Speaker 1: This record is a whole lot about the supernatural, I suppose,
Speaker 1: and that it's it's about a death and the questioning
Speaker 1: of what potentially happens after that. Today I welcome special
Speaker 1: guest Andy from Manchester Orchestra. How are you, hi, Kesha,
Speaker 1: how are you? I'm good? I think I'm good. It's
Speaker 1: a debatable answer. I think I think everything. I agree. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's it's pretty good today. These are all right good?
Speaker 1: And where are you joining us from? That are about
Speaker 1: our studio in Atlanta. Thank you for joining us. This
Speaker 1: is a show about really anything supernatural, but also spiritual
Speaker 1: or unexplainable or is. The things that excite me the
Speaker 1: most in the world are the things that are a
Speaker 1: little intangible and yeah, absolutely things you can't quite put
Speaker 1: into words. So I decided to talk about it a bunch,
Speaker 1: even all the stuff you can't really put into words.
Speaker 1: But I think as musicians we kind of do that. Anyways,
Speaker 1: I totally agree. I think it's funny. When I got
Speaker 1: the description of the show, um, it was like, you know,
Speaker 1: alien and ghosts are you know, highly encouraged. We talked
Speaker 1: about I'm like, well, our newest song, the chorus says,
Speaker 1: ghosts and then a single from our last records, The Alien.
Speaker 1: So do you believe in the supernatural? What's your experience
Speaker 1: and your relationship with the supernatural? Yeah, I mean certainly,
Speaker 1: I think that there's a lot of stuff going on
Speaker 1: that we you know, probably can't see and sometimes can
Speaker 1: see or feel. Um, I think there's something supernatural about music. Really,
Speaker 1: I probably feel the closest to to some connection too.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's like a purpose, ultimate purpose, or like what
Speaker 1: I'm supposed to be here. And I'm sure you know,
Speaker 1: being a songwriter yourself, there's there are moments where like
Speaker 1: you really have to like hack a song, like you
Speaker 1: gotta work on that thing for a long time. And
Speaker 1: then there's other times where it's like I think I
Speaker 1: might have just like plugged into something here that wasn't
Speaker 1: wasn't It doesn't really belong to me, and it's in
Speaker 1: a weird way, you know, there's no ownership, Especially when
Speaker 1: that happens, like where I call it, like things fall
Speaker 1: out of my face that don't belong to me exactly. Well,
Speaker 1: and especially if you know right away that it's great,
Speaker 1: then it's like, Okay, something just happened here, you know,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if there's a difference between I
Speaker 1: don't know if one or the other makes the other better.
Speaker 1: What do you think, Like, do you think the songs
Speaker 1: that come out of you like that, or do you
Speaker 1: think they're on the same kind of level playing just
Speaker 1: different experiences. It's kind of like, I don't know. I'm
Speaker 1: looking at a tree right now, So one's like a
Speaker 1: tree and ones like a cat. Both great, very different
Speaker 1: and I very different like creatures. Some are just really rapid,
Speaker 1: fire quick things that I've worked on some songs for
Speaker 1: seven to ten years. Yeah, yeah, and there is a
Speaker 1: nice thing about those. Not to divert too much into
Speaker 1: the song right e side of it, but there is
Speaker 1: a great feeling of working on something for seven to
Speaker 1: ten years and finally getting it right and not rushing
Speaker 1: that thing. Oh please divert. By the way, this podcast
Speaker 1: is about talking about whatever. To me, spirituality is song
Speaker 1: making songs, so that's not diverting at all. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: agree with you. I feel um, even though it's exhausting
Speaker 1: at times and I get exhausted doing it because I
Speaker 1: get so into it, so like in the studio and
Speaker 1: putting so much time and the hours into it, pushing, pushing,
Speaker 1: pushing that I can really kind of like, you know,
Speaker 1: just empty the tank. But when I'm doing it, it's
Speaker 1: truly like I feel what I'm doing, what I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to do, probably more so than anything else in the
Speaker 1: entire world, any experience I've ever had. Or it's like, man,
Speaker 1: I think I've actually found like happiness these moments creating,
Speaker 1: you know, like pure adrenaline. I was gonna say, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1: Jeff Tweety just wrote this book. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you read it about like everyone should write a song.
Speaker 1: The concept of the book is trying to teach people
Speaker 1: who don't think that they can write songs to write
Speaker 1: songs because it's an experience that like every human should
Speaker 1: actually have this connection to. And I agree with that.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to talk to my kids about that, where
Speaker 1: it's like I don't want to force you to like
Speaker 1: come into the studio or do anything, but like I
Speaker 1: gave my daughter my old phone and took everything off
Speaker 1: of voice memos and just let her you say, like,
Speaker 1: here's how you want to record a song, And just
Speaker 1: record a song, and it's linked to my eye cloud
Speaker 1: and I'll get these I'll be somewhere in the studio
Speaker 1: and look and I'll see, Oh, she's she's tracked something
Speaker 1: else herself, you know, and it's in her room going,
Speaker 1: you know, who was a pig in the life is good? Know,
Speaker 1: it's all the beauty of a five year old girl.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy that my my recordings from when I
Speaker 1: was five were not linked to someone else's eye cloud
Speaker 1: to listen to that's like, it's terrifying. I'm totally invading
Speaker 1: your privacy, right I didn't realize her right now, totally.
Speaker 1: I actually used one of them on our new record.
Speaker 1: I used a couple of them. Asked her permission, of course,
Speaker 1: but like thought it would be a really cool way
Speaker 1: to this record is a whole lot about the supernatural,
Speaker 1: I suppose, and that it's it's about a death and
Speaker 1: the questioning of what potentially happens after that. And she's
Speaker 1: telling this story um to me on the phone that
Speaker 1: I recorded without her knowing. I'm recording her about the
Speaker 1: boy who Cried Wolf, and it was this beautiful She's
Speaker 1: got the sweet, little innocent voice, and she's talking about
Speaker 1: the story of sort of like innocence lost and like
Speaker 1: a mistake that you know, this little boy's making in
Speaker 1: order to kind of have attention and this, and it
Speaker 1: was this sort of full circle feeling for me. It's like,
Speaker 1: man um, I love inter twining that with the art
Speaker 1: that I'm making to you know, like having having those
Speaker 1: little things be a part of it. But I agree
Speaker 1: with you that the stuff I was making was like
Speaker 1: on a cassette and it was me like rapping joyful
Speaker 1: joyful from Sister Act two, horrifically embarrassing. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: please find that so I know where it is you do. See.
Speaker 1: I think that it's an embarrassing job. It can be
Speaker 1: because you're burying your soul and you have to be
Speaker 1: totally like in your feelings and all your emotions and
Speaker 1: be so dramatic about it all and sometimes and believe yourself.
Speaker 1: The other part too, it's like and and the performance
Speaker 1: aspect of that, I totally agree it's mortifying, you know,
Speaker 1: like when you really got to get the drone view
Speaker 1: of what we do, it's it is, it's it's super embarrassing.
Speaker 1: And the vulnerability, though, is the thing I think that
Speaker 1: connects with people, you know the most. I find that
Speaker 1: when I'm being my most honest and saying something that
Speaker 1: I believe more so than even trying to make a
Speaker 1: statement or teach to people or preach to people. I
Speaker 1: feel like that's the thing that connects the most set
Speaker 1: that has this kind of almost supernatural, you know, connection
Speaker 1: with with folks. Well, I think part of the the
Speaker 1: supernatural thing that's this almost like call myself like a
Speaker 1: spiritual explorer at the moment because I have no fucking
Speaker 1: other jobs because I can't tour, so I'm I've taken
Speaker 1: on the role of a spiritual explorer. The thing that's
Speaker 1: been so eye opening the past, like you know, quarantine anytime,
Speaker 1: it's been like we're all very, very connected. We can
Speaker 1: try to separate, whether it's religion or you know, what
Speaker 1: group you're in or what thing you're into, and we
Speaker 1: all like what bands we like or whatever it is,
Speaker 1: but we're also connected. And I think just realizing how
Speaker 1: connected I am not only to like the earth and
Speaker 1: the moon and my animals and my friends, just once
Speaker 1: you realize you see and God has such a weird baggage,
Speaker 1: such a weird word, but like you see the universe
Speaker 1: not only in yourself but in everybody you deal with.
Speaker 1: It's helped me be a little bit more patient because
Speaker 1: that connects and is what has made me be like, oh, wait,
Speaker 1: we're all the same, like we're not really that yeah,
Speaker 1: and they and we're attempting to figure out the same
Speaker 1: things and we're all, you know, ultimately in a search.
Speaker 1: Whether it's you say it in an incredibly poetic way
Speaker 1: or just just a flat out way. I do think
Speaker 1: it's like we're all looking for peace and connection and
Speaker 1: um acceptance, you know, that's another big one. And seeing
Speaker 1: each other for who you really are. I think that's
Speaker 1: been a struggle for me in my life. I don't
Speaker 1: know if it's the same on the male end of
Speaker 1: being an artist spectrum, but it's like a female it's
Speaker 1: just it's really weird because like you're just this being Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can't imagine that, and I can see how that
Speaker 1: would be that it almost feels like you're having to
Speaker 1: do more than just the job that you you know
Speaker 1: that you want to do, you know, and that seems brutal.
Speaker 1: I hate and the very yeah, I hate in the
Speaker 1: small areas of my career when I have to go
Speaker 1: do something that I didn't like that was a part
Speaker 1: of you know, that it's like, oh, it's a part
Speaker 1: of what you do Oh, well, I really hate this.
Speaker 1: I might have not done this if I knew this
Speaker 1: was like a part of it, um, but I do.
Speaker 1: I could totally understand, especially somebody you know. You and
Speaker 1: I I think are about the same age, and we
Speaker 1: met really young too, and we were like starting our
Speaker 1: careers together. I think we both met in two thousand
Speaker 1: and eight at LA a million lives ago. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: that was such an important moment for my life. Is
Speaker 1: that a really important moment for your life too? Yeah?
Speaker 1: It is absolutely. That moment is a big punctuating mark
Speaker 1: in my life. If I were to draw a graph
Speaker 1: of my life, that would be a very very important
Speaker 1: moment the day wild because that's that is the same
Speaker 1: exact feeling I have. That was the first time that
Speaker 1: like it felt like it could be real, like maybe
Speaker 1: this is actually Oh my god. It's just got chills
Speaker 1: because it was like I was like, oh, ship, like
Speaker 1: all this manifesting and believing in myself and all that
Speaker 1: kind of hokey bullshit that I've been telling myself since
Speaker 1: I was little, and my mom has been telling me
Speaker 1: and my friends and managers, and it's like all of
Speaker 1: that is actually like manifesting into a real life experience
Speaker 1: where people are watching me perform and I feel like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna ship my fucking pants. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: get it together, bitch, don't shoot your pants. And then
Speaker 1: my mom handed me a shot of whiskey and she's like,
Speaker 1: fucking relaxed, take this and just go. And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: oh I needed your mom in that moment for sure.
Speaker 1: You know, my coping mechanism was like, well, you're really
Speaker 1: inocure on stage, so just look extremely angry. Never smile,
Speaker 1: you know. That's how we're gonna get out of this.
Speaker 1: We always do that. Whenever there's a photographer, I'm like,
Speaker 1: just look really pissed because you look cooler than when
Speaker 1: you're smiling. You look like a fucking loser. So funny,
Speaker 1: why is that when you smile, do you look like
Speaker 1: a loser in pictures? I like, specifically try not to
Speaker 1: smile in pictures because I look like a fucking dork.
Speaker 1: It's true. I tried to do a reverse bit of
Speaker 1: that in like two fourteen, where I maybe crack a
Speaker 1: little smile out of pictures, like no, you just don't
Speaker 1: look great. It just looks infinitely less cool. But then
Speaker 1: also making the Zoolander face also cringe e it is
Speaker 1: you can't win. I just I worked with um the
Speaker 1: very lovely Paris Jackson last year on her debut album
Speaker 1: Listen to It. I love it actually here, thank you
Speaker 1: very much. We she was in Atlanta working on something
Speaker 1: during the Manchester photo shoot. We were working on a
Speaker 1: song together and someone said, well, y'all should snap the
Speaker 1: pictures together because you got the song coming out. And
Speaker 1: we do it, and the photographer immediately, I've ben't taking
Speaker 1: photos all day, she pops in for one picture. Photographers like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, she's just got it. I'm like, well,
Speaker 1: what's she doing, you know, like, what's the deal. And
Speaker 1: she goes, it's harrow and she you must look like
Speaker 1: everything is dead to you. Look like you're dead inside,
Speaker 1: Look like you're dead inside. And then you look the
Speaker 1: coolest on camera. Damn. That's really depressing. And I'm gonna
Speaker 1: fighter system by smiling and laughing as much as possible
Speaker 1: on being a fucking embarrassing human being. Yeah, and embrace
Speaker 1: the nerd, embrace the strange. That's it's it's more, that's
Speaker 1: the more important part. You know. Well, Buddha's always smiling.
Speaker 1: It's very true. It's got a Buddha right out there,
Speaker 1: a little baby Buddha in the in the live room. Um,
Speaker 1: it's always smiling, see and he looks like not a loser.
Speaker 1: So true, very peaceful in fact, like maybe like the goal.
Speaker 1: So I think joy is important. I'm gonna start smiling
Speaker 1: in photos and look less serious. That is my commitment
Speaker 1: to you, not that you asked me to make that Chile. No,
Speaker 1: I'm going to make that commending back to you. And
Speaker 1: the next time we see each other, we'll go look
Speaker 1: at this terrible photo of both of us. Look how
Speaker 1: much of a loser I look like. But we're being bud.
Speaker 1: We're proud, Yes, exactly, we're proud. When was the first song?
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question? Yeah? Please? When was
Speaker 1: the first song you wrote that you felt connected with people,
Speaker 1: even if it was on a smaller like you were
Speaker 1: really young, or you're playing a coffee shop or whatever
Speaker 1: it was like, do you remember what was the song?
Speaker 1: Is the song embarrassing now to look back? Oh? Well, yes,
Speaker 1: I have quite an embarrassing I've written my past riddled
Speaker 1: with embarrassment. I'm trying to figure out how to write
Speaker 1: about how embarrassing it is to be in my skin suit.
Speaker 1: But I haven't quite figured out how to do that
Speaker 1: in a cool way because I just can't be like
Speaker 1: I am so embarrassing, Like that's not a good song.
Speaker 1: So that's that's exactly what I would do, just say
Speaker 1: that exact word. But yeah, I wrote a song when
Speaker 1: I was like thirteen about this guy I and I
Speaker 1: was drunk off in like pink champagne. I'm thirteen, I've
Speaker 1: never had a sip of champagne. I'm an idiot, And
Speaker 1: it was like it was like a friend of the family,
Speaker 1: and I was like, you're just It's just all very,
Speaker 1: very embarrassing when I look back upon it, and I
Speaker 1: think that there were kids in my class were like,
Speaker 1: I really liked this song. I just hope no one
Speaker 1: in the world ever hears it. Yeah, that no one
Speaker 1: got a copy of it. Somehow, I was burning CDs
Speaker 1: of my first EP a little MacBook and selling them
Speaker 1: to people for five dollars so I could save up
Speaker 1: to buy an iPod or something like that. Um, and
Speaker 1: they're horrible. And it was obviously about one girl that
Speaker 1: everyone knew at your school, and you're selling it at
Speaker 1: the school school at the small school, at the small school,
Speaker 1: and you like call this song, I can straight. I
Speaker 1: wrote a song called Stephen about my crush who was
Speaker 1: named Stephen. Like, no names were changed, just I reversed
Speaker 1: the name and her name was Tor and this song
Speaker 1: was called Iraq. We're so embarrassing. I don't know how
Speaker 1: I thought I'd get away with that. At a certain point,
Speaker 1: jig was up immediately. I didn't even pretend, at least
Speaker 1: you who were creative about it, it's just Steven. I
Speaker 1: didn't even like to change the pH to a V,
Speaker 1: like fully, it's about this, It's about Steve. It's about you, dude.
Speaker 1: We're still friends. Surprisingly, our friendship lasted that, Like that's great.
Speaker 1: I still know Tori do. Yeah, we're we're yeah, we're
Speaker 1: still good. I started at Lanta Hawks game a few
Speaker 1: years ago. These are okay, I think because you're so
Speaker 1: young too, It's like they're kind enough to go like,
Speaker 1: that's okay. Is it flattering that a song written about you,
Speaker 1: even if you like don't change the name or just
Speaker 1: put the name backwards, Like, is that flattering? It's a
Speaker 1: really great question. Have you ever had a song written
Speaker 1: about you not that like has my name explicitly in it? Right,
Speaker 1: trying to think, I don't think I've ever had a
Speaker 1: song written about me. Well, I'm going to write a
Speaker 1: song about you, and I'm gonna smile while I think
Speaker 1: we write two smiling songs about each other. Okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna write you a song that's my homework assignment done perfect.
Speaker 1: I'll do the same. We'll put it at the end
Speaker 1: of the podcast. That's Oh my god, totally ship. But
Speaker 1: you just put out, Um, I just saw a video
Speaker 1: you were doing, or you were doing. I just saw
Speaker 1: a video you put out that was very on brand
Speaker 1: for the podcast. It was like there was a ghost
Speaker 1: and a child was hanging out with a ghost and
Speaker 1: everybody freaks out, but then they think they escaped the ghost,
Speaker 1: but the surprises that the ghost come with her and
Speaker 1: she's really happy about it. So what's the story behind that? So,
Speaker 1: I mean, I think that video to me, when I
Speaker 1: read the treatment was you know, being a ad. It
Speaker 1: kind of broke my heart. And I liked this idea
Speaker 1: of well telling kind of a dueling narrative of like
Speaker 1: kind of turning the genre on its head where there
Speaker 1: is a little girl seeing kind of sort of terrifying
Speaker 1: things that I think any little child or even adult,
Speaker 1: like as the mother at the end CS is terrifying.
Speaker 1: But she knows that it's her dad, and she feels
Speaker 1: comfortable with this this guy, and she's stoked that he's around.
Speaker 1: And the mom's life is sort of falling apart vaguely
Speaker 1: in the background. Um, that was something we didn't want
Speaker 1: to like really pop on too much, to make it
Speaker 1: too much of like a sad obvious thing. But like
Speaker 1: you know, obviously she's devastated because you know her her
Speaker 1: husband is gone, and this little girl is is finding
Speaker 1: peace and happiness still being with her dad. And so
Speaker 1: I like the supernatural side of that thing, like how
Speaker 1: cool would that be? That, like the haunting is a
Speaker 1: blessing and she didn't know the difference. She's just excited
Speaker 1: to be with her daddy. Um. And then the other
Speaker 1: side of it is I think what I guess the metaphors,
Speaker 1: you know, are are the people that we lose in
Speaker 1: our lives that matters so much to us and we've
Speaker 1: had so much time and experience with them. They are
Speaker 1: still there and there are times where you can turn
Speaker 1: to that that memory that that it's more than a memory.
Speaker 1: It is, you know, this was all this all came
Speaker 1: from my brother in law, Robert, who was the part
Speaker 1: my partner in the band and um, you know co
Speaker 1: songwriter guy that we've been making music together since I
Speaker 1: was writing songs about Tory. God bless him for stick
Speaker 1: and with me. Um since high school. Yeah, he was
Speaker 1: like fourteen and I was sixteen when he had a
Speaker 1: little studio in his basement and we would start making
Speaker 1: records together. Um. But his father and he ended up
Speaker 1: marrying my sister. So he's literally like and um yeah,
Speaker 1: and so we're we're a family business. Um. And his
Speaker 1: father was a really big influence of mine early on
Speaker 1: with songwriting. His dad was a musician and encouraged me
Speaker 1: at coffee shops when I was like playing at Kadoba
Speaker 1: for twenty dollars at a burrito, you know for three
Speaker 1: hours to you know start shopping, you know, songs up
Speaker 1: and figure out what I'm doing as a kid. And
Speaker 1: but as his father had a I think almost four
Speaker 1: year battle with cancer and passed away right when we
Speaker 1: were writing and making this album. Um, and it affected
Speaker 1: all of us deeply, so many nights and just weeping
Speaker 1: together and obviously, I started I write a lot about
Speaker 1: what's happening around us, and so the record started to
Speaker 1: become about that and about watching my friend, almost as
Speaker 1: a love letter to to my best friend Robert, you know,
Speaker 1: wanting to be able to fix something that I can't,
Speaker 1: and also a way to cope with this in process,
Speaker 1: the tragedy in my life that you know wasn't as
Speaker 1: important a tragedy, but still heavily affected me. So it
Speaker 1: was also this sort of the video felt like a
Speaker 1: very a unique way to tie all of that end
Speaker 1: as sort of a representation and a tribute to his dad,
Speaker 1: to of like, man, you're still so much a part
Speaker 1: of us. And the cover of our album actually is
Speaker 1: the silhouette of Robert's dad walking into the afterlife where
Speaker 1: bodies are sort of floating. WHOA, that's not Is that out? No?
Speaker 1: The picture is that out? Don't know the picture is out.
Speaker 1: It's like, but it's it's this big on digital. You'll
Speaker 1: see it on the vinyl, you know, Um, yeah, it was.
Speaker 1: It's kind of a cool tribute for him. That's beautiful
Speaker 1: and I'm sorry that's really hard sounding and tragic, and
Speaker 1: also it's something that we as people like it's I
Speaker 1: don't know how you're supposed to process things like death
Speaker 1: or just like tragedies. I don't know how to deal
Speaker 1: with the at all, aside from writing songs about it.
Speaker 1: That's how I deal with everything. Yeah, that's right, you know.
Speaker 1: And Robert would say, if he's sitting here, this is
Speaker 1: something every single person who has lived will deal with
Speaker 1: or has dealt with. And you know, for him, he
Speaker 1: was he found strength and now I'm finding this strength
Speaker 1: in it too, of like, man, it's okay to talk
Speaker 1: about that, and like, in fact, we should talk about
Speaker 1: that too. And I was amazed that he wanted to
Speaker 1: talk about it because when I was writing it, we
Speaker 1: would have discussions. I'm like, do we never have to
Speaker 1: bring it up ever? It can just be we can
Speaker 1: be as you know, secretive as we want about this stuff,
Speaker 1: and does never have to come up in interviews. And
Speaker 1: he really wanted to talk about it because he felt
Speaker 1: it was a way to help people. I don't know
Speaker 1: if you also feel this way about songwriting and how
Speaker 1: I feel the best when I I sort of started
Speaker 1: to realize that maybe I'm actually in like some form
Speaker 1: of medicine, you know, like I'm not smart enough to
Speaker 1: be a doctor. But maybe that's what we're kind of
Speaker 1: doing in a million percent believe. When I started, I
Speaker 1: was like just like a while old Tasmanian devil on
Speaker 1: the loose, But there was always like an intention behind
Speaker 1: everything that was like I want to make people feel
Speaker 1: safe and have a place to play, Like I think
Speaker 1: it's really important for people to have a place to
Speaker 1: play as adults and as animals like my cats fucking
Speaker 1: play and bite each other all dance like. We don't
Speaker 1: have that as humans, Like we don't have a place
Speaker 1: to to play. So then I play an instrument and
Speaker 1: I play with my voice, and I'll play with the guitar,
Speaker 1: and I'll play the piano, and it's usually pretty just
Speaker 1: like shitty, and sometimes it's really fun and funny and
Speaker 1: sometimes it's really fucking sad. But having a place where
Speaker 1: other people could come and just have that experience with me,
Speaker 1: I realized it's so therapeutic for me to share it
Speaker 1: with the people that are kind enough to give a
Speaker 1: ship to listen to it. Absolutely, yeah, it is very
Speaker 1: like it's like a very has become Like you were saying,
Speaker 1: like I'm not smart enough to be a doctor. I
Speaker 1: dropped out of school, I got my g E D.
Speaker 1: I mixed up, where's a lot what I'm probably a
Speaker 1: d h D. I think I'm a hypochondriact. Like we
Speaker 1: got a lot going on over here. Yeah, but I
Speaker 1: feel like I'm I'm matching you one for one. But
Speaker 1: I just want people to know they're not alone in
Speaker 1: all the feelings because I feel everything. So I think
Speaker 1: if you can help one person not feel alone and
Speaker 1: whatever they going through, like maybe a passing of a
Speaker 1: loved one, then it is that's really helpful to know
Speaker 1: you're not alone in some things. Life fucking weird and
Speaker 1: hard and fun and beautiful, but we're also like existentially alone.
Speaker 1: It's so nice to feel like you have some camaraderie
Speaker 1: and companionship in all the emotions. Absolutely, And I feel
Speaker 1: like those years the hardest years for me. I guess
Speaker 1: during that period of time was like probably like sixteen
Speaker 1: to twenty four when it was just like I don't
Speaker 1: think I had more alone during that period of just like, man,
Speaker 1: I don't think that I can I actually relate to anyone,
Speaker 1: And I think that that's such a well, I'm just
Speaker 1: my a d h D is now kicking into but
Speaker 1: it's sort of the live in it. I live in
Speaker 1: it all day every day. You just go there's no
Speaker 1: judgment here, you know, when like having younger fans, I
Speaker 1: always felt like that sort of got a bad connotation
Speaker 1: for certain artists, that like that was something that you know,
Speaker 1: was like not a good thing, And it was like, man,
Speaker 1: when did you like music or connect to music more
Speaker 1: than during that period of time, Like obviously I connect
Speaker 1: to music in a way different way and maybe even
Speaker 1: deeper way now, but maybe not, Like I had just
Speaker 1: been something magical about that period of time that like
Speaker 1: I wasn't ever thinking about what the snare drum sounded like,
Speaker 1: for like if the lead singer was singing out a
Speaker 1: key or any of that. Ship it's like you go
Speaker 1: back list of your favorite or it's like, oh they
Speaker 1: sound like Ship and they're amazing. Yeah, oh my god,
Speaker 1: And some of the records I go back and listen
Speaker 1: to and I'm just so judgy about, oh is that
Speaker 1: a cool band or whatever? And at the time I
Speaker 1: just liked the song. And even you're talking about your daughter,
Speaker 1: like singing into her, into your eye cloud that you're
Speaker 1: secretly spying on, like that is really probably so inspiring
Speaker 1: because I almost feel like, I know I'm an adult supposedly,
Speaker 1: but I feel like as much as you can tap
Speaker 1: back into that childlike wonder of magic, of looking at
Speaker 1: the world like that, the happier maybe and full of
Speaker 1: excitement about everything that's going on, just like really just
Speaker 1: enjoying and appreciating and not judging and not judging yourself
Speaker 1: and being you're like kind of blissfully unaware of like
Speaker 1: a lot of things when you're that little. I agree,
Speaker 1: it's like you want to do the things that self
Speaker 1: help things, the right things to get yourself in a
Speaker 1: spot that you know you can continue, and you want
Speaker 1: to get smarter as a musician, as songwriter and producer
Speaker 1: and all those things. Um, but if you lose that
Speaker 1: what you're talking about, I feel that's when it becomes
Speaker 1: the most frustrating. Um, I don't producer that. No, No,
Speaker 1: you go ahead. UM. This woman we have worked with
Speaker 1: our last two records, Katherine Marks, this incredible woman from
Speaker 1: Australia now in England. She is really a like she's
Speaker 1: sort of like a magic believer about sounds, and you know,
Speaker 1: she'll say stuff like the way that I had heard
Speaker 1: a couple of records she'd worked on when we had
Speaker 1: our first conversation. But she's going like, Andy, I want
Speaker 1: every song to sound like we're walking through a house,
Speaker 1: you know, and I and each song is a different
Speaker 1: room in the house. And I was like, oh god,
Speaker 1: like I'm so in already. And she'd say stuff like
Speaker 1: this song needs to sound like Bees. Let's make it
Speaker 1: sound like Bees. That's perfect. And you know, some people
Speaker 1: I would tell like, I'm really excited about this, and like,
Speaker 1: what does she mean bees? I was like, I don't
Speaker 1: even know. I'm just excited that she is talking about
Speaker 1: music that way, you know, totally. Oh my god, I'm
Speaker 1: working on music room right now. I want it. I
Speaker 1: wanted to feel like the feeling of swimming in giant
Speaker 1: ocean waves. That's awesome, Like that's my goal. What is
Speaker 1: is it? In both sort of the melody and the
Speaker 1: lyrics and like the good and the bad and the
Speaker 1: just how you get tossed around by this thing that
Speaker 1: is bigger than you and you have to just learn
Speaker 1: to float or keep your head above water at some point,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, like it's all
Speaker 1: so much bigger than you that you just like you
Speaker 1: got to accept it like you're swimming in the ocean.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's the That's that's where I land. Every
Speaker 1: time I start to worry about not having all the answers,
Speaker 1: it's like it's it is so much, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: so much bigger that it's almost I mean it's it's
Speaker 1: it's fun to wonder and explore like you would, you said,
Speaker 1: a spiritual um explore like I love that. That's I
Speaker 1: totally understand that, UM. And there's also a sense of
Speaker 1: that like there was some great quote I read. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna butcher it totally. But it's like, you know, you
Speaker 1: can find um. You can find atheism immediately, um, you
Speaker 1: know when you start to break it down scientifically. But
Speaker 1: the war and where that you dig down and the
Speaker 1: more you realize that so many things are unexplainable, like
Speaker 1: you'll find God or the universe that whatever it is
Speaker 1: is so apparent at the bottom of that glass, you know.
Speaker 1: And I love that. I love thinking that way me too,
Speaker 1: because I read that your family there's a really religious
Speaker 1: past right with your Yes, yes, I would say grandfather
Speaker 1: and father both pastors. Oh that's like hardcore. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I broke the mold. You sure did, but like you
Speaker 1: still have a connection with the infinite consciousness of goodness
Speaker 1: or whatever the funk people want to call it. Sounds
Speaker 1: like there's that connection and that's the most important thing. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: You know, my my grandfather was probably more I know
Speaker 1: it was, was more of a legalist, you know, sort
Speaker 1: of he would yell at people in church. You know,
Speaker 1: it's like during a period of time, um where it
Speaker 1: was just you know, more like you're doing it wrong.
Speaker 1: I would be so scared if someone tells me I'm
Speaker 1: doing something wrong. I just infinitely cry at their faith.
Speaker 1: He wrote a song about it because at his at
Speaker 1: his funeral five years ago, six years ago, they played
Speaker 1: sort of like the Greatest Hits montage of like all
Speaker 1: of his sermons, and like he was literally like he
Speaker 1: was just screaming five minutes. I'm like, oh God. And
Speaker 1: I think that had not the screaming necessarily, but sort
Speaker 1: of the old school Southern mentality that that they had
Speaker 1: really pushed my dad to not be like that with us,
Speaker 1: and was far more of a like I'm going to
Speaker 1: be proud of you whatever you decide you want to do,
Speaker 1: and I'm gonna love you. No matter who you decided
Speaker 1: to be. My mother was both was also like that,
Speaker 1: So I've definitely I had support in that sense. I
Speaker 1: never felt like I was I was a bad kid
Speaker 1: being blasphemous for not being a part of a specific church. No,
Speaker 1: not at all. You know, even to this day, I
Speaker 1: don't really belong to any church. Um. I I do
Speaker 1: like my kids to a certain degree to be a
Speaker 1: part of, like you know, a community in in that way,
Speaker 1: and um, I can appreciate a lot of things that
Speaker 1: I got from it. I could also have a pretty
Speaker 1: good idea of what I don't want to you know,
Speaker 1: have be a part of my my family out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: A is the of the date it's released. Worked on
Speaker 1: it for the last several years. UM. Obviously didn't expect
Speaker 1: it to kind of come out like this, I think,
Speaker 1: but I'm not. There's nothing really special about our situation
Speaker 1: compared to anybody else's. But um yeah, it's just it's
Speaker 1: been an interesting experience. You know. It's you know, when
Speaker 1: you the usual way that you go and promote things,
Speaker 1: and you can kind of you leave and you go
Speaker 1: somewhere and then there's that time just sort of process
Speaker 1: that and think about the things that have happened, and
Speaker 1: there's really none of that here. It's just kind of
Speaker 1: go go go slam together. And you know that I'm
Speaker 1: back to dad time. And you know, are you doing
Speaker 1: this out of your house? No? We we bought a
Speaker 1: home and two thirteen and sound proofed it and renovated it,
Speaker 1: and it's it's Manchester's home base. We run our merch
Speaker 1: from here and record everything from here. So I think,
Speaker 1: you know, at the end of it. Even the album
Speaker 1: title that we just came up with, you know, it's
Speaker 1: called the Million Masks of God. Um came from a
Speaker 1: poem I found in like just a book of sort
Speaker 1: of old I like books of spiritual you know, daily
Speaker 1: spiritual thoughts and not like the new wave. You know,
Speaker 1: you know Christian chickens. You don't love chicken soup for
Speaker 1: the salt? Are you crazy? That was in every across Tennessee,
Speaker 1: just by the way our childhood. We couldn't get away
Speaker 1: from chicken soup for the sale, no doubt. Um. No,
Speaker 1: I like the stuff that was written hundreds of years
Speaker 1: ago by people who were still trying to figure out
Speaker 1: the same kind of stuff, you know, the same thing.
Speaker 1: I started the podcast where Yep, we're all just searching
Speaker 1: for the same ship. It's right. And this guy Um.
Speaker 1: The name of the poem is gold Leaves, and in
Speaker 1: the poem he talks about how when he was young,
Speaker 1: he would look for God and it would frustrate him
Speaker 1: that he couldn't find God and that it was Um
Speaker 1: and that made him angry and defiant towards God and Um.
Speaker 1: He wanted so badly to connect to it, but the
Speaker 1: less that he could connect to it, the more and
Speaker 1: more he didn't believe it. And there's a line where
Speaker 1: it says like, behold, you know, a new day is
Speaker 1: here and and and now that I'm older and I'm
Speaker 1: I've I've experienced life, I'm realizing that God is everywhere
Speaker 1: be and he says, behold the million mass of God.
Speaker 1: It's in the leaves on the ground, it's in the trees,
Speaker 1: it's everywhere that you're looking is God. It's in people,
Speaker 1: and it's you know specifically, and people that um, you
Speaker 1: know aren't really privileged, and people who are living a
Speaker 1: much harder life than you or I know about. And Um,
Speaker 1: I was really struck by that sentiment of like, man,
Speaker 1: I feel that way, I don't feel you know, I
Speaker 1: think even in my earlier records, it was such a
Speaker 1: I love hate relationship with the idea of God and
Speaker 1: and and just sort of getting to this peaceful place
Speaker 1: of like, oh, I think I can accept this, and
Speaker 1: in fact, I think I can lean into it and
Speaker 1: find some peace and start getting rid of some guilt.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, why are we on the same page
Speaker 1: about this? So hard? Sorry, keep going, I'm sorry. No,
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's that's basically it, you know. And
Speaker 1: so the whole concept of the record, I suppose deals
Speaker 1: with that. It's it's sort of going through this really
Speaker 1: difficult period of time that that my best friend and
Speaker 1: brother in law was going through that I was also experiencing,
Speaker 1: and then my own journey of realizing, you know, like
Speaker 1: man like. The record ends with this line of i'd say,
Speaker 1: at the very end, all this time I thought I
Speaker 1: was right. All this time, I thought I was right.
Speaker 1: It's sort of this idea of like dying and at
Speaker 1: the very end of life. I don't think anybody, no
Speaker 1: matter what you believe or how hard you believe it, um,
Speaker 1: you're not going to be right about the specific thing
Speaker 1: you think is going to happen. You know, because like
Speaker 1: you just said, it's bigger than we could ever possibly comprehend.
Speaker 1: And who knows, like we might straight up turn into
Speaker 1: like tell a Tubbies. I don't know, like nobody knows.
Speaker 1: I love talking about tubbies. This morning, my son was
Speaker 1: watching Maybe We're Maybe that's maybe that's the answer. So
Speaker 1: because I'm like kind of obsessed with I hope I'm
Speaker 1: the cool one. I hope I'm one of the cool teletubbies.
Speaker 1: I remember there's one that was really kind of a
Speaker 1: creep one creeped me out. I forget which one. There
Speaker 1: was a nerdy teletubby for sure, that's probably none of
Speaker 1: them had None of them had great names. I think
Speaker 1: that also hurt the cause, you know, it was like
Speaker 1: a binky Winky and something like that. Of course, I'm like,
Speaker 1: I've succumbti. I'm going to be binky Winky. But that's fine,
Speaker 1: Like I just I'm like, you know what, I'm into it. Whatever.
Speaker 1: But even if I was right about it, and we
Speaker 1: all do turn in teletubbies, and that's like something I
Speaker 1: was very like heavily convicted, like the conviction that we
Speaker 1: are turning into teletubbies, and I'm gonna make a church.
Speaker 1: We're gonna worship teletubbies and give me your money and
Speaker 1: you know, confess to the Teletupia thing is fascinating. It's
Speaker 1: it's yeah, and it's a form of like control, right
Speaker 1: that people like want to have control over other people.
Speaker 1: I think that's really what control, and also like community
Speaker 1: around like see this is right, you're not we're not alone, Okay,
Speaker 1: then there's lots of us, so we're right about it.
Speaker 1: I feel like it's comforting to some people. For me,
Speaker 1: it's just kind of like I think everybody's probably right
Speaker 1: and wrong in all the kinds of ways. Like you
Speaker 1: were just saying in your music, it doesn't matter if
Speaker 1: you're right anyways, because we all have to die. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: we're all going to figure it out at some point.
Speaker 1: I think the part of growing up in the church
Speaker 1: that I didn't like was and I didn't really see
Speaker 1: that because I moved to Toronto from ages seven to
Speaker 1: fourteen and my dad ended up pastoring like a nondenominational
Speaker 1: church with over a hundred and forty different nationalities. So
Speaker 1: I went from like a white kid in a pretty
Speaker 1: white Maryetta, Georgia to a place where like I was
Speaker 1: the minority and that that church and in my school,
Speaker 1: in my first school I went to was um, Like,
Speaker 1: there were twenty six kids. I think four kids were
Speaker 1: Chinese and there were two white kids, and it was
Speaker 1: you after yes, and it was the greatest. Those were
Speaker 1: an incredibly informative on who I wanted to become. And
Speaker 1: my parents were really smart for putting us in that
Speaker 1: situation because, you know, other than like really getting into
Speaker 1: Dragon ball Z and all of the culture that those
Speaker 1: kids had that I had no idea existed, you know,
Speaker 1: just like, holy sh it, they have video games I've
Speaker 1: never heard of like this. They're way cooler than me. Um.
Speaker 1: It just made me realize the world was so much
Speaker 1: bigger and that this kind of small area of the
Speaker 1: bubble as I like to call it. I tell someone
Speaker 1: I live in the suburbs of Atlanta, and there's very
Speaker 1: much a bubble here of people who you know, don't
Speaker 1: really act like anything is happening outside of the bubble
Speaker 1: um And I hate that, And I hate when the
Speaker 1: church is that bubble. I think, like, if they're the
Speaker 1: church should be anything, It should not be the bubble.
Speaker 1: It should be the come in right. Well, I think
Speaker 1: sometimes the bubble is comfortable seeming. I don't know if
Speaker 1: you had this experience, like when before quarantine happened, it
Speaker 1: was like I was in the bubble of tour. I've
Speaker 1: never cooked anything in my life ever because they've been
Speaker 1: in It's really actually turns out not useful for end
Speaker 1: of times, not great for quarantining purposes, Like I would
Speaker 1: be the bottom of the fucking tender list of like
Speaker 1: cannot cook. Can sing at you, Yeah you're gone on
Speaker 1: the Oregon Trail, I'm dead. Survival of the Fittest, You're fucked.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to keep a basil plant alive and I'm
Speaker 1: so depressed. It's just dying in front of my eyes.
Speaker 1: I don't want to do it. I like, I give up.
Speaker 1: I forget the point. Oh. The bubble though that I
Speaker 1: was living in was just like just go hard and
Speaker 1: like do your job and do it well and love
Speaker 1: your life, and parts of that are really beautiful. But
Speaker 1: I think I was missing, like pretty much my growth
Speaker 1: is stunted at the time I started touring, which is
Speaker 1: really young, so I feel like if I had some
Speaker 1: catching up to do, It's crazy. I can I can
Speaker 1: totally relate. I don't think I hadn't this This last
Speaker 1: year was the first we did sneak one socially distant showing,
Speaker 1: so I keep the streak alive. But I had played
Speaker 1: at least, you know, at least ten to fifteen shows
Speaker 1: a year, if not hundreds of shows a year since
Speaker 1: I was seventeen sixteen. You know, I'm sure you were
Speaker 1: similar ways, like the idea of even being home for
Speaker 1: this long and not having that outlet. How did you
Speaker 1: feel when it first starting case, I felt like a
Speaker 1: sense of relief a little bit. At the beginning, it
Speaker 1: was like, okay, it's not this is okay that, like
Speaker 1: the schedule has sort of been. I always loved when
Speaker 1: school or something gets canceled. I love, yeah, I love
Speaker 1: when somebody else cancels something. So then I'm like, I
Speaker 1: didn't cause it, but it's canceled, So I fucking chill.
Speaker 1: But it's not my fault, so I don't have to
Speaker 1: feel guilty, but I can secretly just like kick back. Okay,
Speaker 1: that's a little bit how I felt at the beginning.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, in a little bit of
Speaker 1: a Donald Trump paralysis. I think he just scared the
Speaker 1: ship out of me and it was just like a
Speaker 1: little bit with both going on. I was like, this
Speaker 1: is weird, and then I'm starting to enjoy being a
Speaker 1: person like nowish, But for solid like seven months, I
Speaker 1: was like, I hate this with so much anxiety. I
Speaker 1: don't know how to cook anything. I'm useless. What do
Speaker 1: I do with my time? I should be entertaining entertainment? Curious?
Speaker 1: Is that what it was? Like? You do you think
Speaker 1: if you would have been able to go out and
Speaker 1: play a show or like create something the studio, were
Speaker 1: you writing? Like? Yeah, I write all the times. I
Speaker 1: can't help it. It's like literally a form of just
Speaker 1: being functional for me. I don't write songs because it's
Speaker 1: like it's not even that I want to, it's how
Speaker 1: do I cope with being alive? Yeah? Amen, totally, I
Speaker 1: can so relate. That's exactly what it is. Yea. And
Speaker 1: in fact, anytime you sit down and try to do that,
Speaker 1: thing just feels so forced and strange and I get
Speaker 1: stressed out. But then like I'll be I like wake
Speaker 1: up at three in the morning and write a whole
Speaker 1: song and be like, oh that was nice. Thank you?
Speaker 1: Whoever did that? Thank you? Did you did you feel
Speaker 1: peace at the beginning, and then you know, so you
Speaker 1: said for a minute, and and of course that like
Speaker 1: a snow like a snow day kind of feeling where
Speaker 1: it's like, oh, it's like if you got off of
Speaker 1: school because there was snow and you're like, oh, I
Speaker 1: get to sleep in. It was kind of that feeling,
Speaker 1: and then it went into like existential crises that it's
Speaker 1: just you know, I live in I live inside of
Speaker 1: an existential crisis. But then I also had me questioning
Speaker 1: like if you have no one to entertain, like if
Speaker 1: you don't have a show top play to a person
Speaker 1: or people, it's kind of like if a tree falls
Speaker 1: in the woods and no one's around to here, it
Speaker 1: doesn't make it sound I'm like, if a pop singer
Speaker 1: is has all these outfits and asshle's chaps and blow
Speaker 1: up inflatable cats and lasers, but nobody can come to
Speaker 1: a show, what does that mean? That's fascinating. That totally
Speaker 1: makes sense why you would feel that way. Yeah, oh man,
Speaker 1: um I will I didn't realize I missed the There
Speaker 1: has been plenty of existential crisis happening during it, but
Speaker 1: I think the show part of it was different for
Speaker 1: me because I didn't really know I missed it until
Speaker 1: I got in a room with the three other guys
Speaker 1: and started playing, and even though there wasn't anyone there,
Speaker 1: it was that kind of purpose thing again. I was like, oh, like,
Speaker 1: this is different than me writing a song by myself,
Speaker 1: for me sitting in a studio making something by myself,
Speaker 1: and this is a communal thing. You know, this connection
Speaker 1: and even if it's connection to three other people in
Speaker 1: a room felt That's what made me realize how much
Speaker 1: I actually missed it and how much it was fueling
Speaker 1: a part of me that I didn't know about. You know, So,
Speaker 1: is that totally ego, because that's I've been trying to
Speaker 1: figure out, like that just all ego, that it feels
Speaker 1: so good too sing at a person versus to no one.
Speaker 1: I don't. I'm sure it probably is. You probably boil
Speaker 1: it down to equal parts ego, But I also think
Speaker 1: there's connection there. I think it's what we were talking
Speaker 1: about of like experiencing you write a song and it's
Speaker 1: experienced by a listener or experienced by a producer or
Speaker 1: a musician in the studio. For me, that thing, it's
Speaker 1: almost getting outside of the ego and being like you
Speaker 1: want to make stuff with people, you want to be
Speaker 1: around people, and you want the feeling of being with people.
Speaker 1: It wasn't like I want to impress them that I've
Speaker 1: you know, come up with this cool sure that exists
Speaker 1: other places. But it didn't feel like that. Then, you know,
Speaker 1: it was like, man, you guys all care enough about
Speaker 1: this music that you want to be in this room
Speaker 1: and work on it together. And the seed of it
Speaker 1: came from my brain, you know, like you said, at
Speaker 1: three in the morning, popped out of bed, had to
Speaker 1: write it no other choice. I really like it. I
Speaker 1: wonder if they do. And that thing that's that's another
Speaker 1: sort of level of magic. People, you know, like all
Speaker 1: putting your energy, effort and attention into one thing. I
Speaker 1: find it to be. Really I'm always so thankful for
Speaker 1: the people that I create with, because my brain is
Speaker 1: my problem. It won't quit. I have tried just she's
Speaker 1: her own thing, but having other people be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna sit with you and your brain and take
Speaker 1: the time to flesh out this emotional idea that to
Speaker 1: me is really selfless. And so I'm always like, I
Speaker 1: think that's super I'm so grateful for people that helped
Speaker 1: me kind of conjure my ideas up into songs totally.
Speaker 1: Do you have a like a small team of people
Speaker 1: who do that. Do you have like the one you
Speaker 1: know woman or a man that's is there with you
Speaker 1: and you want to get something down or do you
Speaker 1: try and switch it up each time? I work with
Speaker 1: like a lot of people would love to work with you,
Speaker 1: but also, um, yeah, I work with kind of just
Speaker 1: anybody that I feel like we'll understand because sometimes it's
Speaker 1: hard to articulate the feelings of what I want then
Speaker 1: a song to make someone feel like. So I'll like
Speaker 1: be like I want to just make people feel like this,
Speaker 1: and I'll jump off of something and it's like you
Speaker 1: have to understand what that means. And I think it
Speaker 1: takes a special type of person to like when you said,
Speaker 1: let's make it sound like bees like, that sounds like
Speaker 1: a beautiful experiment in trying to figure out what the mean.
Speaker 1: Hopefully I got my vaccine, so hopefully soon you'll get
Speaker 1: your vaccine and then we can make music with people.
