- 2 days ago
Blue October frontman Justin Furstenfeld joins Ian Camfield ahead of their upcoming North American tour celebrating the 20th anniversary of their album, 'Foiled.' The singer talks about the band’s intense touring schedule, the creative process behind their music, and Justin's own personal evolution along the way.
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00:02blue october are hitting the road i believe in a matter of days because you're going into
00:07rehearsals as soon as we've had this conversation pretty much right yeah they're all like come on
00:13and i'm like no no uh we hit rehearsals in pre-production uh starting monday tuesday and
00:19wednesday and then we hit the road for like five months so it'll be good is it uh normal to
00:24have
00:24just a few days of rehearsal because i i feel like some other bands need weeks to get back
00:29into playing shape but i guess you do it so consistently you're such a pro this is me
00:34flirting with you now you're such a pro that you can go out and play a 20 year old album
00:38with just
00:39like 48 hours of rehearsing oh look justin's brought props to the interview everybody
00:47uh no i think we stay on the road so much that like we're so used to playing with each
00:53other but
00:53and we did this tour in europe already in london and uh prague and uh germany that we rehearsed the
01:02entire show over there now the only thing we're adding here is america uh lights um stage props
01:11things like that so in europe we're playing maybe 2 000 seaters and over here i think some of them
01:17are
01:18like 6 000 8 000 seaters so i'm i'm pretty pretty um happy about that no absolutely now let's talk
01:24about listening to your own material right foiled is uh it's its big 20th anniversary
01:30with if you're not going to go out and play an album in full how often would you typically go
01:35oh you
01:35know what i feel like listening to a blue october album today never never never but i am
01:43i'm all the only thing that you'll find on like my playlist apple music is like sleep music like
01:50when i like like the the drone stuff because anything else i'm listening to is demos that i'm
01:59working on for the next single or like the next album so i've always got the music and then i'm
02:05either
02:06driving to pick up my kids from school or working out or or doing stuff around the house and i'm
02:12always
02:12listening to music so i can be working on lyrics and because i'm just constantly writing i'm one of
02:17those people like my girlfriend is like sit still sit on the couch with me while i crochet and i'm
02:25like
02:30even when she's crocheting you're like hang on i gotta get my phone that just gave me an inspiration
02:34for a new lyric let me just sing a harmony and then you can and then we'll sit on the
02:37couch
02:38this song is called life is like crochet oh you're brilliant babe come here let me show you my
02:48beautiful naked chest and then i take my shirt off and i show my glorious chest pubes oh so talking
02:56of foil then what were your feelings when you went back to listen to it before you started doing these
03:02shows in the uk and europe because if you don't listen to your old work uh ever and obviously you
03:09would have replayed the album because i'm thinking there are songs that you you know you had to relearn
03:14and you're a very different person now to uh the justin first and felt that made foiled two decades ago
03:19how was it when you you must have pressed play and gone all right let's uh let's listen to this
03:24album
03:25top to bottom like the audience are going to do yeah i did that and actually for foil that was
03:31like
03:31it's a really good album oh man this is this is the right amount of self-pity the right amount
03:40of
03:41self-loathing the right amount of depression the right amount of addiction and the right amount of
03:47positive uh romantic reinforcement you know it's after foiled when i started listening to like
03:54approaching normal and any man in america i was like oh god shut up so this is kind of the
04:00right before the wheels really fell off in your life is that what you're saying this is me putting
04:06the keys in the car and revving it up for the first time going oh this is mine i can
04:12i can drive this
04:13around yeah this is before the wheels fell off this is like justin and his creative
04:19after high school after whatever college was and after he got dropped twice and then he gets this
04:27chance to finally write a big before he gets dropped again and he goes you know what i don't really
04:31care
04:32about selling records i'm going to make something from my heart and it's going to be different it's
04:36going to be eclectic the thing i liked about it was it sounded like it sounded like pharrell and
04:42kanye west produced an alternative band and that's what i liked about it i was like this is that is
04:48me
04:48that is my style it was after foiled when we started working with like steve lily white
04:54when he really didn't know what he was doing with us and i didn't know what i was doing because
04:58i was
04:58too high yeah which is kind of ego went abroad i always like to bring this up because we've had
05:05this
05:05conversation before when you mentioned steve lily white and i always say what you should have said to
05:10him at the time was oh you're the guy that produced the worst rolling stones album bro i wish i
05:15would
