Speaker 1: Pushkin, Jaden Smith's proved to be so much more than
Speaker 1: just the sum of his famous parents. At twenty three,
Speaker 1: he spent more than half his life working as an actor,
Speaker 1: a musician, and an entrepreneur. Jaden co founded the sustainable
Speaker 1: water company Just Water when he was only twelve years old.
Speaker 1: It's now valued at one hundred million dollars. I'm thinking
Speaker 1: about you every day. I think it's just Since the
Speaker 1: release of Jaden's debut mixtape in twenty twelve, he's gone
Speaker 1: on to put out three studio albums that loosely follow
Speaker 1: a semi autobiographical character named Sire, who Chase's sun sets
Speaker 1: after a painful breakup. Jaden's latest album, Cool Tape Volume
Speaker 1: three Day Tripper's Edition, picks up with Sire's personal journey,
Speaker 1: but this time around set to a psychedelic rock inspired soundscape.
Speaker 1: On today's episode, Jaden talks to Rick Rubin about an
Speaker 1: ex girlfriend who inspired him to embrace the sixties and
Speaker 1: seventies classic rock sound that influenced his latest album. He
Speaker 1: also explains how recording with live musicians as opposed to
Speaker 1: building tracks digitally, brought a new found energy to this project,
Speaker 1: and Jaden also tells Rick how growing up at Malibu
Speaker 1: allows him to feel intimately connected to the Beach Boys.
Speaker 1: This is broken record liner notes for the digital Age.
Speaker 1: I'm justin Richmond. Here's Rick Rubin and Jaden Smith. Who's
Speaker 1: been going on main How are you bro? Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for having me. I'm glad we're doing this.
Speaker 1: I was. I can't remember i was, but I saw
Speaker 1: a flyer up for your new projects, like, oh we
Speaker 1: should talk. Wow, Oh thank you man. Yeah, I've I've
Speaker 1: been putting them up like in Malibu and like just
Speaker 1: all around nice. Yeah, tell me what's been going on.
Speaker 1: How was the process of making this one different than
Speaker 1: the previous ones? So, you know, with this one, I
Speaker 1: feel like I was really trying to dive into just
Speaker 1: into music theory and to learning about the history of music.
Speaker 1: And I feel like with the other ones that I
Speaker 1: was kind of just like, hey, you know, this is
Speaker 1: how I feel about things that are going on in
Speaker 1: my life right now, and I'm going to kind of
Speaker 1: talk about it. And you know, with Sire, for example,
Speaker 1: that one was all about like heartbreak in like a
Speaker 1: relationship that had gone through, and it was kind of
Speaker 1: about like the aftermath of that relationship with what happened
Speaker 1: to me afterwards, and I kind of just went fully
Speaker 1: into that, but just kind of in a place of like, hey,
Speaker 1: you know, these are my influences, this is what I like,
Speaker 1: this is the type of music that I make. And
Speaker 1: with this project, I'm really like, you know what, I
Speaker 1: know that those have been my influences historically, but I
Speaker 1: want to dive into some different type of music, you know.
Speaker 1: And I really started listening to like really just kind
Speaker 1: of old school classic rock and roll music, and I
Speaker 1: started to get into Chuck Berry, and I started to
Speaker 1: get into Little Richard and and you know, I started
Speaker 1: listening to the Beats Boys and the Beatles and like
Speaker 1: really trying to like really go in and like listen
Speaker 1: to the words and listen to the chords, like just
Speaker 1: try to understand what's happening. That was really an eye
Speaker 1: opening experience for me. And I feel like that's kind
Speaker 1: of the difference from this project and a lot of
Speaker 1: other projects that I've worked on, is me kind of
Speaker 1: sitting there as my guitar teacher and being like, hey,
Speaker 1: well talk to me about this song, and talk to
Speaker 1: me about what's happening in this song and why does it,
Speaker 1: you know, why does it feel like this? And just
Speaker 1: going through it and just kind of trying to just
Speaker 1: learn from experience and from history. That was the major difference. Yeah, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I definitely got some feelings listening to it that just
Speaker 1: reminded me of old music that I really like to
Speaker 1: listen to and flavors that I'm not used to hearing
Speaker 1: today and I miss you know like that I can't
Speaker 1: remember then, I'm not good with names, but second track
Speaker 1: in particular had just like a real breezy vibe that
Speaker 1: just reminds me of like old music that I like
Speaker 1: to listen to. Totally don's fallen for you, And that's
Speaker 1: the one that we really like focused on a lot
Speaker 1: to be like, yeah, we just want to make something
Speaker 1: that just feels good. We don't want it to like
Speaker 1: kind of live in any genre in any world. We
Speaker 1: just wanted to feel good and to just to come alive,
Speaker 1: and so we worked on that was actually one of
Speaker 1: the first songs that we worked on for the album.
Speaker 1: That's We made that song and we were like, wow,
Speaker 1: we should try to make an album in this kind
Speaker 1: of sound, you know, and in this kind of vibe.
Speaker 1: And I put justin on that song because I wanted
Speaker 1: to take like some old school flavors and then bring
Speaker 1: people that you know are here and that are working
Speaker 1: right now on the industry and put them onto that
Speaker 1: type of a vibe and me and him to do
Speaker 1: that together. That was just like I just love making
Speaker 1: music with him too, So that was just an excuse
Speaker 1: to just be with someone that I really care about.
Speaker 1: And but yeah, I wanted to give that type of
Speaker 1: a different flavor to the youth right now to let
Speaker 1: them know, hey, you know, we could also do this.
Speaker 1: Who played drums on that? Do you know? I actually
Speaker 1: worked with a really amazing jazz drummer on that one.
Speaker 1: I'm blinking on their name right now. The vibe was great,
Speaker 1: just amazing, amazing. They were so good that we actually
Speaker 1: brought them on to play drums on a bunch of
Speaker 1: the other songs too, because it was just like it
Speaker 1: was just just such a groove that they found on
Speaker 1: that day, and even like recording live drums like that
Speaker 1: wasn't something that I was like, you know, I had
Speaker 1: done that a little bit before on like the Irish album,
Speaker 1: when I was trying to go for more of like
Speaker 1: a more of a punk sound, but like, I still
Speaker 1: even when I was working on that album, a lot
Speaker 1: of the drums were just made in the computer and everything.
Speaker 1: It's always just made in the computer, you know nowadays.
Speaker 1: And I really the eye opening part about it was
Speaker 1: like trying to pick up a guitar and learn how
Speaker 1: to play the guitar and trying that and seeing how
Speaker 1: difficult that is, and me still being on that journey
Speaker 1: and recording bass live or how you know when you
Speaker 1: play a guitar into the computer that it sounds different
Speaker 1: than when you plug it into an amp and then
Speaker 1: you put a mic in front of it and then
Speaker 1: you put that into the you know, like just all
Speaker 1: these different things that I was like, Man, I feel
Speaker 1: like I'm learning so much on this journey, and I
Speaker 1: want to bring my fan base and my generation with
Speaker 1: me on that journey. Yeah. The other song that I
Speaker 1: remember that really stuck out to me was next to
Speaker 1: the last song, Oh yeah, the Bret's Sire right from
Speaker 1: the time it came on the viewing caught me, you know,
Speaker 1: the emotion and the music thank you so much. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So when I was working on that one, that one's
Speaker 1: kind of like the end of the album, and that's
Speaker 1: that's the song where it's like, you know, Sire, My
Speaker 1: first album was all about the heartbreak and what I
Speaker 1: went through, and so Sire is my middle name, and
Speaker 1: Jade Smith is how people referred to me on the world.
