Pheaturing Nick Heyward

Hey there, good evening, and welcome to the Phile... from Gainesville, or G-ville as the cool kids call it. Man, I forgot hoe everyone wears orange and blue around here. And I forgot that there are red brick buildings everywhere... I'm surrounded by them. I was gonna go down to Turlington Plaza and see if I could leave it empty-handed. I'm actually thinking that's kinda impossible. You know, I have been here all afternoon and not once have I seen anybody drink Gatorade. One more thing, I'm surprised I haven't been hit by a bike or scooter yet. Alright, let's see what else is going on in the news.
On the same day news breaks about the "Sabrina the Teenage Witch" reboot, Melissa Joan Hart (who is a Phile Alum believe it or not) is probably wishing she could point her finger and magically turn back time. As reported by "Us Weekly," Hart shared an Instagram post on Tuesday... that she has since deleted... explaining that her family vacation was canceled due to Hurricane Maria. Alongside a photo of a weather report explaining that Hurricane Maria hit the Caribbean island of Dominica as a Category 5 Hurricane, she wrote, "And just like that, our family vacation is canceled... Such a bummer but we plan to hit the @nickresortpuntacana resort another time this year." Even though she quickly took the post down, plenty of people noticed, and they expressed why they thought her post was insensitive. Others defended the actress, implying that while her tweet was insensitive, it's okay... for her to be disappointed. Hart evidently caught wind of how her Instagram post was being received... not only did she take it down, but she also followed up with a slew of other Instagram posts about those affected by Hurricane Maria. Congrats to Melissa Joan Hart's PR person for trying. Haha.
As part of his usual weekday morning tweet storm, President Donald Trump tweeted enthusiastically about the Graham-Cassidy health care bill. The bill Trump's referring to is a proposal by Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA). According to an analysis tweeted by Andy Slavitt (who was in charge of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under President Obama), an estimated 32 million people could lose health coverage by 2020 if the bill becomes a law. You can tell that Trump really cares about the Americans he was elected to serve by the way he chose to block on Twitter a woman named Laura Packard with stage 4 cancer. Packard, 41, who has been tweeting at the president since the election, had tweeted criticism of the bill to Trump just the day before. She's definitely got a dog in the race, so to speak, because of her own Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The next morning she woke up to find herself blocked on Twitter from following the Commander-in-Chief. That's not petty or anything. According to ThinkProgress, a 40-year-old diagnosed with metastatic cancer under the Graham-Cassidy bill "could expect to pay $140,510 surcharge on their annual health premium, effectively making many families choose between being bankrupted by their insurance company or being bankrupted by their hospital bills.” Speaking to ThinkProgress, Packard said, “I cannot afford [a $141,000 premium] and I suspect most people cannot." And when she was asked how she felt about being blocked by Trump, she replied, "I just wish that he would listen. He said [during the campaign] he would come up with something that was great and was going to cover everybody, and [Republicans] keep coming up with bills that are the exact opposite. He’s definitely not listening to me now." Yeah, it's pretty hard to hear anyone when you have them BLOCKED ON TWITTER. Glad to know the president is listening to the people he is responsible for protecting. Packard's diagnosis is not a death sentence, as she explained in a now-viral tweet back in July. “The good news is that my doctors believe I can be cured, I just need to keep my health insurance,” Packard says in the video. Clearly, Trump just doesn't really care, and would rather shut her out altogether than deal with the people who will be screwed over by his healthcare plan. Sad!
Extremist hate group the Ku Klux Klan has been resurgent in America since Donald Trump's election, marching on Charlottesville, Virginia, running the Justice Department, and now getting kids thinking in fifth grade classrooms. The "New York Times" reported that teacher Kerri Roberts on Oak Pointe Elementary School in Irmo, South Carolina wanted her 10-year-old students to view Reconstruction on many sides, on many sides. Tremain Cooper's nephew is in Ms. Russell's class. He saw the assignment and is rightfully aghast. "HOW CAN SHE ASK A 5TH GRADER TO JUSTIFY THE ACTIONS OF THE KKK???" Cooper wrote, noting that his nephew had come home from school crying, seeing as his teacher wanted his classmates to understand why someone would commit hate crimes against him. "I felt sad. I felt anger," Cooper told NBC Charlotte. "It was heartbreaking for us." A spokesperson for the school district, Katrina Goggins, said that they have begun "standard personnel investigation procedures" and that the teacher was on administrative leave. Goggins didn't disclose if the leave was paid or not. The "Times" notes that this is just one of many inflammatory homework assignments that have been assigned to students in U.S. schools in recent years, "In February, second graders at Windsor Hills Elementary School in Los Angeles were asked to solve a word problem: 'The master needed 192 slaves to work on plantation in the cotton fields. The fields could fill 75 bags of cotton. Only 96 slaves were able to pick cotton for that day. The missus needed them in the Big House to prepare for the Annual Picnic. How many more slaves are needed in the cotton fields?' (A similar assignment was given to third graders in Gwinnett County, Ga., in 2012: 'If Frederick got two beatings per day,” it asked, “how many beatings did he get in one week?')" Is it even possible to teach math without evoking slavery or teach history without asking kids to sympathize with terrorist groups?
First Daughter Ivanka Trump is a smart woman... she went to college (although I'm sure no college would have turned down Donald Trump's daughter), she wrote some books (although she probably used a ghost writer), and she's a senior advisor to the President (well, she may have gotten that job for reasons other than intelligence). But clearly she doesn't know the definition of "otherwise"; otherwise, she wouldn't have used it incorrectly.

Obviously she's not using "otherwise" the way it's meant to be used. Unless she really is saying that her day was incredible, except for the part where she had to cuddle her little nephew Luke. Maybe she could have gone with "altogether"? Whether she knows the definition or not, it's just another misstep in her otherwise abhorrent track record.
To most people, the division sign is simply one of several unexciting symbols they were forced to learn in math class. To Ed Sheeran, it's his third studio album. To the Internet as of this week, it's a mind-blowing, symbolic, genius piece of history that we'll never get over. Earlier this week, a Twitter user named Abdul Dremali tweeted the carefully calculated meaning of the division sign: it's a blank fraction. In case you need a refresher on elementary school math, dividing one number by another can be represented by writing the two numbers in the form of a fraction... a.k.a. a division symbol with the numbers in place of the dots. Basically, Dremali is a genius, but whoever invented the division symbol is a genius times a million. As of Tuesday, Dremali's tweet has over 75,000 likes and 1,000 responses. Wait, what?? This is WAY bigger than learning the little arrow by the gas symbol in your car dash tells you which side the gas cap is on. Dang. Math is beautiful, y'all.
Alright, you crazy kids, if you are thinking about cheating on your loved ones, you might wanna think twice after seeing this...

Hahaha. I wanna see Pippas butt now. So, at the hotel where I am staying here in Gainesville they have a weird new advertisement for Florida...

Yup. So, I saw this picture of the famous graffiti wall here in Gainesville the other day...

And I thought, where did I see it before? Then it hit me...

It's the same bloody wall! You know, times are tough here at UF... they had to change the look of the Gators mascot Albert to this...

I think it works. So, what's the deal with this, people?

You ever say you want to meet at the potato? So, you know I love Star Wars and football, right? Well, some people like them both just a little more than I do...

Yup. So, Gainesville looks a little bit different than last time I was here...

That people was taken just an hour ago. Hahahahaha. I'm so stupid. Hey, you heard Trump referred to Kim Jong-Un as "Rocket Man" during his U.N. speech, right? Well, I was confused about that until I saw this picture...

All makes sense now, doesn't it? Hey, so, you know I live in Florida, right? Well, some crazy stuff happens here in Florida, especially here in Gainesville. So, once again, here is a pheature called...

A resident in Gainesville called the local police department complaining about the noise a few kids were making in the street playing basketball. Officer White graciously checked out the pressing situation. At first, he sauntered up to a kid in a slightly intimidating way. That cop demeanor faded pretty quickly though, as evidenced in the dash cam video that, besides revealing that White is a chill dude, suggests the neighbor may have very sensitive hearing.

The only situation in which a cop can say, "I might bring some back-up" and not intimidate anyone.

That's really stupid. Hahaha. If you spot the Mindphuck let me know. Okay, so, some really important  people came out of Gainesville... Tom Petty, Brittany Daniel, River Phoenix, and Robert Cade, inventor of Gatorade. But there's one very special person that doesn't make it on any list, and I am glad to have him on the Phile. Kids, please welcome to the Phile...

Me: Hahaha. Hey, Squirrel, welcome to the Phile. How are you?

Squirrel: Yee-haw! I AM good. Go Gators!

Me: Yep. Okay, so, I was told you have a few jokes to tell the readers, am I right?

Squirrel: Yee-haw! Yup I do!

Me: Okay, go ahead.

Squirrel: What do tornados and FSU grads have in common?

Me: I don't know. What?

Squirrel: They both always end up in trailer parks.

Me: Ummm. okay. Give me another one, Squirrel...

Squirrel: What do UF and FSU students have in common?

Me: They all go to school in Florida.

Squirrel: Nope. They all got in to FSU. Yee-haw!

Me: Okay, that was stupid. You have one more chance, Squirrel.

Squirrel: Why don’t they have Christmas at FSU?

Me: Man, I'm glad you are picking on FSU and not University of Miami. Why don't they have Christmas at FSU?

Squirrel: They can’t find a virgin and three wise men. Yee-haw! GO GATORS! Parteeeeee!!!!

Me: Good job, Squirrel. Squirrel, the Red Neck Gator Fan, kids. Oh, boy. And I thought I had fucked up teeth.

Okay, it's time to talk football with my good friend Jeff.

Me: Hey, Jeff, welcome back to the Phile from Gainesville. How are you doing?

Jeff: I'm doing all right. How about yourself?

Me: Not bad. Tired as fuck. So, ever been to Gainesville before?

Jeff: No, I haven't actually been to Gainesville before.

Me: Correct me if I am wrong... but you went to UConn, right? Are they big rivals of Gainesville? I don't think so.

Jeff: Sorry, I didn't go to UCONN. I went to the University Of Hartford. Go Hawks! They have no rivals. Because they are not very good at sports.

Me: Oh. Hahaha. I was wondering what big sport celebrities went to UF... Tim Tebow of course, Emmitt Smith (who I used to see here quite often)... Faye Dunaway is a Gator, as well as Marco Rubio. Anybody I missed that's important?

Jeff: I think you've pretty much covered the big athletes from Florida that made it in the NFL. There's hundreds of players that have attended UF that went on to the NFL so it would be nearly impossible to list everyone. But Tim Tebow, who now is a baseball player and Emmitt Smith is a great place to start.

Me: So, what facts do you know about Gainesville, Jeff?

Jeff: What facts do I know? I didn't realize I would be quizzed on Gainesville today! PRESSSSSURE!!!!!

Me: Hahaha. Gatorade and love bugs both come from here. Okay, let's talk about football... by the way, I know we don't talk about college football here but did you see how the Gators stunned the Vols with a 63-heard Hail Mary with not time remaining for the win? Pretty fucking impressive, right? I have to show a pic of it just in case you or the readers didn't see it.

Me: Speaking of Hail Mary, explain to the readers what that is and what it means. I am sure there's people out there that don't know.

Jeff: You are quickly becoming a fan of the Gators now aren't you? That was a good play! The term Hail Mary is a long pass thrown to try to score late in the end of the 2nd quarter or at the end of the game. It got its name because the quarterback is pretty much putting up a prayer, hoping his receiver comes down with it.

Me: Okay, so, what NFL news do you have?

Jeff: News from the NFL is the fact that the Colts QB Andrew Luck is still injured, and has already been ruled out for Week 3. Minnesota QB Sam Bradford missed week 2 due to injury as well. The biggest injury of the week is Panthers TE Greg Olson who will be out for months with a foot injury. 

Me: Fantastic. So, how did we do in week 2 of this season, Jeff?

Jeff: Well, before we talk about our predictions the Steelers remain undefeated while the Giants remain winless after another bad showing this week. Speaking of bad showings, you went 0-2 and I went 1-1. So far I'm 2-2 and you are 1-3. I'm up by 3 points so far.

Me: Ugh! Alright, let's do this week's picks... I say Miami by 9 and Atlanta by 7. What do you say? 

Jeff: My picks are Kansas City by 9 and Oakland by 7.

Me: Oh, BTW, Jeff, Disney as again taken over another team... take a look.

Me: Whatcha think? I actually like it. It'll look great on a t-shirt.

Jeff: That is probably the best logo of the season!

Me: Okay, I will see you back here next Thursday. Have a good week, Jeff. Be good.

Jake LaMotta 
July 10th, 1921 — September 19th, 2017
Reclining Bull

The 66th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...

Phile Alum and author the book's author will be on the Phile next Thursday.

Today's pheatured guest is an English singer-songwriter and guitarist known for being the frontman of the early 1980s band Haircut 100. He has a brand new album out called "Woodland Echoes." Please welcome to the Phile, the very talented and good-looking... Nick Heyward!

Me: Hey, Nick, welcome to the Phile. It's so cool to have you here. How are you?

Nick: Great. Likewise. It's good to be here, Jason.

Me: So, I love your new solo album, "Woodland Echoes," Nick. It's your first album in awhile. You must be proud of it, right?

Nick: Well, I don't see it as solo really, it's just new work.

Me: You're recorded it down here in Florida? That's surprising. How did that happen?

Nick: I went to see Sarah's parents, my finance, who moved from Minnesota to Florida for warmth. My friend Ian Shaw, who since 1984 has being doing every demo, moved to Key West. I don't know why but it's a beautiful place. And that's very near Sarah's parents so she went to see her parents and I went to see Ian. We just carried on like we have always done really. Instead of getting my cassette player out, I got my phone out and went through the latest songs and said I'll do that one, I'll do that one, and then I was also writing on the fly where just like the old times really. I was getting great guitar sounds... Ian's really good at getting guitar sounds. I couldn't take a guitar with me so I bought a Gretcsh which was great. It was a pretty cheap Gretsh but it was okay. In two or three days we had about 20 songs with some vocal ideas, songs fully done, some not. It was that's it, we are back into making an album. Have you ever been to Key West?

Me: A few times in my life. Last time I went there was in the mid 90s... I'm not crazy about it. I did meet Peter Wolf there when I was a kid. Oh, and last time I was there I went into a record store and behind the counter they had a photo of my dad, who was the lead singer in Foghat. I pointed that out, told the guy that worked there that was my dad and he gave me the pic. I still have it somewhere. What do you like about Key West, Nick?

Nick: It's like a pirate town. There's loads of stuff laying around. There was an old house with a mahogany interior which was quite run down but lovely. A friend of Ian's put a studio in it which most people do these days. Studios are everywhere, aren't they? I've got one but they still sound like portastudios... I haven't really mastered the engineering side. So as a songwriter I need an engineer and in this case I needed a drummer. In Key West they love the blues, it's like old blues guys, and there was a guy who played on Bob Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" and he just passed away and he left his drum kit in the studio to be used. It was a 60s beautiful looking thing. This guy named Joey Marciano came in and played on it. We wrote loads of songs and he played on everyone so we had drums which was this old kit. There's this things with vintage things, they just sound vintage. It's like I don't sound like a 19-year-old. It's a wonderful thing where you go into that vintage mode. The songs say, "well, now you have a vintage kit me please can I have a Wurltizer. I don't want a Wurlitzer sample. I want a Wurlitizer." So now it's just backing vocals and maybe some strings, maybe some other bits and bobs. I didn't intend to make a guitar pop record that sounds like it should be on vinyl.

Me: Then release it on vinyl. Haha. Since you started out in the 80s would you say your songwriting has changed over the years or do you write songs pretty much the way you always did?

Nick: It is on vinyl. Well, this was like how I always done but with a band it's different, it's a lot easier because you don't have to do all the bits. I'm really a frustrated bass player so I look forward to playing the bass. When you are with a band and you have a bass player you don't have to think about that stuff. When you are with a band and you say, "I think the drums should go like this" you might get hit. So you don't say stuff, you just do it. It's really nice and that's why I never had to speak to Blair Cunningham... he just plays brilliant stuff. I didn't have to speak to Les Nemes as he just came up with some great melodic bass lines. So it's really good in a band... Graham Jones just weaved like a skylark. In fact he dresses up as a skylark most of the time in the studio. Haha. And then you chose your bird whether it be a hawk or a songbird. Then there's the bird you think you're gonna be because you've been listening to Shearwater and you realize you're nothing like that. That's why I was surprised about this record. I was just going in to do stuff and I thought it would not have any mention of relationships and stuff and there it was again. There I was, just doing that stuff and doing what I do. It's a bit like if you're a novelist and you write romantic comedy and but you don't want to, you want to be Nietzsche or something and philosophies about deep stuff and then you start writing and you are McCombie. Obviously this is what I do... maybe I'll try something else if I try subconsciously to do it but this wasn't subconscious. Just pure enthusiasm really, just sitting down and thinking wow, I'm in Key West, oh my God, Ian's got a house boat, and a few boats along Bill Blue, an old blues guitarist. It's a real haphazard place and a lot of people go there because they don't want to be in the world anymore. So it's filled with artists who just want to play music.

Me: What was this house boat like, Nick? Was it nice?

Nick: Ahhhh... it was quite a run down house boat. Ian's pug dog would sit on my foot so most of the takes were down with a pug wearing a nappy sitting on my right foot. It sounds glamorous but it really wasn't. It was really small because it was a house boat but that was the vibe of it. Pelicans were flying outside the windows all day. There was even a boat three along called West Pelican. It was extraordinary. Why did Ian move here and why are we here? We kept saying this was really funny. We wouldn't think this would of happened and here we are working with people locally. People leave stuff everywhere, it's still a bit ramshackle. I love it. It's a great place. Hemmingway lived there and it's about as big as... where do you live?

Me: Clermont, just outside of Orlando.

Nick: Okay, so it's about as big as Disney World.

Me: Haha. So, I like to ask songwriters when you write a song what comes first, the lyrics or the music? Do you write on a guitar?

Nick: Um, well, I have to have something to capture it with. That's why the phone is brilliant now. It's really good and the fact its got the date you can file it away and you can put a title on it straight away is so good because I got rooms and rooms filled with cassettes. I don't know what's on them, nothing is written on them. I wasn't that organized. I actually have a Beatles bag, the B.E.A. one, from where they first went to America and in there are my special cassettes. I'm going to go through them one day and listen to those songs. If you wanted to start and be like the Beatles these were the good songs. But I haven't been in there yet, strange that. I didn't do that for this album. I took a few cassettes with me. I sort of packed them because this trip was interesting because we went by ship, not train, so it was all on the water and going across the Atlantic I thought I was going to go through all these cassettes, all these songs but I didn't. LOL. Something kept telling me not to so I just went through ones on my phone which were the latest really. Maybe I'll do a concept one day and call it "The Beatles Bag." It was really like being plonked in the seat in front of Ian and then he asked what have I got. I have a few in my phone and I stick hearts next to them, or a skier, or sometimes a flower by the songs which were quite good. And the skier for the ones that were uptempo. You have to trust the process, step away from yourself and not be to conscious about this stuff. It's just being flung together, both lyrics and music at the same time. And I'm really pleased with who is ever putting this together. Thank you. It's like nature. It's the same thing that blows a leaf arose the ground in autumn is making this album.

Me: Who did you listen to growing up, Nick? Who inspired you?

Nick: David Byrne comes to mind. I don't know why but he does. "Damn that television what a bad picture, don't get upset, it's not a major disaster." When I first heard that line it was like nothing else ever. You never heard anything like that in a song so that inspired me writing stuff. That was so good, that first Talking Heads album. All the lyrics really seemed to fit together.

Me: I was lucky there was always music in my house when I was growing up. Was there a lot in your house?

Nick: Loads, yeah. My father was into big time jazz like Count Basie. He took me to my first gig which was Ray Charles, Oscar Peterson and Count Basie at the Hammersmith Odeon. Then it was Stan Kenton at Croydon Fairfield HallI. Mum used to play Carpenters endlessly and had a bob and wore a little choker. She looked slightly lesbian actually. In hindsight when I look back she'd looked quite lesbian. I found out later she dabbled. Hahaha. It was the 70s so what else were you doing but wearing choker chains, listening to the Carpenters and checking women out.

Me: Well... moving on. So, did you study music or have guitar lessons?

Nick: Not really. My brother is a great guitarist and I used to think wow, he's amazing. And he played really fast as well. He had records and I didn't have any records actually. I just had a little red organ which didn't have many keys. I don't think it was a real one. It didn't even sound like one. It looked like a farfisa organ but I didn't really do much on it. But when I started to do it I didn't really play lot of things. I was just making up tunes. Maybe it was because my brother Pete was playing his stuff I was probably thinking I wonder how that is made or something. Anyway, then I got a guitar and learned D, then G and then C and that was it right through punk. F came about when ska started to happen then you moved all these chords up the fret board and found out of you moved these shapes anywhere the fret board they make really interesting sounds. You would spot sounds that they made and I would go, "ah, that sounds like that." If I played an E-major there and I moved it up, that sounds baddish and if I moved my fingers slightly I'd think it sounded good. This is how I was learning.

Me: Weren't you just a teenager when you wrote "Fantastic Day"? No teenager has a fantastic day. Hahaha.

Nick: Haha. Yeah. That was just having C, G and D. Adding the F in... there're the chords of the song. That was playing up against the brown wall that had punk names written on it.

Me: When you wrote it was it in the same style we would know?

Nick: No, it was a little punkier. You can play it like that. "Well, there's great amount of strain about getting on that train every night."

Me: I love the style of music Haircut 100 had, Nick. Where did that come from?

Nick: Blair Cunningham and Marc Fox. Graham and I would weave together guitar wise and Blair and Marc were superb around their area. If Graham and I were birds these were water hogs. They were magnificent and we were so proud. When we toured America we were getting just better, better and better. You'd sit back and listen to Blair doing a soundcheck and he'd be like that. Then at the gig he was more impressive. He's such a natural and Marc's the same. He played on so many people's stuff. I think he played on Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn." If you want your song to get tighter and stuff on it that makes it sound like a pop record in that way it's brilliant tambourine and brilliant combassa. These things... it's like lacing, or stitching or icing on a cake. They worked so well together. There were lots of people weaving in that band. Do you know if bags just hung in what they do really well and continue that... magical things... bands. Your dad was in a band so he might of known, they are not great to be in sometimes. I'm a bit envious of other bands where they got on. That was the trouble with our band, no one really spoke up about anything so we were seething stuff around.

Me: My favorite Haircut 100 song is "Love Plus One." It has such a great guitar sound. Did you write it on the guitar and bring it to the band?

Nick: Yeah. I remember taking that around to Les, it was my first port of call that song. We played around on that song for ages. We were enthusiastic about and I was thinking I'm David Bryne going around to Tina Weymouth's. I was really excited about these three chords. You don't do that when you're an older man. The point is when you're younger you get really excited about chords and we just played that for ages. "Is it down to the lake I fear? Ay ay ay ay ay ah." There was never intended to be a lyric there... it was always going to be "ay ay ay ay ay ay ah."

Me: Hahaha. I always thought you forgot the words. Did you ever think these songs would be hit records?

Nick: I never thought they'd be singles. They were just kinds of bits of music. I definitely think Bob Sergeant had a lot to do with crafting pop records. A lot of the bands were just club bands playing music. You didn't do slow stuff because people would probably walk out. You wanna get people dancing. I remember watching Joy Division once and they didn't play a lot of ballads... there were no slow songs, it was just energy. Someone like Bob Sergeant was crafting pop records and kind of battling sometimes with the band because you didn't want to sound like that, you were starting to sound organized. And you liked all this rough stuff. I'm glad you do have these people... when you listen to these early demos we were pleased. We liked them, sometimes we preferred them. But the crafted pop records got something. As you get older you learn the craft yourself. If I had a rough and ready come to me now I'll go I know how to make a pop record. Haha. Some people make pop records and some people let the bands just be. And even those guys are making records. It's got to be a record.

Me: Before Haircut 100 what other bands were you in?

Nick: I think it was called Moving England or something. It was around the monochrome set days. We just wanted to wear long coats and stuff. The Bunnymen were happening and our hair was slightly raised. We wore black shoes, tonic trouses... it was all tied in. It was winter during that whole time and we wanted to be guys playing flutes. Hahaha. "Whistle Down the Wind" was a song we performed then but it was called "Skinny Black Trees" then. It didn't have a chorus but I liked the fact it was out the window what was happening and I kept changing the words to what was happening. During those times it was miner strikes, skinny black trees... it would get to the chorus and nothing would happen. Instead of doing nothing in the chorus I just sang "hello hello hope you're feeling fine." There it was, it had a chorus and turned into a pop song. That's growing up and learning how to create pop records yourself. Learning how to write songs which is instinctive at first but you're learning chords, structures, and change the title. "Hello Hello" didn't sound like a very good title. "Whistle Down the Wind" was by far one of my favorite films at the time.

Me: Cool. Nick, thanks so much for being on the Phile. Good luck with the album and please come back on the Phile again. You really know how to answer questions. Haha.

Nick: You're welcome, Jason. Thank you.

WTF? Hahaha. What an interesting interview. I had so many questions to ask him. I hope I can have him back here again soon. well, that about dies it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Squirrel, Jeff Trelewicz and of course Nick Heyward. The Phile will be back again tomorrow from Gainesville with singer-songwriter, the legendary Van Dyke Parks. Before I go I wanna ask you guys something. I haven't been feeling good for a long time and I need something to cheer me up, and make me laugh. You know what makes me laugh? Pics of dogs in pajamas. Yup. So, if you could send me a pic of your dog in pajamas I'll post it here on the Phile. Okay, it's late, I need sleep. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.

Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker