Ernesto Cervini
Hi, I'm Ernesto Cervini. I'm a Canadian drummer composer from Toronto, Ontario. Growing up, I was exposed to all kinds of music, from jazz to pop, classical to music theatre. My influences were super varied. My siblings and I made music together all the time, and we were part of a band now known as the Toronto All-Star Big Band. Our next guest is a Malty Juno Award-winning musician, composer, and collaborator. She's a musical peer of mine, and I inc. Her tune Aure on my latest album, The Canadian Songbook, which celebrates Canadian compositions. Please welcome saxophonist Allison Al.

Allison Au
Hey, Ernesto, thanks for having me.

Ernesto Cervini
Thank you so much for doing this.

Allison Au
My honor.

Ernesto Cervini
I'm excited to chat with you about just kind of your life in music and how you got. Here, basically, how you got to where you are today. And, you know, the idea with this, with these interviews, is just kind of trying to discover everyone's different paths and the commonalities. That we have growing up as musicians in Canada, and then also the differences, you know, of course, based on our specific upbringing and where we were and how our parents Decided to raise us. So, why don't we start with that? So, where were you born?

Allison Au
I was born and raised in Toronto.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay.

Allison Au
I was actually born downtown, hospital downtown, Toronto General.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay.

Allison Au
And I grew up kind of in the north part of the city, so very suburban. Quiet. Yeah, I grew up in North York, like Bayview and Finch neighborhood. Coming to music was kind of gradual. Like, my dad had, I mean, was always a music lover. Neither of my parents are musicians. But my dad always loved music and had a really extensive CD and vinyl collection. And that was kind of my gateway into just like listening to music.

Ernesto Cervini
Nice.

Allison Au
my first exposure.

Ernesto Cervini
So would you would you dig through those and and or or I mean were you just hearing what they were listening to and Yeah. Getting excited by it.

Allison Au
Pretty much. I mean, he was great at like always having music playing in the background of a lot of family gatherings and parties, birthday parties, any social event that my parents. Hosted, and we did a lot. I think there were three of us kids, so there was always something happening. And they'd have friends come over all the time. So I just remember music playing all the time in the background. And I don't know what spurred me to kind of start digging through their collection, but yeah, I think it was very much so like the tactile relationship with picking up Physical CDs and physical records where you could look at pictures and read the liner notes and see who played on what and who recorded things, like even you know, the engineers and the producers. So yeah, without really even being that mindful of what I was looking at, I think I really liked picking things up. I guess I should mention, like, my mom is also an avid reader, so we had a lot of books at the house as well. So I think I was surrounded by books and music at a very young age and just pulling things off shelves, really.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, that's awesome. So you brought up your parents. Why don't we can we talk about them for a second? So because I know you your most recent album Migrations is kind of about about your parents' journey to Canada. So can you expand a little bit on that?

Allison Au
Yeah, so my parents come from very diverse backgrounds. My dad immigrated to Canada in 1972. He came for work. He was born in Malaysia and his parents come from southern China. So it was really interesting to see through generations how on his side. Each generation has moved to a different country in search of work opportunity or life change or, I mean, oftentimes Fleeing from war and economic hardship.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
And on my mother's side, my grandparents are from Poland. and migrated eventually to Canada through Israel after World War II and landed in Montreal. And then my mother was born in Montreal. And then ended up in Toronto looking for work right after university. So that's where my parents met. So I feel like, in a lot of ways, like so many Canadian stories, mine is quintessentially Canadian. Because my parents are both from very vastly and dramatically different places, but ultimately met and united in Toronto, which is also such a multicultural city in so many ways. Yeah, so they come from very, very different places, but found obviously common ground.

Ernesto Cervini
Did the fact that your parents came from such diverse backgrounds, did that influence the kind of music you were listening to growing up?

Allison Au
Yes and no, but I guess inevitably yes, I suppose. I mean, just by virtue of my dad being my dad and who he is. Being an Asian person, growing up. I mean, so there's a lot of delineations, I think, in terms of identity that I've started to come to terms with as an adult. But with hindsight looking back, you know, my father is ethnically Chinese, born and raised in Malaysia, went to school in London where he was one of very few minorities in his class. In the late 60s and early 70s, when he attended school in England. And for him, finding vinyl was Kind of activ that was kind of therapeutic for him. I think he's told me about some of his years in England, and I think he felt very isolated. Kind of being an ethnic minority, he recalls not ever being asked to hang out with anybody. Yeah, and I think for him, music became kind of like Like refuge, you know, in some ways.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
And at that time, I mean, he's a big fan of Nat K. Like, those are some of his records. A lot of jazz. He loved opera and classical music. So. He kind of, I mean, he describes to me now when I ask him about those years, he would go record shopping on the weekend when he was You know, just having fun away from school basically, or taking a break from school during the week. So, music became integrated into his lifestyle as. Kind of seeking therapy, I guess, in a way. I, I don't want to put it in those words, but just finding some solace, I think, in that feel of solitude. But he would have brought these records like a lot of the records he had at home were ones that he bought when he was in London. I know. And then his collection just expanded. My mom's always loved music too, but my dad was always the more avid listener. So you have a really wide range of stuff. There was a lot of jazz, there was a lot of classical music, opera, like I said. And I think as I was a kid, he also expanded into world music and We had like Buena Vista Social Club. Trying to think, we have like Jimmy Cliff in the collection. There's a lot of music theater too, Rogers and Hammerstein. Westside's story was a big one.

Ernesto Cervini
I can relate. I can relate to that.

Allison Au
Yeah. So without me knowing, I think I was getting a lot of sounds of the foundations of jazz. Without even knowing it. Yeah, like Stevie Wonder. I mean, like all these great R and soul artists, too, he would listen to. But yeah, I guess so. Maybe just by virtue of my dad's experience, how he found music. He listened to music, of course, in Malaysia too, but I think it was when he was in England where he started really amassing a collection of vinyl, which he brought with him. Um, I'm sure that's imbued how or like my taste now inevitably. Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
When did you start Or did you start zeroing in on music as your main focus?

Allison Au
So I've spoken about this in some other. Interviews I've done in the past, it was really seeing there was so at the time I was at Claude Watson, there was a band teacher who happened to be a woman who played saxophone, and her name is Maggie Thompson. I think she's since retired, but she's still active in her community doing. I think the last time I spoke to her, she's doing community ensembles and stuff.

Ernesto Cervini
That's great.

Allison Au
Yeah. So I've kind of kept in touch with her. But I saw her leading one of the other like grade six ensembles or grade seven ensembles when I was in grade four when I just started. And I just knew I wanted to Sax. I think she had a really big part in that.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah.

Allison Au
Just seeing another woman, she just exuded like this fun energy, I think. And so even before I had a chance to try the saxophone, I just knew like the image of it was just so engaging, captivating to me.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah. That's amazing. So, so Maggie Thompson, that's so great that you, that there was like one specific person, you know, a lot of the time. When I've been talking to people, we end up talking about influential teachers, of course, because that's so important. And a lot of, I feel like almost everyone I've talked to mentioned someone who was teaching them in elementary school or high school, and how you know these these music teachers and these music programs are so vital because they kind of lay the groundwork and they really inspire and excite kids and make them want to do this thing that and then that excitement, I mean, for some of us Just goes on and on and on and lasts forever. But having those music teachers that inspire us, and it's amazing that Seeing her play the saxophone was like, you're like, okay, that's it. There it is. That's my instrument. That's where I want to go.

Allison Au
Yeah, I think and I know it's like this cliche thing, but the like seeing yourself, like having that concrete role model. I know we talk about it much more in the current conversation now, I think, than it was even like ten years ago. But I just think it is so impactful. And especially as I Young person at that time, seeing another woman, there was just, I didn't see other women playing saxophone. I guess, to be fair, I wasn in that many situations to see saxophone too. But there's so few role models, right?

Ernesto Cervini
Lisa Simpson and Maggie Thompson.

Allison Au
Exactly. And Lisa Simpson was a huge, huge part, too, of my imagery of what the Sax looked like at that time. So, yeah, it just meant the world to me in that moment.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay, so then where did you go to high school?

Allison Au
So I continued on into the feeder high school from Claw Watson, which is Earl Haig secondary. It was a combination of there was a strike that year where there were no act Extra activities.

Ernesto Cervini
Oh no.

Allison Au
So the opportunity to join any extra bands were non-existent that year. Yeah. And then it just happened. Yeah, it was like a terrible year to kind of start high school, I think. And then also hormones and not feeling like, you know, friend groups are shifting. And I think Just being in a larger student body all of a sudden. I think at the time Earl Higgin could still be this size, like almost 4,000 students.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow, yeah, that's a big thing So

Allison Au
I was going from like a really nuclear, like. kind of family community at Claude Watson middle school into like a very large feeling at least anyway to me in my brain at that time high school And it just felt all of a sudden like I didn't know anybody. I was still getting, you know, to know the teachers and the faculty there. And that year they had, maybe one too many saxophone players, I can't remember. But the numbers were lopsided such that the band teacher wanted me to switch to oboe and not play saxophone.

Ernesto Cervini
Oh no.

Allison Au
Yeah, and they really were putting pressure on me to switch. So I just had a really negative experience that first year and I actually switched schools from grades 10 to 12 and I attended a totally different school, and decided not to pursue music at all. So it really had like, a flipped effect on me. Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
That's I certainly didn't know that. So, where did you end up going to school?

Allison Au
I went to Don Mills Collegiate. I did like no more music really as part of like the day classes.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah. Were you taking private lessons at the time?

Allison Au
I was, yeah. So I continued to take lessons, but I just didn't really, like, I wasn't involved in anything at the second high school I attended.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, you're just you're just taking sax, still sax lessons, though.

Allison Au
Yes, on the weekends.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay.

Allison Au
But just nothing during the week, basically. So I really kind of cut it off in that way.

Ernesto Cervini
Do you finish grade 12? And you're not studying music, you're not playing music at school. How did you, how did you end up here? How did you end up back in music?

Allison Au
I totally, totally. So, my intention when I was in grade 12, my intention was to not pursue any music. I was gonna do a science degree. So I applied for arts and sciences. I applied for a forensic science program. But I love saxophone in my private lessons. And the only program I said like it might be fun, like a fun experiment to audition for One program. And we had a family friend who worked at Humber in the admin department. And he was always telling us how great. the Humber Music program was. He invited me to attend a few concerts. So I was aware of the jazz program there in my later years in high school. And had seen some shows by the students there. So I decided to audition for Humber College, but only for Humber College. And just for fun, just to see, like, to see if I could get my bearings as to where I was kind of in the mix. And in aud, I was accepted. So then my rationale was: okay, I'm going to attend Humber for one year just to give myself a chance to, you know, learn more about music because I still didn't really understand anything about jazz harmony. Like, I was taking lessons. But there's only so much you can do one-on-one with a teacher. I had no experience interacting, playing wise, playing in a band, like very, very little and limited experience. So, yeah, so I accepted the admission like to Humber. So, I basically went for a year thinking that I would transfer and end up doing my science degree for second year and continue and switch. But I met so many incredible people there and I fell in love with all the like the faculty was great. I found just like great peers in the community of other students in first year. I was still like one of the most inexperienced students there, I think.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
But just kind of found my people. I think it just was like an instant connection.

Ernesto Cervini
Did you find it challenging to be one of the least experienced people? Was that a real challenge? Or was that really like motivating?

Allison Au
It was motivating, but yeah, I mean, I think like the whole like imposter syndrome or just not feeling good enough to be around the people I was surrounded by.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah.

Allison Au
That's something that I've struggled with. I mean, I feel like sometimes I still do struggle with that, to be honest. But yeah, it was a very challenging year. But I think ultimately I was able to overcome my feelings of Inade at the time, but also just knowing I just didn't have as much experience and seeing that the other students really challenged me to bring me up to that level, expose me with some different stuff.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, that 's amazing. Wow, so then so okay, so I'm still I'm still struggling to understand how you can apply to all these science programs, but then End up kind of like, did you get into the science stuff as well? Like, did you have all the options? You were just like, huh. I think I'll just do saxophone. It feels right.

Allison Au
I mean, I was accepted to one or two science programs. And then one of them I wasn't. Like, I had to do an extra round of. Application, like I had to write another essay, and I just opted not to do that. So, but I did have a couple options. I wouldn say I had all the options, but I think um Yeah, I think the music really pulled me in a direction where I felt that if I didn't try it in that year, that I might look back and really regret not having tried just to see what might have gone.

Ernesto Cervini
This was your chance.

Allison Au
Yeah, that was kind of like my whole rationale at that time. So I was like, let me just try it for a year because this is my time to do it. If I don do it now, I might not ever do it. So.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. So, okay, so now you're at Humber. Who did you study with when you were at Humber? Who were your private teachers?

Allison Au
Oh, I had a bunch of different. I had Kelly Jefferson for one year.

Ernesto Cervini
Never heard of him.

Allison Au
Who? Yeah. I had Andy Ballantyne for two years, mainly because we covered doubles and composition and sax. He was kind of like. I mean, he's such a great teacher, but so accomplished in a lot of different areas. So I stayed with him for two years, and then I had Pat LaBarbara for my final year.

Ernesto Cervini
Did you have any Canadian whether it's jazz or or popular music, but any Canadian music that Kind of you started checking out, even like through when you got to Humber, was there stuff that you were checking out? Musicians, like local musicians or Canadian musicians that you were inspired by, or you were

Allison Au
oh, yeah, I mean. Once I started Humber, I became aware of like Tara Davidson, Christine Jensen, Rene Rosnes. I mean, I'm naming all women mainly because it was like such a mind-blowing discovery for me.

Ernesto Cervini
No, that's important too, though, because that's your That's the reality of your story.

Allison Au
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
I mean, up until this last album, you've been really focused on having your own band and making that your kind of driving, the driving force, but behind you. And let me know if I'm putting words into your mouth, because I't mean to do that. But kind of it seems like it was the driving force between behind your composing and just your focus as a musician. So is that something you always knew that you wanted to be a band leader and that was something you were gonna

Allison Au
I think so, yeah. Maybe looking back now with some perspective, I think that's probably true. But I think, you know, I had like I was saying, I had a really positive experience at Humber. I met so many incredible people and it really opened my Worldview about what I could achieve with music and the community that I found with all the peers that I met. But that being said, you know, I did find the the politics of school, which is inevitable in any program, the the maybe what's the best way to put it? Like The kind of ranking system that's not super blatant but inevitable, like to place students in ensembles

Ernesto Cervini
It exists, of course. Yeah, yeah.

Allison Au
I was never put in like the top ensembles. I never played with guest artists. I mean, I was just, I was relatively much less experienced than a lot of my peers. So I just found myself in different kinds of ensembles that were still incredibly enriching to my experience, which I think is true with so many people. For whatever reason, you miss a couple things, or you don't get that chance to work with somebody maybe that you really would have wanted to. So, upon graduation, my whole goal was that I wanted to. Have a band that was my own where I could have a platform to write and try material out. And I wasn't even like, again, an experienced composer. And so creating the band the first year out of school was just an excuse to play with people that challenged me, who I thought were better than

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah.

Allison Au
And then to have people to play music that I didn't even know was going to be good, but like I just wanted to try stuff out with. Because I didn't feel like I'd had the chance to explore any of that in my time at school, basically.

Ernesto Cervini
And you did that right after school. Like you started, you kind of started your trying to book gigs for your own band pretty shortly after.

Allison Au
So basically, I did a cruise shift contract immediately after graduating, which at the time so many students did just to make some money.

Ernesto Cervini
Sure.

Allison Au
And it was after the cruise ship, which I was, you know, relatively optimistic to kind of take on that working opportunity. But seeing a lot of that side of the business, and albeit it's a very niche for sure, now that I see all the variety of work opportunities that you can have in music.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah,

Allison Au
The cruise ship really changed my brain chemistry as well. So I would credit maybe my motivation also to the experience I had on the cruise ship.

Ernesto Cervini
And your quartet, has it stayed mostly the same since?

Allison Au
Yeah, mostly the same. I mean, you've joined us for a few things. Um, we've had like Dan Fort, Ethan's played in it, but the core band has been relatively the same with you know occasional subs and stuff. But

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, but the core band has stayed the same from

Allison Au
Yeah, from the beginning.

Ernesto Cervini
That's amazing. Yeah.

Allison Au
It's been hard to keep it together in the sense that, like, you know, people move or they have other projects going on. So, you know, things kind of ebb and flow but that's been an important element to me because I thought it would be and I've tried to stay loyal to the concept of like keeping the same personnel, but adapting and growing the book of repertoire to see How much can change or vary when there's one thing that's constant? That's always been something that's like really fascinated me.

