WEBVTT - ITS Home Edition: Car Seat Headrest 0:00:01.639 --> 0:00:05.560 Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by iHeart Radio. I'm 0:00:05.600 --> 0:00:16.919 your host Joe leeby So. On this home edition of 0:00:17.000 --> 0:00:21.400 the show, our quarantine correspondent Jordan Runtaug caught up with 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:26.160 car Seat Headrest, who have very consistently been my answer 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:29.440 to the question what's the best new rock band out there? 0:00:29.760 --> 0:00:32.120 Since I first saw them five years ago in a 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.800 small Brooklyn club. If you check out a video or 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:37.920 any of the articles that have been written about the 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:42.400 band's excellent new album Making a Door Less Open, you'll 0:00:42.400 --> 0:00:45.479 probably see an image of the singer Will Toledo in 0:00:45.520 --> 0:00:49.920 a gas mask with like floppy, plushy ears. And that's 0:00:49.920 --> 0:00:53.760 a concept he thought up months and months ago before 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:58.720 the pandemic made masks and music a very different experience. 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.080 That different experience, that's the reason we put together this 0:01:03.520 --> 0:01:06.360 home edition of Inside the Studio and to let you 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:09.560 know how artists are coping with lockdown and how it's 0:01:09.560 --> 0:01:12.720 impacting their lives in the way they make music. If 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.720 you enjoyed this episode, be sure to check out the 0:01:15.840 --> 0:01:19.080 I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts, which is called 0:01:19.360 --> 0:01:23.760 Rivals Music's Greatest Feuds, and which, as the saying goes, 0:01:24.040 --> 0:01:33.360 is available wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Hello everybody, 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:36.119 my name is Jordan runt Hog. But enough about me today, 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.200 I'm joined by an artist who started making music as 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:40.280 a high school or in the back of his parents Medivan. 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:43.040 He named the project after his early audience, a pair 0:01:43.080 --> 0:01:45.640 of car seat headrests. In the first four years of 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:47.560 his career, he released the flood of songs on the 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.880 online music platform some seven albums, four EPs, and two compilations. 0:01:52.440 --> 0:01:54.320 These are into a deal with the iconic indie label 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.640 Metador Records and inspired an untold number of digital d 0:01:57.720 --> 0:02:00.640 I Y musicians and may He released Making the Door 0:02:00.720 --> 0:02:03.560 Less Open, his first album of new material in four years. 0:02:04.040 --> 0:02:06.960 It's an incredibly varied collection, with each song serving as 0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:09.480 a world of its own. In fact, he describes the 0:02:09.520 --> 0:02:11.640 album of less like a novel, more of a collection 0:02:11.639 --> 0:02:14.800 of poems. His sonic scope includes elements of E d M, 0:02:14.919 --> 0:02:17.359 hip hop, doo wop, soul, and of course some good 0:02:17.360 --> 0:02:19.639 old fashioned rock and roll. I'm thrilled the welcome will 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.360 Toledo carcat headrest. Thank you so much for taking the 0:02:22.360 --> 0:02:24.680 time today. It's such a pleasure and honor. Yeah. Hello, 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:27.200 thanks for having me. I guess first and foremost, have 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:30.080 you been? The last four months have been crazy for 0:02:30.120 --> 0:02:31.919 so many reasons and tough on all of us. What's 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:35.000 been keeping you feeling grounded and hopeful? Um? Trying to 0:02:35.080 --> 0:02:38.920 keep my daily business here, daily routine going. You know. 0:02:39.000 --> 0:02:42.080 I was working on this record mainly at home for 0:02:42.120 --> 0:02:47.080 a while, and I finished that up around the beginning 0:02:47.080 --> 0:02:51.160 of April, and that was just when Quarantine was starting, 0:02:51.240 --> 0:02:54.320 so I kind of just stayed at home. You know. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:56.680 We were expecting to to get out on the road 0:02:57.320 --> 0:03:00.760 start touring and promoting the record, but I kept doing 0:03:00.760 --> 0:03:02.880 basically what I had been doing. I just kind of 0:03:02.919 --> 0:03:06.560 switched gears and worked on some other music for a while. 0:03:07.080 --> 0:03:10.960 My roommates got a record that I was helping him record, 0:03:11.720 --> 0:03:16.960 and I'm still finishing that up, making some new demos 0:03:17.000 --> 0:03:21.320 of my own, and putting some stuff together with another 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:25.640 act might be coming down in August and recording with them. 