Part 2 of Season 4 Episode 14 feat. Liam Pitcher - Classical Pianist, Composer, & South Africa's Leading Improviser

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An improvisation is a way for me to express myself. In any way that I might choose to at the instrument, whether that manner is spiritual or whether I'm exploring something musical or mathematical. It's just a catalyst for my personal expression, and that can be a catalyst further for my enjoyment or for my development. It can be anything that you want it to be, but I think most importantly, it's for me, right? When I sit at that instrument, I'm playing for myself through an improvisation. Hello, piano enthusiasts!

Welcome back to The Piano Pod. I am your host Yukimi Song. Today, we're diving deeper into the second installment of this season's 14th episode with classical pianist, composer, and improviser Liam Pitcher, known for his exceptional improvisational skills, which combine classical music with electroacoustic and electronic elements. In case you missed our captivating Part 1 conversation exploring unique aspects of his improvisational style, Don't worry, you can catch up on all the excitement on your favorite podcast platform right now. A warm welcome to all our new listeners and viewers! This podcast is your all-access pass to the captivating world of piano. In each episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song, I interview a guest speaker who has been breaking exciting new ground in the industry. Please rate the show and review it on your favorite podcasting platform because every rating and review will help people find my show. And as for our faithful listeners, I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for your loyal listenership. Since 2020, we've been exploring how to make classical music resonate in fresh ways with today's audience. To keep bringing you these episodes, my show relies on your support. Every contribution aids in covering essential podcast expenses, so click the PayPal link in the show notes or visit thepianopod.com to donate. I'll personally mail you The Piano Pod's logo sticker as a token of gratitude. So my friends, here is Part 2 of The Piano Pod Season 4, Episode 14, featuring South African pianist improviser Liam Pitcher. Please enjoy the show. You sound like you have such great teachers in the past and mentors. You said you even at the beginning mentioned that you've been really fortunate to have these teachers. So I want to know a little bit about your upbringing, maybe how you discovered the love for music, and then also your mentors, and maybe what kind of life, you know, unique life experiences that influenced your being an artist today.

