Dan Smith Will Teach You Podcasting -With Dan Smith

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello everyone and welcome to the New Yorkers podcast, a podcast by New York City Cop. I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, published photographer, New York City tour business owner, content creator, podcaster, and above all else, a New Yorker. Ladies and gentlemen, the next Brooklyn bound [00:00:17] Speaker B: train in Mount Biden. Stand clear of the closing doors please. [00:00:36] Speaker C: This is times square or sydney street. Transferring the gentlemen to the shuttle to Grand Cathedral. [00:00:55] Speaker A: With me today, everybody, I have musician Dan Smith. He is a guitarist, singer, songwriter, performer and teacher. You've probably seen his Dan Smith will teach you guitar posters all over the city. But above all else, he is a New Yorker. Hey Dan, welcome to the show. How you doing today? [00:01:13] Speaker C: Hey Kelly, I'm doing good, thanks for having me. [00:01:15] Speaker A: Yeah, we're really happy to have you here on the show today. We have lots to talk about. We do lots of interesting things you've done in your life here in New York City too. So let's get to it. Were you born in New York City? [00:01:29] Speaker C: I was not born in New York City. I was born in Boston, Massachusetts, raised just outside of Boston in Newton, Massachusetts. And I came here when I was about 17 or 18 to go to NYU and study acting. This is back in 19, [00:01:46] Speaker A: I remember 19. [00:01:47] Speaker C: Exactly. And so I did that for. I was here for about two years and I studied classical acting at the Stella Adler Conservatory. And then I went over to Paris for a year and studied, went totally the other direction, did experimental theater in Paris. [00:02:02] Speaker A: You were in Paris? [00:02:03] Speaker C: Paris for about a year. [00:02:04] Speaker A: How west did you like it? [00:02:05] Speaker C: I loved it. It was great. And I also play guitar on the street, so I made some money that [00:02:09] Speaker A: way in guitar in Paris. [00:02:12] Speaker C: In Paris, yes. [00:02:12] Speaker B: Wow. [00:02:13] Speaker C: An adventure. And then I landed back in New York and promptly decided that I did not want to go back to school and got did the sort of time honored tradition of all young actors. I got a job waiting tables. [00:02:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:02:26] Speaker C: Been there too with a couple of guys in the Lower east side. And I had taught guitar in high school a little bit. And I just, I felt like it was going to be a good thing for me to do that was going to be better than waiting tables. So I started putting up some flyers and. And while I was waiting tables and after about two years of that, I was able to support myself just with teaching. [00:02:52] Speaker A: Nice. [00:02:53] Speaker C: So that was probably 94 or 95 [00:02:55] Speaker A: you taught here in New York City. [00:02:57] Speaker C: Yeah, so that I started probably first started putting up Flyers in 1992 and little by little by then, by 94, 95, I was teaching full time. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Wow. So Dan at what age were you interested in the guitar when you realized, hey, I'm interested in this. I feel like I want to do more with this. [00:03:15] Speaker C: My earliest memory of playing guitar or being interested in guitar was probably I was about 7 or 8, and I was playing with a friend of mine, and he had a guitar, which is probably why I was friends with him. [00:03:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:27] Speaker C: And I remember a piece of LEGO went flying across the room and hit one of the strings, and it just kind of mesmerized me. It was just a memory that's always stuck with me. [00:03:36] Speaker A: That's interesting. Yeah. [00:03:37] Speaker C: So that. That kind of clarified what was already there, you know, because I. I don't really have a moment where I decided to play guitar. I always wanted to. [00:03:46] Speaker A: Right. [00:03:46] Speaker C: I kind of came out of the [00:03:47] Speaker A: womb wanting to play guitar and playing the guitar. [00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:03:51] Speaker C: Well, eventually. Because actually, my first instrument was trombone, which I did not follow through on. [00:03:57] Speaker A: What a big. [00:03:57] Speaker C: I know. [00:03:58] Speaker A: Difference. Totally. [00:03:59] Speaker C: I didn't follow. [00:03:59] Speaker A: Ironically, I was doing exactly how appropriate. Yeah. [00:04:03] Speaker C: But I didn't follow through on that at all because I really wanted to play guitar. So, yeah, I. Eventually, I got my parents to get me some guitar lessons with the agreement that I would play my mom's guitar, which I didn't really like. [00:04:19] Speaker A: And how older were you here? [00:04:20] Speaker C: I was 13, and. But that. Because they didn't want to pay for another instrument, because I think they figured I wasn't going to follow through on it. [00:04:27] Speaker A: Trump own guitar. [00:04:28] Speaker C: Exactly. Is this gonna be another thing that they paid for? And it didn't amount to anything, but obviously they were wrong about that, so. So I stuck with it, and it became a big. Just, you know, something that obviously has turned into a lifelong experience. [00:04:48] Speaker A: Oh, amazing. And then did you start teaching other kids? [00:04:53] Speaker C: I did. I started teaching when I was 16. [00:04:55] Speaker A: That's pretty cool. [00:04:56] Speaker C: Yeah, it was cool. Well, I had a lot of admiration from my guitar teacher, and I thought he embodied a lot of what I wanted to be. And so he encouraged me to teach as I encourage my students to teach. And I think that teaching is just a really powerful way to learn. [00:05:14] Speaker A: I agree. [00:05:14] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:05:16] Speaker A: So I'm assuming I'm older than you, but we have some of the same music history. [00:05:24] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:05:24] Speaker A: So at that age, what were some of your favorite songs to play on the guitar or even teach? [00:05:31] Speaker C: Well, let's see. I'll tell you the story of my first guitar lesson and then give you a little insight. My mom came bursting into the middle of my guitar lesson, and she said, you're not going to Teach him rock and roll. [00:05:43] Speaker A: Are you that darn rock and roll? [00:05:45] Speaker C: Exactly. And my guitar teacher, in a master stroke of coolness said, oh, no, of course not. I mean, it's a. Because I was playing a classical guitar. Hers was a class. And she. And so he said, it's a classical guitar. You can't really play rock and roll and classical guitars. So she left. [00:06:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:06:00] Speaker C: And. And he turned to me and said, what do you, what do you want to learn? I said, I want to learn Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix. [00:06:07] Speaker A: Nice. [00:06:07] Speaker C: And he said, cool, let's do that. So the rest is history. And from there it was, you know, blues, rock and roll, and then it was the 80s. So I was into U2. [00:06:17] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:06:18] Speaker C: Flash and that kind of stuff and. But I. I eventually explored a lot of Motown and R B and jazz stuff and more. As I went along, I kept expanding and expanding into like country music and folk music and that kind of stuff. [00:06:36] Speaker A: That's interesting. [00:06:37] Speaker C: But rock and roll is always where [00:06:38] Speaker A: my heart is, you know. You know, I played the clarinet in middle school and that was it and I was done. So. But just to think, clarinet school, you know, the library that you must have in your brain. I mean, do you feel you can play pretty much any song or most songs? [00:06:58] Speaker C: Well, I think it's an excellent question because ultimately I really gave up trying to remember songs a long time ago. There's too many songs and they keep writing. It's just a never ending. You know, it's a losing battle. So what I try to do is I just try to listen for them. And this is really at the core of my teaching. What I really try to do is help people go beyond remembering because it never works, you know, it's not a head oriented experience. You really got to use your ears. And once you develop a certain kind of vocabulary on guitar, you can sound out almost any song. [00:07:31] Speaker A: I like how you worded that. [00:07:32] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:07:33] Speaker A: You know, that's interesting. [00:07:34] Speaker C: Had a lot of practice, you know, but you know, especially if you're talking about rock and roll and pop songs, I mean, legally speaking you can't copyright a song because there's, there's only so many chord progressions that tend to come up. So there's a lot of the same kind of puzzle pieces that you're putting together. A lot of what you're going to hear and do up from the 50s is going to be in a Taylor Swift song, is going to be in a Rolling Stone song. If you take a song like Beast of Burden, great Rolling Stones song It's the same chord progression as Stand By Me, as Under the bridge, as no Woman, no Cry by Bob Marley. I could go on. [00:08:16] Speaker A: That's interesting because I've just recently seen on, you know, Instagram or whatever that the. The same. Whatever you. However you worded it. [00:08:23] Speaker C: The chord progression. [00:08:24] Speaker A: Yeah, this chord progression. How other songs are so similar or use the same. So I was just. This last few weeks I've been noted. I've been watching some of those videos which I think are really interesting from, you know, from when I was a teenager in the 80s to today as well. So. Yeah, that is really interesting. [00:08:40] Speaker C: Yeah, I mean, songs are in different keys, but the relationships are the same. And so that's really how you develop an intuitive approach to music. You get a sense of relationships between chords, between notes, and you also, you get a sense of the attitude of a song. One of the things that I really try to convey to my students is that you really have to start with the attitude and the feeling of a song and then that actually helps your technique. This is not the way most people approach music. [00:09:07] Speaker A: Yeah, I haven't thought of it like that. [00:09:08] Speaker C: Most people approach like technique first and they're very head oriented and that's why a lot of people quit, because it's boring and it doesn't work and they don't really retain it. You know, one of my favorite quotes is from Maya Angelou. It's the same quote everybody else knows from Maya Angelou, which is that people will forget the things you say, they will forget the things you do. They will not forget how you make them feel. [00:09:31] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:09:32] Speaker C: And that's at the cornerstone of my teaching, which is I tell people, go for the feeling and then you won't forget. You won't forget how the lyrics go if you have a feeling for them. If I don't relate to lyrics, I don't remember them right. It doesn't mean anything to me. But if they mean something to me, I remember them right away. [00:09:50] Speaker A: Wow, that's really. [00:09:51] Speaker C: And I retain powerful and it's. Yeah, it's the emotion. The emotion is the glue. Everything else just will fall away. That's why when people get. They're so stuck in their head. All my students there, what I'm really trying to do is help them and get out of their head and get into their ears and into their emotion and experience things in physical and emotional terms. And that I've never seen it otherwise. It always, always works if people are open to it. But that's a very vulnerable place. To be, you know, So a lot of what I help people do is just learn how to relax and breathe. I hear a lot of my students hear a lot about breathing all day from me. Because nobody breathes. They don't. Everybody holds their breath when they play guitar. [00:10:36] Speaker A: Jay just talked about breathing. [00:10:37] Speaker C: Exactly. Jay had a wonderful thing to start us off with. [00:10:40] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:10:41] Speaker C: Thank you, Jay. So, you know, that's. That's something that has been a great opportunity for me to develop through the years. You know, I've been doing this for 34 years here in New York City and before that, so. [00:10:58] Speaker A: Really? [00:10:59] Speaker C: Oh, boy. I won't swear. I almost swear. [00:11:02] Speaker A: You can swear. [00:11:02] Speaker C: Okay. Oh, Fuck. It's been 40 years. [00:11:07] Speaker A: That's hilarious. [00:11:08] Speaker C: Well, song there somewhere. Oh, you know, 40 years. [00:11:11] Speaker A: I, you know, I just, you know, I can. I love what you said, you know, I can feel what you're saying. [00:11:16] Speaker C: Yes. [00:11:17] Speaker A: You know, and that's such a good, you know, an amazing, incredible statement to say to younger people who. Who are following their passion or anybody. Even old people like me, you know, you're not that old, but you know what I mean? I love that. [00:11:34] Speaker C: I mean, people older than you, you [00:11:36] Speaker A: know, I mean, that's insane. [00:11:38] Speaker C: No, it's not. [00:11:40] Speaker A: You know, but it's, you know, time they get the money, you know, I can't. I can. I can correlate it to my life, how I think. I tell people to follow their passion. And then in addition, that feeling is the same, you know, too. Having a feeling, but for music, that passion and that feeling is so important together. I love it. [00:11:58] Speaker C: Well, I think what you're saying really speaks to an even larger idea that's also very much at work with my teaching, which is the way people are in life. Whatever it is they're pursuing is only going to come out when they make music. I can tell what kind of music and how somebody's going to be when they pick up a guitar by how they are on the phone with me or how they shake my hand. [00:12:21] Speaker A: I agree. [00:12:21] Speaker C: I can tell you. I mean, you know, I've taught a lot of guys, you know, on Wall street or whatever, high powered lawyer kind of guys, and they're not all like this, but it's enough of a pattern that I would notice that they all give you, like the. [00:12:36] Speaker A: How did I shake your hand? [00:12:37] Speaker C: You did. You had a very nice handshake. [00:12:38] Speaker A: Did I? Good. So did you. I noticed. [00:12:40] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:12:40] Speaker A: I'm aware of that too. [00:12:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. [00:12:42] Speaker A: You know, and this is funny. One time I met Key and Peele. I forget if it. I think it's we love Key. And it's. It's Key Key. [00:12:50] Speaker C: I met Keegan Michael. [00:12:51] Speaker A: Yes, exactly. And I shook his hand, and it was. For some reason, it was one of those wimpy handshakes, and I knew it, and I walked away. I walked away, and it bugged me. I'm like, I can't let him remember that. So I walked back up to him. I go, hey, let's redo that handshake. It wasn't a good handshake. He's like, let's do it. And he was like, that was really cool. You did that. [00:13:12] Speaker C: I'm like, that is very. [00:13:13] Speaker A: Yeah. I was like, I'm not gonna let you remember me with that little wimpy handshake. [00:13:17] Speaker C: Okay, wait. So his handshake was mine was yours. [00:13:19] Speaker A: His was good. [00:13:20] Speaker C: I was gonna say mine was wimpy. I was surprised that. [00:13:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:24] Speaker C: Rick Keegan. Michael Keegan. [00:13:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:13:25] Speaker C: Okay, So I get it. [00:13:26] Speaker A: That's why I had to, like, make myself look good, go back and fix that mistake. And it was a mistake. [00:13:32] Speaker C: I salute you for doing that, Ken. I wish more of my students and more people would let themselves admit, oh, that didn't feel good to me. Okay. Because that's another cornerstone of teacher. [00:13:44] Speaker A: I don't think I could have lived with myself. [00:13:45] Speaker B: Good for you. [00:13:46] Speaker A: Keegan Michael Key is Keegan Michael Key. But I didn't mean to interrupt. Go ahead. You're saying. Go ahead. [00:13:52] Speaker C: Well, what I was going to say earlier is that, you know, the way somebody shakes their. My hand or the way somebody is with me on the phone, it's just undeniable at this point. I've seen the pattern too often to ignore that it absolutely comes out in how they play guitar. So an easy example would be, you know, the. The heavy. The hard handshake comes out, and people. They tend to be kind of tense, and they tend to have difficulty with, you know, grooving and flowing. [00:14:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:24] Speaker C: And kind of loosening up, because, you know, you got to. In order to do music, you can't be too tense. You got to. You got to loosen up, and you have to kind of be willing to be wrong. You know, I used to have a T shirt that said, it's okay to be wrong. [00:14:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:38] Speaker C: Because I just tried to, like, put that out to my students in general, because everyone is. Just comes in and, you know, they're very nervous. They feel it's a very vulnerable thing to learn to play guitar. And so they. They. Everyone's like, Paralyzed at the prospect of making a mistake. [00:14:54] Speaker A: Right, Understood. [00:14:56] Speaker C: And so I'm constantly trying to help people. You know, I'm always telling people, you know, have you seen the news lately? There's way worse things in the world than whatever. Kelly played the wrong note in his guitar lesson. I doubt that would even make the nudes. But when you're in. Say again. [00:15:12] Speaker A: I'm just kidding. [00:15:12] Speaker C: You never know. Exactly. I mean, I did an interview with the New York Post. I could give him a call if you like. [00:15:18] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:15:19] Speaker C: Anyway. But the point is that you got to be willing to make mistakes. It's how you learn. [00:15:25] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:15:25] Speaker C: Mistakes are the kind of the path you follow. I always tell people you have to fail your way to success, because that's how I do it. I just make. You know, I'm going to play guitar in a little while. You might see me make some mistakes. I just don't let it stop me. [00:15:39] Speaker A: Right. [00:15:39] Speaker C: That's really the thing, because mistakes are going to happen. [00:15:42] Speaker A: You know, that's interesting. That's basically how, you know, you just said something that I like to say to people, you know. You know, worse things could happen. Just recently, I said something to somebody. Oh, somebody tripped in front of me, and I could tell they were embarrassed. You know, I said, well, trust me, worse things have happened in the world. Or something like that. I said, but I feel like, you know, I. I love how your. What's your personality is with this, because you. I'm sure people feel super comfortable with you right away, because even us communicating a little bit on Instagram, I'm like, I even told Jay. I'm like, he's awesome. He's just like, thank you. Great communicator. You know, And I've had to be. Yeah. [00:16:21] Speaker C: You know, it's just kind of when you're teaching 30, 40, 50 hours a week and just the general public is from all walks of life coming through your door, you just. It's part of why I keep doing it. [00:16:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:16:36] Speaker C: Because it just keeps you. I have to be grounded. And it just. And. And then also having to explain these ideas and explain just how a song works, too, in such a way where you really have to put yourself in the other person's shoes. [00:16:53] Speaker A: Yep. [00:16:53] Speaker C: And wonder what it's like for them and. Because if they don't understand it, then they're not. We're not going to get the result that, quite frankly, they're paying me for. They're not going to keep working with me. [00:17:04] Speaker A: Right. [00:17:04] Speaker C: So I just think in terms of, like, first of all, just having a nice experience, just having, you know, a kind of a pleasant exchange with somebody. Because that's the foundation for everything, you know. [00:17:16] Speaker A: Correct. [00:17:17] Speaker C: I think about. Do you know the name Dale Carnegie rings a bell? She wrote a book called how to. How to Win Friends and Influencers. [00:17:26] Speaker A: Exactly. Yeah. [00:17:27] Speaker C: So it's perfect for this situation. One of her. One of the things I remember from that book is she talked about when you have an interview or you get together with somebody, you start with the premise that, I'm glad I'm here. I'm glad you're here. I'm glad we're here together. [00:17:40] Speaker A: Correct. [00:17:40] Speaker C: And so that's what I try to go into every guitar lesson with. And that tends to. First of all, it goes a long way to helping people just diffuse their anxiety to an extent. You know, I mean, I think sometimes that makes people feel even more, you know, exposed, because if my guard's down, then they don't quite know what to do with that. Because most people are used to dealing with other people for whom their guard is up. So that. Actually, one of the things I've. One of the phenomenons I've learned through the years is that sometimes people actually have difficulty with me just kind of being, you know. [00:18:19] Speaker A: Really? [00:18:19] Speaker C: Yeah. Now, ultimately. [00:18:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:18:21] Speaker C: Not. Not so much that it's. [00:18:23] Speaker A: Right. I know what you mean. Yeah. [00:18:25] Speaker C: But I've taught people who. Everybody has a little bit of a guard up, and some people have a lot of a guard up, you know, so that's truth. A lot of what I do is I try to help people get out of their own way and. Because that's the main thing, because I pretty much start with the premise that everybody can already make music. You already have it inside you. The question is, who's willing to excavate? Who's willing to kind of clear away whatever is stopping them, whether it's their kind of used to being the one who's in charge in the room. Because I've taught a lot of, you know, people who've been whatever, CEOs, government and all kinds of whatever, and they have difficulty being a student, and they. They have trouble kind of like just being another person. Because when you play guitar with another person, you have to really kind of approach them as just another human. [00:19:28] Speaker A: Another human being. Yeah. [00:19:29] Speaker C: And so that's a very powerful lesson to learn just about being in the world. [00:19:35] Speaker A: And so did you have this philosophy when you were a teenager, when you were teaching as well? [00:19:39] Speaker C: I tried to. I mean, I was learning about it from my teacher and also, I think acting definitely influenced my teaching a lot. I know that the idea of looking for the emotion first and then letting that help my actual playing technique absolutely comes from acting. [00:19:59] Speaker A: Well, so that. So real quick then too, I want to bring up your flyers. So when did that start around. When did these amazing, beautiful flyers. When did you start handing these out or posting these and going around the city and doing this? How did that work? And what interactions did you have with people? [00:20:17] Speaker C: Oh, my God. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Well, that was a big question. [00:20:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:19] Speaker C: Well, I'll go as far as we have time for. So it started my first flyer in 92 was not nearly as good as that one. It was pretty bad flyer, but the first flyer. [00:20:32] Speaker A: But that wasn't your fault because of the technology back then too, right? [00:20:36] Speaker C: Well, that's part of it. And so I was growing. Yeah, I. I was just. I wanted to get something rolling. And I knew. I remember the first time I put up a flyer, I didn't. I was like, I don't really like this flyer. This flyer feels boring to me. [00:20:50] Speaker A: Right. [00:20:51] Speaker B: And. [00:20:51] Speaker C: And I was also scared that somebody was gonna. I was gonna get in trouble for putting it up. [00:20:56] Speaker A: Got your name and everything on there. [00:20:57] Speaker C: And yeah, basically it just said guitar lessons, Dan Smith and phone number. And I was like. But I. I felt like, okay, that's the start. I. Somewhere in me, I knew it was like the first step in a long journey, you know, but so it started with that and I would put them up on my way to go work a brunch shift. [00:21:21] Speaker A: Right. [00:21:21] Speaker C: At the Caprice Cafe. I don't know if you remember Caprice Cafe. [00:21:24] Speaker A: Actually, I wasn't here yet, so. You were? [00:21:26] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, sorry. [00:21:27] Speaker A: Unfortunately. Yeah. [00:21:29] Speaker C: Well, Kelly, let me tell you, back then. [00:21:33] Speaker B: Yep. [00:21:33] Speaker C: Anyway, so, yeah, that was like, again, 1992. 93. But so I started with that. And then eventually I tried a whole bunch of different headlines. And this was just, you know, black ink on white paper. And I did different size flyers for a while. It's always been that kind of eight and a half by 11 format that I've always gone back to. But eventually in the 90s, the flyer that I probably used the most was rock and blues guitar. I would get a lot of these, like, you know, jazz types calling me, and I don't really relate to that so much at that point. I was like, I want to. I want to do rock and roll and blue, so I'm going to try to attract the people who want to do that too. So I put it rock and blues guitar and so that worked for a long time. And that was probably when I went to. When I got to the point where I was teaching full time was from rock and blues guitar. And then I never really stopped wanting to act. So around 1999 or 2000, I decided I was going to at least try to get some extra work. So I managed to. And it's a whole story which I won't go into right now. I did manage to get on the list of some of these extras casting agencies in the city. And I got to. I got a couple days work on like Law and Order and that kind of stuff. [00:22:52] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:22:53] Speaker C: So this ties in. [00:22:54] Speaker A: Were you alive or dead on Law and Order? [00:22:56] Speaker C: I was alive. [00:22:56] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:22:57] Speaker C: I know. Not everybody was. I was actually. I remember being jealous of the dead guy. [00:23:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I would be, too. That's pretty cool. Yeah. [00:23:04] Speaker C: No, the dead guy always got on camera. [00:23:06] Speaker A: That's me right there. [00:23:06] Speaker C: Exactly. Look, Mom, I'm dead. Anyway, so. But this actually ties in with the HP commercial, which obviously I'm jumping the [00:23:17] Speaker A: gun a little bit here, but no, I love it. [00:23:19] Speaker C: I was a full circle moment that this starts with my me on Law and Order, which is that one day. Do you remember Jerry Orbach? Do you remember that name? He was one of the original detectives on Law and Order. Super cool guy. Broadway, you know, veteran. Very cool dude. So we're. I'm sitting there, I'm playing like an FBI agent. [00:23:41] Speaker A: That's cool. [00:23:42] Speaker C: Yeah, you know, behind the desk. Because everything in those days was like 2002. So I'm. I'm getting my days wrong. It's probably 2002 when I did this. And in those days everything was like the 911 themed. [00:23:54] Speaker A: I was just going to ask you. [00:23:55] Speaker C: So it was all, you know, terrorism [00:23:57] Speaker A: and stuff like that. [00:23:58] Speaker C: But anyway, so we're waiting for a shot to get set up. And on film sets, there is very often food around. And there was a PA in the corner eating a little fruit salad. And the only thing Jerry said was, he said, hey, look, that fruit salad looks pretty good. That's all he said. And about 10 seconds later, I heard another PA say, yeah, can we get some fruit salad for Jerry, please? And about 20 seconds later, fruit salad arrived. Jerry seemed completely unsurprised by this. And we just went, oh, thank you very much. And what am I to say? And I'm watching all this and I'm going like, damn, it's good to be the king. [00:24:37] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:24:38] Speaker C: And I was making like $40 for the day. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Yep. Extra work. [00:24:43] Speaker C: Yeah, you Know, I was glad to get it. I was excited. [00:24:46] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:24:46] Speaker C: I was in show business, you know, and. But I was also making about, I don't know, $80 an hour teaching at that point. Like, yeah, something's not. Or something is adding up. [00:24:56] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. [00:24:57] Speaker C: This so very wise friend of mine said, let me see that flyer. [00:25:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:04] Speaker C: He said, hey, Dan, if you. If you want to be the star and you want your name above the title, put it on your flyer. So I did. [00:25:14] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:25:15] Speaker C: And I also wanted it to just be direct. I wanted it to be something where people understood what they're going to be getting. Because the other thing about the flyers that were around at that time is it was a lot of, like, guitar teachers who were basically making a big deal of, like, I went to this school and I played with this guy, and I played with that guy, and I was like, I. I don't care. [00:25:39] Speaker A: That's so funny. I feel that I'm the same way like that. [00:25:41] Speaker C: So I tried to make it about the student and what are you going to get? And that's part of why I put my picture on the floor. Because I wanted people to feel like when I call somebody, the real question in my mind is, who is this person? So I tried to make the flyer as real as it could be. And I tried all different kinds of poses. I was standing for some of the early flyers, and then I realized, well, when they're having a guitar lesson with me, they're sit, I'm sitting. So it looks more or less right like that. So I wanted to give them as [00:26:10] Speaker A: clearly like putting clothes on the clothesline or something. Right, exactly. [00:26:13] Speaker C: Or, you know, doing my nails. [00:26:15] Speaker A: Yeah, right, exactly. [00:26:17] Speaker C: Feeding my fish or whatever. [00:26:18] Speaker A: Maybe you should do one playing the guitar. [00:26:21] Speaker C: I tried that. [00:26:22] Speaker A: Yeah, eventually. And it worked. [00:26:23] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. So Dan Smith will teach you Guitar just became this thing. And this also. Actually the very first iteration of it was Dan Smith will teach you rock and blues guitar. Because I was still kind of into that whole rock and blues thing. But then I realized that was kind of limiting. And because I, at that point, I was kind of expanding my. I wanted to appeal to a wide range of people as much as I could. And so this really coincided with the Internet becoming, like, a thing, because this is like 2003, 2004, and people started. Everybody was writing blogs. [00:27:01] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:27:02] Speaker C: So people started to blog about what they saw every day, and they saw my flyer every day. And so then it became like a meme kind of thing, and people started doing parodies of it. And Then I started to see some of the parodies out on my flyer trail. So some of them would be like, so and so will teach you yoga. And. [00:27:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:23] Speaker C: Kind of pose. [00:27:24] Speaker A: Like me so funny. [00:27:25] Speaker C: Or so and so will teach you German. [00:27:27] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:28] Speaker C: Or so. And they. They'd always have kind of a similar pose or whatever. And then there were ones that were clearly just pure parody. [00:27:35] Speaker A: Right. [00:27:35] Speaker C: Of, like, you know, they. They take my picture and put, like a. A pipe in my mouth and a goatee. [00:27:43] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:27:44] Speaker C: Why do you want to play? You know, so like, I was like Sigmund Freud. [00:27:47] Speaker A: But you know what? That's. That's cool. It's a big deal, too. I mean, you're well known enough for the city of New York to parody you. [00:27:55] Speaker C: It's true. [00:27:55] Speaker A: You know, that's a big deal. [00:27:56] Speaker C: You never know when you're going to not be recognized. [00:27:59] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:00] Speaker C: Because I've experienced that too. So I never assume that people know who I am, because I've been through that enough. Like, I'll. Here's a good story of not being recognized. Not being recognized, which is. I went into a place in Soho. This is like, God, how long ago? At least 15 years ago. And the guy behind the counter. It was a place I'd been before. And I went in to leave some cards. It was like a little coffee place. [00:28:25] Speaker A: Yep. [00:28:28] Speaker C: And the guy behind the counter had a T shirt on that had a picture of my flyer on it. [00:28:34] Speaker A: That's pretty awesome. [00:28:35] Speaker C: He had just made. [00:28:36] Speaker A: Right. [00:28:37] Speaker C: I later found out it was his roommate who made it, and he just [00:28:40] Speaker A: decided to wear it that day. [00:28:42] Speaker C: So I was like, okay, I got this place locked up. No problem. [00:28:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:44] Speaker C: Guy behind the counter's got my flyer on his T shirt. [00:28:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:28:47] Speaker C: So I come in and I say with my cards, and I say, hi, may I please put some cards over here on your counter? And he promptly said, no. And I said, okay, [00:28:58] Speaker A: your shirt. [00:29:00] Speaker C: And then he kind of, like, put it together and kind of freaked out. And then he wanted his picture taken with me. And it was a whole thing. [00:29:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:29:06] Speaker C: But so ever since then, I've never assumed that anybody knows who I am, because here's a guy, actually, I'm on the T shirt. [00:29:15] Speaker A: Right. And he has no clue. You're standing right in front of him. [00:29:18] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm the guy. And I didn't really. I. You know, I don't really change that much. That's a little bit of a thing out there on the Internet. Dan Smith always looks the same or whatever, or that I don't exist. [00:29:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:29:30] Speaker C: Another one. [00:29:30] Speaker A: Yeah. That's funny. I've seen that. Yeah. [00:29:32] Speaker C: I had another T shirt that I had made that just said, I exist, because that's pretty cool. When they meet me, they would say, like, I can't believe you're actually dance, man. [00:29:41] Speaker A: So did you. Do you go. How many businesses have you put your flyers out around the city, Around New York City? [00:29:47] Speaker C: I'm gonna say roughly at any one time. They're. They're in about 1500-2000 locations. [00:29:57] Speaker B: Wow. [00:29:57] Speaker C: And I mean, to answer the question of how many have they been in through the course of 34 years is, I'm sure, more than that, because businesses close. [00:30:06] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:06] Speaker C: You know, that kind of stuff. [00:30:08] Speaker A: I mean, I was at home last night thinking I was. Got a microphone. I was like, okay, this many times, this many, this many. [00:30:14] Speaker C: I know, I've tried. [00:30:15] Speaker A: Like, how much does that add up to over the. The decades? You know, I mean, that's. That's amazing. [00:30:21] Speaker C: How many flyers I put up, I've loosely estimated at 1.5 million. Gosh, a lot of flyers. [00:30:30] Speaker A: That's expensive, isn't it? After a while. [00:30:32] Speaker C: Yes. Yes. [00:30:33] Speaker A: How does that work? [00:30:34] Speaker C: Well, it's. It is. It's cost effective. [00:30:37] Speaker A: Right. [00:30:38] Speaker C: One of the things about flyers, too. Here's a little secret about putting flyers up. [00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:42] Speaker C: You are consistent. It starts to take on its own momentum. Exactly. [00:30:47] Speaker A: Understood. Yeah. [00:30:48] Speaker C: So if you put. Put up a flyer. I used to work. I don't work quite so densely this way, but I used to check on every location every two weeks. And if you come back every two weeks, eventually they stop taking your flyer down. [00:31:02] Speaker A: Right. [00:31:02] Speaker C: They're like, he's just going to come back in two weeks. So I would come back and everybody else's flyer would be cleared off a bulletin board except for mine. [00:31:10] Speaker A: Nice. [00:31:10] Speaker C: I could just go in and go, hi, thank you, and keep. [00:31:15] Speaker A: That's pretty cool. [00:31:16] Speaker C: So that moves things along. And then same thing with cards. Like, you know, a lot of locations are, in fact, cart. [00:31:22] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, and most people are. Are cool with you leaving your card and stuff. [00:31:26] Speaker C: Well, you always ask. [00:31:27] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:31:28] Speaker C: First of all, I mean, unless it's the kind of thing where there's just nobody to ask. You know, sometimes there's. Whatever. It's a. Like a public space or something like that. But you always ask, you always say please and thank you. [00:31:39] Speaker A: This might be an odd question. Do you still do it today? [00:31:42] Speaker C: Of course. Yeah. [00:31:43] Speaker A: Really? [00:31:43] Speaker C: I put cards out on my way here. [00:31:45] Speaker A: Wow. Yeah. That's pretty cool. Sure. What's interesting is you know, I. I met New York Nico a few times. [00:31:51] Speaker C: Yes. [00:31:51] Speaker A: You know, and it's cool to see that you did a collab with him too. [00:31:55] Speaker C: Yes, that was very cool. So that started. At. During the pandemic because he was doing. He does all these contests and that kind of stuff. And he had a contest for like, best New York themed rights. And so somebody submitted a Dan Smith will teach you how to wear a mask. One, which was not me. This whole thing has taken on a life of itself. There's all kinds of art projects out there. I'm just gonna veer off a little bit and we'll come back to New York Nico. There's all kinds of. Through the years, there have been all these little art projects, these parodies, but also songs. Like there's. If you go to my SoundCloud page, there's like, I made a little playlist at one point. There's like eight songs. This sounds like I'm making it up, but I'm not. That people have written about the flyer campaign. There's music videos. There's a great. [00:32:47] Speaker A: Oh, I gotta check that out. [00:32:49] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:32:49] Speaker B: The. [00:32:49] Speaker C: Probably the. The funnest one that I can point you towards is from a group called Menagea. Twang. I know, creative, like I'm making it up. [00:32:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:32:59] Speaker C: And they wrote a song and did a whole music video called Dan Smith will teach me guitar about like them pining away from me or whatever. And they called me actually when they were making it because they wanted me to play myself, which, I don't know, something about that didn't feel right to me. And I was like, why don't you get somebody else to play me? But that was a well produced video and it was fun. So that's just one. So there's all these different little art projects and. Oh. So the thing with New York Nico and somebody submitting the. The mask or whatever, you know, the Dan Smith will teach you how to wear a mask thing, that was just a continuation of what's gone on and it keeps coming. I mean, I've. I've found in the last two months, just being out on the street, I've seen, I don't know, two or three others like parodies, you know, Dan Smith will teach you themed. Like there was one. We found one the night that we went out to dinner, I think with the folks from HP of some guy who was promoting like his fashion sense or something. And it was right outside the restaurant, which nice, you know, worked well. When I was going out with the people from HP Because I'm like, hey, check it out. This is somebody parodying my flare. [00:34:17] Speaker A: But, yeah, pretty cool. [00:34:18] Speaker C: But there's also been, like, you know, movies that have been promoted as using the flyer as a parody. Like, Mike Myers did a parody of the flyer. Well, he did it, probably his promotion for a movie called the Love Guru, and that was I don't know how many years ago. So