WEBVTT - Norah Jones Begins Again 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:14.280 Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.240 all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.319 which you can find a link to in the show 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.119 notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:28.320 in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right, 0:00:28.800 --> 0:00:34.199 and enjoy the episode. This is Wintertime, a song off 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:37.200 Nora Jones's album that came out this past spring. Begin Again, 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.640 Malcolm Gladwell and Bruce had them of absolutely fallen in 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.960 love with this tune. Wilco's frontman, Jeff Tweety started writing 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.839 it some time ago before discarding it somewhere along the way. 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:49.879 During a recording session with Nora Jones. The two of 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:51.839 them picked it back up and brushed it off together 0:00:52.240 --> 0:00:56.440 to make this In case you don't remember, Nora Jones 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:58.960 had a massive hit seventeen years ago with her debut 0:00:59.040 --> 0:01:02.480 single Don't Know Why, which has basically become a standard 0:01:02.480 --> 0:01:06.280 in the American songbook thanks to her minimalist performance. After that, 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.240 she did a run of solo albums, but also did 0:01:08.280 --> 0:01:10.480 a lot of collaborating a song with Ray Charles, the 0:01:10.520 --> 0:01:13.280 song with Willie Nelson, whole albums with producer Danger Mouse, 0:01:13.800 --> 0:01:16.800 but recently, Nora's discovered a new way of collaborating. She 0:01:16.880 --> 0:01:18.920 talks with Malcolm and Bruce about why this new way 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:21.520 feels so good. She also takes a seat at the 0:01:21.520 --> 0:01:23.200 piano and plays through some of the new songs on 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:25.240 her record, and also talks about some of the ways 0:01:25.240 --> 0:01:27.160 she coped with her son and fame in two thousand 0:01:27.240 --> 0:01:34.000 and two. This is Broken Record Season three, liner notes 0:01:34.120 --> 0:01:41.000 for the Digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. Here is Malcolm 0:01:41.040 --> 0:01:44.800 and Bruce's conversation with Nora Jones from Bridge Studio in Brooklyn. 0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.280 Bruce and I are mildly obsessed with wintertime, and we 0:01:49.400 --> 0:01:54.080 thought we would start there, not the season, the song, 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:57.680 not the season. We want to go as deep as 0:01:57.680 --> 0:02:01.240 you want to go on that and where it comes 0:02:01.280 --> 0:02:03.720 from and how you went about writing it, and well, 0:02:03.760 --> 0:02:05.880 I don't want to disappoint you too much on that one. 0:02:05.920 --> 0:02:08.320 But I went to record with Jeff Tweetie in Chicago 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.200 and which was really amazing and fun. We wrote several 0:02:12.240 --> 0:02:14.440 songs together and this was one that he sort of 0:02:14.440 --> 0:02:17.640 had the scraps already, yeah, lying around, so we picked 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:19.960 it up and dusted it off and tweaked it and 0:02:20.080 --> 0:02:22.880 put some clothes on it and changed it around, and 0:02:22.919 --> 0:02:25.960 then it sort of came even there. I have another questions, 0:02:26.320 --> 0:02:28.680 when did you first meet Jeff Tweetie. It must be 0:02:28.720 --> 0:02:32.160 at least ten or fifteen years ago, probably no more, 0:02:32.280 --> 0:02:34.480 because I think I met him for the first time 0:02:34.560 --> 0:02:36.839 on my first record when I did the Jewels Holland Show, 0:02:36.880 --> 0:02:39.200 so that must have been two thousand and two. Gosh. Yeah, 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:42.080 it's been a long time. And Wilco did it as well. 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:45.800 And I was already a fan because that was right 0:02:45.800 --> 0:02:50.760 when Yankee Hotel Foxtrot was out, and over the years, 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:52.480 I've just sort of seen him around a lot. We 0:02:52.600 --> 0:02:54.760 worked with a lot of the same people and we've 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:58.600 always been really friendly. Wilco had me and my band 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:02.079 put some boots come hang out with them when they 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:04.040 open up for Neil. They let us sit in on 0:03:04.120 --> 0:03:07.480 Jesus et cetera, which was really fine. That must have 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:11.040 been fun, yeah, which you've done too, which we covered. Yeah, 0:03:11.080 --> 0:03:14.519 So we covered Jesus et Cetera in this band a 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:16.560 man called Puss and Boots, Sasha top Set and Katherine 0:03:16.560 --> 0:03:19.560 Popper and myself and we did the Bridge School with 0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:23.240 them one year and and Cat and Sasha are pretty saucy, 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:26.079 and Cat goes up to Tweety and says, hey, dude, 0:03:26.520 --> 0:03:28.440 are you going to do Jesus et cetera in your set? 