Nasma Toukan

Intro: songwriting
Let Me Run This By You: The fatal weight of expectations, intentional mourning, Roadmap Writers,
Interview: We talk to Nasma Toukan

FULL TRANSCRIPT (unedited):

I'm Jen Bosworth from me this and I'm Gina Polizzi. We went to theater school together. We survived it, but we didn't quite understand it. 20 years later, we're digging deep talking to our guests about their experiences and trying to make sense of it all. We survived theater school and you will too. Are we famous yet? I figured. I feel like I don't know what day it is. I 

1 

00:00:32

Know I'm sure. I'm sure I don't know what I'm doing yet. 

2 

00:00:39

And part 

1 

00:00:39

Of what's made it even weird is that for whatever reason, I, when I was setting up my kids a day camps for 

2 

00:00:49

The summer, I 

1 

00:00:51

Failed to realize that this week two of them are in opposite directions each one hour away from my house. So I've been spending like six hours a day driving. 

3 

00:01:07

Oh my God. 

1 

00:01:10

Yeah. Now the good part, because I was like trying to take advantage to the best of my ability of the time is I started to write 

2 

00:01:22

Some songs. I've always 

1 

00:01:26

Really been interested in writing songs and I've written a few, but I don't play music. I don't know anything about like writing music. So I'm like, so I'm trying to work with my family who are mostly all musicians to get like, to, to, to collaborate. So 

3 

00:01:50

Are you all writing songs while you drive the kids or is that what's happening? 

1 

00:01:55

Yeah. Well, I am just sort of like thinking through themes and, and ideas and how, what I really love about good songwriting, modern good song writing is how it can vary up the cadence. My tendency is to be like, <inaudible>, you know, like the, the rhyme scheme is all very the same and I love how people can make B just unexpected and mix it up. So. 

2 

00:02:30

Awesome. Yeah. I mean, it's something new to try. 

3 

00:02:34

So speaking of songs, I went for the first time to a rock show in two years, yea. So Bexley was playing and I'm not managing them, which is good, which is good. They need, they need, I just think they need someone who knows and has a little bit more, well, one, they didn't really want me to, they were like, you're a, like, I am helping, I'm helping I'm being a helper, but, but anyways, so I went to their show and it was three bands and Bexley was playing last. 

3 

00:03:14

And so I haven't been out as past 10:00 PM in maybe, you know, out past 11 actually in like years. So anyway, we went to this venue and in LA, like the arts district kind of downtown and we help sell their t-shirts, which was really miles. My husband and I did, and which was really fun. But what I noticed was, you know, the amount of, I haven't performed in so long, so long. So I used to perform at like mostly reading my writing or in a play or whatever, like we know, but I haven't done that. So that was really interesting to watch. 

3 

00:03:54

I was like, oh, I missed that. I missed that. But the other thing, bringing it to the song stuff is that, like, I just have so much respect for artists that perform in front of other people that saying, and I mean, it is, I always, I forgot because I haven't because of the pandemic and I haven't seen it for so long and I haven't been to live music in so long, but I'm like, this is just like magic that this even can happen at all. That four people on a stage can, can come together, memorize play the same thing with a lot of energy it's loud, it's it was just really beautiful to watch, but it also was like, wow, this is I'm, I'm sort of become really interested in like, what does it take to, to have a good song, like, or a good writing or good whatever. 

3 

00:04:42

Like what makes, what is the magic that makes a song really work or a piece of writing really work, you know? And I don't know what that is, but I, you know, it when you see it, you know, it's undeniable 

1 

00:04:56

And my, my new barometer for everything is just based on this advice. I got, it was advice. I w it was not, if I, somebody was giving me advice, I absorbed somehow. Okay. Which is simply that I think I've said on the podcast before, if you have heard it before, then don't write that, 

2 

00:05:21

Write that thing that you 

1 

00:05:24

Haven't heard. Right. Because it's so easy, you've listened to 10 million songs in your life. It's so easy to sit down and be like, okay, well, songs usually go like this. I mean, I'm not talking about the structure. I just mean if it's, if it's, if there's too much, oh, this is like this song, this song, this song, and this song, then, then that means you don't really have something unique to say, and you, but there is something unique in there. You just have to figure out what it is. Well, 

3 

00:05:49

That's, I think you're right. I think that it is same with writing, right? It's like, what is your take on this theme? Like you were talking about themes. That is all, oh, and I was talking to someone else and saying like, why you, why now, why this? Right. So like, that's what really, what I'm asking myself about everything that I'm doing. And, and then when I talk to like younger people or people that I may be mentoring in some way, I'm like, we got to get really clear on why, why you, why now, why this piece, why this project, why this thing? And it's like, those are really important questions to ask. And I don't ask myself enough. 

1 

00:06:32

Yeah, for sure. It's yeah. It's hard because sometimes you just start writing something that means something to you personally, and something could be excellent Lee written and very personal to you. But if it's not providing something to the culture, then there may not be a place for it right 

3 

00:06:50

Now. Not right now, not right now. You know? And, and it's just interesting. Or, or take the, take the note too, for me of like really ho then honing it in. Why now? Why, what, and then tweaking it based on that. But then you, on the other hand, you have a lot of shit that gets made that shouldn't be made right now. So I, I mean, there's no steadfast rule, but I think, but I think when in doubt, ask those questions of myself and then it'll, it can only make, it can only make the thing better. Yeah, 

1...