A LIFE IN SOUND
This series aims to take listeners on an epic and intimate journey through the natural world, all through the medium of sound and at the same time we want to enable a rare glimpse into the life of a man who recorded everything you’re about to hear, one sound at a time.
Martyn Stewart has spent his lifetime on a mission: to record the natural sounds of our planet. It’s a story that will take us from a council estate in Birmingham England and ultimately take him to every corner of the planet. From Belize to the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, from Denali to the Galapagos, to some of the most inhospitable locations geographically and politically. He will be attacked by lions and crocodiles, arrested in Japan for filming the annual dolphin slaughter and then find himself in long periods of isolation, in remote corners of the world waiting for 30 seconds of a that perfect sound. This is ultimately a love story – dedicated to our natural world and to the people who spend their lives aiming to give it a voice.
A LIFE IN SOUND
Creative Conversations with Peter Hall
Have you ever felt the profound beauty and sorrow that nature's soundscapes can evoke? Join us in a heartfelt conversation with Martyn Stewart from A Life in Sound and composer Peter Hall as they talk about their new collaboration called Loved & Lost.
‘Loved and Lost’ is a heartfelt tribute to the beauty of our natural world and a poignant reflection on its fragility and potential degradation. Each track is a narrative, echoing the intricate connections within ecosystems, the delicate balance that sustains them plus a subtle, yet powerful commentary on the looming threats of environmental degradation and climate change.
This album is ultimately a love letter, but one that also expresses profound grief. Nature is our greatest healer, and she urgently needs our love to be restored to health.
Peter shares his journey of connecting deeply with the oceanic world through music. Discover how he blends melodies with natural soundscapes to authentically portray the interconnectedness of nature and humanity, reflecting the grief and loss caused by environmental degradation. Prepare to be moved as we aim to foster a genuine emotional connection and highlight the urgent need for environmental awareness and action.
Explore the powerful intersection of music and activism in our discussion on how soundscapes and melodies convey potent messages. From personal grief to shared environmental concerns, we delve into the emotional layers embedded in music, emphasizing the importance of authenticity and a mission larger than personal gain. Their conversation underscores the collaborative effort to raise awareness about the planet's struggles, particularly the ocean's plight, and the importance of creating music that not only touches hearts but also inspires action.
Together they discuss the complex interplay between public awareness, cultural perceptions, and activism, and emphasize the need for empathy and self-love. From the irony of chasing material wealth at the expense of environmental health to the simple joys that nature provides, we encourage our listeners to immerse themselves in the natural world. Tune in to the "Listening Planet" podcast and join us in fostering a deeper appreciation for the environment and a stronger commitment to protecting it.
www.thelisteningplanet.com
This is Martn Stewart with A Life in Sound from the Listening Planet, in partnership with Biophonica Beats. Thank you.
Peter Hall:I guess the process. For me it wasn't really when I got the sounds, it was when we spoke. I think that's when it started.
Peter Hall:For me because I didn't really have an idea of what we were going to do and what it was all about, and it was more about you and how I connect with you, because the sounds are a extension of you in your life. For me it's more that sort of thing and kind of gain an idea of your feelings around nature, your passion, um, your fears and all the rest of it, so that we can put all of that into it, because otherwise it's just me thinking what's a pretty sound, whereas I wanted it to mean something and I know that there's an element of we want to, or you guys want to, raise awareness around the struggle that the planet is in and nature is in. So that sort of informed, my idea around how I was going to approach the music side of it, and then, speaking to you, that sort of passion come across from you, sort of informed where I was going, and I knew that I wanted to highlight the beauty, but also the sadness and the reality of what's happening.
Martyn Stewart:The darkness, yeah, the darkness, because I'd rather I just want to tell the truth and I think you're brave for doing it, because I think you're one of those only artists very few artists that want to walk into the dark side of things, because you know there's always that end button, that stop button or switch over something and we start feeling uncomfortable. But you took it, you know, by the, by the horns and just went with it that's what I loved about the.