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:30.160 And he's like, oh, no, no, we might do that. 0:03:30.200 --> 0:03:32.200 And she's like, well, we're pooting in in our set 0:03:32.240 --> 0:03:35.480 and we're going first. So so we literally just like 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:37.720 went ahead and play their song before they went on. 0:03:38.640 --> 0:03:41.760 We just enjoyed each other's like kind of rimming each 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:44.160 other after that. Yeah, no, is that? So there's two 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:46.680 categories here. There are categories of people that you're fans 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:50.000 of and categories of people that you want to work with. 0:03:50.760 --> 0:03:53.720 Are they the same or are they different? Well, I 0:03:53.760 --> 0:03:57.120 think in making lists of collaborating with people, because this 0:03:57.160 --> 0:03:58.640 is what I'm trying to do right now is just 0:03:58.800 --> 0:04:01.480 do these singles and work with different people and with 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:04.480 low pressure stakes, you know, like just one song. It's 0:04:04.560 --> 0:04:08.520 the only goal. And I figured out that, yes, they 0:04:08.560 --> 0:04:10.960 are different. I can be a fan of someone and 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:13.560 have no idea how to insert myself into their world 0:04:13.640 --> 0:04:16.360 or them into mine. Yeah, that doesn't mean it can't 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:18.400 happen once you get in the room. It might be 0:04:18.560 --> 0:04:22.200 totally magical, But unless I have some kind of an 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:27.400 idea of something I want to try. Then I'm not 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:29.120 going to just reach out somebody and said let's go 0:04:29.160 --> 0:04:30.840 get in a room and just stare at each other. 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.800 You know, it's easier. I can imagine. It's not hard 0:04:34.839 --> 0:04:38.360 for me to understand that you would listen to Will 0:04:38.440 --> 0:04:41.120 go and meet Jeff Tweety and say, oh, that makes sense. Yeah, 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:42.799 I mean, I think we should probably do a record 0:04:42.800 --> 0:04:44.480 together at some point. And it was so fun and 0:04:44.640 --> 0:04:48.520 you know, we both play enough of enough instruments to 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:50.719 sort of just have the two of us with the drummer. 0:04:50.800 --> 0:04:53.680 His son, Spencer Tweety was playing drums, and we did 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:55.920 all the stuff with just the three of us, and 0:04:56.720 --> 0:04:59.279 that kind of recording is really fun. So you have 0:04:59.360 --> 0:05:01.440 this idea now that you want to do these kind 0:05:01.440 --> 0:05:03.920 of one offs with people that are where did that? 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:06.360 How did you come to that? It's really it sounds 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.119 like a really really but I'm surprised that more people 0:05:09.160 --> 0:05:10.680 don't do that. But I'm well, I think a lot 0:05:10.680 --> 0:05:12.880 of people do do it, but they don't like call 0:05:12.920 --> 0:05:15.600 it what it is. Maybe, But it was actually my 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.760 husband's idea. He was saying, you have all these resources 0:05:19.800 --> 0:05:23.720 to do something easy like this, why don't you do it? 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.279 It's like, gosh, why don't I that's a great idea 0:05:27.400 --> 0:05:29.320 and what a fun way to just make music. I 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.240 have little kids, you know, I don't want to My 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:36.240 attention span is very short, just like everybody's nowadays. But 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:40.520 you know, it's it's really fun to be musical and 0:05:40.640 --> 0:05:43.720 be doing things and have it come out quicker than 0:05:43.800 --> 0:05:46.400 if you do a full album, you know, and that's 0:05:46.400 --> 0:05:48.799 why is sort of the nature of the internet and everything. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:52.440 You know, it's it's good. But now you've questioned, why 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:57.240 is it easier to work with someone who you may 0:05:57.480 --> 0:05:59.320 know as a friend but haven't actually worked before than 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.560 it is to work with someone who you've been writing 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:04.240 songs with the making music with for ten years. Well, 0:06:04.279 --> 0:06:07.200 for me, I mean I don't like to take a 0:06:07.200 --> 0:06:10.560 long time to record music or write songs or I 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:12.640 mean I'll think about a song if it's not done. 0:06:13.200 --> 0:06:14.839 You know it's not done and you want to tweak it. 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:16.960 But you know, some people go in and they take 0:06:17.480 --> 0:06:19.760 three years to make an album. That's not how. I 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.200 get bored and I want to move on to something else. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:27.000 So for me, I mean, it's fun three days in 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.680 a studio with someone, it's plenty to get one song, 0:06:31.480 --> 0:06:34.800 and in all these cases we've gotten three to seven 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.280 songs each session, which has been great, and maybe not 0:06:37.320 --> 0:06:40.480 all of them are amazing, but it's really fun. It's 0:06:40.520 --> 0:06:43.200 just a fun way to work. It's low pressure to 0:06:43.200 --> 0:06:46.120 get somebody to commit to something, somebody who maybe I 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.600 don't know that well or is very busy, I don't know. 0:06:51.160 --> 0:06:54.120 For me, it's not scary so much as it is 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.480 it has been a little bit stressful because there have 0:06:57.560 --> 0:06:59.400 been many of these sessions where I've gone in and 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:03.159 I'm so underprepared. I'm like, Okay, I don't really have 0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:05.200 a full song at all in case we can't come 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.080 up with anything, because I try to have something in case, 0:07:08.279 --> 0:07:12.680 you know, we're drawing blanks in there. What is what 0:07:12.840 --> 0:07:17.000 is another day? Dumb question? What is something? I have 0:07:17.080 --> 0:07:19.120 all these voice memos on my phone, you know that 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:20.760 I make in the batstub because that's the only piece 0:07:20.760 --> 0:07:23.280 in quiet I get. And you know, some of them 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:25.360 are just like a small snippet of a melody. It's 0:07:25.400 --> 0:07:28.320 like na da da da da da, whatever it is. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.800 And sometimes those little somethings stick in my head for 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:35.520 months or years and I'll go back to them. And 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:37.960 that's like when I worked with Thomas Bartlett, that's all 0:07:38.000 --> 0:07:40.640 I had was I had a few lyrics and I 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:43.600 had a few melodies, and we just turned them into 0:07:43.600 --> 0:07:46.160 songs in the studio. And I guess my point is, like, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:49.400 sometimes I'm a little stressed and underprepared when I'm going 0:07:49.400 --> 0:07:52.120 into these sessions, but I know and I have faith 0:07:52.240 --> 0:07:54.160 in the process and that when I get into the 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.520 studio and I can focus and like all the noise 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.440 isn't surrounding me and I'm with somebody who inspires me 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:07.600 and hopefully they are the same, then it happens and 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.520 I don't know, we haven't gotten nothing yet. Yeah, I'll 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:14.360 say that how many how many ideas would you have 0:08:14.440 --> 0:08:17.400 on your phone right now? Right now, I'm pretty dry, 0:08:17.640 --> 0:08:21.480 but I have a lot of old ideas. Yeah, so 0:08:21.520 --> 0:08:25.560 you can't change phones because you're well, yeah, exactly, you're 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:27.760 locked in. I'm locked in. Yeah, I missed my own 0:08:27.840 --> 0:08:31.960 voice recorder. Sometimes what's the longest time that's a lapse 0:08:32.080 --> 0:08:34.480 between a stippet of an idea and a song It 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.480 actually appeared on an album. There's a song I wrote 0:08:38.520 --> 0:08:41.760 with this friend Ilhan Risanna used to be in a 0:08:41.760 --> 0:08:43.800 band called wax Poetic when I first moved to New 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:47.400 York in like nineteen ninety nine, and we wrote this 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:52.280 song together and that band didn't make another album and 0:08:52.679 --> 0:08:55.520 it kind of petered out and it continued without me. 0:08:55.760 --> 0:08:58.959 I wasn't in it anymore. But then I kind of 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:00.720 