The What Podcast
Gang of Youths and Spoon's Britt Daniel Talk Their New Albums
Season 5, Episode 7
Published March 9, 2022
https://beta.thewhatpodcast.com/episode/gang-of-youths-and-spoons-britt-daniel-talk-their-new-albums

One of the great festivals in the country or at least the southeast is shaky knees.

Year after year after year, great lineup after great lineup.

This year, no different.

Coming out of quarantine with a huge bang, two bands in particular we talked to today,

Gang of Youths and Spoon Festival Virgin and Festival Veteran.

Plus you could win Bonnarooo tickets today on the What Podcast.

Barry Courter, Brad Steiner, Lord Taco.

It starts right now.

What's everyone doing?

Having a great day.

Great.

Having a great time all the time.

How are you?

Has anyone been lenting?

Has anyone been lenting really hard?

No.

Told you.

I'm no quitter.

How did you survive your first Mardi Gras?

I'm not a quitter.

I'm a great guy.

I'm a great guy.

I'm a great guy.

I'm a great guy.

I've been going to Mardi Gras.

Taco, you doing any of the lenting?

Nope.

I haven't given up anything.

In fact, I have to go twice as hard now because of all the people giving up like beer.

Now I've got to drink more beer.

It's a hard life.

What other things are you doing to make up for other people's lent?

That's about it.

Is there anything else I should tune into?

Pick up any should I start smoking?

Could do that. Yeah, try smoking for a little while. Should I vape? Yeah, just try it Mardi Gras was great

But I will say after 10 14 days of this I've never wanted to lent so hard in my life and I'm not Catholic

I'm not religious at all. There's a reason these things were created and continue right now

I understand the purpose of being full of lent or being lent full but it's the word

I don't know even know how to talk about this. Am I lenting? Have I lented?

I don't know that lent lent's a verb until you made it one but it works. I'm going hard

I'm going hard after lent going hard after lent. I have

Successfully successfully guys. I have gone a whole day so far without drinking

Just I just started the lent yesterday. Let me see your hands. Okay

Okay, I just started the lent yesterday now granted I'm about three days late four days late

But I started yesterday feel great as long as you get there

Yeah, but I know why they're doing it now Barry now. I understand your people

I understand why you guys need this so bad because it beat me the hell up

I bet I bet how long is the lenting gonna last you gonna go to the full 40?

I think I'll make it to tomorrow about 430 40 hours. Yeah, pretty good

40 hours

My people spanned the desert for 40 hours

Good for you. Yeah, I'm glad you survived it. Do you see anything crazy?

Everything crazy. It was so much fun. It was the most it's crazy that

People especially on Mardi Gras day are so emotional

I mean people are crying on Mardi Gras day and I think you know partly it's because of the you know

Quarantine and not being able to do this for a little while

but apparently this is a thing where people get very emotional on Mardi Gras day because of the sheer magnitude and the beauty of

The entire moment and I will say I've been talking a lot in the past day or so with you know

Professional people especially in the company and they're you know, obviously worried about Ukraine and the humanitarian

Aspect of everything that's happening there, but here it's almost as if none of that's happening

You know, it's like we have just went through the gauntlet of Mardi Gras and we're just now waking up and saying there's a war what?

What happened?

So I do feel a little like out of touch and out of it

But it was as fulfilling and as exhilarating of a week and a half is as I could have found I wore a

costume Wow

That one piece of the costume was on my head. That's a lot of alcohol. Oh

Or the right alcohol

Didn't throw up the wife threw up once we didn't I didn't I guess one. Yeah. Yeah, I kept it together

Well, I mean New Orleans like we've said before is the you guys suffer more than most cities and

For to be shut down for two years. I can see we're blowing it out was overdue

And then the best part was on Friday the Friday after Mardi Gras and a Saturday after Mardi Gras

And the Sunday after Mardi Gras there is crawfish everywhere

Everywhere. I must have had a hundred and ten pounds of crawfish over the weekend. It was massive

I couldn't give up crawfish. Oh, why would I do that? Yeah, okay

Well, I thought you know, that's the point of Lent give up something you love. Well, Barry

Yeah, it's where I'm here to talk to you about we

Want a break

We've gone through more breaks than we've been on

Today it's a shaky knees day

So we've got two artists today that we're gonna talk to that are appearing at shaky knees

Which is one of those festivals some sort of like Boston Calling that if you don't know it and if you don't go to it

On a regular basis, it probably is just another afterthought

But shaky knees is like I think it's my favorite festival in the south. That's not one of the top ones, right?

It's not it's not the big one. But boy, it's so well done. It's crafted in such a fantastic manner

the the lineups are always

spot on for me and

You know year after year

They move spots. They move locations. It just keeps getting better really good line up as we've talked about

I can't wait if everything falls, right? I might have to join you down there for at least one of those days taco

Yeah, you should I'm sorry. You're gonna do what I think you know, which one wait Barry that you have to leave the state

Yeah, I know I believe that my basement

I don't think you're ready for this

It's a big if but if things fall the way I hope yeah

Definitely that that Sunday looks really good to me. All right, tell me who's on Sunday

Well, my morning jacket krung bin death cab band of horses coin

That's that sounds like a what podcast lineup right there, doesn't it?

Except for all those bands. We haven't talked to

One and you're like, you know what?

Coin oh, yeah, we did have Krunkville. That's right. Yeah, I talked about my morning jacket a lot

I'll be on someday one day

Well, there was going to be a time in a previous lineup

That we were going to do a cooking show with my morning jacket and it did not pan out

But I was so excited when they were in were they on the first Bonnarooo lineup that didn't happen the second one

Maybe they're on both either way

They pitched me the idea of doing a cooking segment with them and I thought that was so much fun

So maybe we can do it again. I don't know how we cook. What we cook you guys want to boil crawfish? Sure

Yeah, yeah

Yeah, you do

Maybe a spaghetti. Yeah pasta

All right kids you like macaroni and cheese, yeah you open the can you're pouring heat it up. Yeah

I took that pasta the so two bands in particular. It's a shaky knees one is gangs of youth now

If you do not know gangs of youth

They are getting a little bit of heat on radio stations like mine because they signed a big record deal

They've I think they're

Tonally, they're so interesting. I like their new album. They had a song on my radio station for a hot minute

I felt like I was maybe the only guy in the country that was obsessed with the song Angel of 8th Avenue

So, you know, they've definitely got something. I think they're really really interesting

I do not know what their live show is like

But that would be one that I would circle because I just like the band

I want to give them the pine grove treatment one band that I saw at shaky knees. It's one of these festivals

It's perfect for

Exactly this I heard this one song of them and now I want to see if it translates live, right?

