Rose Gerber is a musician and an employee of the Oregon Department of Transportation. She has two bands, (Rose Gerber and Sweet Relief AND The Yellow Bird Trio), and she works for ODOT as a day job. In this episode we talk about music, creativity, and large-scale infrastructure projects, and she will play us a few songs, which is a great mix of topics for our unique tastes here at Ramble by the River.

Some topics you'll enjoy:

• Inside scoop on the I-5 Rose quarter improvement project and ODOT's plan to move the highway underground.
• The government's history of victimizing black communities.
• Rose's introduction to music and her path to becoming the front woman for her current band.
• Work-life balance and how it affects the ability to pursue one's dreams.
• Rose's romantic encounter with Jack during Covid-19 and what it was like to meet someone during a pandemic.
• Rose talks about many of her musical inspirations.

Rose was a great guest and I really appreciated her taking the time to talk with me for this episode. If you are interested in hearing more of her music, check out her stuff at the links below.

Enjoy the show!

Keywords: Racism, Van Port flood; Oregon Department of Transportation; large infrastructure projects; Portland, Oregon; homelessness; Teach For America; poverty; Education; Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History; genetics; ancestry; Subaru; Crosstrek; neurodivergence; ADHD; Autism; seltzer.

Music Credits:

• Wasted Education, Blue Topaz.
• Still Fly, Revel Day.

Links:

• Patreon: Patreon.com/ramblebytheriver
• Website: Ramblebytheriver.com
• Business: ramblebytheriver@gmail.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jeff.nesbitt.9619/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ramblebytheriver
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/rambleriverpod
• Podcast host: Ramblebytheriver.captivate.fm

Rose Gerber Links:

https://www.rosegerberandsweetrelief.com/

https://www.facebook.com/rosegerberandsweetrelief/

Copyright 2022 Ramble by the River LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

[00:00:18] I just kept, I looked it up and just kept going with it. And. Those robots. She's like, oh, that's so cool. Do you live alone? Are we recording? Oh, yeah, we are. 1 48. Okay. Cool.

[00:00:42] No. Okay. So my mine's not private. And, uh, Every couple of days you get like, you know, like. Oh, the bots big booty, 8 73 started following you and you look at her and you're like this. Girl's not real. It's just like beautiful girl pictures. And then. They'll reach out to you in the back. Hey, how are you?

[00:01:20] Jackie paper. Yeah.

[00:01:35] Welcome everybody to the show. Uh, we are, uh, me and Jeff here. This is Geoff Hylton. If you're listening, I'm. Um,

[00:02:01] No, today's not. Tomorrow is a. The day it's released. So it'd be the 13th.

[00:02:14] Sorry. I don't have a lot of time today because I'm going to have lunch with somebody from the Patrion. At noon. She's coming to town and we're gonna hang out. Nice. Yeah. So I don't, I don't have like half hour, but that's enough time. Anyway. It is a Saturday. Uh, August 13th, 2022. And this is Ramble by the River. I'm your host, Jeff Nesbitt. And I'm joined in the studio today by Geoff Hylton.

[00:03:04] Yellow something yellow birds. Called the yellow bird trio. It's a female Tre trio of singers. So she's a busy lady. We talked about a lot of stuff and her boyfriend Jack was also there and he's a cool guy. It was a good show. Uh, Jeff, I heard you moved recently. Yeah, I did. How's that going? Uh, we'll move in sex, but it's not that bad yet. Moving from Chinook to north long beach.

[00:03:47] Well, the way I look at it is a. Once. We have the boat there. I'm going to be able to drive my boat out of my little Harbor. Down the channel out into the [00:04:00] deep water, the big lake. So there's three separate bodies. That's awesome. Thank you for calling the. It's like Jason's pond or something like that. Perfect. Yeah.

[00:04:23] Like 50. Here's the problem it's posted 30. Isn't really posted 30. Yeah. That seems too fast, which means people are going 35. It is too fast. The general rule is 20 to 25. Yeah. From what we've all discussed, but when it's posted 30 people go 35.

[00:04:59] Oh, man, it's [00:05:00] hard. I thought it'd be real simple. I was like, I'm going to do. A load for the shop, a load for the house, and then a couple dump runs. And Bob's your uncle, but no, it didn't. How long, how much has, how long has it taken you? How many loads. Just probably like four loads of stuff to the house. And then.

[00:05:34] You know, like the shop's a good example, seeing it's so empty and. Um, But she's going to go somewhere else. But yeah. for sure it was a good run. That was a good house. Yeah. Ah, Schnucks a great place to live. Um, big spiders. Huge spires. Well, the new house as the same issue, Alex Mack doesn't care about them.

[00:06:12] Those big giant house spiders. So they, they work really well. Yeah. That's a wonderful product. Yeah. I mean like a shout out to bug assault. Definitely. Have you ever tried to kill a garden spider with it? No, I haven't, I don't card. And spiders are so Hardy. They're. Yeah, you can't kill him. Like the salt doesn't penetrate them. They'll take rounds, exoskeletons, but those.

[00:06:47] Well, it might be a great name for a cat. What I thought it was Clyde or Felix. We'll see. Nice. Um, that's it. That's all. It's. Yeah, I got back from Alaska. And. Right on. Yeah. Mana too easy for me to [00:07:00] hide at the Shinar cows all load. So now I'm moving to a street with a. A big social scene on it. People who know you.

[00:07:23] Oh, that'll force you to just kinda.

[00:07:45] Uh, handle groups of kids and stuff like that. Uh, it'll be a good. It'd be a good exterior, hard, really hard. Um, dealing with parents and cell phones and text chains and all that stuff is, is. I don't know. I'm already part of a group message. You know, me and [00:08:00] group messages. I don't. That you just get for that purpose. So you can talk to your team. I'm going to have to get a new phone. Yeah. I'm going to have to get up to speed here with everything. Yeah. But it's exciting.

[00:08:24] He's he'll be a good person to kind of learn from. Right. Because he's got the relationship part of it down. Yeah. He's good with the parents. Yeah. And he's been doing it long enough now to where, uh, I'll be able to see how it's done and. And because the plan is just to keep doing it just to, this would be a stepping stone to.

[00:09:03] Already know how to work and, and know the basics about how to move and stuff like that. Uh, when they don't, it's hard for me. I got to. I got to dumb myself down a little bit. You figure out how to. Yeah, I've got to figure out how to get people to do it. Who haven't done stuff before it. Yeah. It's a good opportunity for me to change.

[00:09:39] You know yeah. My hobbies doing all the, the fitness stuff and I saw Jake was doing, I think it was a frog, frog pose. When I walked up the other day, he was out and my brother was out in your shed doing, uh, doing a frog pose. You know, guys can't help, but you can hang around the shed long enough.

[00:09:56] Oh, speaking of the reverse hyper. You really talked about the [00:10:00] last time you were on this show. And, uh, I D I didn't really get around to using it until yesterday when I was at your, at your gym while we were putting the chalkboard up or dropping it off. And I hopped on there and. Didn't think much of it, it felt kind of good, but, um, it wasn't that big of a deal, nothing groundbreaking. And then two hours later, I was at home, standing at the stove, cooking dinner.

[00:10:44] And I think it's because something was broke loose off of that reverse hyper. That's a good machine, man. Yeah, it really is. Uh, yeah. Um, I'm all about it. I got a, I don't have, I've never had like a diagnosed back issue, nothing like a slipped disc or anything like that, but I'm 33 and everything I've [00:11:00] done up to this point, it's all been manual labor. My back's got a lot of, a lot of work.

