Josh Ritter

Part 1

0:00Crazy do you have your primary yet my what I'd hope I'm oh yeah, yeah, we had it yeah vote I wasn't there actually they've had a caucus, but the caucus my parents were there for so yeah who they go for Obama now you're saying to yeah, I mean, but I mean that's kind of like that's for now. That's that's You know, I'm a Democrat Whoever it is will be all about for them. It's like I'm like Obama right now. Yeah, so man They won't let us contribute so I have to buy a Yeah, it's the only way I can money that way. I got my Obama shirts. Yeah, it's great. It's so exciting I'm pretty excited. Yeah, it's good cuz it's getting high-boater turnout people are actually getting interested now Oh, yeah, it's kind of cool. It's great. So it's just such a nice thing that things I'm gonna have to look at that face in the white house Embarrassment for your country. I feel for you. Yeah

0:50Josh Ritter live in studio. Thanks so much for coming in man nice a lot for having me appreciate it second time through here You're here last year, right? Yeah, I was here. Yeah, I was here just I was doing a solo tour right around this time last year and and Before that I kind of got my start with Sarah Harmer playing across. Oh, no way. Yeah You just playing guitar for piano or what? No, my band played with her. Oh great. We played together some shows nice Beautiful tour last summer here was it just you or is it full? It's me so we got a full band this time in a church, too. Yeah, I'm excited. Have you sound checked the wrath of God? We're we're we're they're all putting the stuff together So I was able to sneak down here and avoid lifting anything. Oh, there you go I was just thinking to get the sound in the room. Oh, yeah Yeah, must just be phenomenal. Oh, yeah, we're gonna bring in the angel choir. Oh, there you go

1:38Is I'm gonna sing with you at all? Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, she's a she's a great singer. So do you know her stuff? Yeah, well, she's coming in a little bit. Oh, she's coming right six. So I can't wait. Yeah, it'll be good So you're gonna play some songs sure yeah, um It's up to you man. I'll get the get play what you want. I'll do I'll start with the this is called empty hearts Into this year with an empty heart with an empty don't let me into this year

2:46Inside with my friends we built fires and pretend But the night could just bend on forever While outside of the frost Are the wool and we sing to the dogs? Oh Whoever Singing don't let me into this year

3:32Don't let me into this the friend that I can see all of these empties

4:18That I'm holding there too much for a man empty arms empty hands And she'll know me by the sound and I'll open I Singing don't let me into this year with an empty heart Don't let me into this year with don't let me into this year Don't let me into this you're with an empty under this year with an empty heart with an empty

5:18It's nice to get stripped down. Thank you for our money. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. It's like big a it's a big Big change, you know, I started playing just like so I usually write most of my song without anybody else around I could have stick your piano both. I'm not I can't play piano really at all, but I play see You play see around on that It's kind of what I do it. It was a lie. I read somewhere that you wrote most of the new record on piano

6:03Yeah, yeah, I did. Oh, yeah I mean I wrote it I wrote it all on I wrote almost all the songs on piano, but but basically I you know I played a real slow and recorded bits and pieces of it and then And I got Sam Garcia He's my keyboard player and the producer on the record to kind of play play them faster and better. There you go He sounds like it reminds me when he plays that like that post acoustic deal and stuff Al Jacobs I don't know what I think it was his name. Maybe you're Al Cooper, maybe Cooper. Yeah, Al Cooper That's that's the feel I get from your records. I was really mean that's nice as well. Yeah. Yeah, yeah I definitely going for like as a you know, I've listened to a lot of hip hop and I really like some of the sounds of the pianos on that and Some stuff like you know You know DJ shadow and things. I really like yeah kind of dry

6:49Poundy stuff and it also there's a singer named Dorothy love coach. She's a great gospel singer She has that kind of Poundy stuff. I just really like that Poundy piano. Yeah, it's cool arcade fire to ish kind of yeah Yeah, I mean driving kick kind of stuff. Yeah, there's probably like yeah It definitely goes back to gospel for me. I like gospel music has got so much of that big open chords Yeah, you ever read a gospel song wrote a gospel? No, I don't know I mean like I mean I think I think most good music is comes from comes from religious music But it's they kind of you know, whether it's in the church or whether it's like, you know the shakers and Bluegrass or or or whether it's Bach, but uh, but me I you know I I just I just write whatever comes into my head maybe get a choir on the record. Yeah. Yeah, yeah

7:36Yeah, the new one feels very live off the floor more I don't want to say that the last one is over produced because it wasn't huh, but it feels more of a live feel Yeah, it's an immediate. I wanted to be super immediate Like everything to be I want the writing to be pretty much instantaneous from writing it down on pieces of paper to singing it You know, I wanted I wanted the music to be that way as well That just everything should be as tip of the tongue as possible You know having just written it That's the moment when a song is the most exciting is when it's big when it's being played for the very first time for me So I wanted to catch that moment because I think you can hear it in a person's voice if they're excited And they don't know they're a little bit unsure of where the song is gonna go I think that's just a really cool thing. You know, they say you catch a moment, you know

8:21Yeah, that's what I was trying to do nice. I know it's got some sort of like chili peppers logo on your guitar What is it? Oh actually no, I just I this guitar has been with me for a really long time and and And somebody dropped a pan on it and it and it busted through there Oh, no way So I'm just patching it because I don't want to I don't want to lose this thing I understand pouring money into it for no real reason but now but if it's your get it's your get mine's been smashing my trunk over and over It's you know, it's but it's my baby. It's exactly not going anywhere. It's like a paperback book Explain to me this degree you got in University. I wrote it down American history through narrative folk music. Yeah. Yeah That sounds really cool. It was it was a lot of fun. That doesn't even sound like a real degree home It wasn't really I mean it was like my way of trying to stay in school and graduate, you know, so they love me stay because but

9:07It does one do this because I want to do that. Well, it was like a yeah, it was I Was studying science and I said I didn't you know I really had to do music for you know I had to see if I could do it so so actually to finish off my College and to graduate I I started I got a string together a whole bunch of Of choruses that were based on the idea that that that songs come out of a out of a social situation You know that the songs come out of society Society has a need for songs in the same way that society has need for Politics or religion or science or or anything in it that so that if you look at if you look at a song And then you look, you know if you look closely at it and you look where it came from and what it's actually trying to say You know whether it's like the Andrews sisters or whether it's

9:55Johnny Cash or whether it's Lupe, Fiasco or anything Yeah, yeah, totally if you look at all those things like you see where it's coming from you see why why you know You can see something about the society and the history surrounding That the song and and that you can study that and that's and I always thought like you know that you know Nothing nothing that I write or nothing that anybody writes is is free from They kind of the social world around it, you know and that you know it's important to I think it's important in this world now In music where every new thing is the next new thing. Yeah, especially in England Well, and yeah, and everything came bursting out of nowhere You know and like it's important to realize that nothing comes from nowhere, you know

10:41everything comes from something and And and goes back into something as well, you know, it's I mean that that's it's just important to feel that Because it's important to feel like in your job and in your life. You have some sort of roots, you know Talking about history and all that and besides the album title. Yeah, there's a lot of references on there I mean you mentioned Casey Jones. I'm assuming that's not the Ninja Turtle Casey Jones. I didn't even know there was one Was our ninja well, there's an inch turtle bad guy. No, he was a good guy He was a bad guy at first, but then he became a good guy. I had no idea wearing a hockey mask and every now Yeah, yeah probably based on the on the old school. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Did you feel like? How come you decided to talk about and basically a people history lesson on this record? Oh, I was just I just said what came out as you wrote Yeah, you know, I'm with with I wanted this record to be funny and and and and pretty like you know

11:30Although the lyrics I was writing I was thinking a lot about you could basically use these like historical figures as action as action figures You know, you could just you throw them all together into a song and like and so that Casey Jones and Casey at the bat Like who are two people that are so similar in my idea like Casey Jones was he died trying to get the train going so fast You know, he was the one he said I'm you know, I'm the guy that can get this train into dandel on time I'm the only one I can go so fast and then he ran it over Over there off the tracks and then there's Casey at the bat who? Basically who kind of struck out Struck out, you know, not swinging at the curveballs, you know, I just thought it was really interesting that the two of them are And they're so similar and you know, there's this little things about about it that I just you know

12:16I was just kind of cracking myself up for no no real reason it was you know, it wasn't a record I I thought a huge amount about philosophy at it like animal years I thought just I want to make a record that's gonna be really fun really fun to play live and It's not gonna dilute the message of the animators which was much more like kind of I'm just kind of a little bit more of a heady mix, you know, yeah, I could see that Oh, you look like you were having fun on Letterman. Yeah, man playing at the song about Casey Jones Yeah, let's let's let's play that that recorded version. Okay, cuz I know kicks off the record. It's not a big bang to it Right and perfect. Let's see that sounds cool Swings come to hand with the blade

14:03Boy We can wait to the war don't need to tell me to the fire sweet in the sword both the Love the rocks of the shore Funny stuff in the record there's that line in this in the song you're about to play us kiss you where the sun don't shine

15:58I mentioned you earlier if I was right in the tune and I wrote that down. I'd second second guess myself after that You'd be like that's that's going somewhere different. My mom's gonna hear the record. Yeah, exactly Did you think about that I always think about stuff like that and I usually think of like yeah My mom is usually first in my head and but but and I just wrote it because I thought it was a goofiest line that I could think of and And it's it's a funny. It's just a funny line. It was one of the first songs that I was writing in the studio and and And sometimes the line like that if you think we'll care I'm gonna allow this line That's kind of stupid Stupid it's like it's a little different than everything else goofy Yeah, and so that you think well if I'm gonna allow this then that opens up the scope of what else I can allow

16:45In terms of in terms of my lyrics on this record and that was kind of a cool thing plus like you know, it's That's one of the most fun things about love Kissing with the sun don't shine and we were recording I'll agree at times. Yeah at times Play the song I was gonna say something I I

18:56I Thanks man appreciate it. Thank you. So Joan by is covered one of your tunes. Yeah, that must have been a thrill Yeah, it was I was an old tune too. It was pretty cool. She's she's an awesome. She's an awesome lady

19:45Did you meet her? She took me on tour with her when I was first getting started all over all over the world And I taught her how to play grand theft auto On the bus my first time on a tour bus and everything about that. It's an exciting time and she's she's a rock and roller Man, oh, I think it was she's the party with Dylan. She's yeah, I'd say that you would have a hard time keeping up with her Still nowadays man, she's amazing. That's awesome. Ask everybody that comes in five questions. Yeah one word answers Yeah, I plot her CDs. Oh, I Mean definitely I thought because I I it travels about eight months of the year So I can't take all the records on the road. It's very enough. Yeah, let it her McCartney And well

20:31I've this whole record was one of the major influences was Paul McCartney's ram. I'd say oh Yeah, I can see that live off the floor kind of yeah, yeah, I'd say you know, but it's it's like it's like a That's a good home that not many people know it's that's one of the best records and I'd say it's hard to I Couldn't you know it'd be it's hard to say but I certainly love ram man. That's it's an amazing record And you know, there's you know, I'm the walrus it's hard to beat that or across the universe as well. Mm-hmm But so it's a toss-up all right alcohol and marijuana. Oh Geez Okay, I wasn't I wasn't raised in the lush green forest for a fresh Columbia. I know Song you've written your most proud of

21:20Oh, I have I don't know I never let to say because I'm afraid the other ones will get jealous There you go good. I've never heard that before I like that one word Josh Ritter Is that okay? Yeah, yeah, that works man. I'm a brick wall people look hamburger Okay, you know to the most random stuff one word rocks good. It's rock and roll music It's a good old fashioned or I'll let's play something off monster or not monster ballots That's one of the songs I like off animal years. All right. Um What's your favorite off the record maybe what comes up live the most for you from that one? I play all that stuff. I've played most of the these days. I'm playing most of the stuff of animal years. Let's see How about a