Peter Hall:That's why I said that the conversation that we had the first time around, that was what really I was like you're on the same page as that, like you appreciate walking into it rather than let's face into it, rather than the pretense that everything's all right and I, I love that. That's like my approach to life anyway, so I I wanted that to be part of it. So once we sort of came up with the idea of, like let's tell the story, let's let's show the beauty but the horror at the same time. Basically, there's nothing wrong with doing that. Let's be honest, that sort of informed then structure and how I was going to.
Peter Hall:I wanted to tell that story from start to finish. Me that made sense that we would incorporate ocean scapes, the sound of the ocean, waves and everything. And then we spoke about it and you were like, yeah, well, we could have it going out to sea so we can have being on the coast but then coming into, like the sound of gulls as you go further out, and then, if we go into the deep ocean, the sound of like dolphins and whales, and then sort of exploring their sounds and the beauty around that and then into the darker side, which is was the slaughterer at.
Martyn Stewart:Taiji yeah.
Peter Hall:So actually, even though when I'm saying it sounds like a fucking big project, it wasn't. Once I got the sounds and I knew that I wanted it as a journey like that, I didn't find it hard, it just sort of flowed. Of all the tracks I've done with your sounds, it's the one that's flowed the most, probably because I have an affinity with the ocean through surfing and stuff, and I love the ocean. I love how it makes me feel. So I've got a connection with it in terms of how it raises my mood and makes me feel great and I always feel like when I go into the sea it's like I'm not a religious person, but it's like being part of nature.
Peter Hall:Yeah, being it's the closest you get, it's all over you and it always felt. I always feel like when I go under it feels like a baptism, it's like a start again every time I go in. So I love it, so maybe that's why it flowed like quite easily for me the thing is, though, peter, with music and nature.
Martyn Stewart:Normally you get a soundscape, something beautiful from nature, and then a musician will play a piano or put a soundtrack to it, and they don't seem to join together, and what you did is you joined those two feelings together and it became one. That's how it feels to me. It's one of those tracks I've listened to many, many times, because you feel part of it. You feel like you are in the ocean, you feel like you are a gold flying over those cliffs, and you feel like you are something that's submerged into the ocean and being a part of it, and your music gave those vibes completely. I think you have to have that love, you have to have that connection to be able to, to do something like that and be part of that whole feeling this is to know what it's.
Peter Hall:It's been a really profound, quite challenging experience, like, obviously we're talking about ocean, but it forms part of a bigger body of work that we're working on to kind of cover all the major biomes with a similar story around, basically beauty and loss. And the reason why maybe you feel that, like you said, you feel like there's a connection between the music and the reason why maybe you feel that, like you said you probably you feel like you're there's a connection between the music and the sounds they don't just sit on top of each other and there's a lot of feeling in there, is that, as the time's gone on with the whole project, I've realized that the project is about. It's about grief and loss, and I've experienced a lot of that in my life, so has everyone, I'm sure. It's a very human experience and what I realized, what I feel about nature now, is that we've spent hundreds and hundreds of years othering it, making it so disconnected from us so that we can abuse it, because if we, if we, realize that nature is us, we wouldn't be able to abuse it in the way that we do so.
Peter Hall:For me now, the project has become a thing of saying trying to bridge that gap again and saying we are one, it's, we're not separate from it, and probably grief and loss is the most human experience, and so if I apply it to nature, we can say it's not a human experience, it's.
Peter Hall:It's an experience for all of us, like I feel, if, if we hurt, if I hurt another person, I'm gonna. It's like hurting myself in the same way as if I hurt the planet or nature, I'm hurting myself, because we all are interconnected and rely on each other. That's why I've put so much feeling into it, I think, is that I want to express my own grief and loss, my own personal experience of it, but connect it with the planet, because actually the planet or nature or whatever you want to call it, has helped me process a lot of my feelings around loss, and so I will be forever indebted to it for that. Being in the sea, being in a forest, walking through a field, whatever it is, I just I now get it. I get that we're all one now. It just it's like a awakening it's um, it's real.
