I like spoke at my high school's graduation this year and I asked like other did you feel complete afterwards did you feel like like my childhood is yeah well Lucy's been waiting to finish high school and it's like we've all been really supportive yeah [Music] valorian what's that it's good to see you good to see you too what's going on
you know nothing much everything Turin music music the we're a turing machine this is like some 70s 80s level Turing you guys are doing it feels like it's never going to end wait but it literally almost we're playing our last show with the bowl was it always the dream to kind of do a a show it a place like that you know was
it the plan at the beginning to go to the Bowl do something like that weren't we like wouldn't that be crazy yeah yeah I didn't think when we were recording I feel like we talked about that like dream places yeah like maybe the oh MSG in the ball yeah yeah it's going to be really special and I think um seeing you there is going to be really really
special it's going to be incredible um how's the tour been how's it felt overall and now you're getting toward the end of it I mean it's felt very very wonderful to see you go and play these shows and and it's been so well received but putting into a few words like has it has it been the greatest tour you've ever been on phbe yeah 100% yeah leading
leading question but it was funny cuz I'm like we had literally one day where we were all in a bad mood and it's cuz we went to the Bronte house and and entered a space where a bunch of people died of whatever tuberculosis poisoning the energy just entered us and I was like and at the end of the day like we all debriefed about
it the next day and I was like it is insane that we had one kind of like bad we had literally one off day of the entire tour and it reminded me of every day of like like my last tour every day was bronty house call it brontis it's brontis now when we're feeling but that the way out of it was like I'm just feeling like I'm stressed out and
there's a lot going on and I was just like like the communication level if clumsy was there at all yeah like that there was an effort towards solving it and not just like a war of attrition passive aggression type thing or like people ignore being either conflict avoidant to the I feel like that's my thing on tours I'm just like Katie Gavin
from Muno was like when you've been on tour for a long time and you get home it's like when you're driving and you have a bunch of crap in your car and you have to slam on your brakes and all the in your back seat hits the back of your head and makes like crazy noises and I felt like that yesterday where I was like lying on the couch being
like yeah yeah cuz well you live here do you live here in La is that's a time what that's the uh it's interesting because out of all of the questions I've wanted to ask that was the lightest Touch of all time it wasn't even that was weird you're the worst uh here could have just been California could have mean anything oh my god um anyway I hadn't decided I B
basically moved here but whatever I'm I think I'm doing worse the last time we were here I feel like I'm so glad this has happened though because I'm normally the one who's just like wait wait what did I say now you're too comfortable now I think this was a mistake I think we're too comfy the reason I asked that question
is strange a question as it seemed it was that it's for you to come back here and to not be off the road but kind of be home must be strange that's a drywall in a weird way yeah well it's good that y'all are spending more time here because I would be freaking out if we were ending the best tour ever and I wasn't going to see you guys yeah we
when we toured in 2018 the aftermath of that tour was deep depression for all of us right yeah yes yeah like really actually like life altering life like really bad uh do you know how happy we are about that but because it means that there's purpose and there's desire to continue going how many artists or bands
I've spoken to who are like oh I can't wait to to be done to be done yeah well like because touring affords you this really present like dayto day there's a schedule there's somewhere you have to be we have to interact in a certain way where we're like all taking up space commiserating about being like collectively responsible for the same
tasks but now we'll get to like choose when I choose to hang out with y'all and have y'all's company around me it's like you're just in town you're not really far away away we haven't seen Phoebe since MSG and then we show up for this and it's like hey which I think was like one week ago today Y no that was clear that was a
month ago that is so funny yeah yeah anyway I've aged is that kind of part of the reason that even sort of as in a subconscious way maybe why that we're getting the rest now because it feels like you could have finished this tour and it felt like the end of the record cycle you know what I mean and like we'll see we'll see you with something
we don't know but this is like a beautiful dot dot dot dot like four beautiful dots that continue to go did that play any sort of role into the timing of putting it out or anything like that cuz it's perfect once we felt good about it we wanted it out yeah right like I don't know if it was like strategic it's just these are songs that
weren't ready for the record and then we spent time on them and they're ready now and yeah is that kind of right yeah we were really excited also like recording we're getting like like these really good at recording with each other that was what was kind of striking about recording these versus recording the record is I think you know we hadn't
made something together in a long time when we made the rec or went to record the record and just like our communication got so streamlined by the time we went to record this um and we knew it was going to be great you know like I think the record was so high stakes and it was like such a fun process but also like we worked for you
know 12-hour day with no not a single off day which was for a mon for a month and this was just like was it three days two days yeah was like three days you can hear it I mean this could be a hot take and I hope you take it the right way but you can hear the chemistry and the cohesion of the Friendship way more
even on this four these four songs and I hear it on the record but to your point it feels like you're finding it this feels like it's just there like as soon as the soon as the first song starts it's like ah it's it's not oh it's Lucy it's like oh it's or or Julian or whatever it's like oh no it's boy Genius also they don't they these songs like
don't belong on the record to me like the record like couldn't be another way so true and I think these four like I have no idea where any of them would go in the sequence they make no sense but they make so much sense together also like the writing felt a lot more like the original EP like we wrote a lot in the studio and we're like editing each
other while someone was doing a vocal take or like we'd be like go get a scratch of this and then we'd be like oh that guitar's actually good we're just going to save what we thought we were going to throw away and yeah it feels kind of like sweet and immediate not overthought yeah I think the decision making was a lot more like instinctual
because we had time to like corporately belabor decisions like to the benefit I think of the record of making something that sounds cohesive just in a different way and there's like an immediacy to the decision making that came out of it being three days in the studio and then like trying to be like sparse with the
arrangements not having really ambitious because I think on the record also we never we had never had the experience of allowing ourselves like a wealth of time to be ambitious to like fully maximize a track and then edit it down and so this is still like this is like slightly Adorn scaffolding it's really like bare it's beautiful how you can go there and
then realize you're better at doing things that you that you could that you could only do the first time around it's like you only have the tools in the Box to make this at the time then you go and become something else and you come back to that and it's like ah like I'm so much better at that yeah you know
although I want to go back to that first EP cuz we didn't really speak too much about it the first time around we spoke and um you know I I don't know something about the fact that the whole thing starts with bite the hand that is really poignant to me about the relationship ship that you've fostered with us as fans I mean we're all pretty obsessed
with this band as you can tell like I have intro music and um I don't do that and I think it's almost like I know you could never have fora it maybe you did but it's like a really loving boundary it's like it's like hey we know this is special and it's probably going to translate but just understand like mhm it's not like that
it can never be like that and that's why I love that song so much CU it's so knowing that's a nice way to think of that I think over time I've realized it's helped me feel less like an animal in a zoo like just people looking in and you just ignoring them cuz if you acknowledge like I know you're looking at me I'm looking back at you it impels
people to be more respectful um and like ultimately I do want people to know like yeah we're making and sharing this because we care and like like yeah of course I care what people think but it's very self-aware as well to know that what you're writing is so deeply human it's difficult for us to not absorb it in a very human way and
when we're in very human experiences with people we do cross emotional lines without meaning to the amount of times the amount of times I've said something to someone they're like well I'm not ready for that and I'm like sorry I'm just really emotional I you know I mean it wild like going on tour with Julian the first time in what was that 2016
yeah crazy um we went on tour together and you know i' I'd been on other tours I I I toured with other songwriters but people had you know Julian at the time was playing like I don't know like 500 capacity rooms but every one of the 500 people had some deep trauma to share with Julian because Julian was making
them feel less alone in that so it was like if I went on tour with like some other band it's like some people be like great show oh my God so excited Buy the T-shirt so stoked to meet you and with Julian it's like everyone everyone wanted to like grab both of her hands and say their deepest darkest thing and that is just that's definitely like
