Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Belle and Sebastian
Transcript
- 0:15Speaker 1: Pushkin. Hey, y'all, it's justin Richmond. Today on the show,
- 0:22Speaker 1: we're talking to Stuart Murdoch and Stevie Jackson from the
- 0:25Speaker 1: Scottish folk pop band Belle and Sebastian. The band formed
- 0:30Speaker 1: in ninety six after meeting through a government funded class
- 0:32Speaker 1: for unemployed musicians. It soon became a showcase for Stuart
- 0:36Speaker 1: Murdoch's catchy melodies and witty stories about the everyday lives
- 0:40Speaker 1: of Scottish bohemians. Inspired by the sounds of the sixties
- 0:44Speaker 1: like the Beatles, Paul Simon, Burt Back Iraq. Their music
- 0:47Speaker 1: has been described as perfect chamber pop music. On today's episode,
- 0:51Speaker 1: Bruce Helm talks to Stewart and Stevie about writing and
- 0:54Speaker 1: recording their latest and tenth album, A Bit of Previous.
- 0:58Speaker 1: Stewart also talks about how getting sick at twenty one
- 1:01Speaker 1: was a critical moment in the start of his music career.
- 1:07Speaker 1: This is broken record Liner notes for the digital age.
- 1:11Speaker 1: I'm justin Richmond. Here's Bruce album with Stuart and Stevie.
- 1:15Speaker 1: You've got a new album coming out. Can you tell
- 1:18Speaker 1: me a little bit about the making of this album?
- 1:20Speaker 1: Because it was done during the pandemic. How did that
- 1:23Speaker 1: affect how you did the album, Where you did the album,
- 1:26Speaker 1: How did all that shake out. We had our bags
- 1:28Speaker 1: packed for Los Angeles. We were ready to go, and
- 1:31Speaker 1: this was back in the spring of twenty twenty. Of course,
- 1:36Speaker 1: the pandemic happened. We were locked down. So for the
- 1:40Speaker 1: first six months or so, we didn't do anything. Everybody
- 1:42Speaker 1: was locked in, you know what it was like. By
- 1:45Speaker 1: that time, we decided, you know what, this is going
- 1:48Speaker 1: to take a while, So we gave up the idea
- 1:51Speaker 1: of going to Lae. Chris the band, and also Brian,
- 1:54Speaker 1: who's our engineer upstairs. We all decided to renovate the studio,
- 1:58Speaker 1: turn the studio into a proper recording studio rather than
- 2:02Speaker 1: just a rehearsal place, and we made extra rooms. We
- 2:07Speaker 1: made little booths so that it could be safe, so
- 2:10Speaker 1: that we could work safely in pandemic. Time to go
- 2:12Speaker 1: a whole year for us to start recording with a Vengeance,
- 2:15Speaker 1: because it was another surge in the pandemic. By that time.
- 2:19Speaker 1: The song line up had changed, but that was quite nice.
- 2:21Speaker 1: I'd written quite a few new songs and so we
- 2:24Speaker 1: brought them in really in a raw state. The beauty
- 2:29Speaker 1: part of that was that instead of preparing to go
- 2:32Speaker 1: to Los Angeles and having everything written, we had more
- 2:35Speaker 1: time and we could make it up as we went along.
- 2:37Speaker 1: So how many songs did you have written for LA?
- 2:41Speaker 1: It's kind of hard to say, Stevie. Do you remember
- 2:43Speaker 1: the pool of songs we had for LA? No, it's
- 2:46Speaker 1: too long ago. There's probably maybe a nebulous pool of
- 2:48Speaker 1: about fifteen or twenty, but I think maybe probably ten
- 2:52Speaker 1: of those got ditched along the way somewhere. Is that
- 2:56Speaker 1: typical for you to go into an album with sort
- 2:58Speaker 1: of that many songs ready to go? I think yeah,
- 3:01Speaker 1: it's I think that's probably about the top number. And
- 3:05Speaker 1: actually we've done records in Atlanta, we've done two in LA.
- 3:08Speaker 1: We us try to record about seventeen or eighteen because
- 3:12Speaker 1: they usually needed it, but also it makes a better
- 3:15Speaker 1: album if you've got songs to choose from. You know,
- 3:17Speaker 1: things ended up very differently. Like I said, we kind
- 3:20Speaker 1: of left a lot of songs. A lot of the
- 3:22Speaker 1: songs went off the boil and didn't seem to appealing anymore,
- 3:26Speaker 1: and then new ideas sprang up, and because we were
- 3:29Speaker 1: hands on, between the band and Brian, we were producing
- 3:34Speaker 1: ourselves we could invent new techniques and new ways of
- 3:37Speaker 1: working and go back to our roots all that kind
- 3:39Speaker 1: of stuff. So I'm interested. Tell me which songs on
- 3:42Speaker 1: the album now are the new songs the songs you
- 3:44Speaker 1: developed after you initially thought you were going to be
- 3:47Speaker 1: recording in La Sure, so the first song young and Stupid,
- 3:52Speaker 1: and then I think if they're shooting at you might
- 3:54Speaker 1: have been a German, but the words came along later on,
- 3:57Speaker 1: and then certainly profits on Hold that just came up
- 4:00Speaker 1: on a day in the studio and was talked to
- 4:04Speaker 1: me quite a late one as well, Stevie. Can you
- 4:05Speaker 1: remember I can't remember? That was a tune that Sarah
- 4:09Speaker 1: and and what about your own tune? That was quite
- 4:12Speaker 1: a late edition as well. Yes, yes, yes, which was
- 4:15Speaker 1: called Deathbed of My Dreams. That's a beautiful song, by
- 4:18Speaker 1: the way, Oh thank you. That was doing the process
- 4:21Speaker 1: of being here. I think it end up being different
- 4:24Speaker 1: than a traditional balance of Bastian album that Moore was
- 4:27Speaker 1: worked out in the studio, as opposed to you coming
- 4:30Speaker 1: and the writers saying here are the songs and choosing
- 4:33Speaker 1: from those. I think we've been loosening up for a
- 4:37Speaker 1: few years now. We recorded a bunch of EPs in
- 4:41Speaker 1: Glasgow previous to this, and on that occasion that was
- 4:45Speaker 1: almost like a dress rehearsal for this record. We were
- 4:47Speaker 1: trying different approaches building songs up from scratch. We were
- 4:51Speaker 1: meant to be working with Sean Everett in California, and
- 4:56Speaker 1: we were very prepared to meet him halfway, and I
- 5:00Speaker 1: think it would have been such a different record. We
- 5:02Speaker 1: might have ended up writing to order. There's a songwriter,
- 5:07Speaker 1: I'm affected by the environment find yourself in. I think
- 5:10Speaker 1: we would have ended up writing songs, especially for his production.
- 5:16Speaker 1: You were such a prolific songwriter and the band is
- 5:20Speaker 1: so productive. Was this the longest hiatus you'd had away
- 5:24Speaker 1: from songwriting during your career. I wouldn't say it was
- 5:28Speaker 1: a hiatus away from songwriting at all, as far as
- 5:31Speaker 1: I'm concerned. The longest gap that we had was around
- 5:33Speaker 1: about two thousand and six to two thousand and ten
- 5:37Speaker 1: or something like that. I went away to make a movie,
- 5:40Speaker 1: but I was working on music and Stevie was working
- 5:42Speaker 1: on music. He did a solo WELP, so everybody was
- 5:44Speaker 1: still working. You know, A song I was interested in
- 5:46Speaker 1: a lot was profits on hold and Nactually when I
- 5:50Speaker 1: saw the title, I thought, well, is this pandemic related?
- 5:54Speaker 1: Because of course everybody was on hold. That's an angle
- 5:57Speaker 1: that I never thought about. It was just a song
- 5:59Speaker 1: that popped up in the studio. But then again, you're
- 6:03Speaker 1: taking everything, everything that's going on, and it percolates. Songs
- 6:07Speaker 1: just come out, so it seems to be unre related
- 6:09Speaker 1: to what is actually going on outside. Maybe in fact,
- 6:11Speaker 1: the experience of Lockdown did infect affect this song the
- 6:16Speaker 1: way it came out, But I'd never thought about that.
- 6:19Speaker 1: And you play a few bars of it, Yeah, there's
- 6:21Speaker 1: a slight caveat here. What happens with my songs is
- 6:26Speaker 1: that we construct the songs in the studio and the
- 6:29Speaker 1: band comes in and colors in once we get into
- 6:32Speaker 1: the production and we get into the song making I forget.
- 6:37Speaker 1: I never have it under my fingers. I've never played
- 6:40Speaker 1: this song from start to finish, you know, especially this one,
- 6:43Speaker 1: So obviously we have to learn to play this song
- 6:46Speaker 1: when we come to the concert. What I'm basically saying
- 6:50Speaker 1: is that me and Stevie are just trying to learn
- 6:52Speaker 1: how to play a few bars for you just today,
- 6:55Speaker 1: so we don't actually know it, but well, we'll have
- 6:58Speaker 1: a goal. Can I call you sometimes talk get out
- 7:05Speaker 1: on the phone. We don't have to be loved first,
- 7:13Speaker 1: We could be less alone. It's a rough, rocky road
- 7:23Speaker 1: and it's gonna get steep. I just wanted your soft
- 7:30Speaker 1: tone to allow me to sleep. And I sometimes confuse
- 7:41Speaker 1: you fuck God or angel yo, just a person sometimes confused.
- 7:59Speaker 1: I Gocklorian my mind a soft song once. Well, you
- 8:15Speaker 1: guys are quick learners. That was terrific. We were kind
- 8:18Speaker 1: of like, I'm looking at the chord sheets and for
- 8:21Speaker 1: the listeners, that probably kind of replicates the idea of
- 8:25Speaker 1: what happened when we brought the song in at first
- 8:28Speaker 1: and we were just feeling the chords. Was that purely
- 8:31Speaker 1: a musical idea you had and then added the lyrics
- 8:34Speaker 1: or did the lyric come at the same time. More
- 8:38Speaker 1: regularly for me, the words and the lyrics will come
- 8:41Speaker 1: at the same time. It's sometimes it's not a strong
- 8:43Speaker 1: urge to say something lyrically at first. It's more likely
- 8:48Speaker 1: to be a musical idea, you know, and then immediately
- 8:54Speaker 1: I'll try and cannot call you sometime. And you might
- 8:57Speaker 1: even think that that would start off as a scratch
- 9:00Speaker 1: lyric that you would replace later talk it out on
- 9:04Speaker 1: the phone, but a bit quite often your first lyrics
- 9:09Speaker 1: end up as the actual song itself. It's got a
- 9:12Speaker 1: great rhythm on the record. It's got the same kind
- 9:15Speaker 1: of bounce as the sound of Breaking Glass by Nick Lowe.
- 9:18Speaker 1: If you know that song, Oh yeah, that's a great one.
- 9:20Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, how does that one go? Stepe? I love
- 9:24Speaker 1: the sound of Breaking Glass. You can learn his songs
- 9:31Speaker 1: even faster. That's amazing. And because I love the title
- 9:34Speaker 1: so much, Profits on Hold. I mean, are you sitting
- 9:37Speaker 1: around somewhere you've got a notebook and you think of
- 9:40Speaker 1: the phrase profits on hold? Or are you on the
- 9:42Speaker 1: phone and you just write it down thinking I'm going
- 9:44Speaker 1: to use that at some point? When did that occur?
- 9:47Speaker 1: I take note of titles and then sometimes they lie
- 9:51Speaker 1: for years and then they become songs later on. That
- 9:55Speaker 1: was a case of that came out in the lyric
- 9:57Speaker 1: that day, just as I was writing underneath your Thin Skin,
- 10:00Speaker 1: we are profits and Hold, that occurred to me that
- 10:03Speaker 1: that could be the title. I'm going to talk about
- 10:05Speaker 1: the source of the songwriting in the group. You know,
- 10:08Speaker 1: you are one of the those bands that's not afraid
- 10:10Speaker 1: to be witty. I don't mean sort of modern lee witty,
- 10:15Speaker 1: but there is that kind of tradition in English Scottish,
- 10:20Speaker 1: you know, songwriting. Morrissey is a good example, and I
- 10:23Speaker 1: think he was an influence on you, almost that kind
- 10:26Speaker 1: of nol Coward school of being kind of funny. Where
- 10:29Speaker 1: does that come from in your background? It's sort of
- 10:32Speaker 1: hard to say. I mean, I'm not sure it's a
- 10:34Speaker 1: gift that we have for wet Maybe it's a gift
- 10:37Speaker 1: that we have for honesty and not being afraid to
- 10:40Speaker 1: leave it all out there. That is a progression from say,
- 10:43Speaker 1: for instance, you know, the Beatles through the Smiths to
- 10:46Speaker 1: us and to other bands that if you draw a line,
- 10:49Speaker 1: I think the people, you know, songwriters are more inclined
- 10:52Speaker 1: to be very honest and talk about their feelings, talk
- 10:56Speaker 1: about what's on their mind, very conversational. Whereas you know,
- 11:01Speaker 1: if you go back a little ways, songwriting was more
- 11:04Speaker 1: rigorous and there was rules, and there was things that
- 11:07Speaker 1: it would be cringy to say. At the time, when
- 11:09Speaker 1: I started songwriting, I didn't have anything to lose and
- 11:13Speaker 1: I wanted to tell the world how I felt from
- 11:16Speaker 1: my position of pain and anguish. But sometimes the humor
- 11:21Speaker 1: or being able to have a joke about it, and
- 11:24Speaker 1: even if the joke is on yourself, can be refreshing,
- 11:26Speaker 1: it can be liberating. But you're known for that level
- 11:30Speaker 1: of kind of wit. You know, if you're feeling sinister,
- 11:33Speaker 1: go and see a minister. There are a million examples
- 11:36Speaker 1: in your music. Were you a particularly literary kid. Was
- 11:40Speaker 1: there a lot of reading in your background. I did
- 11:42Speaker 1: quite a lot of reading as a later youth. I
- 11:45Speaker 1: did everything at the wrong time. When I was at
- 11:47Speaker 1: university doing science, all I would be doing was reading
- 11:52Speaker 1: English literature to the extent where the way that you
- 11:55Speaker 1: speak actually changes. I don't know if Stevie ever felt
- 11:59Speaker 1: that phenomenon, or yourself felt that phenomenon. I did go
- 12:03Speaker 1: through a couple of years where I was reading Jane
- 12:05Speaker 1: Austen and French authors, and the way that you actually
- 12:09Speaker 1: talk you could tell that it was changing because you
- 12:12Speaker 1: would be composing sentences the same way as these Victorian
- 12:16Speaker 1: all arts. And so that that was a period a
- 12:19Speaker 1: couple of years, and then I actually dropped out of university.
