family, lived in a number of different places, including, East Africa. And then also from there we moved to the East Coast. We're in the Maritimes for a bit, and slowly but surely, I've made my way across to the West Coast, where I am now in Vancouver.

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Matt Howlett

And how old? You know.

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Jack Aldous

I'm 31.

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Matt Howlett

Yes. That's a lot of traveling and living in other places. You were raised basically. In other places?

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Jack Aldous

Yeah, like I was only in England till I was seven. Right. Okay. And then it was like Kenya for four years, New Brunswick for like 7 or 8 years. I did some oh, my gap year, I went abroad, I was in Hawaii, I was in Australia. Yeah. And then sort of as time went on, I. Yeah, I was in Halifax for a year, lived in Toronto and then now I'm here.

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Matt Howlett

So how did you get into music then? Like, what was the, I guess the, the Genesis bit of that.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah. The catalyst for diving into music production was I was in university, I was in Toronto, and I was taking a program that just didn't really it wasn't connecting, it just didn't feel like the right fit. And so at the end of that year, I just decided, okay, I'm not going to I'm going to go back to school, I'm going to take a break.

00;08;13;19 - 00;08;38;05

Jack Aldous

And during this, it was this was kind of my first like existential crisis was like at the age of like 20. I was just like, I don't know what I want to do with my life. I don't know what like, what does this look like? I went to university, two different universities for two very different programs, but it I didn't want to go into the world of academia.

00;08;38;05 - 00;09;01;01

Jack Aldous

I didn't want to study more necessarily, like in the traditional sense. And, and at the time, I was kind of in quite a low point. And the school I went to the school counselor and she was really, really helpful. She gave me the sheet of questions and she said, you know, you don't have to write anything down. Just just think about them.

00;09;01;04 - 00;09;19;26

Jack Aldous

And the two questions that stood out to me the most were, what makes you feel alive and what do you want to share with the world? And those two questions really resonated with me because typically the questions that people ask you, what do you want to do? What do you want to be? What career do you want to have?

00;09;19;28 - 00;09;42;01

Jack Aldous

Yeah, they're very they're very leading questions. And they also kind of pigeonhole you into this. Like okay. So like if you're going to be a doctor or a lawyer then there's like a very specific path to take. You could do the school, you do master's program. You, you know, it's very kind of linear in that way. Yeah. Yeah.

00;09;42;01 - 00;10;01;05

Jack Aldous

And so I, I really I was racking my brain for a while and I was thinking, what, like, what is the answer to these two questions? Like, what do I really want to share? And the time where I felt most alive up to that point in my life were when I was playing music and when music was involved?

00;10;01;07 - 00;10;26;02

Jack Aldous

Yeah. In grade 12, I was kind of had this responsibility of helping set up these, like open mic nights. Yeah. And I would obviously perform as well as, help the other students to do the same. And yeah, it was those nights where I was like, oh, like, this is I just felt very much alive. And I felt very much kind of like everything was connected in those moments.

00;10;26;02 - 00;10;29;17

Matt Howlett

Do you remember the first song that you ever performed live?

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Jack Aldous

I remember actually doing one in grade nine. Okay. I think this might have been one of the first, and it was just an instrumental piece that I made. I sorry.

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Matt Howlett

I really wanted it to be some like, love rock ballad. When you had a crush.

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Jack Aldous

No, I was the thing is that I did write like I did write a few songs in high school. Obviously they weren't great, but like singer songwriter songs, I tried. I tried to do that, but I'm not a lyricist and I don't. It just doesn't come to me that way, you know? And so I would always, more often than not, I would play, an instrumental piece for the open mic nights.

00;11;12;17 - 00;11;31;08

Jack Aldous

And the first time I think I played was, yeah, I was playing with I think I was playing with my brother and then a couple of other guys, and we kind of just did this, like improv on top of the piece that I kind of arranged. Okay. And it sounded great. It was it was awesome. It like went way better than we all expected it.

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Jack Aldous

Right?

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Matt Howlett

This is like high school auditorium type setup.

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Jack Aldous

This is like kind of I think that one took place in the theater in high school. Cool. But these other times, like sometimes they hosted them outside when it was like toward the end of the year. Where would this event where.

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Matt Howlett

You're in the Maritimes at this.

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Jack Aldous

Point? Yeah, I was in New Brunswick.

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Matt Howlett

Okay.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah, yeah. So it was those moments where and, you know, even when I went to, when I went, I went I studied at King's University in Halifax. Yeah. And they had in the, in the dining room, they had, like the food cafeteria. They had this piano in their rooms, like, kind of random, but I would just like, play that almost every day.

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Jack Aldous

Right. And like, people, people seemed to really enjoy it. And it was kind of this time where I wasn't studying, I wasn't reading, I wasn't doing anything, but I just, like, was really present and just playing piano. Yeah. And so it was kind of it was almost when I look back on it, it was like glaringly obvious that while I was attempting to do a lot of these other things, music was kind of always at the center of it.

00;12;44;22 - 00;12;52;25

Jack Aldous

And it seemed to it always seemed to be the thing that grounded me in the midst of doing all these other things.

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Matt Howlett

Right. But you said, you mentioned two different programs. What were you feeling, drawn to do? In post-secondary, what were the two programs?

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Jack Aldous

So, King's I studied philosophy and literature. Okay. It's this program called the Foundation Year Program. And you basically study. It's a really great program, actually, and it just leads into like a BA. And you basically study thought from like pre ancient Greece all the way up to the 21st century. So you yeah, it's very cool. You go through like epic poetry, like Dante, Homer, the Odyssey, all that stuff.

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Jack Aldous

And you go into, political theory. You also study there's like literature involved. Yeah. I remember reading, like, Gulliver's Travels. That's that's kind of stuff. And. Yeah. And then all the way up to, like, you know, there's like a graphic novel that we studied toward the end. So it's very cool to see thought kind of from, you know.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah. Plato, pre Plato all the way up to.

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Matt Howlett

Drop in Plato to see what I hear you telling me is that you're not only British cool accent, ridiculously good looking and musically talented. You're also well read. I mean, I mean, this is so slow. This slow. I would.

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Jack Aldous

I wouldn't, I don't know if I'm well read at this point like, I, I, I definitely want to read more. But that, that, that program and that year in particular definitely created a foundation where when people talk about Plato, Aristotle, Dante, Descartes, you know, all these names, you know, Huxley, Orwell, like all these names that you've, that I've kind of heard in high school up to that point and I sort of, but I didn't really have like a frame of reference.

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Jack Aldous

I didn't know what they were talking about. I didn't know what their because each kind of each one of these people in history kind of have like 1 or 2 kind of main ideas. Right? Sure. And so it was really cool in this program to kind of understand what those main ideas were and then to be studying their contemporaries at the time and then see how thoughts shift and it grows and it, you know, certain ideas kind of come back around like a couple of centuries later, that sort of stuff.

00;15;11;02 - 00;15;15;09

Matt Howlett

So what was the other program? That was philosophy and literature? I was yeah.

00;15;15;12 - 00;15;25;17

Jack Aldous

That was Halifax. And then I kind of had this change of heart where I wanted to, because I've always been passionate about nutrition and about like holistic living as well. Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

Having known you for a little while, these both make a lot of sense.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah. And so yeah, I thought I, I looked into like nutritionist programs which typically are like a year or two year program. And but then I was recommended, like if I really wanted to do nutrition, I should become a dietitian of Canada. Okay. And that's kind of the more like legitimate route to take. And so that's kind of what I signed myself up for.

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Jack Aldous

And funnily enough, I actually got into second year at UPI, but then I visited P.E.I. in the winter time and it was like a blizzard, and I was like, I don't know if I can live here, but this school year, like the best time of year in P.E.I., is not in the school year, you know?

00;16;10;19 - 00;16;17;13

Matt Howlett

Sure, I have a lot of time there, but I have heard it is beautiful when the weather's nice. So for like five, six months of the year, I don't know.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah. It's stunning.

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Matt Howlett

It's amazing. The wind. The winter time in the Maritimes is is rough for anybody. But it's okay.

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Jack Aldous

It's pretty rough. Yeah. Yeah.

00;16;26;24 - 00;16;28;08

Matt Howlett

So you checked out of that and.

00;16;28;13 - 00;16;50;22

Jack Aldous

I checked out. So. Yeah. And then I went to and then I went to Ryerson. It's not cool that anymore. I don't know what the name is but it's, but I thought okay like if I'm going to do this, I should, I should do it in a place that offers maybe more opportunity or kind of maybe I could see myself the more long term.

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Jack Aldous

But it was, you know, it was funny because I visited Toronto once or twice before, but in a way, like, I think I was in kind of a weird headspace, and I hadn't really considered what that actually meant. And I think it was kind of quite a culture shock and a very big shift. Just to be in like, you know, be in a big city where it's just like very hustle and bustle culture.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah.

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Matt Howlett

And a lot bigger than Halifax, for sure.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah. And Halifax is there's a lot of people when the school year end because there's just tons it's such a student city. It's like it's such a university city. Yeah. But Toronto, it's just like this whole other piece.

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Matt Howlett

Yeah. And Halifax has grown a lot in the last couple of years. But what year was that when you were there?

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Jack Aldous

So like I was in Halifax like: 2013

00;17;41;20 - 00;18;01;05

Matt Howlett

Okay. Yeah. So I don't know when the I guess boom, so to speak, kind of hit Halifax, development wise. But in past couple of years, I was there just like a year ago. And a buddy of mine, those living there was saying, like, there's just houses and neighborhoods popping up left right and center right. And the cost of, cost of, of places has gone up significantly.

00;18;01;05 - 00;18;04;12

Matt Howlett

But I would assume. Yeah. Ten years ago LA us yeah.

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Jack Aldous

Yeah, yeah. Has probably a different quite a different city in a way. Yeah. But yeah. So I got into this program and I, and I, it was, it was weird. It felt like I was kind of, I remember feeling it was like taking a step back because I'd, I'd done a gap year after high school. So I was then like 19 when I started like at Kings.

00;18;30;25 - 00;18;59;14

Jack Aldous

And then it was just like another year after that. Then I was back in like first year and kind of around people that weren't my age anymore and just would just coming out of high school and I felt like I was, you know, not really clicking with that. Right. And yeah. And I just and as I was taking these courses, it just became more and more apparent that this was kind of like sucking the life out of me.

00;18;59;14 - 00;19;23;05

Jack Aldous

And it was very it's like, I just don't know if this is like, I don't know if this is working, you know, like, you know, when you try something and you're like, okay, like, I think I can see myself pushing down this route, like pushing through the obstacles. And I know that it's worth it in the end. But with this program, it was just like, man, I was like, I don't know if I don't know if I should be doing this.

00;19;23;05 - 00;19;25;10

Jack Aldous

Like, I kind of just had this intuitive sense. That's what I.

00;19;25;10 - 00;19;41;25

Matt Howlett

Want to hear a little bit more about, because I think, that's going to resonate with a lot of people, not just those who are maybe thinking about a career change, but any change at all in life, when you are in a situation where something just doesn't feel right, you know what I mean? Like we put that off so much.

00;19;41;25 - 00;20;12;06

Matt Howlett

Actually, this reminded me of a conversation I just had on the last podcast with, Larry Hagner. I don't know if you if you saw that from the Dead edge he was talking about, specifically relationships and how men need to take action when they sense that something is off, like as soon as possible. And he threw out the stat that I hadn't heard before that if, your partner, your wife says, like, you know, I'm been thinking about possibly separating or maybe mentions divorce, the statistics say that they've been thinking about it for up to two years.

00;20;12;08 - 00;20;32;23

Matt Howlett

So I thought like, man, that that's yeah, that's that hit me. Right. And we so often get in these situations that might not be bad for us, but they're not ideal. Like for you. You said music was ideal. It was like a refuge of sorts, you know, correct me if I'm wrong, but it was always there. It was like the place that you always felt calm.

00;20;32;23 - 00;20;48;23

Matt Howlett

So how did you make that transition? You're in Halifax. You went to Toronto. These programs were, like, aligned with who you are and what you wanted to do in the world. But wasn't the deep connection, I suppose, that you're looking for?

00;20;48;25 - 00;21;16;17

Jack Aldous

Yeah. I think the programs I took in university were aligned with my interests. Sure. Not with my I guess with my vocation, I would call it. And I think that's there's a really important distinction between these two, where you can take your hobbies and take what you love to do, and that's a part of your lifestyle. It's a part of why you enjoy the things that you do.

00;21;16;21 - 00;21;18;01

Matt Howlett

Absolutely.

00;21;18;04 - 00;21;53;25

Jack Aldous

But then to consider something as a career path, or to consider something as, you know, something that you're going to put like all your time and energy into, that's that's something it's quite different. And I think like what frustrated me about the, the typical kind of university experience is that it's there are lots of options that you can do, but it's still kind of like it's still kind of like pigeonholed into this singular style of learning or this, you know what I mean?

00;21;53;25 - 00;21;55;01

Jack Aldous

It's kind of like, yeah.

00;21;55;01 - 00;21;55;10

Matt Howlett

I get.

00;21;55;10 - 00;22;16;14

Jack Aldous

What you're it's like, this is the textbook. You've got to learn from that and then regurgitate the information and maybe this will apply in the real world, but we'll see. You know, it's like, that's it just doesn't it didn't really it didn't resonate with me. And I know it doesn't resonate with a lot of people, but they kind of suffer through it anyway to get to the next stage, which is sometimes necessary.

00;22;16;14 - 00;22;44;01

Jack Aldous

I think that's important if you know what you ultimately want to do after, like if the degree is going to lead to something that you really want to do, then then go for it. But I would always recommend people like take a year or two after high school, like work, like just work with people and get to know yourself a bit better and get to know people like.

00;22;44;03 - 00;23;10;14

Jack Aldous

Try and understand why you admire the people that you admire in your life. Because I think what I find is that one of the things is that sometimes people will give advice, and what they're not, they're not really giving the person advice that specific to that person. They're just giving advice that affirms their own decisions. You know? Yeah, that like.

00;23;10;14 - 00;23;40;09

Matt Howlett

It is difficult to give like something that's truly objective, right? When you have your experience, it's obviously filtered through your perception, your your own experience for sure. Talk to me a little bit. Can you put exact words on what you felt as you made that decision? As you became more sure of the decision to go and focus more of your time and energy on music, was it, you know, coming home and just not feeling fulfilled from the work you were doing at the time or the school that you were at?

00;23;40;09 - 00;23;50;06

Matt Howlett

And, you know, your studies at the time, was it, you know, frustration in the moments, you know, with something about the school or the work?

00;23;50;09 - 00;24;14;01

Jack Aldous

Yeah, it was kind of well, what kind of happened during that year was that everything kind of crashed down on me. It seemed like I was just I had gone to Toronto to do this one thing, and it was kind of without realizing it, I was kind of just banking on that thing, turning out okay, or at least turning like at least going for it.

00;24;14;01 - 00;24;48;11

Jack Aldous

And that being the path. And when that suddenly kind of fell through and I realized that wasn't working it, it felt like everything else kind of collapsed with it, too. And so my sense of identity at that point was, I wouldn't say it was linked to the program I was doing, but then it was like when I didn't have that and I was sort of directionless and was kind of floating, it seemed I was like, well, that's a pretty it can be a pretty scary place to be when you're like 20 years old and you're kind of, you're living.

00;24;48;11 - 00;25;01;10

Jack Aldous

And I wasn't living at home, too. I was living on my own in the big city. And I had I had some people around me for support, but it really was kind of like, well, I've got to sort this out and I've got to.

00;25;01;13 - 00;25;02;04

Matt Howlett

Right?

00;25;02;06 - 00;25;19;29

Jack Aldous

I've got to do my best to understand, like what steps I can take further to just kind of get to a point where I'm okay. And so during that time, I remember sharing those questions that I received from the counselor. I remember sharing that with a number of people around me.

00;25;20;04 - 00;25;20;18

Matt Howlett

Yeah.

00;25;20;20 - 00;25;45;07

Jack Aldous

And and I think it was a really it was a really beautiful season, even though it was kind of painful and was confusing. It was a really beautiful season where I got to have the existential crisis at 20, that maybe other people might have closer to 30, or after that, where I just done this thing and it wasn't really working out.

00;25;45;07 - 00;25;57;01

Jack Aldous

So it kind of it kind of opened up my worlds in a way to be like, well, now you have the chance to actually pursue something that you have really aligned with. Yeah.

00;25;57;08 - 00;26;09;06

Matt Howlett

And what did that process look like? Because that was a number of years, right, of you moving to Vancouver and you said, the album was even composed over a number of years. Correct? Inertia.

00;26;09;07 - 00;26;27;24

Jack Aldous

Yeah. So, yeah. So I started during that time. I kind of it was like, okay, well, if music is the thing, it was kind of like music kept becoming the theme I would turn back to as the answer. But at the time I was like, I have no idea what that means. Like, I don't know what music production is.

00;26;27;24 - 00;26;31;12

Jack Aldous

I don't know how to record anything. Like I had no idea or no way.

00;26;31;14 - 00;26;40;09

Matt Howlett

I always thought that you had like, fiddled with it growing up and just got better and better over the years. But you didn't really have any idea when you were in your 20s or early 20s. Yeah.

00;26;40;12 - 00;27;03;22

Jack Aldous

No way. No idea. But thankfully I met this guy who was taking a music management and mixing course in Toronto, and we just became friends because we met at this coffee shop and he was like, oh, like, if you're interested in music production, you should just you should download this program. And he kind of just like told me about what I could do to kind of get started.

00;27;03;24 - 00;27;30;24

Jack Aldous

Yeah. And so I just kind of took that advice and ran with it. And slowly but surely was just this it just kind of like, that was like the beginning of this journey of, of just kind of teaching myself music production. And initially I started using a program called logic, but that wasn't very intuitive, and I found it was really difficult to it just felt like I really had to understand the program itself in order to create.

00;27;30;26 - 00;27;54;01

Jack Aldous

And when I switched over to, Ableton Live, that was when things started to click more and it was just more like it felt like a pro. The program was like, hey, let me help you create the thing that you want to create. And so, yeah, it was this it was cool because it was just like this whole world opened up to me that I didn't even really know existed before.

00;27;54;03 - 00;28;17;26

Jack Aldous

Right? But when I dove into it, I realized really quickly that I had a strong foundation of music itself. Like not only just kind of making my own songs in high school, but I studied music theory when I was younger. I took piano lessons and exams, so it did like my scales. I did my arpeggios, I learned what chords were, I learned what chord structuring was.

00;28;17;26 - 00;28;44;03

Jack Aldous

And so a lot of so the challenge was a lot more like the technical side of things, and also just kind of like finding my sound. And that was I would say that was the first that was the hardest. I don't know, it was it was really challenging to to create stuff and then listen back to it and just be like, I just, I don't like this, right?

00;28;44;04 - 00;29;21;21

Jack Aldous

You know, like continually and continue. But like having to practice more and more, having the patience to say, okay, well, I'm not there yet, but my hope is that I do get that right. I can at least that I can at least create something. And instead of being fearful to share it with my family and friends, like being excited to share it and not and not getting like because up to essentially like the first track that I made that kicked off the idea of, of making a record was Greenfields, which is the last track on the album.

00;29;21;23 - 00;29;43;17

Jack Aldous

And I made that. It was it felt like just like the single thought and was in the track, and it felt like it felt like a lot of the struggle that I'd experienced up to that point with kind of finding my sound. It felt like it suddenly clicked. And then that was the moment where I was like, okay, well, if I can.

00;29;43;20 - 00;29;59;13

Jack Aldous

And that kind of happened in like a weekend. It was very it kind of just happened very quickly. And I thought, okay, if I could make janefield in a weekend, like, what could I what could I make? Yeah, with more time, you know.

00;29;59;15 - 00;30;24;20

Matt Howlett

Talk a little bit about what that process actually looked like, because at one point, when I was still in Vancouver and man, what year was that said? 22, I think it was in the fall roughly, that I left, and it was around that time that you were saying that, you know, the goal was getting a little bit more specific and clear and like a date attached to it, like you wanted to have it done and out, you know, by this certain point.

00;30;24;21 - 00;30;42;27

Matt Howlett

Right? So obviously, like what you just said, like you found your sound in a weekend, what else could I achieve if I give this more time, more energy. Right. So what did that actually look like? Did you plan out your year? You know, you're doing like time blocking during the week. You know, Jack will record during 5 to 7 on Monday roughly.

00;30;42;27 - 00;30;45;07

Matt Howlett

What would that look like?

00;30;45;10 - 00;31;12;19

Jack Aldous

Honestly it looks like sacrificing a lot of my social life and social time for all of my 20s. Like the amount of time when other people were maybe going out for dinner, or just hanging out with friends on a Friday or Saturday night. I was in my room and I was making music, and it was. And it was weekend.

00;31;12;19 - 00;31;37;28

Jack Aldous

Often, like, not every single weekend, but just or any day off. I should say, because it wasn't all weekend thing. But it was just always this constant thing in the back of my head that was like, if I don't have any plans right now, I'm going to make music. And I actually would purposefully block off weekends. Like people would be like, hey, like, can can you hang out, you know, this Friday or whatever?

00;31;38;01 - 00;32;13;05

Jack Aldous

And I'd just be like, no, yeah, I'd like I would go for coffee with friends in the day, but I would always leave my, my evening open. Yeah. And it was and it wasn't what I realized. A lot of artists, a lot of my heroes have said this, and they said the most important thing was showing up. And so I really learned the power in showing up over the process of making the record, because it wasn't it wasn't like, I'm going to block out, you know, Friday evening from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. was like and then like, hopefully I'm going to make the coolest thing I've ever made.

00;32;13;05 - 00;32;32;15

Jack Aldous

Just like, it never really works that way. Yeah. Usually what happens is it could be like ten at night and I'll just like, open up that file, I'll open up the track I'm working on. And as soon as I'm as soon as I start listening to little bits and pieces that I got, I'm already like, making adjustments without realizing it.

00;32;32;15 - 00;33;05;17

Jack Aldous

I'm already thinking of new ideas. I'm already like either pulling up the guitar or I'm going to the synth and I'm saying, okay, like, what does this track need right now? What is it? What's missing? Or what's maybe what's actually like needs to be taken away. Yeah. You know, and so it was just to be honest, it was like when I look back at my 20s, I just, I just kind of I'm now kind of in almost in awe of how much time was like I didn't spend with friends in order to make the music.

00;33;05;17 - 00;33;26;04

Matt Howlett

I yeah, I get that though, as you're talking, like you're seeing me not. And that resonates with me because even now, you know, married just over a year and I some to I often actually feel the pull of I want to hang out with Dina and we, we have had to put that on the calendar so that I can let go of the anxiety around.

00;33;26;04 - 00;33;51;04

Matt Howlett

When is that going to happen? Because of what you've just described. I want to be in front of my computer primarily, or like the current book that I'm, you know, going through whatever it is I'm studying in the moment, I want to work on Oxi work, right? I want to be better at what I'm doing. I enjoy it, but I also want to be better at it and, you know, provide a, you know, better service and be able to speak to current issues better and whatever that might be.

00;33;51;04 - 00;34;10;20

Matt Howlett

But I yeah, I'm like, I get that. And I think that's probably one of the keys, you know, let me know if this resonates with you. But one of the keys to finding your vocation, defining what it is that you would want to do, something that really lights you up. You know what I mean? Like more than most things, you know that you forget what time it is.

00;34;10;20 - 00;34;17;27

Matt Howlett

You forget if you're hungry, you're not. You know, you really get lost in the task. You've you've had many moments like that. Yeah.

00;34;17;29 - 00;34;27;12

Jack Aldous

Oh, that being that's most most of the sounds on the record. We'll probably record it between like one and 230 in the morning.

00;34;27;14 - 00;34;29;00

Matt Howlett

Yeah. You're a night owl I remember.

00;34;29;01 - 00;34;51;08

Jack Aldous

Yeah I'm a, I'm a bit of a night owl. But it's in and it's usually it's, it's not because I intended to make something really cool. It's just that I gave myself enough time. Like, this happens so many times where I would at whatever instrument I was at. I would be playing for like an hour and a half to two hours.

00;34;51;08 - 00;35;12;07

Jack Aldous

And it was in those last ten, 15 minutes where I finally, like, I finally catch the sound that I'm kind of looking for or I like, really like dial in the melody that I'm working on. Yeah. And then it's in that moment like, that's like the gold right there. Yeah. And but yeah, many moments where I would be like 6 p.m. I'd start.

00;35;12;07 - 00;35;28;17

Jack Aldous

And then before I knew it was like 930 and was like, oh man, I go to like make dinner. And yeah, I like, leave my room and go to the kitchen and like, figure out what I'm going to have for dinner. And then as soon as I'm finished dinner, I'm like, well, I, I still I'm not going to go to bed straight away.

