Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Inside the
Speaker 1: Studio on iHeart Radio. My name is Jordan Runt t Dog,
Speaker 1: but enough about me, my guest today are responsible for
Speaker 1: one of the most truly joyous pop singles of the
Speaker 1: last decade, the exuberant Shut Up and Dance with Me.
Speaker 1: We need a little of that energy these days, which
Speaker 1: is good because the band are back with a new
Speaker 1: album called Heights. No release date's been set, but they've
Speaker 1: given fans a taste with their new single, the euphoric
Speaker 1: self acceptance anthem can You Handle My Love? And as
Speaker 1: if That's not enough. They've also dropped two more tracks
Speaker 1: off of Heights, Giants and the applete titled I'm Good.
Speaker 1: Fans will be able to hear these songs live and
Speaker 1: in the flesh this fall when the band hit the
Speaker 1: road as part of their Dream Playing Tour. I'm so
Speaker 1: happy to welcome Nick Elion Seawn of Walk the Moon.
Speaker 1: Thank you great everybody. There was so much to talk
Speaker 1: to you guys about it. I know you have a
Speaker 1: new album on the way, Heights, but I wanted to
Speaker 1: start by talking with you about your new single can
Speaker 1: You Handle My Love? And it's it's an ode to
Speaker 1: imperfections in a sense. I think you've you've called it
Speaker 1: a self love anthem. Can you tell me a little
Speaker 1: bit about where that song came from. I love that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I really do feel that way about it. It's like,
Speaker 1: through this, through this lens of meeting someone else, I'm
Speaker 1: meeting myself. You know, I'm I'm realizing all the all
Speaker 1: the bits and pieces of myself that I want somebody
Speaker 1: else to like. Actually that those are the places where
Speaker 1: I get to love myself. And it's one of those
Speaker 1: one of those songs that was like coming together in
Speaker 1: the moment through this vibration. This music just feels like
Speaker 1: so much fun. I just wanted to feel like, I
Speaker 1: just wanted to remind people of what they love about life.
Speaker 1: You know. It's just like something that's that's really I
Speaker 1: don't know. It feels like a summer day or something beautiful.
Speaker 1: It's funny you mentioned it getting to know yourself better
Speaker 1: in a funny way through through your partner, seeing your
Speaker 1: own similarities in them, and and having that reflect back
Speaker 1: on you. I mean, I guess there's pros and cons.
Speaker 1: It makes me think of that old Seinfeld joke where
Speaker 1: he's dating the woman who's just like him, and then
Speaker 1: later on he's like, wait a minute, I don't want
Speaker 1: to date me. I hate me a classic? But what
Speaker 1: once you? Once you push through that, it's a wonderful thing.
Speaker 1: I mean the lyrics are are so I mean to
Speaker 1: my ears, very personal. I mean, I'm a freak and
Speaker 1: it's literal, got a hole in my heart, cann fill
Speaker 1: it with chemicals just the way. I am not trying
Speaker 1: to be difficult. I know you said on social media,
Speaker 1: Nick that that you write in a in a diary.
Speaker 1: Do you ever use your journal entries? Is jumping off
Speaker 1: points for for lyrics? Absolutely all the time? Yes, it's
Speaker 1: kind of it's kind of back and forth. I'll find
Speaker 1: myself often like writing a song I'm not even sure
Speaker 1: what's about. Then I'll go back and read something and
Speaker 1: I'll realize, you know, that that had been stirring in
Speaker 1: my mind, or or it'll be kind of in this
Speaker 1: really weird reverse chronological thing where I'll write a song
Speaker 1: and not be entirely like it'll feel authentic and but
Speaker 1: but I won't be certain, like where who it's about
Speaker 1: in my life or whatever. And then maybe a year
Speaker 1: two years later, I'm like Oh no, it's like it
Speaker 1: was about this that's happening now. How do I do that?
Speaker 1: I think I think life is just in Life happens
Speaker 1: to us in cycles, and so themes will repeat, you know,
Speaker 1: as you as you grow and evolve and you meet
Speaker 1: life in you know new ways and you make different choices.
Speaker 1: These you know, these these cycles come back and and
Speaker 1: so maybe that's maybe that's why I'm living in my
Speaker 1: own time portal. I'm not really sure. Yeah, I believe
Speaker 1: that there are people who come into our lives for
Speaker 1: a reason, to bring us to a new place and
Speaker 1: kind of get us to that next I don't want
Speaker 1: to call it step, but whatever that next places. And
Speaker 1: it must be funny for for all of you listening
Speaker 1: to these songs back, almost like dream decoding. You realize
Speaker 1: later on, like, oh my god, that that's what all
Speaker 1: that meant. That's what you know. They always say that
Speaker 1: every character in your dream is really you. I love that.
Speaker 1: I think that's really flaws seems too harsh, thrown imperfections.