22:06Let's do monster ballots. Yeah, I recorded I recorded monster ballots in actually in Hamilton, Ontario Oh, no way. Yeah, from Waterloo. So that's too fast. Great the home of Tim Hortons. Oh, yeah, you know it man We don't have enough of them out here. No, it's true. It's too bad. You got a dig for them But they're all they're so good. You made me want one. I can have to go get one of them. Yeah, so let's play that monster bounce good tune And where's a wire

23:06Monster ballots and stations I'm just a gold me peers are now But they're a steamboat like you're gonna give us a cover to sure. Yeah of what Hank Snow. Yeah, I'll do a hate snow songs

26:24I could I love hanging I've been everywhere man. All right. It's a good tune. Do you want me to do it right now? Tell me about the cake sale while you're tuning up. What's that all about? Well, it's a it's a some friends of mine in Ireland I I Went over to Ireland in 2001 in January my first time and it was kind of this kind of kind of bunch of people there that started out that We're just kind of getting started kind of getting known outside of Ireland and and playing around and you know, it was a time you know like time to meet a whole bunch of people that you know Like a few years later when everybody was a little bit more successful It was cool to make this cake sale record which is just basically for for Oxfam and which is a tremendous charity and we we just

27:12a bunch of people traded songs and and that's how I met him a bunch of people traded each other songs and We're saying on other people songs that they liked, you know, and we just put a record together It was just basically like the idea like it's kind of a thrift store charity charity sale record Why you kind of like instead of selling selling brownies and the chocolate chip cookies, you know, you sell this record And it's it's done amazingly well around it's not heard so I was cool to be involved in it And that's how I met mm sings a cardigan song Is it all covers? Yeah, okay. Yeah, what are you saying? I'm seeing a song by One of my favorite bands from Ireland called Bell X one. Oh, I didn't know the Irish. Yeah. Yeah, I love that What's that rocky took a lover? That's a sweet tune. They're great. They're a great band and like, you know

27:59Damien rice sings with and I think Lisa Hennigan and Glenn who was together brought me over to Ireland who Glenn Hands it who actually just wanted a big night for him the other night So it's just a really cool idea and it's How can people pick it up is it like a you can get only kind of thing? No, you can pick it up anywhere You should be able to pick it up here in Canada and you can get it on on Off of I believe on my side off of Oxfam site, you know anywhere on iTunes you can pick it up and the money goes to to support, you know Oxfam's projects around the world. It's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, it's awesome. M's amazing too. Yeah, I can't wait for it to come in It'll be nice. Yeah, and Bono was like praising one of her songs is something he wish he wrote. Yeah Doesn't get me higher than that. It says

28:44It's like Dylan saying man. I wish I wrote that really? Yeah, it's crazy So you're gonna give a song that maybe you wish you wrote yeah, there's a good segue I was thinking about like I was thinking about Valentine's Day songs that I could sing Like this this Valentine's Day, and so that song has been running through my head I have this old recording I think of Vasset Clemens fiddle players think I just playing the violin to it and Hank Snow wrote it and he's from Brooklyn in And Nova Scotia Yeah, so One of the fastest talkers ever I think you got a little fast talking on the record here. No your new one All right, it's called a fool such as I Please forgive me if I'm sentimental

29:39When we say goodbye Don't be angry with me If I cry now you're gone Still I'll dream a little dream Just years go by Now and then There's a fool Such as I now and then there's a fool Such as I am Over you it taught me how The lover now you say that we are through I'm on food

30:26But I love you to do Until the day I die And now man There's a fool Such as I am now

31:15There's a fool Such as I am Over you it taught me how to love but now you say that we are through I'm a fool, but I love you I die And then there's a fool such as I am now There's a fool Such as I Sounds like one of those tunes when you see like the old the old school vinyl players just spinning and very crackly sound in the background

32:03It's a beautiful song Nice little love song. Yeah, that's cool I want to go through a couple of tunes on your record though so we can play them and talk about them kind of thing wait for love Yeah, I wrote down like nothing I've ever heard from you before. Oh, it's just different. It's more falsetto. It's a little it's very different Yeah, tell me what running it said well was just that that was one that I One of the very first ones I I kind of recorded in Sweden and I really didn't even write anything down I never even wrote I was just You know the room was big and echo-y and and I was just kind of sat there I had nothing else to do and I was and You know I looked at Sam through the glass and I was just kept on playing, you know just kept on There was a couple ideas in my head. I wanted to be a real kind of buddy Holly lyric very cool

32:50You know very simple just about like you know that you know there's there's a you know kind of the active love is Similar no matter where who you do it with but it's about the maybe the Generosity of it changes you know nice so was it always like a falsetto tune. Yeah, it was okay It was just like something that was I just really liked the way it felt that I just like the melody It felt like it felt really like yeah different sort of melody than than anything I'd done and it had I was just trying to write something that had like a was in kind of a blues feel but was just a slow down in this That's kind of ballroom. He was like well sound nice tonight. You can play tonight. I hope so in the church

37:13Yeah, I think I'm really cool. Yeah totally place like that. Mm-hmm. Is that how most of the venues are on this tour? Is it is it's been a real change? You know we were playing in Kelowna in in BC and it was like a man that was like it was like a you know It was like the Wild West Bar. Oh really like one of these old-school legions kind of it was just it was a People were packed and so tight and there was like little tiny balconies and stairways It looked like a place where you'd have a sword fight. I do well Yeah, and then and then we put the combo to ballroom and that's a nice ring over that's beautiful place And then we played a church as well in Victoria. So it's it's cool. I like the I like the changes up quite a bit Yeah, yeah, definitely you thinking about shooting a live DVD or something like that? Death I mean definitely like I we've been doing I try and shoot as much as I can I was like an afford and

38:03Do my I just really love doing them. You know, yeah fun. I Just did a kind of a sort of an outdoor video to empty hearts and to a song called Overnight which is just sort of a bonus on my record. Okay, and it's um Well, we kind of pulled a bunch of cars together in in a really rundown section of Brooklyn in New York And and it got dark and it was looking out at the New York skyline and I just kind of sat in the middle of the street And played this song and it was really it was a really cool moment You could hear the sound of the city coming across the coming across the river. It was cool. Yeah Nice talk about another tune next to last romantic crazy slide guitar

38:50Whatever the hell that thing what is it? It's a whistle almost. It's actually an opera singer Really? It's a person. Yeah, it's not yeah, she's just got this an amazing voice And she'll all the way and she's like this is amazing like just beautiful like Singer, you know, she just kind of lets it rip and how the real spaghetti western feel I think yeah Really fun. So the right city for that kind of stuff Calgary can't down all that stuff totally well. That's like yeah, actually I brought um Corb Lund over to play with me. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, it was just you this weekend. Yeah, he's who's a terrific I think trivet guy. I just really love his stuff too. So it's coming out with you tonight. No, I don't think so I think he's still on tour. I think he's out. Oh, yeah, he's probably the dog of the lights ahead of us on this whole tour fair enough horses and horses when hearts can't be found

40:37On how I see one how to one He and wares to be dying of her tell us not to do it and yeah

42:22And american comes up. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna do it. I you know, I I think I think the colder it gets more I like it we I just did a tour up in uh in the uh, you know, the outer hebrides and Shaitland islands up in Scotland And I was the I just liked those places where you know I grew up in a small town and I'd go pretty far away from a lot of stuff And and when it gets cold people pile in together and that's when like the real stories happen and the real like you know It's you know community like that without something like a hippie as much as possible It's like the community is so this I think is always stronger in the winter time, you know Yeah, definitely makes me think of the folk stuff and I know the narrative folk music green whatnot You can't write songs about what's going on now like you write about trains and stuff and I'm thinking as I'm running songs as well

43:08What are what are kids into now computers and internet? That just doesn't sound good in a song to say computer Yeah, you know all the words that that the things that the big technology, you know Do you feel like I don't even know what the question is I just I just find it kind of weird I always like I thought that some of the people I think that uh, there's a rare group of musicians or songwriters that can make technology sound Romantic or well not maybe romantic but can give it like that kind of mystery. I think you know, I think okay computer is one of the Yeah, okay. Yeah, there's an exception or yeah fair enough. OE has always been like he's really been like But I mean You know other than you know, there's a fax twin I mean there's people that use technology in an incredible way but uh But I think You know

43:53It's I think when it's when it's useful and when it's useful in a song it can be interesting But if it's not useful like, you know writing about you know writing about a cell phone is like writing about a current presidential candidate, you know or whatever it's like it's an ephemeral thing that will only last so long as the technology that it describes is Is out there and being used it's kind of like when you look at Star Trek You know, you know Star Trek is When you look at the set they look kind of like it's amazing that these guys can travel around the Around the galaxy. We're using these uh these uh tushibas, but uh But uh, yeah, I I don't really write too much about about stuff like Technology, but I I don't I don't I try not to avoid it, you know, I think it's like I'd rather not

44:41I don't want to be nostalgic, but I don't want to be like, um Maybe science fiction science fiction music would be kind of cool to to work on that'd be fun Lots of phasers in the queue since yeah, yeah, well, you know just writing about the future would be really interesting actually Think about it. You got sound check time to start right? Yeah, it's totally yeah Um, I want to play my favorite tune good man. I love it. I don't even know why I love it so much It's just great. It just hits you. It's nice and house used it on tv I heard. Yeah, man Do you think that's the future? That's how musicians are gonna make money is selling to tv shows and commercials I mean, that's yeah, you know, I I always I there's there's a lot of there's a lot of older artists who kind of uh Look a scance at using your music and commercials and and things and I I have to say like You know before I ran into the uh financial things about keeping a band on the road and yeah

45:31That's that's it can be pretty necessary Mural Boone to to be able to like take your band out on the road and what are your five piece? Uh, yeah, yeah So but I mean I think it's great and you know people hear my music people people heard that song on house and and and and there was something that just kind of Exploded that song and like, you know, it helps Yeah, and and you know, I also think that it's people don't Once you write a song, it's there and it's always gonna be there You know, maybe 10 years down the line something like that a song like that will be used in something and and people will We're into where it came from, you know, but it's never gonna go away Which is what I really think is cool. It's the cool thing about recording me. Yeah, yeah for everybody forever Yeah, yeah, nice. Thanks for coming in man. Appreciate it. Yeah, it's been fun

46:18These chords are old but we shake hands I believe that they're good We can use all the help we can So many minor chords outside I fell in love with the satins we kicked around

47:05Song We got a bucket that they're bad All those glances that we stole

48:04Sometimes it was both that even his horse had disappeared. I got run down by

Part 2

0:00I like how you just played your rumors that made me happy. Thanks. Thanks. So what's weird is that I got an email from some dude in like Germany or Denmark or something asking me for like a wave file of that radio session for a record you were going to do I guess call the whole range of radio sessions. Yeah. That's why is that happening or something like I think they're like that like it's definitely on like sort of thing that would be awesome to do that I don't I don't have enough time to work on. And but he wants to collect them all and I'm sure that that'll happen. Okay. So nothing's happened with it. I was like I wonder if the guy just wanted the song. I think it was like you know they want to do this thing where they want to do that stuff but it's like but I have to like I got to have to decide what I want people to focus on you know and the record coming out and stuff like that I just don't have the I just

0:46don't want to like overstay my work. Absolutely. You know what I mean? You can only have so much time right? Yeah yeah yeah yeah. You can only have so much time to listen to a record. Exactly. But let's go through this one. Let's start. So they're right. So the last record I love doing it. So runs the world the way you said it marks the beginning of a new period in your life. Yeah. So you put out the record you put out a book and now this record so where are we in that period of your life? Well I was thinking you know like you know it's weird because it really does relate. You know and I apologize like if I hadn't really talked about a lot of this stuff so I'm really kind of rambling like that's fine. That's fine. Like that I think one of the things I was really thinking about with with so runs the world was that I had just gotten married you know. It was like I felt like a full fledged adult you know. I felt like I was like I was like totally like I was not just a kid on the road traveling

1:33anymore. I was like a man with a profession and like a career you know and like I felt totally like this was the moment when I started to feel like very very comfortable in that in that choice and those choices that I made in my life I felt like I put some things aside like what I do other things in my life. I felt like I felt like I was a songwriter that was a bit dead you know. I felt like I was also like a married man so it was a great feeling you know. And you know I wouldn't have said that out loud because you know it doesn't feel necessarily pertinent in a lot of ways but it does matter when you get married. You are saying like this is what you're doing. You're on stage doing a thing that you love to do because you love to do it not for any other reason you know. Not out looking for chicks.

2:20All that stuff you know. Are you I mean you must be a little maybe excited or hesitant I'm not really sure where you're at in your life to now you're going to have to talk about the divorce a lot and talk about that relationship because of this record. I thought about it a lot as I was working on it and mostly because not because I'm afraid of talking about it I mean it's something that like it wasn't something that was my fault or anything you know I feel like I was wearing the white hat in that situation but I do believe that like there is an autobiographical element of stuff which you don't you know you don't really you it's fine to you know it's fine to talk about it but I also feel that like you know what I do is just another is a thing that you know I write about stuff and that's what I do and like and writing about myself is not what I really believe is the is the is

3:07you know the great goal of writing I think writing is about like exploring all kinds of stuff and having fun like with your own imagination not not dealing with things that immediately happen to you so I did think about it in that way like I felt like writing about a divorce that was something where it was important to do it because it was the experience that happened to me and and and hopefully it won't ever happen to me again you know like that's this is my moment to write about something that was like one of the largest experiences in my life so far and I felt like it would be a waste not to you know or or you know when I was writing with songs anyway to like not not like put them on a record felt like they would be like going to the Grand Canyon or pretend that you've never seen it you know I mean so you weren't worried about putting your heart on your sleeve too much no I mean it came to you and you said the hell that my motto in life has always been that you

3:55should get embarrassed and move on you know so like I like you know it's and I think that happens almost every show you know things happen you get embarrassed and you move on and that's what about that's sort of like I think what makes what makes the whole thing doable it's like you know rather than being in fear that something will happen and wrong and you'll look like a fool assume you will and then like just keep on going I've never seen you look like a fool did you I've seen you play like ten times you're always the happiest smile performer I've ever seen I don't feel well it feels pretty like you know once you feel like you anything can happen and it'll be okay then you feel invincible you know which is a great feeling not because you're not because of any other reason than you're accepting that like things things things will like not go as you plant you know which is awesome yeah talk about songwriting though let's like you have a place that you write do you write do you have a room that you go to do you write on your phone you write a computer

4:41on a typewriter like how is your situation I like I well I like to think that like you should be able to write anywhere like certainly I do I do write on the computer I send to like some of my longer songs I'll write bits and pieces of on paper and then moving to the computer when I need to move them around a whole bunch you know but for like and then I will have ideas that I'll like I'll jot down on my phone if I'm out running especially I'll like have like an idea I think something about the running just the just the rhythm of running gets like cool ideas and stuff kind of bubbles up you know just phrases mostly and then like and then I do most of the writing on paper though you know like the bulk it's not always the most organized writing but like it's your catch all you know do you know

5:27Ron Sexmith you played with him a little bit oh yeah yeah you tell me the other day that he does it while swimming in the mornings because it's that mind-numbing activity that you can focus in on other stuff that's awesome so funny you say running because it's kind of a similar I guess first thing in the morning kind of thing totally yeah I think you're most you probably are smartest at that and then early morning get downward throughout the day is that when you typically write your songs at first thing well I think yeah well actually I find that end up being so it happens in two two major like in a morning when I'm really working like when I'm really got something I've got some time something going I like to write in the morning with coffee and then and then and then at night the less rigorous things will come you know the little you know you're kind of like you know if you're like if you're making like a snake and you're designing it in the morning like the nighttime when it starts

6:12to really wriggle you know and that's the good stuff the magic stuff happens at night but like the clean like lines happen in the morning I feel like this one might have been a little more nighttime just with the somber tone of it and that's like the last record was really adventurous yeah you went out there and you just put everything on the record yeah yeah yeah yeah this one is really stripped down it's really like it's a lot of acoustic guitar yeah totally lots of lots and lots of the in the shows as well like you know we went from having three guitars having about 12 guitars on the road because there's so many different ways that we want to as a band play play with that sound you know have you been pulling these songs that I mean I heard you check a few of them but yeah yeah the records not out yet so the fans aren't gonna know the songs yet yeah but you still just want to get out there and try them I do I mean like I think that you know it's it's really it's like yeah

7:01it is it's like it's important to go out there and like and try the songs mostly for for us you know like you know the band will be playing something just perfectly and and I'll be listening to them and I'll forget like such as I did upstairs like I'll just forget like exactly how to come in how I how I need to come in for the song and that's like when that happens in sound check it makes me realize that I really need to pay attention some you know you can fly off into the to the crowd into the music all over the place but you've got to you had to come back to land on something so you can like remember to do that one thing right you know so because not that the crowd will notice but I'll notice and I'll like right and then make me like it'll bug the hell out of me until the next day you know so that's been the great thing about doing all these plus you know you're introducing a whole bunch of new kids at a school you know they've got to learn how to fit in and where to go and

7:49what you know like there's like you got to learn where the songs best are the new songs are best fit in because they each have their own personality that needs to be slotted in to showcase what they do and I love doing setlist that's one of my favorite things to do is a setlist it's like figuring out the rise and fall and the narrative of like a show is so important to like how the show feels to people and how the show plays for us you know like if somebody can't have a can't have a base in their hand and then be expected to jump over and play the piano and then jump over and play guitar you got to make it so that they can move around stage easy and have the crowd can feel that like they're not getting jilted left and right you know it's not up down you know in terms of dynamic it's fun it's really fun are there songs you feel you have to play overnight? ah yeah I do I think you know I think that that's and rather than think about that as

8:35like a as like some sort of prison I think that like you know I didn't mean it that way but I do think that like for there are songs that we love to play every night because there are songs and we just feel like comfortable playing them and there's still new things that come out of them I think that like that like it's like a restaurant you know if people come you know they chance buy and they eat eat eat something you know and they love it they come back and they bring a friend and that that same dish tastes totally different you know like you know it doesn't make you a great like musician you know it just makes you kind of an asshole you like stealing the things that people want so like there are some songs that I really believe been playing almost every night you know unless like what are people gonna hear in Toronto in April well I think likely I mean outside from like

9:22you know a lot of cool new things that I'm really proud of there's like there's like stuff like a girl in the water or Kathleen or the temptation of Adam or you know there's there's just one from every record there yeah there's some of the songs that I kind of jump up out of nowhere to the really I think are important and I love playing them because you know especially when there's new songs and there's a lot of you know brand new stuff and stuff for all of us to think about in the show it's so great to be able to land on a fence post and say this is this is this is this is this is this is I know this this is something I know and and people know it and it gives everybody like a chance to like reconnect I don't know it's it's it's an amazing thing like you know when I go to a show

10:07and I you know I saw it like Tom Petty recently and I love that show in the middle of the show he played three new songs and it was so amazing because I suddenly could could there was all this new stuff to listen to I knew everything else you know but he was and he was playing all kinds of stuff but but I was so great to be able to hear those like three brand new songs but also great to be able to fall back into this kind of you know even the losers and yeah it's funny the next the next file I'm gonna buy is is full moon fever I'm sorry yeah I'm full of sorry damn the torpedoes full moon fever is on there too though yeah yeah yeah I mean I decided that yesterday so it's funny you mentioned today I'm okay so let's go through the record this arm or third arm longing for a past like it's the whole record is kind

10:54of long for it's 56 seconds so did you were you like yeah I'm good that's enough yeah I kind of I was thinking you know I have a song called in your arms again in your arms a while I thought yeah so I and that song I wrote in about two minutes it was like I was like I just that it was like I thought like you know what there's a great a there's a great willing else a demos record he wrote the song called I just destroyed the world I'm living in that's super short on a super eerie and sad and and I thought I want a song like that cool evil eye so sleeping is someone they kind of have like a disdain for you well I was for them I think like yeah I think that it's more like you're telling you what I'm taking over these songs from no reason yeah it's like that well there's like a yeah it's like Thursday because a feeling of a you know you know wanting to want to curse somebody like just

11:40wanting them wanting wanting no matter what they what no matter what happens for them to like out of the blue you know feel like there is a joy robbed out of their life that's like what it feels like and this is like no apologies in these songs for that I'm telling you maybe what what I wanted you know in the time you know over time those those feelings change and by the time I wrote it it was it was like an angry bitter song about about you know the next love coming along and they're being no joy in it there's a lot of that and if it's a very mature break up record I noticed listening to it like you're still there are times you're saying I hope you find your love and things like yeah it's in fact one of the most mature break up records I've heard in a long time well I think that it's easy

12:28to want to I mean and I did I wrote a lot of songs that are pretty like pretty mad and shouty that were like that we're just not honest and didn't feel right you know like it feels like those temper tantrums are sometimes not as effective as a few a few quiet words and like you know what that with you know you know I'll be in the bouquet you know like that a certain light has a line only looks like you in a certain kind of light which comes back in another song to new lover yeah and new lovers so that's interesting that you choose to use the same line well I like this yeah I like the certain light was like that is like you know you if you're suddenly you're suddenly on your own and you're looking around at all these like people and all these like potential like people you see in a bar or girls

13:13you talk to you know like yeah and you see you think well look at that I'm going down have I learned anything I've gone down the same road again you know but it's like it's a but I love that line a certain light because I do feel that sometimes like the past like like like that mark 20 says it like you know it doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme you know like in those moments when when you feel a rhyme happening like Stephen King talks about that too the residents one of your fans he's yeah and then yeah and like so so that and I love that line certain light so I thought well I want to I don't want to I don't I'm just gonna write another song about it so it's cool yeah hopeless is the first tune that has drums like that's when the band comes into the record and you're talking about crafting

14:02a live show in the setlist really important so I assume the track listing in the order of a record is also equally important yeah how come fortunes in that's when the band decides to come in well I just wanted to make sure that like that the with the feeling of the record turned out to be I mean I wrote hopeful in the studio in one morning while we were in there and like and I woke up early and I just had it I had like a lot of like swirling lines but then it just kind of happened because I think you know there was a lot of writing happening or there was a lot of playing I was starting to get the idea of the record and that that really came together really magically and really I didn't you know I I don't want to like I don't want to start off with a bang especially with a record like this I wanted to creep in you know so that there's somewhere for it to go because to start off with drums at the beginning would mean that there would be a lot without and bring it in and and

14:51there was a lot I wanted you know initially I thought it would be cool to do a set list a track listing that was very centered on the the path of a relationship you know but then I started to realize that it just didn't work out on the record like that and that it was more fun to mix them all up so the emotions were all kind of all over the place which is how it normally feels. Yeah I noticed that. It must be hard to sing there's a lot of words packed into every line like yeah you really make sure every syllable is used up it's not really. But yeah it's really that's a really hard one to think well we've had like good time practicing that they've been patient at the band so yeah it's very patient. How do you write something like that with that many words coming is that just what came out of you and you said yeah okay. Yeah like in like you like you either decide I feel like sometimes like my my it's usually

15:37for me it's like harder to limit than it is to like explode you know that when the when you really got a pocket and you've got like something you want to say and you've got a few lines then to fill up the rest is much for me much easier especially when you've got like a rage about something. You sound angry in them. Yeah yeah yeah. Yeah then it's really like angry song and and it's more you know than something like third arm where it's very words like very I feel like what you want is this simplicity and few lines. Even nightmares the next track on the record is very simple too. Yeah yeah. It's funny it's called nightmares because it's got like dream like instruments. Yeah. I know it's just the way one of the right down the whistly synth the dark horn at the end. I really wanted it to be nightmares I was I was you know I when I was really going when

16:29I was really in the teeth of all that stuff the you know I was having really terrible time sleeping and the doctor gave me like a sleeping pills which were the worst the worst the worst experiences I've ever had in terms of sleeping the nightmares were so vivid and so terrifying that like and I was so unexpected and I was having so much trouble sleeping to begin with that like that it was it was a I mean I stopped taking them immediately like man you couldn't pay me to take those things again it would be worse. But I also wanted like there was something about that that melody it was so to me like really pretty and really really sweet and then I like to counter posing these like really

17:16these really graphic kind of kind of hallucinogenic images behind it felt like a real tension in this arm was really that was really a lot of fun I liked that people might drift into like into the ton of melody and then come back and hear hear about like you know these these nightmares down in hell. Mm hmm. I love his axe bass turn on too like that's like it was listening to in the car. It's amazing. Thanks. Yeah. Great bass sound. Yeah. I mean I'm not going to be like how to get into it because no one's going to care but I thought it was really cool. Yeah it's really cool. It's really cool. They're all talented guys. I know. New lover. Rythmic acoustic strumming and then I wrote down a shit ton of lyrics because I just like the words in the song. Thanks. There are things I cannot sing for the sting of sour notes.

18:01So are there songs that you, is that like is that a truthful line? Totally. Are there songs you can't sing anymore because you think of her? Well there are things that I think that you know there are there are things there are details why I guess what I you know in terms of songs I think that I don't know if like you know you sing songs like or you have favorite songs you know your whole life you know and then something happens to you that so closely relates to the more mimics the experience in the song that you realize it's just been a loaded gun the whole time you know you never really realized how important like for me like like a song like Alexander leaving or famous Blue Rain Co. like two great Leonard Cohen songs. Like I never realized how like what desolating songs those were until like until I had an experience that made those things seem like he he he got this he was so close to the bone

18:47that that that they were almost painful and listen to you know. They're like I feel that way there you know so there's that about songs but then I also thought like you know there's details about a relationship which you you know which I could never sing because they're just like they're just too they're just too painful you know they're pedestrian and silly and like and you know and some of them are great memories and some of them are just and some of them are bad but so they all have a sting to them now you know. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Yeah you know I know all too well. I think everyone who's been through a relationship. Exactly totally yeah. Yeah yeah. The last words about you having oh this certain kind of light thing. I hope you have a new lover too. Yeah. We mentioned that a little earlier but I thought like that's a really mature point of

19:33you. Yeah. And I think we already covered that a little bit though. It's a little bit. Never mind. Yeah you know. The next page. Unless you want to talk about it. No that's great. I like both like I definitely thought like that was one of the very first songs I wrote for the record where I wrote it you know and it felt like wow I'm coming out of this whole thing. It was really early days but I thought that I was totally moving on and I like the kind of like you know you give and you hope you hope or something and then you know you also want to take it back you know which is like that's where I feel like there can never be a total like forgiveness in that way you know. Bring up the Leonard Cohen thing with G. on tomorrow morning. Oh yeah. It's a huge fan. Yeah. Yeah. I feel like that. Awesome. Heart sees. I like the way the two acoustics kind of like they're each command of each speaker they're kind of panned and it's just I guess finding the way to get these in your heart.

20:20Yeah yeah. Yeah. I'm going to talk about that one a little bit. I think that that was one where I was a I just thought that there is a it felt like there was a few verses in there that felt like kind of high romance and it was like I felt like fun I felt like an old old old song and then like you know it was to me that was just kind of a kind of a whimsical song. I just was like I had just had fun writing. Cool. Yeah. The second of the arm songs in your arms again. That one also is very like is feels like it's a there's a lot of kind of kind of whimsy for or like wishful you know just just kind of a reverie or something that about like about what it was like to to be with somebody and like and then you know to realize that all your

21:10plants that you ever made were were based on this and that they were really kind of holding you down and I just sort of thought I just that was felt the feeling of driving away you know there was I just felt like the you know the the car the car engine in the song like kind of going by. Yeah. Like a going away. You know. So did you how did you get a current like where did you find it online? Did you actually go wait for a. Yeah we just we just stood out on the road and outside of and waited like it's really not very many cars go by but like around five o'clock and main on this little road. I think people must be driving. I don't know where they're driving to because there's nowhere out there you know that it's holding like a little microphone out there. Sam did it like yeah it was great. Well the next speaking of microphones ran the place and it's like all this kitchen clacking sound in Apple Blossom Rang.

21:57Yeah it was well Sam's the great North studio is is a it's just a big old house big old farm house and and and and we were up there Sam and I and Josh Kaufman who's recording the guitar part on that and and some of our friends and what Sam's last name just like a throw a kiss here right. Yeah. And so they were all like we're just all up there and and and we were just sitting around and there was a beautiful kind of like like feeling it was really warm in there and like and it was just really nice and we were just playing and Sam just threw up a I don't know what time he might be threw it up and and around for Calvin and threw something up for me and

22:43Calvin played and I sang and and there's stuff going on in the in the background but it wasn't something I really wanted to like like do you really well like or I would say it was nothing that I wanted to do in the studio way you know it just felt like it felt like and I've done that before like with Idaho there's other songs that are like that were or there's other songs that I've recorded on a lot of records that were it just feels like this is the one I don't care it's not going to sound it's not going to sound as awesome as this like when you like rough sounding kind of ragged thing and and and blossom feels like a real ragged song so so it felt right. I think all those folk fans are going to dig it though because it feels like one of those takes like that was the magic take just let it go it doesn't matter what's happening.

23:29Yeah yeah it is it is and like you know it really is it really is and sometimes you get lucky you know and that's what our records should I mean nowadays we have I mean there's so many we're so lucky we have like all these incredible ways to record and there's possibilities for no run notes ever in it but there's like nothing that's like so biological as like the one take song you know what I mean yeah well I mean that's funny I mean you just wrote it and it's still exciting you know yeah and you capture that I had camera was going to say when you capture that that magic like I was saying it's you know I'm sitting there listening being like I wonder if he chose to put that stuff in afterwards or if it was just that right take yeah I'm glad yeah yeah I figured knowing you a little bit that it would be that way it's cool yeah it's really fun yeah I'm going to talk to a that's what I'm going to say Pete Townsend about that on on Wednesday awesome about

24:15yeah I saw 300 pages of his book to read which will be fun to do tomorrow but but I mean they kept all that crap in too yeah just a little flubs here and there doesn't matter that's what it's supposed to send well they they often they probably didn't have a choice I mean they're gonna be able to go back and like you have to lose so much yeah it's so it's so exciting that way I can understand like why you work on tape is so exciting I'm really glad that we have the ability to like work quickly and with with like Pro Tools and everything but there is something about like just fucking jumping in like when did you make this record when you record it I've made it over about a month of sorry about it over about a year of you know two or three days of a time oh okay yeah this would have been last year 2012 yeah well just while like while everything was like you know just we're doing a little doing

25:03some touring and then and then doing a lot of like a lot of writing and so the songs written in spurts and then you'd have the desire to go in the studio everything kind of written and then trying to fit studio days I wrote I wrote a lot of it all together like I wrote like I recorded a ton of stuff that was like just little bits of pieces and then kind of started from there to like flesh out things that felt really good okay yeah bonfire which I think should be a single if it can be not that I am saying it all lots of words again yeah it's like white stripes we're gonna be friends kind of melody on everything like it's a cool tune and it reminds me a little bit of lark from So When Through The World so you want to talk about that one a little bit yeah I think that's like one of those songs that I you know like like a John Freund song or something like that where they say like

25:49uh there's it's it's a feels happy go lucky but there's also in the in the middle I mean of the whole thing of the central image of this bonfire which is really like really brightly burning very hot kind of uncontrollable like thing which is not unviolet you know and really fun but I mean it's still like fun it feels just like a colorful scrapbook song you like you like cut out a bunch of stuff out of a magazine you and you paste it all on a piece of paper and it's like really colorful and just fun you know like like to dogs or whoever that sort of style of thing I love doing that yeah you're right the way the lyrics come out that's true yeah and it inspired a poster too right I saw some poster that yeah okay yeah nice I guess which will be for the tour starting in a couple of days during a month

26:38yeah so so I thought like when these dates went on sale and these are random cities you've chosen yeah this little February tour yeah totally what is this thing why are you doing these shows well I wanted to do stuff I wanted to play a bunch of stuff those places that the band has never played with like they haven't been with me to some of these places and then mostly like it was you know I wanted to make sure that like when we're first starting out that you know what we rehearse in a place and then you know we did a bunch of rehearsing and then we came out all the roads that we could play these like songs and see how they how they how they worked you know and and and it was really this felt like just the best way we can go to like Wakefield and we could go to you know that places yeah yeah yeah it's fun you know we'll go and Montreal and all these places and just see how it all how it

27:25all fit together and and you know it's not like the I mean last couple tours we've done it's been you know you finish the record the record comes out and the first show seems to be New York you know it's like terrifying yeah like and it's not it's not it's terrifying really you still get scared oh yeah with that stuff is like it's always you know definitely yeah and I feel like you know you can be scared about like stuff but it's also like to forget the music and to be in the show is the most important thing you know and like and to like not be thinking about what you're doing with thinking about all the stuff going on then you forget your place in the song yeah exactly yeah yeah yeah totally yeah hey man that's where it is no no no no good in your arms a while yes a little harmony yeah Liam the Liam who's playing drums sign that low harmony so he's super yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

28:14super low voice which was the surprise I think that's the first time singing on the record that was just so really I was like I wrote that I wrote that a while a while ago and it was just like it felt like a song I wanted I would listen to like loving like lots of tusk and stuff hmm some of those really like simple beautiful like Lindsey Buck and sort of style thumper song you know I like those yeah have you seen the sound city documentary no I haven't no song yesterday it's really good is it yeah but it's just Lindsey's in it a long just sitting back I couldn't tell though if the song is is is you talking with the new girl about the old girl I know I don't really know either it's like that's good though yeah yeah okay yeah I'm not sure I'm not sure like he's an ambiguous yeah there's a few things in there though I just don't know yeah okay joy to you baby which I is a single isn't a single

29:04yeah it is okay I wrote a huge line there but oh yeah okay so it could end the record like it sounds like it ends the record yeah lights is like an encore home yeah yeah and it was is that on purpose that's or something that I heard well I like to like I always think that it's important to like your last couple songs are really important I don't believe in stacking the record I never think that I think met now and I believe that the plays out less and less is it important what what or you necessarily put a record in people if they hear a song they like it they can like buy it on its own but I really believe that like there's a thing about a record that needs to needs to needs to needs to lift off smoothly and land gently and like and I don't believe in in in ever ending a record in an

29:52in with an unambiguous emotion I think like that lights had the emotion of like kind of this is you know everything you're beginning again you're you're apologizing to someone if you're acting strange because you're kind of wowed by them and that like and the things you've moved on and like join you baby is there is that what I liked about that when I was writing and what I felt was cool about it was that it was there was a lot of there was a lot of like forgiveness in it but there was also you know that it didn't feel like it didn't feel full forgiveness it felt like a very like you know the intent to forgive was there it was just really like and it just for some reason I just didn't feel like it was

30:41quite had the the landing that I wanted but I didn't you know I don't know you know I don't know there was just something about that made those two feel really like important to put at the end that's a good closer I think oh yes five questions five questions one more answers great is last time one more dancers one more answer one more answer rotor studio wrote Leonard McCartney Leonard or McCartney? yeah McCartney oh hands down really yeah totally nice when you hear a song what usually hits you first lyrics melody or rhythm lyrics song you've written your most proud of I'm sorry

31:32another new world in one word Josh Ray psyched that's a good one thank you so much man I really appreciate it I hope that's cool not too much like stuff no dude if you haven't talked about the record enough yeah this is perfect it's good man thank you thank you have you done stuff with