WEBVTT - Khruangbin 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:14.240 Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:17.240 all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, 0:00:17.280 --> 0:00:19.360 which you can find a link to in the show 0:00:19.400 --> 0:00:23.120 notes for licensing reasons. Each time a song is referenced 0:00:23.120 --> 0:00:28.320 in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right. 0:00:28.960 --> 0:00:33.000 Enjoy the episode. At first glance, the psych rock band 0:00:33.080 --> 0:00:36.440 Krungbin may seem hard to pin down. There are three 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.159 piece multiracial band from Houston, Texas. Two of their members 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:43.720 always appear in dark black wigs, and the pronunciation of 0:00:43.760 --> 0:00:46.199 their band name has sent a lot of people straight 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:50.320 to Google. Krungben's music, on the other hand, is easy 0:00:50.479 --> 0:00:56.360 to understand. It's undeniable. That's so we won't forget from 0:00:56.440 --> 0:01:00.640 Krungbin's fourth album, Mordecai. The band is up of Laura 0:01:00.720 --> 0:01:04.000 Lee on bass, Mark Spear on guitar, and Donald DJ 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:08.440 Johnson on drums. Since Foreman in twenty fifteen, Krungbin I've 0:01:08.480 --> 0:01:12.360 taken off on the festival circuit worldwide, which makes sense 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:15.640 for a band whose name in Tai means flying engine. 0:01:16.600 --> 0:01:19.559 In my conversation with Krungbin, you'll hear how their funking, 0:01:19.640 --> 0:01:23.839 fused surf rock sound is inspired in part by multicultural diffusion. 0:01:24.319 --> 0:01:26.560 They also talk about how disappointed they were when their 0:01:26.560 --> 0:01:29.760 spring tour with Tam and Paula was canceled, but also 0:01:29.800 --> 0:01:31.920 how Shelteron in Place has given them a much needed 0:01:31.959 --> 0:01:38.880 break from the road. This is broken record liner notes 0:01:38.920 --> 0:01:47.000 for the digital Age. I'm justin Richmondson. Here's my conversation 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:52.160 with Laura Lee, Mark Spear, and DJ of Krungben Krungbin. 0:01:52.320 --> 0:01:54.080 I feel like I just learned how this is pronounced. 0:01:54.080 --> 0:01:55.920 I've been listening to you guys since twenty fifteen, and 0:01:55.960 --> 0:01:57.600 I think I just now as Actually I was worried 0:01:57.600 --> 0:01:59.480 I was pronounced it wrong this entire time right now, 0:01:59.520 --> 0:02:02.360 but I think I finally got it. I mean, at 0:02:02.360 --> 0:02:05.040 the time though, it was a very simple way of 0:02:05.360 --> 0:02:09.000 naming the band, because I was I had a bootleg 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:14.120 Rosetta stone for tie, and it's like the first in 0:02:14.200 --> 0:02:17.960 the first five words you learn. And it was fun 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:21.799 to say, and we needed a band name stat and 0:02:21.840 --> 0:02:24.480 we didn't think we would be where we are now, 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:27.799 So call it whatever you want. No one's going to care, right, 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.680 I mean, I've been in countless bands. It's like, dude, 0:02:32.040 --> 0:02:35.200 I'm not going to make it, you know, No big deal. 0:02:35.440 --> 0:02:38.040 Just call it what you want, play what you want. 0:02:38.480 --> 0:02:41.120 Although I do feel like we did have the foresight 0:02:41.520 --> 0:02:46.160 that we didn't want the website to be taken and 0:02:46.200 --> 0:02:50.120 since it's a you know, anglicized way of spelling that 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:53.000 thie word, depending on who's writing it, it it might look 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:55.160 completely different because the only way to actually write it 0:02:55.240 --> 0:02:57.560 is to write it in tie. So what we're writing 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:00.200 is the you know, an anglicized version of that of 0:03:00.240 --> 0:03:02.839 that word. It feels like, you guys, in a way 0:03:03.120 --> 0:03:04.840 go back to like an old school band, you know, 0:03:04.840 --> 0:03:06.880 where you would just get in a room and because 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:10.040 there's not necessarily until the new record lyrics, you would 0:03:10.080 --> 0:03:12.400 just I think the listener would think a lot of 0:03:12.440 --> 0:03:15.280 jamming was happening to hash out the songs. That was 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:20.200 another thing that kind of informed the you know, the 0:03:20.200 --> 0:03:21.480 start of the band and what we were going to 0:03:21.560 --> 0:03:23.240 do is like I didn't want to have a bunch 0:03:23.280 --> 0:03:27.720 of drum machines and sequencers and backing tracks and laptops 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:30.400 on stage or have to depend on that when we 0:03:30.440 --> 0:03:33.160 were like perform these tunes. It's like we use the 0:03:33.200 --> 0:03:36.240 technology to compose and to write you know, the whole 0:03:36.280 --> 0:03:41.280 like cut and paste and basically sampling ourselves and flipping 0:03:41.360 --> 0:03:44.040 things like that around. But when it comes down to it, 0:03:44.040 --> 0:03:46.520 we play it. If we can't play it with three people, 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.800 then it's not that's not happening. You know. There's some 0:03:50.520 --> 0:03:52.760 percussion parts and keyboard parts that happened on the records, 0:03:52.760 --> 0:03:55.560 but it's like that stuff isn't really you know, crucial. 0:03:55.560 --> 0:03:58.400 It's like just ear candy. So if we go play 0:03:58.400 --> 0:04:02.800 these songs live and there's no keyboard part, it's fine. 0:04:02.880 --> 0:04:05.280 You know, we don't need to hire or play to 0:04:05.320 --> 0:04:07.480 a backing track in order to make this work. You know, 0:04:07.560 --> 0:04:09.320 we can do it with three people, but you gotta 0:04:09.320 --> 0:04:13.320 give yourself some kind of limitation otherwise it's kind of overwhelming, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:14.960 you know, the amount of ideas that you can do, 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.640 So limit what you do, and it kind of informs 0:04:18.680 --> 0:04:22.839 what you do, right, like what you don't do informs 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:27.800 what you do absolutely, absolutely, And I think emotionally, it's 0:04:27.839 --> 0:04:33.240 like the band really started those few years when we 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.359 met every Tuesday night for dinner, and our bond was 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:40.800 certainly solidified during that time, so the three of us 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:45.640 were a unit, and you know, to add another component 0:04:45.720 --> 0:04:51.080 in there throws off the whole situation. Yeah, that's stuff. Plus, 0:04:51.080 --> 0:04:53.320 I mean, how do you arrange you know, how do 0:04:53.360 --> 0:04:56.159 you arrange us on stage with four people? You know, 0:04:56.200 --> 0:04:58.880 we got ded in the middle. You know, I'm on 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:01.080 the left, Lordly it's on the right. That's a nice 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:03.800 power triangle, you know. But then you add a fourth person. 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:05.800 Where are you gonna put that person? If it was 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:07.840 the lead singer of obviously they would be in the front. 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:09.640 But we don't have a lead singer. So where do 0:05:09.680 --> 0:05:11.479 you put that fourth person? Do you put them behind me? 0:05:12.040 --> 0:05:15.440 Put them behind lor Lee? You know. Now it's just unbalanced. 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:17.919 So if you were going to add anybody, you have 0:05:18.000 --> 0:05:20.320 to add two. So you have five on stage. You 0:05:20.400 --> 0:05:24.040 still have that power, you know, that cemetry happening. That's 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:27.000 very it's this is very important. You know, I pay 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:31.960 attention to stuff. It doesn't look right if how early 0:05:32.000 --> 0:05:35.120 did the did the stagecraft like come in the wigs 0:05:35.160 --> 0:05:37.680 and the and the and the outfits and just sort 0:05:37.680 --> 0:05:43.719 of the presence on stage day one, first show. We've 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:48.720 always we've always worn the stuff. We've always tried to have, 0:05:49.040 --> 0:05:51.839 you know, a look or a vibe on stage, you know, 0:05:51.920 --> 0:05:57.080 since day one that first show was like to me, 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:02.839 compare it to like a bride getting ready because everything 0:06:02.960 --> 0:06:05.240 was so important to me, you know, the hair and 0:06:05.360 --> 0:06:09.920 the shoes and the outfit. I probably spent you know, 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:15.080 my cash for weeks on that show because it could 0:06:15.080 --> 0:06:20.520 have been my only show. But yeah, the wigs were important. 0:06:21.000 --> 0:06:24.400 And nobody knew who we were in Houston. Mark had 0:06:24.440 --> 0:06:26.719 been in so many bands in Houston. Every would have 0:06:27.040 --> 0:06:29.520 everyone would have known who he was up there, and 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:33.800 nobody knew who he was. We were like aliens. Yeah 0:06:33.800 --> 0:06:35.960 we want We wanted to come fresh, you know. I 0:06:36.040 --> 0:06:38.520 didn't want to have anybody like, oh, this coast before, 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:41.560 you know, just leave that out the door, no expectation 0:06:41.720 --> 0:06:44.479 for what they're about to see. And DJ, while it 0:06:44.480 --> 0:06:47.960 had been super prevalent in the Houston like hip hop scene, 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:54.240 hadn't really played the like indie band hipster kind of situation. 0:06:54.920 --> 0:06:59.839 So we were all relatively unknown in that scene. Remember, 0:07:00.160 --> 0:07:02.000 while we were trying to like be kind of rocky, 0:07:02.200 --> 0:07:03.960 you know, we would starting to like kind of like 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:06.479 adapt some of our tunes would be like louder and 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:08.919 like more rock, you know, because the bands we were 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:11.160 playing with were like loud, you know, and we were quiet, 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:14.440 like you know, that's part of what makes the KB 0:07:14.600 --> 0:07:16.760 recording sounding like to do is because we're playing so quietly, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:19.360 but that doesn't really translate well when you're playing in 0:07:19.440 --> 0:07:22.240 like a dingy you know, kind of like punk club 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:26.680 with like loud bands. So we played in the room now, 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:29.040 we did then and we still do. I feel like 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:30.840 a lots made of like kind of the world influence 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:32.480 with you guys. Were you guys listening to a bunch 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.160 of world music and thinking we want to also bring 0:07:35.160 --> 0:07:36.920 in some of these vibs. It was it just guys 0:07:36.960 --> 0:07:39.480 listening to everything and things are just creeping in, whether 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:42.680 it's a Latin sound or tie. I could say this, 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.120 I said, I've met Mark in two thousand and four. 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:50.600 Mark has always listened to music that wasn't in English. 0:07:50.880 --> 0:07:54.160 I didn't understand it back then. I grew up listening 0:07:54.160 --> 0:07:57.280 to music that was in my own language. I can 0:07:57.360 --> 0:07:59.800 understand the words, you know, and every now and then 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:03.560 there was an instrumental cut. But he had this, you know, 0:08:03.720 --> 0:08:06.640 entire library on his computer or you know, in his 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:12.640 iTunes that was just stuff that's not in English. I remember, 0:08:13.080 --> 0:08:17.840 like maybe early on he played some tie funk tune 0:08:18.680 --> 0:08:22.480 and it felt like James Brown I'm a huge James 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:28.040 Brown guy, like that sixties funk sound, and it was 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.560 it sounded like that, but you had just a tie vocalist, 0:08:32.120 --> 0:08:34.679 you know, singing over the top of it. I'm like, wow, 0:08:34.679 --> 0:08:40.200 this is cool. And I really started to connect how 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:43.600 you know, things from other parts of the world connected 0:08:43.640 --> 0:08:46.440 with the music that was happening, you know, in the 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:48.920 US at the same time, and you know how it 0:08:49.000 --> 0:08:52.080 was kind of you know, there was this cross talk. Yeah, 0:08:52.360 --> 0:08:55.920 Mark is a huge, huge influence, and you know what 0:08:56.160 --> 0:08:58.760 Krumban is known to be like a world you know, 0:08:59.440 --> 0:09:02.760 music inspired Ben. I mean, I would say it started 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:08.920 like from his music taste. Yeah, we also liked we 0:09:09.040 --> 0:09:12.760 liked this like conversation that was happening between like the 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:16.480 East and the West, and that that time music was 0:09:16.559 --> 0:09:20.719 influenced by, you know, by James Brown, by the Shadows, 0:09:20.800 --> 0:09:24.559 by the Beatles, and then they play their version of it. 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.760 And if we're then inspired by their take, the Eastern 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.520 take on Western music, then you know there's this cool 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:36.839 meta kind of saying that's happening. It's a game of 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:40.960 telephone man. Love that stuff. Cultural diffusion. Absolutely, that's what 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:42.679 I love about you guys. If you listen to a 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:44.520 lot of music from around the world. Like if you 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.439 listen to African music, you'll find a Cuban song that 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.600 sounds just like a like a West African song, and 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:52.200 then you'll find out that also Fayla Coody was listening 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:54.600 to Cuban music. And then so there's always this meta 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.040 thing happening with all kinds of genres that you don't 0:09:58.080 --> 0:09:59.679 really think about because you just think about it as 0:09:59.720 --> 0:10:01.520 being like the blues, but then there's you know, like 0:10:01.840 --> 0:10:04.320 an African version of blues or like a tie version 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.560 of blues, and you guys have one hundred percent and 0:10:06.600 --> 0:10:08.560 just saying like we're going to be in conversation with 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:10.280 all of that at once, you know, yeah, I want 0:10:10.320 --> 0:10:13.080 to want to make that conversation, Like I mean, lourally, 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:15.199 what's that style you were like obsessed with for a 0:10:15.280 --> 0:10:18.880 second of balleros? Still there's like it's just these one 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:21.720 of those like Latin rhythms that just gets everywhere. It 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:25.000 was like it's basically the reggaetne of its day, you know. Right, 0:10:25.360 --> 0:10:29.959 so you get like Mexican belerros, which are probably influenced 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.440 in a way by Spanish music, and then it makes 0:10:32.440 --> 0:10:35.160 its way into like South America and the Caribbean, and 0:10:35.320 --> 0:10:40.319 there's definitely Belros in Africa, and there's absolutely Bealerros and 0:10:40.400 --> 0:10:43.120 a scene for Balro in Vietnam, like in Southeast Asia, 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:48.040 probably from records brought in from service people back in 0:10:48.240 --> 0:10:52.319 you know, the fifties and sixties. But I was I 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:55.840 was gonna try to make a playlist or a mix 0:10:56.320 --> 0:11:01.160 just of the song Subortam, because there's like one million 0:11:01.600 --> 0:11:04.000 covers of it. So I was going to try to 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:07.600 do a mix just in that song standard yeah um, 0:11:07.840 --> 0:11:10.240 which is my grandma's favorite song, so I'm sure that 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:12.560 has something to do with the way I interpret it. 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:17.240 But then found this whole Vietnamese pocket of the song, 0:11:17.679 --> 0:11:20.199 wrote Mark, thinking that I was going to blow his mind. 0:11:20.280 --> 0:11:25.040 But obviously, Mark, you already knew He's already he's already 0:11:25.040 --> 0:11:27.200 plugged in. But dude, like we hear that stuff like 0:11:27.320 --> 0:11:29.439 every time we go to a fun restaurant on tour, 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:32.560 what do you hear totally even though we might not 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:35.440 make that connection at that moment, we're like, this is well, 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:37.960 this sound was like the sounds like the Shadows, with 0:11:38.080 --> 0:11:40.520 like a kind of a sweet, like Latin kind of beat, 0:11:40.640 --> 0:11:44.440 going on, you know, and that's kind of what it is. Yeah. 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:47.480 You know, there's this like kind of twanging guitar, there's 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:50.520 like a midi keyboard, there's just like person singing and 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:54.080 it's got that ballero rhythm underneath it, you know, and 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:58.000 it's it's so cool. Cool. That's that's that diffusion. Man. 0:11:59.640 --> 0:12:02.800 We we sort of resented the fact that we got 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:07.000 called tai funk because we're not tai and we're definitely 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:09.440 not tai funk. And the bands that we were listening 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:13.160 to that we're Tai funk, they weren't called American funk, 0:12:13.800 --> 0:12:16.240 you know when they came out. It was called shadow 0:12:16.320 --> 0:12:20.120 music because of the shadows. And that's a much cooler 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.679 way of like, I don't know, i'd be I love 0:12:23.720 --> 0:12:29.280 to be a shadow band. Yeah, that's the coolest. And 0:12:29.360 --> 0:12:31.520 like when you go back and listen to that first record, 0:12:31.520 --> 0:12:34.000 I mean, yeah, there's there's some tunes that are obviously 0:12:34.040 --> 0:12:36.360 influenced by all the time music we were listening too, 0:12:36.800 --> 0:12:38.600 because we were definitely listening to a lot of it. 0:12:39.360 --> 0:12:41.480 But I don't know if I would call Mister White 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:45.240 a Tai funk song to me. I think we just 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:47.200 wanted to we always try to put a song on 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:49.200 the record that sounds like roy Airs, because we love 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.960 roy Airs, you know, Little Joe and Mary specifically, I'm 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.120 trying to sound like like Franco, Like I want to 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.440 sound like one of those awesome really just really pretty 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.679 guitar you know, African like Western and Central African stuff, 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:06.880 Like I love that business man balls and pins. That's 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:09.360 just like classic psyche rock, you know. So it's like, 0:13:10.000 --> 0:13:13.400 I reject the notion of calling us a taie punk band. 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:16.320 I don't think that's fair to us or to tie 0:13:16.320 --> 0:13:19.680 funk artists. There's little there's more to us than what's 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.600 going on with that. Like I want to play everything, 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:24.959 you know, I want to figure out a way to 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.000 put it into what we do. We're listening to Mister White, 0:13:29.440 --> 0:13:33.280 the roy Ayre's inspired track from Krungbin's debut album, The 0:13:33.440 --> 0:13:37.199 Universe Smiles upon You. We'll be back with the band 0:13:37.440 --> 0:13:44.199 after a break. Before we jump back into my interview 0:13:44.240 --> 0:13:46.760 with Krungbin, let's hear a bit of the song first 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:52.920 Class from their latest release. Mordecai speaking of the Royer's vibe, 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:55.960 the first track on this new album, first Class kind 0:13:55.960 --> 0:14:01.040 of captured that feeling to me a lot that's absolutely intentional, man, Like, yeah, 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:02.839 I was like, I want to I want to put it. 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:06.800 It's so intentional, Like I wanted to play big Roy 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:10.280 Ayre's chords, you know, on guitar. That was the that 0:14:10.320 --> 0:14:12.520 was the whole thing. There's a production thing about Roy 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:14.720 Ayer's too, and I don't I'm not savvy enough to 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:17.719 understand it. But there's a certain sound to his recordings 0:14:17.760 --> 0:14:20.400 too that I feel like certain like space involved or 0:14:20.400 --> 0:14:23.200 something that you guys have figured out, and I feel 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.680 like it's kind of pretty present and at least in 0:14:25.760 --> 0:14:28.320 this new one. So when we do when we do vocals, 0:14:28.360 --> 0:14:30.680 we all sing together at the same time, you know. 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:32.760 And I really liked that about roy air stuff. It 0:14:32.800 --> 0:14:34.720 sounds like he's got everybody in the band kind of 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:38.280 sing it at the same time, not unlike you know, 0:14:38.360 --> 0:14:41.000 Santana from back in the sixties and seventies work the 0:14:41.000 --> 0:14:43.960 whole band singing the same time in unison, Like no 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:46.040 one's trying to do any crazy harmonies, and it's just 0:14:46.080 --> 0:14:48.000 like this is the melody, We're all going to sing 0:14:48.000 --> 0:14:51.640 it together. War does that too. I was like, I 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:54.560 want to do that so that when we sing together. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.240 It sounds big and full, but none of us want 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:59.200 to be lead singers, you know, and if we got 0:14:59.200 --> 0:15:01.000 a lead singer, well then it would pretty much be 0:15:01.000 --> 0:15:02.640 about the lead singer, not about the band, and we 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:05.560 just wanted to be about the music. So that's why 0:15:05.560 --> 0:15:09.760 we started doing it that way. And to me, psychoacoustically, 0:15:10.640 --> 0:15:13.960 if you hear a bunch of people singing a melody, 0:15:14.760 --> 0:15:17.160 you're gonna want to also sing this melody with this 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:20.120 bunch of people. It's like, hey, let's all sing this together. 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:24.200 And that was that's absolutely intentional. Is that kind of 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:29.360 like that way of bringing everyone into it. I hadn't 0:15:29.360 --> 0:15:31.040 considered that, but you know, one hundred percent right. It 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:35.400 makes it one automatically, just some more communal vibe, like 0:15:35.640 --> 0:15:37.680 like we're you know, like you guys are one unit 0:15:37.840 --> 0:15:39.560 one and it makes it like the sing long. So 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:42.040 it also makes like the person listening feel like they're involved, 0:15:42.080 --> 0:15:45.440 like you want to automatically jump in yea, even if 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:48.480 it's just doo doo doo na na whatever. Right, What 0:15:48.640 --> 0:15:52.160 made you guys on the new record decide to throw more? 0:15:52.280 --> 0:15:54.600 I mean there's been some vocals on previous records, but 0:15:54.640 --> 0:15:57.360 there's definitely more on this one. Was there the thought 0:15:57.440 --> 0:15:59.000 that it might be fun to stretch out and do 0:15:59.080 --> 0:16:02.800 some more of that or did just happened naturally while writing? Yeah, 0:16:02.840 --> 0:16:05.240 it happened naturally. I think it's a natural progression. I 0:16:05.240 --> 0:16:08.200 mean when I think there was a big deal made 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:09.760 out out of it when we did a lot of 0:16:09.800 --> 0:16:13.160 the press stuff this time around, as if we never 0:16:13.240 --> 0:16:15.760 had vocals on one of our records before, which we 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:21.320 have since Album one. But yeah, it just it just 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:24.680 so happened as it was a path that we went down. Normally, 0:16:24.680 --> 0:16:28.800 we record everything in the barn, and once that part 0:16:28.800 --> 0:16:30.800 of the procedure is done, we go back into the 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:34.880 studio and you see what you have. And sometimes you 0:16:34.920 --> 0:16:38.400 go back and songs sound complete and they're finished and 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:42.320 they don't need anything outside of some you know, light 0:16:42.440 --> 0:16:46.480 vocals for texture or you know, percussion, or we're bringing 0:16:46.960 --> 0:16:48.400 you know, one of our friends to come and play 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:53.640 on something. But this time around, things needed vocals, and 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:59.320 thankfully Laura Lee had some you know, some stuff scribbled 0:16:59.360 --> 0:17:04.720 down and some ideas to pull from, and I personally 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:09.359 think it came together beautifully. Laura was the scribbled stuff, 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:11.000 was that with a thought for using it for a 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:15.560 song or was it just no, just purely word vomit 0:17:16.080 --> 0:17:20.480 journal style, you know writing. But I did feel a 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.840 burst of energy right before we went into the studio, 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:26.440 um when I wrote all this stuff and felt like 0:17:26.760 --> 0:17:31.000 I had lived a life of adventures and stories and 0:17:31.040 --> 0:17:35.560 they were worth writing down. So I did. So I 0:17:35.640 --> 0:17:44.920 tried and it worked. No. I I mean, I think 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:49.240 you know, Mark sort of hinted at it earlier. But 0:17:49.600 --> 0:17:51.359 one of the things with this record was that we 0:17:51.400 --> 0:17:54.639 went into the studio with time booked and you know, 0:17:54.680 --> 0:17:59.919 paying our engineer and time studio stuff. But it was 0:18:00.359 --> 0:18:03.680 in between touring, heavy touring, and we didn't have any 0:18:03.720 --> 0:18:07.120 time prior to going into the barn to write, so 0:18:07.240 --> 0:18:10.880 we literally went in with nothing and it was hard. 0:18:11.000 --> 0:18:13.920 It's hard to just switch off tour and switch into 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:18.159 writing mode, you know. I know, like I've been starting 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:20.360 to write this week and I have to give myself 0:18:20.440 --> 0:18:24.160 minimum four hours because it's going to take potentially two 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:27.359 hours just to get in the zone, so you know, 0:18:27.560 --> 0:18:30.600 minimum four hours. And this was like two weeks record 0:18:30.640 --> 0:18:35.639 an album with nothing written. And if Steve Arn engineer 0:18:35.680 --> 0:18:37.960 always says you finished an album because you run out 0:18:37.960 --> 0:18:41.399 of time, or you run out of money, and you know, 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:44.240 we ran out and we made an album, but we 0:18:44.320 --> 0:18:49.120 spent the majority of our time on the record in post, 0:18:50.000 --> 0:18:53.080 and so the words and the lyrics were something we 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:56.680 could do in post, whereas the bass, guitar and drums 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:01.720 we record in the barn. And that's part of Krungbin ethos. 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:04.639 So we had to stick to those rules and we 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.520 gave ourselves so the things we could add, you know, 0:19:07.560 --> 0:19:10.919 one of them was words, and that's part of how 0:19:11.600 --> 0:19:15.120 that development happened on this particular round. But we love 0:19:15.119 --> 0:19:18.119 it and you know, like DJ DJ is mentioning that 0:19:18.200 --> 0:19:23.720 it's been such a point of chat during the interviews 0:19:23.720 --> 0:19:26.600 we've had, and it's so hilarious when you think about it. 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:30.240 It's like you're talking about lyrics most of the time 0:19:30.440 --> 0:19:34.159 they're in songs. It's like it's like the big the 0:19:34.320 --> 0:19:36.960 big deal is that Crungbin foot words on a song. 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:42.080 I don't know, It's it's just funny that like the 0:19:42.359 --> 0:19:47.639 big Krungbin reveal is like, you know, time, if you 0:19:47.720 --> 0:19:51.640 had more time, I loved the time You and me too? Man, 0:19:51.800 --> 0:19:53.679 such a cool disco vibe on that or you know, 0:19:53.720 --> 0:19:55.960 like kind of like boogie vibe on it. Oh thank you. 0:19:56.359 --> 0:19:59.320 That comes I think from us, you know, being on 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:01.560 the road for so along and like we would take, 0:20:02.160 --> 0:20:04.680 you know, whatever break we could. And one of our 0:20:04.800 --> 0:20:08.159 favorite spots to go to m is a festival and 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:13.040 crow we should called Love International, and it's basically it's 0:20:13.040 --> 0:20:16.280 just like a DJ fest, you know. But the kind 0:20:16.320 --> 0:20:18.879 of music that's being played, at least at the you know, 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:20.399 party is that we would be going to is like 0:20:21.359 --> 0:20:28.400 very kind of disco post disco boogie, extended break, kind 0:20:28.440 --> 0:20:32.040 of like John Morales Larry Levan kind of vibe. And 0:20:32.040 --> 0:20:34.000 it was like, oh, dude, man, I really want to 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:37.640 I'm sitting here like at Barbarella at like five am 0:20:37.640 --> 0:20:39.720 in the morning, Man, I would like, I really would 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:41.320 love to have a song and the next record like 0:20:41.320 --> 0:20:43.840 has like an extended disco break. That'd be awesome, you know. 0:20:44.760 --> 0:20:47.760 And that's so that's that's what we did. I really 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.040 wanted to have that going on. And at some point 0:20:51.640 --> 0:20:53.760 during the recording of the vocals of that, we're like, dude, 0:20:53.760 --> 0:20:55.960 why don't we just like put that's life in as 0:20:55.960 --> 0:20:59.639 many different languages as we can during this like breakdown, 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.040 And so we started calling up all of our friends 0:21:03.520 --> 0:21:06.200 from all over the world and like try to get 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:08.280 you know, how how can we how can we say 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:12.960 this in the right way? Yeah, we knew that there 0:21:13.080 --> 0:21:16.920 must be an equivalent of the expression that's life in 0:21:17.040 --> 0:21:20.960 most languages. You know, we knew, stay Levy. We figured 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.200 if we knew that's life and say Levey, that there 0:21:24.320 --> 0:21:28.760 must be more. And you know, we put out text messages, 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:31.720 you know, called everyone we knew that spoke different languages, 0:21:31.760 --> 0:21:35.360 were like, is there that's life? Sure enough? You know, yes? 0:21:37.200 --> 0:21:39.000 And it looks are really cool and it's super percussive, 0:21:39.040 --> 0:21:40.480 like you were saying, Lord, like I mean everything. I 0:21:40.520 --> 0:21:43.160 love that it's short, short sentences. It's not like there's 0:21:43.200 --> 0:21:45.760 not like Clausets hanging on from one meter to the next. 0:21:45.760 --> 0:21:50.160 It's just super a tight song and really cool. Yeah, 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:53.320 I mean that the lyric writing for that song was 0:21:53.520 --> 0:22:00.360 very much like an exercise and when in doubt, subtract. Yeah, 0:22:00.400 --> 0:22:04.080 So the lyrics got simpler and simpler as you know, 0:22:04.160 --> 0:22:06.120 time went on. I think the lyrics of that song 0:22:06.400 --> 0:22:09.399 up ended up being prophetic. I mean, as soon as 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.680 we went into quarantine, like I was, you know, going 0:22:12.720 --> 0:22:16.240 back listen listening to the lyrics and I'm like, this 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.480 is exactly what everyone's doing right now. Everyone has all 0:22:19.520 --> 0:22:23.439 this time, and everyone's timing like children time and you know, 0:22:24.600 --> 0:22:30.320 just live in life. That's time you and I from 0:22:30.400 --> 0:22:33.359 Krungbin's new album. We'll be back with DJ Laura and 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:40.840 Mark after this break. Here's the rest of my conversation 0:22:41.160 --> 0:22:44.040 with Krungben. You guys have really made a name for 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:47.840 yourselves as like a crazy good live band, and I 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.680 can attest you guys are really a great live I mean, 0:22:50.760 --> 0:22:52.439