SASAMI

0:00Speaker 1:This episode is also available as video on YouTube. You can visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with Sasami.

0:11Speaker 2:I'm just playing long Weuzy. I'm just playing lone Weuzy.

0:23Speaker 3:Hi.

0:23Speaker 2:Welcome to the show. This is Sarah Oda. Thanks thanks for joining me. Hi Hi.

0:31Speaker 3:Our guest today is singer, songwriter, producer, composer, and multi instrumentalist Sasami Ashworth. She's a classically trained to French horn player. She also spent years playing in the band Cherry Glazer, and her third solo studio album, Blood on the Silver Screen, came out last year in twenty twenty five, and it just kind of shows how fearless she is and changing things up.

0:56Speaker 1:Yeah, this was so fun. I love getting to know her. Her voice is cool, right, it's so low we had to lower all the keys.

1:07Speaker 2:Yeah, it was just great. I love getting to know new people.

1:09Speaker 1:I really didn't know much about her before we talked about having her own and then when I checked her out, I was really excited and I look forward to hearing more from her.

1:18Speaker 2:She's amazing. She's very cool.

1:20Speaker 4:I mean.

1:21Speaker 3:In this episode, you hear about how she's kind of had a few different musical lives and how she's always just followed her instincts both in her life and her career. Also some interesting background information about her very interesting interesting She should make a film, Yeah yeah, And as always, beautiful duets including homage to an artist that you both love.

1:46Speaker 1:Yes, this was really fun. I hope you enjoyed the episode with Sasami.

1:52Speaker 2:There is some.

1:53Speaker 1:Spicy language in this episode, so listener discretion is advised.

1:57Speaker 2:It's not that bad, but just so you know, it's.

2:19Speaker 5:M HM.

2:24Speaker 6:Said on in to a.

2:26Speaker 4:Lie that you lie.

2:32Speaker 7:For a little, have.

2:38Speaker 2:A kid, get a pretty world, get.

2:42Speaker 4:A real job.

2:45Speaker 8:And a face.

2:46Speaker 2:Man, nothing is wrong and nothing.

2:55Speaker 8:And I know that you're leaving any but I want you to know.

3:08Speaker 2:I want you to know you're not.

3:15Speaker 4:I want you know.

3:19Speaker 9:You cannot always call me.

3:31Speaker 6:A little bit of a birthday.

3:36Speaker 2:Never heard.

3:40Speaker 4:Anyone too much of a good thing.

3:46Speaker 2:It's like a hand on your neck.

3:48Speaker 4:So you drive and you drive to your burd in your art in the heat of the morning s and then it is wrong in thing right, and I know that you'll leave it.

4:08Speaker 5:Tonic back in your bags and sing any.

4:14Speaker 4:Of the bades.

4:18Speaker 2:I don't want you, I want.

4:21Speaker 9:You to know.

4:27Speaker 4:I want you to know you're not.

4:34Speaker 2:I want you, don't know.

4:38Speaker 9:You cannlways call me, O want you to know.

4:54Speaker 2:I want you to know you're.

4:58Speaker 9:Not A Hello, I watch you. You can always call me.

5:37Speaker 2:I love the song thank You.

5:39Speaker 1:Yeah, it's such a like it's got that chord progression. It's just like it settles right in you know. It's melancholy.

5:46Speaker 2:Definitely.

5:46Speaker 8:I feel like there's there's an unnamed Fleetwood Mac song that I was definitely listening like. There's definitely something great Christine mcviee about the chorus. Oh yeah, I love Christine McFee so good. Yeah, it's okay, it's actually it's the you can tell me.

6:02Speaker 2:It's a song.

6:02Speaker 8:It's oh no no, I'm.

6:11Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm over my head. I'm over my head.

6:19Speaker 4:Oh it doesn't tell.

6:19Speaker 2:Anything like that.

6:20Speaker 8:No, no, no, no, I know what you mean or is out of my mind?

6:26Speaker 2:Only over you? Please don't go. No no, no, no no, I miss you when you go. Oh yeah, I got o my head that one. No, no, it's a different one. It's a different one.

6:39Speaker 8:Yeah, I'm out of my mind, but it's only over you.

6:45Speaker 2:It's so good. It's like from one of the eighties. It's like one of the like Later Task or something.

6:50Speaker 8:She's such a legend. I love Christine mcved me too, Yeah, because I feel because I have a low voice. I'm always into the low voice girlies like Wise, Bloods, Phoenix, Jessica Pratt, like everyone that has like a low tambour voice.

7:01Speaker 2:I'm like, yeah, you have a very low voice.

7:03Speaker 8:I know.

7:04Speaker 1:I have.

7:04Speaker 8:Really so funny though, there's like home videos of me from when I'm five, you know, like when your parents take the little camcorder videos and I'm like, hi, mom.

7:11Speaker 2:You had the low voice when you were little. That's so funny. It's really funny. Yeah, but I love that, you know genetics.

7:20Speaker 1:Whenever you're writing a song and you sort of hear hints of another song in it, do you stop yourself.

7:27Speaker 8:I feel like a lot of times, I'll it's I feel like it's like.

7:30Speaker 2:This spiritual thing.

7:32Speaker 8:Sometimes you just hear a song and you're like, I need to write a song right now. Yeah, And it's almost like a spiritual like leap rog It's like tag you're it exactly, You're annointed. Now go write a song and it feels like bad to block that.

7:45Speaker 2:Yeah, but I agree.

7:47Speaker 8:I'm like, if I really if I'll like ask my friends, I trust I'm like, does this sound too much like that?

7:52Speaker 2:Yeah?

7:53Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I think that when I'm writing a song and it's starting to sound like something else, I have to keep going. Yeah, because it alway when you get at the end of the washing machine exactly, it comes out of the dryer and it's like a different song totally.

8:07Speaker 8:Right, and you're like, yeah, I was inspired by like you know, ye sleeping next And I'm like, okay, girl, Yeah, I.

8:12Speaker 1:Mean I never yeah, I always feel like in the end it just fits differently and it looks very different.

8:18Speaker 2:Totally.

8:19Speaker 1:Contact is everything. So yeah, anything to block it is bad.

8:22Speaker 2:Definitely. Yeah.

8:23Speaker 8:I think blocking any creative anything is bad. Yeah, Like it's a miracle when you get struck with some side of sort of inspiration, so you gotta, yeah, let it flow. It has nothing to do with us the songs, it really doesn't, or just the module, the you know, the portal for them to enter this world.

8:41Speaker 2:Yeah.

8:42Speaker 1:Yeah, I think I had a hard time writing when I was young, and I think a lot of young people they think maybe they can't write, but it's because they don't just get it out. Yeah, you know, when did you start writing songs.

8:53Speaker 8:I didn't really start writing songs till I was like twenty six or twenty silly, yeah, because I always played french horn, okay, and so you're.

