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Unsigned518 - Episode 149 - The Belle Curves · Unsigned518

• 0:01
  Speaker A: He was born on a Saturday in 73.
• 0:03
  Speaker B: He loves far cry music. The fight is a thirsty jabbing in the dazzle jazz. It's motherfucking Andy scolding Look at motherfucker. Cause here he comes Andy scaring his orange hat.
• 0:27
  Speaker C: Welcome to unsigned 518. I am here with Delaney Hafner of Bell Curves. How's it going?
• 0:34
  Speaker A: It's going good.
• 0:36
  Speaker C: And I'm, you know, we, we talked a little bit before we got rolling, but essentially we met like seven minutes ago and I kind of gave you the, the brief rundown of what this is, but, you know, I want you to. I want to, I want to reiterate that this is your episode and we want to tell the story how you tell it. And I'm not going to try to steer it or, or guide you in any direction, but basically I'm just going to say how did your relationship with music start and how did it kind of lead to where we are today?
• 1:09
  Speaker A: That's a big question. That is, that is a big one. I don't. It sounds kind of cheesy and cliche, but I really don't remember a time in my life when I wasn't making music, like, genuinely from the time I was like three years old.
• 1:27
  Speaker C: Okay.
• 1:27
  Speaker A: Just, like, I started like, learning piano and voice lessons when I was like 7 or 8. And as soon as I started to learn that kind of music, like learning how to read sheet music and being taught how the notes work, I immediately started writing music. And like, we have all of these little, like, nostalgic keepsakes of, like, my little sheet music songs that I would write, like, for the piano and. Yeah, even before that. I think that it has always been easier for me to communicate with, with music than basically anything else.
• 2:07
  Speaker C: And was your household like. I mean, if you had a piano, you know, clearly there was some musicality in it. But was it like a, a musical household in the traditional sense or was it.
• 2:18
  Speaker A: I think, well, I guess it depends on your definition of traditional, but definitely a musical home. My dad is a guitar player and he is my guitar player now. He is lead guitar in the Bell Curves. So, yeah, so he, he played for a long time, even when my older sister was a little kid. And he kind of put it on, put the music stuff on the back burner when I was born. You know, he had like a pretty significant vintage guitar collection before I was born that he, he was like, this is like. His line of thinking was like, oh, this is silly. Like, we have two kids now. I can't justify like having all these guitars when I'm not playing. And he like sold a bunch of them. And then of course the irony is that it was me then when I was like 12 and I found like he kept a couple of guitars like through that, but I was like 12 or so and I like fished out one of the more beat up guitars that just kind of stuck around in the basement. It was like a 1930s Gibson that he had actually found in the dumpster. Okay, this is like a little tangent about this particular guitar. But this was so he had. He had kept I think like an. And he would correct me if I get this wrong. I think I'm getting them correct. But he had a vintage SG and a country in western that stayed in the house through this kind of shift in what he wanted to put his time into. So. And then there was also this old Gibson, this like 1930s Gibson, something that he had fished out of a dumpster years earlier. And it was just like this cool like Arch Top Gibson from the 30s. And so these three or four guitars just kind of stuck around in the house. And I fished out the Arch Top and I was like, can you like put strings on this? And like how like I want to learn how to play the guitar. And that was around the same time that I decided that I wanted to learn how to play the bass. So he got me set up with these instruments and I started learning acoustic guitar and bass. He didn't necessarily like teach me in a traditional sense, but he kind of showed me the basics and was extremely encouraging and my mom was too. And so I was learning all of this stuff kind of parallel to my like school music stuff. So I was a French horn player through all of middle school and high school. And like I was really good. I was like kind of like low key prodigy French horn player, which like I don't usually talk about because it's just like so like unrelated to all of the band stuff. But I think it's like a really.
• 5:19
  Speaker C: Is it that unrelated?
• 5:20
  Speaker A: It's not. Yeah, it's like. I think it's actually like a really important part of how I make music now because I had this private lesson teacher for my French horn playing. And he was another major part of my musical upbringing because he was very encouraging of me to learn everything that I wanted to. So like we would do the French horn lessons and focus on that stuff specifically. And then we would also. He would make time to teach me other stuff. So like, if I wanted to learn like theory, he was A big part of teaching me a lot of the music theory that became like the foundation for like my understanding and like, of music and like the way that I understand music. And so like all of these things kind of happening all at the same time throughout like my tweens and teen years. And yeah, then I went to SUNY Purchase for studio production and audio recording and that even though it was a recording program, it was, it's a music degree. So I took a lot of music courses getting that degree alongside learning all the production stuff.
• 6:49
  Speaker C: And did you find, you know, because I like music theory is something that I literally just kind of got into music theory like three years ago I started like looking in. But I've been playing guitar my whole life. And if there's one thing that I could change, it would be to learn the, you know, to learn the theory. But like that's what you know, when you were saying like the French horn, how it was like different or you know, different but the same, like how much? And like this is a genuine question that I don't know, but like how much of the theory of the French horn and the notes translates directly to guitar and bass?
• 7:31
  Speaker A: I mean. Well, I have a lot of thoughts about that. Trying to think of where I want to start to answer your question, like all of it. My feeling is that like I think that kids should be learning music theory the way that we have, like just to be like a well informed adult and like citizen in society. I think that like kids should be learning basic piano and music theory skills.
• 7:56
  Speaker C: It links up to like math and logic.
• 7:58
  Speaker A: It's all together, it's good for your brain. And again like, it just like makes you like a well rounded person. The same way that like having a basic understanding of history makes you a well rounded person. Basic understanding of math, like it's just part of being a person in the world. So I think that when you learn basics of theory, it makes it very easy to learn other instruments because like in Western music There's only 12 notes. If you have an understanding of how those notes relate to each other and how to get from one place to another and like how a chord is created, like the circle of fifths and like all that stuff, it's just, it's the grammar of music in the same way that like it's really hard to learn a language without having someone teach you the grammatical structures. And then you can fill in the gaps with vocabulary. Like trying to learn an instrument without the theory knowledge is like trying to learn a language with only Vocabulary.
• 8:58
  Speaker C: That's a great, great way to look at it. Because, like I said, I wish I had the theory, you know, because I was always like, kind of, you know, I was a skate punk rock kid and I was kind of. And, you know, going back now, I'm like, every punk rock band is adhering to music theory. Every single one of them.
• 9:13
  Speaker A: Again, because, like, they're using, like, western music. Because if they weren't, you know, you can learn. There are so many ways to organize the music, too, is another thing that I think about and something that I think a lot of people don't necessarily realize. Like, yes, there's like, classical music way of organizing the notes and notating the notes and, like, the sheet music and scores and stuff. And that's, like, very complex to learn. But there's also, like, the way that, like, charts are written, you know, like using, like, the Roman numeral system and solfaging, which is, like, kind of where my brain usually goes, because it makes it very easy to change keys. And that kind of comes back to my folk music background and my folk music interest. It makes it very easy to go from one key to another. Because if you're like, okay, one minor six major four, you can do that again. If you know.
• 10:15
  Speaker C: If you know the language.
• 10:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. If you have the grammar, then it's just vocabulary and you just have to swap out the words. And then there's also, like, again, like, the actual, like, letter names of the notes and notating it that way. So there's just like, all these different ways of communicating the notes. And when you have a general understanding of the theory, it makes it very easy to talk to people with all different backgrounds of musical understanding. Because, like, some people have, like, a really robust knowledge of the circle of fifths, and, like, they know how that stuff works. Some people, like, learned how to read sheet music in high school, but it didn't stick with them. And, like, they are learning stuff by ear, but they don't know how they're learning it by ear. And so, like, being able to talk to everyone about music and, like, the actual inner workings of it is just so valuable and important to me.
• 11:21
  Speaker C: And I think even just hat, like, the keyboard or the piano is just, like, the basis of everything.
• 11:29
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:30
  Speaker C: Like an ep, you know, no songwriter is. I mean, some might, but, like, songwriters use a keyboard even if they're in a band that has nothing to do with the keyboard or a piano. Everything's right there. It's tangible.
• 11:43
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 11:44
  Speaker C: And like, when I have, you know, I've got probably fucking 10 keyboards in this room. But like, I, because I'm not a piano player, I just write the notes in Sharpie. Right on it.
• 11:54
  Speaker A: Right.
• 11:55
  Speaker C: And it gets it. Even just having that visual, like, sure, it's cheating or whatever, but like, it, it shows me where everything is. And it's abcdefg. Like, you know, how elementary can that be?
• 12:09
  Speaker A: Right, Exactly.
• 12:10
  Speaker C: But it really helps. Like, so anybody who has a piano or a keyboard in their house growing up, I just feel like they have a leg up.
• 12:20
  Speaker A: Yes. Yeah. Again, because it's visual. So like when you're a kid and like your brain is developing, like you can look at it and you see like C, E and G. You play that with your little hand and then you say, okay, now a flat third. And like, you see it visually, the E becomes an E flat and it goes down a half step and it's a half. Like you, like, you see visually what the half step means.
• 12:46
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 12:46
  Speaker A: And then even like everything else just comes together, you know, like it, it all clicks so much easier when you have that basis.
• 12:56
  Speaker C: Yeah. And like, I mean, we didn't have a piano, but like my grandmother played the organ, like, you know, and had like the like little bossa nova beats. And I used to love, like when I was a kid, like, I would just like sit there for hours. And it had, you know, it was electronic so I could put headphones on, not bother.
• 13:16
  Speaker A: Yeah, I used to like make so.
• 13:20
  Speaker C: Many songs of that. All that sort.
• 13:22
  Speaker A: That's so fun.
• 13:23
  Speaker C: Yeah, I like literally forgot all about that.
• 13:26
  Speaker A: I have a similar, A similar memory. My, My younger sister, we had this like Casio keyboard that had all these like built in songs and like weird like, sounds and like one of them was like the Crocodile Rock, but it was like the Casio keyboard version and we, we would like play dj and like one of us would like play the song on the keyboard and the other then we would dance.
• 13:48
  Speaker C: I remember, you know, I told you we'd go off on tangents back like, you know, mid-80s or so. There was this little Casio keyboard that had come out. It was small, it was like the size of like a MIDI keyboard, but it had the ability to sample. So like you could hit record and then say something into the mic and then hit demo and it would play a song, but, you know, and everybody would always make like fart sounds and like. Yeah, but it was, it was still a keyboard and people were making noises with it.
• 14:14
  Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah.
• 14:17
  Speaker C: Man. I just, I just had some wild memories.
• 14:19
  Speaker A: I know yeah, I'm. Like, that Casio keyboard with the. It had, like, 99 songs in it, had, like, Beautiful Dreamer in it. Crocodile Rock. There's, like, a really. There's a bunch.
• 14:31
  Speaker C: Was it one that, like, the keys lit up?
• 14:34
  Speaker A: The keys didn't light up. But I have such a strong sense memory of, like, the rubbery, like, going through, like, the library, you know, like, the tones and the songs and, like, the.
• 14:43
  Speaker C: This one, the one that I'm talking about. Cause I. I remember it was, like, green sleeves. It had green sleeves.
• 14:48
  Speaker A: I think we had that one, too.
• 14:50
  Speaker C: Yeah. I'd be playing along with green, but, like, it had little, like. Just, like, little LED lights above the keys that would show you.
• 14:56
  Speaker A: Showing you how to play.
• 14:57
  Speaker C: Show you where to play.
• 14:59
  Speaker A: This one, I think, had numbers over the keys and, like, one of the. Like, the sample libraries in it was, like, just random percussion and have, like, a little picture of the percussion over the key if you set it to that, like, the percussion sound.
• 15:15
  Speaker C: I love it.
• 15:16
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 15:17
  Speaker C: But I mean, think of how many music careers started on the cast.
• 15:21
  Speaker A: The thing is that, like, giving kids, like, creative tools, like, and letting them just be weird and creative is how you get artists, for sure.
• 15:30
  Speaker C: Especially the weird part, because I was a very weird child.
• 15:33
  Speaker A: Me, too. And my parents were just so encouraging and accepting and, like, why not as much?
• 15:40
  Speaker C: But it was a different time, you.
• 15:44
  Speaker A: Know, I think I lucked out, too, in that department. I think my parents are just, like. I just got really good parents.
• 15:51
  Speaker C: And it's funny because, like, I've, you know, not as young as you, but I've been into music my entire, like, music has always been. And literally, not one single member of my immediate family has any musical anything. Not one. There was. You know, I mean, not that they didn't encourage it, but they certainly didn't discourage it.
• 16:11
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:12
  Speaker C: But, like, they weren't right there alongside with me, like, showing me how to do it.
• 16:16
  Speaker A: Right.
• 16:16
  Speaker C: They were more like, wow, how did you do that?
• 16:18
  Speaker A: Right?
• 16:18
  Speaker C: I don't fucking know. You know, I'm like.
• 16:20
  Speaker A: I'm just winging it.
• 16:21
  Speaker C: Yeah. I'm seven on a Casio keyboard. I was like, you ever watch Bob's Burgers? I was genius.
• 16:28
  Speaker A: Oh, my God.
• 16:29
  Speaker C: When I was. When I was, like, 8 years old.
• 16:31
  Speaker A: So funny.
• 16:32
  Speaker C: That was.
• 16:33
  Speaker A: I can picture it. That's really cute. Oh, my God.
• 16:36
  Speaker C: And now I'm just. Now I'm. Now I'm just funny.
• 16:40
  Speaker A: Oh, my God.
• 16:42
  Speaker C: So we, you know, I again told you we get sidetracked. But I want you to. You Were said you were going to play some songs. Yeah, we were going to do a live performance later. But you were going to play something off a record.
• 16:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 16:57
  Speaker C: Records. Yeah.
• 16:58
  Speaker A: I love calling it a record. Sorry. Even though I haven't even made CDs of it yet. It's a record in my mind.
• 17:04
  Speaker C: Yeah. I'll never stop calling them.
• 17:06
  Speaker A: Yeah. So we put out a record in September called Subject to Change, and I'm very proud of it. It's like some of my favorite music to listen to. And I think that that's important because, like, I think you should be making music that you like.
• 17:25
  Speaker C: Yeah, I always thought that.
• 17:26
  Speaker A: I always thought that.
• 17:27
  Speaker C: Don't listen. I don't listen to my own music. I'm like, am I narcissistic? Because I love listening to my own.
• 17:32
  Speaker A: The thing is, for me, I'm like, my music is songs that I relate to the most, with all of the influences and music that I.
• 17:40
  Speaker C: Everything that you want in a song is right there.
• 17:42
  Speaker A: Like, why would I not listen to it? Like, I'm like, yeah, I relate to these lyrics so much.
• 17:47
  Speaker C: I'm with you 100%.
• 17:48
  Speaker A: Love that guitar tone. Like, why would I not listen to my music?
• 17:52
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's perfect. Local musicians take that advice.
• 17:56
  Speaker A: Listen to your own music that you want to hear. I always think of the Gillian Welch song where she says, if there's something that you want to hear, you can sing it yourself. And, like, that is like a mantra for me. So on that note, this song is called Hand Rolled. And, yeah, it's one of my favorite songs I ever wrote.
• 18:14
  Speaker C: All right, well, let's check out Hand rolled Bell curves and then we'll be right back.
• 18:26
  Speaker B: 51,000 in the expressway Watching someone else play Tuesday music on a Friday. I wanna know when will it stop being cold? Have to drive on someone for one mile at a time. Trading in nicely for long term peace of mind I'll never fight I'd rather ask for a ride Help me Another thing I'll take you But I need to make sure that you don't forget I'm cool with you. Oh, let's get on with you. I'll give you a dance. Woke up late this morning to see myself beloved. Evicting all the cops that live inside my mind you know I love I'll never give you a line you can't.
• 20:17
  Speaker C: Believe.
• 20:21
  Speaker B: Toss me in the ladder and roll T. I need to make sure that you everything un. Pour my coffee to a bed with my hopes for sleep Grabbing one more round of something changed I own something bright I deserve more than what I need to survive Cost me another hand rule.
• 21:52
  Speaker C: All right, that was Hand Rolled the Bell Cross. And that was off an album that came out in September, you said. Right. So, like, do those songs go back a ways? Like, you know, do you let them sit before you record them? Or, like, how far back did the songs on that. That album go?
• 22:08
  Speaker A: I think most of them. Well, it's kind of funny because I sat on that album for quite a while before releasing it. So it came out in September of 24, but I think it was done in, like, February before that. And I don't know why I do that. I think, like, my logical answer that I tell people is like, oh, I just want to have, like, a really solid release plan and, like, make sure that I have it all set up before doing it.
