Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Khruangbin

Transcript

Khruangbin · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: which you can find a link to in the show
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: notes for licensing reasons. Each time a song is referenced
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Enjoy the episode. At first glance, the psych rock band
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Krungbin may seem hard to pin down. There are three
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: piece multiracial band from Houston, Texas. Two of their members
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: always appear in dark black wigs, and the pronunciation of
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: their band name has sent a lot of people straight
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to Google. Krungben's music, on the other hand, is easy
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to understand. It's undeniable. That's so we won't forget from
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Krungbin's fourth album, Mordecai. The band is up of Laura
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Lee on bass, Mark Spear on guitar, and Donald DJ
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: Johnson on drums. Since Foreman in twenty fifteen, Krungbin I've
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: taken off on the festival circuit worldwide, which makes sense
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: for a band whose name in Tai means flying engine.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: In my conversation with Krungbin, you'll hear how their funking,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: fused surf rock sound is inspired in part by multicultural diffusion.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: They also talk about how disappointed they were when their
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: spring tour with Tam and Paula was canceled, but also
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: how Shelteron in Place has given them a much needed
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: break from the road. This is broken record liner notes
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: for the digital Age. I'm justin Richmondson. Here's my conversation
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: with Laura Lee, Mark Spear, and DJ of Krungben Krungbin.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like I just learned how this is pronounced.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: I've been listening to you guys since twenty fifteen, and
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I think I just now as Actually I was worried
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: I was pronounced it wrong this entire time right now,
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: but I think I finally got it. I mean, at
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the time though, it was a very simple way of
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: naming the band, because I was I had a bootleg
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Rosetta stone for tie, and it's like the first in
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: the first five words you learn. And it was fun
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to say, and we needed a band name stat and
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: we didn't think we would be where we are now,
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: So call it whatever you want. No one's going to care, right,
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, I've been in countless bands. It's like, dude,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to make it, you know, No big deal.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Just call it what you want, play what you want.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Although I do feel like we did have the foresight
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: that we didn't want the website to be taken and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: since it's a you know, anglicized way of spelling that
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: thie word, depending on who's writing it, it it might look
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: completely different because the only way to actually write it
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: is to write it in tie. So what we're writing
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: is the you know, an anglicized version of that of
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that word. It feels like, you guys, in a way
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: go back to like an old school band, you know,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: where you would just get in a room and because
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: there's not necessarily until the new record lyrics, you would
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: just I think the listener would think a lot of
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: jamming was happening to hash out the songs. That was
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: another thing that kind of informed the you know, the
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: start of the band and what we were going to
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: do is like I didn't want to have a bunch
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: of drum machines and sequencers and backing tracks and laptops
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: on stage or have to depend on that when we
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: were like perform these tunes. It's like we use the
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: technology to compose and to write you know, the whole
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: like cut and paste and basically sampling ourselves and flipping
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: things like that around. But when it comes down to it,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: we play it. If we can't play it with three people,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: then it's not that's not happening. You know. There's some
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: percussion parts and keyboard parts that happened on the records,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: but it's like that stuff isn't really you know, crucial.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: It's like just ear candy. So if we go play
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: these songs live and there's no keyboard part, it's fine.
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: You know, we don't need to hire or play to
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: a backing track in order to make this work. You know,
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: we can do it with three people, but you gotta
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: give yourself some kind of limitation otherwise it's kind of overwhelming,
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: you know, the amount of ideas that you can do,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: So limit what you do, and it kind of informs
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: what you do, right, like what you don't do informs
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: what you do absolutely, absolutely, And I think emotionally, it's
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: like the band really started those few years when we
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: met every Tuesday night for dinner, and our bond was
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: certainly solidified during that time, so the three of us
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: were a unit, and you know, to add another component
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: in there throws off the whole situation. Yeah, that's stuff. Plus,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: I mean, how do you arrange you know, how do
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: you arrange us on stage with four people? You know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: we got ded in the middle. You know, I'm on
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the left, Lordly it's on the right. That's a nice
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: power triangle, you know. But then you add a fourth person.
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: Where are you gonna put that person? If it was
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: the lead singer of obviously they would be in the front.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: But we don't have a lead singer. So where do
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: you put that fourth person? Do you put them behind me?