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.079 So yeah, I just I just kind of jumped into 0:03:28.639 --> 0:03:30.760 what's next. You know, if we have this time off, 0:03:31.040 --> 0:03:34.320 what other kind of music can I get into. What's 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:36.200 a typical writing day like for you? Or it's just 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.400 every day different. I kind of sneak into writing. I 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.520 don't usually sit down to to write. I just, um, 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:47.600 I start reading, or if there's a mix to work on, 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:50.160 I'll work on that, just kind of do grunt work 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:54.240 or get exposed myself to other creative stuff until I 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.120 come across an idea that I have or that I 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:00.600 find interesting, and then I'll I'll work on that. I'll 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:03.320 shut that down, and then after a while, I'll kind 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:05.880 of end up with a lot of kind of bullet notes, 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:09.200 a few lines of lyrics, or I'll get on and 0:04:09.240 --> 0:04:12.760 just make a demo of a chord progression or something, 0:04:13.480 --> 0:04:15.800 and then um, I'll spend a while just kind of 0:04:15.840 --> 0:04:19.359 generating that material, and then when it comes time to 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:22.680 you know, show stuff to the band or have some 0:04:22.680 --> 0:04:25.440 more finished work, then I'll start flashing stuff out. At 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:28.720 that point, What do you do when like the song 0:04:28.839 --> 0:04:30.599 is just not coming and you feel stuck? How do 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:32.839 you do a reset? Is there a distraction that works, 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.400 or do you just try to plow through it? Well? 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:38.640 With with my method, it's kind of like it it's 0:04:38.720 --> 0:04:41.160 it's definitely hardest when I'm at the point where I'm 0:04:41.160 --> 0:04:44.320 supposed to be finishing it up. Um, but I kind 0:04:44.320 --> 0:04:47.760 of work pretty slowly where it is just you know, 0:04:48.279 --> 0:04:50.680 create a piece of it if you can, and if 0:04:50.680 --> 0:04:53.400 you can't, just work on something else. I always have 0:04:53.720 --> 0:04:57.160 different stuff that I'm going between producing for other people 0:04:57.400 --> 0:05:00.280 are writing my own work. I just kind of switched years. 0:05:00.279 --> 0:05:02.400 If it's not working, you know, if I can't come 0:05:02.520 --> 0:05:05.400 up with lyrics, I'll work on the mix. If the 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.880 mix isn't working, I'll go play guitar and see if 0:05:08.880 --> 0:05:12.400 anything is happening there, building that up so that by 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:15.920 the time I am at a finishing point, you know, 0:05:16.240 --> 0:05:18.800 the groundwork is already there, and I can only go 0:05:19.160 --> 0:05:23.840 so wrong from there. I I usually hate reading people's 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:26.080 quotes back to them because it's kind of tedious. But 0:05:26.120 --> 0:05:29.400 there's a profile in Rolling Stone, Uh you did earlier 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:31.880 this year, and you had a quote that really stuck 0:05:31.880 --> 0:05:33.400 with me. I really really struck a chord with me. 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.320 You said, if you're not stressed out at any point 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:38.159 making a work of art, there's a much higher chance 0:05:38.160 --> 0:05:39.560 it's not going to be good at the end of it. 0:05:39.920 --> 0:05:43.679 Why do you think that is? I totally by the way, Yeah, 0:05:44.040 --> 0:05:46.960 well I think that you know, you know, if um, 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.800 if you feel like a lot is at stake when 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:54.120 you're working on something that's automatically going to be stressful. 