Silvercore Podcast 145 Hunting, History, and Hits: Inside Sweden's Wild Outdoors and Country Music Scene with Robin Winther

https://open.spotify.com/artist/31fTVu8MIl8c1rrFJZyFN8

https://www.instagram.com/robinwintherofficial/

[00:00:00] Travis Bader: Over the last few weeks, I had the privilege of traveling to Finland. Estonia, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland. What started as an invitation to hunt in Sweden quickly turned into something much larger. As many of you know, I'm a long time fan of Sako firearms and Norma ammunition. With help from my friends at Stoker Canada, who are proud Silvercore Club Brad affiliates, I was able to connect directly with both companies.

[00:00:40] Travis Bader: I couldn't have imagined the incredible reception we'd receive. Both Sako in Finland and Norma Ammunition in Sweden went above and beyond, rolling out the red carpet to show me and my wife the exacting processes behind their brands, and, more importantly, to introduce us to the passionate people who make it all happen.

[00:01:01] Travis Bader: At Saco, eight team members generously took time out of their busy schedules to walk us through their amazing facilities. And at Norma, two representatives drove over three hours just to stay at our hotel and guide us through their factory tour the next day. I was blown away, not only by the precision, the robotic automation, the state of the art technologies, but by the human element behind it all.

[00:01:26] Travis Bader: Despite all the marvels of modern day automation, I discovered something profoundly reassuring. That human touch is still irreplaceable. Sure, the machines were cool, but what captured my attention even more was the passion and dedication of the people who make those machines work. Despite the automation at the front end, there is still a heavy emphasis on the human touch on every product that leaves a door at the end of the process.

[00:01:55] Travis Bader: For example, did you know that when you're checking the straightness of a barrel, nothing has yet to surpass a human eye? When examining ammunition, visually and physically inspecting cartridges yield a higher level of guaranteed consistency than machines alone are able to provide. But this trip wasn't just about touring factories, I had a chance to hunt in Sweden with Robin and his friends in Solaron.

[00:02:19] Travis Bader: These incredible people didn't know me from Adam, yet they came together to organize several days of hunting in their traditional Swedish style on historic grounds. These moments, the trust, the connections, the shared experiences are what this podcast is all about. They remind me of a couple of sayings I've shared here before.

[00:02:42] Travis Bader: Ones that ring even more true after this trip. The first, it's not personal. It's just business. You've likely heard that phrase before, and I got to tell you, it's one I completely disagree with. To me, business is deeply personal. It's built on trust, consistency, and meaningful relationships. Separate the personal for the professional, and you'll lose a foundation that holds it all together.

[00:03:10] Travis Bader: The second, show me your friends and I'll show you who you are. The people I had the privilege of meeting on this trip are not just great at what they do. They're great people. And that makes all the difference. With that said, let's get started. Let's get on with the podcast. Hey, Hey. Hey man. Coming to you from Sigtuna, Sweden.

[00:03:32] Travis Bader: And I am sitting down with Sweden's hottest up and coming country music star. He is a passionate hunter, angler, conservationist. Welcome to the Silvercore podcast, Robin Winter. 

[00:03:45] Robin Winther: Thank you so much, Travis, an honor to be here and be in the podcast and have you guys here as guests, it's been an awesome weekend.

[00:03:53] Travis Bader: This is the first time that I've recorded and somebody else is running around taking care of all the audio levels and, and all the professional stuff. Uh, Robin is a professional singer, songwriter, um, music guy all around, you've been, you've been doing music for what, since you've been like, Four years old, or before?

[00:04:12] Travis Bader: Ha ha! 

[00:04:13] Robin Winther: Yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's been music, like, a, a really long time. I actually started out playing trombone, out of all instruments. The 

[00:04:20] Travis Bader: trombone? 

[00:04:21] Robin Winther: The trombone, yeah. Was that like a school thing? They said you gotta play it? School thing, gotta play. My parents are both playing instruments, and, uh, I actually wanted to play the trumpet.

[00:04:29] Robin Winther: Okay. But it was full. So , they put me on trombone in the orchestra. I, no, I, I didn't love it. I, I kind of, no, it was, it was rough. But, you know, it's, I think get me started, you know, you have to use your ears. 'cause you know, you don't have a, it's like a slide. 

[00:04:44] Travis Bader: Yeah. 

[00:04:44] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:04:45] Travis Bader: I, I don't get that. Why? If someone's got an interest in anything.

[00:04:48] Travis Bader: Right. If you're an interest in, in hunting or fishing, if you have an interest in. Music, why starting them off on the recorder, right? I remember when, that's what we did in Canada. We've got these recorders and you're playing hot cross buns and everyone, I've never heard a professional recorder player.

[00:05:05] Travis Bader: Maybe they got them, but they all quit. Yeah. I don't think you can make it sound good. Start it with a cool instrument and, and spark that interest. If people from North America are listening to this and they're like a, Swedish, country, Western music star. I don't know if I've heard your music and I'll tell you this much.

[00:05:25] Travis Bader: If you've listened to any episode of the Silvercore podcast, you've heard Robin's music. Robin has been a part of the Silvercore podcast from day one. I, oh yeah, I was, so I went online. I'm putting a podcast together. I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm figuring it out as I go. But I want to have really cool music, sort of like Sonic brand this and have a really cool sound.

[00:05:51] Travis Bader: That I can have as my intro and outro. And I found one and it was, I licensed it. It was an online licensing service and, and I love it. And it's been on every single episode on the intro and outro. But after five years, I'm looking at it. I said, I want to have something that's unique and that not everybody can go out and license.

[00:06:09] Travis Bader: And I don't want to change it up too much because I really love the flavor and the style. I don't know if there's any place else that I can really find this. And I thought, well, what if I track down the artist who originally made the song that I really liked? And I did, it took some time of tracking down.

[00:06:28] Travis Bader: It was hard. You, you, you had, I guess the different companies that you worked through had different names associated with you. And, and, uh, I wasn't sure if I actually found the right place, but I was able to find you. And here's the weird part, so you're in Sweden, and I'm like, holy crows, other side of the world from where I'm from.

[00:06:50] Travis Bader: And you're like, oh yeah, yeah, my, my girlfriend, she's from Langley, and um, she grew up in Richmond. Yeah. Which is like, straddling Ladner, where, where I live. What a small world. 

[00:07:00] Robin Winther: It's insane. You know, when I got this email, I thought it was like a spam email. It's like, I have this podcast, you know, you get, you get this, all these weird emails, like, I want to build you a website or whatever.

[00:07:13] Robin Winther: And I saw this email, I was like, is this real? I don't know. I'll just put it into answer lately, further down the road. I'll look into it. And it, it's insane. Like, I don't know, it got a couple of weeks. I don't remember how long you had to wait, but yeah, we were at have a small summer like fishing cabin up in the north of Sweden and Me and my my girlfriend from Langley were sitting out on the on the porch and we're like so I got this email And I wonder if it's real from this guy It's like it's like a podcaster or he was talking about a song that I did Ten years ago for this company and because those songs that it for that company They were like non like a license free song, right?

[00:07:59] Robin Winther: Yeah, so everyone could use it So I thought it was like, oh you something connected like a spam or something connected to the songs cuz everyone could use it yeah, pretty much and So read it again. I was like, oh, this seems legit. So I'll answer it and like Pretty fast, got to respond, like, Hey man, that's so fun.

[00:08:20] Robin Winther: Uh, can I call you on WhatsApp or something? And you call me and here we are today. 

[00:08:27] Travis Bader: Yeah, that was, well, so a friend of mine, Carl Fox, he says, uh, Travis, you've been doing this podcast for a while. You love it. You're making some amazing connections, meeting some amazing people and people keep coming up. They say, Oh, you should come on out hunting.

[00:08:41] Travis Bader: You should come out wherever it might be. Right. And. And I keep saying, no, no, no, no, I'm busy. You know, I'm running the business. I'm doing whatever, all these other things. He says, you gotta start saying yes. And actually a few episodes ago, I started it off with a, be a yes man, right? Oh, wow. Somebody says, come on out, maybe it's outside your comfort zone.

[00:09:03] Travis Bader: And I got no problem pushing my comfort zone, but you know, you get into these routines in life, right? And you get into these areas of, you know, Work and family and friends and, and all the rest where it's kind of well balanced, but you have to push those boundaries if you really want to grow. And so I just started saying, yes.

[00:09:20] Travis Bader: And you said, Hey. Uh, if you're ever out in Sweden, uh, we should go for a hunt. And I 

[00:09:26] Robin Winther: said, he said, yes. And I thought you were the bravest man in the world. Like you're reaching out to this guy you don't know on the other side of the Atlantic and invites you to hunt. And you're just like, all right, I'll book, I'll book, I'll book a plane ticket.

[00:09:42] Robin Winther: And I'll come over. Yeah. 

[00:09:44] Travis Bader: So that was, that was really cool. I mean, you don't, you Often get opportunities like this in life. And when you do, if you just say no out of politeness or no, because you got a busy schedule, You're missing out on, well, I would have missed out on meeting you and all your amazing friends.

[00:10:04] Travis Bader: So we were in this area, am I allowed to say where we were? Yeah, 

[00:10:07] Robin Winther: of course. 

[00:10:07] Travis Bader: All right. So, uh, we went out to an area in Sweden called Solaron. Yep. Saying that right? Yeah. Sun Island. Sun Island. In old Swedish, pretty much, that's what it means. And you know what? I should probably take a step back. Cause it's kind of funny.

[00:10:20] Travis Bader: I'm decked out in my Fjällräven, uh, pants and Fjällräven shirt to show some homage to Sweden and you've got your John Deere hat on, and you're wearing your Canadian Tire hat the other day and your car heart. And that's funny. We, we look in the garage out here and you got a 66 Ford with an inline six on there.

[00:10:39] Travis Bader: And. It's, um, it, I, we've got our roles reversed here, but so, um, Solaron, awesome place. So just outside of Mora, so there's a company, I use their knives. Um, uh, Morakniv, Morakniv, am I saying that right? Yeah. Morakniv. And they make affordable knives. I use it for hunting and fishing. They're lightweight. I throw them in my pack and if I want to rat bag it or, or lend it out, I don't care because it's, I'm not breaking the bank.

[00:11:10] Travis Bader: And anyways, Guatemala had to stop by their place, check their stuff out. That was pretty amazing. Coming back with a bunch of knives prior to that was in Finland and was at the Saco factory. That was really cool. Did a full tour there. What an amazing group of people out there. I shoot SOCO, been using them for, for years and years, and I'm looking at their, their new models and everything they're, they're putting out.

[00:11:33] Travis Bader: They've got a museum in there, their production line. That, that was neat looking at all the robots and machines, putting everything together. And even with all the high tech automation, final step is human eye, looking over everything, it's got the human touch and then over to, uh, to Norma. Yeah. So Norma in Sweden, and we've been Got a tour of the Animal Factory and actually they were, uh, Jonas was, uh, nice enough to provide some ammunition to use on the recent hunt that we had here in Solar Run.

[00:12:04] Travis Bader: So, nice. Yeah. Yeah. And um, so you're coming on up, it's what, few hours from here? 3, 3, 4 hours. Three, four hours up Northwest. Yeah. And you are like, I got a group of people. They're excited to meet you. You'll like it. It's a beautiful area. It's a bit of a throwback for, uh, for Sweden. Tell me about it. 

[00:12:25] Robin Winther: I would say it's, it's kind of a time capsule, uh, up there, you know, it's, um, I live closer to Stockholm, the big city and, um, yeah, time is, I've been standing a little more still up there and like especially a little bit more out on this island and it's a little more old school Which I really enjoy and the people are so warm and open hearted and generous And you know, it takes you back a little bit and all the houses are a little more classic style They're What color?

[00:12:55] Robin Winther: They're all red. 

[00:12:56] Travis Bader: Everything on there is red. It's like, if you paint your house a different color other than red, you are going to be ostracized. Pretty much. 

[00:13:02] Robin Winther: Yeah. We had a short story. We had this mine in Sweden back in the day, a copper mine that, uh, the by product of this mine was that they did a paint, red paint called FÃ¥lurafaj.

[00:13:17] Robin Winther: And it became really popular and it's a really good paint because it withstands weather great. And. Yeah. It's had a big breakthrough. And since then, I think all houses in Sweden are red. 

[00:13:30] Travis Bader: Every once in a while, you see a house that's going to be, um, yellow. Yellowish color or, uh, so it looks like you either have red or if you have a large enough property and you have a secondary property, it's going to be yellow or it's going to be red and yellow.

[00:13:44] Travis Bader: And some are yellow and red, which is really pushing the, uh, the envelope. Pushing the 

[00:13:49] Robin Winther: boundaries there. Yeah. 

[00:13:50] Travis Bader: Yeah. You know, that it's interesting because I, one of the things I want to talk about is some sort of the similar similarities and differences between culture and hunting in Canada and British Columbia, where I'm from.

[00:14:05] Travis Bader: In Sweden, I was amazed at how welcoming everybody was, how similar the mentality of the hunters are and the, the camaraderie. Um, but I was also amazed at how. Easy it was as an outsider to be able to come in and, um, uh, hunt legally within the government framework and regulations. And I mean, you're going to be over in BC in a little bit and, uh, you need to get a guide if you're going to be doing any big game hunting and that's big bucks.

[00:14:38] Travis Bader: So there's a, there's a huge barrier to entry. Um, and then, you know, When I, when I looked at it with, so we go out, maybe I'll back up a little bit. We did a driven hunt. Tell me, tell me a bit about driven hunts, because this is something we don't really do in Canada. Yeah. 

[00:14:57] Robin Winther: It, we're pretty unique in that.

[00:14:58] Robin Winther: Cause in Sweden we have kind of pretty liberal hunting laws when it comes to the way we hunt. Like you can't obviously hunt from cars in Sweden and we have, there's some, of course, a lot of laws to it. Uh, we have a super liberal, um, way of hunting with dogs. So pretty much our, like the most popular hunt here in Sweden is with dogs and like driving, driving dogs, pushing dogs.

[00:15:26] Robin Winther: So what we usually do is we have, uh, a dog that is like, it's purposed and it trained for the game we're going out to hunting that day. So we were out hunting red deer. And so we have a dog that only pushes, Red deer and, uh, boar. Um, so, you place out shooters around the area where we're gonna hunt, and then you have a couple of dogs going in.

[00:15:55] Robin Winther: Into this area that we're hunting and trying to awake the animal and push it out to the shooters. Great. So that's the, like the, yeah, that's kind of how, how we do it. And, um, So civilized, like really. Civilized and, uh, pretty effective. Yeah. Goes fast. And if there's an animal. In the area where we're hunting, we'll most likely get it out if it's a good dog.

[00:16:21] Robin Winther: And, uh, well, we, we got pretty lucky. I think within 10 minutes, we had a big, uh, female, 

[00:16:29] Travis Bader: uh, red deer. So, okay. Hunt's on, we're all stationed up. We're in our areas and since you're using dogs, so the animals will be bedded down through the day, typically. 

[00:16:38] Robin Winther: You 

[00:16:39] Travis Bader: can get up a little bit later in the day, the animals are going to be bedded down.

[00:16:43] Travis Bader: Everyone gets in their positions. They got GPS callers on the dogs. Yeah. The hunters are all, uh, geo located with their, their units. There's an app that everybody uses here called We Hunt, and there's a yearly subscription, I think it's about 50 bucks. Is it, or? Something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yearly subscription, but it, it get your hunt code.

[00:17:04] Travis Bader: So it shows everybody in your hunting party. You see where you are, you see where the dogs are, you can follow it. Like it's crazy. And. Effective, 10 minutes later, bang, bang, bang. Yeah. Yeah. We hear, uh, some, Simon saw the, uh, the red deer, took some shots and, uh, uh, was successful on that one. I think, uh, Alex helped him out there and, uh, on the end bit.

[00:17:27] Travis Bader: And, um, um, then the dogs continue to do their work in case there is more animals in the area. 

[00:17:33] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:17:35] Travis Bader: Interesting things that I, I learned. So if the. Dog happens to flush out a different animal than what it is that you're targeting. Yeah. Um, you guys don't want to harvest that animal, uh, because you don't want to reward the dog and turn it into a dog that now hunts that a different type of animal.

[00:17:55] Travis Bader: You basically. Broke that dog. 

[00:17:57] Robin Winther: Yeah, exactly. So it's super sensitive. So if you have a dog, cause we did a couple of hunts we had, we were hunting, um, red deer and boar, and then we were hunting red fox and hare. And if you have a dog that's specialized at hunting fox, Or, um, uh, hare. You can't hunt roe deer, for example.

[00:18:20] Robin Winther: We have a lot of roe deer here in Sweden. It's like pretty, pretty, like almost invasive. Uh, so they're spread out everywhere. And for hunting fox and hare, you need really fast dogs. Uh, so from early age, we start training these dogs. Not to go for roe deer, and so it's really important that you don't shoot a roe deer for that.