I've been very blessed with the teachers that I've had recently, but I suppose I had great parents who were, they, you know, they've always been wonderful influences in my life and they saw that I was musical and they bought a little keyboard that was in the house and that, cut a long story short, ended up in me studying how to play the keyboard at school. And I had great, wonderful female teachers. I had, I can't even remember their names at this point, but I had a line of female teachers when I was about 10 years old in Western Province Preparatory School and they just did their job. There was nothing extraordinary about it, but they allowed me to explore what I wanted to explore while giving it structure, which is, I suppose, more than you can ask for at that age. Or maybe it's not more than you can ask for, I don't know. I don't know how ambitious I need to be with this response to your question, but in a perfect world, we can get to that shortly, maybe what it would have been. But I didn't have the great teachers that I had now back then, But everything led me to this point. So, you know, if anything, I have a juxtaposed extreme comparison between what things are like in school and university and what they should be like based on what I'm learning now. So in the long and short of it, yes, school, 10 years old, keyboard, study the keyboard, study music theory from literally 10 years old in school, learn the basics, don't really care about it, don't really understand it fully. Do my grade 5 music theory in high school, do a bit of percussion, do a bit of flute, do a bit of piano, meet one of the biggest musical influences in my life, Judith Rhodes Harrison, who took me under her wing. They refused to let me study the piano at my high school because I didn't have a qualification. So I then actually had to prove myself, which I didn't realize at the time, but I ended up doing it. I learned a very complicated piece just in my own time and performed it at a nice stead for there, and then She said, "I want him as my student," and she took me under her wing, and she gave me the greatest gift of my life, that she taught me when no one else would, the piano, which is now my greatest joy in my life. And she was so incredible. She gave me notes. We didn't even have time to do technique. We couldn't even begin to talk about it, but because I had to catch up, right, in terms of repertoire, learning pieces. I think the whole syllabus at schools for music is ridiculous as well. I mean, that's something we can get into as well later, but Ultimately, she gave me a place where I felt like, wow, this person believes in me and what I can do on this instrument. And just that was enough to make me practice and to make me care about it. And then when I got to university, there was none of that left. I won't mention any names. I was not inspired in university. It sucked me dry of my love for music for 5 years. And then I met my current teacher, Richer Dutoit.. But before that, I was studying composition. So by that point, by my final years in university, I had actually just given up on becoming a performer, which was always my lifelong dream. I actually ended up injuring my left wrist and I had to leave university for 6 months and just redo my first year because I couldn't even play. And that has been years of healing. I'm still healing from that. I mean, I still lack mobility in my left arm, but I'm starting to gain that back just due to understanding the body, etc. Anyways, but it was only in third year university that I met Hendrik Hofmeyr and sat in his class. And from the moment— I never cared about music theory. I never cared about it. I thought it was the dumbest thing ever. I couldn't understand why we had to learn it. It was so infinitely boring to me. And that first class with Hendrik Hofmeyr absolutely shattered my world. It was like it blew open the infinite possibilities of music in a 2-hour class. And from that point, I became essentially obsessed with Hendrik Hofmann. Like, I really just wanted to know everything that he knew. And like, I kind of modeled myself after him a little bit at that time. And that's fine because he was a great role model. And like, if you're going to model yourself after anyone, model yourself after someone who's great. Who has attributes that are truly good. And he was such a giving person in terms of his wisdom, and he was so patient with me. I'd never cared truly about music theory or about academia until that point, and he was so patient with me and how, like, I wasn't organized at that point, you know. I wasn't necessarily accustomed to what the schooling system might expect from a student, and I don't know if he sensed or saw that, but he was so patient with me. So even though I couldn't meet his expectations, I couldn't work as hard as maybe I wanted to work because I was also DJing and producing music at the same time, and I was playing multiple times a week in nightclubs, etc. Parallel worlds. And he believed in me right to the end that even though I didn't even qualify for my final year in composition class because I was so busy and unable to perform in my examinations, and I became so ill at that time, and a vacancy came, and he said, you can have it if the student will give it to you. Even though I didn't qualify for my final year. He saw that in me and he gave me that opportunity to prove myself, which I did. And I still see him to this day. I'm actually seeing him on Thursday this week. I can't wait to see him. I can't wait to see him. And we just go deep. I mean, like, you don't even understand. You don't even understand the things we talk about. Like, you can't even begin to find the things we talk about music. Like, things that he has studied and knows. And I'm like, I bring my little piece, two cents piece to that. But he knows things that you just can't find on the internet. You know, you can't find them in libraries even. He's understood music in ways that very few, I'd say, in history have understood. And that's why I was so captured by him because I felt, wow, what is this whole world? This guy really knows what he's talking about. This guy really understands music. I want to understand music. I love music. What is this meaning behind it? It's because he understood the meaning and he was able to explain meaning in music legitimately. What's on the page? What does that mean? How do we understand and interpret that meaning, etc.? So that's when I began in my second or third year of university to understand these things. And then I met my current piano teacher, and it was while I was still studying at the University of Cape Town. And I sat down and played for him. And he said, your entire technique is wrong. Everything that—

