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Welcome back to Los Angeles.
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How is the tour going, Max?
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Like, how is taking the new album out on the road feel to you so far? >> It's good.
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The shows are really different, to be honest.
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Feels like, you know, there's more the the show's more dynamic cuz we're we're playing the songs and the songs themselves are more dynamic and, you know, the quieter parts are quieter, the louder parts, everyone's going crazy, everyone knows all the words already. >> Yeah. Yeah.
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I wanted to talk to you about the way the songs fit into the live show because I feel when I first heard this album like um you'd sort of found a really lovely place between what you what who you are as a live band and what you had become as a recorded band.
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I know that you really rehearsed a lot before 3D Country and got those songs really tight.
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Was that the case with this album as well when you went in with Kenneth?
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Did you kind of know the songs inside out or did you leave space to sort of figure it out as you went along? >> We knew some of them.
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I think it was a mixed bag.
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Uh there's some songs uh going into recording I did not know and we sort of figured out on the fly.
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Um yeah, [snorts] there there there was not really a standardized way of um of working this time around.
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Sort of just whatever each individual song called for.
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>> What was the first song that you recorded for the record? >> Husbands, I think.
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>> Wow, that's an emotional way to start.
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Where were you when you wrote that?
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What was the composition sort of story around husbands? >> I don't remember.
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I think I was probably in by near the Ganes Canal or uh around that area.
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>> I don't know where that is. >> Me neither. >> Brooklyn, baby.
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Right in the right in the armpit.
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>> Is it canal right in the middle of Brooklyn?
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>> Right in the foul stinking, you know, >> crevices. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah.
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The embodiment of all Brooklyn, [snorts] really.
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You know, a dolphin died in there last week or something.
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>> It's like in It's like in that Simpsons movie where they they dump the toxic waste into the river. >> Yeah.
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It's like the three-eyed the three-eyed fish, but instead it's a beautiful dolphin.
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>> Have you sort of started to stretch them out and take the right liberties with them and and find a way to kind of move them in different directions for yourself away from the recorded vision?
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Well, I mean, there's like a bunch of moments that feel kind of like uh transy almost and we can lean into that a little more if we just leave a little more space.
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So, when we play husbands, there's a little more space that we leave.
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And same thing with cocaine. It's uh it's good.
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It it you know, the songs feel pretty straight up and there's I know people have expectations of how we're going to play them.
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So, it's nice when the section you think is coming doesn't.
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There's a kind of like um It's funny though when people have expectations, they come to a show, right?
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Perhaps they've seen a clip of you performing another song in the middle of a song like like 2122 gets like a nod here of something else or whatever.
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You have fun, you do something that keeps interesting for you and then there's this sort of expectation of people coming to a show and being like, "Oh, that's what geese do." You know what I mean?
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Is that kind of like you want to go in the other direction sometimes? >> Um yeah. >> Yeah.
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It's fun to play around with it.
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You can take more liberties live with how you perform a song.
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Uh, and I guess it depends on the crowd, too.
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>> Second half of the tour is going to be um we're really taking a page out of the Urithymics book.
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We're just going to ditch all the instruments.
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Say to hell with the trailer.
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>> Which era of Urithmics are you talking about?
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I'm trying to connect the dots here.
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>> Maybe [snorts] I'm Maybe I'm spouting the wrong I'm I'm referencing the wrong band.
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Basically, what we're going to do is we're going to get rid of all our instruments and we're going to do it all acappella. >> Who am I to disagree? >> They're very good. Hang on.
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>> You heard it here first. >> That was a good one.
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[laughter] >> Have a sound board. >> Of course.
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>> Could you hit that again?
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>> Could you hit that two more times, please? >> We got to earn that.
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I mean, that's >> You hit us.
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You give us a couple more zingers like that and you get as many as many truth bombs as you want. >> Who am I to disagree? Who am I to disagree?
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[laughter] >> You say three times and Annie Linux shows up. It's like a horror.
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I want to talk about um making this record in a little more detail if it's cool.
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I know it's obviously probably I mean I think you'd be making more music, but you've been making more music with Kenneth.
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So obviously you enjoyed the experience um and working with somebody new and uh I love the artist formerly known as Kenny Beats.
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Can you tell us a little bit about um what are some of your sort of like uh I guess fondest memories of working with him or some of the things you've enjoyed working with somebody you know like Kenneth in terms of helping you make your music?
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>> He works really fast which was really good for us.
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like we we can get kind of lost in the weeds a lot of times and Kenny is very much a keep it pushing kind of guy which was great cuz there was a lot of points where we absolutely would have spent way too much time on a song and he was like
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guys we don't have the time to do this you got to just keep it pushing I could like trust that whenever he was in the control room whenever like record was hit somebody was playing in the room, he would give like 100% of his focus completely there. There would like I
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There would like I guess the outside world disappear and he would just focus on exactly what I was playing.
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And he would also cut takes early.
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He would cut takes and be like, "Dude, that sucked.
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You got to start that over again." Brutal.
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>> That was the best part, though, cuz then he would like cut you off because he knew that you wouldn't like it as much to like your standard.
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He had like the same high standards for the album as we did.
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And we we all just knew we wanted to have exactly the right parts.
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And >> even with the best of intentions though, a half take is still a jolting experience when you're in the middle of something and it's like >> Yeah. It was annoying as hell.
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I want to just do the whole thing. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> The end is good.
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One of the things I love about it, um, the relation with the what you captured with with him is that, um, there's a a real really strong, uh, emphasis on the rhythm section and on the and on the sort of, um, the drums and the bass and the way that they are kind of anchoring everything, which I think Emily allows you as a fan to be able to find your guitar has a lot more emotional resonance for me on this record rather than the power.
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You know what I Like guitars can be such a power thing like and I feel like they dance really on this record in a really emotional way.
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I'd love to sort of talk about what that was like to write because like even at the end of taxes which is a beautiful song but the last 40 seconds it's like you just keep pressing buttons and so what was it like to be able to kind of explore that in more detail?
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I saw someone describe the guitar and the record as like the cutting edge of the rhythm section, which I do agree with.
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The rhythm section is incredibly important to this album.
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Uh, and yeah, it's it's not like crazy riffing.
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It's not about, you know, there's a lot of toes that I could step on.
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Um, I just spent a lot of time, [snorts] um, with Cameron, too, just trying to really hone in.
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There's a lot of searching for a for a part, like the the right part.
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And I I don't know if I ever even there are some songs I don't think I found the right part per se, but but the recording on the song is me looking for it.
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And I think that that's uh is interesting to me.
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>> Was there a moment on the record when you as a band sort of realized that it had found its itself? Do you know what I mean?
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like a song or a moment when when you were like, "Okay, this kind of speaks to us in terms of of an overall body of work cuz I know that you can feel sometimes going from song to song like what is this actually going to be in totality?"
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Was there kind of a moment for any of you?
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Like Dom, was there a moment where you sort of felt like, "Oh, this really kind of speaks to me."
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>> It took it took a while.
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I I wouldn't say there was a real moment until we had at least like 10 songs recorded because we were we were kind of flip-flopping around with um the songs that we knew versus didn't know all the way through and quiet and loud.
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So, it was a lot of stuff all over the place.
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It took it took a while to really see a clear through line for the direction and the overall sound.
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I don't I don't even know if there was a specific song or anything that got me there.
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I think it was just from listening to all the songs over and over again after the day of recording.
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We'd come back to what we did the day before or something like that and then I mean it showed itself eventually >> as a young band and as a band trying to figure out what you want to say on each record and Cameron I guess this is directed toward you.
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Um you know how much of it is it deals with the with the bigger stuff and how much of it is just kind of like a more of an abstract painting for you at times when you're writing on this particular record I guess to be specific.
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I feel like there's nothing worse like going into a song like I'm I have something to say with this song, you know, because then it's just it's just too much.
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It's just like, you know, like um you'd write end up writing a song, it's all about, you know, some super specific issue.
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issue. They don't age very well those songs I think or they I don't think they're very like the clearer the message sometimes the the the less powerful it can come across you know or it it doesn't quite come across very artistically you know you should just make a tweet or something so I find that like sometimes I do have something to say unfortunately and I I really do try and like I get I read it
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back and it's just terrible and I have to cut in, you know, a bit of misdirection, you know, I get self-conscious about uh being too on the nose and then if I'm not on the nose at all and it's just like gobbledygook, you know, Lewis Carol, you know, horse talk or whatever, it's it's sort of I I uh then I have to, you know, reverse engineer the the message or or having something to say. So it they they affect one another, you
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So it they they affect one another, you know, it's a push and pull, I guess.
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And >> at the end of the day, the thing is once you release it, right, if you're really on the nose, people are going to analyze that and turn into something.
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If you're actually trying to like bury it in some abstraction that that allows you to communicate, people are still going to go searching.
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Like I was reading some of the reviews and people really I mean it's like it's in our nature to want to find something that we're moved by and unpack it >> and that's part of music just meaning something else to everybody.
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You know you make the message as abstract as possible so as many people can find something that they're so sure is the message of the song in everything.
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You know >> there's different levels of abstract too.
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Like I've played it around or I I don't I'm not comfortable being too abstract.
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you know, like there's there's there's like I I don't I don't get to like I am the walrus levels of like abstract where it's just like screw you, you know, is like the message of the song, you know, like big walking turnups and stuff like that and like [snorts] you know fried eggs falling out of the sky and stuff like that like that's this I try and stay away from that level.
