ITS Home Edition: X Ambassadors

meetings the cotail parties. The interviews for this podcast has migrated over to Zoom, which is part of the reason that the Inside the Studio team has put together this home edition of the show, bringing you into the bedrooms and living rooms of your favorite artists to find out how they're coping with lockdown and how it's impacting the

way they make music. This week, our Quarantine correspondent Jordan ront Hog caught up with Sam Harris from ex Ambassadors to talk about how the pen dam it has been affecting him and how he put together his excellent new song Zen Over Zoom with Ka Flay and Grandson. And just to make sure your Zoom never runs out. Once you've checked out this episode, give a listen to the I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts, rivals Music's Greatest Feuds,

which is available wherever you find your favorite shows. Hello, everybody, my name is Jordan run Tug. But enough about me today. I'm joined by Mr Sam Harris, composer, multi instrumentalist, activist and lead singer for Ex Ambassadors. The band followed up their latest album, twenty Nineteens O'Ryan with an EP in March called Belong. The three song collection bears the influence of soulful icons like Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles and Joe Cocker.

In May, they released the song Zen, which was written and recorded in Lockdown. It's a track about finding peace among the isolation of quarantine and uncertain me of COVID nineteen. Thank you so much for being here. It really is a pleasure. Thanks particularly. Yeah, man, No, it's it's it's my pleasure. Uh. Now you recently teamed up with ka Play and Grandson for the song Zen, which gave voice to so many people who've been having a really hard

time with the isolation of quarantine. How did that song come to be? Because I'm having a really hard time with isolation in quarantine. You know, uh that that song came about, it was really nice. It was very as organic lee as things happened these days. You know. It came about because I had a session of virtual session booked with Grandson and I was like very real with him, and I was like, man, I don't know how good I am at doing, you know, writing songs over zoom.

And he was like, you know, it's all good. You don't have to put the pressure on ourselves. We can just write a dumb little song about you know, these uncertain times they were living in. And I got off the phone with him and I just had that line in my head, someone give me fucking zen. And so I came up with just this rough, little acoustic demo and I sent it over to him and he immediately

came back with like a whole verse. And then I suggested getting our friend Christine on it because she had come up in conversation, and it just, like, I don't know, fell into place from there. It's amazing social distance songwriting. I've never really heard of that. What is How is that different? It's honestly not too different from the way

we've operated already. You know, like the last time Christine and I collaborated on something, we were on tour and she was just emailing me her parts, uh, And it was the same deal with this, you know, like I I would you know, we kind of have like back and forth they someone would send, you know, a lyric, idea or melody. I mean actually, for the most part this song, it was just like they both came up with what ended up on the record right off the bat.

Um so uh but yeah, I mean when we're working, usually it's ailing files back and forth with people. I it's rare for me to ever, you know, it's rare for me to create something with someone that comes out where we're in the same room together. It's always like postal service style. Yeah, how do you find zen in times like this? What keeps you grounded? Man? It's hard. It's hard. Like some days or some days are okay, some days I can do my regular routine, you know.

I I try to have a couple of things that I do in the morning that that ground me. Um. I journal, you know, I do three pages in a journal every day, and then I make coffee, and I make breakfasts, and I walk my dog and and you know, doing those those things every day helps ground me a little bit. But sometimes it doesn't, and sometimes it you know, it takes a little extra work to ground myself, you know, as much as possible. Getting getting outside is really important.

Just walking around my little neighborhood. I'm actually today is the first day of a week of quarantine of like real self imposed isolation before we get tested so that we can go visit my brother and my um my nephew and my sister in law because he's immuno compromised. Um so, uh yeah, I mean it's gonna be extra hard for me to find them this week. You know, the isolation is hard. It's it's it can really take

a toll on you mentally. And something really awesome that I've seen you do on Instagram was have meditation time with fans, which is so cool. Yeah, it was, you know, it was an experiment. Uh. You know, it's something that I have, I have worked into my daily practice. I've kind of I've been on and off with it, um but I thought it would be a nice kind of thing to share with with our fans, and and um yeah it was. It was interesting. It was really interesting.

Um I I loved doing it every morning and being able to meditate and play a song for for everybody. That was a lot of fun. Meditation is one of those things I've tried so hard to get into, but I just I can't stop my brain. I can't do it. It's never really, I've never been able to get to that place. What would you say to someone like me who's really struggling to incorporate meditation in their life. Well, there are some tricks, UM, And I think I think that one part of it is too allow your brain

to do what it's going to do. But just acknowledging that moment of like, oh, my brain is is going all of these different places when you have that. Whenever I have that moment of acknowledgement of like oh I'm thinking about death or I'm thinking about my bills right now, UM, acknowledging that brings you immediately into the present. And so I would say, if you sit down for five minutes, close your eyes, try to count your breaths, you know, inhale exhale one, two, three, four, up to ten, and

just repeat that. That's kind of a nice trick to to use. That's what I do. UM. But yeah, you know there are apps that people use, Insight Timers one. I use Headspace, UM. And guided meditation is always really helpful to have someone's voice. They're kind of reminding you to come back. Oh definitely, no, I gotta I gotta give those a try. Man. The songs in came out just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month, and then

within a short time later, George Floyd was murdered. And since then you've been very active in in demonstrations on the street and using the band's digital platform online to amplify voices. I'm just wondering if you could talk a little more about about that, the activism that that you've

been doing. I've always looked at ourselves as a band that's not afraid to show our activism and show our support for movements like Black Lives Matter or you know, abolish ice or any of these cultural moments that are happening. You know, we are paying attention to and and um yeah, man, look I it's been a really really tough and challenging couple of weeks for the whole world. Um, and we're

looking at ourselves differently. A lot of you know us are are reevaluating how our privileges have have worked into our lives and and uh, and the injustices that have existed and especially in this country for for so so long that you know we have just as you know that I, as a white person, I've been blind to

you know for for a long long time. UM. So right now, what we're trying to do is see where we can focus our energy best UM to make concrete change and and UM it goes from small scale stuff to big scale stuff like you know, we live in California, and uh, I'm I'm really curious about this guy who's

up for d A here, George Gascon. You know, our current DA, Jackie Lacey, has been really really she's kind of done everything hand in hand with the police union and and the police the lap D here and has done nothing to UM to help stop the murder of black people in in this city and people of color

in this city at the hands of the police. I want to try and elect a new DA who will take a look at what's going on and think about defunding the police and think about restructuring and trying to think of a new way to UM create a safe community here in l a UM and then also thinking about big picture stuff like you know, voting and voting rights, and you know, with COVID, it's gonna be really hard unless we get enough money in some one of these stimulus bills to UM make it so that voting from

home is actually plausible. Um, it's going to be really hard to to get voter turn out to where we need it to be for the selection in order to elect someone you know, for the general role and for in the in the House, and people who will actually fight for reform, not just reform like the big sweeping change. You know. It's someone said this to me the other day. Uh. And and I'm I'm paraphrasing here, but this is what we're experiencing right now. Is is is not just uh,

it's not just a moment. This is this is really a revolution, and this is really an uprising. And I think we have to be very you know, transparent about that and calling it what it is and uh um and doing our part. We're going to continue doing our part in whatever way we can. And uh, I don't know, it's it's weigh and heavy on me this morning. Man.

I'm listening to you know, the news and listening to the reforms that that the Democratic Party is trying to fight for, and those are going to be met with resistance by the Republicans. And these reforms are like, you know, they're just not enough. We we really gotta I think aim aim a lot higher. Uh, you know, and and that's the only way to actually get tangible and reforms to pass that will make a difference in people's lives.

