Questlove Supreme: The Avalanches

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. Ladies and gentlemen,
welcome to another episode of.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
I'm your host Quest Love with Us. We have Fragmented Supremest.
We got Fantego over in the house. What's up, brother,
I'm still here, man.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
What up?

Speaker 4 (00:23):
What up?

Speaker 5 (00:23):
We're here, sugar Steve, Yep, I'm not fragmented. I've never
missed a show except the ones you told me not
to attend. Wait, when did I ban you, Steve that
purple roundtable joint?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh you're holding that against me? Yes, but let's move on.
That's fired.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
In the interact, Ladies and gentlemen, I will say that probably.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Our guests have single handedly at least changed.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
And I'm making this introduction person, I'm making it about me,
not about you or the audience.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'll say that our guest.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
Today is single handedly probably changed my trajectory or changed
my perspective on how to deliver music.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
And that's pretty much all I can say.

Speaker 1 (01:12):
I heard their debut album and it just cracked my skull,
cracked all of our skulls open in a way that
really hasn't really hasn't done that probably since the days
of Prime Bomb Squad productions of like Public Enemy and
Ice Cube, or even the three feet hind rising in

(01:34):
Daylight Soul's Dead albums of the early nineties. I'll say
that Rick Rubin has taught us on the show that
editing is necessary for smart pop music making, and you know,
the ability to leave the basic necessities for you know,
for the most part of that theory. You know, with

(01:55):
self editing has worked miracles for pop music in the
last seven the year. But our guests have done the
opposite of that, and they've left no stone unturned.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
As far as a sonic landscape.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
Thereforeever classic debut album, now twenty twenty years old, called
Since I Left You is probably personally one of my
top ten favorite albums of all times, with over one
thousand mind staggering samples and soundbites. I'm an invest We
all gotta investigate how this was made. When he found

(02:30):
out that they wanted to come on the show, it
was an instant yes on my part. Yeah, I'm just
honored they're here to share their story with us, because
I don't even know if I can properly explain to
you how important there art is. But Ladies and gentlemen,
please welcome the Quest of Supreme the Avalanches.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
We have Robbie and Tony.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
Robbie, what's your last Nameta, Robbie Taita, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (03:05):
Where are you right now?

Speaker 6 (03:06):
Where an?

Speaker 2 (03:08):
How is it over there right now?

Speaker 6 (03:10):
Yeah, it's pretty good. We had we had like a
really hard lockdown last year, but we're coming out of
it now. It's just really good. We just played our
first live show in you know, three years on Friday, like, yeah, oh,
it was incredible. It was it was so amazing, you know,
just to be with the people again, and you know,

(03:34):
I don't know, it was just it just felt like
at the start it felt really strange, like you know,
it's a little bit rusty, but then you kind of
get into it for twenty minutes and you're like, I
remember what it's like and instead of being scared, it's
like this joyous experience and yeah, I mean we've just
missed it so much. So it was so good.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
So it's hard like working your muscle memory for what
the show was when you well with this particular show,
was it was it craft it from scratch or was
it the show that you were developing around the time
when covid first hit us.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
No, it was from scratch, so it was a lot.
It was like our hometown first show back, brand new show.
All the equipment too, has been like in storage and
all covered in dust, and you know, it's like.

Speaker 4 (04:20):
It was like.

Speaker 6 (04:22):
Family and friends. Yeah. Yeah, we had a few technical
issues that we that we were that seems like every
like whenever there's a first show, there's always a few
things that go down or go wrong. But in the
end it was it was really incredible and we got
so much love from the audience.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
And I would imagine that the amount of research that
you have to put into your product as far as
your creativity is concerned. That I mean, was this time
off with Covid. Was it a total time off for
you guys, or was it just like okay, let's go

(04:59):
back to would sad and create new product or did
you just stop period and just you know, kind of
see what happens until the world opens.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
It was tough.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
I mean, we went we were finishing an album as
Covid hit, and we kind of got that done and
got that, got that ready to go. But like Melbourne's Lockdown,
we're in it for like two hundred days. It was
one of the hardest lockdowns.

Speaker 4 (05:23):
In the world.

Speaker 3 (05:24):
And you couldn't you could only leave your house for
an hour a day.

Speaker 4 (05:29):
There's a curfew in the evenings. Couldn't go from.

Speaker 6 (05:32):
Eight pm till five am. You couldn't go outside your house.

Speaker 2 (05:36):
Will you guys get it right?

Speaker 1 (05:39):
You actually did it right, and you know, the world
would have actually caught up to you guys. And yeah,
because after some point, once we saw your numbers go down,
and then like a whole bunch of movie productions and
a lot of my friends in the industry, we're going
to melt, you know, going over over there, to Australia,
to New Zealand, over the Zealand. You guys are just
doing it right. So but yeah, you had to be

(06:04):
strict with it.

Speaker 4 (06:05):
We had to be strict.

Speaker 3 (06:05):
I mean the payoff was like we got to do
a show, you know, like now you know, and things
are opening up. But at the time it was hard
and we thought, well, we've got all this pre time
will be creative. But it was pretty intense and the
city was, you know, a ghost town. And really it
made me learn how much that we rely on the
collective energy and other people to feed our creativity. So

(06:27):
even though we had this spare time, like we didn't
write a lot last year because it was just kind
of getting through day by day.

Speaker 4 (06:33):
You know, the lockdown was.

Speaker 6 (06:36):
I'm very uninspiring.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, well, I was going to say, you know, I
still want to jump right to since I left you,
but I do because I don't know about guys personally.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
I do want to know the origins of.

Speaker 1 (06:51):
The group and of you two musically before you even
like what built to that moment. Could you just give
us a basic kind of an overlay of what your
lives were into creatively, like growing up, well, both of
you were DJs for starters, Like what got you interested
in DJ culture?

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Like how did it hit you over there?

Speaker 3 (07:13):
We actually, uh, well, we grew up in different suburbs
of Melbourne and then both ended up in the same
country town during high school and that's where we met
and became friends. And we weren't DJs initially. We were
like bad punk musicians.

Speaker 6 (07:29):
And punk musicians. We say punk because we were so bad.

Speaker 4 (07:35):
Yeah, it was noise, noise.

Speaker 1 (07:38):
It's kind of like the Beastie Boys story, like boys, Yeah, yeah,
they started off.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Punk and then you know that's right, and we So
we were just I mean, I had no money or whatever,
so we were buying old guitars and broken guitars and
organs in junk stores, and then we started to find
all these old records and it just sort of grew
from there. I was doing it called a film school
course at university, and they had a big studio for

(08:04):
all the film scores, and of course everybody doing that
course wanted to be like a famous director, so nobody
wanted to do the soundtrack. So I just had the
studio to myself for like three years, and there was
an old end sonic sampler in there that I learned
how to use and started sampling all these junk store
records and it just grew from there.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
Really.

Speaker 1 (08:23):
Yeah, So how were you when you made the transition
to DJ oriented music, like away from punk and more
into what we now know is DJ culture.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
I guess it was like a gradual process between the
ages of like sixteen and twenty.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Okay, okay, Was there a particular record that just spoke
to you that said, like, Okay, this is the direction
I want to go personally for both of you. Was
there like one particular album that was for me?

Speaker 3 (08:55):
It was like some of Prince Paul's productions, the Bomb Squad,
the things you meant.

Speaker 7 (09:00):
Yeah, yeah, So Princeville, he just remixed Since I Left You.
That was excellent.

Speaker 4 (09:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:07):
And because you know, like the records were finding in
junk stores were just strange, weird records. They weren't like
sort of cool, like a lot of the beautiful funk
and soul records from the States never made it out here,
you know, so we were they were junk store records.

Speaker 6 (09:21):
It's a lot of music.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
Exotic and strange stuff like that.

Speaker 3 (09:26):
And Prince Paul, I think, showed us that, you know,
you can use anything and you can make music with
humor from from all these different bits and pieces, and
we were like, we can do that, you know. And
also we love like the Beach Boys and seventies rock
and stuff, so we thought, would imagine if we like
take his sort of approach, but like try and make
like pop songs with it.

Speaker 4 (09:47):
And that's how the whole idea began.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
So how did you two meet each other at high school?

Speaker 6 (09:54):
We met in high school. I was from Melbourne and
at eighteen went and moved to the country town where
I met Robbie and it was It was a very
very for the for the early nineties, very backward kind
of place like Country Victoria and sorry. It was just
like a lot of football players and they were all

(10:15):
the cool people and stuff like that, and like so
the music people who are into music kind of gravitated
to each other. So so we kind of started hanging out.
And the first thing I remember that Robbie was like,
I was into all types of music, but he played
me my Bloody Valentine and that just kind of broke
my brain of like what the hell is this? And

(10:37):
I was like, all right, this is this is really cool.
I think I like this guy. I think I like
his taste in music. And so so from then then
on we kind of, you know, just had a few
other little small bands that we were in, and then
we both moved back down to Melbourne and started you know,
doing the punk thing just in our land room really badly,

(10:58):
and it just kind of grew from there.

Speaker 7 (11:00):
Did y'all were y'all in of y'all folks involved in
music in any way? Or what did your parents do?

Speaker 3 (11:06):
No? I mean my father would. My mom was a teacher,
but I did. I do remember being fascinated with my
father's record collection when I was a little kid, and
when he would let me, like, you know, handle the records,
I was obsessed with the line of notes and you
know he had he was like into like the band

(11:26):
and Bob Gil.

Speaker 4 (11:27):
And the Neil Young and and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (11:30):
Single songwriter stuff.

Speaker 4 (11:31):
That's right, gotcha.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I know that because you guys.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Developed early like pre I guess what ninety three ninety
four is when you guys first started.

Speaker 2 (11:45):
So without sort of like culture.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
Colonialism, well not culture colonialism, but just the the idea
of like you know, now with the Internet, someone could
release something in the entire world get it at the
same time where you know, really before in nineteen ninety seven,
like just it was regionalism, like certain parts of the

(12:07):
world had certain types of music or whatnot. Now I
know for Australia kind of the inside joke. And again
this is before like the really the age of the
internet spreading becoming law. Like a lot of groups that
were wildly popular from America that were wildly popular in

(12:27):
Australia really weren't that big in America. And I always
wanted to know I never got to talk to anyone
like specifically from Australia or New Zealand to find out why.
Like I'll say that there was a point where like
the Jurassic Five, pre Fergie, Black Eye Peas, Ben Harper,

(12:48):
like those acts could damn near sell out stadiums, and
we'd heard about the United States, like yo, man, do
you know the Black Eyed Peas could sell out a
stadium in Australia. And this is again back when they
were just like a club act, like up bar. You
know that that's why, but what what?

Speaker 2 (13:06):
What is it?

Speaker 1 (13:07):
I noticed with Australia especially for their their embracing of
like soul music, Like you guys have that big giant
soul festival down there where you know, you guys have
this this this festival for soul music that's sort of
like Coachella, but it's just like all Neil soul artists
and even now everybody from Kim like and again I've

(13:31):
my friends have told me that, you know, New Zealand
and Australia, like we tend to lump just that entire
area one thing.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
But you know, I see the right and you guys
are like, we're not the same. But but there's.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
So many like minded cool artists from down there that
were like influenced by a certain type of soul music
that's very niche to us here, Like what what was
the what's the radio like there? Like what is it
that turns you turn people onto that particular type of
soul music? Whereas now years later, like a lot of

(14:08):
these acts are coming out that are like really incredible,
like Hiatus.

Speaker 2 (14:12):
Coyote and.

Speaker 1 (14:14):
A Theme a Billion, But yeah, what is it about?
What was the music atmosphere?

Speaker 3 (14:19):
Like it's a rock culture, I would say, like when
we were starting out, so it's like there's the pub venues.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
You know, there's a very heavy drinking culture in Australia.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
There's the pub venues and all the bands that we
grew up with came through this pub scene. It's like
hard rock and roll, like ACDC and this kind of thing.
I guess there's the Bad Seeds. You came in the
Bad Seeds as well, or the Birthday Party came out
of that sort of dark pub scene as well in Melbourne.
But then something started to change in the nineties exactly

(14:48):
like you're talking about. And I think it was just
it was pre internet, but people just just this passion
for music that wasn't like that.

Speaker 4 (14:57):
And something just started beautiful to started to grow. I
don't know how happened, but.

Speaker 6 (15:01):
It was very very like when we started playing. You know,
every band we played, which was just two guitars, bass player, drums,
and so we rock up with a sampler and the
sound people were like, what's this?

Speaker 2 (15:13):
What do we do?

Speaker 6 (15:14):
And no one knew what it was. So I was
like in that in that way we were kind of
breaking ground in this country as far as like every
little festival we'd do, it's like every band was the
same guitar, drums, everything like that, and then we just
have you know S nine hundred sampler and some shitty
organs that work sometimes and didn't and so so yeah,

(15:38):
to your question, it was a very rock and roll
culture back then in Australia.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
So the was the S nine hundred. Was that did
your your weapon? That was the jam?

Speaker 7 (15:49):
Yeah? Yeah, then they came with the nine fifty, the
nine fifty, I think that was the one that the
nine fifty.

Speaker 4 (15:59):
We were loading.

Speaker 3 (16:00):
We were loading off the songs off floppy disc. When
we played live, every song was on a different flopping.

Speaker 6 (16:05):
So we'd stop a song and then have to load
for forty five seconds and just sit down and silence
or just try and make up some stupid banter in between.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
Again again you guys and DiAngelo. Okay, that's good. To
this day, the Angelo still uses floppy disk I didn't
even know that. Oh wow that that can that still
and know they still made them? Yeah, you know how drive.

Speaker 6 (16:38):
We had to search the internet to find floppy discs.

Speaker 4 (16:42):
We just did. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:43):
Wait, so to this day you still use it. That's
your weapon.

Speaker 3 (16:47):
When we were going to pull out the old samplers
for this show that we just did so we wanted
to bring back and really show how we made the music.

Speaker 4 (16:54):
But we couldn't find floppy discs anyway.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
Tiny had to order them online and arrived like two
days before the show, just in time.

Speaker 2 (17:02):
So wow, Really we're not using that.

Speaker 6 (17:06):
We're kind of using computers and now as our main
backing tracks, so we're not relying on the forty five
second loads anymore. But we use the sample is just
a triggle samples during the show because that's the way
we used to do it. I mean, and it's such
a fun you know.

Speaker 4 (17:22):
It.

Speaker 1 (17:23):
What was the period of which you guys discovered like
breakbeat culture and as far as like at least I
would like to think that you guys, you know, had
to put a lot of time in researching like all
the sounds and for you know, for your arsenal of sounds,
your drums, your samples and whatnot. So at what point

(17:45):
did you guys discover or at least like do away
with kind of your rock backdrop and get to what
we know is like breakbe culture.

Speaker 3 (17:55):
I think it was like a gradual process and all
of a sudden realized, like I think we had, you know,
all these big sounds and big dreams in our heads,
but you know, no money, and then you start sampling
an old orchestral record, because a lot of the records
that we were finding junk stores were like schmaltzy kind
of like junk like Fifth Andres, Galant strings and games

(18:20):
all that stuff. But but we were we could find
beautiful little bits and then realized we can create these
you know, big sounds with you know, for from a
two dollar record. And we gradually realized, look, we're not
great musicians, that are, and we can't sing, but maybe
we can invent our own little world if we don't,
if we just use samples, And it sort of grew

(18:42):
from there, and then you know, a whole bunch of
records were coming out, Like the Gust Brothers produced the record,
and you know, there were early Chemical Brothers records, and
all these records had breakbeats.

Speaker 4 (18:56):
There was.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
Yeah, Daylight Soul, and even like the Fart Side Records
and all these kind of early hip hop records, and
we kind of in our you know, it's because we're
so geographically removed from the rest of the world. You know,
we would just get strange little influences coming through before
the Internet, So in some way we'd way like a

(19:23):
bit of Prince Paul, a bit of the Bomb Squad,
a bit of the Beach Boys, a bit of my
Bloody Valentine. All kind of made sense to us, and
we just kind of started developing our own sound from there.

Speaker 1 (19:35):
When you formed the group, was it instantaneous that you
called yourself the Avalanches or were you just like you know,
DJ Robbie, DJ Tony.

Speaker 6 (19:52):
We had a few we had a few name incarnations
before we came up with the Avalanches.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
The Avalanche's name was actually on it was the surf
rock group from the fifties, one of these bands we
sampled and then and we used to change our name
every time we played, and that that one just stuck.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
It just stuck. Oh, just randomly.

Speaker 6 (20:14):
Maybe we had a good gig the day that we
called ourselves the Avalanches, and we went, this is an
open We'll stick with this name because I think we
had a few gigs where we were different names.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
So what was the first product that you guys worked
on when you decided to form the Avalanches.

Speaker 3 (20:37):
It was like, I think it was a mixtape we
made in the studio. I was talking about it the
film school studio that was made to send around to
various promoters to try and get a gig, try and
get shows. And then I think they pulled a couple
of tracks off that and our friend pulled it out
as our first seven inch that was called rock City.

Speaker 4 (20:58):
Yeah, I think that was the first release.

Speaker 1 (21:00):
Yeah, yeah, even then, Like was your theory? What was
the theory based on how to create the music? I
know a lot of times, especially with where we are
today with hip hop culture in America, you know, and

(21:21):
I won't say that flipping samples of course, you know,
flipping is a way of survival to at least avoid
you know, lawsuits are getting caught out there, But I
mean there's there's definitely a slew of producers that flip
just for the sport of it, you know, especially like
these post J Dilla times where he could take something

(21:43):
make it so unrecognizable that you don't know it.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
So but for you guys, like, were you.

Speaker 1 (21:49):
Guys even aware of kind of sample cultured almost being
endangered species in the mid to late nineties to the
point where you know, now a lot of the backdrop
from America is far from that.

Speaker 2 (22:04):
But were you guys aware of it then or was
it just you.

Speaker 3 (22:08):
Know, well, I think we were aware that the records
that were made in that way that that were rare
and were and you know, to find find them they
would like sort of these gems that would stick out,
like if a well made sample based record is just
like such a beautiful thing and they don't come along

(22:29):
all the time, you know. But we were we kind
of thought, no, like, we're a million miles from anywhere,
no one's ever going to hear this, so well, we
can just sample anything, and it's we were just.

Speaker 7 (22:40):
Doing ourselves famous last words, I was going to say, it's.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Funny that he said that all the way in Australia
because that's also where I was when I decided to
play Really Love, because I quite I didn't understand.

Speaker 2 (23:01):
It was going everywhere.

Speaker 1 (23:02):
Yeah, I thought it was on something like local underground
radio station that the world wouldn't hear of, and then
that shit happened.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, we've kind.

Speaker 6 (23:11):
Of got the same attitude to samples of just like,
we'll just use it and see.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
What nobody.

Speaker 6 (23:18):
It's you can't tell?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Okay, so let's let's we're twenty five minutes and let's
cut to the goddamn chase. How just that's my first
question is how can you tell us the story of
Since I Left You?

