Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Hi everyone. Welcome to the it's all for Love podcast. I'm Cheryl Mazza, the healing dancer, your host.
This podcast is all about Michael Jackson and how he continues to spread love in our world and inspires us to live our best lives.
Thank you so much for watching and or listening to this episode. But before we get to the episode, I have a few things that I want to tell you. If you are watching this podcast on YouTube, please make sure that you are subscribed to the YouTube channel and also like the video of the episode that you are watching. And I would also love it if you would leave us some comments about how much you loved the episode. If you are listening on any other podcast platform, if you are able to please subscribe on that platform. And also what would really help me is if you would leave a review on whatever podcast platform you are listening on. The reviews help the podcast to be more seen and to spread the word to other Michael Jackson fans about the podcast. And as always, I am looking for guests to be on the podcast. So if you would like to be a guest on this podcast and tell your Michael Jackson story, I would absolutely love to chat with you. Make sure to check out the show notes and find the link to click on to schedule a coffee chat with me or you can email me. The email address is also in the show notes. Thank you again for listening and or watching. It's all for Love.
Hi everyone. Welcome to the it's all for Love podcast. I'm Cheryl Mazza, the healing dancer, your host and today we have Josh Barber from Essex, England. Hi Josh. Thank you so much for being here. Josh, welcome. Josh is a singer, dancer, musician, photographer, events producer and Michael Jackson tribute artist. I'm so excited to hear your story, Josh, welcome, welcome.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Yeah, I do. I have many strings to my bow. As you, as you Fred out.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Yeah. How do I keep up with it all? No clue.
[00:02:18] Speaker B: Well, I'm excited to talk about your Michael Jackson story and then also we're definitely going to talk about your events.
Let's start by tell me your, your story. When did Michael Jackson strike you in the heart?
[00:02:32] Speaker A: Good question.
Most fans know, oh, it was on this day, it was this time, blah, blah, blah, blah blah. For me, it.
I don't really remember.
I know what song I first heard and I know where I heard it, which made me a fan.
So I can answer that if you'd like that.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I'd love that.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: So the first song I heard was man in the Mirror.
You know, I don't know why it was that song. But I was in school, in an assembly, I think I was around 8, 8 to 10 years old, I think.
And they played it as we were leaving the assembly. I was like, who's this guy?
This is a cool song.
And then I went home and probably did some research on who he was, what songs he sang, and just watch his videos over and over and over again to really have a thing feeling of who he was. Really.
Wow.
[00:03:38] Speaker B: Nice. I love, I love it. It's like to me, that's like him coming to you and being like, hey, check me out.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, Quite literally, I think it was like that Many, many things have happened like that.
[00:03:51] Speaker B: Yeah. So those are what I call Michael Jackson synchronicities. So tell me, tell me some other ones that have happened to you?
[00:03:59] Speaker A: Oh, good question.
They happen all the time, but I don't think they are like Michael Michael moments. Sometimes it's. I get opportunities to perform as him even when I'm like, oh, I do this, this and this. And then like a month later they'll be like, oh, can you come and perform as Michael? I'll be like, oh, okay. So them type of things mainly happen to me.
Here's one of the main reasons I've got to where I am today.
My first song I actually sang was. Was who's Loving you?
Which was. Which is very nice.
I've been performing his music since 4 years old when I started, so. Wow, that's.
He continually shows up in some way, shape or form.
[00:04:42] Speaker B: Yes, yes. It's exciting, isn't it?
Just makes you smile.
[00:04:48] Speaker A: It does, it does.
[00:04:50] Speaker B: So what are some other ways that he has inspired you throughout your life?
[00:04:56] Speaker A: Performing? That's the main one, but inspired me. That's a good question.
I'm looking around my room, which you can't see, but I've got massive Michael posters on my walls. I've started doing events based around him. I am a mixing and mastering engineer. So I've researched who. Who has worked for.
So, for example, Bruce Swidian, Dave Way, all these massive engineering people that have worked with him. And thankfully I've met a couple of them.
So I. I kind of want to follow in their footsteps of what they do and who they've worked with. So that. That's another way he's inspired me through my life of what I do for work now. Which is. Which is interesting.
[00:05:46] Speaker B: That is really interesting and I love that because it's something that you were inspired to do by him, but it's also something that you love.
Doing. So I love to hear people doing things that they love to do.