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I it means some you know even the abstractions you know ideally mean something or at least they they they stir something in you rather than it's not just a middle finger you know >> I really like the push and pull of the uh the direct and abstract uh words that you write.
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I I feel like they provide context for each other almost or that like when you say something very direct and then follow it up with a line that doesn't really make much sense at all. sort of.
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But but you know the the the the direct statement that you made before uh provides context for what comes after and so on and so forth. Makes me feel something. >> Damn it.
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This music makes me feel something. Makes me feel terrible.
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[laughter] That's something.
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Uh >> hit the button again. Yeah. Thank you. >> That's right.
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>> Does it speak to like the writers that you love as well?
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Like are there writers I guess that you appreciate because they're more direct?
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Like can you appreciate that about somebody else even if it's not your particular approach? >> Of course. Yeah. Oh, of course.
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I mean it's it's not ideally everyone's just not betraying themselves, you know, like you can tell [clears throat and cough] everyone who I think is good.
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I I think is doing what they want.
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You know, I could never do things that certain other people do.
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You know, I listened to Bob Marley's lyrics the other day is I was like, I could never in a billion years write a song like this and feel good about it, you know, lyrically.
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Like he's got these songs that are like like he's he's he's like they're they're super like spiritual.
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the rhyming like transgression with like uh oppression and like connection and and erection and stuff like that.
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Well, not that one, but you know, but yeah, >> he's he's >> he would have appreciated the joke, though.
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I'm sure >> throb Marley.
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No, HE'S [laughter] >> winter on tour.
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Oh my god, this whole other side.
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>> He's really got like a strong message.
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He's got like a religious message that's that's very specific that he's trying to get across and it works super well for him, you know, and so there's not really a rule.
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It's just what I've found I I'm comfortable with or not comfortable with.
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>> How comfortable are you with the the reception of the record?
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Do you prefer to not know if people love it than to kind [snorts] of be swept up in that?
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>> I'm sure I would, but >> it's hard to avoid.
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>> Literally can't help myself.
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It's like >> my my Instagram is dude.
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I like I I I go on to scroll reels and it's I'm I'm seeing geese memes and it's >> Yeah. Yeah.
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You're all over my algorithm as well.
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>> It's ruining my life as well as everybody else.
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>> All you got to do is just watch something else for a couple of seconds and swerve out of it. >> Yeah.
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I got to just not scroll on Instagram so much, you know.
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But >> can't help myself.
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This is >> how's how's your how is your ED feeling at the moment given that you're you're feeding yourself probably a few times a day with your own sense of achievement.
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We like we played that show in Brooklyn and then, you know, I remember having, you know, kind of the most insane show day of my life and feeling like, man, I just had my Beatles rooftop moment.
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>> And then I was watching all the videos later from my air mattress in my apartment cuz I still don't have a mattress >> and um just, you know, I was sweating cuz my AC doesn't work and was just like, what the >> What am I doing?
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It's such a opposite thing.
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It feels like not me unless I'm doing it.
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And it was it was funny because, you know, I guess I had some sort of expectation that what's happening now was going to, you know, we'd sign a deal and then all of a sudden everyone would know who Geese is and everyone would go to the shows.
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But it was um we we had a long road to get here.
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You know, we were a band that were we were making it just for ourselves for a long time.
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And it felt super fulfilling, you know, cuz we were just making records and figuring out how it worked.
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And then the expectations changed, but when we get into a studio, it's like kind of the same as it's always been. I don't know. It's weird.
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The It's ch It changes, but it's not like it changed so fast that I can't recognize myself through it anymore.
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It's >> feels like, okay, nice.
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this feels like this is supposed to happen if we're gonna get bigger.
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You know, >> I don't know if this feels I mean, every everything you make is to some degree, even in the attempt to try to not do it again, a reaction to what you did before.
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And I feel like 3D Country definitely was some reaction.
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I think your debut album is great and and I think there's some like I love disco and I love, you know, there's some real songs on there that I think really kind of um I would put on my own personal Geese playlist. It's no problem, right?
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along with all the new ones.
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But if anything, what were you reacting to trying to get away from or try to get closer to when you started making this album when you started making Getting Killed?
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>> It's never get closer to anything.
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It's just run as far away from what we just >> Right. Right.
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You know, so you are reacting outright to to whatever it is we think we know about you at that moment.
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>> Uh we're just reacting to whatever we think, you know, cuz we play these songs.
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We play like we put a record out and then we play like 150 shows and the songs change so much cuz otherwise we would be losing our minds, you know?
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So it's they get jammy or they get weirder.
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We lean into stuff that we wouldn't have when we recorded the records.
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So it's all a reaction to, you know, our lives are different. We're different.
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Our scope of influence is different.
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The way that we play our songs that already exist is different.
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So it just kind of filters that way naturally.
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It's what happened when we did projector.
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It's what happened when we went to write 3D country and record it.
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And same same this way, you know?
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It's there's always something that that we start doing that we want to lean into more, but it's never like a, oh, we can't repeat ourselves.
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Let's go and write like dub music or something, you know?
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>> There's a little bit of dub on this record. >> A little bit.
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>> A little bit of dub on this record for sure.
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There's some low There's definitely some uh some low end offbeat going on. All right. All right. All right. In a beautiful way. >> Yeah. Keep keep it down. All right.
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[laughter] >> Throb Marley over here. >> That's disgusting.
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[laughter] >> I'm not dropping a bomb on that, man.
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This guy's giving me mixed messages.
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In fact, I retract my last bomb. How about that?
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>> Wait till you see the edge.
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Go watch the film back and see how many bombs actually made it in.
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>> You can't undrop the bomb.
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>> You can't un drop the bomb. You can't.
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Let's talk about the fun side of making this record while Los Angeles.
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How it treated you when you made this.
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You were over in East LA.
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I think >> for the record, we we were we were staying at we had an Airbnb in South Central.
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Um and then it was like a 15inute drive up.
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Um to make the record, I I have I usually have no idea where I am in a city if it's not New York. >> Right. Right. Right. Yeah. >> Yeah.
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Well, LA is also pretty easy to get lost in.
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I mean, it's easy to get lost in LA behind your own door, >> let alone in this city.
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You know, it's kind of a strange city.
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What are your sort of impressions of Los Angeles, having come from LA, because I'm from Yeah, I'm from New Zealand, lived in London, lived in New York for a little bit, lived in LA.
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So, I've got my own kind of take on it, but what are your >> I I sort of I realized this last time I was in LA.
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New York feels like New York's [snorts] like a hundred cities stacked on top of each other and LA feels like a hundred cities stacked next to each other connected by highways that are always full. >> Yeah.
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>> Um and it's really hard to get to all the cities. >> Yeah. Yeah.
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Cameron, is it a city that you can find connection in?
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>> That remains to be seen, Zan Low. That remains to be seen.
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I'll I'll uh I mean you could find anything you want in a lot of these cities.
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I mean going to all these different ones, you know. Yeah.
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A lot of these places are what you make it.
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Like we we fancy ourselves like city experts sometimes because we've visited all these cities, you know, like but really we've only visited them for like two days at a time.
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Like every time I visited somewhere like I don't like Seattle, you know, I get a completely different impression of it because I'm in a different neighborhood, you know, and just walking around and and whatever.
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And you know, a lot of these just a lot of these spots, they have they have scenes and people who you'll you have to really look to find.
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You have to look to find what's good about a lot of things, you know. and LA.
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You know, of course, I had I I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think we all had reservations about the place in general.
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And I've come around on it in some kind of way.
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of way. I I don't think it's so it's it's such a you know cold dead sort of cl ladder you know hellscape as as I once you know sort of uh discounted it as >> there's good people here >> there's seven or eight yeah >> it's funny about LA is that um I think
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everyone completely missed the point when they started talking about how shiny it is and how everyone's just chasing all this big dream or whatever it's it's I've out of anywhere I've lived in my life it is the most anxious place I've ever lived than I might >> way more than New York is to me. Like
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Like New York at least gives you tools by going outside.
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It's like face it down, bounce it off some people or some situation.
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>> With New York, you're forced to go and like for LA you can be from door to door to door every single place you go.
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And none of us know how to drive.
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So that was like a pretty nightmarish experience.
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>> And that's the most New York fact of the entire band is that none of you And also I guess being a band early on, you probably got driven pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah.
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I mean, it was like, you know, it none of us have have, I guess, needed to learn how to drive because it wasn't like a functional thing when we were at home and then it became a really functional thing, but none of us, you know, felt comfortable busting down like a 9-hour drive cuz none of us know how to drive.
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I'd like to re-emphasize.
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Um, you know, LA's cool and it's like it's got a lot of stuff that we all really like.
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I think this place is really great if you have something to do.
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If you don't have anything to do, >> I don't know if it would be so rewarding.
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You know, it's there's a lot of New York is a similar way, but it's like I can go and bike to the park from my house and go and around and spend not very much money and with, you know, I can't go outside and walk around here.
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If you have stuff to do, it's great.
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Cuz we were here and it was like, you know, at a certain point I realized like we could be doing this record anywhere because we're going from the Airbnb to the studio to the Airbnb. >> Totally.
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>> And the only thing that's making it like you're making it a Griffith Observatory. >> Yeah. Right. Exactly.
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It's like, you know, I I don't know. I >> It was strange.
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It was also when we were here the first time, uh, LA was on fire and we couldn't really go outside, so it was like uh >> You were making your music during that time.
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You were making the record during that time.
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Uh we we flew in like right before the fires got contained.
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So I got off the plane and I thought someone was smoking a cigarette in front of me ashing at my face and I was like, "Oh no, this is just fire."
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>> How can it not impact the way that you're performing or creating your music? >> Yeah.
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I mean, there's like, you know, the the death anxiety of every day when we go to the studio in an Uber that has their windows open, I'm stressed that I'm going to get like asbestous, you know?
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Do you remember what you what songs you worked on when that was kind of really happening on the record?
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Just to be a little more granular about it.
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>> I mean, back to husbands, it was like right around then, right at the beginning. >> Start.
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So, you started the record around that time. >> Yeah. Yeah.
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>> Do you have any recollection of how that made you feel as as as a creative person at that moment being in a in a in a place where you were starting to make something?
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But it was like obviously one of those kind of uh really catacrophic experiences that people will talk about forever. You know, those fires.
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There's a lot of ways where, you know, just sort of turn off to the outside world when it's time to actually make something, you know, like I I was I I almost expected it to be more apocalyptic versus where we were, but of course, LA's so massive, you know, we we basically just got the fumes and a strange vibe and, you know, didn't have to pay bus fair.
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But it's it's like um I mean it was weird all all the politics that came up around it, you know, in terms of like who's doing what, whose fault is this, you know, where's the, you know, president versus the governor versus the whatchamacallit, you know, all that stuff was pretty pathetic, I thought.
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And um it was just a tragedy, you know, our the the intern who now works at the studio that we recorded the record at, but his his freaking house burned down like during it and he he he took it to the face to to be fair.
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He walked in, he's like, "Yeah."
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You know, he was luckily I think he had somewhere else to stay, but it's you know, it's his house. It's gone. >> Well, yeah.
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He came in like kind of nothing had happened.
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We were like, "Hey, man."
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and like >> what do you need? >> Are you okay? >> Yeah. What do you need? >> Yeah.
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And he's like, "Yeah, you know, like life's a bitch."
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>> It's a beautiful life you're setting up for yourselves to be able to make music as friends.
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I know the friendship is is key to all of it and is is the point um of of why it all exists.
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Um how does it sort of how does it feel at this point now on album number three?
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cuz it's not an experiment anymore, right Dom?
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It's like, okay, this is this this is our life if we want it to be.
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We could just carry on doing it.
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Was that always the dream or to some degree does it make you kind of question it in a healthy way every time?
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Like what are the intentions here?
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the intentions here? I guess it was always the dream in our heads like when we were in school still because we would we would have to come to school see each other every day and the band was only on the weekends basically and it was our our escape from that you know and then
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it turned into or it's kind of turning into our job now you know a full-time job and it's you got to balance the friendship with the work so that the work doesn't overtake the friendship you know what I mean you can't just become like um can't only see each other for business purposes. It's it's all about
26:31
It's it's all about keeping friendship first.
26:34
>> Dom suing me currently.
26:34
[laughter] >> It's all about friendship, but it's really all about the money.
26:40
>> It's all about the money.
26:40
We got to get off that air master at the end of the day. >> Filed a counter suit.
26:47
>> As you should see, >> they're using the same lawyer.
26:48
It's kind of a [laughter] [laughter] >> Lionel Huts. Yeah.
26:58
Is that the Simpsons lawyer?
26:58
[laughter] >> Come on in. I represent both of you. It's going to be great.
27:02
We're going to figure it out. You pay me twice.
27:03
We're going to figure it out.
27:05
Let's keep this let's keep this train on the road.
27:07
[laughter] >> It didn't stop, right?
27:10
I mean, there is you you did find a way to continue to make songs whether they come out or otherwise.
27:15
Like, >> yeah, we're I mean, we're always going to continue to write and record music when we can.
27:20
[snorts] Uh, and how much of that actually ends up being like worth putting out, it remains to be seen.
27:30
>> We just be getting so bored by these songs live.
27:32
You know, we we've got to write some more stuff to play.
27:36
>> Isn't that why you play American Idiot in the middle of them and around and have fun and do >> It's what it's all about, you know?
27:40
It's about um, >> you know, >> uh, >> it's about stealing, commandeering, taking, burglarizing, plagiarizing.
27:48
It's about not only, you know, spitting in the face of the of the listener, so to speak, but it's also spitting in the face of all of our wonderful influences that came before us.
27:58
You know, just really bastardizing what they put out there for us.
28:03
>> Pilfering, mugging, snatching.
28:06
>> It's the kind of observation that I read um did my diligence uh >> about about the idea of it not sounding too much like anything else.
28:15
And I think that's a really interesting position to be in and how that affects you as a fan of music, right?
28:20
Like, okay, I love this so much.
28:22
How can I ignore the fact that it's a part of who I am.
28:24
It's changed my chemistry.
28:26
That suicide changed my chemistry.
28:29
I'm a different person from the second I heard that music.
28:30
And then you come to this crossroads when you're making music where you're like, "Please God, don't let it sound too much like the thing I love the most in the world."
28:37
Which is kind of such a conflicted place to be. >> I mean, I don't know.
28:40
I I think it's like the midway point between trying to create something new and individual and being like upfront and honest with how you know some people like the most honest like expression that you can do sometimes is can be like quite referential to other people's music and writing and and whatnot.
28:59
But if that's if that's what like um you know if that's where you find yourself the most [snorts] then you kind of have a duty to do that.
29:12
I think cuz I read somewhere [snorts] that you're all radio head fans and ditto and that you and and everyone everyone who tries to sound like them sucks and that's there's truth to that too.
29:21
But I just don't think you can.
29:23
There's a lot of artists that exist, not anyone I'm thinking of in particular, but it's like it's there's a lot of artists that exist with a certain scope of influence.
29:31
It's we're this band, we're this kind of, you know, group, whatever.
29:36
And it's this is what we make.
29:39
I only listen to that sounds like the thing that I make, whatever.
29:42
Our our bags are so mixed because we've just been listening based on the time we grew up and the access to music.
29:50
It's like, you know, anything that I've listened to makes it onto Geese records, whether it be like fills that I'm ripping literally from Foo Fighters records to like, you know, Harry Nilson uh emotional like violin swell or something like that.
30:06
Um, it's just it comes from like a very all of us are the same.
30:12
Like >> none of us listen to the same kind of music and it all we all approach how we think about the songs and how we think about what we're playing on these songs from totally different places which makes the you know you can't have some some that sounds exactly like how we do it because we're like I don't know our taste in music and our scope of influence is so different from each other.
30:36
It's impossible not to have them.
30:38
Like some people try not to have them and it's just completely ridiculous, you know?
30:42
Like it's it's just not there's no point, you know?
30:44
There's a certain ego to be like, I have no influences.
30:46
I'm going to sound like nobody.
30:48
It's like you don't you don't know better than everybody.
30:52
>> It's arrogant to say I'm going to make something super original. It's like what?
30:55
>> You're you're like part of a continuum of other people have made music and people will make music after you.
30:58
If you're going to record music in a studio, it's the [laughter] >> But it's also like there's a difference between the influence that like, >> you know, like Jay Dilla listened to Radio Head and was just like, I love Radio.
31:12
There's a difference between the influence that he took from them and the influence that Muse takes from Radio Head, you know, like like there's one that's trying to be Radio Head and there's another that's trying to expand on Radio Head.
31:23
And and and that's that's what everyone should strive for in terms of like influences, you know? to be like Radio Head. >> Yeah.
31:31
You got to take [laughter] you have to get up there and start cruning and start, you know, bashing away at modular synthesizers and stuff like that and and be very sad about it.
31:42
[snorts] And um uh well, whatever.
31:44
You know, it's some people they can get to the they can get to the heart of their influences in a way that, you know, imitation can't really uh doesn't touch, you know, and you can sort of tell the difference between people who feel it and people who transcribe it. >> Yeah.
32:05
You you got to be you got to be comfortable to take the influence and sort of speak it through your lips, you know, and not try.
32:11
Everyone's personality is built up of they saw in at least in the western world in [clears throat] movies and TV.
32:18
Like there's no the reason that we all talk the way we talk and the reason that you know you can watch an interview with a band and they all act very similarly is because they're all pulling from the same place.
32:30
They like the same stuff and it's stupid to you know I don't know.
32:36
It's like uh you know going to a church or something and just affirming that you know that God's not real.
32:44
It's like okay but why do you know?
32:46
Why the hell do you know? >> It's a it's strange.
32:48
Everyone takes what they take and and like the the the thing that makes it good is that it's genuine.
32:57
you know, it comes from a place that feels really real and you can hear or tell when it's not, you know.
33:04
>> Uh there's this record uh by Isai Toita, Snowflakes Are Dancing.
33:08
This is this is a good example.
33:10
It's like it is a sort of like switched on box style like electronic synthesizer uh rearrangements of uh of uh Debuse songs uh and pieces.
33:23
So he's like he he didn't even really write the original compositions, but the way that he's reimagining them, God, it's it's so gorgeous. >> Yeah.
33:35
Just find a new emotional resonance and stuff. >> Yeah.
33:38
I I haven't listened to the original uh compositions.
33:40
I just know the versions that he did and that yeah that that music sort of feels like a uh I know it's a favorite of mine cuz it it that album functions as a place that I believe I'll always want to return to.
33:55
There are records like that that I know are my favorites cuz I feel I can I have this sense that I can grow and change as a person and continue to like fall in love with this record.
34:08
>> Some some music just has that effect.
34:11
There's so many songs that I love that like I'll put down for like a year and be like does this is this still good? Let's do it again.
34:17
It's like >> like what what's an example? Let's talk about music. Like what?
34:22
>> Cleo, that John Kale song is perfect.
34:24
>> It it hits every time I hear it.
34:24
Um there's this um there's uh the the first time I ever heard Paul's Boutique, it felt like um it felt like I was like I don't know.
34:40
That's the most like uniquely New York City sounding record I've ever heard in my life.
34:44
And it also was made in LA. >> It's so true.
34:47
And it's so weird that they made like their ultimate tribute to the Lower East Side somewhere in like the hills.
34:55
>> Yeah, it's the craziest.
34:55
It felt like so I don't know.
34:59
I That record blows my mind still. It really is.
35:04
>> Your boy Booya Bass is like I'm like what the is going on right now?
35:07
sampling the Beatles and just flipping around and like and they were written off.
35:11
That album was a ride off.
35:11
Like, can you believe that Everyone was just like, "Ah, man.
35:15
If you're not going to put women in cages and inflatable penises on stage, we don't want to know about you."
35:21
>> It's just like >> so crazy. 80s, man.
35:23
>> It was like one of the greatest I I think probably the most singular and greatest use of of like just record flip sampling ever heard.
35:34
Well, I'm glad you said that because it ruined it forever after the nicest way.
35:38
I mean, the whole entire industry built around accountability over samples is post Paul's Boutique and Three Feet High Rising.
35:47
>> It's Thank God we got those records cuz they're the ultimate examples of them cuz after that it's all compromised. >> Singular record.
35:52
You know, >> there isn't an artist who samples that hasn't had to say goodbye to a great song because the sample just couldn't clear.
35:59
>> That's so incredibly depressing to me.
36:02
the idea of being not being able to move with freedom regardless of the copyright of it all. >> Yeah. I don't know.
36:07
I I I guess like you're >> No, no.
36:12
You know, I mean, it is technically stealing. >> Whatever. Who cares?
36:18
Well, you know, it's it's it's I I think it's it's it's very noble stealing, but you know, >> it's it's hard to say what's what's right in terms of, you know, what's fair.
36:32
You know, it's ironed out by >> there's a right Yeah, there's a right way to sample stuff.
36:36
I think >> there's a window for that to exist in its space and reach the most amount of people.
36:42
And once that window starts to sort of close and it's the sun has set, then can't we have some fun with this? >> No. Exactly.
36:48
It's like if when you can when you can hear the love that the person who's sampling >> a record has for that record.
36:53
It sounds like they're like cradling it in their arms and then handing you this gift or something.
37:00
To be fair though, that does obscure it just obscures it so much, you know, like it's kind of an everything is stealing or nothing is stealing kind of situation.
37:12
>> It's definitely the way society works.
37:13
Yeah, because I mean like especially if if there's like whatever it is, like I I I just I get it.
37:22
Like if I heard if I heard someone that like if a song came out right now that sampled the second half of Taxes and it was 10 times bigger than Taxes, I would be pissed. >> Okay.
37:33
>> I would be really mad and we would sue them.
37:35
So that's >> we would take them for all they've got cradle or no cradle. >> Yeah.
37:40
[laughter] >> I'm like, you know what? There's your three. There's your three. >> There's your three.
37:45
>> I didn't realize it was such a sensitive topic.
37:47
Control over the soundboard. I'm sorry.
37:49
I'm sorry I pressured you.
37:52
>> You know, normally if someone comes at me a little softer with it, I'm more than willing to let them come over the side of the desk.
37:55
But you were just so front foot on it.
37:56
You were like >> soft about this.
38:00
>> You've mentioned my hard edges.
38:00
I'm glad you brought it up.
38:02
you know that I'm >> Yeah, >> my edges are you know [laughter] what?
38:11
>> Well, they're hard, I suppose. [laughter] Sharp.
38:13
>> You know, all all that about sampling being said, I am I am so excited for when the the taxes sample that gets 10 times bigger when we when we verve Rolling Stones that >> Oh >> And uh and just, you know, >> just everyone everything stops.
38:25
Give it give every give us everything or everything stops. >> Taking it all back.
38:30
Well, the great the great thing about that is you can still go listen to Bittersweet Symphony.
38:35
That's the most genius part is you can listen to that and then you're like, "Wow, this song's amazing."
38:39
And then you have to go and hear all the trivia. It's incredible.
