Nigel Swinson

[00:00:01] Episode 17 Performing Arts Series Nigel Swinson Olympics We talked the other day, right? We talked about some details Yes We talked about some details in the Olympics Yes So, I wanted to know with the medal count We did the medal count, but then I was interested to know

[00:00:26] how much they get So I think the United States gets 27,5 for gold Yes 22,5 for silver Something for silver 15 for bronze But what's interesting is the other countries Okay Okay So let's start from the bottom Norway They don't get nothing Straight politics So Norway

[00:00:58] Is Norway a poverty stricken country? No, no But theirs is more for country pride I would imagine, like we just talked about There's some sort of benefit but it's not going to come in an official term of you get paid this amount Other perks

[00:01:14] But that's sad though for Norway Singapore Singapore gives $737,000 for gold How many gold? Zero They don't have any gold medals So they're saved They might want to say a billion dollars We're going to pay you a billion dollars for a gold medal They have zero

[00:01:41] gold medals in the gold medal count Okay Taiwan They give $716,000 Yeah I don't think they have any gold either They don't So Alright, Kazakhstan Congratulations for winning a gold medal in a three bedroom house So they give real estate in Kazakhstan So they get a three bedroom house

[00:02:32] for gold for silver and one bedroom for bronze You think a cow comes with that too? A camel A goat I don't know if I ever said that Give us our theme music man Oh my goodness Oh boy Episode number 17

[00:03:09] Welcome to On and Off the Field Sports Podcast With A Purpose I got your own and feared coach Rest assured this is your boy Coach Boston AKA Still a Nation since 1976 This your off the field coach Mr. You Better Live Yoda Since two weeks ago

[00:03:29] The Performing Arts Series And I live in a three bedroom house What's up Coach? Man I'm hanging in there That's crazy bro Olympics The prizes They said in Uganda I also heard in Uganda The lady who won the gold for the steeplechase She got a house

[00:03:53] and a car directly from the president Now the question remains is What's the What's the value of the property over there I would imagine it not going to put you in a slum Right I would think that That's a reflection on the government

[00:04:13] If you get a medal and this is what you get for a medal I don't think they would do that In the past I don't think the government been too ashamed of their raggedy conduct sometimes I would hope That's a better way because the government

[00:04:27] At least for an Olympic medal person They say you get to live like this You got to have somebody living large to give somebody some hope You looked up a few pictures of Kazakhstan It kind of uploaded It's an upper middle class country in Central Asia

[00:04:43] So like Pakistan Afghanistan It's north of there But I would think it's much more modern than Afghanistan and Pakistan They all got Stan in them This is the richest Stan That's the richest Stan of them all Kazakhstan is the richest Stan

[00:05:03] It used to be a part of Russia It used to be a part of Russia So Kazakhstan is the plug That's the plug They got the money Shout out to Kazakhstan We're going to talk about the performing arts We've got Nigel coming on He's a bass baritone

[00:05:29] He's actually a student going to Northwestern in Chicago We're going to have him on You're a musician Absolutely I've got a strong love of the arts from my music teacher This is a shout out to Ms. Bartlett Ms. Bartlett She would take us on field trips

[00:05:49] to the Lincoln Center The Met I saw Pavarotti practice And who else was it? Leighton Price practice And those are the ones with the Yeah I'll give you my impression after a while of my opera voice I'm playing Can you go deep like this? No

[00:06:19] When you hold a note Ooh Okay Now y'all ready for the Clash of Clans segment I'm just going to go ahead and give y'all This is my disclaimer These are good jokes Everything is perfect Nigel's coming on the show We're going to keep it 100 Why?

[00:06:51] The paper was jamming That was alright Alright Why did the drummer complain about his salad? It didn't have any beats I don't know about that Why did the chorus hire the baseball player? Because he had the perfect pitch Good clean joke Alright come on

[00:07:17] What's a avocado's favorite music? What is it? Rock and roll That was good Alright I got one What is a golf club's favorite type of music? Swing That was good What's the difference between a conductor and God? Ooh this is interesting God doesn't think he's a conductor

[00:07:45] That's fire Oh my goodness That's fire I'm going to use that Why did the musician break up with his guitar? There were too many strings attached That was good Where do pianists go on vacation? The Florida Keys What is a Frog's favorite Willie Nelson song? Nope

[00:08:09] You got to do it On the Toad Again Toad Again Let's get a one What's the difference between a fiddle and a violin? Who cares? Neither one is a guitar That's good I like guitar players Shout out to the guitar players You got another one too