You know shaky knees is the best at finding those that's how I found churches for the first time

I was like, I really like that one churches song. Let me go see him and see if I like it obsessed

right Sylvanessa was like that for me at shaky knees went to see pine grove and shaky knees and

That would be the last time I ever see pine grove

But now you know, I didn't but now I know I love that song

It's a really good song, but I just can't get past the kid wearing shorts on stage. I can't get past it

I cannot get I can't get past a dude that's wearing shorts on stage

I see your cell phone in one pocket your car keys in the next it's like are you here or you're not?

Yeah, are you going shopping afterwards? Are you gonna actually engage or were you shopping and then somebody said?

Oh, by the way, you've got a show and fire. Yeah, we need you to come play guitar and sing whiny indie rock

But I so but that's the perfect place for a band like that is shaky knees is they can expose themselves to

You know a quality crowd who's really into this sort of stuff and gain, you know of a fan forever

I think gangs of the York is is one of them. I'm sorry gangs of youth is one of them circle

It's it's one gang many youths. Yeah, okay. It's not gangs of youth. No gang of youth gang of youths

Yeah, okay the youths the youths

It's funny you mentioned the the costuming because Mac gets into that with us, which I thought was a lot of fun

I think they got to be pretty good on on stage just just because of the hair

Mmm, it's a lot of hair. I know we I was I was hoping we'd make it more than 10 minutes before we start talking about hair

We didn't do it

Close so that's the first part second part is an interview that I did a couple of weeks ago on the

debut day of spoons new album with

My best friend in the world Brit Daniel, so we are best friends

We are two peas in the pod. We hang out we chit chat and call each other all the time my best friend Brit Daniel

I

love

Spoon I love Brit Daniel. I've got the biggest man crush on Brit Daniel and

I

Don't know if during the conversation. I tried to bring it up the time that we hung out

You know Laverne and Shirley our way through ACL, but I don't know if you really remembered it. I

think that he did

Sure that he did. Oh, yeah turns your calls, right? Oh, yeah all the time. Why would he return them?

He's answering them on the first ring calling you. Yeah, I got you nice

So we talked about the new album, which by the way

if you haven't heard Lucifer on the sofa, I

Can't stop listening to this and I don't want to get premature and have recency bias because Lord knows there's nothing

I hate in this world more than recency bias, but

Oh, this new spoon album might be my favorite spoon album of all time. It is incredible

Good there you go. You haven't listened one second of it. Have you? No. Oh my god

I'm just sitting here and I'm sure us is thinking the same Brad has a lot of best friends

Best friend. Yeah

Brad and Brits

I can't dispute any of it, but you have a bunch. It's I've got Britt Brittany and Brad. That's it. Yeah

The circle is widened then yeah, you know, I've always said Brad only likes two people himself and the other is fluid

fluid

Why is no fluid meaning it's it's not it's not a liquid you're not saying I love fluid

No, it could be it could change got it. Okay, there's always it's it's one it plays a role

Okay, there's always it's it's one plus one

The b plus one. Yeah, whoever my plus one is for the day. Sure. Yeah

Um, so those are your two those are your two shaky knees, uh artists for today

We've had coin on so you can knock them off the list gangs of youth. Nope gang of youth

Okay

and spoons

very excited for both

These bands today. Okay, we've had krung band krung's bins. Yeah krung krung green bin

Getting there. I like it. Yeah, so there you go. That's what you get today. And then um, is there anything else we need to get to?

Do we want to talk about the the Bonnaroo stuff you wanted to go?

Let's do that. Uh, once we get through these two

Um, let's uh talk to max from gang of youths

Now on the what podcast

Really exciting but yeah literally just soundchecking well congratulations

Thanks, man

I'm in new orleans right now barry is in

Tennessee

And and rus is right outside of tennessee in northern georgia north georgia

Um, holy shit, that's that's such a cool, uh group of places. I mean is it?

Yes

Are you joking? Like i'm just making sure like how how many trips have you made?

Uh to the states in the last year or so since uh, everything really started blowing up

Yeah, well dude like I um, I have a huge love for the south man

and I know that that not all of the places just listed are like

hard out the south but

Um, I love all that wilrmeth stuff man. Like I used to I did a summer working in the shinandoah valley

Which is way up further on and the appalachians up on in western virginia

and i've just so whenever i'm in those sorts of places where there's like

Like all the trees and the fireflies and the vibe

I want to get I want to get down to like new orleans though and check out all the swamps. Oh, please do

Let's wrestle some gators together. Let's wrestle some gators. I don't

I uh, my brother would be useful with that. Um, he he used to live in darlin, which is literally where crocodile dundee is set

um

And uh, he's always uh in the middle of the wilderness with his bow and arrow

Um, but i'm kind of like i'm the sort of the city slicker the latte sipper of the family the latte sipper

What were you doing? Yeah, what were you doing in the shinandoah valley? What the hell is that about?

I did I just did like a lot of um kiwi i'm in new zealand but um, most of the band actually not anymore two of the band

Ozzy the front man dave is ozzy. Um, but someone um

And then tom's english and jun's from chicago

um, but yeah, we

I had a lot of kiwis when they're like

1918 19 go and work in the states in summer camps. It's just a way to get a visa and then go traveling

So I did that bro. It was awesome. Okay

Everyone thought I like knew how to start fires and shit because i'm from new zealand, but I don't know

I I kind of had like I had like more mana than I deserved. Um for sure

Um, but it was fun

So you guys

You go. No, it's it is remarkable like the the way that we look at as americans

We look at other people especially just like cavemen. That's all you are to us. It's cavemen

you can start fire with your hands and

Yeah, you can take out a you know a large animal with a boomerang or something

Um, in the case of my brother that's like a weirdly accurate stereotype

uh, but uh

But not me so much. Um, but now we love the outdoors though the whole band like that's something about united states, man

That it's just so super underrated

people don't um

Like if I lived in the states bro, I would have a car for one

I live in I live in london. It makes no sense. Um, but I would have a car

Uh, and uh, I would just boost

All the time to like waterfalls rivers

You know

Mountains, it's just great bro

But um, yeah, anyway, i'm sure you don't want to talk about that

What

Is the perception

What do you think the perception people have of?

