- 2 days ago
As Young The Giant prepares to reveal their sixth studio album, 'Victory Garden,' the band stopped by the Hard Rock Hotel New York to talk about their evolution over the past 15 years, and the lens from which they created their latest project.
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00:00reminiscing back to those days it really was 20 years ago about when we really
00:04first started working on young the giant and that first album and then babies
00:08yeah we were babies and I think there was a lot of youthful naivete there and
00:11this record talks about those scenes seeing the world through our children's
00:15eyes
00:18welcome back it's another odyssey check-in hard rock hotel in New York with
00:22young the giant kids no thanks I uh the most important thing first let's get
00:29there and get there fast baseball predictions all right uh who are we
00:35taking who you got winning at all let's go down the line Fran what's happening
00:38I mean Dodgers like like the you're gonna say like the Yankees uh have now
00:44unlocked the let's buy a championship so you know and we're pretty stacked so
00:49all right that's your World Series prediction Dodgers Yankees yeah I would
00:52love to see it and we have a big Yankees fan on the crew so you know nice uh
00:56nice tension there you're going Dodgers any other predictions before we come
01:01neutral man I'm checking back in in six months by the way if this is if this
01:04is wrong yeah it's gonna break loose I would have said expos I grew up watching
01:08the expos but sadly they're no more so well I mean you could be a big
01:12nationals guy no yeah that one hurt when they want it oh that was rough um I I'd
01:17like to actually start over here because a day in the life of young the giant is um I
01:23mean I I feel like I'm part of the the the lore now because I got to live an
01:28entire day as the band if you don't know the story the uh young the giant kids
01:33decided to do a young the giant day in the life of on the Instagram and you got
01:37to go through the whole day waking up in bed as young the giant fan and band
01:41member and then go to practice and you know to do some cardio so you woke up in
01:47your own bed I did yeah that was great that was which is you know happens about
01:51half the time other if I'm on tour it's uh we wake up in a tour bus uh woke up
01:56in
01:56my bed I have my little Samir shrine next to it um they don't know how much I love
02:01this band sure what it means to me um I hate to see the rest of the house by the
02:05way
02:06it's just full young the giant my kids are decked out in young the giant merch
02:10much to their chagrin um yeah yeah no I'm uh I'm a big fan of the music
02:15okay yeah okay so uh what I noticed about that is I I saw this article with
02:20Dakota Johnson you remember Dakota Johnson and uh she said that her natural
02:25rhythm needs 10 hours of sleep a night and she'd prefer 14 hours of sleep
02:30damn that is madness right diminishing returns for me after about
02:34eight it's good right I was about to say on a good day
02:38what's the number I have a four month old son
02:41so 12 much less I did I did sleep 12 hours um this was our first trip away
02:47from home since he was born so I slept uh I slept 12 hours
02:50Francois enjoys his sleep I love sleep the answer is he could probably out sleep
02:54any of us I get I get anxious when I sleep in like I feel like I have to get
02:59up
02:59gotta do something yeah I'm like I can't I can't be in this bed
03:01rise and grind yeah I hear that uh do you think that you might have caused a
03:05problem going forward of petting pine's hair
03:09we'll do it yeah we do it when he sleeps on the tour bus he doesn't know
03:13truth be told I watched that clip back and I didn't even realize he was stroking my hair
03:18over and over again I think this tour we're gonna do a begonia and we're just gonna
03:22knock him out shave his head wow and then I'm gonna actually wear wear the wig yeah
03:29transfer to your head instead exactly yeah it will there be a nightly petting of the head
03:34you think here is there gonna be a band to start the show it's a great we prayed his
03:39hair before we start it's like cool runnings like we we need to have our own kind of ritual
03:44before the show but we'll take this into consideration you can tell you're in a group
03:47of 35 year old men who know the cool runnings we need a little egg we need a little egg
03:54great
03:54movie it is a great movie um all right so uh so let's actually talk about real things
04:00uh the new the new album victory garden um the he uh thing that I find to be most impressive
04:06about you guys is over 15 years there has been like a regular cadence to your point of like I
04:12can't sleep too long before I get a little too antsy is that regular cadence sort of sort of like
04:18part of the the muscle or is it something you need to do to stay sharp etc the cadence in
04:26terms of
04:27just how we release you're putting out a lot of music yeah it's a regular over like it feels like
04:32every two years it's on a regular what's interesting that you say that because in our
04:36it feels like we've only released records every four years and it has been this kind of the last
04:42two records has been every four years we've released some songs in between uh but there's
04:47definitely a natural rhythm obviously to world events and our life uh you know covid obviously being a
04:55big um factor of that now us having kids and stuff um I think for us like there's always more
05:03that we
05:03want to say I think um and we don't feel anywhere close to having said all of it so I
05:10think you know
05:11that there's like this inevitability of an inspiration for a record and music and and especially with like
05:18you know bands and musicians in general you make a record and by the time people listen to it you're
05:23already like onto the next thing so that's kind of you know we'll see where we're at in a couple
05:28see I actually thought about that a couple of days ago you know whatever you hear a band's album you're
05:33really listening to their life a year maybe two years ago right you guys have been playing bitter
05:37fruit for a year now so like how do you hold on to these things these these feelings these thoughts
05:44how do they change along the way you know do you get a year into bitter fruits like man I
05:48think we
05:48could have done something different with that we love playing live shows and watching our fans kind
05:53of um just like take on the records and embody them themselves and share their stories and perspectives
05:59with us I think we have such a good cadence with our fans and our super fans really do reach
06:04out and
06:04talk to us and come to our vip shows and for me that always gives me kind of the wind
06:09in my sails to
06:10keep playing the same song time after time and I find that my relationship though maybe I was there at
06:16the
06:16genesis by the time we've done 150 shows on that record like my understanding of the song will also
06:22shift again or I'll attach it to a moment and you know that continues to be the same story for
06:28like
06:28cough syrup we've been playing that for 15 years plus and now it's like you know that gives me the
06:33inertia to get through the rest of the set sometimes you uh mentioned uh world events when you uh hold
06:40on
06:40to songs like this for as long as you might hold on to them do you start to see the
06:44world events
06:44and you know changing god by the hour do the songs start to take on a different meeting do you
06:50wish
06:51that you could uh make an addendum do you want to add a couple more songs to that based on
06:55the time
06:55that you're you're existing in um I feel like we when creating this particular record we're really
07:04yearning to kind of come together and get back to our roots um as like brothers and kind of build
07:11community within each other um and see check-in with all of us where we're at and I think our
07:17yearning to kind of be together in a room writing recording everything um sort of echoes um at least
07:24from what you know we discuss with our family and friends and communities what a lot of people are
07:29feeling right now is is kind of the the desire to get back to you know our humanity um and
07:35being
07:36together and viewing the world through the eyes of our children of all these guys have young children
07:43and so with that you know the idea of uh viewing the world through the lens of a child it
07:49comes like
07:50the idea of being present with one another and having empathy for one another so we're really trying
07:54to um channel that and going forward into our new writing uh future writing I think it's almost become
08:01a little bit of like what young the giant at its core is about is viewing the world through the
08:06eyes
08:06of uh of a child and I think we feel like now going to play these songs live um it's
08:17almost
08:20just it it's it's it's difficult what's going on right now in the world and I think that if we
08:25can
08:25bring that sense of humanity that we were searching for within each other that we're still searching for
08:30with each other um that hopefully people can feel at home at our shows and and feel uh I like
08:36the
08:36idea of you saying that you're trying to get back uh together as a group or connectivity the
08:42collaboration part of it um and I noticed that you know you bring in you know Brendan O'Brien and
08:48I see that it's a collaborative approach what was it before that to if you had to get back to
08:54that
08:55if it was started that way what did it turn into in the last couple of albums as opposed to
08:59now
08:59I think with American Bollywood we obviously all went through the turmoil of the pandemic together
09:04and it's not that we didn't write that record together or like or contribute but you know it
