“Kooky Tantric” (w/ Robyn)

In the words of one of the greatest pop stars of all time, “Fuck a app!” (except whichever one you use for podcasts). Robyn joins us to talk her upcoming, stellar album “Sexistential.” Topics range from the tantric kookiness of the writing process, covering your own songs, and the age-old question: Would you eat your baby? Lived-in experiences with Max “Just a Guy” Martin and the idea of nostalgia being lethal. And of COURSE Robyn gives a cool answer to The Question in the form of a Neneh Cherry song. So come take a warm auditory bath like the song “Honey” IDTSH’s on Close Friends etiquette. Well-lit intercourse. Being early to hating Elon and all the men and boys who are withOUT.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Look maner oh, I see you my own look over
there is that culture. Yes, goodness, wow, lost culture dang
dong lost culture resta calling.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Did you know?

Speaker 3 (00:14):
I was having like such a reflective day today because
like just going through the ouvra, We've had so many
formative memories oh with our guest music. In fact, I
remember the very first time I ever even heard about
our guests was was way way back. And then it

(00:34):
feels like, like truly, like throughout the eras, there's always
been that moment. Yeah, because this is a true like
defining artist of our time who gives something like every
few years, comes back out and is like, don't forget
we I surely never have. We dropped asset upstate and

(00:54):
listened to Honey.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
I told our guests when I met them backstage at
rad You City. It was so intimate by the way
that we remember that performance. Oh my god, I was
so amazing. I'll never forget this, our guest and David Byrne,
it was an amazing It was that was let's talk
about it, but real quick, I just want to say,
like I came out of the bathroom, you were sitting
alone in the green room, and then you you were
like hi, and I.

Speaker 4 (01:17):
Was like, you can't, I can't do this is too much.
And then I I word vomited and I was like,
so I was in a K hole two summers ago.
And what heals me was Ariana Grande be all right.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
And when I got into bed, I got into the
covers and just looped honey the album for about like
six hours straight and it and it saved me.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
This is not the first time you have been flat
flabbergasted deta celebrities in front of you and you said
I was in a K hole, and this is this
is like the second or third time I've heard from
of him saying that he doesn't even like frequent ketamine.

Speaker 1 (01:50):
Don't be concerned, No, don't be concerned. It's not I
don't have a substance problem.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
Meaning that people with non substance Yeah, and I have
really good news for every one.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
She's here the album it's called sexistential. That's what I'm
going to say. Good news fucking app in the words
of our guest and driver makes her horny. She reveals
this and we've heard it.

Speaker 3 (02:16):
By the way, Sorry, I know that's going to make
y'all feel some type of way, but we've heard it,
and you gotta wait.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
Our friend has heard it. Gino heard it, and I'm
sure because she's because she's writing, she's writing about our guests.

Speaker 5 (02:29):
Let's just let's just break get into it, because it
is truly an honor for our first guest of the
year to be like, it's beyond one and only but
the one and only.

Speaker 6 (02:44):
I'm so happy to be here.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
This is like a joy for us.

Speaker 7 (02:47):
No, it's a joy from me. Thank you for telling
me all these sweet things. My heart's amazing. We haven't
even been complimented.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
Complimented?

Speaker 6 (02:55):
Is that how?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
It's absolutely because I could see the the the face
crack when I was telling you about my k hole
and you were like, You're like, I don't know what
to say to this guy, what's your memory of that?

Speaker 6 (03:08):
No, I loved it. I thought you were being so.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
Vulnerable vulnerable here aid was.

Speaker 6 (03:14):
Also, you appreciate it. I know that I'm so happy I.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
Could help you out, and I feel the sincerity in that.
But it was like it like I laugh about it now,
but like I mean, that song is so you know, important,
the title track of Honey, and I feel like I
feel like I really admire how you just took up
this space with that album to be to have the
sensuality with your production and your vocal and then now

(03:39):
to understand that you are fulfilling a societal need to
like bring us back to the fucking club. Yeah, And
like I want to start this interview by asking what
was this intention, why this album? Why start from the
ground up with this song like Dopamine that you've had
in the bank for ten years?

Speaker 7 (04:00):
Yeah, Well, I mean I felt like I was on
a space ship, like I'd been floating around in space,
totally lost, going through very existential things, and I was
crashing back into the atmosphere of the earth and like
kind of back into myself.

Speaker 6 (04:17):
And that's what I wanted it.

Speaker 7 (04:18):
That was my picture of what the album was going
to be, just this feeling of like impact and a
dust of emotion, a cloud of emotion just rising up
and not having to explain too much and then just
letting it settle that I wanted there to be layers
in there and lots of things for people to come
back to and relate to, but also this like very

(04:42):
just high impact, strong like force, and that's where I
was in my life, and so that's what came out
of my body. I had a sun also had yeah,
lots of things to write about, absolutely, But the album's
not about my son.

Speaker 6 (05:02):
It's about maybe the time before.

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Yeahah yeah, well what I loved about.

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Like you recently said that you feel like it's your
life's purpose to remain horny, yes, and to keep driving
towards horniness, by.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
The way, I deeply feel that.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
I feel that I think you're amongst friends, and so
I would describe the album as a horny little album.

Speaker 6 (05:23):
I mean, like I bring a little slutty album.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
It's a real slutty album.

Speaker 3 (05:27):
And I do feel like we do need those reminders,
you know, to go out, because I do think, like
I don't know, maybe this is like a boring thing
to say because it's so obvious, but we are isolated.
We do need reminders to go out and dance and
like low key touch each other totally. And you also
describe horniness as not just about being sex, about being curious.

Speaker 6 (05:45):
Yes, exactly, about being curious about having.

Speaker 7 (05:50):
The time and space to feel pleasure and to enjoy
my life and to have that not have been taken
away from me by stress, by politics, by just the
world going crazy, So it's like it's a it's an
active assistance, but it's also just like fun and how
I would want my life to always be if I can.

(06:11):
It's a luxury and no pressure, Like if you're not horny,
that's okay.

Speaker 3 (06:15):
But it's not necessarily about sex, which is kind of
like it's kind of freeing, you know what I mean.
Like it's like it's not like we're not putting pressure
on anyone to go out there and go crazy, but
it's like whatever it means to you is emboldening totally.

Speaker 6 (06:29):
It's like how you approach anything.

Speaker 1 (06:31):
I guess horny for life. Be horny for life, life
in every sense, like be horny for the duration of
the time you're on this earth exactly. And b have
a sexual drive towards like the things in this world
as much as you can.

Speaker 7 (06:48):
Yes, be tantric like let things like build and feel
exciting and not rushed yet but kind of like pleasurable
at the same time.

Speaker 1 (06:59):
It was tantric, like the process was that like you
and Klaus like being like let's get like cookie and
that's that's a terrible word.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
I like it, okay. I mean I mean to take
a great.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
Tan trick like could be a whole vibe you know.

Speaker 6 (07:17):
What kinky No, me and cloths.

Speaker 7 (07:21):
We're not getting kinky, yes, but we we've been you know,
we've been so close for so many years, and in
this weird way we we don't well, we see each
other sometimes in our personal lives or like without outside
of the studio as well of course, but but it's
mostly just him and me, like just exposing ourselves to

(07:44):
each other over and over and over again for like, now,
what is it like twenty years and having not fallouts
but periods where we don't necessarily want to be with
each other and then coming back to it and and
we I think, why we get along it's also because
we have the.

Speaker 6 (08:03):
Same work ethic.

Speaker 7 (08:03):
We like to work, yeah, a long time on things
and make sure we like it, and we don't have
a problem with that. And so Tantrick is definitely a
part of it. There's this like we're both okay with
it not being comfortable all the time, which I think
is also it has to be that way in order
to get to the good stuff. I think you have
to be uncomfortable, be able to become uncomfortable with each other.

Speaker 1 (08:26):
There's a push pull. Yes, Like it's so interesting that
you see that as like part of the tantra of
your songwriting, right. It's like, I think you're talking recently
about how like the songwriting process is not necessarily like fun,
No exactly, it's like it's really hard and labored and

(08:47):
like you know this.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well, sometimes it's like you hear artists talk about how like, oh,
this happened very quickly, and that's how I know it's good.
But that's just a certain process that someone might have.

Speaker 6 (08:57):
I mean usually I'm like, oh, can't be that good.

Speaker 1 (09:01):
You're like, what's the catch on this song? Yeah? Yeah?

Speaker 7 (09:04):
Maybe, Yeah, Sometimes it happens quickly, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:08):
Do you have an example of like a song that
did happen very quickly and maybe you were like I
don't know, but you didn't touch it, and then ultimately
it was what it was.

Speaker 1 (09:17):
I don't know why. I spiritually felt like that must
have come through like channel to.

Speaker 6 (09:22):
It was kind of a channeling thing.

Speaker 7 (09:24):
Yeah, and sometimes it does happen with every hard it
happened that way too, But I feel like there are
like years or at least months of something leading up
to that moment and then you sometimes you just click
in and you're able to just get it out in
one go. Yeah, but then dopamine took ten years, and
you know, it's so different every.

Speaker 6 (09:44):
Time I think, Yeah, but the I guess when you
were acting.

Speaker 7 (09:49):
I mean, I think actors and comedians are just so
good at it, maybe sometimes better than musicians, because you
have to be vulnerable, and you have to try things,
and you have to make yourself like you have to
be able to be ugly, and we are in all
those things to get to the thing right, And sometimes
when I get into studio with musicians that are really

(10:10):
great but not comfortable with that, it just it's harder, right.

Speaker 4 (10:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:15):
Well, with music, I feel like you can take your
time to discover, whereas like when you're an actor or
a comedian, like you have to like be able to
at least perform discovery. And so that discovery I often
feel like it's like it's sometimes better to not look
at any lines until right before so that they can
feel really.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Freetom like being prepared exactly. I don't want to be
prepared ever, that's what that is.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
But like for you, it's like to hear that dopamine
took ten years, it still feels like something that's very
like organic, even if it felt like at times arduous
or like you were like, I don't know if that's
ever going to come to fruition, but I know I
have it in the back pocket, Like yeah, it still
feels like a new song exactly.

Speaker 7 (10:56):
And to get to that point, like you know, you
might have something that is supposed to feel that way,
like you know that there's something in there, like oh,
we could get to this point where it feels totally
natural and organic, but it might not start out that way.
And then it's like you have to find it as
if it was the first time. You can't fake it
and like pull out dar Peggio Baseline one more time

(11:17):
and just like slap it on there, like it has
to be created from scratch and really intentionally made again.

Speaker 1 (11:23):
I think was it called Dopamine all ten years? Did
the title change?

Speaker 2 (11:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (11:28):
No, No, the title was so good. The chorus was
there from the beginning. I mean there were all these
amazing people involved in it too, Claws and Tire Cruise
who Cruise, Yes, the course is written by tier Cruise,
So I think you know it's this thing of deciding
like how to deal with like this little gold that

(11:48):
you know you have m where to place it.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
Wow, just to like return to Dancing on my Own
for a second, because I feel like on this podcast
Last Culture Istus, if you're going to be here, we
have to give Dancing on my Own its moment. And
this is why, because when you we went to go
see you at Barclays and we just talked about this
concert Rachel Senate episode because it was when we were
like recreationally ripping us and Poppers at the time, and
thank god.

Speaker 6 (12:11):
We were doing that episode so much, Rachel.

Speaker 1 (12:16):
But I remember, like when you played Dancing on my
Own at the show, it was so clear in that
moment that that is like the defining anthem for us.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
Like there's a few songs that feel like that. I
would actually call I Love It by Charlie XCX and
Iconopop another one of those. When she did that song
at the Sweat Tour, I felt the same way. Whereas afterwards,
I remember you just like received for like quite a
while all this love that was flying at you from
from the audience, and I feel like the question that

(12:48):
I feel like, you know, the basic question would be
like when did you realize that this song was that?
Or how does it feel that this song is that?
But I want to ask you, is what is your
dancing on my own?

Speaker 1 (13:02):
Like? What are your defining pop anthems? Like I want
to know?

Speaker 6 (13:07):
Well, I mean, god, it would be purple Rain.

Speaker 1 (13:11):
Yeah, it's our purple rain. Keep going, oh wow, it's
but it didn't. I hope you can feel that because
that's true. I mean it's a release.

Speaker 6 (13:19):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (13:20):
I mean if if it makes you feel that way,
then I'm super happy. I think Purple Wayne has this
like also this tantric thing right where you want to
come back to it and you want to feel the
thing again. And and I think small Town Boy with.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
Front Oh my god, Wow.

Speaker 7 (13:38):
When he goes into that high note in the beginning,
you want to cry.

Speaker 3 (13:43):
Yes, I get the sense and let me I'm guessing here,
but I think probably were you a Whitney fan, Yes,
I feel like there's like like her her anthemic, but
also Maria Mariah of course a.

Speaker 6 (13:58):
Lot of Mariah when I was twelve.

Speaker 7 (14:01):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm not trying to hit those
high notes.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah right, it never happened. Do you have a favorite Mariah?
It's a hard one to say, you know which.

Speaker 7 (14:13):
My favorite Mariah is, But that's just because I love
the original song as well.

Speaker 6 (14:17):
Is I Can Live Living as well?

Speaker 5 (14:21):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (14:22):
She really just that was already a brilliant song, but
she just made it something.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (14:26):
Else, it was amazing when that came with the with
the live MTV session.

Speaker 3 (14:32):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, she's she's the queen of like, oh,
I know, you know this song in one way and
I'm gonna live just rip it up. Like the other
day that there was on my algorithm. I was scrolling
by and there was this unbelievable video of Mariah and
Whitney recording When You Believe from the Prince of Egypt
and it.

Speaker 6 (14:51):
Was finally got together exactly exactly.

Speaker 7 (14:54):
But also the way Mariah handed her whole thing, and
like how funny she is and yeah, you know, the
intelligence of her.

Speaker 6 (15:00):
Yeah, it's really entertaining.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yes, I mean, is it fair to say that you are?
I love that I love that you did this. There's
there's a track on Psychistential Blow my Mind, which is
like it is like you covering yourself, but it's just
a redux of a track of the same title. It
was the third album, right, yes, yes, it's true, and
like I talk about that because it's truly especially if

(15:27):
you listen to both those songs back to back, you're like,
oh my god, this is just such a trip, and
like this is sort of recontextualized.

Speaker 3 (15:33):
Now.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
I don't want to give it totally away, but like
that is such a cool like refracting of like your
old work old quote unquote is in like no total
past work into something that feels again like extremely current.

Speaker 6 (15:52):
That makes me very happy. I mean, I always loved
the song.

Speaker 7 (15:56):
It was on an album that I released before I
started my label, so it was in this kind of
forgotten category and it was never really a single, and
I think it's a brilliant song in me. And also
what happens when you have a kid is you just
don't have that much time, Like I don't. I don't
want to say that's the reason, but I was like
looking back at me because I had all these other

(16:16):
old songs for the album, and so I was like,
this might be the time where I get to do
a cover of my own song and I always wanted to.
And then we rewrote it so that it's about the
present time. Now it's more about cute aggression. I think
when you love someone so much, you want to hurt them.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Like you have a tantrum. Yeah yeah, No, there's this
thing where people.

Speaker 6 (16:48):
Yes, I want to eat his cheeks, I know his
but cheeks too.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Yeah yeah, I always want to eat the baby's leg
and foot, yeah, like every part like Joe Yeah yeah, yeah,
good stuff.

Speaker 6 (17:00):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
This cannibalism is like totally innocent. It goes away as
the baby gets older, does it though? That's up to you.

Speaker 2 (17:10):
Yes.

Speaker 7 (17:11):
I hear from people that doesn't like it's still like
you you want to do it to your twenty.

Speaker 1 (17:15):
Year old, but how old is your baby?

Speaker 6 (17:18):
Soon to before?

Speaker 3 (17:19):
Soon to before? Okay, so this was like soon to before?
So this was four years ago. Keep change, I wonder
because you just collaborated last year with Charlie XX. So
I'm not sure when you did the three sixty remix.

Speaker 6 (17:34):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 7 (17:35):
It was right before the album her album was released.
It was like six months before something in the summer
before it was released, and she was in Sweden. She
texted me and she was like, I want to do
this remix with you and Jonathan with young Lean, and
I just thought it was like the best idea ever,
and of course it came from her. She's brilliant, and

(18:00):
you know, I had no idea what she was doing.
We hadn't been touched for a while, and I just
thought would crush. She was just you could tell she
was getting into her zone. It was just she was
ramping up this like perfect storm of emotion and like expression,
and she was so sure of herself, and I was like, yeah,
I just want to hear what you're doing. And she
played some stuff and she said, oh, I think it's

(18:23):
about you know, I think the album is just about
female relationships and how you know, how complicated it is.
And I was like, that's so interesting, and I think
she wanted us to write something and I was just
like I didn't even know how to put myself in
that position because I just love her so much, Like
I could never.

Speaker 6 (18:38):
Even like think about how to find like a like
a like a conflict. We were like, I was trying,
like trying to get into it.

Speaker 7 (18:47):
And then we did the remix as well, and we
wrote some other things, and it was so fun to
talk to her and have like some time with her
before it all happened.

Speaker 6 (19:01):
To see her in that moment.

Speaker 3 (19:02):
I feel like you guys must have like so much
in common that very few people have in common too.
And the reason why I ask about like when your
son or you're you know, was born, Like she talks
so much, she ruminates so much on that idea as well,
so I wonder, like what you were thinking.

Speaker 7 (19:20):
So she totally inspired me to go to be personal,
to be more personal baby than I had ever been
with my own lyrics, and to be specific, to not
shy away from being very.

Speaker 6 (19:34):
Defined about what it is you want to say.

Speaker 7 (19:36):
Yeah, I think the subject matter was already there, but
just kind of like how she approached it and how
she was so vulnerable and tough at the same time.

Speaker 6 (19:45):
Yeah, but it's true.

Speaker 7 (19:47):
We always I think connected on that and I think
with Jonathan as well, like we have that experience of
being like, you know, just doing it on like different
levels and in different worlds from like a very young age, right,
And it's funny for me, it's it's it's beautiful because
I don't really know if I've shared that experience with
people are just my own age. I feel like I

(20:09):
can relate to Charlie and like her generation in a
different way than my own.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
It's clarifying if it's coming from you know, something that
is a little bit outside of yourself. Yeah, or there's
some level like layer of remove there where you're like, oh,
she's remainting on parenthood in this very deep, vulnerable way
on her in her music. I can also be a
reverend in the way that she's a reverend. I feel

(20:35):
like sexistential title track definitely is just it's an ID.
It's it's an id. It's so funny. It's like you
like you You even have this moment where it's like
your doctor confusedes Adam Driver for Adam Sandler, Yes, you
got it. It's so but it's like that.

Speaker 6 (20:55):
Is it's a true story.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
It's a true story. I feel like I feel like you.
You haven't been this. It's funny since Robin, since the
first indie, since the first qunici Wa Records album.

Speaker 6 (21:05):
Yeah, it's true or silly or silly?

Speaker 1 (21:08):
I think both. It's silly, funny cookie Yeah, yeah, yeah,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 7 (21:14):
I'm so happy that you feel that way because I
I wanted it to be that way. And I told Klaus,
I was like, we have to write a rap about
IVF And he was like.

Speaker 1 (21:24):
He was like, now let me look up what that means.

Speaker 6 (21:29):
Exactly nobody.

Speaker 7 (21:31):
Actually it's one of those really equal like Swedish man.
He's been at home with his kids. Yeah, so he
can relate, I think, but maybe not to the IVF
part of course. I had the the sexistential was like
the you know, it's like the joke title of the
album for a really long time. And then I was
like that was just going to be sexistential. And then

(21:51):
I was like, we have to write a song called sexistential.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
Oh yeah, and it was like.

Speaker 6 (21:55):
The last song we did.

Speaker 7 (21:56):
So it was like a very free space where you know,
we go deeper into the things that we had already been.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
Talking about and standouts one of the standouts, but then
like the words ex of cential gets littered and other
like and blow my mind.

Speaker 6 (22:08):
Yeah, or and talk to me. I think I love talk.

Speaker 1 (22:11):
Is that the official second single?

Speaker 6 (22:13):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Love it?

Speaker 6 (22:14):
Great choice, it's gonna come, Oh it's going to.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Well it was, so this is coming out a week
from today, So it's been out a week.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
You're late.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
Already.

Speaker 1 (22:26):
I want to ask how many songs is Max Martin
on on on this on two two? Yeah, so that
must be a very long relationship.

Speaker 7 (22:33):
Oh yes, that's the longest one, but very sporadic in
the sense that we've only really worked together on three
four songs, like two on my first album, one on
the Body Talk release, and then two now five songs.

Speaker 6 (22:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (22:49):
Max Martin is a very sincere or very smart and
sensitive person. He always gets depicted as this machine who
has a strategy and you know, is like almost like
get a robot in a way, it is like working
with AI because it's so fast. And I think that's
like that that is the inhuman kind of thing about him,
that it's so like the problems like solving is so quick.

(23:16):
Oh yeah, but it's not a it's not a formula.
It's like real sense of melody and likes experience, experience exactly.
You know, him and class went to the same class
in the same music school, wow in Sweden.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
So then so then so I mean this, I feel like,
you know, you are such a part of Max's story,
and like I think that is I don't know, I
think that must be a really interesting thing to like
just track mutually your your your your pathways, like in

(23:53):
this business that it's changed so much.

Speaker 6 (23:56):
You know, when I came here.

Speaker 7 (23:57):
I was like, oh my god, this kind of building
and this kind of like office hallway and my hair
today and the mint. It was like I was coming
back into like a record company building.

Speaker 3 (24:16):
And I was like, you know, well we are A
and R and we are gonna we are. This is
a signing meeting for us, very interested in.

Speaker 6 (24:21):
You can you get a bu Tang members?

Speaker 1 (24:25):
Probably could.

Speaker 3 (24:36):
I feel like the story of Max Martin is obviously
understanding pop music and creating pop music as we know
it today in many ways, but also understanding artists, like
what he gets from and what he's able to channel
from someone like Taylor and someone like Arianna, you know,
go over the this is just recent and you throughout
the years, Like I feel like he really helps to

(24:59):
not define artists, because artists define themselves, but hone in
and make specific and therefore like sometimes even make funny
what an artist can do because they have like a
bit that they can come keep coming back to, you
know what I mean, And like that's I guess where
like the reheating your own nachos comes from. When people
saying about certain people it's like, no, this is just

(25:20):
my style.

Speaker 7 (25:21):
Yeah, yeah, it just happens to be like the biggest
one over the the one that's like dominated all.

Speaker 6 (25:29):
The charts, but it is actually really personal and.

Speaker 1 (25:32):
Yeah, I got I got to meet him once.

Speaker 6 (25:35):
Yeah, how was that?

Speaker 1 (25:35):
It was so interesting because it's like you're saying, like
I was expecting this like larger than life, like very methodical,
precise person, and he's lovely. But we we went to
go see Spam a lot with Ari, Yeah, and he's
just like easy going, wonderful, nice, kind like chill person.
And I was like, this is. I didn't say this
to him, but I was just like, this is. It's

(25:57):
like you said. It's like it's not what his portrayal
is as like this prolific songwriter and hit maker. It's like,
oh he's he's a not to produce it, but he's
a guy. He's a guy, you know, and then a
great way he's a guy.

Speaker 7 (26:10):
Yeah, and he's he has actually has something like almost
like grace.

Speaker 6 (26:15):
He has grace, like he will.

Speaker 7 (26:18):
Go deeper and like find the like you're saying, like
the real meaning behind that artist and what they're trying
to say, and he will go for like the the
higher kind of round I think, And he kind of
has you know, he has good morals. He hired a
new really amazing beautiful female producers like Elvida who worked

(26:41):
on Allison Ray, and you know, he's like making good
decisions with his legacy. But then he's also you know,
when I worked with him the first time, like he
was this young person who was just so ambitious and
really wanted to win.

Speaker 6 (26:55):
That's also part of it.

Speaker 7 (26:56):
And he is obsessed with statistics and he will like
you know, he it's amazing to see someone with that
much success and it doesn't like he really goes at
it as if he's trying to win, Like the first time.

Speaker 6 (27:12):
It's really amazing.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Hungry, yeah, hungry. So yeah, I mean the deeper meaning
behind the way he finds deeper meaning, Like I feel
like you have a sense of what your deeper meaning is.
You don't have to share it with us, but I
feel like it's so interesting that you've in the past
set things about like, oh, I wanted to to sort
of have an inflection point after dancing on my own.
I didn't want to be known as like the heartbreak

(27:35):
musician necessarily. Yeah, And he said recently, I think on
zaying Lo, You're like nostalgia is like a perilous thing,
like a lethal thing. But what I loved about the
Brooklyn Paramount set Lists set list was that like it
just wove in like your full discography so beautifully, and
then you're saying show me love for the first time
in like like ten years. So it's like, so it's like,

(27:59):
I wonder, like what you're relationship is now to like
the way you not nostalgia, but the way you look
back on your own work.

Speaker 7 (28:05):
I look up back on the first album and maybe
the second one as well, with just like a lot
of sympathy and love for you know, the situation I
was in.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
It was you were young.

Speaker 6 (28:16):
It was insane, Like it was really.

Speaker 7 (28:20):
Trippy to come from Sweden into the culture that I
thought I knew because I grew not grown up with it,
and then realizing how lost in translation you are sometimes
as a European and America especially if you if you
don't know the culture right, and little things like like
how America is very divided, I think, between like children

(28:42):
and grown ups. And I was still a teenager and
just finding myself like in this very kind of you know,
you're in a kind of a separated.

Speaker 1 (28:48):
World, right in a very adult industry a.

Speaker 6 (28:51):
Very adult in the nineties.

Speaker 1 (28:52):
I mean there was not no one was no one
even would know how to ask me, meaning exactly.

Speaker 7 (28:59):
It was like, yeah, I would say that, you know,
being a pop star, a teenage pop star, is like
a lethal it's a lethal situation.

Speaker 6 (29:07):
And it can really get you.

Speaker 1 (29:10):
Well.

Speaker 7 (29:10):
Yeah, but I was prepared in the sense that you know,
safe haven, back home.

Speaker 6 (29:16):
And I don't know what was the question.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
The question was how do you but this is this
is actually details perfectly into something else that I want
to ask you about.

Speaker 6 (29:24):
We talked about nostalgia.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
As a perilous Yes, no, maybe you want to go
somewhere else. Well, no, I mean finish the thought. I'm
so sorry I didn't No.

Speaker 6 (29:32):
No, not at all.

Speaker 7 (29:33):
I don't even know what I was saying. I think
I think nostalgia is dangerous. Yeah, but I think you know,
playing Show Me Love is not doesn't feel nostalgia.

Speaker 6 (29:42):
I mean, of course it's nostalgic, but in the good sense.

Speaker 7 (29:45):
Yes, yes, that there's something there that's real and that's
a part of people's lives and that's not for me
to have any opinion about, you know, And I love the.

Speaker 3 (29:54):
Song, right, yeah, And you're not singing it as the
teenage version of you. You're singing it as you now,
and therefore it's a different in a way. Is that
Did that speak to the choice to arrange it the
way you did?

Speaker 7 (30:04):
Yes, because it brings out the softness of it and
the beautiful melody and you can hear what's there that's
maybe you know, timeless or whatever.

Speaker 1 (30:14):
Yes. I think I think what nostalgia, what makes nostalgia lethal,
as you're saying, is that it is treating the past
as like aspirational. Yes, and that's that's never what you
want to be.

Speaker 6 (30:25):
It's an illusion.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Yeah, Like it's like, oh, we got to go back
to this better time. This the thing that's over depressing. Yeah,
that's like I'm sorry to make it about this. It's
like a fascist idea. We got to go back to
like the way things were, you know what I mean.
But you're like you you already know this, like deep down,
but I want But the thing I want to like
dovetail into is like I think you maybe don't get

(30:47):
enough credit for being for inventing the notion of like
an independent pop star. I think like going and making
your own label or just putting out your music like
you're her own way now. It's like indie pop is
such a thing, right, Yeah, But I feel like you,
I feel like you don't get enough credit for that
that you really modeled this thing, even for someone like

(31:09):
Charlie who like knows, oh I I'm gonna do like
one for me, one for them, and the one for
me thing is the most is the thing that brought
her her most success. I would argue with Brat totally
like that was supposed to be like they was supposed
to break away from Crash where she was like, you know,
fulfilling the contract for the label, doing like what a
pop traditional pop star album would would look like. But

(31:32):
I feel like you've you've kind of blueprinted out this
thing for a lot of people, which is like you
can do it on your own terms. Yes, And I
feel like I hope you get that sense now as
we're like all coming together once again to like celebrate
Robin that that it comes your wife.

Speaker 6 (31:47):
Are you ever teaking it in?

Speaker 1 (31:48):
Yes?

Speaker 3 (31:49):
Are you ever surprised when a certain artist like Who's
a Because I feel like Gracie Abrams is like when
you listen to her music, like it's a totally different
genre than you might think.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
But she uh was it she that invited you to
perform with her? Yes? She did? Was that Where was
this glassonry?

Speaker 6 (32:03):
No, it was Chicago, the Big.

Speaker 1 (32:09):
No.

Speaker 7 (32:09):
She invited me and and she was so sweet and yeah,
she gave me all this space and I got to
do dancing on my own. And you know, anyone that
gives me that love, it's like it's a big compliment.

Speaker 6 (32:22):
It's always amazing.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
Well, we would like to ask you the central question
of our podcast, so and I bet, I bet you
are the answer to this question for many people. But Robin,
what was the culture that made you say? Culture was
for you? This defining whether it's pop culture at large,
movie song, a specific moment, something in the environment that

(32:44):
you can look back and say, I'm probably me doing
large part to that.

Speaker 7 (32:50):
I think I have to say Buffalo stands with nan
A Cherry Wow. You know, being like ten years old
and then hearing raal So she for the first time.

Speaker 6 (33:02):
I remember it was like summer break.

Speaker 7 (33:03):
I was playing cards with my friends in country house
and we were just playing this album over and over again,
and we all knew that she was Swedish and that
her real last name is Carlson, and I was just like,
that's amazing. If she's Swedish, I can also be that way,

(33:26):
you know, like this kind of really sexy and powerful,
playful energy. And it was pop music and it was
made for me. It was not made for my parents.

Speaker 6 (33:39):
It was ordered for.

Speaker 7 (33:41):
A new generation, and it was mixing and it was undefinable.
It was like New York and Sweden and London, and
it was in her language as well. And the things
that she was saying was so empowering and vulnerable, just
manchildlike being so critical about like toxic masculinity, but also

(34:05):
saying like no monument can be mala, it's.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
So real, Yeah, and speaking to ideas that had not
been spoken to in pop music or maybe even music
at large. Like it just didn't feel like this was
area we had tried before. When I think about Sweden,
I think when a lot of people think about Sweden,
I've only been once to Stockholm, but I went to
like the Museum of Pop Music, and it's really an

(34:29):
abba in Eurovision Museum. But is is the culture like
you mentioned obviously this song and this this album, But
is the pop music culture as long as you can
remember was it that thick in the air, like like
the way that like they say, LA is Hollywood and
you know what this is like people have their industries,

(34:49):
like is it very thick in the air like the
pop music?

Speaker 6 (34:52):
I think it is now. I don't think it was.
I was little.

Speaker 7 (34:56):
I think we were still a very you know, I
don't know what this world will mean to people here.
But like it was, you know Sweden in the old days,
so there were only two three TV channels, wow, you know,
we had maybe four radio stations, no commercial radio yet,

(35:17):
no way to find like American music. You had to
go to a store for import clps or CITs. It
was not easy to be concerned or into popular culture
when I was in You really had to work for it.

Speaker 6 (35:35):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (35:36):
So in that sense, no, But then when I started working,
which was so early, I you know, all the people
that I was working with was you know, maybe twenty
or like sometimes even thirty years older than me. And
then you know I got in touch with you know,
like a like a more connected part of Stockholm, which

(35:56):
was like you, I don't know, like you want drink
and you're not Aukuland and these like more commercial directors
that had been traveling and working outside of Sweden, and
and the Cardians and you know all these other like
Swedes that were connected to the outside world. But not
nobody my age had that network. It was much later

(36:19):
that it happened for like my generation. But now I
think there's so many young musicians and artists in Sweden
that really feel supported by the legacy of the music.
And of course like Abby is you know, the year zero,
year one, and then kind of you know Max Martin

(36:40):
of course, and all these producers that are now creating
popular culture all over the world. It's like, I guess
we're like the third or fourth biggest music export country
in the world.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
That makes a lot of sense. I mean you, I
feel like it's always like whenever you hear.

Speaker 3 (36:55):
An artist went to Sweden, you're like, oh, here we go,
here we go, Where did she go?

Speaker 1 (37:02):
She was spotted? Where I remember?

Speaker 3 (37:04):
It's like I remember years ago, like Kelly Clarkson, they
were putting her second album together and they felt like
she didn't have a full album, so they sent her
to Sweden. They sent her to Max and then she
had Since you've been gone, right, and it does feel.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Like there's a song since you've been gone the best.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, that's like one of those and I remember that's
like one of the ones that will last.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
And it feels like Max does hand you that every
few years or more.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
He still does.

Speaker 7 (37:33):
Yeah, yeah, And he's still into the songwriting like you will.

Speaker 6 (37:37):
He's not producing that much anymore.

Speaker 7 (37:38):
He'll leave it to the younger producers, but he's like
in there like and still write.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
So I feel like a lot.

Speaker 3 (37:44):
Of people don't really realize how it works, like what
a real producer really does, you know what I mean?
So when you have a concept or an idea or
a strong urge and you go to Max, like there,
what exactly is is that?

Speaker 1 (37:59):
What? What? What happened?

Speaker 6 (38:00):
Then?

Speaker 7 (38:00):
I mean it's different every time, but this time it
was I had this beginning of a song with talk
to Me, and me and Oscar worked on it a
little bit and then started producing it together. And then
Max came in and did his thing and heard what

(38:21):
I was thinking for the chorus and he was like, yes,
you should go there, and then he kind of left
me with this riddle. He was like, but just think
about these chords and that kind of transition melodically, da
da da, and he just left and then I solved
it when he was away because of the instruction he
gave me.

Speaker 6 (38:39):
So this this kind of like I don't know Andy
Warhol way of working. Maybe like you know that.

Speaker 7 (38:46):
He will see it and he'll give instructions. Sometimes he
will write as well. He did he wrote things on
other on the other song we did, and on talk
to Me as well. But it's very very smart. It's
very intelligent, very very good.

Speaker 3 (39:01):
The way so when we talk about producing, really, I
think a better way to explain it for people that
don't really get it is and really what they're doing
is directing you right. Like he gets a lot of
credit as like an amazing vocal producer because of the
ways in which he's brought new vocal stuff out of artists.
He certainly did with a like you can actually mark
like you can see like there was someone like Ariana says,

(39:23):
I think with break Free or was that Z was
like but like what he did was he was like,
I really need the straight tone singing for this kind
of song. It's like like working with a producer as
like a vocal director.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
He gave ari that direction.

Speaker 3 (39:36):
Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think people don't realize that
it's like, that's what that job is.

Speaker 7 (39:41):
The way Brittany sings on the first album is really
like her singing.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Like the way Max sponsors. Yeah yeah, that kind.

Speaker 6 (39:48):
Of she's an amazing singer.

Speaker 7 (39:51):
But like he did the demos like the Babe bit,
like all the demos are him doing that. It's really yeah,
you're right, very into the sounds of things too. It
doesn't really it might not be about the word.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
It might more be.

Speaker 7 (40:06):
About the vocal or like the vowel, like where the
consonant hits. But I think with him it's more it's
still songwriting and it's still concept but it's more conceptual now.
But a lot of producers are you know, a producer
still like the person who's making the sound right on
the record, And I think that's also what he used
to do. Just now he's like a little bit birds

(40:29):
view more executive.

Speaker 1 (40:30):
I guess I feel like you. I feel like your
voice is so precise. So it's what I've always loved
about the quality and the timbre is that it's clean.
Isn't the right word, it's just it's just it's perfectly
matched with like a Swedish sensibility in a way. Of
like making music, which is that it's like right on target.

(40:54):
And one of my favorite episodes of song Spoilter is
your episode about Honey. It's like the initial like track
of it was on the Girl's episode, and then the
evolution of it, just the way it becomes just this warm,
expansive song is so beautiful. And I feel like the
way that you are, the way that you're occupying all

(41:16):
this range between like a warmth and then like a
dryness in Dopamine where you're like, we're just singing about
we're building from the ground up, this idea that like
it's just a chemical thing. Yeah, you know, like that
is I think those are the perfect book ends for me,
like in the recent discography, So anyway.

Speaker 6 (41:33):
That's great.

Speaker 7 (41:34):
I think both of those songs, both Dopamine and Honey,
what they do have is they have a lot of rhythm.

Speaker 1 (41:39):
In the words they throb.

Speaker 7 (41:41):
There's a lot of like conversational lyrics and conversational like
almost like talking singing in them, and I really enjoy that.

Speaker 1 (41:51):
I still get lost in Honey. I will put a
Honey on a flight, Yes, and I will. It feels
like I'm taking a bath, Yeah, and I will fall
asleep to it and I'll come back. I'll wake up
again and I'll fall back asleep.

Speaker 6 (42:04):
Perfect.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
It's it's it's for years I've done this.

Speaker 7 (42:08):
It's kind of like that's perfect because the feeling, you know,
when you haven't nappened the day, when you're like in
that in between state and your body feels weightless.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
Yeah, that was.

Speaker 7 (42:19):
What I was trying to find when I was writing
it because I was in a kind of a bad
state myself, okay, but like a very long one, like
a depressions, pressure, and I was trying to have to
trying to find my my my so actually yeah, like

(42:41):
in a way like find my.

Speaker 6 (42:42):
Way out of a bad spot.

Speaker 7 (42:44):
Yes, And I couldn't see it, so I had to
kind of like create it. So I'm really happy to
hear that that still happens for you, because it happens
actually for me too when we.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
Play it live now, I'm like, wow, it still really good.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Is it your favorite? Is it the one that you
play where you're like, I think this song.

Speaker 6 (43:02):
Is my favorite one feeling myself?

Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, totally totally.

Speaker 3 (43:07):
Yeah, I feel like that's that's gotta be true. Yeah,
sometimes like you must listen back and be like I
really am Robin.

Speaker 6 (43:16):
I'm not going to agree with that. I feel that
that feels cheesy. But yeah, it's a good song.

Speaker 5 (43:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
Did you love playing the Brooklyn Paramount? What a cool
space that is?

Speaker 6 (43:24):
Love playing that must have been Yeah New York is
I just love playing here?

Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, book and Paramount, slanted banked floor, so it's a
good for everybody, even in the back. Yes, And the
sound is good.

Speaker 7 (43:37):
The sound is good, although they need to, you know,
fix their fire alarm thing.

Speaker 1 (43:41):
Oh yes, I'm happy you said it. First song will.

Speaker 7 (43:48):
Two minutes in we were like in the in the
peak of missing you, and then like all sound disappears
and I just had to go off stage for like
ten minutes. But then we came back on like and
we did it so that we started right where we ended.

Speaker 6 (44:02):
It was like right in the middle. It's like.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
It was like raw.

Speaker 6 (44:08):
It was a good It was a good Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:10):
They turned out the building next door, did it did
burn down? The fire alarm was real.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Sorry, wait, this is a weird question. But what's your
relationship to adrenaline?

Speaker 1 (44:22):
Oh?

Speaker 7 (44:24):
Well, adrenaline is like necessary evil. I think I'm so
used to it because it's being nervous, right, Yeah, yeah,
I still get nervous, but I can define it more
now as an adrenaline rush. And I know I recognize it.

(44:44):
And when you do, when you go on stage, you,
I mean, you both know how that feels. And when
you do something over and over again, you after a
little bit at least you get used to it. If
you stay on it, you get used to that feeling
and you can kind of handle it, yeah, yeah, a little.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Bit and write it.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
I almost asked it because I feel there's so much
adrenaline in your music and there's so much like, you know,
tension but release of tension, and that's like speaks directly
to adrenaline. And so I was like looking at you
and I was like, I wonder if she's never jumped
out of a.

Speaker 1 (45:17):
Plane, I would never jump. So that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 6 (45:20):
So like, I'm not an adrenaline.

Speaker 7 (45:25):
Definitely dopamine, but that's so much nicer.

Speaker 6 (45:28):
I mean, adrenaline is not so nice.

Speaker 1 (45:32):
But they speak to each other.

Speaker 7 (45:33):
They come always hand in hand, like little friends coming
together exactly.

Speaker 6 (45:38):
I think adrenaline is like maybe like that's a.

Speaker 7 (45:42):
Really cool thing to do a bit of blocker because
you can kind of then you can experience where you're
supposed to land after the adrenaline, and I think like
handling that first, you know, five minutes of the show
is about just managing the adrenaline until it's until.

Speaker 6 (46:00):
You're settled in more exactly, and.

Speaker 7 (46:02):
Just kind of imagining that place, because if you go
on the adrenaline, you'll just start doing Yes, it feels
good to go with the energy, but usually that's when
you like screaming a little bit too much.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
Yeah, and your instrument because it got not a hand yes.

Speaker 7 (46:19):
And also what happens in a bad I don't know
if if it's the same thing with other people when
you're doing comedy, it's like you.

Speaker 6 (46:26):
When you go too hort, it's like you lose each other.

Speaker 7 (46:28):
Yes, yes, yes, And if everyone pulls back, it's like
you can hear each other and then there's like a
good feedback loop instead of like the crazy one.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
Yeah, like we got to manage this thing that's like
a little bit outlining and we gotta pull it back
down yeah, or something totally. I mean I feel like
I feel like the awareness of it, though, is the
helpful thing. And that's like like even like you're writing
a song called doping. The reason I asked if it
was still called that ten years ago is because I
feel like the word has a new sort of like it's.

Speaker 3 (46:57):
Really in vogue for us, like over the past few years,
which I.

Speaker 6 (47:01):
Was so excited about that. I was just like, Wow,
this word, I can feel it. It's like so.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
Relevant. Is that not the right word? But nobody's so true?

Speaker 7 (47:11):
Yeah, yeah, And I felt that ten years ago, and
that's why I held on to it. And I you know,
I don't know if it's not so good for the
world that we're still in that space, but I think
we are because of social media and I think, you know,
the dopamine hits that we're getting, everyone is more aware
about what addiction is now, which I think is a
great thing. But it's also because everyone has to be

(47:32):
aware of it because everyone is addicted. Yeah, yep, And
so yeah, this song is more relevant now than it
was ten years ago, which is cool.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
That's really cool. No, I do think so, because yeah,
you're right. When I listened to that song, I go, yes,
it is like demystifying this thing, and it demystifies even
the addiction of like being on our phones where it's
like I think there is this like bigger movement now
of just everybody kind of being like, oh, that's let's

(48:01):
put that in another room. Let's put the phone in
like the closet. Yeah, it's not in my bedroom anymore.
And I'm like the last person to do. I mean, like, no,
you're not. You're a pioneer of that. People do not
sleep with the phone in the other room, even if
they're saying I can't now, it's like it's dangerous. I
feel it's it's like my body is red, like the

(48:21):
adrenaline kicks in. We're like I got to put this away.

Speaker 6 (48:24):
But I hope you don't feel this way about falling
in love.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Oh no, that's so sweet. I don't think it does. No, No,
oh that's so nice. What makes you ask that?

Speaker 7 (48:35):
Because I think there's almost this like, at least on
my feet, there's this like a version to falling in love.

Speaker 3 (48:42):
Do you think it's because you think it's because there's
something societal or do you think people are just.

Speaker 7 (48:47):
Think societal where we're like afraid of losing control. We're
like always decoding our physical responses to it's like we're
not taking it seriously, because it's just a chemical substance.
It's just this chain reaction in our body, and like
being in love is stupid or.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
You know, it's also hard.

Speaker 3 (49:07):
I mean, like that's I think that's another part of
it is it's like we are increasingly living in a
time when things can be really easy, and relationships and
love is never going to be easy.

Speaker 6 (49:19):
It's easy to just write it off.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
Yeah you can't say it. Yeah, yeah, you can't cheat it.
There's there's like a decline in the feeling of awe. Yeah,
you know what I mean. Yeah, And I truly, I
truly I feel that whenever I listened to you. But
I think when we went to the Barclay Show in
twenty nineteen, I certainly felt that Popper's notwithstanding like the

(49:47):
problem and like when like when like the curtain drops
and in the Honey Show or was it the curtain
of a veil, like that's like an I'll never forget that,
Like that's awe. I'm like, oh, oh my god, I'm
experiencing this with a bunch of other people, and I
do want to say this before we go. I don't
think so, Honey, Like, I think there's something a little bit.
I know, we all love nightlife here and like going

(50:08):
out and going to the club. Something about the club
is a little like it's not totally clicking right now
because everyone's there for a different reason. Either you're there
to listen to music or to connect your your friends,
or you're there to like fuck and that's okay too,
or you're there to do drugs and that's fine too.
But it's just we're all there for different like the
organizing principle there is a little bit scattered and like.

Speaker 7 (50:28):
I don't know because I don't go out anymore, no problem,
That's just.

Speaker 1 (50:31):
How it is now where I'm like, oh, like yeah,
like I've been out like a few times the last
couple of months, and like they've been fine, but there's
no there's there's there hasn't been like a sublime thing
of like, oh my god, I had the best night
out dancing and that's very much attainable and that happens
all the time. But I will say going to a concert,
everyone's there for more like the say I have a mission,

(50:52):
we have a mission. We're there to enjoy a performance,
right and and then we all leave going like that
was amazing.

Speaker 6 (51:00):
Wow, that's great. You know that is cool about going
to live shows. I agree.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
Do you still go to live shows?

Speaker 6 (51:05):
I do? I love going to live shows.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
What can you talk about some that have been like well,
I wish.

Speaker 7 (51:10):
I could give you like five examples, but I'm just
I just I'm a single working mom, so I don't
have to but that much time. But I went to
see Kaso.

Speaker 6 (51:20):
Do you know that bad?

Speaker 1 (51:22):
Check that out?

Speaker 6 (51:22):
Yes you should.

Speaker 7 (51:25):
That was amazing. Yeah, very all over the place. But
that's their thing. That's like the only thing I've seen lately. Yeah,
but I recommend it.

Speaker 1 (51:33):
Yeah, Okay, good, Yeah, SOURCE think so honey, it's time.
I don't think so honey. And this is our one minute.

Speaker 3 (51:48):
Segment where we just come in and we just tear
something up in pop culture, not necessarily because it did anything.

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Wrong, but it's just not its day. And regrettably I
will I will start. Okay, this is Rogers. I don't think,
so honey. His time starts now. I don't think, so honey.

Speaker 3 (52:02):
Gay guys on close friends asking do you want me
to take you off?

Speaker 1 (52:06):
Yes or no? It's a trap. It's a trap.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
You are the one that should be discerning about your
close friends list, you look at it and you curate it.
It is your close friends list. I'm sure this also
happens heterosexually as well.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
People are like, do you want to keep looking at
my butt?

Speaker 3 (52:23):
It's like now if now you yes, no, maybe it's
like now there's a complex.

Speaker 1 (52:28):
Before it was just we were all on our close friends,
like in a vacuum where.

Speaker 3 (52:32):
Yeah, sometimes I'm scrolling and whoop, there's your whole body.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
And that's just something that we're all engaging in and
entering into. And the invisible contract that is Instagram.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
But now you've made it an actual contract that I
have to check boxes on. No, take the onus off
of me and put the anus back and there if
you want it. I, by the way, I'm always gonna
say yes, keep me on, even if I'm bothered by it.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
I want to be on it because that I feel
left out and that I don't think so. And that's
one minute. Oh my god, that was wow, my second
one of the year. We're cooking. We're cooking. But you
know what I mean, It's like sometimes it's just like.

Speaker 3 (53:11):
Like and you know what, bless everyone out there sharing,
But it's just like when you ask it's like no, no, no,
I'm going to do I don't ever say now I'm
happy to be included.

Speaker 6 (53:23):
Yeah, yeah, you always you always got to like you
always gotta be generous.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Yes, yes, are you active on Instagram?

Speaker 6 (53:28):
I am Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
You want a lot of gay guys close friends. Yes, yes,
you're seeing a lot of like mirror of course what
they allow on close friends.

Speaker 6 (53:41):
But we all have in common?

Speaker 3 (53:43):
Wow hoops, Yes, it's actually the culture number six. We
all have an anus in common.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
That's a pluribis. That's that's the puris. I don't want
to isn't a pluribis.

Speaker 6 (53:56):
I don't know what.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
Okay, So food for thought. Everyone, by the way, like.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
Again, keep me on, but just I guess hide that
one close friend's story for me?

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Do you want me to still be here? It's like.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
We already knew you were thirsty. Now you're being thirsty
for this answer. Please you just want to get But
if you're trying to be respectful, that's good too. All right,
bone Yang, you're ready? Yeah, this is Bowen Yang's I
don't think so, honey. As time starts now.

Speaker 1 (54:23):
I don't think so, honey. Having sex with the lights off,
turn them on, show me you see I want to see.
It's not about don't no need to be self conscious.
We're already we're we're already at that stage. There's no
need to be shy totally. Let's just trust me. I'm
into it. Even if it's even even if it's not

(54:43):
that great, it's it's still bad. Sex is still pretty good,
you know what I mean? Keep it. It doesn't have
to I'm not saying blast it like this thirty second
doesn't have to be overhead, can be a little bit ambient,
can be a little you know, night light there a
little totally. I'm not saying keep it. I'm not saying clinical.

(55:04):
I'm just saying, like I want to. I want to
see a little bit.

Speaker 6 (55:06):
I want to see it all a seconds.

Speaker 1 (55:09):
Yeah, you know, having sex to the lights off. I
get that it's a preference for some I I want
to I want to be able to grope around in
the light.

Speaker 6 (55:17):
Not dark totally.

Speaker 1 (55:19):
And and that way we're just we're we're setting ourselves
up for success for some accuracy and precision. And that's
one minute. I couldn't agree with you more. Yang.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
I also feel like you know you're there to have
sex with that person. You're not there to have sex
with the idea of of a human form, do you
know what I mean?

Speaker 6 (55:40):
Like, yeah, I just think seeing it is very sexy.

Speaker 3 (55:43):
Absolutely, yeah. Okay, are you ready? Yes, this is Robin's
I don't think so, honey. All right, this is gonna rip.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
I know it. Robin's time starts now.

Speaker 7 (55:54):
Okay, I don't think so, honey. Well, I always hated
Elon Musk, you know, I always hate him, way before
it was like cool to hate him, yes, because there
was a time where there wasn't cool to hate him.

Speaker 1 (56:06):
But you know, I'm I don't know, maybe we didn't think.

Speaker 7 (56:09):
About him that much at least, but you know what
happened for me, I started hating him when he put
a Tesla into space with a David Bowie song on it.
He actually shot a car into space, as if there
wasn't like enough shit floating around my Okay. So this
is the thing. I think there should be democracy in space.
There should be democracy on Earth too, yes, which we

(56:32):
really maybe don't even have.

Speaker 6 (56:33):
At the moment.

Speaker 7 (56:34):
But the fact that anyone or any like commercial company
can decide what to do with like natural resources and
also do tacky things like sending a stupid fucking car
into space.

Speaker 6 (56:49):
That's also dangerous for people.

Speaker 7 (56:51):
Like think about the astronauts that are like up there
in like the International Space Station and they don't really
know what's going to hit them or whatever. Like I
just think it's like, can we all just like have
a vote on whoever gets to do anything?

Speaker 3 (57:05):
And that's one minute, but keep going because I honestly,
like I so agree, almost everything he does now makes
my skin crawl. And what really bugs me about like
it was just a core thing of what you said
is when any old person thinks that just because a
song is out there and you can you can stream
it or by it, that you can use it for
your Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:24):
Yeah, the fact that he like.

Speaker 7 (57:25):
The best song in the world and he put on
his just to sell cars it was space.

Speaker 6 (57:31):
Obviously, Okay, Bowie like.

Speaker 1 (57:35):
No, that's not what he was talking about. Whatever you think, No, no,
whatever you think, you can't talk about David Bowie exactly.
He turned in his grave. You're right, it's not safe
for the people who are up there. You're an astronaut
doing working your whole life to be an astronaut. All
of a sudden, a fucking model y comes barreling towards

(57:56):
you exactly with an iPad for a fucking dashboard.

Speaker 6 (58:00):
Do you know?

Speaker 1 (58:00):
No way, no way?

Speaker 6 (58:02):
What's the name?

Speaker 1 (58:02):
I don't know he did that?

Speaker 6 (58:03):
No, he did that.

Speaker 1 (58:04):
What's the name of hes done so many of It's
the name of.

Speaker 7 (58:07):
An amazing movie with brown, beautiful woman. It's lost in space.
She's twirling around ravity.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
You know.

Speaker 7 (58:19):
That comes instead of it was like.

Speaker 6 (58:24):
It's like stake Dall and like a David Bowie song.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
Amazing. She is so brilliant in that.

Speaker 6 (58:33):
But I also think we should hit on Jeff Bezos.

Speaker 7 (58:34):
I mean.

Speaker 6 (58:36):
It, he also did that.

Speaker 7 (58:38):
He went up to space, up in space, and then
he came down and he put out on whatever social
media he was like, now I realized that we really
have to protect this beautiful pearl in the universe. I'm like, okay,
so you had to like destroy the human race, like
destroy the environment too late to do up so that

(59:01):
we all could have you realize this thing that everyone
else understands. Nobody else had to do that to get
that this is important.

Speaker 3 (59:10):
Now that I've cut off my leg, I realize it'd
be better to have two.

Speaker 6 (59:14):
Yeah, exactly. But also it's not your leg, it's everybody.

Speaker 1 (59:19):
Oh the one leg we share.

Speaker 3 (59:22):
All these all these guys are missing something like that
line of billionaires that was behind Trump when he was inaugurated.

Speaker 1 (59:31):
They're all they are without.

Speaker 3 (59:34):
Yes, they are without out and I think that there
are so many people who are without in some way,
not necessarily.

Speaker 1 (59:44):
The way they are without.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
I do believe they are without souls and also like
like a function that like an empathy, empathetic function. But
I think that there is an idea that that is
in some way aspirational because it's a it's a it helps.

Speaker 1 (59:58):
You be the best capitalist.

Speaker 3 (01:00:00):
If you don't care, then you're going to be the
most successful because you didn't care to begin with. So
you're not going to have any checkpoints. Well they don't,
and you might find that you might have stanned that person,
but suddenly you're realizing, oh wait, you do have an
emotional checkpoint, and that's good, but you are too late,
are and it is fucked up and you should feel bad,

(01:00:21):
and it's okay that people feel bad. Yeah, I will
also say that, yeah, everyone being like, huh, I have
buyer's remorse with the Trump thing. I used to stand elon.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Now I don't know, feel bad, feel bad, It's fine,
it's fine. This is just to revive one of Matt's
old catchphrases, which was precious one. You're without, precious one,
you are without, you are without. It's a way to
get empathy. But let people know. People know that they're
lacking precious one, you are without. Who's not lacking is
our guests or us. Now that we're going to have

(01:00:51):
an album soon.

Speaker 3 (01:00:52):
Yeah, and all your work, which is so important to
us and so important to anyone who loves music. I'm
telling you, like, it's just so cool for us to
be able to say that we have platform that you
would want to come hang out with that song, Like,
it's truly one of the moments of the podcast that
we're like, I can't believe that it's come this far.

Speaker 1 (01:01:12):
You're just the best.

Speaker 7 (01:01:13):
I love you, guys. I love you for having me
on here. I listen to you all the time. That's
so wild that you're saying all of this to my face.

Speaker 1 (01:01:22):
Yeah, we love you. Okay, Well, we end every episode
with a song, and if you do me right, I'm
gonna let me keep it. I'm gonna it was great.

Speaker 6 (01:01:43):
It was greeky, I just it was too high for me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
So last Culture Recis is the production by Will Ferrell's
Big Money Players and I Hurt radio.

Speaker 3 (01:01:57):
Podcasts, created and hosted by Matt and Bowen Yang, executive
produced by Anna Hasbier and produced by Becca Ramos.

Speaker 1 (01:02:04):
Edited and mixed by Doug Bine and our music is
by Henry Koberski