[00:08:29] The Olympics 100 meter race We talked about that No allows I got a suggestion We need to get about 8 cities to create track and field teams I need to see some track and field more than every 4 years I know because the competition is so stiff I want to see

[00:08:49] that Jamaican on the team I want to see Noah Liles on the team I want to see them go head to head more than just at the Olympics You know who I wouldn't mind seeing racing? Usain Bolt and Noah Liles That 200

[00:09:03] That would be a hell of a race And I'm like you they should do that Because you got 4 years between Olympics You got these track and field events Where everybody is competing as an individual What you should have Is teams Make them professionals

[00:09:19] If you could put a team together With Shakari For the women? Yes Definitely Shakari He's going to be my top sprinter What's the 400 girl? Oh my gosh From Jersey What's she? I can't think of her name right now So basically you're going to get the relay team

[00:09:43] There are so many track and field stars And athletes That you can fulfill 8 teams Of track and field I would think so Michael Johnson He's starting his own track and field league He should be a GM He could be the commissioner He's starting it up Within a year

[00:10:05] But these are Those for individual Exactly Get a city together This is our shot put team This is the mobile Hurdles team That would be crazy So real quick before we move on People had an argument They were saying that Thompson really won

[00:10:27] He was arguing about the finish line But when they looked at it It's torso that counts So a lot of people don't know that torso counts Torso is the one that does count They think that it's whatever is crossed first Head from head down It's not the feet

[00:10:43] No it's not Not the feet, it's not the hand It's the torso So if you look at his torso it was definitely loud He clearly got it That was crazy If it was 105, 110 It would have been even more separation His closing speed is crazy Mary's Nugget Fun Facts

[00:11:03] We got three of them So opera singers Can perform in multiple languages That's fire And Nigel was going to sing a song for us in another language That's going to be fire Did you know that Baltimore Ravens Kicker Justin Tucker Made a hobby of singing opera?

[00:11:21] No, I didn't even He sings in his hobby I might need to be an opera singer Last one Placido Domingo Set the world record For the longest applause When performing the Taro Giuseppe Verdi's Atello In 1991 Placido Domingo Received 101 curtain calls And an 80 minute Standing ovation

[00:11:49] Setting the world record at the time For the longest applause That's an hour and 20 minutes Of clapping He must have held that note like And lauded somebody like that dude Like I know my opera sounds horrible I'm glad I did that before Nizer came on

[00:12:15] I know right, he's going to put us in shape Right, we got Yoda You know I got it queued up I ain't playing with y'all this time Yes Yoda said it baby, let's go with it Alright, keeping on the music theme Alright, okay So we talked before about

[00:12:46] You being a psalmist And you had mentioned about David Right Using music as a way in war Right So the second of Cain's 7th generation Descendants was called Jubal Okay So you were talking about A son of David Right So from Genesis to Revelation

[00:13:10] Who are some other important musical figures In the Bible You have Asaph Who wrote Psalm 73 He was actually a musician He was the director of music He wrote Psalm 73 What's interesting about Asaph is Though he was a musician But Asaph started I never believed this

[00:13:32] He was a psalmist, faithful, struggling financially A musician But he was trying to do it the right way Trying to live right, didn't want to do it the quicker way But he seen other musicians and other people The wicked he called them

[00:13:44] They prospered, he was like man the wicked prospered We here struggling I'm a musician, I'm frustrated He was like I was confused Asaph was one of the musicians That was, believe it or not Solomon was a musician, David's son He was a psalmist

[00:14:00] So then you had Asaph and his sons Asaph's sons, all of them were musicians So it's funny that you bring that up from Genesis Because the first musician Think about something The first person that you said, Jubal Guess who taught him music God gifted him

[00:14:16] Well it had to have been Exactly, so that's why it's so powerful The first that God Taught him, he gifted him with music So imagine how powerful Good he was at music, stringed instruments Like you just said So from his descendants Dude, Alana Jubal

[00:14:34] You got all kind of musicians David, one of the things I told you That David used to do was play the Harp to calm Saul down When he had an evil spirit on him The harp, he played the harp Saul that became Paul

[00:14:48] No, Saul, this is a different one Saul was king, you got Saul in the Old Testament You got Saul in the New Testament So Saul in the Old Testament was this really Good looking dude, about 6'5 The Bible says shoulders above everybody else

[00:15:00] Which means he was pretty tall Really good looking, so they say He's good looking, let him be the king But he wasn't David used to calm him down with music So you had all kind of musicians, dude That was throughout the songs Most of the songs are songs

