Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / BROCKHAMPTON's Kevin Abstract

Transcript

BROCKHAMPTON's Kevin Abstract · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

0:15
Speaker 1: Pushkin. Before we get started, let's talk about Pushnick. Pushnick
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Speaker 1: Broken Record. You can try it for free for seven days.
0:47
Speaker 1: Sign up for Pushnick and Apple podcast subscriptions. I do
0:53
Speaker 1: this all you. Brockhampton's original members formed after posting on
0:59
Speaker 1: a Kanye West fan message board and started making music
1:03
Speaker 1: in the Woodlands, Texas, a pretty unassuming suburb of Houston.
1:08
Speaker 1: Since that time, they've turned the idea of a boy
1:11
Speaker 1: band on its head. With as many as fourteen members
1:15
Speaker 1: at times, Brockhampton's deconstructed the traditional pop star rap ethos
1:20
Speaker 1: by being unapologetically inclusive of racial and sexual identities and
1:24
Speaker 1: not letting any one sound define them. Today, Brockhampton's frontman
1:29
Speaker 1: Kevin Abstract, talks through the group's sixth and latest album, Roadrunner,
1:34
Speaker 1: New Light, New Machine, with Rick grouping in an effort
1:37
Speaker 1: to recapture the spontaneity of their early career. The group
1:41
Speaker 1: all crashed together at Kevin's house while recording their new album,
1:45
Speaker 1: We'll Hear Kevin talk about how the projects slowly evolved
1:48
Speaker 1: from a pop album to something darker and more rapp driven.
1:52
Speaker 1: Kevin also explains how supporting one of the group's members
1:55
Speaker 1: through losing their dad became the album's creative thrust, and
1:59
Speaker 1: talks about why their next album will probably be their last.
2:06
Speaker 1: This is broken record liner notes for the digit age.
2:09
Speaker 1: I'm justin Mitchman. Here's Rick Rubin with Brockhampton's Kevin Abstract.
2:20
Speaker 1: What's been going on since the Sunny Lads? The last
2:23
Speaker 1: time I saw you had like a super early version
2:25
Speaker 1: of the album, and then we just started working super
2:28
Speaker 1: hard on it right after. Even then, I remember you
2:31
Speaker 1: had already been working on it for the longest ever. Yeah,
2:35
Speaker 1: like two years, which is a very long time for us. Yeah,
2:37
Speaker 1: because usually it's like, who's been six months at most?
2:42
Speaker 1: Like that will be long for us. So two years
2:44
Speaker 1: was a lot. But you were so excited off of
2:46
Speaker 1: the like the more rap driven stuff. Yeah, so may
2:50
Speaker 1: it's just like going and make a bunch of rap stuff.
2:52
Speaker 1: It seemed like you had the same Like when we
2:53
Speaker 1: were listening to it together. I don't think I was
2:56
Speaker 1: alone in feeling that, Like I felt like I didn't
2:58
Speaker 1: know it seemed obvious. Yeah, I agree. It just felt right,
3:02
Speaker 1: just new for us really because the last album we
3:05
Speaker 1: put out, our biggest song was like an R and
3:06
Speaker 1: B song, So it was fun to do something that
3:09
Speaker 1: was like super left. It was more challenging too, in
3:13
Speaker 1: the group songs, how do the again, because there's so
3:17
Speaker 1: many voices, How did decisions get made? How does it
3:20
Speaker 1: end up being whatever it ends up being? Everyone shows
3:24
Speaker 1: their ideas, Yeah, how do you do it? Keep the
3:26
Speaker 1: mic on, and if anyone has something to say, you
3:29
Speaker 1: just record it and we'll record all the ideas, everyone's ideas.
3:32
Speaker 1: No one's like left out of that process. And then
3:36
Speaker 1: then basically me and Romel will just sit there and
3:38
Speaker 1: go through it and be like, oh, we think the
3:40
Speaker 1: song should be like this, Like this, like a thirty
3:44
Speaker 1: two bar verse you did might make sense if we
3:46
Speaker 1: chop it up and turn into a hook or something
3:48
Speaker 1: and then maybe rerecord it and then it feels more
3:50
Speaker 1: like a chorus or something, and it's kind of just
3:53
Speaker 1: like just pure expression. Fun letting everyone just do their
3:57
Speaker 1: thing whatever you gotta say, you know, and at that
4:00
Speaker 1: point in time, would the song have a shape yet
4:02
Speaker 1: or it would just be like a long track, a
4:04
Speaker 1: long track, maybe a loop. I love starting without loops,
4:07
Speaker 1: you know, just like a a vibe and then just
4:11
Speaker 1: throwing ideas at the wall freestyle and passing the mic
4:15
Speaker 1: around like just fun shit like that. And if you
4:18
Speaker 1: before editing it, if you were to listen to all
4:22
Speaker 1: of the ideas, might that be an hour of ideas
4:26
Speaker 1: or ten minutes of ideas? I think it depends on
4:29
Speaker 1: the energy of the room. Like if people are really
4:31
Speaker 1: inspired the day, it might be like hours. Yeah. Sometimes
4:35
Speaker 1: people will be freestyle and they nail their whole like
4:37
Speaker 1: idea within that freestyle within like thirty seconds or something.
4:41
Speaker 1: So it really just depends. It's an amazing ability the freestyle,
4:45
Speaker 1: Like to get the freestyle that feels like I wouldn't
4:48
Speaker 1: touch it right, and then it's incredible. When I was
4:51
Speaker 1: a kid, someone told me, one of my friends told
4:53
Speaker 1: me that Dre used to like let Snoop just freestyle
4:57
Speaker 1: and then Dre would just like cut up the best
5:00
Speaker 1: parts of the freestyle to make a verse. I don't
5:02
Speaker 1: know if that's true or not, but like I just
5:05
Speaker 1: held on to that for so long and applied it
5:07
Speaker 1: to just making with Rockhampton. It's pretty fun, really cool.