[00:11:18] Invented by a man who broke his spine, broke vertebrae. I didn't know that. And that's how he got back. Um, So, yeah, it's a, I can't. I can't say enough about it. I'll be doing that until I'm until I'm dead. Yeah, it's it's good. I can tell the traction in general is good for you, but that one was weight and everything in controlled settings seems like it's pretty.

[00:11:51] You can't just let it hang. Yeah, what a great. It's so simple. And, uh, yeah, I can't, I I'm going to preach about it. So go get a reverse diaper or get [00:12:00] on one or come to my house. Get on it. Uh, while I've got you guys here. I want to talk to you about something important. So if you were in this community, as you probably are, because most of my listeners, I believe are, you've probably noticed all these yellow clusters of flowers along the roads and ditches and. All those areas lately. It's called Tansy. Ragwort.

[00:12:40] W if they get into your body or the body of your children or pets, they will kill them. If they get enough. So these are chemicals that plants make to protect themselves and Tansy ragwort smells like shit. In addition to the fact that it's toxic, it looks. Also bad. Yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't look good. I mean, it is a flower. So some people are like, oh, [00:13:00] it's beautiful. It's a flower. But compared to like yellow flag,

[00:13:39] So it's important. It's a mandatory control weed here in this county. So since it's mandatory that we do something about it, if you have some Tanzi, what's the best way. Pull it out of the ground. Herbicides are just a, that's what I go with. I just pull it, just pull it. You got to get that king root. Is that what it's called? Taproot.

[00:14:11] Electronic pull Danny Lyons. It's not good. What's your totally edible, by the way, Danny Lyons tastes like shit though. Just like Tansy, but they're not toxic.

[00:14:21] Danny lines are kind of pointed, like teeth didn't know it. Yeah. Learn something new today, but you can't eat dandelion. It's. It works in salads and stuff. Just need something sweet with it. Like.

[00:14:50] Oh, I don't know. It's French, French, Canadian. Yeah, it does seem like it, but. Those were good books and they always were always, I remember they would always drink like a dandelion wine. And they always made it sound so [00:15:00] delicious. Strawberry cordial. Yeah, the strawberry cordial. I was a salamander strong. Oh yeah.

[00:15:23] Oh, I loved the Hardy boys for the in fifth grade. We had like a read-a-thon or something. You know, some system where you read a book and you get a point for it. AR accelerated reader. That's right. Yeah, I liked a lot. I liked that program a lot. I was, I got third place. Shout out Matt. Matt Bellenger and Laura, um, Mesa. They both beat me.

[00:16:02] Like a lot of books, like those already boys books were not a lot of points. Read it real quick. I went for, like, I remember I read 20,000 leagues under the sea. Um, It's like 20 points. It was a bunch of points and I actually was able to read it and understand it and all that. Um, Yeah. Like I didn't Greg, stop three. Really.

[00:16:38] Um, do you remember how you used to correct? The teachers? No. he was correcting the teachers all the time. Hey, good for him. I thought that was quite some of those teachers needed correcting. Yeah. You're right. Well, I mean, if you're wrong, you're wrong.

[00:17:04] Um, Yeah, a lot of people don't want to admit they're wrong. I don't, I don't. Actually, that's not true. I actually kind of like it it's kind of cleansing, but I try to. Yeah, actually, neither of us are really a. We don't struggle with that. We had met were wrong a lot. If anything, I admit when I'm wrong, when I'm not wrong.

[00:17:26] , I'm making a new theme song. I tell you that. I'm going to. Put like some, some little clips of like vocals from the show with cool little clips from movies or, or something. That's just sounds good and put it into it, like a rap beat and make a, make a theme song. That's not just like some guy's song that I took off the internet. Yeah. Make your own.

[00:18:08] And now it's been a year and a half. I'm like I got to get something more unique. So I'm gonna make one. Are you pretty good with the. The musical stuff you've done up till now is always pretty good. So I'm excited to hear. The new theme song. I'm sure it'll be ACEs. I think you're you're being sarcastic, but I I'll take it.

[00:18:43] Wear gloves. Don't get the SAP on your skin. It's all toxic. All parts of the plant roots, flowers, Paul, and all of it. Even like don't eat, honey. That's been made around Tansy. Cause if bees were getting the pond from the Tansy and you eat that, honey. So just be careful. It's not worth it. Not worth it. Pull your [00:19:00] Tansel. You're Tansy. All right. Thank you guys for tuning in. Enjoy the show without further ado, please enjoy this interview with rose Gerber.

[00:00:04] Rose Gerber: happened. That is the best. Uh, or I agree. I'll take one of those guys. I will have the more beer flavored one.

[00:00:13] Next. Yeah. This is like a cream.

[00:00:17] Rose Gerber: Hmm.

[00:00:19] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Yeah. You They're cool. I've always thought they were cool. It matches your decor as well. They're extremely fucking dangerous. Oh really? Fire hazards. Yeah. There was a very hot light bulb right underneath there. Okay, so feel free to adjust the mic, however you need to.

[00:00:53] All

[00:00:59] Jeff Nesbitt: So also the [00:01:00] headphones completely optional. Okay. You don't have to wear 'em. Um, some people like 'em, some people don't,

[00:01:08] um, this is what

[00:01:12] Jeff Nesbitt: dirty uncle rose.

[00:01:13] Rose Gerber: like that.

[00:01:15] it's our

[00:01:18] kind of a limited run. And so you have a collector's item right there, right on call ourselves that anymore. And we only made like about a.

[00:01:26] Rose Gerber: Nope. Well, that's perfect. Then

[00:01:28] drew that as our kind of logo temporarily.

[00:01:38] Jeff Nesbitt: a, a, like a, nonsequitor just coming outta nowhere or is that a real nickname

[00:01:43] Jeff Nesbitt: Uh,

[00:01:57] Jeff Nesbitt: Let's throw these on. They just spin 'em around until they seem like they [00:02:00] make sense. Yeah. Every single person has that.

[00:02:08] Rose Gerber: there we go. Area. Okay. All, yeah. Oh, mm-hmm

[00:02:13] Rose Gerber: they're not plugged in,

[00:02:17] much as

[00:02:21] more or less.

[00:02:27] elk LER over there, you know, it damn

[00:02:31] Nice rack

[00:02:39] and

[00:02:41] Most of my drive to work is along will Paul bay. And on the other side of the highway was, uh,

[00:02:47] and I saw it and I pluck it and I got it. That's

[00:02:51] They're cool. I mean, they shut 'em every year, so they they're, I mean, they're everywhere, really not everywhere, but a lot of people have 'em all right.

[00:03:05] Rose Gerber: cool. While they're hunting for mushrooms, also

[00:03:08] That's I found a

[00:03:10] Yeah,

[00:03:14] shaped stick.

[00:03:18] but

[00:03:22] Yeah.

[00:03:33] Uh, today in the studio, we have rose Gerber

[00:03:37] Gerber, and sweet relief. Also known way back in the

[00:03:43] which I just

[00:03:45] that was

[00:03:46] Jeff Nesbitt: We've also got Jack here. Jack's Rose's

[00:03:50] just sitting over here, hanging out, holding the guitar.

[00:03:55] Rose Gerber: yeah,

[00:03:59] Yeah.

[00:04:01] Uh, you're

[00:04:08] Rose Gerber: It always just take a, take a

[00:04:11] Jeff Nesbitt: Um, it's great to have you here.

[00:04:14] music Fort Jordan before, but I I've heard it's very, very

[00:04:17] Yeah.