9:01Speaker 2:Just like one of a hundred soldiers. You were a music school kid. Yeah, school kid.

9:05Speaker 8:I went to like idle Wild Summer Camp and then Locks of the Arts High School in LA and then Eastman which like Music Conservatory, So it was like East Coast, very very intense, classical worldchorn, always french horn. But I did do a music ed major because my dad was a high school teacher and he's like, get a music d degree if you can, because in case the same cost, you can get two degrees.

9:28Speaker 2:Like yeah, whatever.

9:29Speaker 8:But because of that, I had to learn, like you know, you might be a band teacher. Some days you have to learn like oh bo, saxophone, vio. You have to learn every instrument. I have to learn enough on every instrument so that you can exactly really help proficient and every instrument so that there would be like epic world class pianists and like you know the practice rooms. There's like fifty practice rooms, like people just like playing like rock them on and off, like symphonies or concertos, and then it would be like me practicing obo, like so bad.

9:58Speaker 2:Because you were starting, just starting.

10:00Speaker 8:It was like the most heinous sound of like the like probably someone who's going to be like a concert pianist with the la filler or something, and then like me practicing beginner. Yeah, that's so ridiculous. But anyways, I went to Earl Yeah, okay, interlock In.

10:16Speaker 1:I went there for two summers cool, and I went as a jazz piano major, and their jazz program was very small compared to the orchestra and the band and everything.

10:23Speaker 2:So I was like.

10:27Speaker 8:That those were like a similar like kind of summer summer camps where you get your first kiss from some nerdy drummersionist. I don't even think I got kissed, but I had like every crush on everyth like so many kids.

10:40Speaker 2:Yeah in interall and the only music.

10:43Speaker 8:Though I know, it's everything, so you had theater art. Yeah it was great. Yeah, yeah, I had all the crushes. I grew up in that world too.

10:50Speaker 1:I love that world and I loved going it was. It's cool because it's in the woods as idle well like that. Yeah, it's in the San Bernardino Mountains. Okay, so yeah, you're in the woods and there's all these practice huts.

11:01Speaker 8:It's very magical. I mean it changed my life for sure. It was really random. I was like in middle school, I played french horn, which is the randommest instrument. Can you curse on this podcast? Yeah, it's a randommest fucking instrument. Like to be like a small sixth grader carrying a french horn case, which is like the most awkward shaped case around. Like, I mean, I was also voted most unique in eighth grade, so that says it says a lot about like.

11:24Speaker 2:What kind of person I was. But such a random instrument.

11:27Speaker 8:But because it's so random, no one really plays it compared to like flute and saxophone and buy, it's.

11:31Speaker 2:A tricky instrument. It's hard when you're a kid too, because it's.

11:34Speaker 8:Really like the the leap up from being really really really bad to being even remotely okay, it's really like that's a huge goal for piano. It's like you press the key name that sounds good.

11:46Speaker 1:Yeah, so you got to get a sound, and it's it's really hard, right.

11:49Speaker 8:It was just kind of like random that I don't even know why I picked it, But because of that, I got all these scholarships into programs that I had. Literally everyone around me was so much better their instruments.

11:58Speaker 2:Oh, because it's such a rare and so like, if.

12:00Speaker 8:You show up and hold the front horn, will give you a full heade scholarship. So I kept kind of failing up into all these programs and then eventually you're in it enough that you like rise to the occasion and you, yeah, get good enough because it's embarrassing to be bad, but yeah, I got Really I can kind.

12:14Speaker 1:Of relate to that because I was never great at practicing.

12:17Speaker 2:Yeah. I think at the end.

12:18Speaker 1:Of Interlock and I actually they had us playing moments Notice, which was like a fast song and I tried to sol on it and I couldn't keep up. Yeah, I could sol on it as a ballad. Yeah, probably is it double time? Yeah, it's very fast, And I think I cried. That was awesome.

12:35Speaker 2:Yeah.

12:35Speaker 1:Yeah, well you know, we learned, we learned from falling. Yeah, I cried in the back. Nobody saw me.

12:40Speaker 2:That's good.

12:40Speaker 4:Yea.

12:40Speaker 8:It was like it was like a full jazz ensemble. It was jazz ensemble. It wasn't huge, but.

12:46Speaker 2:It was your whiplash mom. Yeah, it was like I can't give up. I was like, slow it down.

12:52Speaker 8:It's so funny how serious that feels. And then when you get older, you're like, that's adorable.

12:56Speaker 2:It's a great story.

12:57Speaker 1:And the teacher was a really great piano player, Robin Connell. And she I think she wrote my mom and note at you, and she's like.

13:04Speaker 2:I feel bad. I think I pushed her too hard.

13:08Speaker 8:Well, well, that's how you grow. I guess I was just meant to play ballance exactly.

13:12Speaker 2:That's how you learned exactly.

13:14Speaker 1:So you're doing chamber shows in New York right now with like a string.

13:18Speaker 8:Quartet, violin, cello, and then I have a wind player that does saxophone, flute and clarinet.

13:23Speaker 4:Cool.

13:23Speaker 2:And I played on shorn and guitar and sings.

13:25Speaker 1:Oh rad Yeah, but that's so different from what you've been doing live, right Yeah.

13:30Speaker 2:I kind of have like musical ADHD.

13:32Speaker 8:The second I get comfortable with something and I'm like I'm decently good at this, I'm like, let's changed it.

13:37Speaker 2:It's changed it. I think that's a good way to be, you know.

13:39Speaker 8:I mean you know that's because you're like constantly learning new songs. That feeling that like live wire of not being comfortable, there's something exciting a little bit.

13:48Speaker 1:Why I was always drawn to jazz because you know, you could change it up every time and it didn't have to stay so the same totally.

13:55Speaker 8:When you sing songs that you've sang for a long time, do you find yourself changing them a lot?

14:00Speaker 2:I do.

14:01Speaker 1:I do, but not a purpose, like I just it just kind of morphs into some different thing every time.

14:07Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. And I play with the drummer Brian.

14:09Speaker 1:Blade, who feels very alive, you know, like it feels different every time, even if we've rehearsed something, you know, it feels like there's something new every time.

14:21Speaker 2:And I think I define feel.

14:22Speaker 8:So rigid, Like it's so like if you play one note flat, everyone's just like the fuck is she doing over there?

14:29Speaker 4:Yeah?

14:29Speaker 1:I think that's why I was never good at classical music, because I couldn't stick to the program.

14:34Speaker 2:It is amazing, Like it's so beautiful. It's kind of like a.

14:38Speaker 8:It's like it's like like Dolly or something like. It can't be what it is unless it's like so technically like perfect. There's a reason exactly like Cervinsky and all these things, like they're epic and wild, but they can't actually be that unless the musicians are playing perfect, which is kind of counterintuitive that the w wildness comes from the like like the strictness of it or something. But anyways, it was very traumatizing to like be in that kind of world where also it's not even just that you have to be perfect, it's that if you're not perfect, people really like judge your character.