Aiming kind of like being like realistic has been kind of the m O of a lot of the Democratic Party for a long time, and that's just gotten us nowhere. I think, aiming high and and and really like embracing again, embracing that this is a revolution that we need. We need major, major change in this country in order for people to be safe and to not die. It's so real. But you know, back to using the band as as um to try and make change. I look at it as an imperative and I, um, I don't know, it's

just on my mind all the time, you know. So if if it's on my mind all the time, I'm gonna be speaking out about it and taking it back to zend the song Zen for a moment. The message of the song is self care. In the face of these grave injustices, systemic racism, police brutality, self care tends to become less of a priority, and you're almost tempted to sort of view it almost as selfish or something to feel guilty for. What are good ways to balance

self care with community action. Um well, if you think about it like getting you know, this is a this is a long, a long fight that we are all in. If you are for the Black Lives Matter movement, if you are for social justice, here for you for equality, if you're if you're for you know, self governance and and people and us collectively finding ways to dismantle the systemic racism in this country, then it's a it's a you got a long fight ahead of you. So if you want to be able to be at your best,

you gotta take care of yourself. That's how I look at it, you know. But it's look, it's hard. It's hard, man, It's hard. You know. Like first thing in the morning, I want to I want to know what's now, what's going on in the world, and and what what's the next fight? And uh, I have to keep reminding myself to uh, you know, wake up, to take a shower, drink some water, because I'm just going to be a mess if I don't, And I'll be more effective if I if I'm you know, if I'm taking care of myself.

The last three months have just been so transformative on a micro level and a macro level. What have you learned about yourself in this time? Oh? Um, Someone's asked me that question already, and I still don't really have a good answer to it. I think I'm still figuring a lot of stuff out about about who I am, and I I think that, Um, this has been an oddly productive time for for me. So I've had the distraction of my work, you know. But the thing is, like my work is is my life, and my work

reflects my life. So you know, one thing that I am learning about myself is that I'm a little afraid sometimes of saying no to things. I'm I'm saying no to to more things now and and and really kind of reprioritizing what I want to what I want to work on, and what I want to do, and and the music that I want to make and who I want to make it with. I think what this this is all reminding us of is that life is short and at time that we are given here on this

on this planet, how are you gonna spend it? What are you gonna do? You know? Like I want to make stuff that's exciting to me and that I really like, and I want to work with people that I really like and really admire, and I don't really give a

ship about the rat race so much anymore. I still do obviously when it's when it's right in front of me, when I'm faced with it, and then I I spiral out for a second and then I But what I always lately have been coming back to is like, look, I only got this one life and this one time here on my planet. I can't predict anything. I can't really control anything. The only thing I can control is like how I'm spending my time and who I want to spend my time with, and uh, and what I

want to make. So that's been something that I've I don't know if I've learned about myself. But um, over the last months, two months, two and a half months, how long are you in this something like that? Well? What what work are you prioritizing? What are you working on now that you're really proud of? Well, we're finishing up you know, we finished up our new record, which I'm really really proud of. I think it's really cool and really different, and uh, we are working on a

narrative podcast that that goes along with it. So it's a concept record and and the podcast and the album are are going to be coming out around the same time. And it's it's cool, it's in the it's in the gestation period right now, but we're working with an amazing

company and we want to do something different. You know, my other and I grew up listening to lots of books on tape together, and he listened to a lot of radio dramas, and you know, that was one form of entertainment that we could really share together because you know, when we're watching movies, unless they were descriptive audio films

like he wasn't really getting much out of it. Um. So this was a medium that that we shared growing up and that I'm really interested in in now how people are using it, and I I feel like it hasn't been used to the degree that it could be, so working on that. I've been working on a feature, writing a feature with a partner of mine, writing partner of mine, old Buddy, and working on that new album, working on new music with a couple of different artists.

Two artists in particular have been working with lately, an artist named Jensen McCrae. She has a song out called Wolves right now, another song called The Plague and another song called white Boy, and those are the only three songs that she's put out. And she's absolutely incredible. She reminds me um kind of of like um Phoebe Bridgers and a little bit of Tracy Chapman. I don't know. She's so unique and so cool and and uh and

her voices insane and the lyrics are insane. So I've been working a little bit with her and another artist named Terrell Hines. Um. Terrell Hynes is also incredible. He put out new songs recently called The Promise or Promise I think, but he has an EP out and we've been working on some new music with him that we're really excited about. We took him out on tour with us in in Europe right before this whole thing hit the Fan. Also just writing some new X Ambassadors stuff.

