oh my genius yeah I don't know that sound effect I'm so happy you were here oh I got more [Music] I'm so happy you're here like I am so excited let me tell you something honestly I'm like mad like in my nerves like I I came into a dressing room just to hang out because I was sick because it was the longest hour of anticipation I've had in a long time and you're cracking jokes about meth Gators and I'm
talking and I'm talking about haters because I'm just trying to join in and then I'm halfway up the stairs going yo I totally got that joke wrong oh my God I know but it's awesome it feels awesome like I just want to join your gang everybody does and here's the secret we can't and that's why we want to and it's so great you can you can you can it's really powerful it's really it's a
powerful thing we all felt it as kids right then we have artists and bands that we all just wanted to get as close to as possible that's kind of that's the point that's what that's kind of why you do it yeah oh my gosh you telling the story about aggressively manifesting at Coachella and then oh yeah I would just watch bands with with rage being like one day one day I'm coming for you it'll
be me and one day it'll be me I love that I love aggressive ambition you know when dreams get a little caustic yeah me at the skate park wondering if the guitarist from my favorite band would get struck by lightning and they would need to fill in that moment people think I was also overly medicated on like Adderall and I was like maybe I should cut my bangs I'm gonna learn guitar hang on hang on hang on you're 35 minutes too
soon for that conversation I had this all mapped out gonna warm up to that I respect it but we're not getting to the DDS for a while yeah we're gonna we got a minute to go we don't talk enough about that when desire does become like all-consuming when you're kidding like you want your own voice and you want to get out there and do it so I'm just going to go down the line because I got
all three of you here the individuals who make the greatest group on the planet right now who was it for you who was the person that you aggressively connected to as a kid that you really can trace it back like all right if there's one that really got in my soul man it was just so many people at different times Well it also depends on like right now we've entered like I'm conceptualizing into this live
performance so there were records that I heard that I loved that I was like oh wow I want to write a song like that well let's put you in the crowd it's narrowed down a little bit it doesn't have to be one but yeah that's what I'm saying and then when I think of that I'm like oh I went to see under oath at the skate park of Memphis and uh I know that's like a weird one to draw I I wish that it was less esoteric
or it was less like marked by a very specific time or music like Christian metalcore scene or that it was like but it was like I saw a guy screaming like screaming screaming like not doing like a Judas Priest like yeah like actually screaming like like his heart was broken like someone died like there was something matched the screaming in your heart yeah I was like oh my God stop I was like
she speaks in profound lyrics it's a lot right it doesn't get to be too much I feel shy right now it's like you I I bet you I bet you bring out the Bible references within 15 minutes as well who are you talking about that's Julian that's Julian right I've um used a lot of the space in my brain for other things at this point yeah occasionally I'll remember something and be uh freaked out for a whole day like every
time I remember a Bible verse yeah I'm still trying to figure out how to clear the space in my brain to use it for the productive oh it's not productive it's stupid I think honestly it was Allison Moss heart like watching watching The Kills in dead weather and just being like what a time though what what a time what a time also her stage presence and Alice glass yeah Alice glass I saw with
a broken leg at Coachella still not still moshing yeah in the Crystal Castles Mosh Pit I was just oh my God completely we all got Crystal Castles so wrong when they came out well don't you think so well no no well I did I thought it was all cerebral and creative I didn't realize it was real like I heard the pain but it was only later on I was like oh this isn't really music of course this is survival totally right
this is this is intense right it's an intense experience so once I got my head around it changed the way I listen to music which is awesome well first of all thanks for getting the band together yeah anytime yeah it's really cool and um and I talked about like you know the secret of wanting to be in your favorite bands is that you just you uh innately attracted to the chemistry that you
don't even have to think about it just is what it is um was friendship ever going to be enough for you or were you all just pining like no we have to just take this into a space Julian [Laughter] be directed at who makes the most awkward face that's just a FYI every time you guys can just take self for it I like the way that you describe it Phoebe like because this question I feel like it's posed to us frequently but our
friendship that makes me want to move on no no no no no but in an interesting in a less interesting way like are it co our friendship coalesced at the same time as our band which is what makes it feel like and y'all both have intimated this but like practicing music with your friends after school like the reason why I know my best friend Matt of over a decade who plays with me in my
live band is because we were hanging out and I found out he played drums and I played guitar so why wouldn't you so why wouldn't we just hang out and then we hung out every single day and now I can't imagine my life without him and by the way when you're a kid hanging out it's awkward it was for me I I didn't know what to do when I hung out with people in my hands so yeah give me
something to do and also the me that it's like from that point children having a shorthand handed to them like so me and Matt both liked under oath and so without having to say my home life is really stressful we can say this song is so crazy like this guy's just like screaming I didn't want to swear they told we had a whole discussion about whether yes exactly crazy like old school like you're crazy