[00:15:16] Believe it or not Moses was a musician Moses could sing The Take Commandments Moses could sing When he crossed the Red Sea When God parted the Red Sea And they crossed together with the other side The Bible said Moses did it, he blew I bet you he did

[00:15:34] Thank you Jesus That's the Yodah moment Yodah Woo Yodah Yodah Yodah I can't see Moses singing When he got through that Red Sea Dude, wouldn't you say If God delivered you from that You'd have a hell of a song All those cartoons we saw at Red Sea party

[00:16:13] You know inside anxiety they're like Oh my goodness Guess what time it is It's time for the guests Of the hour Let's get them on the phone Let's get them on the phone Yes indeed Come on Mr. Nigel Hello Yes we were trying to reach Mr. Nigel Swenson

[00:16:44] Speaking How are you? Base baritone Nigel Swenson How are you sir? Welcome to On and Off the Field Sports podcast and with a purpose Thank you so much It's so good to have you on here man Welcome, welcome, welcome

[00:17:00] Thank you for coming on here and dishonoring us with your presence dude We appreciate it Thank you so much for having me on the show It's a very big honor How are you feeling today? I'm feeling very good today, I'm feeling very energized And very ready

[00:17:14] Well this is something we always do Nigel If you would allow me I want to introduce you I want to give these people a little bit about you And if I miss anything Please chime in and let me know okay? Alright that sounds wonderful

[00:17:26] Nigel is an 18 year old Vocal artist and multi instrumentalist Musician Who is set to attend Northwestern University Let me pronounce this right Bynum School of Music Yes, in the fall He will be pursuing a degree in voice And opera, originating from New York, New York City that is

[00:17:46] Nigel is a recent graduate Of LaGuardia High School of Music And Art and Performing Arts In addition, Nigel is also An actor that performed in his A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood With Tom Hanks Welcome to the show Nigel Swinson, thank you so much Did I miss anything?

[00:18:06] No that sums it up pretty great That's perfect Awesome, awesome, well listen we want to get right into it Something you want to say Coach We got a series of questions for you Nigel Nigel here's the first one So ride this ride with us okay

[00:18:20] What is your favorite NFL team and why? My favorite NFL team Very controversial team but the Jets That's a huge debate between New Yorkers Jets and Giants But I really like them because That's one of my dad's favorite teams He's a big Jets fan

[00:18:36] My wife is from New Jersey And she's a huge Jets fan And her nickname is LL Cool Jets Yes that's her fantasy football Wow She's from New Jersey With the LL Cool Jets So she loves the Jets, so I'm going to make sure I tell her

[00:18:52] That she got a fellow Jets fan That's perfect Backstory I played football with Nigel's dad Oh wow His dad was a tight end at the University of Maine Wow So what was it like meeting Tom Hanks And being in the movie It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

[00:19:08] Oh my god Meeting Tom Hanks That was a Really great experience I always hear about people meeting And having bad experiences with celebrities And actors But truly Tom Hanks He's a very warm and welcoming man I remember him I remember him being very welcoming

[00:19:30] To everyone who was on set He was cracking jokes here and there And he was really enjoying himself And having a good time Wow that's awesome He's an awesome actor Got another question, two fold So when did you know your singing

[00:19:46] Was special and then how did you know This would be your ticket to college in the future That's a great question So my first time I knew that I wanted to do singing Was I was in 7th grade And this was the second ever live performance

[00:20:02] That I had ever done And before I had This musical called You're in Town The Musical And my aunt, the one who actually inspired me to sing She was there And I was very nervous that she was there Because she sang backup vocals for the brother Johnson

[00:20:22] She did all the singing So that's my aunt Right, right So after the show And after she had heard me sing for the first time She told me that I had a gift And she told me that if I really wanted to

[00:20:38] I could become very serious about this And have a career in it And so I listened to her And then I applied to LaGuardia High School next year And I got in And I made some amazing friends And I made some amazing connections with teachers

[00:20:52] And they hoisted me onto the road of singing and performing More than I already wanted to do That's awesome, dude Tell us about your family meeting The Robertson Experience story Oh my goodness That was a So basically Right around my neighborhood Is this deli called Samad

[00:21:14] And I've been going there ever since I could walk The owners know me very well And every time Every time I walk into the store They know my order perfectly I always get a lemon poppy muffin And all that Very good

[00:21:30] So one day I walk into the store And there's this man He's wearing a very nice suit He's wearing glasses and a hat And I've never seen him in the store before And the owner He says Nigel I want you to meet this man

[00:21:46] So I shake the man's hand And he's like, oh do you live around the neighborhood? And we get to chat And eventually I tell him that I sing classical music And he asks me who Are some of my favorite artists Who are some of my favorite singers, vocalists