Speaker 1: Do you have any tips, all of you for for
Speaker 1: for self acceptance? What do you want people to get
Speaker 1: from this song? Something I sort of started to say before,
Speaker 1: but that I keep coming to, Well, this is this
Speaker 1: is a fun time and a strange time for personally,
Speaker 1: for I think for us where we are talking about
Speaker 1: the music for the very first time, and so there
Speaker 1: are some ways that we've you know, chatted about, like
Speaker 1: these are some of the themes of the album. But
Speaker 1: a lot of times this this stuff is we're coming
Speaker 1: into realization of it in some of these first few interviews.
Speaker 1: You know. That's interesting. Yeah, And so something that I
Speaker 1: keep coming to is this feeling of like I really
Speaker 1: I want listeners to be reminded of what they love
Speaker 1: most about their life. I want to be own them
Speaker 1: to be reminded of the things that they like the
Speaker 1: most about themselves. And I think that that's for me
Speaker 1: as in like a self love journey and the self
Speaker 1: acceptance journey. Like that's that's part of it. It's like
Speaker 1: being reminded, whether it's through another person or reflection or
Speaker 1: whatever it is, of the things that I actually appreciate
Speaker 1: about myself, Like, oh, I've been spending the last thirty
Speaker 1: years building this person, and you know, I actually kind
Speaker 1: of like what we've we've created here. I like where
Speaker 1: we're going and coming into an acceptance of like the
Speaker 1: places where I'm not perfect, that doesn't that doesn't mean bad.
Speaker 1: Those are just growth, growth spots, you know, growth areas,
Speaker 1: And I don't know, I feel like that's however you're
Speaker 1: looking at it, you know, I get I really like
Speaker 1: to get into the nerdy philosophy. I don't know vibe
Speaker 1: about it, but like it is something we're all doing right,
Speaker 1: We're all just I feel I trust that people are
Speaker 1: all trying to be better people all the time. You know,
Speaker 1: they're really trying to do their best with whatever they have.
Speaker 1: I think when you when you have, when you live
Speaker 1: a life that's as documented as ours has been for
Speaker 1: the last ten years there, you know, there are a
Speaker 1: lot of photos and and it's funny for me to
Speaker 1: look back on the photos and think about how like
Speaker 1: I felt badly, you know, during this time of my life.
Speaker 1: Maybe I felt badly about my body, but I felt
Speaker 1: great about the pants that I was wearing. And now
Speaker 1: ten years on, I feel great about my body and
Speaker 1: think my pants are stupid, you know, And so like,
Speaker 1: I've been there so hard. That's a few things have
Speaker 1: resonated with me more than what you just said. The
Speaker 1: police can and so trying to I think with with
Speaker 1: that in mind, like trying to keep that in mind
Speaker 1: and having an eye on on your future. Often what
Speaker 1: you know your life may look like in retrospect helps
Speaker 1: you can can help you feel better about the process,
Speaker 1: you know, and and knowing that this this moment, this
Speaker 1: moment isn't forever and um, and it's going to get
Speaker 1: better and some things are gonna get better and some
Speaker 1: things are gonna get worse. But it's always evolving, you know.
Speaker 1: You know, God, life should be amusing, right and it's
Speaker 1: okay if it's if it's funny, you know, I'm in retrospect. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's really I never thought about that. Like you said,
Speaker 1: about having a life that is so well documented and
Speaker 1: the evidence is right there either on the Internet or
Speaker 1: on your albums. Does that sort of give you in
Speaker 1: a funny way, almost like a bit of a leg
Speaker 1: up on the rest of us for for what you
Speaker 1: just said, just sort of appreciating being in the moment
Speaker 1: and kind of knowing that you kind of can choose
Speaker 1: your path forward. It isn't really all this preordained thing.
Speaker 1: I mean, every day is a chance to to be different,
Speaker 1: to love yourself, to move in the direction you want
Speaker 1: to go. You know, the thing that I think about
Speaker 1: a lot now is like, what's it gonna look like
Speaker 1: when my son's friends my son is too, when my
Speaker 1: son his friends find these interviews that I'm doing now
Speaker 1: and make fun of him because of some dumb ship
Speaker 1: that I said in two thousand and twelve, Do you
Speaker 1: know what I mean? Uh, That's what I'm thinking about now.
Speaker 1: You know, these are the way these like certain things
Speaker 1: will come back and haunt you just no matter who
Speaker 1: you are, some things will come back and haunt you,
Speaker 1: and some things will come back and lift you up,
Speaker 1: you know. And and every day we get to choose
Speaker 1: what had the way we see ourselves and the way
Speaker 1: we see other people. Are we looking at the things
Speaker 1: that lifted those people up? Are we looking at those
Speaker 1: things that that we're you know, humiliating? Yeah? And so
Speaker 1: it's a it's a choice, you know, it's a choice.
Speaker 1: And oftentimes, because of emotions, it doesn't feel like a choice.
Speaker 1: And now I'm spinning it out into the theory theoretical
Speaker 1: stuff that Nick was talking about a minute ago. You know, oftentimes,
Speaker 1: because emotions doesn't feel like a choice, it feels like
Speaker 1: you have to feel a certain way, but you don't.
Speaker 1: You can use choices. It's just that. And that is
Speaker 1: very much like our new record, which we chose to make,
Speaker 1: and the day and the choice that we decided to
Speaker 1: be all on tour highly encouraged you to make the
Speaker 1: choice to buy the to come see the tour. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and all the it's good to be doing interviews again. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I was gonna say, and some of the
Speaker 1: few interviews and statements that I've read you talking about
Speaker 1: this new album, he said, it's a lot more of
Speaker 1: a sort of an up album and more optimistic than
Speaker 1: two thousand seventeens. What if nothing? What do you think
Speaker 1: was responsible for that shift? I mean, was it reaction
Speaker 1: to everything going on in the world or was it
Speaker 1: something within yourself? That's a great question. In I think
Speaker 1: I think any artists, I imagine can't help but like
Speaker 1: be informed, Like the art can't help but be informed
Speaker 1: by the world going on, you know, around them. Although
Speaker 1: even though was one of the darker years that we've
Speaker 1: all experienced, this one has has come out with a
Speaker 1: little more sunshine. Maybe that's why, maybe you know that,
Speaker 1: maybe that's partly why I think in my my father
Speaker 1: was passing away, and there was I don't know, there
Speaker 1: were some wild current events that continued to just I
Speaker 1: don't know them that made the world seem a little
Speaker 1: scarier in some ways, and that was just I don't know.
Speaker 1: We wanted to We wanted to make something a little
Speaker 1: more dark Horse for for Walk the Moon, even though
Speaker 1: one ft the single and one foot's like the most
Speaker 1: hopeful you can do it anthem we've written. Maybe so
Speaker 1: even even dark for Us is not super dark, but
Speaker 1: it's not tom Ways right the piano. I think maybe
Speaker 1: more than any of the like philosophical stuff, there's something
Speaker 1: that in us the want to return to our roots um,
Speaker 1: and there's there's something in my opinion, there's something of
Speaker 1: like the first record and that time that's like come
Speaker 1: back to life in this on this album is like
Speaker 1: a little bit of this unbridled like hope and also
Speaker 1: wildness and fun. I really feel like that came through
Speaker 1: on Giants. I think that's a great song about you know,
Speaker 1: sort of a David and Goliath story taking on these
Speaker 1: these big fources. I really liked that. That was of
Speaker 1: the I think three songs that are out now, that
Speaker 1: was I think my favorite, just because I I thought
Speaker 1: it was a great message. Tell me a little more
Speaker 1: about that track, Giants, thank you so much. Yeah, as
Speaker 1: you're talking about that, I'm like, actually, some of these
Speaker 1: some of these tunes came from some of the darkest moments,
Speaker 1: and it's like anything, it's like transmuting those things into
Speaker 1: into making that choice, like doing something positive with it. Yeah, Giants.
Speaker 1: Giants for me lyrically came from a place of like
Speaker 1: being in a really tumultuous relationship and it felt like
Speaker 1: every single day we were like dealing with something, processing
Speaker 1: something together. Some you know, something would like turn the
Speaker 1: whole felt like it would turn the whole relationship on
Speaker 1: its head. And yet I was like, so you know,
Speaker 1: it was it kind of ended. It was a it
Speaker 1: was a story relationship. But there were times where we
Speaker 1: we're kind of like looking at each other like we
Speaker 1: can make it through anything. We're gonna We're gonna lovingly
Speaker 1: make our way through any obstacle. And it felt like
Speaker 1: it felt like knocking down these giant monsters every day,
Speaker 1: Like every every day we come up with our sword
Speaker 1: and shield and we're gonna, you know, like clockwork, they
Speaker 1: show up that morning, by that by that night, we've
Speaker 1: slaid them. You get a couple hours asleep and wake
Speaker 1: up and do it again. If I can offer an
Speaker 1: alternate perspective on it. I remember when that song was
Speaker 1: was being developed. We were in l A recording, We
Speaker 1: were recording can You Handle My Love? And you were
Speaker 1: giving me a ride to the studio on that particular week,
Speaker 1: and we'd be driving to the studio and Nick would
Speaker 1: be like sharing these really intense experiences that he was
Speaker 1: going through when he went home every night, you know,
Speaker 1: when he went home from the studio, and then it
Speaker 1: would be like, you know, it's it's l A, so
Speaker 1: it's forty minutes anywhere. So it's like, you know, it's
Speaker 1: so it's for it's forty minutes of like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: that happened last night. And then we go and then
Speaker 1: we go into the studio and we would have to
Speaker 1: like like strap on our armor to make this up music,
Speaker 1: you know, to like put that back or at least
Speaker 1: Nick props to Nick put that away for the ten
Speaker 1: hours that we're in there and record and record stuff
Speaker 1: like can You Handle My Love? You know, and so
Speaker 1: like even that was a was a demonstration of of
Speaker 1: being able to persevere in and overcome. How's the last
Speaker 1: year year and a half at this point? Wow, been
Speaker 1: a productive time for you because I feel like half
Speaker 1: the people I know work has been a great thing
Speaker 1: to throw themselves into. Is great to have something else
Speaker 1: to focus on rather than you know, external chaos, be
Speaker 1: it personal or just geo political with you know, coronavirus
Speaker 1: and everything. Or is it hard to kind of get
Speaker 1: that motivated? Did you feel kind of way down by