I like you but you're being crazy oh my God I'm just trying to be respectful and I'm just trying and I'm just trying and I'm just trying to fit in so we're gonna cancel each other out beautifully all right but no yeah like you want the reason why we hung out was because we both had emotional needs fulfilled by the income like need of communicating a part of ourselves fulfilled by the vehicle of music that
we were both passionate about and I feel the same way about these guys you really took the time to create something thoughtful like um this beautiful uh um dedication to the people that you love and especially to take it into a place where it's like life in itself is precious and the love is a byproduct of the life that you were given thanks to the people that you love and it's just
this wonderful swirl of love and affection it's like incredibly emotional and then it ends and it's like golf straight in and it's just kind of a clue it's a classic album move it's like are you comfortable boom there's so many great lyrics on this record there's so many funny moments on this record it's funny record at times yep what's that lyric um I think I think I like you less now you know me more is that right
yeah I might like you less now that you know me so well I corrected they're like crying with laughter because it's like bang on uh but one of the most profound lyrics is um how long is the Chevy been on the cinderblocks and I'll tell you why um because no no I love that because to me it it's like such a powerful everyday observation that you see I always wonder why is a Chevy on cinder blocks for so
long yeah I wrote that yeah aspirational project like car project in somebody's yard I feel like is very very depressing depressing it's like it's the masculine version of having a big bag of clothes that have rips in them that you're gonna sew up one day yeah or like your craft bag that's like half finished things that you've moved from house to house and you know in New Zealand where
I'm from in Auckland there's a lot of people who put cars in their front yard to work on them and no one ever does I always looked at it and this may be a little bit of shots fired to my friend whose dad is Major at that but it always felt depressive to me well it's depressive and it's also like in I don't know when you're just like driving through like orange mountain in Memphis and there's just like cars up on
blocks it's both aspirate it's like it broke down you're trying to fix it it's it's both a record of bad care and like this weird aspiration with a little bit of complete hope yeah you're like one day this might be something that could trans like it's a beater you still have hope and it's not in the junkyard yet yeah when you won't pass it every single day to do whatever you got to go
and do which is required you realize that there's something on the horizon that you might be able to apply yourself to that might take you out of that everyday thing you remember you still can't afford a new catalytic converter and you're also like I feel a resistance to complete things like that because I'm like what if I finish it and and I don't feel yes different after I was gonna say this one
I love it yeah like what if it doesn't work what if it doesn't work meditating also every my whole life everybody's been like meditate meditate meditate and I'm like okay but I need something to to fantasize about changing my life yeah same that I yes that I don't want to do the other thing like I I have projects that I will never finish and postponing them I'd finish a bunch of other things like I need to
cheat on one passion in order to have the other yeah yeah you're Unfaithful when it comes to your passions I love that yeah facts no I'm the same meditation was always a thing for me people and people uh people have said to me my whole life that is the missing piece of the puzzle and every time I try and sit down and do it I feel like I'm denying myself the chance to think about stuff that I I'm not I love you putting
it that way because it's almost like the like the productivity like the toxic productivity impulse is even within your mind of like I can't it's not a worthy thought I could be thinking and honestly I'm like I could be thinking about my family like I start it becomes guilt really yeah yeah well now we're getting into okay now with 45 minutes ahead of schedule I was gonna finish on this uh no it's true it's it's
the idea that your thoughts can ultimately ultimately attach themselves to a guilt or shame based environment that to me is Heaven and Hell it's kind of both right because you allow yourself to go into this place where anything's possible but then when you come back to reality you're like what have I done what have I unlocked do you know what I mean it's kind of I think that's dude
you're heady is that good yes speaking of Catherine marks our producer who co-produced this record with us we did by the way she's so popular Legend a legend but we did yoga every morning at Shangri-La and Malibu like the most magical most La ever it's Mount Olympus of Music yes yes and we're like and it's like sensory deprivation tank all white and and just the ocean and we're doing yoga every morning and she goes do you
just get pissed off in yoga I was like no she's like I just I just think about stuff and go why do you say that to me she just is working herself up and her mind the entire time getting pissed which I love but also the thing I love Angry yoga is not a thing we should this should be another question yoga is anger yoga you should be able to grunt like dead weight like like you're in a gym yeah
you should be able to grunt during yoga the way people do it there's some headline is some random article the other day I was talking about the richest gym in the world and they've banned grunting I'm like no it's not okay that is not okay it actually helps you withstand paint when you express emotional pain physical pain in studies your pain tolerance is higher when you are allowing yourself to express
verbally what you're feeling and it engages your core I know this from my my drummer Ricardo um it's it's good for you to Grant value with gifts I think my body knew that I shouldn't be talking about like why am I talking about weightless wow when you solo the drum tracks on this record you you just hear he's like like just cackling the entire time screaming so let's let's talk a
little bit about um the the making of the the album because I really want to nerd out about it because it's such a beautiful body of work and we could just joke and take the piss all day but there's real music to talk about here each of you kind of brought ideas to the table and then collaborated together on things and it just felt like you know you kind of got democracy right and that's hard when
you're in a band and you're bringing your own identity it's uh the other one communism is it communism or committee by committee by committee yeah like we have to be in agree it's not majority rules otherwise you get into the whole like Paradox of if everyone's interests are represented and no one's interests are the same you can't represent everyone yes even to be able to say that
in a studio for people you like is it's over before it even starts right even if you have to actually put it down as a ground rule it's like well the the actual Foundation the chemistry is not good yeah we had a overt rule that we wouldn't do things of two out of three were into it had to be three out of three love that so consensus well sometimes there's two who really see the vision and then we just have and the
third and and to the third you're just like please yeah trust me please do you see it yet please okay let go let God was there a moment on the album where somebody really it was hard to bring someone to the river on it and two of you really loved it I was strong enough like that a little bit or we got strong enough way before I did right right I just was like this is cool I don't
really know what to contribute and then I was so honest I love that yeah it got cooler and cooler and there's like oh I get the concept and the always an angel never God part yeah and then helped write on the choruses but y'all had these verses that I didn't see how they connected yet but this is the thing that I and I I'm pretty confident in the last 30 minutes you know me and I've already know your
tastes in the right light like when you come in with enthusiasm and love and excitement and passion to do this together but each of you are just the finest at what you do like hands down so are there times and I can only liken this to hip-hop when I talk to friends of mine in rap group someone would come in with a verse that day and it's like I have to go to the corner rewrite my first you know are there times when it
can almost feel like a healthy level of sort of intimidation is too strong a word help me out just like wow you crushed that like how where do I go to catch up tonight maybe inspiration is the word that's not intimidation but it feels a little bit too sincere so it devalues it but I am very inspired by these guys I went on hello walks to try to get this better I did a lot of like
rewriting and re-recording like I I wrote a majority of my parts 93 of my parts and then the extra time put in was only for that extra seven percent that I just worked all year like is it the best hyper fixating on yeah um I don't know if it's the best but it had to happen for some reason for me like I just but yeah you can't I've definitely been a part of things that I felt less precious about and and this
was just like impossible to Fumble I think I always like when y'all tell me like you can beat it you know yeah like yeah that's good but there's probably something better and I'll be like all right bet let's find it I'm not scared yeah I'm in this uh Dynamic I'm least scared to fail like that's what works about it is that I'll like put the half idea out there and it's funny because when I listen back to
our voice memos where me or like whoever is starting the song will have like a bunch of disclaimers at the top like this is just placeholder lyrics it's kind of gonna be like this this is the concept or like this is the premise of the song and I feel protecting the space right that's protecting the space being like I know I can get it there or like everybody at the show I would I felt
relieved at the Coachella show because I I hit I played a wrong guitar note so many DB louder than the rest of the band and I was like I know y'all know I can play this and I just made a mistake like you don't I don't fear the whole existential I'm incapable you've seen me do it I believe that you believe in me and I'm more living up to it right or like when you're on a sports team yeah
yeah honestly like seeing like I don't know we went to the Angel City Football Club game I the the football show we went to the Angel City show concert we went to the gig the gig over there at the stadium and that was like it's sick when players look at each other and they're like come on like yeah get with me like like and it's encouraging it's not fearful you know what's interesting to me as well is that um when I think
about your music and I'm a fan of each of you when I think about each of you you all bring ruggedness and a roughness and a desire to reach the emotional Center of something it doesn't Perfection doesn't really spring to me when I listen to your music I know that's not to downplay how much work you put into it it's just I don't think I should be thinking about perfection out
the gate right it's not where I want to go with music yeah I have a friend that says Perfection is meaningless Shadow terminal yeah perception is meaningless yeah it is it is and so it's funny that you talk about kind of like that note of like damn you know because when I listen to the music that you make I I feel like that would be okay you know yeah but it's not um Lillian is the only one who feels like
there can't be a wrong note no it's not that I feel like there can't be a wrong note it's like my entire life interested in Perfection I'm interested in the ideal I'm interested in because I have so much reverence for music I want to be it's like why I would want to be impeccable with my speech because it's not that I I'm like I want to be a guy who flexes English degree and uses Ten Dollar Words at
every opportunity it's because of what language is doing for me it's helping me communicate I want to use the tool the best way so I can do what I'm trying to do the best way and I get really frustrated when I know what I'm trying to do that was frustrating in the recording process I would be like I know the sound I'm after bro do you know about like lazy perfectionism or disorganized OCD oh what are you about
