Jason Tonioli
Hey guys, welcome to the podcast today. My name is Jason Tonioli, and this is the Successful Musicians Podcast. My special guests today are Jonathan and Philip from the duo ARKAI. That is awesome that you guys just came back from winning a Grammy, which is amazing. And I’m talking to some of the, what I would say is some of the most talented up and coming violin cello group people in the world.
I’m so excited to have you guys on here and just kind of share a little bit of your story. So welcome and I’m sure there’s a whole lot of other things that you guys can fill in the blanks on, but just for anybody listening, this is going to be an amazing interview. So buckle up. Philip and Jonathan, I don’t know which one of you wants to share your story first of how you guys met and kind of how you ended up doing music, but I’d love to kind of start out with how did you guys end up doing music in the first place back when you were little? Little and young.
Jonathan Miron
Wow. Well, thank you for having us, Jason. So happy to be here. So music has been part of my life almost in its entirety. When I was a wee little lad, my parents found me watching the old laser discs that they had back then. This is dating me a little bit. But the old laser discs of this cellist named Yo-Yo Ma. I was three years old. And they found me just watching his performances on repeat. And I essentially just demanded to play the cello. And so they went out, they had a cello made for me, and they brought the cello home and it was bigger than I was. So I ended up switching to the little cello, which is the violin. And so I’ve been playing violin ever since I was four years old. And so music has been just my entire life. And I’ve moved around the world for some incredible education institutions, notably Juilliard for college and master’s programs. Anyways, music has been a big part of my life.
Jason Tonioli
Amazing. Philip, how about you?
Philip Sheegog
Yeah, so I grew up in Southern California in Anaheim, where our local landmark is Disneyland. I literally grew up about 15 minutes away from the park, basically grew up there. And my story is that I’m the youngest of three. I have two older sisters and my middle sister. When she was a tiny little thing, I think when she was five, she’s actually similar to Jonathan, saw a concert of Joshua Bell, the great violin player, and she got inspired to play the violin.
Great, so two years later I came along. I’m five years old at that point, and I also saw a musical performance and it strikes me in a similar way. And so then I go to my parents and I say, I also wanna start playing music and I wanna play the drums. And my parents in their infinite wisdom said no. And so a couple of years later after I got over my heartbreak, my sister’s violin teacher told my parents I have a colleague who teaches locally. She teaches cello and she happens to have an opening in her studio. And so the next week, there I am, my mom comes into my room and says, hey, Philip, we’re going to your first cello lesson. So almost in an opposite way to Jonathan’s story, there was no initial draw, no passion, no voice from heaven that told me to play the cello. It was because my mom told me to. And then, of course, as the years went on, I eventually discovered the inspiration and the sparks that went from being something that I was told to do by my parents to something that I was intrinsically passionate about. And so that journey eventually took me, carried me through middle school and high school, and then eventually took me out to New York, where I also went to Juilliard for my undergrad and master’s. And then that is kind of where the threads of life started to bring Jonathan and me together.
Jason Tonioli
So you guys were both at Juilliard at the same time? I mean, were you guys both in the same class and just got there and became instant friends together? How did that all work out?
Jonathan Miron
Actually not. I’m a little older than Philip. And so, though we overlapped at school, we actually didn’t know one another at Juilliard, which is kind of a wild thing because Juilliard is a pretty intimate place. I think the whole school has about 750 students and you’re all kind of in this one building. And so, most people know one another. And so, what it actually took was a conference that was held at Juilliard where both Philip and I were there, kind of nominated by the school, repping the school at this conference. And one day after classes, there was a party and we both showed up. We had our instruments with us and we started to jam. And at this party, there were like 50, 60 people in the room. They all started to like to move and dance to our music. We ended up being the DJs that night. And this jam lasted over an hour and it was unlike any experience. I think Philip and I had never had up until that point. We weren’t jamming in the style of Mozart and Beethoven. We were jamming across different genres. We were playing classic rock covers. We were doing all these different things. And to meet another classically trained musician from Juilliard who could jam, meaning making music up on the spot, in itself is completely novel. It’s not routine that you find that. And so I think for Philip and I, it was this magical moment that became kind of our calling card, a lightning and a bottle moment for us that we remember and cherish. And we were like, well, now what? Now what are we going to do with this? This is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced before. And so that was the first experience for us.
Jason Tonioli
Well, and I have a lot of friends that are musicians and there really does seem to be that music. They have to follow the rules and play exactly what’s on the page. You know, most string players, especially. I just got off a concert with a 60 person orchestra, which was amazing, but I’m more of a go with the flow and just kind of play things type of guy. And when you’re doing a full orchestra, you can’t, you just can’t do that.
And, it was, just like the way of thinking is, is very foreign to be able to jam, like you’re saying, and just be able to just play a Metallica song or some other, other type of song. So, is that pretty true with most students at Juilliard that are studying and way better at the instrument than most people ever will be ever, no matter how much they practice, right?
Jonathan Miron
Yeah, absolutely. I think most people at Juilliard are classically trained, so they’re used to playing sheet music and to kind of remove themselves from that kind of structure is incredibly scary and not routine. And so for us, being in that room and spontaneously kind of making music together without sheet music and making things up on the spot and to have this deep connection, to be able to do that so much that it kind of lit up the room was really an eye-opening moment for us.
Jason Tonioli
Awesome. That’s awesome. So once you guys started playing together, did you just say, hey, let’s go record something? Or how did things happen after that? Because I think a lot of us have those moments where maybe you meet that right person or other players like that, that was so fun. What advice would you also have for somebody when they find that in order to make something happen with that?
Philip Sheegog
Well, we always like to joke that that first meeting was like when you have a really good first date and you just feel there’s an electric chemistry, there’s something really good. But if you don’t follow up on that, if you don’t plan the next thing, you might have all these serendipitous, beautiful connections that never actually grow into their full potential. And so for us, we had that first amazing moment. Again, the first time that we’d really met, we’d never even had a real conversation before that. And then we have this profound musical conversation. And so it was a couple of months later that Jonathan actually had an opportunity, another conference being hosted in New York City by Barack Obama’s sister. It was a peace gathering of some kind of leaders, peace advocates, some really incredible gatherings of thought leaders. And he had an opportunity to present an artistic offering, like a five minute slot during this gathering.
And so he calls me up, fresh in his mind, and he says, hey man, do you want to write something for this? Bear in mind, neither of us have formal composition training. We were both studying violin performance and cello performance, or what our degrees are in. Not composition, not improvising, our entire lives up to that point had been kind of in the system, which is meant to produce good orchestral string players.
And so he says, Hey man, do you want to take a risk? And do you want to try writing something for this event? I think it’ll be kind of cool. And I said, yes. And so all we knew was that from that jam session, that if we, if we let ourselves rip for a little bit and improvise that something cool might happen. So we booked a studio at school and we just started improvising again, recorded that on our phones and then used that to extract and then construct our first composition together. And that is actually too fast forward. That’s still a really valuable tool that we use to this day of composing is we’ll just put down a phone, set voice memos going and start improvising. But so that was the next step that allowed and gave us the excuse to come back together and to say, okay, let’s try this again. Sure enough, the same thing happened. We performed for that event, right? Our first composition ever together. And people afterwards came up and they said, we were so moved by this. You must have been playing for so long together. What an amazing ensemble. And we just kind of went with the flow and said, yeah, know, it’s great. Such great chemistry. It’s so fun performing together and not really giving up the truth that that was our first real public performance. That night, seeds were planted. Relationships were born that led to the next performance that led to the next performance. And then that was what started the kind of the pebbles that started the avalanche, so to speak. And then within six months, we said, we can’t just be the Jonathan and Philip duo.
And so that’s when we started really considering what is this going to be? We need to come up with a name. What is our sound going to be? Are we going to be playing repertoire or are we going to try to keep writing original music, which is exciting, but also new and scary? All of those discussions, not only with a new ensemble, but with a very peculiar kind of ensemble, right? Two classically trained string guys trying to figure out what this new sound is going to be.
Jason Tonioli
Yeah. And do either of you play the piano as well? That I’m guessing if you go to Juilliard, you probably have to at least have basic piano skills, right? No?
Jonathan Miron
They have a piano class there that you’re required to take. I didn’t do great.
Philip Sheegog
Yeah, we both took remedial piano classes. And then I got a little bit more hands-on because I was a teaching fellow for the ear training department. So I got really good at playing chord progressions to stump all the students. But not really. Both of us are primarily just string players.
Jason Tonioli
I almost feel like with those classically trained types of musicians, you feel like you’re not given permission to even go outside of the sheet music. Right. And I sometimes struggle. I feel like it’s happened a little bit more with YouTube and all of the fake books and stuff. That seems to be a lot more of a thing now that you can do chords and and kind of improvise, I think, gosh, if you go back 20 years ago before the internet, all the stuff on YouTube, it really was this like crazy idea of playing off of chords or lead sheets, unless you were in a jazz band. I mean, have you seen that evolution where newer musicians coming through now are feeling like they have permission to go outside of the lines and not have to have sheet music, or is it still pretty structured and, you know, don’t break the rule type of attitude with most people?
Jonathan Miron
I would say yes and no. I think a lot of these institutions are still very structured in the way that they teach and the way that they put kids through their education programs. At the same time, as you said, so much has become democratized. A lot of resources are accessible now because of the internet. And so for Philip and I, we taught ourselves a lot of this stuff, literally by watching YouTube videos. It’s like YouTube University is a real thing, you know? And so I think both of us had a feeling of like, wow, we’re actually, we love playing classical music, but we also have many other interests and curiosities as well. And like, what kind of artists do we want to be? And we wanted to be these artists that were versatile and get it doing many different things. And so we took it upon ourselves to go out there and kind of discover that world. And we use the internet. You know, like, and it’s just amazing what you can learn now.
Jason Tonioli
Yeah.
Philip Sheegog
Well, and I’ll throw in there, Jason, like you said, like 20 years ago, pre-internet, there was a lot less of this happening. But we ourselves, we are products of exactly what you described. We were inspired by those groups who were coming up through early YouTube, right? We were mentioning even before the call folks like piano guys, like two cellos, like Lindsey Stirling, like Pentatonix, right? This whole wave of artists who were breaking outside of whatever their respective genre lanes were.
And they were using, right at that point, the new technology of the day, right, YouTube, as a way to find their audience. It was like the TikTok of the day, right? It was, that was the way that they could get around the, like the label system, the gatekeepers, right? They could go directly to the fans. And we were some of those young fans. And so I don’t believe that you have to see something in order to envision it for yourself, but it sure helps. It really helps when you can see something, then that can spark a young person’s imagination.
And so in a lot of ways, we see ourselves just kind of like in that lineage of pioneers in music, but specifically the string world, which, you know, those YouTube generation was maybe the last link in the chain, but it goes back decades. There were people who were pushing, pushing the limits of what strings can do. Jean-Luc Ponti, the Turtle Island Quartet, Noel Poynter, all of these people were doing all that work and showing what could be done. But as Jonathan was saying, as the media has become more and more globalized and accessible, I think more and more people are able to see that. So downstream we see more musicians experimenting and saying maybe that could be me too.
Jason Tonioli
Well, and I think, I don’t know, just a lot of times I feel like musicians don’t feel like they have permission to kind of go out and go outside of the lines because they don’t know. You start out with your music, first music teacher, whether it’s piano lessons, cello lessons, violin lessons, and you’re taught to play music off the page. And, you know, I still think it’s a very rare thing to be given permission. Just coming off of this two days ago, I was given the opportunity to perform with a 60 person orchestra. Back in January, the very first of January when they asked me to do this concert. So I had about a two and a half month window, but they said, hey, you’ve got a lot of, we like your piano music. Would you be willing to come and be the guest artist with this orchestra?
I had one song ever that I’d done with an orchestra. That’s it. I don’t play strings. I don’t play anything. And so I called up my friends. You know, I’ve got some amazing friends who are very, very talented and they helped me do two or three songs and I thought, okay, I’ll have three songs for the orchestra and it’ll be awesome. And all of a sudden, I’m a seasoned musician, but I felt like all of a sudden, wow, I just saw what they did. I could do that too. And what happened right after that, like in the next probably six weeks. I wrote eight more songs for a full symphony orchestra on my own. And yes, they do take 16, 20, 30 hours to do one. But oh my goodness, when I, when I finally gave myself permission to write orchestral scores and not just piano or a duet type of stuff. And I’ve, I’ve recorded a lot of songs, but I’ve had other people do the orchestrations because I didn’t think I was good enough or didn’t, hadn’t given myself permission. All of a sudden I did this concert like, Holy cow. I’m actually.
I mean, I’m still learning a ton and I know I have tons to learn, but I was good at it. And I think a lot of musicians. No, anybody listening to this, if you think you want to do a thing, don’t be scared to try it and give yourself permission to do it. And the reality is you’ll probably be really crappy at it at first. And that’s okay. Like expect it. I had advice from Chuck Myers, he’s the guy that did the Hogwarts legacy soundtrack and he’s done Disney infinity and a whole bunch of Disney. Fortnite is another one he’s done in the past. He, this was 20 years ago and he gave, he kind of listened to me playing piano. says, Jason, you should record something. He gave me that permission to do that. And all of a sudden I did. And I think all too often we don’t undervalue what we’re capable of. And so if you’re listening to this and you’re a musician, don’t be scared. Like if you want to be a rock star on stage, you want to do music videos, you don’t have to do everything. I’m working with an artist in particular right now. She’s getting ready to release her first song and she’s dragged it on for like eight months. It’s like you have this great song, get it out there. And then they’re hung up on contractual terms. And if somebody possibly could do the thing, they overthink it and then they never do anything. So they just keep stopping themselves. And, I think a lot of times creative people can undermine and overthink things versus just going for it and realizing you’re good enough. And none of us that are doing the thing probably felt like we were good enough either until we gave ourselves permission to move and do it. Right.
Jonathan Miron
Right on, right on, man, like 100%. Wow, I feel so many things when you say that. After we won the Grammy, we got interviewed right off the stage. And one of the guys, the guy that was interviewing us, asked, what advice would you give young musicians in this day and age who want to be in your shoes one day? And I remember saying, dream big. Dream big and be bold. Don’t be afraid to take risks. You never know where that first leap of faith will lead you. That idea of permission, it’s permission as Philip was saying like…
It’s permission when you see someone else that’s doing it, that’s like, my God, well, maybe I can do that. But at the end of the day, it’s permission that you grant yourself. And I think too many musicians and upcoming, when you’re a student, you’re kind of, I don’t want to say, you’re kind of in a void, in a vacuum of some sort, and you’re kind of beholden to your mentors and the people around you. And you can have an amazing mentor. We’ve had amazing mentors who have encouraged us to think broadly. And I’m so grateful for those people because they gave me permission to like, you know, to, and it kind of justified some of the ways that I was thinking, which wasn’t necessarily, well, kosher within the systems that we were raised in. And I really do truly believe that now more than ever, given how saturated the music market is, how difficult it is to become a successful musician now. We need musicians that are bold, that are unique, that are doing things their own way, because that’s how they stand out. That’s how you go and craft your own pathway for yourself. And so, yes. Yes to all of that. Yes to permission and taking big leaps of faith.
Jason Tonioli
Awesome. Well, as you’re telling that I’m thinking of when you were a little kid, like four or five, six years old, I mean, back when you were just barely learning what a cello or a violin was. If you think about your time when you were that age and you literally could just dream and, and imagine things and, and you were certain that you could be doing those things. Like nobody had popped your bubble and made you realize you can’t yet. And I think oftentimes we don’t dream big, you know, somebody along the way, whether it was in school, made fun of you when you said a wrong answer or, you know, told you you were no good or told you you were stunk at the cello or, you know, I think it happens to every single one of us, but some somehow I think as creative people, we need to, you know, kind of imagine yourself back to when you were five, six years old and don’t.
Don’t assume that by the time you’re 25 and somebody’s told you you have to go work a nine to five job and that’s the only way to make money and be responsible. Dream like a little kid and I think you’ll accomplish way more and realize you could do a whole lot more than you even ever dreamed you were capable of, right?
So, well tell me about this Grammy experience. how in the world does, I mean everybody talks about, I wanna win a Grammy. What goes into that? Did you guys just imagine, hey we’re gonna win a Grammy, so was that your goal or did it just kinda happen?
Jonathan Miron
It’s not the end goal. I don’t think it should ever be an end goal for anybody. At the end of the day, Philip and I were just really focused on the music and crafting a project that spoke to us but also spoke to other people. And I think just in creating that project, people related to it, related to the music, they’re related to the messaging. The Grammys are this massive, I mean it’s massive and there’s a whole process by which things happen. For anybody that dreams of maybe becoming nominated one day, I think you need a great project. Number two, you need to kind of learn more about just how everything works, and I think a great way of doing that is just looking up what Recording Academy membership is. Essentially, there’s a whole voting body. You can, if you have enough credits, become a voting member of the Recording Academy. There’s a process behind that, but once you do that, you meet so many other incredible artists. You meet other people that are voters. And so you kind of learn about the whole system. And it really is a democratic system where one voter equals one vote. And so there is a bit of a campaign around that stuff. But at the end of the day, the best projects stand out. You’re going up against incredible, incredible artists.
In our category, we were nominated alongside Bela Fleck. Bela Fleck is an artist that both of us grew up listening to and watching. He’s a legend. 18 Grammy wins, you know, like what an honor it was just to be alongside him. And so anyways, I would just say like, yeah, there’s a whole process by which the whole voting, campaigning thing happens and that’s a necessary part of the whole process. But yeah.
Start with the music. Number one. Number two. Join the academy. You’ll learn a lot.
Jason Tonioli
Awesome. Philip, any thoughts on that?
Philip Sheegog
The only thing I’ll add to that is kind of like what we were talking about again a little bit before we started recording is just the importance or the side of artistry that a lot of artists don’t like to think about which is marketing, right? Which often has a dirty association with it. But just to piggyback on what Jonathan said, it’s like step one is yeah, have a project that you believe in, right? Again, kind of what we were just saying earlier is like believing in that and having something really true is important. But then also, if you make the most beautiful music in the world and nobody knows about it, right, so part of it is how do you share that? And so for us, a huge thing was creating a world around the music. So being really intentional about creating, we shot some, I think, really awesome videos for that, videos, images, the art, we worked with an artist to create this really compelling album art for it. So we were doing all that we could to kind of wrap this musical work so that when people would discover it, when we would meet them or all the means by which we meet people or they discover the music, then it’s an invitation for them to dive in deeper, especially when, right, as Jonathan was saying, there’s so much music out there. How do you create not just beautiful music, but all the things around that to invite people in?
Jason Tonioli
Yeah. Awesome. What, one of the questions I often ask on this show is what’s your definition of a successful musician? Cause I’ve learned it’s been interesting asking this to almost a hundred people now. All of the answers are similar, but varied as well. They differ in a lot of ways. I’m just curious about you guys, if I were describing what a successful musician is to you, how would you answer that?
Jonathan Miron
Well, I really think it’s a question that is very personal, and so it could mean something different for every person, and it should. For me, I think about a successful musician as one that just first off loves what they do, like loves being in that musical world, and has found an existence, a coexistence within that musical relationship that works for them.
And so I don’t necessarily think that you need to be playing music full time to become a successful musician. I have friends that are working corporate jobs who are incredible musicians that are still leading really fulfilling lives as musicians. I think that’s amazing. You, Phillip and I, live and breathe music and our careers. We’re 24 hours a day doing this and we love it. I mean, that’s kind of what keeps us going. And so in many ways I would say like,
Yeah, we are living a successful musical career that I think both of us would have dreamed of, you know, if you asked us many years ago. And so all that to say, I think a successful musician is whatever you want it to be, whatever works for you, so long as you love what you do.
Jason Tonioli
Philip, how about you?
Philip Sheegog
A little more philosophical. It depends on how you define a musician. I think you can cut it two ways. We can say musicians are kind of leaning on the artist side of it. A musician is someone who is creating musical art, and feeds their soul. And then we could split it as a musician as a job. Or I guess we could say musician as a vocation. That’s kind of that first one. Or musician as a career. And I think to split that, I think the first side is exactly what Jonathan said, right? It’s like no matter what your relationship to music is, if that is in balance with your life so that you are able to express that creativity that comes out of you, whether that’s, you’re writing songs in your bedroom that no one hears except you, if that’s, right, it’s exactly what Jonathan said. If that is in alignment and integration with the rest of your life, that is being a successful musician. Now, if we go to the side of musicians as career and profession, I think that there’s a side of that where that is integration and the holistic package of that. I think it does run into the lifestyle that you desire to live. I think this is where probably a lot of people are thinking about what they assume when they hear successful musicians. So it’s like if you want to live in a L.A. penthouse. OK. That’s great. If you want that then you’re going to have to figure out within your career as a musician, what are you doing in order to support that? And so much of success or failure or desire or disappointment are based on our own subjective expectations. so, if someone’s, if their dream is to live in a cabin, right, you know, backwards Virginia, off the grid, making music and uploading to SoundCloud, and they can support themselves that way, I think, again, it depends on your expectations and what you desire to do. But I think that right there’s those two sides of it. Not to get two in the weeds, but I think you can cut it.
Jason Tonioli
Yep. So as you’re coming off this Grammy now, I’m sure a lot of people are asking what’s next. Have you guys set any goals together? I mean, is there another album in your future? If you’ve got your fans out there, what have you guys got in the works or cooking in the kitchen so far now that you’ve had a month or two away from the Grammys?
Jonathan Miron
You know, we were back in the studio within a couple weeks of winning the Grammy. So we’re always thinking about the next project. Yeah, we’re writing right now. just writing, producing a lot of music. We’re going to have lots to share coming later this year, also next year, some really fun stuff, some cool collaborations, and then a big tour that we’re working on that will kick off in the summer through the fall and winter. Yeah.
Jason Tonioli
Nice. Awesome, Philip, any other, did you miss anything else? Any goals you’ve set for yourself with the music?
Philip Sheegog
I think the goal, back to your question, is to grow in both, at least in my definition, both sides. Both sides of becoming even more successful in the ways, in how we’re setting our goals and expectations and kind of casting a vision for where we’re hoping to get to. So just trying to realize those visions. But it’s one step at a time and there’s no shortcuts. There’s no shortcuts in life. And so it’s about being, having the vision, but then also being faithful to the work and to the process.
Jason Tonioli
And I’ll say the last question for you, since we’re about out of time. If you think back to all of the mentors you’ve had and all the people that you’ve had in your life, is there any moment or any piece of advice that’s been given to you? So what would be the best advice that you feel like you’ve been given from somebody regarding your music career and just life in general?
Jonathan Miron
Wow. Tons of advice. A lot of advice that kind of points to a lot of the things that we’ve talked about around taking risks and being bold and following your heart and all that. But I would say that one piece of advice that I keep going back to, it might sound a little egotistical, but it is this idea that no one will ever care about you more than you care about yourself.
And I cannot stress how bright that is. And like the further and further into this career that Phillip and I have and all the people that we’ve integrated with and all the teams and all the… Everything is beautiful. Everything is wonderful. We’ve had amazing people that we’re so blessed to be working with. At the same time, like no one will ever care about you more than you care about yourself. And I really hope that that piece of advice is empowering. That’s, you know, at the end of the day, I hope that is a kind of, it’s kind of fuel to the fire that you can go out there and build your own career for yourself. Philip and I did this, we built all this from nothing. From that day on, you know, we met jamming seven and a half years ago to play that first gig to now it’s like we’ve been boots on the ground, kind of building this thing, taking initiative. And as a result, we haven’t been beholden to other people and haven’t had to wait for other opportunities to come to us. They have come to us, but a lot of the time, they’ve manifested through things that we have taken initiative on. And so go out there and be bold and create your own opportunities.
Jason Tonioli
That advice right there, would say that’s probably the number one issue I see with artists in general is they always think they have to wait for that big break to come. They’re going to rely on their manager to get them the thing. I need somebody at the studio who’s going to be the audio engineer that makes me great. I need to, before I can sell myself or go out and market to anybody, I’ve got to have, I need this PR person, I need this marketing person. And they just try to slough off all of the responsibilities onto somebody else. And I think you’re spot on with, with that. That’s probably the biggest achilles heel I see consistently in musicians. So that’s phenomenal advice. I love it. Philip, how about you? Any great advice you’ve received?
Philip Sheegog
I’m gonna throw, there’s actually, if I can get a bonus in, there’s two quotes. One actually has to do with an earlier conversation that we were talking about, Dreaming Big. It’s just too funny, I can’t not share it. The quote is by a guy named George Mack. There’s a guy out there with half your talent but 10 times your self-belief making five times the money.
I just thought it’s hilarious and very true. But the thing, the advice, the more advice piece is another quote. It’s by the poet Wendell Berry. It comes at the end of a longer poem, but it says, be like the fox who makes more tracks than necessary, some in the wrong direction. And that’s a really, it’s a challenging, it’s a personally challenging quote because I never like to feel like I’m doing something that might be in the wrong direction or to wasted time or, I thought I spent, I did my degree in this, but I just graduated and I realized that’s actually not my passion or, right, I spent two days in the music school, but that’s actually like not the thing for me. But I think one of the themes of Jonathan and my journey has been that the tracks that might feel like they were in the wrong direction oftentimes have a beautiful way of further down the line coming back.
All of those side hustles, those side quests, those curiosities that are totally orthogonal to the direction you thought you were going often have a really beautiful way of coming back and informing or amplifying what you are doing. And sometimes they don’t, and that’s also okay and beautiful. But I think it has to do with the fact that life is not a linear story. It’s not A to Z in a straight line and releasing control can sometimes be a really beautiful thing.
Jason Tonioli
Awesome. Yeah. Got some great gold nuggets of advice today. Well, Philip and Jonathan were bad at time, but if people want to go check out ARKAI, get it spelled A R K A I, we’re to put all the links in the show notes as well. So people can, if they’re listening on the podcast, they can go, go listen. Or if you listen on YouTube as well, you can scroll down, go definitely go to, I want them to go to your website and, go listen to the music. You’ve got all a whole bunch of amazing videos, world-class.
Just awesome videos. When I was researching you guys, I literally spent like three hours listening to your music and then kind of going down rabbit holes of some of the people you’ve collabed with. So that doesn’t happen very often for me as I’m doing this. So you have great music. So people need to check it out. But what would you like people to remember or know about you guys or where should they go check you out other than your website?
Jonathan Miron
We are on all the other platforms – Spotify, Instagram, YouTube, at Arkaimusic. Lots in store.
Philip Sheegog
And I’ll put a great gateway song into it if you’re saying, what should I listen to? Go to YouTube and watch our music video for a song called Sun Drifter. It’s a great entry point.
Jason Tonioli
That one is awesome. awesome. Well, Philip and Jonathan, thank you. The Grammy winning Arkai duo on the violin and cello are here and have just given you guys a whole bunch of advice. We probably ought to go listen to some of this more than once as well. So thank you guys and can’t wait to see where your career goes moving forward.
Jonathan Miron
Thank you so much.
Philip Sheegog
Thanks, Jason.