The Super High Quality Podcast
Although the Super High Quality Podcast was dormant for much of 2022 as the band toured heavily in support of the album I Don’t Live Here Anymore (which includes the Grammy-Nominated song “Harmonia’s Dream”) The War On Drugs are preparing new episodes of their SHQ Podcast for release in 2023. Presented as a series of audio stories told by the band members and crew, and featuring previously unreleased recordings, this oral history of their 2022 tour cycle goes behind the scenes to tell the story of a most extraordinary year on the road. Through conversation, on-stage banter, and music, guitar tech Dominic East covers all the production ups and downs, and takes the story backstage, through airports and hotels, and out to the bus to reveal what it was like to put on an evening of LIVE DRUGS again and again, night after night in 2022.
Episodes
The War On Drugs have just announced a series of sold-out “Drugcember” benefit shows to take place on December 19, 20, and 21st at Johnny Brenda’s in Philadelphia. Proceeds from the shows will benefit The Fund for the School District of Philadelphia, a nonprofit that coordinates investment into the Philadelphia public schools. Adam and Dominic talk about the upcoming Drugcember shows, the band’s deep connection to Johnny Brenda’s...
After 18 months apart, The War On Drugs were finally able to reconvene in person in the summer of 2021 ahead of their first scheduled live performances of the songs from their new album I Don’t Live Here Anymore. How does a band articulate the uniquely abstract collage of a studio album crafted partially in isolation during the pandemic? How will it feel to finally play music together in the same room? Who will play the cowbell...
No one has been as instrumental in crafting the sound of The War On Drugs’ last two albums as Shawn Everett, the multi-Grammy-winner who has formed a remarkable studio partnership with band leader Adam Granduciel. Perfectly suited to handle all manner of explorations, detours, and deadline elasticity, Shawn and the band talk about their collective dedication to the process of making records, and the many ways their process informs...
Over the course of recording I Don’t Live Here Anymore, The War On Drugs continued their obsessive exploration of the recording process in sessions at some of NY and LA’s most prestigious studios. One standout session was the three weeks the band and an extended circle of collaborators and friends, spent at Hollywood’s Electro Vox in the spring of 2019. A favorite of the band because it provides access to an outrageous palette of...
Over 5 days in March 2018, during a short break in the band’s heavy touring schedule, Adam Granduciel took bassist Dave Hartley and multi-instrumentalist Anthony LaMarca to an Upstate New York studio. Decamping to Outlier Studios with Philadelphia friend and engineer Nick Krill, the four quickly realized that the session was becoming more productive than a typical demo session. With the added focus provided by the remote setting ...
Four years since their last studio album, The War On Drugs have just released I Don’t Live Here Anymore, the follow-up to their Grammy-winning best rock album A Deeper Understanding. Season 2 of the Super High Quality Podcast is a four-part audio documentary that tells the story of the players, studios, engineers, songcraft, and happy accidents that define the 10 songs on the band’s new album. Told through casual conversations w...
With studio sessions put on hold and their new studio album postponed, The War On Drugs decided instead to release LIVE DRUGS. In Part 4 of The Super High Quality Podcast the band members share their individual experiences under lockdown and the ways the experience informed the decision to punctuate this point in The War On Drugs’ history with the release of a live album. From sanitizer-insanity to anticipation for a return to l...
Perhaps no song in The War On Drugs’ catalog embodies the “sound” of the band as much as “Under The Pressure”. Part 3 of The Super High Quality Podcast, digs deep inside this ambient journey. From the improvised sonic stew that developed into an alternative song intro, to the iconic sample drop, through to the tension and release created by the mid-song breakdown, and culminating in the indelible image of the illuminated audienc...
Connecting with a classic Warren Zevon album after relocating to Los Angeles where the band was recording 2017’s Grammy-winning A Deeper Understanding, Adam Granduciel presented Zevon’s classic “Accidentally Like A Martyr” as a song the band might try to cover. In Part 2 of The Super High Quality Podcast, The band discusses in painful detail, a less than auspicious debut performance for a private LA audience which happened to inc...
“Eyes To The Wind” was a standout track on The War On Drugs’ 2014 album Lost In The Dream and quickly became a crowd favorite during its live shows. In Part 1 of our Super High Quality Podcast, the band tries to dissect exactly how the arrangement was reinvented when leader Adam Granduciel pushed the band to find their way through a somewhat spontaneous new acoustic version onstage in Copenhagen in 2017. Possibly the result of qu...
In a year without concerts, The War On Drugs are set to release LIVE DRUGS on their own Super High Quality Records. In this podcast, guitar tech and band confidant, Dominic East, listens as the band talks casually about how they arrived at the performances and the decision to release their new live album.
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