5:12
Speaker 1: Let's say you hear all the ideas and then you
5:15
Speaker 1: have a vision of what it's going to be and
5:17
Speaker 1: you edit it down. Might then someone come back around
5:22
Speaker 1: and say, Okay, based on what it is now, I
5:24
Speaker 1: have a new idea and I want to ed it in.
5:25
Speaker 1: So that happens sometimes, Yes, that happens all the time.
5:28
Speaker 1: And how often does the music change from the beginning,
5:32
Speaker 1: from the when the vocals first, when the vocal ideas
5:36
Speaker 1: first go on the track? How often does the music
5:39
Speaker 1: change after that? Almost every song? Really? Yeah, almost because
5:44
Speaker 1: it happens to me is like I'll like it when
5:47
Speaker 1: we're making it, but then like this feels kind of
5:49
Speaker 1: generic or feel stale. I think it's because I hear
5:52
Speaker 1: it for so long in the room on loop where
5:54
Speaker 1: everyone's writing, and I'll just be inspired to like take
5:57
Speaker 1: it to a completely different place, which sometimes doesn't make sense,
6:02
Speaker 1: and then we stick with the original. Yeah, so that's
6:04
Speaker 1: why I like, sometimes it stays there, but usually we
6:07
Speaker 1: always end up somewhere else. It probably has an interesting
6:11
Speaker 1: effect on the vocals too. When you write to one
6:15
Speaker 1: thing and then change the music, I imagine it could
6:22
Speaker 1: bring out something different in the vocals than was originally
6:24
Speaker 1: there always Yeah, and sometimes it sounds awful A little
6:28
Speaker 1: bit about like that too. Yeah, it could be it
6:30
Speaker 1: could It could really make sense in a in an
6:33
Speaker 1: awful way, cold interesting. Maybe we start listening. I'm really
6:36
Speaker 1: I'm anxious to kind of hear where it ended up.
6:44
Speaker 1: I ge my mom's though in the same house my
6:49
Speaker 1: dad died in all alone. Trying not to be paranoid,
6:55
Speaker 1: trying not as they're calling it. Every headline is a
7:00
Speaker 1: reminder that the world's fucked. So I'm just trying to
7:07
Speaker 1: see the light in between the clouds. Still love that
7:15
Speaker 1: sunshine of When I look at myself, I see a
7:22
Speaker 1: broken man rimmingtop my pots, put the glop to his head.
7:26
Speaker 1: Nothing ever go as planned. Couldn't make amends forcibly pretend.
7:30
Speaker 1: I don't give it. Damn at a loss, aimless, six
7:34
Speaker 1: feet deep, suffocating, can't face it, can't change it, ain't
7:39
Speaker 1: make it, master plans, father maker. I see no safor
7:42
Speaker 1: over reflection. It is sainless, still alcohol and pills, deadly combination,
7:46
Speaker 1: left with nothing else the middle of floral Haven. Hope
7:49
Speaker 1: it was painless. I see you in the faces places,
7:51
Speaker 1: and I make it. Reflections off the broken here, fragments
7:54
Speaker 1: of my fiends let ring back like who's there. I
7:57
Speaker 1: can't stand myself beside myself. I see you there, I
8:00
Speaker 1: know you care. Felt nothing since September when I heard
8:02
Speaker 1: the news. What I do to speak one last time?
8:05
Speaker 1: I think I always will be haunted by the women shumper,
8:08
Speaker 1: bloody backdrop, school, fragments in the ceiling, through your presence
8:11
Speaker 1: in the room her My mother is squilling, master up disguises,
8:14
Speaker 1: ask the ass dust to dust. Boys behind my eye,
8:16
Speaker 1: livest blacking out, bleading out, silence longer than it, twist tup,
8:20
Speaker 1: lying as thick as our secret, shadow, people and needles
8:23
Speaker 1: they can do with people. Then comes sorts to purgatory.
8:26
Speaker 1: I miss you for the record. I can fly around
8:39
Speaker 1: the world a sorry, lying something, sending something change and sexist.
8:51
Speaker 1: I guess I've missed a message. Look, I missed my exit.
8:54
Speaker 1: I'm living like the chests said. I was broken, desperate,
8:57
Speaker 1: leaning on my best friends, only shot college. I was
8:59
Speaker 1: around with bards, tended, ain't gonna loving his game in mind.
9:02
Speaker 1: This is na tennis. Take your shoes off. We just
9:05
Speaker 1: did the kurd pitson. I can take the hacking, I
9:08
Speaker 1: can take the praising. It's all enjoys to me. I'll
9:11
Speaker 1: turn them to say, y'all soogetting the matrix, rid meal,
9:14
Speaker 1: blue peel on these different faces, on these different cases.
9:18
Speaker 1: She gotta see me naked. So I'm aware when I
9:20
Speaker 1: went down and I ain't been a faking ain't gotta
9:23
Speaker 1: me the ain't got I see God. Last summer I
9:26
Speaker 1: was sitting on the bridge. I see all y'all under me.
9:29
Speaker 1: Know y'are struggle, lin It gets out here shugger ling
9:31
Speaker 1: who's in jobs? When who's in God? And everything is
9:33
Speaker 1: super link feel heaving, rubbing, legal raptures coming. I love
9:37
Speaker 1: the attention. I'm a bad sitting public. I'm still struggle
9:40
Speaker 1: with selling my mind who I'm in love with some
9:43
Speaker 1: those seas in between wadies, i'mons bleed. When Thanksgiving come around,
9:47
Speaker 1: I still don't see him. But Christmas go around there,
9:49
Speaker 1: y'all still don't see him from the world. Who I
9:52
Speaker 1: was before I got to know Eve. To give my
9:54
Speaker 1: people money in the shange for the freedom I would
9:57
Speaker 1: give me God back for a chance free him? Where
10:11
Speaker 1: did the sample at the beginning the talking sample come from.