38:44
It's the best way to do it.
38:46
Please sample taxes is what I'm trying to say. >> Just sample it. It's fine. It's fine. We don't care. >> Yeah. Nothing will happen. >> We don't care.
38:52
What would be um your most played record, Dom, in your life, do you think? >> In my life? >> Yeah.
39:00
I'll like we were talking about earlier, I'll put stuff down to like keep it um fresh and then pick it back up years later.
39:06
So like there's albums like like Door's albums that I've been listening or like talking heads albums that I've been listening to forever and then there's like new stuff that's like just as influential to me.
39:15
Like >> who was the most influential person in your in your life in terms of turning you on to music? >> My parents for sure.
39:21
There was always the radio plan.
39:22
um any moment of the day there was definitely an iPod playing the Beatles or uh something of the sort, you know what I mean?
39:33
>> And that's the case across the board, right?
39:35
Like everybody came from pretty artistic environments in terms of like the encouragement of creativity and the acknowledgement that art matters and it's not like a folly like it's like no this is cool music we you know so when you start to show an interest and I know you guys are encouraged to do so.
39:46
What is the relationship that your family has with the band and seeing like what it's doing for you in your lives as individuals and as people like the the connection between um you know being a parent but also acknowledging who you're becoming. >> Um my dad's stoked. He is a musician.
40:03
Um so he gets very excited and also very granular.
40:11
He has he has an ear that sort of sort of he's he's hopelessly chained to what his ear does and doesn't tell him is good or like I remember he called me when I sent him the record.
40:22
He said half real the the intonation of Halfre is I can't listen to that song.
40:27
You need to fix that song. It's out of tune.
40:28
And he called me a month after that and said actually it sounds good now. I I was wrong.
40:36
I just had to listen to it more.
40:37
kind of the ultimate compliment like you know when someone actually takes that much of an interest in something and feels like they may have some influence over >> if he didn't care he wouldn't tell me that it needed to be better I guess and
40:50
he's he's always cared in that way it's helpful >> my dad uh does music for a living he's a composer for like commercials and and sort of he runs like a sync library so he like sells it to TV stations and stuff like that. Or since I was very
41:07
Or since I was very little, he gave me his recording equipment that he had been, you know, made obsolete by whatever he'd just replace it with and he would give it to me and sort of encouraged me to use it.
41:22
And I really resisted it for a long time because, you know, he wanted me to.
41:24
And then eventually, you know, I got in with it.
41:29
But that's a that was a huge privilege, you know, to have him literally given me the tools to do what I wanted, you know.
41:38
That's that's really what he did for me, you know, that sent me on the musical path or whatever.
41:46
>> What was his first impression of the album when you sent it to him?
41:48
>> He's got a whole range of first impressions.
41:50
I think he gives me the benefit of the doubt now more than he used to as as he can see that, you know, things are working out relatively, but he he's, you know, he can be scratching his head sometimes at at some of the things, you know, he can be like, you know, it's like people are going to be irritated by this [laughter] like are you trying to make them turn it off just just as an artistic statement?
42:15
You know, [laughter] like no, Dad.
42:22
>> [laughter] >> Your dad's a real one, man.
42:24
>> Like, is it >> just considered cool to assault the audience with, you [laughter] know, unpleasant noises?
42:30
Like, that's not my intention, Dad. I lowkey love him, too.
42:37
[laughter] [gasps] >> Straight face with that Like, be so like concerned.
42:44
>> It's like the concerned insult. >> No, no.
42:46
He's he gave me a lot of great advice from when I was as like he he he recommended you know I would show him I showed him the whole first Geese album and he he gave me mix notes on it.
42:57
You know >> what what did one really stand out for you that you that ultimately stuck and kind of helped you move forward. Do you know what I mean?
43:06
>> He was always asking me like what the point of stuff was like he would just the song would end and he was just like what was what was that exactly?
43:11
you know, like uh in a nice way, but he would be like, you know, like why why it didn't feel like there was a like punchline or a climax or stuff like that.
43:24
I would make sort of these like, you know, um uh uh static things that I was proud of, you know, these these I would make all these grooves or these songs that would just go verse, chorus, verse, chorus, and then sort of end.
43:36
and he was he would he would really push for more of a he he liked explosive endings.
43:44
He liked, you know, big dynamic finishes.
43:46
[sighs] And I guess this this new Geese album is is a big, you know, screw you to him [laughter] because No, I I think this record has >> Oh, definitely.
43:59
>> Just not as many as the the old ones.
44:01
>> The ending of Getting Killed is may not have a big dynamic crescendo, but it has a beautiful emotional resonance to it.
44:07
You know, it's like a lovely way to sort of like I don't really don't want that to end. >> You said it. >> Come see us live.