But like that's you know, like that kind of stuff. Like I'm I'm prioritizing artists who I really genuinely like, I love. I love these artists. I think narrowing that list is helpful for me because then I can really put like a lot of my time and energy into it. And I'm not just it's very easy. In the song right her world UM and producer world to like have a million different starting points with a million different artists and then just kind of like see what catches and

go with that. But I don't like having unfinished things around, you know, Like I'm I have so many of my own unfinished demos lying around that I want to be able to if I'm working with an artist, I want to be able to really like commit to it. Yeah, I want to finish it. I want to finish it. And like, look, if we write a song that's not great and the first thing, the first thing we write is not great. Cool, Let's write another one that's not great,

Let's write another one. You know, you gotta put that work in your last album or Ryan from the Fall felt to me like such a growth album, turned thirty, getting married, becoming an uncle. What is the message in

this new album that you're working on now. I've been really interested in in Um the Youngion idea of the Um the Shadows self, and uh, it's kind of like a Jackal and Hide story, you know, figuring out how to to grapple with the parts of yourself that you suppress, the parts of yourself that you were most afraid of and grappling with that as as broad as that is. That's that's kind of what the new record is is about. It feels very much like sort of a quarantine theme.

Do do you consider yourself a homebody? Do you get your inspiration from looking in word looking outward? I think I I think I'm like you know how people are saying, like I've realized that I'm like a fake extrovert or you know the Meyer's Briggs stuff like yeah, I think I'm a fake extrovert, but I think I'm actually an extroverted introvert or an extra or an introverted extrovert. I get an introverted extrovert. I I really like I I thought, I was like, yeah, you know what, that makes sense.

Like I spend so much of my time like out in public. You know, I'm I'm I'm putting myself out there, but like you know, at the end of the day, having alone time is really important to me, and I like being I like having that, you know, these moments of quiet and peace by myself where I can think, I like, I do like working by myself, but then I get a chance to, you know, have like a socially distant interaction with a group of friends, and I

just feel reinvigorated. And I'm like, what's happening to me right now? Why do I feel so good? And I think it's because I'm hanging out with people and interacting with people. And I also missed the ship out of my band. I really missed my band. It sucks, you know, like we've been a band for over thirteen years and this is the longest that we've gone without seeing each other. And it's really crazy, Like how much I missed those guys because you were like mid tour right when this

all went down. You were in Europe. Yeah, we were right in the middle of it. I mean, granted we were coming back from we were going to come back from that tour and have the rest of the year to finish up the record and kind of be here in l A and do a couple of shows here and there, but mostly focused on that. And um, we got what we were were, you know, we got what we wanted. But now I think it's gonna you know, it's it's obviously complicated a lot of things, And yeah,

I miss him a lot. So I think I I thought I was our own body. That's maybe something I learned about myself. I thought I was more of a home body than I than I actually am. What does the typical work day I feel like for you? What's the like? I'm always curious like people's creative processes, Like did you wake up and you treat it almost like going to the office you sit down and get at

your guitar and get at your piano. Or is it more of an inspiration based thing where you hear something in your head and go sit down and work it out. It's a healthy combination of both. You know. There's a there's a playwright named Jez Butterworth. He wrote a play called Jerusalem and another play called The Ferryman. But I listened to an interview recently when he was asked a similar question like what's your what's your motive of working?

And he talked about, um, you know, you can't force you can't force inspiration to come, but you can always you can always keep your antent uh up. You know, you can work at that. And I try to work at keeping my antennas up. You know. By I think a part of my my morning daily practices being outside, no headphones in, no phone, just walking my dog, and being out in the world and being in my thoughts and then coming home making a cup of coffee and

journaling and writing free writing for for three pages. And then usually from that I will either go into um working on a song, going going to open up a production thing that I started, or or a song that I started, start writing a little bit more of script that I'm working on. I just try to write something, you know, But I but I I try to keep myself open to like where I'm feeling like I want to go that day. I think that that's kind of the discipline, is carving out the time to do something

like that. I think what I struggle with is how to because I I were I'm a workaholic. But you know, the thing is my my again. My work is my life. My work is my hobby too. My work is what I want to do in my free time. But there are sometimes where I operate out of a place of fear rather than a place of love and inspiration and excitement, where I'm afraid. I'm afraid that if I am not being productive today, that this is just like a wasted day.

