Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio. Few people illuminate the art of
Speaker 1: music and storytelling like my guest today, Rishi Kish Hereway
Speaker 1: didn't set out to become one of the biggest podcasters
Speaker 1: in the world, but that's precisely what happened when he
Speaker 1: created the Song Exploder podcast in twenty fourteen. In addition
Speaker 1: to podcast host, Hereway is a composer, record producer, and artist.
Speaker 1: His latest album, In the Last Hour of Light, will
Speaker 1: be released April twenty fourth. Along with Song Exploder, Hereway
Speaker 1: is the creator of the podcast partners The West Wing
Speaker 1: Weekly and the award winning Home Cooking with Chef and
Speaker 1: co host Samine Nosrats. As a composer, Hereway has penned
Speaker 1: the scores for feature films and documentaries, a Netflix TV series,
Speaker 1: and a video game. His music has appeared on hit
Speaker 1: TV shows like Gossip Girl and One Tree Hill. Here
Speaker 1: Way has a gift for tapping into the cultural zeitgeist
Speaker 1: and drawing out the creative spark from some of the
Speaker 1: world's best musicians. I asked Rishie to be my guest
Speaker 1: for a live taping at The Wife Hotel in Brooklyn
Speaker 1: for on AirFest. Growing up in an Indian household, I
Speaker 1: was curious how Hereway's childhood shaped his cultural world view
Speaker 1: and how we first connected with music.
Speaker 2: Well, I have an older sister, Priya, and she's five
Speaker 2: years older than me, So I really inherited so much
Speaker 2: of my taste from her, and that basically meant listening
Speaker 2: to top forty radio. You know, she went to school
Speaker 2: and she found out what was cool from other friends,
Speaker 2: and so we just listened to whatever she was listening to.
Speaker 2: The first time that I got to actually make music
Speaker 2: choices of my own was when she got a Columbia
Speaker 2: House subscription. You know, you send in a penny and
Speaker 2: they send you back eight cassettes, and she very generous
Speaker 2: origin Yeah exactly. Yeah, she generously allowed me to pick two.
Speaker 2: She gave me two of her eight selections, and so
Speaker 2: I picked Aerosmith Permanent Vacation and White Snake by White Snake.
Speaker 1: So music is in your life and then you start
Speaker 1: to make music. You played the piano.
Speaker 2: I played piano growing up, Yeah, just taking piano lessons,
Speaker 2: and then I started playing in the school band. And
Speaker 2: then when I got to high school, I started playing
Speaker 2: in bands.
Speaker 3: Did you play in the school band?
Speaker 2: Drums, keyboard? But then I was in the percussion department
Speaker 2: and everybody else it was me and six boys who
Speaker 2: played the drum kit, but there's only one drum kit
Speaker 2: to share, and everybody else played either a snare drum
Speaker 2: or a bass drum. And eventually, when everybody else went home,
Speaker 2: I would start sitting behind the drum kit myself, and
Speaker 2: then I got really excited about playing drums. And so
Speaker 2: then in high school I started playing drums in a band.
Speaker 3: What were you good at?
Speaker 2: I don't know that I was or am good at anything.
Speaker 2: I feel like I was like pretty good at some
Speaker 2: of the things, you know, like guitar. I played, learned
Speaker 2: to play guitar, I learned to play piano, I learned
Speaker 2: to play drums, and I was like okay at all
Speaker 2: of those.
Speaker 1: And then when do you start making music that you're
Speaker 1: going to sell?
Speaker 2: Well, I started writing my own songs at the end
Speaker 2: of high school and then starting into the beginning of college.
Speaker 2: Selling it was still far from my mind, but just
Speaker 2: writing it was the first step.
Speaker 1: Before you get into the podcast world, where a lot
Speaker 1: of us in an in depth analysis and examination of
Speaker 1: other people's music, which is thrilling you play music, and
Speaker 1: when does that When do you decide that's not where
Speaker 1: you want to go, Because at some point you start
Speaker 1: making enough money you live off.
Speaker 3: Of the music business.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right, Yeah, describe that period. So I think
Speaker 2: in two thousand and seven was the first year that
Speaker 2: I felt like I could say that I made music
Speaker 2: as my living. I'd put out an album that year,
Speaker 2: and I produced an album for another band, and I
Speaker 2: actually was able to pay my bills just through music.
Speaker 2: I didn't have to have, you know, my freelance graphic
Speaker 2: design job or temping or anything like that.
Speaker 3: You live fairly comfortably.
Speaker 2: I mean it was comfortable for me. That was a
Speaker 2: pretty big milestone for me. That felt like it's hard
Speaker 2: to grow up in an Indian household and say I
Speaker 2: want to be a musician. And I think my parents
Speaker 2: never understood the sort of validators that I turned to.
Speaker 2: It would be hard to say like, hey, look this
Speaker 2: is going okay. You know, like I could say to
Speaker 2: my mom, it's an A point one on Pitchfork and
Speaker 2: she'd be like, I know those are all words, but
Speaker 2: I don't know what any of them mean together.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that means something to you.
Speaker 2: So being able to actually like make my living from music,
Speaker 2: that was the first way that I was able to
Speaker 2: sort of say to my family, Look, this is this
Speaker 2: is turning out okay.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: It was a leap of faith for them to, you know,
Speaker 2: even just understand that this is what I was doing.
Speaker 1: Between twenty twenty and twenty eleven, those nine years, you
Speaker 1: released four albums.
Speaker 2: Two thousand and twenty eleven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and so pick one album and tell me what's
Speaker 1: the process of getting that made.
Speaker 2: So I always made my music kind of like in
Speaker 2: my bedroom wherever that was, and I would write the
Speaker 2: songs and sort of record them as I was writing
Speaker 2: them and sort of try and design into whatever the
Speaker 2: song was about, adding layers, you know, one at a time,
Speaker 2: and it would take sometimes months and sometimes years before
Speaker 2: I felt like it was it was done, and then
Speaker 2: once I had enough of them for an album, then
Speaker 2: that would be the album. It took a very long time,
Speaker 2: and I would sometimes bring other people in, but for
Speaker 2: the most part I tried to do as much of
Speaker 2: it on my own.
Speaker 1: Hurry down on dirty Yeah, and then when it's old
Speaker 1: together the elements are together, where do you take it
Speaker 1: who do you take it to?
Speaker 2: Well, the first couple albums came out on like a
Speaker 2: punk rock label, even though the music wasn't punk rock.
Speaker 2: I kind of came up in a sort of we
Speaker 2: need content. I came up listening to punk, and a
Speaker 2: lot of my friends who were in bands played in
Speaker 2: punk bands, and so that was kind of my community.
