WEBVTT - Win Butler 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:14.360 Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to 0:00:14.400 --> 0:00:17.360 all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, 0:00:17.400 --> 0:00:19.439 which you can find a link to in the show 0:00:19.480 --> 0:00:23.240 notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced 0:00:23.239 --> 0:00:28.440 in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right. 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.839 Enjoy the episode. It's been ten years since Arcade fires 0:00:32.840 --> 0:00:36.520 exceptional third album, The Suburbs, earned a Grammy for Album 0:00:36.520 --> 0:00:39.720 of the Year. It's a distinction that helps catapult the 0:00:39.760 --> 0:00:42.640 quirky indie rock band from Montreal into one of the 0:00:42.760 --> 0:00:47.959 biggest bands and the world that's ready to start from 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.680 the Suburbs. With the string of chart topping conceptual albums 0:00:52.000 --> 0:00:54.800 and a live show that's arguably unmatched by any other 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:58.400 modern rock band. Arcade Fire's genius can be attributed to 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.360 their tireless work ethic, a collective musical mastery, and lead 0:01:02.400 --> 0:01:05.800 singer Win Butler's total surrender to an elusive musical spirit. 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.800 Win Butler spoke with Rick Rubin from his home studio 0:01:08.840 --> 0:01:10.760 in New Orleans, where he lives with his wife and 0:01:10.800 --> 0:01:14.400 band member Regine Chassan. When describes the night he and 0:01:14.480 --> 0:01:17.600 Regine wrote the first songs together, explains why he set 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:19.560 out to be the weak link in the band. Why 0:01:19.600 --> 0:01:21.840 the only place he would ever talk to Bob Dylan 0:01:22.040 --> 0:01:28.440 is side stage at an arcade fire show. This is 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:32.080 broken record liner notes for the digital age. I'm justin Richmond. 0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:41.639 Here's Rick Ruben's conversation with Win Butler. What's happening? Man? Hello? Hello? 0:01:42.200 --> 0:01:45.520 Where are you? I'm in New Orleans? Oh nice? How 0:01:45.520 --> 0:01:48.680 long have you lived there? Five years or something? How's 0:01:48.680 --> 0:01:51.280 it been? I love it? It's funny. Or like when 0:01:51.320 --> 0:01:54.000 COVID started, I started watching like New Orleans films because 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:56.400 I like miss New Orleans, miss New Orleans so much. 0:01:56.400 --> 0:01:59.000 It's like, even though I live here, I'm like, it's 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.360 a manzie And how much of the city is just 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:06.920 in the people? Yeah? How did you choose to move there? 0:02:07.480 --> 0:02:11.600 So Regie, my wife who's in the band, my partner 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:15.560 is her family from Haiti and she grew up in Montreal, 0:02:15.720 --> 0:02:20.560 so she's sort of Francophone Haitian. And when we were 0:02:20.600 --> 0:02:23.520 working on the Suburbs, we did a road trip from 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:26.160 Houston to New Orleans and we sort of got to 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:28.959 we kind of got to near Lafayette, like the kind 0:02:28.960 --> 0:02:33.120 of like creole zydeco country, and we went to these 0:02:33.200 --> 0:02:35.720 like clubs, these little zydeco clubs, and it's like all 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:40.959 black kids singing in French. And she understood everything from 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:43.520 the Haitian side and the Quebec side and were just 0:02:43.560 --> 0:02:48.200 like like this weird family tree sort of thing. And 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:50.120 I grew up in Houston, so it's sort of like, 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:51.960 I don't know, we both feel really at home here. 0:02:52.040 --> 0:02:55.480 For it's like just feels like our natural place. Is 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:59.120 the Haitian connection stronger even than in Montreal. There's a 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.360 lot more Haitians in Montreal, like there's more of a 0:03:01.400 --> 0:03:06.200 community and culture, but the kind of spiritual like the 0:03:06.320 --> 0:03:09.120 old like you kind of have all this eighteen hundreds 0:03:09.280 --> 0:03:13.000 Haitian culture here that's like kind of like really deep 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.559 more this spiritual spiritual piece of it is really strong here, beautiful. 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.440 What's your connection to spirituality or do you have any 0:03:20.520 --> 0:03:22.760 or have you ever had any? I kind of like 0:03:22.880 --> 0:03:27.680 my parents, my mom's my mom's family. So my grandfather 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.760 was Alvino Ray, who was a big band leader. He 0:03:31.880 --> 0:03:34.600 was actually one of two jazz guitarists in New York City, 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:37.200 like in the twenties. He was like one of the 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:40.160 first people that played jazz on a guitar, and my 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.880 grandmother was a singer and the King Sisters, and so 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:46.920 my mom kind of grew up in this musical like 0:03:47.280 --> 0:03:50.680 very musical family. They were on television like musical Overload. 0:03:50.720 --> 0:03:54.360 My mom's a harpist, jazz harpist. And my dad's family 0:03:54.520 --> 0:03:59.240 is from Maine, like they're like boat like island people, 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:04.800 like Harvard academic East Coast sort of people. And my 0:04:04.840 --> 0:04:07.280 mom my mom's family's Mormon, but I kind of call 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:10.840 them like Martini Mormons, like they were like jazz Mormons. 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.960 You know. I kind of grew up exposed like going 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.359 to Mormon church, but my dad never went, and my 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:19.960 dad was like completely agnostic and like kind of like 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.760 have fun guys sort of vibe. And then as I 0:04:23.800 --> 0:04:26.000 kind of got older, I went away to boarding school 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:29.240 and I ended up like I studied my degrees actually 0:04:29.240 --> 0:04:32.760 in religious studies, because I ended up sort of in philosophy. 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:36.479 And then the more I studied philosophy, the more I 0:04:36.520 --> 0:04:38.839 realized it all just kind of came back to the Bible. Anyway. 0:04:38.880 --> 0:04:40.600 I was like, well, at least I should at least 0:04:40.680 --> 0:04:43.279 understand what this shit is talking about, because like that's 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:46.800 what all of Western culture is referencing. I don't know 0:04:47.160 --> 0:04:50.320 there were there is. I mean, music is a spirit, 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:52.880 like that is what it is, and that's one of 0:04:52.920 --> 0:04:54.840 the things that brought me to New Orleans. It's like, 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:57.960 you really don't feel like a crazy person feeling that way, 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:01.200 because like it's self evident. But I think it's become 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.200 my spirituality has become very churchless and very kind of like, 0:05:07.000 --> 0:05:11.040 you know more. I've studied a lot of different stuff, 0:05:11.160 --> 0:05:15.880 but I probably know more about the Bible than I should. 0:05:16.839 --> 0:05:20.320 Do you think it's informed your songwriting? Yeah, definitely. I 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.000 mean I think it enables you to be kind of 0:05:23.520 --> 0:05:26.520 crazy enough to think of it as a vocation, which, 0:05:26.560 --> 0:05:28.640 even even if you're full of shit, at least it 0:05:28.680 --> 0:05:33.960 gives you a purpose. Let's talk about the difference between 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:36.480 how a song would come about on the last album 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.080 versus the first album. On the first album, might it 0:05:39.160 --> 0:05:44.000 be acoustic guitar, singing, playing and finding a song? Would 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.760 it start with lyrics? What would be your typical process 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:54.760 then most recently versus traditionally? So the song everything Now 0:05:54.960 --> 0:05:58.159 was I was actually I started I started Djane, we 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.479 did a record with James Murphy and and I kind 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:06.240 of started actually listening to music and clubs, and like 0:06:06.279 --> 0:06:08.000 I remember hearing Doctor Dre in a club for the 0:06:08.040 --> 0:06:10.160 first time, and I was like, what the fuck, that's 0:06:10.160 --> 0:06:13.159 what that shit sounds like. I had no fucking idea, 0:06:13.240 --> 0:06:15.840 and you're like, oh shit, Like I knew it was great, 0:06:15.839 --> 0:06:17.400 but I didn't know that that's what it sounded like. 0:06:17.760 --> 0:06:19.080 You know. So it's like when you hear what it 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.360 sounds like and you start to get the production connection 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:26.600 between the speaker is the last It's like you're making 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.520 some shit that hits the speaker, and the speaker is 0:06:28.560 --> 0:06:30.920 actually what's doing the last bit of the word. And 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.080 so I was actually working on a remix. There's a 0:06:34.160 --> 0:06:37.440 Francis Bay bass song called Coffee Kola that's like kind 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:40.600 of this beautiful pigmy flute. It's like kind of a beatbox. 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:46.599 It's this French African singer. And as I was working 0:06:46.640 --> 0:06:48.880 on the remix, I started playing all these different chords 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:51.800 over this little loop and I just started singing a 0:06:51.880 --> 0:06:55.760 melody that was completely unrelated to the song and it 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:58.360 was just its own song. It took me minute to 0:06:58.360 --> 0:07:00.680 even realize it was a song because I wasn't thinking. 0:07:00.920 --> 0:07:04.080 I didn't I'd never hadn't really worked on sample based 0:07:04.160 --> 0:07:06.800 music before, and it was like it felt like a 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:09.960 like a tool. I don't know, the way that playing 0:07:10.000 --> 0:07:12.520 the guitar felt for me, like when I was fifteen. 0:07:12.560 --> 0:07:13.800 It felt like that. It was like it was like, 0:07:13.840 --> 0:07:17.520 oh wait, this is just a tool, like any other tool, 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.040 but it was like the melody and the lyrical point 0:07:21.080 --> 0:07:22.880 of view and everything was like all there. But then 0:07:22.920 --> 0:07:25.840 even just to accept that it was a song took 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:30.640 like six months. We ended up working with Tomah from 0:07:30.760 --> 0:07:33.560 Daft Punk, and we did we did the big session 0:07:33.560 --> 0:07:35.640 for that record in his studio in Paris, which is 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:38.280 like the most amazing studio I've ever been in. It's amazing, 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:43.760 And we actually got Francis Baby's son, who plays the 0:07:43.800 --> 0:07:46.320 same instrument, to come to the studio to play with us, 0:07:46.440 --> 0:07:48.440 and so we didn't actually end up using the sample 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.520 and so we're like kind of like thinking about it 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.440 very cerebrally and just like oh, like, I don't know, 0:07:55.480 --> 0:07:58.680 I feel like there's this very PC like is this 0:07:58.720 --> 0:08:01.840 appropriative to us an Africans, Like I don't, it's like 0:08:01.880 --> 0:08:05.920 this MPR think or some shit. And then Patrick Baby 0:08:06.120 --> 0:08:07.760 walks in the room with his flute and we play 0:08:07.800 --> 0:08:09.920 in the song and he's like almost like weeping and 0:08:10.000 --> 0:08:11.880 just like starts playing the song with us, and I 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.640 was like, no, this is fucking what's up, you know, 0:08:14.720 --> 0:08:17.240 and like just I don't know. So that was like 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:21.080 a really beautiful, really long process where it took almost 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:22.840 like a year or to even realize it was a 0:08:22.880 --> 0:08:26.320 song or something. Amazing was the last album the first 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:29.880 album that that experience happened totally. I mean that that 0:08:29.920 --> 0:08:32.199 was the first time I would have ever been I mean, 0:08:32.240 --> 0:08:35.120 since I was much younger where I would have even 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:39.000 really been I don't know, even the idea of remixing 0:08:39.040 --> 0:08:42.160 something or like kind of changing the context of something 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:44.800 as a thing that would have spent time on, I 0:08:44.800 --> 0:08:48.160 wouldn't have been practicing that. That's I feel like I'm 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:50.360 just constantly trying to feel like an amateur. It's like 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:52.800 you just like I don't know what it's like. The 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.720 first time I heard Nirvana, my takeaway was like I 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.679 don't need to play a guitar solo, Like I like 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:02.440 my least was like fuck a guitar solo. Not that 0:09:02.520 --> 0:09:05.640 guitar solos aren't great, but I'm just like, there's it 0:09:05.720 --> 0:09:08.560 was more just like wanting to feel like like I 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:10.920 never really learned to play the guitar. I've never really 0:09:10.960 --> 0:09:13.960 gotten any better at any instrument. Like I've almost like 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:18.680 studiously maintained my amateur noss so I can like pick 0:09:18.720 --> 0:09:21.959 something up being like how does this work? And so 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.320 that becomes sort of part of the process. And I 0:09:25.400 --> 0:09:28.560 just everyone in my band is smarter than me and 0:09:29.040 --> 0:09:31.480 better at every instrument, Like I wanted to be in 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:36.160 a band with wherever I was the weak link musically 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:38.920 or something. I don't know, like like I like the 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:41.040 people that I've When I met Regie, I was like, oh, 0:09:41.080 --> 0:09:43.559 you're smart at me about everything, So like you just 0:09:43.760 --> 0:09:47.400 want to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:50.680 Did you guys start in a relationship or did you 0:09:50.720 --> 0:09:53.480 start in the band and be come together? How what 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:55.800 was the timing of it? It was the same. I 0:09:55.840 --> 0:09:59.280 went to Sarah Lawrence College, which is like super like 0:09:59.559 --> 0:10:02.839 post art school, like outside of New York City. It 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:06.439 was like seventy thirty female to male. Jordan Peel was 0:10:06.480 --> 0:10:08.800 actually in my class, and I got there and I 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.439 was just like I just spent all my time making 0:10:11.440 --> 0:10:13.720 four track recordings and like not going to class and 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:16.040 I was just like, this is stupid. So I basically 0:10:17.240 --> 0:10:20.679 dropped out and started a BAM with my high school 0:10:20.720 --> 0:10:23.680 friend and then sort of ended up moving to Montreal. 0:10:25.120 --> 0:10:28.600 I actually never even thought about Canada. Yeah, I wasn't 0:10:28.640 --> 0:10:31.280 like I'm gonna move to Canada one day or like, 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:34.320 it wasn't really I didn't know shit about Montreal. I 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.679 didn't even really know that it was French, really like 0:10:37.280 --> 0:10:40.280 really like I knew, but I didn't like, no, no, 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:42.800 because you're American, so of course, how would you know. 0:10:43.320 --> 0:10:45.680 We don't learn, We don't learn that. I grew up 0:10:45.679 --> 0:10:48.160 in Texas. I took Texas history, like I can tell 0:10:48.160 --> 0:10:50.400 you about the fucking Battle of San Jacento, but like 0:10:50.440 --> 0:10:53.480 I don't know anything about European history, like you know. 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.880 So yeah, so I was just like this idiot American 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:02.080 and like moving to Cannon in the winter, just like fuck, 0:11:02.360 --> 0:11:05.120 it's fucking gold here, like what's going on? And I 0:11:05.160 --> 0:11:08.079 would just I would. I would go to the music 0:11:08.120 --> 0:11:11.720 to McGill, to the music school and just hang out 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:14.880 outside the drummer rooms trying to find a drummer, just 0:11:14.920 --> 0:11:20.280 listen to people practice drums for like hours. And I 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.720 was in the cafeteria and Regime was actually studying jazz 0:11:23.920 --> 0:11:26.280 at at McGill. She's like, who the fuck is this 0:11:26.440 --> 0:11:29.800 six foot five guy in a cowboy hat, Like he 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:34.559 definitely doesn't go to school here. And I saw her 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.240 and I went up to her and I was describing 0:11:36.280 --> 0:11:39.280 to her like the kind of music I wanted to make, 0:11:39.520 --> 0:11:42.800 and and she I think she was suspicious of like 0:11:43.240 --> 0:11:45.440 you know, she was like, uh, I mean I said 0:11:45.440 --> 0:11:47.600 all things that she would have been in. I probably 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.040 said like like it would have been like Neil Young 0:11:50.160 --> 0:11:55.440 the Pixies, classical music, fucking you know, radiohead, Like it 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:57.640 would have been like a weird hodgepodge of whatever I 0:11:57.679 --> 0:11:59.960 was into. She was like, well, I might know someone 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:03.360 who plays drums. She gave me your number and she 0:12:03.440 --> 0:12:05.640 never called me back or anything. And then I happened 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.680 to be at an art opening at the art school 0:12:08.960 --> 0:12:11.760 and she was singing like like she had like a 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.880 jazz trio that she was singing for like a baronessage 0:12:15.000 --> 0:12:19.040 like for a art opening. And I saw her singing, 0:12:19.080 --> 0:12:21.120 I was like, I went up to her afterwards. I 0:12:21.200 --> 0:12:23.800 was like, we have to play music together, like I'm 0:12:23.800 --> 0:12:27.480 gonna call you again. And she came over to my 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.160 apartment and I played her a bunch of songs and 