Speaker 1: And That's what You Really Missed with Jenna.
Speaker 2: And Kevin An iHeartRadio podcast.
Speaker 1: Welcome to and That's What You Really miss Podcast. We
Speaker 1: have something very special for you today.
Speaker 2: Wow wow. We have one of I think the most
Speaker 2: memorable and important songs and performances ever did, which was
Speaker 2: coughs Europe. And we have Semere, the lead singer of
Speaker 2: Young the Giant with us too. You whage to talk
Speaker 2: about that entire thing. And I'm just so excited and
Speaker 2: so nervous. I've seen them live before. I'm so jealous
Speaker 2: that I used to listen to them on repeat. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean when we were starting, Like remember the first
Speaker 2: or second year, I got to go to the VMA's
Speaker 2: they performed oh wow this song before we used it,
Speaker 2: so it was this is very very cool. I'm gonna
Speaker 2: try to try to play it cool. Yeah. But without
Speaker 2: further ado, here is Semir from Young the Giant. Hey there,
Speaker 2: how's it going good? How are you good? We have
Speaker 2: done over like one hundred episodes and my boyfriend here
Speaker 2: if you can see him. Austin has been not interested
Speaker 2: in sitting in one of them never and I knew.
Speaker 2: I was, like, I guess who we have today. A
Speaker 2: couple of years ago, you were performing at the Ohana
Speaker 2: Fest in LA outside of La and Diana Agron, who
Speaker 2: was on Glee, she was there and she I told her,
Speaker 2: I was like, Austin's favorite band is performing, and I
Speaker 2: told her it was you guys, and She's like, oh, well,
Speaker 2: let me see if I can get you guys on stage.
Speaker 2: So then we stood on the side of the stage
Speaker 2: and watched you, and I was like, I am good
Speaker 2: for life, for gifts, I never do anything again. And
Speaker 2: so I had him, So he's here. How did it
Speaker 2: sound on side stage? The side stage was a little weird? Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: I was like, damn, but I was just I have
Speaker 2: pictures of him like sitting like like on the cases,
Speaker 2: just like watching you guys. Remember that show. He's a gigantic,
Speaker 2: gigantic fan.
Speaker 1: Give me here, Austin. This is Austin. Hi, Austin, Hey, Austin,
Speaker 1: embarrass yourself. Please embarrass yourself, Austin.
Speaker 2: I don't know you're massive fan.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to play it cool, but I'm literally just
Speaker 3: trying not to pass out because I seriously love you guys.
Speaker 2: I love you so much. I appreciate that.
Speaker 3: Really, Yeah, I don't out like this often, but for real,
Speaker 3: for real as smile, so.
Speaker 2: Beautiful.
Speaker 3: Never Matter is like one of my favorite albums of
Speaker 3: all time.
Speaker 4: So I appreciate it. Thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 4: We're going to do actually a ten year we haven't
Speaker 4: really released it yet, but we're going to do ten
Speaker 4: year anniversary of the second record and maybe do a
Speaker 4: secret show in La somewhere. So if you're around, you
Speaker 4: guys should get some tickets and we'll figure something out.
Speaker 3: Amazing And yeah, I saw you at Amba a while ago.
Speaker 3: This was years ago, but I think.
Speaker 2: We're going to do a front to back of the
Speaker 2: whole second record.
Speaker 3: Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I'll be there.
Speaker 3: Yeah cool, thanks, Now get out of here, Hi asked,
Speaker 3: thanks for that.
Speaker 1: No, of course, so sweet never He doesn't care about
Speaker 1: anyone now. She really barely cares about Kevin. So yeah, well,
Speaker 1: it's so great to have you. Yes, yes, it's so
Speaker 1: nice to have you here. We're so excited to talk
Speaker 1: to you about coughs, your up and about your life
Speaker 1: and your artistry because you are really you have a
Speaker 1: voice of a generation. It's really really an angel, I know, truly,
Speaker 1: you kidding me. It's infuriating.
Speaker 2: I'm glad I didn't have to come or one of
Speaker 2: your songs. Darren and I still text every now and then,
Speaker 2: you know, oh yeah, that's awesome. I ran into him
Speaker 2: every now and then.
Speaker 1: Oh yes, a cross.
Speaker 2: He just he pops up in all the random places.
Speaker 2: Yeah that was everyone. Yes, so true.
Speaker 1: Okay, So tell me about Do you remember when you
Speaker 1: got the request to cover Coughs Syrap on the show?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I do. It was very early on in our career.
Speaker 4: You know. Obviously Coughs Euroup was on the first record,
Speaker 4: and I think it was about maybe twenty at the time,
Speaker 4: maybe twenty one. Things are moving really fast, you know.
Speaker 4: I think it took many years for me to process
Speaker 4: all the things that happened really in such a short
Speaker 4: period of time. But that was a huge moment.
Speaker 2: I remember.
Speaker 4: At first, you know, we were aware of the show.
Speaker 4: I hadn't actually seen much of it, but when we
Speaker 4: were given the treatment and how the song would be placed,
Speaker 4: we felt it was a really important message is something
Speaker 4: that we stood behind as a band. So we were
Speaker 4: excited to do that and that was a time for
Speaker 4: the music industry in general. But us, you know, being
Speaker 4: so young and very like kind of heady time for
Speaker 4: indie rock music, and there were a lot of things
Speaker 4: that we were not cool with doing, and but that
Speaker 4: was something that we were all unanimously like, you know,
Speaker 4: this is absolutely.
Speaker 2: Something we want to do.
Speaker 1: Mm hmmm.
Speaker 2: How special I mean, especially because like I think there
Speaker 2: were around that time a couple rock bands that were
Speaker 2: not and indie bands that were not allowing us to
Speaker 2: do their music, and so I think it was like
Speaker 2: just extra special and great of you guys too, you know,
Speaker 2: give the thought to in consideration to how the song's
Speaker 2: actually being used, and especially in that crazy time in
Speaker 2: your guys's life, tell us do the song because ended
Speaker 2: up being such a monumental moment in the history of
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and absolutely, And I think a lot of that
Speaker 4: that time has changed, and I think for mostly for
Speaker 4: all for better. Really it was a kind of a
Speaker 4: snobby time, and I'm just happy now that people enjoy
Speaker 4: things that make them feel good and cathartic and and honest,
Speaker 4: and so it was something that you know, I'm happy
Speaker 4: we are in some ways, I missed those old days
Speaker 4: of just the way things were, but I'm also very
Speaker 4: happy for where we're at right now.
Speaker 1: What did you think of the cover when you heard
Speaker 1: it for the fort when you guys heard it for
Speaker 1: the first time and or saw it with the show.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean I thought Darren really did justice to
Speaker 4: the song, even the track itself. The musicianship was they
Speaker 4: tried to pay as much respect to the way we've
Speaker 4: done it.
Speaker 2: And I actually re.
Speaker 4: Watched it today at earlier and there are even some
Speaker 4: like little little things that he did. There were almost
Speaker 4: to a t, you know, the the recording, and it
Speaker 4: was cool to see him pay that much attention to
Speaker 4: those little differences.
Speaker 2: You know, No, for sure, that's what we had the
Speaker 2: executive music producer on here a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: We were asking because some of the tracks sound so
Speaker 2: similar to the original versions, like are you getting the stems?
Speaker 2: Like how is this happening? Like No, most of the
Speaker 2: time we didn't. We just had to like do it
Speaker 2: by ear. Yeah, and also you know, but the vocal
Speaker 2: production was the same thing, and it was I find
Speaker 2: that amazing mind boggling.
Speaker 4: No, truly, I don't know the only way I could
Speaker 4: tell really, I mean, some of the guitar tones were
Speaker 4: spot on, some of the drum fills just a little
Speaker 4: bit different. And you know, say, you know, you know,
Speaker 4: I know Frank Soois, I know exactly how he drums
Speaker 4: the fills that he does, Like that's not a Francois
Speaker 4: feel right?
Speaker 1: You would mentioned earlier, and I'm just curious you had mentioned,
Speaker 1: like vig Glee was one of the things that unanimously
Speaker 1: the band was like, cool, we'll do that. You had
Speaker 1: mentioned some things that you wouldn't do back in that time.
Speaker 1: Do you mind elaborating on what that means?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it was just that moment where artists
Speaker 4: were really starting to have their music placed in commercials,
Speaker 4: in television, movies, and even shortly before this, hardly anyone
Speaker 4: was doing it. And I think that has a lot
Speaker 4: to do with the way the economics of everything were
Speaker 4: and you know, sinking publishing weren't as necessary forms, and
Speaker 4: also television from its previous era was so different. I
Speaker 4: think that a lot of musicians, the old Legacy acts
Speaker 4: especially refused there was like zero tolerance for any any
Speaker 4: placements on anything, you know, especially commercials. I mean that
Speaker 4: was you know, that was the first moment. You know,
Speaker 4: Black Keys and Phoenix like their songs around beer commercials,
Speaker 4: car commercials and things like that. And that even you know,
Speaker 4: a year or two prior to that, that was unheard of,
Speaker 4: and so yeah, it also just opened up a new
Speaker 4: way of economics because of just the way the music
Speaker 4: industry was shifting at that time. And now you know,
Speaker 4: it's like, you're not you're not cool if you don't
Speaker 4: get those placements, you know, So it's a it's a
Speaker 4: completely different world.
Speaker 2: It's crazy how quickly that's changed too. I feel like
Speaker 2: this was like the end of that era and the
Speaker 2: ushering in of the start of the new era of Yeah,
Speaker 2: like sure why not. Streaming was also relatively new ish. Yes, absolutely,
Speaker 2: I think there's a distrust for certain things. But at
Speaker 2: the same time, I think it was guided some from
Speaker 2: a place of fear and from a place of what
Speaker 2: indie rock was supposed to be. I think that was
Speaker 2: very alpha male, you know, hetero and white culture. And
Speaker 2: even now, I was so young at the time, I
Speaker 2: didn't fully, like consciously think of it that way, but
Speaker 2: now looking back, you know, it really was. There was
Speaker 2: this rule.
Speaker 4: Of, you know, how to be in the boys club,
Speaker 4: and we never quite fit into that. And I think
Speaker 4: in the beginning of our career that you know, maybe
Speaker 4: annoyed us a little bit, but I think it's become
Speaker 4: our strength and I think it's the reason why we're
Speaker 4: still around. And songs like Mind over Matter have found
Speaker 4: their audience now to a younger generation of people who
Speaker 4: don't really care about that as much and more care about,
Speaker 4: you know, honest emotion and communicating feelings.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I imagine too. Nowadays it's like, if you find
Speaker 2: the song, you find the song. It doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: it's getting to you. And so I think from an
Speaker 2: artist perspective as well, it's like, yes, you're worry about
Speaker 2: the sink and the license and are you selling out
Speaker 2: quote unquote, But it's also another way, like Glee was
Speaker 2: to expose people who might not have heard this music before,
Speaker 2: and just because they haven't doesn't mean they're not going
Speaker 2: to relate to it, absolutely find an interest in it
Speaker 2: and hear themselves in it. Yeah, I mean that.
Speaker 4: You know, when Glee played the song, I mean that
Speaker 4: was a huge moment for the song, right.
Speaker 2: I think it's done a.
Speaker 4: Lot for the legacy of the of Cops Europe, and
Speaker 4: we're obviously thankful for that.
Speaker 2: It was also like we normally did classic rock songs
Speaker 2: or huge pop hits. And I remember when when we
Speaker 2: get the script on, like the second page of the
Speaker 2: script is all the songs are doing. Seeing it, I
Speaker 2: mean like, oh, we could do a cool song truly, Yeah,
Speaker 2: like this it felt like we got let into the
Speaker 2: cool club, like yes, yes, we get to do it,
Speaker 2: And it just felt like a really important moment. I
Speaker 2: think for us too. Obviously we weren't even singing the song,
Speaker 2: but like, oh, we get to be associated with it
Speaker 2: because we're on the show. I might claim, well, guess
Speaker 2: who let us do their song now? Yeah, yeah, so
Speaker 2: that was monumental for us. Even I appreciate that.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think at the time, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't think we thought this song was cool per se.
Speaker 4: We've you know, you talk to most artists and they
Speaker 4: have these complexes about their most successful songs. Tends to
Speaker 4: be that you don't like them, you know. Yeah, And
Speaker 4: I think over time, maturing and growing, we've learned to
Speaker 4: appreciate those moments because you know, they're Remember when we
Speaker 4: were working with Joe Chickrelli, our first producer. He had
Speaker 4: just worked with Jack White a lot. They were doing
Speaker 4: a lot of things together, Jack White and even John
Speaker 4: Mayer recently has been talking about this kind of anti
Speaker 4: music writing type of thing where you just need to
Speaker 4: trust strong emotions. You know, So if you hate something
Speaker 4: that you create, it's almost the same feeling as if
Speaker 4: you love it, because it's sharing a part of yourself
Speaker 4: and maybe that you're afraid to share with share with
Speaker 4: other people. And I think the thing you should be
Speaker 4: afraid of is, you know, not feeling that much about
Speaker 4: any what you're writing. And I think that time there
Speaker 4: was something about that song that was revealing a part
Speaker 4: of ourselves that maybe we weren't ready to reveal to
Speaker 4: the world. And so but we've most definitely learned to
Speaker 4: appreciate it. And you know, nowadays, you know, people are
Speaker 4: singing along to the song like every word and it's
Speaker 4: amazing to see that.
Speaker 2: What was the inception of coughs Europe? So when we
Speaker 2: were the Jakes, there was.
Speaker 4: We were called the Jakes shortly before Young the Giant,
Speaker 4: and it was this lineup, but the Jakes that existed
Speaker 4: as kind of a high school band, and we were
Speaker 4: trying to start a new lineup and a new approach.
Speaker 4: So there's our young new guitarist, Eric Kanatta came in
Speaker 4: and he had the guitar lick and he had the
Speaker 4: verse first line, and it was that moment we're like, okay,
Speaker 4: I think, I think you're gonna be a great part
Speaker 4: of this band. And he brought that song in and
Speaker 4: at that time we were still just jamming in the
Speaker 4: living room or garage, and we were still in the
Speaker 4: process of figuring out what our sound was. But the
Speaker 4: song came together in one rehearsal. That first lyric then
Speaker 4: moved itself to, you know, the full lyrics of the verse,
Speaker 4: and then the chorus I you know, just came up,
Speaker 4: came out of nowhere, and I think the lyrics, you know,
Speaker 4: you you always try and add meaning to things later on.
Speaker 4: It's what I find with a lot of the great
Speaker 4: or successful things. But you know, it comes from a
Speaker 4: place if you're not really thinking too much about it.
Speaker 4: It's something that sounds nice and then you're surprised by
Speaker 4: how much it actually means, how much it means to you,
Speaker 4: the things that you're saying that just kind of come
Speaker 4: out of your mouth. And at that time especially, I
Speaker 4: considered my vocals more of an instrument as opposed to
Speaker 4: just like me telling a story per se, so the
Speaker 4: the lyrics were kind of just a vehicle to share
Speaker 4: that instrument and for us, you know, the song even
Speaker 4: at that moment, I don't think we consciously thought of
Speaker 4: what it meant to us. And then when press started
Speaker 4: to ask us about it, when it became successful, the
Speaker 4: stories areted to form, and then I started really actually
Speaker 4: analyzing the lyrics that I just was just blurting out.
Speaker 4: And you know, obviously it is it's an escape from suburbia.
Speaker 4: It's a desire to be your true self and be free.
Speaker 4: And within the context of the band, it was just,
Speaker 4: you know, we were young kids kind of from all
Speaker 4: over the world who found ourselves in this kind of
Speaker 4: suburban sand pit and we wanted to get out and
Speaker 4: escape and achieve our dreams and find adventure. And you know,
Speaker 4: it was ironically it was that song that was that
Speaker 4: ticket for us to do that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's beautiful.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of when you're speaking about the band
Speaker 1: and your guys's craft, like it feels like there's a
Speaker 1: lot of parallels between what we went through and you
Speaker 1: guys went through similarly, like feeling like an underdog, you know,
Speaker 1: and using that as your strengths, and then you had
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, like talking about how fast the train was
Speaker 1: that you kind of took off on and the success
Speaker 1: of it all. I'm curious what your reflections are about that,
Speaker 1: because if feels like there are so many similarities for
Speaker 1: us as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah, no, absolutely, I mean I can totally imagine that
Speaker 4: for you all as well. I mean, Glee, you know,
Speaker 4: just really exploded for me. You know, it seems like overnight.
Speaker 4: Everything seems like overnight when you're not a part of
Speaker 4: the wrong process of creating it right, and then there
Speaker 4: is this motivation to prove yourself. There's a you know,
Speaker 4: chip on your shoulder to prove what this is, what
Speaker 4: it means to you and what it can mean to
Speaker 4: the world. And when you're young, I think there's there
Speaker 4: needs to be a healthy dose of that. But then
Speaker 4: at a certain point it can become self destructive. And
Speaker 4: I'm trying to almost retrain myself even now to not
Speaker 4: function from just purely a place of like this desire
Speaker 4: to prove myself, you know, because I still feel that way,
Speaker 4: and I feel like many artists do feel that way,
Speaker 4: and that's important to a certain extent. But then if
Speaker 4: you don't temper that with some other positive emotions. Then
Speaker 4: you're just kind of bitter and jaded, cynical about everything.
Speaker 4: And I think, you know, just looking back on that time,
Speaker 4: it was I guess I don't want to say lucky, right,
Speaker 4: I want to say we were very fortunate to be
Speaker 4: a part of something. About what I do remember and
Speaker 4: I'm just even now working on our sixth record, the
Speaker 4: things that I take away was and this kind of
Speaker 4: sounds like a little out there. I mean, I'm from
Speaker 4: Los Angeles, not that crazy. I truly believe in and
Speaker 4: when you realize something, when you truly believe something can
Speaker 4: happen without any doubts in your mind, those things tend
Speaker 4: to work out because you're aligning all of your intention
Speaker 4: towards that goal. And the first record, I mean, no
Speaker 4: one believed in us except for ourselves. We believe in ourselves. Ultimately,
Speaker 4: like to the we just knew that it was going
Speaker 4: to happen, even though now you know, with more experience,
Speaker 4: you realize how close we were to actually failing, like
Speaker 4: several times over the course of that first record, and
Speaker 4: it just happened to be that. There are people like, no,
Speaker 4: you know what, let's not cut it off, Let's wait
Speaker 4: one more week and then that week something happens, you know,
Speaker 4: But for us, it was just like, no, this is
Speaker 4: going to go, this is going to happen.
Speaker 2: I don't care what anyone thinks.
Speaker 4: And as you become older and become more experienced, to
Speaker 4: be truly, truly confident in yourself, it's a very difficult thing,
Speaker 4: especially when you're humble or when you feel like you're
Speaker 4: not trying to be some asshole part of my French,
Speaker 4: but you know, just be a human being and be
Speaker 4: inspired by just being a normal person. It's very easy
Speaker 4: to say, well, you know, look at things relatively, but
Speaker 4: in some ways, I think that that was a beautif
Speaker 4: full time for us, and I think that's why things
Speaker 4: also happen so quickly despite all the just the landscape
Speaker 4: of everything that was happening at the time.
Speaker 2: I think that's a really important point to talk about
Speaker 2: because when you're starting out and if you're in a
Speaker 2: band or you're by yourself in some form of let's
Speaker 2: say entertainment, there's like a fine line between you being
Speaker 2: or feeling like, oh, I'm over the confident. There's no
Speaker 2: other there's no plan B, like this is just going
Speaker 2: to work because it has to. And then also I
Speaker 2: was always really fearful of like am I delusional? Like
Speaker 2: what is this? I feel like there is such a
Speaker 2: fine line between the delusion and it's like, well, no,
Speaker 2: I just this is all I can do, all I
Speaker 2: want to do. Yeah, And like what you said, if
Speaker 2: it's the only thing you're thinking of, everything you're doing
Speaker 2: consciously and subconsciously is just working towards that, because that's
Speaker 2: all you care about, it's all you think about. And
Speaker 2: I do think especially when you have something like unique
Speaker 2: like you guys have or for bringing it to Glee,
Speaker 2: like we were all so different from one another, where
Speaker 2: when you get older and you do have that success
Speaker 2: and you look back like, oh yes, it is frighteningly
Speaker 2: close to how close we were for this not to happen.
Speaker 2: And when you get older and you have things to
Speaker 2: worry about if you get married or you have kids,
Speaker 2: or I have a house or whatever, it may be like,
Speaker 2: oh now I have these responsibilities. And back then I
Speaker 2: was just with reckless, abandoned be like this is it's
Speaker 2: gonna work. I'm gonna make this happen somehow.
Speaker 4: No, absolutely, I'm at that moment, you know, I have
Speaker 4: I have two young boys and married and bills to pay,
Speaker 4: and but I never want my creative process to be
Speaker 4: guided by that, And you have to be willing to
Speaker 4: stare it down and be like, you know what, well,
Speaker 4: if this explodes, then you have to be okay with that.
Speaker 4: I think at the same time, like there's no maybe
Speaker 4: there's no plan to be but you know, that first record,
Speaker 4: I had no expectations, none of us did. We knew,
Speaker 4: we knew something would happen, but we didn't like we
Speaker 4: were like, well, this better happened, because if it doesn't, then,
Speaker 4: you know, like there were no ifs for just we
Speaker 4: were just doing it because we that's what our imperative
Speaker 4: was to do and because we were just having a
Speaker 4: great time doing it. And now, you know, getting into
Speaker 4: the studio and writing, I think it's sometimes almost more
Speaker 4: challenging to be like, you know what, I'm just going
Speaker 4: to write a horrible song today and that's fine, and
Speaker 4: I want to feel satisfied that I wrote a bad
Speaker 4: song and that's okay, as opposed to you know, oh, man,
Speaker 4: like this isn't up to the standards of the songs
Speaker 4: that I've written before. It needs to be better, you know,
Speaker 4: because if you function from that place of fear, then
Speaker 4: it just doesn't work as soon as you just.
Speaker 2: Gotta work through the bad songs to get to the
Speaker 2: good ones.
Speaker 4: Yeah, exactly, exactly. Everyone writes bad songs everyone.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, we can sniff out the fear now.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I'm amazed you went to Stanford for biology.
Speaker 4: To be fair, it was human biology, which was kind
Speaker 4: of like code switch for parents who wanted their kids
Speaker 4: to be on some track. It was human biology, which
Speaker 4: was secretly a Bachelor of the Arts. And there was, yes,
Speaker 4: there was some hard some hard science there to a
Speaker 4: certain but there was a lot of you know, philosophy
Speaker 4: and sociology, anthropology, psychology makes sense and you know, so
Speaker 4: like it was kind of like this whole thing. And
Speaker 4: I left so early that didn't even really officially declare
Speaker 4: my major. But yeah, I mean, I'm I really enjoyed
Speaker 4: my time there, but Young the Giant was already happening,
Speaker 4: The Jakes were already happening, and I figured it was
Speaker 4: time to leave. So I left, you know, halfway through.
Speaker 4: Was there for like not even two years, so I
Speaker 4: can't say that I am a college dropout effectively. Now, fantastic,
Speaker 4: we love that, Jenna. At least you finished. I did
Speaker 4: the same thing. I went for like a year and
Speaker 4: like thinically happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, may we all be so lucky.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was an accident, happy accident. See I say
Speaker 2: it's an accident, but not really. We were all working
Speaker 2: towards that. You mentioned that. I guess at the time
Speaker 2: it was the jakes that you were doing music in
Speaker 2: college and high school. Have you do you come from
Speaker 2: a musical family where you always just music was somehow
Speaker 2: a part of your life. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Neither of my parents were professional musicians, both very passionate
Speaker 4: about music, particularly my dad. I think maybe had he
Speaker 4: come here at a different generation, he maybe would have
Speaker 4: been more willing to try. I think it just the
Speaker 4: opportunities for an immigrant in the space of music that
Speaker 4: he was interested in. There were no there were no no,
Speaker 4: there was no one, you know. Freddie Mercury was like
Speaker 4: the only person. And even then that was like kind
Speaker 4: of an almost actually not fully a generation prior, but
Speaker 4: still it was and it hadn't it wasn't around in
Speaker 4: America as deeply as was rooted, like the American tradition
Speaker 4: of music, and so he kind of, you know, he
Speaker 4: kind of did the thing that was safe and made
Speaker 4: sense for him.
Speaker 2: His his mother.
Speaker 4: Was a semi professional singer, a Bollywood singer, and she
Speaker 4: kind of got scouted when she was really young and
Speaker 4: then she had the pressure to start a family and
Speaker 4: all that stuff. So in a way, my career has been,
Speaker 4: you know, making like two generations in the process, though
Speaker 4: I'm very you know, grateful for them, and because it is,
Speaker 4: it's such a strange thing because you can be very
Speaker 4: classically trained, which I am not at all.
Speaker 2: You know I am, but you haven't.
Speaker 4: You can have an ear and an instinct and some
Speaker 4: one of the only things in my life that I
Speaker 4: just follow that instinct. And I'm probably better trained at
Speaker 4: many other things through like classically than I am with music.
Speaker 4: And it's a fine balance of wanting to learn new
Speaker 4: things and you know, explore new chordal structures and modes
Speaker 4: without like completely just destroying this kind of childlike wonder
Speaker 4: that I have going about out what I do. And
Speaker 4: I think popular music that's why there so many people
Speaker 4: who try it, who come at it as amateurs and hobbyists,
Speaker 4: and I kind of see myself as that just excited
Speaker 4: by when you combine two things together what happens?
Speaker 2: You know, was there a certain point because you talked
Speaker 2: about how, at least in Coughs here you were using
Speaker 2: your voice sort of as another instrument, and I think
Speaker 2: you tend to in all your music. Your voice does
Speaker 2: very much feel like another part. Doesn't feel separate, it
Speaker 2: feels very much another part of the track. Was there
Speaker 2: a point when you realized that, because it not most
Speaker 2: people cannot do that or don't have the instinct or
Speaker 2: desire to even I think add to a record in
Speaker 2: that way, Like, was there a point for you and
Speaker 2: you're like, oh, my voice can do these things, and
Speaker 2: so the way it blends with these things is interesting
Speaker 2: and unique, and this is how I want this to sound. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I mean.
Speaker 4: I just grew up singing, you know, of parties like
Speaker 4: Indian parties, and it's just a thing. Parents be like, Hey,
Speaker 4: my kid can dance, Mike kid can sing, and so
Speaker 4: they'd be like, yeah, assume we are dance and sing
Speaker 4: for everyone. And it was just something that you would do.
Speaker 4: And I just kind of assumed that a lot of
Speaker 4: people could sing, and I still believe that many people can.
Speaker 4: Almost everyone can, truly. But I came into music first
Speaker 4: with you know, I guess really young piano and violin,
Speaker 4: upright bass, and then I picked up the guitar. When
Speaker 4: I was eleven or twelve and my first couple of bands,
Speaker 4: I was the lead guitarist of the band, and I
Speaker 4: didn't want to be the singer because I never liked
Speaker 4: the singer and the bands I thought they were conceited
Speaker 4: and I always liked.
Speaker 2: The guitar. And it was really just.
Speaker 4: An accident, you know. I'd heard of a band called
Speaker 4: the Jakes who were looking for an extra band member.
Speaker 4: I didn't know what the part was they wanted, so
Speaker 4: I came with my guitar and they were like, well,
Speaker 4: we already have two guitarists, but we've heard through someone
Speaker 4: else that apparently you can kind of you can like
Speaker 4: keep a tune, so can you sing?
Speaker 2: And I said okay.
Speaker 4: You know, at first I was like I really don't
Speaker 4: want to be the singer, et cetera, et cetera, and
Speaker 4: then finally, you know, I did it, and and then
Speaker 4: it just kind of clicked and it felt like, Wow,
Speaker 4: this was the thing that I was I was.
Speaker 2: Meant to do.
Speaker 4: And it's pretty amazing that in many ways, like young
Speaker 4: the giant is my first musical project, you know, from
Speaker 4: two thousand and four, essentially almost twenty years now, from
Speaker 4: when I was in high school. And yeah, it was
Speaker 4: a music. Singing was just a thing that you know,
Speaker 4: I've worked upon and I think honed in on over
Speaker 4: the years, and in college and high school doing some
Speaker 4: choral chorus stuff, and at Stanford A was a part
Speaker 4: of a South African gospel choir with a lot of
Speaker 4: them amazing voices from all over the world and singing
Speaker 4: music that I wasn't really accustomed to singing, and that
Speaker 4: taught me a lot. But the voice is that one
Speaker 4: thing that you're just kind of born with and it's
Speaker 4: interesting to make my career off of something like that
Speaker 4: where it's but I'm very very blessed and grateful for
Speaker 4: that too.
Speaker 2: I love sort of the reluctant lead singer take. It's
Speaker 2: like you, I don't like how they do it, but
Speaker 2: now you're in the position You're like, well, I can
Speaker 2: make a new mold of how this can go. I
Speaker 2: still don't like. I still don't light lead lead singers.
Speaker 2: It's very hard.
Speaker 1: That's funny. How do you guys feel like you have
Speaker 1: evolved as a band.
Speaker 2: Over the year twenty.
Speaker 4: Years, we've evolved a lot. I mean we as human beings,
Speaker 4: we've evolved. We've managed to keep it together, be humble,
Speaker 4: care about the important things in life, stay grounded, and
Speaker 4: compromise with one another and not kill each other. Those
Speaker 4: are huge things success, success, and I think we've we've
Speaker 4: managed to always kind of march to the beat of
Speaker 4: our own drum. And there's always a pressure to try
Speaker 4: and it's not too late to turn around and follow.
Speaker 2: What everyone else is doing.
Speaker 4: But you know, I'm proud of us that we've taken
Speaker 4: this path that's long, slow build, that gets us to
Speaker 4: the places that we're at now, you know, ten twelve
Speaker 4: years later, being able to play at the forum here
Speaker 4: and do things like that where we have fans who
Speaker 4: really care about the music that we're making in a
Speaker 4: deep and impactful way. And I'm we've learned a lot
Speaker 4: as touring musicians and as recording artists, but every time
Speaker 4: we get in the studio, we try to, you know,
Speaker 4: try to unlearn some of the things too, because you
Speaker 4: only really know what worked and what didn't work until
Speaker 4: you've released something. To a certain extent, it's not even
Speaker 4: really how people receive it.
Speaker 2: It's more like.
Speaker 4: How you feel about it now that it's a finished
Speaker 4: body of work, you know, and so we're constantly trying
Speaker 4: to change the process and see what works for us.
Speaker 2: I imagine too, it must be really special for you
Speaker 2: what you've all known each other for so long, to
Speaker 2: see each other through all these different stages of life,
Speaker 2: you know, the guys in the garage to now touring
Speaker 2: across the world and doing these things. I mean, we've
Speaker 2: always felt that connection of when you go through something
Speaker 2: so singular, to be able to have other people that
Speaker 2: you can share that very very specific experience with is
Speaker 2: such a gift that you don't necessarily realize when you're younger,
Speaker 2: but later on it's like, oh, thank god we had
Speaker 2: each other, no, absolutely, and have each other to you know,
Speaker 2: look back on and call back, like we all went
Speaker 2: through these crazy things together. I feel like it's in
Speaker 2: a band. It must be like that tenfold absolutely. You know.
Speaker 4: We're yeah, we're no longer we're not best friends, you know,
Speaker 4: we're you know, we're brothers in so many ways, and
Speaker 4: sometimes we can't stand one another and sometimes we need
Speaker 4: a day or two, but we always end up hanging out.
Speaker 4: Even sometimes where you know, we're not on the clock,
Speaker 4: and it is amazing to have those shared stories over
Speaker 4: the years and and the experience. But yeah, that's not
Speaker 4: many people can relate.
Speaker 1: To, you know, tell us about your sixth to help them.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's very very very early on in the process.
Speaker 4: You know, we just released well, we just released a
Speaker 4: live record, our first live record we ever released. Oh
Speaker 4: you know, it's been five albums, and it was recorded
Speaker 4: over the course of this tour this last summer and
Speaker 4: includes music from all five of the records, including the
Speaker 4: most recent American Bollywood.
Speaker 2: Which is a record that.
Speaker 4: I'm and will continue to always be extremely proud of
Speaker 4: and one of my career highlights of being able to
Speaker 4: do something are truly artistic that I really wanted to
Speaker 4: do for a long time. It took me many years
Speaker 4: to make. And so I think we're just kind of
Speaker 4: all it feels like we all had a baby with
Speaker 4: this album and and with this tour so many shows,
Speaker 4: I mean fifty shows I think in.
Speaker 2: About sixty five or seventy days. Ooh, a lot, a
Speaker 2: lot of shows wild.
Speaker 4: And then Europe right after that, and obviously life changes
Speaker 4: and having kids, and I think we're now in this
Speaker 4: beginning process where we're really at the square one and again,
Speaker 4: you know, you are always staring up the face of
Speaker 4: this huge mountain that you have to scale again. You
Speaker 4: have to get yourself prepared and it's like that groundwork
Speaker 4: and that research in the beginning that can be very
Speaker 4: difficult and hard sometimes, especially for people who love you.
Speaker 4: And some days I'm just in the studio and I'm
Speaker 4: just like the grouchiest person afterwards because I'm just it's
Speaker 4: like such a process to get all your emotions out
Speaker 4: that some of it can feel very uncomfortable, but it's
Speaker 4: a necessary process and you're just kind of waiting for
Speaker 4: that that inspiration to truly hit where you finally reached
Speaker 4: a theme, and that's kind of that right now. You know,
Speaker 4: we still have a few more shows left for the year,
Speaker 4: but that's where we're at. And then we have the
Speaker 4: telling Austin. We have the ten year anniversary of Mind
Speaker 4: over Matter, and so we're going to do some secret
Speaker 4: shows around LA and do like the one because we
Speaker 4: didn't do this for the first record, live show front
Speaker 4: to back of the first record, the next day front
Speaker 4: to back of the second.
Speaker 2: So that'll be amazing, really fun process. That's exciting.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you so much for allowing us to to
Speaker 1: cough Zeerup because it was such a massive hit with
Speaker 1: the fans, and for sharing your music with us. I
Speaker 1: just really admire your intentionality in your mindfulness and your
Speaker 1: craft and in your own life. So thank you so
Speaker 1: much for sharing with us.
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you, And you know, thank you for being
Speaker 4: able to talk about this years later. And I'm also
Speaker 4: grateful to Darren I've heard. I've had so many comments.
Speaker 4: I've read comments where like Darren's versions better and he's
Speaker 4: a great singer, so you know that's no shape.
Speaker 2: They're wrong. Well, I appreciate it all the same. Thank
Speaker 2: thank you so much for spending so much time with us.
Speaker 2: And also, this is our voice has changed talking to you.
Speaker 2: We don't normally. I'm like, I'm talking down here. I
Speaker 2: feel very cool, right, I'm sorry for that.
Speaker 4: We should we should hang out too, because I'm all
Speaker 4: sorts of different people throughout the day.
Speaker 1: This is greatly appreciate it. We know that that. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much to me.
Speaker 2: And hopefully see what one of your secret shows soon. Yes,
Speaker 2: I would let us hee. Wow, I'm overwhelmed. Well, the
Speaker 2: singing voice of an angel, the speaking voice of an angel.
Speaker 1: The mind of an angel, the heart of an angel.
Speaker 1: Seems like somebody I'd like to be around, so we
Speaker 1: should hang out.
Speaker 2: One, yes, we'll take them up on that. I might
Speaker 2: regret it later. Two is I didn't realize he was
Speaker 2: so young when CoP's herop came out right, and we
Speaker 2: were not far off an age.
Speaker 1: Well exactly, so you know, when he was saying that that,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh wow, they were coming up at
Speaker 1: the same time. They were young in their formative years,
Speaker 1: you know, experiencing all of this. It felt like a
Speaker 1: lot of that resonated with us.
Speaker 2: And there's also like, and we didn't talk about this,
Speaker 2: but you know, we were part of Glee, which is
Speaker 2: was part of a network. You have protection right where
Speaker 2: like part of the system, everything is in place, shows
Speaker 2: get made every day. We know how this is going
Speaker 2: to go, even if it gets really successful. When you're
Speaker 2: in a band like that, you guys, they invented this
Speaker 2: thing out of nowhere, which just from school in the garage, right,
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden something takes off and
Speaker 2: you don't have that infrastructure because you don't have that
Speaker 2: lived experience of having done it before. It's like basically
Speaker 2: being your own showrunners. Yeah, and you're in this like
Speaker 2: rocket ship, like how do we figure this out as
Speaker 2: as we go well? And so I think that's just
Speaker 2: so impressive. And they're still around and doing so well
Speaker 2: and making like incredible music. Totally very excited, and I
Speaker 2: think it takes that type of you know, I think
Speaker 2: you when you get to a certain point to be
Speaker 2: able to think, I think that deeply about where you've been,
Speaker 2: where you want to go, where you currently are. It's
Speaker 2: such a you have to learn that and it's I
Speaker 2: think that's what makes it so sustainable and doing that
Speaker 2: in a healthy way. So it's just so nice to
Speaker 2: hear that.
Speaker 1: It was really nice to chat with him, really nice
Speaker 1: to hear from the artists and you know, behind the music.
Speaker 1: We don't get to do that a lot.
Speaker 2: Every time we've talked to one of these artists. Doesn't
Speaker 2: it make so much sense that they make the music
Speaker 2: they make. I know that sounds so dumb, No, No,
Speaker 2: it's so true.
Speaker 1: It is a reflection of them, you know, it is
Speaker 1: a reflection of their soul, and it's really inspiring. It's
Speaker 1: really inspiring, and it makes a lot of sense. I'm
Speaker 1: not surprised that he knows Darren. I'm not that he
Speaker 1: you know that that voice makes that kind of music.
Speaker 2: So and both versions of cops here are great.
Speaker 1: I mean amazing. Yes, Well, we're so grateful Samir for
Speaker 1: joining us. I hope you guys enjoyed that conversation. Go
Speaker 1: listen to Young Giant. They just put out that live
Speaker 1: album and uh, thanks for listening.
Speaker 2: And that's what you really missed. Thanks for listening, and
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Speaker 2: miss pod. Make sure to write us a review and
Speaker 2: leave us five stars. See you next time