Speaker 2: I would play like these basement punk shows as the
Speaker 2: weird outlier, you know, just just a sad boy with
Speaker 2: a guitar in between these screamy bands. But because of
Speaker 2: that I got to meet some folks, including someone who
Speaker 2: had a record label who said, I like your records
Speaker 2: and I'd like to put them out, and so I
Speaker 2: did that for a first couple and then when I
Speaker 2: moved to La I signed with like an independent label
Speaker 2: based there.
Speaker 1: Your new album is called in the Last Hour of
Speaker 1: Late and when's it coming out?
Speaker 2: It comes out in April.
Speaker 1: This is your piece at you all the eight tracks,
Speaker 1: ten tracks, whatever.
Speaker 2: No, So this one is very different from how I
Speaker 2: used to make music. For this one, I sort of
Speaker 2: went the completely opposite direction, and it's recorded live with
Speaker 2: the band and sort of in a much more kind
Speaker 2: of classic way, went into a studio, played with some
Speaker 2: amazing musicians and taught them the songs in the morning,
Speaker 2: and then we'd work on the arrangement and then we'd
Speaker 2: record it, and then we'd break for lunch and then
Speaker 2: do another song in the afternoon.
Speaker 3: The Beatles would say that, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The Beatles would say, we would go into the studio
Speaker 1: and we'd record four songs in the morning. Then they go,
Speaker 1: he goes, then we go have a cigarette and it
Speaker 1: pints and maybe some fish and chips, that we record
Speaker 1: four songs in the afternoon. Yeah, they make an album
Speaker 1: in a day.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well I had seven days and it was so
Speaker 2: completely contrary to how I had worked the rest of
Speaker 2: my music making life. I said to the producer Phil Weinrob,
Speaker 2: I said, this is crazy. This is a crazy way
Speaker 2: to make music. And he said no, actually, most music
Speaker 2: in the history of recorded music was made this way.
Speaker 2: The way that you've been making it is crazy.
Speaker 3: So in your music.
Speaker 1: Career pre Song Exploder, I'm assuming that One Tree Hill
Speaker 1: and Gossip Girl that came before Song Exploder.
Speaker 3: Yes, how do you get your music?
Speaker 1: The thing about you was it seems like every door
Speaker 1: just opens to you. You know, how do you get
Speaker 1: your music in front of the one Tree Hill people.
Speaker 1: Gossip World was a huge hit. How do you get
Speaker 1: in front of them?
Speaker 2: I mean, especially in those days, in the sort of
Speaker 2: heyday of indie music on TV, you know, kind of
Speaker 2: like two thousand and five to twenty ten or so,
Speaker 2: it was really wonderful because there were a lot of
Speaker 2: shows on TV. TV still existed, music budgets still existed,
Speaker 2: and they would actively have this mission to put cool
Speaker 2: music in shows. And so there were music supervisors who'd
Speaker 2: be actively looking for something that they liked to include.
Speaker 2: And I got very lucky the label that I was on,
Speaker 2: they had folks who would send the music to music
Speaker 2: supervisors and yeah they were so they were were always
Speaker 2: looking for music. Yeah, yeah, and they'd be putting you know,
Speaker 2: they put out twenty four episodes of Gossip Girl and
Speaker 2: then have like five or six songs in each episode.
Speaker 1: So the first thing I want to ask you is,
Speaker 1: per song explorer, how do you get the rights to
Speaker 1: the music? Oh, even when we do the show and
Speaker 1: we want heavy with music, we struggle. We think the
Speaker 1: artists is on our side and they're going to help us,
Speaker 1: and it's like, are the people that have the rights.
Speaker 2: No, Yeah, the artist has no power or very little power. Occasionally, Yeah, well,
Speaker 2: I work with a wonderful woman named Kathleen Smith who
Speaker 2: has been working with me since twenty fifteen, and she
Speaker 2: goes and knocks on all the doors and asks everybody
Speaker 2: you know, would you please sign this piece of paper
Speaker 2: that says we can use this song with song Exploder.
Speaker 2: It's a little bit different, I think than other uses
Speaker 2: because it's not like the music is scoring some other content.
Speaker 2: The music is the content. You know, we're telling the
Speaker 2: story of this song.
Speaker 3: Gotta have it your license.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm wondering you check out the right situation prior
Speaker 1: to the show. They don't come on unless you're all
Speaker 1: clear with the music.
Speaker 2: At this point, we sort of hope in you know,
Speaker 2: feel like we've got relationships enough that like we can
Speaker 2: tape the interview and the end as we're working on
Speaker 2: the licensing at the same time, but we won't put
Speaker 2: it out till it's all cleared.
Speaker 1: Song Exploder whose idea was that it.
Speaker 2: Was, you know, something that kind of had percolated over
Speaker 2: a very long time, just the idea of trying to
Speaker 2: make something that felt closer to what the music making
Speaker 2: process was as I had experienced it. You know, I
Speaker 2: would listen to or read interviews with artists that I admire,
Speaker 2: and the interviews always felt like they were very big picture,
Speaker 2: Like the interviewers would ask big picture questions and the
Speaker 2: guests would answer in big picture answers. But I felt
Speaker 2: like the creative process is so much more about the
Speaker 2: inch by inch journey. You know, every single small creative
Speaker 2: decision that gets made is really what shapes both the
Speaker 2: final product and the experience. And I thought it would
Speaker 2: be really fascinating if people could get inside that process
Speaker 2: and hear what a song sounds like from the perspective
Speaker 2: of someone who made it. Also, I wanted to kind
Speaker 2: of circumvent the idea of a critic being the only
Speaker 2: way into how a song could be thought of and
Speaker 2: kind of re establish the idea of an author's intention.
Speaker 1: How did you develop the skill to help them unravel
Speaker 1: the song?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it helps to have someone ask questions
Speaker 2: from a sort of empathetic position, you know, like I
Speaker 2: tried to bring the kinds of questions that I was
Speaker 2: trying to answer to the questions that I would be
Speaker 2: posing to them. And part of the reason why I
Speaker 2: used to cut myself out of the show entirely was
Speaker 2: because I had never interviewed anybody, and I didn't want
Speaker 2: to reveal myself to be the amateur that I was,
Speaker 2: And I thought it would sound much more professional if
Speaker 2: it just felt like a story being told from the
Speaker 2: perspective of the artist. The reason it changed in the
Speaker 2: Netflix show is because I got that idea that, you know,
Speaker 2: the sort of non narrated thing which exists in so
Speaker 2: much radio, But I got it from watching documentary films.
