Shadowing Practice: Role Model's life changed when Mac Miller discovered his EP - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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I think as soon as there was like some chaos and like drama in my life,
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I was like I am had did not hesitate to like pick up a pen and start writing.
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I don't know how you couldn't How are you?
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I'm so good.
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How are you?
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Thanks for thanks for coming in.
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I'm all right.
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Good.
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Yeah, congrats on the record It's great.
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Thank you.
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You happy with it?
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I am beyond happy with it.
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I am It feels good to have, it's a very cliche thing,
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but to have something out that I'm very proud of and that I'm like proud to be singing every night on tour.
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It's nice to enjoy what I'm singing on stage.
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What brought you to LA in the first place?
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I want to talk about the homesickness thing.
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I was in school in Pittsburgh for film and I was in my third year.
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and by the end of my first year I hated film school and knew that was already like a mistake
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I still loved film and like I was actively shooting things
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and editing things and directing things
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but I just knew film school was not for me
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and as I started to kind of disconnect with my classes
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I was introduced to the concept of being able to like
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record yourself there were kids on my dorm floor who were like Passing out CDs and mixtapes,
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and I was like how did you even?
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Whatever and they showed you do this yeah, how is this even possible?
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And so they introduced me to logic and and all these things
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and they like download illegally download it onto my laptop I'm like dude try it
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and I fell in love with it like immediately
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I've had a lot of phases in my life and things and hobbies that I've fallen in love with,
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but nothing has impacted me and took over my entire brain the way that music did when I first found it.
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And slowly started failing school really bad because of how much I was just loving being in my little closet making music.
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I was putting things out on SoundCloud, whatever.
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I had put out my first EP Arizona in the summer
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and I was just at a point where I was I could not keep failing school at
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that point like it was really bad two years of like F's
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and everything um and I was keeping a secret from my parents
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and I was like if nothing happens with the CP I need to figure something out I need to like
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truly try in school for once.
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And during that window, like a miracle,
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this guy, Q, Quentin, who was Mac Miller's manager at the time, reached out to me over DM and was like,
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hey, this EP is amazing.
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Mac really likes this song, Stolen Car.
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And I just lost it.
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And long story short, he flew me out to meet and work with Malcolm for a short window.
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And that spread throughout other labels and stuff, and word got out.
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And I started getting invited to come out to L.A.
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I was just waiting for an excuse to move there.
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And I finally had one.
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And a solid way to tell my parents, hey, music, this thing is working.
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There's possibly money that could be made from this.
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and it's on paper now, so it was nice to have something to show them.
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And I moved.
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What were the expectations of living in L.A versus the realities of living in L.A.?
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Right, that's the question.
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Give me the expectations first.
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I guess when I, well, expectations, I was like...
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Fame and fortune and mink coats and jewelry and...
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Like, not really.
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I'm not...
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I'm from Maine so I didn't even have that, I guess from movies, but I just didn't have that concept in my head.
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I was just like, we didn't really have studios.
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And so my dream was to go to a place where there's an abundance of studios.
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My dream was to literally just be in a studio all day.
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That just sounded fun and was what being an artist was.
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And so I was like, I have to go to LA to do this.
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Which is silly now, looking back.
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But that was my expectation.
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And to be honest, that is what I did for a year.
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I kind of, I was living in like Airbnbs for a little bit
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and then I finally got a place in West Hollywood
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and I just was in the studio all day just trying to make music.
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Outside of being in the studio, it was just extremely lonely.
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I, my best friends in the world, I grew up with.
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We've been best friends since kindergarten and I just having a very solid group of friends like that
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Kind of like it's a blessing
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but it messes you up in a little bit of a
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way where it's made it really hard for me to even want to try
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and make friends that are anything like that Yeah, they were so close you know, yeah, yeah, yeah So I was just like I'm never gonna replace this
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so like why even try and be social in this city?
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Which is dumb, but I was young And so it was just lonely
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And I think a lot of people would agree with
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that about LA
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And it took me until like a year ago To finally
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have like a beautiful group of friends out there How did the loneliness and homesickness manifest itself?
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I'll give you something on me now So I'm from Newfoundland
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and I moved to Toronto And that's a really different cultural move
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and I had a great group of friends and I moved up here for this job.
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Like I moved up here, not for Q, but the job before I had this, but to work here.
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And looking back, I thought I was just lonely, but I also look at those years and I go, well, like, why was I smoking so much weed?
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You know, why was I doing that every night?