Martyn Stewart:it seems like in 50 years we've done so much damage and planet being, you know, billions of years old and you know we all went through these things as a kid and your mom and your dad would say it was never like this. When I was a kid, you know, and so there has been changes in generations, but it seems like in my lifetime there's so much just happened. Here's a question With your music. Your music has touched me to a great extent for what you've done and I kind of connect with that because of my activism. It resonates with me a lot, maybe a lot more than you know another artist just doing some beautiful, melodious stuff. I have more of a connection with yours because it's given a message that I'm trying to put out there. My idea in my archive is that it's showing people a change in 50 years and your music gave an extension of that and allowed me to introduce activism into music as well as just birdsong or frog singing or chorusing or soundscapes. Do you have a fear that the message would turn people off?
Peter Hall:It's a hard one. I genuinely think it's probably commercial suicide. To be honest, you know like I'm being honest.
Martyn Stewart:And I want you to be honest because of I thought of all the braveness that you're doing.
Peter Hall:I can't. I, I can't live any other way now. I I mean if, if we'd done this when I was younger, I would have been thinking You'd have been fucked Well, I wouldn't. I, when I was younger, I would have been thinking You'd have been fucked Well, I wouldn't have done it. I would have done it in a completely different way. I would have been like right, how can I incorporate this sound but also make something that people are going to really like? And then I can get popular off it and, you don't know, people might love it.
Peter Hall:People do love listening to melancholic music. I think if you don't tell them what it's about, maybe people will be drawn to it anyway, because we like to. When it's hard to process one's feelings, music's a great place to go. Like I I don't know how to process how sad I am, but I can listen to I don't know lark ascended. I know that's one of your favourite tracks and I can cry and let it come out. And so, musically on its own, maybe people would be drawn to it and enjoy it. But if we really tell people what it's about, maybe people will be turned off. But I don't care, I'd rather one person listen to it and get it. The other side of it I really wanted to talk about because it's definitely come to my mind.
Peter Hall:I'm on the third track now and I it's definitely this grief and loss thing is definitely coming up, and I think the other part of it is like you mentioned, that what you liked is that I'm kind of aligning myself with your mission. Yeah, but that's to me, that's the whole point in this working together. Right, it's, it's not about my ego, it's about you've offered up these wicked sounds. How can I interpret what you're trying to say and your message is important and I'm aligning with that. That's wicked.
Peter Hall:But also for me, I think on a personal level, there's so many layers to this. Now where you've got you know, there's no way that my own grief and loss about stuff in my life is definitely in there. There's also my feelings, about my shared feelings with you about environment and the anger around, just feeling like you're just shouting into like a void and the madness of it all. But also on a personal level with you is now I know you and you're sharing these sounds with me, but also I know that you're going through your illness. Is that I feel a grief and loss around you as well, and I wanted to, I wanted to, I wanted to do your life's work proud. You know what I mean. It's important.
Martyn Stewart:It's important and you have done, mate, you have done. It's a, a set of music that's touched my heart deeply and it's it's another way of getting a message out, or information out to those people who don't know about it or probably refuse to listen to it, but and listen to it in a different language. You know the, the, the troubles and the toils of what happens in the ocean. I don't think it's the story's told enough. There's. There's that thing that's so interesting in what you're just talking about how we disconnect so we can hate it, and if we saw ourselves in them we wouldn't't do that.
Martyn Stewart:The Taiji story is practically fatigued. When it was in its infancy, when it was discovered what was happening in that small village by 28, 29 different people, it's not the country, you know, the country didn't know much about it, but thousands and thousands of people were shocked, right, that you could kill a sentient being like a dolphin. I mean, we associate a dolphin like Flipper you're brought up with, you know, and that misconception that they have a smile, you know, is their downfall, because you think it's a lovable animal. You can go and beat the shit out of a crow or whatever, because we don't have that association with them, but a dolphin connects to everybody else. So I thought when rico barry made that film the cove, that once the western world put the pressure on japan, it would end the slaughter.