• 22:41
  Speaker C: And that is important.
• 22:42
  Speaker A: But I think part of it really is letting it not be mine anymore is kind of, like, hard because, like, the songs are very. They're all from, like, my personal experiences and just, like, my life and, like, things that I've done and seen and felt. And so releasing them is kind of, like, now they're not mine alone anymore, and I don't have control over who hears them anymore or what people are.
• 23:13
  Speaker C: Gonna think of them.
• 23:15
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 23:15
  Speaker C: Or of what they're. What they're going to perceive.
• 23:17
  Speaker A: Right. So it's like when I'm sending my friends and, like, collaborators, like, my little private SoundCloud playlist, and being like, the album's done, like, what do you think? And it's like, people who I know, like, my music, half of them played on the album, but, like, it's very different to be like, hey, millions of strangers, what do you think about this? Like, that's just like. Yeah. So, yeah, it's. It's kind of scary to put out music, but it's also, like, it's. Once it's done, it feels good because then people who I don't know very well or sometimes at all will reach out and be like, this song is, like, really important to me. Or, like, I had someone, a friend, slash fan of the band, who heard the song Hand Rolled, actually, like, two years ago, probably. And she was like, when is that song coming out? Like, I love that song. And, like, she had only heard it, like, once or twice, like, at a show, and it just stuck with her. And, like, to hear that was so meaningful. So to answer your question, the songs had existed for quite a while before they got recorded, and I workshopped them a lot. And like really fine tuned a lot of the songwriting before we hit the studio. Got a bunch of like different songwriter friends to kind of give their two cents. And you know, I like to have it like 90% done. But I always struggle with like the endings of songs and I struggle to get out of the like verse, chorus, verse, chorus thing. So bringing it to like different, different songs to different songwriter friends is really helpful in kind of breaking up my own, like keeping my voice because the songs are mostly there but kind of getting different little inflections.
• 25:17
  Speaker C: Now when you, you know, if you said like it was like done in February, released in September, so like a full seven month period, like when you, I mean, not close the door on it, but when you, you know, when the project is done, do you look back on him and be like, oh, I could change this little thing.
• 25:34
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 25:34
  Speaker C: Or always. So is that. I mean, that's gotta be fucking so hard to deal with, I think though.
• 25:41
  Speaker A: That long of a time. Yeah, I think that like that feeling is outweighed by how proud I am of this particular batch of songs. I think so. My dad and I recorded it at our home studio when we were living on Long island. So it was like a really nice process to be able to like work really closely with my drummers and like really fine tune the drum parts because I had worked on another project with a friends band at Basement Floods with Alex Wernquist in Catskill. And like his process of like really honing in on the details of the drum parts was really inspiring to me. And so I kind of experimented with that and had like two different drummers play on the album and kind of like matched them with different songs and kind of what I felt like their strengths were. And so that was really fun. And then being able to build the tracks on top of that, like very kind of piece by piece was really fun. So they have a live energy because we didn't use click tracks as a live drummer. And I would do like a guide track and the drummer would be in the studio so they have this live feeling. But I was able to do so much detailed stuff and like really thinking about arrangement and like just little tiny details. And yeah, it was a very nice process.
• 27:18
  Speaker C: And when you're, you know, doing that like adding like the details, the. Our producer, Dave Tayo calls it the salt and pepper. You know, he's like, he'll say, you know, project's done, you just gotta add the salt and pepper. Yeah, the details. But do you do. I mean, you clearly do a lot of it yourself. But do you look at it, like, whole project wise, or do you take one song, focus on that, add, like, the details of that, and then move on?