[00:04:19] great venue set up. Um,

[00:04:21] crafty during COVID and they took one of their brewing buildings next

[00:04:26] into more of a venue space

[00:04:31] Jeff Nesbitt: Right on. So where are you from

[00:04:35] Uh, born in Boston and kinda lived between Massachusetts and Vermont for most, the first like early

[00:04:43] Yeah. I moved out here in about 2008 to Portland,

[00:04:48] Jeff Nesbitt: Lots changed in Portland since 2008. Mm-hmm you, you're still living in Portland now.

[00:05:00] moved out here. But,

[00:05:08] since I've been here. Where

[00:05:14] Oh, okay.

[00:05:21] actually less

[00:05:23] So I don't know how much, you know, the geography, but it's, it's a really skinny peninsula. It's two miles wide at the widest about 30 miles long Willow pop bay on the inside ocean on the outside. So it's like a little bunch of little small communities

[00:05:38] Rose Gerber: Cool. Yeah. It's beautiful here.

[00:05:41] out here.

[00:05:52] Yeah. Where are you guys staying?

[00:05:54] the jab brewery is really nice and they put, they give bans a

[00:06:01] right on

[00:06:04] Uh,

[00:06:06] walk. I think it's called.

[00:06:21] well

[00:06:21] Portland?

[00:06:25] well,

[00:06:28] jobs and

[00:06:36] Um, uh,

[00:06:40] bit older

[00:06:42] it's,

[00:06:43] like

[00:06:44] weekends. so to

[00:06:51] But I have a

[00:06:54] harmony, like there are three of us ladies

[00:06:57] Jeff Nesbitt: trio

[00:06:58] Jeff Nesbitt: Dixie chicks

[00:06:58] Rose Gerber: thing.

[00:07:03] Jeff Nesbitt: themselves the chicks now. Oh, they dropped the Dixie. Yeah. Is

[00:07:07] Rose Gerber: Dixie? Yeah, I guess that was kind of during the

[00:07:09] of BL movement. They they've

[00:07:12] Rose Gerber: off Dickies. Yeah.

[00:07:16] Um, so yeah, similar, like similar to

[00:07:22] kind of vibe.

[00:07:24] don't know that one. Oh, you you'd love

[00:07:26] you, if you like harmony and you love they to choose Swedish sisters who, who

[00:07:34] Jeff Nesbitt: I

[00:07:40] Oh. Or like the new

[00:07:44] used to really listen to them a lot. I liked them a lot.

[00:07:48] or actually it was just Nico. But I saw her at Sasquatch music festival in like 2006. Okay. There's a giant hailstorm. Oh, right in the middle of her show. And she played like a song and a half [00:08:00] through it and it was hailstones like the size of marbles.

[00:08:02] Wow. Have

[00:08:04] there? Not yet.

[00:08:19] Yeah.

[00:08:21] Jeff Nesbitt: I'll never forget.

[00:08:22] sure. Yeah. Hailstone bouncing up and hitting her in the face.

[00:08:25] still playing like what a

[00:08:28] She's like, that's a rockstar right

[00:08:31] I would've loved to see her

[00:08:32] She's got an incredible voice.

[00:08:37] Rose Gerber: Uh, this kind of runs

[00:08:41] I would say, um, I'm a big fan of Ryan Adams. Um,

[00:09:01] just kind of like

[00:09:02] Yeah.

[00:09:04] a good healthy dose of like rock and roll classic

[00:09:09] is a little like AAN of country or, you know, like just a little just that down home American. Like,

[00:09:20] mixed in there. Yeah.

[00:09:24] Yeah. Absolutely.

[00:09:26] that vein. Mm-hmm

[00:09:31] in the sixties and seventies. So

[00:09:36] van Morrison and, uh, some of that like psychedelic Jefferson airplane.

[00:09:42] Jeff Nesbitt: you know, just,

[00:09:43] That's some of the stuff I really like getting into the little more, uh, The psychedelic stuff was good. Paul Simon. Pretty good. Um, so who do you listen to now? Like what I feel like musical taste is so weird. It almost follows like a pretty predictable course through development. [00:10:00] Like during certain ages, you're just like hungry for new music.

[00:10:16] trap. But when

[00:10:20] It doesn't even sound like music or dubstep something that's just like completely different than what you're used to it. And then, but like you have friends or something who, who listen to it. So you're exposed to it and forced, all of hiphop actually is how that happened with me.

[00:10:36] you eventually start to learn.

[00:10:40] it starts to sound

[00:10:53] Rose Gerber: Oh, definitely. Yeah. Um, I will, I would say that it's kind of more like, um, [00:11:00] in that alternative, well, I guess what used to be called alternative? It's like one of the thing about

[00:11:04] music's like making

[00:11:09] You

[00:11:11] So it's not just, you turn like,

[00:11:13] kids, you

[00:11:15] and you listen to whatever's

[00:11:21] Those were kind of the two ways you discovered music. Now it's almost paralyzing

[00:11:26] So the way I

[00:11:32] I see

[00:11:40] almost 10 years

[00:11:42] teach for America. I was, I was about in

[00:11:47] of early 20 something.

[00:11:49] Jeff Nesbitt: college. And if I don't remember to ask you about this again, come back to this, cuz I, I would love to talk about teach for America. Really all of the education stuff. Yeah.

[00:11:58] Um,

[00:12:01] know, into a

[00:12:04] some,

[00:12:07] uh, I got turned onto a lot of stuff I like now because, um, I ended up being at a band with one of those teachers.

[00:12:15] my, my junior. So he's always turning me onto stuff that, you know, his

[00:12:21] So bands like Delta spirit Lord here on, um, the DAS, the national, uh, like lots of, I like the national.

[00:12:35] but like war on drugs, those kind of, yeah.

[00:12:43] the

[00:12:45] Jeff Nesbitt: I

[00:12:49] There's so much choice and there's so many like micro genres and so much space for all the different artists that you really, like. People could have a full, successful career where they [00:13:00] like are considered a star to a lot of people. And there's a whole other effect of people who has no idea who they are.

[00:13:15] Rose Gerber: true. Um, Damien, Gerardo's one of those people, I don't know if you've ever, that sounds familiar.

[00:13:24] Jeff Nesbitt: you're making me realize how, um, I don't know what the musical equivalent of being well read is, but I'm not well listened right now.

[00:13:31] spent the last two years listening to podcast and trying to learn that, but I, uh, yeah, music is so important. I really think that it's, they should really get it back in schools, but, um, yeah, that would be nice.

[00:13:50] Rose Gerber: job now? I work for the department of

[00:13:54] Oregon, um, as a out public outreach and media manager for a large [00:14:00] infrastructure project called I five rose quarter improvement project.

[00:14:03] project yeah. Yeah. A lot

[00:14:10] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Oh, wow.

[00:14:12] Is it going north or south? Like, are they working their way up or is

[00:14:16] does that project work?

[00:14:17] asking me all the big questions and talking points, uh, that I have gotten

[00:14:22] Um, it is, uh,

[00:14:26] so it won't all be built at once. It'll be built in phases. A lot of that has to do with, uh, like

[00:14:39] pretty big undertaking, but uh, comes in three phases

[00:14:46] for the final deal, which could go up to 2030.

[00:14:51] to me.

