The Intersection of Art and Life: A Conversation with Dr. B
Dr. B is multidimensional. He is a musician, a Best-Selling Author ("Elysium: The Holy War"), and renown DJ due to his scratch abilities. Join us while we get to know the enigma himself, Dr. B!
You can find Dr. B's music on Spotify
Takeaways:
- The podcast emphasizes the importance of balancing work and personal time, reflecting on the workaholic syndrome many face today.
- Dr. B shares his journey into music, highlighting how his difficult childhood experiences shaped his creative expression through art and sound.
- The discussion touches on the philosophical aspects of life, including the significance of understanding diverse beliefs in fostering community and acceptance.
- Listeners are encouraged to appreciate the emotional depth in music, as Dr. B's unique blend of genres aims to create immersive experiences for his audience.
- The conversation reveals the intricate relationship between art and identity, as Dr. B discusses the cultural influences that inform his musical style.
- The podcast concludes with a call for kindness and understanding in interactions, underscoring the power of connection in a diverse world.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- BlindKnowledge.com
- Target
- Publix
- Spotify
- Amazon
- Roku
- Drip Monroe
- Elephant Man
Transcript
Yo, let's do the damn thing. Yo, it's been about two months. What's up, y'?
Speaker B:All?
Speaker A:My name is Joey B. We're doing the damn thing, and we're doing it on blind knowledge. BlindKnowledge.com is the spot. That is hot. We're down here in sunny St. Pete, yo.
It's 20 degrees up north. It's 70 beautiful degrees down here. And we're just hanging. We're loving. Some of us go to Target.
-: Speaker B:And it's getting.
Speaker A:Oh, I just had a Latino beautiful chick just walk by. That's what I was feeling. I'm gonna calm it down, though, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker A:I'm gonna calm it down. Because you know what we got right now? We got Dr. B. What's up, Dr. B. Dr. B. Where is he? Where is he? Oh, There he is. Dr. B.
Brother, did you see that Latino chick just walked by?
Speaker B:Dude, pretty fly. Pretty.
Speaker A:Just playing. It was in. It was in my head. I don't know if anyone else noticed that out there in Twitch that there was really no Latino girl there.
That's just my fantasy Dr. B, brother from another mother. If you don't know him, y', all, he is a musician. He loves opera, and we're gonna learn all about him.
Dr. B, thank you for coming on the Blind Knowledge podcast. What is going on, my man?
Speaker B:Thanks for having me, man. I'm doing really well. How are you doing today? How's your weekend going so far?
Speaker A:Anxiety stricken, but doing well.
Speaker B:Me too. Me, too. I got exams and assignments due, so. Yeah, I know the stress a little bit.
Speaker A: owledge has been around since:And all I can think about is like, damn, I want to see my family and my friends, and all I do is look at this computer screen, and that's beautiful with me. But sometimes you got to walk away from all of the. The workaholic syndrome.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You know?
Speaker B:Yeah. Yeah, you do. You got to take a break. You got to take some me time. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker A:So you're a musician, man.
You're doing the damn thing on Spotify and If y', all, if you don't, if you haven't heard them, and we try to bring you some really, really cool stuff. As a musician myself, I've been playing a long time. I gotta say, Dr. B is really cool. I didn't know the guy. Here he is, by the way.
I didn't know the music. I heard it. I was like, dude, we gotta bring him on.
Speaker B:Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker A:So let's start here. How did you get started in music?
Speaker B:Oh, I kind of fell into it. I mean, I won't bore you with all the minor details.
Speaker A:No, no, no. I want to know. Were you four, were you five? Or you said what. What was it, man? Like, what. What is it about music that got you going as a kid?
And, and you hung on to it, or what made you. What got you here, basically?
Speaker B:Well, my brother and I, we grew up pretty abused by my mom, mostly.
Speaker A:Oh, man.
Speaker B:And one of the things I felt like when I was a kid. I'm sorry, Dr. B. Oh, I appreciate that. I know. Thank you. Thank you. But I've.
I'd like to think that I've moved on from that, but when I was a kid, I used to. I had this tiny, tiny little radio, right? This AM FN radio. And I used to. It was right next to my bed and I had to be in bed every day by 8 o'. Clock.
And I always had a hard time falling asleep. You know, the days were. Weren't that great. So I would kind of be up till 10, 11, 12, and I was just lying there in my bed.
And when it got around 10 o', clock, I think it was around 10 o', clock, one of the radio stations I would listen to, they would start playing opera music and, wow, chamber music. And when I would sit there and it was all in Italian, I. You know, I don't speak Italian.
I never understood the words, but the music just kind of calmed me down and I connected with it and it was, it was. At the time, it was just, you know, just music.
But now that I look back at it, at the age that I was at the time, I really realized that it was kind of like my soothing factor, my. My comfort factor. And as I got older, when I started becoming a teenager, I was really into hip hop.
But the thing that I liked the most was scratching and DJing. And that really. That really changed my perspective on music.
And the fact that you could take these records and use your hands and to make something entirely new out of it, that kind of blew my mind. So A friend of mine, his name's Shai Haddad, and he's a platinum selling artist in Israel. But we. Yeah, but we met each other in Montreal, Canada.
And when I got older, I went off to New York City, I started doing my thing, and Shy went off to Israel and he became like this big rapper and. Israel, wow. Yeah. But when we were younger, it was so cool because, like, I know who he is now, but Shai sold me his very first.
ables. He had these technique:And Shy was like, he was messing around with it and he liked to turn tables, but he realized he's really a vocalist.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And I realized I'm really a dj.
Speaker A:Okay. There was some discovery happening.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah. So Shy says he's like, listen, man, I'll sell you my tables. Brand new, gave me a great deal on it. I picked up a mixer, and that's always good.
I worked really hard. I was doing a paper route at the time.
Speaker A:Oh, tough gig. Yeah.
Speaker B:And I used to get up at 4am, 5am, saved up all my money. Then I started doing these weekend paper routes that delivered flyers and circulars and they paid, you know, a little bit more money.
So I saved up all my money, bought these tables off Shy and I. My friends didn't see me for maybe four months. I just. At this time, I was 16 and.
Speaker A:All right, so Dr. B. Just want to jump in there. So you're 16 years old, you're scratching on tables, you got a best friend. Would you say that you're.
You're just coming up in the. In the area? Would you say you have super skills or you're just trying to learn from others?
Speaker B:At. At this point, when I first started, I. I'm new. Like, I don't know how to do anything right.
Speaker A:Like, what was your perspective back then? Like, were you. Were you trying to. Were you trying to be the headliner or were you trying to get in with the crap?
Speaker B:No, no, no, no, no, no. My thing back then, it wasn't even about DJing parties. It was. I wanted to be a turntableist. I wanted to be one of the guys in the movie Juice.
I saw that movie.
Speaker A:That's cool as hell.
Speaker B:I was like, holy, this is like, you could do that with a record. Like. And I used to. I bought all these videos, these scratch videos. Right here's the crazy thing. The world champion a track.
mpion at in. I believe it was: Speaker A:He's really.
Speaker B:Yeah, I. I met him through my wife, who's just an amazing human being.
Speaker A:Shout out to Mrs. Dr. B. Yeah, her name's Ellie.
Speaker B:And anyways, Ellie used to be a hip hop artist and she into. She took me to this record store which was like a DJ store, production store, but they also sold records and it was run by Kano.
And she took me there one day, introduced me to everybody. And Alan, who. Who's a track time, he was like 12 years old and he was always in there scratching every day after school. Scratching, scratch.