to diagnose you because because I have OCD but not disorganized ocdis I have disorganized OCD is like when you're like I have a a basket of clean laundry that I don't that I I don't quite have the room in my drawers for it so if it can't be done per if I can't fold it perfectly if I can't do the task perfect I will not participate in the task wow I'll just have dumped out clean laundry on my floor WoW instead of finding a
middle ground you would rather be at the extreme version of disorganized than fail it organized at least be a spectacular failure don't let me be mediocre yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah it's way like because indifference like the opposite of love not being hated being indifference is like and I guess that comes to like mattering but like it's been really helpful for me to hear you Lucy say
stuff like like or when I hear back the bounces or like the board rips of our uh sets and I oh that's brutal why would you do that because it does raw well you gotta watch the your watch the tape JB and I went on separate walks a little bit freaked out to listen to the show like the board mix of our first show and then we lapped each other and we're like bro we did it we were Bandits
we're amazing well and it's it's nothing I sh I'm so serious it's nothing short of miraculous that I was happy with that set and was able to point to at least four mistakes that the crowd must have noticed and several more that they may not have but like of mine and I was like it's nothing short of miraculous that after having Revisited that Revisited that set outside of the adrenaline I still like it because I was
able to hold sacred the moment it happened in my take is that not only is perfection meaningless it's also uninteresting and I think you should never shoot for 100 good show people don't even want it you should shoot for a 90 or not shoot for anything yeah just like a 90 good show there's all that room for reality and personality and uh I don't know like sometimes when I've
like forgotten My Own lyrics and the crowd comes and saves me and like sings for me there's like there's just an engagement and like also I like to keep people's expectations low so if you do can I can I add another phrase to you to a long book of phrases like Perfection is meaningless sure I try to sit the bars so low that nobody super low so everyone can just gently step over and get on with their life
right because what is a bar anyway I'm done with it listen do you think I would ever have admitted that I was a hot try hard mess at the top of an interview unless I got to a point in my life where I kind of don't care anymore right if I can't be honest with people yeah if I can't be honest with people then what is the point here you know what is the point um it's just it's such a joy to
have you in the studio I wasn't sure you were going to do it because it didn't seem like there was a lot going on outside of the Rolling Stone thing and the album came out and went to like number one in the UK and and it went top five in the US and it's gone number one in Ireland and all kind of it's been crazy and so why why do it and I realize now that you're just like hanging out with each other there's another excuse
to hang out right it's true that's like this band an excuse to hang out yeah you know when I think about like um what you were coming out of each of you coming out of well all of us were coming out of a pretty crazy time we're in the middle of a very desperate time and I don't want to get I don't want to stereotype anyone's pandemic um but it was it was definitely a really intense time and and I sort of I think
about each of you individually where you're at in terms of your career do you think looking back on it now on the record now the making of the album everything else that it had to be now do you know what I mean that if you'd wait any longer who knows where life would have taken you because not like any of you were slowing down did it feel like there was a sort of a sense of urgency
that's kind of like just do this now well yeah and we meant to do it even sooner like we thought that we'd be able to see each other more quickly and I remember realizing like oh we're not going to be able to record until 2022 that's crazy because we were talking about it in 2020 and that felt like forever yeah you remember when it was like in the fall we'll all be able to oh yeah we thought
we would record fall 2020 and put it out early 2021. yeah I think about like how much the how much the world wants to to experience what I'm experiencing now and just be close to this band and just be a part of this whole gang you know and be in the crowds and stuff I don't really know what touring means anymore I know people do it I know people do it really hard but I also think that the dynamic
has shifted back hopefully to a place where the artist gets to decide a little more what works for you rather than what the machine expects from you so I just want to know kind of what that means to boy Genius like in terms of world touring I joked at the beginning but it's a genuine question for me and fans you know the shows are the best part to us right now um like I just can't wait to get on
stage again um we've done so much prep and so much work and it's so revitalizing to hear people saying this record and I I put out my last record in the middle of the pandemic and there was such a latent thing with actually seeing kids respond to it it was almost like going on a reunion tour for something because it had been so long so to put something on immediate and immediately have everybody memorize it
um it's so special and and I literally can't wait so I don't know I I think we're all individually good at I think we're good at tour no we all three of us I'm going to sadly Say Goodbye Oh but only but only if we can say hello again yeah it's just been so much fun getting to know you hang out with you I I really didn't come in here with a laundry list of questions or a timeline because I
just I feel the music so much and I feel where you're coming from we all do we all do I speak for everybody who's heard this album you know we all feel it and so I just want to come in with a feeling and that feeling at first was like Terror and nerves and excitement and now I just now I just feel loved and I feel loved so it's been really really cool to hang out with you and um you're nice I try [Music]