Your music based on where you're from. Oh man. Um,

I don't I think it differs to where you are like

I feel like in the united states

australians and new zealanders, uh

A little bit random like we're so small

That I don't know if there is much preconceived ideas about it apart from like big acts like tamen parlor or

um

you know recently and um, and

People like lord and stuff like, you know, there's some big sort of antipodean acts, but

A lot, I don't know if there is much but I think in england like there's a lot of aussies and kiwis

and we're really annoying and like we over drink and like

Like we live together in like massive flats and shit like and I thought I think it's like almost works against us

In england barry. I think I found my people

and uh

Yeah, dude, you're right. No, you do not want to be a london ozzy. Trust me. Uh, no, we love we love

We are london ozzy. So we can't talk. Um, but yeah, no like so I think

Yeah, whereas in the states, I think there's a lot more like like we're just sort of seen as like being oh

That's kind of interesting. You're from you know, the other side of the world, but I don't I never feel judged or anything

by americans

Can I stop real quick?

What is a kiwi?

a kiwi is um is a um, uh a

bird

a flightless bird

Uh, that is the national emblem

Uh of new zealand, okay, which is why the word which is when you say when you buy kiwi from whole foods like the fruit

Uh, it's called a kiwi because it's from new zealand

But okay, the name is derived from a bird

so it'd be like calling like

uh the canadians if you called them like

Hockey pucks. Yeah. Yeah, or like a molten or like yeah called you guys

I I could say a lot dodgy stuff about what you call americans pbr

um

Yeah, pick up truck and oh, you know the

The I don't know what's the stereotype. Well, don't offend anyone

Let's get to the the real question that I have

How in the world do you guys have the best set of hair of any band that's on the planet right now?

You guys all have great hair

Uh, which is just uh, it's a it's it's lauriel paris dude. No, it's not. Um, no, it's um

It's uh, we just I don't know dave's wife's a hairstylist and she does all that hair

My wife actually just cut my hair though. So she so she killed me if I'd mentioned that

um, but uh

No, I don't know what it is man. You just when you're in a band you're allowed to have long hair even though you're uh

Probably too old to have long hair. So we uh, well, this is a big it's a big part of our show, which is why brad

Yeah, we try to spend five to ten minutes on hair. Yeah, you know, it's a hair is important to us. So yeah

That's that's great, man

Um, that's pretty much all we got for you. Uh, so oh fantastic. Have a good night

Night

So so about the band now

I became a fan of you guys because you know

I work in radio and we get service singles and I had never really heard of you guys and

The minute that I heard the first single off of the new album. I was like man. This is this has got so much

Like national in it. Um, and I love the national so that

That was the first, you know four rounds into into your band

Tell me about the band. Tell me about where you guys came from how you found each other and and

You know before up until the new album, uh how it all came to be

It's interesting to say the national man because one of our best mates is a guy called peter katus who made

Who produced boxer and alligator and high violet?

But uh, and he produced one song on this record and he mixed a couple on this album the new one, um

And so we obviously have that connection of like a mutual friend

But I do think a lot of the time because dave matt berninger kind of

broke ground on that like

You know, I mean obviously linen con as well

But like in terms of like an indie rock band having a singer with a low voice. Yeah, so I think sometimes dave

Um, like even no matter what he does he would get that comparison because he has that range

Um, but I think I think there's like yeah anyone like dude like box is probably the most one of the most foundational albums to our

age group if you loved indie rock music

So like I don't think you can be a you I don't think you can be honest and not sort of

Tip your hat to the national like we fucking love the national. Um, but yeah

like I think on this record, especially like the influences are a lot more random than that

and um

You know, it's sort of more

You know new american minimalism and like philip glassy steve right key instrumentation and uk garage like breakbeats

Um heavily using samples from the pacific islands. Like I think this record is like

A departure from that but a lot of our older stuff and to an extent I guess like angel of a day

Which I think was the first single still has that feel of like the driven drums. Um

And but it's yeah, it's hopefully lean and

gliding

Um

You know in a way that yeah, I guess the national can do really well

But is that but is that the is that the sound that you guys started as when when you guys first found each other?

No, I think like we've never really had the balls to like

Attempt what we did on this record

Um, and it's something we've always loved and sort of hoped to do like we've always been very string heavy dave's amazing arranging strings

and now we have tom hobden who uh

Joined the band who used to be in month and sons, but before that nor on the whale

Um, so he he kind of has that

He's like a genius string arranger. So

He's sort of taken us to the next level with that and you're hearing a full orchestra on on the record

You went to port-au-vest and recorded with a full section one of the go ahead. I'm sorry

No, you're right. No, no, please. I was one of the things that uh tyrone

We talked to tyrone from rufus this old a couple weeks ago and one of the things he said was there was a national radio

In australia and what an influence it was because you got to hear so many

Different things because I think the question I think brad you had asked is you know, where do you get these inputs?

and you know coming from australia and he said being able to hear all these different influences

was um

I don't i'm not put I don't mean to put words but freeing or liberating or whatever. You know, it was uh, you could do whatever you wanted to do

Kind of thing. Did did you have that? Did you guys have that as well?

I think like i'm dave who's like the

leader of the band really um

And uh, you know, it's like

This is his story about his dad that he wrote, you know, and I think for him he's

Like he was raised by the internet

And uh television uh in a lot of ways. He's like one of the most intelligent people i've ever met

He knows everything. It's like the walking wikipedia page

um, you know sometimes

Uh wikipedia search engine. I mean like he just knows everything and I so I feel like he kind of grew up

loving classical music and uh

Listening to a huge array of things, you know going down to the public library listening to stuff

Um, I think the rest of us have our own stories with it like I

I was probably more just like a small town kiwi kid who listens

To whatever I could and my big brother kind of would like give me a record every now and then like roach against machine or something and

I would get into it or whatever but I um

Yeah, I think we just all just kind of like

But I um, yeah, I think we just all

Uh constant like tom's literally a classically trained, you know went to the royal college of of london to learn violin

So it's like he comes from that world

So it's sort of this disparate donny was like a jazz drummer

You know, so it's like well these are these are all so many different influences. Yeah, this is so many different, uh experiences

How in the world did you all find each other?

