Empowering Success: Overcoming Imposter Syndrome and Finding Fulfillment with Vanessa McNeal

[MUSIC] Metalheads sharpen your horns. Every Monday, Metal Mondays from Metalblade Records, storms onto Bravewards.com with a brand new interactive audio trivia battle. Test your metal knowledge, crush the questions, climb the leaderboard, win prizes, earn bragging rights, loud enough to rattle the crypt. Think you know Slayer, Cannibal Corpse, War, Merciful Fate, and the deep cuts hiding in the metalblade vault? Then prove it. Head to Bravewards.com every Monday and play Metal Mondays. Say it loud, score it high, rule the leaderboard. Metal Mondays, now on Bravewards.com. [MUSIC] Hello, welcome back to Record Shop Talk. The podcast that teams up a Gen X and a Gen Z record collector to talk like they're in a record shop. That's right, this is Pat Prince, and her chief of gold mine. And we also have my co-host Holden Ressiano, clerk at Luna Records Shop in Tennessee. Franklin, Tennessee to be exact. So, welcome Holden, how you doing, man? Dude, I'm doing good, I'm real tired, but real, real good, how you doing, Pat? I'm good. I mean, you're the clerk at Luna Records Shop, and the clerk, the man, and also, you know, you're in four bands, right? And you go to school, but you're on summer vacation. I'm not really on vacation, I'm still doing my summer classes. Okay. So it's like, we need to clone you or something. So you can do like a podcast every week with me. I can do it on every week. I'll squeeze the time in there. If I get up 30 minutes earlier, I can make it work. Anyway, so what's going on at Luna? Summer chaos. It's, I say chaos very loosely. It's a good chaos. Good chaos. Fantastic chaos. Happy chaos. So many people flooding into the shop all day. It's amazing. Everybody, we're surrounded by restaurants, so a bunch of kids come and they grab their food, and then they walk right in and they have to buy a panor stick or a button. And it's great, man. It's been the full staff has packed. Everybody graduates. Graduated high school college. I have everybody's there full time now. It's amazing. We're able to get so much work done and meet the expectations of the people coming into the shop. So you let people come in with food and drink? Yeah. I mean, yeah, truthfully, like we've had very few issues. The people spilling or dropping food. So yeah, they can come as long as they aren't like eating a burger over the records. It's all cool. Most people are very respectful about all those sorts of things. I'm like, I would never be like, yeah, everybody come on in with food and drinks, but I'm never going to stop anybody for coming in with a. As long as they're not having a chili burger or the, you know, one of the section of records. It complete. Well, we have a hot dog station right up, like, maybe five doors down that serve as a chili dog. And I have seen on two occasions, people walking with a chili dog and I've just shaken my head like that's not going to work. Maybe you should hand out napkins as they. Like, okay, God, just use this napkin. I have, you know, I have to like, surround that chili dog. That's sprinkling until that chili dog walks in, man. Drinks are usually okay if it's like if that one's soda because there's a straw and it's contained, but or coffee, but you never know. Someone might slip and, you know, spill something. I think that's when it comes to an end when someone finally has an accident. But completely. Yeah. Well, I'm glad that you're kind of loose with that because sometimes being too strict, it's kind of an annoyance for the customer, right? Totally. Like if people were doing many things that wants, you know, sometimes you got to eat a chili dog while you're going to the product section, right? Oh, that's right. You don't have a product section. No chili dogs allowed either. No, like. Oh, shit. Come on, Pat. Breaking, breaking me over here. I know you love Prague. I've been trying to get you into it. And I'm not even that into it. So what is the record store like, though, on a holiday, like Memorial Day? You said the summer's chaotic. Yeah. How is it on a holiday? It's actually, it's pretty enjoyable. You know, everybody's in a very good mood. So like, right, sometimes they're busy Saturdays where it's rainy and people are sad and the farmer's market's closed and they had to have their car break. I'm starting to bad mood. But really, like, everybody's on a holiday. Everybody above 21 has had like three or four beers and a burger. And they've been in the sun and there as happy as can be. And if you're not 21, you've been in the sun and had a burger and it's as happy as can be. So usually everybody's in a pretty great mood. And they want to talk and they want to just like enjoy the time and shop listening to good music and like just laugh. So it's usually pretty great. There are some holidays I prefer to work compared to others. And like, right, we're walking to Memorial Day. Right. That's the one. Yeah. So, you know, do you guys, are you open seven days a week? Oh, yeah. Probably seven days a week. Cause some stores like they take off, say, a Monday. Yeah, we are several stores like that. We're open every day. We have a short day or a half day on Sundays from 12 to four, but every other day it is 10 to 7. And take it off this Monday, I would assume would be bad because you want to come in. Oh, everybody's partying. It's great. I, you know, it's supposed to rain up here in the Northeast. I don't know how it's going to be down there. We've been getting destroyed by some rain for the past like three days. It's going to keep it open. Well, I hope it's good for Luna. I hope it's a nice day. Oh, yeah, it will be. It'll be great. Have you gotten any new stuff in? I mean, there's been some interesting. Have you gotten the Paul McCartney in yet? Have you got me? I haven't gotten that. And we have our pre-order up for it now. But we've gotten just about everything else under the sun. It's been crazy. The amount of it used records that we have bought in these past few weeks is just like walking into the back room. It is just a treasure trove of used vinyl. Well, what does, you know, always like new metal cells. But one thing that was selling was the Claypool. Claypool and Delirium album. Yes. Did you get that one in? Oh, we did. I think we sold through all of them though. But it's funny because Claypool also just put out another release. Yes. Primus. And yes. Well, outside of primus is another solo work of case. So we've sold it. They've put a lot of those too. Yeah. We might see a Joe Bonamossa. Bonamossa is a cool dude though. Yeah, he is. Joe Bonamossa's always put network. He is insanely prolific. It's crazy. The only dude that might be more prolific is Buckethead. If you're familiar with that dude maybe puts out an album month. It's like that's he's on par with what some of these rappers are doing. Have you seen Buckethead without the bucket? I've never, never tried it. Is it something I should see? I thought it was him on an Instagram post that I had seen. Is this a gold mine company to see? Do you need to like, lure this out? Buckethead. All right. I think you found the new cover of gold mine and you got to get Buckethead. Is it still contacting fried chicken bucket or is it? I believe I think he's stayed consistent. I really think he has a crazy guitar and open. He has a good guitar. He's fantastic. He's not my style but he's great. It's kind of like a, is any in the sort of Steve Vyish? Completely. Oh yeah. Like Steve Vygeau, Satriani and I'll bucket that out all road. Not really a shredder. It's more like an experimental style. Yeah. I really like some of that Joe Satriani stuff that he's creative. I like him more. I mean, let's face it, he's a great guitar player but he's a gentleman. He's really good. But what it is exciting and gold mine and we'll talk about gold mine shop, the virtual shop, right? Is okay, the new issue came out, the summer issue. And we had three different artists on the cover. We had Charlie Crocket who is an up and comeer in the country music field. These, these more like outlaw country. Okay. And we also had public enemy on the cover but it represents the work, the photography of Jeanette Beckman, who was around in the early 80s for the New York hip hop scene and was also in the mid to late 70s in London. So she captured all that punk scene, man, imagine it, like being around the sex pistols, early on in the clash. She got all these, like she was part of like all his like, kites. And then she went to like LA and like, you know, kind of like 82, I guess, and got a hold of that sort of like hardcore punk scene and even captured bands like the Go Go's, you know. She has a very like black and white stark sort of journalistic. If anyone's familiar with photography, like Diane Arbus, I think she pronounced it Dionne. And also Weegee. So it's very, I don't know if you're familiar with those photographers but they had a very journalistic stark like in your face. Let the subject do what they want. You really can. their personality like the W. Jean Smith stuff. It's very very cool stuff. Yeah. So anyway, and the bad nerves what this is I'm into bad nerves and if you haven't heard them they call themselves they call themselves a power pop punk band right but they're they're very exciting because I'd like the Hives and I like some Green Day stuff. I would say they're a combination of both and you know I it's weird because I don't like all of the Hives music but I seem to like bad nerves. You should check them out. You know they came out with this they're coming out with this new album right it's called Live at Huracan Stadium. It's when they toured South America with Green Day and it's we have a limited addition exclusive Blue Raspberry Cream vinyl right with the gold mine issues so it's a bundle and it's been you know sounded like Hawkeakes it's doing well and it's collectible so you know I could see people who don't necessarily like power punk or pop punk or power pop punk or what do you want to call it that would actually get this as a collectible but have you checked out bad nerves yet? I have a I have a couple times now I really dig their stuff so it's great I mean I listen to this again as I do like cardio I'll have them going on like it's pretty good. I haven't thought about picking up any other wax though so I'll have to check out that bundle. Do you agree with my description that they're kind of like a combination of the Hives and Green Day they get a little heavy sometimes they do get heavy which I prefer that sort of thing I like that like touching on hard core at times yeah I think I think I think the mix of the hives and Green Day perfect I think they have a very modern take on the sound and I think by implementing that heavier sound that's so popular right now they're they're meeting a new making a new sound I really dig it from London and it's kind of like that hopefully there's like a new wave of the British invasion in people but anyway what's cool is yesterday on the 21st in London Newty Jeans Company their store and gold mine you know we sponsored a gig with the bad with bad nerves headlining and two unsigned acts and it went over really well we gave out gold mines with bad nerves on a cover the place was packed they played within the store I guess like you would at a record store right you know flat surface not much of a stage but the fans are going nuts and it was packed people were actually holding they were watching through the window the glass windows outside if people were like lined up oh that's awesome yeah it was they were doing some surfing some crowd surfing a little friendly mashing if there's such a thing well you got to behave you got to behave yourself somewhat when you're inside a store right is it really is it really mashing if it's friendly well I guess you're waving your arms and doing a little dance in a circle right so you know it's more like a dance than a mosh right or as anthrax used to call it caught up in a mosh but it's but it was called tomorrow's tracks the event so we're thinking of doing this continuing it at different nudie stores they have several in America so it's kind of cool that we've we've you know we're putting on these events now that we haven't put on an event gold mine has a sponsored event since God it's probably 19 probably in the 90s with no wait I think we went all the way to 2010 we sponsored a few live events at the rock and roll of fame with a record show so Peter Limblad was the editor that back then and I I wasn't here yet it was pre 2010 but I remember you know bands talking about it so we haven't done anything as record geeks of a magazine live stuff but I'm glad we are because we're all about music history and and bands you know bands that are sounding like legacy artists which you know hey bad nerves does have a lot of legacy artist punk in them so I thought it was very exciting man especially since everyone was holding up the magazine and now Josh Beach who's a were a staff photographer was you know getting them to scream into the video camera for the video camera very on there you'll see everyone will see the footage shortly on Instagram and Facebook but I also love the issue the summer issue that just came out with what we're talking about my favorite article you said you got to see it right yeah got to flip through a couple times now one thing that I find really cool and I wasn't a huge fan of rainbow with Dio and Richie Blackmore but we got I love Richie Blackmore and I love Dio but in separate ways I like Blackmore and D purple right more so than in rainbow I mean I hit the guy's phenomenal I did see him with rainbow his band rainbow which you know just seeing him live was fantastic he's got Blackmore's night now which is more of a medieval type band and they're supposed to be fun so but I haven't seen them but I like to deal with Sabbath right so Dio had a great voice oh yeah but the great thing about this interview is that Richie doesn't do many interviews but he did one for gold mine and Martin pop off who's who's a big you know classic metalhead classic hard rocker he's made a name for himself obviously did the interview and hey Richie liked it which or I should say Richie loved it which he doesn't usually like the press so you know that's very cool he gave some nice yeah but there's other great stuff in there we you know we cover the museum of pop culture we do a profile of them they always do great exhibits that like I said they're doing one in a Jeanette Beckman's photography hence why we had her photography on the cover for one of the covers and they've done a lot of great Hendrix and also a lot of great grunge being that it was specific to the Seattle because they're based in Seattle so I'm glad we got to do a profile in them because we've done profiles on a lot of different museums and we did one on stacks we did one on the Bob Dylan Center Woody Guthrie Center of course the rock roll fame so also the punk museum which is in Vegas so I thought it was cool did you have something that you liked in the issue is there anything in particular that that you liked I'm a sucker for photography I so I had a good time looking at all I hate sound like a child but I love going through magazines and just looking at the photography work and the photos in it so that was kind of what I enjoyed most I looked at the Charlie Crockett one and I thought there was some fantastic photos of him I I mean having a photographer on staff definitely helps when it comes to a yeah Josh piece elected took some great great photos of our lady piece I never got into them did you did you not say I have and in Cubus and Dimitri Mack who is a phenomenal photographer who also runs Metal Edge magazine man I do could take photos man and he did a spread for underground garage crews man it was I love it I absolutely love it and Dimitri props I don't know if I'll listen to this but I'm a fan of his photography dude because he could take what do you think metal Edge you think oh only metal he's interested no he you know this was you know this was little Stevens underground crews so it wasn't just metal I mean Red Cross was there so I mean you had some stuff that could be considered like Indy Garage Rock right okay so yeah there were some great great stuff in there and you know like I said I was so excited that we got exclusive stuff tied to the magazine usually usually do collectors editions with like photo prints signed by one of the members that we're covering but this was cool because it was a piece you know vinyl that had not come out and it's a live album and I love the fact the bad nerves I think is a live band so you appreciate them more when they're live so you know to me to get you know that bundle to have the magazine in your hands reading the interview looking at the photos and then also listening to the album of them live it's kind of like the full experience kind of like a vinyl record is right with the gate folded so yeah I - Oh, it's true. - It's true. Totally into it. So I look forward to I was enjoying putting these print issues together And we have a new writer on staff Marcus Dowling and he does a lot of the like you did the Charlie Crockett Interview and he does a lot of country music interviews He's he knows that scene down in Asheville very well. I was surprised you haven't met him yet since you're in Franklin Yeah, that's crazy. I'll have to hunt them down help Probably pop into story never know Looking for country music, you know country vinyl But we're starting also to put get more country music. I've always been into outlaw country. Oh, yeah, so you know was send to Williams The like And I never really got into the commercial stuff or the more poppy stuff I think that it's so popular now And then it's adding a lot of elements of rock, you know the power coolness and solos and It's branching out that you know, it's becoming more and more popular. I mean and People are buying the vinyl so I think power you know, I think it goes right to gold mines hard You know, yeah, I think country countries are kind of where I think music's headed Overall, it's I mean right like L.A. Langley her new record is like the one that I get asked about most really basis Oh completely Or I'm Casey Moskrates just released one and we sold so many copies of it man like country Even even outside of just Nashville like we have a my family has a family friend in Hoboken who goes to maybe four country shows a week country. Yeah, it's Countries so incredibly massive globally right now like country and Americana both have such an interesting poll And it's really fun to be in kind of the heart of it all being in Nashville Like it's really just unique But like I appreciate you guys doing that because I do care about keeping up with with modern country more as much as I'm not the largest fan Right keeping up to date through gold mine is very easy for me to do so I Mean full support not that you asked of it. I really love the Charlie Crockett song because that dudes the man Yeah, he's classic country right when you say he's kind of like Johnny Cash sort of completely then yeah Man if you haven't had the chance you should listen to the man from Waco. That's like as Johnny Cash as it gets that song's awesome What I love about him is he tries to stay control his music Control the distribution control the social media. So he is fully it's him creatively, you know, I dig that as you know As a music artist, you know because you can get swayed by forces whether the record label or whatever To sidetrack your creativity, right? And artists talk about all this time when you know Labels keep telling me gotta have a hit you gotta have a hit and it kind of warps their creative process, right? Yeah, because they're trying They're forcing themselves to write something right instead of just letting it happen Yeah, and some some bands some artist bomb at that right so completely Charlie's Prolific as well, and I think sets him apart from a lot of those dudes too. He did what like three four albums last year He's coming he's coming up here to the Northeast. I'm thinking of checking him out. Hey, you should you should catch his show Have you seen him live? I haven't but I have a friend that seen him And he told me like it was like seven or eight times like he's seen him pushing double digits and said it's like one of the greatest shows ever so I have him on my list of Of shows that I need to go see Yeah, we also did a profile on an artist called Breekard or who She kind of been labeled as country-fied soul so she has a lot of soul in her music or The heart of soul. It's probably from her voice, right? So We covered a I love you know, I know everyone thinks goal-mind They think legacy artists, but I love covering new artists, you know, I mean We have a column you probably seen it Modern music must-haves Rent by tone scott who does a great job where you take a new album by well, it's a really new