[00:18:44] Robin Winther: Even though it's, you're allowed to shoot roe deer during that time we're hunting fox and stuff. We don't shoot it because it will pretty much break the dog. Right. Like the training, because if it's once rewarded for a roe deer, you can't, it will continue chasing roe deer, and that will not be a good thing.

[00:18:59] Robin Winther: Like it will take up a lot of time. So like, Oh, what is this guy, a dog doing? It's running off and chasing road here and it's following this road here for hours. I'm just sitting waiting for Fox, you know? So it's. 

[00:19:11] Travis Bader: Other differences that I saw, um, big one, right off the bat, you guys use suppressors on your rifles.

[00:19:17] Travis Bader: We do. We do. And that totally makes sense. I mean, the two most offensive things from firearms are recoil. If it's a heavier recoiling firearm, And the noise and suppressors help mitigate both of those. I don't get rid of it completely, but, uh, I'm usually out there. I use a SWAT com, uh, electronic hearing protection or like Peltor Tac 6s or, but I got these things on all day long and they're good in some respects because they'll amplify the sounds around you and, uh, bad in other respects.

[00:19:48] Travis Bader: Cause maybe it's not the sounds you want to hear. Cause it's usually those higher end kind of sounds that rustles and crinkles. That it amplifies, uh, hotter weather hunting. I don't like it cause it's hot, but cold weather hunting, it's nice to have them on, but you lose. Um, directionality a bit, 

[00:20:05] Robin Winther: I think so too.

[00:20:05] Robin Winther: And also, you know, it's, it's like a little weird listening and you, you lose also a little connection with nature. I think I agree with this on like you, I usually have them like turned up really high and you hear the wind and it's like, I know it tires you out a little bit. I think 

[00:20:20] Travis Bader: I agree. Yeah. That's a good observation.

[00:20:21] Travis Bader: Uh, obviously as an audio engineer, you would, you would notice those sort of things. Yeah, but like it also 

[00:20:27] Robin Winther: effective like it's good to have I use them as well. But um, so the silencer thing actually just got, uh, legal to get a silencers without a license because before, if you bought a weapon and you wanted to get a silencers for like a bolt action rifle, you had to apply for a license that it would take Okay.

[00:20:48] Robin Winther: Eight weeks to get the silencer license as well. And I think it was last year or the, the year before to just open it up. So I think you still have to like, um, do something when you buy it. Like, yeah, I have a put in, fill in some form, right? That you have a silencer, but there's no licensing for it anymore, which is pretty nice.

[00:21:10] Travis Bader: Well, I mean, it, it totally makes sense. I remember I, I've said this before in the podcast, but I think I was 19 years old. Scotland, I was walking out from Inverness to Loch Ness and there's a guy shooting on his property and he was using a suppressor. And anyways, I walked up, I talked to them and I said, well, those are illegal in Canada.

[00:21:31] Travis Bader: We can't have them. He says, really? I live so close to my neighbors. I have to have them. If I don't have them, then that's sound pollution and that would be illegal. So, yeah. That was a, um, a bit of an interesting eye opener, but to be able to hunt and not have to worry about losing your hearing. Yeah.

[00:21:48] Travis Bader: Because you're, you're popping around. It's still loud, even with a. Sure. 

[00:21:51] Robin Winther: Like a suppressor. It's, it's, it's, it's loud, but you know, it's, I, I like it and it's good. And we just got it, uh, legal for, for a month. Uh, 22s, because before you couldn't have it, uh, for 22s. Really? Yeah, you could have it for anything, everything else, but like, not for 22s, so now we can have it for 22s too.

[00:22:08] Travis Bader: Why do you think that 

[00:22:09] Robin Winther: is? I think it's, I guess, a little too quiet, maybe? I don't know. You can get quiet, yeah. Yeah, it's, I don't know, it's, it's nice because then I, I can use it in my, because I have neighbors around here, even though I'm a little remote. Right. That's pretty good. I can use it in my backyard in a little forest and practice shoot and stuff.

[00:22:27] Travis Bader: Yeah. So the speed of sounds are in 1, 100 feet per second, depending on humidity and altitude and a few other things, but average around there. And if you can keep the speed of sound on that 22 below that, it's just, all you hear is click, click, click, click. And as it goes, it's just the, uh, hammer falling or firing pin hitting.

[00:22:48] Travis Bader: If it goes above it, um, and you point the, uh, let's say the rifle into the ground. You can go click, click, click into the ground and then point it down range and allow it to break that sound barrier. It almost sounds the same as a, uh, at least out of a rifle. 

[00:23:06] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:23:07] Travis Bader: Pistols, of course, are going to have a lot of report with a shorter barrel, but, uh, yeah, those 22s can get real quiet.

[00:23:13] Travis Bader: 9mm can get pretty quiet too. 

[00:23:14] Robin Winther: Okay. Yeah. 

[00:23:15] Travis Bader: Uh, I've done a little, little bit of playing with suppressors and in the past we're licensed to manufacture and, um, develop and, and, um, Do a few other things with, with them and what we call prohibited weapons and prohibited devices in Canada. Interesting. But it never, it never made sense to me, the whole hunting aspect, not being allowed to use something that's going to be, I don't know, everywhere else, occupational health and safety would say, like wear a hard hat, put eye protection on, right?

[00:23:46] Travis Bader: Like you protect those ears. Yeah, that makes sense. Maybe one day. I think, I think it might be coming. I don't know. I don't know. It's, uh. I didn't 

[00:23:56] Robin Winther: see this coming in Sweden that will be licensed for you either. So, um, that was a pretty nice surprise actually. Yeah. To be fighting for that though, for a while.

[00:24:04] Robin Winther: So it's nice that it finally. Do you guys have like an NRA of Sweden? Yeah, I'm, I'm not sure about that, but I guess there's some kind of a, we have like the hunters association. Okay. Right. That's doing that. It's just working with the government a lot. 

[00:24:23] Travis Bader: What the other thing I thought was interesting was. Uh, you guys get allotments of animals for different, 

[00:24:30] Robin Winther: is 

[00:24:31] Travis Bader: it for your group?

[00:24:32] Robin Winther: You set up a hunting group? It is actually for the area you're hunting. So up where we were hunting, they get, they got five, I think red deers. Um, so we're hunting where you're allowed to hunt with dogs from early September to February. Uh, that's the only time we can release a dog in the, in the forest.

[00:24:53] Robin Winther: Cause, or the other time, you know, you have to respect the animal. I like the repopulation and, yeah. Sure. So, um. But during that time, I think it's depending on the size of the land you get assigned a couple of mooses, a couple of red deers, a lot of roe deers you can shoot and for boars because boars have been coming more north.

[00:25:17] Robin Winther: We had a lot of them down south, but now they've reached the place we hunted as well. They were not there four or five years ago. Uh, snowboards up there. Really? Yeah. And so now they've changed so you can hunt them all year round. But yes. And day and night too, right? Day and night too. And also you can have like thermal and you can, you can shoot them where you feed them.

[00:25:40] Robin Winther: So you can have a feeding station and you can feed them, you can have a light there and so you can have all these. You can't hunt them from cars, uh, but like, besides that, like, pretty much any way you want to hunt them. And their meat. I've never had wild boar meat. 

[00:25:56] Travis Bader: It's really good. 

[00:25:56] Robin Winther: Yeah, I've heard that.

[00:25:57] Robin Winther: It's like a game, um, uh, it's, it's, it's a good flavor. Yeah, I like it. 

[00:26:04] Travis Bader: Yeah, when I was in Finland, we trained. Big part of traveling for me and experiencing a culture is experiencing the food. Yeah. And so having some traditional food and, and, uh, and of course you have to have the reindeer, which we call caribou and, uh Oh 

[00:26:20] Robin Winther: yeah.

[00:26:20] Travis Bader: Um, I mean it fantastic. And also had they called it Gray Bear, but I looked it up. It looks like it's a, um, it looks like a brown bear. Okay. Basically a, like a grizzly bear. Oh, wow. I didn't know about that one. Yeah. So. They serve that game meat in restaurants. And in Canada, well, most of the provinces, that's illegal.

[00:26:41] Travis Bader: I think, I think Quebec, I was talking to, uh, to a chef about this before who hunts and he's got a, uh, his Instagram feed. He's the hunter chef and he's got some, A book out and he's got another one coming out too, but there's, I think it was Quebec and maybe I think it was, uh, uh, Newfoundland. I think where there are certain times allowed to serve game meat.

[00:27:06] Robin Winther: Oh, aside from that, can't do it. Oh, wow. Yeah, we, we do, uh, we serve a lot of game meat and you can also like sell your. You are, you are, you're allowed to sell your game. The problem with boar, 'cause like we had a lot of boars got super popular over the years and they can have this, um, bacteria, I don't remember the name of it.

[00:27:27] Robin Winther: Trinos or Yeah, or Trino. Yeah, yeah, yeah. TCH in Swedish. Yeah. Okay. And so you have to send it to the lab first, so you get like a little piece of the bar and send it away. It, and it's got it fine. But there's some ca areas where it's more and actually. We have a little problem with boar since the Chernobyl nuclear accident.

[00:27:50] Travis Bader: Oh, okay. 

[00:27:51] Robin Winther: So They glow now? They glow now. No, but since they're eating like mushrooms and like stuff, and we had like a lot of rain of, um, nuclear waste after Chernobyl here in Sweden. So we still, for a while, we like tested, I don't know if we tested boar for nuclear or Like radiation and stuff. Cause like we couldn't pick mushrooms.

[00:28:15] Robin Winther: We couldn't fish for a lot of years after that. For all of Sweden? Especially for the North East part of Sweden, where it's closer to, to the accident, cause it was like raining. A couple of days after that, and the places where it was raining, we got a lot of nuclear waste in the ground and, you know, it sticks around a long time.

[00:28:35] Robin Winther: No kidding. So, uh, it's, it's been affecting the bores a little bit as well. Wow. Yeah. Wouldn't 

[00:28:41] Travis Bader: have thought of that. Yeah. That's going back quite some time, but it's, um. Yeah. It's like in the 80s sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. What was the other thing that kind of stuck out? Uh, so we will get a, a tag. We get our hunting license and then once we have our license, they say, what do you want to hunt?

[00:28:57] Travis Bader: Oh, I want to hunt moose or I want to hunt a whitetail. And so you go buy your tags, harvest an animal, it's confirmed, it's down, you're there, you notch your tag or you cut it out the day, the location. And that's just one of the ways that they're able to track the animals. Say that you're a lawful hunter, you're not a poacher.

[00:29:18] Travis Bader: So you've got your animal, you've got, uh, your tag notched and the conservation officer happens to pull you over or stop you to talk to you, you show them your paperwork and say, Hey, proper animal, close my paperwork. So it's not like I'm going to be going out and getting more, I'm not going to sneak this thing home real quick and then run out and say, I've got a clean tag, right?

[00:29:38] Travis Bader: Here, you guys don't have that. In fact, you don't even really have conservation officers out there pulling people 

[00:29:44] Robin Winther: over. No, I think that's interesting. Cause like, it feels like you guys, you have a lot of responsibility and, uh, that responsibility in Sweden is usually put to, I think, One person, the hunting leader, so for example, I'm in a hunting team close to Stockholm and the hunter leader, the leader of the, of the team, he has to report to, to the government and he's the guy keeping track on how many animals, but there's no officers out there checking out and like making sure everything is, so he's just responsible.

[00:30:18] Robin Winther: So, okay, we get to shoot 10 roe deers and then he keeps track of it. And then he fills in, and we can see like if it's, it's usually bigger areas, so we have a couple of hunting teams around there, and for example we can shoot five moose, and um, if the, the, the hunting team Next us to us shoots those five moves.

[00:30:42] Robin Winther: We can't do it. So it's a little bit. We have to beat them to it 

[00:30:46] Travis Bader: Well, it makes sense from a conservation standpoint, but you know exactly what's coming out of a certain area 

[00:30:51] Robin Winther: yeah, it's pretty easy to keep track of the population and It knows how much we'll get for next year and. But it's all also kind of honor system too.

[00:31:03] Robin Winther: It's a lot of the honor system. Yeah. Cause like they fill in, they had to fill in the right amount and yeah. Yeah. If they wanted to, they could totally 

[00:31:10] Travis Bader: lie and get away with it. Absolutely. But it doesn't seem to really. be a thing that you guys do here. You don't have to worry about people like people will break the rules wherever you go.

[00:31:20] Travis Bader: Of course. Yeah. There's always 

[00:31:22] Robin Winther: going to be 

[00:31:22] Travis Bader: vultures. Yeah. But, but there's a, sort of a culture here in Sweden and I notice it. In the hunting parties and how everyone's working together. There's a hive mind culture and I don't know a better way to put it than, than that. And, uh, we're like North America. We seem to be a culture that, uh, especially like in America, um, a culture of individuals.

[00:31:47] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:31:48] Travis Bader: Right. Everyone's it's the I and the me and how do I stand out? But that is really not prevalent in what I've seen in my stay so far in Sweden. Everyone had their own little tasks. They got their own little roles. Everyone just filled in and. They're helping out. 

[00:32:06] Robin Winther: It's a lot of teamwork. I think it's the, like the way also we hunt.

[00:32:09] Robin Winther: So we have to, uh, work together super hard. And I think it goes back so many generations that like these people learned from their dad, it learns from their dad and the same kind of hunting with dogs, yeah, we get more technology now, back in the day you release a dog and maybe same day the dog will be back, you know, the dog could be back one week later, you don't know, but now we can keep track of that, but it's still kind of the same hunting, I think.

[00:32:34] Robin Winther: So, um, everyone has to have their task, you have these people with dogs, people staying there and we all help out, pull out the animal from the forest and like, it's just, um, it's, it's a nice teamwork, and everyone has their own little task in, in the game. No way. 

[00:32:51] Travis Bader: Then we go back and grab the animal at the barn, hot dogs, and, and, uh, uh, what was that one called?

[00:32:59] Travis Bader: Uh, Moramist? 

[00:33:01] Robin Winther: Oh, yeah. How about some, like, local sodas and stuff? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it's a lot about that. You know, we have, uh, usually, when we do the Moose Hunt here in Sweden, everyone takes a week off work. And, you know, it's been that for all years. So the kids in school is like, Oh no, my dad's on a moose hunt this year.

[00:33:19] Robin Winther: So I had to be home, you know, it's been like part of the culture so long. So they, we get assigned the amount of moose we can shoot for the area. And then we all take a week off and we go out. And we hunt, uh, and just stay in a small little cabin or camping or whatnot, you know, in this area. And just full focus on the hunt for, uh, a week.

[00:33:42] Robin Winther: And it's also with dogs. So we have a, a moose dogs that we call them and just go for it. 

[00:33:47] Travis Bader: And it's so effective. I mean, when I was coming up from the, uh, Norma factory and Jonas, he says, he's going out hunting in these. I'm going to have to break the curse. He hasn't got an animal himself in a couple of years now.

[00:34:00] Travis Bader: And anyways, he's like, send pictures. If you get something, you got to send a picture. So anyways, with the, um, the red deer down, picture of the heart goes over to him. And he's like, Oh, great delicacy. And he doesn't say anything else. I'm like, okay, am I, maybe, maybe they're not getting anything in their area.

[00:34:19] Travis Bader: And I said, well, how are you doing? And he says, Oh, we had to stop on day one. We got four. And, uh, but he's like, I didn't get anything, but our hunting party did. Yeah. Yeah. Like that's unheard of, really, in, in BC to go out in one day, your hunting party has got their four animals and okay, we'll just stop and come back.

[00:34:38] Travis Bader: Yeah. Um, so the, the 

[00:34:40] Robin Winther: dogs are pretty darn effective. It is. So we're, when we're out here in Stockholm, the, the ground, like the area we hunt are way smaller. But it's a lot more animals in a smaller area down here than compared to, we were up there in Norfolk, Sweden. So I think we're hunting down here on, um, 1500 acres or something and up there it's, uh, 200, 000 acres or like, it's, it's, it's like not around like hundreds, like so, so much land, you know, and, um, We can go out and we can easily have four animals.

[00:35:21] Robin Winther: Like we go out on a Saturday and we have four animals by lunch. 

[00:35:25] Travis Bader: And then went out and did a, uh, did a fox hunt. Yeah. That was pretty cool. What I thought was the coolest, and I don't know, maybe it's just me, but like, I've never done a fox hunt before. I thought it was cool that I'm standing on top of these boulders and this rock pile that's like Viking times set up.

[00:35:47] Travis Bader: And there's a Frisbee golf right, right beside me and dogs are doing their thing. It's like, when you talk about the history in, in that area, um, you're going back hundreds and hundreds and you're going way back. 

[00:36:04] Robin Winther: Yeah. So that area has like a lot Viking graves and, and, and stuff like that. And you just stand on this old piles of stone.

[00:36:12] Robin Winther: There's like an old grave and there's like a Frisbee golf there and then we have a dog and we're standing there with a shotgun and there's like houses around us and I don't know, it's, it's so, I like it. Yeah. It's an interesting area to hunt in, I think. 

[00:36:25] Travis Bader: Yeah. So I guess that covers a few of the differences and, and coming into it, like obviously not everyone's going to be coming over into Sweden and being able to have an experience like that, because.

[00:36:37] Travis Bader: Uh, you can't just show up and start expecting to be able to hunt. I'm really grateful for you and for everybody there, the whole team for, uh, taking us in and showing me and my wife how you guys do things. It was, it was so cool. To 

[00:36:51] Robin Winther: have you guys, it was a lot of fun. And yeah, you did, 

[00:36:54] Travis Bader: you did great. Well, I appreciate that.

[00:36:56] Travis Bader: Looking forward to when you're over in BC, cause that'll be cool. We'll, uh. Even though it's just going to be for a small game and migratory so fun. Yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited So tell me about how do how does a guy from Sweden get into the country music scene? I forget 

[00:37:13] Robin Winther: as I mentioned before it's always been a lot of music around my family.

[00:37:16] Robin Winther: Yeah, and My dad's playing guitar and even no one has really done it professionally, but it's been My dad lived in Nashville, uh, he moved there with his brother in the 70s, and, like, saw Johnny Cash, and he went to college there, um, he was born in the 50s, my dad, and, uh, came back, and, like, filled with this musical experience.

[00:37:47] Robin Winther: So him and his brother has always been doing music and a lot of blues, a lot of folk, Americana stuff, like a lot of Bob Dylan and also, and also the blues stuff. So I think I got that pretty early on, uh, doing music with the, like I got the old school and, and as soon as I started playing guitar, I think it was, yeah.

[00:38:09] Robin Winther: 15 or 14, something like that. It just took off for me. It was like, okay, this is, this is what I gotta do. Yeah. You know, it's like I quit trombone and start playing guitar. 

[00:38:20] Travis Bader: Put the trombone down, son. Let's get you an instrument that. I 

[00:38:23] Robin Winther: haven't picked it up since. 

[00:38:25] Travis Bader: I love it. Yeah. Come in here, your recording studio is all decked out.

[00:38:30] Travis Bader: And you got Marty Robbins going on the, um, on the vinyl. And I love Marty Robbins, grew up listening to his stuff. I always loved the Ballad of the Alamo cause they had Colonel Travis in that one. And as a kid, that was, that was pretty cool to me. Awesome artist. Yeah, totally. But, um, and so you went down to Nashville yourself.

[00:38:50] Robin Winther: Yeah, I did um, like I always want to go there. Yeah. Heart of country music. So, uh, I was Visiting a friend who was, my cousin actually went to Harvard. Okay. He got a scholarship and went to Harvard and I went to Boston. I was like, oh, I got it. Yeah I have a little more time off. So I might just do Nashville now.

[00:39:11] Robin Winther: So I flew down to Nashville I think I spent two weeks in Nashville out seeing music every night and just like consuming this Transcribed Amazing musical atmosphere. Yeah, sir. For everyone who's been in Nashville. It's now it's called Nash Vegas. It's a lot of A lot of music a lot of partying and just like a fun time Yeah, it's a really cool city and I was there just pre corona and I remember I was thinking, because I've been doing music and production for a long time and doing some pop music and it's a little competitive, the pop scene, I think, I came down there and I was a little curious on how, because it's so many musicians in Nashville, so many people do music and like, like, how's the competition here?

[00:40:02] Robin Winther: Aren't you like, like, elbowing your way through? Right. How does it work here? You know, and I was going with this guy in an Uber who was a drummer. On broadway. Yeah, and he's like, no, no, the vibe here is like you want because country is still a bit of an underdog compared to pop music. Sure. So you want the other people to succeed.

[00:40:30] Robin Winther: You don't want the other musicians to succeed. So we really have this, uh, Feeling of like togetherness. Mm. And so he said, if you only have three things, like you have to know your stuff, you have to have your own stuff. And you have to be a nice guy to be with. Mm. They have to like you. Yeah. If you, if you do all those three, you, you will have a wonderful time and you will like, it will, people will wanna help you and support you.

[00:40:56] Travis Bader: So I read, and you said that in an article before, cause you ended up winning an award. I forget, usually I've got my phone to refer to these things, but we're using phones to, uh, to record this one. But you, uh, had won an up and coming, um, country music star award, or there's something else that you had won, but I remember reading about the competition thing.

[00:41:18] Travis Bader: And I, that struck a chord with me because we see that too. And. In the gun community, in the outdoors community. Yeah. Um, and who was it that said, uh, people at the bottom compete, people at the top collaborate. 

[00:41:34] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:41:35] Travis Bader: And that always stuck with me. Yeah. Because if you, if you want to have the biggest tower around, There's a couple of ways you can do that.

[00:41:45] Travis Bader: You can build the biggest tower, which takes a lot of time, energy, and work. And you're going to be working with people who know how to build towers and do the plumbing and do the electrical and they're, they're going to be employed and you're all working together as a team and everyone can then turn around and look at, people can drive by years later and say, show their kids, see that tower over there.

[00:42:07] Travis Bader: I helped build that. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Or you can tear everyone else's tower down and then you've got the big, biggest tower. So often I find that in these areas with a low barrier to entry industry and high competitive levels, people's competitive nature will get ahead of them and they'll start tearing down other people's towers to try and make theirs look bigger.

[00:42:32] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[00:42:33] Travis Bader: Is that what you're finding 

[00:42:34] Robin Winther: in other areas a little bit, you know, music is it's a hard business in a lot of ways You know, it's it's subjective. So like what do you like it or not? It's like always up to the person Consuming it so it's always hard to compete in music and like you see people something blowing up on tick tock Oh, yeah, it gets super popular and it's like it's easy to get like a little jealous and like I've been doing You Music for a long time and you don't you want to be heard and stuff But I think it's so important to keep reminding yourself that like everyone you're doing your thing Mmm, like I think that like comparing Yourself to others success is like start of a downfall, you know You have to you have to like feel good about your thing like what you do and then just keep Reminding yourself that like well, I'm doing my thing and if people enjoy My thing they can they will continue with my journey now build organic Fans or if you have a business or whatever.

[00:43:46] Robin Winther: So just like keep being true. I think it's the key and just keep like Reminding yourself that you're doing your thing. Yeah, and you don't compete with other stuff Really like you compete in some ways, you know, you want so you don't want to make money of it But like if consistency and doing your own thing, I think it's the key and you will succeed with anything 

[00:44:09] Travis Bader: If they say comparison is the thief of joy, 

[00:44:12] Robin Winther: that's the word that I was looking for.

[00:44:13] Robin Winther: Yeah. Cause I remember when I was in Nashville, I, I had a friend there. He was guitarist for Tracy Lawrence at the time. Swedish guy, great guitarist. Yeah. Um, we went to see the time jumpers. With Vince Gill. I was playing with them at the time and he knew Vince Gill a little bit So after the show Vince Gill was there and he was like taking like rolling his cables putting back his pedal board and and We went up and we talked to him super nice guy and I was thanking him for the show and like telling him like what a good inspiration, well a big inspiration It's been to me and he was like, oh so nice So tell me about your music and he was just like Keep asking me questions, and I was like, ah, ah, ah, nobody.

[00:45:03] Robin Winther: Like, you're a guy, you're playing with the Eagles. You have like, 40 Grammys, and you're like, selling out Ryman Auditorium the day after, and here you go, rolling cables and wanting to know everything about my music. Mm hmm. And, and I thought I was so inspiring at that level. And just, as you said, like the top tier, like they're collaborating and he was just interested or genuinely interested in a nice guy.

[00:45:26] Travis Bader: Yeah, because that keeps you fired when you see other people doing well and you're able to experience that with them or experience that same kind of joy. Or if you're even able to help contribute just a little bit to their success path. If it's, well, I know a person, they might be a good contact for you.

[00:45:45] Travis Bader: I'll introduce you. Right. It's amazing. Those little things that happen. It's not that person to me, the connection or the, the reference, they, they can't take any level of credit for your success, but they can feel. The same excitement and, um, that, that passion and what it is you do, I think when people start really getting hypercompetitive, it kills the passion for it.

[00:46:08] Travis Bader: So fast, so fast. It's, if you make money, your primary motivator, you're always going to be behind the money. I think so too. If you make fame, your primary motivator, you're always going to be behind the fame. You're always going to be chasing it. Just like if you make happiness, your primary motivator, I want to be happy.

[00:46:29] Travis Bader: You're never going to be happy. No, you're, you're always going to presuppose the fact that you're not happy and you're working towards trying to be happy when all these happy moments are happening to you and you're still looking ahead and saying, when's this going to happen? When am I going to be happy?

[00:46:44] Travis Bader: Um, I think that same thing goes for, I know in my, it goes for everything. 

[00:46:50] Robin Winther: Yeah. Yeah. It's not music. It's like running a business or, or, or whatever, you know, it goes to get in everything you do. 

[00:46:58] Travis Bader: Yeah. I, I mean, uh, for me in business, my biggest joy is the creation part of it. Yeah. Um, sustaining certain things.

[00:47:08] Travis Bader: My A DHD kicks in and I, I love doing the business. Yeah. But actually creating different parts of it is we're really fuels me. And when I see other people and they're building business, I get fueled and excited for them. And I'll say, look, you can tell me to shut up whenever, but I've got 1,001 ideas and the different things.

[00:47:28] Travis Bader: I'll keep spewing it out until you say stop, right? And it looks like, to me anyways, that was the experience that you had over in Nashville, that these other artists are like, Excited for you, genuinely excited for you. They want to see you succeed. 

[00:47:41] Robin Winther: Yeah. And I thought I was so inspiring, you know, being there and, and, uh, loving country music since I was a kid growing up with it and being there and meeting these like biggest stars, uh, and like feel the warmth and the community.

[00:47:59] Robin Winther: I don't know, it was really inspiring. So I've been working behind the scenes a lot before. I've been as a producer and also been out playing music as well, but not Like putting out my own music, really. You know, you're always like, I'm going to do it one day. I'll, I'll start releasing my own stuff. It's like, I've been writing songs for one day, right?

[00:48:21] Robin Winther: One day. And then COVID came and I was like, fuel up with this Nashville trip. I was like, well, you know, this day is today. That was a push COVID. It was a little bit, you know I lost a couple like jobs and like the clients and you couldn't go out playing So I was doing like cover shows and stuff as a front man.

[00:48:40] Robin Winther: It was a lot of fun So I get like I had all the experience of being on stage all the time and playing for people So I was like, all right, I'll do it So I wrote my first single, and, uh, the rest is history. 

[00:48:53] Travis Bader: So does that fuel you, like, when you're out there on stage, do you love being the star of, center of attention, out in the crowds, dealing with everyone, or does that feel kind of, like, surreal?

[00:49:03] Travis Bader: Do you put on a different sort of, a persona? 

[00:49:07] Robin Winther: Um, no, not really. I think that's with the, with the experience I've got playing like corporate parties and, and weddings and all those stuff before. So when I was doing my own thing, I was just like, I'm just going to be as, you know, real as I can, you know? And I was thought that.

[00:49:31] Robin Winther: It's the funniest things to watch. Like, if I'm playing a venue, I don't like to prepare stuff. I go out and I'm like looking out and like I'm seeing someone with a funny hat and I'll say something or like I just like trying to take in the moment. I think that's the best way of doing it. Like if you're having a presentation or something.

[00:49:53] Robin Winther: Like, you learn, you read it, you practice so much, you go out and you think about these things and you're not present there. Like, it's good to know, you have to know all this, so you, I know the songs and I know what, like, works. That's a good point. But you go, you go out, you just go out and you observe. You take in the room, like, what are, what are the people here?

[00:50:11] Robin Winther: What do they want? What are they thinking about? What is like, what are their expectations? And then you work from there and you just being calm and and then that I think is the best shows because then if I'm calm the audience will be calm and then they will be, be, um, able to take in my music. Right. Like the worst thing is like you see this artist that's super nervous and like, and you feel nervous like, oh, this is, this is crazy.

[00:50:39] Robin Winther: This is not feeling very good, and you think about that, you don't think about the music, and you just want this guy to be calm and feel good about being on stage, you know? But if you see this relaxed person on stage, just like taking in the room, joking a little bit, something happening, someone, Walks in and someone screams something and you just make a joke out of that.

[00:50:58] Robin Winther: Like, I think that, that's, I think that's, um, also a good way of thinking of being on stage. For me, it's not so much about being the center of attention, like, fueled by this, but I guess fueled by the moment of just playing my songs. I think that's like, I do, and I love, I love I think that's the most joy I get is when we play together a song and I notice, I feel like, oh, this is, this is good.

[00:51:28] Robin Winther: Sounds good. I like this. And like the whole band, I feel what this guy is playing and everyone, you know, works like this together and the audience is calm taking it in and you're doing something with everyone in the room. So everyone is just feeling this. Feeling of joy and the music and the flow state in, in a way.

[00:51:49] Robin Winther: Yeah. So I think that that is the, that is what drives my music passion and like wanting me to keep doing this. I think 

[00:51:58] Travis Bader: that is cool in the intelligence community and the security sectors, uh, they'll refer to that as establishing a baseline. Yeah. They'll go in, they'll be the gray man. They'll look around and they'll see how everything else out is, uh, is acting and then they'll find, okay, how do we work together?

[00:52:16] Travis Bader: Yeah. And then the intelligence community, it'll be like, how do I. How do I, um, use this feeling and to be able to propel the community and everybody else to where I want it to be. Right. Yeah. And you know, when I'm, when I teach, I do the same thing. Everyone comes in, I'll introduce myself to everybody as they come in and hey, how are you doing?

[00:52:36] Travis Bader: Why are you taking this course? What's right. And I, and I'm, what I'm doing is I'm trying to get as much information as I can on every single person. Right. And get a quick read, like, okay, where's their ability level? Where's their passion? What's their interest? What are they looking at? Then, um, uh, you know, when I'm training new instructors, I say, you know, one of the things that I find really helpful for me is get the class to introduce themselves one at a time.

[00:53:02] Travis Bader: You kind of go around, right? So all of a sudden. Like as, as a performer, you take that spotlight that's shining on you and you turn it around and you're now shining it on the audience. Right. And all of that pressure of you having to perform is kind of off the audience or the class feels a bit of that pressure and then they feel good afterwards once and everyone starts to kind of mingle together.

[00:53:24] Travis Bader: Right. And. So I found for me, that's a, uh, establishing that baseline, introducing, seeing where everybody's at and being able to turn that spotlight around is a big part. And all of a sudden, instead of people sitting there with their arms crossed and their legs crossed and they're sitting back in their chairs, like, okay, entertain me.

[00:53:42] Travis Bader: Right. Like, what are you going to do? Right. 

[00:53:43] Robin Winther: Yeah. That's the worst. Like, yeah. To perform for a person like that, it's, it's terrible. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, you have to like, get under the skin on that person. That's right. Yeah. Push them. Yeah, and I think that's so important as a teacher. And, uh, I think myself, because I grew up, both my parents, Uh, I retired now, but they're both teachers.

[00:54:04] Robin Winther: Right. I've been a teacher for 40 years. And I, and I remember when I was a kid, like, I'll never be a teacher. And the first job I got, I guess, was I got to be a teacher. Ha ha ha ha. And I got to work with kids and, and, and do that thing. And I think, like, as a teacher, I think you have to do the same thing.

[00:54:24] Robin Winther: You have to, like, if someone is sitting here and like, okay, entertainment, right. People want to take it, like, then you're like, what does this person need? What, what's, what's the deal? You know, you have to think about that. And you have to think that with an audience, if you're teaching or having a course or whatever, you know, you have to solve that first before you can.

[00:54:43] Travis Bader: I see similarities because a lot of, uh, teachers they'll get up and they'll be like, I'm really smart, I know my stuff, I'm going to show you how smart I am, and I know you're not as smart as me, but we'll get you kind of, uh, and I'll, I'll, you know, strokes my ego a little bit, and, and it's important to have ego, you should have some sort of personal pride, and, but, um, As a teacher, I put the class first.

[00:55:08] Travis Bader: My job is to get them from point A to point B. How do I get them from here to a point where they're comfortable, confident, uh, proficient and safe and whatever it is that they're going to be doing. And I'll treat the entire class as if it's one individual, essentially with a bunch of personalities and questions and, and how do I steer it from point A to point B?

[00:55:27] Travis Bader: I got to wonder. If I had just like a modicum of musical talent, which I don't, I can't sing. I can't dance. I can't play any musical instruments, but if I already get up and perform, if I already use that sort of, uh, mentality, how do I get the audience from where we are here, like they showed up and they're expecting to be entertained to, man, they just had a fantastic time and they vibed with us and we're all in the flow state.

[00:55:53] Travis Bader: It's probably kind of a similar, would it be? 

[00:55:56] Robin Winther: It is like, I think that's how you do it. You go in and you just feel it and then you have to take from it from there because it's all going to be different. Like a joke I did the last show. It won't work today, you know, like, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll do like a silly remark and like one of the guy in the band has a new shirt, like, yeah, like it was so fun on the other day, like, uh, this guy had this, the yellow cowboy shirt and with like fun patterns, I don't do no joke about that and give people laugh a little bit and then you just feeling the room and Someone is screaming something, and you just like, like, I don't know the word in English, but de weaponize, like, make people put down their guard a little bit, you know, you know, and, and then Takes time sometimes, like, you go out, and you do a couple songs, you still feel like, alright, they're not really connecting with me here, and you, like, you work your way through the set, and like, halfway in, you can feel like, okay, they're, they're kind of starting to be included now, and then you're like, at the end, they're like, You know, like, really connected with you and they're singing along and you like you have their attention and like you're like okay i'm going to keep doing like some sing alongs here and you bring it down bring the song down you extend the sing alongs a little bit because you're like okay they seem to like this and that's what they want yeah and we do that and then we move on and it's like okay this is too slow let's change Speed it up.

[00:57:19] Robin Winther: Yeah, and I'm fortunate to have a like a great um, a really good band So they're like they always joke with me cuz like we never know what's gonna come when we're playing with you Robin We never know so we have to be on our toes all the time for like, okay, let's redo this chorus Let's like extend this thing.

[00:57:36] Robin Winther: Let's do another solo on the verse. Let's do this. So I think, um, 

[00:57:41] Travis Bader: That's the audio engineering in you. You can hear it, you can see it, you can visualize it. 

[00:57:45] Robin Winther: A little bit, but I think also, it's a lot actually from my mom. She was like a small, uh, like a young kids teacher, like, first grade to third grade, fourth grade or something like that.

[00:57:57] Robin Winther: And she always said that, like, she walked into the classroom and she, like, She's been doing it for a lot of years, but she wouldn't plan that much and she would just like feel what's what's the kids vibe and she was like winging it and like trying to make up this fun games with them to make them learn and and She will always be very creative and I think it's like the creative thing being a teacher or being a performer like you work at a company and It's, it's, it's so important to be a little creative, and, you know, as I said, with the band, like, they know, like, okay, he's, I'm, I'm doing some gesture, and they know, they know exactly that, okay, we're gonna break the song, and, and we're gonna switch it over to this.

[00:58:38] Robin Winther: And to be able to not like, okay, I'm doing the song the way I've been doing it every time and then it stopped and then it works probably, but it's so much more fun. It's like everyone's singing along in this chorus. I will do it again. You know? 

[00:58:54] Travis Bader: Well, what have been some, some of the largest challenges that you've had to face in your music career so far?

[00:59:01] Travis Bader: And where do you see the future going with 

[00:59:02] Robin Winther: this? Oh, that's a good question. The challenge is obviously making a living out of music. It's always hard and you know, people, it's different with music because if I get someone to come here and paint my house and I will say I'll get an estimate like, Oh, this is so much money for painting the house.

[00:59:24] Robin Winther: If someone asked me to come and play at their bar, and they were like, Oh, yeah, you get free food, and you gotta entertain the crowd for two hours. And I was like, okay, so I gotta Prepare a set list, I go to pack the van, I have to go there, set it all up, rehearse with the boys, I gotta figure everything out, bring all the stuff, put it up, play, entertain, take it all down, drive back home.

[00:59:49] Robin Winther: It's like two days, one, one, two days of work. 

[00:59:52] Travis Bader: But you got exposure, look at this, you got free food, right? Yeah, like, and like, 

[00:59:55] Robin Winther: if someone comes to paint my house, and like, uh, and I'll, yeah, I'll, I'll, I'll put up a sign that you're painting my house. I'll post on Instagram, we're like, oh, whatever, you know, it doesn't work like that.

[01:00:06] Robin Winther: Like, I think sometimes, you know, people view music as like, Oh, it's a hobby, it's something fun. And it is something fun and a hobby for a lot of people, but you, I think that it's always a challenge to being able to get paid. 

[01:00:20] Travis Bader: Yeah. It's funny. Is it try trying to find that the, uh, the whole grasshopper and ant mentality when grasshoppers playing the music and the ants working away, but the ant.

[01:00:34] Travis Bader: needs music. It needs something to feed its soul as well too, right? 

[01:00:38] Robin Winther: Yeah, it's important, you know, everyone loves music in a way, in their own way, and I think it has a impact on the heart and soul and, and it does good stuff. For the society, I think music is important and, uh, What about AI? Is 

[01:00:54] Travis Bader: that a scary thing for a musician?

[01:00:56] Robin Winther: I think it's, it's, it's still, um, yeah, in a way, but also I think you have to view, view AI as a tool. We were talking about this yesterday a little bit on, uh, how AI is using It's using a music that's been already been done and just like inversions of it in a way So I think it's we like the human Factor a lot in music.

[01:01:22] Robin Winther: That's why we'll use old microphones or old equipment and like we like when it's sound Gritty and you know, it's I think it's the human touch that that is required So I'm not super concerned with AI, but, but obviously, like, you can do, it helps out a lot, editing, and in every, every aspect of, like, the world now, AI is mind blowing, and we'll see where, we'll see where it ends up, but, like, it's definitely going to replace some parts of it.

[01:01:55] Robin Winther: Or, and create new ones, so. 

[01:01:57] Travis Bader: From watching how you put together the new song for the Silvercore podcast here, I have a hard time thinking that AI could ever do that. It can get maybe broad brush strokes of, of certain things, but it can't take into that heart and soul Of every different aspect that you put in there.

[01:02:17] Travis Bader: When you're talking about the old, the old musical instruments you're using, the one, what's that one called? That, uh, 

[01:02:25] Robin Winther: Dobro. Dobro. There he is. 

[01:02:26] Travis Bader: Okay. It's, it's got scotch tape over top of the, uh, hole in it. It's a 

[01:02:32] Robin Winther: rough instrument. 

[01:02:33] Travis Bader: Right. It's been hanging on the wall there. Yeah. And, um, but it provided a sound that you couldn't find anywhere else.

[01:02:40] Robin Winther: No. 

[01:02:41] Travis Bader: And it wasn't like, it's a normal instrument that you're using for. Recording with it's it's a wall hanger. It's a 

[01:02:47] Robin Winther: wall piece. Yeah, it's just like It looks good. And yeah, and I think that's with AI. It's when we're creating music It's so many billions like a lot of micro decisions like and every decisions when making music is based on feel So this does feel good.

[01:03:07] Robin Winther: No, it's not feel good. Then you move on Like you work so much with, with feelings on how you hear it and perceive it, and I think that's hard for an AI to, like, to code that thing. 

[01:03:19] Travis Bader: Yeah, and to make that feeling come through. Like if you're going to be sitting down with a whole crowd of people and getting them into, You can technically play something perfectly and that doesn't necessarily mean that you're gonna have people engage with it 

[01:03:32] Robin Winther: No, like I saw this video and someone was auto tuning the crap out of Don't stop believing.

[01:03:42] Robin Winther: That was the old hit and So they made all the notes perfect and like super straight like singing perfectly. Mm hmm And it just killed the vibe. I don't know. It's not a good song anymore. So it's like perfection Perfection It's not always the way when it comes to music. So you want the little bit of, Whoa, it's not like, it's a little sharp and it's a little like low on that note.

[01:04:07] Robin Winther: And it's just like create this like 

[01:04:09] Travis Bader: feeling, friction. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. I always go back to, uh, my story about Johnny. Okay. Johnny, the programmer. A friend of mine is like, Trav, I got this programmer. You're looking to have this new thing built up for a website and he'll do it for you. He's brilliant.

[01:04:27] Travis Bader: Really great guy and, um, affordable and Johnny comes in, he came into the office and so I'll set you up at a table. He's like, no, no, no. I just need a chair. What? You don't need a table? No, no. I'll just put the laptop on my lap and I'll, okay. He starts at, uh, nine o'clock in the morning. He gets there a https: otter.

[01:04:44] Travis Bader: ai

[01:04:48] Travis Bader: Laptop's open, he starts working and noon, laptop closes, napkin goes on his lap. He starts eating his food, right? And noon's over, laptop's open, and he's working until five o'clock, whatever it was that he, and he's like, I'll come in and you can see the hours I'm working. So you'll pay me for the hours. I'm like, okay, sure.

[01:05:08] Travis Bader: I guess this is your process. He's like, tell me what you want. Told him exactly what I want. And he made me a website, exactly how I asked for it. And it absolutely sucked. And the reason why it sucked was because I'm not a programmer. And, and it was exactly how I had asked for it. And I didn't know enough to ask the right questions.

[01:05:32] Travis Bader: And I didn't know to, uh, uh, that what I was asking was technically not sound, but he's like, yeah, I can build it. Yeah, I'll do it for you. Not a problem. Right. I think that maybe AI will be a little bit like Johnny, at least that's how it is now. Yeah. I can build something for you, but it's not giving that feedback of, you know, um, what you're asking for is kind of stupid, right.

[01:05:53] Travis Bader: Which is what he should have, he should have told me. And in your culture, I think it's a lot more. Normal for people to say things straight. Yeah. Not sugarcoat it, not pat around it. Yeah. 

[01:06:06] Robin Winther: The sweets are pretty, we're pretty straightforward. Like, uh, it might come out like a impolite sometimes. We we're very much Yes.

[01:06:14] Robin Winther: No, I don't like it. I like it. Da da da. . 

[01:06:16] Travis Bader: Yeah. 

[01:06:17] Robin Winther: Well, I like that. 

[01:06:18] Travis Bader: Does this dress make me look fat? 

[01:06:19] Robin Winther: Yes. I 

[01:06:19] Travis Bader: like 

[01:06:20] Robin Winther: the other dress better. Okay. 

[01:06:21] Travis Bader: Thanks. 

[01:06:21] Robin Winther: Right. But as we said, we're also pretty like, we're a little scared of confrontation as well. So we're straight, but we're a little scared of confrontation. How does that work?

[01:06:31] Robin Winther: I don't know. It's, it's, that's a weird anomaly, isn't it? It is a little weird, but you know, I guess you guys have to come 

[01:06:37] Travis Bader: here and hive mind comes in too, right? Yeah. It's like, I want to make sure, yeah, I'll be straight, but, Is everybody else happy? Are we all on the same page? Yeah. So we always add like 

[01:06:48] Robin Winther: after sentence, like, or , what's your word?

[01:06:51] Robin Winther: Elsa? Uh, LER. Ler. So I like this L Yeah. I like, I like this. Or, yeah. 

[01:06:57] Travis Bader: Yeah. Meaning, or do you want to add something else to it? Yeah. Or should we, or do you think? Or do I really like it? Or, or No? Yeah. 

[01:07:04] Robin Winther: Like keep it open er, 

[01:07:05] Travis Bader: yeah. 

[01:07:06] Robin Winther: Er, interesting. 

[01:07:07] Travis Bader: Yeah. Is there anything that we haven't talked about that we should be talking about?

[01:07:11] Travis Bader: The song? Have we talked about the song? Yeah, that I'm making a new song? You did a phenomenal job on this new song. so much. Holy crow. So I, I am so stoked by it. Uh, yeah, you, you send this over. You're like, not a problem. I'll make you a new song. Yeah, this is great. And you send over this clip and you're like, Uh, any feedback, any revisions?

[01:07:32] Travis Bader: And I, and I listened to it and it was just like the first part. 

[01:07:34] Robin Winther: Yeah, it was just like an intro. So I was doing it down here and you got me a couple of references. Then like you gave me so much freedom and I was, it was like, okay, write a song. And I was like, Oh, I'll do it. And then I got like a couple of references and a couple of just notes that I could go towards.

[01:07:54] Robin Winther: And. And I was just trying all this different stuff and then I was like, ah, I'm running out of ideas here. I have to try something else. And then I was like, oh yeah, I have this like wall piece in the house. This guitar that sounds, we talked about it. It's, it's a weird sound. Yeah. And it's like the strings are really dead and there's, Yeah.

[01:08:12] Robin Winther: It's a weird sound and just put a mic in the room and, and I wrote this riff and, uh, yeah, I did a little intro and I was like, oh, we'll see if he likes it. I have no idea. And I sent it over. Yeah. What did I say? Well, you loved it. Yeah. Which was, there's nothing 

[01:08:27] Travis Bader: I could change about that. He's like, Oh, let me know if there's anything you want to change.

[01:08:30] Travis Bader: I'm like, why would I change this? Why would I step in and start trying to micromanage a creative process? I already know. I like your, your work. I already know. I like your stuff. I've listened to your other music. Why would I get in and try and poke my fingers in here? Because then it becomes less your work and more like me with Johnny.

[01:08:50] Robin Winther: Oh yeah. Yeah. You were, then again, like giving me a lot of freedom. So it was, that was, I think it was the hardest part with it. Because you liked the first part and I was like, all right, now you guys have to do, build a whole song out of this thing. And, uh, is that stressful? I was, it's a little stressful.

[01:09:07] Robin Winther: Yeah. It's a challenge, you know, but you know, I, I think a lot of people work best under pressure, and I always, like, do everything last minute. So, it's just like, working hard, last, last couple, last week. When did it all 

[01:09:23] Travis Bader: come together? Like, a couple days before? 

[01:09:25] Robin Winther: Yeah, like, two days before you came here, 

[01:09:28] Travis Bader: like, I sent it over there.

[01:09:29] Travis Bader: That's when I was done. If it wasn't for the last minute, nothing would ever get done. No. So, you know, I, I'm the same way if, um, I do my best to put everything in place so that I have some sort of structure or framework that I can work with. But for my most creative pieces, they're all done at the very last moment.

[01:09:50] Robin Winther: Yeah. 

[01:09:51] Travis Bader: I don't know what it is. Maybe it's an ADHD thing. Some people would say it is, but 

[01:09:55] Robin Winther: I think it has to do with like creativity. You have to be able. Like, pushed and, and whatever you created with, you know, it's, if you're, if you're in a too safe scenario, I think you're like, I don't think it gets too good, you know, you have to be like, this has to be really good.

[01:10:13] Robin Winther: You got a lot of pressure on this thing. And like a last minute, I will just have time to make it. Now, and, and I think that's, that's when you have to be like, all right, I just have to make it work. Whatever, what do I got now to just finish this thing, you know? 

[01:10:26] Travis Bader: When do you put something down and then turn your head off?

[01:10:29] Travis Bader: Because, I gotta imagine that After a while you'd look at, it'd be like, oh, I could tweak this or I could do that. Do you ever get that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have to have a deadline and everything. Or, or like, I'll tweak it through eternity. Yeah. 

[01:10:41] Robin Winther: Yeah. . 

[01:10:42] Travis Bader: Yeah. Well, I gotta tell you, I absolutely love this song.

[01:10:45] Travis Bader: It's got some, when I listened to it, the full thing coming through, I'm like, oh, I can use the first half for this. Or I could use this part for like, voiceover. This part can be for a, uh, um, like YouTube and sign off, or. And as I'm thinking about all of these things, and I talked to you, and that was exactly what you had in your mind when you're making these different little sections of it, it's, uh, yeah, do you, do you do a lot of this kind of work for other people?

[01:11:13] Travis Bader: Like, or is it? 

[01:11:14] Robin Winther: It happens. It happens. Uh, but most of the time I have like artists coming in and. We're writing songs and stuff, but every now and then I do like something special. Not very often. That's why I also thought it was pretty fun. It's like, it's always a challenge to do this stuff, like to compose.

[01:11:32] Robin Winther: But I'm happy you liked it. 

[01:11:34] Travis Bader: Absolutely blown away by your work. Absolutely blown away by your hospitality. Thank you. Beautiful place that you have here. Really, uh, really enjoy setting up and, and filming and recording in your studio. Robin, thank you so very much for being on the Silvercore podcast. I thoroughly enjoy this and I really enjoyed, I should also make sure, shout out to everybody else.

[01:11:56] Travis Bader: I. I won't have all the names down right, but it, you know, everywhere, everybody at Solaron, all the hunting crew. Thank you so much. What 

[01:12:05] Robin Winther: an amazing time. Thank you, Travis. It's been a blast having you guys here, you and your wife and had so much fun and pleasure and an honor to be on your podcast. I love 

[01:12:15] Travis Bader: your work.

[01:12:16] Travis Bader: And now two more weeks and you're going to be down on my neck of the woods and show you what it's like to hunt out there. I'm 

[01:12:23] looking forward to it.