Speaker 1: Jayden is how people refer to me at home. But
Speaker 1: I felt like, you know, people out in the world
Speaker 1: didn't get me. People at home didn't get me. So
Speaker 1: I wasn't Jaden. I wasn't Jaden Smith. I was Sire
Speaker 1: because I was this like other thing that was like
Speaker 1: just confused and like in the sunset all the time.
Speaker 1: So that was me after I got my heart broken
Speaker 1: and cool te vob three was me before I got
Speaker 1: my heartbroken. And that's why that last song is the
Speaker 1: birth of Sire, because that's me going into it, and
Speaker 1: that's me kind of accepting, Hey, this young love that
Speaker 1: we had is like kind of like over now. I
Speaker 1: was actually really inspired by She's Leaving Home, and that's
Speaker 1: why I mentioned Melanie Coe inside of the song, and
Speaker 1: it kind of felt like, you know, she's leaving home
Speaker 1: being about a different type of relationship with somebody leaving home,
Speaker 1: and this one felt like kind of like a girlfriend
Speaker 1: that you love or somebody is like leaving home, leaving
Speaker 1: everything that you know of like this relationship together of like,
Speaker 1: so that's just kind of how like these historical references
Speaker 1: have touched me in a specific way made me feel
Speaker 1: a way where it's like, hey, I want to talk
Speaker 1: about that aspect of the side of it. And then
Speaker 1: that guitar is like kind of a guitar melody that's
Speaker 1: coming in earlier in the album of a song called
Speaker 1: Rainbow bab But then my guitar teacher put a like
Speaker 1: a harmony in our peggiated harmony with it along at
Speaker 1: the same time. And then that's when it really just
Speaker 1: brought out all of these like emotions from me because
Speaker 1: it felt like two things that were going on at
Speaker 1: the same time that we're working together for so long,
Speaker 1: and then eventually they just kind of fall apart towards
Speaker 1: the end of the song. In so that one, that
Speaker 1: one's really close to me because that one is like
Speaker 1: the precursor to like everything that had done on my
Speaker 1: first album. So I'm glad that you liked that one
Speaker 1: because that's the one that I'm really obsessed with as well,
Speaker 1: because yeah, it just had it had, as I say,
Speaker 1: right right from the beginning, it had a feeling that
Speaker 1: just sucked me in, and I love when music can
Speaker 1: do that, you know. I mean, there's just an emotion
Speaker 1: there that you don't know what it is about it,
Speaker 1: but just draws you in and like forces you to
Speaker 1: pay attention. I love that feeling. Thank you. I really
Speaker 1: appreciate that. And we were trying to just experience met
Speaker 1: with different things on this album as well, because I
Speaker 1: love when music can influence people in their normal lives,
Speaker 1: you know. And I love how some music from these
Speaker 1: historical references that I'm always talking about, a lot of
Speaker 1: music I would listen to, I'll be surprised of how
Speaker 1: many Eastern or different types of instruments that I would
Speaker 1: be hearing in this music and how it makes me feel.
Speaker 1: And it would kind of like, you know, like the
Speaker 1: buzz of a satar kind of makes you feel in
Speaker 1: like a meditative way. I don't I don't know if
Speaker 1: it's the way that the notes are set up, and
Speaker 1: like me even learning like a Western keyboard versus a
Speaker 1: Eastern keys and how they work and how they make
Speaker 1: you feel differently. I really wanted to bring certain elements
Speaker 1: into this album that we're like make people feel meditative
Speaker 1: almost in a way, because I really wanted to get
Speaker 1: across that feeling of just like that calm and that
Speaker 1: stillness that can come over, you know, a person, and
Speaker 1: I wanted to try to capture that in some of
Speaker 1: the songs. When you're writing, is the music or the
Speaker 1: lyrical piece more important to you? Would you say? I think,
Speaker 1: to me, the lyrics are going to be the most
Speaker 1: important thing. But throughout the course of this album, my
Speaker 1: teachers have helped to show me that, hey, it's about
Speaker 1: the whole thing, and it's also about the music, and
Speaker 1: it's about everything that you're doing with that, and it's
Speaker 1: about how that moves and where that goes, and that
Speaker 1: it doesn't just stay the same. And they made me
Speaker 1: realize that as a human being, that you don't want
Speaker 1: to just listen to something that's on loop all the time.
Speaker 1: You kind of want to hear something that's alive. You
Speaker 1: kind of want to hear something that's moving and has
Speaker 1: these micro changes or these vast changes in it that
Speaker 1: kind of feels like it's breathing. And that's when I
Speaker 1: started to realize how important it is to have a band,
Speaker 1: to work with a band, to work with people who
Speaker 1: are playing live and the difference between you know, click
Speaker 1: click click record this stack that stack, that stack, that
Speaker 1: stack that let me do my vocals now, and opposed to, hey,
Speaker 1: let's all do it. Let's go right now, let's feel
Speaker 1: the vibe. We're all humans, we're all alive. We can
Speaker 1: do this if we focus. So let's do it. There's
Speaker 1: something in there that gets captured that just makes it
Speaker 1: so beautiful. And the decisions that each musician is going
Speaker 1: to make. Oh, you know, I know he said we
Speaker 1: were going to do this, we rehearsed to this, but
Speaker 1: I feel like doing this right now, and I have
Speaker 1: to go with it because you know, you have me here,
Speaker 1: because I'm a human and I make split second decisions,
Speaker 1: you know, at the drop of a dime, to like
Speaker 1: push the song into a different place. And throughout the
Speaker 1: process of the album, I realized that, man, the music
Speaker 1: is so important. For example, with a song like Falling
Speaker 1: for You, you know, with rapping, you know, you can
Speaker 1: come up with sixteen bars that are sick, and then
Speaker 1: you can go up to somebody and be like, yo,
Speaker 1: try it on that, tryed it on that, try it
Speaker 1: on that, tried it on that, and figure out which
Speaker 1: works best. But with this, it was like the guitar
Speaker 1: came and the vocals came in the bass. It all
Speaker 1: came at the same time, you know, and it was
Speaker 1: like boom, and it kind of just glued together. And
Speaker 1: so now I feel like the music is extremely important
Speaker 1: and I need to I'm trying to grow as a
Speaker 1: producer and just how I arrange things because it's very important.
Speaker 1: Would the melodies come before the words or do they
Speaker 1: come together for you? The melodies come before the words.
Speaker 1: Usually they come like far before the words, where I'll
Speaker 1: have enough time to just even record the melodies down
Speaker 1: before I even have the words. And then once I
Speaker 1: have time to know that, I'm not going to lose
Speaker 1: the melodies because I feel like I don't lose words. Really,
Speaker 1: I'm good at keeping track of words, but melodies. Since
Speaker 1: I'm not fluent in music theory, it's easy for me
Speaker 1: to lose melodies because I'm not like, oh, that was
Speaker 1: that melody? You know what I mean? It's like, or oh,
Speaker 1: let me play it on the guitar. It sounded like this.
Speaker 1: I can't. I'm not to that level yet. So I'm like,
Speaker 1: when I find a good melody, I'm like, oh, I
Speaker 1: have to record it down right now because I'll forget
Speaker 1: So just record this and then I will come up
Speaker 1: with lyrics later. And then just in life do you record,
Speaker 1: Like will you record a melody into your phone or
Speaker 1: a lyric idea or a vocal idea? How do you
Speaker 1: save them? So I will record if I have like
Speaker 1: two devices, I will record a melody idea into a phone,
Speaker 1: or I'll just record it, you know, with no music,
Speaker 1: and I'll just record the straight melody right there. Sometimes,
Speaker 1: but usually a lot of the times, I won't even
Speaker 1: listen to certain things until I get into the studio
Speaker 1: so that if I do get inspired, that I have
Speaker 1: everything that I need right there to record it the
Speaker 1: best way, because you know, the melody comes to me,
Speaker 1: and then the harmony comes to me, and then all
Speaker 1: of these things come to me where I then I'm like, oh,
Speaker 1: I'm getting lost. Which one was the original one? Which
Speaker 1: one was the stack? Which one was that maybe one
Speaker 1: that I would maybe add in. That started to get
Speaker 1: really difficult, and harmonies was a whole other journey on
Speaker 1: this album that I just I couldn't recognize harmonies when
Speaker 1: I started this album, and now I can, maybe recognize one.
Speaker 1: You know. Now I can sing and I can always
Speaker 1: maybe get you know, one of the harmonies, um, but
Speaker 1: then I'll need help on other ones. But at the
Speaker 1: beginning of the album, it's like I had no no
Speaker 1: way of recognizing harmonies, and it was it was really
Speaker 1: a journey to get to get all the way to
Speaker 1: the end of the album. And now when I'm working
Speaker 1: on the deluxe, like just going back in and working
Speaker 1: on different parts of the album and just like beefing
Speaker 1: them up, I'm just starting to see how much I've
Speaker 1: just grown from even working on this deluxe version of
Speaker 1: the album. I think it's gonna be something really special.
Speaker 1: And with the visuals too, I think I think you're
Speaker 1: gonna like the visuals. They're gonna they're gonna be really cool.
Speaker 1: We'll be back after a short break with more from
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin and Jaden Smith. We're back with more from
Speaker 1: Rick Rubin's conversation with Jaden Smith. Before you talked about
Speaker 1: Jaden Smith and Jaden Sire. Is that more how people
Speaker 1: see you or do you feel like you're all of
Speaker 1: those people at different times? I've feel like that's how
Speaker 1: people see me. But since that's how they see me.
Speaker 1: It does feel like I do switch around from like
Speaker 1: different types of personnel because I'll know i'm going on stage,
Speaker 1: people see me like this when I'm on stage, So
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm not gonna burst their bubble. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be myself, but I'm also gonna give them the version
Speaker 1: of myself that they're expecting to see right now. You know.
Speaker 1: So it's like I going on the stage and I'm
Speaker 1: like boom, I'm doing this, And then when I go
Speaker 1: to a conference to talk about sustainability, I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: everybody in here is thinking like this. They're thinking about
Speaker 1: these things. These are the things that are important to them.
Speaker 1: These are the you know, everybody in here hasn't seen
Speaker 1: my album. They've probably seen Jus Water. They've seen what
Speaker 1: I'm doing with five or one C three. So therefore
Speaker 1: I'm going to present that version of myself to them,
Speaker 1: you know, just for the sake of all of us.
Speaker 1: But I always feel like I am myself, and I
Speaker 1: feel like Jaden is the one who holds the many.
Speaker 1: You know. It's like going through growing through your teenage
Speaker 1: years and going through those different phases of your life
Speaker 1: and you're like, I'm a punk now like NA, like
Speaker 1: I want to be a psychedelic rock star. Nah, I'm
Speaker 1: a rapper. No, I'm not. I'm an actor. I feel
Speaker 1: like I just held onto all of those different phases
Speaker 1: that I went through and I put them in my
Speaker 1: pocket just in case I was like, Hey, little punk
Speaker 1: phase that you went through when you're making iris, just
Speaker 1: put that in your pocket, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 1: because you never know something might happen in the future
Speaker 1: to where, oh, you know, you feel like this or
Speaker 1: like that or whatever you want to yell or whatever. Okay,
Speaker 1: you pulled a little punk phase out of your pocket,
Speaker 1: you can you can snap right back into that, you know.
Speaker 1: And even the phase that I'm in right now in
Speaker 1: my life, it is the phase that I was in
Speaker 1: when I was, you know, fifteen sixteen years old. When
Speaker 1: I was you know, living this this love story, this
Speaker 1: psychedelic love story that I talk about in the album.
Speaker 1: You know, when I was living that, I was like
Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen years old. I had dreads like how I
Speaker 1: have right now. You know what I mean. I'm just
Speaker 1: I'm twenty three now and I'm I'm not fifteen anymore.
Speaker 1: But I feel like I kept that fifteen year old
Speaker 1: version of myself for this moment, So that could be like,
Speaker 1: you know what, the dreads are coming back, the guitars
Speaker 1: aren't coming back. All the singing songs and the talking
Speaker 1: about being in love and the flowers and the psychedelic
Speaker 1: like vibe, it's all back. I remember, like when I
Speaker 1: was like fifteen years old that I would like I
Speaker 1: went to Coachella and I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker 1: I love this energy that's here. And then I was like,
Speaker 1: I wonder what the history of this is. And then
Speaker 1: I started to just dive into Woodstock and into everything
Speaker 1: of nineteen sixty seven in Beuth of New York, and
Speaker 1: I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. Then
Speaker 1: I realized that my grandmother was one of those people
Speaker 1: who was on her way to Woodstock and got stuck
Speaker 1: in the line, Like what's happening. I'm diving into the music.
Speaker 1: But now I'm learning more about my own family. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that my grandma tried to do that. I
Speaker 1: didn't know that she used to love the Beatles. So
Speaker 1: I have a song on the Deluxe called Your Voice,
Speaker 1: where it's about you know, grandma went to Woodstocks. That's
Speaker 1: what the song's about, and it's about like my story
Speaker 1: of being in love with this girl right now, and
Speaker 1: then also talking about how my grandma went to Woodstock,
Speaker 1: because you know, I'm always trying to like create these
Speaker 1: positions where it's like that doesn't even make sense. And yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just been a whole just like soul searching journey.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I feel like I am Jaden and all
Speaker 1: of those different things exist in me and I just
Speaker 1: pulled them out. It's like different colors. I just pulled
Speaker 1: them out for the for the piece, for the painting.
Speaker 1: That sounds great. It's like more tools in your arsenal
Speaker 1: to whatever the job needs, you know how to achieve it.
Speaker 1: So that's great. Thank you. You brought up your grandma
Speaker 1: and you brought up being at one point your punk phase.
Speaker 1: And it's not unusual for kids to rebel again see
Speaker 1: their culture against their parents. And you have particularly cool parents,
Speaker 1: like particularly forward thinking parents. Have you ever felt the
Speaker 1: need to like rebel against them or is it more
Speaker 1: like they feel more like you're on the same page
Speaker 1: most of the time. No, I think I'm really on
Speaker 1: the same page with my parents most of the time.
Speaker 1: And for a lot of years in my life, I've
Speaker 1: always been on the same page with them. But when
Speaker 1: I was fifteen, that is in the time where I
Speaker 1: felt as though that was rebelling against my parents and
Speaker 1: that I wanted to do other things and that they
Speaker 1: you know, it's just I felt like how every fifteen
Speaker 1: year old feels, where it's like, hey, you know, I
Speaker 1: want to do and experience different things. And that's when
Speaker 1: I really started to tap into my music. And that's
Speaker 1: when I really started to dive into my music, and
Speaker 1: that's where I would pour out my heart, you know.
