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Just about being cozy, and comfy at the crib.
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It’s cozy time.
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Yo, what’s up GQ, I’m Gerald
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and I’m back for round two to show you
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my at home essentials.
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[upbeat music]
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First essential, you know,
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it’s kind of a piece of my uniform,
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a piece of my self is my A’s hat
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that I pretty much wear everyday.
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Especially when I’m away from home, from the Bay,
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it’s kind of just like a thing
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that ties me to home and reminds me of
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where I’m from.
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I’ve probably owned over a hundred A’s hats.
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This A’s hat is probably a few months in.
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Still got some life left.
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I had one that I was, like, wearing forever.
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I let it get real, real, real dingy and dirty
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and then I got a ton of crisp options,
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and you know, making that decision on
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which one to wear each day is just not as easy as it looks.
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The biggest essential for me is my studio.
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I’m very, very, very blessed.
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I’m fortunate to have an at home studio.
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This is the upstairs of my studio,
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so it has my plaques, my Kobe jersey, some arcade games,
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you know, it’s a vibe up here,
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but then downstairs, in the real studio,
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that’s where I go to completely work,
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and like lock in and focus.
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This room is like get the ear break,
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get your mind off it for a second and come back fresh,
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and then I go downstairs and it’s like,
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there’s nothing but work down there.
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My whole studio is lit up with heat lights.
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So I’ll switch the colors of them,
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depending on the song I’m working on,
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depending on the vibe I’m in,
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I don’t know what I would be doing with all this time
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if I didn’t have my studio. I’d go crazy.
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It’s obviously an outlet, a place to
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express myself, and to pour myself into something.
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I’m usually in the studio with, you know,
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producers, A and R guy.
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This was just me alone in my studio,
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so all the sudden it was like, damn,
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I’m gonna just make whatever I want to.
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Use this time to freely explore creatively,
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and break the rules, ’cause why not?
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A big at home essential,
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it’s just nice scented candles.
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This is the big Le Labo Santal.
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It just fills up the room with a real nice scent.
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I didn’t know, but like a nice scented candle,
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you’re only supposed to burn for what,
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like 20 minutes? And then that fills the room
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with the scent for an hour or two or whatever.
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But, I like the vibe of having
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a ton of candles lit, you know?
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So, it all depends.
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So, a big at home essential, and a way
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I’ve spent a lot of time during quarantine,
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has been reading. You know, sometimes
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it’s hard with how busy life gets.
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It gets hard to just sit down and focus,
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but for me, reading over quarantine has been a practice
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of remembering to focus, slow down, and chill.
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I read Post Office, Charles Bukowski.
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I’m reading a Farewell to Arms right now, Ernest Hemingway.
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Chuck Palahniuk, Choke, and then,
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probably the favorite thing I read over quarantine was
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Acid for the Children. It’s a memoir by Flea,
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from Red Hot Chili Peppers.
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I love the Red Hot Chili Peppers as a fan,
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but I got to know a whole lot more about Flea,
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and his upbringing, his youth, his whole backstory.
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I love Fitzgerald. I love, like, classic, timeless authors
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that are that iconic, and I feel like,
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going back, they really transport you to
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a different time and place.
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Reading has been a big thing over quarantine,
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and like a great way to just
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pass the time and chill at home.
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Music is, you know, as essential
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as anything is in my life,
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and listening to music in the right way.
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So, I have Marshall speakers all around the house.
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They’re aesthetically pleasing.
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They look like old amps, and the sound quality is great.
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I listen to music every single day.
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It’s one of the first things when I wake up.
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Come downstairs, make my coffee,
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put some music on. Immediately.
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I’ve been building a record collection for a long time,
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but there’s a part about putting a record on.
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It’s like, yeah at the click of a button on your phone
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you can have any song ever made anywhere,
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but there’s a respect you put on the process.
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You take that record out, you put the record on,
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it’s an experience, it’s not just background music.
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It’s an act of really appreciating the music itself.
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But yeah, I mean, these are a few records.