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: Put them behind lor Lee? You know. Now it's just unbalanced.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: So if you were going to add anybody, you have
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: to add two. So you have five on stage. You
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: still have that power, you know, that cemetry happening. That's
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: very it's this is very important. You know, I pay
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: attention to stuff. It doesn't look right if how early
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: did the did the stagecraft like come in the wigs
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: and the and the and the outfits and just sort
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: of the presence on stage day one, first show. We've
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: always we've always worn the stuff. We've always tried to have,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: you know, a look or a vibe on stage, you know,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: since day one that first show was like to me,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: compare it to like a bride getting ready because everything
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: was so important to me, you know, the hair and
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: the shoes and the outfit. I probably spent you know,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: my cash for weeks on that show because it could
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: have been my only show. But yeah, the wigs were important.
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: And nobody knew who we were in Houston. Mark had
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: been in so many bands in Houston. Every would have
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: everyone would have known who he was up there, and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: nobody knew who he was. We were like aliens. Yeah
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: we want We wanted to come fresh, you know. I
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: didn't want to have anybody like, oh, this coast before,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: you know, just leave that out the door, no expectation
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: for what they're about to see. And DJ, while it
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: had been super prevalent in the Houston like hip hop scene,
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: hadn't really played the like indie band hipster kind of situation.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: So we were all relatively unknown in that scene. Remember,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: while we were trying to like be kind of rocky,
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: you know, we would starting to like kind of like
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: adapt some of our tunes would be like louder and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: like more rock, you know, because the bands we were
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: playing with were like loud, you know, and we were quiet,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: like you know, that's part of what makes the KB
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: recording sounding like to do is because we're playing so quietly,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: but that doesn't really translate well when you're playing in
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: like a dingy you know, kind of like punk club
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: with like loud bands. So we played in the room now,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: we did then and we still do. I feel like
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: a lots made of like kind of the world influence
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: with you guys. Were you guys listening to a bunch
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: of world music and thinking we want to also bring
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: in some of these vibs. It was it just guys
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: listening to everything and things are just creeping in, whether
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: it's a Latin sound or tie. I could say this,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: I said, I've met Mark in two thousand and four.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Mark has always listened to music that wasn't in English.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I didn't understand it back then. I grew up listening
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to music that was in my own language. I can
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: understand the words, you know, and every now and then
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: there was an instrumental cut. But he had this, you know,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: entire library on his computer or you know, in his
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: iTunes that was just stuff that's not in English. I remember,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: like maybe early on he played some tie funk tune
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and it felt like James Brown I'm a huge James
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: Brown guy, like that sixties funk sound, and it was
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: it sounded like that, but you had just a tie vocalist,
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: you know, singing over the top of it. I'm like, wow,
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: this is cool. And I really started to connect how
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: you know, things from other parts of the world connected
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: with the music that was happening, you know, in the
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: US at the same time, and you know how it
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: was kind of you know, there was this cross talk. Yeah,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: Mark is a huge, huge influence, and you know what
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: Krumban is known to be like a world you know,
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: music inspired Ben. I mean, I would say it started
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: like from his music taste. Yeah, we also liked we
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: liked this like conversation that was happening between like the
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: East and the West, and that that time music was
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: influenced by, you know, by James Brown, by the Shadows,
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: by the Beatles, and then they play their version of it.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: And if we're then inspired by their take, the Eastern
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: take on Western music, then you know there's this cool
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: meta kind of saying that's happening. It's a game of
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: telephone man. Love that stuff. Cultural diffusion. Absolutely, that's what
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: I love about you guys. If you listen to a
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: lot of music from around the world. Like if you
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: listen to African music, you'll find a Cuban song that
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: sounds just like a like a West African song, and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: then you'll find out that also Fayla Coody was listening
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: to Cuban music. And then so there's always this meta
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: thing happening with all kinds of genres that you don't
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: really think about because you just think about it as
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: being like the blues, but then there's you know, like
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: an African version of blues or like a tie version
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: of blues, and you guys have one hundred percent and
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: just saying like we're going to be in conversation with
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: all of that at once, you know, yeah, I want
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: to want to make that conversation, Like I mean, lourally,
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: what's that style you were like obsessed with for a
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: second of balleros? Still there's like it's just these one
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: of those like Latin rhythms that just gets everywhere. It
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: was like it's basically the reggaetne of its day, you know. Right,
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: so you get like Mexican belerros, which are probably influenced
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: in a way by Spanish music, and then it makes
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: its way into like South America and the Caribbean, and
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: there's definitely Belros in Africa, and there's absolutely Bealerros and
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: a scene for Balro in Vietnam, like in Southeast Asia,
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: probably from records brought in from service people back in
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you know, the fifties and sixties. But I was I
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was gonna try to make a playlist or a mix
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: just of the song Subortam, because there's like one million
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: covers of it. So I was going to try to
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: do a mix just in that song standard yeah um,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: which is my grandma's favorite song, so I'm sure that
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: has something to do with the way I interpret it.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: But then found this whole Vietnamese pocket of the song,
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: wrote Mark, thinking that I was going to blow his mind.