- 12:23Speaker 1: I didn't do signs anymore. I got more interested in
- 12:27Speaker 1: the art side. We're going to take a quick break here,
- 12:30Speaker 1: but we'll be right back with more from Stuart and
- 12:32Speaker 1: Stevie from balan Sebashtan. We're back with Bruce Adam's conversation
- 12:40Speaker 1: with Stevie and Stuart. There's a couple of songs I
- 12:43Speaker 1: want to ask about and then we'll dive into some background.
- 12:46Speaker 1: If they're shooting at you, tell me a bit about
- 12:48Speaker 1: the genesis of that song. I'm glad that you've asked
- 12:52Speaker 1: me about this one. Let me just try and get
- 12:55Speaker 1: the words of the song in front of me, and
- 12:57Speaker 1: I hope you don't feel that's too feeble, not at all.
- 13:00Speaker 1: So the funny thing about if they're shooting at you,
- 13:03Speaker 1: although I said it before, it was a new song
- 13:06Speaker 1: coming into this. I'd had the idea for the tune
- 13:10Speaker 1: for a couple of years and I brought it into
- 13:12Speaker 1: the studio pretty much the same day as Bob and
- 13:15Speaker 1: the band. He brought in an idea, and this was
- 13:18Speaker 1: during the time we were doing the EPs a couple
- 13:19Speaker 1: of years ago. So he played me this idea and said,
- 13:22Speaker 1: could you come up with words for this? And I
- 13:24Speaker 1: realized it had the same rhythm and vibe as the
- 13:28Speaker 1: thing I was writing, and I thought, well, this is good.
- 13:30Speaker 1: I like that that's interesting when that happens, because you
- 13:33Speaker 1: can combine the two in such a way that sometimes
- 13:36Speaker 1: something interesting comes from it. I find that the easiest
- 13:39Speaker 1: way to combine two ideas they probably need to have
- 13:41Speaker 1: the same rhythmic feel. You can always go from chord
- 13:44Speaker 1: to chord and figure out a way. I ended up
- 13:47Speaker 1: lending Bob's song a section of this song, and we
- 13:52Speaker 1: wrote words and became a song called Poor Boy and
- 13:55Speaker 1: as You was a single. But as we approached this LP,
- 13:59Speaker 1: I had the idea for this song in my head.
- 14:01Speaker 1: I still had the tune in my head. I felt
- 14:03Speaker 1: it hadn't been fully exploited, so I wrote discreet words.
- 14:06Speaker 1: I wrote separate words. I actually said to the and
- 14:09Speaker 1: beforehand it if you don't think this is too lazy
- 14:13Speaker 1: of me? Could this be a song? Could we try
- 14:16Speaker 1: this song? So maybe, like if if there's Belcabacitian fan,
- 14:20Speaker 1: you know, listening just now, they might be able to
- 14:22Speaker 1: reference part of the song. Will we play you a
- 14:26Speaker 1: verse or something from the would be great? One? Two?
- 14:30Speaker 1: So huh said, do you? I'm not free? I got
- 14:36Speaker 1: a mountain falling down on me, I got say the
- 14:43Speaker 1: san I've got down all the beeple one, a scream
- 14:50Speaker 1: and shout. I'm so tired. I'm always on money and
- 14:58Speaker 1: I'm called it's always januine worry in this huh and
- 15:06Speaker 1: on this streets. It's so great. I can't take it.
- 15:14Speaker 1: What happened to like fun? You sweat to? What did
- 15:25Speaker 1: you go okay? What would just think would just give
- 15:34Speaker 1: you a little taste lovely? What was behind the feeling
- 15:38Speaker 1: of that song, the lyrics of that song. It started
- 15:41Speaker 1: off very personal and became more general. It was me
- 15:45Speaker 1: looking out there at stories that were in the news.
- 15:50Speaker 1: If you look at the news any day, there's stories
- 15:53Speaker 1: about violent oppression, you know. Like I said, I started
- 15:57Speaker 1: singing from my own the way that I was feeling,
- 15:59Speaker 1: and then I started writing from the perspective of the
- 16:02Speaker 1: things that were happening that I could see happening to
- 16:04Speaker 1: other people. And sometimes things that are happening to you
- 16:08Speaker 1: they're quite small compared to the things that are happening
- 16:10Speaker 1: to other people. People are dying, people are being tortured,
- 16:14Speaker 1: people are in prison. This is terrible, terrible things happening,
- 16:18Speaker 1: And what do you do. I can't imagine facing those things,
- 16:22Speaker 1: but I know and I've seen it. People have faith
- 16:26Speaker 1: sometimes that's the only thing that can get them through it.
- 16:30Speaker 1: I know faith isn't for everybody, but I've experienced faith.
- 16:34Speaker 1: But also I've seen faith at work in other people,
- 16:38Speaker 1: and I know that at that point of disaster, upon it,
- 16:43Speaker 1: even death, that sometimes faith is the only thing that's
- 16:46Speaker 1: going to do it. So that's the second half of
- 16:49Speaker 1: the song. Really. Now, when you talk about faith, because
- 16:53Speaker 1: you're a practicing Buddhist, you're also a Christian, do you
- 16:56Speaker 1: mean religious faith in that sense or another kind of
- 17:00Speaker 1: faith in the sense it's a religious faith. And although
- 17:04Speaker 1: I am a Christian and would say not so much
- 17:06Speaker 1: a practicing Buddhist, but obviously very interested in Buddhism. You know,
- 17:11Speaker 1: I don't mean to be badantic. If you're practicing Buddhists,
- 17:14Speaker 1: you go for refuge to Buddha. But I'm a Christians,
- 17:19Speaker 1: I go for refuge to God. And so that's who
- 17:23Speaker 1: I feel that I'm talking about in this that God
- 17:26Speaker 1: is actually a voice in the song. Oh see, like
- 17:31Speaker 1: many of your songs, it starts as a conversation. Something
- 17:34Speaker 1: you're you announce, you're saying to another person. Is that
- 17:38Speaker 1: what the two voices are in the song? What happens.
- 17:40Speaker 1: It becomes the person that I was thinking about, the
- 17:45Speaker 1: oppressed person and God, and God is saying, they might
- 17:49Speaker 1: do terrible things to you, but I've got your back.
- 17:52Speaker 1: This might mean that this experience goes beyond this life.
- 17:56Speaker 1: And I know that that's maybe hard for some people
- 17:59Speaker 1: to imagine or some people to take, but I feel
- 18:02Speaker 1: like we have to look beyond, and you know in
- 18:05Speaker 1: the song, God is getting this person's back. You talked
- 18:09Speaker 1: about sort of seeing things in the world, particularly with
- 18:12Speaker 1: this song that you know we're terrible things. It doesn't
- 18:16Speaker 1: strike me as an angry song though. Malcolm and I
- 18:21Speaker 1: just did a big project with Paul Simon, and I
- 18:24Speaker 1: don't think it made the final cut of the project.
- 18:26Speaker 1: But I do remember asking him if he ever wrote
- 18:30Speaker 1: out of anger, and he said he did, but he
- 18:34Speaker 1: works on the song until all the anger is gone.
- 18:37Speaker 1: How do you see sort of anger in your songs?
- 18:40Speaker 1: Do you see anger underlying this song? No, not so
- 18:43Speaker 1: much this song, and it certainly, I mean to be
- 18:45Speaker 1: honest with you, I've had to work on anger issues
- 18:49Speaker 1: in my life. I think we all have. I think
- 18:51Speaker 1: perhaps many of us mellow as we get older. We're
- 18:55Speaker 1: constantly trying to become more patient, especially I've had kids,
- 18:59Speaker 1: and having a kid or kids is a lesson in
- 19:02Speaker 1: patient acceptance. You're working on your anger constantly when you
- 19:06Speaker 1: have kids. So I had more issues and I was younger.
- 19:11Speaker 1: Stevie would probably a test, and you know, things you
- 19:14Speaker 1: get quite spiky in the band and an everyday life,
- 19:17Speaker 1: and sometimes that would leak into some songs that I
- 19:19Speaker 1: could think about. But in this case, I think the
- 19:24Speaker 1: song is looking for a different solution. Even though terrible
- 19:27Speaker 1: things are happening to people and anger seems to be
- 19:31Speaker 1: sometimes seemed to be an appropriate response, I think I'm
- 19:35Speaker 1: suggesting in the song there's another way. I do want
- 19:38Speaker 1: to shift to Stevie, and I did want to ask
- 19:40Speaker 1: you about Deathbed of My Dreams. It's got a lovely
- 19:42Speaker 1: kind of country feel to it. Almost sounds like one
- 19:45Speaker 1: of those old kind of Nashville kind of dreamy slide
- 19:49Speaker 1: guitar songs. Can you tell me about that song? Well, sure,
- 19:54Speaker 1: without getting sued. That's the first time I wrote a
- 19:59Speaker 1: song in a specific way. There was a song in
- 20:01Speaker 1: my head which already existed. I basically wrote my own
- 20:04Speaker 1: words to someone else's song, and I've never done that
- 20:08Speaker 1: before got the folk tradition or something, and then I
- 20:11Speaker 1: changed the chords under it so that the melody changed.
- 20:15Speaker 1: And now you can't tell that you know that it
- 20:17Speaker 1: started off as another tune and I just changed it.
- 20:20Speaker 1: But this way, it's like a sort of an a
- 20:21Speaker 1: moral dilemma because I actually deliberately used another tune to
- 20:26Speaker 1: express myself and then changed it. But maybe you could
- 20:29Speaker 1: argue that's a kind of folk process. Yeah, it's it's
- 20:35Speaker 1: very common in folk and country music. I'm interested. It's
- 20:38Speaker 1: got a beautiful, very distinctive sound on the record. Now,
- 20:42Speaker 1: your albums are always full of different sounds. The song
- 20:44Speaker 1: we just talked about, if They're Shooting at You, which
- 20:47Speaker 1: we made sound fairly grim, actually sounds like it's like
- 20:50Speaker 1: a great bird backrack song. Yeah, Deathbed of My Dreams
- 20:54Speaker 1: has a very particular sound. Was it the sound of
- 20:57Speaker 1: this other song that attracted you? A Stuart and his
- 21:00Speaker 1: Songs and our producer Brian, you know, the aforementioned song
- 21:03Speaker 1: If They're Shooting at You. I think they took a
- 21:04Speaker 1: long time to get the rhythm of it, or you know,
- 21:07Speaker 1: like they spend a lot of time in the studio
- 21:09Speaker 1: getting it right. And I just don't have the patience
- 21:12Speaker 1: for that kind of thing. I my kind of way
- 21:14Speaker 1: of working is is that kind of audio verity thing.
- 21:18Speaker 1: I just assemble the musicians, play them the song, and
- 21:22Speaker 1: whatever will be will be, or would try and capture something,
- 21:25Speaker 1: or you know, usually try and capture it fast. I
- 21:28Speaker 1: think like with this song, I think it was in
- 21:29Speaker 1: c and and I just said, look, just play whatever
- 21:33Speaker 1: you want. I gave a couple of counters and didn't
- 21:36Speaker 1: quite happen. Then we had a coffee break and as
- 21:38Speaker 1: it us to it in the A and then it
- 21:42Speaker 1: just kind of came together quite nicely and we got
- 21:44Speaker 1: it in a few takes. That's certainly my memory of it.
- 21:47Speaker 1: And then Brian and I overdubbed a steel guitar which
- 21:52Speaker 1: they have played. The way it kind of came out,
- 21:54Speaker 1: it did sound like that kind of Nashville nineteen sixty
- 21:57Speaker 1: one kind of sound, so we kind of pushed it
- 22:00Speaker 1: that way a little bit like a day or bass
- 22:03Speaker 1: player he'd done that classic Nashville thing of he doubled
- 22:06Speaker 1: his part with a Fender six guitar along with a
- 22:09Speaker 1: kind of upright bass kind of feel. So has that
- 22:12Speaker 1: kind of two basses playing which is about in Nashville
- 22:14Speaker 1: kind of sound. It's a beautiful song. There are a
- 22:17Speaker 1: couple of songs on this album. I think, maybe particularly
- 22:21Speaker 1: the performance of Unnecessary Drama, that it felt like you
- 22:27Speaker 1: were a band that was desperate to play live again.