Speaker 2: In the best documentary films, you just see the cameras on,
Speaker 2: you know, close up on the subject, and they're telling
Speaker 2: their story. You don't hear an interviewer. Sometimes you might
Speaker 2: hear them off camera, but it's never about the two
Speaker 2: of them. So I wanted my show to feel legitimate,
Speaker 2: even though I was making it from my bedroom or
Speaker 2: my garage. I wanted it to seem like, oh, elevated,
Speaker 2: So let me make it like these documentaries. When we
Speaker 2: went to make the Netflix show, I was talking to
Speaker 2: the executive producer, Morgan Neville, who himself is an Oscar
Speaker 2: winning documentarium four twenty Free from Stardom.
Speaker 1: We played that at the Hampton Film festal law summer time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, amazing movie, amazing. So I was telling him, you know,
Speaker 2: this is my reason for why I shouldn't be in
Speaker 2: the show. We should keep the same kind of format
Speaker 2: for the Netflix show. And he argued that it wasn't special.
Speaker 2: Now we're basically going into the documentary format and the
Speaker 2: thing that I was pulling for a podcast that had
Speaker 2: felt special is not going to be special once you
Speaker 2: return it to the original source. And he said, what
Speaker 2: would be much more interesting and intimate? Because I was
Speaker 2: saying I kept saying the word intimacy, it was felt
Speaker 2: more intimate to just have the first person narrative from
Speaker 2: the guest. He said, well, I think what would be
Speaker 2: more intimate is to see the two of you having
Speaker 2: a conversation.
Speaker 3: I agree, you're so unattractive, that's the problem. I mean,
Speaker 3: you should be on camera.
Speaker 2: And he said, well, look, let's shoot something. We'll put
Speaker 2: one camera on the subject and if you decide that's all.
Speaker 2: You know, you just want to do that, fine, but
Speaker 2: let me also put a camera on you and let's
Speaker 2: try it. You know, would you be game.
Speaker 1: For That'd you like it?
Speaker 2: It was stressful? And then in the edit, you know,
Speaker 2: I kept on trying to cut out any kind of
Speaker 2: reaction shots or anything like that. I was like, no,
Speaker 2: it's it's distracting. It's but a lot of the time
Speaker 2: what the directors or the editors were trying to bring
Speaker 2: in were moments of real human interaction as opposed to
Speaker 2: something too antiseptic and clean. But for me, I felt like,
Speaker 2: oh clean was that's that's what I want. I wanted
Speaker 2: to feel like my goal of the podcast. I wanted
Speaker 2: to feel like it was just this beautifully made sculpture
Speaker 2: where you couldn't see any seams and if you see
Speaker 2: me laughing, or you see us like have this moment
Speaker 2: of dialogue where you hear my question, doesn't that break
Speaker 2: up the dream? I want the show to feel like
Speaker 2: a dream and I don't want someone to wake up
Speaker 2: in the middle. And they said, no, those moments are
Speaker 2: real human interaction and that's actually something really wonderful to see,
Speaker 2: and they all basically agreed, and at a certain point
Speaker 2: I said, Okay, if you all think this and I'm
Speaker 2: the only one on the other side, then like maybe
Speaker 2: I just need to let it go. But it was
Speaker 2: it was tough.
Speaker 1: We had people on our show over the years who
Speaker 1: if you let it breathe if I can get in there,
Speaker 1: because in the beginning I was very very hands on
Speaker 1: trying to push them towards where I wanted them to go.
Speaker 1: And when you come on and you just let it
Speaker 1: happen and people are in the mood to talk to you.
Speaker 1: We've had number a number of shows, but I like
Speaker 1: in Name three, one was Tom Yorke. Tom Yorke came on.
Speaker 1: I'm like, what the hell am I going to say
Speaker 1: to this Guy's gonna be interesting to him. He doesn't
Speaker 1: give a shit about me, He'd probably don't even know me.
Speaker 3: And I'm sitting there talking to Tom York And it
Speaker 3: was great.
Speaker 1: It was heaven because he was he was in the
Speaker 1: mood to talk. We did Nck Fleetwood, he was in
Speaker 1: the mood to talk. We did Letterman. Letterman came and
Speaker 1: even his own staff like had their hand over their mouth.
Speaker 1: They couldn't believe what he was saying because he was
Speaker 1: talking about how he was like, you know, he goes
Speaker 1: how I was miserable. Well, I did was work, I
Speaker 1: did have any kids, did have a family. Everything was work.
Speaker 1: But he was really very very self disclosing, you know,
Speaker 1: in that way where the conversation works of people just
Speaker 1: flows now where we were talking about something like this
Speaker 1: like Somebody is historic, you know, popular song.
Speaker 3: Do you think that makes it easier for you?
Speaker 2: It certainly makes it easier for me because they know
Speaker 2: what the parameters of the story is going to be.
Speaker 2: And I think it also allows me to probe in
Speaker 2: other parts because if they're talking about something that where
Speaker 2: they're very comfortable, they're talking about their artistry. You know,
Speaker 2: we're listening to stems and they're talking about the very
Speaker 2: direct answer to a question of how did you make this?
Speaker 2: I can then start to veer into well why did
Speaker 2: you make this? And if I had started that way
Speaker 2: and I didn't have the stems and I didn't have
Speaker 2: the song to talk about and just said, you know,
Speaker 2: out of the blue, hey why did you write this lyric?
Speaker 2: They might clam up, or they might you know, have
Speaker 2: a different kind of reaction. But I think the familiarity
Speaker 2: of the material and the small parameter of just let's
Speaker 2: talk about this one song, let's get deep in that
Speaker 2: one song, it helps them open up. And you know,
Speaker 2: musicians can be tougher interviews because they they speak through
Speaker 2: their music exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And they're not really that articulate.
Speaker 1: In terms of interviews about the music. They're really just
Speaker 1: play it. I don't want to talk about it. I
Speaker 1: don't want to do it, ye know. And I've come
Speaker 1: across that from time to time.
Speaker 2: Can I say one thing, by the way, But so
Speaker 2: the Letterman interview, if it's the one that I'm thinking of.
Speaker 2: You did a Letterman interview in December of twenty thirteen.
Speaker 1: My god, that's uncanny.
Speaker 2: It was important to me in a few different ways.
Speaker 2: One because I had not interviewed people I was trying
Speaker 2: to absorb. At this point, I had, you know, I
Speaker 2: had the concept for the show. I'd made one episode
Speaker 2: as a sort of pilot, and then I was like, okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to do this. I was trying to learn
Speaker 2: as much as I could about interviewing from just taking
Speaker 2: it in from other sources. And here's the thing is
Speaker 2: one of the shows that I turned to. And the
Speaker 2: other thing was I had never spoken into a mic before,
Speaker 2: and i'd sung, but I hadn't recorded myself. And I
Speaker 2: was like, well, how do I do this? And so
Speaker 2: I launched the show in January of twenty fourteen. As
Speaker 2: I was getting ready for that that episode that you did,
Speaker 2: the last episode I think of twenty thirteen around that
Speaker 2: it was a Letterman interview. I listened to that and
Speaker 2: tried to, you know, learn what I could about interviewing.