[00:22:00] And I say, one of my favorites In all of these, Paul Robeson And he said, you wouldn't believe this But Paul Robeson is actually My great uncle And he pulls out his Very small world And he pulls out his ID And it says Michael Robeson on it

[00:22:18] And I'm like, wow that's crazy And so Isn't that crazy? And so the story gets better though The story gets better And so the next month We exchange Information And he invites me to sing At this restaurant Which is like known around Harlem and the Upper West Side

[00:22:42] Or Used to be known for having classical Singers and they had an opera night And so I got to meet Five other Opera singers and it was a really Great experience and I got to meet This actually famous bass Who has an amazing voice

[00:23:00] His name was Kofi Hayford And so It's a very great experience Very, very great experience So let me ask you this Do you mind singing Deep River? Oh, of course That would be great How much do you want?

[00:23:18] Do you want the whole thing or do you want a little snippet? Give us a snippet Alright Deep River My My Home Is The Jordan Deep Deep River Lord I want To cross All that You can't Oh Wow Give it up for Nigel I'm ready to sing too

[00:24:14] Nigel, I need to start practicing my Deep River I can't do that Dude, you sound really, really good That was fire That was fire So tell us an awesome moment As a singer Tell us something that happened when you sung An awesome moment Okay, an awesome moment

[00:24:36] I'll tell you a moment that happened recently Actually The concert was pretty small Me and this One of the groups that actually got me started Singing was this group At Teachers College, Columbia University That my friend's Mom had got me in touch with

[00:24:54] And so we were doing some Singing at an elderly home A few months ago And I had a solo I actually sang Deep River the whole thing And by the end of it This older woman Had broke down into tears Oh wow

[00:25:12] This older woman had broke down into tears And I was really touched I bet I didn't know that I could touch somebody like that And it was very inspiring to me Awesome, nice So let me ask you this, why did you choose Northwestern? What made you choose Northwestern?

[00:25:28] That's a great question There's a lot of reasons But the main reason is because The welcoming and supporting nature Of the school I'm going to be honest, Northwestern The audition process I think I felt the most nervous For the Northwestern audition But as soon as I walked

[00:25:48] Into the room, I could tell that All the teachers were extremely Extremely friendly And they gave me the same Home and comfortability feeling That I felt at LaGuardia with my teachers Okay By the end, I had known That I had a really strong feeling

[00:26:06] That if I got in, I would Really try my best to go Let me ask you this real quick, what did you sing for them? Do you remember what you sang for them? Yes I sang Three pieces I sang A song called Sally Gardens Arranged by Benjamin Britten

[00:26:26] I sang A German song By Beethoven called Ich liebe dich, which means I love you in German So you sing in German too? Yes I do, I sing In German, Italian, French I sang in Mandarin A really long time ago Man, go along with that

[00:26:48] Go along with that, Nigel Give him a round of applause I sang all these different languages Man The funny thing, the funny thing, I got to tell you something that's really funny Go ahead The funny thing is that I sang in a few of these languages

[00:27:06] But if you would ask me to have a conversation In these languages, I couldn't tell you A single thing A single thing I couldn't tell you Really? You'd have to sing it back to them That's what it is Exactly, I fooled one person I sang with him

[00:27:22] And he asked me if I spoke German Because he liked my diction And I was like, nope, not a single clue What do you want to do in the future With your singing? I want to pursue Classical voice I want to pursue opera And

[00:27:40] I want to not just Do opera and I want to open myself up To all kinds of music Because I'm a multi-instrumentalist as well Which instruments do you play? Which instruments, real quick? I'm a keyboardist I'm an electric bassist An upright bassist And I'm a percussionist as well

[00:28:00] Okay, awesome Wow So who are some of your favorite male singers? Other than Paul Reuven Other than, yeah Well, modern wise I love Stevie Wonder Luther VanDraws Marvin Gaye I love John Legend Those are my favorite guys Let me ask you this question real quick

[00:28:26] So you are basically You're technically a bass Singer, you're classified as bass Bass baritone Yes, bass baritone I'm a bass baritone Baritones typically have higher ranges But I'm still trying to solidify that But this past year I've been focused on developing

[00:28:46] And fortifying my lower parts of my voice Okay, okay That's awesome What was it like growing up in Harlem And do you think growing up in Harlem Helped or hurt your chances Of pursuing your dream? Hmm Growing up in Harlem It's been I love the community here

[00:29:08] It really feels like a family I've got some neighbors down the street And I can walk Okay, good But the one thing is The challenging thing And it's not just growing up in Harlem It's just being surrounded with family All of my family Most of my family

[00:29:28] Is pursuing athletics In some sort of way So for me to be One of the Besides my aunt And one of my cousins To music That was A pretty difficult change You come from an athletic family I do And you know having said that

[00:29:52] Have you received any scholarships To attend Northwestern Compared to a full ride athletic scholarship You need help right? No, I did receive a music scholarship That was very helpful Does that cover all the costs For It doesn't cover all the costs So

[00:30:12] It covers a good amount but it doesn't cover All the costs I still need a bit of room financially For some help So what would you tell someone listening Why they should help you And how they can support your dream financially Do you have a GoFundMe

[00:30:28] Yes, I do have a GoFundMe Okay So we're going to put the GoFundMe on the link On the website And obviously You're not using this for To party around Chicago's skyline You're trying to actually Fund your future, educate yourself We need to support

[00:30:50] We need to support Niger guys Here's a young Black male that's actually positive Doing well, we need to rally around him And So if you're hearing this Let's rally behind him Yes, we need him 100% Covered, we need him 100% 120% funded There's enough money

[00:31:12] Amongst the neighborhood that we should be able to do that We can send out That'd be truly wonderful Studying music in college It's a really critical step For me and not just fulfilling My dream of becoming a professional Musician And really developing the skills and

[00:31:30] Knowledge that will allow me To contribute meaningfully to the world Well if you can If you let me, I want to nickname you Harlem's first son If I could If I could nickname you Harlem's first son Niger Swenson That's right Let's support it

[00:31:50] Alright, we got a new segment here Question and answer Your favorite video game My favorite video game You know, I grew up I played a lot on Minecraft When I was little, that was my thing So you like Minecraft Okay Little me loved Minecraft

[00:32:10] Do you play like the regular consoles Like Xbox or PS5 I do I have a PS4 And I don't get to play it too often I'd love to play it more often My schedule Doesn't quite allow for it What's the last thing

[00:32:28] What's the last thing you added to your wardrobe? The last thing I added to my Wardrobe I added this This button down Orange And blue shirt That I got on sale Very nice shirt Alright, cool This is an Animal Planet segment we got Which do you prefer

[00:32:56] As a pet, a dog or a cat? Oh, I'm a big time cat person Okay, cool Do you have a cat? I wish I did My mom's definitely allergic In the future I'd love a cat What's the name You got to have a nice musical name

[00:33:16] What are you going to name your cat? You know, actually I was thinking about this a lot But there's this composer who I really like His name is Maurice Ravel So I'd probably name him Listen, Nigel Thank you Because I listened to him last night

[00:33:34] When I was putting these questions together To kind of get some inspiration Man, he's fire Isn't he? Oh wow Yes, I was enjoying that So this is called the On and Off the Field Book Club Tell us Who is your favorite author? My favorite author

[00:33:58] Is probably this woman by the name of Rita Sepatiz Okay What does she write? Her real name is Rita Sepatiz She wrote this book that I really love Called Salt to the Sea Salt to the Sea And it's about Historical fiction book Based on the experiences of

[00:34:20] The Indians during World War II So it's very interesting read Wow, I bet that's thought provoking Okay Alright, this is the first in 10 segment Do you think the Golden State Warriors Will win another championship? That is a good question You know, I always have hope

[00:34:38] I've been a long time Golden State Warriors Man, I am not a bandwagon I've been with them since 2015 Is when I started Loving the Warriors I have faith Amen to you So you like this This is the Blue Bag music segment

[00:34:58] Tell us about the music you listen to Other than yours So I listen to a lot of 70s, 80s, 90s R&B Like I said, Stevie Wonder is one of my all time favorites He's a big inspiration too And he's listening to him

[00:35:14] And listening to how the chords work And the music has really helped me as a musician Wow I also I'm a big jazz lover I love Herbie Hancock Chick Corea, Stanley Clark I love Classical piano too Cool So this is a two thumbs up segment

[00:35:36] For a series you're watching on TV What is your favorite series ever? Ooh I just I just got finished With a series on Netflix Called Dexter Have you guys Dexter's been around for a while Dexter used to come out on Showtime Yeah With Michael C. Hall

[00:36:00] I finished it In three weeks It's eight seasons long I was obsessed It was amazing Okay, so this is our new segment It's called The Arts, thanks to you Can you sing a song in another Language? Give us a snippet Okay, of course Alright Would you guys like

[00:36:26] German? Let's do German Yes No Nice Listen, listen Could you put Nigel back on the phone now? Cause dude, how do you change your voice? Your voice You go in two or three octaves lower Than you talk I'm a musician myself So I know about octaves

[00:37:22] So your voice, you speak on a tenor level Your voice speaks on a tenor level Right But when you sing you go Two octaves down That is amazing You know when you were singing that I'ma be honest I'm a visual person I saw a submarine

[00:37:42] Down in the water With some Germans walking around Going to war I could see that When you were singing dude I could see Red October The hunk of Red October Sean Connery They on the hut That was awesome You made me feel like Literally dude Russian submarine

[00:38:10] I know you were singing German but It's fire Northwestern don't know what they got They don't know Alright here's our health as well segment Alright are you health conscious As an 18 year old Musician, are you really health conscious? Oh I'm very health conscious My dad

[00:38:30] Has made a really Good job of making sure I'm careful Of what I eat and how I'm exercising And all that So do you work on a lot of cardio I'm sure you work on a lot of cardio Having to breathe and you know Singing Definitely

[00:38:48] Actually a lot of cardio One of my teachers who I'm so incredibly thankful for His name is Mr. Victor Clark During some of our vocal warm ups He would have us do jumping jacks And push ups And sprints while we're singing

[00:39:04] I'm sure he would have the true body The full body in and it's been very helpful Let me ask you this From one musician to another I sing too but I don't do opera But I'm sure The structure Is the same How important it is

[00:39:22] How much can you stress how important It is singing from the diaphragm Rather than from your throat Which a lot of people do from their throat Oh my goodness I see that epidemic, I see it everywhere People singing from their throat

[00:39:36] And it's bad for you the long term Because once you get Normalized Singing in the throat It hurts your larynx and it hurts Everything in there and it just makes it A really breathy sound Singing from your diaphragm And singing from your core

[00:39:54] That's one of the most important things You could do as a vocalist Right That's a good one So being a black male Do you receive any push back From your peers singing opera Or classical music? Well There's not a whole Lot of us in the field

[00:40:16] Luckily I've been In a pretty supportive Environment But I've had a lot of instances Where I doubt myself Should I really be pursuing this Because I don't see a lot of who I look like In my field so sometimes it can be A little bit disinspiring Right, sure

[00:40:36] I just got to remember My aunt and who came before me And that the people who do look like me That are in my field they will always support me And if you don't know Nothing else remember that Us on this podcast we're telling you

[00:40:50] You are really good All that out in the field, we co-signing So yeah, you're going to be special You're Harlow's first son We got you, that's your name From here on out So tell us About your family and tell us in some of the ways They've supported you

[00:41:08] In what areas and how they've supported you In some areas Oh yeah, well my family has been very Supportive with helping me get voice lessons They have always been there For me when I had an audition They come to 99% Of performances and if they

[00:41:24] Can't come to it they'll watch it online But they always come to my performances They don't Give me a hard time when I'm Practicing and you know Screeching at the top of my lungs Waking up all the neighbors And they let me have my practice time Oh okay

[00:41:42] They've been really amazing What is something you look for In a friend? I look for loyalty Loyalty and Honesty is one of the Two things that I really look for That's good, I like that I got a quote of the day Nigel

[00:42:00] I want to quote something Bob Marley said I want to get your thoughts on it okay? Alright Bob Marley said and I quote One good thing about music When it hits you, you feel no pain I agree with that 100% That's right What does it do for you?

[00:42:18] What does music do for you? It's a Really big relaxer It's a really big No matter how I feel, there's certain people Certain artists who can always Calm me down Whether I'm feeling intense It's a really beautiful thing because it has The ability to control So much

[00:42:40] Emotions and heal so much Do you find that it temporarily takes You away from a present situation? 100% all the time I kind of find that too When you're operating in your gift You tend to get lost in that gift That's a whole other world Michael Jackson Said that

[00:43:00] He was the most free when he was on stage I completely Agree with that I can understand that too, I really can That's something that's really good Final Sports Drive Jeopardy We're going to hit you with some more questions here Alright This is awesome

[00:43:20] This is called Coming Out of the Tunnel And this came about From asking a Football player how they felt Right before the game when they came out The locker room So for you, describe the feeling right before You perform at a live Before a live audience

[00:43:38] That's a great question Give us the deets What's going through your mind? I'll give you it So before Right before I'd say the day before I feel no nervousness But recently I used to get Terrified before performances So I kind of grew into it

[00:44:00] But then an hour before the performance I usually get really Nervous and psyched And I start feeling like Shivers down my spine And I'm like, oh my god, X, Y, and Z is going to go on And that nervousness It's like an emptiness in your stomach

[00:44:16] Like you haven't ate for a while That's the perfect way to describe it Wow And then right before I feel that nervousness And as soon as I step on stage And I am the character I think the nervousness goes away And I truly think about

[00:44:34] I truly remove myself I truly remove Nigel Swinton from the equation And I only think about the character I love that answer When you said When you spoke of yourself When you realized that you're the character It's like you shift modes in I love that answer Alright, Nigel

[00:44:54] We want to take us Travel through your eyes Take us with you to the favorite place you visited and why? The favorite place I visited Well That's a great question I think one of the favorite places I visited Was Savannah, Georgia I was there recently

[00:45:18] For a family reunion And I got to see so much of my own history It was really It was really beautiful It was really Invigorating It was really powerful Some of it was a bit painful Seeing all this stuff It was really inspiring And it really Specifically

[00:45:42] It gave me more reinforcement To keep on going I have to make it I have to prove all the people who worked So hard before me Right Having said that, I have another question This is an addition In your opinion What does opera music Classical music

[00:46:04] Well, I think that's a Great question The culture Right now It's really old school Some of it is a bit rigid And there's not a whole lot of Us in there So I think that going into there And opening it up for other

[00:46:24] Young black boys and girls who want to do it Is a really important thing for me to do That's awesome Growing up in New York What are some things you had to be careful of? Well The train is a big part The train The train

[00:46:42] The train gets a red flag The train Is a red flag But Music wise You always got to be careful for the people who are Jealous And for the people who Are trying to throw you under the bus I've had to Unfortunately encounter some of those people

[00:47:04] And now Luckily encountering some of those people has Given me a good radar of what I've got to look out for In Chicago Wow, that's awesome Alright so here's a where were you segment Recently we had An eclipse It was on What is that, April 8th

[00:47:24] Where were you when we had that eclipse? Do you remember? I do not remember On April 8th You were probably in school Yeah I was probably in school I think What was I doing? I was in school April 8th was a Oh, April 8th

[00:47:49] I know what I was doing So the day after April 9th I had a concert And so the whole day And it was Blacked out means that For those who don't know, blacked out When a musician or a performer says they have Blacked out it means that

[00:48:07] They have a rehearsal that's the most important Rehearsal before the show And so that Blackout was probably one of the most Stressful blackouts That I ever had to experience Because the show that I was performing Was New Music Ensemble at my School

[00:48:25] What a bunch of composers and songwriters That get together and they make music I'm also Besides being a classical musician I'm also a songwriter And a composer as well So some people their songs Were not Their compositions were not ready And so it was very stressful

[00:48:45] But the show went amazing by the way We got it ready in time Nice, picked an irony that you were in a blackout Doing an eclipse Alright, would you rather segment Would you rather be a member of the X-Men or the Avengers X-Men 100% He said that quick

[00:49:03] Who's your favorite X-Men character Definitely Storm She's actually from Harlem She was born in Harlem Storm was born in Harlem Facts, she is, who were you? I like that Alright, we got a game segment The charades We're going to do movie titles We're going to pick one

[00:49:27] I'm going to go first I can't say the name of the movie but I'm going to give you some hints Alright Coach will give me a hard one Let me see Some movie Oh, Olivia Newton-John John Travolta Wait, can you say that again? Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta

[00:49:49] It's a movie Olivia Newton-John John Travolta It's the word It's the word, it's the motion Oh my goodness The motion Alright Is it Greek Yes I was flipping my mind So good That's it I'm so disappointed in myself, I should have gotten that quicker

[00:50:27] Did I sing it good enough for you to catch it? That was amazing You sang a beautiful song Of all the ones in that movie That was the one That was the song Okay The next one Mozart That's going to be hard Oh It's going to be hard

[00:50:51] Like a movie About Mozart or a movie Oh, Amadeus Okay I love that movie Oh, I got one, this is easy You think I'm going to get this, Coach? You're going to know the name of this movie Nigel Because it starred a guy named Nigel Swinson in it

[00:51:13] A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood Tongue twister segment You going to do it? No, yes you One smart fellow I hate to do this, Nigel But you're going to have to follow me on this one, okay? It's a tongue twister

[00:51:29] I'm going to say it and see if he can sing it Alright, I'm going to say it We're going to go One, two, three, four One smart fellow felt smart Two smart fellows felt smart Four smart fellows felt smart And they all felt smart together Okay, so

[00:51:49] Let me try speaking first One smart fellow felt smart And then you go two, three, four One smart fellow felt smart Two smart fellows felt smart Three smart fellows felt smart Four smart fellows Four smart fellows Four smart fellows Okay, that was good

[00:52:11] He got out of the way before You did good Should I try to sing it now? Yes One smart fellow felt smart Two smart fellows felt smart Three smart fellows felt smart Four smart fellows felt smart Four smart fellows felt smart Goal! That was difficult, that was challenging

[00:52:39] That was awesome Oh my goodness You may need to sing everything You won't get nothing wrong Oh my goodness That was awesome So You can do the comics Comics and cartoon segment Alright, what was your favorite cartoon growing up? Probably Tom and Jerry I love Tom and Jerry

[00:53:05] I like Tom and Jerry I was an avid fan of Tom and Jerry Alright, this is the edible eatable eat segment Describe your perfect meal Okay, so we have some A nice pound of Atlantic salmon Wow Seasoned perfectly with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, thyme, paprika

[00:53:33] All that good stuff I'm talking big And then pasta with Alfredo sauce And peppers and mushrooms and garlic and onions And all together, that sounds like the perfect meal That is awesome I would eat that We can share the dinner table together I love fish I love fish

[00:53:57] Fish is great Okay, cool, alright, here we go Yankees or Mets? Yankees We love the Yankees over here Right, Yankees all day Alright, this is the what if segment What if you were elected president? What would be the first thing you would do?

[00:54:17] The first thing I would do I would probably That's a great question I think I would probably try to solve homelessness That's a good answer That's a great answer Try to give all the people who need it Good housing And rehabilitation programs For those who need it

[00:54:37] That's a great answer, that's awesome Alright, here's a pet peeve segment Before we get you out of here What is your pet peeve? Ooh Oh my goodness I'm so glad you asked this question My It's very strange, I have two pet peeves Okay

[00:54:57] The first one is one that only my sister Could Get out of me, she does this thing where She just pokes me over and over again And I hate being poked She's just Still come in my room when I'm doing Absolutely nothing, just to poke

[00:55:13] Me and run out and it It grinds my gears But I love her still I love her to death And then the second thing Is I really I don't know if this is a pet peeve But peanut butter I think it's not a pet peeve

[00:55:33] I think it's a phobia Peanut butter is just something I can't get behind Okay, you don't eat it? I love peanut butter Why don't you eat peanut butter? I don't know It's just something about the texture And about the smell I don't know

[00:55:51] Do you feel like it may be detrimental to you? Like you know what I mean? I know it's his voice That's true, do you think it's because of your voice? That's a great question Try singing opera on peanut butter Subconsciously it may be because of his voice though

[00:56:05] In the back of his mind The peanut butter may be a turn out Because you may think it may dampen your voice That's true It could, if I had peanut butter Before singing I'd sound like That's awesome Nigel Anything you want to tell the people

[00:56:29] Let the world know something You want to leave them with I just want to say to you Thank you so much again for having me On this show, it's been a big honor And thank you everyone for listening Before we let him go Listen, we need to sponsor

[00:56:45] Harlan's First Son 100%, we need to get it up to 100% He don't need to black anything So we're going to have a link So we're going to have a link To the GoFundMe on our website So where his Page is, where you see Nigel Just click on the link

[00:57:03] GoFundMe, everybody give something on me www.OwnDuffierOffTheField.com Go there OwnDuffier On and Off The Field Podcast Alright I would really love if everyone Who was watching could contribute And if you can't contribute I would love to share And get my name around Thank you for listening

[00:57:27] And I really hope you can contribute Thank you for being on Once again, Nigel Swinson Thank you so much for having me Blessings to you Everything go well in the Northwestern Be safe, okay? Thank you so much Take care, Nigel Bye Fire Awesome, dude

[00:57:51] That whole interview, that was worth the wait Yeah He was awesome That was good I'm going to have to download this In my head Like so, you know what I mean? It's like a debrief almost A lot took place We'll come back and talk about it With me

[00:58:13] I'm already looking forward to listening to it Tonight That's awesome He's fire The tech segment Don't forget to like or follow us On your favorite podcast platform So we can start getting paid You can listen to us on Pandora, Spotify, Amazon Music Apple Podcasts

[00:58:33] I Heart Radio, Facebook X Formerly known as Twitter And of course our website on and off TheField TheField Episode number 17 TheField Podcast With a purpose Rachel Shure, Mr. Boy Coach Boston AKA still makes the seats, 1976 And it's your AfterField Coach

[00:58:57] AKA Mr. Country We Back, Mr. AKA Mr. NFL You know what? Yoda And we out of here Peace