05:15have said that you know what the first thing he ever said to me was right he said back to
05:21be a singer
05:22right wasn't that though yeah i remember i remember we had this conversation years ago back in the uk
05:28and i'm supposed to like you mother you know i'm saying so i started doing drugs a little bit more
05:35around and just let's say skinny you know it's like like it was it was not in the right spot
05:40and
05:40dave castell a producer from dallas helped me produce foiled yeah and it was just me and him
05:48these two small producers from texas and we should have stuck to that formula we should have always
05:53stuck to that formula because then steve lily white just took it god bless whatever he's doing or
06:00whatever but that man is oh my gosh but it was fascinating to listen to foiled and go
06:09man when i brought this to dave castell he really polished it up and made these
06:14die it was like diary entries that i took to castell and castell polished them and made them sound so
06:21good
06:21and so it was it was great and all i wanted to do back then during fold was beat bright
06:26eyes
06:26i was gonna say this because i saw that you made this quote the other day and bright eyes i
06:32remember
06:32they were really big for five minutes 20 years ago and they were so good i love that band but
06:39then
06:40they weren't really big beyond like 10 minutes because if you went to sort of 19 years ago people
06:45had kind of forgotten who they were by then so i think you would do that ambition that's because
06:51foiled and digital ash came out at the same time and just like kanye west and 50 cent did that
06:56one year they all came out and then blue october prevailed
07:03when you when you were making foiled though apart from the bright eyes thing was there any other
07:09element of uh okay what what you wanted to achieve with the album because artists don't ever think
07:15i'm gonna make an album now and two decades into the future i'm gonna be on a global tour playing
07:20it in
07:21its entirety right yeah i never thought about that way i just knew that i was an eclectic dude i
07:27grew
07:27up on the cocteau twins the smiths uh the cure and then i loved 50 cent kanye west and hip
07:38-hop and
07:39then i loved this mortal coil and the gorillas and radiohead so i knew that it wasn't just gonna
07:46be this yeah it was gonna be this eclectic weird piece of art and i'd still love it that it
07:53is this
07:54dreamy sad piece of romantic art and i love that it was produced that way thank god to castell and
07:59myself no totally and i'm super grateful dave castell is like a producer in dallas where y'all are
08:06and he's just incredible incredible guy how is it when you go out and you play these songs as
08:12sober justin furstenfeld because that's an another big change i mean you were saying this was before
08:18the wheels fell off i know your days got darker after foiled but they they certainly were uh shall
08:24we say more lively in maybe uh ways that were counterproductive long term than you are now
08:29no i would have to say that back like i said to be i never got a chance to tour
08:36for this album
08:36because back in there i was either so messed up or some drama was going on in my life or
08:41i broke
08:42my ankle twice and i couldn't tour it was so stupid bro um so i never toured for foiled right
08:50we never
08:50toured for that album so now 20 years later we're touring for it and to be able to play such
08:57romantically
08:57sad music as a happy person is so much better because you're sitting there playing it you're
09:05like oh man yeah and your face looks like this instead of this you know what i'm saying i know
09:15if i still would have been an active addiction and depressed and all that stuff and then i had to
09:20play these songs oh my god it'd be the pity party from hell everybody be like what do you think
09:25of
09:25justin oh my god he's still crying i'm sure there are very poignant stories that you tell during
09:34this show as well that people will see because you're a great storyteller i know you did spoken
09:39word stuff uh recently in the last few years but anyone who goes to a regular oh there's another hat
09:44there's more props have you got a different hat for different stories is that only for you baby only
09:49for you there he goes flirting again i bet if you go see this tour on any of the dates
09:54he brings
09:54out different hats and then you'll know for me um but the you know every time you go to a
10:00blue
10:00october show there's always an element of storytelling not just through the songs but you know with some
10:05stuff that you do between the songs um is there even more poignant stuff this time around because
10:10we're reflecting on the you know the album from 20 years ago you know what's funny is that there's not
10:16because it's just we i just wanted the music to speak for itself and so i'm gonna do less talking
10:23and playing more because there's 15 songs on this album so we have to play through the whole album i
10:29might say some words some but there's not a monologue built into the show because this is the foiled album
10:37and it should just speak for itself and then we leave and then we come back on and play all
10:41of our hits so
10:42it's like we're playing a good two hours every night and it's i don't think there's time for
10:48justin to to do one of his things and so music musically but if you're telling me if you're
10:54telling me you'd like a monologue in this tour i sure can write one well maybe you could do it
11:01after
11:02the album because i do kind of like the idea of it being you know a very fateful rendition of
11:08the
11:08album from top to bottom you know you've haven't listened to some songs and gone do you know what
11:13that would have been better if it had an 18 minute freeform jazz exploration in the middle so we'll
11:18just put that in to make the song longer because sometimes bands do that they tell you you're gonna
11:23get the album live and you're like huh i don't remember that five minute drum solo in that hit
11:29single that i bought from 15 years ago do you know what i mean some bands do that some bands
11:32do that
11:33i went to see a band called fish yeah okay or with a girlfriend back in 1999 and i remember
11:42thinking okay what is this and they just jammed right that's all they did was jam and i remember
11:48saying they're going
11:51what's going on here like i was like everybody's tripping on mushrooms and i'm going i don't
11:55understand where's the singer it was so good but i mean some people love that and i love fish now
12:03that i'm older and i can appreciate the musicianship but nobody needs to hear justin talk during foiled
12:11because foiled says enough we don't need to get some introspective political weird not political i
12:16would never do that introspective motivational speech during right foiled because foiled was not
12:22motivational at all it was depressing it was sad it was romantic and it was beautiful
12:27right but you're going to see those sad depressing songs performed with a smile so that's yes and i'll
12:33be taking my clothes off that's the one thing i will be doing now any more plans for any acting
12:40in the
12:41future because you know i very much enjoyed uh section eight right you stop lying no lying i enjoyed
12:49section eight because you know what you made this action i mean i'm gonna say it was a low budget
12:54action film but i've got to tell you i quite enjoy low budget action films right and then what was
13:00you're gonna have to remind me what was the one that came out like two years later that was made
13:04with
13:04the same director called lights out that was it right where i got my head blown off for those people
13:11who've not seen these movies right i think there is a potential here for justin furstenfeld
13:17to be the musician version of um the guy that makes all of the movies that are exactly the same
13:24um liam neeson right because i mean liam neeson was this great actor and then suddenly he made taken
13:29right and then everything has basically been like taken and like taken on a plane taken on the tractor
13:34taken on an ice i've taken your dog if you want to come down the street and to the grocery
13:41store
13:41and turn left and it's like apart from apart from a few the budgets went lower and lower the the
13:47premise of the movie is exactly the same and he plays exactly the same part in all of them right
13:51and it's no problem he's doing that into his 70s and now we know that you can be the convincing
13:57bad
13:58guy in low budget action movies and you've made two that are basically essentially the same i'm
14:02wondering like we could get to a third and then just keep going as a as a sideline you know
14:07i have no
14:08problem with that you do know that i don't i only play drug dealers and bad guys and assassins
14:14that's my deal yes that's it because it has to be i'm such a lovable i'm such a lovable character
14:22in
14:22real life that i only play bad guys yeah because you i do feel like you could do this thing
14:27because
14:28the thing with that i was going to compare you to jason statham but he can't really act whereas
14:32liam neeson's a good actor who's just making the same movies again and again and again on declining
14:36budgets and i feel like because your accent was pretty convincing because like you say
14:40if people know you you're a lovely guy in these two movies you're very much not lovely
14:44right but just let's do a different let's just make one like every year just different location
14:52different person gets kidnapped and i'm out to kill him i think that's a great premise maybe i sell
14:58drugs on the side just pay the rent to pay my all my baby mamas you know it's perfect i'm
15:04from
15:05puerto rico and russia because my accent doesn't ever stick you know no no no no you well in that
15:10regard you could be like sean connery like he played everything with a scottish accent regardless
15:14of whatever he was doing where are you from puerto rico
15:20see we got a great idea i've escaped alcatraz once again mate
15:26if all your manager is watching i've just taken over as your agent for acting work
15:31that's great it's great let's do it uh justin it is terrific to see you good luck on the tour
15:39uh good luck with the pre-production not that you need it because of course you've been doing it
15:43throughout the uk and europe oh and by the way uh if people haven't seen it yet i got the
15:48uh colored
15:49vinyl version of foil the 20th anniversary reissue if you like uh vinyl and nice packaging the kind
15:54that's so nice you want to like sniff it it's very very good don't sniff it too close
16:02anyway i love you buddy it's always so good to see you and i i'd love to be back on
16:06your show
16:07anytime when they told me i was on your show i was like yes absolutely great to see you justin
16:12thank
16:12you you have a wonderful day okay bye buddy