WEBVTT - Avalanches 0:00:00.080 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by iHeart Radio. I'm 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:18.159 your host, Joe Levy. Okay, it is December. We have 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:22.720 almost made it through and certainly this year has been 0:00:22.880 --> 0:00:25.080 um and I'm trying to figure out how I could 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:28.880 put this without cursing for the next forty or fifty minutes. 0:00:29.120 --> 0:00:33.440 But let's just say has been a difficult year. But 0:00:33.520 --> 0:00:37.200 it does bring us something special as it winds down, 0:00:37.280 --> 0:00:40.360 and that is a new album from the Australian duo 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:43.559 The Avalanches. It is called We Will Always Love You. 0:00:43.840 --> 0:00:47.199 It's here and it's spectacular. And this is only the 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:52.000 third album The Avalanches have released since their debut Since 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.800 I Left You, twenty years ago, and and and each 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.440 one of these albums is pretty much amazing. My friend 0:00:57.480 --> 0:01:00.480 Sasha fair Jones likes to say there one of the 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:04.319 only groups to bat a thousand in the twenty one century, 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:07.959 which I guess is actually a little easier if you 0:01:08.040 --> 0:01:11.800 average one album every six or seven years, but still 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:15.160 part of what makes it so impressive is that each 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.640 one of these albums has been a different kind of adventure. 0:01:18.760 --> 0:01:21.120 That debut Since I Left You came out in the 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.280 year two thousand and it was lovingly constructed bit by 0:01:25.360 --> 0:01:29.479 bit out of about thirty five hundred samples of what 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:34.119 Robbie Chader calls junk store records, which means samples that 0:01:34.160 --> 0:01:37.039 you don't recognize right away. So Since I Left You 0:01:37.200 --> 0:01:40.680 is a big favorite of Team Inside the Studio. Shout 0:01:40.760 --> 0:01:44.319 out to team leader Noel Brown, who took time out 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:48.000 from talking about conspiracy theories on his podcast Stuff They 0:01:48.000 --> 0:01:50.520 Don't Want You To Know to make sure that he 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.680 could be on production duty when we recorded this episode's 0:01:53.720 --> 0:01:57.280 interview with Robbie and Tony Deblasi. And you know, one 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.120 reason I love Since I Left You is that some 0:02:00.240 --> 0:02:02.240 moments it sounds like what happens when you have two 0:02:02.320 --> 0:02:04.600 tabs open on your browser and they're both playing sound 0:02:04.600 --> 0:02:07.200 at the same time. But on the other hand, it 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:10.640 had this out of left field hit Frontier Psychiatrist that 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:13.240 had turntable scratching on it, so it sounded like it 0:02:13.280 --> 0:02:15.880 was put together by a live DJ. But but most 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:20.360 of the album was just a seamless and sunshiny flow 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:26.040 of really relaxed and easy grooves. What wasn't seamless, relaxed 0:02:26.120 --> 0:02:29.640 or easy was making a second album that took sixteen 0:02:29.720 --> 0:02:34.640 years The Avalanches did not release Wildflower until there were 0:02:34.639 --> 0:02:37.120 a lot of stops and starts along the way. They 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:40.639 spent time assisting on the score for a musical version 0:02:40.720 --> 0:02:44.119 of King Kong that did eventually make it in some way, 0:02:44.160 --> 0:02:47.280 Shape Manner formed a Broadway, and they also worked on 0:02:47.440 --> 0:02:50.080 music for an animated film that's been described as a 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.920 hip hop version of Yellow Submarine and that never saw 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:58.320 the light of day. So wild Flower is sort of 0:02:58.360 --> 0:03:01.000 a concept album. If your I have a concept is 0:03:01.040 --> 0:03:03.679 a mixtape that you'd play in the car on a 0:03:03.800 --> 0:03:06.120 road trip from your apartment in the city to some 0:03:06.200 --> 0:03:09.600 sort of psychedelic countryside. And if the Avalanches never did 0:03:09.639 --> 0:03:11.880 get to make a hip hop version of Yellow Submarine, 0:03:11.960 --> 0:03:14.200 at least they got to make a hip hop version 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:18.360 of The Beach Boys Smile, with guest appearances from rappers 0:03:18.440 --> 0:03:22.160 like Danny Brown and Bismarckee, Andy Rock luminaries like Father 0:03:22.280 --> 0:03:26.639 John Misty, David Berman, Tam and Paula's Kevin Parker, as 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.280 well as a sample of a chorus of kids from 0:03:30.320 --> 0:03:34.920 a high school in Melbourne, Australia seeing the Beatles come together. 