Young The Giant

0:00Hey, I'm Francois from Young The Giant. You're watching NSN Exclusives. I'm about coming up with it and is it in the haunted house or is it or was that? That was the second house. Okay. So this was we wrote in the beach house in our like little studio setup. It was just one of those that Eric had kind of come up with the riff and he had written like a drum machine thing for it.

0:49And I kind of like just disregarded it a little bit and did something completely different. But sort of with like the idea of what he had been trying to accomplish in mind. And we just jammed it out and then you know got everyone else involved. And it was kind of like we finished recording the demo version. We were like, oh man, we got to like show this to people. We got we were so excited about it. And I think it's heard out is one of the songs on the record that had like the least work done, you know, in the studio and in pre production and stuff. So what you hear on the record is pretty much, you know, exactly how we wrote it in the first and its first form. So on that topic, let's go the other way. What changed the most? Well, there's a song on the record called camera. And it's actually one of the first songs we wrote for the album. And it was just one of those that like it was so hard to like progress past.

1:40We, you know, we hit this rock or hit this wall and we're just kind of like don't know what to do with it. It doesn't feel right, but we really love the song and the arrangement just wasn't vibing. So we put it to the side for a while. And we, when we brought it back, I think we had like fresh ears and we'd started working with James J who was the producer on the album. And he kind of, he said a couple things and just sort of changed our perception of the song. And it ended up being I think a lot darker than we had initially imagined it would be. But I think it turned out well. Do songs change now that you've been playing them live for a few months? Not really actually. It's still like in the honeymoon stage with these songs. So like we were really excited to play them as they appear on the album. And a lot of these songs we'd never played until we started this tour that we're currently on. So there's still a lot of excitement.

2:26I think eventually, you know, there are some songs on the last album. Sure, let's do that. I'm kind of seeing a little bit of progression. But for the most part, you know. Like what from the last record has changed? It's mostly just like individual parts. Like maybe I'll play something a little bit differently or eric or something. Just for fun for yourself or. Yeah, just for fun to keep it like fresh. We don't mess around with arrangements too much. Maybe we'll extend like a jam at the end of something every once in a while. But I know when I go to see a concert, like I'm really excited to see the song as I know it. And I don't want to be, you know, too self-indulgent with that stuff. Because sometimes people just don't want to see like a 20 minute jam at the end of the song. So we're trying to keep that in mind. Right. It's a big case on the topic of what people want to see. You have these massive hit songs. Where do they sit in a set? Do you open with it? I think when you have a song like that, like my body for instance, it kind of begs to be played last.

3:19Because you know there's no way, even if you feel really great about a song, like there's no way you're going to be able to match the energy that the audience is putting out for that song that they know and they love. They have all these memories for or whatever. And the same thing with Cops Is on the set that we'll have most impact. We're not like, let's just get Cops out by the way. And you know, just song number two, bang it out and then just go on other things. Trying to come up with a good pace for the set is a really important part of putting together a show. How long did it take to figure out the pace? I mean, we're a few shows into the tour now. Yeah, yeah, we're about halfway through now. So I think this is like 23 to 24. So not a few. I was way off. Okay. It's still a few relatively speaking for the life of the album.

4:05Yeah, for the next two years again. Yeah, so I think now we've kind of figured it out. And a lot of it is trial and error. You know, like you have an idea of how things are going to go over, but it's not until you get in a room and even from city to city people react differently to different songs. But I think at this point we've kind of figured out like a basic template and we can sort of mess around with it. I'm curious now about the city to city thing. Do any songs fall flat in a certain city? Sometimes, yeah. I mean, my body in cops are just because they were played to the end and stuff. Usually like those are pretty consistently good, but there's some songs like paralysis for example, which is the last song on the new album. We played in San Francisco and it was like everyone was going crazy. You know, it's a new song like one of the first times we ever played it. So that was really nice to see it. And so we're really excited to play the next day in LA and it's kind of just like, you know, like, oh, okay, that's kind of disappointing.

4:54Yeah, I mean, that's always going to change in different cities. They have different ways of showing love, I guess. What are you digging 23 shows in? What are your famous to play right now? I actually really enjoy playing Mind Over Matter. It's one of my favorites for sure. And then there's another song on the new album called Waves, where I get to do a lot of singing and playing at the same time, which I enjoy. Cool. Singing? Yeah. So is it, so, where was it? Daydream. It doesn't sound like him at the beginning of that tune. Like a really low stuff? Yeah, it's him. It's Samir Singh, though. That is Samir. Yes. Yeah, I know he wanted to kind of extend his range and he is so talented and he's so versatile. I think he wanted to really show that off. And so he went more into like the falsetto stuff and then he also messed around more with kind of the lower Jim Morrison kind of copying him a little bit.

5:42But it's funny that you mentioned that because there have been a lot of people were like, that doesn't sound like him. No, it doesn't. And I think that's great. That's all. That's the real talent. But I sing harmonies on all that stuff and that's been something for me to learn how to play drums and sing at the same time. It's like the whole kind of thing. Well, that's drumming right there. That's totally cool. So add something else like doing clockwise with your fatted. I mentioned the haunted house at the beginning and I realized people were going to be like, what the hell are you talking about? Do you want to explain what the haunted house is like? Sure, yeah. We've done this thing where we try to live together to, you know, a save money and then also be in a place where you don't have to drive out 20 minutes to get the studio. And by the time you get there, the inspiration has gone. And so it was really nice over the past couple years having the option to just go downstairs and play and pick up our instruments.

6:33So the first house we lived in for this album was in like the hills up in East Hollywood or East LA rather. And it was just this weird like retro 80s porn mansion like on the side of a hill. We got hooked like an amazing deal on this place and just like it started as little things like you just would see, you see like things in the corner of your eye going. And like it was just my mind playing tricks on me. But then you would hear like footsteps when there's no one there and like creaking and stuff. And then it kind of culminated. We had this party and we were up really late and we had a lot of people over the next morning. We were cleaning up and everyone left the house and I was in there by myself in this like 30 pound, you know, big glass frugal, like real heavy, you know, piece.

7:21Just I hear something like shattered downstairs and I'd been thrown clear from the table like across the room and just like burst into pieces all over the place. I was like, alright, there might be something to this. I don't think it really influenced the album so much but we were pretty. I don't see any of my next questions or a song about that or anything. I don't know. I guess you'd have to ask some of that. I don't think so. It's more just like, well, it's freaky. We should leave this house. Go to another one. Yeah. When you have the success of last time and knowing you're going to be playing bigger rooms in this tour than from the time you wrote the last record. Does it change the writing of a record? It's interesting because we did this like month long underplates where we were playing to like 100 or 200 people and like being so close to them. You're reminded that big rooms are essentially collections of these smaller groups of people, you know.

8:08So it's like, when you see the reactions and it kind of, I don't know, it helps you make that connection with like the individual and stuff. And I think that's what we try to write for is like how someone's going to perceive the show as an individual. And if there are, you know, 10,000 individuals, that's great. If they're, you know, 500, that's also great. Cool. We do something called five questions. Five quick questions. One more answers. Oh, crap. Okay. Everyone gets the same ones. Okay. Road or studio? Oh, studio. Land and Erma Cartney. When you hear a song, what usually hits you first, lyrics, melody or rhythm? Rhythm. Well, it's a drummer, yeah. If someone's never heard Young the Giant before, what song do they start with? Mine of the Matter. And in one word, Young the Giant. Dope. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Yeah. Thanks.

8:54Hey, really nice to meet you. Yeah, you as well.