my point is, it goes on and on. [00:34:39] Speaker A: It continues, and it's just taken on [00:34:41] Speaker C: a life of its own. [00:34:41] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, let's talk about New York Nico and hp. [00:34:45] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. [00:34:45] Speaker A: So that ties together. Correct. [00:34:48] Speaker C: It's another full circle moment. So, okay, so this is where this kind of connects back up with the whole law and order thing because, well, I'll start with New York Nico. So New York Nico, he reached out to me because he wanted to do a T shirt collaboration with me. But first he. I think he wanted to do an interview. So we did an interview actually in Washington Square Park. [00:35:13] Speaker A: I saw it. It's really nice during the. [00:35:15] Speaker C: The pandemic, because that was the only place you could do it. And I had a mask on for some of it, and I would take off the mask, and people would kind of sneer at me for not having [00:35:22] Speaker A: a mask on those days. [00:35:23] Speaker C: Yep, all that. But so we had a very nice interview. And then eventually we did a T shirt collaboration because he's better at that than I was at the time. And we sold a bunch of T shirts. So that was nice. And then eventually, I'll just fast forward to, I guess it was last summer, the folks from HP reached out to me and said, we want to have you. We want to tell your story as a way to also, you know, promote our smart tank printer. Because the smart tank printer is like this thing I wish I'd had back [00:35:57] Speaker A: in the 90s, right. [00:35:58] Speaker C: Because it's this super dependable printer that prints, like, I don't know how many. It's like 8,000 flyers without having to refill the ink and stuff. And so, you know, I go through a lot of flyers. I print a lot of flyers, but. Oh. So they wanted to, you know, do a commercial, basically, that we. That New York Nico, lo and behold, directed. [00:36:23] Speaker A: Oh, nice. [00:36:24] Speaker C: And so he was the perfect fit for this because he already knew me and he. He'd interviewed me before. And so there you go. So what they really wanted to do, the kind of spearhead of the whole thing, was to make this ad and put it on a big billboard in Times Square. [00:36:41] Speaker A: Awesome. [00:36:41] Speaker C: Which was pretty cool. And I had a little bit of a moment where I was like, oh, Times Square. I. I actively avoid Times Square, but I will tell you from personal experience, when your picture is a thousand feet high on Times Square, it's. [00:37:02] Speaker A: It's really cool. [00:37:03] Speaker C: It's pretty cool. Yeah. [00:37:05] Speaker A: That's a huge accomplishment. Thank you. Yes. So to see larger than life of yourself on Times Square, that's. That's really cool. [00:37:14] Speaker C: It's a very. I was filled with just gratitude. [00:37:18] Speaker A: I mean, I see major movie stars doing videos. Like, look, here I am in Times Square. [00:37:25] Speaker C: Yeah, sure. [00:37:26] Speaker A: You know, so you're in that group now. [00:37:29] Speaker C: So let's. I'll circle back to the Jerry Orbach connection. So the day we shot this. This spot for hp. Excuse me. It was a pretty big production, and so I was, among other things, assigned an assistant for that day. And one of the first things they asked me is, can. Can I get you anything to eat? Would you like some fruit salad? And I was like, I've been waiting 24 years for this. [00:37:57] Speaker A: Exactly. [00:37:59] Speaker C: Hell, yeah, I want some fruit salad. And so. And I told him that story, and he thought it was gas. And so then that story got around the set, and then, you know, executives from HP started bringing me fruit salad. [00:38:11] Speaker A: Oh, that's pretty funny. [00:38:13] Speaker C: So that was nice. [00:38:14] Speaker A: I love that. [00:38:15] Speaker C: So it was, you know, it was definitely. It was a heady moment. And then we went downtown and shot in the West Village to, you know, to show me putting up flyers and, like, La Bonne Bonnerie. If I'm pronouncing that right, I never pronounce this place right. [00:38:29] Speaker A: Yeah, I know what you mean. Yes. And I'm not going to even attempt it. [00:38:32] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:38:33] Speaker A: So you did well. Thank you. [00:38:35] Speaker C: Yeah, but they're, you know, they're a quintessential New York place. And so that was just a lot of fun. And then people would recognize me. It was. It was a really kind of strange picture in a picture kind of moment, because it was. We were shooting a commercial about me putting up pictures of myself while a documentary crew shot us shooting the commercial. And then people would come up to me and ask to have their picture taken with me during the shoot. [00:39:03] Speaker A: Nice. [00:39:03] Speaker C: So my life has basically become an M.C. escher painting. [00:39:06] Speaker A: That's pretty funny. [00:39:07] Speaker C: Like a picture in a picture. [00:39:08] Speaker A: But it's pretty cool because New Yorkers don't care. We'll just, like, you know, in the middle. You're in the middle of a photo shoot. Commercial, shoot, whatever. And then New Yorkers are like, I want a picture. You know, just go right in, don't we? [00:39:18] Speaker C: Yeah. Generally speaking, people are pretty. [00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:39:21] Speaker C: Polite. [00:39:22] Speaker A: Correct. But we don't care about asking. We're just like, yeah, no, they'll come. Right. Love that, you know. [00:39:26] Speaker C: Absolutely. [00:39:27] Speaker A: So, yeah, go ahead. We're going to say. [00:39:29] Speaker C: Well, I was just going to say the documentary crew was there and they captured all that because there's this documentary that's being produced about this whole thing, which is. That is going to be hopefully coming out before too long. I know a trailer is going to be released and hopefully the next couple of weeks. [00:39:47] Speaker A: Nice. [00:39:47] Speaker C: And they're looking to bring that because that started out as just like a, like a 10 minute short and, and I was a little wary of it because there's been tons of attempts at documentaries about me through the years and they've all sucked. They've been terrible. They, you know, disorganized or they just ask inappropriate questions and that kind of stuff. But this guy is named Sergio Camacho. He has a production company called Subversal Films and he, he didn't know anything about the flyer campaign. [00:40:20] Speaker A: Wow. [00:40:21] Speaker C: He just wanted to do a 10 minute short about a guitarist. [00:40:23] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:25] Speaker C: So I kind of liked that because I wanted to just put my focus on my music. And so I was like, great, let's talk about guitar. And. But then he started learning about the flyer campaign and it kept getting longer and longer. [00:40:37] Speaker A: Right. [00:40:38] Speaker C: And then it was like a 20 minute short and he finally decided to make a, A, you know, a feature length film. And it's been going on for a while now. And initially I was feeling a little bothered about that, but then the reality is it's actually good that it's taken so long because now we can include stuff about this Right. Time with Kelly Kopp on the New Yorkers podcast. But as well as the, you know, the HP campaign and the whole Times Square tie in is, you know, that's quite an arc. That's like from bullets to billboards. [00:41:09] Speaker A: Yep. How much, say, do you have in a documentary about you? Can people do whatever they want or you have full, you know, rights or whatever. [00:41:16] Speaker C: However you, I always say, hey, man, it's your film. You, you do whatever you want. My job is just to be Dan Smith. [00:41:23] Speaker A: Right. And you do a good job too, at it. [00:41:25] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:41:26] Speaker A: Besides playing the guitar, which it will include the guitar, but which you're going to play in a second. [00:41:30] Speaker C: I am, I have, I have a guitar right here. [00:41:32] Speaker A: But what were you going to say? [00:41:33] Speaker C: Well, I was just going to say, I mean, I I try to connect him up with, you know, sorry, I don't want my