Shadowing Practice: Tame Impala: The Deadbeat Interview | Zane Lowe Interview - Learn English Speaking with Video
Creating lesson...
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Welcome back, Kevin.
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It's really good to see you.
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I love this album.
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I want to get that out in the open right now.
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So we can just get past it.
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I think top to bottom, it's a really, really amazing, fresh, fresh feeling for the band and for what you've been making, you know, on your own terms.
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And I'm excited to talk to you about it.
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So let's begin the album Deadbeat, brand new Tame Impala record.
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It's been a minute and I know people are going to keep going on about that, but you were playing shows after the last album came out and whatnot.
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But rather than make a big deal of the time between albums, I'd rather sort of ask you kind of like what life has been like,
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because it was nonstop for Tame Impala for some time.
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And, you know, I don't, you tell me whether or not it felt like you were able to pump the brakes a bit.
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By the time it was five years, it was like, oh, that really snuck up on me, you know?
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Because, you know, like every time I do an album, the cycle goes longer than it was supposed to.
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You know, like the albums, the tours and sort of out for some reason, for whatever reason, I guess like just my albums, they, they take a long time for people to like digest.
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And so, you know, they, they only sort of reached their peak sort of a couple of years after the albums come out.
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So we were still doing slow rush stuff a couple of years after.
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Yeah.
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And then there was sort of other stuff going on.
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Um, just me wanting to do some more production stuff, the Dua Lipa album.
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Yep.
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Um, and then it was like, okay, now I want to do an album of my own.
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I was like, I'm ready now.
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How did you know?
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Um, it's kind of just like a sixth sense really.
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I was, um, I was, as you can imagine, really into just making techno music for a while.
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Yeah.
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I was like, I was dead set.
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I was like, I just want to make a techno album.
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Would it be a Tainan Parlor record or were you accepted?
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No. You were going to come up with a different thing.
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Yeah.
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I was going to come up with it.
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Maybe it was going to be anonymous.
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Yeah.
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But it was just something I always wanted to do for my own, my own spiritual being, you know?
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a bunch of that kind of music and i think it was just sort of like focusing on that one sound
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it made me go like oh i wish there was a
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little bit of chords yeah what changes you know i was like just sort of like started longing for
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that sort of like um tame impala thing and
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so it kind of just sort of i guess stopped that
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and started and decided i want to make a tame impala what a a great way to reset.
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Yeah, exactly.
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It was, it was like a sort of, um, it was like a retreat, you know?
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Yeah, because you don't want to pick up where you left off.
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That's the thing, right?
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I mean, if you, if you sort of gone back
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and listened to some songs that didn't make the cut of some ideas that were kicking around from slow rush era, people do that.
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Yeah.
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They feel like they have an opportunity to extend the thought process.
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But, and the thing is when you, when you first put the end of summer out as the first song off the record, was that a really important statement and statement's a strong word, but did you want people to like reset like you had?
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Did you want people to to kind of cleanse the palate and be like, whatever you were thinking you were going to get, this is, this is what I made on that day.
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I mean, that's always something that I get a kick out of is like just shaking up expectations.
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Yeah.
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Even though, even though like at this point, I was pretty sure it wouldn't like, it was kind of just like,
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it was obvious that I was going to do something electronic, you know, like to me, it was, it just sort of made sense.
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I, you know, I don't know what, I don't know what the fans kind of think and what they
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think the trajectory that I'm on is but um you know for me it was kind of like obvious even though
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yeah it's like you hear Tame Impala sort of like techno
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and it's like oh it definitely didn't feel like it was coming from from a from a far away place
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but it felt like you had gone all in yeah exactly you know
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which was really well I mean like it was never it
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was never meant to be the first song released i don't know what was
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but it's sort of like like the the choice of what
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song to drop first came after the album was finished yeah
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so i finished the album
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and say okay what do we start with you know there
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was even talk of just dropping the whole thing at once
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there's you know all those sort of conversations are happening yeah yeah yeah
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and i mean it's that's the thing
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and i don't know man sometimes it works
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and sometimes it feels good especially
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if it's like there's a there's a desire to immerse yourself in the record
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and not actually sort of give people a hint
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but I loved what end of summer did I love
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that it got everybody going holy shit you know it's peak
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dudes at peak of the night like yeah exactly it's like
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that moment where it's like oh yeah it's all kicking in
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in all the right ways it just uh it just felt
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right it just felt like yeah it just felt right you know uh like
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so much of this album rollout
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and process for me has just been going on what feels
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right right rather than what sort of intellectually seems like the smart thing to do.
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I love how our favorite acting rock star these days, Joe Keery, got a chance to be in the video as well.
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Having just done the pavement, this guy is literally, you know, the rock star chameleon at the moment.
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He's just like, I'm sure I can be in Tame Impala.
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Sure, I could be in pavement.
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I'm totally fine.
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I can do these things.
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Yeah, it was really touching how just like ready and willing and excited he was to do it.
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He's like, yeah, I'll come over.
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We were like, but you're in Chicago or New York or whatever.
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He was like, yeah, I'll fly over.
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He just flew over and did it.
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You know, he was like, had such a great energy on set.
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It was really, really, really nice.
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And he's just like so good at what he does.
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I sort of drunkenly said to him that the other day I was leaving this party that he had.
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And I was like, I was like, you know, my chat was good all night.
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You know, I was like, man, I just want to say, you know, when I was watching you, I was like, this is acting.
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And he was like, oh, come on, man.
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I was like, no, I'm sitting...
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You blew it at the end!
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Because he's like sitting on the side of the street, just like, you know.
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Yeah, yeah.
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And I was just kind of like, wow, he's really good, isn't he?
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He's like, you got things?
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That's his acting.
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It's like the least challenging acting role of his career, you know?
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I was just so amazed by it.
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Imagine what.. yeah.
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Anyway, because I didn't get to see a lot of actors act.
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Yeah.
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Dude, enthusiasm is enthusiasm.
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Fuck it.
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I just love the fact that my chat was good all night, and then as I was leaving, I finally...
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Yeah, that's the story of my life.
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I've got back to who you are.
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I'm the same.
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I'm the same.
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I found the GQ piece really moving at times
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because of how open you were about the fact that you came out as Tame Impala.
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Everyone fell in love with your music.
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Everyone got an idea about who they thought you were based on what we were listening to.
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And it was like, no, that was a reaction.
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That was a reaction to almost the opposite.
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That confidence came through the music and it wasn't necessarily there before that.
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That's always been the thing of my music, I guess, is that it has, it's, it's always led the way for me in terms of like confidence and,
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and like, yeah, I guess, yeah, confidence and ego.
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Like the music, like the music for me is, is the part of me that is, that is like bold and confident and my personality has kind of always like just caught up.
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What is that combination of experiences like when, you know, for a few hours a day when you're on tour or perhaps
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when you're making a record you get a sense of of who you who you can be versus the times
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when you're not and you have to kind of like marry those two over time right
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because it's because it's hard walking the line between between the sense of like who you were raised at
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that time and the challenges that kind of ultimately form your identity
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and then this identity of being this fucking dude on stage with the guitar
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and you're like i got this yeah i mean weirdly for
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me i guess some kind of uh one of the lucky ones
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that like uh being on tour um there's there's no other like activity
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or what do you want to call it no other thing in my life
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that gives me such a sense of purpose you know like
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i i love just sort of like uh you know in the time between shows like
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if if we've had a run of like some really good shows
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that like i've just really felt the audience that's been great
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you know I just sort of like that's it's kind of like the best
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that I've felt this is some of my most sort of like good feeling times you know
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because like making music like making music is touch
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and go in the studio it's like there's highs
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and there's like extreme highs and there's extreme lows
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and you know the rest of life also has those highs
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and lows but and you know so does tour
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but I guess it's just like being occupied
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and feeling feeling like you have a purpose yeah
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and keeping you present too yeah exactly you can't take that on stage
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yeah whatever's going on yeah exactly it's a circuit breaker right i mean i'm an anxious person
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and radio has been there for me live radio has been
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there for me yeah bad days i'm like doesn't matter man
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two hours you guys can't get on totally that's what this is a total segue
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but i that's kind of what i loved about snl yeah
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it's like every other tv late night tv show we've played It's made me nervous as hell.
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But like SNL just had this like tranquility.
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You know, it's like you're just, you're playing to the people across America right now.
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And that's, you know, it's obviously going to be on YouTube until the end of time.
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But I don't know.
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It was kind of just this sort of like this nowness.
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I have a feeling about that because I got a chance to see SNL being recorded.
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Well, not even recorded.
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I saw it go out live from inside the thing.
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I went with, Timothee Chalamet was doing it.
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So I got to see them move all the sets around.
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And there's something just incredibly homely about that whole thing.
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Totally.
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It's much smaller than people realize.
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They are literally moving pieces of wood and pieces of polystyrene around.
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It's chaos, man.
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I mean, it's an old school theater production.
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So how can you be really nervous
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when everyone else is just walking around with a tool belt
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on just trying to make sure the fucking news set looks half decent?
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That was probably it, too.
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It's just like everyone else is just as frantic.
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Oh, now Taylor Parler.
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Yeah, great.
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Okay, cool.
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Thanks for coming, guys.
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Okay, cars outside.
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Thanks for coming.
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Yeah, I mean, I really leant into that with SNL
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in that I didn't have lyrics ready for the song that we played on SNL.
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I was up until six o'clock in the morning trying to record the song and I just didn't finish it.
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So to this day, Borderline's lyrics are mumbled on SNL.
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I'm just saying gibberish.
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You know how artists do in the studio before they have lyrics?
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They just sing whatever.
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I did that on SNL.
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Okay, man, there's a lot to unpack here.
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If that shows just how much of a fucking mental state I was in at the moment, I didn't care.
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That was going to be my question.
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At no point did you think like a quick swerve into an older song or something we know, like a quick rehearsal and we're good?
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I didn't care.
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I was so preoccupied with like the song and the album and everything else.
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I think Coachella was coming up then.
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It didn't seem absurd to me that I was going to do that.
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I was like, oh, just sing whatever, you know?
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I tell people that story and they just don't believe me.
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I have to show them the YouTube video.
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Well, I'm literally like, I'm going to, A, as soon as conversations, I'm going to watch the YouTube video.
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But before we do, I'm still going to hold on to this story for just a little longer.
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So how much did you actually know versus how much were you making up?
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Well, we had to submit the lyrics to SNL for sort of like, you know, censoring.
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That's the next question.
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How the, what did you even show them?
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Because they can't just let you go on air and sing whatever you want.
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I remember I was, someone reminded me this, Kia, our tour manager.
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she was like I was telling the guys
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that in the car we're talking about it
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and she was like oh yeah I had to submit the lyrics
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and I had nothing
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so she just wrote them yeah she wrote something out I don't remember what it was but
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but I remember she was like yeah the the crew came
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to me for dress rehearsal no like this is not what
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he's saying I guess she was trying to sort of like keep
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that from keep it smooth whatever
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and no one called you wanted afterwards it was like
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that was amazing you know the internet is i remember
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that being a triumph yeah no no it was good it was like i sang words
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but just they're not the the words you know it's like yeah it's yeah i've done
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that before with songs like the the let it happen like vocoder bit is is
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that it's just gibberish it's kind of just like me just
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singing in tongues really well dude i mean i love you know i love
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that song and i
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and i sing along to it it becomes mine anyway at
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the end of the day once you put it out and I put it in my car and I listen to it, I'm like, it means something to me, whatever it is you're saying.
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That's one of the craziest things about releasing music, I realized the other day.
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And I never realized how powerful an emotion that is,
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is the idea of a song going from being your song to everyone's song.
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You know, it can feel good.
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It can feel like i'm sharing it
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and i can also have this weird weird sort of violating
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feeling like like like your um whatsapp chat has just been leaked you know
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because suddenly it's like you know i just i just sort of i don't consider
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when i'm writing lyrics i'm making music i consider
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people pulling them apart you know instead of like i just like well these are i'm just singing you know
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and then it goes out
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and it's like you know i i don't pay attention to
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too much stuff of like like people trying to work out what the means of the songs are, but it's like every time it just catches me off guard.
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Yeah.
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And, um, you know, that's again, that's kind of just part of the big, beautiful beast.
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Well, that speaks to also how you sort of approach the entire process, which is to really not get too cerebrally in front of it.
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Exactly.
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Well, yeah, because if you do that, it will, it can derail the project.
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Do you ever get lost?
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I think last time we spoke on Slow Rush, you told me when we were, when we hung out at your house at the time where were you living?
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And you told me that, you know, you, you, at the end of that album, you felt like you were getting a little lost in it.
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I think you have to, you have to get lost in it.