Speaker 1: it all? Or did it depend on the day. We
Speaker 1: kind of like didn't stop because we were like literally
Speaker 1: reporting I'm good in the studio and that was like right,
Speaker 1: and everything shut down. So yeah, it's like we've we've
Speaker 1: been busy doing the rest of the album. Is it
Speaker 1: just like there's there is just a little bit of
Speaker 1: extra work that goes into it obviously, you know, we
Speaker 1: all just rushed a great our studios so we could
Speaker 1: actually keep working. So like Giants is the first one
Speaker 1: we did. So it was sort of us, like you said,
Speaker 1: like David David Beliath, Yeah, we were kind of just
Speaker 1: just like little little guys just like Okay, well we
Speaker 1: gotta make this big thing now. Yeah, we got've been
Speaker 1: busy working on Giants being the first one was a
Speaker 1: really affirming experience because we were recording separately from the
Speaker 1: for the first time. It's not like an electronic drone tune,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, it's like a big it's
Speaker 1: like a big rock. Yeah, exactly, exactly. And so and
Speaker 1: so we're recording. We're recording this separately in our homes,
Speaker 1: which are thousands of miles apart, and and really like
Speaker 1: not dipping our toes but diving in, you know. And
Speaker 1: and it worked, you know, and we knew and we
Speaker 1: knew that the recording was working and that we were
Speaker 1: excited about it, and that really gave us strength to
Speaker 1: carry on and finish the record. Um and the way
Speaker 1: we did and what was that? Was there a learning
Speaker 1: curve to that? Like how how did it go when
Speaker 1: you first started doing the remote? Like that must have
Speaker 1: been a huge adjustment. Yeah, well, you know at the time,
Speaker 1: now in the middle of you got it down every
Speaker 1: well everyone everyone's like, oh, you can do anything over zoom,
Speaker 1: But at the time we didn't know if that was
Speaker 1: really possible. Fortunately, combination of a few like pretty simple
Speaker 1: applications and a really talented engineer and us like as
Speaker 1: as Sean said, upgrading our personal studios. It really there
Speaker 1: was there was a bit of a curve, but you know,
Speaker 1: in a in a way it was pretty smooth. I
Speaker 1: think we were all like really pleasantly surprised with how
Speaker 1: like it didn't diminish the creative experience. You know, there
Speaker 1: were like there were hurdles, and it's a very it's
Speaker 1: a totally different thing like walking into my living room
Speaker 1: and then closing the computer and then I'm out and
Speaker 1: you know, I'm not in the studio anymore. Um, just
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a different thing. The energy is
Speaker 1: a little different. Um, you know, you're not having necessarily
Speaker 1: that same dream life experience of like there's your one
Speaker 1: of your favorite producers and in there with your band
Speaker 1: and like that you've got the Yeah, yeah, so the
Speaker 1: recording console count costs as much as your house. You
Speaker 1: like that kind of thing. You know, it's just you
Speaker 1: and your laptop. Yeah exactly. So you know it wasn't
Speaker 1: the same, but the but the creative process was really
Speaker 1: preserved in this magical way and I think enhanced in
Speaker 1: some ways. Right. I think I think the record has
Speaker 1: like a richer texture from doing it at home because
Speaker 1: we would we would do the tracks that we expected
Speaker 1: to do. You know, we would get together on our
Speaker 1: zoom and I do the record the guitar parts UM,
Speaker 1: and we'd be like, all right, great, we have them,
Speaker 1: send them over and we'll we'll get them edited. And
Speaker 1: we'd hang up and I'd be like, oh, I forgot
Speaker 1: I have this one pedal that maybe what if I
Speaker 1: just ran it through that and sell it, Like, let's
Speaker 1: just see what happens. And so we would all do
Speaker 1: work kind of offline and find like deeper creative places
Speaker 1: that we might not have found when you know, we're
Speaker 1: on the clock at a at a fancy studio, or
Speaker 1: that we might not have given ourselves permission to try,
Speaker 1: you know, if we weren't in the safe space of
Speaker 1: our of our homes. So I actually think the record,
Speaker 1: the record has a Richard texture and more detail because
Speaker 1: of UM recording it at our at our relative spaces. Wow,
Speaker 1: that's really interesting. What was the process like of actually
Speaker 1: building up the tracks? I mean, did they start with
Speaker 1: you Sean and lay down the rhythm track and then
Speaker 1: based on top of that and kind of get the
Speaker 1: you know, the rhythm as the foundation or how did
Speaker 1: that work? I mean that's that's generally the order we
Speaker 1: started recording. Um, yeah, we'll start with drums and then
Speaker 1: base and then are and yeah, so that that part
Speaker 1: really didn't change much, you know, it was just the
Speaker 1: only thing it changed, is like we we just got
Speaker 1: to listen to our our own system. That it's it's
Speaker 1: kind of nice sometimes just being able to control the
Speaker 1: on your own volume something you don't so yeah, that,
Speaker 1: like Eli was saying, you know, just the comfort aspect
Speaker 1: once we got plastic hurdles and learning just using all
Speaker 1: this this new gear, using proper techniques that we might
Speaker 1: not use when just something I mean, it's so cool
Speaker 1: the thing that you're right. I mean, not only are
Speaker 1: you just emotionally more free being in your own space,
Speaker 1: but you're right, you're not on a studio time or
Speaker 1: you know, every hour is god knows how much money
Speaker 1: and you really gotta like nail it. That's got to
Speaker 1: be so liberating in a in a funny way. I mean.
Speaker 1: And you also work with some really incredible collaborators on
Speaker 1: this record, to Kay Flay, Tommy English. But what did
Speaker 1: those folks bring to the table for these sessions. It
Speaker 1: was so awesome working with Kay play and Tommy on
Speaker 1: on Keny Hand of My Love. Um, you can actually
Speaker 1: hear kay Play's voice on Keny Hand of My Love.
Speaker 1: There's like um in the middle of the verse, got
Speaker 1: a hole in my heart and cheme it go what
Speaker 1: you got? Like that little what you Got? That's that's
Speaker 1: kay Like literally the lead vocal on the song is
Speaker 1: is like the first one, the first run through, and
Speaker 1: that's the first take. That's the first take. I mean
Speaker 1: that was like that was the first like it was.
Speaker 1: It was like while the song was being written like that,
Speaker 1: you know, but kay Play's lit early in the in
Speaker 1: the back of the room going what you Got, and
Speaker 1: like we're like, well, let's keep that perfect. I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't say that was the one take all the
Speaker 1: way through. That's that's not that's not true. But it
Speaker 1: was like that was the first iteration. Like the energy
Speaker 1: of that that first night, UM is there. You know.
Speaker 1: I didn't go back and re redo any of that
Speaker 1: because it was it wasn't We didn't need to. However,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite collaborators, and this is a producer,
Speaker 1: Paul Meaney. He's the you know, formerly the lead singer
Speaker 1: of Mute Math. I remember the year that I started
Speaker 1: Walk the Moon in college, I was obsessed with with
Speaker 1: Mute Math. I was like really into Mute Math. Had
Speaker 1: gone to see them with my buddy at bow Guarts
Speaker 1: in Cincinnati, UM, where we're coming back through this fall
Speaker 1: playing playing two nights at bill Guards and like front row,
Speaker 1: just going nuts, and and then ship ten years later,
Speaker 1: he's like producing our half the album, and that's that's
Speaker 1: so cool, you know. It's it's really interesting working with
Speaker 1: different producers. And on this record we have Mike Crossey,
Speaker 1: who's like very much this how you how I might
Speaker 1: imagine a producer like this, this guru wise figure with
Speaker 1: a you know, an accent of the of the British
Speaker 1: Isles and um. And Paul Meny, on the other hand,
Speaker 1: is a band guy. You know, he's like, it's like
Speaker 1: our our big brother. You know, we've been out, we've
Speaker 1: we've played shows with with Mute Math in the past,
Speaker 1: and so he comes with this whole other perspective. And
Speaker 1: he's also a really talented keyboard player. So it's it
Speaker 1: was it's been really fun to expand to see what
Speaker 1: ways the different songs expand depending on who's who's producing them.
Speaker 1: I was just gonna say about Paul. The new bundle
Speaker 1: of songs, there's a song called called I'm Good that
Speaker 1: has this very long outro. This this long outro that
Speaker 1: basically like Paul added after we went home for the day. UM.
Speaker 1: We came back in the next day and like Paul
Speaker 1: had like worked out this this whole outro and the
Speaker 1: piano playing is him. We were working out this ultra
Speaker 1: for our first live performance this weekend, and we like
Speaker 1: looked at the MIDI the sheet music for these chords
Speaker 1: that Paul was playing. I went, I went to jazz school.
Speaker 1: I've got a degree. I got no idea what he's
Speaker 1: doing here. I got no clue what he's thinking with
Speaker 1: these chords. But they're just beautiful, these beautiful voicings. And
Speaker 1: it's just he's bringing this like New Orleans jazz oriented
Speaker 1: UM extended chords thing to Walk the Moon, which we
Speaker 1: never like is unusual, which is unusual for our for
Speaker 1: for a Walk the Moon record, flat augmented ninth and
Speaker 1: all that kind of crazy stuff. Dude, it's it's crazy.
Speaker 1: It's it's crazy. UM big, big chromatic energy UM from
Speaker 1: Paul Meney. So it's that's definitely UM one way that
Speaker 1: he shaped our record. It's so cool. It's so cool
Speaker 1: to have his playing on the record. Yeah, yeah, piggybacking
Speaker 1: off of that, I liked how bold he was that
Speaker 1: basically this outro was kind of Uh, at the end
Speaker 1: of the previous day, we had jammed on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different stuff, like it created these palettes of bits
Speaker 1: of music that didn't necessarily even go together. We weren't
Speaker 1: even sure what we were doing, you know, like I'm
Speaker 1: I'm on a juno playing some chords and allies playing
Speaker 1: the playing my chords with his pedals, you know, and like,
Speaker 1: and we didn't know what we were going to do
Speaker 1: with any of that stuff. You're like, well, that was fun.