00;35;28;17 - 00;35;31;19

Jack Aldous

So like, let's just dive back in. Yeah.

00;35;31;21 - 00;35;57;07

Matt Howlett

Yeah. That very much resonates with me too. Even though, like, I, I can't say I love food, I this is going to sound weird to a lot of people, but I love not being hungry. And Dana laughs at me whenever I make comments to that effect. I am a bit of a foodie, I think. I think my palate has, has changed over the years and become a little bit more refined from the way that I grew up, for sure, and having traveled a bit more.

00;35;57;12 - 00;36;18;06

Matt Howlett

But I can't stand that feeling of like that gnawing hunger and I just want like, you know, proteins, fats, few carbs, you know, just to just get it done. So for, for me, when I'm trying to, you know, knock out a task or project, especially. But before I was married, I'd have meals prepped, right? I would eat, like, chili for a week straight.

00;36;18;06 - 00;36;30;23

Matt Howlett

And I loved knowing that it was in the fridge ready to go. And I didn't have to like, break away from, you know, whatever task. Like when I was working on the master's degree, I just wanted to get that done. I want to knock that out then.

00;36;30;25 - 00;36;46;12

Jack Aldous

Yeah, yeah. Because your brain is in this state, right? It's in this like you're you're deep in flow state for like two hours and then you suddenly come out of it and you're like, oh my gosh. Like it's like, how did two hours go by it? Like 20 minutes.

00;36;46;13 - 00;36;49;29

Matt Howlett

130 in the morning I haven't eaten. Yeah, yeah, I've been standing up for.

00;36;50;02 - 00;37;09;15

Jack Aldous

It's like you're, you're you're like, I don't know what I need. Like do I need to go for a walk? Do I need to like drink water? Do I need food? And you probably need all the things, to be honest. Yeah. It's it's just that funny thing of, like when you're in flow state, you like, time evaporates and everything just melts away.

00;37;09;15 - 00;37;33;10

Jack Aldous

And it's amazing. And I think that's that's the feeling that it was not even just a feeling. That's the state that I would be constantly kind of tapping into. And it wasn't it. What I realized is it wasn't just this cool thing that could happen every now and then. It was a really necessary part of creating the album, essentially.

00;37;33;13 - 00;38;12;00

Jack Aldous

And it was like. So then the question became, how can I prepare myself so that I can enter flow state seamlessly without kind of being distracted or kind of, you know, having these other, extraneous elements kind of coming in all the time. It was like, yeah, put my phone away, turn on airplane mode, do whatever you need to do, because if anything's holding you back from not only, like working on your craft, but then really feeling alive as a result of working on your craft and kind of tapping into your vocation, then like, then it's like a really necessary part of that process, right?

00;38;12;03 - 00;38;34;02

Matt Howlett

That is one of the words that you say that I just love hearing you say, can you say the enforced craft craft crossed craft? Yeah. It's that accent meant when when I was living in Vietnam and there was a bunch of, South Africans that taught with us, well, primarily, there was a big group of them and several words that they said, man, it just sounded so nice.

00;38;34;04 - 00;38;40;07

Matt Howlett

Craft and the and and grafting like you grafting hard.

00;38;40;10 - 00;38;41;24

Jack Aldous

What is what is grafting mean?

00;38;41;24 - 00;38;47;06

Matt Howlett

What work. Yeah, I think I just think it means just working like you're working hard on something.

00;38;47;08 - 00;38;47;24

Jack Aldous

Grafting hard.

00;38;47;26 - 00;38;50;22

Matt Howlett

So you're grafting on your craft.

00;38;50;24 - 00;38;53;07

Jack Aldous

From the craft. I should like to,

00;38;53;10 - 00;39;05;23

Matt Howlett

I'm going to get stoned for just, trying that. What was your. Or do you have, not. What was you probably have one, favorite track on the album.

00;39;05;26 - 00;39;40;21

Jack Aldous

I think to be really honest with you, every track has been my favorite track. At some point when and when I've been deep in the middle of making it, I've been like every single track. There was a moment was like, this is the best thing I've ever made. Like this. And that's kind of how I knew that it had to be on the album, because it was, I think, for a lot of other people, what I imagine for a number of other artists, they make like because there's eight tracks on the record and but there wasn't like 12 or 15 tracks that I've made, and I just chose the eight.

00;39;40;27 - 00;39;57;17

Jack Aldous

It was kind of strange. It was like as I was working on each track, I, I thought, like, I'm going to put all my energy and time into this and I'm going to make it work, and I want it to be so good that it can be on the album. So I'm not choosing which track is going to be on it.

00;39;57;19 - 00;40;21;11

Jack Aldous

It was like, I'm going to work on. I'm going to have eight tracks that I work on, and there are other little like tangents and ideas within kind of the files within those tracks themselves. But it was really like every single track was my favorite at the point of working on it. I think a track that I'm most one of the tracks I'm most proud of on the record is surf okay?

00;40;21;11 - 00;40;51;21

Jack Aldous

Because surf was actually became before Dream Field. That was like a really, really early demo that I had made actually, before even switching from Logic to Ableton. I'd made this like 7 or 8 years ago, and it was a pretty rough kind of idea back then, sure, but it captured this like it really kind of captured the essence of what my sound was about, which was kind of like it had a lot of movement to it, and it was very hopeful.

00;40;51;26 - 00;41;15;00

Jack Aldous

Okay. And it was also a very guitar driven track, too. So so it was kind of this cool one where I had this rough demo floating around for like years. And then I, I remember I revamped it at one point and I rerecorded pretty much most of it, but it's still. But my drums production wasn't quite up to where I wanted it to be.

00;41;15;00 - 00;41;33;18

Jack Aldous

So okay, for the initial demo had like no drums at all, and it was just guitar. It was very kind of ethereal sounding. Yep. But I knew I wanted some percussive elements going on. So the first iteration, like the second iteration, I'd kind of included some, but it didn't. Sonically, it didn't quite fit, it didn't quite sound how I wanted it to.

00;41;33;20 - 00;41;55;08

Jack Aldous

And then I actually saved surf as like the final, final track. After I'd made the rest of the album, I wanted to take everything I had learned. Not in throughout making the whole record. I want to take all of that kind of knowledge and everything and kind of infuse it into like the final, the final version of what a surf would be, and.

00;41;55;08 - 00;42;03;00

Matt Howlett

You play all of the instruments yourself, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's an actual drum kit, an actual electric guitar synth.

00;42;03;03 - 00;42;26;08

Jack Aldous

So the drums are the only thing I actually don't play myself. Okay. Everything else? Yeah. Synth drum. Sorry. Synth guitar. Like, all the textures and everything. I've kind of like I've made using using those instruments bass as well. But with drums, I'm. I like chocolate drum breaks and I layer individual like, kicks and snares and all that other stuff.

00;42;26;08 - 00;42;30;02

Jack Aldous

Right? A lot of air drumming going on like 2 a.m..

00;42;30;04 - 00;42;43;26

Matt Howlett

Dude, as a drummer to another drummer, do you drum with your teeth? Like, do you get like a beat in your head or a song? And you're just like, I've heard that from a couple of other the guys who play drums.

00;42;43;28 - 00;43;15;18

Jack Aldous

Yeah, sometimes I'll have ideas or what it will be is I'll like, I'll hear a song and I'll be like, that's a really good beat. Unlike or like, that's a really good, there's a lot of movement in the drums. And so I'll, I'll kind of like that will be circling around in my head. And then when I go to create, I'll like chop up a bunch of drum breaks and I'm like, oh my gosh, I totally got this from like a but like what results from that is very close to, you know what I've kind of been listening to.

00;43;15;18 - 00;43;20;16

Matt Howlett

No, nothing like my bad teeth drumming habit at all. It's not the same thing.

00;43;20;19 - 00;43;24;16

Jack Aldous

See, I guess I like all like, beatbox to myself.

00;43;24;21 - 00;43;33;05

Matt Howlett

Yeah, that's what I'm saying, right? Like you're always tapping on something. You're always just, like, thinking about, like, I've always got a song stuck in my head. Pretty much.

00;43;33;07 - 00;43;56;16

Jack Aldous

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's. Yeah. Some days it's like I'll, I don't know there's like certain tones that I know I want to make with the synth for example, or like with the guitar and then other days is very much like rhythm focused and or I'll like hear a song that has some kind of funky, like percussive thing going on that almost like shouldn't be there, but it's kind of like hidden, right?

00;43;56;19 - 00;43;59;22

Jack Aldous

And that reminds me of, like how, like maybe I could do that, you know?

00;43;59;25 - 00;44;22;25

Matt Howlett

So this was a very personal endeavor, over a number of years, you put a lot of time and energy into this. This feels like a lot of yourself that has been put out into the world, because the record is live. For anybody who's curious, it's called inertia. It's available pretty much wherever I've only found it on. Well, I've only used it, listen to it on Spotify.

00;44;22;25 - 00;44;47;23

Matt Howlett

But in that process, that experience of making something like that and putting that out into the world, I think that's that's challenging on many levels. Before, I think a lot of people we we get into the the fun first stages of it and maybe, yeah, you know, maybe we don't get quite into the final, you know, editing and publishing stages.

00;44;47;23 - 00;45;02;06

Matt Howlett

Right. We might get stuck on perfecting something and not putting it out there. There's various reasons for that. I'm curious as to what yours were, because, I mean, obviously you've you've had some feedback by this by this point, right.

00;45;02;27 - 00;45;11;04

Matt Howlett

Yeah. So what was what was that process like. I'm, I'm sure you've had a lot of good feedback. I'm sure there's probably been some that's like you've asked for critique.

00;45;11;06 - 00;45;30;00

Jack Aldous

So yeah I think the, the critique or the like in the early days of producing, I think I asked a lot about critique and I was like, you know, how does it sound? I, I really I almost really needed like that validation from people to tell me it was good, but it was, but it actually didn't receive it at that time.

00;45;30;00 - 00;46;02;12

Jack Aldous

So I knew what to do. Yeah. And also it was kind of like, you've got to know your audience, you know, like this, you know, the music I make is, is, is in the ambient realm. It's primarily electronic. It's it's instrumental, which is again, like, I almost forget to mention that most of the time. But like, if I'm sending this to someone who mostly listens to, like, country and pop music, for example, like, are they going to be are they my target audience?

00;46;02;14 - 00;46;25;27

Jack Aldous

Not really. Could or could they be my audience in the future? Potentially. But if I'm receiving kind of like notes from someone that is only listening to like that genre of music, then I'm kind of doing myself a disservice. The people that I would really, really be interested to hear what they think about my sound are people that also listen to my heroes.

00;46;25;27 - 00;46;47;22

Jack Aldous

John Hopkins, Come True's the: 1975

00;46;47;24 - 00;47;07;20

Matt Howlett

No, no, I just curious about the experience of putting yourself out there right? Because like, yeah, what I was saying is so many people, I'd say just about everybody has an idea about something that they want to do. It might not be their vocation, but some type of project, some type of like creative endeavor. Right. But it's you're putting yourself out into the world.

00;47;07;22 - 00;47;25;07

Matt Howlett

So you have to be practicing vulnerability. You have to be punching, you know, fear in the throat or fear in the face, whatever the title of that book is. And and putting yourself out there despite that, you know, addressing the fear, addressing the anxiety and dressing whatever it is that you are feeling in order to put that project out there.

00;47;25;07 - 00;47;37;13

Matt Howlett

And then even once it's out, you know, people talk about like ignoring social media or I've heard like, actors don't read the reviews for the Broadway play, whatever it is. Right. So what was that like for you?

00;47;37;16 - 00;47;59;25

Jack Aldous

So yeah, it it is a necessity to be vulnerable when you're making something. I would I would say like, you have to you have to be willing to get uncomfortable and you have to face yourself time and time again. So like there were there were times where I would make something like, this is like the best thing I've made.

00;48;00;03 - 00;48;18;27

Jack Aldous

And then like a few days later, I listen to it and like, it's not like it's really not there yet. And so it's kind of like it's really trippy, like on a psychological level to within like one week to be like this is amazing. And I can't wait for every single person in the world to hear it.

00;48;18;29 - 00;48;39;25

Jack Aldous

Yeah. And then to go from that and like a few days later to being like, you know what? I think it needs work. And actually, I know it needs work and it's kind of it's it's a reflection of the self, you know, like how often do we and within one week we feel on top of the world, we feel like we're crushing it.