[00:14:52] slated to barely begin construction until the end of 2023. Um, so it is a, it's a big project. There's gonna be a highway [00:15:00] cover,

[00:15:01] like a whole new

[00:15:04] the old street grid. So,

[00:15:06] Jeff Nesbitt: putting the road underground? Yeah. Wow. That's cool. Yeah. So are, are they doing those green bridges? Is that what they're called? I don't know what they're called, but there's spaces where the highway goes under and there's a covering over the top that

[00:15:18] all kinds of native plants and stuff.

[00:15:21] Rose Gerber: can cross, um, that

[00:15:24] considered for this, uh, cover.

[00:15:38] Jeff Nesbitt: you come up with.

[00:15:43] Rose Gerber: it'll be pavement and steel, but that they, they can still

[00:15:53] what's gonna go on

[00:15:55] yet because that's gonna be a community led process,

[00:15:59] Portland [00:16:00] and, uh, a lot of the community,

[00:16:04] of, of the black community, particularly in Portland that was harmed by the

[00:16:08] of the highway

[00:16:09] It literally, they they'd settled thereafter. Um, I dunno if you've ever heard of the van port flood mm-hmm so the big flood, that was largely a lot of, a bunch of, um, black family and white families died. Um, after some levies broke that people didn't get enough

[00:16:27] They all lived in to help build the ships there. The black

[00:16:31] flood moved to

[00:16:34] area in Portland called Obama,

[00:16:38] and clubs and, and, you know, school, like there was a whole

[00:16:42] community there.

[00:16:44] and then

[00:16:47] we wanna

[00:16:50] You don't have

[00:16:54] they built,

[00:16:55] five, you can see before natural pictures. It's like, literally just like [00:17:00] on top of it on top through it.

[00:17:09] kind of a sta you know, stack

[00:17:12] Jeff Nesbitt: I actually always think

[00:17:16] cities,

[00:17:19] And

[00:17:21] that like old craftsman style, really

[00:17:24] old houses just tucked away between two, like a seven 11 and, uh, you know,

[00:17:30] station, whatever mm-hmm,

[00:17:32] heard a thing on a podcast the other day about a really common thing that they did during like dam construction was to build them along cities that were predominantly black in similar situations where they had settled there and flood flood the cities.

[00:17:49] in central park

[00:17:58] Rose Gerber: black city.

[00:18:16] Rose Gerber: It's more common than people realize. And I don't know if you've been kinda hearing from Pete buds, like they have these new

[00:18:29] And it's actually

[00:18:32] to reconnect communities that were displaced by infrastructure projects over the decades. So there is that, um, ability to kind of innovate and find ways to bring. Infrastructure projects that serve not just the community, that's now there, but like hopefully make things a little more just, and bring back some equity to the, to the folks who were displaced.

[00:19:15] I hope that they can come up with some solutions for that. Yeah. Cause that's pretty. Shocking when you, when you don't go there often, and then you go there and it's like, oh man, mm-hmm . Is that something that ODOT is, is worried about? Or is it that, are they even talking about that? Do you have any

[00:19:31] Well, I mean, yeah, O ODOT is of course worried about it. I mean, there's seems like it's right in their face. Yeah. I mean, there are folks who live, you know, along the highways that they manage and, and they're very concerned. And I find ODOT to be a very sympathetic, empathetic group of folks who, who don't wanna see the homelessness epidemic the way it is.

[00:19:49] Jeff Nesbitt: leadership in general seems very bleeding heart, like yeah. Caring compared to a lot of other

[00:20:04] They don't, they're an agency that builds roads for the most part. So they can't fix the homelessness problem, but they're, they're always game from what I've seen to work with other agencies.

[00:20:21] logistics issue. Like how do you

[00:20:24] a,

[00:20:26] Rose Gerber: community on it, right.

[00:20:39] Jeff Nesbitt: wicket. Yeah. That's not one I would want. Have to deal with. Yeah. Anyway, uh, so you said you were in teach for America.

[00:20:47] Rose Gerber: me a little bit about that. Uh, I was in the core from 2012 to 2014 and, uh, served in Eastern North Carolina. It's a rural area there, right above what they call the [00:21:00] triangle like Raleigh Durham, uh, chapel hill area. And, um, I had finished grad school during the great recession essentially, and was out of career options.

[00:21:19] Jeff Nesbitt: So just no wonder you didn't wanna talk about homelessness, you know, the game

[00:21:37] Jeff Nesbitt: but it that's a noble one. It calls a lot of people who just don't know what they wanna do. And they're just like, I can always teach. Yeah. That's one that will always feel, feel good in the soul.

[00:22:06] You can't have complex conversations with the older kids you can, but they also don't have the fear of God and them about you. So,

[00:22:18] Rose Gerber: right? Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, I would say it's, um, , you know, they're definitely up against more social challenges than your average bear, but, um, also they're just teenagers in the way you'd expect them to be.

[00:22:38] Jeff Nesbitt: actions, I should say. Yeah. Yeah. I know that game. Mm-hmm, , it's definitely a real thing. The teenage boy brain and, and girl mm-hmm , but the boy brain seems to act faster and, and more

[00:22:51] Definitely had more, uh, issues with the male students sometimes than I did with

[00:23:05] Cuz I signed up for teach for America the, my last, my senior year of college. And I went through the whole process of getting in and I got in and I got assigned, I didn't end up going because I, I had no way to support myself from like March to August when the job actually started mm-hmm and they don't pay a lot anyway, but I was gonna end up going to Memphis, Tennessee to teach first grade.

[00:23:34] I was

[00:23:53] And, um, it's becomes a very difficult job very quickly. And education's always difficult. My wife's a teacher [00:24:00] and it's, it really never seems all that easy. Um, yeah. Did, do you ever, uh, so after teach for America, you just were done with teaching?

[00:24:25] Um,

[00:24:42] So I also almost got another job in Texas teaching and I for went it and went to Oregon back to Oregon where I, uh, went into nonprofits again. Um, but also ended up working at a, a tuition free private. Middle school for low [00:25:00] income students in Portland for a few years. And that was kind of nice, cuz I got to do education without the teaching and I, I was a fundraiser like, and worked in nonprofit development for that.

[00:25:19] Rose Gerber: Uh, eventually I ended up working at a transportation that was, uh, transportation, nonprofit that served people who couldn't get around a lot of medical trips and low income people and shuttles and things got folks from point a to point B in rural areas.

[00:25:45] Jeff Nesbitt: um, do you do consider that a human right? Like the ability to get from point a to point

[00:25:55] At least, if you're going to ask people to live in a modern society where you have to, you [00:26:00] know, get to a job, to be part of it, go to court and pay rent, go to yeah. Whatever it is that makes you a participant in that functioning society. That means being able to get around in a way, you know, it's, it's inequitable.

[00:26:32] Jeff Nesbitt: of the lower parts of the pyramid probably too survival.

[00:26:55] Um, and they couldn't rely on family members all the time to get them there. They, [00:27:00] and, and a car itself is very expensive to maintain as we all kind of know, and to acquire and to acquire. So, um, you know, for those folks, it was a life or death matter. Getting to that, that health service without a car, you know, is a, it's a pretty tricky, tricky thing to do if, if you're all of a sudden vehicle is, and there's no bus that runs within a half a mile of your home and you can't even walk to it, cuz you're maybe medically capable of doing so

[00:27:27] Rose Gerber: rural areas.

[00:27:35] Jeff Nesbitt: There's a lot of people, there's a lot of roads, but not as many buses. Yes. Yeah. Have you ever lived without

[00:27:42] Rose Gerber: I have, yeah. How long

[00:27:46] Rose Gerber: were you in?

[00:27:51] Jeff Nesbitt: lived so

[00:27:58] Jeff Nesbitt: and yeah. So saved money with it. [00:28:00] And also Portland's a good city for that. Yeah. Yeah. I, I just, the reason I ask actually, what about you Jack?

[00:28:08] it. Uh, Nope. I've

[00:28:13] on.

[00:28:14] Rose Gerber: Uh, no, I, uh, always had a car. I lived in, uh, LA when I was growing up. So if you didn't have a car, you weren't doing anything. You weren't working, you weren't

[00:28:24] The reason I ask is just because I've, I've had to live without a car a few times. And the difference in what life is like is so profound. Like you live in another reality, life moves at a different pace. Like if you're just walking or biking and, um, Yeah, it's I, I really like what you said about how transportation is almost a human, right?

[00:29:03] I mean, they can't do everything, get your life together, but you know, they care about you enough to make sure you can get to where you need to go. Uh, I think that's important. I think it's really cool. So I command

[00:29:14] Um, I think that that is like the perfect attitude for government to take is like, I, I, I think that government officials, they get a really bad rap for, um, not caring and I've worked in government a lot.

[00:29:54] Rose Gerber: acts.

[00:30:18] going.

[00:30:37] And, and if we all saw that, I think we'd all maybe wanna participate a little more. I think that's the other part of it is we don't, we don't feel like the government is us. Yeah. If we voted a lot more as a country, or if we ran for office more or plugged into our local politics a little more, I think we'd feel more like our government was us.

[00:30:59] Jeff Nesbitt: you, cause it's supposed to feel [00:31:00] like us. Yeah. Yeah. And I don't, I, I think you're right. It doesn't to a lot of people. Yeah. I think that's, that's a very good idea that we could benefit a lot from, as a public. It would be to get a report of what our tax dollars go to.

[00:31:29] And then the government has a bit of a pickle on their hands. So I, I worry that it's the third scenario and that's why we don't have a, just throw us a pie chart, you know, a quick pie chart, you could do it in PowerPoint. that's all we really need. We just wanna know where the money's going. But yeah.

[00:32:05] People. I mean, the government is not perfect, but they're good at a few things. getting people checks. They're very good at that. Usually on time. They're good. The roads thing I have been concerned about the roads, um, just because of, I mean, we've heard since the nineties about infrastructure problems and it's, it's an obvious, like stuff falls apart, entropy exists in, you know, the road systems, but do you have any idea if there are any kind of like federal programs for, for really beefing up the beefing up the infrastructure in the next. Near any near future, like they talked about during the campaign.

[00:33:00] So it's, so what was on that? So that's like a huge spending bill, um, that is basically giving millions of dollars to major cities to end states. Um, every state was allocated a significant amount of funding to fix a lot of their outstanding bridge bridge bridges that need are like, you know, about to fall into the rivers.

[00:33:28] Jeff Nesbitt: thing. It was a gigantic bridge that went. Just went into the river. Yeah. I didn't see that, but I mean, it was a very unusual weather situation. It wasn't a bad bridge. It was, it was a really aggressive

[00:33:39] Yes. Yes. It's a whole nother bill that probably should get past at some point. Um, a climate bill. Yeah. fingers crossed. Yeah. It's not, I'm sorry to report. It's not gonna happen. Um, but, uh, yeah, there's um, there is definitely the most money that's been spent on infrastructure in the last, I think it's been like 30 years or it's a long time.

[00:34:05] bridge right now that says

[00:34:08] the infrastructure

[00:34:09] Oh yeah. I wouldn't doubt it. That bridge is so cool. That's, that's very cool. Such a neat piece of little coastal.

[00:34:32] Rose Gerber: you.

[00:34:33] fine. I tune my guitar. I forgot. It's the podcast. You could just cut things and

[00:34:40] them together. Make it all look clean. Yeah. That's the best part. That's the fun part. Yeah.

[00:34:57] Would you set that mic? Uh, like [00:35:00] maybe right here on the floor?

[00:35:08] Jeff Nesbitt: Um,

[00:35:10] oh,

[00:35:11] a little,

[00:35:13] Jeff Nesbitt: at me like I needed to get you something else. No, no, you're good.

[00:35:20] Jeff Nesbitt: We can, we can move you move. Do you want me to bounce? You wanna sit? Should I get in chair with no, with no arm

[00:35:26] is fine, but, um,

[00:35:29] I probably need to move that way to get, um,

[00:35:36] Rose Gerber: Okay. There we go. Oh, shit. There's a lid on that. We're fine. Good.

[00:35:40] is there water bottle? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Headphones

[00:35:52] Rose Gerber: where those sures

[00:35:58] Your mics for

[00:36:01] Jeff Nesbitt: that one again. I love those.

[00:36:14] little. Yeah. That to.

[00:36:42] Rose Gerber: looks good.

[00:36:51] Rose Gerber: So this is a song called shake loose that, um,

[00:36:55] one of my newest songs. I call it my [00:37:00] COVID PTSD

[00:37:09] Rose Gerber: need bit

[00:37:12] Ofer,

[00:37:20] Rose Gerber: loose from this side. Father

[00:37:49] Rose Gerber: We sing mournful

[00:37:58] Rose Gerber: things more. [00:38:00] Some have still

[00:38:48] Rose Gerber: of silver of [00:39:00] the weight out of these.

[00:39:29] Jeff Nesbitt: Good.

[00:39:41] Jeff Nesbitt: Thank

[00:39:45] Jeff Nesbitt: That was great. Okay. So I think the way, the best way to do it is every time you're gonna play a song, I'll just come down here and get this one going for this mic. Mm-hmm and then we'll have a really nice version.

[00:39:57] Jeff Nesbitt: I think we peaked it a couple times.

[00:40:09] Thank you. So what's the story behind that song?

[00:40:15] um, feeling of

[00:40:21] of the,

[00:40:44] Jeff Nesbitt: gimme

[00:40:45] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah,

[00:40:49] Jeff Nesbitt: it's well, thank you. Yeah, COVID has definitely been

[00:40:55] adjustment. It kind of feels like things changed in March of [00:41:00] 2020, and then never really changed back. Just continued to change, but into new things, not into the old things

[00:41:10] Like one of the lines in that song is seeing things more clearly. The, um, I'm gonna forget my own lyrics now that I never did before. You know, it's kind of like, it's also kind of, the scales are falling away a little bit from our eyes, as we see some of the things that aren't working and a lot of the protest movements and the things that were like the injustices came to the, to the surface a little bit as COVID kind of laid bare.

[00:41:53] And it let people really see it a little more. I think which mm-hmm in the short term is not great, but hopefully in the long term it drives people to wanna

[00:42:06] specific

[00:42:12] Rose Gerber: cut this out, I'm happy to do it.

[00:42:18] like, do you mean as a result of COVID or just no, just

[00:42:34] And so sometimes I ask people what they think, uh, is better about this world, as, as opposed to just all the things that have changed for the

[00:42:58] Jeff Nesbitt: You think that that's how we do [00:43:00] it is on a personal level. Everyone has accountability for their own actions and together that builds a new, more beautiful world.

[00:43:18] You, to be honest, neither do I. Okay. well, well all or welcome here under this tent, I imagine,

[00:43:24] Yeah, really?

[00:43:35] Rose Gerber: uh, I have ADHD too.

[00:43:42] Jeff Nesbitt: but if that they know that tuning in ahead of time. So if we don't finish a story, which I imagine we probably already done that. Mm-hmm uh, it's. All right. Or if you just genuinely don't care about something, say that that's a perfectly acceptable answer.