dug up that song and put it on my third 0:09:00.720 --> 0:09:04.960 out about So that's how many years I have you beat? 0:09:05.360 --> 0:09:08.520 Because I just did that podcast episode that was inspired 0:09:08.559 --> 0:09:13.160 by an interview that I did in nineteen ninety two. Wow, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.880 And I thought about it for that long, For twenty 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:19.760 five years, I always wanted to do something and finally 0:09:19.760 --> 0:09:21.720 did it. So I love other words. My point is, 0:09:22.160 --> 0:09:25.080 you know you can revisit the stuff when you're as 0:09:25.080 --> 0:09:27.600 old as I am. Yeah, these ideas don't really leave 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:32.160 your sort of being until they become something. But I 0:09:32.200 --> 0:09:34.400 think for a lot of people listening to old ideas, 0:09:35.559 --> 0:09:38.280 it would make them intensely uncomfortable because they would hear 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:41.600 the mistakes, the things that aren't so good. Are you 0:09:41.640 --> 0:09:43.720 like that at all? Can you can you turn off 0:09:43.800 --> 0:09:47.800 whatever critical voice you have that? Yeah, I'm not too 0:09:47.800 --> 0:09:51.200 critical of myself because I learned when I. When I 0:09:51.280 --> 0:09:54.720 first my first record came out, I had just started 0:09:54.720 --> 0:09:57.679 writing songs because that voice I could not turn off 0:09:57.760 --> 0:09:59.640 until then. I wrote songs in high school and they 0:09:59.640 --> 0:10:02.840 were so horrible. I was so embarrassed and I never 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.600 wanted to do it again. Did you perform them? Well, Like, 0:10:05.679 --> 0:10:08.360 I went to this performing arts high school, which was amazing, 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.680 and so we were all very encouraged. So like it 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:13.760 ended up on the you know, the high school tape. 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.599 So yeah, I you know, it was out there and 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:18.640 I was like, I want to put it back in. 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:22.840 I don't like it, but yeah, when you're young, that 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:25.480 stuff can be a little embarrassing, and so I definitely 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:27.720 shut down. And then I got into songwriting. When I 0:10:27.720 --> 0:10:30.920 moved to New York. I only had two two and 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.080 a half songs on my first album because I was 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:36.400 really new at it. And then after that, after a 0:10:36.440 --> 0:10:38.160 couple of albums, I got more and more into it. 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:40.120 And then I got really kind of down on myself 0:10:40.120 --> 0:10:43.800 and frustrated. And then I had this whole thing with songwriting, 0:10:43.840 --> 0:10:48.400 and I finally realized I don't have to show anybody anything. 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:51.800 Just finish the damn song, do as much as you 0:10:51.840 --> 0:10:53.600 want to and make it as cheesy as it is 0:10:53.720 --> 0:10:56.840 or whatever, and then in the end you can discard it. 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.560 You don't have to show the world if you don't 0:10:59.640 --> 0:11:02.800 like it, but see it through. That's a good lesson 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:04.719 for It's a good lesson for a lot of things, 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:08.000 but especial. But that's what kind of freed you up to, 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:10.360 kind of freed me up. Yeah, because you did start 0:11:10.360 --> 0:11:13.880 writing after you became famous. I started writing more, yeah, yeah. 0:11:13.920 --> 0:11:17.280 And you learned the guitar yeah, after you became famous. 0:11:17.320 --> 0:11:20.000 So that takes a nerve. I mean for me, I 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:22.560 was just trying to stay inspired. The fame and the 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:27.640 kind of crazy whirlwind that was my first record. It 0:11:27.720 --> 0:11:30.080 took a lot of took a lot away from like 0:11:30.160 --> 0:11:34.200 the point, which was staying inspired and making music I 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:39.840 really loved. You know, were you working with somebody in 0:11:39.920 --> 0:11:43.880 the kind of pairings that you're describing now, how often 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:46.079 do they make you realize you may have been wrong 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:49.000 about something, like you're talking about how you have these 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.640 old things and sometimes they don't work. How often does 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:53.920 the second voice in a room say, wait a minute, 0:11:54.200 --> 0:11:57.199 that does work. I love it when that happens. That's 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:01.480 my favorite thing. It does happen. Yeah, it happens sometimes. 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:03.240 You know, when you get in a room with somebody 0:12:03.800 --> 0:12:05.800 you're like, well, I have this idea. It might be stupid, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.360 or like it's your nature to be self mine anyway, 0:12:09.400 --> 0:12:11.560 to be self deprecating, and I be like checking out 0:12:11.600 --> 0:12:14.880 this awesome idea. But you know, like, oh, I don't know, 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.319 is this dumb? Check this out? No, that's not dumb. 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.360 That's like what you want to hear for sure. Yeah, 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:22.640 or their particular collaborators who are just good at that, 0:12:22.720 --> 0:12:26.040 at hearing things that you don't hear. Brian Burton, I 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:30.079 mean Danger Mouse is he's really good at that. He's 0:12:30.200 --> 0:12:33.480 amazing at it. And not only musically he has hooks 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:38.640 for days, but also lyrically, he's really good at it. 0:12:39.160 --> 0:12:42.320 He was someone I was really self conscious, Like, I 0:12:42.400 --> 0:12:46.440 wasn't nervous about the project, but when it came down 0:12:46.440 --> 0:12:49.200 to lyrics sometimes I was sort of nervous to show 0:12:49.240 --> 0:12:51.319 him my lyrics sometimes because it was very it was 0:12:51.360 --> 0:12:55.280 all very personal. Lyrics are very different than showing a 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:59.000 musical idea. They're way more exposed, I think, and naked, 0:12:59.240 --> 0:13:01.960 especially for some one who's a little late to the 0:13:02.040 --> 0:13:05.560 lyric party. You know, so I was definitely more self 0:13:05.600 --> 0:13:09.400 conscious showing him my lyrics, and I don't know that 0:13:09.440 --> 0:13:12.360 he was, but his lyrics were really great. The more 0:13:12.480 --> 0:13:14.760 we wrote together, the more self conscious like out because 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:16.719 I realized his lyrics were so great. But I was 0:13:16.760 --> 0:13:18.679 also very comfortable with him, so I thought, well, he's 0:13:18.720 --> 0:13:23.400 like my big brother. Let's let's just do this. But 0:13:23.520 --> 0:13:25.560 he's really good at that. Is there a song that 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:28.400 comes to mind from your collaboration with him that you 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:30.640 think is so the best example of the two of 0:13:30.679 --> 0:13:35.520 you rook and you get. The whole album was super collaborative. Yeah, 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.440 there wasn't a lot of like scraps that were brought 0:13:39.440 --> 0:13:42.000 to the table as much as you know some other things, 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:47.079 but lyrically, like, I've been going back and I love 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:51.720 playing songs from that album. Sometimes there's songs from old 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:54.240 albums that I just that I still like but I 0:13:54.280 --> 0:13:56.959 don't really connect with at this moment in time. Doesn't 0:13:57.000 --> 0:13:59.560 mean I won't again, it doesn't mean I never have. 0:14:00.200 --> 0:14:02.800 But that's how playing live, that's kind of how it goes. 0:14:03.120 --> 0:14:06.120 Pick songs that you're connecting with in the moment, and 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:07.960 some of the songs when I throw them into the 0:14:07.960 --> 0:14:10.240 set from that record. It's like, whoa, these lyrics are 0:14:10.240 --> 0:14:13.800 so great. I'm so happy, you know. Yeah, We've been 0:14:13.800 --> 0:14:16.240 doing a song called stay Goodbye and the lyrics are 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.320 really good. I think, do you try and do it 0:14:19.320 --> 0:14:21.560 in thee because I had that album had such a 0:14:21.600 --> 0:14:26.080 great sounds. It's his sound, that's him, Yeah, And I 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.520 don't mean that like he makes the same sound over. No, 0:14:28.920 --> 0:14:30.960 he's a little like Brian Eno. He's sort of it's 0:14:31.000 --> 0:14:33.400 like he's created a little universe somewhere that you kind 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.720 of flowed into. Do you try and kind of reproduce 0:14:36.840 --> 0:14:38.520 that on stage or do you do it in a 0:14:38.680 --> 0:14:42.200 different setting? I did more and when we toured that album, 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:44.880 and we had a great band who could do it 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.040 without it being contrived, you know, like we only had 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:51.240 it was a five piece band. It was me, a keyboard, 0:14:51.280 --> 0:14:54.960 organ player, guitar, bass, and drums. It wasn't like it 0:14:55.000 --> 0:14:57.800 wasn't like we were obsessed with recreating the album sound, 0:14:57.800 --> 0:15:01.960 but we did a good job of doing it. Now, however, 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:05.520 I'm really into stripping it back a little bit and 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:08.760 not trying to recreate it. And I'm into rearranging some things, 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:13.160 and especially with that album because the soundscape was so specific. 