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: But obviously, Mark, you already knew He's already he's already
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: plugged in. But dude, like we hear that stuff like
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: every time we go to a fun restaurant on tour,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: what do you hear totally even though we might not
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: make that connection at that moment, we're like, this is well,
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: this sound was like the sounds like the Shadows, with
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: like a kind of a sweet, like Latin kind of beat,
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: going on, you know, and that's kind of what it is. Yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: You know, there's this like kind of twanging guitar, there's
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: like a midi keyboard, there's just like person singing and
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: it's got that ballero rhythm underneath it, you know, and
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: it's it's so cool. Cool. That's that's that diffusion. Man.
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: We we sort of resented the fact that we got
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: called tai funk because we're not tai and we're definitely
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: not tai funk. And the bands that we were listening
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to that we're Tai funk, they weren't called American funk,
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: you know when they came out. It was called shadow
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: music because of the shadows. And that's a much cooler
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: way of like, I don't know, i'd be I love
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: to be a shadow band. Yeah, that's the coolest. And
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: like when you go back and listen to that first record,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, there's there's some tunes that are obviously
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: influenced by all the time music we were listening too,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: because we were definitely listening to a lot of it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But I don't know if I would call Mister White
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: a Tai funk song to me. I think we just
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: wanted to we always try to put a song on
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the record that sounds like roy Airs, because we love
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: roy Airs, you know, Little Joe and Mary specifically, I'm
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: trying to sound like like Franco, Like I want to
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: sound like one of those awesome really just really pretty
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: guitar you know, African like Western and Central African stuff,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Like I love that business man balls and pins. That's
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: just like classic psyche rock, you know. So it's like,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: I reject the notion of calling us a taie punk band.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I don't think that's fair to us or to tie
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: funk artists. There's little there's more to us than what's
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: going on with that. Like I want to play everything,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: you know, I want to figure out a way to
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: put it into what we do. We're listening to Mister White,
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: the roy Ayre's inspired track from Krungbin's debut album, The
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: Universe Smiles upon You. We'll be back with the band
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: after a break. Before we jump back into my interview
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: with Krungbin, let's hear a bit of the song first
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: Class from their latest release. Mordecai speaking of the Royer's vibe,
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: the first track on this new album, first Class kind
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: of captured that feeling to me a lot that's absolutely intentional, man, Like, yeah,
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: I was like, I want to I want to put it.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: It's so intentional, Like I wanted to play big Roy
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: Ayre's chords, you know, on guitar. That was the that
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: was the whole thing. There's a production thing about Roy
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: Ayer's too, and I don't I'm not savvy enough to
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: understand it. But there's a certain sound to his recordings
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: too that I feel like certain like space involved or
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: something that you guys have figured out, and I feel
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: like it's kind of pretty present and at least in
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: this new one. So when we do when we do vocals,
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: we all sing together at the same time, you know.
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: And I really liked that about roy air stuff. It
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: sounds like he's got everybody in the band kind of
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: sing it at the same time, not unlike you know,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: Santana from back in the sixties and seventies work the
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: whole band singing the same time in unison, Like no
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: one's trying to do any crazy harmonies, and it's just
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: like this is the melody, We're all going to sing
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: it together. War does that too. I was like, I
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: want to do that so that when we sing together.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: It sounds big and full, but none of us want
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: to be lead singers, you know, and if we got
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: a lead singer, well then it would pretty much be
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: about the lead singer, not about the band, and we
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: just wanted to be about the music. So that's why
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: we started doing it that way. And to me, psychoacoustically,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: if you hear a bunch of people singing a melody,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: you're gonna want to also sing this melody with this
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: bunch of people. It's like, hey, let's all sing this together.
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: And that was that's absolutely intentional. Is that kind of
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: like that way of bringing everyone into it. I hadn't
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: considered that, but you know, one hundred percent right. It
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: makes it one automatically, just some more communal vibe, like
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: like we're you know, like you guys are one unit
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: one and it makes it like the sing long. So
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it also makes like the person listening feel like they're involved,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: like you want to automatically jump in yea, even if
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: it's just doo doo doo na na whatever. Right, What
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: made you guys on the new record decide to throw more?
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I mean there's been some vocals on previous records, but
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: there's definitely more on this one. Was there the thought
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: that it might be fun to stretch out and do
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: some more of that or did just happened naturally while writing? Yeah,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: it happened naturally. I think it's a natural progression. I
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: mean when I think there was a big deal made
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: out out of it when we did a lot of
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: the press stuff this time around, as if we never
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: had vocals on one of our records before, which we
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: have since Album one. But yeah, it just it just
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: so happened as it was a path that we went down. Normally,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: we record everything in the barn, and once that part
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: of the procedure is done, we go back into the
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: studio and you see what you have. And sometimes you
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: go back and songs sound complete and they're finished and
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: they don't need anything outside of some you know, light
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: vocals for texture or you know, percussion, or we're bringing
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: you know, one of our friends to come and play
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: on something. But this time around, things needed vocals, and
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: thankfully Laura Lee had some you know, some stuff scribbled
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: down and some ideas to pull from, and I personally
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: think it came together beautifully. Laura was the scribbled stuff,
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: was that with a thought for using it for a
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: song or was it just no, just purely word vomit
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: journal style, you know writing. But I did feel a
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: burst of energy right before we went into the studio,
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: um when I wrote all this stuff and felt like
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: I had lived a life of adventures and stories and
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: they were worth writing down. So I did. So I
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: tried and it worked. No. I I mean, I think
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: you know, Mark sort of hinted at it earlier. But
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: one of the things with this record was that we
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: went into the studio with time booked and you know,
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: paying our engineer and time studio stuff. But it was
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: in between touring, heavy touring, and we didn't have any
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: time prior to going into the barn to write, so
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: we literally went in with nothing and it was hard.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: It's hard to just switch off tour and switch into
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: writing mode, you know. I know, like I've been starting
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: to write this week and I have to give myself
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: minimum four hours because it's going to take potentially two
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: hours just to get in the zone, so you know,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: minimum four hours. And this was like two weeks record
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: an album with nothing written. And if Steve Arn engineer
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: always says you finished an album because you run out
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: of time, or you run out of money, and you know,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: we ran out and we made an album, but we
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: spent the majority of our time on the record in post,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: and so the words and the lyrics were something we
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: could do in post, whereas the bass, guitar and drums
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: we record in the barn. And that's part of Krungbin ethos.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: So we had to stick to those rules and we
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: gave ourselves so the things we could add, you know,
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: one of them was words, and that's part of how
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: that development happened on this particular round. But we love
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: it and you know, like DJ DJ is mentioning that
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: it's been such a point of chat during the interviews
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: we've had, and it's so hilarious when you think about it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: It's like you're talking about lyrics most of the time
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: they're in songs. It's like it's like the big the
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: big deal is that Crungbin foot words on a song.
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: I don't know, It's it's just funny that like the
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: big Krungbin reveal is like, you know, time, if you
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: had more time, I loved the time You and me too? Man,
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: such a cool disco vibe on that or you know,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: like kind of like boogie vibe on it. Oh thank you.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: That comes I think from us, you know, being on
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: the road for so along and like we would take,
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: you know, whatever break we could. And one of our
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: favorite spots to go to m is a festival and
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: crow we should called Love International, and it's basically it's
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: just like a DJ fest, you know. But the kind
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: of music that's being played, at least at the you know,
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: party is that we would be going to is like
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: very kind of disco post disco boogie, extended break, kind
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: of like John Morales Larry Levan kind of vibe. And
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: it was like, oh, dude, man, I really want to
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: I'm sitting here like at Barbarella at like five am
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: in the morning, Man, I would like, I really would
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: love to have a song and the next record like
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: has like an extended disco break. That'd be awesome, you know.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: And that's so that's that's what we did. I really
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: wanted to have that going on. And at some point
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: during the recording of the vocals of that, we're like, dude,
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: why don't we just like put that's life in as
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: many different languages as we can during this like breakdown,
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: And so we started calling up all of our friends
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: from all over the world and like try to get
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you know, how how can we how can we say
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: this in the right way? Yeah, we knew that there
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: must be an equivalent of the expression that's life in
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: most languages. You know, we knew, stay Levy. We figured
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: if we knew that's life and say Levey, that there
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: must be more. And you know, we put out text messages,
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: you know, called everyone we knew that spoke different languages,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: were like, is there that's life? Sure enough? You know, yes?
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: And it looks are really cool and it's super percussive,
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: like you were saying, Lord, like I mean everything. I
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: love that it's short, short sentences. It's not like there's
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: not like Clausets hanging on from one meter to the next.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: It's just super a tight song and really cool. Yeah,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: I mean that the lyric writing for that song was
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: very much like an exercise and when in doubt, subtract. Yeah,
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: So the lyrics got simpler and simpler as you know,
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: time went on. I think the lyrics of that song
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: up ended up being prophetic. I mean, as soon as
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: we went into quarantine, like I was, you know, going
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: back listen listening to the lyrics and I'm like, this
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: is exactly what everyone's doing right now. Everyone has all
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: this time, and everyone's timing like children time and you know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: just live in life. That's time you and I from
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Krungbin's new album. We'll be back with DJ Laura and
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Mark after this break. Here's the rest of my conversation
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: with Krungben. You guys have really made a name for
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: yourselves as like a crazy good live band, and I
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: can attest you guys are really a great live I mean,
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: everyone is in this space at the moment, but I
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: think it might be nice for people to hear from
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: a band like you guys who do tour so consistently,
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: what it is like not being a the tour right now.
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: You know. Um, for us, it came at a good time, honestly,
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: because we've been hitting it hard, really really hard for
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: the last four years, and we just finished the record
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: and we were due to go right back out on
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: the road in April. We were supporting Taman Polla on
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: his run in Australia and New Zealand. So yeah, that
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: was like the first thing that got canceled when everything happened.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: I think the thing that I missed most is outside
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: of connecting with you know, people and our fans, is
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: just hanging out with my friends on the road. That's
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the thing that you you really realize you missed the
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: most because we spent the last four years just hanging
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: out together. I missed that. Yeah. I never thought i'd
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: long for a backstage sofa. I do you know some
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: wassas and avocados, Yeah, some cocoa water. I have that here.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: But it's different. Yeah, something different about drinking at tequila
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: soda that's been sitting on top of the ampast like
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: something real nostalgic about that. I feel like I'm trying
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: to just be where I am and not yearned too much,
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: because it can be a slippery slope when you get
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: into that headspace. But I think it's helpful that we're
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: not on the road whilst everyone is not on the road.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: You know, if if other people were touring and we
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: were sitting at home, I don't think it would last
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: very long as much as I you know, specifically, but
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: everyone I think needed a break from the road. Festivals
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: were happening right now, you know, it would be rough, yeah, right,
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I've gone back recently and watched some Crungben
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: live performances, and it's like, wow, that's a lot. It's
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: a lot to feel on a regular basis that we're
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: not feeling, you know. And it's great because we're feeling
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: other things. But what a rush? You know? Were you
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: getting the feeling watching the video? Oh yeah, I mean big,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I'm an emotional mess most of the time, but that
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: was it was pretty intense watching it. And it's awesome.
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: It's like, look what we did, you know? So cool? Yeah,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: we made something and we crafted it and I'm so
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: proud of it. So awesome, awesome project, awesome everything. Um,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: it's given me so much life and even for right
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: now it just being the record and it just being
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: shows that happened before. It's it's a beautiful thing to watch.
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: Does it Does it feel weird or bad or any
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: particular way to have just released a record and not
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: be able to sort of go play it for people
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: or promote it in the traditional sort of way by
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: going to play And this is awesome. I love being
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: able to chill at my house with Miguel and you know,
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: like make Italian food every night and do yoga in
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: the morning and go on hikes and not have to
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: like sound check and then go to a hotel for
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: like a cat nap and then go back and then
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: you know, I love touring, man, don't get me wrong,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: it's awesome. But dude, this is tight and we don't
• 26:36
  Speaker 1: have to support the record right now. We actually give
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: you know, the audience time to like digest it, so
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: when we do come out, they actually know the music.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: Like that's way better. Yeah, this is awesome. Yeah, I
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: mean it was something I definitely said a lot was
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: you know what the last record we put out, Well,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: we were kind of already on tour, but then we
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: put it out, and you're supposed to quote unquote play
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: songs from the new record, but nobody knows them yet,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: and you know, some of them, like Maria Tombien, it's
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: just it's a banger, so it's gonna be fun even
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: if you don't know it. But other songs you kind
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: of need to let simmer for a while before you
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: play them, so it will be fun coming back whenever
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: that is. But also I kind of needed more time
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: to practice singing and playing those basslines at the same time,
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: So thank you time. Did you were you considering when
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: you're laying the tracks down, you're thinking, well, we might
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: add words over this, or I don't know, maybe you
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: decided that in post or whatnot. Were you considering what
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: basslines you were playing so that you could think, like
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: can I can I pull this off a lot? You know,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: because it's that's a lot. It's a lot. To Mark's
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: smiling at me on zoom because every time this happens
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: in the studio, I'm like, you know what it's for
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: the record. Let's worry about the records outing good and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: when it's time to play live and we'll figure it out.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: And he's like, it's gonna be hard for you. You know,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: it's gonna be hard. We should think about this, and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: and me too, And I'm trying to make my job easy,
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: Like why do you think I got rid of all
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: those pedals and all those like laptop stuff. It's like, no,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: keep it simple, easy if there makes some music. But
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: you know, when you're in the studio, it's about the
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: integrity of the record. And I knew that even if
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: it was hard, it's just practice. Like it is just practice,
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: and you can make it happen. It might be painful
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: and long, but with enough practice you can tap your
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: head and rub your stomach at varying speeds at the
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: same time. It's true, are you getting it under your
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: fingers more? Now? You know? I've I've I took break
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: from playing period when Quarantine hit because I honestly I
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: assumed life would go back more quickly than it has.
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: But I was kind of like, this might be the
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: first and only time in a long time that I
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: do not have to play, and I'm just gonna take
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: a break and cook and you know, do some other things.
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: But I started playing again, and I definitely haven't been
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: playing Crumbin songs in a way. It just doesn't feel
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: like the right time yet. I don't know. I don't
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: know how to explain it. It's definitely like emotionally related,
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: but it's like, I know, I don't know when I'm
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: going to be playing those songs professionally and with my band,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: and so there's something a little bit like bitter sweet
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: about playing them on my own right now. So I
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: kind of feel like if I just play that, at
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: least I will have some things in my fingers and
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: when it's time to really grind and rehearse, then it'll
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: be that time. And you guys are Lord, you kind
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: of hinted at it earlier that you're writing stuff now,
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: you guys trying to write stuff just for fun? Or
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: are you guys actually trying to write something to write
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: something well, per like reflection of you know, this album
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and how you know there's always room for improvement even
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: if you make something you're super proud of. But the
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: one place we didn't have time on the record was
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: pre production, and right now we kind of have nothing.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: But time for pre production doesn't necessarily mean we will
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: be as productive as we are without it. But since
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: we have this time in theory, it would be nice
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: to begin to write some stuff so that when we
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: go into the studio next time, we actually have songs. Earlier,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: we were talking about how it's kind of not fair
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: for you guys to call yourselves a tie funk group
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: or something which you don't do. You guys, ever, worry
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: about any sort of cultural appropriation, criticism, or just feeling
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: like you're dipping too far into this thing or pulling
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: too much from this particular thing, and that it's going
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to come across as insensitive. But we're not trying to
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: be anything. We're not. It's like we are who we are,
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: we are from Houston, and we're representing what we know.
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: I think a lot of it goes back to the
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: thing I always used to hear like coming up in
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: church is that God looks at the heart. God knows
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: your heart. And I think the thing that people can
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: hear even when you hear a Krungben song or a
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Crungban record, you can hear the heart of the people
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: that are playing the music through the music. And I
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: think the people that really support us, people that know us.
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: You know, the people that love Krungben, they love the music,
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: but you can't love the music without loving, you know,
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: the heart of what it's coming from and the place
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: that it's coming from. So I mean, the people that
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: know us, they know our intentions and they know we
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: don't have any ill intentions or we're trying to be
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: something that we're not. You know, we've been saying it,
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: and it doesn't really matter how many times you say it.
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: We've said it a ton of times. But I mean
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: that stuff still comes up every now and then. But
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: the one thing that we used to get all the
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: time is like, how did you guys meet? Because no
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: one could really understand how three people that don't look
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: like each other could end up in the same band
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: making music together. And the one thing we'd always tell
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: them is, like, you know, this happens all the time
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: in Houston. Houston is you know, it's a multicultural city.
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: We all have friends from other cultures and other races
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: you know here, and it's a common it's a common thing.
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: You know, things blend anyone. It's never been in Houston
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, maybe you've been in La. It's just
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: so much. It really got the feel of LA when
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: I was in Houston, where it's just like there's so
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: much going on here culturally, you know, it's so diverse
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: and almost less segregated than LA. It feels like in
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: a way just from you know, I havn't been there
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: a few times, Like it feels like everyone's just sort
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: of on top of each other a bit more bro
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: we all hang out. We hang out here like everybody
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: hangs out with everybody here. Yeah, that's how we get down.
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: I love my band, I love Mark and DJ. Feel
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: very very lucky to have found them in my life
• 33:15
  Speaker 1: and for them to have agreed to be in my band.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: It's ultimately this music is meant to bring people together,
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: not to you know, pull people apart. It's not meant
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: to be divisive. You guys were, So there's kind of
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: this dual sort of thing happened in your band, where
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: you're sort of equal parts ambitious and sort of equal
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: parts sort of let things happen as they happen. There's
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: no part of you guys that feels a little insecure
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: right now, not being able to tour, not being able
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: to maybe do just in terms of keeping any momentum going,
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: or I feel like we're not supposed to be here anyway.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: So we if it all ended today and the momentum
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: all died, we had a great time. I mean like
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: we're the band that did everything wrong. Literally, I mean,
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: we picked a name that no one could pronounce, we
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: recorded in a barn, didn't use a click track, one
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: of them doesn't yeah, we don't have words, one of
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: the member doesn't wear a wig. It's like we did
• 34:14
  Speaker 1: it all wrong and somehow, you know, people heard what
• 34:20
  Speaker 1: we were doing and they gravitated to it, and we're
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: extremely grateful for it. And I'm of the mindset that
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: everything happens for a reason and there's always a plan,
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: and you just have to follow it and walk in it.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: And I think that's the biggest lesson that everyone learned
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: in twenty twenty so far. Halfway through it, you know,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: you all realize that we're not in control. Cool. Well,
• 34:47
  Speaker 1: thanks for doing this, guys, I really appreciate it. Thank you,
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having us. Thank you so much. Thanks to
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Lord Mark and DJ from Crumbin for getting together to
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: talk shop with me. Hopefully they'll be back together on
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: stage soon. You can hear all of our favorite Krongmen
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: songs on a playlist at Broken Record podcast dot com,
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: YouTube dot com slash broken Record Podcast. There you can
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: find extended cuts of our past episodes and also new ones.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: Broken Record is produced with help from Leah Rose, Jason Gambrell,
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and is executive produced by Mia
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: La Belle. A theme musics by Kenny Beats. Broken Record
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: is production of Pushkin Industries and if you like Broken Record,
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: please remember to share, rate, and review our show on
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: your podcast app. I'm justin Richmond, Peace,