[Music] these ones always feel good so good as soon as you hit him right it's just like where are we going to the Moon to theing Moon my guy to the moon to the Moon missed you ah thank you man I'm happy to be back man I'm happy to be back you've been giving us music from this forthcoming new album we know where your heart is been and we know that you you're covering a lot of ground you've got a lot to say and a lot
of stories to tell this one's this one's this one finds you man it finds you outside and um and the air is clear it's what it sounds like to me um you know the the title is emotive heat stroke it's the kind of thing you think you want you don't want it no exactly so it's kind of a double-edged sword for me it's like it's crazy in the heat it's got a crazy in the heat feeling to it
but in the in your own words I'm giving you my amateur feeling on the record what do you tell us what means to and and where it came from bro it came from somewhere a very very very passionate Place uh Through The Years becoming passionate about it and I found myself back in that place and it was intense and one thing that I really value uh is my ability to tell stories because I get
to dream these realities and they come to life and I I wrote this song in 2022 with uh all day and John Hill it was an incredible process but I wouldn't know how accurate this song would be until years later when we're hit with all these waves and all these massive moments of he I wouldn't have known but that song definitely like you said it really brings the heat I love the word
intense I I like how you took that experience of reconnecting to music in a passionate way and not just through the concepts that that surround you now of being an artist right they concept their ideas they're ideas right music doesn't start that way it starts as a place of passion something that moves you and you use the word intense rediscovering that was intense can you
just elaborate on that a little bit more because I love the way that you described it as that you could have used any word but you used a word that that felt all-encompassing because creating music is vulnerable and when you're tapping into your your sound your superpower it can be overwhelming you listen to the song heat stroke and when it starts I'm overwhelmed no I can't explain then the
walls begin to melt as I burst into flames there's this intensity this passion this drive yeah it's like a a reignited flame like a match yeah and and I feel it off yeah it's almost too hot to be around and yet it's it's so important it's it feels so good sounds so good you sound so good you look good now I mean I think of the last time we sat down really sat down face to face in
the studio up in Hansen when we listen to free spirit right um and I think I can say this to you I think I think we've developed enough of a friendship connection for me to be honest with you right I think you were and remain proud of that album I love that album as a group of songs I think you were I think that you you felt a bit um disconnected to me from the experience of being an artist at that time
yeah it was a lot um they don't give you a a a Playbook on how to acknowledge that you're one of the world's most influential people on Time Magazine at 21 no they don't they don't they don't give you a Playbook on how that experience actually feels and it it was a lot for me at that time because I started from being creative in this room with a guitar and a friend to now
I'm recording in these vocal Studios and everyone's depending on me and people are throwing these tasks at me and I'm just supposed to show up to the occasion did it do benefits for me yes but was I allowed at that time to really Embrace myself in that feeling I didn't have enough didn't have free time I didn't have free time to sit I just saw a kid who was trying to make his best music to satisfy his own desires
who was probably smoking weed to get through it and just trying to figure out how to detach that's what I saw and my job is to just speak to someone in that moment in time and to capture that moment in time and that will forever be that moment in time but it ain't now it ain't who you are now and um what what have been sort of one or or several of the most important decisions you've made
in your life to be able to move forward from that space and be the man you are now today with light in your eyes with an intensity and desire to make your best music again I needed to take that break I needed to stop and and I and I don't look at it in a place of being afraid to come back I stop with that that that is so that is so Sage yeah thank you that that part there
that part I wasn't afraid to come back I wasn't afraid that the break was going to break some spell that that that you developed with us that it was dependent on you showing up yeah yeah because when I think of music and I think of Discovery the universe will bring that music to who it's intended to facts listen so if I'm going to take this break when I come back I'll come back with more clarity
I'll come back with uh a better choice of decisions uh more maturity more knowledge so when think of the listener even if that listener may have uh haven't you know may have not listened to me in a while if it's meant to be discovered then I truly believe in the power of music doing that who knows what everyone's doing at any given time who knows right what the kid who loved the
kid who made location thinks now God willing they're here and music still resonates and if that is in fact the case then all you can do is put your frequency out there and hope it resonates once again that's all you can do and what I hear is is beautiful frequencies coming through this music of course you're going to sing it beautifully Ked that's a gift thank that's a gift and you do write
great stories and you are charismatic all those ideas and Concepts that make you the artist you are remain and the talents but you've found a really clear frequency here I think I agree because music is a playground we're here to have fun being creative we're here to enjoy ourselves being creative and at that point five years ago although I was enjoying the pro I I just it didn't it