Martyn Stewart:And then, over a period of time, the story got told and it it almost got fatigued and people were getting fed up. Then the story went back to them. Well, let's use science as a, as a method of trying to stop the slaughter, by saying if you're killing the dolphins and you're eating the dolphins, there's a huge content of mercury in in those, which is damaging your own health. And it kind of peaked a little and it got traction and then it just went off again. Well, it's a bunch of poppycock. And now there was a saying at the time once the world gets to know about Taiji, it won't be a secret anymore. You know it will stop. Well, it's still happening. And your music is another way, I think, of being able to tell the world. Listen to it from a different voice.
Peter Hall:We're not just using animal cruelty or we're not using science now, we're using music yeah, and it's not about scaring people either, like it's not about trying to like disturb people. It I it's okay to feel sad is what I'm saying. It's it's nothing to run away from and I think that's the thing. Is that's why people turn the other cheek, is it's too upsetting or it's too much for them to comprehend, but it's not. You're not going to die from, like, looking at this thing or understanding it better.
Peter Hall:No one's saying you've got to go out and change the world, but just let's raise the awareness, because the more we raise awareness generally and I'm not even talking about awareness about what's happening in japan or the planet more widely I my personal opinion is that the reason why no one wants to look at this stuff but also turns the other cheek to a lot of other stuff that's going on, is that there's a real lack of just personal awareness. When you're aware and people call that an awakening or whatever you want to call it, but if you've got a deep, there's no way that you wouldn't feel pain when you see another thing being hurt.
Martyn Stewart:Absolutely true.
Peter Hall:There's no way you wouldn't give a shit. I can't look away anymore and I can't not feel it and I can't just be dismissive of it. And I'm not scared to look at it either, because it's a truth and that's okay, like I'm not gonna die by looking at it or understanding it, but I want to be better connected with with my environment around me and and the and the world and people, because it's no different to you know, the, the lack of awareness just leads to. That's why we have so many wars and all the rest of it, because you wouldn't be brutalizing other people or the planet if you looked within yourself a bit more and realized that actually, probably what everyone's doing is just running away from their own feelings rather than looking at what's going on within them. If you can love yourself, you then love everyone else, don't you?
Martyn Stewart:I think that's the key you have to be able to love yourself first before you can love, and you have to be able to understand and love something before you can understand what it is.
Peter Hall:You can't protect something you don't understand but it's the irony is it's so simple to understand, isn't it? Because I don't? I don't know what everything is called. You sent it. Because I don't I don't know what everything is called. You sent me loads of different sounds. I don't know what all these animals are. I don't need to know their names. I am them and they are me. I know that. That's fine. That's all I need to know. We're connected. I've got your back. Basically, you've got my back. You know we need every. I don't understand why people can't understand how interconnected we are, and the only way that we've managed to thrive in this world as a as a species, is because everything was in balance and we needed them, and all we've done is abuse them. And now, it's no surprise, it's gone to shit and yeah, it's just frustrating.
Martyn Stewart:Do you see any any hope in in all honesty, not not just a cliche or frustrating? Do you see any hope In all honesty, not just a cliche or whatever? Do you honestly think so many documentaries go towards you know, show you the badness and stuff, and then they give you a message of hope at the end and, by the way, you know, the buffalo will live on forever and do do this and they'll get happily married in some chapel in south carolina. Yeah do you think people will change?
Peter Hall:it's so hard because, like you said, don't do the cliche and there's everything within me pulling me to be like. I don't want to be a negative person but in in a way, this is going to sound a bit fucked up, but I don't know that it will change. I don't have full confidence that it will. I know that there is. I have a faith that there is a way out of it. Whether we will follow it is another matter. Way out of it, whether we will follow it is another matter. But maybe that's the big global lesson for our species is that maybe it is or maybe this is the end for us and there'll be another. There'll be another age later on and we we've had to learn it the hard way, and maybe that's the only positive thing to come out of it is that people might wake up.
Peter Hall:It might be too late, but at least people will be like, oh okay you've got more faith than I do, really, really do but maybe that's a little bit of denial, mate, because because I've read, because I've seen those documentaries where they go, if we just stop doing this, if we stopped having so many babies, or if we just left, we don't need to be doing rewilding. We just need to leave it and step back because actually nature can rewild itself. We need to stop interfering.