guitar to fall with things like this is going to sound very self aggrandizing, but one of the things that's happened is people have started to reach out to me to. They want to buy a flyer. So like New York transplants will send me an email saying, can I. Will you send me a flyer and I'll venmo you or whatever. [00:42:00] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:01] Speaker C: So that is to illustrate that sometimes the. For example, the Gotham Food Pantry reached out to me and they want nice to. They wanted to auction off a guitar lesson with me, which I didn't really want to do because I'll explain that in a second. But I offered them to. I offered to send them some flyers that were like signed. [00:42:26] Speaker A: Right. [00:42:26] Speaker C: So they can auction that off. [00:42:27] Speaker A: That's nice. [00:42:28] Speaker C: Yeah. So this is all to say that my contribution to the documentary is things like telling Sergio Camacho, the director, they're going to be auctioning off my flyers. You might want to get some video of that because that's kind of a weird thing. That would kind of tell the. A little bit of the story of Dan Smith. [00:42:46] Speaker A: Right, Exactly. [00:42:46] Speaker C: I'm secretly afraid that no one's going to bid on it and they're not going to. [00:42:50] Speaker A: People will. People definitely will. [00:42:52] Speaker C: But. So we'll see what happens. But in answer to your question, no, I don't. It's not my film. But I will tell him about things [00:43:01] Speaker A: and just curious how that works. [00:43:03] Speaker C: Go see what you can find out. [00:43:05] Speaker A: Right. If you can say, hey, I don't want that in there. And they're like, well, it's my film, I'll still post it anyway. [00:43:09] Speaker C: I mean, I think he, he's not looking to do like a negative. [00:43:13] Speaker A: Yeah, correct. [00:43:14] Speaker C: I mean, that said, we are looking for anybody who has something negative to say because that's one of the dilemmas is like everyone's just read my mind, such a great guy, whatever. And I'm afraid the whole thing's just going to be too vanilla. [00:43:25] Speaker A: Well, I've got news for you. The reason you're here, Dan, give me something. [00:43:31] Speaker C: I got nothing. [00:43:31] Speaker A: You didn't say, excuse me on 6th Avenue when you knocked into somebody earlier today. [00:43:36] Speaker C: There are people out there with a story to tell. We need to find them. [00:43:39] Speaker A: Yeah, well, you know, we would love to hear you play the guitar. [00:43:42] Speaker C: Okay, cool. It's called I've Been Everywhere, But I've Changed all the lyrics around to be New York oriented. You'll see what I mean. So it starts out real slow. I was on my way home along a busy midtown avenue when I flagged down a taxi because I had just enough money to. He said, if you're going uptown man, with me, you can ride. And so I climbed into that cab and I settled down inside. I asked him how he learned to find his way around. And he said, listen, I've been everywhere in this whole town well I've been [00:44:22] Speaker B: everywhere man I've been everywhere everywhere man if you pay the fair man, you [00:44:27] Speaker C: know I'll take you there man to [00:44:29] Speaker B: every city square man Cause I've been everywhere [00:44:36] Speaker C: I've been to Broadway, Morningside, Riverside's quite a few168 all the way down to 42Amsterdam, Columbus, West End Avenue, Central Park west, north and south to Columbus Circle, Lincoln center just to name a few and Hell's Kitchen, Times Square if that's not enough for you well I've [00:44:49] Speaker B: been everywhere everywhere man I've been everywhere if you pay the fair man, you know I'll take you there man Every city square man Cuz I've been everywhere [00:45:05] Speaker C: been the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th Avenue, Gramercy, Chelsea, all the way to NYU, Tribeca, Soho and I'm not nearly through this Chinatown, NoHo and Alphabet City 2 West Village, East Village that's where you knew all the things in [00:45:16] Speaker B: New York you always wanted to Cuz I've been everywhere man I've been everywhere if you pay the fair man, you know I'll take you there man Every city square man Cuz I've been everywhere. [00:45:37] Speaker C: I've been to Williamsburg, Red Hook, Park Slope, Greenpoint, Harlem and Wood, Riverdale, Hunts Point, Flush of Metal, Trail, Dreamhawk, Crown Heights, Corona, Rockaway, Bullshead, New dorm, Astoria, Bayside, Bensonhurst, Bed Stuy, Bush, Wick and Fork, Green, Flatbush, Jackson Heights Just for kicks. [00:45:52] Speaker B: I've been everywhere man I've been everywhere man if you paid fair man you [00:45:58] Speaker C: know I'll take care man Every city [00:46:01] Speaker B: square man Cause I've been everywhere if you pay the fair man, you know [00:46:08] Speaker C: I'll take take you there say I get around that's fair man Cuz I've been everywhere. Thank you. [00:46:28] Speaker A: Nice job. I love it. I knew every single place you were mentioning. [00:46:34] Speaker C: Did you pick up the Staten island reference? [00:46:37] Speaker A: I did, but I made sure to [00:46:39] Speaker C: put a Staten island reference in there. Yeah, the people from Staten island need to be recognized and I don't hear any complaints. [00:46:48] Speaker A: Yeah, poor State island does get left out a little bit, and that's not right. I agree you know? Yeah. [00:46:53] Speaker C: Anyway, you want to hear another time? [00:46:55] Speaker A: Yeah, sure. That, that was really good. I, I, I, that was amazing. I, I love, you know, picturing every single nice neighborhood, you know, area of the five boroughs. [00:47:04] Speaker C: You're a tour guide. How, how could I play this song? [00:47:07] Speaker A: Yeah, right. [00:47:07] Speaker C: You're a New York City tour guide. [00:47:08] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:09] Speaker C: So this next song is. It's a reworking of a song that I wrote during the pandemic called New York Forever. [00:47:18] Speaker A: Nice. [00:47:19] Speaker C: Because you remember during the pandemic, there was all this kind of talk about like, New York is dead. [00:47:24] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, leaving New York, whatever. Yeah. [00:47:26] Speaker C: Kind of pissed me off a little bit. And I was like, yeah, come on, you know, grow a spine. [00:47:31] Speaker A: You're right. Right. I'm with you. [00:47:32] Speaker C: So I wanted to. And also, everybody was feeling bad, you know, and I wanted to do a song that would kind of lift everybody up and also lift me up. [00:47:40] Speaker A: Right. [00:47:41] Speaker C: So that said, you know, the pandemic's not exactly the most topical thing in the world, but when the Knicks won, I got re. Inspired to rewrite this song. So this, the original version of this song is on my Spotify. You can listen. [00:47:55] Speaker A: Nice. [00:47:56] Speaker C: Called New York Forever. And it's still a good song and everything, but it's, it's a little bit more of like a slower, anthemic kind of, you know. [00:48:03] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [00:48:04] Speaker C: Kind of. I played it actually at the Tribeca Film Festival for New York, Nico's film opening. [00:48:11] Speaker A: Nice. [00:48:12] Speaker C: Got me coming. But this, I got inspired the night, the next one, and, you know. [00:48:17] Speaker A: Yeah. What a moment that was. [00:48:20] Speaker C: So I decided that I was going to kind of rework it and make it a little bit more high energy. [00:48:25] Speaker A: Nice. So I can't wait to hear it. [00:48:36] Speaker C: Many years ago I came to this city With a pocket full of dreams. Learned to get tough when things got gritty. [00:48:51] Speaker B: Real New Yorkers know what I mean? [00:48:53] Speaker C: So let's sing it together. [00:48:55] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. [00:49:02] Speaker C: Come on, sing it together. [00:49:05] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. [00:49:22] Speaker C: Well, nothing's gonna kill New York City. That's one thing we can all agree. We might be down but don't count us out. Cause we live in a magic city of dreams. So let's sing it together. [00:49:41] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. [00:49:48] Speaker C: Let's sing it together. [00:49:51] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. [00:49:59] Speaker C: Well, it's many years later and I'm still here. With a pocket full of dreams. And I've learned that anything is possible no matter how far away it Seems. Come on, Kelly, sing it together. [00:50:18] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. [00:50:22] Speaker C: Sing it, Kelly. [00:50:23] Speaker B: New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. New York forever. [00:50:35] Speaker A: Awesome. I love it. I wish I could have sang with you. I personally am not that great of a singer. I always say I sing so well you don't recognize the original song. [00:50:44] Speaker C: Okay. It's a good angle. You're a better singer than you think you are. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, maybe. But that was awesome. That was incredible. I love both songs. [00:50:56] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:50:57] Speaker A: You know, I mean, I can't go [00:50:58] Speaker C: on the New Yorkers podcast. [00:51:00] Speaker A: Right. I loved it. [00:51:02] Speaker C: So the Gotham Food Pantry is going to be having this auction on November 4th. Fourth, at a place called the Supply House, which is on the Upper east side. And you can bid online for the flyers now. [00:51:15] Speaker A: Nice. [00:51:16] Speaker C: If you go to the Gotham Food Pantry website, you should be able to find the connection to do that if you want a signed Dan Smith flyer, which I feel a little embarrassed by because it's a little. But now it's a thing I've learned through this experience that I now just need to accept that people are into it. But there's still part of me that feels like I just kind of take it for granted. [00:51:38] Speaker A: Cause I just see understood. But, you know, people love it and they. It's a gift to people. So it is. [00:51:44] Speaker C: You know, I will say, one thing that I always have felt good about, and I want to clarify this, because it's been misquoted a little bit, is that people have told me that, especially coming out of the pandemic, that seeing my flyer around has actually been a source of comfort for them because they feel like it's a sign that the city's coming back. [00:52:02] Speaker A: Right. [00:52:03] Speaker C: You know, on days when I don't exactly feel like going out and putting flyers up, I think about many things, but that's one of the things I think about, is that it's now it's like a part of the fabric of the city. [00:52:13] Speaker A: Right. Nicely said. Thank you. Nicely said, my friend. Yeah. But like I said, this is a gift to people who you inspire. Yeah, I hope so. [00:52:23] Speaker C: I hope that the HP campaign will be an inspiration to people to show that, like, if you're really consistent with something and you do not give up despite whatever people telling you. No. In one form or another, I've had days where I've scheduled all kinds of students and none of them have shown up. Yeah, that's happened. Thankfully, some people eventually do show up. But I thank those people, too, because those are the people who, you know, That's a gift. They teach you that you can't let people like that stop you. [00:52:54] Speaker A: Yeah. And when you follow your heart, how can any. How can it go wrong? [00:52:58] Speaker C: Well, I mean, Casey's point here, it is. It's kind of hard to deny. [00:53:01] Speaker A: Right. [00:53:01] Speaker C: The manifestation of this, you know, and [00:53:04] Speaker A: that's what I love about this podcast, is having people like you, you know, that follow your passion and you can feel your heart, and that's what the New Yorkers is all about. Thank you for that. [00:53:15] Speaker C: I agree. I think it's. It's really about aspiring for something, and New York is very much geared towards that, I'm going to say, more so than other cities. I haven't lived in a lot of other cities, but I think that New York is very encouraging in that way. [00:53:28] Speaker A: I agree. I agree. Well, thank you, Dan. [00:53:31] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:53:32] Speaker A: Awesome. This was a great experience, and hopefully you can come back. [00:53:35] Speaker C: I would love to. [00:53:36] Speaker A: Awesome. Next week. [00:53:37] Speaker C: A great experience. I'll be back next week with more songs, if you like. [00:53:40] Speaker A: That's great. And I want to give a shout out to Wolf. He's an incredible guy over there. [00:53:43] Speaker C: Thank you, Wolf. [00:53:44] Speaker A: Wolf is our buddy. We love him. So. Thank you, Wolf. [00:53:47] Speaker C: Well done, Wolf. We love you. [00:53:49] Speaker A: So, Dan. [00:53:50] Speaker C: Yes. [00:53:51] Speaker A: One final question before we let you go. We here at the New Yorker's Podcast want to know what it means to you, Dan Smith, to be a New Yorker. [00:54:02] Speaker C: What does it mean to me to be a New Yorker? I think it means believing, having faith in yourself and the true meaning of faith. Not just believing in something when there is the absence of evidence, but believing when there is evidence to the contrary. That's the depth of faith that is required to be a New Yorker. And it shouldn't be easy. It should weed out the wimps and the whiners. I would say if I had to put one word down for New York, it would be faith. [00:54:42] Speaker A: Wow, I love that. That was wonderful. [00:54:46] Speaker C: Thank you. Well, I've had a lot of time to explain that to students. [00:54:49] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:54:50] Speaker C: Because that's what playing guitar requires. It requires faith. It's an act of faith to play guitar. [00:54:55] Speaker A: Wow, that was really good. Thank you for that. [00:54:58] Speaker C: You're welcome. [00:54:59] Speaker A: Thank you for joining us today, Dan, for this week's episode of the New Yorkers podcast, why don't you let everyone know where they can find you on social media? [00:55:07] Speaker C: Sure. So probably the easiest thing to do is go to my website, which is dan smithguitar.com and that has all my social media links, my Instagram, which is probably the most interesting one lately because it's got the HP video on there, but it also has a lot of my music, as does my TikTok. And I have two YouTube channels. I have one for teaching and one for my music. So that's got like music videos that I've made, that kind of stuff. But the best way to really find out about me is from my website. [00:55:39] Speaker A: And that is what is your website? [00:55:41] Speaker C: That is dansmithguitar.com Correct. [00:55:43] Speaker A: And social media? Do you want to say your social media? [00:55:46] Speaker C: Sure. My social media is generally speaking. You can find Dan Smith Music NYC on Instagram and TikTok as well as one of my YouTube channels. Is Dan Smith Music NYC perfect, my friend. [00:55:57] Speaker A: Great. Once again, I'm your host, Kelly Kopp, also known as New York City Cop, all across my social media. Please like and subscribe to the New Yorkers Podcast everyone and you can follow the New Yorkers on social media at the New Yorkers Podcast. You can also leave a rating or a comment to let us know how you are enjoying the show. Everyone. We read through all your comments and DMs, so please, we would love to hear from you. Thank you. Shot by All Day who was a recent guest on the podcast too? My friend Dan. Our other another friend Dan too. Popular name. [00:56:27] Speaker C: There's many of us. [00:56:28] Speaker A: Prince Swag and Pam hid for your kind words on the last episode. If you want to be featured at the end of an episode, leave a rating on Apple podcasts or comment on Spotify or YouTube. Also, thank you to Gooey on the inside, Fodey Karumo and Darren Burgundy for your comments on Instagram. [00:56:50] Speaker C: Sure. I'd like to thank everybody at HP and thank you Kelly for having me. And I'd like to thank everybody who's ever shown up to work on their music with me. And I'd like to thank the people who didn't show up because you taught me to not give up. [00:57:04] Speaker A: Have a lovely day everybody and we will see you next time. Have a great day everyone. Goodbye. Bye. [00:57:12] Speaker B: This is the last stop on this train, everyone. Please leave the train. 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