stayed true with all three of us and it's just like a very high percentage of intensity so to be able to share that with each other and talk about it has been awesome yeah yeah well my friend of mine said something to me once which was really telling he said I was trying to reach out to a friend and have a moment with them cuz they were going through a
tough time and he said uh he's not capable of that right now like you got to give him some space and I was like I'm a fixer I can fix this like I can help this person and he said he said ZIP which is like my go zip you got to be thoughtful with your thoughtfulness sometimes and I think that that it speaks to that which is as fans
sometimes we do get so overwhelmed by the gift that we forget that it's like hang on it's it's a gift it's for you it's for you we don't share it necessarily that way that reminds me of a piece of advice that my friend Joe said I like spoke at my high school's graduation this year and I asked like other did you feel complete afterwards
did you feel like like my childhood is solved now that was a like way more personally significant like Benchmark than like well luc's been waiting to finish high school and it's like we've all been really supportive yeah valorian no actually they didn't have valoran at my school because it was like a nerd school and it would have been
like actual murder and sabotage but like the advice that my friend I just asked for a lot of advice from friends that graduated the same year to like impart on the youths and one thing he said was like it's not good enough to be honest you also have to be careful so like just because you have something to say that's
like true to you good like the way that you deliver it is so important and also like not everything has to be said like some honesty is just true unspoken and also sometimes let other people figure it out don't be the person who constantly has to tell you well I think this and you'll be better if I tell you it's like can I not find that out for
myself like maybe I should make a mistake or or you know just self aware self- awareness isn't handed to you well then also like something I think about a lot is like you're you're saddled with a bunch of responsibility like I feel a bunch of responsibility physically in like the number of eyeballs that are at
our gigs and then I start thinking about like dividing like quality versus quantity like at those gigs when it's like a 200 cap and you can talk to 20 people and have a genuine human interaction with them for x amount of minutes in the day before you literally have to get in the car and drive to the next show but this is really interesting because in
creating that hierarchy you've actually continued to embrace what Phoebe experienced in the first place which is a desire to connect with the audience Beyond just the performance normally when people go on stage to play in front of 8,000 people 800 people and they say I have a responsibility their responsibility is like I got to put on a
show well no but that's what I'm saying you know you change you have to adapt and change like if you try to in a really like oversimplified like do a you know have a Communist economy of attention and give everyone the same amount of attention you're going to end up short changing everyone instead of giving them like
instead of giving my mom and dad the people in my life the the like Calvin and Matt who I've played music with since I was a child like those are the people who I can give focused attention to because I have expertise in being their friend I can give these guys focused attention of love with expertise that I have from knowing them and like
being curious about them and trying to be experts in their hearts has that enabled you to create better boundaries and how we relate to you and what we expect from you being Julian Baker as an artist totally and I think that's something that I've learned from these guys is like how to say how to like make limits on what you have to give so that
you don't completely exhaust yourself and then give end up giving almost next to nothing to everyone give like everything to one thing you know put on an incredible show and then get alone go get alone get alone that's good I have to get I have to get alone after the gig I think some some way that I think about it that makes me feel good is that I just have
an abundance of potential that I don't have to live into or and can't like that sometimes I'll like see fans and I'm like yeah we probably would be friends you know like but we're not going to be but that's okay like the circumstances aren't going to be like that but you're probably really cool and also if we talked for two hours I would
be endeared to you like especially like my shows like certain seeing people like sing certain songs like well I know for a fact that we relate on something super intense and so there's at least that we everybody that you're in a room with you have so much in common with I know what it's like to be in that front row and
want so badly for you to say hey you look cool why don't you come back and have a cup of tea and we'll get to know each other like but I can't love you you know how you want me toh and that's why I think it's such a beautiful opening statement and it it sets the tone for what the band's become which is um this beautiful gift of honesty and and
and and and emotion and music but um you know we're the band yeah where the band yeah we're the band and I think also one of the cool things about coming back and doing the record and doing this tour was that you built the most beautiful whether you meant to or not you built the most beautiful armor ever which is fun and smiling and laughter and joy and it's
like we're having the best time ever so you can all just like I know it's emotional but like have fun like it's cool yeah it's funny cuz like all at least my press photos with my solo project like I just have the craziest resting face yeah exactly thank you oh my God I'm like I'm just like I make the same face in every photo every
photo every photo is like I'm just like how about relax every muscle also it is my natural resting face where people come up to me and I feel like I have to like way overcompensate for whatever my face was just doing I'm the opposite my risting faces and so when I meet them I head be like this oh my God I look like the
crest person on the planet coolest person Crest but it is kind of it is it is kind of cruel because in a way in a beautiful way because you these some of these songs are designed for us to immerse ourselves so deeply into it then you guys are like what's up dudes it's such a beautiful contrast that's something that I think we've all I mean
maybe me the most but we've all been called out on is our speaking voices being wildly different and wildly different tone of yeah or just even the tone of the music that we make or like sing about killing somebody and they'll be like ha well I'm glad you mentioned what you write about Lucy because you know it's
not for me to to draw any kind of comparison between the three of you as I've said before and I think you took it the right way you're the Beast boys of emotional honesty and discourse it's so cool it's true when I saw you live for the first time I was like man which one's going to sing next this is so sick each other it's so cool and I love that
cuz you know cuz that band raised me so I'm glad that that energy continues at least in my life um but I don't know if I made it clear last time but um I am such a fan of the way that you uh build romance out of the most normal banal Suburban experiences I think afraid of heights assuming that that's your that's your work is just such a stunning
example of what your gift is I mean I don't want to live forever but I don't want to die tonight and when the Black Water ate you up like a sugar cube in a teacup I got the point you were making when I held my breath till you came up stop with that I actually did plagiarize that do you know that did you well privately to
like like sometimes I'll put placeholder words in my own songs and they can be complete plagiarism but I'm just like it doesn't even have to be this theme but I want it to feel the way that this line makes me feel and I had the I don't want to die tonight lyric and I was just like I need something big at the end of this
phrase that is like funny you know what I mean I remember you telling me that like cuz we cut it from the record so it was like this could just not exist um and you were like I want that lyric I want it so bad I've thought that all of your music all honestly all of all of it's true that's why I love that's why I say you know you remind me of the
beasties cuz I feel like they were each other's biggest fans you know Mike would rather hear MCA on the mic than himself and vice versa you know it it just continues I'm so sorry if this makes you awkward but the first time I heard I never wrote a motorcycle I never smoked a cigarette I want to live a vibrant life but I want
to die a boring death you know cuz the thing about that that's so beautiful is the boring death bit for me like who wouldn't want to die boring that's beautiful like put me just lean me up in the chair and don't give me anything that's stimulating and just allow me to drift like I think the ideal death which I think about too much is by
the way by the way by the way we're going down the line on this one so stop right now I just thought about the like it's like uh you're so old that everyone thinks you're already dead and when you die people like what she was still alive damn what a beautiful life that's what I want people to not even be sad I want
them to have already been so satisfied with what I was able to give that it doesn't matter whether I live or die cuz everything I gave is enough well you're on the right path I mean seriously do you think about does mortality ever crop into your mind does me sometimes I'm like man does mortality ever crop into your mind yeah zann asked to a group of
fellow human beings Tethered to this Mortal coil can you tell them about your tattoo no okay cool I I have a trans stamp now that says absurd freedom because I read the myths of sisifus again because I love that book wait give Zay the middle finger also die now Lucy's finger says die now it's from but what's amazing about it as well
is they could so be just like go your self statement if you put it right there but the fact that you put it there is so personal it's like only I can see it really you know it's the end of a poem uh called the undressing by uh Lee Young Lee and it's actually quite a horny poem it's so horny it's very horny I got it the day of our Forest Hill show