We we all met at um, so a couple of them so

So four of the original members of whom um, sorry like

like dave

myself and um jung were

originally like started a band

with two other guys that um, basically

Four of them went to uh church youth group together. So they met through that and I went to high school with dave

Um, so I met him there

And then so we kind of started in this shared experience. Um in a in a large

Evangelical church movement me less than me. Um, but that's kind of how the boys met up and

Um, that's really cool in some ways because you're allowed to play music and you're allowed to be really crap at it, you know

Um regularly like i'm sure a lot of american listeners can especially the south can relate to that like

Um, I mean I went I was my dad was a small town pastor in a small

uh

City in New Zealand. So I I grew up playing different instruments and stuff every single week, you know from what was about 11

With no choice. I had to you know, I mean someone you really do get a very long

You get a very long leash when you uh, yeah

He just sounds so good sitting on that drums

Bless you. Yeah, and it's

You're allowed to but like you know what it teaches you man

Like even if you suck at your instrument which most people who play in those places don't they're actually amazing

But even if you do suck you're learning how to play in a band

Like how to play with people whereas I think a lot of other people like they don't get that till high school

um

Where they get a chance to like routinely play like, you know, which we all did as well

You know, we all we're all playing like smells like teen spirit on repeat, you know, whatever

In high school, but I I think yes, we all met like that and um

But it was very early on that we became a band like I met the other guys really at the first rehearsal

And we were just like we kind of had shared experiences, but we all loved music and we were very random

Like we're very not we're not a very easy band to brand because we don't

Wear the same shit. We're not all like

70s long hair schtick

I kind of look like that, but i'm kind of like a dorky new zealand dad

And then like, you know dave's someone man who grew up in like

Uh, like in a western inner city suburb of sydney

jungs from chicago

He's he's korean descent

You know donnie grew up in another city. So it's like there's kind of like we don't look like a band

And then we were on stage like we we even dressed different which we're trying to get better at

So we've been doing this for like a decade, but we kind of have this um

We probably look like a group. We're best friends in the whole world. We've lived together for long periods of our lives

We literally just been on a holiday with all of our wives

Uh, you know like we hang out off the clock

But we don't look like we look like we met at like a like a social club and we all come from different places

like we don't have like a

Afraid of like a scene that we came from if that makes sense. Yeah

Uh, which which might be which might be a strength thing

when it comes to instrumentation because

It it's not locked into one way of thinking

Well, look, I mean I do think that there is going to be a resurgence of

Getting back to the basics at some point, you know

Yeah, tiktok has its moments. And yeah, it's really easy for you to get a

A career out of a youtube page at this point, but there is still something

That drives us to especially hardcore music fans drives us to the struggle

To the guys that just feel like our buddies

Um, and you know, there's there's that thing feels like it's gonna come back at some point

Um, I would I would suggest

Coordinating outfits though, uh, it does drive me a little nuts when a band is not paying any attention to what they're wearing

It makes me a little nutty

We we we think about it now man like i'm i'm i'm a little nutty

We we think about it now man, like i'm good. Okay, we're like we're like, you know

We've got like teams around us now that you know harass us about this shit

Um, but I what I mean is it's not um, as long as you're not wearing top hats and shorts

You're gonna be okay. No

Brad biggest pet peeve is somebody taking their shirt off. So as long as nobody's

Okay, I reckon I reckon drummers can bro, i'm gonna disagree with you I reckon drummers can

But uh, anyone else who does is a tool. I agree. I I understand I understand the

The drummer thing i'm willing to to give you a taylor hawkins from foo fighters. They're not trying to get attention

But if you're imagine drags if you're dan who's literally taking your shirt off in the third song

I don't know what you're doing this for like there's no reason for

We we can all agree that that's bullshit, right? It's like

It's like

Um, no, no, not directing this at any person or musician but like it's one of those things you just need a good friend in your life

More successful than me and like full respect to you and your songwriting but

like put your shirt on bro, like I I also think if you're like

I don't know. There's a very small list of people who pull it off and like that's right piggy pop

I definitely yeah, he fucking pulls it off. Yeah

I certainly don't put myself into that lane. Um

Yeah, well I will say the first few

I will say the first few episodes that we uh did of this podcast. They were all shirtless

Um, and it did. Oh good. Oh good. Yeah, I was really working out for us. I was a lot younger then

So, um, so now that the band is really found its its its footing and um, you're starting to expand

into the americas

Um, you have a string of festival dates one included shaky knees

Do you guys ever do you guys think of anything?

Not being american. Do you have any sort of opinion about american festivals?

Um at all american shows in general

I have like a super high opinion of the men. I think

American crowds are really cool

They they they tend to uh listen to music

Um that they didn't intend to see which I think is the yardstick for a cool place to play at a festival. So like

Some some countries you play in like if you're not on their main radio station

Like everyone's on their phone when you're playing

You know

Um, and I feel like americans, um, it's it's obviously way way way way way too diverse place to be general

Um america, um, but I think on I think on the whole

Uh, our experience of playing festivals there is that people are up for it

And if they haven't seen you before you actually can win a crowd over. It's not like

Um, it hasn't been totally ruined by like tick tock and stuff yet

Um

And yeah, so I really respect that and um, yeah, we're really excited about shaky knees. Um

I don't know if we're doing any others that I know of this summer

Um, because we're doing quite a lot of headline touring

Um, but next year we're going to be trying to 23. We're going to be hopefully there all the time like this

Um

I think yeah, what's your nose? Yeah, you go

I think that's really cool to hear you say that about the festivals and americans because that to me that's been a shift since

Bonnarooo started since the festival thing became a thing

It's really cool to hear you say

That because I think that's what we've seen develop

uh, and part of why we do the show is

The the discovery the discovery is part of the fun

Uh, that's something that we really that's why we started the show because there was a bunch of that's such a

Cool lineup that we never heard of and we thought we need to find out who they are and it became a game

You know, and then it became

I'm not saying we did it but i'm glad to hear you say that that's really cool

Well, you've obviously been part of that, you know, you're part of the culture over there. So it's like that's really cool, man

I think anything that can

Can as a muso that can make I mean I can think of a really good example where?

