Cake

0:03So the new record out in just a few weeks. Um, yeah. Just under a month. It's coming out January 11th. So we're excited about it and we're excited that other people are seeming to like it. And we really took our time making it. Yeah, how long? So did you start this before the B-side's Rarity stuff or like when? I did. I mean, I've been writing these songs for a while. And I think we just wanted to make sure with B-side's Rarity that we could have our own label and that it would work. We didn't want to waste a bunch of songs, you know, like in years of work on an untenable situation. Right. Which sometimes being on the major label is, you know, if there's scheduled changes, you're out of luck and it's years of your life that have been flushed down the toilet. So I mean, a lot of the reason why we decided to go back to being our own label, which is our first album, we had our own label.

0:53It just feels like a just a cleaner way of doing business for us. That makes sense. Yeah. Speaking of cleaner ways of doing business, this whole record is, look at this segue, solar powered? Yes, it is. It's 100% rehearsed and recorded and mixed with using solar energy from Sacramento, California. So how does that work? So you guys built a studio, put panels everywhere and it powered, because that's a lot of gear that you need to power. Yeah, we, we bought an old house and just sort of turned it into a studio and, you know, took down doors and, you know, put it down. And then we had to open up doors and just kind of open the thing up and closed off areas. And then I guess after touring in Germany and learning that the mostly cloudy country of Germany is the number one producer of solar electricity in the world.

1:42Wow. It occurred to us how wrong it was, what a crime it was really for us not to just make electricity from our rooftop in sunny California. And I guess, you know, we just get to feel smug now or something, but it's, but I don't know. I mean, I think it's a short life and sometimes you have to stretch a little bit to do the things that you believe in, you know, and we could have traveled around, you know, gone on vacation or something with that money. But it just, I think honestly it's going to be a long-term economic benefit, especially as the value of recorded music descends into the garden. We get a check from the utility for like 30 bucks a month.

2:27So it's going to really take us through the lean times. It's going to rent out the studio or is it just like for yours? I think it's going to be just for us. But we, you know, if we ever do decide to expand the scope of our own label, we will consider bringing other bands in there. Yeah. I guess, yeah, that goes with the label thing and you're probably focused on the record and touring and not thinking about that kind of stuff yet. Yeah, you know, but you never know what could happen. So it's hard to say. Gotcha. You mentioned crime and it got me thinking, well, the first track of the new record, federal funding, the opening line, did you receive the federal funding? You can add another wing, take your colleagues out to dinner. Yeah. I love it. Thanks. Yeah. Well, you know, it seems to me that government is two-edged sword and I think there's been a lot of oversimplification about, you know, government is bad.

3:21Don't, you know, don't let government do anything, especially here in the United States. People have really got this idea that government is really bad always. And it certainly can be. On the other hand, without government, you don't have anything to protect the weak from the strong and without regulations and rules. You really have a free for all, don't you? And one of the cool things that government did here is kept us out of a great recession or depression for 70 years. I mean, the laws that were passed after the Great Depression kept us out of trouble until they were subverted in the 90s and 2000s. I don't know. I'm just getting tired of people always talking about how horrible government is.

4:06But you're criticizing them in that opening line? Absolutely. There's room for criticism as well as praise. Well, I guess it's a very republican thing to say. No government, right? Yeah, but that's such an oversimplified way of looking at it. And even saying I want tiny government, I want small government, is also really, I think, dream on because you have incredibly complex systems. Like, for instance, the oil spill. Our government couldn't do anything about it because it had been sort of downsized. And the scale of their purview had been over a long period of time just reduced and reduced and reduced.

4:52There was really nobody watching the store. So you have all these complex things like Wall Street and all these, it's a very complicated society. And without the government having any people working there, you're on your own. Good luck not being ripped off. To continue on the politics trend for a second, what just happened, what was it, about a month ago? Do you think anything's going to pass? What's the feeling like down there? Because it's going to be a standstill for the next two years. It could be. Yeah, it could be. I mean, I just think the only thing we can do down here is just shame them into doing something. I really think it's the absolute worst time for there to be a standstill.

5:41Yeah, well, he's not getting a fair chance either. Everyone voted him in and there was hope for Obama and everything. Is he not going to lie kind of a pussy the past two years? Yeah, absolutely. I think he's under the impression that bipartisanship means that he can't be partisan. But what bipartisanship really means is when partisans haggle and then make a deal. One person can't be bipartisan, but a bill can be bipartisan. So I think it's just sort of a misunderstanding on his part. I think it's okay for people to disagree vehemently and come to some sort of bipartisan solution.

6:27But you shouldn't start out bipartisan going into the negotiations. I just hope he reelection goes through and then he just starts doing whatever the hell he wants. Yeah, no, because he's really ultimately a smart guy who I think who has his sort of heart in the right place, basically. But it is very frustrating to see him interfaced with the system. Let's get on to a happier topic. You got a record. Let's talk about the record. Thank you. It sounds like you're playing more piano than usual. Yeah, well, we had a moratorium on piano from the very beginning. I don't know what it was. We just didn't want to say in classy.

7:12And I guess we had a moratorium on saxophone. We still do have a moratorium on that instrument. But other horns are okay. Trump is okay. Saxophone is just too urban in classy. I don't know what it is. What about like a tuba? Tuba would be okay. Tuba would be okay. Flute? Flute, I'm thinking about. Okay. Yeah, but I think it's just the piano was just I found this old junky piano and I thought, you know what, this is junk enough for us. And I think it sounds okay. And we also for the first time are using reverb. We never use reverb. Really? I don't know if you want to listen back to those old tunes. Yeah, they're dry as can be on my voice. And I just felt like that was, again, I think we were, when we first started out, I think we were sort of a reaction against a lot of really big-sounding music.

7:59Like grunge and American rock. We sort of kind of grandiose. And so we thought, you know what, we want to sound small. And that was our sort of hostile, reactionary gesture against music that we thought was way too big and sort of self-important. That's interesting. You say that because you have the cake riff almost, right? You know what I mean by that guitar sound that you have with every second note kind of thing? Yeah, well, I mean, we'd like to write like riffs and melodic guitar parts and repeat them. And we like music that does that. So I mean, I think I know what you're talking about. Yeah, I'm not saying they all sound the same, but it's the same style. Yeah, well, there's, you know, it's a lack of hugeness.

8:46Yeah, exactly. Because we could crank that guitar, you know, super loud and distort it all to hell. But then it would, for me, it's like I'm trying to avoid sounding like tall truck, big dumb rock. You know, I don't want to, I don't think that music's that interesting. I mean, some of it's great. You know, I really like some people do it well, like especially a long time ago, people did it well. But I just want to sound smaller. So, and I think that's actually in a country as like obese and self-indulgent as the United States. I mean, I think that's why small is the most subversive thing you could do here. Talking to small, there's no words on one of your songs. A song called Teenage Pregnancy on this new record.

9:32Yeah. It's a lovely little piece and I get the mood from it. Why title it that though? I just wanted to let people go where they wanted to go with it, I guess. It just seemed to make sense to me somehow. Okay. Is that a good enough answer? I don't know. Yeah, yeah. If that's the answer, that's the answer. It sort of is. Yeah. You know, it's just, it's, I think sometimes it's good not to have words and just let music do the talking. A song that does have words is the single that we're spitting the hell out of Sick of You. Yeah. You want to tell us about that tune? Well, that song is saying too much probably. Yeah. You know, that song is a breakup song. But I think it's also sort of applicable to the general cultural mood, especially in the United States nowadays.

10:18You'd have to be down here to sort of maybe to fully understand, but things are very contentious and people are almost, I think, gratuitously into hating each other lately. Interesting. Yeah. It's a little interesting, a little scary actually. Yeah. Sort of people are almost taking pleasure in it, I think. So, Sick of Hiding sometimes. Yeah. So, we get people singing the song along to the song at shows and it's interesting. People seem to enjoy singing those words. Yeah. I wonder if it's just because it's fun to sing along or if it's fun to say those words. It's probably a combination of those. Yeah. Mustache Man. I'm thinking that if we're going to spin another tune off this record, it's probably going to be that one.

11:06So, you want to tell us about that one too? Oh, good. Well, you should talk to our radio people. Yeah. Okay. I think they're thinking about long time, but I don't take sounding too. I like that one too. The band, I think the band is more on the side of mustache. That song is just a sort of a very sort of California-sleeze song. It's sort of a creepy song that I think I'm just taking a bunch of images of memories from childhood growing up in California. Did you guys do Movember at all? We did not, but you know, we thought it was a good idea and we hope that certainly we certainly hope it's helped people. I'm thinking you should give them that tune. That'd be a great theme song for them.

11:52We should. We should at least talk to them, shouldn't we? You should. There you go. There's my words of advice for the day. Okay. I'm going to write that down. Call Movember. Yeah. Call Movember. Okay. I want to get a couple of clips too for some of the old tunes that we play just so you like a little storytellers thing before I play the song. Okay. Over the next couple of weeks. Want to give me a little clip about Short Skirt? Okay. Well, Short Skirt, Longjacket was, I think a response to hearing people talk about how the length of women's skirts changes with the stock market and with the economy. And I just thought, wow, God, the whole world is so mercantile. It's so, it's scary. And so that song was sort of coming out of that feeling that everything is transactional and you can't hide from it.

12:45It's just everywhere. So, yeah. So that's what I was thinking with that. Cool. The distance. The distance is a song that when I sing it every night, most nights, I actually still enjoy singing it. Five quick questions. One word answers before you go. Okay. Road or studio? Studio. Leninger McCartney. Leninger. Most important thing in a song. Lyrics Melody Arrhythm. Oh, God. I can't, I can't chew melody, I guess. Cool. Song you've written you're most proud of. Right now I like the song Bound Away. Cool. That's that like a folky one on the new record. Yeah, country-sounding. Yeah. And one word, cake. Holy shit.