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Uh, if I don't, if I'm not completely consumed by
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and like just sort of felt like I've dropped off the
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face of the earth in doing it then I haven't gone
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deep enough you know I honestly thought this album was gonna be the album
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that didn't take years off my life like like mentally yeah
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but you know what four on the floor is a hard
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beast to tame everyone thinks you just put a donk on it
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and you're off to the fucking races
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and it's just not how it is all
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that space needs to be occupied even if it's with nothing yeah Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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These are tough decisions.
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It's like, man, I fucking love this album and I love how it starts.
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My old ways, it's very intimate, kind of like off the cuff way that you introduced the album, which is kind of like, this is just me.
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I'm just writing.
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You've got capturing this on a phone or whatever, some kind of device.
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And then all of a sudden we're in for high fidelity.
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So it does feel a little conceptual in that regard.
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And I know people get quite obsessed with your albums as concept albums, but it does feel like you want it to have a start.
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I guess that's another example of, um, me just sort of going with what feels good.
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I was listening to some voice memos in the car just from my iPhone of me, like plunking around on the piano and like just sort of singing.
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And I was sort of, I'd go between like listening to full demos that I had and then just voice memos to see if something grabbed me.
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And I just loved how that sort of suddenly sounded.
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I was like, Oh, you know, maybe that's the start of the album.
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Yeah.
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You know?
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Yeah.
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So that was kind of one of those things where I get, yeah, I guess what I'm saying is,
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um, And it's just that idea of not trying to pre-orchestrate everything,
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which as a producer, you sort of are supposed to do, you know?
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Yeah.
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That's the fun part.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, exactly.
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Hard, man.
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So you're in reverse psychology mode on this album as much as you can be.
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Sort of.
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Yeah, in a sense.
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So, okay, let's talk about environment because the first time you showed us
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that you had anything going on was you gave us a beautiful carousel of life as you've been living it.
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And it was a combination of family time and things
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that had been going on and the fact that you were about to become a dad again.
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Congratulations to you and your wife.
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But there was also sort of really beautiful images of you just sitting on the floor surrounded by cables and boxes.
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Yeah.
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Which just to me looks like heaven.
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That's my kind of heaven too.
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Just heaven.
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That's Wave House.
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Yeah.
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It's this place that I've recorded.
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This will be the third album that I've done there.
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Like some of there.
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Is it remote?
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Yeah, it's this place down south from Perth,
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my home city, that I actually ended up buying during the pandemic because it's kind of like this rickety old,
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you know, sort of house on the coast.
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It's just completely remote.
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But it's been my spiritual home since the first time I went there.
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Okay.
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Can we talk about the first time you went there and what it felt like?
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Well, yeah.
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It was recording in a speaker.
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My first album basically said to the record label, I was like, just find me a shack on the beach.
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Because they were like, who do you want to produce your album?
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Do you want like Dave Sardi or, you know.
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And I was like, I'm going to do it myself.
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Just use that money on like, just buy me a, just rent me a house, sorry, on the beach for like a month and I'll do the album there.
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And that's what they did.
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They found me, well, Jodie, my manager, spoke to someone who knew about Wave House,
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which is kind of like it's this now legendary, you know, place.
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It has this big natural amphitheater where they had raves in the 90s.
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And like everyone's been there at some point, you know.
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And now your name's on the lease.
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yeah that's cool yeah yeah um that's cool it's funny
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because it's always been this sort of like house of you know craziness
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and debauchery um for a lot of people everyone's had sort of like oh
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so it's a fucking pilgrimage yeah everyone's had wild times there i
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but i didn't really know about all that
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if for me it was always this like sanctuary yeah yeah peaceful
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and like all i could hear was like the sound of me playing drums
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and you're like birds tweeting outside and you did And you did that on your own, primarily, and a speaker?
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Yeah.
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I know you made it all on your own, but I'm saying who else was living with you at the time?
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There was a couple of other people.
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Dom was there.
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We had an engineer there.
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There was only ever three or four people.
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I'm really fascinated by isolationists, and I know that's an extreme way to describe it, because you've got a family and you live in Los Angeles, so it's not like you're living in the middle of nowhere,
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but you clearly are comfortable being isolated and creating
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and not feeling like that's a strange environment i find i
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think based on some stuff i won't go into from my upbringing
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which is for a conversation over wine if we ever have it yeah
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and i find the idea i'd love to find the idea
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of careful i find the idea of isolation to be sometimes
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really scary like i was just up in seattle quite isolated a lot of pine trees
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and i was like yo this is the end of the earth
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and it was eerie to me it felt eerie to me
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so i'd love to just talk a little bit about kind
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of what draws you to your own your own environment away from things i thrive on it
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because um it's extremely recharging for me and um it's a time of reflection
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and i know
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that sort of like it it took me a long time
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to realize how there would be some people who don't enjoy
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that yeah you know some people are just like oh no
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that sounds like my worst nightmare
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but yeah for me i just need to um gather my self yeah you know
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and just sort of like spending days on end with one purpose
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and that's just to sort of like capture a musical idea as it floats by yeah yeah is nice
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and it's kind of it's kind of just like what i
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need to sort of like i always just sort of i
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was like in the car driving home wherever it could be like an airbnb in malibu
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or something you know i'm always sort of driving home just
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feeling like i'm ready to face the world again yeah you know that's beautiful
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and hopefully music happens during all that time yeah exactly
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which isn't a given by the way it's not a given no do you experience writer's block
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or something akin to that i don't like that word
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yeah because it's that's why it's a terrible term no one likes
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that word no one's like i love writer's block
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but whatever i agree with you i know what you mean
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so another i mean i think it's i think from what
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i understand writers i can make it worse by the way do the pipes get clogged
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oh i mean like what i understand writer's block to be
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and like sure i've had my i've felt i've felt sort of stifled creatively before
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but i think it's a combination of many things um like do i think
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that your own mind is capable of stopping you from from doing the thing
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that you love yep absolutely absolutely absolutely um but yeah i yeah i think with anything there are
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remedies you know
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and ways to um yeah rediscover what you love about what
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you do let's talk about the early days of wave house on this album okay
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and you know what you brought with you and what you set up
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and i mean just get nerdy because it man people love your records
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and it's not just like it's not it's never a passing fancy bro like we really dive in
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and we really listen to what you've made and we're interested of course
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so you know how did you sort of go into this
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experience out there in a place you've been too many times
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before did it feel different did you like the comfort of it of it being feeling the same
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and what did you bring
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that you know how did you get yourself into a place
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where this room made gave birth to this actually it the the album officially started in
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montecito
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because i you know like my thing is i just like
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i just get an airbnb that's a beautiful part of the world.
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Somewhere on the coast.
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Well, I actually don't care where it is.
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It's like, I, I, I get on the Airbnb app
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and I just find where there are places literally like as close to the water as you can get.
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I want to be, I want to be fucking right there.
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I, you, you can't get me closer to the water.
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I will spend money on a place that sucks.
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Um, right.
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If it's closer, if it's like a hundred meters closer to the water than like a mansion, you know, I'll, I'll, I'll go to the place where I can hear the waves.
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Okay, what is that?
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That's obviously always been the case.
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Growing up in Perth, you're very close to the ocean, and it's like, I'm from New Zealand, I get it.
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I'm always drawn to the coastline as well.
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But I often find that the waves can be...
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I can get an anxiety from waves too, if they're really close.
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Not me, not me.
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It's like the douche.
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I think it's the...
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And I don't want to be too dramatic about it, but I think it's something to do with...
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I just told you I was scared of waves, bro you just get dramatic.
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Okay.
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I think that it's, um, it's the abyss and like staring out at the,
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especially at nighttime or like the end of the day, staring at the ocean for me is just,
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um, it helps me get lost and it just, there's a tranquility that comes along with it.
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Um, and an inspiration.
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I also think like hearing just white noise, um, triggers musical ideas for on like a cerebral level.
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But I've always loved the ocean.
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I've always just been obsessed with, I just can't get close enough to it.
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Some Montecito.
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Well, yeah, that was, it was like a little sort of beach house in a run of like family other houses.
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I can hear kids playing and stuff during the day while I was recording.
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I don't care.
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It was kind of nice to just hear this life going on, you know, family life going on while I'm this sort of like guy.
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They must have thought there was some weirdo just like
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there's some weirdo in our run of like family holiday homes and what's this guy doing anyway?
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Well the term weirdo is a hierarchy right?
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I mean depending on where you exist depends on how weird you're considered to be.
437
I mean those families where their kids are running around living an idyllic life on the coast up in California.
438
You're probably right to assume that you were a weirdo because you're very out of step from the Montecito life.
439
Yeah yeah I think it was Montecito anyway i might have
440
that wrong but then um yeah sea cliff or something it's up
441
that way yeah i got a i rented a place in malibu for a few days a few weeks after
442
that you know like i just i just i just find somewhere to go
443
that must have been really strange
444
and i mean we're not going to drag the whole city through trauma again
445
but you had been through a significant drama fire related drama sometime before
446
that didn't you lose some stuff oh my gear yeah
447
when well it from an airbnb that I was at in 2009 to 18, whenever the first, yeah, whenever that was.
448
So you had to run.
449
You weren't packing stuff up and chucking it in the car and getting ready to go.
450
No, no, no. I jumped in the car, grabbed my Hoffner base and my laptop and I was out of there.
451
Yeah, I could see smoke and flames from the driveway.
452
Anyway, yeah.
453
I've been through that, by the way.
454
So just so you know, it's like, you know, and again, this is just, this is a factual representation of what happened.
455
I mean, where we live was right on the doorstep of the Runyon Fire.
456
Familiaries?
457
Sure, sure, sure, sure.
458
Gone.
459
So going back to Malibu in between then and what subsequently happened, it's like, fuck, you know.
460
Yeah.
461
I get existential when I think about that shit.
462
I'm just like, wow, Neil Young called it, man, between the fire and the floods.
463
What are we doing?
464
Yeah, there's definitely a lot of, yeah, a lot of that kind of thinking after stuff like that.
465
Where does the world factor into the making of music?
466
Do you try to stay as internal as possible and process what you're feeling?
467
Or do you find that the world creeps into what it is that you're making?
468
I'm a, this is how I kind of see it.
469
Like I'm a, I'm a human in the world today.
470
Um, so whatever I feel like expressing,
471
uh, is going to be a product of, you know, whatever else is going on.
472
Yeah.
473
You know?
474
Yeah, just the general psyche going on.
475
I don't try to sort of like put that into words, but, you know, I just let it come through in the way that it does, you know?
476
I mean, like calling an album Deadbeat, you know, like I've sort of thought that maybe that's a result of masculinity today.
477
I don't want to, you know, analyze it.
478
I feel like it's not my job to analyze it, but I hope someone does.
479
And it definitely has a strong sensation that comes from that term.
480
And the songs reflect that on the record for sure.
481
So again, I'm not trying to paint you into a concept here
482
because you make beautiful music and we should just embrace it in our life.
483
Sure.
484
You've got an album called Deadbeat for second songs called Loser.
485
There's a sense of sort of,
486
I guess, ownership over these terms that get thrown at us rather than we absorb them willingly.
487
Like no one goes, I'm a deadbeat.
488
Someone calls you that and then you're like, oh fuck, I guess I am.
489
Yeah, like, yeah, you're spot on.
490
You're spot on.
491
Ownership is a good word.
492
Like there are some people that have spoken to me and gone like, I don't know why you called your album that, man.
493
Like why are you being so down on yourself?
494
Like why is it so self-degrading?
495
But like, I just don't see it like that.
496
For me, it's like a celebration, you know, of the feeling of being these things, like a loser or, you know.
497
The being checked out isn't necessarily as bad as people.
498
Like, it's okay.
499
I've always had a sick satisfaction from being hard on myself in my lyrics.
500
You know, I guess that's no secret, really.
501
But for me, it's like it's freeing, you know.
502
To make beautiful music and then put a sticker on it that says that, like piece of shit.
503
It just, to me, it's like it gives all of that meaning.
504
It gives all those feelings that have sort of followed me around my whole life.
505
It gives them purpose and sort of flips them around.
506
You know what I mean?
507
Yeah, yeah.
508
Take the power back a little bit from that.
509
Yeah, exactly.
510
Because those words
511
and those terms are designed to strip you of any real
512
sense of self-worth in order to create a power dynamic with the people using them
513
so that they can feel like their life is less shit.
514
Exactly.
515
Because they just called your life shit.
516
And guess what?
517
That's fine.
518
You can call me that, but I just made a fucking fifth album and I'm not going to play stadiums and festivals that own that shit.
519
That's it.
520
Let's talk a little bit about the success is a strange word, right?
521
Because it depends on what you deem it to mean.