Speaker 2: But also I tried to learn how to set my
Speaker 2: microphone to sound like your voice. I was like, how
Speaker 2: do I emulate something like that? And so I was
Speaker 2: fiddling with my EQ settings on my microphone.
Speaker 1: When you say that, it's interesting because it's to get
Speaker 1: out of your own way to some guests come, they're
Speaker 1: not in the mood to talk. You know, we do
Speaker 1: the video now. I never wanted to do the video.
Speaker 1: One of the first shows we did was Kathleen Turner
Speaker 1: early on years ago, and Kathleen Turner comes in.
Speaker 3: I called her on the phone and she.
Speaker 1: Goes, oh baby.
Speaker 3: She goes, so I have to is it on camera?
Speaker 3: Is it on?
Speaker 1: Are you doing the video with this thing? And I
Speaker 1: go she goes, thank god, I can just come in
Speaker 1: a ponytail, in my sweats and like every woman to
Speaker 1: be perfectly honest. It's mostly the actresses and public figures
Speaker 1: who are women are like, thank I don't have to
Speaker 1: get ready and fill right, I have to do my hair,
Speaker 1: on my makeup, with my clothes and so forth.
Speaker 2: Do you find that when you're doing an interview now
Speaker 2: on camera that the responses you get are different, Like
Speaker 2: people can port themselves different than knowing that they're on camming.
Speaker 1: That people who were professional public figures, they got it down.
Speaker 1: We've been in front of cameras in all of our lives.
Speaker 1: Now talk about West Wing? How did that happen?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So from twenty sixteen to twenty twenty, mainly I
Speaker 2: made a podcast called The West Wing Weekly with my
Speaker 2: friend Joshua Molina, who is an actor who was on
Speaker 2: the West Wing, and we did about a hunt, you know,
Speaker 2: one episode for every episode of the show, plus some
Speaker 2: bonus episodes. I stole Zach McNeice. Zach came and mixed
Speaker 2: our show. I posted a thing saying I'm looking for
Speaker 2: someone to help me with the show, and he wrote
Speaker 2: back and I saw here's a thing was on his CV,
Speaker 2: and I said, well, I already have the settings as
Speaker 2: close to what I think you've done, so here you go.
Speaker 2: So I met josh It goes way back. Actually, when
Speaker 2: I had was graduating college, I thought I wanted to
Speaker 2: move to la because I wanted to make music for films.
Speaker 2: I wanted to score films. But I had no idea
Speaker 2: how one that. I had no idea how you I
Speaker 2: grew up in Massachusetts, moving to LA seemed inconceivable, let alone,
Speaker 2: how do you find a job in Hollywood? And I
Speaker 2: was at Yell and I thought, I was like, this
Speaker 2: isn't even the kind of college where, like, you know,
Speaker 2: people come out of here that where there's no old
Speaker 2: boys network, you know, where someone can say like, hey,
Speaker 2: I want to get a job at Goldman Sachs. Oh,
Speaker 2: you know, I know the Shrafts.
Speaker 1: Anymore, you can hang out at the counter, right.
Speaker 2: And then I had mentioned I had started watching again
Speaker 2: through my sister's taste. I started watching Sports Night, Aaron
Speaker 2: Sorkin's first TV show, and my friend said, well, you
Speaker 2: know Josh Molina he went here, he went to Yell.
Speaker 2: And I said, really, I know that I love that character.
Speaker 2: I love that actor, you know.
Speaker 3: And you didn't know him.
Speaker 2: I didn't know him.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: And then months later I was living in Massachusetts. I
Speaker 2: was working at you know, at a day job and
Speaker 2: dreaming of this dream to get to LA. And one
Speaker 2: night I looked up Josh's name on you know, this
Speaker 2: is before Google. I looked it up on whatever alta
Speaker 2: Vista or something ask Jeeves, and I found he had
Speaker 2: a website. He had his own personal website with his
Speaker 2: headshot and his resume and an email address. So I
Speaker 2: clicked on it and I just sent him an email saying,
Speaker 2: you know, dear Josh, we don't know each other. I've
Speaker 2: just recently graduated. I'm trying to figure out how how
Speaker 2: does one get to make music for films. I don't
Speaker 2: know if you have any advice for someone like me,
Speaker 2: but like, thanks, I fan hope to hear from you.
Speaker 2: I was considering trying to move to LA or moved
Speaker 2: to New York. New York was much easier, and I
Speaker 2: had a lot of friends who were moving on why
Speaker 2: easier geographically and easier, Yeah, and I knew people there,
Speaker 2: and it just it felt daunting but much less daunting.
Speaker 2: And I thought, well, I do know that there are
Speaker 2: films that get made in New York. Maybe I can
Speaker 2: skate by if I do that. Josh wrote back and
Speaker 2: said he's like, look, I I'm not in that side
Speaker 2: of things. I play cards with some composers, but my
Speaker 2: senses in general is generally, if you want to do
Speaker 2: stuff in films, you got to be here in LA
Speaker 2: And I said, okay, thank you very much. I moved
Speaker 2: to New York because I was just I was too
Speaker 2: scared of her form.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're gonna flush that Yale degree down the toilet somehow.
Speaker 2: Yeah. And then I tried New York for a while.
Speaker 2: It was hard in other ways and it just didn't
Speaker 2: didn't end up working out for me and that. But
Speaker 2: then I did move to LA about a year later.
Speaker 2: And when I got there, I wrote to Josh and said, hey,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for the advice. Here I am.
Speaker 2: His email no longer worked, and I was like, well
Speaker 2: that was that. And I slowly, you know, I found
Speaker 2: a job as an assistant to a composer. I was
Speaker 2: making my own records. I started, you know, just trying
Speaker 2: to do music however I could. And then in twenty twelve,
Speaker 2: I finally had my first feature film that I had scored,
Speaker 2: went to Sun Dance, which was what it was called
Speaker 2: Save the Date, directed by my friend Michael Mohan and
Speaker 2: starring Alison Brie and Allison Brie. Alison Brie and.
Speaker 3: You wrote music for you. You did the score for
Speaker 3: the whole film.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wrote the score and I wrote a song for.
Speaker 1: He asked you to come or you've pitched yourself to well.