15:14Speaker 4:Really.

15:15Speaker 8:Yeah, the Conservatory was very, oh conservatory petitive. Just the word alone gives me a little bit of anxiety. But you really did feel that on a personal Yeah, definitely. I mean I think I think it's like, I don't know, I feel like it's the pressure makes Diamonds situation at conservatories where it's like people, I mean, you know, like the like the natural instinct is to like procrastinate, and especially when you're in your twenties, when you're in college and stuff. But so they have to create an environment, like think about it, all these kids are coming from being teenagers in their hometowns to like, being in college could easily be could easily be like getting waste every week, and everyone still does all that stuff. But it's like kind of the the trope that you like slack off when you're in college, but it's like the opposite when you're in conservatory. It's like, oh, you might have been like hot shit in like whatever bump fuck Idaho, but now you're at Easter Ees and you're like actually the lowest on the call sheet. So it's like that pressure was really intense. But I really, like I was saying, stress,

16:18Speaker 8:it made me achieve really highly in indie because the bar is so low in indie rock.

16:24Speaker 1:And when you went back to indie rock, you were like, I got it totally.

16:28Speaker 8:I was like, oh, I can do thirty percent of what I was doing before.

16:31Speaker 2:Yeah, and it's still one hundred and fifty percent and it's.

16:33Speaker 1:Still well and it's cool and you get to write your own songs. That's crazy that you started late. I thought I started late. I started when I was twenty Really.

16:42Speaker 8:Yeah, really like, but you were improvising, so you were like writing melodies and stuff. Classical musicians literally we just learn we learned sheet music. You don't even learn how to like compose any sort of musical phrase. It's so bizarre.

16:55Speaker 1:Do you remember the first song you wrote? Did you have a just a lightning moment or was it, Hey, I need to start writing songs because that that seems fun.

17:04Speaker 8:I wrote a lot of instrumental pieces first, like because I had a little bit of background of like arranging strings and wins for other people's records. Like I was like, I discovered my like byness, my like by rock and classicalness. I was like, oh, I can, like I can kind of participate in the rock and folk world by doing charts like of string and horn arrangements. And then I like started learning guitar, and then I would kind of make these instrumental pieces that were like guitar and like midi strings or whatever, and then I would slowly try to add vocals. And then eventually I was playing in another band and I was just around enough songwriting that I was like, I think, I think I can I can try this now, yeah, twenty six or twenty seven.

17:44Speaker 2:But did you always sing? I sang in choir in like elementary school.

17:49Speaker 1:But did you feel like your voice was also like kind of shy or were you? Was that part easy because it sounds so natural.

17:57Speaker 8:I think, well, now I've like I've been a front person in my project since like twenty eighteen or something, so that's crazy.

18:04Speaker 2:It's almost like I.

18:05Speaker 1:Know, but it still just sounds like very natural, like like you've been doing it for since you were little.

18:11Speaker 8:Well, that's the thing I think about being a songwriter. You just write where it feels natural.

18:15Speaker 2:Too.

18:15Speaker 8:It's like, yeah, harder to sing other people's songs because I mean, if you're a good writer, you write and I'm still working on this, but if you're a good writer, you write in your own sweet spot. Yes, so the melody is just locked in, and I think that's a skill set in itself, which is like I'm actually I'm teaching this school of song like songwriter or shop in April, okay, And one of my like modules or one of my lessons is called start starting from the voice or like lead with the voice, because I think it's really typical to write chords and then you have to find where your voice fits within the chords, especially when you're first starting because you're like, oh, I can play EG and D on the guitar, like this is a miracle. Let me just like try to find my vocal melody in there somewhere. But actually the voice has its own place.

19:01Speaker 8:Like everyone's vocal chords are like physically so different, and we have such different ranges and even notes where our voice just like feels so good, you know, like there have certain notes where you're like, oh, my vibrot out just like like sleighs on this note or whatever. So I'm trying to get better about writing from the voice first and then finding the chords to match it instead of like trying to fit my voice into the text of progression.

19:25Speaker 1:Really good tip. Yeah, I don't even join.

19:27Speaker 2:My class now. I want to use that, and that's amazing.

19:31Speaker 1:Yeah, I never think to do that, but I think when I do, if I find like a cool chord progression, I like, my voice goes to the range it feels right, and so if it's sitting weird in a certain range, I'll just write something low. Yeah, so I'll adjust that way. But that's a really good idea.

19:48Speaker 4:Yeah.

19:48Speaker 8:Well, just I feel like we have moments in our songs where like, oh, that part feels so good, and I'm like, oh, if you start with the voice the whole song can front like that exactly. Literally, just write where your voice felt good. So I'm not I'm not guaranteeing anything. I'm just suggesting.

20:03Speaker 4:Now.

20:03Speaker 8:It's a great tip, right people, Yeah, what's your writing practice right now?

20:09Speaker 2:I don't have a like a practice.

20:11Speaker 1:I think I used to think that I needed to find my way, and over the years I realized my way is, you know, do a quick voice memo if something hits yeah, and then I feel like musically I can always hear some kind of chord in my head under it, and if it's confusing, I'll do like a bass note and I'll sing the melody so that.

20:33Speaker 2:I know what I'm doing.

20:34Speaker 8:You know. Voice memo on the iPhone has a new thing now where you can layer.

20:38Speaker 2:You can only do two layers, but it's.

20:40Speaker 8:Kind of a game change because then you can like sing a melody and then you can layer on top of it. You can be like yeah or whatever, so you can you can kind of fill out your court a little bit.

20:49Speaker 1:Oh, that's a good tip. Usually I feel like I can hear it enough or I'll be like doom, you know, I'll do like weird stuff like that, and then eventually if I'm recording or right trying to work on stuff. I don't know about you, but I find that on the airplane, I go through all my voicemaim memos with like noise canceling headphones.

21:09Speaker 8:I hurt them. Yeah, the ones that are worth coming back. Yeah, and I'll like make a folder or I'll write some.

21:14Speaker 2:More on the song. Just on the plane.

21:16Speaker 8:I feel like it's like the only time where nobody's bothering me totally. And also it's like the context is so removed. Even though you wrote it, it almost feels like someone else did. And it's hard to get that kind of perspective with your own work. Yea, It's like that's why collaborating is so amazing, because it's like someone else's brain is processing what you do. It's really hard to get outside of your own brain. But there's something about when you're on a plane. It's like, I think scientifically proven that you're like not yourself really that I was always crying on the plane.

21:42Speaker 2:Oh I thought it was the lack of oxygen. I guess that's why it's like a combination of that.

21:47Speaker 1:Definitely cryed on planes, definitely, But yeah, I think that or taking a long walk without your without headphones and with you know, airplane mode, but you can listen to stuff or write in your head.