Speaker 1: And then the next morning, Paul has taken the liberty
Speaker 1: of adding a section of music to our song that
Speaker 1: that like has pieced all of these bits that we
Speaker 1: played together and then with his own like chords underneath.
Speaker 1: And so it's just that takes a certain type of artists,
Speaker 1: you know, to to make that choice. We could have
Speaker 1: totally been like, no, man, that's not it's not who
Speaker 1: we are, bro, you know. But but it was beautiful
Speaker 1: and we we love to and then and then we realized, oh,
Speaker 1: there's there's more song there, and and there's more lyrics
Speaker 1: to be you know, and that's and that's where the
Speaker 1: section of I'm good coming, you know, one more thing
Speaker 1: before I fade away. You know. It's like that was
Speaker 1: inspired by this news section of music. You mentioned earlier
Speaker 1: that so much of this record to you've almost felt
Speaker 1: like a return to your roots. I thought it was
Speaker 1: interesting to learn that a number of these songs actually
Speaker 1: in some cases are almost a decade old, the demos
Speaker 1: that you started back you know, when you first started
Speaker 1: the band. What was it like coming back to to
Speaker 1: those demos, What was the refining process like, first of all,
Speaker 1: deciding which of those to use and then taking them
Speaker 1: part reconstructing. I'm giving them a polish well Ablem's called Heights.
Speaker 1: There is a title track and one of the there's
Speaker 1: there's two songs on the record that are this old.
Speaker 1: They're like nearly ten years old, nine years old maybe,
Speaker 1: and and it's stuff that we've loved since then, you know.
Speaker 1: And it's just like it's not always clear or logical
Speaker 1: the way that some songs make it too on a
Speaker 1: record and another one don't. Heights in particular is is
Speaker 1: like this tune that I'm just like, man, I just
Speaker 1: feel like, I feel like we should put this on
Speaker 1: a record. It's and it's there's a there's an experimental
Speaker 1: nous to it that has kept it alive for this
Speaker 1: long in our vault. We're a band that writes a
Speaker 1: lot of songs. There's a there's a big vault of
Speaker 1: tunes that who knows if anyone will ever hear, And
Speaker 1: that one continued to to like, you know, shine and
Speaker 1: raise its hand, and UM, I don't know you you
Speaker 1: asked about you asked about the refining process, right, because
Speaker 1: you know, a song that lasts that long like what
Speaker 1: I think oftentimes, and I think it's true for the
Speaker 1: two older songs, which kind of they actually like bookend
Speaker 1: the album, there's something spontaneous, something like the spirit of
Speaker 1: that particular moment, like if you look at a song
Speaker 1: as like a polaroid of that moment in time, Like
Speaker 1: there's something really like lightning in a bottle that that
Speaker 1: can be lost in the all the the infinite things
Speaker 1: that you can do in production and you know, in
Speaker 1: the virtual studio UM and in revisions on revisions and
Speaker 1: revisions UM. But these two songs we really were. We're
Speaker 1: hell bent on preserving that initial spark, and I'm really grateful.
Speaker 1: It feels so amazing now to finally, you know, but
Speaker 1: they've been demos forever, so it feels really amazing to
Speaker 1: hear them played and fully realized and and that that
Speaker 1: they work. It worked, They work so good. How did
Speaker 1: you land on the Heights as the as the title track?
Speaker 1: That's a great question. We had a bunch of ideas
Speaker 1: and it and it just like again, it like kept winning.
Speaker 1: I don't know, you know, we haven't like I don't
Speaker 1: know that we've gone super deep on why it it's
Speaker 1: the right one. I really believe in the listeners power
Speaker 1: of choice and the listeners power of interpretation, and that
Speaker 1: like we're going to have our reasons for this and
Speaker 1: that or what what a song quote unquote means, but
Speaker 1: it's way more important to me what it means to
Speaker 1: somebody else. So so for me, heights is both like
Speaker 1: the highs of the highs that you that you you
Speaker 1: realize are so high up from down low, from those
Speaker 1: moments from the troughs and the valleys, and also when
Speaker 1: you're up there and you're up on the in those
Speaker 1: big heights, like how uh it might be kind of
Speaker 1: terrifying that, like you know, how high up you are? Like,
Speaker 1: is there more good stuff to live? Can I can?
Speaker 1: I constantly? Can I can? I keep reaching for more joy,
Speaker 1: more excitement, more meaning and significance and uh and and
Speaker 1: you know, nothing's permanent might fall at any moment. So
Speaker 1: it's like there's danger and joy all in one thing.
