Fred Leone: Song Man
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EPISODE 16 OF THE ART OF ASKING EVERYTHING: Fred Leone: Song Man IS OUT NOW WHEREVER YOU GET YOUR PODCASTS.
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Twelve months ago, the Australian bushfires were center stage. I was in Australia for the final leg of the “there will be no intermission” tour and all that mattered was raising money to help the effort. With the support of my patrons, we made Forty-Five Degrees: Bushfire Charity Flash record and on March 8th 2020, we staged a fundraiser.
I recorded this interview with Fred Leone, who participated in both the record and the fundraiser, two days before that show, and less than two weeks before Covid really upended the globe. A conversation about the marginalisation of first nations Aboriginal Australians and their culture might have lost its impact after the craziest year in living history, but you know what? It’s all so fucking RELEVANT. Our ability to communicate with each other well – through words, through music – is the glue that holds us together and if we can learn anything from recent events in the US, it’s that Western culture’s glue is no less vulnerable to erosion than any other.
Fred has worked for years to preserve the language and rituals of Aboriginal culture, through the traditional means of storytelling, music and art. We talk about how tech has usurped these channels, how it might be repurposed to reopen them and how swiftly their disruption leads to extinction. It’s weird how a conversation can be so sad and yet full of hope. And Fred’s voice…I could listen for days. I hope you hear the music under it all. It’s more important than ever to keep sharing our stories and singing our songs. It’s our light in the dark.
Show notes:
Description
Fred Leone is a musician and artist with traditional ties to Butchulla and Waanyi Garawa country and is of South Sea Islander descent.
He is the frontman for the hip-hop group Impossible Odds, which expresses issues facing aboriginal people through music.
Fred is also a leader in his community and a First Nations advocate.
He is committed to passing down the cultural knowledge of his ancestors by passing on traditional songs and dances to younger generations via his work as a song man.
CREDITS:
Thanks to Fred! Check out his music on Spotify!
The engineer for this interview was Nick Edin.
For all the music you heard in this episode, you can go to the new and improved amandapalmer.net/podcast
This podcast was produced by FannieCo.
Millions of thanks go to my incredible team:
Hayley Rosenblum who makes all things possible — she is the ghost in the machine in our Patreon and also makes sure everything else gets done — words, pics, live chats, and general internet love. I could not do this without her.
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#MerchQueen Alex Knight who is helping us transcribe so these conversations are accessible to ALL!
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Signing off, this is Amanda Fucking Palmer. Keep on asking everything.
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