09:09was very siloed it was home studios and sessions here and sessions there and this was back to the
09:16genesis of our band which was being in a room together pushing air through amplifiers and just
09:20like embracing what was there at the beginning of our story um and actually being maybe able to accept
09:27it a little bit more now I think when we were younger we you know we were 19 when we
09:31signed a
09:31record deal and we're seeing arena rock ready and I was like what I don't mean arena band like
09:36but now you know at 36 I'm like yeah that's maybe that's maybe our legacy and our destiny and
09:42I think now we're ready to receive that a little bit more and be earnest with ourselves and you know
09:49that was the music we were making when we're 15 plus and it is the music now 20 years later
09:53that
09:53I mean that's a that's a that's a really interesting point you guys came out on such a heater
09:57I mean a heater and you're like near 19 years old like you look back on it now what is
10:02the
10:02perspective on those kids going through that did it change your own expectations of yourself did it
10:09change you know what the world expected of you like looking back on it it has to be wild thinking
10:15about how I think yeah I you know reminiscing back to those days it really was 20 years ago about
10:21when
10:21we really first started working on young the giant and that first album and then babies yeah we were
10:26babies and I think there was a lot of youthful naivete there and this record talks about those
10:31scenes seeing the world through our children's eyes again but I think at that time I'm really proud of
10:36us for meeting the moment you know obviously you know you you mess up here and there and this and
10:40that
10:40but that first record and the success we had after it just was such a incredible opportunity and we had
10:47a
10:47lot of fun and I think over the last 15 20 years we've just been building you know we all
10:52hang out
10:53like our kids hang out together and it's just like we have this trust that we've been working building
11:00upon and that trust is also extrapolated to our collaborators you know co-collaborators or you
11:07know producers engineers other other people um music video directors like all it's all a world that we
11:13like have been building and it's just I'm just really proud of us and it's it's fun it's still
11:18fun I think that's the most important thing is it's we like doing this we like doing it with one
11:22another and I mean it's a great time making this record it's one thing to do with one person or
11:25two
11:25people you're doing five dudes there's four other now you and you bring in Brendan O'Brien and and I
11:30don't actually usually ever talk uh to bands about you know producers but you bring in somebody that's
11:35got like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden and uh those guys on the resume are you intimidated are you scared
11:41do you feel like oh we better you know I think we had like kind of Jake was talking about
11:47we
11:48were ready to be in that room you know the first record we did it with Joe Ciccarelli and
11:54you know also a legend and he Mr. Miyagi'd us really hard and we were not ready and I think
12:00we grew so
12:01much as a band from that experience but like chairs being thrown around but I think you know Brendan was
12:08able to see us for where we are now and we were able to see him and we've been in
12:12studios now for
12:1315 years and this record so much is like coming back to this form but being ready to receive it
12:18being um confident in what we do so he treated us like equals we had a great time and there's
12:25some
12:25amazing stories they told us about you know with Springsteen and ACDC and uh when we met him at
12:31Henson you know we just knew that that was the place because we'd we've worked at Sense of Sound
12:36we've worked at so many studios in LA and then we kind of started working in our own studios or
12:40like kind of like built up studios in random lots and Henson was kind of like that place where okay
12:45we got to bring our A game because you know I wasn't there doing overdose Paul McCartney was you
12:49know two studios over so it's like you never know you know um I think we felt ready for it
12:53and uh I
12:54would be saying to myself this is gonna cost a fortune yeah it does yeah I can't imagine how
13:01much it costs uh was there a wax on moment or something what was the uh yeah we got we
13:06got to
13:06give Joe credit also he walked into a situation with a bunch of like 19 year old stoners who
13:11didn't know what we were doing right like I mentioned we we kind of like stumbled upon this
13:17this thing and we I think we had the songwriting chops already but we didn't necessarily have like
13:23all of the other stuff that comes with it and so he walked in and he gave he had a
13:28lot of grace um
13:29but you know as a producer he also had to be realistic and be like guys you need to focus
13:34and
13:35I I was originally the bass player for the band we did a reshuffle so I was kind of just
13:40like getting
13:41my sea legs as a drummer yeah and then to be thrown in with someone who like worked on Zappa
13:46records and his work is some of like the most incredible drummers in the world it was uh a tall
13:52order um you know in retrospect I think that was the first moment that I kind of knew and I
13:58think
13:58same for all of us like what that bar was to be a professional musician and that we were falling
14:03short in some ways and I'm glad you said it that way because I saw this uh from Jack White
14:09and he said
14:09like I found this to be wild a big lesson I learned in the White Stripes Meg's kick drum was
14:13the bass
14:14guitar take a song like Psycho Killer talking heads but I don't bump bump bump that could be easily
14:19drum beat when I realized that was going to be on the White Stripe with I was going to be
14:23in the
14:23White Stripe that relieved a lot of structural worry for me as a songwriter you don't have a bass player
14:28I figured that out was there any moment that like unlocked something like Jack's talking about that
14:33made things so much easier for you maybe in that moment to today that you still carry through
14:37I think that with Joe with that first record it was the way we approached the record Joe came to
14:46our shared apart two-bedroom apartment in Hollywood right off of Sunset across the street from the
14:51Guitar Center and yeah and he said uh he said we're gonna we're gonna do some pre-production
14:56then we're gonna cut the record live all the instruments together and um it took us you know
15:01now on our sixth record it took us this much time to get back to we did a bulk of
15:06our new record with
15:07Brendan in the very same way and I think that you know that boot camp mentality of of doing
15:11everything live we all kind of looked at each other and we're like oh shit we're gonna we're
15:16cutting everything live and that I think really helped solidify us as the live band that you know
15:21at that time and then years later working with Brendan wanting to not overthink this new record wanting
15:27to get into the studio all five of us and cut as much that makes sense live together in the
15:33room and
15:33capture that energy it was a no-brainer to go with Brendan the way he captures energy the way he
15:38keeps momentum going in the studio but also um it reminded us of that first record except we're six
15:43records in we've done this yeah we've done this yeah it was just a joy it was a fun back
15:50and forth
15:50between us and also wanted to add to that it's such a simple and profound thing as a musician and
15:57all
15:58in just life but just listening like when you really truly learn to listen to what is going
16:03around what else is going on and because obviously like in music and a lot of things there's a that
16:08can
16:08be a lot of ego and this and that it's like what am I playing that's like you just listen
16:11and that goes
16:12back to like that trust and you receive and then you can actually like lock in and be like okay
16:17what
16:17is the right part for this as a drummer as a basis as a whomever you know and I think
16:21that's like a
16:22really simple but like profound thing I think also does yoga I do like I think there was a lot
16:30of also instinctual songwriting which you know so many records you worry about how to dress a song up
16:37you know you could think Julian Casablanca was talking about you know strokes songs and how it
16:41could sound like just about anything depending on how you dress it up but for us it was kind of
16:45like
16:45what does this song how does this song inform the sonics and everything was about a feeling and
16:50making that feeling continue and it was so it was a lot simpler and the first record I think that
16:54was just our limitations as artists like understanding what we liked and what we played
17:01was instinctual without knowing it because we didn't have the experience and then as we kind
17:04of went throughout our career we have tried so many different things experimented in so many
17:08different ways coming back to that as as being older now but in a very intentional way to
17:14instinctually come here and be like we don't need to be fancy pretty needs to be simple you know and
17:20that that was kind of like a major line through this record and that's got to be the the the
17:25most
17:26proud part of doing all this and talking about it is you get to say yeah this is as straight
17:32line as
17:32we can go and it feels as true to us as possible uh I thank you for coming and thanks
17:37for coming by
17:38I I think that at this point the only way to finish is to pet your hair should we all
17:45do it let's do it
17:46hang on a second it's so nice oh one two three thanks guys thank you thank you
17:54thank you
17:54you
18:00you
18:01you
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