Martyn Stewart:Look at Chernobyl.
Peter Hall:I know brilliant look at that, that that stuff gives you hope and actually the what in a way. I know this is not. Obviously this is controversial. Whatever, the thing I love about chernobyl is that the animals that came back, they, they can survive. They can survive there. We can't because of what we've done like we can't be there for too long because of the radiation right well there's.
Martyn Stewart:There's something I always say if you take nature away from man, we can't survive. If you take man away from nature, they can survive they can thrive, look, look at look at covid with lockdown yeah look how everything started coming back.
Martyn Stewart:You started seeing swans and up the river thames and you you got dolphins coming up into ven. Maybe that's the answer. Maybe the answer is that man destroys himself. Maybe Nostradamus was right. And it's not being Debbie Downer, it's not that, it's just over my lifetime I've seen such a huge demise. And then you read about 80% of wild lands gone in 50 years and 50 of wildlife gone in 50 years.
Martyn Stewart:The science backs it up. If we, if we can't change, we're looking at gloom and doom and there's, there's nothing really, where you know used to say, well, we've got nothing to leave for our grandkids or our kids and whatever, they don't know. The world that this archive spoke speaks about. You know, 50 years, they know the, the world coming into it, you know, and they've got reality tv or they've got whatever. The reality is. If we don't look after what we've got now, we haven't got a life to look forward to. You know, later on, I don't think it's gloom and doom, I just think it's reality.
Martyn Stewart:It's like you say, if you stare at it enough, it may force you to turn around and say I don't need the plastic bag to take two items out to the car. I don't need't need to keep turning up the dial and the electric meter when I can just put another jumper on. There's so many scenarios. I don't need to drive that big truck down the road, I don't need to be as wasteful. The resources that we use in the Western world far, far outdoes anything in the poor countries. We use 70% more resources than you know the rest of the planet. And it's crazy. And the math is there and yet we just can't seem to get past the greed.
Peter Hall:It's an addiction, isn't it? The greed it's. It's an addiction, isn't it really?
Martyn Stewart:it's an addiction. Yeah, it is an addiction we're.
Peter Hall:We've created a world where we can and I understand it, because we all live with pain and suffering is inevitable and all of that isn't it. So we've created a world where we can really try and minimize our suffering by giving us loads of things to take our mind off stuff, but instead of embracing it as a part of life and facing into it. That's why people have massive cars. That's why people are materialistic. I don't even judge them on it. It makes you feel good because you feel shit inside. So it makes you feel good. I understand it. But the problem with that is is the consequences.
Peter Hall:It's madness. Everyone's running around a little bit mad, following things that make them feel good as much as they can. So that's why we have so much food waste, or like the way we eat food is just extreme, isn't it? Like it's not, it's not sustainable, um, and all the materialistic stuff, all the consumerism stuff, I get it. I. I don't judge anyone. I understand. I've got love for the love for you, but you're running away from your feelings and you're using that stuff and, as a result, you're killing everything. And I don't. It does sound depressing. Maybe we are too grumpy old gits, or but I don't feel depressed about it.
Peter Hall:I just I think what I think when you I don't feel depressed it's a cliche, but when you accept the truth, like this is what's happening, it's okay, like maybe it will be the end of us. The best case scenario is the animals live on and they have a great time without it. Maybe we will turn it around and maybe it will all change and there'll be a great worldwide awakening. But it doesn't feel like that at the moment and maybe we're just in another. Like how many ages has the planet had, you know? Maybe we're just in the downward turn of one and then there'll be another one and if we leave just a little bit left for it to grow again, I don't know, but I don't feel depressed. I don't really feel depressed about it. I just feel like probably the main feeling around it is, I don't know, maybe like frustration and anger that people don't face I think my depression comes from cruelty and disregard.