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:32.680 she was like, oh shit, this guy is not full 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.319 of shit. Like you know, I don't even remember what 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:36.839 I played her, but we ended up writing a couple 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.280 of songs like that night, and it was pretty much 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:41.280 like that was it. You know, we were kind of 0:12:41.800 --> 0:12:43.120 I mean, it took a long time to put it 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:44.880 all together, but from there it was just like we 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:46.920 were just sort of in it, you know. And now 0:12:46.920 --> 0:12:51.040 it's twenty twenty and you have a kid. You have 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:54.920 a kid, and it's a global pandemic. And he moved 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.800 and he moved back to the states Man. He told 0:12:57.840 --> 0:12:59.560 me I would move back to the South. I was like, 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.760 get the fuck out of here. I'm going as far 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:05.560 as I can't, Like, I'm going to fucking Montreal, like 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.640 fu fuck Texas. But and now ironically we're planning on 0:13:09.760 --> 0:13:13.120 going back to Texas to make the next record during 0:13:13.240 --> 0:13:16.240 the elections. So that'll be fun. We'll be back after 0:13:16.280 --> 0:13:23.640 a quick break. We're back with Rick Rubin and Wynn Butler, 0:13:24.720 --> 0:13:27.960 who were the other big inspirations for you. Actually, I 0:13:28.080 --> 0:13:31.160 found I found recently a flyer that we put up 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:33.560 in Montreal. When we were looking for musicians, we were 0:13:33.600 --> 0:13:36.520 kind of looking for We had the band, but we 0:13:36.520 --> 0:13:40.040 were looking for orchestral musicians. We were looking for like 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.959 I don't know, like a violinist or or someone who 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.320 played woodwins or we just wanted some other color in 0:13:45.360 --> 0:13:48.240 the band. And it was like we listed ore. It 0:13:48.360 --> 0:13:50.480 was like this funny flyer that Regia and I made 0:13:50.480 --> 0:13:51.880 and I'm trying to remember it was on there, but 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:58.640 it was like the Pixies, Debuc Neil Young, Motown and 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.920 Dylan those that was was on the list, like looking 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:06.240 for orchestral musicians with like those influences, you know. And 0:14:06.280 --> 0:14:09.760 I'm I'm like, it's pretty like a new order, a 0:14:09.800 --> 0:14:11.800 new order that was the other vand and when I 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.080 look at our shit, I'm like pretty on point, Like 0:14:14.120 --> 0:14:17.040 that's pretty much. That's sort of like the it's a 0:14:17.120 --> 0:14:20.840 big it's actually a really big sandbox to play with, 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:23.520 like if you stretch the edges of those. And then 0:14:23.520 --> 0:14:28.200 the other piece is really like Caribbean music and Haitian 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:32.760 music and like and that sort of poll of Regime's background, 0:14:32.920 --> 0:14:35.000 and then in there it's like it's almost too much. 0:14:35.400 --> 0:14:37.720 I'm just like, oh, too much, real estate in here. 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.360 What would be the electronic music that has come in 0:14:42.600 --> 0:14:45.920 since that gets added? I mean I would say that, 0:14:46.040 --> 0:14:50.160 you know, for me, like Radiohead and Bork Buyork is 0:14:50.200 --> 0:14:54.600 like to me like Bowie Incarnate, like you know, talk 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:56.720 about not give you a fuck and just being like 0:14:57.320 --> 0:15:00.240 sticking to your guns and shit, Like I I feel 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:05.320 like York slaughters, you know, she's so fucking tough and hardcore. 0:15:05.880 --> 0:15:08.880 I mean, I guess like kid A and Homogenic and 0:15:08.920 --> 0:15:10.600 like those records would have been, those would have been 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.040 deep in there. I mean, I feel like kraft Work 0:15:13.160 --> 0:15:16.920 is probably the most there is no modern music without Kraftwork. 