- 22:30Speaker 1: It just kind of had more aggression, more kind of
- 22:33Speaker 1: a live kind of feel. Were you itching to get
- 22:37Speaker 1: back out in front of a live audience when you
- 22:40Speaker 1: were recording these I would say no, personally, no, no. Yeah.
- 22:44Speaker 1: The key thing about this song is that this song
- 22:47Speaker 1: is Bob's song. You know, Bob isn't here to tell
- 22:50Speaker 1: his side of things, but Bob is. You know, he's
- 22:53Speaker 1: very organized and he had a plan for this song.
- 22:55Speaker 1: He had a sound. He has everything meticulously planned out.
- 22:59Speaker 1: So this is very much his sound. When I I'm
- 23:03Speaker 1: in the studio, I don't care whether I'm in Atlanta
- 23:06Speaker 1: or Ellie or London. You're sort of in a womb.
- 23:10Speaker 1: You're in a very safe place, and that's why it's
- 23:12Speaker 1: a It's a wonderful place for songs to be born.
- 23:15Speaker 1: I like studio stuff. I like a studio sound. You know,
- 23:20Speaker 1: there's a lushnessism. I like middle of the road sixties
- 23:23Speaker 1: and seventies records. For me, it's complete yean and yang.
- 23:28Speaker 1: But of course, as members of the band, we're all
- 23:31Speaker 1: ready to support the person whose idea and whose song
- 23:35Speaker 1: it is, so we're really happy to I mean, Stevie,
- 23:39Speaker 1: did you suggest that harmonic or did Bob suggest that harmonica? No,
- 23:43Speaker 1: it was Bob, yeah, and it was actually an overdub.
- 23:45Speaker 1: I didn't record it with the band. Bob did all
- 23:48Speaker 1: the guitars on it because he's you know, like I said,
- 23:50Speaker 1: it's not like an add to It's like it's like
- 23:52Speaker 1: a military campaign when he does one of these songs. Honestly,
- 23:55Speaker 1: it's like it's also a thought out and you know,
- 23:57Speaker 1: as a guitar player or nothing that I can add
- 23:59Speaker 1: to us. I just leave him to it. But on
- 24:01Speaker 1: the day, you know, as we'll come and play harmonica
- 24:03Speaker 1: on it. And that's just what came out, which you
- 24:05Speaker 1: said about the studio being a womb and not thinking
- 24:08Speaker 1: about playing live. So I have to ask you if
- 24:10Speaker 1: you watched the Beatles documentary Get Back. Oh sure, I did.
- 24:14Speaker 1: I mean, like a had a three D party at
- 24:16Speaker 1: my house. I had food and invited interested friends. One
- 24:23Speaker 1: of the things that fascinated me about it was that
- 24:25Speaker 1: they had been in the womb of the studio so long,
- 24:28Speaker 1: and they sort of announced their intention to go play,
- 24:31Speaker 1: and there was that just stress between just playing for
- 24:35Speaker 1: themselves and making things up and knowing they had to
- 24:38Speaker 1: get in front of an audience. Did that trigger any
- 24:41Speaker 1: memories or any studio trauma of your own going through
- 24:46Speaker 1: that stress? Now? Yeah, the transition from studio to live
- 24:49Speaker 1: is so different. You have to relearn all the songs,
- 24:52Speaker 1: you have to be prepared to get up there and
- 24:54Speaker 1: face the music, face the audience, and it's such a
- 24:58Speaker 1: different thing. And even today, I mean, you've kind of
- 25:02Speaker 1: inspired us to get our finger out and get moving
- 25:05Speaker 1: a little bit. And even having a rough play through
- 25:08Speaker 1: some of these songs is built a bit of confidence
- 25:11Speaker 1: for me because I'm thinking, no, that that tunes Okay,
- 25:13Speaker 1: that's a tune that that we don't need to you
- 25:15Speaker 1: don't need to hide behind studio trickery. It'll be okay.
- 25:19Speaker 1: Could we maybe play a verse of unnecessary drama for you? Sure?
- 25:24Speaker 1: Even though it's a hard hitting song, I think it's
- 25:26Speaker 1: a nice pop song, you know, even when you strip
- 25:28Speaker 1: it down. So so I've just added something that cursed
- 25:31Speaker 1: to me that I like this one, because it's when
- 25:34Speaker 1: someone else writes music for stuarts, it maybe puts them
- 25:36Speaker 1: in a position which he would normally wouldn't find himselves in,
- 25:40Speaker 1: you know, if he was, you know, writing for himself,
- 25:43Speaker 1: which he does, instead of just having a feeling. I thought,
- 25:46Speaker 1: where the word's going to be about. I'm gonna have
- 25:47Speaker 1: to tell a story. I'm gonna have to ride on
- 25:50Speaker 1: the song. And I ended up kind of telling a
- 25:52Speaker 1: story about my friend. Yeah, and I didn't play guitar
- 25:56Speaker 1: on the record. I've played a monicas. I think I've
- 25:59Speaker 1: just learned it. So here it goes okay, So one,
- 26:03Speaker 1: two three, I read your letter from before. You've been
- 26:06Speaker 1: having so much fun, and is it possiful? You're just
- 26:12Speaker 1: telling me to drum me in. There's an array of
- 26:18Speaker 1: douche bags landing up to play the stupid it pots.
- 26:23Speaker 1: And did you ever pass before you gave your loveful way?
- 26:30Speaker 1: This is my life, This is my soul cold life,
- 26:36Speaker 1: this is my life, This is my owly life. And
- 26:44Speaker 1: when you came to me that summer, you were just
- 26:48Speaker 1: a shell and you were holding close to mother. She
- 26:54Speaker 1: was ashing with the strange, and there was Master go
- 26:59Speaker 1: yet Master built that sister loving bund and then I
- 27:04Speaker 1: figured that the music set your soul place and us
- 27:11Speaker 1: probably not surprising that ju funing through the day. And
- 27:18Speaker 1: if I had a second uncoke, I would probably do
- 27:23Speaker 1: the same. And if the intimacy I but stopped. So
- 27:28Speaker 1: miss your stories, miss y'all. Let us every awkward fumble
- 27:34Speaker 1: should be prayed. Okay, they're gonna be holding up their
- 27:42Speaker 1: lighters for that one. That's gonna be a big, big
- 27:45Speaker 1: concert pleasure. That was wonderful. Thank God, you're instilling us
- 27:49Speaker 1: with confidence. I feel that's my job now. I didn't
- 27:51Speaker 1: think it was going to be my job. We'll be
- 27:54Speaker 1: right back with more from Bell and Sebastian. After a
- 27:56Speaker 1: quick break, we're back with the rest of Bruce's conversation
- 28:03Speaker 1: with Bell and Sebashtan. Here's the performance of their song
- 28:06Speaker 1: Young and Stupid. Oh one, two, three four. I was
- 28:11Speaker 1: yelling in my seat. I was crying, feeling weak. Do
- 28:18Speaker 1: we have to feel this way? It wasn't like this yesterday.
- 28:24Speaker 1: Everything it's behind when you're young and stupid. Everything's did
- 28:31Speaker 1: behind when you're young and stupid. There's an easy start
- 28:37Speaker 1: two things. There's a thrill that beauty bring two together
- 28:44Speaker 1: at the hips, start together at the lips. Nature was
- 28:51Speaker 1: the lea heat when you're young and stupid, nurture will
- 28:56Speaker 1: and phat when you're young and stupid. I thought you
- 29:10Speaker 1: could talk over this book. Let's just go into the
- 29:12Speaker 1: last verse two three four. Now we're old with creaking bones,
- 29:18Speaker 1: some with partner, some alone, some with kids, and some
- 29:24Speaker 1: with dogs. Getting through the nightly slug flashes in the behind.
- 29:32Speaker 1: We were young and stupid keeps us warm and nahi
- 29:37Speaker 1: all a Young and stupid makes us feel de la high.
- 29:43Speaker 1: We were young and stupid makes you feel with grayhead
- 29:48Speaker 1: when you're young and stupid. That was fabulous. Well let
- 29:55Speaker 1: me ask you now about the origins of that song.
- 29:58Speaker 1: How did that come about? This was like prophets and hold.
- 30:01Speaker 1: This was like a walk up song where it was
- 30:04Speaker 1: kind of walking into the studio and I might have
- 30:06Speaker 1: actually walken up with a tune of this and then
- 30:09Speaker 1: sort of just tumbled out of Ben walked into the
- 30:11Speaker 1: studio thinking about the tune, coming to the piano and
- 30:15Speaker 1: just writing down the words. It was the quickest is
- 30:17Speaker 1: definitely the quickest of all the of all the songs.
- 30:21Speaker 1: Something that's to be noted about the session was because
- 30:25Speaker 1: we were still in a form of lockdown. The band
- 30:28Speaker 1: members with kids were on duty, you know, they couldn't
- 30:32Speaker 1: do full days and they had to work around families.
- 30:35Speaker 1: We were so lucky. We actually had a friend staying
- 30:37Speaker 1: who was our pair, and so I got to come
- 30:40Speaker 1: in every day because I've got kids. And so there
- 30:44Speaker 1: was a couple of songs that we actually built up
- 30:46Speaker 1: with drum machines, and young and Stupid was one of them.
- 30:49Speaker 1: Profits on hold and mostly the first out of the record,
- 30:54Speaker 1: but then Rachel would come and play over later and
- 30:57Speaker 1: he would add his own inimitable groove to it. The
- 31:02Speaker 1: lyrical idea for the song, you know, because you've written
- 31:05Speaker 1: so many great songs about being young and being in
- 31:10Speaker 1: school and being in those strange kind of in between
- 31:12Speaker 1: times in your life, it's just kind of looking back
- 31:16Speaker 1: now and thinking I was stupid the whole time, and
- 31:19Speaker 1: that's kind of a good thing. I think it's a
- 31:22Speaker 1: classic glory days song, and the song very much exists
- 31:26Speaker 1: and was written from the present. I e I'm in
- 31:30Speaker 1: this position now, I'm I'm in a dark spot and
- 31:34Speaker 1: I'm looking back on glory days. Most of your glory days,
- 31:38Speaker 1: you probably wouldn't really want to go back. But it's
- 31:42Speaker 1: rose tinted spectacles, isn't it. And I had a cutoff point,
- 31:45Speaker 1: which was probably about nineteen ninety when I started to
- 31:48Speaker 1: wise up a little bit. But my glory days were
- 31:51Speaker 1: from eighty five to ninety because I had these you
- 31:54Speaker 1: know that, I was just you're running wild. It's so
- 31:57Speaker 1: much energy, so much energy, but not having the wisdom
- 32:00Speaker 1: really to know how to use that energy wisely. Most people,
- 32:04Speaker 1: if they are in a hugely successful pop band, would
- 32:08Speaker 1: say that their early days in the band were their
- 32:11Speaker 1: glory days. Your glory days pre date being in a band. Well,
- 32:14Speaker 1: I had a specific thing that happened to me was
- 32:17Speaker 1: in nineteen eighty nine ninety I got sick. Before that time,
- 32:21Speaker 1: I was I had boundless energy, and then I got
- 32:24Speaker 1: this thing called emmy chronic fatigue syndrome where my energy
- 32:29Speaker 1: went off at cliff and it changed my life radically
- 32:33Speaker 1: and forever. So it's easier to look beyond that point
- 32:39Speaker 1: now when I when I think of just having that
- 32:41Speaker 1: great energy. And you were how old when that struck you? So?
- 32:46Speaker 1: So nine about twenty one, and so you dropped out
- 32:50Speaker 1: of college at that point, dropped out of everything. I mean,
- 32:52Speaker 1: I ended up in hospital. I ended up living back
- 32:55Speaker 1: with my parents, which was, you know, talk about stepping
- 32:59Speaker 1: back into the womb. Almost the first part of that
- 33:04Speaker 1: was a lot of that just searching for the diagnosis,
- 33:08Speaker 1: trying to find out what happened. I had a good
- 33:11Speaker 1: year and a half when I was going downhill and
- 33:14Speaker 1: I'd be seeing doctors and they already It was actually
- 33:17Speaker 1: my mum that said, oh God, I hope it's not
- 33:19Speaker 1: that Emmy, because she was a nurse and she knew
- 33:22Speaker 1: people with emmy, and so she was the first person
- 33:25Speaker 1: really to diagnose me. And so it turned out that
- 33:29Speaker 1: that's what it was. And they didn't know much. They
- 33:31Speaker 1: couldn't really help me. There wasn't There wasn't much they
- 33:34Speaker 1: could do. Maybe the next six or seven years there
- 33:37Speaker 1: was where I would call my wilderness years. I was
- 33:40Speaker 1: splitting life up into and what were those years, like,
- 33:43Speaker 1: what was your day? You know? When I was back
- 33:45Speaker 1: staying with my folks. Do you know what a greenhouses?
- 33:48Speaker 1: Do you call it a greenhouse in America? It's like
- 33:50Speaker 1: a glass house. They had a glasshouse and that my
- 33:53Speaker 1: dad had built, and for most of the year it
- 33:57Speaker 1: was definitely the warmest place. So I used to go
- 33:59Speaker 1: in there and sit with the you know, the tomato
- 34:02Speaker 1: plants that he was growing, and try and just grow.
- 34:06Speaker 1: I just I would sit in an old picture with
- 34:10Speaker 1: my you know, with my reading for the week, and
- 34:15Speaker 1: you know, I would vegetate in the morning and try
- 34:17Speaker 1: and grow, grow like a baby tomato plant. And then
- 34:21Speaker 1: in the afternoon. Man, this has taken me back, you know.
- 34:25Speaker 1: It just shows you that the day was like cut
- 34:27Speaker 1: into portions because you and I had so much energy.
- 34:30Speaker 1: So in the afternoon I had a friend Michael, now
- 34:33Speaker 1: Michael and had the same thing that I did. We
- 34:36Speaker 1: became friends and we would just you know, we'd meet
- 34:38Speaker 1: up and we'd play scrabble, or we'd we'd driver in
- 34:42Speaker 1: the countryside. We'd try and get some nature, and later
- 34:45Speaker 1: on we try to play tennis, you know, so we'd
- 34:48Speaker 1: try to build up our energy. Did you despair that
- 34:52Speaker 1: you would never recover? I think in the first couple
- 34:54Speaker 1: of years there was a shock, and then there was
- 34:58Speaker 1: a getting used to it. But what happened was that
- 35:00Speaker 1: maybe about three years in I had been sort of
- 35:03Speaker 1: going along the bottom. Nothing much has improved. I paid
- 35:06Speaker 1: a lot to see a doctor and he just he
- 35:09Speaker 1: said he was going to move you better. And he
- 35:12Speaker 1: took me for six months and he was giving me
- 35:14Speaker 1: all sorts of alternative therapies and medicines, and at the
- 35:16Speaker 1: end of the six months he told me he couldn't
- 35:18Speaker 1: help me anymore, and that was harsh. That was the
- 35:22Speaker 1: point where I actually, you know, I had a bit
- 35:24Speaker 1: of a breakdown. So things got pretty dark for a while.
- 35:29Speaker 1: But actually, in a sense, it sort of shook me up.
- 35:33Speaker 1: Something happened that I became almost like so desperate that
- 35:37Speaker 1: I tried to change things. I really tried to see
- 35:41Speaker 1: more people, to get out, to make more of a connection.
- 35:44Speaker 1: Michael and I moved back to Glasgow. We were determined
- 35:48Speaker 1: from that point onwards, we forced ourselves to do more.
- 35:52Speaker 1: Was that coincidental with recovery or do you think that helped?
- 35:56Speaker 1: That helped your recovery along. Another catalyst to that was
- 35:59Speaker 1: around that time I was seeing I went to see
- 36:01Speaker 1: a Christian healer and she was the opposite of the
- 36:05Speaker 1: other medical person that I told you about. She promised
- 36:08Speaker 1: nothing thing but actually gave a lot, and she charged
- 36:12Speaker 1: nothing but gave a lot. She's amazing. It's just a
- 36:16Speaker 1: woman who did it like an amateur in our own house.
- 36:20Speaker 1: I wouldn't have to describe myself fully as a Christian
- 36:22Speaker 1: at that point. But she said, look, it doesn't matter.
- 36:24Speaker 1: This is going to help you. So you know, she
- 36:26Speaker 1: did her energy stuff. Can I ask you what was
- 36:29Speaker 1: that that she did? Almost at hands on healing, except
- 36:31Speaker 1: she to have her hands above me, and it would
- 36:35Speaker 1: the whole thing would take about an hour of where
- 36:36Speaker 1: she would just be going around and just she was
- 36:38Speaker 1: obviously praying or focusing, and I would be thinking the
- 36:42Speaker 1: same thing, and I it was a powerful experience, almost
- 36:46Speaker 1: like the time went by really quickly, even though I
- 36:48Speaker 1: was there for over an hour. And it wasn't until
- 36:51Speaker 1: a few weeks afterwards that something broke and I felt
- 36:55Speaker 1: that the healer had been part of the catalyst. Now,
- 36:58Speaker 1: even if all this stuff was only going on in
- 37:00Speaker 1: my mind, you can see how something like that could
- 37:03Speaker 1: be a catalyst. You hadn't written songs before you were ill,
- 37:07Speaker 1: is that right? That's right? Lit a bit of piano
- 37:09Speaker 1: when you were young. I think you had piano lessons.
- 37:12Speaker 1: How did the song start? By the time I'd gone
- 37:14Speaker 1: to the heelert, I had actually started writing songs. So
- 37:18Speaker 1: the songs started from this is me back at my parents' house,
- 37:22Speaker 1: having got to the bottom of my health, just sitting
- 37:26Speaker 1: at the piano. I remember very clearly writing what was
- 37:30Speaker 1: to become my first song. I met a girl called
- 37:34Speaker 1: Kira who was to become my best friend, and she
- 37:36Speaker 1: also had Emmy, and I was thinking about her, and
- 37:40Speaker 1: I just I felt like expressing something about her and
- 37:44Speaker 1: to her, and I just I put my hands on
- 37:46Speaker 1: the piano and started singing. And that was it. Could
- 37:49Speaker 1: you play a few of those chords? Now? Do you
- 37:51Speaker 1: remember what you played? Do you know? I never never
- 37:54Speaker 1: imagined that we'd be and you don't have to tour
- 38:00Speaker 1: with this song? Sure? And the song that the song
- 38:01Speaker 1: has never been recorded, and the she's so young Da
- 38:16Speaker 1: da da da da da da da da. I mean,
- 38:31Speaker 1: I can't remember the words. I might have them written
- 38:35Speaker 1: down somewhere. There's a long time ago. That's all. Like,
- 38:38Speaker 1: that's all I can remember. But kind of like that,
- 38:41Speaker 1: that was that was enough, you know, to get going. Okay,
- 38:45Speaker 1: how long was it before you wrote a song that
- 38:48Speaker 1: became a recorded song. Yeah, that's a good question. When
- 38:52Speaker 1: I realized that this was the thing, that maybe I
- 38:54Speaker 1: could do this, that even as a hobby, I should
- 38:57Speaker 1: try to. It made me feel good every song that
- 39:00Speaker 1: I did. It took me a month. It was took
- 39:02Speaker 1: me a month and a half. It took me a
- 39:03Speaker 1: long time just to try and wrestle this. So I
- 39:07Speaker 1: would say after maybe three years of that, the pace
- 39:11Speaker 1: picked up, and I think it helped that I picked
- 39:14Speaker 1: up a guitar as well, because it was easier. I
- 39:17Speaker 1: would say it was maybe another three years before there
- 39:20Speaker 1: was a song that appeared on a B and S record.
- 39:24Speaker 1: It does sound a little almost miraculous, like the famous
- 39:28Speaker 1: Oliver Sacks story about his patient who had a stroke
- 39:31Speaker 1: and then woke up and just started composing music almost incessantly.
- 39:37Speaker 1: Do you have this incredible gift for melody? You write
- 39:42Speaker 1: melodies that sound like they should have been written hundreds
- 39:45Speaker 1: of years ago, but you just thought of them for
- 39:47Speaker 1: the first time, and they're very sophisticated. How do you
- 39:51Speaker 1: account for that? That's an extremely nice way to put it.
- 39:54Speaker 1: Another way to put it in Stevie, he quite often says,
- 39:57Speaker 1: all your songs sound like something you know. That's the
- 40:03Speaker 1: other side of the coin that even though they're coming
- 40:05Speaker 1: out of you, that it's quite possibly you are bouncing
- 40:08Speaker 1: around melodies that are deep down, you know inside you
- 40:12Speaker 1: they've gone in when you were very young, and that
- 40:14Speaker 1: you're you're borrowing little bits of pieces of those Though music,
- 40:19Speaker 1: to generalize is miraculous, I think it is miraculous. I
- 40:24Speaker 1: used to think so when I was young and I
- 40:25Speaker 1: couldn't write a song, and I still I still think
- 40:27Speaker 1: so today. It's the most abstract form of art. It's pulling,
- 40:32Speaker 1: it's pulling magic out of thin air. What were you
- 40:36Speaker 1: listening to at the time, What were their singers or
- 40:40Speaker 1: were there songs that were inspiring what you were doing?
- 40:43Speaker 1: Kind of Obviously that seven year period was a long period,
- 40:46Speaker 1: and up to that point I was very current. I
- 40:49Speaker 1: used to DJ a lot, so I'd be playing current records,
- 40:52Speaker 1: and then, you know, once I got sick, I tended
- 40:55Speaker 1: to fall back on older records and also explore the
- 40:59Speaker 1: sixties and seventies more, and also just be more honest
- 41:03Speaker 1: about what I loved rather than you know, trying to
- 41:05Speaker 1: be hip and cool. Just I'm what I love. Often
- 41:09Speaker 1: was quite middle of the road pop music from my youth.
- 41:14Speaker 1: Can you give me an example? Songs like you know
- 41:17Speaker 1: the one that goes you walked into my life. I
- 41:22Speaker 1: don't know what the next chord is, and now you're
- 41:24Speaker 1: taken over and it's beautiful. Oh no, it's beautiful. I
- 41:31Speaker 1: remember hearing that song on the radio around about that time,
- 41:35Speaker 1: not having heard it for years and years, and just
- 41:37Speaker 1: being a ghast, thinking, I know that song is wonderful,
- 41:41Speaker 1: and I know maybe the guy next to me is
- 41:43Speaker 1: ignoring it, or this guy thinks it's chewing gum. For
- 41:45Speaker 1: the years, I think it's wonderful. You know. So you
- 41:49Speaker 1: have kids, your fans have kids. Some of those kids
- 41:52Speaker 1: have become fans. Where do you sort of place your
- 41:55Speaker 1: own music in the in the kind of firmament that's
- 41:58Speaker 1: an interesting question. Do you simply produce music because you
- 42:03Speaker 1: have to him, because you love doing it and you're
- 42:05Speaker 1: you're happy with just that process, or do you still ache,
- 42:10Speaker 1: you know, to be a pop star, to be you know,
- 42:13Speaker 1: every generation throws a you know, a singer up the
- 42:16Speaker 1: pop chat, as Paul Simon wrote, because I think there
- 42:18Speaker 1: is always that thing you forget that we're all ambitious
- 42:23Speaker 1: little buggers. And all these people that you mentioned, and
- 42:25Speaker 1: all your peers and the people, all the greats that
- 42:28Speaker 1: came before you, most of them would be nothing if
- 42:30Speaker 1: they didn't have a relationship with the public. Partly the
- 42:35Speaker 1: reason we haven't made an album for so long. Quite frankly,
- 42:38Speaker 1: it's because after we did the last one, it didn't
- 42:41Speaker 1: feel worth it anymore. It didn't feel like anybody's listening,
- 42:45Speaker 1: you know, maybe like some of our hardcore audience. So
- 42:49Speaker 1: that's mean, being pretty honest with you, maybe that's not
- 42:52Speaker 1: the kind of thing that folk want to hear. But
- 42:55Speaker 1: if the music isn't connecting with people anymore, I would
- 42:58Speaker 1: rather do something that really gets me going, you know.
- 43:02Speaker 1: I'd rather go back and make another film, write a book,
- 43:05Speaker 1: try something new. I'm a creative person. In the band
- 43:08Speaker 1: is full of creative people. There's no there's no law
- 43:12Speaker 1: that says band must do album tour album tour until death? Right?
- 43:19Speaker 1: Was it just sales or downloads or you just didn't
- 43:22Speaker 1: feel it was connecting somehow. I think maybe the last
- 43:25Speaker 1: record connects so well, and that maybe it's just a
- 43:29Speaker 1: general feeling. I mean, the band's been going for you know,
- 43:31Speaker 1: at that point, the band had been going for some time.
- 43:34Speaker 1: You know, people want the new thing. We'll see what
- 43:37Speaker 1: happens with this record, Okay, Well, I hope great things
- 43:40Speaker 1: happened with this record, because it's a great record and
- 43:42Speaker 1: everybody should listen to it, and everybody should go out
- 43:45Speaker 1: and clap along. When you play Unnecessary Drama live, you
- 43:48Speaker 1: definitely delve down there. There's some things that I haven't
- 43:51Speaker 1: thought about for years and years, So as therapists say,
- 43:55Speaker 1: we'll pick that up again next time. Okay, thank you
- 44:00Speaker 1: so much, Thanks Birth, Thanks the Bonds, the Bashion for
- 44:05Speaker 1: talking to us about their latest album and about their career.
- 44:08Speaker 1: You're more our favorite bones of Bashtian songs. Check out
- 44:11Speaker 1: the playlist at Broken Record podcast dot com. Be sure
- 44:14Speaker 1: to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot com
- 44:16Speaker 1: slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all of
- 44:19Speaker 1: our episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at broken Records.
- 44:23Speaker 1: Broken Record is produced a helpful Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel,
- 44:27Speaker 1: vent Holiday, Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help
- 44:30Speaker 1: from Nick chaff Our. Executive producer is Mia Lobell. Broken
- 44:35Speaker 1: Record is a production of Pushkin Industries. If you like
- 44:38Speaker 1: this show and others from Pushkin, consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus.
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- 44:46Speaker 1: an uninterrupted ad free listening for four ninety nine a month.
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- 44:53Speaker 1: you like the show, please remember to share, rate, and
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- 44:58Speaker 1: any beats. I'm justin Richmond.