Martyn Stewart:I'm not depressed in myself. I love being back in nature. It gives me the greatest feeling and it's almost like I mean, it's free, you don't swipe a credit card or you don't, you know, go and withdraw in a bank to go and get those feelings. It's brilliant, it's wonderful, and I suppose when you you see man destroying the thing that you love the most, you turn that resentment into a form of hatred I get it, and I don't like saying that because I'm not, you know, I'm not a negative person, but, um, I'm very protective of the things I love the most.
Peter Hall:I found that that feeling has grown as I've got older, for some reason and I don't know whether that's because I don't know what that is where I've, maybe because the more I look into myself and work through the things that I've been through, the more I maybe, because actually probably what it is is I blocked all the feelings I ever had, squashed them down. There was no room for feelings growing up, and now I'm expressing them more or looking into them more. Love and compassion and those sort of positive and overt combat feelings have been able to come to the forefront Because actually I had no feelings and then, because they've come up, I can I find that really hard to understand Because you're a deeply emotional person.
Peter Hall:They were always there, but they've been blocked down and now it all just comes out all over the place. I can't control them now. It's just like but the, the? The irony is actually like what you're saying, you know, like nature's free and when you enjoy being around people, and but there's a limit to that, and then when you go out, you just you feel yourself and I, I 100, completely identify with that. And the irony is, like I was saying earlier, everyone running around trying to sort of not feel their negative feelings, and so they're. They've got to get loads of money and they've got to get the car and they've got to get the job and they've got to do all this stuff that just by coincidence has a negative impact on the planet.
Peter Hall:My way of processing my feelings and and helping me with my feelings is to go into nature and actually that that's. That would be. What might, that would be a possible way of changing things. Is that, if people realize that the answer isn't chasing the dollar, it's just being in nature and helping it or whatever that's going to give you that peace that you're looking for. It's not over there with consuming more, it's over here. It was always there.
Peter Hall:That was the gift of nature is that it was always there. We didn't really have to do anything. They look after it themselves. We just have to respect it and and we can enjoy it for free. And I guess, taking it back to the track because we've gone, that's probably why there's so much emotion in it, because I did want to bring in how important it is to me, how I feel so deeply about it, into it, whilst also the sadness I feel that we're destroying it at the same time, to try and hopefully that can connect with someone and they can think shit yeah, really, that's how I feel somewhat and they can think shit, yeah, that's how. Really that's how I feel, like the thought of you can't listen to those sounds that you recorded of the dolphins getting slaughtered and not cry, even though they're kind of abstract.
Martyn Stewart:I can't, it's too much sometimes I would say the majority of people would probably feel those emotions. But there's a lot of people who have a different kind of feeling to those. I've seen them and I don't understand them, you know.
Peter Hall:Don't you think that if you don't feel anything, you can't, you're not going to? Are they numbing their feelings?
Martyn Stewart:Maybe they are. You know, there's so many strange, strange things that has been said to me in my life. And you know, recently it took me 30 years to stop eating animals and yet my brother was at me all the time. You know why? Why do you love animals so much and you eat them? And I used to. That was my way of denial. And then it wasn't until that seed germinated that I thought what the hell am I doing? What am I doing? And it was just like night and day. And then when you talk about it to other people I try to not preach, I just drop those little seeds that my brother was doing to me and I thought that was great. I just dropped those little seeds that my brother was doing to me and I thought that was great.
Martyn Stewart:But like a statement when the horse meat was was out and prevalent about, I remember talking to this one woman saying she's saying you know there's horse in the burger, you know there's a cow in there too, and it's. It's that kind of disconnect. It's the. What the heck I? I went. It's that kind of disconnect. It's that. What the heck I? Um, I went to um, to china to, to try and educate people about the dog meat festival and people on the west couldn't understand that people on that side of the world was eating dogs because they're pets. And what's the difference between a dog and a cow and a pig and a chicken? There's no difference. So it's just that level of acceptance and what we want to accept. We can't understand why someone wants to eat a dog or a cat while they're talking into a pig. I it's. It's bullshit. It's bullshit. They're all. They all have central nervous system and they all suffer pain. And they, you know they, if you. I think Paul McCartney said once that if slaughterhouses had glass windows, we'd all become vegetarian.
Peter Hall:Yeah, it's, that's just. I don't even have the energy to be sort of angry about it. It's just sort of a resigned feeling of just how can you not see? That's just a cultural thing. It's just like over here, for whatever reason, someone marketed it to us and we were like yeah cow, let's eat them.
Martyn Stewart:But it could have easily been dog, it could have been and yet you think about it, the the amount of damage that I'm not condoning this, but eating a dog, as to farming a cow, the damage on the planet for just its existence is far greater than the dog. And yet, because we have this association with a pet, we don't see the deforestation of the amazonian rainforest to grow crops to feed the cow, to feed the house, to do blah, blah, blah.
Peter Hall:We're just in completely denial I I honestly think the world generally walks around in huge denial about loads of things like, whether whether it's about nature or about the human experience, like your own human experience denial is a brilliant coping mechanism that's hardwired into us. I don't have any judgment about it, like I've definitely had a lot of denial in a way of coping with trauma and abuse and things like that, and I just think, in order for us to be able to abuse the planet or animals in the way that we do, we have to have that next level denial and like. For me, like that comes from, it's no different. For me, it's no different from how, in colonial times, the only way you could brutalize another in like indigenous people, was to other them and make them not human. And I just think we that's how, because if, if I, I couldn't, I physically as a human, couldn't murder or brutalize another human being if I see myself in them. So we have to like that is so true you have to complete.
Peter Hall:You couldn't murder someone if you saw your yourself in them, and you can't. And we couldn't eat animals on the extent that we do. We couldn't burn down the forest to the extent we do. We couldn't fish in the most brutalized way that we do if we saw that we are actually we are them. So we have to say they're separate, they're just a commodity it's. We've just commoditized like I don't even know if that's a word but we've commoditized or objectified nature so that we can then just rinse it for all its worth.
Martyn Stewart:Have an excuse to destroy it. I had this tattoo done, you know, years ago, with a dog and a cow and no difference, difference. And it was a real funny thing. When I was in um in china, this one woman, through a translator, she said that, um, you come and you have dog, and I said I'm not knocking you for eating dog, but I don't need animal. And I showed her the tattoo no difference. And through the interpreter, she said yes, you're right, there's no difference, they both taste the same they're both lovely to eat both nice sweets.
Martyn Stewart:I thought okay oh dear so I'll I'll wrap up and by saying that, by saying that I love the tracks, I absolutely love it, and to me it's a special, special soundtrack, because it's so close to my heart and it does evoke a lot of emotions.
Peter Hall:Mate, I'm so happy that you feel that way, because I genuinely think you're a bloody legend and what you do. I'll get off with you and I wanted, I wanted to do right by you.
Martyn Stewart:Well you, you went surpass that mate. You shot down the road in a Morgan.
Peter Hall:Well, that'd be nice. Um yeah, I'm so glad and and I'm it's the most, it's the most personal thing I've ever done. It's the hardest thing I've ever done well, it's amazing.
Martyn Stewart:It's amazing it it feels. You say it's the hardest thing you've ever done. I think it's probably the most natural thing you've ever done.
Peter Hall:Yeah, it's actually just giving in and just going. This is who I am, I don't need to worry about I'm not even you know. You said earlier like about oh, do you think people will turn away and not listen? And I'm not even worried about it. It's almost like doing it for an audience of one. It's like I'm just let's do it. We're doing something we want to do. Who gives a shit like I want it to mean something and I definitely wanted to do something that kind of valued your work as well. So well it's brilliant mate.
Martyn Stewart:Mate, it's absolutely brilliant and I thank you from my heart.
Peter Hall:Nice one, mate. I love chatting to you.
Martyn Stewart:I love chatting to you too, such a cool guy. You've just experienced another journey on the listening planet podcast. Dive deeper into the world of natural sounds by connecting with us online, visit our website or follow us on social media. Let the symphony of nature surround you wherever you go. Happy listening.
