Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros

0:03Alright, Alex, well thanks so much for stopping by. Thanks for having me. How are you? This must just be a one-off, eh? Or are you on tour right now? We're beginning a month-long situation. Oh, really? Cool. Where are you on? We're going to New York and then we're going to Europe for a month, basically. The whole band all 10 of you? Yep. That's crazy. You're at band size. I was traveling with 10 guys all the time. It's fun. It's fun. Two women. Two women, right? Yeah, that's very fun. Yeah, you feel there's power in numbers, you know? Sure. Everyone stares at you. They're staring at all of us, so it feels better. Is it all Ed Sharptunes? Are you playing solo stuff too? We're doing both. Cool. Yeah. Nice. What about like Ama Robot tunes? No. You haven't never done one. Never. How come? We just... Conscious decision? Never learned.

0:49No, no, not conscious. Just didn't do it. Yeah, fair enough. Yeah. So what's next for you guys? I hear there's two other solo records in the work and then another Ed Sharpt record. Yeah, Christian's working on an album, Aaron Embry's piano player's working on an album. I'm sure there's, you know, Jade is probably working on something and then we're working on an album ourselves, yeah. Same kind of 60s happy fun psychedelia? Yeah, I mean, you know, that's still happening. Yeah. What... How does a writing process work with that many people in the band? Does someone just come bring an idea and then everyone jams it out or do you... Yeah. ...all those songs are finished? Well, the first album I didn't know a lot of the people in the band, so I sort of did a lot of it. But this album, we're kind of... It's still like an intimate process, I suppose. Like one person sort of comes up with something and then brings it, you know what I mean?

1:34So it's still sort of got that element, but instead of sort of completing the songs as much, we're sort of bringing them and letting them grow, you know, as a group. Cool. You want to do a little storyteller's thing behind one of the songs for us on something like, like, a 40 day dream maybe? Tonight, you mean, or right now? No, right now. Okay. You got the magical mystery Beatles reference? Sure, sure, yeah. Let's see, I wonder which... Well, I guess, sure, I mean, you picked that song, so I'll stick with it. Okay. 40 day dream. 40 day dream is more of a feeling to me and it's very image based, like, sort of cinematic

2:20for me, the intro with the strings. When I was a kid, my dad used to take us on these long sort of road trips through the desert and he'd be blasting this composer named Van Jelis who did Chariots of Fire. Okay. So very epic music. And I'd be in the back, like five years old, looking at this Martian sort of desert landscape with this really loud, epic, you know, overly epic music playing and the feeling of like watching this landscape go by plus the music, that was sort of what I was kind of trying to go for with that, you know, sort of animate that feeling. And then from there, yeah, sure, there was the, you know, all the lyrics and the various

3:09things that the song may or may not have been about. Sometimes a song comes and the lyrics don't quite make sense to you or to me. I mean, but I just figure I'll go with it because I'll figure it out later what it was about. Have you figured it out later? It's been what, a year since the record came out now? Two years almost. No, no, no, I'm still not that way. Still when I sing that one, I'm like, what's this about? What's a good song that you have figured out? Over time. That's a good question. Thank you're welcome. Well, I'm not sure, but I will, like for instance, the magnetic zero is just the name. I'm still working on that.

3:55But I think I'm getting close. Are you getting called as speaking of which? Yeah, I do. That's crazy. But the song up from below, I just, sometimes I write the lyrics way after the song. So for months I was playing the song live, but when I was singing I was just, like just making shit up. And then finally we played an acoustic show. It was a very quiet show. And I realized everyone was going to hear the vocals clearly. So I ran outside and scribbled down the lyrics, then ended up on the song. So sometimes that's the process too. We do some call five questions. I know you're busy. Five questions, one more answers. Road or studio?

4:40Road. Alcohol or marijuana? Marijuana. Leninger McCartney. Can't go there. I can't. Sorry. I would say Lening, but then, but you know, I'm sad. I really like McCartney. Okay. There you go. Song you've written your most proud of. Fuck. I don't know. Favorite song to play live on? It depends. Today, what are you excited to play tonight? Okay. Today, what am I excited to play? There's a real message. It's right. Jangoing. Cool. And in one word, Ed Sharpen, the magnetic zeros. Love. Nice. Thank you, man. Appreciate it. Much appreciated. Yeah. There we go.