10:15
Speaker 1: I was listening to two thousand and one by Dre
10:18
Speaker 1: like every day while working on this album, and I
10:23
Speaker 1: think it's the beginning of fuck You. There's like this us,
10:26
Speaker 1: this girl talking on the phone, and as though it
10:29
Speaker 1: would be cool to have let the audience know this
10:32
Speaker 1: is like where the journey starts, where the story starts,
10:34
Speaker 1: like really with the album. So I just called Joba.
10:38
Speaker 1: He's on the first verse, and the album's pretty much
10:41
Speaker 1: about him losing his father basically, and us being there
10:44
Speaker 1: to support him and like following him towards the light
10:49
Speaker 1: and him sometimes following us towards the light, like just
10:52
Speaker 1: this idea of brotherhood and all that kind of stuff.
10:55
Speaker 1: So I just called him and just put the phone
10:57
Speaker 1: next to the mic and like interview them and talk
10:59
Speaker 1: for like twenty minutes kind of, And then he sat
11:02
Speaker 1: with us and we picked the moment that kind of
11:05
Speaker 1: like summed up the song the best and then just
11:08
Speaker 1: made made so much sense. It's so cool and it
11:12
Speaker 1: just feels so personal and real, and he was getting
11:15
Speaker 1: very very honest in the call. It was feeling just
11:18
Speaker 1: walking around like you feel it, smoking, talking, opening up.
11:21
Speaker 1: It was very beautiful, very beautiful, and I love the music.
11:25
Speaker 1: It's so cool. Sounds like what was the inspiration do
11:28
Speaker 1: you know? For the for the music? The original song
11:30
Speaker 1: was like eight minutes long, and everybody was on everyone
11:33
Speaker 1: in the group, and it was it was very hard,
11:35
Speaker 1: but it was slow. And then there was this moment
11:37
Speaker 1: where where Job's verse, when I heard it, was like,
11:39
Speaker 1: it'd be cool if it just like if we got
11:42
Speaker 1: super like sixties like rockish and like a full on
11:45
Speaker 1: departure from what the original song was and originals like
11:48
Speaker 1: a kind of like nineties rap, but like modern drums
11:51
Speaker 1: on it, like mood wise, And we all ended up
11:54
Speaker 1: liking Job's verse over this like rock sample so much
11:57
Speaker 1: that we just ended up making the whole song be that.
12:00
Speaker 1: And then our friend Bared him and his brother like
12:03
Speaker 1: redid the sample in terms of mood. They made like
12:07
Speaker 1: a new version of it, and that ended up being
12:11
Speaker 1: that song. And that's that's my favorite on that too.
12:13
Speaker 1: It's so cool. It's so cool. So it reminds me
12:16
Speaker 1: like an Italian horror movie, you know, like sixties Italian
12:20
Speaker 1: horror movies. Dario Argento Mario Bava, those kind of movies
12:24
Speaker 1: like from another like from another time and from another place,
12:29
Speaker 1: but rock but from another place, you know, like if
12:33
Speaker 1: it has that international flavor, that's cool, it's really cool.
12:37
Speaker 1: We had retro futurism written out and we had that
12:40
Speaker 1: on the wall on the studio, and that's kind of
12:41
Speaker 1: like the idea. So like if you hear the album
12:43
Speaker 1: or like the videos, you don't really know what time
12:46
Speaker 1: period is from. It could be like supermodern, it could
12:48
Speaker 1: be assalgic, like a mix of it kind of wanted
12:50
Speaker 1: super cool and it sounds almost like retro sci fi like, look,
12:54
Speaker 1: that could be a sci fi music from a seventies
12:57
Speaker 1: sci fi movie. Yeah, that's also the other thing we're chasing.
13:01
Speaker 1: Cool that you hear that. Yeah, if you feel it,
13:03
Speaker 1: it's great. Shoot the next one, a million metal piece,
13:09
Speaker 1: all that up to nothing, lady, swim with it, my
13:14
Speaker 1: bast shie, something like a salabration. We'll see a gage.
13:26
Speaker 1: We'll see a gage. I know, my sweet, I could
13:32
Speaker 1: see this house and I if I can swallow my
13:35
Speaker 1: pride with you and me when you roll and it's
13:37
Speaker 1: easy to just skip it flipping out and you girl,
13:40
Speaker 1: maybe I wouldn't be so pissed when you came for
13:42
Speaker 1: my group, getting the only kitchen table. Make sure everyone
13:46
Speaker 1: know I made my Sunday mornings feel like Friday nights.
13:49
Speaker 1: I'll be like booming my house and any Friday lights,
13:52
Speaker 1: ready to pounce on any pussy. Ain't spitch, come for
13:55
Speaker 1: my life. I'm kind of ballad day. I'm trying of
13:58
Speaker 1: wondering what the funk I gotta notice seeing you you
14:00
Speaker 1: ain't any ship for years. I can't be and see you.
14:03
Speaker 1: How to speech with saying come on my hands. I
14:06
Speaker 1: brave everything I say't be getting enough. You feel pieces
14:11
Speaker 1: fall out to nothing, swim within my best sheets. It's
14:18
Speaker 1: something like a celebration. Let's see engaging. We'll see engaging.
14:33
Speaker 1: I stay running from something I can't see, true colors,
14:38
Speaker 1: blinding fuck away from me, going in for something I
14:41
Speaker 1: don't need. I leave to lives find me. Who's to blame?
14:47
Speaker 1: Who's to say? I leave, forced to change, forced to
14:50
Speaker 1: face my seat break, a big breaking in timely but
14:56
Speaker 1: on my home. But I've been feeling a lot. I
14:59
Speaker 1: gotta go. Don't ask why watch the dollar nose and
15:03
Speaker 1: the dun fly either way goals scribbled out of line
15:07
Speaker 1: get on the shots pieces my best sheets, so we
15:24
Speaker 1: see so cool. Thanks great, That's one of my favorites.
15:41
Speaker 1: It's really unlike everything else, but it still fits in
15:44
Speaker 1: as beautiful. I love it. I think it was just
15:46
Speaker 1: it was a loop. I think like Romel had a
15:49
Speaker 1: plan and Joe was just there on the mic and
15:52
Speaker 1: like he showed me as his verse in the hook
15:54
Speaker 1: and I don't think he knew what it was yet. Dude,
15:56
Speaker 1: already have all the guitars on it now. All the
15:58
Speaker 1: guitars were just like it was a I don't even
16:01
Speaker 1: know if what was playing like stayed on the track
16:04
Speaker 1: because we redid a lot of the guitars and stuff.
16:06
Speaker 1: But it had a rock feel like this not even
16:09
Speaker 1: it was very like indie bedroom Phil. Yeah, you know,
16:13
Speaker 1: like there was like a drum break and uh and
16:17
Speaker 1: like a lead guitar and I think we're all just
16:18
Speaker 1: like writing so that it was moodier. It was closer
16:21
Speaker 1: to like the how the song kind of starts. It's
16:23
Speaker 1: so cool, and also the songwriting styles really different, Like
16:27
Speaker 1: it's not rapping, it's not pop, you know, it's like
16:29
Speaker 1: it's just a whole different more rock really, but it
16:33
Speaker 1: fits that's like just what I want to hear from us.
16:36
Speaker 1: It works. Thanks. We'll be right back with more from
16:39
Speaker 1: Kevin Abstract and Rick Rubin. After a quick break, we're
16:44
Speaker 1: back with more Rick Rubin's conversation with Kevin Abstract. But first,
16:49
Speaker 1: here's their new song when Eyeball from Roadrunner, New Light,
16:53
Speaker 1: New Machine. My mama said, I did ain't coming to
16:59
Speaker 1: the square. I would see us. It's that I'm welcome.
17:01
Speaker 1: How I open eyes and open a few things that
17:05
Speaker 1: couldn't be repaired. We saw shut up fair. Some things
17:10
Speaker 1: you don't get to the side of just the face
17:11
Speaker 1: you share. I used to try to hold the weight
17:14
Speaker 1: that she would need to bed. Why shaw was going on?
17:16
Speaker 1: They came for a couple of years. When they came
17:19
Speaker 1: back and needed the clothes, I had no souvenese. I
17:21
Speaker 1: pick up the phone. They're calling us from correction. But
17:24
Speaker 1: nothing is wrong. It's feeling my heart with questions. My
17:27
Speaker 1: mama saw them following my heart expressions, the dropping a tongue.
17:30
Speaker 1: Some things that she had to mess you. I nodded,
17:33
Speaker 1: I listened. She had at leamya sent where you want
17:36
Speaker 1: your own It's gonna be some directionous I need you
17:39
Speaker 1: to follow, will never again exception. I nodded. She helped
17:42
Speaker 1: me and wished I would be protective. I can be
17:49
Speaker 1: anything I want, always used to. I can be on
18:07
Speaker 1: my sucker friendship. Since I was a feitis pulling up
18:11
Speaker 1: at the dock in the minds to six or six
18:13
Speaker 1: and my dad was tripping back in against her contacts.
18:16
Speaker 1: Light blue in the bag, mamma getting labor paint drop.
18:19
Speaker 1: My sister in the bows like house was twenty three
18:22
Speaker 1: sweat tripping down the Faceide river, running free don moning
18:25
Speaker 1: with the farm pointing in and out the trees every
18:28
Speaker 1: moment through their eyes seeming zoom at lightspeed. Before me,
18:31
Speaker 1: she lost was still on tragedy, gritting the teeth down
18:34
Speaker 1: to the roof, paint like a cavity, poning hands like
18:37
Speaker 1: the glue. Radio Channel one news Valentine's with an ex
18:41
Speaker 1: up on the calendar. They n I would be a
18:43
Speaker 1: fucking bullet, lightning posters on the wall, A little stain
18:47
Speaker 1: could be the beauty in it all. The midstarted trouble.
18:50
Speaker 1: Most get luck was rubbing noll, sticking to your light mass.
18:53
Speaker 1: You might kate, you might bra for hever. Sound strings
19:28
Speaker 1: are so cool, really cool, that one's different too, because
19:32
Speaker 1: the beat was just sent to us. It's Chad hugo,
19:35
Speaker 1: wow really, oh this is this is cool and we
19:38
Speaker 1: killed it. I love it. It's so good. We had
19:40
Speaker 1: lyrics for we had the lyrics already for the verses
19:44
Speaker 1: for another song that we couldn't finish, and then Dom
19:47
Speaker 1: had the idea of just putting this verse on that track.
19:49
Speaker 1: And did it come in with all of it like
19:51
Speaker 1: all like that? Yeah? I think the only thing. Uh.
19:54
Speaker 1: I think Baird did some additional like drum programming on it,
19:57
Speaker 1: and then I think Chad wanted to like add some
20:00
Speaker 1: strings at the end, like live strings, but we ended
20:04
Speaker 1: up liking the program strings more. It's so good. It's
20:08
Speaker 1: cool because like it feels like it comes in hard
20:13
Speaker 1: hip hop. Yeah, but as soon as you hear the
20:15
Speaker 1: chord changes, it's got this like wistful energy, completely different
20:19
Speaker 1: and the two together makes it really new. So good,
20:23
Speaker 1: so good, and the strings are great. Love it. Good work. Chat.
20:28
Speaker 1: When you first heard the track, did you know that
20:30
Speaker 1: you want to do something with it? I think it
20:32
Speaker 1: scared me at first a little bit because it I'm
20:34
Speaker 1: just so used to our sound. Yeah, you know, so
20:36
Speaker 1: hearing something that is out of our world a little bit.
20:39
Speaker 1: There's some fear there, and then once I realized I
20:42
Speaker 1: was scared of I kind of like just leaned into it,
20:43
Speaker 1: and this will actually be kind of cool on the album.
20:45
Speaker 1: It's great and it sounds really good coming after what
20:48
Speaker 1: it came after. It really works in the sequence. It's
20:51
Speaker 1: good man, beautiful song. Thanks. How the lyrics typically come
20:55
Speaker 1: to you, I guess I usually follow the sound of
20:59
Speaker 1: the track, and like whatever emotion the track pulls out
21:03
Speaker 1: of me, I'll kind of like lean into that and
21:06
Speaker 1: follow that. Will you start with cadence before you start
21:09
Speaker 1: thinking about words? Usually always cadence or melody. On this album,
21:15
Speaker 1: I was thinking about the words first. Actually just again
21:18
Speaker 1: just trying something different, saying where I would land? You know,
21:21
Speaker 1: would you write lyrics independently of writing to the track,
21:24
Speaker 1: Like would you just write if you hear a phrase
21:26
Speaker 1: or if you come up with a phrase, would you
21:28
Speaker 1: have a note of I think I would hear like
21:31
Speaker 1: we'd all be in the room together, the track would
21:33
Speaker 1: be planned, and I would like just leave the room
21:36
Speaker 1: and walk around the house or the neighborhood or something
21:38
Speaker 1: and just like think of lines that felt true to
21:41
Speaker 1: the emotion that the track pulled out of me, you know,
21:45
Speaker 1: and that and I wasn't thinking about cadence though. I
21:47
Speaker 1: was just thinking about like what do I want to
21:48
Speaker 1: say and what does a song need me to say?
21:50
Speaker 1: You know? And am I even needed on the song
21:53
Speaker 1: that kind of thing? Which would be helpful though, because
21:55
Speaker 1: then once I had a better idea of what I
21:57
Speaker 1: was trying to say, I could go in and listen
21:59
Speaker 1: to the other verses from the guys and give a
22:03
Speaker 1: more like useful critique, constructive. It wasn't so like do
22:07
Speaker 1: I like it or not? Different, different approach for me.
22:10
Speaker 1: And it starts with you writing, how do you decide
22:13
Speaker 1: whether it fits into the Brockhampton world, whether it fits
22:18
Speaker 1: into Kevin abstract solo. I think it's an emotion thing
22:21
Speaker 1: as well, like emotionally, if it feels like so true
22:25
Speaker 1: to me and something like like more personal, more personal,
22:28
Speaker 1: more vulnerable, I might want to save it for my
22:32
Speaker 1: own thing. Makes sense. Personal statement, Yeah, that's what your
22:37
Speaker 1: album is, makes sense? Yeah, But sometimes I like being
22:40
Speaker 1: super personal in the group stuff too, because I feel
22:43
Speaker 1: like the guys like protect me in the way, you know,
22:45
Speaker 1: and like having them like stand next to me makes
22:48
Speaker 1: me feel a little bit more comfortable with saying something
22:51
Speaker 1: that I might not be comfortable with saying on like
22:53
Speaker 1: a on my own song or something interesting. So in general,
22:58
Speaker 1: on this album, the lyrics always started based on the music.
23:03
Speaker 1: Like you'd hear the music, you'd find the emotion in it,
23:07
Speaker 1: and then you think about what you want to say
23:08
Speaker 1: and then it would build from there. There's some songs
23:11
Speaker 1: where it was like, I want to make a song
23:13
Speaker 1: where like I where there's like aggression, and we didn't
23:18
Speaker 1: have the track yet, so it was just listening to
23:19
Speaker 1: a bunch of music and then you find that one
23:21
Speaker 1: sample it's like, oh, that's it, you know, and then
23:23
Speaker 1: I can go and write my rap based off that
23:24
Speaker 1: I see. It would always be the energy. It would
23:27
Speaker 1: never be like the words or the or the phrasing
23:30
Speaker 1: that you would have in advance. It would be more
23:32
Speaker 1: like the emotion. The emotion, and then you would find
23:36
Speaker 1: music that captures that emotion and then write to that exactly.
23:40
Speaker 1: It's interesting to talk about because there's no right way
23:42
Speaker 1: to do it. Everyone finds their way in and sometimes
23:45
Speaker 1: when we're listening to music, knowing what the artist was
23:48
Speaker 1: thinking or what the process is just gives more like
23:52
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it changes the listening experience, but just
23:54
Speaker 1: maybe can deepen it. Yeah, my first goal is to
23:58
Speaker 1: make a pop record like just like big pop songs,
24:02
Speaker 1: super melodic, fun and just like summertime, because I feel
24:05
Speaker 1: like the last one was pretty sad. And then as
24:09
Speaker 1: a year went on and got all crazy, like I
24:12
Speaker 1: just felt like I want to do something I felt
24:14
Speaker 1: that represented life more. So it just became like a darker,
24:18
Speaker 1: more like rap focus album. And I was listening to
24:20
Speaker 1: like a lot of Dre and BC Boys and stuff
24:23
Speaker 1: like that, and I was like, this could be like
24:24
Speaker 1: way more fun, way more interesting, more challenging. I remember
24:28
Speaker 1: when we talked about early we had a conversation when
24:31
Speaker 1: we were asking about about if you made a pop record,
24:34
Speaker 1: how could you make it where it's interesting and challenging,
24:37
Speaker 1: And we talked about I remember the conversation, yeah exactly,
24:41
Speaker 1: that it'll be fun whenever you get to crack that code,
24:43
Speaker 1: that will be another great thing. Whenever that happens. I
24:47
Speaker 1: kind of want to do that for the next one.
24:48
Speaker 1: Was Yeah, the next one is supposed to be our
24:51
Speaker 1: last one. Tell me about that. I don't know. I
24:53
Speaker 1: think it's like I don't want to overdo anything, and
24:57
Speaker 1: I don't want to end the group, but I want
24:59
Speaker 1: to like just stop putting out albums as a group
25:00
Speaker 1: and then let everyone just go off and do their
25:02
Speaker 1: own thing and maybe in a few years we come
25:05
Speaker 1: back if like we're inspired too. So it's not a breakup.
25:08
Speaker 1: It's more just let's not do this for a while. Yeah,
25:12
Speaker 1: or maybe let's not do this ever again. Yeah, we'll
25:14
Speaker 1: see no future plans, right, how's the general consensus feeling
25:19
Speaker 1: about that? Are people excited about it? Are afraid? I
25:22
Speaker 1: think people are excited to get out and just like
25:24
Speaker 1: do their own thing because the group can be restricting
25:27
Speaker 1: in that way creatively because it all has to like
25:30
Speaker 1: filter it through me or Romell. So I feel like
25:33
Speaker 1: creatively some people are like held back at times. They
25:35
Speaker 1: might want to like do this super like trap focus song,
25:38
Speaker 1: and it doesn't make sense for the current aesthetic or
25:41
Speaker 1: the album or something you know so or a super
25:43
Speaker 1: pop song or whatever you know, So it'd be cool
25:46
Speaker 1: to like just see where everyone goes. Is everyone's still
25:49
Speaker 1: living together or no, not anymore for this album though,
25:51
Speaker 1: we did it at my house, so it's cool. We
25:54
Speaker 1: all were like under the same roof, air, mattresses and
25:58
Speaker 1: all that stuff. How would you say that the group
26:01
Speaker 1: has changed over time, like from the early days to now.
26:05
Speaker 1: How would you describe the differences. It's not a good
26:08
Speaker 1: thing to say, but oh it's say it's less fun
26:10
Speaker 1: making music, for sure, you think because it's less new.
26:15
Speaker 1: I think so. I think it's like, sorry, we're getting
26:18
Speaker 1: together to make an album. But before it was like, oh,
26:20
Speaker 1: let's make album. It's gonna be crazy, like what's gonna happen?
26:23
Speaker 1: You know? Yeah? Why else might it be? Yeah? I
26:26
Speaker 1: guess it's just not that fun sometimes when it's like
26:30
Speaker 1: making an album because you know you have to make it,
26:32
Speaker 1: isn't like it just doesn't feel the same. You know,
26:36
Speaker 1: you don't have to make it if you don't want
26:38
Speaker 1: to know, I know, which is why it's like this
26:42
Speaker 1: should be the last one for a while. Would you say, creatively,
26:46
Speaker 1: anyone's grown apart or no, it's just it's just we've
26:50
Speaker 1: done this creatively. I don't. I don't think. Uh, maybe
26:52
Speaker 1: a little bit, but not in the like, not in
26:54
Speaker 1: a negative way. I feel like in general people are
26:57
Speaker 1: just growing apart, like just getting older. It's not the
27:00
Speaker 1: same because we don't live together and we're not like
27:02
Speaker 1: always hanging out and talking like the way we used to.
27:05
Speaker 1: So definitely feels different as a hard thing to navigate
27:09
Speaker 1: because we want to keep doing it. It's just like
27:12
Speaker 1: not as exciting. Yeah, but the end result always makes
27:16
Speaker 1: us very excited. Like once we get through and when
27:18
Speaker 1: we listen back, it's like, wow, this is it's amazing,
27:21
Speaker 1: this is fun. It's a lot of work. Yeah, it's
27:24
Speaker 1: a lot of work. And I can see how that,
27:27
Speaker 1: like the more you do it, the less fun it
27:29
Speaker 1: could get, makes sense, especially with so many people. Yeah,
27:33
Speaker 1: you know, and I want to make everyone happy, want
27:35
Speaker 1: everyone to like the final sequence, to like the artwork everything,
27:40
Speaker 1: so and he just gets like draining. Sometimes it does
27:43
Speaker 1: seem like if everyone likes it, it's probably better, you
27:46
Speaker 1: know what I mean, Like if if if it passes
27:48
Speaker 1: the test of everybody in the group, if we're all
27:50
Speaker 1: excited and yes, it kind of makes it bulletproof in
27:52
Speaker 1: a way, yeah, you know, and then we could all
27:54
Speaker 1: be you know, confident with it when we have to
27:56
Speaker 1: go promoted and talk about it, and then if people
27:58
Speaker 1: don't like it, at least we know that we love
28:00
Speaker 1: it absolutely absolutely, it'd be a fun thing to think
28:04
Speaker 1: about if and when you decide to do more. How
28:07
Speaker 1: could you set it up? Wait, doesn't feel like you're
28:11
Speaker 1: just doing another one, you know what? It really feels
28:14
Speaker 1: like this is some crazy like you set up the
28:17
Speaker 1: situation to be a crazy situation that you're excited about.
28:23
Speaker 1: Could be like doing it and you know in a
28:24
Speaker 1: country where maybe nobody speaks English or like you know
28:27
Speaker 1: some some introducing some foreign element just make it feel
28:33
Speaker 1: new again. Yeah, yeah, it could be interesting. No, that'd
28:36
Speaker 1: be great. It feels like the headspace really plays into
28:43
Speaker 1: both if it's fun and how good it is. Yeah,
28:46
Speaker 1: this was hard to make because we wanted it to
28:48
Speaker 1: feel focus and not just like cool vibe songs like
28:53
Speaker 1: we normally do. Like it's like say whatever you want
28:55
Speaker 1: and we'll move on. Yeah, really like taking time to
28:59
Speaker 1: just get the words right, get the messaging right, and
29:02
Speaker 1: like understand what we were trying to say before even
29:06
Speaker 1: saying it, before writing the song. So I think that
29:08
Speaker 1: was like we had to like step it up as writers,
29:11
Speaker 1: you know, and really like push each other to say
29:15
Speaker 1: new things. You know. Yeah, because I feel like with
29:19
Speaker 1: a lot of the brockhanda songs. At this point, I've
29:21
Speaker 1: kind of said like the same things in so many
29:25
Speaker 1: different ways. It's like calculide, make it feel new, Like
29:28
Speaker 1: you're saying, thinking another thing you can try next time.
29:32
Speaker 1: That would be different, really different, especially because this one
29:35
Speaker 1: took the longest. Would be to impose a really tight schedule,
29:40
Speaker 1: like saying, you know, we're going to be somewhere altogether
29:44
Speaker 1: for I don't know a month, and in that month
29:49
Speaker 1: we gotta start to finish. It's got to happen in
29:52
Speaker 1: a month, and everybody come prepared, like you know, like
29:56
Speaker 1: come with any any any starting points, but don't share them,
30:01
Speaker 1: you know, until we get like it all starts the
30:04
Speaker 1: day we walk in and that's cool. Yeah, it's like again,
30:06
Speaker 1: it will make it fun because it's not just this
30:08
Speaker 1: end this process and could be sort of an antidote
30:12
Speaker 1: to the last one of just like this is the
30:15
Speaker 1: it's on and it's and then it's over. So enjoy it,
30:19
Speaker 1: you know, enjoy this little window because it's that's cool.
30:22
Speaker 1: It could be fun. That's an exciting idea. Yeah, it's
30:24
Speaker 1: like again, it's like that any opportunities to find a
30:29
Speaker 1: way to set up the situation to where it's a
30:33
Speaker 1: new challenge. You know, it's a new makes it fun.
30:36
Speaker 1: I like that. We're going to take a quick break
30:39
Speaker 1: and then we'll be back with more from Kevin Abstract.
30:45
Speaker 1: We're back with the rest of Rick Rubin's conversation with
30:48
Speaker 1: Kevin Abstract. Here's their new song, Don't Shoot Up the Party.
30:53
Speaker 1: All remember Ken's selftra runs deep, White boys all I
30:56
Speaker 1: see whenever I sleep, niggas think. I think these thoughts
30:59
Speaker 1: on purpose. But I knew about Hand's sake folk cast
31:02
Speaker 1: of room me Calini's minds by masters and slaves. They
31:05
Speaker 1: both hate niggas and like nikkas the same homophone. I
31:09
Speaker 1: tried the gang bang. I tried to get laid. I
31:12
Speaker 1: had to get paid, hopped off the ship. I landed
31:14
Speaker 1: on my feet in corpusmen. See, I got my own
31:17
Speaker 1: street running this shit like as that tracked me. I
31:20
Speaker 1: had to go back home. I see too many niggas out.
31:22
Speaker 1: I get my dogs black well, let them live well
31:25
Speaker 1: whenever Evercore we drink the money story to tell you
31:28
Speaker 1: went out soon. Then to the new plastic, new machine.
31:31
Speaker 1: Keep the peace, keep him dancing. Don't shoot up the party.
31:35
Speaker 1: Don't shoot up the party, please, please, don't shoot up
31:39
Speaker 1: the party. Don't shoot up the party. Please, don't get
31:44
Speaker 1: up the party. Don't shoot up my party. Please please, please, please,
31:50
Speaker 1: please please. It's a damn for you wins and wove
31:55
Speaker 1: for the people in the back standing on the tippy toes.
31:58
Speaker 1: Don't give it. Damn with the journalese. Root always didn't
32:01
Speaker 1: sad like the in the catacombs, on the crowd, like
32:04
Speaker 1: a line in the storm, watching for the prey that
32:06
Speaker 1: might split his stroke. It's about to time that I
32:09
Speaker 1: let your ass go. Y'all deserved getting a team even more.
32:13
Speaker 1: Kiss my eyes, shoot my boss like it's mental cooke
32:16
Speaker 1: fu class, get cashed by the truck loads. Ladies down
32:19
Speaker 1: with my dogs with the city cloone went for a
32:21
Speaker 1: hell of a ride. This is a good time. No,
32:25
Speaker 1: I'm damn rode every single by the little bit. Why
32:28
Speaker 1: fucking by now met it all? Now thendicate this to
32:31
Speaker 1: my family in Chicago. Stay down, I'm sorry, Stay down early.
32:38
Speaker 1: People need more of the morney. It's white people don't
32:41
Speaker 1: love me. Oh, stay down, I'm sorry, Stay down. Oh
32:48
Speaker 1: I don't need you to love me. Fun you go
32:51
Speaker 1: for me. Don't shoot out the body, don't shoot out
32:56
Speaker 1: the party, PA, Please don't shoot out the body. Don't
33:00
Speaker 1: shoot down the party. Pass Please, don't shoot out the party.
33:05
Speaker 1: Don't shoot up my party, please? Please? What's the issue?
33:15
Speaker 1: Why you gotta grab that bistol? Think about huco miss?
33:20
Speaker 1: You never know what I've been through? What's the issue?
33:25
Speaker 1: Why you gotta grab that bistol? Think about huco miss?
33:30
Speaker 1: You never know what they might do. Don't shoot up
33:34
Speaker 1: the party, don't shoot up the That's gonna be incredible live. Yeah,
33:59
Speaker 1: I can't wait. That's gonna be fun, crazy party track.
34:02
Speaker 1: How that one happened? Just jamming? Yeah, everyone's jamming and
34:05
Speaker 1: I grabbed the micro's freestyling like just trying new things. Yeah,
34:10
Speaker 1: And it went on for like like forty five minutes
34:13
Speaker 1: to an hour, so cool. And then we just started
34:16
Speaker 1: editing it kind of like, oh, this part could be
34:18
Speaker 1: the hook don't don't shoot the party part. I think
34:20
Speaker 1: we spent the rest of the night, like everyone just
34:21
Speaker 1: writing their verses. I was afraid of it at first.
34:24
Speaker 1: I felt like it was like kind of cheesy, and
34:28
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, it's not hard enough. I love
34:30
Speaker 1: it so much now though, it's so good. It's so
34:32
Speaker 1: good in that It's like what it's talking about is
34:36
Speaker 1: clearly serious and hard, and the music is just this party. Yeah,
34:42
Speaker 1: and that that juxtaposition is so cool. I think it
34:46
Speaker 1: wasn't fully there. Yeah at first when I when I
34:48
Speaker 1: was hating on it sonically, it just wasn't fully realized.
34:50
Speaker 1: And I think once we kept pushing it towards the
34:54
Speaker 1: party thing, like you're saying, then it started to like
34:55
Speaker 1: make all of us love it way more. Yeah, It's
34:58
Speaker 1: it's just cool. The contrast between what it's talking about
35:01
Speaker 1: and the feeling of the music. It's really cool. Yeah.
35:03
Speaker 1: I love that. Ye, Lord, you come down and help
35:21
Speaker 1: my brother? Oh so please, Lord, he needs you are
35:36
Speaker 1: Oh oh't you let him now that he's sad? So
35:54
Speaker 1: when you love shine ster like the line let him
36:02
Speaker 1: know you on into fine, I go down so godless
36:11
Speaker 1: you with your life that time shine to the light. Oho,
36:26
Speaker 1: holding in your life, holding in your life, shooting so
36:38
Speaker 1: shine to light, you know, shoes w so fine? We bye?
36:56
Speaker 1: She I love that. How did it happened? I was
37:05
Speaker 1: looking for like interludes and stuff like that for the
37:08
Speaker 1: album and ask and I was like, could you go
37:10
Speaker 1: and make like a bunch of interludes and he said
37:12
Speaker 1: he had this poem that he wrote after he found
37:16
Speaker 1: out the news about Russell's dad, and he just took
37:19
Speaker 1: the poem and turned it into a song with him
37:21
Speaker 1: and his friends Ryan and Nick, they like all put
37:24
Speaker 1: it together and he played it force like wow, this
37:26
Speaker 1: is perfect, really beautiful and feels like it adds a
37:30
Speaker 1: whole other dimension to the album. That's really good. Thanks. Yeah,
37:35
Speaker 1: I think it helps keep pushing the message, you know,
37:38
Speaker 1: from when you first hear that the phone call at
37:41
Speaker 1: the beginning of the album, Like just keep kind of
37:43
Speaker 1: going back to that and then having these moments around
37:46
Speaker 1: it that like help highlight the band and Russell and
37:49
Speaker 1: all that stuff. So good. Also the first devotional rock Campton.
37:54
Speaker 1: So yeah, yeah, are there any touring plants coming up?
37:59
Speaker 1: I think we're going to Europe hopefully beginning of next year.
38:04
Speaker 1: Hopefully we get in the studio this summer and make
38:07
Speaker 1: the other album. Yeah, let's think about your idea, Yeah,
38:12
Speaker 1: just to switch it up and we'll bring a different energy,
38:15
Speaker 1: like a different focused energy when you know it's like
38:18
Speaker 1: this is not yeah, it's a good could be a good,
38:21
Speaker 1: healthy experiment. You think a month is enough time? Would
38:24
Speaker 1: you say? I don't know. It depends on you. Like
38:26
Speaker 1: I know, the Beatles made their first five albums all
38:29
Speaker 1: five within one month, so so it's doable. It's like,
38:34
Speaker 1: just depends how different your your rhythm is. It would
38:38
Speaker 1: be good to come up with something both realistic and
38:43
Speaker 1: really challenging when deciding on whatever that number is. You know,
38:46
Speaker 1: like it has to feel like you're in a hurry
38:49
Speaker 1: from the first day. Yeah, because that it'll just make
38:52
Speaker 1: it different, that'll change the whole experience. That's cool. I
38:56
Speaker 1: love that. I love that. Yeah, that's gonna tell me
39:00
Speaker 1: about it. It's definitely my favorite album we've made. I
39:03
Speaker 1: found myself like actually listening to it and enjoying it
39:06
Speaker 1: so super proud in this conversation makes me want to
39:10
Speaker 1: do the next one. Oh great, Yeah, that's really positive. No,
39:13
Speaker 1: it's super amazing for real. Thanks to Kevin Abstract for
39:20
Speaker 1: talking through the making of Brockhampton's latest album with Rick
39:24
Speaker 1: to Hear, Roadrunner, New Light, New Machine, and our favorite
39:27
Speaker 1: Brockhampton tracks. Head to Broken Record podcast dot com. Be
39:31
Speaker 1: sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube dot
39:33
Speaker 1: com slash Broken Record Podcast, where you can find all
39:37
Speaker 1: of our new episodes and you can follow us on
39:39
Speaker 1: Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record is produced with helpful
39:43
Speaker 1: Leah Rose, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler, and Jennifer Sanchez,
39:49
Speaker 1: with engineering help from Nick Chafee. Our executive producer is
39:52
Speaker 1: Amia Lavelle. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries,
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40:17
Speaker 1: add I theme music by Kenny Beats, I'm justin Richmond.