artist and you say if you like this legacy artist You'll love this and I think that's for people who are kind of stuck in the classic rock classic soul Whatever You know to see hey you could branch out man You got to branch out you got to be constantly pushing to to find more music. Oh, we also have a mistake in this issue Oh nice good friend of mine and There's this part where he kind of Talks about how you should listen to a guitarist You know more like David Gilmore and less like engVay melmstein He talks about all these injuries that he has with his hands and his His arm and it's like it's amazing that he can play and I think that's why he's retiring You know, yeah, I mean that makes sense. I mean he's lived a very successful career in life and If injuries set in the side as much as that sucks like I I fully get that I mean I loosely say Retired because does any musician retire? I don't know Right Let's keep through to his research has said he would die on stage I probably want to see her I go into I didn't hear him say that obviously, but I've read it in a Post of course in social media. So who knows if it's true, but I believe it I believe you would say yeah, and because who's listen the people who he grew up with loving Played till like they were as old as possible, you know completely all the blues guys So I could see key thritchers like even if the stones were playing I could see him out there on a stage. Oh yeah I mean he has his own his own label and his own music. Oh, I love that stuff. Yeah So the the one thing I'm looking forward to as we wrap this up um And uh are you working out of Memorial Day? Oh, yeah, I've uh I'll have plenty of hours plenty plenty of tall tales to tell you. Oh, yeah, tell me um I'm looking forward to and I don't know when it's coming out exactly the blonde new blonde the album Yes, I really want to hear you know Deb Harris such a great She's an icon and I completely and Clam the drummer who passed away was a friend of goldmines. He always did like lists or favorite albums for us Very approachable. He would just hang out at and a club like you know at the bar. It's so cool But uh, I hope that we could get them in the fall issue coming out in September That'd be fantastic or winter man. Just I would love to have them in the pages of goldmine But that's what I look forward to It's a good thing to look forward to I don't know what if you have a record that you're looking forward to but I don't I don't know if I have any one on the list I have a lot of reissues. I'm really pumped for that are all coming in right now, but I don't think I have any Have you listened to all those records or day purchases? Oh, yeah, several times uh I probably every time I buy a record it's usually the first thing that goes on just so I can say I've listened to it And if I really enjoy it, I can listen to it again, you know Like um, there's a band div div dive. How everyone's their name that just had reissued their first record today And I think I've spun it three times already like it's It's awesome Yes, that's the name your co-workers say do you turn that crap off? Now I'm alone enough in the shop To like customers No customers is noticed thus far do customers how about customers saying what is that? Usually in a negative sense very rarely um more in a positive sense more in a positive sense um People are usually very so it's not what that hell is that I get that occasionally when I put on my my punk or like rap That's not man conscious. What do we listen to? My ears are bleeding They're okay, but any any of the rock or you should say so are mine Also, that's not about I had that having me last week But yeah, there gets pros and cons of playing your own music all day Yeah, I do too Believe it or not while I'm editing I'm playing some music. Oh, you got helps you have customers Yeah, but I don't have customers. I don't know customers to tell you Maybe my ears bleed Maybe I should right I should just some people over yeah All right, man, so have a good holiday. Don't work too hard. I may know promises tell me how the experience of working the holiday at Luna is Sounds like a plan and we'll talk soon. All right. Talk to you in fact But 300 favorite albums with James Campion I don't think there's an album I know better front to back. I learned how to play guitar to a lot of these songs. If I could pick one record to hand someone and say this is what it feels like to be a woman, it would be this record. You know the engineer that was recording the album for us was a novice engineer. He was really the janitor. First half of these sessions for the album were totally improvisatory in the sense that they went into the studio and just dealt with whatever happened. There was space that was left for these listeners to kind of discover it for themselves. They would say, "Yeah, my parents listened to it, but I had to build my own relationship to it." Happiness, good living, peace, love, rock and roll. I just feel like this album is such a wonderful translation of that concept. People understood they were in a world historical moment and it felt like it was going to last forever. In fact, the infinite spaces that they explored in the giant now is part of what made that explosion so huge.