Ernesto Cervini
And it is true. There is something about, I mean, I can definitely hear it when I hear your band play and it's and it's you know the the band um there is something about making music with people over a period of time and you develop this um Sympathical with them, and you just can read them, and you can feel them, and you just you You know, it's like the comfort you have with your siblings or your partner or your parents. It's that same comfort and familiarity, but musically, which is kind of magical. I mean. Your next chapter was doing the migrations project, which is a whole different kind of thing. So what inspired you to do that project and how did that come about?

Allison Au
Well, I guess in the more mundane answer is we were commissioned or I was commissioned to write something by the Royal Conservatory of Music, which was a huge honor. We had performed a smaller show there and we just kept in touch. I was inquiring about another opportunity to play at some point. So he very kindly reached out to do this commission, and he said, you know, if you can write something, the idea would be to premiere it at the 21C Music Festival, which is a festival they host. Every year at Kerner Hall, and they have a variety of bands, but it's all like new collaborations, or they commission other artists to write something completely new, basically. So he kind of gave me carte bl to write whatever I wanted to with any ensemble.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
So if there was some artist that I would love to collaborate, like to let him know and see if we could figure out what would be really different or a departure from what I have done in the past. So of course Liala Bial came up. In conversations, and as I was brainstorming a theme for the music, I knew that we would be opening for Danilo Perez's Global Messengers. And I checked out a bit of their music and realized they integrate a lot of different world music instruments in a jazz context, but they have a lot of open-ended kind of song templates, I guess, if you will. So in light of who we're opening for, I brainstormed further and I thought it'd be cool to have a theme that was kind of global in scope.

Ernesto Cervini
Right.

Allison Au
And then I kind of just turned inwards and realized like, oh, maybe I should just do something with my family history because there's all these different cultural influences and that kind of started building the seeds of the music.

Ernesto Cervini
Of course. Yeah.

Allison Au
And I think it had a lot of reverberating effects for me personally anyway, because th these are all stories and and things about my family history that I knew about as a kid and I've always heard these stories, but I never had an outlet to Really express it in maybe in a more obvious way through my music. So, I guess to answer your question further, like the element of voice, you know, including Lil on the project was something also that was really a departure for me. And in that sense, I felt it was in the spirit of the festival where we would be playing the music. But that forced me to start to integrate words. So I didn't want to presume to write lyrics on my own. So I ended up using poems and I adapted them for the music that I ended up writing. Yeah, just kind of pulling a lot of different influences and then taking the core ensemble, but also expanding the instrumentation. So that's kind of where I thought of Keeping something constant still, which was the rhythm section, but then adding voice, and then we added a string quartet and then vibraphone too.

Ernesto Cervini
So, yeah, that's so great. I love it.

Allison Au
Just a fun opportunity to use instruments I never would have the chance to work with. And string quartet was something else that, like, I mean, I've loved on other people's records. And it's such a lush addition.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah.

Allison Au
But I would never have a chance to do it otherwise if it wasn't for something like this, like a project like this.

Ernesto Cervini
I've always wanted to do something with String Quart, but I'm always. So afraid.

Allison Au
I get

Ernesto Cervini
so scared. I'm, I don know what to do. So I would love to talk now about. Just quickly about the song that of yours that I adapted for Turbop and put on our new album, Canadian Songbook. So it 's a song called Ori, and it's from Your album Forest Forest Grove, right?

Allison Au
Yeah, yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
Which won the Juno? That was the Juno-winning album in what year?

Allison Au
2016.

Ernesto Cervini
And that was a song that I frankly, I just fell in love with it. I started listening to, you know, it was one of those. One of those ones that I added to like my jazz playlist that I listen to all the time and specifically that track. I just really loved it. And so. Yeah, I mean, I'd love to know, first of all, like, what does the title really mean and how does it What how does it relate to the song, if it does at all?

Allison Au
Yeah. Yeah, that tune was kind of like an era of writing I was doing where I mean, I still feel like I'm kind of in it, but it's just about volume. Like, I'm just trying to write as much music as possible.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah.

Allison Au
The title. It actually means a radiant circle, a radiant cycle, I guess.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay.

Allison Au
And I think in that period of my composing at that stage of my growth, I was just trying to find. Like canvases, like what can I do, and how do I make it an interesting little journey? I guess, like, really, all writing is to be honest. So, I don know if it's anything special, but just how do I wrap it back up? How do I make it like a fun little template to play over? Basically,

Ernesto Cervini
yeah.

Allison Au
And of course, like I said, I'm still doing that. But yeah, I was just trying to write a lot of volume of material at that time. And then for that record specifically, we just ended up picking the strongest pieces of that. Book of Tunes. There's a lot of music that we've discarded since and have never played.

Ernesto Cervini
Wow.

Allison Au
But yeah, that happened just be one, and I wanted to find like a really bright kind of title to match the tune I ended up writing. And that piece as well, the original lead sheet is not the tune that we ended up using on the record. It was heavily edited through rehearsals and workshopping.

Ernesto Cervini
Oh, interesting. So when you bring a song to your band, is it then kind of open season?

Allison Au
So, as soon as I finish the not aspect of it, I know it's like free, like, yeah, exactly, open season for when we bring it to rehearsal. I know it's not going to be the same, probably.

Ernesto Cervini
But that's so exciting to have a band that's that collaborative that they're willing to like almost help in the compositional and the arranging process I mean, that's something I mean, I experienced that in Myriad 3, but that was a collective. So that was absolutely the vibe. But as a band leader, when it's it 's your band, it's great to have have um bandmates who are still willing to lend their expertise and their opinion and their um You know, ideas to your compositions. I think that's so awesome.

Allison Au
I would notate a lot more parts. Now it's less notated, it's more like lead sheets, I'd say, generally speaking. But I think it really stemmed from me wanting to be like, hey, I have all these notated parts. Is this playable? You know, and like literally asking the guys, like, can you, is this good? Or like, would you write something different? Or how would you approach that line? So it came it I think the the dynamic stemmed from me actually just wanting to check parts because they were a little bit more articulated or like spe specific. Now, having gone through that phase, but realizing what the voices of each of the musicians are, and having spent so many years with every, now it's more like general kinds of notation, but we've kind of kept that dynamic like. Oh, I think this actually would be cool if we did it like this. Or what if we cut that section and we went here? I like, oh, yeah, that's better, you know, because I do approach it like, first of all, more literally. I like only a bass player is going to tell me what bass part is playable, right? So I don't know. So it's kind of me coming at it like you know better than I would. So please tell me what that would be.

Ernesto Cervini
Which I think is such a wonderful way to approach being a band leader. Because it empowers everyone in your band to be able to contribute the way, like in a really meaningful way. R? Like, even if you've written all of it, it doesn't, it doesn't sound like it's just you, you know.

Allison Au
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
Do you know what I mean? It's hard to verbalize.

Allison Au
I think that, yeah, and that's the goal too. But it's also like my insecurity as a writer, right? Like, or always having doubt when I pick up the pencil, like, is this good? Is it not good? But that process of. Bring it to the band, I think, can help shape, even if it's like heavily workshopped or it comes out different on the other end. It's so informative to me, and I'm always growing from that process.

Ernesto Cervini
Yeah, and it's going to make the sound, it's going to make the music more varied, right?

Allison Au
Yeah.

Ernesto Cervini
Well, Allison, I want to thank you so much for doing this. It's really been. Oh, it's been a pleasure to hear your story because, you know, I didn't, it's so great for me to hear. I love learning how everybody or how different people have you know, traveled the their their life and and through music and to get to where they've arrived at and and like Everyone's journey is so different, and I think that's what makes this whole thing so special: is that we don't all have to go the same route. Just a pleasure to chat with you.

Allison Au
Thank you so much.

Ernesto Cervini
Thank you and say, of course, again, thank you for lending your song to me so that I could include it on my album. I love playing it And yeah, and we'll talk again soon, and hopefully, we'll play again really soon.

Allison Au
Yes, well, congrats on a beautiful record, Ernesto.

Ernesto Cervini
Thank you.

Allison Au
I'm honored.

Ernesto Cervini
Thank you so much.

Allison Au
We'll talk to you soon. Take care.

Ernesto Cervini
Okay, bye-bye.