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Radiohead, The Bends.
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Mac Dre, The Genie of the Lamp.
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Nirvana Unplugged, which is one of the greatest.
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A Love Supreme, John Coltrane.
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Been listening to a lot of jazz lately.
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And then one of my favorite albums of all time,
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Midnight Marauders, A Tribe Called Quest.
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Nina Simone, I’ve been listening to a lot of Nina.
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A pretty eclectic range, but just some of the stuff
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I’m into. Music is something that
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just makes a home feel like a home.
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I truly believe that.
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It’s a atmosphere.
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So, obviously a big essential, you know,
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we’ve all been in the house.
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Getting dressed is not what it used to be,
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so sweatsuits are, you know, that’s a go to.
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This one’s [indistinct] Supreme.
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Anytime I find something I really like,
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I usually just buy backups.
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When you find something that you really like,
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it’s like all right, let me level up.
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So, I enjoy wine.
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Just white, I like a sauvignon blanc,
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something dry and crisp and citrusy.
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Some friends of mine are like really into wine
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who are staying with me at the house,
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so just like, trying all different kinds.
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So it’s just a dope part of the night,
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like you’re cooking dinner and you have
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a nice wine with it.
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How often do we open a new bottle of wine?
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Well that depends on the night.
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[laughs]
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Coffee is an essential.
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I love coffee.
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I can’t look at my phone, I can’t talk to anybody,
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I can’t think before I’ve had a cup of coffee.
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That’s just like, don’t bother me
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until I’ve had my coffee.
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Sometimes I’ll just do espresso, sometimes drip,
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pour over coffee, sometimes a french press.
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I like Peet’s Coffee.
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I mean, Peet’s is from the Bay.
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I just think coffee’s delicious,
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and again it’s the process of,
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you know, making a french press,
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or the smell of espresso.
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I usually just drink it black.
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Maybe some cream. A dash, not a splash.
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How many cups of coffee do I have a day?
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That number, I’d not like to say,
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but probably like four to five cups a day.
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Way more than I should be having.
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In the back yard I have a treadmill, some weights.
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We joke and we call it Gerry’s Gymnasium.
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For me, running is very meditative.
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I mean, obviously you have to stay active
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and find ways to exercise.
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My treadmill is like, that’s where I go
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to meditate and just find that calm.
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I like running to film scores.
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I love the Dark Knight score.
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I love Requiem for a Dream,
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that score’s one of my favorites.
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Getting thirty minutes, like three miles,
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thirty minutes in per day,
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it just feels good after you get that done.
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You gotta find ways to stay healthy, yeah?
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During quarantine, I think a lot of us have had
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the opportunity to inwardly reflect,
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and decide what we want to change, or learn,
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or evolve into. I’ve always wanted to
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learn how to play piano, and learn how to sing,
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and I’ve spent a lot of time working with a teacher
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and a coach. I mean, I started just by ear.
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I would put a record on and just start to play to it,
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figure out what key it’s in, find the scale.
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But spending the time to really work on that
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and learn how to play piano.
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A piano is like a … even as a piece of furniture,
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is essential to at home, you know what I mean?
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It makes my home feel like a home.
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Pre-quarantine, we were doing Jazz Night at Gerry’s,
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you know a little get together.
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We’d all cook, have dinner, and then just play
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and listen to jazz, and drink some wine,
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and you know smoke and *beep*.
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It was just kind of a thing that
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ties everybody together in a way.
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Its an upright, its an old one.
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I didn’t wanna get something brand new
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and fancy and clean.
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I think there’s, like, a rustic quality
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to an old piano, and it just reminds me
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of my grandma’s house.
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I’ll sit at the piano every single day.
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Sometimes I’ll sit down for five minutes,
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sometimes I’m there for two hours,
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like in a trance.
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Music is something I tend to get lost in.
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It can be that way in the studio.
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You know, I’ll blink and eight hours have passed.
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Thanks again GQ, I appreciate the opportunity.
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Much love to you guys, those are my essentials.