didn't connect with me um I wasn't having fun I wasn't having as much fun um I forgot how to have fun in the studio because I'm thinking oh my god well this has to be successful and they're depending on me and they're leaning on me for this and I have to do this and I have to do that where fun kind of gets thrown out the window no one's focused on having fun I'm like I
needed to take a break to be like what is fun about this to me and I found that freedom I found that that fun I love it and yet the album is called sincere which is not a term that gets thrown around in terms of of it doesn't get aligned to fun right when you're being sincere you're requiring something of someone some attention to allow you the space to tell you how they really feel
I'm being sincere now you I'm being sincere listen I'm being sincere and I love the title track I remember it very clearly and uh when when we played it to us kindly the other day and and I love the term um it's a very mature term so how did you land in in the most fun time of your life on the term sincere it was a very difficult process in naming this album because I had to find one name that
fully fully ENC capsized is that is that the word yeah fully ENC capsized dictionary make up words we should make up more words we're gonna but she get what I mean you know that summed up what I really felt in this music and when I thought of the music I thought of it as my most vulnerable in a while because when I'm thinking of these songs I'm saving them over the year like okay no I have to
keep this okay I have to keep this and and that's that's vulnerable because I've I I've known the impact that that song had to me when I was in the studio and so I believe that if I trust my intention and I trust my heart then it'll have a similar impact to my listener I love that so what you're ultimately saying to some degree is rather than looking at the human as being at your most sincere think of it
as the most sincere collection of Works yes exactly how do I view myself as an artist what artist do I want to be and that is what this album is sincere when I see the artwork I see the artist that you want to be is is Marvin Gay I see the artist you want to be is is Wen Irvine I see the artist that you want to be are the people that that put themselves on the cover of their art
unapologetically um and said I'm looking right at you and you can see right through me yeah when I look at my previous work and I think of American theme there's a distance in that cover my face is shadowed it's almost like you can't really see me kid exactly what exactly you could have been doing a medical major and still not knowing what your identity is let alone had to deal with that the
identity we all told you you were yeah let me tell you something you did the most remarkable job not only never getting through that but actually giving it a concept and giving it something that you could refer to with age and say yeah I was an American team back then and I love that you did that I love that you embraced it because a lot of kids would have ran for the hills my ideal
form of music is timeless music music that stands The Testament of time and when I look at American team the way that it's aged I still enjoy it same but when I when I listen thank you and but when I listen to this album you can see the time that it took you can see the time I was thinking about what we talked about the other day when I when I said to you that your generation is incredibly important to
the future of of the Arts I think I mean every generation is and that seems like a base thing to say but I'll qualify a little more by saying that you know you you came out of the internet you were born into the into the algorithmic Revolution and probably told either to your face or subliminally that music really is a way of creating content or content is how you find music and what
you've done is you made your most complete body of work as a not just a message to yourself but whether you meant to or not a message to artists of your generation and and and upcoming that this still matters and that you could do what you want with the content do whatever you want with it but but you got to take it from here this is where I this is where I rest I think about Billy
I think about what she's done with her new album and how she's made her most complete and deepest body of work um at a time when she could have her numbers were going to be big for the rest of time and she actually is out there promoting it and making sure everyone knows what it means to her at a time when she could probably sit on her hands and let us do that work for her I think
about the two of you and I think about the relationship you started as kids I think about the fact for the longest time you were the only collaborator on a record with her you and Vince and I think about like how unique that relationship was and remains to this day and I wonder if you think about it I admire her she is an incredible artist and the way that she's amassed this much Fame but still respects the
integrity of Music her and Finas the way that they show love to the music it's evident when you listen to it how can you turn on birds of a feather and I know and not feel the room I know and and not feel the room when they create this space the greatest song George Michael never was never never got to write I mean that's that's that that is that I mean I told her that she never
took offense she she they Embrace that it's it's got the spirit of that that sense of Yearning that you can take something so sad and fly with it there's magic and music and they got the magic for sure you got the magic my guy I know we were going to see each other face to face but it's going to get busier for you you ready for that by the way time's off time off
over I am ready for people to discover this album and wherever that brings me I'm willing to go I appreciate I am prepared well my friend I always love to see you I'm not sure if and when and how our pods will cross but I'm absolutely certain they will and and um you know nothing but love for you thank you for this beautiful wide open song it's got the top down man and I'm driving to it [Music]