EP08: The Common Feeling of Being Outside and Playing in a Rock Band

The Avid Adventurer

“I would consider playing live music similar to what climbers feel when doing stuff like free soloing. It’s a performance,” says Joe Lievano, who joins the Avid Adventurer podcast from Pueblo, Mexico to talk about these dual passions. As it turns out, scaling rocks and drumming in a rock band have more in common than one might think. With both, he says, you’re not competing with anyone but yourself, trying to be better with each try, yet you also find a profound connection and sense of community with those around you. In Mexico, he explains, neither music nor rock climbing are particularly popular or well-received. He explains how he brought his mother around to the idea of his pursuing both, and gives advice for parents who are equally nervous to enroll their kids in outdoor sports.

Joe wasn’t always an outdoor enthusiast. Though he discovered rock climbing at the age of 15, he took a long hiatus due to injury and wasn’t passionate about the sport until others took the time to show him the beauty and fun of the outdoors and the importance of preserving it. This summer, he will return the favor for a new group of campers when he returns to Avid4 Adventure as an Assistant Director at Avid’s Blue Sky camp.

There he hopes to recreate the same feeling of welcome and belonging for campers that he felt working with Avid4 Adventure in the past. In this episode, he explains how he plans to create an unforgettable experience for his campers, particularly as a member of the DEI committee. Having been lucky enough to find two life passions, he is eager to help others find theirs, too.

Quotes

• “Team-based sports are not my thing. I don’t like competing with another person, or making someone else lose so I can win. So, climbing, that was something I fell in love with because that was only [me] against myself.” (4:44 | Joe Lievano)
• “Another thing that really helps out parents is learning a little bit about [the sport]. Many times, you hear something and you have this misconception of it and you can never get that conception of activities out of your mind. So, if your kid wants to climb, to do mountain biking, try to learn a little bit about it. Learn about the actual processes of it, how dangerous that can actually be, the actual dangers of it.” (9:19 | Joe Lievano)
• “It’s just a different language that musicians speak without words. You’re just vibing.” (20:18 | Joe Lievano)
• “I got this great experience of knowing a kid had a great time and knowing that my impact during the summer can withstand more years to come. Sometimes at camp you get to teach a kid how to ride a bike. Maybe they’ll never remember this year of school, the teachers they had or the friends they had at elementary, but they’re always going to remember who taught them how to ride a bike, and their first time climbing and their first time mountain biking.” (28:18 | Joe Lievano)

Links

Avid4 Adventure website: www.avid4.com

Avid4 on Instagram: @avid4adventure

Avid4 Adventure on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@avid4adventure

Email the host: [e-mail]

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm