AJR

The guys from the band AJR join us to talk about their incredible year and more!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're on with Mario a little bit ver on Mario
Lopez joining me now on zoom ag Hart. Welcome to
the show Man. You guys get a lot of love here.
How you doing. How's it going great? It's going well,
It's going well. Thank you. First off, congrats to Adam.
Just earned a PhD from the University of Birmingham. Very impressive.

(00:21):
When did you find time for school? That's that's a
great question. I did the whole thing from the back
of a tour bus the last five years. Even more impressive.
But you know, I always say, if you care about
something enough and you're passionate enough about something, you'll make
the time for it. And I'm really passionate about social

(00:41):
justice and human rights. So that's what I focused on
for my PhD. Wow, And and I'm of the same mindset,
so kudos to you. So that was the subject of
your thesism, assuming yep, I focused on the relationship between
human rights and sustainability because climate change is a massive problem.
But we need to address human rights at the same
time as we're addressing climate change. So how do you

(01:02):
plan to use your degree and be at the band
at the same time. You're like a common hero over here.
I already do a lot of work with the u N,
helping them to communicate about climate and about human rights
more efficiently and effectively. But um, who knows. Maybe someday
I'll go into politics. But right now, my focus is
on the band, and we just had a massive song

(01:23):
this past year, and we're going on tour next year,
so I'm really excited to continue to do both at
the same time. Well, you guys just did jingle Ball?
Is it? Uh cool? I know it's cool. How cool
is it to play the garden? Oh? That was really special.
We we grew up and we still live ten blocks
away from Madison Square Garden. Yeah, so that that was

(01:43):
a really special moment. That was the first time we've
ever gotten to play Madison Square garend and to look
out and see that sold out audience, that that was
a pretty monumental moment. So native New Yorkers yet no
New York accent? Is that because you're from Manhattan? Is
that how it works? I think, what's a New York accent?
Like New York? Yeah, exactly, which I think it's cool. Well,

(02:03):
we'll try to put on more of an accent next,
Is it more of a Burrows thing because I'm a
West Coast kid, so I'm just trying to understand. I
think that's more of a Queen's thing. Coffee Queens Brooklyn
bro Okay, Okay, okay, very nice. Um latest single record player,
very catchy. What was the inspiration for this one? Thank you? Yeah? Um,
We've never really done this before, but we found this band,

(02:24):
Daisy the Great. They had like the catchiest song ever
and we found it on TikTok um and we thought,
oh my god, that if we could reproduce that song
kind of a j R. If I it a little bit,
make a little bit of a faster be right our
own verses, this could be something really special. Um, And
it turned out really cool and people have been liking
it so far. Is it part of a new album

(02:44):
or just a one off? That's just a one off,
But we're definitely we're about to start working on our
next album probably in the new year. And what about touring?
What are the plans for Yeah, we just uh we
We just did our Okay Orchestra tour Um Part one
in September and then next year we're touring for you know,
basically the entire year We're doing the rest of the

(03:05):
Okay Orchestra tour in the US, playing all these arenas
and amphitheaters in we haven't announced yet, but Asia and Australia, Europe,
just kind of all over the world. Awesome. That's awesome, man, Um,
you have two songs on our year end countdown, Bang
and Way Less Sad. Did you realize when you were
recording them that they were hits? Or you sort of
just and never know and it's like, oh, wow, that's it.

(03:29):
I think we knew with something like Bang, we definitely
knew it was unique. Just that horn line boom boom
was kind of like a Broadway villain walks in and
that's his theme music. So we knew, Okay, this doesn't
sound like the rest of radio or Spotify, and that
can either go really poorly and nobody likes it, or

(03:50):
it can kind of transcend what everybody expects for music.
And it was it went the ladder, So we're we're
kind of lucky on that way. Yeah, it worked out
right there. Uh. And as far as Christmas, what's your
favorite holiday song this time of year? So many good
ones out there, what do you think, Adam? I mean,
Rudolph is a classic. Wow, you're going real school? Okay.

(04:15):
What's the one you like? Is it a Roun Nets song?
What is that ride there? You? Yeah? Okay, I like
me a little this Christmas with Donny Hathaway. I've just
been hearing it a lot lately. It's great old school one.
That one's great. Um. Well, now, gentlemen, that we're into
the holidays, we've teamed up with our friends over at
Macy's for Macy's Wishless Wednesday, and with Macy's curb sat

(04:35):
and store pickup, could be easier to get those last
many gifts. I know Mrs Lopez and I have a
few more to pick up. Thankfully, she's the quarterback of
that team. When it comes to that, what about you, guys,
what are you asking Santa for this year? So? I think, uh,
I think Ryan is in the market for a new
shower head, and it's this thing that was telling him
about earlier that I came across. It's a massage shower

(04:58):
head that you'll just be in the hour for hours
because you're getting massage while you'd have benut it Wait
a minute, where did you hear that or where did
you see that? And where can I get one? I
gotta say I saw it on TikTok Okay. It's now.
That's nothing wrong with dad, there's nothing. There's nothing better
than when you get some good water pressure in a
shower right like and then it's just coming down like
a water Oh that's the best. That's what you're doing

(05:20):
that day, exactly, exactly. Yeah, I'm proud of him. I
think now that he has all this long, luscious hair,
he needs like a hair kit, he needs like whatever
loss And look at that. Wow, that's glad. Look at that.
It's glorious. That's like a pre commercial. Dang that is
long and luscious. Man. Nice, um blessed. What about New

(05:45):
Year's You guys performing on New Years? Oh? Yeah, um,
so for the first time ever, we're doing a show
on New Year's And you know, we tour normally based
around an album, but for this New Year's show, we
decided to do something a little different. We're taking songs
from every single one of our albums and performing some
of them for this New Year's show. And we're doing
it in Connecticut at Foxwood's leading into the New Year.

(06:07):
So it should be fun to play some old stuff
and some new stuff. That's a fun venue to have been.
Foxwood's a bunch of times and nice congrats guys, UM
on everything for that matter, in a great year. Meanwhile,
listen to record Player on iHeart Radio or wherever you
get your music. Thanks for checking in, guys and UM.
Happy holidays here, Thanks so much, Thanks so much. Right
on with Mario Lopez