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I think that when I listen to this album and any of the music you've made since she came out in 2006 I've asked myself every time do I even know this band at all and it's the best question I could possibly ask at that moment um I know
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you you would never be so cerebral as to him as to as to assume that's that's going to be asked but because you just I guess just following your gut every time but man you followed it down the beautiful Road on this record Alex thank you no thank you as a fan enough for you
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mate I'm very proud of him sorry he wants me to say it again I cannot thank you enough for making what you've made yeah [Music] how do you feel about it I know you're putting it out so you're proud of it does it feel like something you can you
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have any sort of objectivity over or like what is it we started making it of what feels like a long time ago now and probably is a longer time than it normally would be when we're in this having this conversation now we're in that sort of starting to play it and it's becoming
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something else almost there too where did you start it let's get a timeline cooking I started here actually uh the introduction of mirror ball and that whole song really it was that was the that was the point yeah yeah a couple of years ago where that was the first thing
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I found that I thought this is the this is the way to go I feel like that might be one of the best things you've ever written honestly as a fan like we know each other but as a fan I was flawed when I heard that did you I'm assuming that just came out
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of nowhere the the that the introduction to it kicking around for a bit um but the I think when I figured out how to sort of get it into the how to sort of make that into uh you know moving the direction of a pop song was the kind of the turning
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point and the door opened to like where I thought it we should be heading spent like the next two years trying to figure out what else should go with that really like I think in the past with the records there has usually been a moment a bit like that where you've kind of I
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don't know if with VM it'll probably do I want to know and you're sort of in the you sort of realize you've found a place to go yeah and get a bit excited about it it's uh using this word but I kind of give a different wood to use it's a sexy
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song It's a song and it's kind of got a Tempo to it that feels like okay we're gonna lean into Groove here we're gonna have some real bottom men kicking in here I'm going to be able to talk my talk in a certain way that is it to me desperately sad song
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Arrangement musicality it's that little Moog or whatever that's just yeah yeah the whole thing the strings at the end which take us into a bit of a Marvin Gaye space the whole thing is just like oh like I'm I put it on it feels like feel something and and I can
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imagine that if that's your North Star that's going to take a lot of work to try and find friends for that that that's I I didn't realize that that in the moment but I think yeah it was to the to the point where sometimes it's like oh this look this isn't the record
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we should make yeah yeah you know yeah but it was always that was the the there was that and um something else that didn't kind of end up in the Final Cut but uh that were kind of felt like they were the starting to finish of it and yeah they're trying to find what was what
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went in between took a while to reveal itself well also as a band who came out kicking doors down as you should and making Racket and playing fast and to get to a place where everybody's comfortable enough in their own ability to play to way less yeah do way less
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how even as a group of friends who know each other so well as you know each other how do you get to a place where you're all in agreement that that's how that should go because the law of physics would suggest someone will be like I'm ready to play yeah
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it's been a minute let me play I guess I don't know as time has gone on you it's you know you're still a part of the thing when you when you're the one not playing like I think it's kind of it's somewhat that's sort of the way it feels like it's still it's it's still you
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that's not in place serving a different purpose yeah for the greater good which is ultimately to see the song through to something you can all be proud of right yeah and I think we're in I think we're sort of you know uh in rough agreement about where you know
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what this thing is or can be now as a fan I fall deeply in love with every one of your albums and then secretly hope that you're going to pick up where you left off and you don't maybe with the exception of the first two right the second one felt like okay because it was
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turned around real quick and it was like all right cool you know this works let's just go fast and we'll go better and we'll go harder and there were differences but it was like okay there's a relationship there I don't really hear too much of a
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relationship between your albums do you do you think that way or do do you do you agree with what I'm saying and it feels like it's a fresh start every time and whether you mean to or not the thing I keep thinking about or like the the thing that's the same about them all is
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it's you're still listening to that same Instinct that you were in the first place and it's and and trying to find a way to trust that I suppose in the space between acting monkeys albums do you feel like the next art in monkeys album is is guaranteed or do you allow
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yourself space to imagine a life without it certainly with this one it always seemed you know I remember the end of the tour in 2019 it was then I was thinking let's go get back in straight away and kind of take some of that live energy in
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in one of these rooms and try and get after something like that which is kind of really amusing now when you hear the way the record has hear all it's come out like I hear it all the time yeah I'm not the first person to say that no unfortunately no we're not
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unfortunately just you're not I mean I think it's one of those things that you have this feeling with that okay this is where we're going to go from here but just the instinct is somewhere else yeah like it's sort of almost the moment you have that
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[Music] yeah there's there's one there's a song that we had uh it's kind of I've written and there is footage of me playing it in backstage in Mexico in 2019 and it's I'm I'm oh um it's like all down Strokes I'm kind of trying to I can see in the footage like I'm trying to get I'm
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trying to get there um and then I don't know I suppose you just get off the road and suddenly it's it um but yeah that's where I remember that was the the the thought of uh in at that moment in time was let's try and make a song that we can close the
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show with I don't know why I'm laughing but yeah it's all I mean it's it's a really it's a really Valiant thought yeah it very rarely works as yeah it's just let's get you know let's do something big I'll be staring down the barrel of 30 years of are you mine if you don't
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right so it's just like how do we break that spell yeah yeah um I think sort of one reprise to many of them we've got to find another way out of here but what I will say is whilst This Record doesn't have something like that but I don't
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know it remains to be seen whether it does I suppose but yeah um I do feel like there's something about the essence of that idea of like a show closing thing that kind of has like filtered through it in some vague way it's very reflective for me
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listening to this record it's uh at a moment in my life when I'm going through quite a lot of reflection it's it's arrived at a perfect time and I put it on and I find myself really kind of everything slows down and stops the pace of it's really interesting to me even
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the ones with Tempo like ain't quite where I think I am hello you things where it's like you can feel the tempo of the monkeys fighting to get out but you've sort of found a way to say yeah yeah but like try this pace yeah like it feels those songs feel faster than they
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are like they're all they're all like kind of a standard sort of 85 beats per minute but you've got this kind of four thing going on the whole time and it feels like you're fighting for Tempo but it's like the songs don't want it that's
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interesting the the idea of the fight and the band trying to get out of the because I feel that we there was some discussions to that effect not so much the recording I suppose but like the period after where we were kind of mixing and putting it all together and
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kind of finding like be you know discovering the path through it um there was this you mentioned like there's the strings on there of course before one of the ideas with that was just to try and I mean it seems obvious but killed everything as its space and takes its
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turn but yeah the idea of that kind of I don't know if it's not battle between like the band and like this or the sound no no it is kind of like uh it is right the strings are loud and that's what I love about them most people try and create
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string sections for songs to embellish the arrangement and to squeeze a little more emotion out of me or the fan it's like ah I can press that button I just gotta put a string quartet on there and it's not that at all I feel in a weird way that there are times it feels like
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the band's supporting the the orchestra and I think it was important for us to try and get somewhere with that with the Dynamics of that whole uh situation um and and not I suppose it's not just like the the between the strings and the band even but I think in
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like on that Shrek uh sculptures of anything goes on there I feel like where we ended up with the mix of that is it's just for Moog for most of it and then the band come in and play it a bar and then disappear in the background again or something that's
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like I don't know we're kind of having a bit more fun with so than those types of ideas I know I mean I know describing music's really hard I've made a career out of trying getting people to do it it's really hard but where did this kind
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of playfulness come from do you think do you are you any closer to identifying how you and the band settled on the way this album feels and sounds and I think in the when I was trying to think about this the other day and I I think in the last 10 years oh so you since um a um
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everything before that I felt like we you know there was this there's this there's it was connected to like a rehearsal space sort of uh the song you know they like suck it and say especially was just was totally like we worked everything out in the practice
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room facing each other and then we went and recorded it exactly like that no oh the like you know with no with very little discussion it's kind of just like and then that am sort of started to experiment a bit more with the studio I suppose and like the idea of that
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and then since then I can't remember like a rehearsal really I don't think I could have that that whole the function of that space in terms of um in relation to making records I don't just feel like hasn't been there for a while now it's all been
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around you know I sort of then like at that point during a.m We started kind of doing a bit of like the demos on The Four Track and that and then I sort of the piano came and went into that yeah the piano came in there like at some point but I've I don't know if it's less
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about the piano coming in there more about like the fact I was sort of the me recording myself as part of the writing process um might have been the you know kind of we might be responsible for some of the shifts well that feels like to me like more intuition and less
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analysis right like when you're in a rehearsal room you're trying to get the arrangements and everything tight so you can get in the studio and record them as is you've analyzed every aspect of the song down towards to what's perfect as
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near perfect Arrangement as you can you just with a four track like just with a sound and a lyrical idea yeah that's painting on a canvas that's like what the colors it's endless and yeah and it's probably going to lead to a different place and it sort of
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sounds like it has it definitely does but it requires a lot of trust in the friendship I think and again I I think the last two albums give us real insight into how the band relates to each other right we always thought you were that Banner rehearsal room that would go out
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best live band on the planet hard and fast smash the out of it break a few hearts and get off stage right so to simplify but that was kind of it for the first like Five albums and the last two albums it's felt like I think we've really seen a trust in the
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band of who again getting back to the point of who does what and how they how are we going to support these songs in a way that serves the song I don't think anyone's really sitting around thinking like what am I going to do with this sort of it's it does I mean they
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don't tell me if they're but I'm sure they have the moments like sake here we go again there he is man just walked in smoking a skinny cigarette with a Moog under his arm here yes well of course he got so you've got now oh okay yeah here we go I gotta say it's
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Jamie who got the Moog though by the way Jamie's the sneaky one yeah he was he got the movie that sculptures things sort of is responsible for that he's like the king of culture in the band that no one really realizes right everyone thinks like he comes in and
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he's like how about we but you know what I mean he's the one I feel like he's been quietly going out there just changing yeah there was like I think there's that there is that trust there and that's kind of goes both ways as well and like the um though
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like I can remember but like on the last record sort of with the that Star Treatment song when I kind of had the vague sketch of like what that could um you know sort of what I was I was like kind of reaching for and had the demo of that and I'm sort of like playing it to
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Nick and I'm not really I'm sort of I've got not sure about it and he and I remember him going now like no this is like like go bark up that tree like a bit more so it's normal it's it's usually like that does it surprise you I
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mean it's a genuine question I'm not poking around does it surprise you when you go back on a stage and you return in this like 80 000 people in front of you and you think about the band you are now and what inspires you and the kind of Records you want to make and
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uh that was like that kind of crowd came to you so fast and yet you're still able to go out there and almost subvert now like when you play a song like memorable in front of that crowd yeah you play brianstorm but it's not about brianstorm anymore entirely right
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it's like you've traveled so far we've been doing that a little bit lately you know playing shows again and um I think it's for the first Bunch we didn't play any of the the new um new record and then but and when we that and that's see what
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was quite unusual for us I don't I can't remember doing that before you started you've come back to it with do I want to know on am right yes with a new song it wasn't even out I think that was always the strategy in the past was like that kind of just
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I even just I don't know sort of show ourselves that we were on the Move still wriggling yeah but I don't know this time we we it took us like a couple of weeks to to play something new and that was when we did that it seemed to like make sense again a little bit more
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not that it didn't make sense like in the first place but it was because it was but it it definitely the I don't know something in like the balance in in our world up there on the stage like seemed to be it got everything got a bit more connected like once we had the
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something new in there there's a theory I don't know if you heard this Theory someone put a theory up was interesting to me you don't have to qualify otherwise I'm going to share it though that mirror ball in its sort of it's it's a very it's a terribly sad
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unrequited experience right it's like it's time all things run their course right right and there's a theory going on that that you are acknowledging that along the way even the relationship that you have with people who appreciate your
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music is just gonna run its course and new people will come and other people will go and if you will come if you will go and I would never suggest you would be as like literal as that but it's interesting the way that people kind of look into your lyrics and the way that
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you apply them and and what you write can you what can you tell us about memorable about what was going through you at that moment when when those words presented themselves I think it ever okay I think it has as much to do with the other elements that
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make up the song as it does the lyric and like I said before that instrumental thing I had um that's on the on the front of it had been around for a while and I feel as though like the first words is is almost like reacting to that uh piece of music they wanted to cut it
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off for the radio like that thing on the foot on the start no the the before that before the before the stabs like you know of course like there's a discussion about the to do an edit absolutely I mean that's fine but I'm sorry it just
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hold your thought I'm sorry if I'm offending anybody or whatever but like who thinks about what works or doesn't work on the radio anymore it just honestly blows my mind like I know there's Rich coming from a radio guy but it's like okay it sounds a bit like the
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70s but but it's like also don't you okay don't spend 60 seconds fading a song out that goes without saying but like but I don't know man I I I I don't know I think I think we've got to give people credit now I think it's if it's good and it's beautiful and it's
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interesting it's all the above but the thing like the sort of the thing that I've based the Tantrum about that on was the idea that this first lyric isn't that it's like it doesn't it doesn't land if you don't have the like intro on it to say that after that thing is
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amusing but to just sort of come out of nowhere a couple of stabs and jump into like don't get emotional doesn't make any sense yeah it is it's a punch line with no lead up so I think all the all the components have to it's a hell of an
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opening line though for an album I mean it's a heck of a way to start maybe this is all just a pointless dance it's a round of architecture but for me as a as a fan whose job is to look into the stuff way deeper than you probably ever would allow yourself to don't get
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emotional as like all-time way to start an album nice one [Laughter] absolutely nothing uh what you've done with every one of my compliments nice one appreciate it I mean yeah no thank you seriously no I mean like you know do you get emotional when you're right
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there when you listen back to it does it strike you in the same way it strikes us yeah because that's what it's supposed to do in it yeah it's like that's the at this point in time though I've heard it a lot more than ever probably did any
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of our Tunes ever just because like I said it's been a long time since it it's been hanging around for a long time that would suggest that you listen to it though because I'm sure it's been mixed a lot for a long time too yeah that's encouraging I've been I was
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working on this video for it and so like that added like another you know 1500 lessons I think did you direct the video yeah did you enjoy that yeah yeah it was um it was pretty it was kind of accidental and it started with when we went to do the session in the countryside
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in France last summer in in England this time yeah we this was the first this first time we've made a record in the English Countryside during the summer since whatever people say I am that's what I'm not I've heard of that album yeah it's amazing that you made that
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it's amazing I just said that full uh how long was the last time you said that album in full you might be friends with that album again it's been fun like playing some of them songs recently yeah man I was gonna ask you like who were you then like thinking
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back on that man on that time yeah and yeah you were totally shooting from the hip then as well it wasn't like that was premeditated everyone talks about that album It's the top 500 Greatest Albums of all time that was a weird album when that came out and I played that to
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people before it came out because maybe you gave me that copy for Christmas I went over New Zealand played everybody I'm sorry to break it to you I was the likertron I was just playing it to everybody right and they were just like I've never heard anything like this
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before in my life and it became something that everyone accepted but it was not that there's some some strange moments some strange moments on there man but what makes you come out kicking like that man making those songs yeah playing that show at this store
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room playing the only two songs any of us knew first me playing all the demos for the fans like that kind of those kind of decisions I think oh that's like jme territory I think that you know I mean I wouldn't have been suggesting that probably I'd be the one and they'd
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be like are you sure about that yeah I don't know but I've a sort of hard time accepting how long ago it was sometimes we just we just did uh reading and leads again like a few weeks ago and um I found myself thinking about the first time we did that in
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2005 but specifically like I was I was it was the week before it this summer and I was sort of I can really remember the week before that um reading in 2005. that was a traumatic time you were it was album number no that was the first time yeah yeah yeah
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I can't you know I can't really remember anything after the tour manager grabbing like the curtain behind and like opening it and we like walked onto the stage but but everything before that I can really remember like vividly that week leading up to it and
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like being sort of excited about it and everything and then it occurred to me that was 17 years ago that when I was uh and for some reason I don't know that number like I remember 2000 and whenever you headlines and you came on to The Long Good Friday we was doing that again a
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bit uh in uh this summer actually yeah because it's taking it all full circle but it was like yeah let's get that one that's ah the ever Wrigley acting monkeys can't shake the old intro let's get the old Ninja I was picked up with the red lights pumping out over that
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crowd and I remember like God Nick must have been in the band for weeks in the is that the was that that was the year after then yeah when it 2006 yeah yeah Andy just left the band yeah that was that was that time how how do you even
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care I mean you caught lightning in a bottle right it was that that was like looking back on that water crazy most bands don't survive that dude is there an album or a moment when you knew that you had kind of been able to wrestle your
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yourselves back from that that we've got out of that got out of there because yeah because because dude what what that is at that time those first two albums are like headlining glass to bring on album number one off that doesn't happen right and so what happens is there's a
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huge wave that crashes and you're on this undertow thrashing around and we're all like ah yeah this is great watch them thrash around and a lot of bands don't come up for air doing that the third record and going out to the desert and that experience was really important for
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I think come into the realization that there's there's some there's somewhere to go like you you know creatively and that you know decision to go there and uh and work with them I think was a is a that was a massive part of this all you know the fact that
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we are still kind of going on now and then when it got to like the am record then it sort of it was definitely was a different thing then I think that's that's your most complete Tempo related record out of out of the out of that group of albums before we get into the
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Tranquility base era which to me feels like it's like even your experience you're immersing yourself in different textures and sounds and flow and feel and Arrangement everything else but like am to me is like oh that's kind of it's
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kind of a perfect album AM I I think that was deliberate you know people talk about accidentally perfect the idea of the car I actually called it bro how about if I talk about a fast track to Friendship I said the car is the best album title of the year it's so emotive
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it's so emotive it's like magic crazy happens in cars your earliest childhood memories are in cars you remember those dates that you go on that matter to you when you're a kid because you're driving and they're in the passenger seat and you're thinking
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where do we go like where are we eating what are we it's everything about it the smell yeah finally all right it's cute yeah people just keep asking me why in the car because it's obvious it's like wait and once you realize and when I die in my top 10
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memories that flash through my mind I reckon a few of them are going to be in a car right I just don't think I could have lived with myself knowing I had an opportunity to call something the car and not not done it I've gone through it I know I
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can done it like who doesn't think no one's done anymore especially something as obvious as that the car you didn't even have to spell it weird like Google bust it you have to be like k-a-r-r great photo by Matt helders yeah and I think you know that was the
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uh yeah there's a car in the middle of it it's more than that don't be so disrespectful to his framework no of course not no no I mean in terms of what you know why the title ended up being that yeah of course but this is a picture but it's more than that right
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it's it's either abandoned or someone's in there having some kind of serious moment because no one goes to a to the top of a car park willingly no one yeah all right I think it's beautiful yeah the moment I when he sent it to me for the first time I saw it for
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IOP lets us use this for the album cover if I said to you most vivid memory in a car right now oh uh closest thing to a breakfast show question I could throw at you yeah well stay with me yeah yeah that's the one I could I went back you know to be honest I went back to being a
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kid and there's uh the swing music playing and yeah me dad you know it was quite often have big band music on in the car and he'd kind of you know like pinch me on the breast stabs sometimes did you so you wrote the song after you saw the photo yes yeah yeah
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as um have you done that before was that a thing there's a few songs on here that there's a few songs on here in which I say the two words the car like three or four times I think it happens like I'm either gonna have to change some of them or just double down
30:05
and call it the whole thing Double Down always yeah I would love to talk about your performance on this performance on this record on this album the vocal performance is beautiful and I read somewhere I don't know if you said this or if it's an old interview or whatever
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but but sometimes you're sort of trying rather you it's a feeling that you're going for rather than a narrative that it's you're trying to find a way to listen back to something and say I captured the feeling of it rather than I told the story
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does that sound familiar or makes sense absolutely yeah 100 um it's um yeah and I think you know the moment you sort of get to focused on like the technical side of things it's it's um yeah so I feel like the singing like vocal performances that one of them
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things you try and sort of what is it that golfers say like uh get out your own way or something like that right probably not just golfers that say that but um prominent within the golfing Community another list all right I don't know have you ever played
31:23
a little bit yeah I feel like I like I would like to start doing I'm into it I just I just started doing a couple of practices yeah yeah lessons Jim and I went to the driving range the other week it's not good it's fun but it's not good for you what you need is for someone to
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literally take you to one side and teach you the little tricks of the trade yeah who's Mr Schwartz is it too literal for me to ask that question I don't know it feels like this maybe there's this sort of a some sort of production going on in the background of
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the whole time through this record there's like some ones like setting up some lights and carrying a ladder and I don't know and she feels like he's uh he's got something to do with that so this is kind of a retelling of of there's a story to this and this album is the
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soundtrack to the set being built and the stage being set I don't know I like if I'm going that far but it just I just when I look at the what's written there it just feels like this there are things that allude to that kind of that keep cropping up
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um I don't know if I've ever heard your finger pick like that before or was it cookie that's me yeah on the finger he's showing off on the guitar again it's interesting it took this long to for me sorry yeah it's taking a long time for you to to get into that space
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yeah it's like yeah yeah but that was probably one of those moments and they were like oh God here we go no I wanted well I wondered how you felt when you're recording that song because it's kind of out of character according to what we've heard in the past it's like it's
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beautiful playing and it's a beautiful song it's one of my favorite songs on the album actually but it's um it's interesting hearing you kind of go there yeah I I think maybe the only other time I can remember doing something like that's maybe on the
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the submarine Tunes maybe this might be some picking on one of them but I've had more time to practice since then do you still play guitar much more so on this certainly yeah yeah I'm and you sort of almost every night yeah that's interesting yeah right in front
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of people well obviously yeah yeah but like just you mean I don't know sort of yeah in the with the coffee sort of thing yeah yeah I'd say I'd say more than I was you know these last few years yeah that like that that tune body pain on this
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new record was so sort of when I at the version of it that I had before we went in the studio and everybody was there uh wasn't that distorted or you know there wasn't it wasn't the guitarist wasn't there sort of thing and um I was kind of surprised like when we got
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in the studio and everyone was there sort of suddenly want to stand up and play even you know and yeah kind of give it the big one uh which I feel like that's you know something something about that was like the energy of like the band being around
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and that kind of you sort of yeah maybe encourages more of that side to come out or something I got the obviously this reminded me of it that would play we just got back to just jumping around back to the uh playing the old Tunes now like in the show or whatever
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we've been playing Rich to the rubble I've been noticed a bit and uh I may have clicked on a YouTube link watching that at some point recently nice one to see if you still got this still got that old uh queue up energy going on yeah it's like one of them before that of it
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now to be truthful but I've got this this fit this something keeps happening weird it's like I can't when I started um by myself like the band aren't playing it and I've um and it's keep like starting it like the octave lower I can't that's for some reason I
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can't when I'm just there by myself in the in like you know in the dressing room or something I'm like maybe I'll practice it and like I can like get up that to that note okay but I don't know sort of didn't feel comfortable I feel I started
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and I'm I'm singing at an octave lower again I've done it again it's not till like they sort of start a few bars in that I can like ramp up into like that you know something that's approaching that character but you're a different person bro like I mean when you wrote
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that song you were that kid how do you be that kid I did it I did it one night like recently though that and like me and Matt were laughing honestly because it's like I went a bit like Broadway and it out of nowhere I don't know what do
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you mean I just it went a bit like I was doing that fast bit on roots to the level at the beginning it somehow just it went just for a second like just yes I like I did have like and I turned around to Matt and like so I think I'd like to say I went a bit broadly then
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he'd got on it yeah you can probably find it somebody's probably found it now the first thing I said to you I will be the last thing I said to you I I love this album and you know I I don't recognize the band I meant back in 2015 whatever I don't that's awesome you know
36:50
it's real life man real life lived and it keeps just pouring out of you in a beautiful way and you've also got your hair and it's great yeah and thanks man yeah I try not to do a another deadpan nice one aren't I but no thank you sir no no no no no no no no no