[00:06:00] Speaker A: I'm thankful to get up each day and go to a job that I actually enjoy.
Which is the main thing. Right. If you don't like your job, sucks to be you, I guess about it.
[00:06:14] Speaker B: Right.
So you do the. The engine and like the. You work with music now?
[00:06:21] Speaker A: Yeah, I work with musicians, I do live bands. I. I do shows in theaters.
I do a lot to do with the music industry.
[00:06:31] Speaker B: Okay, well, that. I'm great. I'm glad that you found something that. Yeah, lights you up. If you had to pick a favorite song. What's your favorite Michael Jackson song?
[00:06:42] Speaker A: Everybody asks me this one. Even when I go to the musical, I get photos done by lots of people that are like, oh, come here for. Can we have a. Because I go in cosplay most of the time, they're like, oh, what's your favorite song? And I'm like, I don't know.
They're all good.
Some of the slow ones are a bit slow, but you know, we skip them. I have. I'll give you two.
I'll give you a released song and an unreleased song.
And then if you don't know the unreleased song, go and listen to it because it's very good. I release song. I'm thinking off the top of my head now because there's about so many.
I'll give you a slow song which is keep your faith. I really like that one.
[00:07:24] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: The choir section, the breakdown part, it's just. It slaps at the end. Yeah, it's a good song. It's a good song.
[00:07:35] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:07:36] Speaker A: Upbeat song.
I'm not gonna say the Holy Trinity, which is Beat it, Billie Jean and Fred. No, not any of those. They're not my favorites. They're just. They just get played.
[00:07:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: I'm gonna say slave to the rhythm.
I know fans might be like, oh, not that song.
Cuz it was released when he passed. I just like the live performance of it, to be honest. The entrance of the dancers, it. It creates the whole atmosphere of the song, really.
And watching that video is quite cool.
But an unreleased song, I would. My favorite at the moment is Chicago 1945, which is like the.
The sequel to Smooth Criminal. Really?
Because it goes Al Capone, Smooth Criminal, and then Chicago, 1945. They all interlink somehow apparently of what I've heard. So that's my favorite unreleased song.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Okay. I think I've heard that song.
[00:08:35] Speaker A: Yeah, it was leaked a while ago.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:08:40] Speaker A: I'm not sure who by, but it's on YouTube.
[00:08:43] Speaker B: It's called Chicago 1945.
[00:08:46] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah, it's a good song.
I also like Faces as well. That's a good song.
It's called Faces and it's off the history recordings.
Chicago 1945 is off of the Thriller recordings.
Well, bad recordings, but I'm gonna look it up.
[00:09:07] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, there's definitely. I'm sure there's a lot of stuff that I haven't heard as far as unreleased.
[00:09:13] Speaker A: Yeah. There's so much going around.
[00:09:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Sometimes I'm like, should I listen to it? Because it's. I know, you know, it's his, not his work that he hasn't put out to the public.
[00:09:27] Speaker B: Right.
[00:09:27] Speaker A: But at the same time, his. His work was a master of genius, really.
[00:09:35] Speaker B: Even if it wasn't up to his standards, you know.
[00:09:39] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:09:39] Speaker B: It's still interesting to hear things that he has done or music that he has done that wasn't up to his standards. But, you know.
[00:09:50] Speaker A: I'd say, like the Michael album, Escape album, obviously not the fake songs on the Michael album. Right. And thriller 40, you have the original versions. Or on the Michael album. No, sorry, Escape album, at least you have the original versions. And the Thriller 40 album, where they have released demos, which is nice. And I feel the fans should get a chance to listen to them because he has so many songs that aren't even released to the public nor recorded that fans should either read the lyrics to or listen to.
[00:10:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Because I. And it gives you an insight and even more insight into who he was as an artist and he did things. And I think that's, you know, that's interesting to me, at least as a fan. I love to see like the whole process and. And to see his creative genius, you know.
[00:10:48] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Even if it wasn't up to his standards, but it was. It's just a glimpse of into it.
[00:10:54] Speaker A: If you get a chance to go to the inner studio with mj, it's a very good experience.
In the studio with mj.
[00:11:05] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: It's.
It's ran by.
Hold on, I don't get his name wrong. Brad Sundberg.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:11:13] Speaker A: Who worked on a couple of his albums and basically gets a group of fans and shows him.
Shows us his music and the recording sessions, basically.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: It's quite cool in the studio. Right?