Um the band bahamas, which I think is just

staggeringly awesome

Um canadian guys, um, which by the way, yeah, barry barry found bahamas on this show

On a sunday on a sunday morning at Bonnarooo and because I become my favorite. Yeah

I I explained I explained a couple of picks that I had for barry to listen to before Bonnarooo

He got into him and all of a sudden that's his uh, you know get high and chill out at the house music

Yeah, clean the house. This this is going to infuriate you then because

Because we played at a festival and i'm not going to name the country because I I just don't want to indict

another place, uh, but like it wasn't the states and um

and yeah bahamas was playing and

Everybody was just on their phone because that bahamas I don't think were on the radio there

and um, the funniest thing was like our whole band

was like lined up

Like watching at the very front row and people coming up and talking to us

But we were just trying to watch bahamas. Do you know what I mean? Yeah, and it's like it was just this

Real it was just this realization like they're so much bigger than us most markets

But in this market it was like a you know, we were a thing at that festival

and I was so I was like it was just like so confusing to me like

Why aren't you watching this band? Like you're going to watch

You might watch us later if you want to or you'll watch where else later

But like why are you on your phone? Like why are you here if you're not here to watch music? Um,

I came home and I was obsessed

It's it's all for a while

That's so musical man, like I really love

What they do just musical and I that's something i'm excited about for this tour is um, I better go lads

Um, but yeah, i'm gonna go but I for this tour like I just think

um

You know our other stuff's been a little bit more direct in terms of the uh, like it's been guitar lead or you know

More so and like this this new record I think is like way riskier

And harder to play and yeah, so much so much

It may be hard for you to play but it's so good angel in real time

Um, i'm a big big fan of it, dude

I think angel of eighth avenue is one of my favorite songs of the year last year

Uh, really if if you're listening to this give it a try

Uh, because I really like this band a lot and I hope when you get over to the uh, the states

It's it's as well received as as I think it will be so all the luck to you

And hopefully we'll see you at shanties along the way

Hey bro. Yeah, come on form like reach out or whatever and just get a beer

But um, I like uh, if you guys you guys do the thing at the festival. I don't know anyone else in alabama. So I

as well

But uh, but uh, not not

Yeah, but um, well really nice to talk to you and um, thanks for your uh, you know caring about our band enough to talk to us

Um, wherever you guys are in tlc in georgia and uh, what's uh, new orleans new orleans. There you go. Thanks max

See you buddy. See you guys. They might be your discovery this year. What day are they on barry gang of youths?

They are on the saturday. Okay, nine inch nails headliner with churches. Not the day you not the day you want to go

That's a good one. I mean I like the whole lineup, but I'm just I'm not going to even pretend and lie to you and say

I'm going all three days. I do feel like it's one of the stronger lineups and for a festival. It's only 25k or so

Um, I think it is as strong of a lineup as is out there the entire year

Yeah, you could go eat any of those three days and be happy all night. What's friday again? Remind me of friday is green day

And billy idol rainbow kitten

Uh spoon your guy spoons

spoons

Yeah, we'll talk we'll talk to spoons here, uh soon enough

Uh brit daniel's my best friend me and my best friend brit

Going to catch up talk about the new album lucifer on the sofa here in a second

But what was the uh Bonnarooo news this week that I missed because I'd be honest with you. I've not paid attention to anything

Yeah, go ahead paco

Um, they've made some improvements on the farm

Uh number one stormwater management planning and drainage improvements. I know you guys love drainage

I always like to see that way up high on the poster. Well, yeah first billy. Yeah

Uh, but if if they don't have the sewage improvements, uh

You know it. Yeah, these are these are all

filed under

Uh, only us would be talking about it, but we're glad they did all of them. Can I tell you?

Uh a band that we've had on this program

before came to town and they performed at a

venue in town that will stay nameless and

I heard that

It got so uncomfortable. It's a packed house

but unfortunately

Because it was the first show back into

real life

something had happened with the sewage lines

and when

Everybody would flush

The water was going the opposite direction

So when you walked into the bathroom you were having to walk around

rivers of sewage

Oh

So the whole venue smelled like raw sewage

I don't care who's on stage. That's a bad bad night. Don't care who's it. Yeah

Paul nice to see you. Mr. McCartney. Have a good night. I'm out. Yep. Yep. Gotta go

We've all been on the farm when things weren't going well

I try not to talk about it. Like I said, I worked at a funeral home

I don't talk about that. I don't talk about things i've seen in porta bodies on the farm

Yeah, but you really did get a lot of girlfriends from that funeral home

It's a chick magnet. Yes it is

What's the second line on that improvement poster

Uh, let's see. You got relocation of parking and camping areas to better prepare for weather events

Now this sounds planning on well, you know that just sounds like fancy words for moving brad

And I don't run

Yeah, I don't like it

This doesn't sound good to me. No, we can read between the lines on that. Yeah, no kidding out

This is just fancy words to say

We don't like where you're camping brad. So we're moving you somewhere else

Yeah

Yeah, we're gonna that's that's an issue for later

So at what point so explain to me the parts that they would need to move you from

And move you to so that it would

Be weather flexible

I don't know, but they put a little picture of a bus on here. So I like it

Once again thumbs up for me poster management. Yeah, that's all you need. Yeah

It gives a thumbs up from me

Take a lot

The only thing I can think of is remember the big storm from what four or five years ago is they just cleared out center room

Yeah, and then went out where you went from there

And they built a building

Kind of on your own. Yeah built the bridge now. I understand there's low levels of the farm and and you know the the storm that rolled through ida last year

That killed the festival. I understand that there was a reason the grounds were

Destroyed probably you hit it. You nailed it right there. I know that but where are they moving them to it's I mean, they don't have endless space

Yeah, I don't know probably higher I don't know I would assume they paid attention to

Higher ground and that sort of thing. Were were you just about to say they moved a hill? I was

But I let it go it probably did move some hills but not the hill you're

Brad always wins in the end

But I let it go

But not the hill you're you're brad always wins in the end brad always wins in the end this one

They go ahead there's three or four more

They've paved roads. There's additions of pave roads across the farm

Paving roads, would you be okay if they paved the main roads inside center room? That's what I think they did. No

And at first I thought no, I don't like that. Um

I don't think that's true remember that big puddle that forms there leaving vip going into center room

Be cool if that was not there anymore

I know I know that but

I just paved roads across festival grounds. It doesn't specifically say center room now

I could see if they paved the main drags around camp, right?

