done recently he won the best video award at the nestle film festival was recently rated the number one film festival short film festival on the east coast and we're great to have him on all the way from the big easy in new orleans so john thank you very song my new american girl broke into the top forty at number thirty two on the hot ac billboard charts in the united states his songs have been featured on numerous television shows commercials and sporting events including his hit single make you move on n promoting the beijing olympics a couple of years ago john has done a lot of work recently has a new album that recently has come out called singles and will be getting to that in a little bit but first i want to welcome john to the show and maybe john you can tell us about your background and so the audience gets to know you a little bit well it's nice as you mention i grew up and lived in canada for off a part of my life and you know when i was a kid i played a lot of sports until it moved doing a concert i performed quite a bit through the years you know in clubs and and use and festivals and basically evolved into what i'm doing today which is you know of a compilation of other albums that i've you know released over the last few years and some new music so you know it's just kind of in evolving it's always evolving always changing always growing and i just i just love to slow the passion for yeah it's great so growing up and in your formative years and recently who have been some of the big influences in your life as far as the musical influences to you know having your works in the united states yeah you know it's just it's like i kind of started all over again in many ways the door that opened it for me west the mirror my new american girl with which charted i was still basic out of that time and i had an american promotion team with me in us so they were able to you know get that song into the charts and do well so i had a little bit of a that was my door for the audience can see it and then we'll get back in a second so here's here's the  the sixteenth century and it's live in the twentieth century you know life is that kind of idea that's that spawn the song and recorded with a producer friend of mine in toronto who produced don't produce a lot of my stuff previously and still does over time so we filmed some stuff you know and then make a month later we go silent george and we were going down there anyway some films and stuff down there and then we knew we were going to trip back home and alcoholics and this really cool tower singles close freaks me out it's written with a friend of mine's from south africa region lives in los angeles where i live for a little while and we wrote that you know about a year ago in los angeles and you know music video there as much selling you know thousands thousands of copies it's very expensive to produce it so it's exciting you know because it listening to albums again that's a good thing though one of the things you we talked about earlier before we came on the air was your interest in mental health and we have a lot about the the campaign to change direction and the work that it's doing  through you know with with help individuals with mental health emotional suffering and maybe you can talk a little bit about that in the explain you know what the campaign to change directions all about and why you're so you know why you feel so strongly about it  someone you might be going to you know more severe mental health problem and they're very big advocate of changing the culture of mental health so through the music video of were beautiful art without it the message out we've done some promotions together so i'm proud to be involved that's great that's great you think more people are feeling more comfortable about coming out and talking about mental health issues because you know years ago with something that you just you know you kept quiet you health and i know when i first entered i mean these types of issues i felt like a shame you know embarrassed and very strong willed person and proud person and i don't you know i try to just do things myself and you know some point you might need some help and it's like if you break your leg over the top period it is fixed so if you're having set of issues should be ashamed or embarrassed at all about that and i think what you're saying is right i think because of of associations like the campaign to change direction and other things like are popping up more i think i think one of the great things though is that as you as you go through different stages of your career you you see different aspects of it and maybe you can tell us a little bit about how you think the record industry may have changed over the years from when you first started to where it is it's become i fortunately it's become street commodity many ways people you know started you know illegally downloading in the birthing and so the whole sales part of it you know drop significantly yes  you know like a lot of a lot of older bands complaint in that when it first came on because of this issue with illegal downloading but there was a huge opportunity for motion getting work up there and to music videos eventually like we did with the more t t all this stuff so i always felt good about it but hop the question is it keeps changing in still today it keeps changing like almost week to week or month to month there's something different in the music industry that though as you see how it keeps changing and changing and changing and you as an artist you have to after that you know it can get you can get frustrated but you can't let it get you down you got to just kind of you know go flow and like me you know maybe really find a chance to do this you know say fifteen years ago is it technology was here you know now we have this technology to siphon all the stuff i can get my music you know people that would normally hear it and i think it's a wonderful thing so you know i think there's a lot of good things about the business you just have to kind of adapt to changes that i know what we would advise would you give to a teenager who is maybe walking past and seen some guys play and some girls watching them  whatever it was and eventually if you're good somehow somehow and if you're persistent with getting getting your music out there i'm how it will be heard and found and you'll be  joining us on the show and we wish you the best of luck for everyone out in the audience thank you very much for watching us they healthy stay active they focused on we'll see you next week on another dish and a focus on both the and have a good night