22:00Speaker 2:I think that's a nice way to do it. Definitely. I've written on walks before. Yeah, for sure.

22:06Speaker 1:Do you have like a practice where you write or do you just sort of let it come like that?

22:10Speaker 2:I definitely do.

22:11Speaker 8:I feel like I'm very I feel like some people their album is like their magnum opus, like it's like their baby. The album itself is like their Everything they do is like for the album. But for me, I feel like I'm so much more process oriented. I think probably because I grew up playing French horn and like playing in a symphony, so I wasn't writing as much. The thing I did was playing, and like was being in the middle of the sound. So I get really obsessed with like a sound world, whether it's like pop or metal or classical, and then I just get really obsessed with like playing in that or like figuring out chord progressions or learning the vernacular of a certain genre.

22:48Speaker 8:And then the album is just kind of like a product of almost like a dissertation of like what I kind of learned while I was in that era, okay doing that, so.

22:55Speaker 1:Like the melody and lyrics just sort of get woven into It's.

23:00Speaker 8:Almost like I like, if I got really into pop before I made my last record, I was just like, why is pop so good?

23:06Speaker 2:Like what is it about?

23:07Speaker 8:Like you know, like it can be pulp or it can be Rihanna, but like they're both pop. Like David Bowie, there's so many different genres, but a pop song is a pop song, and like what makes a pop song a pop song? For example, I had never written a song where the verse and the chorus are over.

23:21Speaker 2:The same chords.

23:22Speaker 8:I was like, what you could write the verse and a chorus are in the same chords, and it's like, yeah, bitch, that's pop music. It's like, oh, this is familiar because you just heard it five seconds.

23:32Speaker 2:But the melody down, yeah, and then you raise the melody and you do like a big shower exactly.

23:37Speaker 8:So I was like, so I was like, okay, I'm interested in this pop world. And then like when I started to like understand the vernacular of it, it's like, oh, the chorus goes like up and range, so it feels like there's some lift or whatever, like the high hats pick up here or something. Then when I like become comfortable in that language, then I can kind of improvise, like write a little bit more freely once I've like kind of learned enough, learned enough Vocalularieah, you learn it and.

24:01Speaker 2:Then you just kind of it just kind of becomes part of you.

24:03Speaker 8:Exactly and kind of like what we're talking about before, you think that you're doing something and always becomes something else.

24:08Speaker 2:So you know, you're like, oh, I've.

24:10Speaker 8:Heard this from so many friends, Like I thought I was writing a pomp song and then it just sounds.

24:15Speaker 2:Like art rock.

24:16Speaker 1:Yeah, so we're all just doing our best. Yeah, that's a good way to do it, just chase little things.

24:21Speaker 8:Is there is there like a genre or a sound world that you're really obsessed with right now?

24:28Speaker 2:That's a good question. Not really.

24:33Speaker 1:Well, I love working with Leon Michaels because like the sounds he gets, but it's the same. It's like still piano, drums and bass as the basic stuff. It's just sonically so different. But I was listening to your stuff and I.

24:50Speaker 2:Was like, this is crazy.

24:52Speaker 1:It's like the sonic landscape is so vast, and you're in a metal I mean, like, where does that even come from?

25:00Speaker 3:I don't know.

25:00Speaker 2:Most most unique did you listen to metal growing up?

25:05Speaker 8:I mean I listened to like System of a Down when I was in middle school because it was on the radio. It wasn't that a weird time in like the aughts when like I don't know, I'm much older than you, but do you remember like no, no, no, no, no, no, no, my god, Like, yeah, I do you remember, like that was on the radio?

25:19Speaker 2:That was like onis.

25:20Speaker 1:I don't think I listened to the radio then because I lived in New York and I didn't have a car.

25:24Speaker 2:No, well, just because you know, you listened to it in the car.

25:27Speaker 8:So I mean I listened to a lot of rock growing up. But I think when I was making Squeeze the album before, I was really into like nostalgic new metal because that was the music music of like my middle school, like Evanescence, go You Okay, you Knows of a Down and stuff like that, but then tied into also being into like shell Crow and like Christine mcviee, Like my influences are always all over the place. I don't know, we don't know why we do it.

25:52Speaker 2:We know we don't.

25:54Speaker 8:It's kind of embarrassing to overthink it. I agree, I agree with that.

25:58Speaker 1:Yeah, I like, I like, But what I like is that, you know, I feel.

26:03Speaker 2:All those influences in your music. But then when you break down, these songs are just good songs.

26:10Speaker 1:And I love that that you're doing them with the chamber of orchestra, and you know, because you know why, because they're just good songs.

26:16Speaker 2:Thank you. Like you can't do that with all songs.

26:20Speaker 8:Yeah, you know it's true, but they're melodic and just good, heartfelt. What's the weirdest arrangement you've ever played your songs with? Have you ever done anything kind of No, I haven't.

26:32Speaker 1:I'm actually a little bit allergic to like orchestral orchestral No.

26:37Speaker 2:I mean, I need to see the Nora Jones metal album.

26:40Speaker 1:I mean I would do a metal album over an orchestra album, probably because I don't know why.

26:46Speaker 8:I think strings are like the same tambre as my voice, and it gets it can tend to lean small sy yeah, when I've been trying like so hard not to lean that way, but my voice could so easily go there, you know, totally.

27:01Speaker 2:I should just lean in and do something and it would be beautiful. You know Rosalia album.

27:06Speaker 8:I feel like she's tied in classical music in like a really cool way. But it's like classical music that goes into technow Oh cool, it's interesting.

27:14Speaker 2:That is interesting. Yeah, yeah, I don't know. I like not knowing and then just seeing where things go. We all.

27:21Speaker 8:I really just think that we we all, Like I was saying earlier, it's like the songs exist and we're just pulling them down. Like we all have our own path. There's no right or wrong, exactly way to do anything, you know.

27:33Speaker 2:Yeah, I like that. Are you writing right now? Always? Yeah?

27:37Speaker 3:Yeah?

27:38Speaker 2:I used to feel.

27:41Speaker 1:Confused if I didn't have any songs in like a six or month period or like a year, and then I just stopped worrying about it.

27:48Speaker 2:Something always floats through my head. Yeah, but it could be the stupidest thing. It could just be like boom boom boom.

27:59Speaker 1:Or like a leer and then you write it down and then maybe a year later you find it and you like it. Yeah, you know, it doesn't have to be a full song. Yeah, that's what I like, just catching little bits and then finishing them.

28:13Speaker 2:And it's so weird when.

28:14Speaker 8:It comes because you'll like sit down and be like I want to write right now.

28:18Speaker 2:It's like nothing, nothing, nothing. You're like at the grocery store and you're like no, no, no, no no no. You're like, oh, I got it to the car voice my moo. Real sport disappears.

28:27Speaker 4:Yeah.

28:27Speaker 8:I've actually been listening to a lot of piano music recently, like Strayhorn, like that kind of era, or like classical.

28:35Speaker 1:No, like there's you know when you're when you're your algorithm feeds you stuff, and so my husband and I have been listening to this the Vernon Spring. I don't know, I don't even know anything about him. I just know that I love He's it's just like solo piano.

28:51Speaker 2:But is it contemporary?

28:52Speaker 1:It's contemporary, and it's it's got a mute on it.

28:56Speaker 2:It's like very mute.

28:57Speaker 4:It sounded like that.

28:58Speaker 1:Yeah, it's sonically funky in a way that is beautiful.

29:02Speaker 2:But it's not classical. It's not jazz. But it's just really pretty little compositions. I love that. Yeah, do you ever write just piano compositions?

29:11Speaker 1:I feel like I'm maybe getting there because of that kind of influence.

29:16Speaker 8:Yeah, you know, stuff like that feels good to play. It just feels good to play. Yeah, I never play God Forbid.

29:23Speaker 4:God for.

29:25Speaker 8:I always forget to play when I'm home.

29:28Speaker 2:Do you play at home a lot? Yeah? I do. I live.

29:31Speaker 8:I live in a very remote place, So I feel like I have like forced myself to. I just you know, when you like kind of you do things when you're just like bored or procrastinating. I feel like I'm either bored or procrastinating almost at all times, and so it always kind of siphons to playing music. Oh really, you know, if I'm bored, I'll like play music. And if I'm like procrastinating something like if I have to like clean my house or something or like pack for something, that's.

29:55Speaker 2:When I'm like, I need to play right now. That's great. Does that ever happened to you? No, my phone is what I go to and important procrastinating. You need you need a jail cell for you.

30:06Speaker 1:I hate it so much, I just want to smash it. But you know, all my patient portals in.

30:10Speaker 2:My school, my kids school, crab is that's a whole. It's so annoying.

30:16Speaker 8:If I had kids, I'm sure I wouldn't be procrastinating. I think I need like a bat phone just for that stuff, and then yeah, exactly.

30:25Speaker 2:Yeah, well it's nice. I wish I had a grand piano at my disposal at all time. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. It's nice to be honest.

30:32Speaker 1:I have an upright piano with a little mute on it upstairs that I play I love, but I do love coming down here and playing that.

30:40Speaker 2:Do you make music with your kids? We try. Yeah, they're very hesitant. My parents like or not. My parents my dad forced us. So was your dad a music teacher?

30:50Speaker 8:No, my dad was a just like a I think he taught like resource like specialized and US history.

30:57Speaker 2:But he was just like a public school teacher.

30:59Speaker 4:But he was.

31:01Speaker 2:He like, it's a whole long story with my parents. It's I could go, I could go there forever.

31:06Speaker 8:But he grew up like he was like in a Beatles cover band, like in Guardina in the sixties, you know, like playing guitar. He was like at Altamont, like he was like a rock.

31:15Speaker 2:Kid, like a real musician.

31:17Speaker 8:Yeah, but if you hear him sing now, it's like the key that you're in is actually baffling, Like I never I've never seen someone so confidently sing a tritone off from what the home note is. But so he like, you know, played bluegrass and played guitar and stuff growing up. And then my mom sang like in church choir and she grew up singing and stuff like that. So neither of them are professional musicians, but they both are like musical.

31:42Speaker 2:Okay.

31:42Speaker 8:My dad used to make us like sit around the like we all took piano lessons because we're grand kids.

31:47Speaker 2:All take piano lessnse.

31:48Speaker 8:But my dad is white and he's from Guardina, and he grew up like listening to rock music and like made me Steely Dan mixtapes and stuff like that. But he would make us like sit around the piano and sing, like take me out to the ballgame.

32:01Speaker 2:It's just something or whatever. Yeah, he was very like.

32:03Speaker 8:The American dream, the family sits around and like sing songs together.

32:07Speaker 2:And did you hate it at first? Duh? Always yeah, me thing your parents like, I know, the lame. It's interesting how much they hate what you want them to do. Definitely.

32:18Speaker 1:I mean it's it's just predictable. Really yeah, yeah, I just tell him to do I know.

32:23Speaker 2:That's what I was just thinking.

32:24Speaker 8:Kids are like a weird experiment. I have so much respect for parents because I'm just like I can, like, you can barely trick your own self to do things that are good, let alone checking someone who's like prefrontal cortex is not for them.

32:36Speaker 2:Yeah, and you do that. It's so funny.

32:38Speaker 1:Like I'm older now and I I feel like I've realized things about myself in the last five years, even that I'm like, whoa if I had known this.

32:46Speaker 2:When I was in my twenties or my teens.

32:49Speaker 8:You like can't know, but I can't try to tell them, and they're like, whatever, it's.

32:54Speaker 2:We are all cliches. We're all cliches.

32:57Speaker 8:When we're young, we think our parents are like so stupid.

33:00Speaker 2:Get older, we're like, oh, I'm that.

33:02Speaker 1:I know it's crazy. All right, Let's try this song. I love this song.

33:06Speaker 2:Tast week.

33:21Speaker 6:Take me back, Tony d listen way where we can talk all night alone to the lid day These.

33:34Speaker 5:Days, I'm beg and you know, tell me what's on you?

33:40Speaker 4:Mine? Oh, honey, is to know what you are from me.

33:55Speaker 2:You can't go on just living in love with a memory. Ah me is yours?

34:06Speaker 10:If you catch me as I'll go If you only go backwards, then we'll never know.

34:17Speaker 2:Take me back to the.

34:19Speaker 4:Open road where the wind can blow in.

34:24Speaker 7:My hair and the sun can kiss my face.

34:28Speaker 4:I need to feel alone.

34:32Speaker 5:All good things must come to and don't just come back too bad.

34:40Speaker 4:Let me feel you.

34:41Speaker 6:One the last time before we say good night.

34:50Speaker 10:It doesn't take away from.

34:53Speaker 7:What we share that I need to go and be alone.

34:57Speaker 6:Out there trying to do out of those right now.

35:02Speaker 4:I need to be where the ever is. Wha wha.

35:20Speaker 10:Take me back to the open road where they're campo in my hair and the sun can kiss my face.

35:30Speaker 5:I need to feel the life.

35:34Speaker 2:All good things.

35:36Speaker 4:Must come to and don't have.

35:39Speaker 6:Just come back too bad.

35:42Speaker 4:Let me feel you one less time before we say good night.

36:17Speaker 5:Take me back to the open road where the wind can blow in my hair and the sun can kiss my face.

36:27Speaker 4:I need to feel alive.

36:31Speaker 10:All good things must come to un don't cry just come back too bad. Let me feel you unless time before we say.

36:46Speaker 5:Do you remember when away first man, No pass, no pain nor regret.

36:53Speaker 4:Let's stay up all night long like we did.

36:57Speaker 2:When we were high before, all love.

37:04Speaker 5:Even if time, Let's go for one more driving, even.

37:11Speaker 4:If we do.

37:21Speaker 10:That's all.

37:32Speaker 2:I love how it's so freaking fun to play.

37:34Speaker 4:I know.

37:35Speaker 8:Yeah, we'll have to do it live together, so I would totally do that.

37:38Speaker 2:That would be so fun. It'll be amazing. Oh my god, that sounds a real journey.

37:43Speaker 4:Thank you.

37:44Speaker 1:It's like a journey song, it is. I was on my own little journey me do.

37:48Speaker 2:I kind of was.

37:49Speaker 1:Also, I love the piano version. I do too. It's so fun to play like that. Thanks for letting me play it.

37:55Speaker 2:Of course.

37:55Speaker 8:And also the lyrics are so just sweet. They're just you know, they're very relatable. You know, it turns out being a human very relatable. It really is, right, Yeah, yeah, it's the best. And the French hour was awesome.

38:10Speaker 2:Thank you. So so you have lipstick on? Oh yeah, how does that work? Don't tell my band teacher. I don't think it's really well. I can use it aloud.

38:18Speaker 4:No.

38:19Speaker 8:But also, you can do whatever the fuck you want when you're an indie rocker.

38:23Speaker 2:That's why I'm here.

38:24Speaker 8:Yeah, I got a lot more dentse than I've ever had. I actually it's so funny because I grew up playing French horn, but I never brought it on the road until this album cycle, because I was like, what's the point of having like a pristine, nice friend horn sitting at home. I'd rather like bring it on the road and get some dnse And so you just started bringing it out live. Yeah, I just started bringing out live. But it's like very intentionally because of the lipstick choreography at the very end of the set. And I tour with like my metal my metal drummer Diego. This is like when he gets his big like kind of he does.

38:53Speaker 8:He does this one Judas Priest solo. He's like a couple of different like super double kick pedal drum solos, and I like off stage and he plays his solo and the crowd gets all like wild up and then I wipe my lipstick off and then I come out and kind of like mash back to the stage and then like pick up the front horn and then I'm.

39:08Speaker 1:Like, like a real moment exactly, you know, put on a show. I think lipstick choreography, Yeah, something totally This thing I've.

39:19Speaker 8:Never heard of my life, My friend, have you ever heard of the artist Dora jar She's so good, she's amazing. She opened for Greasy Abrams kind of recently and she's just an incredible, like witchy musician. But she had like some stick where she came onto the stage and like did her makeup like in a mirror on stage stage, Like that's part of it, you know. I love like a performance party kind of thing. The friend Mitski does a lot of different types of performance. She used to tour with do you know Mitski? She's a tour with chair and a table like that was her writer. It was like, I need a chair and a table, and she had like all this choreography that was just planned with like a chair and a table.

39:57Speaker 2:I like thet show, you know, CAPITAL just wanted to be like that.

40:01Speaker 1:Yeah, but I feel like if I started doing that now, maybe it's weird.

40:04Speaker 2:I don't know. Oh my god, it would be amazing. Am I allowed to start throwing on a wig?

40:08Speaker 8:Yeah?

40:08Speaker 2:Weird choreography on stage at this point? I don't know.

40:10Speaker 8:If have you ever had a side project? Yes, I've had many side bands. Actually I had what's the craziest side project?

40:16Speaker 1:I had a band called El Madmo and probably like around the time my second record came out on the road. It was with my touring drummer Andy Borgert and women who sang in my band, Dharu Oda and the three of us would just play in the dressing room doing these like half stadium tours and we would just and I was learning guitar and so we would write these songs.

40:38Speaker 2:Did you guys ever like tour? Though we didn't tour it.

40:40Speaker 1:We did a bunch of gigs in New York City though cool, but we would wear I would wear a wig and like blade runner makeup and tights and it.

40:48Speaker 2:Was super fun.

40:49Speaker 8:You have to have something like I feel like it like releases the pressure from being a solo artist.

40:53Speaker 1:And like, yeah, well I've always had a lot of different side projects, but this is the one I got to play dress up.

41:00Speaker 2:That's fun. Yeah.

41:01Speaker 8:Do you not like you haven't had like a crazy Nora era for your solo album where you like went like totally in a different wild direction.

41:10Speaker 1:Not really, I think I think this last album is the most coordinated and I've gotten color.

41:16Speaker 8:Wise, what's the paint the landscape? For me?

41:19Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like kind of watermelon colors, you know, teals, bright colors.

41:23Speaker 2:I've always been a black, all black girl. Do you have fun with the styling?

41:27Speaker 1:I do I mean, I love a comfortable outfit. That's the only problem. Yeah, yeah, I can't suffer for for something in that way.

41:35Speaker 2:See, I feel like I love to suffer. This is like to suffer.

41:39Speaker 8:This is my like classical thing where I'm like, okay, I have to be like wearing a corset and like crazy heels and running around. That's crazy, washing, put lips on, lipstick off, like it's so chaotic.

41:49Speaker 2:But that's really fine. I don't know if the quality is high, but the quality of my life is high. The music is quality is high.

41:56Speaker 8:So like it's for again, I'm like, I'm so method, I'm I'm so I really am so Like it's all about the the pross. Like I always say, like music as a verb is much more interesting to me, like music gang some people are very obsessed with like music as this like precious like little thing, and I'm like, no, music is just something that just do vehicle for me running around and of course it yeah exactly, it's just a soundtrack for my mania.

42:22Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's that's fun. Yeah, I think that's a nice way to think of it.

42:25Speaker 8:Yeah, exactly do you have do you have other activities you do that aren't music.

42:30Speaker 2:I take a paining class, and I'm obsessed with Uh.

42:35Speaker 8:I like tennis, I like sports. Yeah, you're active, Yeah, I like being active. I like I like, I'm really into mushrooms. I moved to like Morin County in northern California because I got really obsessed with mushrooms, like for agra, but also just like you know, being able to identify different species. So wow, Yeah, it's kind of a not very not musical thing to be obsessed with. But yeah, I'm really into movies right now though, that's my current Okay, do you ever act? Have you ever acted? I've acted like music videos and stuff like that, but not really, I mean.

43:05Speaker 1:You ever take I mean you're very it seems like you are someone who would come up with all the music video concepts.

43:11Speaker 8:And I've done a lot. I've directed and like physically edited a lot of my videos. But this album cycle I was really adamant about working with with other directors and kind of being more of like a This album cycle was a lot more collaborative, which you know, it's like there's blessing and curses to being collaborative.

43:29Speaker 2:You have to like let go a lot more.

43:30Speaker 8:But then also what you can achieve is just like so much greater with like or just like a different flavor mine. Yeah. Speaking of movies, though, I have to say, I am like the biggest fan of my Blueberry Nights.

43:41Speaker 2:I'm obsessed with that movie. That's so have to ask. Can I ask you questions about it? Ask me anything you want? What was it like working on that movie with one car Hi? Well, let me see what's the short answer. Well, it was amazing because I read that.

43:55Speaker 8:I don't know if it's accurate, but I read that he told you like not to take acting lessons and there.

43:59Speaker 2:Was no real script. It was a little.

44:02Speaker 8:Jazz, yeah, which is very rare for film because there's so many different moving parts involved and there's so many people.

44:10Speaker 2:It was a huge production.

44:11Speaker 8:It wasn't nothing like watching dailies and like playback and like iol so you were like acting verb like you were in it.

44:18Speaker 2:I was just in it. And I feel like.

44:23Speaker 1:He wanted me to be just a piece, you know, like the center piece to all these moving parts. Maybe because there were so many great actors in it and I was more reacting to them, and I don't know, it was amazing. I mean, it was like one of the most incredible things I've ever done.

44:40Speaker 2:It's so beautiful.

44:41Speaker 1:It's like I knew it would be beautiful because everything he does is so beautiful.

44:45Speaker 2:But it's also like kind of Lynchian, like the scenes that were.

44:48Speaker 8:Like slow and kind of yeah weird and like almost overacted, like the Rachel Vice scenes.

44:55Speaker 2:It's a little dramatic.

44:57Speaker 8:It kind of I was also like really high when I watched it, but kind of reminds me of like Inland Empire, the David Lynch film. Like there's something about it where it's just like kind of uncomfortable, but you're like that's the whole thing. It's like your characters like working through the discomfort very much like and like constantly putting yourself in these like new situations and like kind of learning.

45:16Speaker 2:I don't know, it's such a it's so good. I need to rewatch it.

45:19Speaker 1:I would be really curious to watch it again, also because I haven't seen since it came.

45:24Speaker 8:The theme song from Mood for Love is played by ry Cooter in It is It?

45:29Speaker 2:Yes? Oh yeah, yeah, that's right.

45:31Speaker 8:I forgot about that art as amazing too, Like ry Cooter plays on it. I kind of forgot about that or it's I mean, like everything he does is like very it's artsy, you know. Actually, side note, I think that.

45:46Speaker 2:I forgot that.

45:47Speaker 8:Ry Cooter did this and it starts and ends with your song too. Yeah, I wrote a song for it, but he also let me. He asked me to make him like a I mean, this is way back then, so it wasn't a playlist.

45:58Speaker 2:It's like burns.

46:00Speaker 1:But he asked me to send him some songs for the mood, and he ended up using a lot of them in the soundtrack. This Cassandra Wilson version of something. I can't remember which one, but it's from this album I love called New Moon Daughter and oh cat Power songs and then.

46:17Speaker 2:So Sean's in it. Yeah, Sean's in it.

46:19Speaker 1:So I sent him these two cat Power songs because I was obsessed with the greatest and then he loved him and he played them through all these scenes. So we were we were sort of, you know, acting or like some of the long scenes where we were just sitting there and not saying any lines, he was playing the cat Power songs and so they were a big part of the shoot.

46:38Speaker 8:And then he got her to be in the movie. So I was really exciting. You should honestly watch it, Like, yeah, I should watch it again. So good, I'd be curious to watch it again. I mean, like so many icons in it, I know, and also like I just feel like I got kind of obsessed with it, and I was like listening, I was like reading all these interviews with wankar Wai, like just talking about the process because he had just finished I forget what film, but he was like, had just finished this film that took like five years, and.

47:04Speaker 2:I think in the Move for Love was before that. I think so No.

47:07Speaker 8:Twenty forty six one and it took like five years to make it. And then this was like a short he kind of like had like a short time and there's something to me, like really interesting again, Like I feel like this from what it seems like the movie it was much more about the physicality of like making the movie and the story unfolding, as opposed to it being this like perfect script, this like perfect object, like the movie is a perfect object. It was like the manifestation of like the physicality of him wanting to come to America and like drive across the country and like find all these random places like I love art, like that like art that just exists out of like an actual human experience as opposed to like where.

47:45Speaker 1:A desire to experience America in that like sort of romantic It kind of reminds me of fifty six kind of fun totally.

47:52Speaker 4:Yeah.

47:52Speaker 8:And you know those like Asian T shirts that are have English but it's like wrong.

47:57Speaker 2:Yeah, it kind of reminds me of that. That makes a lot of sense, where it's like.

48:00Speaker 8:It's a it's a weird translation of something, but it's so like perfect it is.

48:07Speaker 1:That makes a lot of sense because he hadn't worked in America yet, and I think all the different rules and stuff, it was definitely a challenge I think for him because.

48:18Speaker 2:He was used to working crazy hours.

48:21Speaker 1:Yeah, but we had union rules, right, you know, stuff that he didn't have to deal with in China when he was working, and so it was very interesting.

48:30Speaker 2:Did you act in anything after that? I didn't.

48:32Speaker 1:I mean I've been I know, I've been in a couple of small things, like I cameos and stuff. I did act in one small movie, but it was just a tiny scene, so.

48:41Speaker 2:Nothing like that. Would you act again.

48:46Speaker 1:If it was something interesting, Yeah, I think I would. I think I stopped getting asked. And also, your kids have not seen this movie. No, but they could watch this now you need Oh my god, you're so beautiful. But acting is so crazy, it's a crazy job. I'm not used to those hours.

49:02Speaker 8:Also everyone, you know how everyone's a different type of musician. It seems like everyone is a different type of actor too, Like some people like actors and there's the sort of you know, chillaxed actors. Yeah, And I just think that way people will make movies is really different. Like, like I said, I get obsessed with things. I'm kind of like obsessed with movies right now. And I've been listening to all these like director interviews, Like there's like this one pt Anderson is being interviewed by like Steven Spielberg, and like some people are really obsessed with filming it chronologically, so that there's this kind of like ability to understand the pacing of the story or or like this scene's kind of redundant, we already did it, And so that can be hard.

49:40Speaker 1:On the budget totally if you're doing it in different places totally, And some people are really adamant about film and so that kind of makes it harder to like process daily's right away, and everyone just has really different processes.

49:52Speaker 8:And it's so interesting because I know some like we obviously don't know everything about music. But it's like I've toured, I've been in studio, I've just like kind of I've been in pop writing rooms, I've been in classical I just like kind of understand how they want to learn a.

50:06Speaker 2:Different language totally.

50:07Speaker 1:Have you ever come up with an idea for something like a film or a short or I mean, I feel like every time I have to make a music video, I have like a three.

50:15Speaker 2:Million dollar idea. You can't make it, and you're like, oh, I have to make the like.