And but I just don't know if I would be okay with them paving roads inside center row. Why?

Something would feel almost you'd miss the dust and the puddles, you know

It's not just the dust or the puddles. It just feels

I don't less connected to the earth. Maybe I had the same thought over the weekend

But then I kept thinking about those puddles that you got to walk, you know when you go through those wooden gates

stepping over and around and there's no fun in that I understand. I don't know why I don't haven't

I haven't really put a finger on why

This would bother me, but it made me feel a little

A little bougie a little like uh, I feel like i'm at a city festival all of a sudden

I think the point of being a Bonnarooo is that you get these rough around the edges

Things I don't I don't know if I'd love a uh

I'm okay with a flushing toilet. Okay, let me make that clear. I'm okay

You're not a rough around the edges guy. I know that but this makes me feel like I am

Oh, this is it. Okay. They got gravel roads and everything

Yeah, maybe we need to do a little recon and go down to manchester and see exactly what they've paid

Exactly what we need. Do you think they've already done them or they're just saying that they're going to do them

Uh makes it sound like it's been done. Why are you gonna talk about it? Well, wait a second. We have

Kyle lives in manchester

Oh, yeah, we can get him over there. Why don't we just get kyle kyle drive over there and see if you can see any paved roads

Yeah, take video. Yeah, I don't know man. The last place they need paved roads is in centeru

They already drive too many carts through there to begin with

um the the the

Bumpiness and that actually slows them down

They need to take the service roads behind because the carts drive me nuts driving through there

That's that was sort of part of the plan that was announced two years ago when it didn't happen

Got it. They had come up with ways to move the carts around the perimeter man. I hope so

I do too. That's the most because man, I tell you that the best part of lalapalooza is how they have organized

Sort of their transportation in and around that festival, uh, the carts driving through

Bonnarooo don't make any sense and they just get in the way. Yeah coming up on you all the time

Yeah, and also and also

The paving roads would mean that they're you know, planning to continue

Driving through centeru when it's much more important to get paved roads out and around

Uh the premises don't you think yeah, maybe yeah, it's part of the uh, wastewater management

Rainwater and all that. Mm-hmm. All right. What else we got on the poster?

New wayfinding system to better help you navigate the farm day and night

Okay, that that's just a sign. That's just a sign. Yeah, that's a

Here's your sign this way

And then finally even faster entry to campgrounds due to tow booth and parking efficiencies this look I just made it better there

Uh, oh there it is

I did it

Now I can find my way man. I just spent a lot of money on that new sign

Send an email

but yeah, there's

There's it's a sign right we're talking about a sign we're talking about

Okay, what else could it be I mean, yeah

Probably a sign. Yeah. I don't know. That's for those people who have to camp way way way out

Do they still own?

scorcho

No, it's gone. You know, they rented it then they didn't own it

No, they didn't own it. Okay, because if they owned it, it would be kind of cool to take the scorch

And drive it around with like announcements on the big screen and you get to see what's going on

And you know do karaoke into it, you know, good put it to use. Yeah

All right. Now that would be a pretty good, you know

Sign, you know, that'd be a pretty good investment. They bought the scorch and they turn it into

You know its own character now. I'll tell you that would be a great rehab

To its its reputation everybody hates the scorch el scorcho is back and all of a sudden its own character driving around making everybody happy

I agree. Maybe you could wear a scorcho costume

Mini scorch mini scorch

Hey marty gross 345 days away

Gotta have a gotta start working on that hosting. That's right. I make it now

Yeah, so that's it. Those are the big ones. They're gonna let people in on Tuesday

Something yeah, and the sooner you get there the closer you are camped to center room

First is pretty big. Yeah

Yeah, that would that I always wondered about that people who you know bust their ass to get there early and then get the worst parking

That sounds like that sounds like the leaps

That sounds like the biggest piece of information here that the sooner you get there

The closer you get to be. Yep, because weren't we saying a couple years ago that you know, you could get there on a tuesday

But you're still you know, yeah

Yeah, they start from back and move, you know towards the middle. Well, and that's not new they've been announcing this for two years

Yeah, there's just been no Bonnarooo to show for it actually do it

So that's it

They should just keep announcing stuff just yeah, who cares?

It's you know, we 50 50 at this map happens start announcing stuff

Hey, the rolling stones are headlining. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well good

Uh, that's uh, that's all right. I mean I think a lot of that's uh,

Some good pr work finally

But I don't know if uh much of that is is meat

It feels like the meatier part is is you get to camp as close to center as you can easier or

Sooner you get there. Yeah

Yeah, I think Russ and I were talking before you got on any any of these improvements or the kind of things that you know

Don't normally make the headlines but as we've all said over the years the little things they add up

Shade grass, that's right. Fleshable toilets. That's right. That's right. And then the grounds have uh, definitely gotten better

And they look so much better and I will to your point barry

I think that the reason why we don't hear about them they announced that they're going to be

We don't hear about them. They announced them plenty

but we don't hear about them because

There's other stuff about it that we're talking about, you know, there's so many other things that were but because we're in this

you know

barren desert of information about you know, what bonnar is going to be we haven't done it and how long

Now it feels like every teeny tiny scrap of information feels like a feast any news is news. Yeah for sure

For sure. So the other uh, shaking these artists that we wanted to talk to today was an interview

I did with brit daniel my best friend

A couple weeks ago when the new album came out if you haven't listened to it yet

By the way when we were talking to a gang of youths you had plenty of time there barry to listen to lucifer on the sofa

Did you listen to any did you get a couple of tracks? No, but I promise I will

Did you listen to gang of youths before we talk to them? Oh, yeah, what'd you say? Yes, I like it very much