And if it's one wasted day, it's going to be another wasted day, and I'm just gonna end up spiraling off into nothing and I will die a meaningless, empty, unfulfilled, unsuccessful life. You know, how do you come at that? It's it's awful. It's awful, you know. So I think what I'm I'm really working at, and I think this will be a lifelong struggle for me, is is to

first really look for joy in what I'm doing. And you know, look, especially in times like this is really hard because there's a lot of pain and suffering that is that has been brought to the surface over the last couple of weeks globally, and you can't ignore that. You can't ignore that. So I am right now focused on the fight for justice, for equality and in my own work, letting my my ego go a little bit and and allowing myself to follow my follow my my joy.

If I when I'm sitting down to work and to create, like, go with what's going to make me happy today when this is all over, COVID pandemic, quarantine, all of that. If you could snap your fingers and have everything tomorrow, just you could walk around, what's the first thing you want to do when this is all over? Trips, you want to take people, you want to hug. Oh man, oh god. I want to see my brother. I'm seeing my brother in like a week, so I'm very excited

about that. Um, I want to play a show. I you know, I right as at the end of this tour and over the last couple of years, touring has been really really where me down. It's really exhausting. It's it's amazing, it's so fulfilling. It's like it's wild ups

and downs. Because the shows themselves are always amazing, almost always amazing, and the fans and being being with my people, you know, and and to be able to touch their hands and see their faces and and and uh and talk to them like I will never take that for granted ever again. But like the actual you know, like the nature of touring is grueling, and I think that started to like abb its way into the performative aspect

of it for me too, which really sucked. And I and I was starting to feel like, you know what, I don't know, I don't know if I can do this forever. This is really this is like really like not bringing me the joy that it used to. And I think this this is just like never mind. I miss it so much. Um So that's that's the first thing I want to do. Then after that, I want to go see a movie in a theater. Yeah. I

love going to movie. I love going to movies by myself and being in a room full of strangers and just you know, watching a movie together and going to dinner man being in a crowded bar. I don't know all the ship that everyone misses but that we can't start doing again right now because everyone's doing it and it's like there's still a pandemic happening. You've got to be careful. It's driving me crazy. I mean in a

in a weird way. If you could say this is a silver lying in all this, It is appreciating all those little things and in your case, big things like having an audience of people who love you be right there too, But yeah, definitely makes you appreciate all the things that we aren't able to do right now. Yeah. What's the world gonna be like when people are finally safely able to like like live life again. I think

it's going to be incredible. And I have mixed feelings of just like renewed optimism and faith in humanity and just like the deepest, deepest pessimism and frustration with with the foundation on which we you know, we sit here, uh, in this country. So I don't know, man, ups and downs. You know, my fantasy is always the you know, those pictures of Times Square and the war is over, celebrations of the World War Two, like hugging and everything. It's honestly,

it's funny you mentioned World War Two. I've been I've been thinking a lot about World War Two over the last three months and how you know that affected everyone globally, you know, in in the same way or not in the same way, in very different ways. But but it was it was a global event that caught that it was a part of everyday life, you know, for for years, for years. Um. So it helps to think about that.

Put this in perspective, you know. If I'm ever getting like, you know, anxious or like God when this is going to be over, its helpful. Sam, thank you so much for your music, and thank you for all the work you're doing just out there on your social accounts and on the streets. Hey man, listen, I'm trying to do whatever I can whenever I can, uh, And it never feels like enough. But that's part of it, that's part

of this struggle. Such a pleasure talking to you. Thank you man, I really I have a great time talking to you too. I hope I didn't depress you, not at all. Okay, good. We hope you've enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio home edition of production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of Inside the Studio and other shows from my heart Radio, check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.