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:21.560 That's like the if you triangulate all EDM and hip 0:15:21.560 --> 0:15:24.880 hop and every like craft Works the fucking and who 0:15:24.880 --> 0:15:28.760 would think this weird German minimalist electronic group is like 0:15:29.640 --> 0:15:31.480 But they're at the crossroad of all of it. You know, 0:15:32.040 --> 0:15:34.160 if they got like a tenth of a penny on 0:15:34.160 --> 0:15:37.080 all that shit they like, they should, you know, they 0:15:37.080 --> 0:15:40.360 should be buildings in Berlin with the Craftwork logo on 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:43.240 them and the fact that it's as funky as it 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:47.800 is considering how coldly programmed it is, it makes no 0:15:47.920 --> 0:15:50.360 fucking sense. I don't. I still don't quite understand it. 0:15:50.920 --> 0:15:53.080 But I mean it's like the funkiness is in the 0:15:53.120 --> 0:15:56.440 space because it's like actually realized that would kneel some 0:15:56.560 --> 0:16:00.080 of Neil shit, like the swing even he always the 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:03.400 same beat, but if it's it's more of a soul 0:16:03.680 --> 0:16:06.920 it's actually a slowed down it's like you're playing soul 0:16:07.000 --> 0:16:11.000 music but really Stone like it's actually there is actually 0:16:11.040 --> 0:16:13.320 like a kind of funky swing to the ship that 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:15.480 he does. It's not just a straight thing. There's a 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.280 little bit of a lilt to it. Like the thing 0:16:18.280 --> 0:16:20.760 in New Orleans which is so amazing is that all 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.520 the there's all the second line music, which is like 0:16:24.320 --> 0:16:28.240 people like normally today, if it wasn't COVID, I would 0:16:28.240 --> 0:16:30.920 hear there'd be a band in the street and people 0:16:31.000 --> 0:16:33.560 just go through the neighborhood and drink, and you follow 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:36.920 the band around and you either play kick drum snare 0:16:37.520 --> 0:16:40.200 or you play you play kick drum with a with 0:16:40.240 --> 0:16:43.040 a with a high hat symbol with a screwdriver that's 0:16:43.040 --> 0:16:44.840 like one instrument, and then or you play the snare 0:16:44.960 --> 0:16:47.320 or you play and so if you if you're a 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:51.240 kit drummer from New Orleans, you started monophonically just playing 0:16:51.240 --> 0:16:54.000 the kick or just playing the snare, and so the dude, 0:16:54.440 --> 0:16:57.480 but everything so spread out physically that in order to 0:16:57.520 --> 0:17:01.440 play in the pocket, the pocket is really slow and behind. 0:17:01.440 --> 0:17:05.680 Everything's really behind because because the physical distance, there's latency 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:08.760 between the tuba and the kick drum and whatever. So 0:17:08.880 --> 0:17:12.439 the pocket is like this like super behind. Like you're like, 0:17:12.480 --> 0:17:15.680 how the funk this possibly groove and it like it's 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:18.000 the exact point where it grooves. And then if you 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:20.879 learn to play the kit after you're coming from a 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.879 monophonic kick drum, and then you're putting it together. And 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:27.560 that's why all those New Orleans, like all the La 0:17:28.040 --> 0:17:30.480 Studio dudes, like there's New Orleans dudes are just like 0:17:30.720 --> 0:17:33.600 because they played the fucking kick drum for like five 0:17:33.720 --> 0:17:36.119 years before they learn how to play the kit, and 0:17:36.160 --> 0:17:38.320 then you put it together, and so you're thinking about 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:41.560 it as these different instruments as opposed to one instrument, 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:43.880 and like and then you hear people some of these 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:47.119 old dudes play at the Preservation Hall and I'm like 0:17:47.119 --> 0:17:50.040 watching this dude, he's like ninety years old, loading out 0:17:50.080 --> 0:17:51.720 his own kid at the end of the night, and 0:17:51.760 --> 0:17:54.280 I'm watching and play, I'm like, who the fuck is 0:17:54.320 --> 0:17:56.280 that guy? And he's like, oh, he played on every 0:17:56.359 --> 0:18:01.920 Ray Charles record, like like he just like the fucking most. 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:04.399 Like I'm almost like crying just watching him play this 0:18:04.440 --> 0:18:07.880 traditional song, and it's like, Oh, that's why, that's that's 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:12.919 what's up. Isn't it remarkable that you can hear you 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.240 don't have to know any backstory, and you hear it 0:18:16.400 --> 0:18:19.399 and you know, oh, this is different than everything else, 0:18:19.640 --> 0:18:22.919 and it's something else music a million times, but I'm like, 0:18:22.960 --> 0:18:26.040 but that dude, who the fuck is that dude? It's like, oh, 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.480 he's one of the best drummers in the world. Who 0:18:29.520 --> 0:18:31.440 ever lived? That? No one's ever heard of? Who does 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:34.000 you know? I can