Meredith Brooks: My plans, I'm actually right now recording again, and I've been waiting for your interview to let my fans know what I'm doing. Umm, (in a playful voice) 'cause I wanted to have something special to tell them!
I am in the midst of recording, I am writing right now with Shelly Pieken, and a couple of other people but Shelly is the one everyone knows the most from Bitch. And we are, we believe that it's for the next album. I have not given up my hope on Deconstruction of course as you all know, it is my hope that if we get the proper attention on the next album that of course it will bring attention back to Deconstruction as well.

Ilana: Do you know which will be the next single you will release from Deconstruction?

Meredith: Well, we got everyone's list, and we carried it up, and "I Have Everything" was the winner, I believe on that. And I'm still debating, what we're trying to do is get it into a movie to release it that way, and if we don't by the time I make the next record then I won't be releasing another single I'll just be releasing my next album.

Ilana: What are your goals with Anybody's Music Program?

Meredith: My next plan. I've bought a camera now so I can film every time that I speak and to just keep documenting it, to the point to where, I have enough in my documentation to give to other artists so they can learn how to go out as well, and what it is that I talk about, and what it is that I teach in the mentoring program. It's pretty specific, it's about self-empowerment, it's about being able to find solutions through teamwork. That's one of my first goals. The other thing is to continue to go out myself, when schools start back up next month, go out to the schools and carry on. A long term goal, which is in about two years, is to encourage students to start doing concerts in which I or the other artists will come back at the end of the school year, to see their concerts.
I also have Mackie, which is an electronics recording company backing me, and they're willing to invest giving equipment to schools that I choose, and they've already started doing that. Let's see...I have so many plans for AMP! Sometimes it's hard to keep up because it's still pretty much just me, but we did become a foundation, so now I can start taking money to help support AMP, because at this point it's just been me, and the little bit of help that my label gives me.

Ilana: That's really great that you do that... You recently had a long trip to Sweden, what have you done there?

Meredith: Well, when I saw in Sweden I hung out with Beth, as everybody I think knows. It was a lot of fun. And when I was there, she played me some of her stuff with her new producer and i loved it so much that I joined in and I helped her write a song and I gave them my advice on some of the production and worked with them a little bit and then I continued to write while I was there, then I went off on my own for a vacation, for the first time. I've never had one before so I decided it was time to take one before I started my next record.

Ilana: You know what, you really should take a vacation in Israel. (Meredith is laughing). Hey you get a free tour guide if you want. (* Notice I did this interview before the war there began, as I would never invite Meredith to visit a country that's in a war ;) ).

Meredith: And come visit you? (still laughing) I would like to, I think it would be fascinating to come.

Ilana: Of course, whenever you have time (yeah right).

Ilana: Are your song lyrics based on true experiences you've had in your life?

Meredith: All of them are, yes. I don't know how to write from any other point of view. Even if the experiences aren't something I'm going through. It might be like my girlfriend, but I have to be close to the situation to understand it. Because I like my lyrics to feel conversational and truthful, as if we're having real talk. You know, not so they feel generic. I don't really like generic lyrics when I write. I've also been writing for other artists, producing other artists, doing some country stuff. I've noticed there was a question on the post the other day about if I ever do any country stuff. Actually I have been. I've been writing with Randy Scruggs, and been trying to get my songs placed with other artists in Nashville. Those lyrics I tend to leave more universal.

Ilana: I hear this question a lot, who was your inspiration for the song Watched You fall?

Meredith: Umm, you know it's kind of a sad story, I had a lot of inspirations for that. I had a lot of friends, you know when I lived in Seattle and Oregon, you know we partied, which is a large reason I don't know drugs or alcohol now, as a lot of people know, because I saw the Destruction of so many great musicians and artists and it was kinda funny at the time you know, but later when the partying turned into such destrcutiveness it wasn't funny anymore. And I felt personally responsible at times, because I have a lot of surviver insticts in me, and i know when to quit and I know when to go forward it my life but not everybody does. And so I think I felt a little sad that I wasn't able to save more of my friends.

And there one person in particular that that song, I was thinking of, and I really haven't heard from her in years, and it was about that. I prefer not to name names, because I would never want to hurt her feelings but she was somebody I was really close to, I played in a band with her and she really went down the road of self destruction.

Ilana: I'm sure you help a lot of people with your music now..

Umm, well a more silly question, what is the one thing you would take to a deserted island?

Meredith: (Laughing), that's hard! you know, it would either be my guitar or my boyfriend.. umm, I don't know, that is so difficult, could it be two things (begins laughing again), I guess it would have to be, it would definitely be my boyfriend, if I had to only take one, but I would hope that I could take my second thing and that would be the guitar and I would do that over a tooth brush because I can make a toothbrush out of bushes and twigs. So, it would definitely be the guitar.

Ilana: I would take a vote.

Meredith: You take a vote if it can be two things or not, if it's one, I think I would have to take my boyfriend, my, you know, life partner.. And a.. you know I can write songs without a guitar, I can write songs and sing songs all the time, it would be harder... maybe I can make a guitar from ah.. fish guts and ah.. palm trees. (Gosh, Mer could make a good comedian)

Ilana: Must be quite easy... Well, you don't have to answer on this question if you don't want to, but what was your most embarrasing moment?

Meredith: Oh no, I'll tell you. Umm... well, you mean since I've became famous or before?

Ilana: Doesn't matter, the most embarrasing moment.

Meredith: Well oddly enough there are two most embarrassing moments, and they are the exact same thing. Now either this means I have a big butt and I need to do something about this, or it's just a coincidence. When I was a kid I was playing in Eugene, Oregon, and I had just seen this group called The Hots, and there was this fantastic guitar player who went out on the tables, and the chairs, and went out in the audience and played guitar. So I started taking my guitar out in the audience and doing that. Well this was before I owned a wireless, and as I was backing onto the stage I tripped and fell backwards, and ripped my pants when I fell. Well then, I had to figure how to get back up, and then how I was going to play for the rest of the night with a rip in my butt. And then it happened again, my very last show on the "Blurring The Edges" tour. I was in Las Vegas and the weather was incredibly dry, the air was so dry. We noticed that all of our crew members pants were ripping. But I didn't think mine would, except for when I went down to help up all the kids on stage for "Down By The River". My pants ripped, and I couldn't believe it. It was this horrible feeling from when I was a kid and my pants ripped. Beth ran and got me some pants, and then I went into this truck on my encore, and changed my pants. It made my tour manager upset because he was so afraid that cameras would come and see, but all I could think about was getting on new pants that weren't ripped.

Ilana: You must have bad luck with something.

Meredith: So both times it was ripped pants on stage.

Ilana: I know you mentioned boyfriend, but a lot of guys want to know if you would ever go out with a fan.

Meredith: Go out with a fan? You know I don't think I could. You might not know a person was a fan that you were dating. But if they ever came to me as a fan, and tried to go out on a date, I wouldn't. Ilana: You shouldn't.

Meredith: No I wouldn't. Because you don't know what's really going on, and I've had enough kind of crazy experiences in that department that I'm very careful now.

Ilana: Believe me I know. A lot of my friends are your fans.

Meredith: (laughing) And they're crazy?

Ilana: Yes one of them wanted to marry you.

Meredith: Oh well, I don't know about that. That's funny.

Ilana: What is your favorite color, and what is the color of your eyes?

Meredith: My eyes change colors, which is why you guys have never been able to figure it out.

Ilana: Yeah...

Meredith: See I do read that board. You guys are so funny. I love it when I get the people on there "That's not her". It makes me laugh so hard. My eyes are most of the time a kind of gray-blue. But sometimes they switch to green. And some days they are super super blue. I guess that's called hazel. Ilana: Ok, you just solved a big mystery.

Meredith: Yes I know because they do change, and they'll be different colors in pictures I'm not wearing contacts, by the way. You can write that. I don't wear contacts but, if I'm wearing a certain color or they have certain light, then they will definitely switch colors. Any my favorite color is purple. Any shade of lavender or purple, are my favorite. I'll give you something interesting, I have a huge velvet purple comforter on my bed.

Ilana: That sounds very beautiful.

Meredith: It's my favorite.

Ilana: What do you do with your free time?

