I’ve long thought about our individual persona or personas and this idea of ever evolving identities …for example, people who have work and non-work personas: the arsehole in work, nice as pie out of work; the surprising competitive aggression at the work social bowling alley do, the extroverted party goer (ok, so there might be some substance impact for that one) – kinda like Henry the mild mannered janitor morphing into Hong Kong Phooey (does anyone remembers that show?!)

What does this mean for the authentic you? Who actually are you?

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the times I’ve felt uncomfortable with the way I was behaving, was more to do with dissatisfaction with the environment and company I was keeping rather than myself and my identities, so eventually I’ve taken action to change them.

This led me to start thinking about why, for example, institutions, companies, communities, social networks seem to exhibit their own personality and employees, members or whatever can start to take on that personality and behaviours, which might be at loggerheads with their own individuality. How malleable is our individuality? How do we unearth that authenticity, when we strip away the masks and show ourselves devoid of external influences?

And do these scenarios exist in bands? And especially in artistic or creative collaborations, which is really the very essence of individuality coming together, how do we as collaborators come together to achieve common goals?

Neil Cowley has just released his first record (although it hadn't been released when we recorded this) with his two longstanding friends and cohorts who had so much acclaim as The Neil Cowley Trio prior to its hiatus 7 years ago. Their reunion and reconnection, and the making of this record, perhaps provides some answers to my most mind churning questions!

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I Wanna Jump Like Dee Dee is the music podcast that does music interviews differently.

Giles Sibbald talks to musicians, DJ’s and producers about how they use an experimental mindset in every part of their lives.

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