Speaker 2 (23:37):
And it's hard to explain.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
It's really hard, even when you know that album is
so perfect to me that even when I explain to
people who are, you know, just casual music listeners, like,
they're still not getting the genius that every last thing
you hear had to be manipulated and edited in a
way so that it fits melodically structurally. So tell us

(24:04):
the beginning of how you guys even thought to meet this,
this this classic album.

Speaker 3 (24:11):
I think we I mean, I let Tony jump in,
but we were kind of doing gigs in these rock venues.
We're using samplers and our friend Darren would emc over
the top and we had some live drums, and as
we got into the studio more we realized it sounds
so much cooler if we just remove ourselves from it.
You'll remove our voices, remove any live drums, and we'll

(24:32):
do it just with samples. And it was almost like there.

Speaker 6 (24:37):
Was a bad beast I always or something to start
off with this kind of wrapping that was a little
bit Doctor Octagon kind of lyrics and a big kind
of beast, and it was, you know, some cool stuff.
But then we did, you know, it was like, let's
just make all the malady samples and use no voice.

Speaker 7 (24:56):
How long was that a process of working on that record?
How long did it take you out?

Speaker 3 (24:59):
To me, probably like eighteen intense months, but there was
like maybe three or four years of like collecting samples before.

Speaker 4 (25:08):
Then and finding your way.

Speaker 3 (25:10):
And then it's almost like there's this I mean, there's
two sides to it. There's the technical side of how
you actually make it with the samplers or whatever that
we can talk about, but the other side of like
how you think, how you know, how you conceive it
or the feeling behind it is harder to talk about
it because it's like we just hit this period of
a beautiful flow and it was really just a love

(25:32):
for music and discovery. And when I listen to it now,
that's what I can hear. I can hear like a
twenty one year old me just so in love with music,
sampling and discovering strange old records that that I think
that joy is just still what people can It's infectious.

Speaker 6 (25:49):
You definitely not true.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, it definitely came through for me. I think.

Speaker 7 (25:53):
You know, at the time when I discovered you guys,
this was when my.

Speaker 2 (25:57):
Band Little Brother, we had put out our first record.

Speaker 7 (26:00):
Listening and a mirror actually had listed his uh I
guess the top albums he was listening to at the
time in uh in Rolling Stone and so he listed
like like fifty cent Little Brother and then you know,
the Avalanche since I left you, And I was like,
all right, if he if they on the same list
with us, I know I should bang it. So these
motherfuckers got to have something. So I'm like, so, I'm like,

(26:23):
that's how you got straight up? Yeah, I mean that
was how I actually listened to him, like I had
always seen, but like you said, you know, y'all kind
of the rock culture and enjoyed, so I just thought
they were like a rock band. I thought they all
was kind of like The Strokes or like right, because
that was around that time, you know, I thought it
was just that kind of you know, that that rock
revival shit that was popping at the time. So I

(26:44):
was like, all right, this is just another rock band.
But then I heard the album and I hadn't heard anything.
I just went into it blind. I was like, all right, well,
let me check it out. And man, that shit blew
me the fuck away. And the thing about it, like
up until that point, you know, introducing by DJ Shadow,
I mean, we grew up on Bombs Squad and like
Prince Paul and all these guys, Dust Brothers, all those
guys doing that kind of collage and pay stuff. But

(27:06):
when I heard Introducing, I was like, oh wow, like
this is amazing, and it was something that kind of
took it for me, made it it felt like y'all,
really it made it more emotional, like that was I
think maybe the first time sample based music instrumental in
that way. I was like, man, this is really emotional
but then that was when I heard introduce it.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
But then when I heard y'all.

Speaker 7 (27:25):
Shit and that damn three two hearts and three four times, bro,
I played that shit, man. I played the MP three
tags off that motherfucker.

Speaker 2 (27:33):
Bro.

Speaker 7 (27:34):
Listen, I ran the record in the ground man. And
the thing, you know, when Tony you're talking about just
kind of that spirit of just you know, the you know,
that discovery. The thing that I always liked about all
you guys records is that the way you use the samples,

(27:54):
it doesn't feel like in kind of just a bastardized way.
It really makes you want to search what you guys use.
It makes you more For me, just as a love
of music, it just made me more curious to know
more about the stuff you guys use. And like even
like since I left you. You know, the way it
starts is, you know, since I left you, but then
at the end when you bring back the just can't

(28:17):
get you ever since the day imagine, I was like, Yo,
that ship is so fucking dope. Yeah, So like how
do y'all plot all that ship out? And like, I know,
the simple you say you use it was like the
s you're using the S nine hundred. Were you tracking
it on tape? Was it like was it pro tools
at that time? Like, how were y'all storing all these ideas?

Speaker 3 (28:38):
It was like S nine hundred, and then we got
a S two thousand, which had more memory kind two thousand.
We were like, oh, this is this is insane. We're
going to be able to do anything with this no stuff.

Speaker 6 (28:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
So and by that I think by the time we're
making since I left you, we had a ZIP.

Speaker 4 (28:54):
Drive for the.

Speaker 3 (28:57):
Yes, sir, yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. It was literally
just that and and at a shitty old turntable and
two dollars junks store records and.

Speaker 4 (29:14):
You know what that limitation is what is beautiful because.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Then drives the ingenuity.

Speaker 4 (29:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (29:20):
And then we had a there's an op code program
called studio Vision.

Speaker 4 (29:26):
There was a sequencer.

Speaker 3 (29:27):
I didn't have any audio, but that ran medi into
the samplers and so that's how we could sequence the samples.

Speaker 4 (29:33):
And it was all done like that.

Speaker 3 (29:35):
And if I came to work again in the morning,
like there was nothing on tape, no pro tools, so
I would have to load it all up again and
to hear what the song sounded like and to remember,
you know, or if I wanted to burn a demo,
make a demo, would have to like bounce it, burn
it onto CD, put it in my CD, walkman and
go for a walk or something to have a listen
to it.

Speaker 4 (29:56):
Where we're at.

Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, I was going to ask, do you have all
the discs saved from that album? Or was it just
like once you track it and once it's on tape
or once it's recorded, then you just unplugged your machine
and that's it. You don't save the samples. You don't

(30:17):
any of those things, Like is there a flap? Like
if I were to ask you, like, could you get
the either diners from whatever? Yeah, Pablo Cruise, like, could
you actually get the floppy.

Speaker 3 (30:30):
Disc some of them I've got, I've got some and
I've got I've kept most of the records when I
sold my record collection, but I kept all this.

Speaker 4 (30:37):
Since I left you once.

Speaker 3 (30:39):
And we just found the stems recently from because we
eventually tracked it to an early version of pro tools.

Speaker 4 (30:45):
When we went to like a proper studio, we were like, wow,
this is like.

Speaker 3 (30:50):
And they had like about four different engineers helping us
to like get it from this from out the back
of our samplers onto recording into pro tools and then
we mixed it from So we've got those stems and
some of the some of the flopping discs.

Speaker 2 (31:08):
Okay, so what is the what is the accurate number?

Speaker 1 (31:12):
I know that you know sometimes these stories can be exaggerated.
How many samples do you believe are on that album?

Speaker 4 (31:25):
I've got no idea. I reckon there would be.

Speaker 3 (31:28):
Like I think I figured it out once by working
out how much the five thousand could store and how
many samples in a program. And because it was every
every zip, every song was you know, the sampler memory
was full. So it was probably like around three thousand
because all the little drum hits and little bird noises all.

Speaker 7 (31:54):
I won't say, man, when y'all use the part, they
got me because like I mean, I listened to Recon,
I was like, hey, there's don't the part why I've
realized them. I'm like, okay, they know what's up when
y'all use the ray.

Speaker 2 (32:04):
Kwan yeah exactly.

Speaker 7 (32:07):
I was like yes, I was like yes, yes, yeah,
she was so dope.

Speaker 2 (32:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
So your guests like I've read nine hundred samples, I've
read four thousand samples. I mean of course, for the
legend of it, four thousand samples is a way better thing.
And I believe, you know, I believe anything, but baseball
guests baseball estimate.

Speaker 3 (32:32):
I think two to three thousand, like like when you
consider every little bump here and everything, because it was
it was a lot.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
So Okay, when you're when you guys are at least
at the let's say the ninety percent mark. Let's say
that you have fifteen songs down already as you're creating
this album in your mind, are you like, there's no
way in hell we can ever clear this or sell

(33:01):
this to the outside world, Like I mean, at this way,
is it just a passion project to you?

Speaker 6 (33:07):
Yeah, I think, But I think we were just thinking,
not even of the legality of the whole thing. We
were just like trying to put together this amazing thing,
and there it was just kind of a record company.
You do your thing and just get it out. So
it was good for us because we didn't have that limitation,

(33:27):
where whereas now we're you know, we have to be
more aware of samples we use and you know, clearing
and all that kind of stuff. But back then it
was still a little bit of a you know a
little bit of a more of a free for all.
I guess we'd just say Robbie.

Speaker 4 (33:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (33:43):
But also nobody knew who we were, like, yeah, we
didn't think anyone would ever, you know, it would get
a wide audience. So in that way, we were free
to do what, to sample whatever we wanted, you know,
like we kind of just didn't really like I think
as we were as it was growing, we knew we
were very passionate, and we knew that it was this

(34:04):
beautiful thing, but we certainly didn't expect it to be
become what it was, So we weren't restrained by thinking that,
you know, we have a high profile and people are
going to a lot of people are going to hear
this record.

Speaker 6 (34:17):
And we've done an EP before that as well and
didn't clear one sample from that. So it just kind
of like didn't care to.

Speaker 1 (34:24):
Be nice, all right, So we can't do that anymore.

Speaker 7 (34:30):
Yeah, when I was my ass so when people came
to about you know, samples and stuff, what was it like?
Were they like honored? Were they like like fuck you
pay me?

Speaker 4 (34:39):
Like?

Speaker 2 (34:39):
What was the what was the feeling.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
Like back then?

Speaker 2 (34:43):
It was?

Speaker 4 (34:44):
It was pretty nice.

Speaker 3 (34:45):
I mean some people didn't even know what sampling was,
or you know, we would track down someone who they'd inherited,
like their grandfather's catalog, you know in a willis they
didn't even know they had it, and we would find
find them and say, hey, you know you own this
music and so and some people just were like a

(35:06):
flat out no, like Rogers and Hammerstein and people like that.

Speaker 2 (35:09):
Oh so there are songs that did not make.

Speaker 3 (35:11):
It, samples samples that didn't make it. Yeah, and then
other people like John Kale, like he was super cool
because like, ah, that song two Hearts and three four time,
it was going to work out that like there was
five main samples and they all wanted twenty percent each,
so we were going to get nothing. And John Klee

(35:32):
was like, no, no, we the sample owners should all
take a little bit less. So the dudes that made
the song can get a little bit too.

Speaker 4 (35:37):
And so that what's up.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
That never happens that never.

Speaker 6 (35:44):
It's probably never happened again, never happened again.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
You represent us, please, this never ever happens in real life.

Speaker 6 (35:55):
This is being unknown in Australia.

Speaker 1 (35:58):
I mean I got people like come after me for
like a snare drum yeah, let alone and want like
seventy percent of it.

Speaker 2 (36:07):
That's a snare drum. Yeah, okay. So when you're this,
this was on double Excel recordings.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
Correct Excel in UK, Yeah, double Excel.

Speaker 2 (36:19):
I'm sorry forgive me Excel recordings.

Speaker 1 (36:21):
So when you played the final product to your company,
how long did it take for them to even start
the process to clear this? Because again like I yeah, man, yeah,
usually okay. So the obstacles that I run into are okay,

(36:42):
say I create a song and uh okay, I have
this situation once where I used Hey Bulldog by the
Beatles and they wanted like one of the publishing which
then left no space for like the others I sample.
And I've learned, I've learned, at least in the last

(37:05):
ten years, that relationships are key to making these things happen.
And oftentimes lawyers and red tape lawyers and administrative people
are kind of the the demons of the situation. And
half the time, if you can get to the actual
artists themselves, then you can you know, sort of iron

(37:26):
out and make it smooth. So again, how we had this.

Speaker 6 (37:32):
We had this amazing lady called Pat Shanahan, who I mean,
she would have been in her sixties or seventies. She
just passed away recently. So she would clear all samples
for us, and she'd done like Beastie Boys records and
iced Tea and all stuff like that. So she used
to work at Ireland Records for many years and had

(37:56):
a lot of contacts just through the whole industry. So
when we were clear in his samples, she she would
be like, Hey, I know him. I used to work
with him here, I noticed. So she had a lot
of personal relationships with Relis. Yeah. So so that helped
us so much, and she would just be able to
get things over the line for us that that, you know,

(38:18):
if it was a lawyer or anything or anyone else
like that, it just wouldn't have happened. So well, I mean,
we're so lucky to have her.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
Yeah, Record one one lady, And Yeah, she became a
dear friend actually, Jally Patch. She was just the most
most lovely lady. And I think she she worked with
who did she work out before Island? I can't remember,
but she sort of knew everybody in the industry since
like the sixties, had seen that there was a niche

(38:45):
for someone who just specifically cleared samples, and so I
think she left the record label. And then the first
record she cleared was like the Tone Low Record or
something like that. And then and then she did Back
and the Beastie Boys, and.

Speaker 4 (38:59):
Yeah, so she helped us a lot.

Speaker 3 (39:00):
And then there were other personal relationships that Richard Russell
at Excel.

Speaker 4 (39:06):
Helped us clear. The Madonna sample, uh.

Speaker 1 (39:09):
Yeah, yeah that that was to be when even when
I heard it in the car. Now my story of
hearing it. I heard that album on my birthday. I
was doing a DJ gig in Indiana and I was
born in January, so it was like cold, and the
guy that picked me up from an airport played it,

(39:31):
and you know, because the album runs, uh sort of
as a continuous flow, like it doesn't go from song
to song, I just thought he was you know, normally
when the guy picks me up from the airport, they're
always like sneaking there trying to.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Sop yeah no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
From like from the from the airport to my hotel room,
I was under the press. He was playing me his shit,
and that's just that had me wide open. And then
like finally he gave me the bad news. Twenty minutes
into it like oh no, no, no, this is some
cats from Australia called the Avalanches. I was like, oh man,
I thought it was your shit, all right, never mind,

(40:17):
all right, right, but what will wound up happened?

Speaker 2 (40:20):
I asked him? Can I borrow the CDs? I could
hear it?

Speaker 1 (40:23):
And like, actually the same story with little Brother when
I heard Fonte's thing, like, I rarely have dedicated so
much hours, so so many, like a lot of hours
just to listen to product over and over and over again.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
And I just I just couldn't believe it.

Speaker 1 (40:42):
Well, because you guys worked on and what you said
earlier about how limitation studio limitations makes you more creative,
that makes sense because a lot of my favorite guys
like use you know, with with Fonte's group, what did
you got do?

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Everything on fruity loops?

Speaker 7 (41:01):
Everything was fruity loops and a compact had We had
a compact computer.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Yeah, and that was.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
You know, I let it pro that was what we
recorded A vocals and cool litter or Sony acid like
something real primitive. So what I want to know is
how do you how do you bend samples to your
will melodically? Especially back then, without you know, the aid
of a MacBook pro to instantly you know you could

(41:30):
do that, yeah, yeah, seconds, But how were you able
to bend these samples to your will so that they
melodically fit the song?

Speaker 2 (41:43):
And with with that primitive equipment?

Speaker 3 (41:46):
How I think it comes back to what you're saying
about just how limitations can be really powerful, because it
was just like I just remember going, this is this
act like sampler. I'm just going to get really fucking
good at this one thing, and that's all I'm going
to do, you know, And so once it just becomes

(42:06):
almost invisible, so you're not even thinking about how to
use it. You know it so well, and so it
was just just literally tuning samples in the sampler. So
you know, you might have stuck with a drum bead
and kind of a beginning sample, and the beginning sample
just kind of gets you going it might not even
be there at the end. But then it's just literally
getting samples in tune and whole bunch of samples just

(42:29):
on the midikeyboard that are living in the sampler's memory
and and playing around and then going, oh, that might
be a verse, that might be a chorus. I've kind
of stuck. Save it, put it away, maybe give it
to Tony. He'll see if he can find a sample
for it. And slowly and slowly the layers built up.
So it's just using your ear tuning samples by ear.

Speaker 2 (42:48):
So that is not easy to do.

Speaker 7 (42:50):
People, that is that is that is not easy to do.

Speaker 2 (42:52):
Which leads to my next question.

Speaker 1 (42:53):
So when I asked the bomb squad how they created
nation of millions, I guess Keith Shockley explained to me
that basically the process that they were doing, they would
have jam sessions. So the way that the engineer was
set up was Eric Sadler had his sampler on his
side of the room, Keith Shockley was probably on turntable

(43:16):
doing his stuff, and then Hank would have his bit
and they would start with a drum beat and when
they were satisfied. Their theory was that if you took
everything away, like are the drums banging enough? Like the
drums have to be perfect. Once the drums are there,
then each chef would add their particular ingredient into the

(43:43):
musical stew until it felt complete and felt right. So
how do you guys source or like what's the back
and forth or the work process to adding things like
you know, whose idea was it, like oh I got
this horse noise over here? Or even or even with

(44:04):
even with the first song on Wildflower where the kid
is talking, I don't know if that's a SoundBite and
you guys manipulated his voice to go right in key
with that intro. But you know, even with the Wildflower intro,
like how do you guys, how do you guys communicate

(44:25):
back and forth like what gets inside the.

Speaker 2 (44:29):
Meal?

Speaker 1 (44:30):
And also subsequently, how do you tell each other that
doesn't work? Like Okay, I don't know if that fits
or whatever, or is it just like whatever works thrown.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
In I think, I mean definitely. Robbie is the great
producer of the records. And it's almost like where, you know,
we used to have all the other members in the
band and we you know, have a little sample, you know, loops,
a couple of things that go together or something like that,
but then kind of give him over to him where

(45:01):
he's putting it all together and you know, chopping up everything,
and I mean it's just what he's amazing and he's
just doing all the layers and incredible production work, and
you know, the horse noises and all that kind.

Speaker 2 (45:19):
I was just like, the hell.

Speaker 4 (45:24):
Because no no I heard.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
I was like, it was like DJ Munks and Cypress
Hill and you know that squeal noise he had.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Yeah, yeah, I had to try and.

Speaker 4 (45:34):
Make a noise like that.

Speaker 3 (45:35):
And then I was watching an old Western movie and
there was this horse.

Speaker 4 (45:38):
I was like, that might work.

Speaker 5 (45:40):
So how did you get the horse to clear the sample?

Speaker 6 (45:51):
The horse to this day still doesn't know that he's
on the record.

Speaker 2 (45:57):
Well, not just with music. Uh, how did you guys
even know?

Speaker 1 (46:03):
Because because movie soundbites are also a big part of the.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
Kind of the structure.

Speaker 1 (46:11):
Here, how how did you guys even source or even
figure out clearing all of the non musical elements of
the song that had to be clear? Like I'm certain
that with movie dialogue? Or was it just like the
Wild West? Like if they come to you, then you
admit it? Or never mind, this is.

Speaker 7 (46:38):
Yourself? I think never mind. I got my answer. This
is this is quest love supreme, not d.

Speaker 2 (46:46):
Oh my god.

Speaker 6 (46:47):
I never compare me to would you like would you
like our answer? All the record label answer?

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Never mind?

Speaker 7 (46:55):
I just never mind, forget it. One thing I was
I was curious to know for two things. One just
the making of a Wildflower, because you know, we've read
a lot and if you guys have talked a lot
about to make it since I left you, Wildflower was
like other Thandiangelo's Black Messiah, that was those were neck

(47:16):
and that those were like my two most anticipated records
of that decade.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
Just as long, yeah, just as long.

Speaker 7 (47:23):
And and I remember it, you know, I We've been
hearing about it for a while and I was like
it dropped and I was like, holy shit, this is
really here. And you know, it was really inspiring me
because it sounded like you guys picked up like right
where you left off. It didn't even you could listen
to since I left Your Wildflower back to back and
aside from the cameos, you know, you would sound like
they were done at the same time. So I was

(47:45):
curious to know just you know, working on that record
and you know.

Speaker 2 (47:48):
What took so long?

Speaker 7 (47:50):
A what took so long? From uh since I left
you the Wildflower? And two, uh, the you guys picking
your mcs, because you really picked you know guys that
weren't you know, you know, Danny Brown and Camplow and
you know what I mean, Like you guys worked with
some kind of unorthodox people, So how do y'all go
about choosing that?

Speaker 4 (48:08):
That? I mean Camplow?

Speaker 3 (48:10):
That first Camplow Saturday Night was like a favorite record.
We would just play that NonStop, and some great sampling
in that record too, So we actually sampled Camplow on
Since I Left You, So it was really nice to
kind of go full circle and then work with that.

Speaker 6 (48:26):
Whenever we played live, we'd always have a bit where
Luccini would coming after a song, so massive Camblo fans.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
That Before you answer Fante's question, how how did you guys?
How did you guys deliver the album live?

Speaker 4 (48:44):
Like?

Speaker 2 (48:44):
How does that even happen?

Speaker 1 (48:47):
Or what's thet Like I only saw you guys when
you guys finally came to the Tonight show for the
Wildflower album. That's the first time I got to see you,
like actually perform. But when you're when you made Since
I Left You, then how do you decide how to
deliver this in concert?

Speaker 3 (49:08):
We still when we were touring Since I Left You,
we were still like in live band mode because that's
we still had that element from you know, when we
were starting out, So we would sort of do like
kind of like there's like a big party with live
drums and kind of like I don't know.

Speaker 6 (49:25):
Space guitars. Key yeah, but most of everything was just
like on a on a mini keyboard and we'd have
the samples would just be that key chorus break horse.
So I was just triggering live and then the drama
playing along to it. So there's no like you know,

(49:46):
time code or anything into a computer or anything like
that when we did to it Since I Left You,
So it was still pretty organic in that way.

Speaker 7 (49:54):
One of the guys in your band man hold, I'm
a big fan of Johnty. How did y'all how Joko?
And what's his role in you guys band?

Speaker 4 (50:03):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Yeah, he was part of our touring group for around
the Wildflower era.

Speaker 4 (50:07):
We came and did.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Costello and we I think we heard his first EP
and it was really cool, and then he did some
vocals on Wildflower and then we're like, come come on
the road.

Speaker 4 (50:19):
Yeah, And so.

Speaker 6 (50:20):
He also he also did a it was Since I
Left You. He put a band together of about fifteen
musicians and played Since I Left You front to back
really and did it live around Australia and we were like, oh,
let's let's go check this out. And it was kind
of like really weird to just be you know, played yeah,

(50:42):
and we didn't played so well, and we're just like, hey,
we should get back on the running like this. So
it was really it was really cool to see and
from now, I mean, you know, we developed a relationship.

Speaker 7 (50:55):
No, he's really dope. I'm a big yeah. But what's
the gap between the first album and Wildflower? You know
that eighteen years sixteen years old?

Speaker 2 (51:05):
What happened?

Speaker 1 (51:07):
I got admit I thought they threw you guys under
the jail. I really admitt I was they got thrown
under the jail. You don't got our money? Fuck it?

Speaker 6 (51:19):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (51:19):
Yeah, I mean, I mean there's many ways to answer
that question, but the short answer is like was like,
you know, you make since I left you with no money,
no equipment, you have a success, You get an advance
to make your second record, you buy all this equipment,

(51:39):
and then but it doesn't flow and it doesn't happen
sitting there sitting around with compressors all day and like
outboard gear, and we had none of that before. And
it took a long time to get back to that
point of realizing it's not about that. It's just about
your imagination a turntable and a sampler and you can
add all that it later in the studio. But it

(52:01):
was like, you've got to write the songs, the beautiful
songs first, you know, and all the gear help you.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
Well, you know, we were young and we had to
learn that ourselves.

Speaker 3 (52:09):
And now we're back to like I don't have the
studio in my house anymore, Like I just back to
the same sympatic I started.

Speaker 2 (52:17):
Yeah, so you purposely wanted to go back to square one.

Speaker 6 (52:20):
Yeah, it took us sixteen years to realize that. But eventually,
and the thing is like, like in all honesty, as
as the time went on, kind of since I left,
you started to growing stature. So we were a lot
of pressure started to build. And then that pressure, you know,
came a little bit from the record company, just from

(52:42):
fans in general and everything when's it's going to happen,
And that got to us a lot as well, I
think as it went along, and you know, and then
like Robbie said, we kind of just got back to
the essence of what it was all about, and almost
just in our own personal journeys kind of declined our
minds and stocked with all the pressure within ourselves and

(53:04):
just let go of all that that goal of all
the equipment, and from that point like it didn't take
that long at all to finish.

Speaker 5 (53:12):
I'm just curious, what, So, what equipment did you use
for a wildflower and the new one specifically the same?

Speaker 6 (53:21):
No, we use pro Tools for this one. We were
using Vision for since I left it, which that program
actually they stopped making it in nineteen ninety seven, and
Robbie was still using that up to two thousand and six.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
It ain't broke.

Speaker 1 (53:44):
How long did it take you to learn how to
master updated equipment or were you just stubborn, like I'll
never it's this or nothing.

Speaker 4 (53:56):
I was stubborn for a long time.

Speaker 3 (54:02):
But now I'm just like pro Tools and I just
edit in pro Tools and it's just like second nature
to me again. So it's just like it's just like
a tape recorder and it reminds me of like when
I was like fifteen and learn me how to make
tape loots and stuff. You know, it's like as long
as long as I keep it simple, you know.

Speaker 5 (54:19):
It's what's the what's what are the pros?

Speaker 2 (54:23):
And constant.

Speaker 5 (54:24):
You know, when pro tools, you're now able to see
your music and your samples, and back in the day
you couldn't. So what are the advantages and disadvantages to that,
if any.

Speaker 4 (54:37):
That's an amazing question because you're so right.

Speaker 3 (54:41):
I mean, you can't see the waveforms when the sampler,
you know, you don't see you're just listening and you're
kind of like looking at.

Speaker 4 (54:47):
The window almost, you know.

Speaker 3 (54:48):
So it's just a feeling thing, and it has been
a big change because you know, pro tools can grit
everything so easily, and everything can get tight, and like
you can make so many different versions of the one song,
and it's almost like you can again get too out
of control with limitlessness of things like pro tools, and

(55:10):
even just going back to Wildflower, the way you know,
we used to sample, to just just pick up a record,
put it on, find a sample from a you know,
pretty simple like that. But but during Wildflower, we just
for some reason we'd go, Okay.

Speaker 6 (55:23):
Let's just collect samples. So we just collect samples without
like thousands and categorize them without even really making songs.
We're just like, we'll do that later. So it almost
became like this story and administration process of making music.
So so that just that the limitlessness of that is like.

Speaker 7 (55:50):
Yeah, I was gonna ask just in the sixteen years
you know between those records, were your what would you
guys mean source of income? Like how was ill able
to stay going for that long?

Speaker 3 (56:01):
It was a struggle, you know, and it's certainly not
not what people think. It's like, you know, being in
a band and like, for example, the song since I
like talking about sample clearance, like the song since I
Left You is like I don't own any of it,
you know, it's all owned by samples. So we don't
get really royalties to live off. So it was tough,

(56:21):
and we would get offers to do some big shows
in that time, but we kind of thought, you know,
if it gets to like twenty ten and we haven't
put a new record out, we can't.

Speaker 4 (56:31):
We don't really want to go and do a show
because it just seems like we're in all.

Speaker 3 (56:34):
These yeah, I mean, you know, max credit credit cards.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Well, were you guys did you ever consider like just
going back to your roots and DJing, like just doing
DJ sets as a duo, but without the pressure of
here's our new album.

Speaker 2 (56:56):
That sort of thing.

Speaker 6 (56:58):
We did that a few times and that was able
to to Warness some income. We did like a couple
of songs for a musical. It was King Kong Music
Hall that was here in Melbourne, so that kind of
helps it. And we did have a lot of help
from the record company who had just signed to So

(57:20):
it was like an independent record company who had just
like being half yeah, half brought out by Universal which
has a lot of money. So you know, our man
Steve pad would really help us out by constantly asking
them if we can have a little bit more, and
it's just around the corner, you know, six months away,

(57:43):
six months later, it'd be the same thing.

Speaker 7 (57:46):
So Forness, he was wonderful.

Speaker 6 (57:51):
He was really good.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
I always wanted to know, Okay, so I'm not I'm
probably closer to Robbie's theory on kind of staying intentionally
ignorant to technology so that it doesn't destroy me, you know,
like I don't.

Speaker 2 (58:15):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (58:16):
That's my excuse, Like I don't want to learn all
this technology because then I'll lose what I had in
my magic period, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
But I have to know.

Speaker 1 (58:27):
So when I first saw the demonstration of I hope
I'm saying this right, And I prefaced all that to say, like,
I really don't know the technical terms, but with the
program melodim, that enables you to sort of like erase
the DNA of a song, like if I could take

(58:48):
a Stevie Wonder song and erase his vocals out of
it and make it just an instrumental that sort of thing.
When I first saw that, I saw that at Jazzy
Jeff's house, and the first thing I said to him was, yo, like,
I can't wait to see what happens when the avalanches
get a hold of this machine.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Where they can now really manipulate and bend.

Speaker 7 (59:13):
Sounds to the you know, or like y'all, or like Ableton,
like the avalanches were Ableton.

Speaker 2 (59:17):
It's like, that's fucking scary exactly.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
So like, have you guys even created songs to that level?

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Like it's weird.

Speaker 1 (59:27):
I don't know if someone has fully taken advantage of
like it's to me, it seems so grandiose and so
attimidating that I haven't even I think maybe once last
year I decided, like, all right, let me let me
take the Fender Rhodes from this particular song that I
don't have the stems to and see if I can
build a song from that. But besides that one moment,

(59:50):
like I kind of thought it was going to be
just a flood of kind of a return or at
least a part two of the sample. Wow Wow West,
that was you know, eighty six to ninety two, that
sort of thing. But what this sort of sampling have
you guys ever been? Have you guys even decided or

(01:00:10):
considered that level of sampling where you start erasing the
DNA of samples that exist to create new material. I
hope I asked that question right.

Speaker 6 (01:00:23):
Yep, totally, Okay, totally. It feels like it's a strange crime.

Speaker 1 (01:00:29):
I also feel like it's a concept a crime, so
a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
I feel every time I use it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:35):
I asked someone last week to like, you know, you know,
astract some vocals from a song, and even then I
felt guilty.

Speaker 2 (01:00:43):
So my heart was into making it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
You know, No, it's it's it's it'll because it'll start
off innocent now with just music, but then who knows,
like what they'll use it for thirty years from now.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
With identity thefts.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
So I think I'm kind of scared of jumping in
that pool because I feel like this is the beginning
of the danger period. But what is your relationship with
that level of technology and sampling.

Speaker 6 (01:01:11):
I don't think we thought about it too much. I
know we bought Maladine maybe three years ago and I
personally haven't used it once. We were like, yeah, it's
going to be great. I kind of looked at it
right now not now, but but I don't know, I
feel like that's kind of, in a way, dishonoring the
sample and the and the people who played on it,

(01:01:34):
and and I don't know, maybe that's if that's just
kind of an old fashioned attitude, and then the future
is just going to be like taking out you know, Stevy,
there was.

Speaker 1 (01:01:44):
Never that one song you man, if I could just
give her the vocals.

Speaker 6 (01:01:48):
On that, Yeah, we try and do that with filters,
but who knows what the future holds are. I don't
know how Robbie thinks about that, but I.

Speaker 3 (01:01:59):
Don't know, Like I think some cool stuff like you
mentioned able to and stuff like being able to stretch
a sample, like a really really really far way further
than we have could, Like we've done some of that
kind of stuff. But I also love you know, the
art form of like like say, the vocal sample for
Since I Left You has got music underneath. We just
had to filter it and then I had to chop

(01:02:19):
it very finely, but you can still hear all these
little bells and stuff, and it all adds to the
sort of magic, even though yeah, auto tune and stuff.
It's like it's kind of it's kind of beautiful that
way too.

Speaker 4 (01:02:30):
You know.

Speaker 3 (01:02:31):
I think things would get quite clean and really like
pristine sounding if you can like forensically remove elements, but
I don't know if it would still.

Speaker 4 (01:02:40):
Have the magic.

Speaker 6 (01:02:41):
Yeah, it takeaway like the layers that you don't necessarily
hear but you feel. And then if you do take
them away, you're like, hey, something's missing here, but I
can't tell what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:02:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:02:53):
Yeah, that's the thing with like sample beast music. It's
just so like even when like trying to replace stuff
or you know, and it's just like, dude, when you
sample something, you're not just sampling that song. You're sampling
that day. You're sampling the engineer, you're sampling the outboard gear.
You know, there's so many things that made it what
it was. And when you start manipulating that a lot
of times you can't kind of get too.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
Far away from home to where you lose the magic.

Speaker 6 (01:03:16):
Yeah, and that's like a spirit spirit in the music.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Absolutely.

Speaker 5 (01:03:21):
Yeah, engineers should get paid for samples.

Speaker 2 (01:03:24):
Shut up, Steve. Yeah, that's real wrap.

Speaker 5 (01:03:28):
I'm gonna start at a petition.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
On the Sugar Network.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
Hey, oh, another question that I have. I have a theory,
but I want to see if I'm correct. What was
the What was the inspiration for the Wildflower album cover?

Speaker 4 (01:03:46):
It was that slashed down cover.

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
I knew it. Yeah, when I first.

Speaker 1 (01:03:56):
When when literally when I first saw it, I was
like wow, like and then all alternative world where Sly
was was happy with his life and everything was going swimmingly.
This would have been the album covered too. There's a
ride going on yeah and always Wow.

Speaker 3 (01:04:13):
Okay, we actually got it founder World Quilting Champion, who
she lives in Nebraska, and she quilted that cover for us,
and we just took a photo of it, so we
wanted it to look real like the Sly cover.

Speaker 7 (01:04:27):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:04:28):
So that's an actual made Yeah, that's a quilt.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Whoa ship? No, I thought it was animated. You said,
Oh my god, you're right. I'm looking at it right now.

Speaker 7 (01:04:39):
Who yeah, who got it?

Speaker 6 (01:04:46):
He still sleeps with it on his bed.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
You do. Congratulations, Robbie, there for it.

Speaker 7 (01:04:54):
Yeah, man, I wanted to ask y'all on the on
the new record, Man, bruh, where did y'all find shrindav Yo?

Speaker 2 (01:05:04):
For real?

Speaker 7 (01:05:05):
I mean Sonanda, Sonanda Montreal, that's you know what. It's
been going back for the past few years. But yeah,
I was so happy.

Speaker 3 (01:05:14):
I can't remember how we got in touch, but we
had this song and Tony and myself and I collaborate
on this record and he it was like this beautiful
piece of music. We had this fashy Bunian vocal and
it was honestly not going to make the record because
it was like there's just no voice that can that
can fit.

Speaker 4 (01:05:33):
And I can't remember.

Speaker 3 (01:05:34):
One day it was Tony and myself we just had
this idea and we were like, we wonder if we
could ever get in touch with him, or if he
would know who we are. And somebody got in touch
with Sernanda and it's been honestly the most incredible, one
of the most beautiful experiences in my life.

Speaker 4 (01:05:50):
He's warmer.

Speaker 2 (01:05:53):
Answer. I didn't know he is.

Speaker 3 (01:05:57):
Incredible, so open hearted and just so generous with his time.
That's probably the most beautiful thing that, like people just
don't dial in a vocal and here you go. It's
like so generous with their time to go back and
forth and really get something that feels like it was
meant to be there.

Speaker 7 (01:06:14):
You know, his emails to track that together, y'all tracked
that together? Or was he tracked it on his.

Speaker 6 (01:06:21):
Yeah, he tracked it on his side, But there were
a lot of back and forth with emails and stuff,
and his emails are an absolute joy to read. It's
it is. He's so eccentric but smart and expressive in
his emails and he's just like Robbie, go, we couldn't
you email from Sernandra and go send it? I want
to read it. It's like a it was so amazing

(01:06:44):
to read.

Speaker 8 (01:06:44):
And then poetry, really real poetry, and just listening to
his voice, it's like it is one of the great
voices in my opinion of all times.

Speaker 6 (01:06:56):
He's still incredible, like that song and I still just go,
what a vocal performance. It's incredible, incredible.

Speaker 7 (01:07:07):
So on the other side, I guess maybe the polar
opposite tricky, what was that like.

Speaker 6 (01:07:16):
That.

Speaker 7 (01:07:17):
I love him, man, I love it.

Speaker 3 (01:07:19):
Actually, actually we should have mentioned when we're talking about
nineties sample music too, like his first record.

Speaker 7 (01:07:24):
Massive Attack, Oh yeah Max and Kay Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:07:27):
Yeah exactly, and so that that was stuff that was
filtering through to us from England at the time too,
So it was like he was one of our heroes,
you know, and the Massive Attack records, and he was
in Berlin making a record.

Speaker 4 (01:07:41):
He just put that record out last year.

Speaker 3 (01:07:42):
It's a really great record, and he was just like,
I happen to be in the studio right now, what
have you got? And we would just send him a song.
The first song the next morning came back with full
lyrics and then he was like that was great, send
me another one. And we ended up that went on
for like two weeks. We did like eight songs together.
And then we got like a message from his management

(01:08:05):
to our management, who didn't know anything about this, and
they were like, are you guys recording together? What you've
made half a record? What's going on? Like a paperwork something,
But yeah, that was he was like just he was
on a hot streak making that record, so he was
like anything you can send me, I'm on fire.

Speaker 4 (01:08:22):
At the moment, and it is.

Speaker 6 (01:08:24):
So good when it's when it's just the artist to
artists as well, and it's not going through so you
know that the management obviously didn't know what was happening
or whatever, and we were just doing our own thing
without all that, and it's that's, you know, such a
rewarding relationship for us to kind of, you know, have
that situation with people we grew up listening to and

(01:08:45):
our heroes and everything. And I think you get it
just so much of a more pure product when it's
not you know, through their people, through their people and
all that stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:08:54):
Yeah, like you guys, the people y'all picked. Man, you know,
I can't front like it is pretty much. I mean
it's like a dream, you know, just just me being
just the music nerd. I am like the people you
get on every record. I'm like, yo, like that was
perfect fit. And when I saw it was, you know,
Terrence Trimp Darby was on this one and then Tricky.

Speaker 2 (01:09:14):
But when I saw that y'all got fucking Cornelius.

Speaker 7 (01:09:16):
I was like, yo, dude, like, yeah, they've been in
my iTunes or some ship, like you almost know, Like
what was I'm like, dude, they picking all my guys.

Speaker 2 (01:09:27):
What was he like? Man? What was it? What was
it like working with him?

Speaker 3 (01:09:31):
But I don't I don't know what to say about Keg. Really,
he's like he's a dear friend. And we met him
like in two thousand and one or something because he.

Speaker 4 (01:09:38):
Put on that album Fantasma Asthma.

Speaker 3 (01:09:41):
Yeah, and we were making since I left you listening
to that album.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
Just this is my check.

Speaker 7 (01:09:46):
That was my ship.

Speaker 4 (01:09:49):
My check exactly. But it's kind of like.

Speaker 7 (01:09:52):
Disney one two three four, five, one two four or
five exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:09:58):
Yes, because Tokyo is only like same time zoners here
in ten hours, we go a lot to DJ and
so we've become friends over the years and he'll always
show us like record stores and Everything's this sweetest guy.
And then he just happened to be in Los Angeles
doing a show when we were there recording, so that
song just came about, like and it was.

Speaker 6 (01:10:19):
Robby's birthday at the time.

Speaker 3 (01:10:21):
Yeah, recording with him with a happy birthday.

Speaker 6 (01:10:24):
The recording with him was so incredible the process because
we kind of had the beat just going and he
just had a guitar there and he'd be like, all right,
let's do some takes and just you know, it just
all around, and so we'd sit there and go the
comp the COUMP. Then the next take they were just

(01:10:46):
all started layering up that you got that. We're all
like okay, okay, and then towards the end everyone's like, oh,
we understand now. So he had this whole thing and
he said it was like twelve layers of different guitar
tracks that he was just like making and its just.

Speaker 7 (01:11:04):
That's him.

Speaker 6 (01:11:05):
Yeah, that's so incredible to watch.

Speaker 7 (01:11:07):
It was fantasma like fantasma like fantasma like that fucked
me up when I heard it. And then the one
that like when I think it was after I graduated
college when he came with point like I played, I
still play that record, like, you know, I love that album.

Speaker 2 (01:11:21):
Man, he's a nut. I love can I ask what
was it like working with Johnny.

Speaker 3 (01:11:28):
Moyer that that was another one that was done remotely,
but I still remember the morning actually that you didn't get.

Speaker 2 (01:11:36):
The nerd out on any Smith's questions.

Speaker 3 (01:11:38):
Or oh my goodness, I think we would have overwhelmed him.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
I think, yeah, when he when he came to sitting
with us, like I think we I that's probably the
only time that we really nerded out on like tell
us more stories, you know, that's what.

Speaker 6 (01:11:56):
Yeah, but we actually met we we saw him even
before we approached him to play on the track. We
were like he was at the next table at us
at Fuji Rock Festival, like just backstage, and we'll both
just go go up to him and ask him, no,
you go on, come on, say something, meet him. For

(01:12:17):
about fifteen minutes, we're trying to pick each other up
to go off to him and in the end room
just like we can't do it. But you know, we
got to come back direntually and he was he was
really great, and he actually sent us a message after
the Divine Call, which is the song he's on it,
it kind of got some play in England and he's like,
thanks guys, my kids think I'm cool again. Now.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Hey, have you guys even considered at thought about releasing
like all instrumental versions of the last two records, no,
just for the Avalanche Purists or whatever, like just to
hear it, because sometimes I you know, I know that
you guys are going through a progression and you're the

(01:13:00):
the you know, the metamorphosis of the group sort of blooming.
But so there's no just there's not an instrumental mixed
version of of of any of any of this stuff
out there.

Speaker 4 (01:13:12):
Not no, but we have them.

Speaker 6 (01:13:14):
We have them. Yeah, I think we can. We can.

Speaker 2 (01:13:24):
That's really what I want to ask.

Speaker 6 (01:13:28):
Interviews.

Speaker 1 (01:13:29):
Yeah, yeah, I just want to see the now will
you do you do you guys ever think that you'll
try to do another all instrumental project as far as
I know, you're probably working on something now and just yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:13:44):
We're starting another now?

Speaker 3 (01:13:46):
I think yeah, because it's just like, I mean, working
with vocalists like that for us is almost like it's
still you know, an active curation and almost sampling in
a way. But I feel like we're we're we're making
a slight back towards just to sample records.

Speaker 7 (01:14:03):
Well whatever, whatever the next record is. I'm putting my
bed in. I won't end on that motherfucker. So hey, listen, man,
just talking.

Speaker 6 (01:14:14):
Yeah, whatever, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:14:17):
Man. I'm dude.

Speaker 1 (01:14:19):
I almost feel like this is this is probably the
least that I've I've inserted questions in an interview only
because I feel like every question that I want to
know the answer to is almost like inconsequential, like just
okay that particular snare that you use on this song
versus the problem.

Speaker 2 (01:14:41):
Wait, I do I do want to know who?

Speaker 1 (01:14:43):
Who uh decides the concept for your videos man, especially
with Frankie Sinatra, Like well just all your videos, all
your videos are just some next level ship Like who
comes with those concepts?

Speaker 6 (01:14:59):
It's mainly the the video people. So we get we
get pitched some things and then we kind of, I
guess just pick the craziest one. Really yeah, but yeah
it was Frankie Sinatra. I hope this doesn't sound bad,
but we we actually had a zoom or a skype

(01:15:19):
with the producers who were gonna be shooting the video,
and there French and like we struggled to understand what.

Speaker 2 (01:15:30):
I'm just like you guys.

Speaker 6 (01:15:35):
Kind of sounds.

Speaker 4 (01:15:36):
The lovely people were so.

Speaker 6 (01:15:39):
Sweet and and the lady had this beautiful voice. It
was almost like a movie like it was just and
we like, oh.

Speaker 2 (01:15:45):
Look whatever, oh my god, Wow Wow. Can I ask
one more question?

Speaker 5 (01:15:56):
So, in messing with loops and sample and beats and
things like movie dialogue and horses and everything that you
that you end up creating your music.

Speaker 2 (01:16:09):
With, how often do.

Speaker 5 (01:16:12):
You go in with with an idea, I'm going for
something specific, but then as quest eleven, I am constantly
talking about, yeah, some kind of happy accident happens and
ends up something better than your original idea or different.
And how often does that play into what we hear

(01:16:34):
in the final product.

Speaker 3 (01:16:37):
It happens all the time. Really, that's almost the whole thing.
Like you know, like we will talk about like where
we want to try and go next, but you but
you can't predict the mood you're going to be in
and the record you're going to be sampling at that time,
and maybe just one little like a bit of atmosphere

(01:16:57):
at the end of someone's song or something. It's like
and you're just in the right mood to hear how
you could flip that.

Speaker 4 (01:17:04):
Moment and.

Speaker 5 (01:17:07):
If you put something, if you put something in the
wrong spot, and then if you put it a beat
behind or something, and suddenly you're a rhythmic genius.

Speaker 4 (01:17:22):
That's also like our friendship too.

Speaker 3 (01:17:24):
It's like having to be able to tell each other
that you know, that thing you made yesterday morning in
five minutes is like, is better than the thing you
spend a month on when you had this big concept
and you know, yeah, you just captured some magic there,
and that's we should roll with that, you know. I
think that was that was also part of Wildflow two,

(01:17:46):
is like that magic of the five minutes, finding the
great loop and everything, and then we were just layer
and layer and layer, and in the end the initial
thing is like this much of something that's like that,
and then we like we went through a process towards
the end of making it with which took a lot
of that away and this started to shine again.

Speaker 2 (01:18:03):
I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:18:04):
Yeah, Kurt vow Man, how did y'all go with him
his record? He's all right, that's like I love that
song and I always dug him. How did y'all hook up?

Speaker 4 (01:18:15):
It was?

Speaker 3 (01:18:15):
That was like a last song we finished for the record,
and once again it was a beautiful piece of music.
But we just and I just play his records like
all the time, so huge fan, and we just reached out,
which reached out on Instagram and he was like down
for it. I think he might have meant messaged us
about something else in the past and then we're like,

(01:18:37):
we've got this song and yeah, he just did this
beautiful kind of like poetic rambling spoken word thing that
was beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:18:46):
I still remember the day that that arrived. Actually, it
was like.

Speaker 6 (01:18:50):
Like I remember the day that that Robbie played it
to me, and after he put the vocals into the track,
and we had that track for a long time and
it was just kind of like what do we do
with it? Like the melodic kind of thing, and then
he played with the thing that curtain and I was
just like, played again he played. I just went that's done.
That's perfect. That's exactly what you know. Just one of

(01:19:12):
those things where you're like you don't have to am
and a about it. It's like, oh, we have to
change it around a little bit, or maybe if we
cut this bit of perfect. It just felt so good
and it was just like, that's it, that's done.

Speaker 2 (01:19:23):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:19:24):
What made y'all come back? Because I'm be real, I
was surprised to see that we got an Avalanche's album
in twenty twenty because after Wildflower, I was expecting Night
we would be another ten years. I was ready to
wait it out, but y'all came back. I was like,
all right, what led to the I guess the quicker
turnaround in records like where are you'll at now? In

(01:19:44):
your lives where y'all can kind of turn around a
little quicker.

Speaker 3 (01:19:48):
I think we were just freed up from the long
sixteen years. You know, we felt the pressure to follow
offense I left you, and then once we made another
really great sample based record in Wildcloud, that we felt like,
you know that that was a really worthy follow up
since I left you, we just felt free, and you know,
we just got back to the very simple flow of

(01:20:09):
creating and not overthinking, and it's just flowing really quickly.
We've already got a bunch more songs as well, and.

Speaker 6 (01:20:15):
It's so it's so fun to be an actual touring
band and not you know, broke musicians in our houses
working around you know, we played Coachella and we're doing
Glaston Raymond, like what we should have been doing this
ten years ago. Like that's inspiration for us.

Speaker 2 (01:20:34):
And brand I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:20:40):
Wait, my last question about a guest on your record, what.

Speaker 2 (01:20:46):
Was the process of like working with a River's Kuma? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
Yeah, And did you did you resist any Pinkerton fan
out moments or just you.

Speaker 3 (01:20:58):
Know that was so cool And I think we grew
up loving like you know, we have love for like
the beach boys, and he's someone who I can hear
that in his music and he's like, I can write
such an amazing pop hook. Yeah, you know, And I
mean Tony can tell the story. But I think we'd
already tracked the song. And then he was in Melbourne.

(01:21:20):
Did we meet him beforehand, Tony or no?

Speaker 6 (01:21:23):
He so he sent us like the vocals, so he
had like sent a spreadsheet with three different lyric lyric
paragraphs of.

Speaker 3 (01:21:33):
All his hooks, just in a spreadsheet laid out, and he.

Speaker 6 (01:21:37):
Was like, choose, choose one, but we need to hear
the melodies, like we want to hear how it goes.
So he's like, okay, and he set the melodies for
each you know, little lyric thing he had and.

Speaker 2 (01:21:53):
Like a whole bunch of hooks and you could choose.

Speaker 6 (01:21:55):
One, he said, he said three. So in the end
we were just like, they're all really good. Can we
have them all? So, I mean we worked them all
into the into the track eventually, and you know, like
the outro and the verse of the chorus and so
that made up the three different things. But and so

(01:22:18):
we ended up meeting him in Melbourne and like they
were out they were supporting the food fighters at Big
Stadium and we're like, okay, we'll go. So Robbie and
I spent a day like looking at all the coolest
bars to take him in Melbourne, and you know, you
want to impress him and do all these really cool things.
And in the end it was raining, and all he
wanted to do is like we got some umbrellas from

(01:22:38):
the hotel. He just wanted to walk around the city
in the rain. And then we stopped at a Starbucks
and had a coffee and spoke for about an hour
and then went back to the hotel. So I was like, Okay,
I guess we won't be going to this cool bar
where there's like, you know, all the girls and all
the crazy shit. Come on, We're just sit in Starbucks.
But in that way, it was like perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
Well, actually, wait, speaking of your Beach Boys fandom, assuming
assuming that the woman who worked with you for sample
clearances is the same lady that cleared the samples for
Paul's boutique. I don't know which albums he did it for,
but I would assume it's Paul's boutique because there's a
lot of samples. Were you guys even aware of Brian

(01:23:22):
Wilson's hip hop album that was produced by the Dust Brothers.

Speaker 4 (01:23:27):
The world question does not.

Speaker 1 (01:23:30):
Know about this? Yeah, so, uh, I guess the story
is that, you know. I mean, at the time when
the Beast Boys first signed a Capitol, I guess, uh.
Brian Wilson had gotten a copy of Paul's boutique and
was kind of impressed because they explained to him and
like how the album was made and how all these

(01:23:51):
samples and that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:23:53):
He was really impressed by it.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
So he hit up the Dust Brothers and said, I
too want to do uh an album, and he wound
up making a I think they made like five or
six songs together, and.

Speaker 2 (01:24:09):
One of them I think was called smart Girls or whatever.

Speaker 7 (01:24:11):
But it's it's nice Brian he rapping, or it's just
oh boy.

Speaker 2 (01:24:18):
I think YouTube if you if you YouTube, no.

Speaker 6 (01:24:26):
Check this out?

Speaker 2 (01:24:27):
Yeah wait wait wait.

Speaker 1 (01:24:32):
No, no, no, no, Because the thing is is that every
time I tell the story, I'm like, wait a minute.
I know, I know for starters that I actually talked
to Brian Wilson about this in person, and I talked
to the Dust Brothers, But even in my mind, I'm like, wait,
did I imagine that, but.

Speaker 6 (01:24:51):
It's no, it doesn't seem real.

Speaker 2 (01:24:54):
Wait is it still on on YouTube? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:24:58):
He he did it. He did a song. Okay, so
smart Girls, Yeah, Smart Girls. Capitol rejected the album, but
it's still out there. It came out in nineteen ninety one,
and yeah, Matt Matt Dyke like the yeah, yeah, yeah,
those those guys produced it, and yeah it was.

Speaker 2 (01:25:18):
It was the Brian Wilson rap album. It was called
Sweet Insanity.

Speaker 6 (01:25:23):
Yeah, that's it. That seems like a fitting title for it.

Speaker 2 (01:25:32):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 1 (01:25:34):
I just want to say just you know, like I
try to keep my cool with guests, you know, half
the time on this platform, but yeah, man, I want
to thank you guys personally because I will say that
in hearing your record that's what really planted the seed
in my head on how my DJ gigs should go,

(01:25:58):
because I just never thought, I mean, yeah, like again,
I was raised on that certain bomb.

Speaker 2 (01:26:05):
Squad type of hip hop that anything could go.

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
But when when I heard this album, that's when I realized, like, oh,
anything can really happen in a DJ set in a
sort of a creative context. So I will say that
after hearing your album, and I guess I heard it
in two thousand and two thousand and one, Like that's

(01:26:31):
when I just totally wipe the slate clean of what
was current, what was then my DJ set, and my
whole goal was like, well, I'm just doing the avalanches
do and just throw any and everything in my DJ set,
be it something normal, something off kilter, is something unorthodox,

(01:26:51):
something you know. Just I thank y'all for that. Like,
you guys were definitely the impetus to like my my
my DJ rebirth that I've been running away with like
for the last twenty years. Man, but you guys are are
are are are true geniuses?

Speaker 3 (01:27:07):
Man.

Speaker 2 (01:27:08):
I thank you for doing the show with us.

Speaker 4 (01:27:10):
Oh, thank you. That's really cold.

Speaker 6 (01:27:14):
This has been yeah, this has been so fun.

Speaker 2 (01:27:16):
O thank you guys. Thanks you really all right? Well
are you done?

Speaker 7 (01:27:22):
Oh? I was just gonna ask because I guess my
last thing. The other artists like kind of soul artists
in uh in you guys region, So yeah, Australia. So
like I'm thinking of course Highest Coyote, Fat Freddy's Drop.
I know they're kind of more of a ska uh
kind of band. Lisa could call it, like what relationship

(01:27:43):
do you have with that? Community that the soul you know,
I guess R and B community.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
What's that like?

Speaker 3 (01:27:53):
Well where where just like kind of a couple of
old men who liked each other on the pod benchit
every day and talk about the weather or whatever. Like
we don't like I guess we're off and traveling, but
we're kind of not really like.

Speaker 7 (01:28:07):
On the scene.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
Yeah, except that, except to say that there is just
like it's just a very warm music community here in Melbourne.
Everybody is very supportive. I think it's maybe because it's
so geographically isolated. It's like there's there's just like it's
very supportive. Anyway, we always feel very supportive.

Speaker 2 (01:28:28):
That's what's up, Steve. That's right.

Speaker 5 (01:28:33):
Yeah, you left me out of the Michelle Obama episode
and the jimmyown as well.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
For great callback, greatback. We have a quest love supreme
fan Ticcolo and Steve. We like to thank the Avalanches
uh for for kicking it with us.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Oh my god, yeah man.

Speaker 7 (01:28:54):
This is I never thought. Yeah, I'm I don't think
I've read an interview with y'all let alone, you know
and a half, So this was this is a dream
Cone Drew Man. Thank you guys.

Speaker 6 (01:29:05):
Yeah, seriously, it has been so much, so good, so
much fun.

Speaker 1 (01:29:08):
All right, thank you guys, Thank you guys on behalf
of Fun. Take Alottle, Unpaid Bill and Layah and uh
Sugar Steve, quest Love and this is quest Love Supreme.

Speaker 2 (01:29:20):
We will see you next week next co Ran. Thank you.

Speaker 6 (01:29:26):
Hey, this is Sugar Steve.

Speaker 5 (01:29:28):
Make sure you keep up with us on Instagram at
q LS.

Speaker 6 (01:29:32):
Let us know what you thinks and it should be
next to sit.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
Down with us.

Speaker 6 (01:29:36):
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast, What's.

Speaker 2 (01:29:45):
Up Supreme is a production of iHeart Radio.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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Episode Transcript

Hosts And Creators

Laiya St. Clair

Questlove

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