• 27:45
  Speaker A: I think that I'm pretty good at thinking about details and big picture simultaneously. Like, that is something that makes me good in my day job. I'm also really good at jigsaw puzzles. So I. Basically, there were a few songs that we recorded after the first batch that we recorded. So we did, like, five at once, and then we did another four separately. And I kind of did it like, musician by musician. So, like, we got all the drums done. I would add the bass. So I played my bass track on top of that, and then, like, all of my acoustic guitar parts. And then that was kind of the. If you think of, like, baking a cake, that was kind of the, you know, the main part of the cake batter. Yeah. That's the flour, that sugar, you know. And then my dad did, like, the primary electric guitar parts on top of what's there. And then my friend Joe Leone was a big part of. What I was really excited about on this record was a lot more keys on this album than have been. And we had piano and organ on the last album. But just, like, he and I just, like, holed up with him and his Nord in the studio for, like, 12 hours and just, like, went buck wild one night. And, like, just, like, put so much stuff on, most of it ended up staying. And so that was really cool. So then after that, we added, like, I had my friends Sarah and Sam, who are amazing vocalists. We did all the harmonies. So I kind of. Yeah, I did it kind of, like, sound by sound. And then, like, once all of that stuff that's kind of like the frosting is now on the cake. The cake is assembled, and now we get to decorating it and kind of deciding, like, what stays, what can go. What are some extra little guitar bits we can add. Let's add, like, maybe let's edit this solo. Like, getting into that kind of stuff.
• 30:01
  Speaker C: Do you find. And again, this is just, like, coming from some. You know, I. We're recording an album now. My band is. But, like, I don't have a ton of experience, like, with. With the recording. And when I. When we first started, the first song we ever did, like, I was like, it's so important that I can. That everything that we do in the studio can be replicated live. So important. And then by the second song, I was like, fuck that. Yeah, let's add everything that we can to, like.
• 30:33
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 30:34
  Speaker C: And like, do you find that, like, the adding of the extra stuff is just, like, the funnest part of the process?
• 30:43
  Speaker A: Absolutely. I love getting to that point.
• 30:45
  Speaker C: Yeah.
• 30:46
  Speaker A: I really do. And it's funny you say that, because I used to have a little bit of that feeling. But, like, I had, like, a really strong moment with Bob Dylan, like, a couple of years ago, and the way that he reinterprets his songs is so inspiring to me. I had a friend say that Bob Dylan does his favorite Bob Dylan covers, you know, because, like, when he, like, he can reimagine a song to be completely different, you know, years down the road or on stage or whatever. And so, like, there's just no rules. Like, you can just do whatever you want. So, like, some of the songs, I think that, like, where we are right now as a band, like, a lot of the songs sound pretty similar to the album versions. Just, like, maybe without all of the extra sprinkles and decorations, but, like, the cake is there, you know? But I also love playing solo and letting the songs be much more like bare bones and experimenting with different dynamic points and, like.
• 31:50
  Speaker C: And when you write the songs, do you, like, kind of get the shell of it? Like, are you writing a song mostly on an acoustic guitar and then imagining the bass lines and the drums?
• 32:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, pretty much. At least, that's kind of my process for the bell curves. I'm interested in trying some kind of experimenting with different processes for getting to the finished point. But I think as it relates to the bell curve specifically, that is the process I like to have, like, pretty polished power pop or, you know, alt country or whatever the song is evolving into. Let it be nearly done and then bring it to the band and maybe some new arrangement stuff comes up with them. But, yeah, for the most part, it's like I'm playing it myself and, like, getting it to completion so that I can play it solo and the song can still stand on its own, you know?
• 33:00
  Speaker C: Yeah. And again, I love the. You know, I. My producer compared it to, like, a movie and a play.
• 33:09
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:09
  Speaker C: You know, like the movie. You take your time, you get every little detail. And if you get something right, you know, you go back and fix it and then you present it. Whereas, like, you know, a live performance is a play.
• 33:22
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:23
  Speaker C: And I personally, like, love not mistakes, but, like, what could be perceived as an imperfection. Like, to me, I love a recorded version of a completely live performance with something that goes wrong.
• 33:40
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:40
  Speaker C: Like, I love it because then it becomes specifically that one thing.
• 33:46
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:46
  Speaker C: And A song can have millions of iterations. You know what I mean? If you recorded a song every time you played it, it's that song, right? Version 1.1, version 1.2. You know, and I love the. The. The difference.
• 34:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, I love that analogy too because like, when you are writing for a play versus writing for a movie, like, they're different mediums, right? They are different forms. Like, they're closely related, but they're different. Totally different rules, you know, And I think that that totally applies. And like I. The Bell Curves have a bunch of live recordings. We have some stuff up on. On YouTube and we did one at Pete's Candy Store a few years ago and we'll probably have another one at some point. From the last year or so of shows, we've gotten a bunch of really, really nice multi tracked live shows and. Exactly what you're saying. It's just so cool to have this slight variation. Like we have this version of one of our songs called Topo Chico. And in the studio version, like when the band kicks in, it speeds up slightly. There's a little bit of tempo fluctuation going into the chorus and it's just like live and juicy. But we did this one version that. I'm so glad we got recorded because when the drummer comes in, it just like the train rolls down the hill and it speeds up so much and it's so cool and organic and cathartic. And I just like love that moment so much. Yeah.
• 35:21
  Speaker C: It makes me think of dating myself again. But when MTV was putting out the Unplugged albums and every single band that were like in my, you know, on your radar. Mine.
• 35:35
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 35:36
  Speaker C: Untouchable. You know, like just these perfect musician. Every single band that was on there made mistakes. Yeah, every single one of them. And it was like, huh, okay. And like, I wasn't like, ooh, shame, Right? I fucking love that.
• 35:51
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 35:51
  Speaker C: Because that means they're not perfect, you know, they're not perfect.
• 35:55
  Speaker A: Just some guys with guitars.
• 35:57
  Speaker C: Yeah, I just love that.
• 35:59
  Speaker A: I do too.
• 36:00
  Speaker C: Even on the Nirvana Unplugged, like he fucks up the words, right? There's like microphone feedback, there's like all this stuff and it's like, love it.
• 36:09
  Speaker A: It's just deliciously imperfect.
• 36:11
  Speaker C: Absolutely. But, you know, you brought your guitar and your amp and you were going to play a song live in the studio, right?
• 36:20
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I think it's a good segue into this one because this is one of the ones that has a lot of studio trickery or it's a studio Song, you know, the recording of it. But, like, again, I think that as a stripped down, like, alt folk song, it has a different thing to say. Cool.
• 36:44
  Speaker C: And what's the name of this one?
• 36:45
  Speaker A: The song is called Pour Over.
• 36:46
  Speaker C: Pour Over. All right, well, let's listen to Pour over live here in the studio, and then we'll be right back to wrap it up.
• 37:11
  Speaker B: Mother's been telling me that I should get some rest Lovers been telling me not to let it get my best I keep saying, yeah, you're right I keep saying yes Easier said than done Easier done than dress father with something good Baby, you can pull some strings I make time out of what Ben left my days I make time out of hawk love I could be my own holiday When I'm alone under my quill When I'm believing my own guilt Watch my breakfast seek through vapor into clay into clay what if I got to lose? What if I got to lose? What have I got to lose? What have I got to lose? I make time out of ha Work and weft my days I make time out of ha I could be my own holiday A day when I'm alone under my quilt When I'm relieving my own guilt I watch my breakfast eat through paper into clay.
• 40:10
  Speaker A: Into clay.
• 40:15
  Speaker B: I make time out of. I make time out of H. I make time out of.
• 40:31
  Speaker C: All right, that was Pour Over Live here in the studio. And, Delaney, I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your afternoon to come out and do this, to bring your guitar and play a song, and it was a great conversation, so thank you so much. And before we go, like I do with all my guests, I want to give you a chance to say what I call your gratitude. So microphones, all yours.
• 40:52
  Speaker A: Well, I'll say thanks to you first for letting me blab so much and just yap endlessly. Loved it. I think obviously I have to shout out my parents, Bill and Kathy, obviously Bill, my guitar player and co pilot, my number one. And everyone that played on the album. So that's Fred and Nick and Joe and Sam and Sarah and Lauren, and I think that's everyone. And me. I'm grateful to me, too. And, yeah, that's probably. That's probably. Otherwise, if I keep going, I'll keep going. So.
• 41:37
  Speaker C: All right. Well, she is Delaney Hafner of the Bell Curves. I am Andy scullen. This is un unsigned 518. I'll see you on the road. Unsigned 518 is produced and hosted by me, Andy Scullen. New episodes are available every week wherever you stream podcasts. If you'd like to help support the show, please like and subscribe wherever you are listening. Or you could buy me a coffee@buymeacoffee.com unsigned 518 if you would like to advertise on the show, send me an email at unsigned 518mail and to be a guest on the show, reach out to me through Instagram at unsigned518. Take care of one another and I'll see you next week.
• 42:20
  Speaker B: Andy Scullin and Scullin.