And going crazy. Going crazy. Right. So I started really hanging out and. And getting all the inspiration and vibes from all these different guys that I was meeting.
But at the time I was just new. Right. I was still learning. And over time I started getting really good and started hanging out with another champion.
He almost won the Canadian championship. His name was DJ Blast. And we had us. We hung out. He showed me some stuff and he was. Gave me a lot of encouragement.
Speaker A:Let me ask you something, Dr. B, real quick. When you're scratching, are you using a certain record or is it they consider like a scratch track, like a vinyl?
Speaker B:It depends. I. I think at the time I was.
Speaker A:For those that don't know, let's break it down for them that don't know. Because, you know, nowadays turntables, they're not like vine, they're not vinyl. Really?
Speaker B:Yeah, it's all like mostly electronic.
Speaker A:Yeah. So how'd you do it?
Speaker B:Well, I mean, I was using the old school vinyls. Right. Okay. Back then, when you would scratch too much, you would actually hear the distortion on the record. It would actually go.
You hear like, that's cool. You would hear that every. Like you knew these scratched a lot when you. When the record was distorted.
Speaker A:Time to spin that thing out to the crowd.
Speaker B:Yeah. And you don't get that now. Now with the digital stuff, nothing really ever breaks anymore. Yeah.
Speaker A:There's no feeling in it, man. You don't get that warmth, you know?
Speaker B:No, not at all. Different thing and. But what I do like about it is the pads. Like, I like the way they've updated it and now you can.
Speaker A:All right. On that's true.
Speaker B:And things like that, you can incorporate different sounds.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So from a different perspective. I think it's better, but I also think it's worse at the same time. Okay. All right.
Speaker A:5050 Mix on it. All right.
Speaker B:Yeah. So anyways, as I. As the years went by, I started hanging out with another DJ called Red Dread. And Red Dread really gave me the opportunity to shine.
At this point in time, I was a turntableist. Like, this is about maybe three years later. I'm. Or maybe maybe two. And I. I would.
At this point, I'm spending easy, four or five hours a day just scratching. Like, I'd come home from school and just scratch, scratch, scratch.
Speaker A:Loving it, though.
Speaker B:Loving it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm having a. A great time. And then one day, Red Dread, he used to DJ at this clothing store on St. Catherine Street, Montreal.
And we started hanging out, and he was making all this money selling mixtapes out of the store. The.
Speaker A:The.
Speaker B:The owner of the store loved the concept of having a live dj. Really, because she would put the speakers outside the store.
Speaker A:Nice. That's cool.
Speaker B:He's playing all, like, Mary J. Blige and all these really dope tunes, and people are coming in, and it's bringing in more traffic. And I used to go there, and he'd never let me get on the tables, right?
We'd hang out, but I would bring, like, four, five, six records of mine, and I would just wait for the opportunity.
Speaker A:Did you find that as a challenge?
Speaker B:I. I think that to me, I was trying to be very mature about it, because this wasn't my world. This was.
Speaker A:Okay, you know what? That's. That's really cool of you to say, because if it was me, I'm, like, competitive in things.
I'm not gonna get too much into myself, obviously, but it's all about. It's all about Dr. B. And by the way, Dr. B over on Spotify, check him out. He's.
I am Dr. B6, over on all socials, dude, I'm wicked competitive, wicked competitive just from sports. And I want to be the headliner. I want to win. And you're saying that you were able to groove and just kind of maturely. Do you do your thing?
Speaker B:Right? Yeah, I didn't.
Speaker A:Well, it's a very respectful way to be.
Speaker B:Oh, thank you. But to me, we're friends, right? I mean that. We're friends first, so.
Speaker A:Yeah. No one's trying to conquer anybody. Of course.
Speaker B:Well, I. I just feel like he was also older than me, too. Right. And he.
Speaker A:So he's guiding you?
Speaker B:Well, he had. He had, like, a little girl. I think she was like, a year, maybe a year and a half.
Speaker A:Okay, so this dude had a family life as well. He was. He was.
Speaker B:She was taking care of his kid. He was busy five nights a week, DJing all over the city. He was one of the most popular DJs in the state, in the city at the time.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:And I was grateful that we were friends and he was willing to teach me things. And I thought he did his best teaching without saying a word. I would just literally watch him.
I would sit like, I'd get a crate and sit next to him and just watch him play for four or five hours straight.
And then what I would do is I would look at what he was doing, what records he was choosing, and then I'd look at the crowd and then I would see the reaction of the crowd and I would see when more people would come in. And I also paid attention to the time of day. Right, yeah.
So if, if it's 4 o' clock on a Friday, are people storming in as much as, as maybe 7:30, 8 o', clock, 9 o'? Clock?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:And when they come in, and more importantly, when they come in, what do they buy? Are they buying jeans that cost a hundred dollars each? Are they buying shirts? Are they buying tank tops? Are they buying shoes?
And then when they get to the cash, that's where we were set up.
Speaker A:So hold on, hold on.
Speaker B:Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker A:Are you in like a Macy's selling hundred dollar jeans or is this.
Speaker B:No, like this, what this was, this was, this was a clothing store.
Speaker A:Okay, okay, yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:It wasn't owned by.
Speaker A:Because this is why it wasn't.
Speaker B:Yeah, it was, it was, it was one of the biggest clothing stores for like hip hop clothing.
Speaker A:Okay. And this is up in Montreal, right?
Speaker B: s, early:Okay, okay. And all the young kids and everybody knew to go to that store to get like really cool hip hop clothing,.
Speaker A:Get some patches in your jeans maybe,.
Speaker B:You know, things like that.
Speaker A:Okay, I gotcha, I got you.
Speaker B:And, and we were set up right next to the cash. And as people were, were leaving. Right. People were leaving. Dread would sell them a CD and say, oh, this is $10, this is $20.
And people just got into the habit.
And he was known for putting out breaking the latest tracks or the latest music because at that time in Canada it wasn't like it is now where you could just jump on your phone and hear anything and everything.
Speaker A:Yeah, that's before social media.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah. So back then we really relied on DJs to, to tell us what was going on in the US and trust the dj.
Speaker A:The DJ had a lot of power.
Speaker B:A lot of power. A lot of power back.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So everybody was always buying his CDs. And I noticed every week, every Friday, guaranteed he would make easy, like a thousand dollars.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker B:Just in. Just in CDs and that he had there. And he was putting all that cash in his pocket. I said, holy.
Speaker A:Cash money.
Speaker B:Cash money. I was there. I saw him do it like a million times. I couldn't believe it.
Speaker A:That's incredible.
Speaker B:On top of that, he was getting paid by the owner of the store.
Speaker A:No. So he's getting a stipend on top of that, right?
Speaker B:Yeah. So I'm like, wait a sec. If Dread is making. That's amazing. If he could pull in a G in cash.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Just on CDs.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Imagine how much the store is making because there's. They're not selling things for twenty, thirty dollars. They're selling things for a hundred.
Speaker A: ght, every night, at least in: Speaker B:Maybe, yeah. Listen, let me put it to you this way. Every salesperson in that store had to sell a minimum of $2,000 in retail.
Speaker A:And you're saying folks just came in 20 bills or Canadian dollars or however it was, and they're buying merchandise, they're buying posters, they're buying whatever. Yeah, but this is before Amazon. This is before going, you know, really, anything online.
Speaker B:That would never work now, right? It's like, it would never work now, but back.