0:05:54.800 --> 0:05:58.159 And I think if if you're a musician and you're 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:00.760 working on something that is your main project, it it 0:06:00.800 --> 0:06:02.919 should feel like there's a lot at stake. You know, 0:06:03.120 --> 0:06:05.800 it doesn't have to be life or death, but it 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:09.840 should be something that you're taking seriously that you know 0:06:10.320 --> 0:06:14.400 you would feel you wouldn't feel good about it if 0:06:14.440 --> 0:06:16.440 you came to the end of it and it wasn't 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.080 really a record that you wanted to listen to. In 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.279 terms of financial success or popular success. You know, those 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.840 are things that you can't control. But one thing that 0:06:25.880 --> 0:06:28.920 you can work towards is making a record that that 0:06:29.000 --> 0:06:32.080 lasts on your own stereo. You know, that that you 0:06:32.080 --> 0:06:35.600 want to listen to again and again. Um. And that's 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.760 what I always work towards making my own records, and 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.120 it can be really stressful because I have high standards. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:45.720 You know, if if I'm making it and it's just okay, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:47.800 you know, that's not a record that I'm going to 0:06:47.920 --> 0:06:50.400 be wanting to come back to. So I have to 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.200 really push myself to to get rid of what's not 0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:56.760 good and replace it with something better. A lot of 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.200 critics and fans have been calling making the door less 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:02.320 open like this, I will reinvention. It's a total creative overhaul. 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:04.599 It's your it's your kid a. Do you agree with 0:07:04.600 --> 0:07:06.400 that assessment or do you see this as just like 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:09.840 an obvious next step for your work. Um, it's hard 0:07:09.920 --> 0:07:14.080 to see it as an overhaul because car Set Headress 0:07:14.080 --> 0:07:17.280 has already been through a lot of different phases. And 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.360 you know, it started off as a solo project and 0:07:20.480 --> 0:07:23.400 I was just recording on my computer in my bedroom 0:07:23.560 --> 0:07:26.000 or in my car and just trying to put stuff 0:07:26.040 --> 0:07:30.960 together in that environment. And then after about five years 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:33.720 of that, I moved to Seattle, got a band together, 0:07:34.040 --> 0:07:38.320 and got on Matador, and things really shifted in terms of, 0:07:38.440 --> 0:07:41.280 you know, how we were playing, how it sounded. That 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:43.840 was an adjustment, you know, that was different songs we 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.880 were working on, and we were working in a studio. Suddenly, 0:07:47.520 --> 0:07:50.480 you know, some people might have just called it a 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:53.520 new band at that point, I remember Mattador asking, you know, 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:55.400 do you want to keep the name or or should 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.200 we change it? But to me, the the appeal of 0:07:58.200 --> 0:08:01.960 of having a weird and nondescript name like car Set 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:04.280 head Dress is that it can kind of be anything. 0:08:04.360 --> 0:08:06.440 You know, you can go anywhere with it, and I 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.480 like the idea of just having this one discography where 0:08:09.800 --> 0:08:12.800 there's a lot of different stuff on it, so mad Low. 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.200 You know, making a doorless open was definitely a shift, um, 0:08:17.240 --> 0:08:20.520 you know, away from that studio environment. But you know, 0:08:20.880 --> 0:08:23.160 it just wasn't the only shift that we've done. And 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.680 I associate car Seat Head Dressed with these sort of shifts, 0:08:26.760 --> 0:08:29.680 So I think it's it's nothing new to to change 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.520 change up the sound from album to album. It's just 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.320 a question of you know what we're going for with 0:08:35.400 --> 0:08:37.880 that particular album. And you've also been working with Andrew 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:40.360 Kats on the One Trade Danger project. What did that 0:08:40.400 --> 0:08:43.040 allow you to do that? Carseat Head Dressed didn't, Well, 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:46.200 it was an outlet for him at the time because 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:49.120 he was making music. He's he's always kind of made 0:08:49.160 --> 0:08:52.520 his his own music on the side, and it's a 0:08:52.520 --> 0:08:55.400 lot more E d M, you know, computer driven stuff. 0:08:55.920 --> 0:08:58.200 When he first joined car Seat Headdressed, you know, he 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:00.320 was there as a drummer and we were doing a 0:09:00.320 --> 0:09:04.240 lot of live based recording, so there wasn't much room 0:09:04.400 --> 0:09:07.280 for that mode of music to exist in the car 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.840 seat world. So this side project of One Trade Danger, 0:09:11.080 --> 0:09:13.880 you know, allowed us to have that experience where it 0:09:13.920 --> 0:09:16.160 wasn't under the car Seat name and we could kind 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.079 of redefine, you know, start from the ground up as 0:09:19.080 --> 0:09:22.160 far as what it could be. And you know, what 0:09:22.320 --> 0:09:24.240 we wanted it to be was fun. You know, it 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:26.600 was stuff that we were coming up with on tour 0:09:27.240 --> 0:09:30.240 and you know, we just we wanted to laugh and 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.280 relieve some tension and One Trade was a good outlet 0:09:34.360 --> 0:09:37.679 for that. Um. Working on the car Seat Headress record, 0:09:37.960 --> 0:09:42.840 you know, that ended up being mad low. Um. I 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.320 wanted to take that energy, you know, that sense of 0:09:45.360 --> 0:09:48.440 fun and of building stuff from the ground up and 0:09:48.520 --> 0:09:51.000 apply it to a car Seat record. You know. So 0:09:51.080 --> 0:09:54.200 it ended up being sort of this crossroads between what 0:09:54.240 --> 0:09:56.120 we were doing with One Trade and what we had 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:58.240 been doing with Car Seat. It reminded me a little 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.040 bit of the famous sort of McCartney when the Beatles 0:10:01.040 --> 0:10:03.320 were at Across Roads in in late sixty six, when 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.160 they stopped touring and Paul McCartney developed the the alter 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:09.160 ego of Sergeant Pepper as this way of kind of 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.640 blowing apart what a Beatles album could be and kind 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:15.120 of freeing themselves to any preconceived notion did that factor 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:17.040 into it at all to like just kind of like 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:19.000 I guess, like you just said, starting from the ground up, 0:10:19.120 --> 0:10:23.400 I wasn't really thinking of the Beatles specifically in terms 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.440 of narrative. I always go and listen to Beatles records 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:29.560 when I'm recording, just because I think that they've got 0:10:29.640 --> 0:10:34.040 some of the best produced records that are available. Um, 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:36.840 you know, I think that George Martin was the fifth 0:10:36.840 --> 0:10:40.920 Beatle and they just made a lot of great stuff together, 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:45.360 and sort of Sergeant Pepper was kind of accompanied by 0:10:45.559 --> 0:10:48.040 you know, in the Revolver era, they stopped touring and 0:10:48.080 --> 0:10:52.920 they started focusing solely on studio stuff. And I think 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.040 it makes sense to sort of, once you're away from 0:10:56.080 --> 0:10:59.720 that that grind of the tour, to start thinking of 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:02.640 your identity in a different way, you know, start playing 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:05.920 with it more. And um, so I think that Sergeant 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:10.760 Pepper really rose out of that sort of being um 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.600 submerged in the studio environment and being able to do 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.640 whatever you want. And that was definitely something that we 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.400 were doing in Madlow. Uh, not in the studio so much, 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:24.160 but in our in our bedrooms on the computer, um, 0:11:24.240 --> 0:11:27.480 just taking these modern sounds and doing whatever we wanted 0:11:27.520 --> 0:11:31.200 with it. And I think there is a parallel, you know, 0:11:31.480 --> 0:11:34.920 the the idea of a new identity that is really 0:11:34.960 --> 0:11:38.199 just comprised of these new sounds that you're making. Can 0:11:38.240 --> 0:11:40.680 you tell me a little about the character of trade, like, 0:11:40.720 --> 0:11:42.600 how is it different than you? It's kind of a 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.360 way for me to be more free live on on 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:49.079 a stage, and it kind of comes with the idea 0:11:49.200 --> 0:11:52.960 that you know, for me, music has always been about music, 0:11:53.080 --> 0:11:55.880 you know, it's been about the sound. Um it's something 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.360 that you can just close your eyes and experience, and 0:11:59.559 --> 0:12:02.880 the vision rules just I don't I never know exactly 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:06.160 how they relate. And so playing live it's always been weird, 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:10.200 you know, feeling like it becomes a visual spectacle as 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:13.840 well as something that you're listening to. And um, I 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:16.880 wanted to play with that in a way for there 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.959 to be something happening on stage, but it was sort 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:22.440 of driving you back to to the music side of it, 0:12:22.480 --> 0:12:25.480 to the creative side of it. So treat to me. 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:29.720 You know, it's there's a level of metafiction to it, 0:12:29.760 --> 0:12:33.240 I guess where you know, you're supposed to derive some 0:12:33.280 --> 0:12:35.560 pleasure from the fact that it's not a real character, 0:12:35.640 --> 0:12:38.200 you know, it's more like a cartoon or something that, 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:40.160 to me is what he embodies, you know, just sort 0:12:40.160 --> 0:12:55.319 of this cartoonish energy. When you first started making music, 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:58.720 was being a you know in quotes frontman a goal 0:12:58.840 --> 0:13:00.680 for you? Or is that just did that just become 0:13:00.720 --> 0:13:02.360 a necessary part of what you do to get the 0:13:02.440 --> 0:13:05.360 music out there? It was definitely just necessary. You know. 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:07.880 The first one of the first bands I was in 0:13:08.000 --> 0:13:10.960 was in high school and I was the drummer, and um, 0:13:11.240 --> 0:13:14.360 that was just because no one else could play drums, 0:13:14.679 --> 0:13:17.079 and um, I was interested in it, so I got 0:13:17.120 --> 0:13:20.640 I got a real cheap drum kit and we started playing. 0:13:21.120 --> 0:13:23.320 But then I also ended up being the lead singer 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:25.839 just because no one else really wanted to be the 0:13:25.920 --> 0:13:28.720 lead singer, and um, we were all kind of writing 0:13:28.760 --> 0:13:32.320 stuff and and tossing stuff around. It didn't really feel 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:34.360 like a frontman thing at all. It just felt like 0:13:34.520 --> 0:13:36.800 those are the things that I've got to do in 0:13:36.880 --> 0:13:39.520 this in this band to make the music work. You know, 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:42.080 when I'm making my music, I want to keep it 0:13:42.160 --> 0:13:45.040 in my zone. But I don't really think about that 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.440 in terms of being a frontman. I guess UM. I 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:51.680 just think about it in terms of giving myself things 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:53.960 that I like in my own records, and so the 0:13:54.000 --> 0:13:56.880 live performance of it, you know, it always feels like 0:13:56.920 --> 0:13:59.880 a reinterpretation to me. One of the one of the 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:03.960 singles off the record, Hollywood Uh, has the incredibly memorable 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.080 refrain that those who haven't heard it, Hollywood makes me 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:08.440 want a puke. Uh. It reminds me of the Pavement 0:14:08.520 --> 0:14:10.560 song Range Life a little bit. They both seemed to 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.400 be written from this perspective of a guy on the 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:15.800 outside of contemporary culture and not really sure where he 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.760 fits into it. How much of that song was satire 0:14:19.080 --> 0:14:20.960 or a character and how much of that is your 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:23.360 own feeling and experience. I mean, to me, like the 0:14:23.400 --> 0:14:27.480 best satire or the best comedy song, novelty song, whatever 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.160 you want to call it, UM is the one that 0:14:30.160 --> 0:14:33.600 that has this serious underside to it. UM. There are 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:37.040 definitely parts that that just seemed funny to me. You know, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:39.800 I kept them in because they made me laugh. And 0:14:39.840 --> 0:14:42.840 there are parts that I kept in because I felt, 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:45.320 you know, I felt like they meant something. I felt 0:14:45.360 --> 0:14:49.520 like it was actually communicating something to to leave that in, 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:52.920 And I just kept both of those into this one 0:14:53.000 --> 0:14:54.960 song because I kind of wanted it to be a 0:14:55.040 --> 0:14:59.280 challenge and to you know, open up people's ears and 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:02.960 shocked them a little bit and then make them sort 0:15:02.960 --> 0:15:07.680 of approach the song as if they'd never heard music before. Um. 0:15:07.840 --> 0:15:10.240 I think that's that's the goal when you make any 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:14.000 sort of music, is too challenge people into coming into 0:15:14.040 --> 0:15:16.360 it fresh. You don't want them to be on autopilot 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.800 when they're listening. One of my favorite songs on the album, 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.280 and I've read one of yours too, is a Martin 0:15:21.440 --> 0:15:23.200 and I think you've said that that has the power 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:25.120 to move you to tears sometimes. I was wondering, what 0:15:25.200 --> 0:15:29.320 is it about that track that affects you so deeply? Um. 0:15:29.480 --> 0:15:32.480 For me, it was really rewarding to work on it 0:15:33.080 --> 0:15:37.440 because I started off with this demo that was just musical, 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:39.880 you know, just had that basic chord progression and the 0:15:39.920 --> 0:15:43.320 beat and um, you know, it just had this this 0:15:43.560 --> 0:15:47.680 feeling to it. You know, it was melancholy, um, but 0:15:47.680 --> 0:15:50.560 but it was positive at the same time. And when 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:52.560 you have music like that, you know, it can be 0:15:52.640 --> 0:15:55.640 really hard to execute it and and turn it into 0:15:55.720 --> 0:15:58.840 a full song. Um. And you're really afraid of losing 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.000 that feeling as you go along. So with Martin, it 0:16:02.120 --> 0:16:05.160 was a really slow process of putting that song together 0:16:05.200 --> 0:16:08.360 because I didn't want to lose that feeling. And for me, 0:16:08.960 --> 0:16:11.600 you know, that's why it's so rewarding and one of 0:16:11.600 --> 0:16:14.400 my favorites to listen to now is that, you know, 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.280 piece by piece it got put together, and to me 0:16:17.400 --> 0:16:20.640 it felt like it it did still convey that feeling 0:16:20.720 --> 0:16:22.640 at the end that it had at the beginning. And 0:16:22.680 --> 0:16:26.520 you know, it's not really describable, you know, in any 0:16:26.640 --> 0:16:29.320 sort of way other than the song itself. You know, 0:16:29.400 --> 0:16:32.920 it just it captures the emotion that I felt like 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.120 it it could capture when I first heard that melody 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.440 I was making. Do you write better in like the 0:16:39.440 --> 0:16:41.160 heat of the moment, in the midst of an emotional 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:43.160 crisis or in a static high or do you write 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:45.320 better from a period of reflection kind of later on 0:16:45.360 --> 0:16:48.840 down the road. It's usually more about reflection to me. 0:16:49.560 --> 0:16:52.000 You know, it'll be like I'll have a period where 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:57.520 there's some sort of emotional crisis, um or you know, 0:16:58.560 --> 0:17:02.920 just feeling that that cloud of negativity over me and 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.840 UM when I'm really in the middle of that, it's 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:08.480 it's hard to write anything. Or I'll try to write 0:17:08.640 --> 0:17:13.200 and nothing will sound good, nothing will nothing will work right, 0:17:13.680 --> 0:17:17.680 and I'll just get more and more deeper into it, angrier, 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:21.680 and then maybe I'll hear something, here's some song that 0:17:21.880 --> 0:17:23.560 knocks me out of that a little bit, so I 0:17:23.600 --> 0:17:26.399 start climbing my way out, and then at that point 0:17:26.440 --> 0:17:31.640 I can start writing, and I can start developing that 0:17:31.680 --> 0:17:35.359 emotion into something more, into transcending it. You know, I 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.199 really have to be working my way out of that 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:41.080 emotion by the time I start writing about it. Otherwise 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:43.640 it kind of goes in circles and I don't get 0:17:44.440 --> 0:17:48.000 don't get good stuff out of it. The songwriting on 0:17:48.040 --> 0:17:50.560 this album, and I mean, this is the best way, 0:17:50.640 --> 0:17:52.920 is the best compliment I can offer. It feels a 0:17:52.960 --> 0:17:55.399 lot more just concise. There's not a lot of like, 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:57.480 you know, a battle of the constant Concordia length songs. 0:17:57.880 --> 0:18:01.480 Was there a conscious effort to get simpler in a way. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:04.320 I think that the core of Cars Addressed has always 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:08.600 been pop music, you know, from different eras, but always 0:18:08.600 --> 0:18:12.119 that sort of core of simplicity of shortness. So I 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.480 really focused on that with this record and tried to 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.960 dig into what made a good pop song good? You know, 0:18:19.040 --> 0:18:21.880 what made a short song work. In a way, it's 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:24.720 easier to write a long song because you can kind 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:30.800 of spread out and articulate every idea that you're working through. 