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Do is away from the piano. Like, I'm sorry, but you just know nothing about performance at all. And it really affected me. I remember leaving that meeting thinking, wow. And he played, and I mean, he could play a PPP if he wanted consistently, you know. He could play 20 different dynamic levels between pianississimo and pianississimo, you know. And, and, and I just had no control whatsoever over my sound. And so I was extremely talented, and Judith Rotarisson, who took me under her wing, gave me so much beauty in terms of how to think about phrasing and music and interpretation. And she inspired me in those ways, as a teacher should as well. But we never had time to do technique, and they certainly have no interest at my university to try and recover poor technique. They just say, well, you didn't learn the technique, so there's nothing we can do for you. You've got to go learn that in your own time. They don't actually show you what you have to do because because they're lazy and they don't actually care about their students' developments and they probably got their jobs from pals, you know. But anyway, so I met Reche and he blasted my whole world to smithereens. I mean, that was like, I almost felt like completely defeated because my whole career as a pianist was very talented, but I completely plateaued at that point for years because my talent only took me to a certain place. And, you know, I felt what probably most pop artists feel as well, that they can't express themselves beyond a certain point because they just don't have the understanding to move outside of that. Anyways, so he sent me away and I couldn't see him at that point because I was still studying at the University of Cape Town. And when I left the University of Cape Town, then I went and performed as a DJ at his daughter's wedding for free. She was a friend of mine, we studied together. She's probably the best operatic singer in South Africa, one of the greatest who's ever lived, probably. She is truly angelic in the way that she sings, and that's because he has taught her the bel canto style from the 2nd century in Italy, the true bel canto. And she can sing like an angel. You just have no idea. I mean, you hear this woman's voice, it's like you're transported to another world. It's truly something special, and that's the effect that I'm talking about that music can have on an audience. So I've had the joy of singing with her, accompanying her, singing, playing. We played together, you know, but I played at her wedding for free. And through that gesture, he made space for me in his classes. Very full, doesn't have time for many people, but he saw me. Like I said, please, can I have a kind of lesson with your dad? And I sat down with him and he said, play me anything. And I played him a Scriabin etude. He said, very musical, Liam, but Your fingers don't work. We have to start right from the beginning. And I literally played C major scale for 6 months in my 20s, paying thousands a month. You know, C major scale for 6 months was the best thing that I've ever done because in a year or two after I started with him, I gained good control over my sound. And that's when the improvisations really start to sound good, like in the hall. Like Return to the Baxter Theatre was where it kind of started, like I started getting control. And then Endler Hall, I had some control. The way I play now is leaps and bounds, miles, years, decades more than that. But I just haven't had— I haven't been bothered to record. Why would I? You know, I'm not— nothing's going to come of that. So I just wish to continue to cultivate my technique. And, you know, if I can have a One day, I still see them, as I said, weekly. I'm still learning with Roshay, and there's so much to learn. Like, I know nothing compared to him, and it's such a joy to feel that. Like, wow, this person cares about me, they inspire me, they believe in me, but also they know so much that I could almost maybe never even know what they know. Like, even if I was with them my whole life, like, I wouldn't be able to learn everything he knows. But maybe I'll learn some of it, you know, and then it's my duty to maybe make professional observation— observations as a student outside of that, and to start to learn things based on intuition, based on what I was taught. Great master, you know, maybe then that's how I surpass the master one day when I'm his age, when I'm 70-odd years old. But I mean, it's lifetimes and lifetimes worth. I mean, if you go onto his website and you look at who he studied with, you will pass out. I'm talking students of Zoltán Kodály, students of Tovey, students of multiple students, students of Tobias Maté, the great fundi of piano technique who no one talks about, by the way, who has got books that will teach you on how to play the piano, and you won't even be able to decipher what he's talking about unless one of his students teaches you. It will just sound like nonsense to you unless you actually have a student of Tovey explain to you What is in that? And so he studied with these great masters, and it's just such a blessing to see him on a weekly basis and become a better artist every single week. Even if I don't have time to practice, I'm a bit— I'm a better pianist, I'm a better musician every week just from that 1-hour class. And like, wow, imagine all music universities were like that, and then imagine we could bridge the gap between the public and the music industry. And imagine we were all just developing like on a weekly basis. Can you imagine what world we live in? I can't even imagine it. Okay. I think once again, a world worth living for. So I just want to get to a point now where I can maybe play and inspire people a little bit, maybe expand their consciousness a little bit with my performance, maybe make them think about things a little bit. I don't know what extent that goes to even like what, what is the extent of a musical performance? What can we even achieve? Maybe one-on-one, one-on-two, one-on-ten. What can we achieve through that performance in terms of like spiritual development in someone? If we track, like if we truly align, if they truly are able to receive us where we are, what can we even achieve through a single performance? I believe that you can leave a performance awestruck and feeling like you're more than you were before that performance, and that's what every single concert should be.