Speaker A:Ask you something, man. Yeah, straight up. Was it the cool thing, like, did these kids go to school the next day and be like, yo, I got these pants at that show?
Like, was that. Is that the incentive?
Speaker B:Well, everybody knew.
Speaker A:Or was it just. That was hot.
Speaker B:It was. It was. It was a combination of things. All the.
Speaker A:All the above. Okay. Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah, I would say.
Speaker A:I'm trying to picture it, man. Yeah, I'm trying to picture it. And I'm trying to picture. For the. For the audience too, because.
Speaker B:Oh, and it was also right next door to hmv. Right, okay. And HMV at the time was a huge, huge music store to sell CDs.
Speaker A:Kind of like a Tower Records.
Speaker B:Yeah, just like a Tower Records. So her store, the owner of the store was right next to that. Right. And it was also on.
Speaker A:That's good location.
Speaker B:The most popular area in Montreal, which was St. Catherine and Peel Street. So it was a combination of great location, the Right.
Businesses next to her location, combined with a product that everybody wants, and combined with adding people like Dread into the store, it just became a winning situation.
Speaker A:So, Dr. B, man, how long were you doing this for? A couple years. Few years.
Speaker B:Well, what happened was one day I was in the store, and I was. Dread had to go to the bathroom. So he looks at me and he goes, yo, Joe, you want to jump on the tables?
So at this point now, I've been waiting easy six weeks, and I would go there Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and just sit there for four to five hours, waiting to get on. Oh, right, man. I would travel one hour to get there and one hour to get home by bus. And I never knew if I was going to get the opportunity.
So one day he says, yo, yo, yo, you want to get on the tables? I got to go to the bathroom. You know, you can do whatever you want. You know what to do.
You've been here for, like, almost two months, so there's an opportunity.
Speaker A:This opens up.
Speaker B:Yeah. So I was ready. Oh. I said, oh, my God. I'm gonna.
Speaker A:Did everything just, like, slow down.
Speaker B:Well, let me put it to you this way. I. I had something ready in mind to do.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker B:And I. And I felt like, if I'm gonna do this, I'm not gonna do what Dread's doing. I'm not gonna mimic what he's doing. What he's doing is a working program.
That's his program. What I really wanted to do was show the owner, forget about everybody else. I wanted to show the owner that I was different.
I was somebody that can come in on a Wednesday and. And bring you the money that you make on a Friday by having stellar. So I had. I said, how am I gonna do that? I'm gonna do it with Flash. So I took out.
He was playing Mary J. Blige and all these other records. So I said, no, no, I'm not gonna do that. So I took out these records that had these really dope beats. Nice. And I put it on, and I just went.
So I took the. So people were looking. They're like, oh. He changed it. So people start bopping their head. So I took out my other record, and I just went off.
I just rock the baby. So I started doing all this stuff five minutes into it.
Speaker A:I'm feeling it, man. It's not even. I can't even hear it, but I'm feeling the vibe, dude. Yeah. So what happened?
Speaker B:So this whole time, I'm looking down at the top tables. I'm not looking at anybody. I'm looking down at the tables.
So about five minutes later, I look up, I swear to God, there was like 50 people standing in front of the table, all holding their bags, just watching me perform.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker B:And I was blown away. So I stopped, like, when I finished and Jed came back, they all clapped. And I'm 18 at the time.
And I'm like, oh, my God, I can't believe these people, like, liked what I was doing.
Speaker A:That's huge, right? Especially as. I mean, being 18, of course. But for anybody, an applause is a beautiful thing.
Speaker B:So I start freaking out and dread. He comes back and he's like, yo, yo. Like, I heard you. I heard this stuff in the back. So he gives me a pound. He's like, yo.
That was really dope, though. That was awesome. Nice. So we. So we're packing up and, you know, I have this. I'm.
I'm carrying his records for him, and I'm doing all this for him, packing all this stuff. So he leaves. So on my way out the door, I'm holding, like, two giant crates. The owner comes up to me and she goes, wait, wait, wait.
Come here, come here, come here. And I said, yeah. I said, hi. She's like, listen, I really liked what you did. I was really impressed with that. And I said, thank you so much. I'm.
I'm honored. And she says, jason can't do that. Jason's red. Red. She said, jason can't do that.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:She said, jason's good, don't get me wrong, but he can't do what you do. I said, okay. She says, how about you come on Wednesday when Jason's not here? So I said, are you okay? That's cool with Jason.
She's like, he works for me. Don't worry about him. I want you here on Wednesday and you bring in the people the way you brought them in today. I said, holy Christ.
So that's what I did.
Speaker A:That's encouraging.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Back, dude. And you must have felt awesome.
Speaker B:I was flooring. I was. I. I just couldn't believe it because I didn't think. I never thought I was good enough to kind of, like, perform. Don't you agree, Doc?
Speaker A:Let me just jump in, Dr. B. Because, like, don't you agree sometimes, like, it's tough to put yourself out there as a musician, as an instrumentalist, as a writer.
Sometimes you don't know how you're going to be perceived or if it's going to get over or if people are going to like it or if they're not going to get. Get it or if they're gonna.
Speaker B:It. Yeah.
Speaker A:They're gonna connect or not.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:It's a very ballsy, yet scary kind of thing.
Speaker B:It is. It is. It is scary. Put yourself out like there.
Speaker A:Yeah, it really is. Because I don't know about you, man. I've got an applause before when I'm playing guitar, and I've also gotten the horseshoe of death.
Speaker B:Oh, Jesus.
Speaker A:Have you ever gotten the horseshoe of death? Do you know what I'm talking about?
Speaker B:I know what you're talking about, but I'm fortunate enough to say that hasn't happened to me.
Speaker A:I will describe it very quickly. If you don't know what the horseshoe of death is, it's when you are playing live on a stage and the. The crowd suddenly starts to go backwards.
Like they're right in front of you, and then they go backwards and they spread out, and then all of a sudden, they're all around the stage. There's no one in front of you, and there's just a big horseshoe going around and no one collapse.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh. That's. Yeah.
Speaker A:And, yeah, that happens. When I was in this band, it was.
Speaker B:Oh, yeah.
Speaker A:The bassist walked off the show. I started playing guitar for like, two years after that one. Oh, really? Yeah, I was. I was like, oh, my God, it's brutal.
Speaker B:And that's where you had that experience.
Speaker A:And that's the negative side of it. But the positive side is just so beautiful. And it sounds like you hit that really well.
Speaker B:Yeah.
I mean, was one of the first moments when I was a kid that I kind of gained confidence, and I also started gaining a lot of respect from the other turntableists.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker B:Within the city and, you know, these guys were competing on a very high level. I never competed. I wanted to, but I just never had the confidence.
Speaker A:So, you know, let me ask you.
We're 25 minutes in for y' all that are on the live stream, and we're gonna restream this on more live streams because we're not even on all the live streams. This will be on the audio. This will be on the video. This is the Blind Knowledge podcast. Joey be hanging out with Dr. B. Check out Dr. B. He is.
I am Dr. B.
Speaker B:Six.
Speaker A:You can check him out on Twitter, IG, and we will definitely put them down in the bio, but especially Spotify, if you could recommend three songs. Or let's just start with one. Man. What's the number one song that people should check out? That's Yours on Spotify.
Speaker B:Oh, wow. There's. I have, I would say, almost 70 singles.
Speaker A:70? Really?
Speaker B:I think so. I lost count. It might be 68, 71. I'm not sure.
Speaker A:All right, let's do a top three. Just. It's got to be tough for you, because the. Yours. I get that for sure.
But just like, if you could name three that are on Spotify right now for people to check out, what would they be?
Speaker B:Yeah, everybody seems to really like my song Tranquilo.
Speaker A:I love that song.
Speaker B:Yeah. Thank you.
Speaker A:I agree. That's what I wanted to do the interview.
Speaker B:Thank you. That was my biggest song for, I would say last year.
Speaker A:Excellent.
Speaker B:My listeners really like a song I did with Elephant Man. It's called I Need a Doctor. And there's a remix with Drip Monroe, who I think totally killed it. She's a female artist in. Out in Toronto.
Speaker A:Wow.
Speaker B:Okay. Yeah, everybody seems to like that. What else? If I could name another one, I would say.
Yeah, just off the cuff, I would say my song Feeling, which is EDM track. Yeah, everybody pretty. Resonates with. But I also have some acoustic songs, for example. Yeah, I have some acoustic songs, some heartbreak songs where.
Some pop tracks where I've had my listeners, you know, reach out to me and say, you know, this. This track got me through a really tough time. Or I. I listened to this, like, 30 times in a row because I just broke up with my boyfriend.
I mean, I was never, ever, ever expecting in a million years for anybody to reach out to me and say those type of things. So I thought that was, like, a really emotional connecting experience.
Speaker A:Dude, you helped.
Speaker B:I thought it was beautiful.
Speaker A:Very tough time. You helped someone through a very tough time.
Speaker B:Yeah. And somewhere, and I don't even know where they are. Like, I don't even know it. Yeah, I don't know.
I don't know how they came across my page or heard the songs, but they did wild and they just kind of listen to it. And then I've had kids. Like, I've dropped my kids off at school, and I've had kids tell me, hey, I love your music. Or do you know what I mean?
Or I heard this song, and I'm like, what? And then I asked my kids, did you tell them? They're like, no, I know. They're actually kind of embarrassed. They don't.
Speaker A:Dr. B, you remind me of a musician that I know. His name is Spree Wilson.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Do you know Spree?
Speaker B:No, I don't, unfortunately.
Speaker A:I was on an airplane one day flying, and I literally met Spree. We were sitting next to each other and I was like, oh, yeah, I play guitar and this, that and the other thing.
He's like, oh, yeah, I'm signed to a label and all this stuff. You guys have the totally the same vibe. A very chill demeanor. You're welcoming, you're. I can see that. Like, you're a writer.
And let me ask you this, though. Do you consider yourself more of a writer first and then a performer, or are you a performer, entertainer, then a writer?
Speaker B:No, no, no, man. What's. I would have to say, if you look at the stuff that I'm putting out, the stuff that I'm doing.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I think we all kind of have to agree that I. I think I'm a writer first more than anything.
Speaker A:And that's what I was thinking, too. I can feel. Yeah, I can definitely feel. You got this. You got the soul.
Speaker B:Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. And I. You like.
I. I'm not also the type of person where if you come to one of my shows, depending on what we're doing, I won't necessarily be on stage. I'm. I mean, well, for most musicians, they get up on stage and they perform, they play their instruments, they sing their songs and that's it.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:For me, if you come to a Dr. B show, and I haven't done any in a very long time, but the new shows that I will be doing next year, in all the performances, it's all directed by me, it's all produced by me, it's all written by.
Speaker A:Me, but are you in the back?
Speaker B:Are you. You won't necessarily see me on stage for every single performance because depending on what we're doing, Dr. B doesn't need to be on stage.
So if you look at, like, I'm sure we'll talk about the asylum and some of these other stories that I'm working on.
Speaker A:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker B:Based on the characters and the story that I'm trying to tell, it's more performance, it's more acting, it's more characters combined with the storyboards and the artwork and the animation that I put in the background combined with the special effects. Combined with. Yeah, I would say with special effects. I mean, I was like, that's all from your. That's all done by me. Right.
Like, I do the audio, I add all the special effects. I create that for one of my other stories. My album that's coming out next year, it's called Dragonfire, that's a 22 song album.
Half of it is Opera and cinematic music. And the other half is. Is EDM with some hip hop and some pop music.
Speaker A:Dragonfly.
Speaker B:Yeah.
So when you, when you heat, when you see that performance, what you're going to see is probably eight songs of the opera and cinematic part of the album. And that is done through, I would say, four or five different opera singers and actors. And they're telling a story. Right.
And then you'll see the artwork and special effects on the wall and a big screen in the background to give you more context, to give you more like a deeper meaning of the story. And then you have these performers on stage kind of acting it out. You don't really. It's. Sorry, no, no. You don't need to see Dr. B in, in.
In every single one of those scenes. Right. And then there's other scenes where it's only me and you'll see me come out and I'm just finger drumming and I'm just doing my thing.
Because it's based on the show in the story. This is the part for me to do this. So, yeah, I would say I'm very heavily story based, writer based first.
And I think that's what makes me different from every other musician. You don't really need another musician to do another drum and bass track or EDM song. That's kind of how I look at my music.
I want my listeners to say, listen, I don't need to have like a million monthly listeners. I don't. And I'm okay with if I don't have that.
What I do want my listeners, even if I just have 50 or 100, I want them to say, I go to this guy's page because he's giving me an experience that I just can't get with Beyonce. I can't get it with Drake. I can't get it with anybody else. He's doing something that no one else.
Speaker A:Is doing beyond a 3 minute and 30 second song. You are putting on a show of transitional music. Transitional songs, caricatures, personality types.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Ups and downs, feelings, emotions, moods. Am I, am I right there?
Speaker B:100. 100. I mean, I think you can kind of get a small sense of that in my new trailer. Right. With that story. What I'm trying to do, it's. It's an ep. But I.
One of the things that I love more than anything is horror movies. I really do.
Speaker A:Oh, okay.
Speaker B:Like my wife got me into horror movies.
Speaker A:Nice.
Speaker B:And they just. And like, we'll be in the movie theater and I'll scream like a 12 year old girl, bro. Like, like I'm jumping in. I'm.
I'm like, like holding on to her and she's laughing at me. We, you know, we've been best friends.
Speaker A:You a Selma. You a Selma Blair fan by any chance from the Exorcist? That's head went around and around.
Speaker B:Around. Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Speaker A:Yeah. That's. That's like the most I know with horror because I stay the. I stay the f away from it. But it's such a. It's such a positive job.
Sorry, a popular. Not positive. It is sometimes, but popular genre for sure. So basically you're saying that you got some Harv feeling coming out in your.
In your songs as well?
Speaker B:Yeah, well, like with this ep, what I wanted to do was do something very unique and different. And when you listen to it, what. That's what I was hoping to create.
I was, I wanted, I wanted people, you know, I mean, you're just like everybody else, right? You might take transportation, public transportation.
Speaker A:Well, I try not to be like everyone else, doctor.
Speaker B:But we, we all have some down time, right?
Speaker A:Of course, yes.
Speaker B:So let's say, let's say you're on the subway and you put on your headphones.
I really wanted to have the listeners, when they put on their headphones and they listen to the cp, I want them to feel like they close their eyes, that they're literally listening to a movie. Like they could see it in their mind.
Speaker A:That's cool.
Speaker B:And in order for that to happen, it needs to be so much more than music. I mean, music. To me, creating the music is the easy part. Right. If you're a musician, you know how to create a song. That's not the hard part.
The hard part is how do I transform their mind to where it is right now. Whatever it is they're doing at the moment could be anger, frustration, school stress.
How do I take them out of that mindset and transport them into my world and get them lost? And I was only. I can't do that alone. That's when I hired voice actors to play these specific parts.
That's when I spent months and months and months just researching and studying sound and sound effects. And I realized, you know what I love about the sound effects is that 99 of it, I could literally make it myself.
Speaker A:Let me ask you something, man. Let me ask you something. And I think I already know what you're going to say.
Voice actors, AI, are they the same or would you take a voice actor over an AI voice?
Speaker B:I've never Worked with it.
Speaker A:You've never worked with AI? Really?
Speaker B:No. No. I refuse.
Speaker A:You refuse? Whoa.
Speaker B:Why the would I work with AI? I don't know. That's not real, bro.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker B:Not real. You know, the funny.
The funny thing is that you brought this up because just last week I was talking to a friend of mine about AI and art, and there's a lot of digital art and different concepts that are being created by AI that's fake as hell. Yeah. And a friend of mine asked me, would you ever do that or consider that or what about the stuff that you make?
So instead of giving him a yes or no answer, I showed him some new storyboards that I had just finished with my team. Right. Cool. I said, check this out. So when I explained to him what was going on, the story behind it, I ended off by saying, I can't do this.
I cannot make what I'm making. I cannot create what I'm creating. Do you know why?
Speaker A:Why?
Speaker B:Because I'm the one creating it. I'm the only one that can create what I'm creating. Because it's coming from me. It's coming from my heart.
It's coming from my emotion, it's coming from my experiences, and these are my stories. A robot cannot do that.
Speaker A:Especially experiences coming from a robot cannot.
Speaker B:Create the type of connection and experience that I'm creating.
Speaker A:A robot didn't get their heart broken.
Speaker B:No. The robot doesn't understand that. Everything sounds perfect.
Yeah, but you're missing this one note, this one sound, this one thing here, and that will make. That will make it sound amazing. For example, I just. The trailer that I just sent you, when I. When we finished it, I thought it was amazing. And then.
But I kept listening to it and kept going over and saying, something's missing. Something's off.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker B:And then.
And then I went through some of my old files because I've worked with a lot of opera singers over the last four years, and I added a little bit of opera to it. And then I said. And then when I listened to it all together, I said, okay, now it's perfect. Now it's got the emotion.
Speaker A:This is a consistent theme for you, man. This is really cool because you. You don't hear this. Sorry, I don't know what the hell that was.
Speaker B:No, that's okay.
Speaker A:You don't hear this a lot with musicians. And. And you know what? Maybe we should hear more. Or maybe it's just your special sauce. Opera. Opera, bro.
Speaker B:Like operas to me is.
Speaker A:It's like you said at the beginning of the interview, it's.
Speaker B:It.
Speaker A:It calmed you back when you were younger and, and you couldn't. And you were having a rough, rough time. The head was going and going and going. The thoughts were going and going. But opera calmed you.
And it seems like this, this influence is way of cool influence. It is with you. And this is your special Big Mac sauce, bro. It sounds so cliche, but dude, that's cool as hell, man.
Speaker B:Oh, thank you. I think I, you know, and the funny thing is you don't know how as you're getting older in life, you don't know how things are going to end up.
You don't know.
Speaker A:Never know, man.
Speaker B:Yeah. If. If an experience you had 20 years ago somehow is going to cause you to do something, you know, now.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:And I never thought in a million years, I never thought in a million years that I would ever work with opera singers, make cinematic music, special effects. I just never thought it was gonna happen. And now look what I'm doing now. Now I do it all the time. So I just. For me, it's. That's cool.
Speaker A:And there aren't a lot of musicians or artists doing that, and I just respect that a lot. That's a, That's a great niche. And not only is it a cool niche, it sounds, excuse my language. It sounds awesome, dude. It sounds awesome.
Speaker B:Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker A:Yes, man. I think when you stumbled upon a special mix, for sure.
Speaker B:Yeah. And I try not to overdo it because you could definitely overuse it just like with anything else.
But I think when you got a cool story and it's story based, not every story can be told through EDM music, hip hop music, or pop music. Right. And I have a lot of other stories that are more pop, hip hop base. They have no opera music at all.
But I just kind of take it one story at a time and just go with the flow and say, okay, I think this is the best way to go with it. Now, of course, there are other ways people can go with it and interpret it, but you got to go with your gut. Right.
You got to go with what you is the best and hope it connects with the people. I mean, and it won't work every time, but that's all you can do. Right.
All you could do is try and put yourself out there and hopefully it connects with people and you just move forward with that experience.
Speaker A:Let's talk about Asylum.
Speaker B:Sure, sure.
Speaker A:Tell me about Asylum. What does it mean to you?
Speaker B:What does the story mean? Or what is it?
Speaker A:Yeah, what does it mean to you in a soulful level?
Speaker B:Oh, on a soulful level, yeah.
Speaker A:On a spiritual level, bro. Tough question, right? Dr.
Speaker B:It is. I'm trying to figure out how to answer.
Speaker A:Yo, while Dr. B is doing that, man. I'm Joey B. He's Dr. B. This is a Blind Knowledge podcast. Thanks so much for joining us. He is on social Media. I am Dr. B. Six.
We are on social media at the Blind Knowledge and blind underscore knowledge on Twitter. So what do you think, Dr. B? I mean, how. How does this one hit you?
Speaker B:This is.
This story really came about in an interesting way because I was working on my first album, Dragonfire, and what happened was when we were in the middle of post production, the Russian and Ukraine war started and. And that. That affected me personally because my entire staff is in Russia.
Speaker A:Oh.
Speaker B:Yeah. I didn't do that on purpose. It was just something that naturally happened over a four year period.
You're working with all these different artists and I just, over time, you know, you find people you connect with and you work well together. Those guys just happen to be Russian, living in Russia. Right on.
And then the war started and of course these guys freaked out just like anybody else would. And they were generally afraid.
I could tell you from somebody who was speaking to friends who live in Russia, when the war started, they expressed to me pure terror, pure fear, and I had to stop. Like everything was delayed. They didn't. They were afraid they were going to get drafted.
My lead concept artists fled the country and he literally ran away with his family. They were trying to imprison his father, like it was crazy. So he's now he's safe now he's okay. He's living in a different country.
Speaker A:That's a good thing.
Speaker B:Yeah. He was able to get out. He's okay. But that caused about an 18 month delay in. In the project, so. Wow.
I wanted to still create, so I was messing around with some of my old ideas and stories that I created in the past. And I came up with this story for it's called the Asylum. And this story really takes place. It kind of time jumps.
And when you hear the trailer, that's the intro part of the album and that's told from the perspective of the God of Time.
Speaker A:Okay, okay, okay.
Speaker B:Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Speaker A:Time out, yo. Time out. The God of Time.
Speaker B:Yeah. And. And I thought that was pretty trippy because to give time a voice. Right. Yeah. An actual face. What does time look like? Right.
What does time sound like?
Speaker A:That's what I'm Saying that's why I gave it.
Speaker B:How do you interpret?
Speaker A:Because I don't. I don't know, man. I mean, how do you put a face to time?
Speaker B:I don't know. And it was something that I worked on with the voice actor and I had a specific idea on how it should sound.
And then he came back to me and he said, john, I think this is really cool, but how about if I do it like this? And I was like, holy crap, Ricky, you're totally right. Your idea is way, way better. But we kind of worked on it together in collaborations.
Speaker A:That's the, Is a beautiful thing, you know, but.
Speaker B:And the thing is the voice actor who plays the God of time, Ricky's worked on like 20,000 different projects over the past 30 years. He's very well, very well experienced. He knows what he's talking about. So when he tells me, hey, I have this idea, how about if I do it like this?
I. I'm always, eyes, eyes open, ears open, I'm always listening.
A lot of times, yeah, a lot of times the concept artists will come back and say, hey, I think your idea was cool and the direction, but I thought this angle would be better. Right. I don't like to limit artists on their art. You have to give all these artists a little bit of freedom so they can create.
So they could take your idea.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker B:Can I add some of my hot sauce to it? If you don't mind their own. Can I do it? Yeah.
Speaker A:And that's a funny, that's a funny way to say it, but how about just adding some of them to it? Like their own influence? Like, they have to, like. And that's funny that you say that.
Like, I always watch the Boston Pops for like the Fourth of July, and, you know, they play the same songs over and over and they do whatever, you know, they, they have the music in front of them, but they don't improv. They're all doing what they're told to do. They're not really giving it. Like you said, they're hot sauce. They. They don't get that chance.
And you're saying you, you love it when a musician kind of goes into their, their own special creative sauce.
Speaker B: the Holy War. It came out in: Speaker A:No doubt. Okay.
Speaker B:And I, I had a lot of priority when I was going through that creation process. I had the opportunity to work with some artists that are from DC Comics. I had the opportunity to work with some Artists from Marvel Comics.
Speaker A:That's cool.
Speaker B:I had the opportunity to work with some artists that don't have that level experience, but were just as talented, and they were in Greece, in Italy, and all these different areas. And the one thing I learned the most from that whole experience was that you have to give everybody a script.
You have to tell everybody, okay, in this scene, in this frame, this is what's happening, and blah, blah, blah.
Speaker A:Yeah, but there's got to be some guidance. Right. There's got to be a map of some sort.
Speaker B:But if you completely handcuff them and shackle them.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:Right to the script, in other words, they have no room to breathe. I've noticed. I get happier artists, better art, more consistent art, and I get it back faster if I give them a little bit of room to breathe.
Sometimes what I do is this. Then some probably writers are. Are going to say, this is batshit crazy.
Sometimes what I do is in every story, and this is the third one I'm working on, is I'll give them a storyboard or a couple of frames and say, this is just the idea that I need displayed in this frame. But you go ahead and you design it.
Speaker A:So you let them create off of there.
Speaker B:And that's important. Every once in a while, you gotta give them, hey, let me just do whatever the I want to do.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:That doesn't mean I'm going to use it. Yeah, right. Because we might have to redo it or edit it.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:But 99.9 of the time when they send it back back to me, it's just minor edits that to be done. I don't think I've ever, like, said, no, no, no, we can't use this.
Speaker A:And, dude, it's a chance for it to. It's a chance for a flower to bloom.
Speaker B:Yeah. That's very, very important. And it's a chance for a flower.
Speaker A:To bloom a new color, too. It's a chance for something new to come out of nowhere.
Speaker B:Definitely.
Speaker A:You know, it's like you're. And that's awesome. I love that you do that because, you know, it's like a guitar solo. Let that damn thing go.
It doesn't have to be the same every time. Sometimes it's better when it's improv, you know? Yeah.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's. You're just going with the moment, the feeling, the energy.
Speaker A:Yeah, man. Yeah. Let that vibe fly. For sure, man.
Speaker B:Yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure, for sure. So. But I don't think I actually told your listeners exactly what the story Is about.
So I'll just give them, you know, a little bit of information.
Speaker A:Yeah, break it down, man.
Speaker B:You. So the story really takes place about the old gods. And in this, in this world, the gods are necessary.
We have the God of chaos, the God of destiny, the God of time, the God of life, the God of death, the serpent God. And we had a lot of fun describing these gods and their purposes.
But the general idea of the story is when a human dies, their soul is chosen to fight for one of these gods in a holy war. There is no heaven in hell and a sense of peace. What happens is after you pass on, your body is regenerated and it's chosen by one of these realms.
Now how are they chosen? It's a lot of factors. It's based on not just how you live your life, but it's mostly based on how you see yourself. In other words. Interesting.
Speaker A:Very interesting.
Speaker B:Say you're five foot two, maybe you have low self esteem. You don't see yourself as, you know, the big football player, strong type.
Maybe in real life you don't have a lot of courage, but on the inside you've always felt like that person. You've always felt like you could be better, be bigger. Right.
Speaker A:That's a weird thing.
Speaker B:But that was actually a really good movie, by the way.
Speaker A:Yes. Yes, it was, dude. I agree.
Speaker B:I'm about to watch that again. That was great.
Speaker A:Hell, yeah. No, it was, it was killer. But it's almost like that Napoleon complex, you know, maybe five, two, a buck 30 and just go, go, go, you know?
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:And somehow with all of that determination, especially in music, you come up with something beautiful, something great, or something scary or just something different, bro.
Speaker B:You know, so just something unique. But.
Speaker A:Yeah, unique, that's a great word for it. Absolutely.
Speaker B:Yeah.
And I kind of research these ideas a lot and I spoke to people a lot, put up some polls online, and what I found out was the average person really isn't into super religious stories. Like if you're gonna get into God and the devil, the average person is like, you know, I don't know if I really wanna.
Speaker A:The average person just wants the high level. I, you know, they don't want to go too deep.
Speaker B:Yeah. Well, what do you think? I. I think people are willing to go deep if it's something that interests them. Okay. Right.
Speaker A:All right, Fair.
Speaker B:Yeah. I think the whole God and the devil thing has just been so done for so many years.
And I think as time goes on, there's a lot of people that are Religious, but there's a lot of people that aren't religious. And I think what I'm trying to do, I'm not trying to preach religion. What I'm trying to do is just tell an interesting story.
So what I decided to do was not get into God and the devil and good versus bad. I decided to create a story where all the gods are necessary. It's not about good or bad. It's about a war that's taking place.
And every realm is trying to be higher and bigger and gain more armies and gain more power in the spirit realm, in this spirit world. Why is that? Because they're looking for control.
Speaker A:Control.
Speaker B: kind of picks up in the year:And at this point in time in the war, the God of gods has kind of disappeared. She's not making the gods follow the rules. And some of the rules are there is no war that takes place on Earth.
Like, human beings cannot know that these gods actually fully really exist and what's going on.
Speaker A:Okay, so this is some deep. Man. I'm following along, though.
Speaker B:They can't. There's no fighting battles that takes place on Earth. Everybody. You have to give everybody an equal chance to.
When they pass, their soul goes here, here, here, here. So you can't have a God who says, well, I have all the best people. So in the afterlife, I have all the best warriors.
No, because now there's no balance. We can't have the God of chaos be stronger than the God of life. Like, how does that make sense? Right, okay. And what.
And how does that affect the planet and the universe and all planets and all life? Right?
So at this point in the story, some of the gods start aligning themselves together and they get this idea that we can take over other realms and we'll be more powerful, more control. And we will rewrite not just Earth, but all planets. We will rewrite all existence. Right.
Speaker A:Dr. B, I. Dr. B. My head just exploded. This is some wild man. Did you put this in book form?
Speaker B:Well, that's the funny thing is, first of all, I had to figure out a way to put this in an album like audio. How do you make music around this? And how do you make it in a way? So Card man.
Speaker A:A comic book kind of thing, man, I could see.
Speaker B:Yeah. You know, so when I finished the audio album that was.
I was able to do that with the voice actors, but I had all these images and artwork and I said, you know what? I. And I came up with the idea of doing an art book. So the best way to experience this story is to do this.
Put on the headphones, listen to the album, but pick up the art book and follow along at the same time.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker B:And there's references in the art book that you will hear on the album. So you'll know.
Okay, this is at this stage when the doctor Go goes into the kingdom of chaos, and he makes it, he meets Eddie's, right, the God of Chaos. Okay, this is what.
Speaker A:The God of chaos, right?
Speaker B:Yeah. Like, this is what he looks like. This is what the environment looks like. And then I have. I take you to another realm.
The God of nightmares, I think, for that, for me, was my favorite part to create, because that just literally scared the living shit out of me. I thought, if I could scare myself, then I'll scare the audience.
Speaker A:Dr. B, we're coming up on one hour, brother. We have gotten so deep into who you are, where you started, man. For y' all that just joined us, or you just joining us late, this guy, Montreal.
We're talking edm, we're talking opera, we're talking deep musical feeling, man. You know? Let me ask you something, man. Have you ever gone to New York City and seen, like, theater or a play?
Have you ever gone to, like, one of those big shows, like, I don't know, Cats or Rent or one of those deals?
Speaker B:I did. I used to live in New York, actually.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker B:Yeah. That's how I got started out in the music business.
Speaker A:Great pizza.
Speaker B:Oh, my God. Raised people.
Speaker A:Fantastic.
Speaker B:Raised pizza. You gotta have pizza. I've actually heard you've gotta have raised pizza.
Speaker A:That's wild, dude.
Speaker B:Yeah, I did. I. One of the first shows I saw was Stop. Oh, that kind of. Stop. Kind of.
That kind of changed the way I saw percussion, because I'm naturally a percussionist, so I never thought people could make music like that in that way. That was really messed with my brain. I was like, yeah, it was just.
Speaker A:All drums, all banging, all going.
Speaker B:Yeah. But I mean, they're, like, banging on tables and, like, you know, using pencils. And I was like, I don't use pencils to drop. Like, what the heck?
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:So I thought that was pretty amazing. I recently saw a show. Last week, I went to the opera, and I saw a show in Toronto called At Cornell Hall.
And honestly, I think this was probably the most artistic thing I've ever seen in my life. It probably was the best thing. The crazy thing is there was barely Any music, like actual instruments. Wow. It was 99 vocals and.
And the acoustics in Corner hall were so amazing. They don't need mics. And there was so much acting that was involved in these performances. And this, this performance, I didn't know this.
It was very religious based. It was all about God and people singing to God and having their soul not go to the devil.
Speaker A:Were you just real quick, were you brought up that way or is that something that I did?
Speaker B:Well, I grew. I like to think I. I grew up as a Jehovah Witness, but I really refer to that specific category of Christianity.
I think that religion is more of a cult than anything else. I don't think that's a real religion.
Speaker A:Yeah, agreed.
Speaker B:And when I. When I got of age in my teens, I said, okay, I'm old enough to make my own decision. So I just said, no, thank you. This is ridiculous.
So I'm a Buddhist. I'm a Buddhist now.
Speaker A:You're a Buddhist? Okay.
Speaker B:Yeah. I've been a Buddhist for 15 years. 17 Years. Wow. Something like that.
Speaker A:So correct me if I'm wrong. Buddhism, it's all about reincarnation. The circle.
Speaker B:I wouldn't say it's all about break it down. Reincarnation.
Speaker A:Drop some knowledge on me, man. What? What? High level. What's.
Speaker B:What is it? Well, if I could, kind of probably.
Speaker A:A ridiculous question because it's Buddhism and that would take hours to explain.
Speaker B:I'll give you the short version.
Speaker A:Version. All right, brother. Thank you.
Speaker B:One of the. The one. When you become a Buddhist, or if you're interested in Buddhism, one of the first things that I'll explain to you is the four Noble Truths.
Cool. Okay.
I won't get into all four, but the main one is the first one, which is pretty much everything you experience in life is a state of suffering right now. I don't mean it literally. Everything is a state of suffering.
What I mean is everything, if you think about it, will, will, or could potentially lead to a state of suffering.
In other words, say you get a new car and you're very happy, but you get into a car accident, so now the car is damaged, and now as you're sad right now, you have a state of suffering.
Speaker A:Wow, what a flip.
Speaker B:But as a Buddhist, what I do every day as I get up in the morning, I understand that nothing's permanent. Anything can change. We can all. We all have ups and downs and we all go through a state of suffering. The.
The point is, is that there is an end to that suffering. There is a Path that leads you to a state of happiness. You simply have to find that path and then do. Do one thing about it.
You just have to walk the path.
Speaker A:Walk the path.
Speaker B:And once you start walking the path and understand that as you go through life, this is a state of suffering, but there's also a state of figuring out that problem. There's also a balance to that where you can be happy. And I, and most of us figure out those issues through meditation.
So that would be my short version. I. I hope.
Speaker A:I. Yeah.
Speaker B:For all the Buddhists listening, if I did a bad job, I'm sorry.
Speaker A:No, that was great. I don't mean it that way. That was great, man. Keep it short because it is, well, Buddhism and there's books about it.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:If you don't know what Buddhism is, Google it. But, you know, there's actually, in a serious note, I'm a lot like you. I have my own perspective on organized religion and such.
But I do see Buddhism come up a lot for folks in their older lives that they. Maybe they started out as a Catholic or Christian or a Protestant or whatever, and they kind of go to Buddhism.
I don't know if it's like a hippie thing. I don't know if it's just a spiritual thing. I don't know if it's just Buddhism, but I see that more popular.
I see that becoming or has become more popular as the years have gone on. Do you see that a lot?
Speaker B:I. Well, I've noticed that. And another thing that I've. That I've noticed is that I don't think there's ever been a war started in the name of Buddhism.
Speaker A:That's a great point out of all. Thank you for saying that. Yeah. Because, yeah, the Crusades and all that. Let's start there.
Speaker B:That kind of stayed with me over the last 15, 17 years.
Speaker A:That's the smartest thing I've heard in a long time, doctor, because. Because it's so true there. Has there ever been a war started in the name of Buddhism?
Speaker B:I really don't think so.
Speaker A:Y', all, if you're listening, watching this, wherever you are, check it out. Google, Let us know if we're wrong, because I don't think so.
Speaker B:I don't think so.
Speaker A:I don't think so, man.
Speaker B:The closest to that would be the invasion of China into Tibet, but that was just China taking over Tibet. That had nothing to do with Buddhism or religion.
Speaker A:Yeah. That was more state country, kind of.
Speaker B:They just. We just want to.
Speaker A:Religion.
Speaker B:Yeah.
We just want to Take it over the fact that, yeah, Chinese and Tibetans both follow Buddhism as a coincidence, but I really don't think the Buddha's name or the religion had anything to do with that war.
Speaker A:I always found it wild that the Crusades even happened or that there are religious wars in the name of God. And I don't know how deep you want to go on this one.
We're probably gonna poke a bear, but so it shall be, you know, or the Jihad, or like fighting a war or a God. I don't get it. Because a God is supposed to be all inclusive, powerful, holy and peaceful, from what I understood.
Unless you're reading the Old Testament. I mean, that. That God is kind of a badass dick. Well, that then he becomes a nice God. Yeah, right. He's violent as hell. Yeah.