[00:44:22] Um, I, I have just like, I've almost become addicted to, uh, thinking about stuff that I'm not ever gonna figure out. Hmm. I think it's fun.

[00:44:48] And some of it feels

[00:44:58] Rose Gerber: person? I [00:45:00] wouldn't call myself a religious person. I, I grew up Unitarian, which is as close as got to, I don't know much about that.

[00:45:19] Jeff Nesbitt: um, the vampire religion, huh?

[00:45:35] It went, as it went to India, went to America, went to Australia and a bunch of places where it became a very anti, like a, sorry, anti-slavery abolitionist kind of church where a lot of, um, uh, people took root like Henry David Thau and like, uh, some of those kind of transcendentalist thinkers. Um, so very progressive for their time in the late 18 hundreds and around the Quaker time of the Quakers.

[00:46:08] Jeff Nesbitt: support Fort LGBTQ.

[00:46:17] Like we create our own hell and you can kind of really, if you're Jewish, you could come to a service. If you're Muslim, you could come to a service. It's more like almost

[00:46:26] Rose Gerber: still, but denominational. Yeah. And, and so it's kind of like the most, my grandfather who is Baptist used to call it a club, you know, cuz it's not, it doesn't feel like you're going there and, and, and having this kind of strict conversation with a scripture or with God, or, you know, in that way, that sounds kind of nice.

[00:46:50] Salvador

[00:47:03] Yeah. Well they were illegal immigrants and they were, if they got sent back to Salvador, they'd be murdered by the people who wanted to murder them. So they were kind of like. Clandestine. And I, that was kind of the stuff I grew up around in that church was like, we're here to fight for the little guy and, and workers and the movement.

[00:47:25] Jeff Nesbitt: you ever do mission trips, like go build an orphanage in

[00:47:36] And by, and then kind of just found my own conglomerate of beliefs and I don't really have a religion I ascribe to, I would just say, um, I like you appreciate the kind of bigger questions of like, well, there's an edge of the universe. What's at the other edge of the universe. And then who made that, who made the universe and exactly, or was before the universe, if there's a universe

[00:47:58] Rose Gerber: will tell us.

[00:48:01] Jeff Nesbitt: happy. Yeah. I can't believe we can see

[00:48:04] time. See a picture back in time. Yes.

[00:48:08] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. Yeah. It almost certainly isn't if it's that far ago, right. Things are always expanding. At least it doesn't look like that anymore. Mm-hmm , it's pretty neat.

[00:48:36] You know, it was, I don't know, as a kid church is one thing, cuz it's so boring and um, but you know, even as an adult, it is quite boring. Uh, but you can learn to appreciate it. You know, I still enjoy going when I go nowadays, which is not ever, but if I did, I would enjoy it. I like the idea of it. I like to sing.

[00:49:14] It's really hard sometimes. Yeah. And

[00:49:31] But we got each other

[00:49:43] Rose Gerber: my opinion. Do you mean the, the organized religion itself

[00:49:49] Rose Gerber: I don't know. I would argue this organized religion still has a good,

[00:49:53] hold on our,

[00:49:56] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah,

[00:49:58] Rose Gerber: the evangelicals and, [00:50:00] um, the religious.

[00:50:12] there's less people attending churches, the Catholic churches struggling to keep people,

[00:50:21] but their assets,

[00:50:24] They got a lot of property and art and things

[00:50:28] go visit the Vatican. Have you seen, like,

[00:50:32] I have not.

[00:50:37] Jeff Nesbitt: place.

[00:50:38] The amount of art they have, just the sheer scale of wealth of the place, the wealth that has accumulated, um, since the 15 hundreds. Yeah. Yeah. It's insane. Yeah. I wonder why other religions don't have that same accumulation of wealth.

[00:50:54] yeah. Do

[00:50:56] Jeff Nesbitt: Hold on. Let me turn this thing back

[00:51:02] I don't know how to get this thing to report

[00:51:11] Jeff Nesbitt: we'll just lean

[00:51:15] Jeff Nesbitt: I don't even remember what we're talking about now

[00:51:19] Jeff Nesbitt: oh, murder, you say yes, I'm listening. Yeah.

[00:51:22] Rose Gerber: think it was mostly murder.

[00:51:27] Rose Gerber: came in, they, you know, the Catholic

[00:51:29] Rose Gerber: a lot of power and gold and I think they just kind of

[00:51:32] Rose Gerber: out and found other religions and just sort of, sort of just kind of took 'em out one by one

[00:51:39] Yeah. Colonization. That's probably how it was done.

[00:51:43] Rose Gerber: Yeah. I would've given you my world history take on it.

[00:51:53] Rose Gerber: anything like that? Yeah. Dan and Carl Dan Carlin. That

[00:51:56] You'd say that stuff he did about genus Khan. Yes. [00:52:00] Incredible.

[00:52:02] Jeff Nesbitt: Yeah. And he's not even like a. a professionally trained historian.

[00:52:16] I think he's just wants to make sure that he makes clear that he doesn't have a doctorate, but that's probably what it comes down to. Okay. He's a great storyteller. Yeah. And he knows sources and he knows stuff probably a lot more than some professors do. I'd argue.

[00:52:33] Mm-hmm just think about the amount of influence that one person had in the genetics of the world. Mm-hmm I, I forget what the percentage is, but it's a very high percentage of people have, uh, his DNA.

[00:52:47] in us.

[00:52:48] Have you ever done your DNA? Like

[00:52:53] I've done. Um, ancestry, cuz we were doing it for our family. So I've got back to like. Yeah. [00:53:00] Like I've got more of the bigger picture of my DNA. Um,

[00:53:04] Rose Gerber: genes from half? My, my father's, my father's side is pure, uh, Ashkenazi Jew, um, from like the, uh, most recently from the Russian part of the world, like Ukraine and,

[00:53:19] And then my mom's side is a good, like a third English, like a mattering of Danish and like kind of Scottish. And then there's a good chunk of German as well, so. Oh, cool. Very you're Western European. On half on the half of it and the other half is ethnically Jewish.

[00:53:49] I always wonder also, is it, is it rude to ask people that, like, you're not supposed to ask a woman her age, but I just ask you about your DNA.

[00:53:55] um, I think we don't, we haven't established cultural norms on this one yet. It's still fairly new, [00:54:00] but, um, thank you for sharing that either way.

[00:54:03] I find that stuff so cool.

[00:54:14] Rose Gerber: Yeah. you think you just the,

[00:54:18] Rose Gerber: Okay.

[00:54:24] rock video.

[00:54:26] I, I

[00:54:29] Is that one

[00:54:32] Rose Gerber: kid? I mean, I definitely caught, I was born in 79, so I, when my, my PBS childhood watching, like, viewing was very much like, like reruns of seventies, like electric company and, and Sesame

[00:54:48] other

[00:54:52] Jeff Nesbitt: They were great. Yeah. Kids

[00:54:58] gentle.

[00:55:04] Jeff Nesbitt: no, one's getting their head smashed with an anvil. Yeah. No, one's exploding.

[00:55:08] Rose Gerber: They're not making hard life lessons of Wiley coyote.

[00:55:22] Rose Gerber: situation?

[00:55:27] grown children, grown children.

[00:55:30] mm-hmm no, no, they're not quite that grown.

[00:55:43] when you agreed to come on

[00:55:46] actually, uh, I was hoping it would be a free form ramble too. I, um, I enjoy that format, so I, I was hoping, uh, we could, we could shoot the breeze about whatever came our way at having some, a add myself. I'm okay. With going in a million [00:56:00] directions.