0:18:31.200 --> 0:18:33.320 It's hard to write a short song because you have 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.760 to condense stuff so much. You know, you have to 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.119 really make every word count and every second count of 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:42.920 the song to put as much into it as as 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:45.680 you would a longer song. And so that was kind 0:18:45.680 --> 0:18:48.960 of the challenge with this record was to make songs, 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:51.760 you know, three and a half minutes or less, and 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.000 a lot of songs we didn't succeed in that barrier. 0:18:55.080 --> 0:18:57.359 There's still a lot of you know, four minute, five minutes, 0:18:57.400 --> 0:19:00.639 six minute songs there. But just to kind capture that 0:19:00.800 --> 0:19:03.960 condensation where you know, you can't go into a whole 0:19:03.960 --> 0:19:07.560 different part, you have to just condense it into one 0:19:07.680 --> 0:19:10.480 different chord. You know what that what is that chord 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:13.240 going to be? Stuff like that is what interested me 0:19:13.400 --> 0:19:16.760 just making that really condensed record because you really, you 0:19:16.840 --> 0:19:20.440 sat down and listen to you know, that week's most 0:19:20.480 --> 0:19:23.960 stream songs on on digital platforms, right, and really very 0:19:23.960 --> 0:19:27.120 like a student approach to it. What did you learn 0:19:27.119 --> 0:19:29.840 from that exactly. I mean, just was it song structure? 0:19:29.920 --> 0:19:32.080 Was it melody? Was it production? Was it all the above? 0:19:32.320 --> 0:19:35.679 I really just wanted to hear mostly the production on 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.560 what those songs were doing. You know, I'm a producer 0:19:39.600 --> 0:19:43.720 as much as I am a songwriter, and it's important 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:46.600 to me to see what is going on, you know, 0:19:46.720 --> 0:19:50.960 in the contemporary scene, because the tools that pop artists 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:53.960 are pop producers use, you know, that is the cutting 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:59.080 edge of production technology. And if you're ignoring that, you know, 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:02.720 it kind of creeps up on you until, um, you know, 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.240 you're using equipment that isn't working right, and you don't 0:20:06.240 --> 0:20:07.919 know how to upgrade, and you don't know how to 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:12.119 use the sounds that are most prevalent in music. You know, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:13.800 you don't know how to make them work for you. 0:20:14.359 --> 0:20:17.239 So I was looking at pop music for that. I 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:19.840 was also looking at it just to sort of have 0:20:20.000 --> 0:20:22.840 some sort of grounding in what people were listening to. 0:20:23.560 --> 0:20:25.960 You know, I spend a lot of time just digging 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.639 through completely random stuff. So I feel like, you know, 0:20:29.720 --> 0:20:33.080 if I don't have that grounding of, well, what's super 0:20:33.080 --> 0:20:36.359 popular at the moment, then I just go off into 0:20:36.560 --> 0:20:40.440 my own world completely it's just a little less satisfying, 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.280 I guess, to be completely off in my own world 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:47.080 and feeling like I'm just I have no I have 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.119 nothing in common with what people are listening to. So 0:20:50.160 --> 0:20:52.240 I like to to have that, as you know, sort 0:20:52.240 --> 0:20:54.520 of a seesaw that I'm working in the middle of. 0:20:54.720 --> 0:20:56.920 And you've got, you know, touches of post Malone in there, 0:20:56.960 --> 0:20:59.440 but touches of Diann and the Belmonts and stuff like that, 0:20:59.520 --> 0:21:02.760 which is amazing. The album has been released in a 0:21:02.840 --> 0:21:06.159 number of different formats with substantial differences between them. In 0:21:06.160 --> 0:21:09.320 some places they're totally different versions of like songs like 0:21:09.400 --> 0:21:12.359 Him for example. What was the motivation behind that? How 0:21:12.359 --> 0:21:16.280 did that come about? Well, it really started just, um 0:21:16.320 --> 0:21:19.959 looking at the vinyl and wanting to do something that 0:21:20.040 --> 0:21:24.800 worked on vinyl, you know, because ever since we joined Matador, 0:21:25.520 --> 0:21:28.639 you know, it's always been vinyl, CD streaming, you know, 0:21:28.720 --> 0:21:32.920