0:03:35.320 --> 0:03:38.200 Now it's just four years after wild Flower and we 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:40.640 got a new album we Will Always Love You record 0:03:40.800 --> 0:03:44.400 time for the Avalanches, although this album almost didn't happen 0:03:44.600 --> 0:03:48.640 at all. Robbie talked with me about his issues with addiction, 0:03:48.720 --> 0:03:51.760 and he recently told The New York Times that after 0:03:51.840 --> 0:03:54.760 Wildflower came out, he'd been drinking again and he checked 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.200 himself into detox and that was January of Seen, and 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:00.920 had to cancel some tour dates, and he was thinking 0:04:00.960 --> 0:04:03.200 at that point the group might be over. But when 0:04:03.200 --> 0:04:06.200 he got out of rehab, he found that Tony had 0:04:06.360 --> 0:04:09.840 managed to do some touring without him, and and things 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:11.640 were still going. There was still a band, He could 0:04:11.680 --> 0:04:13.760 go out on the road, He could play Coachella. So 0:04:14.040 --> 0:04:18.840 while every single Avalanches album has mixed joy and melancholy, 0:04:19.040 --> 0:04:21.920 the way both of those feelings are super charged on 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.360 We Will Always Love You might have something to do 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:28.320 with discovering that the everything you thought was gone, was over, 0:04:28.520 --> 0:04:30.960 was done, is still out there and better than ever. 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.000 We Will Always Love You is a little less about samples, 0:04:34.040 --> 0:04:39.320 a little more about creating music the way most groups do. Drums, bass, keyboards, 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.599 Johnny Marr from The Smiths dropping by to play guitar, 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:45.800 Rivers Cuomo from Weezery doing some vocals. You know, the 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.279 usual thing. The Avalanches are still obsessed with old records, 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:51.520 but in a different way this time out. They talked 0:04:51.520 --> 0:04:54.000 with me about how their idea of something they call 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:58.960 Forever Voices involves how dropping a needle on a record 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:01.720 is like so many the spirit of someone or something 0:05:01.760 --> 0:05:04.880 that's departed. And we also talked about how a book 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:09.000 called The Recording Angel by Evan Eisenberg helped shape the album. 0:05:09.040 --> 0:05:12.240 And we also talked about how every sound or singer 0:05:12.320 --> 0:05:15.560 ever broadcast on the radio is out there somewhere echoing 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:18.400 an outer space. And speaking of outer space, we talked 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.039 about the album's connection to NASA's Voyager space probes in 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:26.120 nine seven. It was pretty cosmic. Here's what else they 0:05:26.160 --> 0:05:32.080 had to say. Tony and Robbie, thank you so much. 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.440 Welcome to inside the studio. Although we're all inside our 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:41.520 respective homes, I think everybody's everybody's at home where I'm 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:43.920 in New York, of course, and you're both where we're 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:46.080 both in Melbourne. I was just about to say stuck in, 0:05:46.680 --> 0:05:52.119 but I don't know if I but yeah, we are stuck. 0:05:52.240 --> 0:05:54.280 We are stuck in Melbourne. I think if we tried 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:59.400 to leave, we would feel mine so so officially stuck. 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.080 But you know that's okay. It's all it's all getting 0:06:02.080 --> 0:06:05.320 better and and and and it's Tuesday evening here in 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:09.159 New York, and I guess it's Wednesday morning for Tuesday morning. 0:06:09.760 --> 0:06:12.880 This is so fantastic because we're about to talk about 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:17.920 like interstellar sound vibrations, and now we're crossing the dateline. 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:20.599 I feel like I'm living in the future. This is 0:06:20.640 --> 0:06:26.400 all happening. It's kind of perfect. It is. We will 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.080 always love you, and believe me, I appreciate it. Uh. 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.440 This album is a little different for you, guys, and 0:06:32.480 --> 0:06:34.840 not just in that it took less than fifteen or 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:37.520 sixteen years to make it, but you went about things 0:06:37.560 --> 0:06:40.200 a little differently this time. Like you can hear you 0:06:40.240 --> 0:06:42.360 listen to this, you hear the love of the dusty 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.240 groove is still there, but things weren't necessarily constructed the 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:49.159 same way. How the process change with this record for 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:52.960 you guys. I think it began with like a very 0:06:53.000 --> 0:06:55.520 clear idea of what we wanted to make this time around, 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:58.200 Whereas like the Journey of Wildflower, which you mentioned that 0:06:58.480 --> 0:07:02.680 took sixteen years, we're almost finding what that record was about. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:04.839 As we went along, and we took all the twists 0:07:04.880 --> 0:07:08.039 and turns, and um, I have to on the first 0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:09.960 cold meet. We got a little lost along the way 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:11.920 and the end result was beautiful, but you know, it 0:07:11.960 --> 0:07:15.040 took a long time, just just a little a little lost. 0:07:15.520 --> 0:07:18.560 So yeah, with this record, it was a singular vision 0:07:18.720 --> 0:07:22.680 to make a record almost like exploring our own mortality 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:26.920 and in a way, our own personal journeys, and so 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.200 a very clear idea from the beginning, and that idea 0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:34.080 also had some very clear sonic images with it. So 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:36.920 we wanted a shimmering record, maybe a more hi fi record, 0:07:37.720 --> 0:07:40.280 and a kind of a more modern sound and records, 0:07:40.320 --> 0:07:42.600 so we we still began working with samples, but then 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.800 we added other instrumentation, and it was also a way 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:49.160 for us to do something different and be not take 0:07:49.880 --> 0:07:55.520 another ten or fifteen years. Yeah, like we really felt. Yeah, 0:07:55.640 --> 0:07:59.880 and I think it was just searching for that const 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:03.160 set of what Wildflower was about took so long that 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.320 you know, especially Robbie and his infinite wisdom, was like, Okay, 0:08:09.360 --> 0:08:11.680 we're going to record a new record. We're going to 0:08:11.760 --> 0:08:14.200 work out what it's about before we even start, so 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.360 we're not just searching around, you know, the sixteen years 0:08:18.800 --> 0:08:21.520 we're trying to find that. So we found it quite early, 0:08:21.600 --> 0:08:24.080 and you know, the results are four years later, which 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:28.640 which is for us extremely short for post malone. That's 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:32.320 like a decade or something that you know, well, so 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:35.000 part of the difference obviously the samples are there. But 0:08:35.000 --> 0:08:37.760 but on this one, if you wanted a baseline or 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:40.200 a keyboard part, you could play it. You could bring 0:08:40.240 --> 0:08:44.000 someone in to play it. Is that about right exactly? Well, 0:08:44.000 --> 0:08:48.000 it was our close friend and collaborator Andy, So myself 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.959 to Tony and Andrew were kind of like, we're digging 0:08:51.000 --> 0:08:53.600 for samples. But Andy's fantastic keyboard players, so he would 0:08:53.600 --> 0:08:55.800 do a little chords sequences and sketches over some of 0:08:55.840 --> 0:08:59.280 the samples. I always just work with samples, so I'm 0:08:59.320 --> 0:09:02.040 always just add samples and samples and samples. But we 0:09:02.040 --> 0:09:05.000 weren't afraid to reach out to friends and bring other 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:08.200 people in. And a guy John Kyl Kirby, fantastic keyboard 0:09:08.200 --> 0:09:11.440 player and at Los Angeles, and it was just a 0:09:11.480 --> 0:09:14.960 way for us. I think it sounds selfish, but the 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:17.080 process of making wealth that is kind of like and 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:21.880 since I left you there, they're lonely long processes. You're 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.200 at home digging, digging, dig and dig and digging, and 0:09:24.240 --> 0:09:27.439 it goes on for years. So we kind of thought 0:09:27.520 --> 0:09:30.400 like it was just as much about the life experience 0:09:30.440 --> 0:09:33.840 for us as well, like let's hang out with real 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:37.319 people in the studio, you know, and get their energy 0:09:37.400 --> 0:09:40.240 and learn how they make records and learn things and 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.840 enjoy the making of it, and um, you know, have 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:47.520 a wonderful life experience as well as making a record 0:09:47.640 --> 0:09:50.720 quickly hanging out with real people. We're talking about the 0:09:50.840 --> 0:09:54.040 other collaborators on this record. You got to record in 0:09:54.040 --> 0:09:57.680 in Melbourne, but also in in Los Angeles, and and 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:00.360 and you've got to work face to face with is 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.000 it feels almost like a science fiction world right now, 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:06.880 right because when's the last time we were all in 0:10:06.920 --> 0:10:11.040 a studio face to face working, right, But those collaborators, 0:10:11.080 --> 0:10:13.280 let's let's let's talk about some of that and and 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:17.040 how much different it was to go in and make 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:22.080 a song as opposed to build a track layer by layer. Well, 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.240 I think, I mean personally, for me, I only know 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:28.200 how to work one way. And that's like since I 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:31.680 was like fifteen or something like, I'm I play a 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:34.560 lot of instruments really badly, right, So I'm kind of 0:10:34.559 --> 0:10:38.080 an amateur musician, and sampling was like how for me 0:10:38.120 --> 0:10:42.600 personally I figured out this is your Sampling was how 0:10:42.600 --> 0:10:45.439 I figured out this is how I can express myself. 0:10:45.480 --> 0:10:47.200 This is my thing, and I'm going to get really 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:50.640 good at this. And so I always just learned how 0:10:50.679 --> 0:10:52.880 to build in layers and how to add layers of 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.520 pain and like putting this jigsaw together. And so when 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:57.960 we're working with singers now, like I feel like I 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:05.400 still work in similar kind of way. Um, but it's 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:08.480 just using I guess the singers as as samples as well, 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:12.079 like even the way that you know we'll get a 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.440 vocal back and it's never just like oh, lay that 0:11:14.520 --> 0:11:16.640 over the track as the track got sent to them. 0:11:16.679 --> 0:11:19.560 It's especially Robbie will just take it away and chop 0:11:19.600 --> 0:11:21.080 it up and all of a sudden, chorus is in 0:11:21.080 --> 0:11:24.800 a different spot and you know, some words are messed 0:11:24.840 --> 0:11:29.439 around with. So it's still like this process of using 0:11:29.600 --> 0:11:33.640 the vocalists as samples, not just having them kind of 0:11:33.679 --> 0:11:36.280 singing over a sample. Better. So cool about it. And 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:38.800 I think came to the process knowing how we work, 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:40.520 so I wouldn't be in the studio, I would say, 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:43.079 give me a minute. I would run and chop up 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:46.199 the take they've just done for play it back to them. 0:11:46.640 --> 0:11:49.080 Then they would like hang out, maybe listen to it 0:11:49.120 --> 0:11:53.000 for an hour or two, respond to that edit, and 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:55.360 do another vocal take. And it was his beautiful back 0:11:55.400 --> 0:11:59.480 and forth thing. So you said that the theme and 0:11:59.520 --> 0:12:01.960 direction of this record was more clear from the start, 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:06.600 and and let's talk about what that theme was. I 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.160 know part of the focus is something you call forever Voices. 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:13.360 What does that mean? I guess it's something we just 0:12:13.400 --> 0:12:18.120 started thinking about as we were diving into this record 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:22.640 and thinking about guys who have always sampled music. I 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:26.280 love thinking about how, you know, we might grab old 0:12:26.360 --> 0:12:30.160 record recording from the forties and there's someone someone's voice 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.360 captured on that and they've obviously long since passed away, 0:12:33.400 --> 0:12:35.920 but their voice remains like a beautiful ghost for a 0:12:35.920 --> 0:12:38.880 beautiful spirit. And I often think about, well, what was 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:40.600 going on in their life at the time. You know, 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:43.559 it's like a beautiful little time capsule or message from 0:12:43.559 --> 0:12:46.719 the past of someone's whole life and their pain and 0:12:46.760 --> 0:12:50.000 their experience captured in a song. And then maybe that's 0:12:50.040 --> 0:12:52.800 seven inch record. I was just gonna say, it's like 0:12:52.840 --> 0:12:55.679 they're living forever too. It's it's they're always with us 0:12:55.720 --> 0:12:57.920 and they never die because their voice is still there 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:04.160 in this beautiful um. Sorry and then um and like 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:07.000 obviously when we sample on vinyl, like maybe someone else 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:09.640 has owned that recording for like twenty or thirty years 0:13:09.640 --> 0:13:11.880 and played at a bunch of time and times and 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.840 spilled wine on it or added crackles to it, and 0:13:17.160 --> 0:13:19.719 maybe going through a break up, you know, and due 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.960 to you talking about the user kind of imprinting their 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.080 imprinting them the listener, the user imprinting their own touch 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:30.679 on the vinyl they've owned. They put their stylus on it, 0:13:30.720 --> 0:13:32.920 and maybe they put some tears on it, spuilt some 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:36.839 wine on it. That's right, that's right. Played at a 0:13:36.960 --> 0:13:39.880 hundred times, it's got dusty, and that's how the dusty 0:13:39.960 --> 0:13:43.559 sound comes from. And it's like they're impasting their life. 0:13:43.559 --> 0:13:47.600 And then you know there their life onto it as well, 0:13:47.679 --> 0:13:51.280 and their experiences with that music they're imparting onto the 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:53.480 actual vinyl that we end up in. Say so, it's 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.719 a lovely thought, and then and then it makes it's 0:13:55.760 --> 0:13:58.040 very humbling as well because then we're just another part 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.520 of that process. We find the record in sample it, 0:14:01.400 --> 0:14:03.480 put it into a song, and it gets broadcast out 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.880 into the radio, and then someone else is driving along 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:07.400 in their car that day and they hear it and 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:09.040 it's part of their life, and it's just a big 0:14:09.080 --> 0:14:12.040 cycle of life, you know. So it's a lovely thought. 0:14:22.400 --> 0:14:26.320 So the ghost voice is is every recording out there. 0:14:26.400 --> 0:14:29.680 It's or the forever voice that is every recording out there. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:31.720 Is is in a way that the first recording is 0:14:31.720 --> 0:14:34.840 a form of sampling and the listening is a form 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:40.400 of adding to that. But there's also this uh interstellar concept, 0:14:40.800 --> 0:14:45.520 right the the idea that sound waves go out into 0:14:45.560 --> 0:14:50.880 the ethos, literally into space. And you're very specifically referencing 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:53.960 the sending out of sound recordings on the Voyager pro 0:14:54.120 --> 0:14:58.480 back in because the cover of the record is this 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:04.440 image of Andy Dreen, who worked on putting that record together. 0:15:04.520 --> 0:15:09.640 What's what's called the the Golden Golden Record on the 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.760 Voyager Space prep which is such a great such a 0:15:12.760 --> 0:15:15.680 great title, so rich too. But but tell me a 0:15:15.720 --> 0:15:17.920 little about that. How did you come to that story 0:15:18.000 --> 0:15:21.480 and and and what does that mean to you? Well? 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.560 I think, um like on this whole We're on this 0:15:24.600 --> 0:15:28.640 whole sort of wherever voices tangent and then um, I 0:15:28.680 --> 0:15:32.200 was reading a lot about you know, radio broadcast from 0:15:32.200 --> 0:15:35.920 planet Earth and how every record, every song ever played 0:15:35.920 --> 0:15:38.000 on the radio is still floating out there in space. 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:40.400 And you can kind of calculate actually from the data 0:15:40.520 --> 0:15:44.680 was broadcast, how far that those vibrations would have traveled from, 0:15:44.680 --> 0:15:46.600 how many light years you know, they would have traveled 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:49.600 from now, and so that you know, you can picture 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:52.480 planet like a radio station just floating around out there, 0:15:52.480 --> 0:15:55.160 and Elvis is floating up there, and John Lennon and 0:15:55.480 --> 0:15:57.360 you know, and it's like all these beautiful spirits out 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:00.920 there singing to the cosmos since it's it's a beautiful thing. 