It took me a while. I kept trying to figure out and I hate doing this but i'm like everybody else

He does it every time he always tries to figure out he always says I never do this and then he doesn't he does exactly this

I hate doing it, but it finally dawned on me. They remind me of the call

If you remember the call the song the walls came down. Yeah, okay

Never mind. You know, I got nothing

Jump into that cabinet. See if you got any call cds

Reach on in there and see if you got anything

Anyway, I like it very much

Yeah, I like it a lot. Yeah, I said max was a lot of fun. He was a lot of fun

I get a little bit of national vibes from it. So

Yep, yep lucifer on the sofa is the new spoon album. We talked the day that it came out

So i'm sorry. We're just now getting to this but other things started coming up like rufus' soul and coin

but because I love spoon so much and

Because brit daniel is best friends best friends. Yes, with no doubt

Let's uh spoon on the what podcast

What's happening bread hey brad, how are you i'm doing super duper. How are you stranger? I'm good the last time

I was in the bathroom

I was in the bathroom

I was in the bathroom

How are you i'm doing super duper. How are you stranger? I'm good the last time you and I hung out

Talked we were uh backstage at acl and I asked you what you were listening to and you said

I've been getting into the clash these days

And then it wasn't five minutes later somebody walked up and said hey bread nice to see you

What are you listening to and you said i'm really getting into the clash these days

That's a well, it's a strong recommendation

It's hard to go wrong with the clash. I bet you're still listening to the clash these days. I am

I just admire you so much. I mean you've got one of my favorite bands of top three favorite bands of all time

And today it's got to be a really big day for you. So first off congrats

I think you guys put out something damn near perfect. Oh, wow. Thank you. I have a high praise. I appreciate that

Oh, i'm just an idiot on the radio. How do I know? Um, I

I want to go back to like when you and jim since you and jim are still around from 30 years ago

Did you got what was the conversation? Did you envision 30 years later in 10 albums?

No, we didn't the bands that I had been into that I had been in up until that point

All lasted about nine months to a year and a half. And so that was kind of what I was picturing

Um jim and I were in a band before spoon that lasted nine months. It's called the alien beats and so

um

It was more it was I think the only thing that we commented on was like let's get some better gigs than that last band had

You know, that was it

Like let's play not play on monday nights at the back room this metal bar

And there's a metal bar in east austin that had an alternative night, you know

And that was the gig that was easy to get but of course no one showed up

so

We were

I remember you telling me though when you were when this was starting you were doing something. What was your day-to-day job at the time?

Right when the band started. Um

I guess I was just out of college and I was I was working at a video game company

Oh, that's right. Yes. Okay, that's what you're thinking of. Yes. I remember this conversation. Yeah, and and what were you doing there?

I was I was making sound effects. I wasn't even making music for them. I was just doing

sound effects so like explosion sound effects and

Right, um

Uh, you know a spaceship the door closes you that kind of sound effect

Spaceship takes off that kind of sound effect. Yeah, it was a cool job

I feel like you could score a movie if you really wanted to

I could yeah

I mean even even even to the sound effect part it could go from the whole gambit from beginning of the movie to the end

Yeah, it was a good gig for sure. You know, it was it was

Especially just out of college, you know, it was a dream job and they were um when I was in college

We I've studied audio but we didn't

There was no digital audio at that school

So I got out of school and there's this video game company says they want to teach me digital audio and pay me

Ten dollars an hour and I just thought I was you know

It was there would I I don't know. I thought

Was this 91 92? Yeah 93. Yeah, that's pretty good. Ten dollars an hour 93 is not bad. Yeah

um, so when

Uh, you guys go through, you know, 30 years of this. When do you think that like spoon really found its legs?

So when do you think it really got so because the thing that I feel about this band that I love so much

Is that from the first moment? I mean even from you know, telephono to now

It always feels so comfortable in its own skin

Yeah, thank you

well

You know telephono was was definitely that

The band that was trying to get better gigs, you know, that was what that those songs were all about

and it wasn't really even about making records and then as as we

Of course making record was a cool cool deal

But that's what that's not what those songs were written for and then later on we figured out

Hey, someone's actually going to put out our records. We started thinking about writing songs in a different way

Um, I think the record

Uh, maybe 3n called girls can tell

is uh

Where we really started sort of started figuring it out for ourselves and had some of our own identity

Pop out more. What was the song on on girls can tell everything hits at once you think that was the one or that was a big one

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the first song on it and uh

We had definitely never done anything like that before it had vibrahones. It was very stripped back

Yeah, yeah, I mean I could nerd out about about your own band

um, you know pretty much all day and wax poetic about it, but the thing that I love, you know

not only because it's so comfortable in its own skin, but

The re-listen ability if that's a word is so strong because every time I listen

I don't care if it's a series of sneaks or whatever, you know

Just and I told you this before a random tambourine that walks through the the room

And then you never hear that tambourine ever again, right?

You know, that was kind of a random hand clap that never comes back again

That's the kind of stuff that I find to be so interesting that you guys seem to to find the perfect spots for those things

Yeah, well that was I would hear that on a bowie record, you know, and i'd hear that on a Beatles record

um, they were particularly big on

you know really loud percussion elements like that and I

When we started making records if you'd work with a producer they'd say yeah

You put a little tambourine on there, but it's got to be buried in the mix and you don't want to get to stand out

And I said, well, that's not how the Beatles would do it

um, so

There's some arguing about that to start but uh, i'm glad you appreciate that vibe

Well, I love it, uh, because it seems as though it's something that you know

If I was sitting in the room with you that would be what I would do, you know, it's like oh hang on a second

When you brett got it. I'm in i'm on a screen record

You got a nice, uh, nice reverb on those claps. You got going. I appreciate that. Yeah, i've been working on this. Yeah

Uh, so speaking of being in the room with him the the compliment that a buddy of mine

We were going back and forth about this new album. Um

it

And you could probably say this about any spoon album. It feels like we're in the room with them

Right. Is that there's got to be a purpose for that there you're actually that's got to be a

Something that you're actually designing to do we specifically worked on that for this record. Um

Um, we felt like we wanted to react a bit against the last one which would the last one was actually more produced than

than

Some of the other ones it was it was made

um

very much in the studio we're writing the songs while we're in the studio and

um

Figuring out what we were doing with the songs as we're in the studio this time. We decided let's let's um

Let's hash all that out as a band playing with each other

Uh before we hit the record button, you know, sort of an old

Maybe a little bit more old-fashioned way of making a record but there's something about that you can

Even if you don't know anything about recording or how records are made. I think you can kind of sense it

That this is a band playing together

Well, what's more comfortable for you?

