Amanda Palmer

0:24Hey, it's Matt with MSN.CA, Amanda Palmer. How are you? I'm a **** Palmer. So rock and roll. Yeah. I like this thing. I don't know if I can show all of it. I'll figure out a way to blur it out though. But you've got this really cool art book. We'll see you in the middle. Can you go to the middle? I can go to the middle. The very middle has a four page pull out. In the very center, it should feel different. That's the one I did for the bed song. It's your favorite song on the record from what I hear. It is. It's the world's saddest bed. You always write from a sad place. Is that easier for you? Yeah. Actually, it's way easier. Because I don't have any happy feelings that I need to work out. They're fine. I'm really only inspired to write usually, not always,

1:10but by things that are frustrating me. Sadness, anger, frustration, whatever. Those are usually the things that give birth to songs. Where's the sadness and do it with a rock star? Did you see the video? I did. And I have a whole list of questions for the video. Well, I mean, the video is generally really great and happy and crazy. But that little bit with me and Stoya, the porn star, in the bed is really kind of, to me, sums up what the song was about, which is it's not what you think. Being a rock star is such a cartoon. And I mean, surely there were the Golden Days of Motley Crue and banging chicks every night. But my life isn't like that.

1:57I heard that scene was ad lib. At the end of the video, it was almost the cheers. We were supposed to just make out and get jiggy. And it made sense to me that I would have a breakdown. Because it's the opposite of the myth. You're a rock star. You're in bed with a porn star. It's supposed to all just be really hot. And actually, instead, you have a panic attack and all these insecure intimacy issues instead, which, to me, is what my music and art is all about. It's actually taking those myths and cartoons and infusing them with a dose of reality that kind of leaves you going, what? That just happened. I like that. How much of that was Wayne Coyne, too?

2:43None. None. Nothing at all. I got in and watched going, what is she doing? He texted me the next day. That was really weird. I was like, yeah, sorry. I'm making art. That's art, Wayne. That's art. You're telling Wayne Coyne what art it's, yeah, I love that. That's fantastic. So where did this record start? Because in your Kickstarter video, you're holding up a sign that says, you've been writing these songs for four years. You've done like three or four records, though, with various projects since then. Yeah. Well, this is my song pile. Everything else gets come out. Radio head covers. I didn't have to write those. The Evelyn Evelyn record was a strictly sit down collaboration with Jason Webley. So this is basically the best of my last five years of songwriting.

3:30Are you able to write on the road, or do you need a room and silence by yourself? I mean, I'll occasionally get a song idea and sing it to myself and email it to myself for later. I never look at this. I've been doing that for 20 years. I never come back to them. Really? But I feel too guilty if I don't at least record them. Yeah, I really only write well when I'm not working, working, on the road, surrounded, distracted. I get my best song ideas when I'm at home driving without the radio on. And my brain can kind of get some space. And what about actually putting the songs together?

4:15Do you sit there and analyze and agonize and crossing out words here and there? Or is it just usually just a stream of consciousness? It's pretty stream of consciousness. I mean, the older I get, the less I throw away. Like, instead of sitting there and going, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm. I just go, in general, I have to write the bulk of a song in one sitting, or I'm full. If I don't write the bulk of a song with my ass in the chair at the piano, and I just write one little good bit and say, oh, this is really great. I'll come back to it. I just won't. Always at the piano? Or at ukulele too sometimes? I used the uk to write killing type because I just didn't have a piano around. And the song was so simple in my head.

5:01And I knew it was going to be a band arrangement. I just used the uk to pick the chords out. Usually, I'm a piano. I've got more options because I know what I know how to play the piano. I don't actually know how to play the ukulele. I mean, the song kind of has three or four lives. Just idea. I've got an idea for do it with a rock star. And actually do it with a rock star. I have like a long gestation period. I got the title idea and the concept. And I was like, oh, this is, and I wrote the, do you want to go back home? That was the part I wrote. And then I wrote the rest of the song around it. I wrote it on the piano. And that was step one.

5:47Brought it to the band and actually whittled it down with the band. Like it was six minutes long when I originally wrote it. And then took it to the studio where John Congleton said, it's a great song. Like, it happens. It's too long. Way too long. What? Man, it's six minutes. I know, but it's like what would I cut? We've already cut it down. And John Congleton went in and was like, you don't need it in a half intro. And just went in with a machete and like, and I let him. Was he right? Oh, yeah. And well, I still think the having the first verse was a little weird.

6:33And then that was it. We recorded it. And that is now the static being. That's the song as it will always be. And when we play it live, it's a pretty faithful approximation of the way it was laid down on a record. How do you choose a set list? Are you going through your whole career? Like are you playing Dresden's all songs and everything? Or is it focused on us? Oh, really? OK. OK. Which ones? We've been playing Mist me. We sometimes do half Jack. How come those two? Mist me is to great, versatile, theatrical, fun song to play. And you'll see tonight. We've been playing around with it. Half Jack is just a brilliant song. It's one of my favorites.

7:18We play Astrone. From the solo record, sometimes we play Oasis. We play Leeds United. Five quick questions. One word answers. OK. Road or studio? Both. Leonard and McCartney. Both. Oh, come on. Line. OK. When you hear a song what usually hits you first. Lyrics melody or rhythm? Lyrics. Song you've written you're most proud of. Mm. Bud song. And in one word, Amanda Palmer. F***ing. Yes. Thank you so much. You're welcome. I appreciate it. Thank you.