in New York we all got stick and pokes and um that's the wor I was like I'll read the poem out loud while I get this and then I was like regretting it it's the worst you know why like everybody everyone around was like it's a lot of L it's a lot of lettuce for the stick po hot take I don't think poetry should be heard I
think should be read I agree I don't think that's hot no I think it's really hot all cuz like poetry is supposed to be read like but I think that the way that it is on a page like the line breaks and like I just think I like to read it more than hear it didn't hear myself say it if it's not if it's read or performed doesn't it become something
else anyway in a strange way yeah I think so it's I have a take on this and that it is music that poetry read aloud the realm of music music that's exactly what I was going to say I feel like that's when it becomes something that is performative when it's very nature and that's a beautiful thing too you know doesn't like when you see hanif read a
poem or when you see like I mean I like that well yeah but then there's like a performative aspect that you're like giving to the tone like the Cadence of the words like the very like tone in like a musical sense like the pitch of how you're saying them even if it's like not within a 12 tone scale a circle of hell in my opinion is Genius lyrics
because they make you recite your lyrics just cold like a poem and it makes me want to I'm like well yeah and then this is about the time it's okay when do oh yeah it's okay when you do it at us cuz you do it he doing it for your own lyrics is hell I didn't want to recite My Own lyrics ever especially over Co I had to do like my
song I know the end I had to look directly into my like Photo Booth camera and and say each lyric of that song Alone in my apartment and I was like I'm floating above myself dude that but it's like the whole point of putting it in a song is so you have some other auditory context so it's not just you saying totally like especially with me I feel
like that I'm like I would never try to articulate like these really complex like like really mixed around Sy a comfort thing isn't it at the end of the day isn't it a search for comfort the words and the feelings and what you're trying to express is by its very nature scary it's it's hard to acknowledge those things and as as soon as you reach
for the instrument right as soon as you're like you're aching to play a SAT I want to hear it it's so mean to me man that was a mean I swear that was a mean that was like such a you're trying so hard to no not you're trying I I just I recognize the enthusiasm you do yeah thank you so as soon as as soon as you
reach for the instrument and you're like all right okay now I know what I'm what I'm doing you know okay now that's Comfort right that's comfort you know what I mean I feel like that when I when we had to do the singing with Muna I was like I didn't I don't get to have a guitar and I'm like what you want a guitar wait
what no like it makes me feel comfy I'm like I CH band like just strumming underneath everything we say to make it sound kind what I'm trying to do like I mean espe especially when Julian's talking like if I just do a little strum like if you can tell what your you play better guitar than me God we just we lift up and that's and that's
and that's why you don't do songwriting sessions for other people because as soon as you get in a session room and someone's like all right Julie we got Julie for 6 hours Let's Ride ahead and they're like and you're like I no I can't do it I'm so sorry I can't do it no it has to be unobserved how how often do you pick up an instrument when you're
not actually in the studio or doing your thing Julian all the time often never I I can't be ar I can't be ared I'm writing lyrics constantly like which is music all the time it's poetry yeah my my notes in my phone are egregious but yeah um wow everything I say feels so like impactful and that's what I'm saying get the Comfort experiment it's
the point as soon as you pick up an instrument it gives it it gives it a different a different purpose and it also becomes something I think that does start to take the shape of a gift because I think poetry at times can feel very much like I need to put something down on paper or in word likee form so I can better understand what's going on
inside soon as it becomes a song or something like that it's like whether you realize it or not you are starting to carve a different shape out of stone and you are going to show it to somebody in a weird way M well and also like the purpose of music like old like ancient communal music and like religious music
like people started singing prayers because like monks like could the sung voice travels farther than the spoken voice but doesn't harm your voice like shouting like people put things like put prayers to music so that you can remember Melodies like when you think about the Adon or something or when you think about any of the like like
Catholic prayers that are sung in the Vulgate like these are it's like a storytelling apparatus to help you remember I think yeah I think y'all understand that very well like y'all are always like like Phoebe I think about this with you too when you're like when you bring us something that just feels like you've been sifting through like