0:15:13.840 --> 0:15:16.280 Unless it's a natural thing for me to recreate live, 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:21.040 I'd rather not try to be married to the sounds 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:24.640 and just serve the song, because they're great songs even 0:15:24.680 --> 0:15:27.960 without all that. And that's the great thing about that album. 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:30.360 When we come back, Malcolm and Bruce picked back up 0:15:30.400 --> 0:15:32.920 with their obsession with the song winter Time that Noah 0:15:32.960 --> 0:15:39.600 wrote with Wilco's Jeff Tweety. We're back with more from 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:44.640 Nora Jones. So, Jeff Tweety, do you call him upet 0:15:45.000 --> 0:15:49.520 hey tweet? Calm tweet? No, you're just kidding. How did you? Who? 0:15:49.600 --> 0:15:51.000 How did you? I want to? I want, I want, 0:15:51.080 --> 0:15:53.720 I want the absolute details on this. You just call 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.160 him out of the blue and said, hey, let's work together. Well, 0:15:56.240 --> 0:15:58.720 Jeff Tweety, I used to have his phone number, but 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.320 he stopped returning my my text and then I got 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:03.520 this text once from him, like I hadn't heard from 0:16:03.600 --> 0:16:05.680 him in two years. He's like, hey, I just got 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:07.480 all your texts. I'm sorry. I didn't really check my 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:10.240 phone much. I was like, dude, that's fine, but that 0:16:10.360 --> 0:16:14.520 was like a long time ago. But so I didn't 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.400 know if I had his inphone anymore. But yeah, Tom 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:19.640 Shick is a great engineer who I used to work 0:16:19.680 --> 0:16:22.280 with in New York a lot, and he moved to 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:26.160 Chicago to be Jeff's house engineer at his studio and 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.000 he so Tom's an old friend of mine. So I 0:16:28.000 --> 0:16:30.320 had just told Tom, I said, Hey, here's what I'm 0:16:30.320 --> 0:16:32.360 trying to do. See if Tweety's into it. I would 0:16:32.400 --> 0:16:34.000 love to do this with you and him, because that 0:16:34.240 --> 0:16:36.200 would be a dream to go to Chicago, check out 0:16:36.200 --> 0:16:39.520 the studio, finally work with Tom again and work with Jeff. 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:44.680 Let's keep going on this narrative. Show up, you're you 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:46.920 walk in? Do you what do you have with you 0:16:47.120 --> 0:16:49.640 when you enter the studio to work with Jeff Tweety. 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.880 I had a couple of scraps. I was very underprepared, 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:57.440 but I had I had a couple little tiny ideas. 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.280 One of them was completely written santaneously on the couch, 0:17:01.360 --> 0:17:05.359 and that's the version that's recorded pretty much. It's called 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:08.320 song with No Name, and we were just sitting I 0:17:08.320 --> 0:17:10.000 think that's the first thing we did the first day. 0:17:10.040 --> 0:17:12.880 We were both kind of shy, even though we knew 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:14.960 we shouldn't be. I think he was a little shy 0:17:15.000 --> 0:17:18.320 and I was a little shy about just jumping in 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:22.760 and giving all our ideas. You know, we're sensitive people, 0:17:23.119 --> 0:17:27.680 we're artists, right, So we're just sitting on the couch. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:30.479 He has a collection in sane collection of guitars, so 0:17:30.520 --> 0:17:32.760 I just picked one up and it was tuned really weird, 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:35.879 and so we both just started playing. I'm not a 0:17:35.920 --> 0:17:38.720 great guitar player, but like, it's just a little acoustic part, 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.600 and he and I just both started playing this part together. 