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.040 And then as we were sort of going deeper into 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.680 this record, we came across the story of the Voyager 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.720 Golden Record, and I think Nassa had approached Annie and 0:16:11.800 --> 0:16:15.800 Carl Sagan to compile it in the end of the seventies, 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.280 and they went on this kind of epic quest to 0:16:20.320 --> 0:16:23.680 because I think they felt such responsibility. You know, it's like, 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:26.960 how do we sum up the sounds and life of 0:16:27.040 --> 0:16:29.360 planet Earth on one golden disc? That's going to be 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:31.680 out there floating around in the Coustmos forever in case 0:16:31.720 --> 0:16:36.040 it's actually ever found by intelligent life. So they began 0:16:36.080 --> 0:16:38.800 this process of compiling this record, and as they were 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:43.560 compiling it, they fell in love and and had had 0:16:43.640 --> 0:16:49.640 the idea to record her and brain waves and heart 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:52.600 waves and have them imprinted on the record as well, 0:16:52.680 --> 0:16:56.920 so maybe intelligence civilizations would learn about our biology if 0:16:56.920 --> 0:16:59.680 they ever found this record. And the day she was 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:03.280 booked to have the scans for that cow proposed to her. 0:17:03.480 --> 0:17:08.040 So um, she says that, um, the sound of a 0:17:08.080 --> 0:17:11.920 young woman's heart in love has brother captured and put 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:13.639 on that record, and we'll be floating out there in 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:15.920 the Costmos for like a billion years. So this is 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.240 this is really an amazing story. And and I got 0:17:19.240 --> 0:17:22.000 a kind of deep into it. I think it's a 0:17:22.080 --> 0:17:24.800 day or two before they record her brain waves that 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:29.320 he proposes. But the added level to that is that 0:17:29.400 --> 0:17:33.480 they knew each other. They knew each other, but they 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:39.320 weren't going out. They never kissed. They're on the phone, right, 0:17:39.840 --> 0:17:42.359 they're not sitting in the same room, and he's like, 0:17:43.359 --> 0:17:49.080 you know, maybe we should get married. An amazing story. 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:51.400 And then she comes back to him after that and says, 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:53.480 is there a way to capture my brand waves on 0:17:53.520 --> 0:17:57.800 an audio recording? And they capture her brain waves while 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:03.320 she's geeking out on on love Now, isn't that? Isn't 0:18:03.320 --> 0:18:05.240 that the most beautiful thing you've ever heard? I mean, 0:18:06.359 --> 0:18:15.720 see this is used to happen. Well, there's there's that. Yeah, 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:19.080 and the Voyagers story for for for anyone who doesn't 0:18:19.720 --> 0:18:23.119 know it, the the idea is that they put this 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:27.960 album in gold on the side of this space probe. 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:30.399 There are two albums, because there are two space probes, 0:18:30.480 --> 0:18:33.240 Voyager one and two. I think they're about fourteen billion 0:18:33.359 --> 0:18:37.320 miles away by now. But they put all this music 0:18:37.440 --> 0:18:40.880 and all these greetings from different people around the globe 0:18:40.880 --> 0:18:44.879 and different languages, but chuck berries on their Mozarts, on 0:18:45.000 --> 0:18:49.640 their Louis Armstrong's on there. I think there's like wild 0:18:49.720 --> 0:18:53.720 sounds and old cons of different things. Yeah, and and 0:18:53.720 --> 0:18:56.479 and not only is it called the Gold Record, but 0:18:56.600 --> 0:19:01.000 did you know this? The engineer for this record Jimmy Ivan, 0:19:01.760 --> 0:19:07.080 oh really yeah, better known for running Interscope Records and 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:09.639 sending out M and M and fifty cent into the 0:19:09.640 --> 0:19:12.440 world and sending this thing to space, but he engineers 0:19:12.480 --> 0:19:19.480 the recordings, right, well, it is it is a you know, 0:19:19.520 --> 0:19:23.160 I guess you know, human mixtape, so that that kind 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.640 of ties in with that. No, absolutely so. So this 0:19:26.720 --> 0:19:29.680 story comes up on on the right, I mean her 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:32.800 images on the cover of the album, and it's this 0:19:32.920 --> 0:19:36.440 amazing image is a picture of her. She's either coming 0:19:36.440 --> 0:19:41.600 into focus or sort of dissolving into digital dust as 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.000 it were. I'm not quite sure which it is. It's 0:19:44.040 --> 0:19:47.640 quite beautiful. Yeah, thanks, it is really beautiful. And that's 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:51.320 our friend Jonathan Sawada, who was exploring I guess we 0:19:51.320 --> 0:19:54.439 were speaking to him about the whole uh, the whole 0:19:54.600 --> 0:19:58.960 thought process about transmissions and recordings, um, not just traveling 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.920 through time but also potentially through space and through other dimensions. 