00;48;39;25 - 00;49;10;03

Jack Aldous

You get a good workout in, you've got like you've you spend time with loved ones. You're you're really doing all the things that you want to be doing. And then in the same week, like a few days later, you, you wake up and you feel kind of off and you're just like, man, I don't feel inspired today and like, what's, you know, what's my life amounting to, you know, any kind of sort of spiral a little bit with all these kind of existential thoughts and questions and in a way like.

00;49;10;05 - 00;49;34;15

Jack Aldous

The art itself has been very grounding because as I've refined each sound on the record and each track, it's kind of like a mirror. So I then, like, I step out of my flow state, I step out of my room and I'm like, well, what can I refine in my own life? Like, what are the areas of my life that I need to work on?

00;49;34;17 - 00;50;01;16

Jack Aldous

Because there's a lot of work to do. And it's kind of like, I don't know if this happens for everyone, but my experience of making the record was really transformational, because the record itself was this project that I was constantly working on and like, you know, chipping away at. And then it was like as each season of my life came and went, it was like I was almost like.

00;50;01;16 - 00;50;23;09

Jack Aldous

It was like revealing different aspects to my life, which could, which were like, I could improve upon or I could or I could sit back and be like, you know what? Like, I'm really proud of the fact that I've done that thing or I've got this far. And it was like this acknowledge, like, you know, if I can make dream Field on a weekend, I definitely couldn't have done that when I was 21.

00;50;23;09 - 00;50;26;12

Jack Aldous

But I did it when I was, I don't know, like 25 or something.

00;50;26;16 - 00;50;54;00

Matt Howlett

Yeah, I mean, anything I think creative would be very personal and very introspective and could have that effect on just about anybody. It is like that for me, but primarily because when I feel like I'm doing something creative, it has to come from, you know, somewhere inside of me. So like, I'm connecting to myself. And then when I come out of that, like you mentioned, it's, God, I just totally lost the the thought.

00;50;54;00 - 00;51;00;08

Matt Howlett

But yeah, I would assume that that would resonate with just about anybody because it is so personal.

00;51;00;11 - 00;51;26;01

Jack Aldous

Yeah. And it can't like, even if you try and not make it personal, it's going to be, you know, like it's it's if when you're creating, it's not like, I don't know, you're, you're, you're creating from within your own being. Like, it's not like, you can't just compartmentalize aspects of yourself and be like, I'm going to create from this from from like, you know what I mean?

00;51;26;01 - 00;51;43;28

Matt Howlett

Like from yeah, I think I do. Correct me if I'm wrong, what I'm what I'm thinking, what I'm hearing is we often try and portray certain parts of ourselves to the world, like parts that we like, and maybe try and hide the things that we don't like. But when you're creating like you have to be, especially with what you're doing.

00;51;44;01 - 00;52;02;16

Matt Howlett

And I would maybe even with what I'm doing, you know, putting myself out there, speaking into a camera and just seeing my thoughts, you know, putting them on the internet. You have to be vulnerable. You have to be able to say, you know, this is me. And that's very personal, and that's challenging.

00;52;02;18 - 00;52;46;00

Jack Aldous

Yeah. And it's this thing where as soon as you start to do that and you live that way and that, then becomes your like default mode, then living, I would say living authentically is no longer a fearful endeavor. And it's more of something that is a necessity for the kind of life you want to create. Because when you when you tap into your own vulnerability, like every other day when you're working on your project, it's like, if I can be that vulnerable in my music, like, then, maybe I can be that much more vulnerable with the people I care about the most than people that are in my life.

00;52;46;03 - 00;52;47;15

Jack Aldous

You know, and it's also.

00;52;47;15 - 00;52;48;28

Matt Howlett

Fun, really.

00;52;49;00 - 00;53;07;28

Jack Aldous

100%. And, like, the more the thing is, what I realized about the record, too, is that the more I pulled myself into it, the more I got out of it. And so it was like the more vulnerable and the more risk taking I was willing to do in the record. It was like the more rewarding it instantly became.

00;53;08;06 - 00;53;33;29

Jack Aldous

Yeah. So I thought, well, I think like life itself is like that too. You know, if you stay comfortable and you stay kind of within the margins and these confines that you've built around yourself, then it's like it doesn't feel very rewarding at the end of the day because you haven't taken any risks. You haven't put yourself out there, you haven't, put yourself in a position where you it's you're willing to be criticized for something.

00;53;34;02 - 00;54;01;09

Jack Aldous

Yeah, yeah. And I think, yeah. Like with the record out now, I'm not not worried about people not liking it because it's not for everyone. And it's like how often to like our favorite artists release like a new album and you're like, yeah, this just isn't it's just, isn't it? It's not really what I wanted. And it's like, if that can happen to our favorite artist, then it's like, surely I'm going to make something that someone doesn't like and that's fine.

00;54;01;09 - 00;54;03;12

Jack Aldous

Like it? Maybe it's not for them.

00;54;03;15 - 00;54;34;22

Matt Howlett

Yeah, well, I love it. And I've been listening to it, probably for a lot longer than most because you gave me a couple a couple tracks. Yeah. I mean, a year and a half ago, I think. But I'm loving having it on Spotify because, like I told you, I was looking forward to that because I've got a, fairly long playlist called Work Vibes that has no lyrics because I cannot do focus work, when there are lyrics, especially if it's a song that I start to recognize and I, you know, sing along with and whatever, but I love it.

00;54;34;22 - 00;54;44;04

Matt Howlett

The album is called inertia. Like we already mentioned, it is available just about everywhere. What are your your socials? Check?

00;54;44;07 - 00;55;22;01

Jack Aldous

So yeah, on Instagram, I'm, like cricket music. I have like I have a Bandcamp page as well. It's like white cricket music. I have a Facebook page. It's kind of everything is, I think, under white cricket music. And I'm going to I'm going to start building website as well. Oh very cool month for you to just kind of and I have like what I did on Instagram leading up to the album was I did like a track by track breakdown, where I actually did like a write up for each track, and it kind of was diving into a bit more about the creative process and how each track was made and

00;55;22;01 - 00;55;26;08

Jack Aldous

kind of just like out, like outlining, like the what the journey was for each one.

00;55;26;08 - 00;55;26;29

Matt Howlett

Sure.

00;55;27;02 - 00;55;46;29

Jack Aldous

And then for the album itself, like when I dropped that, I did a post where I kind of just and that's on my Bandcamp page as well. Okay. Where like just a little like story, I guess that kind of like a little synopsis of what the past like six plus years have been, kind of what the story of the album has been this whole time.

00;55;47;05 - 00;55;49;20

Jack Aldous

Yeah. If people are interested in reading that.

00;55;49;20 - 00;56;04;19

Matt Howlett

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure a lot of people are, so white cricket on all those different platforms that you mentioned. I'm proud of you. Then. You've been talking about it as long as I've known you, which has been about, I guess, for four years now, just about something like that.

00;56;04;21 - 00;56;07;25

Jack Aldous

And, Yeah, maybe. Maybe a little longer, actually. Yeah.

00;56;08;01 - 00;56;08;22

Matt Howlett

Something. Yeah.

00;56;08;24 - 00;56;09;21

Jack Aldous

Like for an end of.

00;56;09;22 - 00;56;28;10

Matt Howlett

The end of: 2020

00;56;28;10 - 00;56;45;28

Matt Howlett

I had listed them before. Right? Right. But yeah, I encourage everybody to check it out. I'm going to link to it on, anything that we post so people can be able to people will be able to find it there. So like subscribe share, do all the things with white crickets music. Jack I gotta let you go, man.

00;56;45;28 - 00;56;52;15

Matt Howlett

We're at the end of the time anyways that I asked you for, but I am absolutely melting it.

00;56;52;18 - 00;56;55;10

Jack Aldous

Yes, I know how hot it is in Newfoundland right now.

00;56;55;13 - 00;57;12;25

Matt Howlett

Dude, this office is at the front of the house. So despite, you know, putting down the shades and running an AC unit, I am melting because, you know, I've got the door shut to, right. I don't want to write random noises. I want to put the fan in here because I didn't want to fan interrupt my conversation with Jack.

00;57;12;25 - 00;57;23;02

Jack Aldous

So that's right. That's right. Well, I appreciate I have to say thank you again for your support because it's been it's been really cool sharing like just kind of snippets of this journey with you.

00;57;23;05 - 00;57;24;06

Matt Howlett

That's been fun.

00;57;24;08 - 00;57;51;17

Jack Aldous

As our friendship kind of grew, it's just like you got to see all the different phases of of making the album. And I think it's basically like since we became friends, like a year after that, I feel like that's when I really kind of hit my stride creatively. So that was kind of, you got to see you kind of missed a lot of like the doubting phase, a lot of the, the phase of like, what am I actually doing?

00;57;51;17 - 00;58;02;07

Jack Aldous

Like, this is taking so much longer than I thought. And like, you got to see more of the, the kind of the confidence and the like. Yeah. I'm, I'm working on something that's my best work. Yeah. I can't wait for you to hear it.

00;58;02;10 - 00;58;03;04

Matt Howlett

Yeah, well, I mean.

00;58;03;04 - 00;58;04;15

Jack Aldous

You like I said that to you.

00;58;04;17 - 00;58;09;08

Matt Howlett

You hit the deadline. You had mentioned to me, you know, because I. I know that I kept on you about it.

00;58;09;11 - 00;58;30;22

Jack Aldous

You did. And thank you for doing that because it was it was challenging too, because you can't. It's like you can't rush, itself, like when you're in the making of it. I didn't want to compromise with that, like that part of the creative process. But as soon as I had all the tracks down and I was happy with them, I was like, all right, Matt, now you can ask me when I'm ready releasing this thing.

00;58;30;25 - 00;58;37;09

Matt Howlett

Well, I'm glad it's out, man. I'm glad everybody else can enjoy it and I hope they hope they check it out. I hope this is helpful. I'm gonna.

00;58;37;12 - 00;58;42;28

Jack Aldous

It's been great. Yeah, I'd definitely do this again. Man. I feel like this. I feel like there's a lot more to talk about. So.

00;58;43;01 - 00;58;53;01

Matt Howlett

Yeah. So we do have a returning guest here. We haven't had one of those as well. Actually. No, that is a lie. Doctor Ron Johnson has been a returning guest, but you would be added to the list, sir.

00;58;53;04 - 00;58;54;24

Jack Aldous

I'd be happy to see him any time.

00;58;54;29 - 00;58;57;20

Matt Howlett

All right, brother, I'm going to let you go. Thanks for doing this.

00;58;57;20 - 00;59;01;20

Jack Aldous

I love you, man. Yeah, me too much to thank.

00;59;01;23 - 00;59;19;06

Matt Howlett

Thank you for listening. I hope you found some value in this episode. If you have, be sure to share the podcast with a friend and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find the akkeri on socials at the akkeri and on the web at the akkeri dot com

00;59;19;09 - 00;59;41;06

Matt Howlett

Before I jump into like the proper bit that will ever see anybody else's ears. Aldous. Yes, Aldous I dude, I never say your last name. And I remember the last time I said it is when you were here, and I remember saying it to you. That dude, I don't think I've ever. Is it Aldous? Aldous?

00;59;41;09 - 00;59;44;22

Jack Aldous

No. Yeah. It's all the. So British people pronounce it. All this.

00;59;44;25 - 00;59;45;29

Matt Howlett

All this.

00;59;46;02 - 00;59;51;10

Jack Aldous

But Canadians, like North America. It's like all this, I guess.

00;59;51;12 - 00;59;53;20

Matt Howlett

Okay, so what's the proper pronunciation here?

00;59;53;23 - 00;59;58;19

Jack Aldous

So for you, be like Aldous for me. Yeah.

00;59;58;21 - 01;00;01;01

Matt Howlett

What's the proper pronunciation for.

01;00;01;04 - 01;00;21;21

Jack Aldous

The for for me. Well, like, it's funny because like, when my parents, I actually pronounce it now, like kind of like the Canadian way. Like when it's over the phone like, hey, can you please say your name? And I say, it's Jack Aldous. So like that all is like how you would say all, but because I say all in the way that I do.

01;00;21;21 - 01;00;26;15

Matt Howlett

Yeah. More of a u h sound than an h. Yeah, or an H. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.

01;00;26;17 - 01;00;27;28

Jack Aldous

All. Exactly.

01;00;28;00 - 01;34;16;25

Matt Howlett

Yeah. Okay. Well, Mr. Jack, all this work now I can't even say answers Mr.. Jack. Right this. Right, Jack. All this otherwise known as the white cricket has entered the chat.

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