0:17:42.440 --> 0:17:44.600 And Tom is such an amazing person to work with 0:17:44.640 --> 0:17:46.000 because he just had a mic set up and he 0:17:46.080 --> 0:17:49.240 just breast record and so we just started playing it 0:17:50.200 --> 0:17:54.800 and then I started like and then I started singing, 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:58.159 and I was just singing gibberish words that were just 0:17:58.240 --> 0:18:02.560 coming to me, and it was cool. And then, you know, 0:18:02.600 --> 0:18:04.480 three days later we went back to listen to that 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:06.399 because we kind of moved on and started doing the 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:12.239 real stuff. And then Tom was like, checked this out 0:18:12.280 --> 0:18:14.320 from the first day and it was awesome, and we 0:18:14.720 --> 0:18:16.439 both really loved it, and we added a bunch of 0:18:16.760 --> 0:18:19.359 other instruments to it, and we just kept exactly what 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:21.760 we had done on the couch. There was one lyric 0:18:21.800 --> 0:18:23.600 I remember thinking I was like, Tom, I wish I 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:25.640 could change that lyric. He's like, well, you can't really 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:28.560 change it unless it sounds really similar, and we double 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:31.119 your vocal and you could kind of flub it. But 0:18:31.240 --> 0:18:32.840 because it was just we were on the cauch, we 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.240 were all singing, and we was singing with the guitars 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:38.040 and everything, so I just left it. But how much 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:41.359 when you first start was everything made up in the 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.119 room on the couch of that song? Yes, melody and 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:47.880 lyrics and the main guitar party, yes, yeah. And when 0:18:47.920 --> 0:18:53.280 you start that process of improvisation the very first iteration, 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:57.560 how much do you have? Do you have? Like ten seconds? 0:18:57.600 --> 0:19:00.840 Do you have twenty seconds? When you first said it? 0:19:00.880 --> 0:19:03.919 When it first comes to you. Well, we started doing it. 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:06.240 I mean, I don't know how much he recorded before 0:19:07.000 --> 0:19:11.399 we sort of had the take, but probably we were 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:14.040 playing like five minutes, maybe you just playing the part 0:19:14.119 --> 0:19:17.879 and I was humming along. And then he's like, all right, 0:19:17.880 --> 0:19:19.959 well let's just try one with what you have. And 0:19:19.960 --> 0:19:23.280 then and then it started and what's he what's Jeff 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:27.720 Tweedy doing when you're you're humming and playing on the couch. 0:19:27.920 --> 0:19:30.680 So he's playing on the couch thing as well. Yeah, yeah, 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.359 he's a beautiful guitar player. So yeah, well that's the 0:19:33.400 --> 0:19:35.760 thing about these collaborations, like I might have nothing and 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:37.480 be kind of panic what if we get nothing, But 0:19:37.520 --> 0:19:40.560 then you sit with somebody who's inspiring, and it's just 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:43.040 it's beautiful. I mean, I guess he's so and he's 0:19:43.080 --> 0:19:46.200 so incredibly prolific and it has been so that way 0:19:46.240 --> 0:19:48.920 for so long that I guess there's no anxieties about 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:53.960 him drawing up blank No. And it was interesting because 0:19:53.960 --> 0:19:57.640 I had this one idea because the way I work 0:19:57.680 --> 0:19:59.720 in the studio, the way I worked with Brian, and 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.399 the way I have worked recently is sort of just like, 0:20:02.680 --> 0:20:04.440 let's write it all down. Okay, what about this idea? 0:20:04.480 --> 0:20:06.679 What about this? And I had this one idea and 0:20:07.080 --> 0:20:09.720 we started this other song that again has not been released, 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:14.840 but he really wanted to take it home. He said, 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:18.119 I do my best lyrics tweaking when I'm like at 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:19.879 four in the morning. I'll go to bed and then 0:20:20.040 --> 0:20:22.080 he says, he wakes up and he does it and 0:20:22.119 --> 0:20:25.280 then he goes back to bed. Really, and I was like, okay, 0:20:25.320 --> 0:20:27.000 but I'm dying to do it now. I want to 0:20:27.040 --> 0:20:29.680 do it right now, you know, I was kind of like, ah, 0:20:30.600 --> 0:20:33.280 but I was super happy to have him do it. 0:20:33.320 --> 0:20:35.200 I didn't. It wasn't that I needed to be part 0:20:35.280 --> 0:20:38.080 of it or control it. I was just impatient, you know. 0:20:39.000 --> 0:20:40.560 Did he show up the next day, showed up the 0:20:42.400 --> 0:20:44.399 having done that. I think it was on wintertime. He 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:47.040