Speaker 1: And that's why fifteen flash forwards and now it's like
Speaker 1: it's so important to me this music because that's always
Speaker 1: where I've poured out my heart. And like, that's why
Speaker 1: this relationship that I was in when I was fifteen
Speaker 1: was so important to me even now to this day,
Speaker 1: and it still affects me because that was the time
Speaker 1: in my life where I was like, I'm rebelling against
Speaker 1: my parents, I'm rebelling against the things that I've known
Speaker 1: in my life, and I'm putting my faith over here
Speaker 1: because this is what I've leaving my music. You know,
Speaker 1: this girl that I'm in love with, this like new life,
Speaker 1: like we're going to run away into the sunset type
Speaker 1: of energy, and then we didn't, and then I was
Speaker 1: just left into the sunset by myself, rebelling against my parents,
Speaker 1: breaking up with this thing that I thought that I
Speaker 1: could create this ho new world with. And then now
Speaker 1: I'm just on a hill and the sun is setting
Speaker 1: and the sky goes pink, and then Cyrus born. In
Speaker 1: that moment, I'm like, oh no, I'm trapped in the
Speaker 1: sunset forever. That's when my obsession with sunsets began, and
Speaker 1: that's when I was like addicted to sunsets, Like, oh no,
Speaker 1: I have to go watch the sunset right now, Like oh,
Speaker 1: so and so wants to hang out, Like you have
Speaker 1: an opportunity to like start a new relationship, to be
Speaker 1: with like a new person, to like start something new. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want to do that. I'm gonna go watch
Speaker 1: the sunset. You know. Oh there's you know, something's happening.
Speaker 1: You know, the family's doing this, we're getting together. Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: I can hang out with you guys in the day,
Speaker 1: but as soon as the sunsets, I have to leave.
Speaker 1: Like it got like that, and that's when I made
Speaker 1: my first album you know, I took three years to
Speaker 1: do that. That's when I made Icon, That's what I
Speaker 1: made all these different songs, and I created the Boy
Speaker 1: in the Sunset Sire, and this album is about hey
Speaker 1: hold on. It wasn't always like that, though, because there
Speaker 1: was a time where he lived in Sunset City where
Speaker 1: he was happy, you know, and he lives with the
Speaker 1: girl Lucy, and they were happy. And then eventually, by
Speaker 1: the time we get to the birth of Sire, which
Speaker 1: is a song that we were talking about, Lucy has
Speaker 1: left and Sire has now just these guitars in the
Speaker 1: hills and the dust and the sunset, and it's like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if you're home, but sure, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm all alone. It's like it's just like just straight
Speaker 1: to the point, like I'm just bound myself on a hill.
Speaker 1: There's not much to it. Do you make it a
Speaker 1: point to see to watch the sunset every day? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna show you a video of yesterday's sunset, because
Speaker 1: I too, am a sunset lover. And yes, it's particularly good.
Speaker 1: I'm just I'm just obsessed with them. Man, Like, let's
Speaker 1: see if I can get to sounds. Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: stopped it then yesterday. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. I cannot
Speaker 1: believe that. And the colors were changing so fast and
Speaker 1: so radically and psychedelically, it was unbelievable. It went from
Speaker 1: like everything in front of me the ocean turned pink,
Speaker 1: and then to the right it was bright yellow, and
Speaker 1: then it turned purple, and then it all went dark
Speaker 1: and it just kept wild color changes, wild beautiful magnificence.
Speaker 1: So amazing. Yeah, I live for that. You know, the
Speaker 1: music that I make. I hope that some people that
Speaker 1: are just in love and going through some similar situations
Speaker 1: can look at the sunset and hear a song like
Speaker 1: the Birth of Sire and they're like, Yo, I'm sad,
Speaker 1: I'm whatever. But you know, there's other people out there that,
Speaker 1: you know, relate to me. There's a whole group of
Speaker 1: these people that relate to what I'm going through, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean, and what's happening, and that are
Speaker 1: also here watching the sunset. And that's really what I'm
Speaker 1: trying to create, like a community of people because also
Speaker 1: with the pandemic and everything that's happened, the mental health
Speaker 1: of people is just at a rapid decline right now.
Speaker 1: It's creating serious mental problem mental health issues for everyone.
Speaker 1: But I'm specifically worried about the people that are like
Speaker 1: under twenty two years old that are going to be
Speaker 1: dealing with this stuff, that are inside that are scared,
Speaker 1: and I just want them all to know that everything's
Speaker 1: going to be okay. You know, it's one thing to
Speaker 1: go through a pandemic, and it's another thing to go
Speaker 1: through a pandemic and to go through a breakup and
Speaker 1: to go through all these other things that everybody is
Speaker 1: going through. So I just want people to know, hey,
Speaker 1: we're here for you. We're all here for you, and
Speaker 1: we all go through crazy things. And I also try
Speaker 1: just a part of just me, I try to like
Speaker 1: I don't want people to always think that like everything
Speaker 1: is just like perfect and okay in my life, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. I don't want to come across
Speaker 1: as one of those people where it's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: this is fun and this is fun and everything that
Speaker 1: I do is fun and everything is awesome. It's like
Speaker 1: I want people to know where it's like, man, nah,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come clean it with you guys. Like if
Speaker 1: I'm having a not good day, I'm going to tell
Speaker 1: you that I'm not having a good day. I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you that, you know, this hurt my feelings,
Speaker 1: that I'm sad, that I'm scared or whatever, because sometimes
Speaker 1: when you see everybody else around you it's just having
Speaker 1: the best time and you're like suffering in silence, that
Speaker 1: it makes it so much worse. So I just wanted
Speaker 1: everyone to know that it's like, hey, we're here together,
Speaker 1: and we don't have to suffer in silence, Like we
Speaker 1: can make music together and like change the world and
Speaker 1: like and like impact everybody around us, and everybody gets
Speaker 1: lonely and regardless of we can have great things happen
Speaker 1: in our lives and we still have severe hardships and
Speaker 1: unhappiness all the time. It's it's a regular part of life.
Speaker 1: So it's I definitely understand what you're talking about and
Speaker 1: the and they're something. Also you talked about the album
Speaker 1: having a meditative quality, and you talked about being alone
Speaker 1: and paying attention to the sunset. And in both of
Speaker 1: those cases, those are like solitary moments and maybe some
Speaker 1: sadness brought you to them, but within them there's great beauty.
Speaker 1: Great beauty, yes, And I feel like That's what I
Speaker 1: ultimately realize throughout the story of Sire, and that is
Speaker 1: the metaphor of the subset where you have this love,
Speaker 1: they no longer have you wander up like just a
Speaker 1: road because that's the only thing there. There's just nothing else.
Speaker 1: There's just a dirt road where I live, there's just
Speaker 1: hills and horses and like that's it. And you know,
Speaker 1: so it's just a dirt road and you walk up
Speaker 1: it and then you get to a hill and you
Speaker 1: think your relationships over, You think that the love in
Speaker 1: your life is over. You think that your happiness is over,
Speaker 1: and the day is over, everything's over. But then when
Speaker 1: you get to the top of the hill and the
Speaker 1: day finally ends, everything goes pink. And at that point
Speaker 1: you can realize, Wow, magic exists, Miracles exist, happiness can
Speaker 1: still exist, meditation exists, and you know it's not about
Speaker 1: just you know, there's a difference between being alone and
Speaker 1: being lonely, you know what I'm saying. And it's like,
Speaker 1: and I want people to realize that you can grow
Speaker 1: into a place where you could be by yourself, but
Speaker 1: it can be fine, and it can be beautiful, and
Speaker 1: it can be a happy and amazing experience once we
Speaker 1: talk through all of this trauma and all of these
Speaker 1: different things that we've gone through, and then we can
Speaker 1: sit with ourselfs and our thoughts, and we can try
Speaker 1: to steal our mind to the point beyond thoughts, and
Speaker 1: we can really get to a beautiful, beautiful place. That's
Speaker 1: what the metaphor of the sunset is to me. It's
Speaker 1: like the blossoming of the flower. Tell me about your
Speaker 1: relationship to meditation. When did you first encounter it and
Speaker 1: what's your practice? Like, I think that my mom has always,
Speaker 1: ever since I was very young, my mom has been
Speaker 1: interested in meditation. There's these pictures of my mom and
Speaker 1: my sister meditating in New York City at an apartment
Speaker 1: that we were living in a New York City where
Speaker 1: my dad was shooting Men in Black Too, or he
Speaker 1: was shooting a movie in New York. And there's a
Speaker 1: photo of my mom and my sister meditating that I remember.
Speaker 1: So I just feel like it's been a part of
Speaker 1: my life for really a long time. But then also
Speaker 1: at that point of fifteen years old, when I said
Speaker 1: that I was having that rebellion away from my parents,
Speaker 1: I started to dive deeper into meditation. I started to
Speaker 1: learn more, I started to read more. Then I started
Speaker 1: to to really get down to an understanding that I
Speaker 1: didn't previously have and that I was like, I thought it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I thought that meditation was something different than what it
Speaker 1: actually was. And I learned that you can meditate with
Speaker 1: your eyes open, you know what I mean. You can meditate,
Speaker 1: tate while you walk, that you can meditate while you
Speaker 1: do things. And then I started to learn about Taoism
Speaker 1: and Zen and that like all of these different that
Speaker 1: there's meditative arts that you can do these different things
Speaker 1: in their meditation that you can the way that you
Speaker 1: shoot a bow and narrow can be meditation. The way
Speaker 1: that you draw and the way that you create art
Speaker 1: and lines in the sand you can be a meditation.
Speaker 1: I had no idea of that. I was like everybody
Speaker 1: else where. I thought that meditation was, you know, you
Speaker 1: have to sit down, you have to say a mantra,
Speaker 1: you have to close your eyes. If you open your eyes,
Speaker 1: you're not good at meditating. And I thought that you
Speaker 1: could be good or bad at it. I didn't know
Speaker 1: that it was something that we all have inside of us,
Speaker 1: or it's like that wave of feeling that you feel
Speaker 1: when you're getting so tired and you just go into
Speaker 1: the feeling of your body and how it feels, and
Speaker 1: just feeling every different part of your body. Like I
Speaker 1: didn't understand it for what it was. And then at fifteen,
Speaker 1: I started to begin to tap in and to read
Speaker 1: these different books, and then me and my group of friends,
Speaker 1: you know, we all started to tap in on what
Speaker 1: it was. And then and we slowly started to put
Speaker 1: that into our music and slowly started to put that
Speaker 1: into everything that we do. And then you know, you
Speaker 1: can get to that. We got to the front, you know,
Speaker 1: we got to the beginning of the of the trail.
Speaker 1: We saw the beginning of the trail, and then we
Speaker 1: then proceeded to begin our slow journey and walk in.
Speaker 1: It was like, you know, of course we're still at
Speaker 1: the beginning, but it was really ie opening to just
Speaker 1: see the beginning of the trail and be like, oh wow,
Speaker 1: it's different than what we thought. It's more attainable than
Speaker 1: what we thought. We're gonna take a quick break, but
Speaker 1: we'll be right back with more from Jade and Smith.
Speaker 1: We're back with the rest of Rick Rubin's conversation with
Speaker 1: Jade and Smith. How has your relationship to music changed
Speaker 1: from Let's start with you, what's your first memory of music?
Speaker 1: And wife, Oh my mom in the car. And the
Speaker 1: first song that I can really remember memorizing was the
Speaker 1: living my life like is go and living my life
Speaker 1: Lie is Gold Live and Life Like. That's the first
Speaker 1: so that I can remember, like really memorizing. And then
Speaker 1: of course I remember watching Thriller for the first time,
Speaker 1: just being scared, just being so scared to watch Thriller
Speaker 1: and then understanding why my parents like had me watch
Speaker 1: it because then I got to the end and then
Speaker 1: I saw the dancing and I was like, yes, oh,
Speaker 1: the first memory this is not even a real memory,
Speaker 1: but my mom used to put on Michael Jackson videos
Speaker 1: when I was like very young, So I guess that's
Speaker 1: the first memories that I have of music is trying
Speaker 1: to dance to Michael Jackson songs. And what would be
Speaker 1: the first time you remember where you felt like the
Speaker 1: music was yours, Like it wasn't what your mom was
Speaker 1: listening to, it wasn't what your dad was listening to.
Speaker 1: It's like, this is my shit. What was that moment?
Speaker 1: I think it was when I got an iPod that
Speaker 1: I started to genuinely believe like it was mine. Was
Speaker 1: that the first iPod, like the first generation iPod. I
Speaker 1: got the first generation iPod, and a little bit before that,
Speaker 1: I had started listening to E forties and I had
Speaker 1: my first iPod, and that's when I was like listening
Speaker 1: to E forty and then I started to listen to
Speaker 1: eminem and then that's what I was listening to. Music
Speaker 1: that people were like, oh, you shouldn't be listening to that.
Speaker 1: I felt like I had control of, Oh, well, you
Speaker 1: think I shouldn't be listening to it, but I'm still gonna.
Speaker 1: I'm still gonna listen to it. And the music genuinely
Speaker 1: feels like it's mine. It's not my mom's, it's not
Speaker 1: anyone else's, it's it's really really mine. So it's really
Speaker 1: it was really kind of harder hip hop. That was
Speaker 1: where you found your personal love of music, Like, yes,
Speaker 1: your music, you know, because I had I had my
Speaker 1: older cousins, I had my older brother, I had a
Speaker 1: lot of older influences in my life, and I always
Speaker 1: loved to hang out with the bigger kids, and I
Speaker 1: was a middle child, so I kind of could, you know,
Speaker 1: because I wasn't the youngest, so it's like they would
Speaker 1: be like, well, least it's not the youngest, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. So they would let me to hang
Speaker 1: out with them sometimes and I would listen to certain
Speaker 1: things that they were listening to. But yeah, it was
Speaker 1: the harder hip hop that would really change my life
Speaker 1: and and make me really inspired until I heard I
Speaker 1: think it was Viva La Vida by cold Play on YouTube.