Speaker 1: For me personally about it, it's a good summation of life,
Speaker 1: danger and enjoy. Is there a release date set for
Speaker 1: the for the album? I don't think so. We have
Speaker 1: we have a we're aiming. We got it, We're got
Speaker 1: when we're aiming for, but we we shall not reveal
Speaker 1: it today on this day of all old We shall
Speaker 1: look forward to it. Then, when you weren't making music
Speaker 1: in the last year and a half, what did you
Speaker 1: all like to do? It was your favorite way to decompress?
Speaker 1: They're together or solo? Unwind, stay ground and stay amused.
Speaker 1: Take your pick. What was your your your favorite new
Speaker 1: pandemic hobby? So was my new hobby? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I recommend it. It's it's hard work but fulfilling, you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: my um, I feel it certainly feels strange to silver
Speaker 1: line give give a pandemic a silver lining, but like,
Speaker 1: you know, but it but truly, um truly felt so
Speaker 1: lucky to be with my son for the last two years.
Speaker 1: You know. Um, I would have missed a lot, a
Speaker 1: lot of his development and a lot of like first
Speaker 1: or I would have seen him through a screen, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And I was actually able to be here and and
Speaker 1: form such a strong bond that now it will make
Speaker 1: everything else seems so seems so hard. It will make
Speaker 1: everything so much harder now to go on tour and
Speaker 1: to like, you know, because we are so bonded and
Speaker 1: so used to seeing each other all the time. But
Speaker 1: it's been it's been, really it's been really wonderful and
Speaker 1: and figuring out the logistics, you know, just like just
Speaker 1: like the maddest, hugest props to parents everywhere of all varieties,
Speaker 1: you know, because like this this ship is really hard,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I have I always thought of myself
Speaker 1: as being like a two two kid person, Like I'm
Speaker 1: I have a brother, and I was like always like
Speaker 1: left too, and now I've got one, and I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, how does anybody, how do you how
Speaker 1: does that people have three? Are you great? You know,
Speaker 1: I'm just like so like figuring out the logistics and
Speaker 1: how to continue being a person beyond parenting while also
Speaker 1: being committed to parenting. That's been it's been my major undertaking,
Speaker 1: um and and truly like very very fulfilling and um
Speaker 1: and joyful. And also I baked for a while and
Speaker 1: yeah exactly, yeah, I also baked and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: got into gardening. I've got raspberries. Sean Nick, what about you?
Speaker 1: What about you guys? Up to in the to this
Speaker 1: maybe something new that you you hadn't really dove deep
Speaker 1: into before. I'm still thinking about Eli's kid right now. Actually,
Speaker 1: um we it was a wild experience this past weekend
Speaker 1: we had our first show back at Wonderstruck in Cleveland
Speaker 1: Real Life Festival and it felt incredible and it was
Speaker 1: the strangest thing. Um, you know, the last time I
Speaker 1: saw Eli's son, he was he was a little little, tiny,
Speaker 1: bitty bitty baby. And now he's nearly two and walking
Speaker 1: around and if any if there's any uh indicator of
Speaker 1: the lost year, it's like whoa, Like we've got a
Speaker 1: new person in our family now, you know, Like who
Speaker 1: wasn't there before, and it's, um, it was you know,
Speaker 1: it was it was. It was so cool getting the
Speaker 1: whole family, the band, family, band and crew we've got,
Speaker 1: We've got so many members of our crew who have
Speaker 1: been with us a really really long time. Um, and
Speaker 1: you know, we had parents there and so it was
Speaker 1: just it was it was really special. And and um
Speaker 1: to see see Eli as a dad and and like
Speaker 1: like just get to like watch this like a little
Speaker 1: man run around. Um, was was very very special. I
Speaker 1: show up in different shoes when I'm doing the dad thing.
Speaker 1: I show I show up in crocs when it's when
Speaker 1: it's time, when it's matching crocs with my son. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's time to dad. I got to wear the matching crocks.
Speaker 1: And my my sister had a baby during all this,
Speaker 1: and I only saw her pregnant once, and even then
Speaker 1: it wasn't really she couldn't really tell. So in my
Speaker 1: mind it was like I missed the whole step of like,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I feel like being able to sort
Speaker 1: of see her in the process would have made it
Speaker 1: more real. But now it's like, oh my god, next
Speaker 1: time I I finally saw her again and she's got
Speaker 1: a baby, it's just like, oh my goodness, Like you
Speaker 1: mentioned that being a strange way to measure the passing
Speaker 1: of the last year and a half. That's one right there.