522
But let's just put it through the more conventional filter of
523
like from the first song you ever put out in the EP right through to
524
to now you've become one of the most conventionally successful bands
525
making music you are genuine festival headline act you know you can play any arena globally by the way
526
which is a really amazing thing you can go all over europe
527
and all over parts of the world you can't really do you know you've made it a really justifiable
528
and successful profit off of your songwriting in recent years.
529
So sort of how do you translate all of these things?
530
Because I can imagine that you could sort of like just try to get past them all, but you are still making decisions to say, yes, we will headline Coachella.
531
Yes, I will sell part of my catalog.
532
Yes, I will do these things.
533
I think we can all agree that there is no one way to measure success.
534
You know, like in the back when like CDs were around, like, yeah, yeah, that was like,
535
that was the last time we had a way of quantifying success.
536
NSYNC fucked it.
537
I don't know why he singled them out.
538
Because they sold two million albums in their first week and the next week fucking Napster started.
539
It was like the end of the empire.
540
Literally at exactly the same time.
541
I mean, which is not to say that there isn't success these days.
542
It's just whatever you want it to be.
543
You know, I truly believe that it just comes back to success is what you make it.
544
It sounds cheesy and sort of, you know, all that kind of stuff.
545
But I mean, anyone who is in the industry knows how sort of like,
546
um, how, how, how unclear all of those sort of things are like, like take sort of streaming numbers.
547
It's like, oh, my song streamed like a billion times.
548
What does it mean?
549
Well, it's like, it's like, there's a lot that goes into that, you know?
550
Um, what playlist did you get on? who, who, who's handed shake to, um, you know, it's like, there's so much that goes into every, so you can, you could, you could take every like,
551
like metric as they say of success and pick it apart.
552
And for me, like, again, like, like Grammys, it's like, like to win a Grammy, you don't just, you don't just make the art and then you win a Grammy.
553
It's like stuff that goes into it, you know?
554
So I guess what I'm saying is, um, it's, it's, it's, it's like a personal thing, you know?
555
and I just I've learnt to like
556
to like find those moments where I feel successful it might be like someone stopped me on the street
557
and told me that my music changed their life you know like to me that's that's it
558
and what about a Grammy which you just won one with Justin yeah
559
and that song is and that must be kind of really fun for you as well
560
because it's not just about Tame Impala you produced the Dua Lipa record I spoke to Dua about
561
that experience and obviously you know more than anyone how much she loved working with you on
562
that album and that album's been great for her for her whole life cycle.
563
And then you've got this Justice record, which just doesn't fucking stop.
564
It just doesn't go, it just doesn't stop.
565
Yeah, it was really, it's one of those things where it's like, it's really enlightening to like peek behind the curtain with those guys because their music is so,
566
you know, when you listen to like the early stuff, it's like, how did they make this?
567
How did they get it to sound like this?
568
Yeah, yeah.
569
So it was nice just to sort of like be able to stare at their laptop screen and see.
570
I mean, you just literally blew my mind telling me it was even made in a laptop.
571
Yeah, exactly.
572
To me, it's like no laptop is actually strong enough to even handle that shit.
573
They're in total DJ's nightmare because whenever they make anything, there's nowhere to put it in the set without demolishing whatever came before or after.
574
Yeah, exactly.
575
And they got a Grammy with Justice on it.
576
Yeah, the Grammy was nice.
577
I was more proud to win it than I thought I was going to be.
578
Oh, that's cool.
579
You know, by the, cause I've been nominated a bunch before and I've kind of got to the point where I'm like, okay, you know what, I'm not going to get my hopes up anymore.
580
Yeah.
581
Yeah.
582
Whatever.
583
And, um, and you know, like I woke up in the morning and it already happened cause I was in, I was in Australia.
584
So the time zone, you know, like I just woke up and there was like a bunch of messages on my phone going like, Oh my God, you know.
585
And, um, they sort of say kept coming through the day.
586
And I guess with things like that,
587
the nice part of it is what you understand people to,
588
you know, like your friends going like, oh, nice work, bro.
589
It's kind of for everyone else.
590
I always think like.
591
Sorry, that's what I'm trying to say.
592
It's kind of for everyone.
593
Yeah, exactly.
594
Exactly.
595
I want to get back to a little more sort of like specific as we go through the record as well, because we've been kind of all over the road, which I love to do.
596
But, you know, we also have songs to talk about.
597
Let's do it.
598
I want to talk about Not My World, which is one of my favorites on the album.
599
And I just love the story about that and just what was going on when you made that music.
600
That one was kind of like, that was one of the ones that even though it's not like a fully fledged, it's not like a song.
601
It's kind of just this stretch of music.
602
Yeah.
603
in in a lot of ways
604
that was um kind of the blueprint of the album yeah
605
it's like really raw just like singing into a mic that's
606
plugged into a guitar amp it just i wanted it to feel spontaneous
607
and just sort of like in the moment
608
and not really having this sort of like um in the
609
moment kind of feeling just like like i don't want to say throw away because it's kind No, it's vicarious in the best way.
610
Yeah.
611
I feel like it's like when I listen to Rez by Underworld,
612
I feel like I'm literally hearing them just capture it in the club on one night.
613
Yeah, exactly.
614
Like I almost kind of wanted it to feel like, yeah, you just sort of seen someone playing in some sort of small town hall with a few people, you know?
615
I don't know.
616
I don't know.
617
It's kind of weird.
618
but yeah I love that one too
619
one of the ones that really kind of jumps out just purely
620
because it's like so unashamedly in its bag is Peace of Heaven
621
it's so it starts in a way that's like okay this makes sense to the album then I'm halfway through
622
and just over halfway through and then when the drums kick
623
and I'm like oh you just fucking went there like you just really fired up those sounds
624
and were like I'm not going to replace them I'm just going to I love where this sits
625
but I think for a lifelong time a parlor fan it's
626
like a really lovely it feels like a lovely separation if
627
that makes sense yeah totally
628
that one came quite late in the in the piece like
629
it was it was one of the ones i spent the least time on in a good way
630
because it's like songs like dracula that have been around for like a year
631
and a half by
632
that point i'd sort of picked at them you know some songs can can can die the test
633
that die the death of a thousand cuts you know sure
634
and piece of heaven just sort of like happened i just sort of went with it
635
and it was done in a few days um
636
and it was my yeah it was It was my favorite thing I'd done for a few days.
637
I was like, oh, I'm just so happy with this.
638
What's the song, if one comes to mind,
639
that just literally scraped onto one of your albums that was nearly just absolute fucking exhaustion mode on that,
640
that people all love now.
641
Thank God you put it out.
642
But at the time, you were like, my God, if I have to do one more fucking reference mix of this thing, I'm going to literally throw it against the wall.
643
Every song.
644
Every single song every single time has been deliberated over and, and, um, and it's, I've loved it and hated it.
645
You know, when do you get to love it again once it's finally done and you can't fix it anymore?
646
Uh, two years, two years after.
647
That's crazy.
648
Uh, I'll tell you what, a new person saved Mom's Sakes almost didn't make the album.
649
Wow.
650
Uh, last song on Currents almost didn't make the album.
651
Um, yeah, a bunch of songs that, Elephant almost didn't make the album.
652
Yeah, there's some some guffawing going on here in the room.
653
Yeah.
654
Some real like fucking shock and awe.
655
Man, every artist has those stories.
656
Sure, sure.
657
I just wanted yours.
658
Yeah, no, no. It's crazy how many of those like huge hits, not saying that those songs of mine are huge hits.
659
Yeah, they are.
660
Cause you go and see fucking you live in front of 60, 70,000 people and it's gonna definitely do what it's designed to do. Of course.
661
The fact that it could be sitting on a hard drive somewhere is just so make or break.
662
I love it.
663
I know.
664
I know.
665
Some skin of the teeth shit going into all this yeah
666
yeah uh the song on on this album afterthought second last track yeah i love
667
that um so i started that song at 5 p.m on day two of mastering you're
668
so funny so um so we mastered the album over two days yeah
669
and each day i had to hand in the
670
that sort of like that half of the album at 4 p.m because that's when it became 9 a.m in UK, which is where it's getting mastered.
671
Yeah, yeah.
672
And I was like, oh yeah, I've got this sort of demo that I'm going to work on.
673
I was like, oh yeah, I'll get to it later.
674
Because I was still just sort of mixing and working the other songs.
675
And I didn't get to it until an hour after everything was due on the second day.
676
So 10 p.m.
677
I handed it in for mastering.
678
I tweaked the mixes after that.
679
But honestly, Afterthought is, That is...
680
It's still.. it's my favorite song on the album.
681
Yeah, man.
682
I love that song.
683
I can't believe that you took that down to the wire so hard.
684
Did it replace something?
685
It was either going to be just this sort of like two minute interlude or a proper song.
686
It wasn't even going to be a proper song.
687
I was like, oh, I hope it turns into a real song, but I'm really running out of time here.
688
The additive's fine, but when you're actually cutting something to make room for something else, you're really like.. you're dicing with history there, because in two years time, you go back and listen to that fucking song,
689
you're like, damn, what the fuck did I do that?
690
Yeah, well, that's the stuff that can really screw with your brain when you start thinking about,
691
you know, the history that's going to not be made by not releasing.
692
You know, it's like you can't go down that rabbit hole.
693
It'll turn your brains to scrambled eggs.
694
But after that, it's still kind of like it's the most effortless on the album.
695
And that's kind of something I was saying to Glenn and I got afterwards was like,
696
I spent sort of like two years working the album,
697
like waiting for a chorus hook that felt as effortless and free and easy as Afterthought.
698
It took having to work on it on the second day of Mastery and just be like, fuck it, write this, put it on, put it on, lead's lyrics, put them in, don't think about it.
699
Finished it, I was like, oh, it's my favorite song.
700
It's just so funny.
701
I mean, it's such a rewarding moment, but at the same time, such a, probably a grim reminder that, you know, that's what you're searching for at all times.
702
And it's just, it's so fleeting.
703
That's it.
704
That's it.
705
Yeah.
706
It's so fleeting.
707
What a fucking great life, dude.
708
I mean, this is like so much.
709
I mean, okay.
710
It does take its toll because you give a shit and it's, it is an intensely personal experience.
711
There's no one else around you that can ultimately, because the way you've designed it is that can kind of ease your pain, right?
712
You're in it until you're not.
713
Yeah.
714
Yeah, exactly.
715
But you probably never think about this, but I mean, Tame Impala, you could have ridden the first couple of albums into oblivion.
716
You could have just, that's what we are.
717
That's who we are.
718
People like it. Of course.
719
We'll get better at it.
720
And you've made some really, really great
721
risk you've taken some really great risks to be able to
722
free yourself up to do it ever you want like someone i was in an interview the other day
723
and someone asked me what i thought about the idea
724
that fans think that i um
725
that i've sort of like turned my focus to like commercial or like like whatever it's going to sell.
726
Was this a print interview?
727
Yeah.
728
They just get to ask the fucking harshest questions.
729
Yeah, that's okay.
730
I like them.
731
I like the harsh questions.
732
If you've got any harsh questions you're holding back on, ask them.
733
I think you know me pretty well, bro.
734
I'm not in print for a reason.
735
Sure.
736
Okay.
737
And I immediately realized, well, I was like, where I answered the question was like, if I didn't care about the music anymore and I just wanted to make money and sell albums,
738
the way that you would know that is if I just did the same thing again.
739
Yeah.
740
Because I would know exactly what's going to happen.
741
I would know what radio station is going to play it.
742
I would know how it's going to perform.
743
I wouldn't know who's going to like it, what like demographics or whatever.
744
It would all be so planned out for me.
745
Um, like, like, like making the currents again, making each, making the album that I'm the previously made again, would have just been, you know,
746
making a bunch of elephant sort of like, you know, readers would have, would have got me on every like car commercial in like America, you know, for real.
747
And here's the thing, you know where the mics go, you know how to capture that room, you know what to do, you know where everything is.
748
All you got to do is just write a better one.
749
Oh, on a recording level, yeah.
750
Well, that's the other thing.
751
Because that's the thing, like you had to kind of, listening to this album, there's a whole lot of learning here too.
752
Yes, well, I'm learning as I go.
753
That's the thing.
754
Like, you know, releasing Currents was like, oh God, am I doing the right thing?
755
You know, like this feels risky.
756
What felt like the biggest risk there for you at that time?
757
The whole album.
758
the whole the whole album
759
because it was like there weren't many guitars on it i
760
was using drum machines um it was like electronic in some parts it was like electro in some parts yeah
761
any time that i decide not to do the same thing again it's unknown it's unknown
762
and um it's scary and all that kind of shit um
763
but but i but i remind myself
764
that i would far rather it this way than the way that's where I know what's planned out ahead of me.
765
Why?
766
Do you know why?
767
Because I just have to.
768
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
769
I just have to.
770
Are you really close to knowing why or is it just literally a compulsion?