you understand the lore of your life contextualized in the story that you have to be telling like as like the office you've been assigned essentially of like being talented at music and you're like how best can I like report this with accuracy but and tact and Beauty because the beauty isn't like non-important as the fan of your music
the TCT is a key word as well because so often I feel like you're writing in the experience privately and then you have to figure out how to translate that like even if you go to a voyager and it's like you know there are days spent tangled up together and sometimes you let me read your mind and then there are nights you
say you don't remember when you stepped on the gas and you asked if I'm ready to die that's just wildly amazing writing but that came from something and you have to do it in a way that doesn't feel like you're reporting on the exact experience otherwise it won't mean the same to me and it might not do you know what I'm saying like it has to has to be
some tact involves in how you approach these experiences right yeah it's funny I found like a draft of that that song because it's only three verses really it just had like so many verses it does feel like every verse is its own song for sure to me in a weird way I just I wasn't excited to show show it to people I was just kind of like it was
percolating and then by the time it was these three stanzas I was just like trying to show it to everyone and really proud of it so this might be my favorite Phoebe song it's unbelievable top top five percentile thank you yeah it's truly incredible I'm really glad it's a boy Genius song because I was like yeah well that's that's the tough
question no one wants to ask but everyone wants to ask that's why this is this is why it's a it's that's why you're so cruel about it because because we want this to carry on but we also love it when it doesn't and that's one of the things I love about the show is that you've carefully selected a song individually to put into this amazing life set at
least so far how did you choose those did you do it as a team did you do it and did you live leave each other alone to figure out what you wanted to play well there's just no it's kind of like a secret uh third or I guess fourth boy Genius project yeah the three solo songs all have kind of the same subject matter and
we all sing on them on our records yes um so they're they're boy genus songs to me boy gen songs yeah no I recognize that and I recognize that the collaborative nature of each of them I just wasn't sure whether that was the driving Factor behind them showing up in the set like that because you've got so many songs that fans would love to hear
and you are such fans of each other it's not like you're going to be like oh please don't play that it's going you know well actually it was so exciting to me that that we didn't have to reach into our own catalog you know that was definitely a question at the beginning we were like I wonder if we'll have to like mix up the set or people will be
expecting too or expecting you know solo song solo songs we don't know and and the fact that it's a standalone project that's bigger than us yeah is so sick yeah on that note can I flip the cliche where I would normally ask an artist in a Solo situation and I say solo because that's what's normally out of the context of the band it's
normally the other way around like when you going to get the band back together this is great but when's the band coming back together like will we have to wait 10 years for solo albums you know what I mean because this is so great like like it's almost the reverse psychology of what I'm used to experiencing because this is so
great I think the ethos is like that was how I stomped you off I I don't think any of us know don't know how to answer we just try to do our favorite thing next yeah each of us and I think we've achieved that you know in putting out the EP this EP it's like this is the fastest turnaround time of anything I put out other than our first
EP yeah and it's just like you're so excited about it it's coming out I just want to take that into everything so but then also like I think it's sick to have boy Genius exist almost like as like a collective of independent like artists that share or like you know freaking tattooers or like people that do hair like people with individual
talents and like individual styles that they bring to a collective project that are all free at any time I'm like well that's why the story we were still in each other's lives when we all three put out solo records and we had those three songs that we stick in the middle of the set because we're still like storytelling with each other in mind not
because we forced ourselves to be in an environment but because we like naturally are already surrounding each other and seeking each other's counsel and input creatively because I value them so it's like whether or not it's way more important than infrastructure or some kind of like architecture that's laid out the nomenclature and like the
how it's marketed or how it's received or like how it is like that is more fluid I think than our like connection as musicians like I'm still going to send y'all the music music I write mhm and like who knows if I will even be the one putting out the Masters but I'm like we're working collectively on stuff
because I can't help but to it's just so beautiful to hear songwriters come together and love the process and be writing it such a high high level and and it has has the success of everything that's happened the construct of success like Madison Square Garden Hollywood ball number one album this is awesome you
know has it made it easier in a weird way for you to approach what it is that you do like I know some of these songs weren't finished or whatever but did it feel more comfortable going in doing the rest of it normally people say the pressure of it but I'd imagine for the three of you given that you control it and you own it and it's yours it's
probably better isn't it just way better that it's happening and it's working and it's brilliant I actually hadn't thought about that but I think yes like we were like pretty sure how it was going to go we we're pretty sure people are going to like our record we were so excited about it Lucy kept joking like that her
roommates were like it would be so funny if yeah cuz we're all so pumped about it and like all our friends were like you know Marshall would get in my car and be like Play The Wood album again you know um and going into the EP having already played a show it just or this EP having already played a show like yeah I don't know I think I think it took the edge
off a little bit mhm I didn't feel like big pressure around this but I was going to say I didn't feel that much pressure around the record but I guess I did or like the the anticipation of like how's this going to hit yeah I didn't I didn't feel it in the studio the only pressure in the studio which was actually the same for both for me
was like we need to be proud of it yeah and just like figuring out those like math problems basically yeah we all need to be proud the three vend diagram Circles of our taste and our ideas like how do we get the entire thing into the middle into the middle yeah yeah that's what it is I still felt a I felt I I think Julian feels pressure for all of
us I'm the but the but here the thing about jul is that's why we're good is that Julian's feeling the pressure no that's not true y'all feel pressure like no I feel like unnecessary I think I'll spin myself out about it like I'm on like I'm on sixth gear all the time dude when y'all were like please tell us the lyrics of this song oh my God y'all
cornered me yall cornered me in a room and sing it in like 20 minutes and and we hadn't read the lyrics of powers yet I was like I'm not good enough well because we like I bet it's good Al the first like two times you did it you were like we're like what I was so I was so nervous I was so nervous well and also I was like
what y'all are bringing I was like oh my God what like I don't know IM that's my favorite JB song a 100% it just like does I think because I have many favorites of course but I think it's like the it would be like the last song in the Julian Baker musical you know what I mean like it's somehow like encapsulating everything
without really being a call back I guess other to other than black hole it's kind of a call back to black hole but it's like it's not really a call back but it sounds like your music it's got meeting yeah and it's like operatic it's got like some sufan Melodies and Vibes Tot but I was so I think I was so cuz we had given each other everything of a certain
caliber and we had like a limited time and then I keep using Sports analogies but it's like I love that about you though you did last time too it was awesome imagine okay so like you know the analogy of being like playoffs game six and you injure your ACL but then imag imagine if you like win the playoffs and everybody is like wao
you're the greatest basketball player ever imagine if you do better than you thought you were ever going to do you win the playoffs you're the national champion and then they're like okay we're going to put you on the USA team you're going to go to the Olympics and you're like there's more there's higher Stakes than I thought there were going
to be like that's that was I was like I can't like the fear of fumbling it is really present because it matters like the more it matters the more I feel the intensity of it mattering the more I'm like holding the music like a Fab egg I wonder if there will ever come a day that you will meet the highest Stakes you could imagine and then you just
plateau and then they aren't mounting like we played Masson Square Garden like the stakes are that high the opposite no cuz I feel like when they Plateau for people then people start making then people start like recklessly like treating the like really important things I'm like I don't know I want to stay stressed okay I get I
actually want to stay stressed I actually get that cuz if I'm like yadon Square it's reverence for the experience I'm not trying to say that anybody but it does have negative implications when I won't tell you the lyrics because y'all could have had input like imagine they were horrible and then you were like while we're still talking about
Powers uh Julian like the we okay the record we recorded with Katherine marks producing uh the rest we brought in all our little guys that we individually make records with so it was like a lot of people in the control room but everyone that we we have our vocabularies that we've built for years and they all got along really well which
was really cool um but Julian went in to do like a guitar and vocal take of powers and like most of the people there hadn't heard it we essentially hadn't heard it um and the like beginning where Julian like size yes I think that you assumed that would be cut out and it would start after that but we were like
you have to keep it and I watched every everyone started looking at each other and like holding their breath through the whole take and I think that that take is the one that you hear right like the first run through that you did guitar and vocal at the same time there might be like one baby that moment that moment when you I'm so disappointed I'm
like i' cuz I've done all no no no it's worth actually doing hang on one some one sec it's stupid hang on [Music] no like that it's so perect it's so perfect it's it's um it's about the most real experience we get listening to someone we admire actually rising to the occasion but I'm also like I feel like sometimes people have that attitude
you're talking about where it's like and then I walked in the booth and I was a one take tiger and I'm just like freaking incredible and it was magic the first time it happened it's like no it took a thousand freaking takes cuz this matters but here's the beautiful thing about that can I just be a fan for a second and just tell you something in
that moment right there like when you you're playing that guitar and you have to find a different level cuz you've got your your friends who you love and admire and all your collaborators and this is new boy Genius stuff and it's your song it's really you've got a you know everyone's good their songs so so you got to be like Oh
I'm that sigh is is 3 seconds to go pass me the ball pass me the ball pass me the ball hang on shoot how did score score the game's over Baker wins it in the last second because it's true it's true because that you found the level you needed to do the song no I'm just trying keep SPS yall doing stuff Curry not even looking at it go in and
I'm watching the like works does not not look at the knit in the last three seconds he does it in the second quarter it doesn't matter as much I was just going to say like that song is so heavy yeah I think my favorite thing about that song is just how the full band arrangement of it is implied in the acoustic version like
it's somehow heavier because we didn't multi-rack yeah it's literally it's probably like five tracks but I feel that I feel that very much about you write actually I feel that JB when you write songs that are TR that more reduced in Arrangement and it's just you in one instrument with a tiny little bit of additional thing I feel like it's a
band like I feel like you bring the weight of that in your music but then y'all were that's something that y'all I think wisely stuck to when you were like listening in the booth cuz we had just listened through that Neutral Milk Hotel record and when we were driving back and to Coachella and Phoebe you were like
this is so hard yeah it's like it's like a punk song but it's just like an acoustic guitar and a trumpet and then I feel like yeah I turned over the raw material and you guys were like I get it and then like you know how SEO are just like I love SE same and you know how they just so Punk but kind of sensitive and even Jason's songs which
are so raw so emotionally vulnerable and Lou's like ah but I'm really just a soft like it's always in the somewhere in this intangible thing with them in the performance totally yeah totally which is why I think like your tiny desks resonate so much JB is like it's just like yeah you're like a fullon heavy rock band as one guy you really are
thanks you really are these are the three three of the best songs um I mean actually we've established over the course of this conversation that I think each of you individually and together at some point complimented each other on each of the three individual songs excluding the first song which you come through as your favorite song of each
other and that's just so cool it's it's not the rest really it's more like the rest of your life does that make sense like it's not like this is the leftovers from the album it's more like we don't think about it like that this is the next this is where we're at yeah other than afraid of heights cuz I was like totally like
burning my Google drive by overplaying it and it's funny that it didn't end up on the album and like I said it's like yeah it doesn't have a place on the record it has a place in this as like a shining star but it's just funny cuz it was like one of my favorite ones for the album and I was I was like no this has to be this has to be on the I
just I just love how you you all paint pictures so uniquely individually and yet together it's just perfect it's just like it's it's it's such rare air that we're in with boy Genius which is why I get so nervous I'm funny not nervous but I get so nervous when you come in I'm like oh my God I'm so excited um I can't wait to see the bow show um I'm so glad
you're back in this room that that kind of means we can do it again so I'm really it's really it's really good to see you all and thank you so much for continuing to keep this moving for us and for yourselves most importantly as we've established um we will never bite the hand it's good to see you thank you so much great to see thank you Z