I know you promote South African composers too. I wanted to ask, but—

What a beautiful thing South African music is. It's a whole world that hasn't even really been understood fully by the outside world. I mean, like, they haven't scratched the surface at all. There's such a rich history, even in Western classical art music, in South African musical composers. And like, I'm certainly not an authority there, but there are authorities that are alive and they have information and knowledge about music that's unusual, that's different to what is taught globally. Certain living composers like Hoffmeyer, well, he's a special case for sure. His knowledge is just unsurpassed in my personal view. And I'm not biased. I actually think that I'm quite impartial when it comes to, and that I see BS instantly. And unfortunately, the whole music industry almost is run by BS, but you know, he's so good. But you know, we have people here in South Africa who know things that aren't in history books and aren't in textbooks. You know, we've got a world authority on Gregorian chant at the South African College of Music. World authority. We've got a world authority on Arnold Schoenberg who's still alive to this day, Professor James May. And I mean, no one knows who that is. I mean, I could say that in like Yeah, I don't know. There's a lot here to be explored, and I'm certainly not an authority, but I tried to do my part to just give back because I saw in them what the world didn't see in them, that they have something special. They know something special, right? So I did my little bit to give back by making score videos, by uploading. But South African composers, we're really behind here. You know, we're still a developing country. You know, I like to call us a fifth world country because we're just that far behind. In terms of technological prowess and advancements. I mean, for example, data here is unbelievably expensive. You know, even to get like 6 gigabytes of data is like hundreds of rands. So we're so behind in that sense that we don't even have access to the internet and technology the way that the rest of the world does, right? So for that reason, like South African composers, especially those who were born in the apartheid era, you know, that have been segregated themselves now through kind of reverse apartheid, who now, well, they were white Afrikaans composers born in apartheid, and therefore we should actually ignore everything they did and wrote. So that discrimination— Hofmeyr is one of those— has cost him a career. You know, he is such a genius. He's won the Queen Elizabeth Composition Award. He is internationally renowned as a top South African composer, and yet, I mean, he lives a very kind of comfortable life, and no one really gives him the appreciation that he deserves. He's never in his career been appreciated for what he truly is. And I've, you know, that's definitely another reason that I'm motivated to create this platform one day, for all of these reasons, to create a platform that actually promotes those who deserve the promotion.

Can you give us more names of the South African composers that you admire?

Sure. Hendrik Hofmeyr, number one. I think that he understands.

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Start free at RSS.com. What came before better than anyone, and therefore his music actually develops the rich history of our Western classical art music. History, right? Like, he actually develops what came before into something slightly more than that and slightly more personal than what came before. And his style is more kind of late, you know, post-romantic impressionism, you might call it. Like, maybe slightly post-tonal, post-romantic impressionism, that kind of style. It's really wonderful. Similar to Ravel, similar to, um, what's that wonderful Polish composer's name. He wrote that crazy piano work, Szymanowski. Similar to Szymanowski in some way. Anyway, so there's Hofmeyr. The late Peter Klatzow was definitely in his own way noteworthy, I suppose. He's certainly the most famous South African composer. He didn't really understand music the same way like someone Hofmeyr did, but he had enough intuition and understanding about it that he could kind of develop in his own way what came before. He's also very misunderstood. He and Hofmeyer had a rivalry as well that's undocumented. Hofmeyer was actually one of his students and they just didn't get on at all. So Hofmeyer had to teach himself most of what he knows by studying the scores and the history, which is what should be done as well. There should be both of those— the teacher that inspires and then the going through history and actually looking and listening and seeing. So he built his understanding on what came before. Klatzer also had good understanding of what came before. He had fantastic relationships abroad. He knew some of the great composers like Stockhausen, for example. He met them, he sat in their concerts, he understood their ethos. He had signed copies, numerous signed copies of their scores and books that were signed by people like that. And so he knew things that were also noteworthy, although as a teacher I found that he wasn't able to effectively translate what he knew into a student. So that was his shortcoming, and I think that his whole career people were frustrated with him and thought that he was a bad teacher for that, and maybe thought that he even didn't know much, but he certainly knew a lot. And when I sat with him in his home and we would talk about this and that, obviously never anything too deep in an afternoon tea conversation, but he knew things. He knew things about composers such as Nadia Boulanger, that his— that her sister that her sister Lily Boulanger was a far better composer than Nadia, and that her music was unknown, for example. And he was a student of Nadia Boulanger. He sat in her classes, so he told me about Nadia Boulanger. He told me about Lily. He told me about their ethos behind music, you know, so he knew these things as well. But those things weren't necessarily seen by the public, so we must be careful of our perceptions of people right off the bat and what they might or might not know. Things that might not be spoken in a, university classroom even, because maybe that's privy knowledge for those who actually really want to know and who deserve it and who are respectful of the tradition and the history. And they had the biggest impact on me. And then, you know, there are other well-known South African composers like Arnold van Beek, like Dublissé, Hubert Dublissé. There's that living composer, I can't remember his name now, he's touring the United States, but he's also an African-inspired composer, very inspired by African traditional music, but he's classical. You probably look him up. So there's someone living today who's actually made a good career for themselves, but in a way he kind of just— and I'm glad I haven't given a name because he kind of just cribs African music and just transcribes it really directly into Western classical instruments. There's no real flair or anything too interesting there. And then there's just like teachers of those students, and then there are other lecturers throughout South Africa that I don't know too well. That I've had a chat with here and there on Facebook, and it would be a shame for me to even talk about them because I would know very little about them. You know, I haven't had the time to become an expert or authority on this topic, but at least I've made an effort to listen to South African Western classical art music composers from especially the 1800s onwards, especially the 1900s onwards. That's when Van Wyk and those composers, Duplessis, etc., were living, and they were composing music that was African inspired. That's when apartheid happened as well. A lot of them are Afrikaans, so you'll hear that Arnold van Beek, that's an Afrikaans name. I think that Mimi Kudzer, the singer, was actually South African, as far as I recall. I could be wrong though. I think that she was one of the greatest operatic singers ever and she was South African. Mimi Kudzer does sound— that's a South African name. In terms of performers, I don't think we've produced too much of note, if I'm honest. Composers definitely, because of the tradition of African music and the elements of African music. For example, in my university course, we studied African music. That was— and world music as well. World music, what even is that, right? But we studied African music. It's kind of like, I think it was included in the first 2 years, as far as I recall. I don't know if it still is. And then you can actually branch off into that. But we've had that influence from native African music in our Western classical art music tradition. And so it is given us kind of like a zesty take on classical music. I would argue that it's given us a bit of an edge actually in our understanding of music because African music itself is so rooted in that wonderful overtone series. And also they do things that are far more rhythmically interesting in my opinion than most Western music does. You have to get to Stravinsky and, you know, what is that 12-tone serialist named Schoenberg? I actually know personally the great nephew of Arnold Schoenberg.

Oh yeah?

He is a dance instructor, a ballet instructor, second to none. He's just done Aliyah to Israel. And I mean, he is essentially my piano teacher in dance. He is like the equivalent because he comes from that great cultural heritage, right? So I know things about Arnold Schoenberg that I probably shouldn't say on camera. Great fans because, you know, I like to disconnect the personal from the musical. I believe that all we need to know about the music is actually on the page or in the sound, you know, like, and I encourage everyone to do that because otherwise we get this ridiculous notion that we should even disregard that perhaps Beethoven was a great composer because he was a white male who believed in certain, like, you know, racial vocations that were just around at the time and that were probably forced on him, etc. Like, if we start to bring that into his music, then it's tainted. We lose the essence of it. So we should forget about what kind of a human being Beethoven and them were and actually just look at the music they wrote. And everything that we need to know is on the page. And I think that the African composers, what's on their pages is pretty noteworthy. It's pretty interesting. Definitely African-inspired. Some of it is overly African-inspired. Some of it has no creativity. It's just cribbed directly from African music, as so much of Western civilization is, is just taking from native societies, right? And I can see why the resentment grows in that. But if we just remove ourselves from ethics for a moment and just see what's on the page, I think that South African composers have— South African in particular, African composers in general, but I think South Africa is a hub for classical music like no other place in Africa that I know of, and they really have understood music in ways that just maintains the tradition and builds on the tradition, sometimes by drawing elements of African music into that. And it's noteworthy for that reason. I'd say some of the greatest composers who've ever lived are actually either living here now or have lived here in the past. So yeah, Afanwek, Duplessis, those are the big names. Klatso, he's now passed away recently. Hofmeyr is alive. And just be careful what other names you might see on Google, you know, because maybe they have a name, but maybe they haven't really done anything to deserve that name. Now, I'm not saying only the names that I've mentioned are noteworthy, but I'd say those are really good starting points for South African classical music. And there are obviously worlds of music outside of classical music that are also noteworthy and worth studying. The fact that I even have to say that is ridiculous, but I don't want people to be dissuaded just because I'm Caucasian, and I actually am not even technically Caucasian. But, you know, I am what appears to be a Caucasian male talking about Western classical art music, which gets a bad rap. So that's just another layer upon layers that we have to unravel and undo before people can even receive what we have to say and play, right? So I think that, you know, it's worth being careful in how we approach these topics. And I'm not going to name and shame anyone who's actually contributed to the downfall of South African apartheid composers. I'm not going to do that, but they are there and they're living and they're still doing it. And they're trying to— a way to identify them is to identify people who are trying to say that the music theory of the past is irrelevant and that we actually need to make new systems now to understand music. That is a load of nonsense because like a 1,000-year-old rich tradition that we haven't even begun to comprehend is certainly not worthless. And they try to attach ethics. As soon as people start to attach ethics and they mix the person behind the music with the music itself, with the page itself, that's when you know, please just stop listening to them because they are doing you a great disservice. They are putting up a gate in front of you that separates you from that beautiful world of art. And that's just what it is. It's just a gate. You can walk through it. Just ignore what they're saying. It's just a distraction. Don't be distracted by the propaganda of the world. Go and listen to it for yourself and draw your own conclusions. And if you want to know about the people behind that music and study them, and that legitimately interests you, then go for it. And if you want to talk about whether they were good people or not, and that genuinely interests you, go for it. But maybe don't even dissuade people from doing that exploration themselves. Maybe just humbly give your opinion about it and like, be that as it may, or not be that. But wow, people putting up gates between the population and like the divine just because of their personal opinion. It's borderline idolatry, honestly. Look at me and look at my opinion. What I know is so important. You shouldn't listen to them. You know, what does that have anything to do with that spirit? That spirit is the spirit of distraction that distracts you from divine truth of this world, of this existence. Music is one of the best ways to start to understand that truth that no one knows, by the way, that we only begin to understand in this life, that we can comprehend as much as we need to to gain access to new worlds and new lives after this, but that we can never even begin to comprehend in this life. But I think music is the closest we can get to it. Why? And many composers have said that to me. Many great artists have said that to me, to my face. Music is the closest that you can get. Martin Schoenberg himself said to me, "Do you know which music is the closest to God out of any music?" And he literally said the music of J.S. Bach. That's the great nephew of Arnold Schoenberg, the inventor of 12-tone music, saying that to my face. Someone like a Schoenberg saying that to me, that J.S. Bach is the closest music to God out of any music. Wow. That's not to be taken lightly. And I agree with him.

We're coming to an end, and I wish we had more time, and we can talk about this forever. But just before we go, what's your next move? What's your future project or vision as an artist?

So the platform is my end goal. I will bring that about because that's my purpose here, one of them. Um, a platform for healing through music, and not just through music, but, you know, music integrated with other things, other arts and cultures, and through knowledge of health, etc. You know, to do that, I have to work the land that I have now. I own a DJ company. It does very well. I'm expanding it. New Horizons. We just launched the DJ Academy, you know, and that DJ Academy is actually running online as well. So you can come and join the online classes. We're actually recording in a couple of weeks, a prerecorded DJ course, and it will teach people how to not only mix, et cetera, those are the basics, but it'll actually teach people what we were speaking about earlier, how to actually cultivate a meaningful gathering of people on the dance floor. And have a positive impact on their very souls and spirits through music. And that is going to be released very soon. Wow, it sounds like the whole interview now kind of like is a sales pitch for that, which it's not. So please just know that there was no knowledge of that before, and it's fine. But if you feel, if you feel called to do that, I just really don't want to devalue anything we've said here by pitching what I have next, because it's tempting to do that even. And it will be good for people. I believe that there are people who really want to be up on that stage and they want to be able to do that. They want it. They want a little bit of glory for themselves, for sure. But we'll reshape their perspectives to understand that actually the glory is not for you, that you need to make sure that the audience are the people having the best time possible. And we'll teach them how to do that. And because I have knowledge of music from my classical upbringing and other upbringings of music outside of classical, and also because I have been DJing for 16 years, and producing music for almost the same amount of time. I feel like I can bring something new to the table there and teach people how to really be excellent DJs who can like make money DJing and positively affecting people's lives. So that's kind of like the next big move for me is we're launching this DJ Academy. People can start registering on our website. It's thedjcompany.co.za and it's open. The courses are beginning in March. They're beginning from the 10th of March, every Sunday until the end of the month. And then there'll be a monthly course. So you get 4, 2-hour lessons a month. It's got the state-of-the-art equipment. We've got CDJ-3000s, Pioneer A9 mixer, and we're launching this course. And I'm going to teach people how to heal people with music on the dance floor. What a crazy concept.

What an amazing concept.

Wow.

So that's my next big move, right? Because that's what I can do right now. What I can't do is sit in front of my piano and even begin to connect with an audience. I can't do that.

Not yet. Yes.

Perhaps we build a world where that's possible. I'd certainly like to see that world come to light. Thank you for having me. I appreciated the platform to talk about these things that have been weighing very heavily on my heart, that I speak about with my peers in private, in closed doors, that the world is feeling and experiencing.

You're welcome.

Yeah. I hope and pray that we can actually affect a positive change and some of the things that we've spoken about today, if not all of them, by the time that we leave this earth. I think that's a great conquest worth living for.

Wow, what a way to end our episode. Thank you. I thoroughly enjoyed it. And I hope we can keep in touch. And then I look forward to our maybe future conversation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, but before I let you go, we have to do this little silly segment. I'm sorry. After all these, you know, profound conversation, this is really silly. But this This is a little fun segment of rapid-fire questions. I'll ask you some silly questions, and I just want you to answer them as short as possible. But you know, you'd be surprised, all these questions may trigger you to, I don't know, um, please don't trigger me. Okay, it's very, really silly. Okay, question number 1: what's your comfort food?

Pizza.

Oh, cats or dogs?

Dogs.

Sunrise or sunset?

Sunrise.

What skill have you always wanted to learn but haven't had a chance to yet?

Playing the violin. Hmm, okay.

What is your word or words to live by?

If you seek the truth of this world, you will find it.

Hmm. What is the most important quality you look for in other people?

I just want someone who's authentic.

Name 3 people who Inspire you, living or dead?

Hendrik Hofmeyr, Rachet Detoy, Judith Rhoads-Arison, all three from this.

Name one piece in your current playlist.

I would say Zero Point, Rob Clouth, is the greatest, in my opinion, piece of electronica ever written to this date. Zero Point, the full album, you can actually hear it on my account just because I did that for him. He didn't ask me to do it, I just posted it because I wanted people to hear it because I believe it's noteworthy. And I get nothing from it, by the way. I don't have a large YouTube following. But really, Zero Point Rob Clouth, that album, the full album, sit and listen to that with your eyes closed, with a good pair of earphones, and just experience everything that music could be. Just experience everything that music could be if everyone was in alignment. Go and experience it for what it is. That will get you as close as you can get, in my experience, in my personal humble view.

Okay, we'll do that. I'll post it in the show notes as well. Last question, fill in the blank: music is blank.

Music is life.

Beautiful.

There we go.

This concludes this episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song. Thank you, Liam, for joining my show today and sharing your stories and insights and expertise. So The Piano Pod listeners and viewers, please visit Liam's website at liampitcher.com to learn more about his career. Connect with him via Instagram @liampitcher. You can also check out his Liam's work on his YouTube channel @liampitcher as well. You can listen to his albums, including 10 CD albums of improvisations on the piano he released simultaneously. All the links are listed in the description. Thank you to my wonderful audience and fans for tuning in today. If you enjoyed today's episode, please rate and review it on whatever podcast platform you use. Remember to hit the thumbs up button and subscribe to my YouTube channel if you are watching this episode on YouTube. Follow TPP on social media to get the latest piano news. I will see you for the next episode of The Piano Pod with Yukimi Song with Liam. Thank you, Liam. Bye, everyone.

Ciao ciao.

Tyler Reddick here from 23XI Racing. Another checkered flag for the books. Time to celebrate with Chumba. Jump in at chumbacasino.com. Let's Chumba. No purchase necessary. BTW Group. Void where prohibited by law. CTNC. 21+. Sponsored by Chumba Casino. You're listening to a podcast right now. Driving, working out, walking the dog. If you're into podcasts, chances are you have something to say too. With RSS.com, Starting your own podcast is free and easy. Upload an episode and we distribute it to Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and more. Track your listeners, see where they're from, and start earning from ads just like this. If you've been thinking about starting a podcast, this is your sign. Start your new podcast for free today at RSS.com.