[00:11:26] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:11:27] Speaker B: It was mj. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. And now I. I've heard of it.
I did actually go to a session in la, like a few years ago when I did my Michael Jackson vacation.
It was both.
It was him. And who was the Other guy.
Was it Bruce or the other?
[00:11:50] Speaker A: It could have been Brad Boxer.
[00:11:52] Speaker B: Yes, that's it. Yeah.
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Yeah. The two Brads usually do it together sometimes.
[00:11:57] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. So it's very interesting. I would love to go to another one for sure. Because I don't know anything about the music side of it, you know.
So do you have a favorite short film?
[00:12:09] Speaker A: I've got to think now. What ones, what ones are there?
[00:12:12] Speaker B: How many of them?
[00:12:14] Speaker A: Thriller is a masterpiece, but so is Ghosts.
I prefer Ghosts over Thriller, which is. I mean, technology got better.
Ghosts, I'd say, because it. It's him playing many different characters that you don't really see in other. Other things anymore. You don't really see the main person playing different characters apart from in sketch shows. Really?
[00:12:37] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Okay, let's talk about the different dance te techniques that inspired Michael.
[00:12:45] Speaker A: Okay, good question. You, you threw me off there.
You threw me off for that question.
I was like, how do I answer this one?
From what I've read, he loved ballet, Barishikov, all of them great ballet people. You have the Nicholas Brothers, you have Fred Astaire, Bob Fosse, Audio's greats. I mean, one of Michael's most famous quotes is study the greats and become greater, which is what I do too. I study the great, which is Michael, and he studied even more greater people, which is. Which is interesting because of where he bought different dance techniques.
So popping and locking, ballet, jazz, or a street dance. Yeah, there's so many different things that go into one routine, really.
And it's. It's amazing of.
I've watched videos of how he comes up with things like the 1995 rehearsal for the Music Awards. Watching him do that and being like, no, no, no, it's like this. It's like this.
And. And the smooth, criminal rehearsals with, oh, what's his name? His name is Escape from Head.
Vincent Patterson. Yeah, it's them too. In front of a mirror, going over and over and over again.
It's. It's amazing to watch his creativity.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:14:31] Speaker A: But going back to your question, there's so many different ones to choose from to talk about.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I know, I know. I just, I mean, for me, Michael introduced me to dance as a small girl, little child. I was like 5 years old, and my parents put me in ballet, you know, to begin with because of Michael Jackson.
They saw me, like watching his videos and dancing. And so then I learned. I did all of the dance, you know, I did ballet, tap, jazz, hip hop, modern. Like, I did it all.
And then I I also realized, like, a lot of the influence in his dancing. Like, as I got older, you know, I saw. And then I've even seen, like, I. I didn't know for so long, like, when he, you know, back during, like, the Jackson 5, the Jacksons, when they would do, like, the TV shows and he would do tap dancing. I mean, he was. He's a freaking natural. Like, I had to train, you know.
[00:15:37] Speaker A: Yeah. Just watching him do that tap dance on.
How can you just be a natural at that? Even I struggle with that nowad.
Yeah.
[00:15:49] Speaker B: Yeah. But. Yeah, and then, you know, learning about the greats like Bob. Bob Fosse and Baryshnikov and, you know, Fred Astaire. Fred Astaire was always my favorite. I loved watching him in movies and. And, like, again, it wasn't until I was a lot older that I noticed, like, the influence. Like, I just recently saw the smooth Criminal influence with their movie. I'm like, I knew that that was in.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Yeah.
Influence. I think it was copies.
[00:16:21] Speaker B: The costumes are similar or, like, Dangerous. He took, like, the.
The beginning when he talks and Dangerous. He took that from, like, a clip of, like, I think a Fred Astaire movie.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: Oh, okay.
[00:16:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:16:33] Speaker A: I have to realize that.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: But, like, yes. A friend of mine a couple years ago sent me the clip and I was like, that's, like, almost the same thing that he says in Teacher.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: That's interesting because I know that in. In the Dangerous performances, he uses so many different clips of different types of music. So, Janet, good, bad and ugly and all these other things that go into one thing. And I was like, damn.
[00:17:01] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he's a. He's a genius. Yeah. What do you want the world to know about Michael Jackson?
[00:17:10] Speaker A: Good question. What. What don't us fans want people to know? Right.
That didn't make sense, did it?
[00:17:20] Speaker B: Anyway, that's okay.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: I'd say, well, firstly, who's innocent? That's the main thing because that gets brought up every day. I know everywhere I go, it's just a hard battle, really.
But I won't talk much about that genius.
Someone that you probably won't find again.
They'll never be.
There's always like, you've got your Chris Browns, your ushers, your Madonnas. You've got all these people that aspire to be like him.
However hard they try, they won't be like the man, which is, to be honest, like, living in the same world as him.
Same time frame.
Not much for me, but still, same time frame is amazing for. I know a Lot of fans that have met him, told me stories and it.
Another thing is that how kind of a man he was, how he cared for his fans. I could go on and on. There's so many things that people should know so much. So many things.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah.
I think it, it's basically comes down to like just wanting, you know, those that I guess are not fans or moonwalkers, you know, whatever you want to call them. Like we are just knowing that he was so much more too than the artist, you know, so much more. He was everything.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Yeah. And I thought today, I mean we're filming this on the 25th of June. I thought it's a very fitting day to talk about Michael and, and reminisce of who he was, what he did and how as fans we appreciate what he's done for us.
[00:19:09] Speaker B: Amen to that.
How does Michael continue to spread love in your world?
[00:19:17] Speaker A: That's a hard question to answer.
I mean I listen to his music daily. He's always around me. I mean, as I said, I've got posters in my room. I've frozen again.
There we go.
I mean I've got posters in my room.
I listen to his music, I go to, I have events, I. I go to events, I dance, I sing.
There's so many ways that he is in my life and I continue to spread love through him, which is, I mean there isn't going to be another person like that that can touch people in that way really. I don't know how to word that, but I knew in my brain how to.
[00:20:09] Speaker B: Did it very well, beautifully.
I want to know a little bit more about your events. So tell me, what kind of events do you do? What. How can people find you to know about these things?
[00:20:20] Speaker A: Yeah, of course.
So tickets are on sale now for November. Yay.
They released five days ago. So on the 20th to mark history's anniversary, our theme is around history this year especially Earthsong, the Day is on Earth song released in 95 which is the 7th of November.
It is in Bar Soho, right opposite MJ the Musical.
So that's a very good thing to have. Last year we had over 50 people come, it's a party. Basically we have 6 hours of non stop Michael Jackson Jackson 5 just playing.
People can mingle and talk, people can dance, people can just sit and listen, buy drinks, eat food.
It's. I did it because fans need somewhere to go either on his birthday, the day he passed, memorable events of his life. Fans need a place to meet up and do things.
And I feel Nowadays, like back in the day, I hear that so many events went on when he was alive. Like fans would be just like, oh, this is on this weekend, let's go. And nowadays it's just like you've got Kingvention, you've got in the studio, you've got lots of Michael tributes in England and you don't really have many places for fans to meet up and meet other people.
So I created Michael Remembered, which is know what, what my brand name is for that exact reason.
[00:22:03] Speaker B: Oh, I wish I was closer to you. I would come to come in November.
[00:22:07] Speaker A: November is quite a long way away.
[00:22:09] Speaker B: It is. I might be able to plan to get there.
Thank you for sharing and, you know, definitely look Josh up to if you're in the area near there or plan to travel there.
We definitely need more Michael events.
[00:22:24] Speaker A: Yeah, definitely.
[00:22:24] Speaker B: All of our lives. Because it just makes life a lot more enjoyable and something to look forward to, you know?
[00:22:32] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:22:33] Speaker B: Crazy world we live in, so. Yes. Well, thank you so much, Josh. Is there anything else that you would like to talk about?
[00:22:40] Speaker A: It's just the fact that as fans, we need to get together and spread love and happiness, really. And commemorate the man has died and gone too soon. Really.
[00:22:55] Speaker B: Yes.
Agreed.
Thank you so much for.
[00:22:59] Speaker A: You're welcome.
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Talking with me. It is great to get to know you more and hear your story.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Indeed. And your story as well. I've learned a lot about your upbringing of dance and it's amazing.
[00:23:12] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. All for Michael.
[00:23:14] Speaker A: Indeed.
[00:23:15] Speaker B: It's all for love.
[00:23:17] Speaker A: Yes, I was gonna say that. Yes.
Hello. Verse.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: Yes. L, O V E the plane.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: And this is it.
[00:23:26] Speaker B: All right, everyone, thank you so much for listening to It's All For Love and we will see you next time.