Uh, both ways are good. I um

You know because I love some some produced music I do um, but um

I guess

I guess I like the the feel of things happening happening naturally and things happening. Um

Sort of what more live?

Yeah, well, that's what I was gonna

That's what I was thinking because

The the live show is such a completely different experience. I mean that's not that's not totally true

It's not completely different, but it is it is a much different

Feel, uh, especially when you get i'll put it this way

When you said to me at acl you said well, have you seen this show?

And it was your latest tour and this was 2018 29, man. I can't remember what else he said you said

Have you seen this show and I said no, I haven't seen this specific one

But i've seen you guys live a host of times and you said well, this is the one you need to see

Wow listen to that kid well you were

It was three years ago

But but it was it was so specific because I think that you

It had seemed like you had spent so much time making that live show

The best one that you guys had brought to

To the stage. I wonder if I wonder if that sort of like found its way into this album

Yeah, I think that was a big part of it. You know, we we did

We worked on the show, you know

and the way that the show flowed together and the way that the

The way that the performances led to the show

the way that the performances linked together and the way that that hit the audience and uh

when we toured more on that record than we had on any other record before which is saying a lot for us and so

We did think like we felt like we were in a really strong place band-wise

And so it became a thing where let's make a great rock and roll record that is about the band less about um

Production and more just about how we play naturally with each other

Well, i'm not gonna lie to you. I mean that kid was right

I mean it was the best spoon show I had ever seen and I think there was partly

You know, there's you know hometown element there to it

but it still was the best spoon show i'd ever seen I wonder if

You feel the pressure the next round of live shows the when the tour starts in april is have you have you?

You know gotten it up a notch. I know pleasure. We we've done a bunch of shows

Uh, we played a bunch in september and october. It started it started yesterday didn't it and then we played right?

a show

Was it last? No, the two two shows this this week in la and so yeah, it's feeling good. I

I kind of feel like um

We're we're set up and ready to go. It's it's been there've been some really good shows. Well, uh,

Britt you're the you're the coolest sob in rock music. I uh,

You're you're you might i'm writing that down

Put that on your resume. Yeah

I uh, I really do appreciate you and um, I love spoon with all of my heart and um, i'm so glad you're back

I just love this album so much. I appreciate you. Thank you for saying all that and I hope we get to

Uh place I know we're gonna play near new orleans at some point. I hope you get to come to the show

I hope so. I will definitely i'll see you plenty of times on this tour and um, you know

Um, you know by then i'll have something for you other than the clash. All right. Yeah, come say hello for sure

Let's let's chat again. See you buddy. See you soon. Thank you. All right guys. There you go. Good show today

The what podcast giving you Bonnarooo tickets one last thing to do before we get out of here

I could not be happier

With the submission so far for the Bonnarooo photoshop contest

Yeah, they're pretty great

really really funny you can tell the uh

The artists are listeners. That's what makes it cool

It's a lot. Is that what makes it cool or do they make you look better?

Oh, well that does help i'm much thinner in all of these graphics

It's because they're trying to win

And we have confirmation that it is a baby

Yeah, cool. Yeah, I like some really good stuff so far

I I feel like to me the leader in the clubhouse is the hand-drawn pictures of

Russ barry and brad that to me so far is my favorite. So even you with no artistic talent

Can be a front runner for Bonnarooo tickets. All you got to do is give us your best graphic interpretation

Of the what podcast whether it be in photoshop whether or not you drew it on the back of a napkin

Maybe maybe just maybe you write the words the what?

On a piece of paper and submit it. Hey anything that gets

Anything that gets uh our attention

Tag us in it the what underscore podcast on twitter on instagram. Uh, you can email us. What does the email address again?

russ

Comments at the what podcast got it

Any sort of artistic interpretation of the what podcast will take you know, what I will even say this

I'll throw this out to you guys. We could even expand it to if you wrote us a song

There you go see any sort of artistic impression

interpretation of the show

And we'll take it. There you go. What do you think? I'm in uh, so

Submit those we still have a few weeks left on that. Uh, so put your uh

Creative cap on and submit it today for Bonnarooo tickets and camping pass anything else gentleman?

I think that's it taco every time we go to

Barry's house. It seems as though he's got more what podcast

Stickers he's putting up behind him. It's like he's just finding gear that he hasn't sent out yet and he's like that

The more they keep pulling I keep pulling equipment out of trash bins everywhere and I got to dress them up with these stickers

I got I got this really cool rack from a local liquor store. They were throwing it away

so

Yeah, wow

I know man the the wheels alone are worth was the was there any liquor in it when you got it? No, no

You got it

Not not when it was outside when I got at home. There was liquor

Barry what are you doing with the liquor rack?

You should see it. I'm proud of it

But what for what what are you gonna do? I got all my stuff

I got all my all my I got all my stuff. I got a place for my stuff

See, I got my treasures here

Place for my stuff. I have nice treasures. I have a feeling all your stuff is still everywhere

I'm sure well fair enough

Fair enough. I love you. Maybe

But it's more organized

Would you maybe sell some of that stuff? Uh, maybe um, you know what podcast stuff? Yeah that stuff I need to sell

Anybody need a koozie?

Or a c-shirt

I am very worried now all of a sudden that barry has become a hoarder

You're walking into liquor stores and stealing furniture

I don't

I'm not proud. I want you to see this. I love this thing. Are you bringing home palettes, too?

I'm not gonna answer that

I might have one or two

Worried about you. I'm very worried. All right, there you go

All right. Good luck. No wonder you can't leave the basement. You've got too much junk

I can't get out. Yes, you literally locked yourself into the basement based on the stuff you brought home from the liquor store. That's not liquor

I can either confirm or deny. Yeah. Love you guys. See you guys. See ya