Speaker 1: I went from seeing my my my little sister all
Speaker 1: of a sudden she she's a mom with with a
Speaker 1: little one who's still very very young. But still it's
Speaker 1: it is, it is wild like and no other time
Speaker 1: in the last ten years would Sean not meet my
Speaker 1: child until he was too you know, like that like Sean,
Speaker 1: like that's crazy. You know, that's a that's a totally
Speaker 1: different lifestyle than where how we've been living. Sean, What
Speaker 1: about you? What about outside of outside of studio stuff? No,
Speaker 1: I just locked myself in the entire time, really just
Speaker 1: been going on like road trips when drives. Really what
Speaker 1: I've been doing? Nothing interesting? Oh man, that's good. So
Speaker 1: you're out in in l A, right, You're going up
Speaker 1: like Pacific Coast Highway and stuff like that. One that
Speaker 1: couple of times, love Nzo Breno. We're driving around the
Speaker 1: Salt and Sea and a couple of times. Well, speaking
Speaker 1: of going out and driving, you're hitting the road in September,
Speaker 1: Thank goodness, how is that feel? I mean, you mentioned
Speaker 1: the festival in Cleveland a minute ago. I mean, gearing
Speaker 1: up for this time on tourist to feel a million
Speaker 1: percent different than anything you you know, any other tour
Speaker 1: you've ever done. How are you guys feeling? It was
Speaker 1: quite a task this last week. You know, we had
Speaker 1: a like, we had a few days of rehearsal leading
Speaker 1: up to the first show back, and we kept describing
Speaker 1: it like being kind of tossed into the deep end,
Speaker 1: you know, was it was a headline set are for
Speaker 1: our very first showback, um and playing new songs, and
Speaker 1: it was it was quite an undertaking, but it was
Speaker 1: something we were all just like fully down for, fully
Speaker 1: committed to to making it happen. And it really, I
Speaker 1: mean it it lit the fire again. I'm I'm like,
Speaker 1: I'm sad that I'm still that we're playing a tour
Speaker 1: at all, but I'm sad that it's it's now going
Speaker 1: to be you know a couple of months between this
Speaker 1: show and the next, because it felt it feels like home.
Speaker 1: You know, It's like this is this is one half
Speaker 1: of our being this you know, were you ever a runner?
Speaker 1: Jordan's uh no, no, really no, alright, So I it
Speaker 1: makes me think of the I was. I was across
Speaker 1: country runner in high school, and it makes me think
Speaker 1: of the first run that I ever went on, where
Speaker 1: it's like it was like an easy run. It was
Speaker 1: like five minutes, Like go run for five minutes, and
Speaker 1: I'm like, great, I can do that, no problem, and
Speaker 1: so I just like take off right and I burn
Speaker 1: out immediately. You know. I burned out after like a
Speaker 1: minute and a half, and then I'm just like dead
Speaker 1: for those last four minutes. That's kind of what the
Speaker 1: first two or three songs of this set were like.
Speaker 1: I was like, let's go no, no, no, no, you know,
Speaker 1: I was just like I was like, oh, I've completely
Speaker 1: forgotten how to play live. I need to pace myself.
Speaker 1: I need to breathe. Let's breathe, Let's drink the water,
Speaker 1: you know. And then it came back. And then once
Speaker 1: I started breathing and like taking it easy. But god,
Speaker 1: it was so exciting. It was so exciting to be
Speaker 1: back on stage and to like be received by the
Speaker 1: audience the way we were. We saw there's a wonderful,
Speaker 1: wonderful Instagram called w t M S Cats, which recreates
Speaker 1: photos of us but as felines, and so the person
Speaker 1: who runs that. You know, we see her around a lot,
Speaker 1: and we hadn't seen her in years, and she was
Speaker 1: front and center, you know, after all this time, singing
Speaker 1: along to every song, and it's so wonderful and so
Speaker 1: touching to reconnect with those people and see that they're
Speaker 1: still there for us. It's it was really emotional. I
Speaker 1: just and I like almost cried a number of times.
Speaker 1: There were a number of times where I got goose
Speaker 1: bumps and I felt the thing, the little pre cry
Speaker 1: thing happening in my chest and I'm like, steal up,
Speaker 1: you know. And and then after after the set, I
Speaker 1: talked to, you know, a number of guys in the
Speaker 1: band and a number of the guys in the crew,
Speaker 1: and just like everyone had had the same experience. Everyone
Speaker 1: was like, oh yeah, dude, I almost cried for sure.
Speaker 1: I almost cried tonight. Um. It is so it was
Speaker 1: so emotional. It was really it was really wonderful and
Speaker 1: I can't I can't wait to do it again. Oh man,
Speaker 1: we can't wait to see you guys back out there soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, NICKI, Sean, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for taking the time today. Really appreciate it. You guys
Speaker 1: are the best can't wait to see out there against soon.
Speaker 1: Thank you. I'm gonna plug now the tour this fall,
Speaker 1: that aream Plane Tour. We're playing a bunch of places
Speaker 1: we haven't done in a while, like some of the
Speaker 1: like smaller clubs, Like we wanted something integrate, something a
Speaker 1: little more intimate our first time back, you know, like
Speaker 1: two nights aid Bo Guards at our hometown and Cincinnati
Speaker 1: and all over the US. It's gonna be full long.
Speaker 1: We're gonna play the new record. It's something we are
Speaker 1: so so so thrilled to bring. So here we go.
Speaker 1: Tickets are available, y'all get involved. We hope you enjoyed
Speaker 1: this episode of Inside the Studio, a production of I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio or
Speaker 1: other fantastic shows, check out the I Heart Radio app,
Speaker 1: Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts,