[Applause]

Luke Davis: Thank you.

Host: Dude, that is, I mean, that's a perfect example of you guys traversing the map in terms of genres and styles. I mean it’s got like a little bit of— Sounds like that Del Shannon, like 1950s like that song Silhouettes or something from that era but updated for now. It feels like it would've lived comfortably in both, in either decade, now or then.

Ross Monteith: That's awesome. Yeah, thanks.

Calvin Langman: Thanks. You’re too kind.

Davis: (You [?] just to give us this album review?)

Host: Dude, yeah, I like this job. This is all I do is record these sessions. It's so much fun. I mean yeah, we do the booking as well, so we can book what we look and then just have these little shows here and have a beer and this is what we do.

Can we talk a little bit about the production of the album itself and where'd you guys recorded—was it at Diamond City or am I making that up?

Monteith: Yeah, yeah. So we recorded at Diamond City—well, it was originally in Manhattan—and we recorded with Ayad al Adhamy and Joel Witenberg, and the two of them—it was our first time ever in a real studio with an actual producer—and our first session when we came here, we were in the process of recording this album that's out now, and that was kinda like halfway through recording the album I think and the process really like— Every song we kinda sat down with our producer Ayad and then we sat down amongst ourselves and talked about each and every single song. And you know, you kinda had to compromise in certain ways of how you wanted the song to sound in your head versus how it's gonna come out. And I know Calvin had a pretty strong idea of like—

Langman: Yeah, we fought a lot. We fought.

Monteith: Yeah, yeah. Like the way that the songs would sound and just through like we would all put our inputs in and try to make it as best as possible with what we were happy with, you know? Every song was a different task, but it was so much fun.

Davis: Yeah, there were also a lot more songs. You know, a lot of artists go in the studio and they do like twenty demos. We did nineteen and then we end up with a product of eleven songs. It's like you really go through and find what songs fit with the other ones and how can we make this like a sonic piece as opposed to just jumbling a bunch of songs together. Which is sometimes a concern for us 'cause of the jumping of genres, I guess.

Langman: Yeah, it kinda had like an impossible task 'cause like he— There’s no precedent for a cello in an indie rock band—at least, replacing the bass completely. So it was up to him to just imagine what that sound would sound like and the way he did it we really like. There could’ve been a million other ways to do it but the way that it came out we're really happy with.
Host: Yeah, well, again, you have made all of those hundreds and hundreds of decisions that go into making an album like this. You guys have made the right decisions on the vast majority of those so it’s turned out really well.

And so could you talk a little bit also, before we get on the third song, could you talk a little bit about how similar or maybe how dissimilar the instrumentation on the album itself is versus what you guys have chosen to, how you guys have chosen to arrange today?

Langman: Yeah, I think Ross is usually more on his electric instrument—his electric guitar. When I play the cello live, I use a lot of effects and stuff, but I don't wanna torture you guys with my distortion pedal today. But yeah, for the album we added bass in some tracks just because—for the sake of the song honestly—'cause you know we could do a million live sessions but I think what people will remember most about us when we stop doing this is the tracks that were recorded and what we put out. So if we needed to add bass or synth to really make the song complete, we do it.

Monteith: I guess every show that we do—I mean the majority of our shows, like when we go on tour and stuff—they're pretty much the same. But for sessions like these, we like to— I guess we do what is right for the space that we’re in but we also get a chance to play with the songs a little bit, so I guess it's a more stripped-down version of certain songs and some of them sound exactly the same depending on how we play them.

But the next song we're actually about to play is gonna be a different version of what we've always played and what we've recorded. We've just been playing around with it for a little while and we're kind of finally trying it out.

Langman: Yeah.

Host: Cool, we'd love to hear. Could you tell us a little bit about what's coming up next?

Langman: Yeah, this song's called "Mary". It's just about being addicted to stuff.

Monteith: Yeah, and how that's bad.

Davis: We actually got in trouble 'cause Ross was like, we're on a radio show like two weeks ago and the girl got a little upset with him 'cause he's like, "Yeah, it's about how you shouldn't do drugs," and he said "drugs" I think twelve times and she was just, the whole time, like "Don't. Don't say it."

Monteith: Yeah, I didn't see that, but.

Davis: It was fine, I mean—

Host: Dude, you can say the word "drugs" as much as you wanna say the word "drugs" on this show.
Monteith: It's like— I hope it's a good message at least, you know? It's not like saying, "Do drugs."

Davis: It's not— Yeah, it's like we're—

Host: Yeah, yeah. The context is pretty important in the matter of almost every word. That's no exception.

Band: [Laughs]

Davis: Ready?

Langman: Yeah.