Speaker 1: No kidding, that's been that's been the weirdest part, because
Speaker 1: I do love the co write experience of like being
Speaker 1: in a room with somebody and just there's these like
Speaker 1: jitters of like let's make something and feel excited about
Speaker 1: making something together. At the end of the day, it
Speaker 1: could be six hours later, could be two, could be twelve,
Speaker 1: it's like we did something. Oh my god. When it works,
Speaker 1: when it actually works, when it sounds good, it feels
Speaker 1: like you just performed a goddamn miracle. Yeah, because you did,
Speaker 1: you know. I think I think that sometimes you finish
Speaker 1: something in a studio so quickly it is a miracle.
Speaker 1: It shouldn't happen that quick, especially if I do something
Speaker 1: that sounds cooler than I know I am. I'm like,
Speaker 1: whoa what that's a fucking miracle? How does't a miracle?
Speaker 1: I just sounded so cool, it's amazing. But so that's
Speaker 1: been my experience. Wait, I haven't even asked you any
Speaker 1: of the creepy questions. Hold on, I'm supposed to ask you. Oh, okay,
Speaker 1: I do have a question about an Australian wizard. I
Speaker 1: was told you were you encountered an Australian wizard, and
Speaker 1: I need to know what that means. Yeah, I can
Speaker 1: understand why you would want to know what that Okay,
Speaker 1: So I okay, a little backstory. I dropped out of
Speaker 1: high school before my before my senior year. So my
Speaker 1: senior year I spent it like making a record and
Speaker 1: touring like the Nashville, Birmingham, Columbia, South Carolina, wherever the
Speaker 1: little circle around where we were. But my school was
Speaker 1: taken a trip to Australia right before that year, and
Speaker 1: so I thought, this is a great opportunity. I could
Speaker 1: go to Australia. And a bunch of my friends were going,
Speaker 1: and we'll just go. And it was like one of
Speaker 1: those missions trips where like no missions were done, it
Speaker 1: was just he just went to Australia, and I think
Speaker 1: I think it made the parents feel better than it
Speaker 1: was a missions trip. Um. And we were there, and
Speaker 1: I was there with Um, our original bass player, and
Speaker 1: we were in the market and he looked like Gandalf
Speaker 1: and Lord of the Rings was like a really it
Speaker 1: was pretty big at the time, like the last one
Speaker 1: I'd just come out, and so a bunch of guys
Speaker 1: were like, let's go mess with this wizard looking you
Speaker 1: know in retrospect um, not a great idea. But I've
Speaker 1: also was taught to be like respectful to people, regardless
Speaker 1: of who they were an elder, so you know, I
Speaker 1: was just asking them legitimate questions. But I was certainly
Speaker 1: skeptical talking to this guy. And my throat had been
Speaker 1: hurting a few days before we got to this market,
Speaker 1: and um, I asked him, you know, what do you do?
Speaker 1: You know, what's your story? And we're standing there and
Speaker 1: he says, well, I'm you know, I'm like a fortune
Speaker 1: teller in a way, um, you know, and I'm a healer.
Speaker 1: I was like, okay, well, I kind of understand the
Speaker 1: fortune teller thing. I asked him, you know, like, what
Speaker 1: can you tell me about my fortune? And of course
Speaker 1: it was spot on, but it was also probably spot
Speaker 1: on for every other person that asked him. Was like,
Speaker 1: you're at a crossroads in a decision you have to
Speaker 1: make in your life, which I was, you know, I
Speaker 1: like the I was deciding if I was gonna go
Speaker 1: back to school or try this band and um. So
Speaker 1: I was like okay, And I was like, so, how
Speaker 1: are you a healer? And he said, well, do you
Speaker 1: want me to heal you? Um? And I was like yeah,
Speaker 1: sure fully skeptical. Can he put his hand right in
Speaker 1: front of my uh, like my face like this or
Speaker 1: like right around my chest to my face right here,
Speaker 1: and my tongue started to like go back into my
Speaker 1: mouth and my eyes started to roll back into my
Speaker 1: head and I started to like pass out, like I
Speaker 1: felt almost evil in a strange way, like it felt dark,
Speaker 1: like really really really dark. And selfishly, I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: do it to him, do it to him, And I
Speaker 1: do it like I don't want it to me. I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it to me, don't, yeah, exactly,
Speaker 1: and stop it. I don't like it, um. And he
Speaker 1: looks at at Jay, still a good friend of mine,
Speaker 1: and Jay's laughing and just sort of going like a
Speaker 1: you know, like whatever, and he does it, and Jay's laughing,
Speaker 1: and he looks at Jay dead in the eyes and
Speaker 1: goes on cloud your heart. And Jay's demeanor immediately changed
Speaker 1: from like laughing and sort of making fun of this
Speaker 1: guy to like the exact same feeling that I had,
Speaker 1: and he almost like got lightheaded. He got lightheaded and
Speaker 1: almost passed out, and the two of us just ran.
Speaker 1: We were like, oh, funk, we gotta get out of here,
Speaker 1: like right now. I don't know what that was. And
Speaker 1: we both went to the back of like this little
Speaker 1: caravan that we were all in and sat and like
Speaker 1: for the rest of the day and still to this
Speaker 1: day we talked about that weird experience that we had together.
Speaker 1: Um and I actually say the line uncloud your Heart.
Speaker 1: I say it on the new records, where of the
Speaker 1: last lines on the whole record. I was literally going
Speaker 1: to put that in one of my songs. Thanks a lot.
Speaker 1: Everything in my brain is like, where does that come
Speaker 1: in a song? I'm so happy you put that in
Speaker 1: the song. It needs to be in a song. Did yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: uncloud my heart? Yeah? Well, and he said on cloud
Speaker 1: your heart, and so I flipped it, you know, and
Speaker 1: it was more of an asking of God, uncloud my heart. Oh.
Speaker 1: I love that because I'll tell you what He unclouded
Speaker 1: Jay's heart that day pretty quick. It sounds like like
Speaker 1: supernatural ship makes me, uncloud my heart, makes me stop
Speaker 1: acting like a douche bag, makes me like my ego
Speaker 1: calm the funk down, makes me find everything a little
Speaker 1: bit more humorous. You got to uncloud your heart. I
Speaker 1: love that. We should end on that. That's amazing. I
Speaker 1: love it. It's great and people can hear it on
Speaker 1: your new record at Manchester Orchestra. Oh my god, wo oh,
Speaker 1: I appreciate it, thank you so much. Yeah, and I'm
Speaker 1: so excited to hear the new record and let's both
Speaker 1: write songs. Oh god, how embarrassing the other people are. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you could have a field day with
Speaker 1: how embarrassing I've been. Your's gonna be so much easier
Speaker 1: to write than mine. I have to write about you
Speaker 1: being embarrassing. It's like, you're not embarrassing it cool. You're
Speaker 1: very cool and talented. So embarrassing, let's go meadow with it.
Speaker 1: You gotta go meadow with it. Specifically embarrassing. Who one