[00:56:01] much easier. Yeah,

[00:56:08] And, uh, I go over that before, but most of the time it's really hard to even stick to that. Mm-hmm cause like the very first thing that we talk about will lead to a thousand bird trails and before you know it you're done mm-hmm so it which I like podcasts that do that. I I've got no problem

[00:56:22] It's a, it's a right brain kind of. Like zone, right? Where your kind of time, time passes, hopefully for the people listening to nice and, uh,

[00:56:45] Like, you don't even have to, uh, have a plan if you don't want, but when you do

[00:56:50] a little bit better, but, so what are you excited about in your life right now? What's when you try to think about something, when you wake up in the morning, the first thing that comes to your head, what is it that that's getting your motors [00:57:00] running?

[00:57:00] Rose Gerber: my boyfriend's sitting right next to me, so I feel like contractually, I have to definitely say having my boyfriend in my life, I

[00:57:07] that was going. That is pretty nice. Well, that's a, it's a plus, um, having a great dude in my life. Um, but I would say primarily outside, like work work has its own kind of soul feeding quality to it.

[00:57:21] It's about a year. Over a year. A year

[00:57:25] Rose Gerber: Tinder?

[00:57:27] of all COVID Tinder

[00:57:32] Rose Gerber: how did that

[00:57:33] Rose Gerber: Um, uh, I swiped, yeah, if

[00:57:38] Just point it right in the middle swivel

[00:57:42] and all that?

[00:57:46] Rose Gerber: romance. We, we met up for a walk for our first date. Yep. Mm-hmm

[00:57:52] not Tabor in Portland.

[00:57:53] Jeff Nesbitt: And, uh, socially distant, distant outside. Masked up, maybe double.

[00:57:59] Rose Gerber: risky.[00:58:00]

[00:58:02] Rose Gerber: Uh, then was, uh, walk then we decided to go eat, oh, get a drink. And I

[00:58:08] a, some bar that was doing outside seating. And what was it? 30 degrees outside. It was pretty cool. It was really cool. And then we found a place to eat dinner and

[00:58:19] action.

[00:58:24] So, yeah. Yeah. And then you

[00:58:28] after asking very nicely.

[00:58:31] Yep. It's in COVID

[00:58:35] you have

[00:58:35] IMG_4058: duplicates.

[00:58:42] Rose Gerber: It wasn't, but it also, I felt like, kind of was because we had. Our own world kind of in a way

[00:58:52] Rose Gerber: it was good

[00:58:55] Yeah. That's a good analogy. yeah. And we got to got the fun challenge, [00:59:00] like Jack likes to have adventures. And so do I, so we, like, he had just gotten a new all-wheel drive Subaru

[00:59:06] on our second, third day, he like took us, uh, driving through a blizzard up to the coast where we like yeah. Tooled around his new car

[00:59:14] Nice. What kind of Subaru

[00:59:16] Oh, those are great. I had one of those for a little bit. Yeah.

[00:59:18] Rose Gerber: a nice new sporty engine. So it was like a little more powerful. So

[00:59:24] engine.

[00:59:27] Jeff Nesbitt: really point. Nice leader. So yeah, little, yeah. For a little car, they really stick to the road.

[00:59:34] had a

[00:59:38] And we went

[00:59:45] Everyone here has a Subaru or should and a Patagonia jacket. that's like the stereotypes. Um, I went, I went and saw, uh, comedians in Portland a couple times. They all do the same crowd work about

[01:00:02] not even just Portland, I, I mean Portland, but the whole Pacific Northwest, it's a very much a look like we, we have a certain vibe about us. Do you like that? Cuz you didn't come from here originally. You must have gravitated towards it rose or an Jack, whoever you can't

[01:00:18] Rose Gerber: LA and uh, I came up here and I was uh, very much like resistant to falling into that. Look, I, I had a. I had an unhealthy

[01:00:27] jackets. Oh yeah. You definitely thought you were better than us, for sure.

[01:00:31] Rose Gerber: for now. He has a puffer jacket. No, I

[01:00:34] Jeff Nesbitt: falling completely. They're great. Yeah. Yeah. I was, I was packable efficient, warm, dark rammed glasses.

[01:00:39] Jeff Nesbitt: know,

[01:00:41] Rose Gerber: to be a contrarian, but I, I fell in I'm.

[01:00:44] I'm not

[01:00:46] Growing up here, I fought it a little bit.

[01:01:05] Or even though if it's your side gig or either way, you're trying to sell a product, a creative product, do you try to carefully, um, kind of fashion an image that way? Or do you just let it flow?

[01:01:25] I dabble in graphic design and kind of marketing's part of my job. So I, I try to put it like, it's a, it's easy for me. I have three projects. I have this band that I've been, we're kind of talking about today, rose Gerber and sweet relief. And then I've got the LA lady trio called yellow birds and I've branded all of them for the most part.

[01:02:11] So I, I try to come from it as like. You, I am who I am and whoever that comes across, I guess, is my brand. I don't like try to shoot for anything I try, but it's also hard for me to like, if you ask me to, to encompass what I, what I look like or what I sound like. It's, it's, I mean, it's hard for anyone to do that for themselves.

[01:02:31] Jeff Nesbitt: a, unless somebody you paid is telling you exactly what

[01:02:43] themselves

[01:02:55] Jeff Nesbitt: that's, yeah, I like the ones who go full bore into one and then can just switch on [01:03:00] a dime like David Bowie or Madonna lady Gaga.

[01:03:25] You just, you know, whatever. But, um, I think with music it's especially hard because I think what people actually want the very most is authenticity and they just want, they wanna listen to somebody who's like, Speaking from the heart and actually real, but how the, to market that, like, who is the ideal listener at that point?

[01:03:46] Rose Gerber: SEO hashtag hashtag authenticity yeah, it becomes

[01:03:58] Rose Gerber: yourself? I do it [01:04:00] all myself. Um, because it's just what I've gotten used to, and I've never had the resources to pay someone to do that.

[01:04:31] You're either the way you get known is you either tour

[01:04:36] as a young person or older, but like you have to have no day job. Like if you wanna tour, like you should tour to get, build an audience and get the interest of a label or festival, like you need to have a following and you have to tour to get a following for the most

[01:04:52] Um, and there's still no guarantee that you're gonna have security forever. It's

[01:05:08] I feel more where I should be. Like, I, I feel like now I'm hitting my stride as an artist. When did you start playing? Um, I was probably, I was 19 when I recorded my first

[01:05:24] Rose Gerber: instruments? Uh, when I.

[01:05:27] When I was basically as early as I can remember, I was singing, um, like harmonies with my mom.

[01:05:38] Jeff Nesbitt: And so you learned it as a, as like one of your first

[01:05:55] I was fortunate enough in second grade that there was a pretty comprehensive music program [01:06:00] and they walk you into the auditorium in second grade and they show you all these tables with all the instruments and they're like, pick your instrument essentially. And I don't know why, but I decided I needed to play the flute.

[01:06:15] So

[01:06:22] Rose Gerber: was a terrible choice. No, there were so few men flu. Like

[01:06:32] yeah. Anyway,

[01:06:49] Jeff Nesbitt: diaphragm with the flute.

[01:06:53] Rose Gerber: yeah.

[01:06:57] Other lessons of life there. And then, um, [01:07:00] I mean, sure. Some

[01:07:02] Rose Gerber: but you don't just wanna hammer it. Right, exactly. um, we're gonna get along. Great. And um, so then, uh, Uh, after that kind of, I played flute. I was like learning like Mozart and stuff. By the time I was in high school, I was pretty advanced player, but then realized as I was getting into the music and playing, picking up guitar, I'm like, flu's like not cool.