Speaker 2: He had originally written a song of mine that I
Speaker 2: had written into the script. One of the characters played
Speaker 2: by Jeffrey Aaron was a songwriter and he and he
Speaker 2: had written in the script a song of mine that
Speaker 2: already existed, and then he was like, well, maybe is
Speaker 2: that he sent it to me and he said, is
Speaker 2: that weird that he's he's like writing a song, but
Speaker 2: it's your song? And I said, yeah, maybe a little bit.
Speaker 2: And he said, well, would you write a new song
Speaker 2: for it? And I said yeah. So originally it was
Speaker 2: just that write a song for the movie, but then
Speaker 2: they asked me to score it as well. So I
Speaker 2: went to Sundance and it was so exciting and I
Speaker 2: met all these people, and then afterwards I was on Twitter,
Speaker 2: back when Twitter was a nice place to be, and
Speaker 2: I was just looking at like sort of Sundance chatter
Speaker 2: and looking at movies that I'd seen, because one of
Speaker 2: the great things about going was you know, you get
Speaker 2: a pass and you can see just like everything, and
Speaker 2: I saw I think like fourteen movies you know, and
Speaker 2: I was just looking at seeing what people were talking about.
Speaker 2: And in the conversation, josh Molina had replied to somebody
Speaker 2: who you know I'd been looking at, and josh Molina
Speaker 2: replied to him, and I was like, josh Molina, hey,
Speaker 2: and I forgot that, like social media was a thing that,
Speaker 2: you know, was a way that you could try and
Speaker 2: reach people. And I clicked on his name and then
Speaker 2: he had a link to his Facebook page and I
Speaker 2: clicked on that, and then I sent him a message
Speaker 2: and I said, hey, you might not remember this, but
Speaker 2: over a decade ago, you gave me this advice, come
Speaker 2: to LA if you want to score films. Well, it
Speaker 2: took me a long time to do it, but I
Speaker 2: didn't and I just scored my first film. And could
Speaker 2: I take you out to lunch to say thank you?
Speaker 2: And he wrote back the next day and said, as
Speaker 2: an out of work actor, I make it a point
Speaker 2: never to say no to a free lunch. And so
Speaker 2: we met up and we just hit it off and
Speaker 2: had a great time, and we later ended up making
Speaker 2: a pilot for a game show, an idea that I
Speaker 2: had tried to do as a live thing, and then
Speaker 2: he participated.
Speaker 3: What was the game show? I read about this.
Speaker 2: So I had done this charity event called Celebrity Celebrity.
Speaker 2: Do you know the game Celebrity. Imagine two teams and
Speaker 2: there's a bold of names in the middle and people
Speaker 2: have put in names of famous people and you might
Speaker 2: pull it out and without saying the name of the person.
Speaker 2: It was first this charity game, I said, let's raise money.
Speaker 2: Let's what if it was celebrity celebrity celebrities instead of
Speaker 2: just being the names of the bowl actually playing. Wouldn't
Speaker 2: that be fun? And it was really fun.
Speaker 3: You did it?
Speaker 2: I did it.
Speaker 3: Were some of your celebrity guests.
Speaker 2: So Josh was the captain of one team and on
Speaker 2: his team was Sarah Silverman, Michael Ian Black, Rob Delaney.
Speaker 2: There was another team with Martin Starr, Aubrey Plaza, Aleah.
Speaker 1: Shashit good real comic talents.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was great.
Speaker 3: What happened?
Speaker 2: It was wonderful. And the curtain came down and I said, Josh,
Speaker 2: thanks so much. I was like, I think there might
Speaker 2: be something here and he said, I think so too.
Speaker 2: And Josh, besides being on the Western Heat executive produced
Speaker 2: Celebrity Poker Showdown, he'd co created that show, and so
Speaker 2: I said, do you want to try and see if
Speaker 2: this is something that could we could do for TV
Speaker 2: with me? And he said yes, and so we pitched
Speaker 2: it and we sold it. We got a we did
Speaker 2: a pilot. We had Mike Leean Black hosting it, and
Speaker 2: we had the cast of The West Wing versus the
Speaker 2: cast of Scandal, two shows that Josh had been on,
Speaker 2: and it was really fun. And then the network that
Speaker 2: we sold it to got sold to another network and
Speaker 2: somewhere in the shuffle between executives and things like that,
Speaker 2: we got lost, and we were just waiting. And so
Speaker 2: this was in twenty fourteen. We shot the pilot. Meanwhile
Speaker 2: I started making song Exploder, and a year later, we're
Speaker 2: still waiting to hear what's going to happen with the
Speaker 2: game show with the Game Show, and eventually I said
Speaker 2: to Josh, I said, hey, do you want to just
Speaker 2: try making a podcast with me? Because I'm really enjoying
Speaker 2: this format and it feels closer to the sort of
Speaker 2: the punk rock thing that I came up with, which
Speaker 2: is like we can just do it ourselves. We don't
Speaker 2: have to ask permission, we don't need gatekeepers. Let us
Speaker 2: do it. Yeah, we can just do it.
Speaker 3: And this was a west wink and.
Speaker 2: This was about and I said, look, I've been very polite.
Speaker 2: I have not peppered you with all of my questions
Speaker 2: about the West Wing right, but we could do you
Speaker 2: know this kind of There were some shows that existed
Speaker 2: where people would go episode by episode, but none of
Speaker 2: them at that time had someone from the show as
Speaker 2: one of the hosts. It would take some of the
Speaker 2: song exploder DNA of having someone who is intimately involved
Speaker 2: with the creation of the thing telling the story.
Speaker 1: The thing with West Wing, I always view Sorkin. I
Speaker 1: worked with him very guarded, very guarded guy, brilliant, but
Speaker 1: very close to the vest. And I thought to myself,
Speaker 1: what was it like working with him?
Speaker 3: And he did? I think I was told three episodes
Speaker 3: of your show, correct.
Speaker 2: I think even maybe more than that.
Speaker 1: More than that.
Speaker 3: Was it tough to lure him in or not?
Speaker 4: No?
Speaker 2: It was actually really he was always so game and
Speaker 2: incredibly generous with his time. And you know, one time
Speaker 2: we did a live taping in San Francisco. It was
Speaker 2: for the finale of season three, and we were like,
Speaker 2: would you please come? We had this possibility of doing
Speaker 2: this and it's such a significant episode. And we said,
Speaker 2: you know, could you come, We will fly you out,
Speaker 2: you know, we'll fly you first class, Like what can
Speaker 2: we do to get you? And he said, how about this,
Speaker 2: I'll fly myself out and whatever you were going to
Speaker 2: spend on the plane ticket, let's pick a charity and
Speaker 2: you can give it to that or something like. He
Speaker 2: just took care of of his own stuff. He's like,
Speaker 2: he has don't need to spend money on me. And
Speaker 2: it was so kind. And then, you know, I think
Speaker 2: for him, we're just talking about everything that we loved
Speaker 2: about the show and asking him questions. So I think
Speaker 2: for him it was nice. I hope it was nice.
Speaker 1: Musician and podcaster Rishi Cash here way. If you enjoy
Speaker 1: conversations with creative innovators whose talents extend beyond music, check
Speaker 1: out my episode with Julian Lennon.
Speaker 5: One of the really important things that happened to me
Speaker 5: in my relationship with photography and the images was that
Speaker 5: I would have people write to me, people that couldn't
Speaker 5: financially afford to travel the world or go anywhere, couldn't
Speaker 5: or were disabled and couldn't travel the world or go anywhere.
Speaker 5: And what they had all said to me is that
Speaker 5: you bring these stories to us, you bring the truth,
Speaker 5: You bring life to us of cultures that we would
Speaker 5: never necessarily know anything about.
Speaker 1: To hear more of my conversation with Julian Lennon, go
Speaker 1: to Here's the Thing dot org. After the break, Hereway
Speaker 1: shares the guest he was most excited to have on
Speaker 1: song Exploder and one whom he would like to interview
Speaker 1: in the future. I'm Alec Baldwin and this is Here's
Speaker 1: the Thing. Rishie Kish Hereway created song Exploder in twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: Since then, it has received critical acclaim, won many awards,
Speaker 1: and was recently named by Time as one of the
Speaker 1: one hundred best podcasts of all time. This year, here
Speaker 1: Way will be presented with the twenty twenty six iHeartMedia
Speaker 1: Innovator Award for his visionary approach to storytelling. Guests on
Speaker 1: song Exploder have ranged from you Yo Yoma to Madonna,
Speaker 1: from Billie Eilish to Metallica. Having interviewed so many music legends,
Speaker 1: I was curious if there was one particular artist that
Speaker 1: he was most excited to interview.
Speaker 2: When I first started the show, you know, I had
Speaker 2: a few ideas of like the kind of artist that
Speaker 2: would be a dream to have on you know, the
Speaker 2: kind of people where their artistry is exceptional and also
Speaker 2: mysterious to me. And one of those that small list
Speaker 2: was Buyork. And so she did the show twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2: So I had been doing it for two years and
Speaker 2: that was just incredible. I couldn't believe that she got
Speaker 2: to do it, and she was in London at the time,
Speaker 2: so I had to wake up at five in the morning,
Speaker 2: did the interview over the phone. She had somebody, you know,
Speaker 2: like remote sinking her recording, and that was I couldn't
Speaker 2: believe it. My wife afterwards, you know, when she woke up,
Speaker 2: she's like, why did you get up so early? I said,
Speaker 2: I had to interview Byorke and she's like, you what.
Speaker 2: She also loves Beork and I hadn't even told her
Speaker 2: that I was doing it because I so sure that
Speaker 2: it was going to fall apart at any point and
Speaker 2: I didn't want to jinx it or anything like that,
Speaker 2: so I didn't even let anybody know that it was
Speaker 2: happening until after I had done it.
Speaker 1: So New York was one that you got excited about.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, who's.
Speaker 2: Someone you want Tom York if you can call him
Speaker 2: up for me.
Speaker 3: I'll call Tom York. If you call Humfrey Bogart.
Speaker 2: Deal, would you want Tom York?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Absolutely. I mean Radiohead is another one that was on
Speaker 2: that list.
Speaker 1: Who's someone who their musicianship impressed you. You really were
Speaker 1: amazed by their musician ship.
Speaker 2: Oh so I just did an episode that you know,
Speaker 2: this is just recency bias, but I just put out
Speaker 2: an episode with the Mexican artist Silvana Astrada, and there's
Speaker 2: a moment where I, you know, isolate just her vocals,
Speaker 2: and her vocal take is just stunning. I just listened
Speaker 2: to it over and over again, the way that she
Speaker 2: can sing. She did this thing where she's holding out
Speaker 2: such a long note and doing all the kind of
Speaker 2: you know, Seraph's calligraphic kind of moves with her voice
Speaker 2: as she goes through the note, and then somehow at
Speaker 2: the end she ramps up and like crescendo's to the
Speaker 2: end of the note instead of it just sort of
Speaker 2: like dying out. And it's like a level of musicality
Speaker 2: and musical instinct but also physical control, like there's an
Speaker 2: athleticism to be able to do that. Everything about that.
Speaker 2: It just blew me away, and I feel like I
Speaker 2: get to encounter something like that pretty regularly in the show.
Speaker 3: Let's take some questions.
Speaker 6: Hi, I'm glad you brought up classical music. I used
Speaker 6: to writ about class music and I love classical music.
Speaker 6: I know that you did some stuff with the Toronto
Speaker 6: Symphony Orchestra, like the Symphony Exploder, and I know you've
Speaker 6: done stuff with Steve Reisch. What are the particular challenges
Speaker 6: of doing classical this format with classical music and do
Speaker 6: you have plans to do any of that in the future.
Speaker 2: Well, I think Steve Reisch was a wonderful opportunity because
Speaker 2: not only do I love his music, he's alive and
Speaker 2: so because the show is primarily about the idea of
Speaker 2: telling the story from the creator's perspective. With most classical music,
Speaker 2: that's not possible. With the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, you know,
Speaker 2: the music director and conductor sort of stood in place
Speaker 2: for Stravinsky talking about his interpretation of Stravinsky. It was
Speaker 2: a really special experience and it was a different.
Speaker 3: Kind of excercisies on Netflix.
Speaker 2: This was a live event that I did with the
Speaker 2: Toronto Symphony orchestra.
Speaker 3: Where is that available?
Speaker 2: It wasn't filmed. It was just an event that happened,
Speaker 2: But I think it was interesting. But it felt like
Speaker 2: it's a different idea than what song splitter.
Speaker 3: Is anybody else here? Do we see anybody right over there?
Speaker 3: What's your favorite acting performance of all time? Oh? For me,
Speaker 3: favorite movie performance?
Speaker 2: Can I say one that sticks in my head forever?
Speaker 2: One line reading is in stateon Maine after the car accident,
Speaker 2: the car flips over. You get out of there and
Speaker 2: you say.
Speaker 3: So that happened. Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, But I mean movies are very ephemeral. They don't
Speaker 1: really stick to you. You do movies and the movie
Speaker 1: comes on TV and you're sitting there watching it, like
Speaker 1: you're in your kitchen. It's two o'clock in the morning.
Speaker 1: A movie comes on, you're in and literally the scene
Speaker 1: comes on and you go, I remember that day, That's
Speaker 1: when I had that accident in the Ventura Freeway. Remember
Speaker 1: what happened in your life, in and around. But the
Speaker 1: scenes themselves are not as indelible as when you do
Speaker 1: in the theater.
Speaker 3: And in the theater, when you.
Speaker 1: Do a play, especially if it's a good play and
Speaker 1: you work at it, you wind up going to the
Speaker 1: same show years later with your friends, and you ruined
Speaker 1: the play for them. But you lean over and go,
Speaker 1: I didn't do.
Speaker 2: It that way.
Speaker 1: We have the one right here in the foreground. You
Speaker 1: stand up, Please.
Speaker 7: Question for your guest.
Speaker 8: So I, my daughter was then nine years old, do
Speaker 8: a lipa episode like love Again? Was the song you
Speaker 8: did and the symphony, But we were surprised that was
Speaker 8: the song that was chosen. How was the song chosen?
Speaker 8: Sometimes they weren't the most notable song for the performer.
Speaker 8: How did you agree to choose the.
Speaker 2: Song for that show, for that episode specifically.
Speaker 8: Or any of them, but that episode?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean normally for any episode, it's sort
Speaker 2: of a it's a conversation between myself and the artists,
Speaker 2: usually facilitated by a publicist. You know where I'm asking
Speaker 2: for which is the song that has the story that's
Speaker 2: the most emotionally significant to them, because I think it
Speaker 2: would be easy for a story about the process of
Speaker 2: a song to simply be like technical And for me,
Speaker 2: it's a chance to have a little miniature biography, tiny
Speaker 2: little portrait of an artist, and we're looking through the
Speaker 2: song to find that. So not all songs provide that
Speaker 2: some songs are really revealing of someone's process but also
Speaker 2: who they are and you know, how their brain works,
Speaker 2: and so by trying to narrow it to something that
Speaker 2: feels like they have a lot to say and it
Speaker 2: really meant something to them, then usually it's a more
Speaker 2: compelling episode. Oftentimes, you know, the label will say, hey,
Speaker 2: we want you to do the latest single, and you know,
Speaker 2: and so sometimes you know, I can counter with that,
Speaker 2: and sometimes it's the same song.
Speaker 3: Tell me about the cooking show, talk about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I made a show called Home Cooking with
Speaker 2: my friend Samin Nosrat, who is an incredible acclaimed cook
Speaker 2: book author and chef. She wrote Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat,
Speaker 2: you know, which was a huge bestseller, and then there
Speaker 2: was a Netflix show based on that that was also
Speaker 2: a huge hit. Samin got called like the modern Julia Child. That's,
Speaker 2: you know, she's really like humanizes and introduces people to
Speaker 2: cooking in a very gentle and loving way. We became
Speaker 2: friends by chance, you know, in twenty seventeen, and then
Speaker 2: when the pandemic hit, suddenly everybody was in lockdown and
Speaker 2: pandemic and everybody's relationship to eating changed because now there
Speaker 2: were no restaurants available for that, you know, first week
Speaker 2: of Lockdown, I was like, I don't know how long
Speaker 2: this is going to go, but people are feeling like me,
Speaker 2: and you know, there's so much uncertainty. And I had
Speaker 2: been asking to me about a podcast previously, but then
Speaker 2: I said, hey, is this the moment where you know
Speaker 2: we can make a podcast where you can help people
Speaker 2: answer their questions. You know, we would come back from
Speaker 2: the grocery stores with such strange carts, you know, like
Speaker 2: whatever was left on the shelf. It's like, well, I'm
Speaker 2: trying a bean. I've never heard of you, but that
Speaker 2: I have six cans of it? What do I do
Speaker 2: with it? Could you help answer these kinds of questions?
Speaker 2: And so she said yes, and so in March of
Speaker 2: twenty twenty, we we were like, we'll just do this
Speaker 2: like special series. What out four episodes and then you know,
Speaker 2: this will blow over, and but we'll have provided some
Speaker 2: fun and something, you know, while people are feeling lonely
Speaker 2: and scared, here's something nice. And then of course the
Speaker 2: things continued, and so then we made more episodes, and
Speaker 2: then things continued, and then we made more episodes and
Speaker 2: so and then we just and then we took a break,
Speaker 2: and then we just made another season this year.
Speaker 3: Anybody else, We have a couple more questions here.
Speaker 7: Hi, I have a question about celebrity for both of you.
Speaker 7: The game now celebrities, I guess Rishiakisha, I'm curious. You
Speaker 7: know you're talking to all of these extremely huge stars.
Speaker 7: Do you find yourself feeling like a fan or has
Speaker 7: that like changed over time because you talked to so
Speaker 7: many people? But how do you see them as people?
Speaker 7: And then question for Alec like do you feel like
Speaker 7: there's sort of an obstacle because you're so famous in
Speaker 7: connecting with people, like if you're out the world?
Speaker 1: Is that?
Speaker 7: I'm curious about your experience of celebrity as well.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry we're out of time. You go ahead to
Speaker 3: be ahead.
Speaker 2: Well, I think that my I'm so concerned with making
Speaker 2: sure that the show feels like a professional experience for
Speaker 2: everyone and that like I can get a good show
Speaker 2: in the limited time that I have with someone, that
Speaker 2: that overcomes any possibility of you know, fanboying or something
Speaker 2: like that. Because sort of related to the previous question
Speaker 2: about making someone feel comfortable, I think if you come
Speaker 2: in with too much starstruck energy. It puts people in
Speaker 2: the opposite place, or at least not the right place
Speaker 2: where I want them, which is to feel relaxed. And
Speaker 2: like you said, you know, just like have their guard down.
Speaker 1: You've got to convince them you're not to get them. Yes, well,
Speaker 1: this is all about My show is all about appreciation.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think if you can show genuine curiosity
Speaker 2: at a deeper level than just like, oh I love
Speaker 2: this thing, you know, then I think that also helps
Speaker 2: people relax. So getting into that mind frame for me
Speaker 2: is easy because I'm just trying to make the best
Speaker 2: show possible. If it goes really well and the interview
Speaker 2: is over, then I can sort of say, you know,
Speaker 2: if they're happy, then I can say, by the way,
Speaker 2: I've loved everything you've made, and you know, here's a
Speaker 2: story about how I first got into your work or
Speaker 2: something like that. But only if it goes well, and
Speaker 2: only at the end, do we.
Speaker 3: Have one more question before we go, because I have
Speaker 3: another last one for you.
Speaker 9: Hi.
Speaker 10: I'm a big fan of Perfume Genius and I loved
Speaker 10: your episode with them, but I wanted to ask, is
Speaker 10: there an episode that you felt like really helped an
Speaker 10: artist kind of level up their audience, or if it's
Speaker 10: an older song, sort of like helped introduce it to
Speaker 10: a new audience or generation.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't presume to try and answer for an artist
Speaker 2: in terms of, you know, what an episode of the
Speaker 2: podcast has done for them. I will say one thing
Speaker 2: that was really nice was I did an episode with
Speaker 2: Dan Wilson from the band Semi Sonic about Closing Time,
Speaker 2: and you know, it's such a famous song, but I
Speaker 2: think most people didn't know the real backstory behind it.
Speaker 2: And after that episode came out, he was very kind
Speaker 2: about it, and he said that he got more messages
Speaker 2: from people listening to that episode and reacting to it
Speaker 2: him personally than any other thing that he had done.
Speaker 2: And you know, I think people were really moved by
Speaker 2: his story. It's not my story, it's his story. You know.
Speaker 2: I can't really claim any credit for it, but I
Speaker 2: think that was something that was really nice where it's
Speaker 2: not like that song needed any help in terms of
Speaker 2: its popularity, but to be able to give Dana platform
Speaker 2: to say, like, this is what the song is really about.
Speaker 2: That was special.
Speaker 1: Musician and podcaster Wishy Cash hereway, if you're enjoying this conversation,
Speaker 1: tell a friend and be sure to follow Here's the
Speaker 1: Thing on the iHeartRadio app, Spotify, or wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts. When we come back, here Way shares how
Speaker 1: he came to score the CNN documentary Our Nixon. I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin and this is Here's the Thing. In addition
Speaker 1: to creating award winning podcasts and recording multiple albums, Bashi
Speaker 1: Cash Hereway as also a composer for film and TV.
Speaker 1: He scored his first film, Save the Date, in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: A year later, an opportunity came to score the CNN
Speaker 1: documentary Our Nixon. I wanted to know how here Way
Speaker 1: went from the indie music and film scene to scoring
Speaker 1: a CNN documentary.
Speaker 2: It's directed by a wonderful director named Penny Lane. It's
Speaker 2: a real name, and it's all archival material except for
Speaker 2: the score. She gathered the home movies of the Nixon
Speaker 2: cabinet members. These eight millimeters home movies that they had
Speaker 2: made while working for Nixon had been confiscated by the FBI,
Speaker 2: and they sat undeveloped for decades, and then they got
Speaker 2: declassified and in the world of like archivist nerds. These
Speaker 2: were kind of like a holy Grail, and then they
Speaker 2: came out and then they developed them. And her idea
Speaker 2: was that these guys are the biggest villains in American
Speaker 2: political history at the time, this is twenty thirteen. These
Speaker 2: guys were the biggest villains in American political history. But
Speaker 2: nobody's a villain in their own home movies. So what
Speaker 2: does that look like and what happens if you try
Speaker 2: and tell the story as seen through their eyes? And
Speaker 2: I had seen a short film of hers called The Voyagers,
Speaker 2: which is beautiful. Also highly recommended The Voyagers about Carl
Speaker 2: Sagan and the Voyager Mission, and it's beautiful short film.
Speaker 2: I was just a fan. Subscribed to her newsletter. One
Speaker 2: day she mentioned that she was working on this Nixon documentary,
Speaker 2: and I said, hey, I love what you do. I
Speaker 2: love that era of American politics. I just think it
Speaker 2: is a movie, you know.
Speaker 1: Like, I'm a fan of too many Oliver Stone movies.
Speaker 1: I mean I like them, they're okay, But his film
Speaker 1: on Nixon, Montoni Happens, that's an amazing film.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: That just shattered me.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, well, all the president's men, you know,
Speaker 2: it's just I think that's probably part of the reason
Speaker 2: why I love the story too. So I just said,
Speaker 2: you're working on this documentary, do you have a composer?
Speaker 2: Do you need a composer? Can I audition? How can
Speaker 2: I work on this with you? And she wrote back
Speaker 2: and said, no, we don't have a composer. But you know,
Speaker 2: she didn't know we'd never met, so I had to audition.
Speaker 2: I like wrote some music based on the idea of
Speaker 2: what I thought the film was going to be.
Speaker 1: You're the poster boy for doesn't hurt to ask? Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's your life. Doesn't hurt to ask? I wanted to
Speaker 1: ask you two silly questions. I can't help myself.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry. What's your favorite food?
Speaker 2: Cookies? Chocolate chip cookies?
Speaker 1: Okay? Really, well, Connor, what brand of cookie?
Speaker 2: Well? Here in New York there's the Jacques Torres Chalcosh cookie,
Speaker 2: which is kind of I feel like, so fancy cookies. Yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: no girls no, girls Scout cookie. No, I want the
Speaker 2: New York Yankees of cookie where it's like they've spent
Speaker 2: so much money on all the ingredients, Yeah, to make
Speaker 2: it the best thing. That's yeah, that's what about food?
Speaker 3: Like a meal?
Speaker 2: A meal? I mean it's a cliche, but you know
Speaker 2: my my mom was a great cook and I would
Speaker 2: give anything to have her cooking again.
Speaker 1: Let's have a round up a pause from my guest,
Speaker 1: my thanks to Rishi Cash, Hairway and the on air fest.
Speaker 1: I'll leave you with the latest single, roller Coaster, from
Speaker 1: his new album in the Last Hour of Light. I'm
Speaker 1: Alec Baldwin. Here's the thing that's brought to you by
Speaker 1: iHeart Radio.
Speaker 4: Out on Cattarina. There's a hundred buffalo pending by the ocean.
Speaker 4: The only now.
Speaker 9: Did they do my great names?
Speaker 4: They breathe in the salting? Can you miss the places
Speaker 4: you're meant to be? If you earnther?
Speaker 2: The Does it go?
Speaker 3: And?
Speaker 9: And what if this goes on?
Speaker 4: And? And caught myself staring into nothing much at all,
Speaker 4: past the fair ground, the graveyard, the empty shopping mall.
Speaker 4: I drove till the road and they didn't, Uh Cody
Speaker 4: Beach about the distance between me and everything that's out
Speaker 4: of each Does it go?
Speaker 9: And? And what if this goes on?
Speaker 4: And and? On a road the cold stir a ride
Speaker 4: upper gains seal that sky.
Speaker 9: What if this goes on and and.
Speaker 2: What if this goes on, and dope, and.
Speaker 9: What if this goes on and and so what if
Speaker 9: this goes on and.
Speaker 3: And what if this goes on and
Speaker 4: And don