And then he switches and he becomes God, becomes Jesus and Jesus becomes a nice God becomes nice. It's. It's the flip, is what I'm trying to say. You get the Old Testament, he's vengeful, you know, and then the New Testament, he's peaceful.
But that's a whole nother conversation.
Speaker B:Yeah, for sure. I'm not an expert on the New Testament or the Old Testament, although I have read them both many times.
Speaker A:Yeah, I have, too.
Speaker B:I've also read the Quran.
Speaker A:You have?
Speaker B:Yeah. Well, I have some Muslim friends, so. You read the Gita? No, I haven't, my friend.
Speaker A:I recommend checking out the Gita. I've read the. I've read the first half. It's. It's wild. It's definitely wild. Yeah. It's just different. Yeah.
Speaker B:That's amazing. I'm. I'm very. I'm a true believer in. I believe we need all things in terms of spiritual growth, personal growth.
Maybe I shouldn't say we need all things. We don't necessarily need all things, but what I'm trying to say is that we need to be accepting to all people and all beliefs.
Now, I say this from the perspective of let's be reasonable. Right. Like, I'm not sure. I'm not talking about conspiracy theories that you read on Twitter. I'm talking about.
Speaker A:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker B:From. From a Buddhist perspective in order to. We're very community based, which means we live together. And in our community, we have community problems.
And in our community is multicultural. And how can I speak to my neighbor who might be Muslim or my other neighbor might be Christian, My other neighbor is Jewish.
If we're fighting in arguing and just talking about things that aren't solving problems and community Issues. Right. We're not working together, then how are we solving any problems? We're just arguing. So from a Buddhist perspective. Yeah.
We truly believe that we not only need to understand where other people are coming from and their perspectives. You should take time to really learn their religion because you understand the way they think, the comments that they make.
You should understand where they grew up. You should understand their culture. Right.
You should understand why some cultures will necessarily make a beautiful meal for you, but they eat on the floor and other cultures, they don't. They have specific tables. If you go to Japan, they eat a different way.
There are too many people in this world that like to criticize and that look down upon people. They don't spend enough time looking at the beauty that these other cultures really have and the beauty that they offer.
And can I just say this also, there are many, many paths that lead to the same road. So who are you? Who am I to tell anybody? Don't take that path. We are all on a different path, but we're all walking toward that main road. Right.
It's like if you just took a shortcut, but you still ended up on that same road. We need to walk that road together and we need to hold hands together. We need to stop looking at the things that make us different in a negative way.
The things that. I mean, I myself, I'm multicultural. I mean, my grandmother is literally white from France. She was born in France. My dad's side of the family is.
Is Scottish. I'm literally wearing a kilt right now. I mean, that's what we do.
Speaker A:Really?
Speaker B:Yeah, we wear kilts. I mean, I'm literally wearing a leather kilt.
Speaker A:The ladies just.
Speaker B:They just.
Speaker A:Jack got jacked up. No one would have ever known that.
Speaker B:And if you see me at my shows or if you see me just going to the grocery store, 99 of the time, you'll see me wearing a kill.
Speaker A:You're just wearing kilts out there. No.
Speaker B:Yeah, bro. I have like 5 different ones I love.
Speaker A:Little known fact about Dr. B. The dudes crushing kilts.
Speaker B:All right, all right. And I don't care. You know, my hair is pink. I don't care what people think.
Speaker A:Yeah, Right on here.
Speaker B:I mean.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:Yeah. I just think that we're all different and we should celebrate our differences.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:In a positive way.
Speaker A:For sure. I agree. I mean, if they were all going to be black and white, why, why bother? There's always something.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:You gotta throw some color in your life.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Be different.
Speaker B:Right. And more importantly, I always Tell people this.
Speaker A:It's not always easy.
Speaker B:That's a. It's great.
Speaker A:It's a great fact that you brought up there. I'm actually reading this book right now, Dr. B. Practice intentional Acts of Kindness.
Speaker B:Oh, that's amazing.
Speaker A:Yeah, you can't see it because of the. The background. This is Questel. I just interviewed Alan Questel, y'. All. Check it out on the Blind Knowledge podcast.
Again, it's Practice Intentional Acts of Kindness. This book is awesome. Like, I just kind of read it, like, here and there and it just kind of. It keeps me balanced, you know, it's like, amazing.
It keeps me just, like, nice, you know, and I keep that niceness in me, you know. That's great to, to. To spread goodness, you know, spiritually and in the universe to others. It's great stuff, man.
Speaker B:That's beautiful. Because you could be polluting your mind with nonsense. It's always easy, you know.
Speaker A:Yeah, it's not always easy to do that.
Speaker B:No. But you are making the conscious choice. Yeah. Deliberately choosing to pick up that book. That book doesn't have to be there next to you.
You could have put it in the garbage. You're an adult. You're free. Right. You could do anything you want to do, but you chose to keep it.
Speaker A:Yeah, I was gonna give it away, but I haven't yet.
Speaker B:That says a lot.
Speaker A:Yeah. Well, Dr. B, I gotta say, my man, it has been an interesting interview. Definitely not where I thought we were gonna go with this.
Speaker B:We talked about a lot of things.
Speaker A:We talked about a lot of things, y'.
Speaker B:All.
Speaker A:And if you're just joining us right now here on the Blind Knowledge podcast, Go back, listen to Dr. B. He's. The dude's on point. The dude's on a higher level. And maybe you'll agree, maybe you'll disagree, but it's all about dropping some knowledge.
And that's what we did today. My name is Joey B Again, that's Dr. B. He's on Spotify. What's another way to find you, my man? Are you doing any live shows coming up?
Speaker B:No, not. Not anytime right now. I'm also a full time university student. How about you?
Speaker A:Got any books going on?
Speaker B:Well, I have. This album will be coming out, I'm hoping later this year.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker B:But the delay, it's finished. But I do have some publishers that are interested in the art book.
Speaker A:Sweet.
Speaker B:So. So because of that, there's some interest there. I'm negotiating and talking to them about it and I think they also. I wanted online.
Speaker A:Dr. B I wanted on blind knowledge.com and our merch shop. For sure, if it's. If it's cool with you.
Speaker B:For sure. For sure. That sounds good to me.
Speaker A:Cool.
Speaker B:Yo.
Speaker A:Hey, folks, we're gonna bounce out of here. And, yo, check out Dr. B. He's on Spotify. Did you just type in Dr. B?
Speaker B:Is that.
Speaker A:Is that how we found you?
Speaker B:I think so, yeah, Dr. B. Or you could also put in one of my songs, like Dr. B, Tranquilo, Feeling I Need a Doctor.
Speaker A:Tranquilo is a beautiful song.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker A:Beautiful.
Speaker B:I had a lot of fun making that song.
Speaker A:And I had a lot of fun in this interview. My brother coming back again sometime soon for sure.
Speaker B:I will. I will. I had so much fun. Thank you.
Speaker A:All right. And if you didn't know, he has a kilt on, folks. He has a kilt on. Yo, we'll see you next time, Dr. B.
Speaker B:Take it easy, bro.
Speaker A:And yo out there, man. My name is Joey B. This is a Blind Knowledge podcast. Thank you so much for joining us. And if you need a Kilt, talk to Dr. B. He's over on Spotify.
Speaker B:We're.
Speaker A:We are done. We are out. I am thirsty. And if you haven't told someone you love them today, definitely do that. All love here. Peace.