Meredith: (laughing) Free time, let's see? It doesn't seem like I have much free time, but what I try to do is spend time with my family members. I'll fly somebody to see me, and then I'll hang out with them. I have girlfriends. I'll give you what my normal day is like, Ok. I get up everyday, around 8:30am or 9:00am depending on if I've been in the studio really late. If I go in really late then I don't get up till I'm not tired. Whatever time I get up, I have coffee, I read the newspaper, pet my cat. Then I go downstairs and get on the bike, and I bike for about an hour, or go to the gym. Then I go do all my e-mails, usually visit the board. And this is only when I'm at home, I'll give you my tour schedule too. Right around noon, I start my writing sessions, I either write by myself, or someone comes over and we sit in my home studio, which as soon as the web site is up, you guys will get to see. I write 'til about 4:00pm or 5:00pm, and then usually I grab something to eat, and either I go over to David Darling's studio and we record for a bit, or I take a break, go run some errands and come back, and work a little bit longer into the night. And then I usually take an hour or two, and read at night. Unless I'm really inspired, and then I stay up all night and keep writing. As you can see my day's usually completely full. When I have a little time I try to spend it with my friends at a lunch, or going to a movie, that's my favorite thing to do.

Ilana: Any movies you can recommend?

Meredith: Not recently. I haven't seen anything I really liked, for a long long time. So there is nothing good out.

Ilana: And how is your day when you're on tour?

Meredith: Well, that's pretty insane. I get up and try and make sure I have my mornings to myself, so that I can do yoga, or my exercise of whatever kind, but I always fit in my yoga and meditation. That's another thing I do before I start my day, is my breathing and meditation. Then if Beth is on the road with me, she'll help me get my schedule organized and I usually start around noon with interviews, that go 'till five or six, and then I go to a sound check. And then have some dinner, come back to the venue, play the show, do a meet and greet, and I always stay after and sign all my autographs. Usually 'till the very end unless I have to get on a bus or plane. But I try and stay for at least an hour. One of the other things that changed last year, is I started letting the AMP people from the high schools sing with me on stage. Instead of signing autographs afterwards, I would do an AMP program with the kids that came and sang. And then if anybody was left over after that, then I would stay and do their autographs.

Ilana: Yeah, that's really nice of you.

Meredith: You know, that's what we're all there for. I don't even look at it as a job, I look at it as a pleasure.

Ilana: Yeah, I saw a concert on TV, and you even took pictures with your fans.

Meredith: Oh yeah, which concert did you get to see?

Ilana: It was in Germany, I think.

Meredith: Oh right, wow that was clear back in the beginning. That was fun.

Ilana: I even have it on tape if you want it.

Meredith: I think I've got a copy, thank you so much.

Ilana: How many guitars do you own?

Meredith: I haven't counted in a long time, but I think it's somewhere around 22 or 23.

Ilana: That's a lot.

Meredith: I don't play them all, some of them are just crummy guitars, but they have a certain tone that I'll use when I want to get a really, what I call a "stupid sound" ,on my record. I want a bad sounding guitar on my record, I'll pull out one of my kind of funky guitars.

Ilana: Who had the most influence on you? Whether positive or negative, that lead you to where you are today?

Meredith: Musician wise or....?

Ilana: Music wise I suppose.

Meredith: Well, guitar wise, I think who had the most influence on me was first my sister because she was eight years older than me, and it always seemed like I was in touch with her music. So she encouraged me to start playing lead guitar. Then what happened was my very first boyfriend, Richie Horner, he taught me a lot of Beatles stuff. I think we had our first band in the seventh grade, so I just continued from there. I think what was really my inspiration was that I was from a small town, I was board, I was pretty fast and smart as a kid, so nothing really interested me of what my friends are interested in. Music was the only thing that kept my attention, thank God or I probably would have been in more trouble than I already was.

Ilana: Yeah, I think you have a lot of fans in high school even. I met some people who were in the same school, and they had only fabulous things to say about you.

Meredith: Oh wow, that's great.

Ilana: Do you have any tour plans?

Meredith: You know, this is the part that I hope all my fans read and understand. I would love nothing more than to tour. But, because my label did not continue to market my record, for me to go out, is very very expensive. Unless I go out and just play an acoustic guitar, which who knows I may even do that if I get to that point. I would even love to play a small club tour, and I asked my label to send me out, even on a small club tour. And there's a lot of changes going on there, and now that I'm where I'm at in my career, my label has a lot to do with how I go out, how I'm marketed, if I tour, when I tour, and that's something I'm really trying to change. When I put out this next record, I will start it with a tour. I am not going to wait to see how it does, before I go out. I'm just going to go out. So until then I'm not going to be able to tour, because now I'm already into the next cycle of making a record. That's something that I really miss doing, I really wish I was out there. If the record had gone to where my label deemed it was enough sales, then I would have gotten the support to go. And that's kind of it. So far I've kind of been at the mercy of my label but I'm not going to let that happen again, that's for sure. If my label doesn't support me I'll get support from somewhere else and go out.

Ilana: What is going on with your official site?

Meredith: What happened is, I hired a team of people who didn't finish it. They walked off the job, they just didn't accomplish it. I tried to use some people that needed a break, like "here do my web site." They got paid and everything, but they weren't like an official web building company. So what I wanted to do was kind of complicated, and they knew how to do it, even though they didn't have the experience in doing it before. It took way to long, and then I guess the team dispersed. And it's taken the last couple of months to find someone to save what I did do, because it was a little complicated using animation and flash. It was hard finding someone who would keep what was done, without having to get rid of all of it and start over. So we finally found somebody, and as of yesterday, I just found out, and they are working on it, making it so it sound be able to be up pretty soon. But it's a complicated site and I wanted to do things in it like a friends section, and links, and I want video on it. I want a lot of things on it, so in order to get it built and not spend $30,000 getting it built, I would try and use companies that needed a better start. It turns out I've just had to hire someone who is really good. Sometimes giving people breaks works like in Beth's situation. You give them a break and they take the opportunity and run with it. Sometimes you give people breaks and their not ready for their own success. And they just don't carry through.

Ilana: So do you have a lot of input on the design of the site?

Meredith: Oh yeah. What I've done is taken pictures, and film, and music that no one's ever see or heard before, that I kept documented through the last three or four years, including me being on tour. And from recent shows that I have done. I put all that up, I've got my AMP stuff in there, I've got songs that people haven't heard, I've got actual animation of my studio so you can literally walk into my studio and see it. And other things, which I don't want to give everything away, but this has been the problem. It's my fault in a way because I believe in mentoring people, I believe in sponsoring people, and giving them a leg up in life. Sometimes my lesson has been they aren't ready for it, their not ready to succeed. It was kind of too bad for my fans, and it was too bad that I said anything early. I probably should have just waited and when it was done surprise everyone.

Ilana: Yeah I think we've been mainly disappointed because you took off the old site, and there was this message that the new site would be here soon.

Meredith: Right, and the old site was from the original people who had built it before, and they were making the changes, and then they got really busy, and popular, and famous, and they stopped working on my site. Which is why we were removing it in the first place. But they removed it way to soon, and they weren't suppose to remove it. There isn't that much information on it anyway. The Capitol, the hollywoodandvine site, is kept updated and it's the best site for now anyway. I feel that it's a much stronger site than what was there on my Meredith Brooks site.

Ilana: You're right, it wasn't updated that often.

Meredith: Yeah there was nothing to it, and that was the problem. That's why I left them in the first place, they weren't keeping up on it. So I think my manager's gotten all this worked out. It's been quite a learning lesson about web sites, and the business of web sites. Now some of these web type builders have managers, and their becoming such the big thing to do. So, when it's up, believe me you will be the first to know, and help us spread the word, so we can get lots of people on it. It's a way I want to keep in contact with my fans, while I'm making the next record, and I'll do the same thing I did last time, I'll let people hear samples of songs, some videos, things like that.

Ilana: Yes, that was a pretty long question, I will ask you something more simple.

Meredith: Ok.

Ilana: If you could be any animal, what would you be?

Meredith: Is this one of those jokes where when you figure it out, it's gonna have a sexual meaning to it? I've always pictured myself very cat-like, and a panther is the thing I've always related to the most, like a black panther.

Ilana: That's cool... What did you do for a living before becoming famous?

Meredith: I played clubs, for a long long time. I was a maid in a hotel when I was a kid. When I was really young I baby-sat, and that kind of thing. And when I moved to Los Angeles I got a job in a health food store for a while. And then I taught guitar lessons for a while. But mostly I just played clubs, trying to earn a living. I kept my expenses incredibly low, and looked for favors to record my music wherever I could.

Ilana: Do you think your fame has changed you?

Meredith: It's changed the way I live. What's changed me is not my fame, but my knowledge of handling my life. I work with great teachers that help keep me grounded, and teach me what my purpose is when I forget. And when the business feels to overwhelming, I go back to the places and the teachers and the families that remind me that my job is a service job. It's to be of service, and hopefully put out music that bottom line, makes people feel good. That's it, I don't care if they get a lesson out of it, or anything. It's just something to take their mind off their troubles for an hour, if they choose to listen that long.

Ilana: Yeah, that's great. Can you give any inside info on the songs you are working on these days?

Meredith: I can't talk about them to much. All I know is that one song that I have is getting a lot of attention. I have certain people I take things too. I think what's happened is that I'm willing to even be a little more intimate in this record. I'm willing to write a little more about relationships. I think I'm always gonna be that solution oriented songwriter, and I think I come from a place of strength. And so all that is still going to be there, and a lot of it is just about...., I keep seeing the theme of survival in this writing. I'm still here and I'm not going away, and that's kind of what my songs are like right now. It doesn't matter what people think of me because I'm just going to keep doing what I do.

Ilana: It's good that you can live without taking bad things seriously.

Meredith: Yeah you have to, because if you take this business to seriously, or if you ever believe what people say good or bad, it will crush you really fast. So I'm still a big believer in not letting people's opinions hurt my feelings, because they're so subjective. Everybody's got an opinion and everybody want's to give it to you if you let them, that's for sure.

...

Ilana: Yeah, if I can ask you kind of a 'political' question, you've probably heard about the music piracy on the Internet, it's been on the news lately. What is your opinion about this? Meredith: Well, I think Courtney Love and I have a lot of the same opinions. If anybody's every read that article she wrote and put on the Internet, I think it's pretty fascinating. There is already so much piracy going on within our business, and so much power over the artist, that it's kind of ironic that everybody would be pissed off at Napster, or things like that. But the truth is, by the time I ever really see money, it's not a lot. For every amount of money that I make, my record label makes about ten times that amount, or more. For every dollar I see on an album, they see about $14 or $15. Let me say it this way, if people could be judicious about it, if they could download a song because they just wanted to hear it or sample it, and not be printing off a whole album, and then making it for all their friends, I really don't have a problem with it. It's kind of like no difference than listening to the radio, but what I object to is, downloading albums. I've had probably 500,000 downloads on "Bitch" alone. That's my income, it's the only way I make money. So if, in the future, let's say 10 years from now, I'm not in the music business and I'm an artist and struggling to figure out what to do, I've always counted on that I'd have those royalties coming into me. But I won't now, I won't have those royalties. You know there's only about 6% of all musicians and songwriters that make over $17,000 a year, it's not that many. There are a whole lot of musicians that don't make that much money. And there's only a very small few that we see on the top 40 that are really making big money. So for their protection and mine and for the future or artists, I think we need to work out something with these companies. There was one guy in the hearings that said "The only way to work this out is to go to the pirates and work out a deal with them." Like charge a minimal fee and then split it with the artist or something like that, I think would make a lot more sense, than for the companies to just be able to download my music. Ilana: Yeah, I totally agree with that. Meredith: It's a very hard thing because you see people swapping music and stuff all the time. God knows I've done it as a kid, and even now I'm very careful now, I don't copy music, and I don't give it away. I barley even take a free record from labels. I try to go out and buy my friends music. But in the end it could also be such a wonderful store, of getting music. So I don't really have the answers, I don't think anybody has the answers, I think it's just one of those things that is going to unfold and we're not going to have a lot of power control over. Ilana: What is your favorite song that you wrote? Meredith: My favorite song that I wrote? Oh wow, that is a good question. I don't have the answer to that. That would be kind of like favoring your children I think. I think I love "Bitch", "I Have Everything" is probably one of my very favorite songs I ever wrote. "Bitch" is still a favorite, but it's kind of like, wow that one gets so much attention I don't need to love that one as much. So I feel a little protective over my other songs, and say that outside of "Bitch" it would have to be probably "I Have Everything." One of the ones that I've written recently I really love, called "You Don't Know Me", that's all I'm going to tell you, on that song. Ilana: Would it be easier for you to say what is your favorite song that someone else wrote? Meredith: Let's see. Hmm... Nope! (laughing). I was thinking about that the other day, I actually heard it, and I'm trying to remember what it was. That's a hard call. Let me think about that one, I might have to get back to you on it. There's a couple that are my all time favorite songs. I think "Allison" is one of the most beautiful songs ever written, Elvis Costello. That's one of my favorites. Ilana: How do your old friends react, once they found out about your successful musical career? Meredith: You know, when you said that a few high school people got a hold of you, I kind of thought that was interesting, because I really didn't know anyone in high school. I was a lot younger and graduated early. So it's been interesting because with one friend of mine that was on Behind The Music. Which by the way did you ever get to see that? Ilana: No, it was never broadcasted here. Meredith: I will have my manager send you a copy. (And she did!!! :) ) (We're interrupted by the guy who's recording the interview, reminding me we're about out of time. Meredith being as awesome as she is, asks for 10 more minutes... [eventually we got almost 15]) Ilana: Thanks! What do you consider your best qualities? Meredith: Well, I think my best quality can also be my worst quality. And that is, I believe in the potential of every human being on earth. That is a great quality to have, I have faith in everyone. The flip side of that, of course it is very yin and yang, is that if I don't pick a winner while I'm looking at the potential. In other words if the person I'm looking at with my faith and my beliefs, isn't ready to live up to their own potential, and I give them that faith and belief; without them even earning it I should say; if I'm not picking winners I can be hurt in the process, because I put my faith and belief in someone that wasn't really there. I think everyone eventually can do anything, but my lesson on this quality is that some people are just not ready, to live up to their own highest good. And it's not my place to think that it is their highest good, so I've learned to be a little more careful, in placing my beliefs and my faith into potential, of just anyone. Ilana: Right, you are a really wonderful person... If you could be anywhere right now, where would you be? Meredith: Right this second? I would be with you, having coffee doing this interview in person, I think it would be so awesome. Instead of on the phone. Ilana: You're so nice... Meredith: That's exactly where I'd want to be. I can take my guitar and write my album anywhere in the world it doesn't matter. I'm always writing. I take a journal on the plane and write. I think that would just be the coolest. And someday we'll meet, I'm sure. Ilana: That would be like a dream come true for me. Meredith: I think it's going to happen, you'll be surprised. Ilana: Well, I hope it will... From the beginning of history to this day, what was your favorite time? Meredith: From the beginning of my life till now, what was my favorite time? Ilana: Yes. Meredith: Wow. You know I think it's always the same, it's when I'm on stage playing, whether it's in a little club playing for four people, or playing in front of 40,000 people, it's always the same feeling. I never lose that feeling, I've never lost that feeling, of kind of being in a zone, in this very special place that is hard to get from any other place except for when I'm fully present with my music. Which, when I'm playing live I am more present with my music than I am in a rehearsal, or even writing, because I'm thinking about what I'm writing, but when I'm on stage I'm not thinking. I'm just doing. And that's my favorite time. Ilana: Yes. What is the most important advice you can give teenagers who want to be like you when they grow up? Meredith: I don't know, I don't think I have really good advise. Let me think. I believe that the only thing between something you want, and getting it, is emotional block. I don't believe it's time, I don't believe it's inadequacy, I don't even believe it's physical. I believe it is absolutely emotional. So the only advise I can give to anyone is to keep digging, keep looking at themselves, keep looking at their emotions. Don't be afraid of your emotions, don't let people tell you not to have the emotions that you have every right to have. Have you ever had that thought in your mind, "I can't believe I just did that again" on something that you wish you weren't doing? Ilana: Yeah, think about it all the time... Meredith: And then after you do it, you go "Why did I do that?" Right. Ilana: Yes. Meredith: Well, I believe we do those things from very early programming. From when we were little tiny babies, when we were little tiny kids, we were told a lie perhaps, or given a belief, that wasn't good for us necessarily as adults. So we keep recreating, relationships and problems, based on that. When we go back and what I call "find the lie", and we're willing to look at what it was that created that, we'll probably remove that block and bring that which we desire closer into our lives. That's my advice. It's a little complicated, but it's not, it's simple. We have to keep removing the things that get in our way emotionally. And what we tend to do is look to the outer, we tend to look at; "if I can just get this boyfriend, if I can just get through this school, if I can just to this, if I can just do that", and often what keeps us from the great relationship or the great school or the great achievement in life, has nothing to do with why we're trying to do it. It's emotional. Ilana: Yeah, you do have a lot to teach youngsters. I think we're running out of time, so I'll ask you the last question. What else are you going to do today, after you are done with this interview? Meredith: Well, I'm feeling really inspired after talking with you. I have one more interview to do and them I'm going to get on the bike, and then I have a writing session. And I think it's going to go really well, because you've shown me once again that, it's important to continue. It's important to keep going out there and talking to people, and doing this. It's been very much an inspiration talking with you, your questions are great. Ilana: Which reminds me, just one more question. Do you believe in life on other planets? I had to ask you that. Meredith: I think we'd have to be pretty arrogant to thing that there wasn't. I think that there is probably a really good chance, that there are parallel universes. That's what "Blurring The Edges" means. There's not just what we see in front of us, that to me is very clear and vary obvious because of music. I'm amazed where music comes from sometimes. Ilana: Well thank you very much for doing this. ...