771
I would just feel defeated if I decided to do the same thing again
772
or if I decided that I want to go down the path of knowing what's going to happen.
773
I want control and I want predictability here.
774
If I did that, that's how you would know that I've given up as an artist.
775
We'll park that until that day comes or hopefully it never does.
776
Yeah.
777
Well, I mean, yeah.
778
If I do, if I do it's because I felt like it.
779
I was going to say, there you fucking go.
780
That's exactly the point.
781
It's the narrative I choose it to be.
782
If I choose to make the second album the next album exactly like this one, it's a punk rock experiment.
783
Go fuck yourself.
784
Yeah.
785
It's because, it's because you're expecting me to not do the thing that I, yeah.
786
Yeah.
787
Nicely played, Parker.
788
Can we talk a little, just a little bit without getting too personal because I'm a family man and we're both at this point in our lives, we were building families just about like how that balance has, has what a joy that's been to kind of like realize
789
that there's something in your life that doesn't just revolve around Wave House
790
and you and your own sort of musings and that there's, there's other reasons.
791
It's been an interesting perspective shifter.
792
I mean, like one of the things, one of the biggest things about having kids is how it shifts your perspective.
793
Yeah.
794
In ultimately the best way, because it makes you realize that you're not the center of the universe.
795
Even though it's like there are many things in life that sort of like teach you that.
796
But having kids is like, oh, no, you are very much.
797
No, you're next.
798
Here's what happens, right?
799
You have kids and then your parents get older and then if you're lucky, the order of things, they check out and then you're fucking next.
800
And so when you have kids, that's the beginning, the beginning of that realization.
801
They're like, holy shit, like I'm no longer the wonder kind here.
802
Like I have to give way.
803
I have to give some space over and some time over that doesn't just belong to me anymore.
804
Yes.
805
And also just on a sort of a momentary scale,
806
it's like just sacrificing yourself and your time in the moment.
807
And you know, you've got fucking vomit and food on you and stuff.
808
It's like, my T-shirt being clean is not what's important here.
809
So yeah, and like, it's like anytime you shift your perspective, it's good for creativity and art and all that kind of stuff.
810
there is also like feeling like you're the center of the universe when you make art.
811
Like, you know, you know what I'm saying?
812
It's like, there's, there's, there's something, um, you know, I hate to, I hate to reference Kanye, but like, you know, there's a,
813
there's a little Kanye in the, uh, what am I trying to say?
814
The essence of being an artist is like, is like, I am this, you know?
815
I am a God.
816
Um, yeah, I'm a God.
817
I'm the God of this universe.
818
Where the hell is my damn croissant?
819
Yes, exactly.
820
That's very powerful.
821
Yeah.
822
Tyler described it as you have to have some delusion.
823
Delusion.
824
Exactly.
825
Exactly.
826
And being a parent really fucking switches you on to like, you've got to be aware of what's going on here.
827
You can't be, you shouldn't be delusional.
828
So I think for me, like.
829
Yeah, it's a shift, right?
830
It's a balance.
831
It's a balance.
832
Yeah.
833
I like to switch off from, I just like to remind myself that I am like an inner,
834
remind myself of my inner child and in a sort of like just, just free floating entity.
835
Well, it's a band and it's not a band.
836
It's you.
837
We all know that.
838
Someone made a joke this morning, like breaking news, Tame and Parler is Kevin Parker.
839
I don't know.
840
I found it so fucking funny.
841
Oh man.
842
I've been, I've been getting used to that for many years.
843
It's just the way he said it was just, it was a giggle for me.
844
Sure.
845
But when it comes to playing live, I mean, it is the collective experience.
846
Is it the same collective experience?
847
I mean, how important is consistency for you when it comes to bringing this music to the stage?
848
We do our best.
849
I like to sort of straddle the line between making sure it's equality and just sort of keeping the chaos.
850
I think with this tour, more than ever, I'm trying to embrace the chaos
851
and just sort of spontaneity spontaneity and and like you know you know
852
when you go and see a concert and you get the feeling
853
that like they're not really in control of what's happening yeah it could happen yeah
854
and it's like scary
855
but it's also kind of like oh this is exciting you know who's really fucking good at
856
that and and the dawn of that era was when they leaned into their techno bag as well as radiohead
857
okay there's a sense when i see them
858
that they are like it could spiral off into outer space at any given moment
859
but somehow they keep it grounded just when you think like oh fuck like right this is not a Radiohead concert anymore.
860
And then it's like, oh, yeah, it is.
861
And so I wonder whether kind of the introduction of like a full scale kind of, like you said, like it was obvious to you
862
and probably to most of us that you were going to make a much more electronic and techno-based record.
863
Whether that's kind of inspiring that thinking like, okay, well, we've got the grounding here.
864
What do we do with it?
865
Well, it's been fun to like imagine, just try and come up with ways to do it.
866
You know, like for me, for me, we're a collective.
867
And, you know, like I would never want it to be not that.
868
You know, I'd never want it to be just sort of like techno music sort of on the backing track
869
and then I'm just sort of singing.
870
You know, like it's got to have this sort of like organism feel to it.
871
You love that experience of being a band.
872
I do.
873
I do.
874
I always have.
875
It's kind of one of the things that I longed for, you know, when I was a kid.
876
All I wanted to do was be in a band.
877
I just want to feel that connection musically.
878
How has that been over the course of your journey, wanting that in all honesty and in an earnest way, but also knowing at the end of the day
879
that you're better served making the records on your own
880
and the balance between wanting to foster the community of a band experience versus the reality of how the music gets made?
881
It was just something that I...
882
Like making music by myself was like a last resort you
883
know i was like yeah yeah yeah i got to do it by myself
884
that was born out of my frustration of like sort of like making a band
885
and like i i never realized until later
886
that i'm like a bad leader you know some people are
887
good at like like like rallying the troops like we're gonna
888
do this it's you know being uh being a you know like yeah being a great sort of public speaker
889
and getting everyone excited um
890
that just wasn't me you know i was kind of like
891
yeah you guys want to be in a band you know i got this song
892
so all right you know
893
that doesn't do very well instead of you know getting people excited making a band
894
so um so i was like i'll just do it myself you know yeah
895
and i i had i had sort of bands around the same time
896
but playing in a band has always been this sort of
897
like social um hanging out with friends yeah um thing for
898
me rather than like a deep musical yeah yeah yeah uh
899
exploration man best of both worlds of course i i feel very blessed
900
that i get to have the best of both worlds for sure yeah
901
because when we play um live i i get
902
that you know obviously i'm like selfishly like isn't this great
903
because like they're my songs i was gonna say the best
904
of both words you let me finish the narcissist is satisfied i know i know
905
and the desperate social animal also gets to like touch it a little bit here
906
and there as well yeah i know it's very self-centered
907
but you know only 50 percent of the time people are paying money
908
so there it is you know you got a show to put on that is a metric of success right there
909
yeah sure exactly not to get too far ahead of myself
910
but obviously you know we have this tame impala album
911
and it's all focused on tame impala
912
but um you know early in the conversation we spoke about you working with dua lipa
913
and you know you are a well-renowned very generous
914
and great collaborator people queue up to work with you
915
so i just wonder like
916
if there's like i don't I think I've ever asked you like who you would love to collaborate with
917
that you have yet to collaborate with or what, you know, what, what comes to mind?
918
I mean, my dream for a while has been to do something on like a Rosalia album, you know, like just like,
919
I got on board with her stuff quite late.
920
Everyone else was kind of going crazy.
921
I was kind of just going on board late and it was like, you know, I'd kind of just like had the moment
922
that everyone else had with Rosalia kind of just late and I was kind of just blew my mind, you know?
923
Yeah.
924
So if I could ever do on her album
925
that would be incredible i'm like at the moment i'm like i'm not worthy
926
but um i also just can't be too far out of reach man at some point
927
because i mean i'd imagine she's a fan of yours as well i mean that's like i think
928
so i don't really know how i don't know how these
929
things work these days most people talk about the dm
930
but uh i imagine for you guys being
931
because you know you're on the same label it's probably a much easier way of doing it than
932
that i really love i'm really intrigued by like the k-pop world have you dabbled in
933
that no no not yet i mean it's kind of just
934
like this it seems like this universe that's sort of like hard to sort of penetrate
935
and get into yeah yeah um uh yeah i'm just like
936
like for what i love about pop music like k-pop just seems to really
937
so i like yeah i love um like like blackpink like lisa i really love her kind of like
938
her thing it's really cool i mean with the tame impala album done
939
and with you thinking about how how you want to bring it to life and go on tour and reach people.
940
Like, can you find room for that?
941
Like, can you still make room if someone calls you up or, you know?
942
Yeah, of course.
943
I mean, for me, it's always like the grass is always greener.
944
Like when I'm producing, I'm like, oh, fuck this.
945
I just want to go back to my studio and make my own music.
946
And when I'm making my own music, I'm like, I'm sick of being the center.
947
I'm sick of being the center of my own universe.
948
I just want to be someone else's, like, I just want to help someone else.
949
Yeah.
950
So, you know, I'm sort of like my pendulum is starting to swing back the other way.
951
And was still the last project that you sort of worked on?
952
Yeah, yeah.
953
Last proper one, yeah.
954
Yeah.
955
But yeah, I'm looking forward to whatever is next.
956
Well, man, I'm very, very happy as a fan with this listening experience, man.
957
Awesome, man.
958
It's going to be an album I personally listen to a lot.
959
Great.
960
You know, you just know when something's sticky
961
and it's going to come back and it's going to come back and it's going to come back.
962
And I think, I don't know what magic you put in it.
963
I wouldn't actually want to know that.
964
That's not a question I'm going to ask you, but I'm really, really, I'm looking forward to seeing how you put all this together.
965
Thank you, man.
966
You bring the techno to the people.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 966 sentences and 10905 words to shadow. The speech runs for 52:31. The speaker talks fast, about 208 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- tame /teɪm/ (verb) — To make or become tame; to domesticate (an animal).
- lyrics /ˈlɪɹ.ɪks/ (noun) — The words to a song (or other vocal music).
- remind /ɹəˈmaɪnd/ (verb) — To cause one to experience a memory (of someone or something); to bring to the notice or consideration (of a person).
- laptop /ˈlæp.tɑp/ (noun) — A laptop computer.
- rush /ɹʌʃ/ (verb) — To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully.
- capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/ (verb) — To take control of; to seize by force or stratagem.
- scary /ˈskɛə.ɹi/ (adjective) — Causing fear or anxiety
- versus /ˈvɝsəs/ — Against; in opposition to.
- collective /kəˈlɛktɪv/ (adjective) — Formed by gathering or collecting; gathered into a mass, sum, or body.
- chaos /ˈkeɪˌɑs/ (noun) — The unordered state of matter in classical accounts of cosmogony.
- drum /ˈdɹʌm/ (noun) — A percussive musical instrument spanned with a thin covering on at least one end for striking, forming an acoustic chamber; a membranophone.
- guitar /ɡɪˈtɑɹ/ (noun) — A stringed musical instrument, of European origin, usually with a fretted fingerboard and six strings, played with the fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick).
- necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/ (adverb) — Inevitably; of necessity.
- label /ˈleɪ.bəl/ (noun) — A small ticket or sign giving information about something to which it is attached or intended to be attached.
- afterwards /ˈæf.tɚ.wɚdz/ (adverb) — At a later or succeeding time; after that;
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- go on /ˈɡoʊˌɒn/ (verb) — To continue in extent.
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- go into (verb) — To get involved in; to investigate or explore.
- think about /ˈθɪŋk əˌbaʊt/ (verb) — To ponder.
- come back (verb) — To return to a place.
- come out /ˌkʌm ˈaʊt/ (verb) — To be discovered; to be revealed.
- come up with (verb) — To manage to produce, deliver, or present (something) by inventing, creating, thinking of, or obtaining it.
- get on (verb) — To board or mount (something), especially a vehicle.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 286 contractions and reduced forms, such as I'm, you're, don't. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, smooth /smuːð/, sixth /sɪksθ/, theater /ˈθi(ə)tɚ/, worthy /ˈwɝ.ði/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: rush /ɹʌʃ/, capture /ˈkæp.(t)ʃɚ/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, shake /ˈʃeɪk/, harsh /ˈhɑɹʃ/
- Long words — get the stress right: necessarily /ˌnɛs.əˈsɛɹ.ə.li/, enthusiasm /ɪnˈθuziæzəm/, collaborate /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/, primarily /ˈpɹaɪ.mə.ɹə.li/, anxiety /æŋˈzaɪ.əti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like tame, lyrics, remind.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | you've been making · has just been going · you've been living |
| Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result | if you do that, it will |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | has been · i've just really felt · I've felt |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | was never meant · was finished · were based |
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.