50:20Speaker 8:Extremely ninety nine cent version of this. So if I had a budget, I could. I feel like you could. Maybe you should direct it could be cool. Maybe you should write something in direct?

50:29Speaker 2:All right, maybe maybe this is the sign of the universe.

50:33Speaker 1:But I think it's a crazy world and just the fact that it's it has all the creative elements that music has, I think. But then it's so hard to do something.

50:44Speaker 2:I know you have to get like so many.

50:46Speaker 1:People and money, and it's like requires so much more.

50:50Speaker 2:I'm really I feel really lucky this music because it's so much easier.

50:55Speaker 1:You know, it's just so true. Such a hard world for in that way.

51:00Speaker 2:Totally, and it feels even hard.

51:02Speaker 8:It feels ambitious, even with music when you're like I just have to get like a drummer, bass player, guitarist.

51:07Speaker 2:So easy compare compared all that, I know.

51:10Speaker 8:But yeah, it's it's different. She's a completely different universe. But I know it's crazy.

51:17Speaker 1:I just wanted to ask you one last thing about growing up, Like, did you go to church?

51:22Speaker 2:Yeah? I grew up. Did ever heard of the Moonies before the Unification Church? Yeah? My parents were in that church. What Yeah, they were arranged married by the okay, the lead.

51:31Speaker 1:I just found your movie idea. Really, I mean that's like, yeah, exactly. They always say, right, what.

51:36Speaker 8:You know my parents, Both of their lives are really interesting. They were I mean they were married in Madison Square Garden with four thousand people. Yes, yeah, holy they didn't even speak the same language when.

51:48Speaker 2:They were married. I did not know all this. It's pretty okay. That's where I come from. That's why I'm so insane. That is your movie. Yeah, you're going to make that. There was a lot there.

51:57Speaker 8:My dad is like a white hippie that's like across Europe, and my mom is like this, like, well, her family is, I need you. So there are Koreans that were born and raised in Japan when Japan occupied Korea. But then her dad was kind of a mobster and he owned these pachinko parlors, which were like gambling parlors, and then he kind of like rose the social ranks.

52:18Speaker 2:There's a lot of lore that.

52:19Speaker 8:Okay, you got to write all that down, right, I should be I should be interviewing my family members while they're like still lucid.

52:26Speaker 1:Kind of the fun thing is you could make that movie and then you could do all the music to it.

52:29Speaker 2:That's true. That's what I really want to do.

52:32Speaker 8:I want to I want to start doing more music and heavybes I've done. I've done a little bit, and I've definitely scored, like I did score a feature film like a long time ago, and I've done like theme songs for podcasts and stuff like that. But I want to do more of that. You know, I'm kind of sick of being perceived. Yeah, I'm like, I don't need to be a front person.

52:51Speaker 2:Really, you don't feel drawn.

52:53Speaker 8:It's just the most efficient way to like have a career, and like, you know what I'm saying, Like, yeah.

52:59Speaker 1:You want to move it forward, it's hard to do that from behind, exactly.

53:03Speaker 8:Like working in the film industry. I can't imagine. Oh yeah, getting anything done feels so hard worse for me. I'm like, I'm just gonna write the dumb on myself and I'll just like hire you know, it's just easier to get shit done.

53:15Speaker 1:But you're interesting because you don't feel that need to be a front person. But you're also kind of eccentric, but you're not.

53:22Speaker 8:I only do it because I'm good at it in the same way that like an accountant is good at math.

53:28Speaker 2:I'm good at it. That's very interesting.

53:30Speaker 8:I like to sleep at weird hours, so it seems like.

53:33Speaker 2:A good job for me.

53:34Speaker 1:That's kind of why I wanted to be a jazz musician when I was younger, because you were an idol. Yeah, I didn't want to wake up early. It's perfect a good career.

53:43Speaker 8:Yeah, yeah, classical music is way more early early hours. So yeah, I think I think indie rock and jazz is good for us. It's good for us. Yeah, awesome. Well, this has been so fun. I know, thank you for joining me.

53:58Speaker 1:You I like to would cover at the end, and you picked such a cool cover for us to do from your friend Clara Clara.

54:07Speaker 8:Yeah, because Clara is on the on in love with the memory on the records, I thought it'd be cute. Yeah, flirty nod, flirty nod.

54:14Speaker 1:And also Leon Michaels produced this album, which he produced my last few albums, so exactly.

54:21Speaker 8:I felt like there was enough lines of menage there. And I told Leon that I was going to do the mouth trumpet solo on my French horn so never Juna's probably been covered ten million times really, but the French horn on it, I don't know no, And I'm gonna mouth the harmony on it. Hell yeah, yeah, okay, come.

54:52Speaker 4:To me so.

54:57Speaker 2:It's then I feel it on my skin, breathing.

55:11Speaker 4:Most of these days I'll get to me, to me where I should I laugh should illegally.

55:21Speaker 7:But a thing again, don't even try.

55:32Speaker 5:I don't have to think.

55:36Speaker 4:With you.

55:37Speaker 7:There's no breathding.

55:41Speaker 4:You don't know me, no.

55:48Speaker 7:Me, I just my know you, no.

56:04Speaker 5:Me.

56:10Speaker 7:Come to me, Beny, you make me.

56:16Speaker 5:Wanna go dancing, You make me try your own Femindy.

56:21Speaker 6:You make me wanna bad un dress, you make me wanna slip off.

56:28Speaker 9:Newbres don't eventry.

56:35Speaker 5:I don't have to think with you.

56:41Speaker 2:There's no breting.

56:45Speaker 4:You know me, no me, just I know you don't to me.

57:15Speaker 9:Slowly the Puper Pop, Flush Photo Bash, look at the Bank.

58:12Speaker 2:Yay, we did it, We did it. Thank you so much. Ah, that was great. It was beautiful. That was so Fun's so cool. She's great, she's rad, she rolls. That was awesome. All right, let's hang more, Sammi.

58:31Speaker 8:That was rad.

58:31Speaker 2:Thanks so much for coming.

58:33Speaker 1:If you want to know the songs we did in this episode, the first song was call Me Home from her album Squeeze that came out in twenty twenty two. The second song was in Love with a Memory from Blood on the Silver Screen featuring Clara. The third song was called Juna from Clara's album Called Charm which came out in twenty twenty four, which Leon Michael's produced who I Also Work With. Special thanks to Sasami for joining us today. And We'll be back next week with Amy Grant.

59:03Speaker 1:Norah Jones's Playing Along is a production of iHeart Podcasts. Visit Nora Jones channel and be sure to subscribe while you're there. I'm your host, Nora Jones. This episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry. Audio post production and mastering by Greg Tobler. Artwork by Eliza Frye. Photography by Shervin Linez. Produced by Nora Jones and Sarah Oda. Executive producers Aaron wan Kaufman and Jordan Rentog. Marketing lead Alison Kanter Graber