Speaker 1: It was a Kingdom Hearts video that had like Viva
Speaker 1: la Vita in the background, and I was just like,
Speaker 1: oh wow, what's this? What is this? This is blowing
Speaker 1: my mind. That's the first time I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: what is this sound? What are those instruments? And the
Speaker 1: way that they're just choosing to say these lyrics and
Speaker 1: sing them. I was like, what's going on? And I
Speaker 1: feel like that song and I never even realized that,
Speaker 1: But like I feel like with I don't like, I
Speaker 1: feel like without hearing that song that I would not
Speaker 1: have gone down the rabbit holes that I've gone down
Speaker 1: to to create these things like cool tapot three and
Speaker 1: singing and doing all that stuff. But really, I can't
Speaker 1: talk about like music becoming my own and coming into
Speaker 1: my own without talking about Man on the Moon One
Speaker 1: by Kid Cutty. That was the first time that I
Speaker 1: was like, music can transport you to different locations in
Speaker 1: space and time like that. That's when I was like, yo,
Speaker 1: music is a portal and a transformation device for the soul.
Speaker 1: Like I was like, okay, music can like make people
Speaker 1: better and it can change the course of history. That's
Speaker 1: when I with Man on the Moon One. That's when
Speaker 1: I realized it just by hearing it. And then I
Speaker 1: realized it once again. And when I had realized that
Speaker 1: other people had heard the album and they had also
Speaker 1: felt the same way, but not that other people, but
Speaker 1: like almost everybody else has also heard the album and
Speaker 1: they feel the same way about it, then it blew
Speaker 1: my mind again because I thought that Cutty was just
Speaker 1: something that me and my brother listened to because we
Speaker 1: were just like whatever, and like I would just lived
Speaker 1: in a bubble like with me and my brother. That's it,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. And then I went outside
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my gosh, everybody listens to this.
Speaker 1: This changed everyone's life. Oh my gosh, that's awesome. Cutty
Speaker 1: is the coolest person ever. I want to be like him.
Speaker 1: And then that's when it kind of really started to
Speaker 1: spiralal and I was like, I gotta make music, man,
Speaker 1: I gotta make music. If I could maybe make anyone
Speaker 1: on the earth, just one person, feel like how I
Speaker 1: felt after I listened to Man Them on one, then
Speaker 1: I did it. Beautiful music has such incredible power. It
Speaker 1: really can take you away. It happens to me all
Speaker 1: the time where I closed my eyes when I listen
Speaker 1: to music, and if I'm listening to music with my
Speaker 1: eyes closed and I'm really present with the music, and
Speaker 1: the peace ends and I opened my eyes and I'm
Speaker 1: surprised I'm in the place that I'm in because I've
Speaker 1: been so far gone in the music that coming back
Speaker 1: is strange. Yeah, it really is, because it just takes
Speaker 1: you away. And that's how I felt the other day
Speaker 1: when I was listening to Man on the Moon one
Speaker 1: up on the Hill, and I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: Like I just almost started crying because I was like, gosh,
Speaker 1: this is take me back to like where I was
Speaker 1: when I was fifteen, when I was like so confused
Speaker 1: when Saya was first born, Like yeah, it just it
Speaker 1: takes me back. It's like a cool thing byting three
Speaker 1: is trying to take place in that time of my life,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. So it was just like
Speaker 1: it was a really crazy experience. Have you ever kept
Speaker 1: a dream diary? You know, I have a trouble remembering
Speaker 1: my dreams, but what I do know about my dreams. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start keeping a dream diary now because you
Speaker 1: said so. But what I do know about my dreams
Speaker 1: is that I always go back to the same places.
Speaker 1: This is one place that's like a resort by the
Speaker 1: beach that like is totally impossible. It's kind of like inception,
Speaker 1: Like it's it doesn't that architecture doesn't make sense, but
Speaker 1: it's by the beach. And then I'm always by beach
Speaker 1: and the waves are always way too big at the
Speaker 1: beach every time, and like I always go back there
Speaker 1: and I live different dreams there, and then I have
Speaker 1: another dream where it's like I'm in this super tall
Speaker 1: skyscraper and I keep going through the elevator, and like
Speaker 1: every time I go through the elevator, it's just like
Speaker 1: some crazy stuff. But I'm going to start keeping a
Speaker 1: little dream diary. Cool. I have some suggestions if you
Speaker 1: do do it. First thing is keep the pen in
Speaker 1: the paper right next to the bed, and as soon
Speaker 1: as you wake up, trying not to move at all,
Speaker 1: just start writing, like in whatever position you wake up in.
Speaker 1: Because if you and there's another thing, if you ever
Speaker 1: wake up after having a bad dream and you don't
Speaker 1: want to remember the dream, if you shake your head,
Speaker 1: the chemicals it's like it's a chemical reaction the dream.
Speaker 1: So if you don't move, you have a better chance
Speaker 1: of remembering the dream if you shake. If you move,
Speaker 1: it like it dislodges the memory of the dream. Another
Speaker 1: thing it's interesting is that as soon as you start
Speaker 1: writing it, write as much as even if you don't
Speaker 1: remember much, just remember, write down what you remember, and
Speaker 1: you'll see through the process of writing it, more of
Speaker 1: the dream will come back. It's like it's something about
Speaker 1: that process of writing it down and thinking about it,
Speaker 1: and it just starts. You'll think you remember like one
Speaker 1: little picture, and you start writing to pick what the
Speaker 1: picture is, and it's with as much detail as possible,
Speaker 1: and then it'll end up going for pages of information. Wow,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna start doing it. Actually, I feel like I
Speaker 1: have to mention this too. The reason that I made
Speaker 1: this album was because somebody that I was with, she
Speaker 1: was obsessed with like old rock and roll music and
Speaker 1: she would only only listen to it. And we would
Speaker 1: hang out and I would try to play my music
Speaker 1: around her and she would just she wasn't having it.
Speaker 1: But like I loved her and we like spent all
Speaker 1: of our time together and she just she would listen
Speaker 1: to some of it, but she really wasn't having it,
Speaker 1: and she would play guitar for herself. And she's an
Speaker 1: amazing singer too. And oh, she's actually on a song
Speaker 1: that I have called Photograph. She's on that song with
Speaker 1: me because she wanted to be on the song and
Speaker 1: it's about us breaking up. So she inspired me to
Speaker 1: make this album because she made she changed my taste
Speaker 1: of music. And it's actually something that I mentioned in
Speaker 1: a song that I have called Fallen, which is on Sire,
Speaker 1: where I say, you know, you change my taste of music.
Speaker 1: But this is like the real repercussions of that really
Speaker 1: playing out in Cool Tap Volume three, where it's like
Speaker 1: even when we broke up, she made me want to
Speaker 1: be like this thing that would be like good for
Speaker 1: like the version of myself that she would want is
Speaker 1: what I was like creating with Cool Tap Volume three
Speaker 1: and a version of myself where I'm like, hey, let
Speaker 1: me give this other thing a chance. Maybe she's a genius.
Speaker 1: You know what I mean, she is, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe I should give this whole thing a chance.
Speaker 1: And I went from being like, oh my gosh, my
Speaker 1: girlfriend is playing you know these songs all all the
Speaker 1: time to being like she's not here and I'm playing
Speaker 1: them all the time, and I have the vinyls and
Speaker 1: I'm da dada, I'm diving into it. And she really
Speaker 1: really opened me up to a lot of different music.
Speaker 1: And that's what took me down the place where it's
Speaker 1: like I want to study this. I want to study this.
Speaker 1: I want to study this and just go deeper and
Speaker 1: deeper and deeper into it and not to study and
Speaker 1: actual like visit places where historical things have happened. Like
Speaker 1: I went to a studio here in Los Angeles where
Speaker 1: I know that the Beach Boys recorded some of pet Sounds,
Speaker 1: you know, And I went there and I just sat
Speaker 1: there and I was like, this is just an amazing experience.
Speaker 1: I just want to I just want to be in
Speaker 1: this room to say that I've been in this room
Speaker 1: not too long ago. I actually went to Liverpool not
Speaker 1: too long ago because I just wanted to go. I
Speaker 1: just wanted to go. I wanted to see it. I
Speaker 1: sat next to the eleanor Rigby's statue. I went into
Speaker 1: the Cavern Club, you know what I mean. I watched
Speaker 1: people play on stage. I went to Penny Lane, I
Speaker 1: got straight back onto the train and I had to
Speaker 1: go back to London. But I was only there for
Speaker 1: a second while I was like, I'm not gonna come
Speaker 1: even close to this place without going, like I have
Speaker 1: to go, and I have to go and see it.
Speaker 1: And it was just such a beautiful experience. And while
Speaker 1: I was there, my friend called me and he was like, Bro,
Speaker 1: you have to see this new like TV show that
Speaker 1: comes out. It's just Paul McCartney and Rick Rubin talking
Speaker 1: about music. And I was like, Bro, there's no way
Speaker 1: that you're calling me about this when I'm here on
Speaker 1: Penny Lane right now in Liverpool, Like you can't be
Speaker 1: talking to me about this, Like dude, this is crazy.
Speaker 1: And then yeah, so like and and by the way,
Speaker 1: that was just totally awesome everything you guys did together.
Speaker 1: But yeah, I just love I love music. I love
Speaker 1: music history and everything, and and just to study about
Speaker 1: it because I feel like it can really inform what
Speaker 1: we're doing now. Because I got so lost into the
Speaker 1: charts of like where we're at right now and everybody's
Speaker 1: releasing and take and everything. I got so lost that
Speaker 1: I was like, hold on, let me just let me
Speaker 1: take a bunch of steps back really quickly, and let
Speaker 1: me educate myself and then let me try to come
Speaker 1: out with something else. Two of the things you said
Speaker 1: really resonate with me. One is going to a recording
Speaker 1: studio where great things have been made. I historically have
Speaker 1: always tried to work in place as much as possible
Speaker 1: where there's a history of making good music in that space.
Speaker 1: And I don't know what it is. It's like it's
Speaker 1: like going to a great cathedral, you know, Like whenever
Speaker 1: I go to New York, I always go to Saint
Speaker 1: John the Divine in Harlem. There's a European style cathedral,
Speaker 1: the only one in the United States in Harlem, and
Speaker 1: I go there and I meditate every time I'm in
Speaker 1: New York and just the feeling it's built to the
Speaker 1: harmonic proportions of a human being. It's a it's a
Speaker 1: huge structure, huge. You've heard the expression like the ring
Speaker 1: of truth. You know, there's a there's a rhythm sence
Speaker 1: in this room that's like the ring of truth when
Speaker 1: you're when you're in it. So to just be in
Speaker 1: that space really is enlivening. And the same is true
Speaker 1: with recording studios that where you know, I've had the
Speaker 1: great blessing of getting to work in Abbey Roads Studio too,
Speaker 1: where the Beatles recorded not many times, but a couple
Speaker 1: of times, and so much magic occurred in that room
Speaker 1: that it can't help but have some effect. I don't
Speaker 1: know whether it's a physical effect or a psychic effect
Speaker 1: or a psychological effect. I don't know how it works.
Speaker 1: But when you come into a place where something great happened,
Speaker 1: I feel like you have an expectation in yourself to
Speaker 1: like tap into whatever that is. You know. It's like
Speaker 1: there are many arenas in the in the country, but
Speaker 1: for some reason, Madison Square Garden has this like air
Speaker 1: of magic about it, you know, like I think Former
Speaker 1: Ali happened in Madison Square Garden. And so you can
Speaker 1: play at NASA Coliseum an hour away, or you can
Speaker 1: play at Madison Square Garden. They're about the same size,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, when you're playing at Madison Square Garden,
Speaker 1: it feels like it's historic and you're playing an hour
Speaker 1: away to the same number of people in the same place,
Speaker 1: and it just feels regular. So I mean, still great,
Speaker 1: Still you know, twenty thousand people, twenty thousand people, But
Speaker 1: you know what I'm saying, there's some magical thing that
Speaker 1: these places take on that we can't understand, and if
Speaker 1: any opportunities to tap into those energies feels really strong.
Speaker 1: And then on the other side, seeing places that inspired
Speaker 1: great songs, like I've never been to Penny Lane, but
Speaker 1: when I think of the song Penny Lane, I think
Speaker 1: a Penny Lane as a magical place. It doesn't exist
Speaker 1: on the planet. So to be able to go there
Speaker 1: and see that it's it's just a place that's part
Speaker 1: of town helps us as creators to know, Oh, I
Speaker 1: can notice the things around me, and depending on the
Speaker 1: way I frame them and the story I tell with them,
Speaker 1: someone else can have that experience like I have of
Speaker 1: the magic place Penny Lane, or you know with the
Speaker 1: Mamas and the Papas talking about California dreaming. When I
Speaker 1: grew up in New York. Like for me, it was
Speaker 1: a dream to someday get to see California, you know,
Speaker 1: just because it was in the music, you know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to just see it, just like someday Yeah, or
Speaker 1: the San Francisco song Yeah, Flowers in your Hair San Francisco.
Speaker 1: I remember going to Hey Ashbury and being like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, like this is this is where they're writing
Speaker 1: the song about, like hippie Hill, like San Francisco. Like
Speaker 1: I've been here, but not like this, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like it was like this is the coolest thing.
Speaker 1: And then I actually performed in San Francisco. Sadly it
Speaker 1: wasn't for this album, but I still didn't and I
Speaker 1: was like, man, this is amazing. This is cool, you know,
Speaker 1: I love it. And yeah, everything you're saying it is
Speaker 1: just so so true and it's it's just beautiful. I
Speaker 1: remember I went to I was in Milan and there's
Speaker 1: this magnificent like cathedral in Milan as well, and it
Speaker 1: was my first time going there and it was just
Speaker 1: so tall and so amazing that it's like certain spaces
Speaker 1: they really truly do hold a specific energy and it
Speaker 1: will affect us and like how you're saying in some
Speaker 1: type of way, I don't know how, but it truly does,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's beautiful. What have you been listening
Speaker 1: too lately? Where would you say your paste range? Now?
Speaker 1: So I've been listening to a lot of the same stuff.
Speaker 1: So I'm just listening a lot of the Beach Boys
Speaker 1: because I'm trying to work on my harmonies. And then
Speaker 1: I also feel like, you know, I love the Beatles
Speaker 1: so much, and I love going to London and going
Speaker 1: down and like, you know, just a second ago, I
Speaker 1: went outside of the Abbey Road studios and I just
Speaker 1: looked at the things and the things and I was like, yes,
Speaker 1: this is amazing. But with the Beach Boys, I feel like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like it's buried in my
Speaker 1: soul somehow because it's like Malimpo, like that's where I
Speaker 1: grew up, you know what I mean. I feel like
Speaker 1: I've walked on the same sand as them, you know,
Speaker 1: and I'm so connected to it. So I'm listening to
Speaker 1: a lot of the Beach Boys. I'm listening to obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of the Beatles. I'm listening to a lot
Speaker 1: of Homeshake and now I'm starting to listen to rap
Speaker 1: music again, and I really am listening to a lot
Speaker 1: of trip called quest though, that's what I'm really listening
Speaker 1: to a lot of. Yeah, I really liked when you
Speaker 1: did your your radio show on Apple. I thought you
Speaker 1: picked great your music. I wanted to ask, like, where
Speaker 1: do you hear new music? What's your What are the
Speaker 1: ways that you find the new things that speak to you.