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Why was I drinking so much?
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Why was I doing all this stuff?
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What was I trying, you know, why was I not, why was I maybe not looking after myself?
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And now one thing that listening to your record made me think about was
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that was probably homesickness and that was probably loneliness.
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And that was just manifesting itself through the behaviors I was, I wasn't like sitting down saying I'm so sad and drinking.
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But I was probably doing something to try and deal with that.
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100%.
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I relate to that heavily.
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I was like, for the first time in my life, was like smoking so much weed, which I never did.
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And same thing.
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I was just drowning out something and not wanting to actually analyze it.
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But yeah, I think it was.
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It was homesickness.
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It took me a little while to realize how lucky I was to grow up where I grew up.
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And it's just a story that's as old as, you know, whatever.
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But you just don't appreciate it until you leave it and you realize how lucky you were.
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Did it change when you got back?
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I sometimes found that I had idealized it.
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Where in Maine are you from?
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I'm from a town called Cape Elizabeth.
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It's like 10 minutes outside of Portland.
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So I found when I would go home, I had this idea of what my home was, that I had been idealizing on my couch in Toronto.
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Oh, if I can only get back there, that's where, and I would get back there.
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And sometimes it would do it.
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Sometimes it would be like, oh, this is just what I was missing.
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But sometimes I go, oh, they're all moving on here.
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Like, they've moved on too, you know?
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Like, their lives are changing.
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Things can't stay as they are.
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You did go back to Maine eventually.
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How was that?
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I mean, I went back a lot.
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I still go back a lot.
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And to be honest, like, yeah, things change.
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And I used to go home, a long time ago, I used to go home, especially when I was in college and stuff, or right when I had gone to L.A and I would go home,
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I would see people that I went to high school with
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that hadn't left yet and that were getting very comfortable where they grew up
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and working in 9 to 5 in that town.
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Yeah, and it used to make me like sad I used to it used to like I
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Used to just want to be like you'll yeah do something with your life
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But now I'm at a point where I get it and I actually empathize with it and I'm like
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You know what that sounds nice like there are times
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when I'm just like I would love to just drop everything and just
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move home and Just have a very simple life But I used to definitely like judge a little bit, but now I
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Now I just There's a lot of comfort in all those things When I go home Like seeing those people still
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Even if they're like married now It makes me feel old or whatever
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But yeah I like the familiar Things Rhythms of going back
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home It's a different rhythm than LA It's comforting it's like everything I know
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Can you connect the dots on
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Because the story I mean I can only follow what I read about you
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And in the press but like the story I get told in reading about you is
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that something happens when you go back to Maine one time and your sound changes.
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Like you were making sort of more rap and hip hop.
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I don't even know if that's the case.
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Like just different music than you're making.
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Yes.
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And then the story I get told in the press is
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that you go home and something clicks and then you start listening to Americana music or country music or folk music.
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What's the reality there?
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So it was, when I first started making music, that was when it was like rap and whatever, and that's like how I got into music because of the scene in Pittsburgh.
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And is that what Mac Miller found?
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He found that stuff.
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That wasn't really, I guess there was definitely a hip-hop influence in it, but that was when like bedroom pop was, it was when like the Clara's and the Gus Dappertons,
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it was kind of living in that world, not really like rap.
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So I guess like indie bedroom pop.
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Sure.
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But um, so it started when I was like when I started Kansas anymore or
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Before it was even that was what it was gonna be but when I had to start my second album.
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I Was lost I was throwing pain at the wall.
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It was just the normal What am I gonna do here?
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Like what is this gonna be?
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And so I was trying everything at first I was like let's do an 80s album and committed to that for
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Two months and it was garbage.
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It was horrible.
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It was the most disingenuine thing.
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Yeah Yeah, a lot of synths, a lot of old sounding synths.
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You kind of put on a costume when you make that music.
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Exactly.
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It sounded like I was doing karaoke.
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It was not for me.
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So we X'd that.
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And I was like, let's keep trying things.
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We tried whatever.
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We tried a lot of things, and nothing was feeling like me.
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And that was really what I was searching for, is what is going to bring out a genuine version of me.
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And so I kind of put the pen down for like a little bit and just started going home
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just to get out of LA and to like, whatever, reconnect with something.
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And when I go home a lot, I listen to like just a lot of music that feels like Maine to me.
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Like what?
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Let's get some names here.
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Let's get some names.
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Let's get some names here.
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Yeah, yeah. So Camp is one.
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I don't know if you know Camp.
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No. C-A-A-M-P.
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And I think they're out of New England and it's just a very specific sound Kurt Vile I love to death
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He got me through That whole year and I mean more on drugs too.
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I don't know if that is really the main vibe But I'm obsessed with War on Drugs
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Just some of those like warmer Zach Bryan was was a big thing too and just warmth acoustic.
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Okay, so newer, when I was listening to it, I was, because my touchstone in that music, that's sort of the music that I come from, my touchstone on the music would be artists from the 60s and 70s,
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and your Jackson Browns and your Eagles. That too.
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Jackson Brown was a big one.
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My mom was obsessed with him when I was growing up, and I never got it until later in my life,
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That was heavily on rotation as well as like Van Morrison.
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She loves some a lot of that like Sunday morning Americano Tom Petty Yeah, just reminds me of her like cleaning the house in it Which I used to hate and now I love
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You are growing up Me realizing old no man, I get it.
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I remember when I went from
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It sounds silly to remember when I went from I don't really care to I like
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when my house is neat so I guess I'll do it.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah.
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I know what you mean.
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I know what you mean.
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And I remember when I went after my parents, music was pretty good.
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Yeah.
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So you start, you're going home and listening to Camp
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and you're listening to Who I Feel Uncool because Vanessa nodded at me that she knows who Camp are.
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Yeah.
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And then Kurt Weill, who's great.
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And then maybe the folks that Kurt Weill would have listened to.
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Prine and Petty and Neil Young and all these guys.
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Yeah.
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And then you come, then you're like that, in the movie version of this, you go, Eureka, that's it.
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That's my sound.
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Right.
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Well, I started to like, it just was in my brain because that was all I was listening to all of a sudden.
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And so I went back to L.A and was just like, that was the world in my head just sonically.
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And I just didn't want to like bring it to the producer yet.
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I wanted to start writing songs in that world.
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And so in my living room, I just started writing some things on guitar and doing it the way I started making music, which was in a closet by myself and
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so it was just a full circle moment of like I found the sound sonically I wanted this folky Americana
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but still pop sound and then also I had songs
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that I was writing
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and being genuine in my living room without having someone tapping me on the shoulder being like hey you got
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that chorus yet like hey how's the verse coming is that a real thing it's a real The thing, I mean, when you're starting to make songs with a producer in the room,
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yeah, naturally they're gonna turn around and be like, how's it going?
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Or like, where are we?
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How's the verse coming?
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Or they'll tweak things before you're done writing, which can be really intrusive.
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I get it, but it can be intrusive.
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And so I think those two things is what brought me to figuring out what the album is gonna be like.
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Well, you got left alone.
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It sounds like you got left alone to make the music that was in your mind and you got to...
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I mean, that's so unfamiliar to me, that way of making music is.
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I mean, I have friends who do it, and I have friends who are the people who are tapping people on the shoulders.
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But in my mind, the idea of making a record is you come in with a song, and it's a verse and a chorus.
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You know what I mean?
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You have it, and this is my expression, and then please sharpen it for me, and let's gussy it up.
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You know what I mean?
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Yes.
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It sounds like you were able to be yourself.
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Yeah.
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Is it the style of the music?
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Is it the growth you had done at that point?
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but it also from my reading there's a demarcation around you're
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a little more personal now than you were before not to say
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that you music before wasn't personal that it was about it was about Fanta
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but like you're able to be more personal now this is
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obviously a hallmark of the genre of the of the style
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but I don't know I don't think you were sitting down writing confessional personal songs
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because that's what is expected to view as an Americana artist
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like what what caused it I was just going through honestly
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it was like a quarter life crisis is like what I think I was going through
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if I really look back at that year
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or two years where I was just like in a relationship um
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but wanting to a relationship that lived in LA
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but me constantly running away from LA and wanting to be somewhere different usually Maine
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sometimes it was nashville whatever i just wanted to get out of la all the time um
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and it was just this like mess of
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when i was in la i was like what am i
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doing with my life um yes i'm like in love
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but what am i doing with my life i'm not happy here what does
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that mean and just all these like weird just an existential like moment in my life
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and mixed that with like homesickness and um and then
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that relationship kind of falling apart through all this stuff
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which makes sense
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because i think from someone else's perspective it'd be like why
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are you not happy here yeah why are you running home
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why are you disappearing is this not enough here yes you know yeah yeah
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and so i get that and it's like it would be confusing and so That fell apart, I was falling apart.
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It was just a combination of things in a quarter life crisis that ended up all becoming songs.
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But you could have not sang about it, that's my point. For sure.
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I feel like there would have been music you had made before that, but wouldn't have been about, had you been going through any of that stuff, it wouldn't have come out.
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What I find interesting is that you sang about that stuff at all.
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I think, yeah, well, I couldn't imagine not doing it.
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But also I think I was in like a really happy relationship for a long time and and sometimes there's not
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A lot of in sadly like I hate saying this because
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Sometimes you'd have to say anything you don't know I've you know I just think
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that there's not so much inspiration
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that sometimes it's hard to like write a lot of like any any moving music
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when you're in like a healthy, happy relationship.
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You're right, you're right.
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And it's disgusting to say, and artists are the worst for this.
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But I think as soon as there was some chaos and drama in my life,
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I was like, I did not hesitate to pick up a pen and start writing.
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I don't know how you couldn't.
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I guess I was trying to capitalize on it, which is gross.
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Hey, watch it.
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Watch it.
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Watch it.
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That's my buddy Tucker you're talking about.
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Or, you know what another term for that is?
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Is my friend says, why waste your suffering?
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Yeah, exactly.
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It's not about capitalizing on it.
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It's if you're suffering, why waste it?
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Why not try to get something out of it?
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Why not try to learn something from it?
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Why not try to offer something through it?
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Exactly.
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If I can offer you a sunnier way of looking at it, if I can be made dear to do that.
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100%.
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I think that's a better way to say it, for sure.
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I think it's a better way, not a better way to say it, a better way to think about it.
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Like, you know, I'm just reading me this as someone who like beat myself up for a long time.
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So maybe I'm just like really I'm hyper aware of that kind of stuff.
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I don't mean to call you out on it.
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That's good.
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Because I think what you did is you didn't waste your suffering and you turned it into something that people are really, I mean, relating to, not just loving, but really relating to.
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Right.
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And that has to be meaningful.
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Yeah, it is.
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And I wasn't expecting it.
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I I don't know.
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I was not expecting to...
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I don't know.
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I.. since I started making music,
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my fan base from the beginning has always been primarily majority women,
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which I love and like it's.. to me that's like best case scenario as an artist.
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Having a female, primarily female fan base is best case scenario.
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They are like the most loyal passionate type of fans ever and so I Guess when I was writing album,
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I was like a little bit weary because a lot of it is me talking about
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Just my faults in a really a relationship and kind of ripping myself apart as
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I do as you also just saw me do Hey, hey, hey, as I do, as I do, as we all do.
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Anyways, I was just like worried that maybe they wouldn't connect with it
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because it's a man talking about being a shitty man in a relationship. And to my surprise.
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Oh, yeah.
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You know what I mean?
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Yeah.
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Which is a silly way to think about it because it doesn't, it's not that deep.
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Like people are going to relate to things like whatever
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that connects with them and they can put themselves in your shoes no matter.
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It's not about gender or anything.
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It's just a relatable situation, I realized.
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But I did not have expectations for people to connect with it in the way they did.
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The interesting challenge that happens right now
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is when you leave L.A and go to Maine and get this sort of newfound inspiration, and the inspiration when you come back is very much like, man, I've got to be myself.
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I've got to write about what I'm really feeling.
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I have to write these songs without someone tapping on my shoulder.
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And these things come out of me.
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And lo and behold, these things explode.
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They get huge.
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And now you're in a really interesting situation where, and I'm not just trying to pump up your tires here, but like it's quite big right now.
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And hundreds of millions of streams and people chasing you down the street.
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And a lot of people come into your shows and you're getting written.
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I mean, when I'm Googling you, you're getting written about it in a lot of different places.
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And I've just talked to artists like this before.
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It's like the getting away from it all was the ticket.
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And then the getting away from it all led to being brought back into it in some ways.
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How have you been finding what's the hardest part of it, of trying to hold on to that thing that you found
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and not letting this newfound fame and success interfere with the thing that gave you what you needed?
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Do you know what I mean?
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Yes, I do.
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And that's a good question.
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One I talk to My friends
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that I brought up earlier I talk to them every day
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Those are my best friends I just saw them in New York
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And we hung out for the day They keep me grounded When we talk, we talk every day We never talk about music
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Or anything that's going on in my career We talk about Our sex lives
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And just dumb shit And that's it And just like the same way it was in high school.
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And so that keeps me, my head away from it.
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And then also like, as far as like getting back into the studio and having time to actually do what I love, which is being in the studio and making music,
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I think I just have to put my foot down and make sure that that is the priority right now.
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because there's a lot of things now coming up
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and sessions being moved or canceled because of new things popping up and that is killing me.
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And so I think I just need to make sure I put my foot down
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when I can to make sure
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that the most important part of this is being protected and that I can still do it.
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And I think the hardest part is done.
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I think the hardest part is figuring out what the stuff you wanted to say
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and how you wanted your message to come out.
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And it's no surprise to me that people are connecting with it.
375
Thank you.
376
I think it's a really lovely record.
377
Thank you.
378
I think you made a great record.
379
We're going to play Sally When the Wine Runs Out, which is the big hit.
380
It's a big one.
381
Thanks for coming in.
382
Thank you for having me.
383
Anything you want to say to Oasis?
384
I'm only joking.
385
Stop marting with your brother.
386
Stop marting.
387
Stop with your brother.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B2 speaking lesson is built on the video “Role Model's life changed when Mac Miller discovered his EP”. This video has 385 sentences and 4371 words to shadow. The speech runs for 23:40. The speaker talks fast, about 185 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 84% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| homesickness noun | The characteristic of being homesick; a strong, sad feeling of missing one's home (and often left-behind loved ones, such as family and friends) when… | |
| expectation noun | /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/ | The act or state of expecting or looking forward to an event as about to happen. |
| verse noun | /ˈvɝs/ | A poetic form with regular meter and a fixed rhyme scheme. |
| capitalize verb | /ˈkæpətəˌlaɪz/ | In writing or editing, to write (something: either an entire word or text, or just the initial letter(s) thereof) in capital letters, in upper case. |
| idealize verb | /aɪˈdɪəlaɪz/ | To regard something as ideal. |
| intrusive adjective | /ɪnˈtɹuːsɪv/ | Tending to intrude; doing that which is not welcome; interrupting or disturbing; entering without permission or welcome. |
| newfound adjective | /ˈnjuː.faʊnd/ | Recently found; newly discovered. |
| obsess verb | /əbˈsɛs/ | To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion. |
| sonically adverb | In a sonic manner | |
| synth noun | /sɪnθ/ | A synthetic humanoid, an android, a robot, a clone |
| touchstone noun | /ˈtʌt͡ʃstəʊn/ | A stone used to verify the quality of gold alloys by rubbing them in order to leave a visible trace. |
| loneliness noun | /ˈloʊnlinəs/ | A feeling of depression resulting from being alone or from having no companions. |
| manifest noun | /ˈmæn.ɪ.fɛst/ | A list or invoice of the passengers or goods being carried by a commercial vehicle or ship. |
| mart noun | /mɑɹt/ | A shop, a store, a market. |
| hesitate verb | /ˈhɛz.ə.teɪt/ | To stop or pause respecting decision or action; to be in suspense or uncertainty as to a determination. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| grow up verb | To mature and become an adult. | |
| fall apart verb | To disintegrate, to break into pieces. | |
| get back verb | Return to where one came from. | |
| go through verb | To travel from one end of something to the other. | |
| come out verb | /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ | To be discovered; to be revealed. |
| figure out verb | To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce. | |
| get out of verb | To leave, exit or escape from; to become free of. | |
| go back verb | To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- You know, why was I doing that every night?
- Why was I drinking so much?
- Why was I doing all this stuff?
- Did it change when you got back?
- It's if you're suffering, why waste it?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| “Used to” used to + verb — a past habit or state that is no longer true | used to go · used to make · Used to just want |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was introduced · could be made · Was lost |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | I've fallen · has impacted · We've been |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | music, which was · writing, which can · friends who do |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 98 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: synth /sɪnθ/, empathize /ˈɛmpəˌθaɪz/, warmth /wɔɹmθ/, rhythm /ˈɹɪð.əm/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, cliché /kliˈʃeɪ/, confessional /kənˈfɛʃənəl/, demarcation /ˌdɛm.ɑːˈkeɪ.ʃən/, existential /ˌɛɡzɪˈstɛnʃl̩/
- Long words — get the stress right: expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, capitalize /ˈkæpətəˌlaɪz/, confessional /kənˈfɛʃənəl/, demarcation /ˌdɛm.ɑːˈkeɪ.ʃən/, dormitory /ˈdɔɹ.mɪˌtɔɹ.i/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like homesickness, expectation, verse.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.