remember I was listening to a 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.800 station of I know very little about classical music. I 0:18:37.800 --> 0:18:39.439 like classical music and I listened to it a lot, 0:18:39.440 --> 0:18:41.439 but I know very little about it. And I was 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.720 listening and a piece came on that just felt better, 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.760 not written better, not even necessarily performed better, but there 0:18:49.800 --> 0:18:52.199 was something about It's like, oh, this is different than 0:18:52.240 --> 0:18:55.200 everything that's played all day. And then I find out 0:18:55.200 --> 0:18:56.840 who does the arrangement and it turns out to be 0:18:56.880 --> 0:19:00.120 this guy at clauds Argerment, and I asked some friends 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:01.600 of mine who know about this stuff. He's like, oh, 0:19:01.640 --> 0:19:05.800 of course, clouds Arga. It's of course he's the master. 0:19:05.960 --> 0:19:08.520 He's the guy who taught everybody. So it's like you 0:19:08.520 --> 0:19:12.840 can hear it. It's um, it's innate in the in 0:19:12.960 --> 0:19:17.800 the dna of it, that that energy. Yeah, but most 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:20.320 of us just feel it. So it's like you feel 0:19:20.359 --> 0:19:22.520 sad and you don't know why or you like you 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:25.560 just feel like it just it just gets it out 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:29.080 of you. Regine. Regine is like I mean, she grew 0:19:29.119 --> 0:19:32.719 up none of her family's musical, but she she's just 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:35.520 a savant who like taught herself to play Mozart when 0:19:35.520 --> 0:19:37.440 she was five in the basement on a weird or 0:19:37.680 --> 0:19:40.560 Like she's just like one of these can play any instrument. 0:19:41.080 --> 0:19:44.840 She started playing drums like two weeks before we started 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:47.280 recording Funeral, and she plays drums on half that record, 0:19:47.320 --> 0:19:49.439 like she'd never played a drum kid, and she's like, 0:19:49.720 --> 0:19:52.200 I can play a drum kid, give me the drums. Um. 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:57.560 But she's studied composition, she was at McGill, studied classical music. 0:19:57.640 --> 0:20:00.399 But she has this like kind of she'll hear and 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:03.000 it's like the arrange the performance of the orchestra, and 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:05.960 she's like, fuck, it's like nails on a chalkboard because 0:20:05.960 --> 0:20:09.119 she knows like all the minutia of like the feeling. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:11.040 It's not just the notes on the page. It's like 0:20:11.560 --> 0:20:13.919 it's like the conducting and how it's played and like 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:16.080 all that shit is like where the soul of it is. 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:19.480 But I'm just sort of like fantasious school, Like I'm 0:20:19.520 --> 0:20:23.880 just like I really like Fantasia, you know, like any 0:20:24.000 --> 0:20:26.719 any shows that you can remember throughout your life that 0:20:26.800 --> 0:20:31.080 really impressed or inspired you live. I didn't really go 0:20:31.160 --> 0:20:35.320 to any show when I was a kid. I was 0:20:35.320 --> 0:20:38.080 in the suburbs of Houston. If you can't drive, you 0:20:38.119 --> 0:20:41.240 can't do shit in Houston, like like until you can drive, 0:20:41.280 --> 0:20:44.920 it's like you're a prisoner. And shows would come through 0:20:45.000 --> 0:20:47.040 town and I would like read them out in the paper. 0:20:47.080 --> 0:20:49.639 I'm like, man, I wish I could figure out how 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:51.840 to get to that. I just I couldn't figure it out. 0:20:52.320 --> 0:20:54.199 And then I went to boarding school and that was 0:20:54.240 --> 0:20:57.280 like not shows, you know. It was like I played 0:20:57.280 --> 0:20:59.480 in a cover band and there were bands on campus 0:20:59.480 --> 0:21:01.280 and ship, but wasn't like I was going to shows. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:04.080 So for me, like when I moved to Montreal, that 0:21:04.240 --> 0:21:08.320 was really my first like real punk rock music scene. 0:21:08.880 --> 0:21:11.760 And there's a band in Montreal called wolfridd and we 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:14.600 played with them the first time they ever played their 0:21:14.600 --> 0:21:17.600 first show. They just moved from Vancouver and they were 0:21:17.640 --> 0:21:19.359 on the bill and I was in the bathroom and 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:21.520 I was just like hearing it through the wall and 0:21:21.560 --> 0:21:25.719 I was like, Oh, what the fuck is that? And 0:21:25.800 --> 0:21:28.160 that was like the first band I heard there where 0:21:28.200 --> 0:21:30.800 I was like, we gotta get our ship together. And 0:21:30.840 --> 0:21:33.000