Speaker 1: There's the show on Apple TV. It's called nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: and I'm watching this this new show, and it's really
Speaker 1: about history of music. And I like to go back
Speaker 1: and and find like really dope albums that I find
Speaker 1: in the history of music, like Tapestry, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, and finding old, old, just songs that I
Speaker 1: never heard of before, or like Slide the Family Stone.
Speaker 1: People that I've heard of are like, oh, yeah, I've
Speaker 1: heard this song before, but not like, oh, let me
Speaker 1: listen to the whole album. So that's really how I've
Speaker 1: been doing it, is going and just going backwards to
Speaker 1: find music, and then also just like finding somebody that
Speaker 1: I like, like Slide the Family Stone, and then just
Speaker 1: being like all right, cool, I'm going to look at
Speaker 1: their related artists. You know, I'm going to look at
Speaker 1: their contemporaries or who did they listen to? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm always looking for what other people are listening to,
Speaker 1: and that's how I try to find new songs. And
Speaker 1: I also just feel like so much like music history
Speaker 1: related content is coming out too, because people are really
Speaker 1: getting interested in this, it feels like and it's just
Speaker 1: a blessing for those of us who are out there
Speaker 1: just trying to learn more and learn more about it.
Speaker 1: Who your favorite rappers? I'm going to start off this
Speaker 1: is like not in order of like number one, but
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna be like Q tip you know for sure,
Speaker 1: and then or just try to call question general. I
Speaker 1: gotta say jay Z too, I gotta say most deaf,
Speaker 1: Q tip jay Z, most Deff. I gotta say Biggie,
Speaker 1: and I also have to say Tupac. I also love
Speaker 1: caras work. Do you write down either lyrics or phrases?
Speaker 1: Like just in life? If you if you get either
Speaker 1: a phrase or a couplet, would you write it down? Yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I might think of something like while I'm up
Speaker 1: on the hill, like oh, you know, like like fragmented
Speaker 1: like rainbow, like a piece of a rainbow that you
Speaker 1: would see like oh okay, yeah, that's tight, like fragmented
Speaker 1: rainbow or like rainbow bap or like you know, I
Speaker 1: feel like Cavin Fever was like that a lot, a
Speaker 1: little bit, like I got that Cavin fever, you know,
Speaker 1: just like writing that down. Yeah, I'm definitely just writing
Speaker 1: random things down at different times to like try to
Speaker 1: pull to pull from or like just remembering certain things,
Speaker 1: Like there's all these equestrian trails around me, so it's like,
Speaker 1: you know, making a song it's just about the equestrian
Speaker 1: trail because that's where I was when like Sire was born,
Speaker 1: you know, and that could be like your Penny Lane. Yeah, yeah, totally, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: because totally you know, it's like trying to create something
Speaker 1: magical out of just an ordinary, mundane thing that's in
Speaker 1: my neighborhood. Cool. It may be too soon to ask this,
Speaker 1: but is do you really have a vision of what
Speaker 1: the next like, what the next phase of your work
Speaker 1: is going to be like compared to what you're doing now. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I realized because I just did a performance recently,
Speaker 1: and during that performance, I realized that this album has
Speaker 1: been made in like by myself pretty much. I made
Speaker 1: it during Like Quarantine and Like Being Alone, which was
Speaker 1: perfect for the album, and it's made for people who
Speaker 1: are in their rooms, who you know, maybe are meditating
Speaker 1: or on some type of psychedelic journey on the top
Speaker 1: of a hill or in their room, or just vibing
Speaker 1: out for a day, to just kind of catch a
Speaker 1: vibe and to tap into the flow of just like
Speaker 1: happiness in the world, in life, you know. And so
Speaker 1: for this next phase of my musical journey, I think
Speaker 1: that I'm really going to tap back into what it's
Speaker 1: like to be in large crowds with people, because that's
Speaker 1: something that I haven't been experiencing for a very long
Speaker 1: time and that none of us have. So I think slowly,
Speaker 1: by the time my next series of projects come out,
Speaker 1: the world will be ready for that, and I'm actually
Speaker 1: gonna hopefully be able to perform in front of people,
Speaker 1: so that I'm going to make music that's conducive to
Speaker 1: that and try to get back into inter wrapping, but
Speaker 1: in a way that I feel like works with all
Speaker 1: of the things I've learned up to this point. Cool Man,
Speaker 1: it's a pleasure speaking to you. Thank you so much
Speaker 1: for this opportunity. I feel like I've learned so much,
Speaker 1: you know, just getting and talking to you. And can
Speaker 1: I just ask you why you you chose to interview
Speaker 1: me today and what made you think that? As I
Speaker 1: told I told you in the beginning, I was, I
Speaker 1: saw a poster up, It's like, oh, he's got a
Speaker 1: new album out, it'd be fun to talk to him.
Speaker 1: We never I mean, we see each other around and
Speaker 1: we say hello, but we've never really talked so much.
Speaker 1: And like the beauty of this doing this is I
Speaker 1: get to talk to people who even people I know
Speaker 1: well through this process, we get to talk about stuff
Speaker 1: we don't normally talk about when we you know, when
Speaker 1: we're hanging out. I never asked like, um, I saw
Speaker 1: I've been working with the Chili Peppers for twenty nine years,
Speaker 1: and I interviewed Flee for something and I asked them
Speaker 1: all these questions. Now, I've known him for twenty nine years,
Speaker 1: but I don't know anything about him. I know about
Speaker 1: how we make music together, but I don't really know
Speaker 1: anything else other than what has happened to come up
Speaker 1: during those times. So it's fascinating both with people that
Speaker 1: I already know and then people who I just you know,
Speaker 1: see from a distance and I'm curious, like be fun
Speaker 1: to talk, see see what I see, what's going on inside.
Speaker 1: I'm so I'm so happy, I'm so honored and yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for this. Honestly, this is really
Speaker 1: like this has just been a dream come true for me.
Speaker 1: So I really appreciate you. Pleasure Sara. Same thanks to
Speaker 1: Jaden Smith for sharing the inspiration for his latest album,
Speaker 1: Cool Tape Volume three Deluxe with Rick. You can check
Speaker 1: out all our favorite Jaden Smith songs at broken Record
Speaker 1: podcast dot com. You should have subscribed to our YouTube
Speaker 1: channel at YouTube dot com slash Broken Record Podcast. We
Speaker 1: can find all our new episodes and you can follow
Speaker 1: us on Twitter at broken Record. Broken Record is produced
Speaker 1: with helpful Lea Rose, Jason Gambrel, Martin Gonzalez, Eric Sandler,
Speaker 1: and Jennifer Sanchez, with engineering help from Nick Chafee. Our
Speaker 1: executive producer is Mela Bell. Broken Record is a production
Speaker 1: of Pushkin Industries. If you love this show and others
Speaker 1: from Pushkin, consider becoming a Pushnick. Pushnick is a podcast
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Speaker 1: A theme music for Kenny Beats, I'm justin Richmond.