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:06.120 I mean I got interested as well in like mediums 0:20:06.160 --> 0:20:08.840 who claimed to contact people who had passed and record 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:11.560 their voices and stuff like that, and that these strange, 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:15.240 staticky transmissions and you know, I mean YouTube is full 0:20:15.280 --> 0:20:16.919 of them. And the guy was swearing, it's like that 0:20:17.119 --> 0:20:19.920 is that's Karen Carpeter's voice. I've been communicating with her 0:20:19.960 --> 0:20:23.680 and you can hear her very clearly, you know, say 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.080 this or that. But anyway, I was talking to Jonathan 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.160 about this stuff, and so he got this old black 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:32.080 and white photograph of Van and ran it through a 0:20:32.160 --> 0:20:36.639 spectrograph which turns it into sound. And then I think, um, 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:40.720 you know, the various color frequencies are laid out on 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.200 this sorry, the sound frequencies are aligned to different colors 0:20:44.200 --> 0:20:46.879 on the spectrum, and then it's turned back into an 0:20:46.880 --> 0:20:50.600 image again and that's the result you get. It's extremely beautiful. Wow. 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:53.320 So so the picture has been transferred into sound waves 0:20:53.359 --> 0:20:59.280 and then transferred back into image. Amazing, absolutely amazing. And 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:04.520 again that Carl Carl Sagan and and love story comes 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.639 up on the track Interstellar Love with Leon Bridges. Is 0:21:07.680 --> 0:21:10.280 that right? That's right. I mean, it's part of it, 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.359 you know, because we were I was just talking to 0:21:13.440 --> 0:21:15.760 Leon about what this record is all about, and we 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.240 were hanging out in the studio and he obviously the 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.600 song means has its own meaning to him, but it 0:21:21.720 --> 0:21:24.200 was part of the bad story as we were as 0:21:24.240 --> 0:21:28.959 we were developing the idea. Yeah, this notion of forever 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.640 voices and the and the ghost images, the ghost voices 0:21:32.760 --> 0:21:35.159 that you were just talking about on YouTube. That's fascinating 0:21:35.200 --> 0:21:38.840 because the album begins with a track called ghost Story, 0:21:38.960 --> 0:21:44.000 which is a phone message right from someone who wants 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.400 us to know they'll always love us, and we're it's 0:21:47.440 --> 0:21:50.320 so hard when we're not together. And I kept thinking 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:52.639 when I was listening to it, you guys must have 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.639 recorded this record with a different world in mind than 0:21:55.720 --> 0:21:58.320 the one we live in. But when that's the first 0:21:58.400 --> 0:22:01.119 thing you hear when you sit down to play this record, 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.240 it it really feels almost like a social distancing concept 0:22:05.280 --> 0:22:09.560 album from the start, because we are not together now, right. Yeah, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.600 it's it's strange. I mean, it's lovely that you say that, 0:22:13.840 --> 0:22:16.640 and it's strange the way it worked out. I think 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.640 it was. I read of a find of very beautiful 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:25.480 book in a junk store called The Recording Angel, and 0:22:25.560 --> 0:22:29.760 there's a chapter called Solitary Ceremonies, and in um the 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:33.159 writer talks about that solitary thing is sitting down and 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:36.560 like playing a record, and it's almost like a sayan 0:22:36.640 --> 0:22:39.160 someone where summoning goes and it's this process we all 0:22:39.200 --> 0:22:43.160 know very intimately from being teenagers in our bedroom and 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.240 you know your you know music is. I love the 0:22:46.280 --> 0:22:49.840 way it can be very very extremely personal but extremely 0:22:49.880 --> 0:22:52.119 social at the same time. You can experience it at 0:22:52.119 --> 0:22:55.840 a festival with twenty people, but it can also be 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:57.800 this thing where you're listening to a record on your 0:22:57.840 --> 0:23:00.400 own when you got a broken heart it or you're 0:23:00.440 --> 0:23:02.840 lonely and it can comfort you, you know. So that 0:23:02.880 --> 0:23:05.280 we were exploring those, some of those inner journeys and 0:23:05.320 --> 0:23:09.119 some of those inner moments, and I guess it's just 0:23:09.160 --> 0:23:12.760