[01:07:47] Jeff Nesbitt: than I am.

[01:07:51] Rose Gerber: do that? I, I, I know chords, um, and I mostly. I don't read tabs literature though. At one point I, someone [01:08:00] taught me and I forgot. Um, I, I point to my guitar sometimes to my band and I'm like, I'm playing this chord. Can you guys

[01:08:09] Rose Gerber: lobe doesn't.

[01:08:14] Jeff Nesbitt: life. Like, do you have to translate from any kind of a written musical language into your hands or do your hands know how to do it? Do you know what I'm asking? Does that make, does that make sense? Like, I I'll give you an example to, just to kind of clarify what I mean.

[01:08:47] So, um, it was really hard. So I have very S. Like clear memories of being very sweaty and just like wanting to cry all day. Everyone's mad at me. It's a horrible experience. And, um, I was constantly confused and fumbling hitting the wrong [01:09:00] switches and stuff within two years. Uh, I was pretty good at it. And now it's been 10 years and I haven't thought about what my hands do while I'm muscle memory.

[01:09:23] I, I feel like that's, that has to be cuz when you watch some someone play and they're just like, they're feeling that they're not, there's no thought going on. It's just like flowing

[01:09:40] I don't think I did. There's

[01:09:44] Rose Gerber: or something. It's like 1998 that it

[01:09:48] Rose Gerber: the piano player. Uh he's. I don't know that. I could tell you his name. He's an Australian actor. Um, kind of awkward lanky dude. Hmm. Um, but he, in that, there's a [01:10:00] scene, which he's learning from a great master, uh, piano player.

[01:10:27] You know when you're like, you know, kind of doing that or working the sprayers yeah. As you're trying to like get in your zone. So there's, there's something to that that you're, that you're talking about. I think there's like a, when we practice as a band, as regularly as we can and I, this band rose Gerber's, we really spend together for six years now, we're in our, we're like, we're, our sound is so effortless in a lot of ways that it wasn't like three years ago because we, we know our, we know it so well.

[01:10:58] Jeff Nesbitt: practice. So you can really [01:11:00] lean into

[01:11:17] But we, when we play it live or we practice the one time before the gig, we're like, yeah, we got this. Like we know this song so well, because we've been playing it for six years. It's like riding a bike. We know it without having to think about it. Mm-hmm and that's nice, but, but you kind of have to work really hard to get to that point, you know?

[01:11:49] Jeff Nesbitt: is, and you hear it because you've heard it so many times. So you notice every little thing probably,

[01:11:54] Yeah. Yeah. But he, he has, I don't think he mind me saying this. He has add too. So sometimes it'll just be like, [01:12:00] he's seeing a squirrel and forgot

[01:12:08] um,

[01:12:16] It's very common and it makes a lot of sense. They weren't exactly looking for us back back in the day until really recently, but it'll be interesting to see how the world changes to kind of accommodate that. Um, just more awareness that that's a that's, it's not always a, like a disease mm-hmm, like, that's basically the only people who have been recognized and, um, incorporated into the, the public narrative of like who we are as a people.

[01:12:50] uh,

[01:12:59] It [01:13:00] makes a lot of sense really, but, um, yeah, it's, I've been researching a ton about ADHD and all that autism and everything cuz I'm, I'm a dad and I'm neuro divergent myself and it's, it's kind of been groundbreaking to find out some of this stuff. I didn't pay nearly enough attention. Um, I went to school for psychology and um, I made it through that whole degree without really, uh, taking a really hard look at myself and I was even being treated for ADHD.

[01:13:33] Rose Gerber: Yeah. Yeah. And, and women and girls too, have a different present differently, so, yep. It's harder to kind of nail down in

[01:13:46] Mm-hmm how many women there are out there undiagnosed. Yeah. I can picture quite a few in my life. If you guys think about that. Can you think of people who were like, oh, everyone called her adit, but really she just had ADHD

[01:14:08] But, and I thought it was just cuz she was space case. Yeah. But she was hyper focused on the dishes or whatever she was working on. Yeah. And there are plenty like plenty of people, women I know who are like me and we get along real well and I'll be like, Hey, you know how you do that thing where you kind of maybe. Trip a lot, or like, forget something a lot or where you can't ever find your keys. Have you ever thought about the fact that you might be

[01:14:31] add and they're like, oh, I thought I was just like an asshole.

[01:14:36] Rose Gerber: thing is

[01:14:38] bad,

[01:14:47] Be like, oh, I can't be trusted. You know, I never show up on time or whatever the thing is. And it's, it sucks. So I think that will change people. Yeah. I, I know it's already changing. I just, I had a teacher in here the other day and she's talking about how kids are a little [01:15:00] bit more accepting of just being different now than they were when I was in high school.

[01:15:09] Rose Gerber: weirdos. Yeah. And the weirdos bring a

[01:15:26] You gonna rock that? Yeah. It's nice. But

[01:15:48] Jeff Nesbitt: yeah.

[01:16:03] Maybe, maybe it should be a little embarrassing and I'll work a little harder. Next time. You don't have to walk on eggshells. Just like to accommodate. Um, at least me, I I'm just being for myself. I mean, like there's a lot of functional people with ADHD. Yeah. Who, who the accommodations are really just like, be nice.

[01:16:23] Rose Gerber: courtesy empathy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And there is kind of a, um, like a. It's not a drawback sometimes to be able to do the things we do, like despite our divergent brain mm-hmm so like, it's actually pretty impressive when you think about what, how we adapt and compensate for what we can't do super well and still manage to function somehow.

[01:17:01] Rose Gerber: songs? Yeah, sure. I could play, play another here.

[01:17:10] Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you guys so much for being here. This has been a lot of fun. I really, absolutely. And thank you for letting me ask you crazy off the wall questions and talk about all kinds of stuff. You guys were really good sports about it, right on. It was great to talk with you. All right.

[01:17:26] Rose Gerber: I'll move outta

[01:17:27] Okay. Alright. Um, let's see,

[01:17:31] take this down there. Do

[01:18:02] Rose Gerber: should be,

[01:18:03] there's like a Nesbitt? That's like

[01:18:06] a, I wouldn't

[01:18:25] He's like, Hey, how did you get your name

[01:18:44] Rose Gerber: I might just do this one song if that's okay.

[01:18:47] hit

[01:18:51] which is my, uh, ADHD medication

[01:18:56] through you.

[01:19:01] Jeff Nesbitt: hit?

[01:19:02] yep. Hit the red dot. Okay,

[01:19:32] Jeff Nesbitt: dry golden

[01:19:35] Glowing.

[01:19:48] Rose Gerber: the fives growing move into fast

[01:20:08] Rose Gerber: comes by,

[01:20:32] Rose Gerber: off those things thought they

[01:21:44] Rose Gerber: Table

[01:21:54] Rose Gerber: peace.

[01:21:58] Jeff Nesbitt: to let go. [01:22:00]

[01:22:04] Jeff Nesbitt: to win.

[01:22:16] Jeff Nesbitt: winner star. That was

[01:22:59] Jeff Nesbitt: Thank you for tuning [01:23:00] in everybody. Talk to you next week. Bye

[01:23:07] Jeff Nesbitt: oh, that was great. Thanks so much. Yeah, that was fun.

[01:23:14] Jeff Nesbitt: Thank you. Those things are so durable.