[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, let's do it. [SPEAKER_01]: And welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK and WFPK.org Consequence and the Consequence podcast network.
[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks making you way here check it out the episode you know what to do If you'd like what you see what you hear hit that subscribe button you're gonna get new interviews just like this one sent your way every single week
[SPEAKER_01]: and grab us at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.Horic, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast from, you can subscribe to Kyle Meredith with, and please give this series a rating and leave a review wherever you're listening or watching from. [SPEAKER_01]: We've had some great guests lately, just spoke with Tim Roth and Steven Knight and Tom Harper about Peaky Blinders, the Immortal Man, the movie that's now playing. [SPEAKER_01]: on Netflix.
[SPEAKER_01]: We hung out with Randy Blife from Lamb of God, Lily Raid to talk about the third season of shrinking on Apple TV, Juno Temple, and Haley Lou Richardson both co-starring and good luck have fun. [SPEAKER_01]: Don't die. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's see. [SPEAKER_01]: Cornbread Mafia, Adam Goldberg, Mike Patton from Faith No More. [SPEAKER_01]: Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbado, they directed the HBO documentary Murder in Glitterball City.
[SPEAKER_01]: We also hung out with Maya Mitchell, Susie Porter, Thomas Brody, singer, and David Thueless to discuss the latest season of the Artful Dodger on Hulu and Manner James Keenan of Tool and a perfect circle was here as well. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kyle Meredith today talking with Ed O'Brien Gettars of Radiohead. [SPEAKER_01]: He's got his second solo album called Blue Morpho. [SPEAKER_01]: It's a record born out of the isolation and emotional weight of the pandemic.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Ed's going to reflect on how a dark night of the soul led to a daily practice of playing Gettars without expectation. [SPEAKER_01]: He'll explain how those raw moments became the foundation of the album's songs and shaped further through a collaboration with the producer Paul Epworth. [SPEAKER_01]: He's also going to discuss the records deep connection to nature.
[SPEAKER_01]: The influence of writers like Wendell Berry and how embracing rather than avoiding darkness led to something unexpectedly beautiful. [SPEAKER_01]: And along the way, we're going to look back at Radiohead's recent reunion tour. [SPEAKER_01]: and he shares this really incredible story about the band's very first gig in 1985 and we'll consider how his solar work now sits alongside what he calls the mothership of the band, both worlds continuing to evolve side by side.
[SPEAKER_01]: All that a more as we talk Blue Morpho, it's Kyle Meredith with Edo Brian. [SPEAKER_01]: Hi. [SPEAKER_01]: Good to see you again. [SPEAKER_01]: How you doing? [SPEAKER_01]: I'm good. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: How are you? [SPEAKER_01]: Just saying what a beautiful day you've got down there in Austin. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's absolutely stunning. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, show off. [SPEAKER_01]: That's, uh, where are you? [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Louisville.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was just saying we went from literally 72 degrees to 27 degrees within 24 hours. [SPEAKER_01]: Let's, yeah, it's, um, yes. [SPEAKER_01]: Blue Morpho. [SPEAKER_01]: Congratulations. [SPEAKER_01]: what a beautiful record that you've done once again. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you very much. [SPEAKER_01]: The last time we talked was February of 2020, right when you were releasing the EOB record. [SPEAKER_01]: You were my last interview before it all went south.
[SPEAKER_03]: And a lot of people said that last gig last interview. [SPEAKER_03]: So I hope, again, I hope this isn't going to be the last interview before something else happens. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm not in love, but you know, if it does, then we'll know it's you, and I'm bringing it, I'm bringing the chaos. [SPEAKER_01]: But seriously, so this record kind of comes out of all of that. [SPEAKER_01]: All of that chaos, all of that darkness, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I'd love to hear sort of the genesis of where you pick up and where Blue Morpho starts to take off. [SPEAKER_01]: It sort of starts. [SPEAKER_03]: I start working with Paulette Puehr in September, October, 2020. [SPEAKER_03]: We, um, he was a dad of the school. [SPEAKER_03]: We got together. [SPEAKER_03]: Because another data at the school is an inventor has invented this guitar called the Circle Guitar and this guitar is pretty extraordinary.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's actually coming into its getting into production this year and this guy had a prototype and it was in between the first and the second lockdown and he said, do you fancy checking out this guitar read and I said, of course, check out amazing. [SPEAKER_03]: He said, oh, the other guy that's interested is Paul at Perth. [SPEAKER_03]: He's another data squeeze a friend of mine and said, oh, okay, nice.
[SPEAKER_03]: and Paul was the site, Paul suggested that we demo this guitar, put it through its paces in his studio, the church and crowd-chend. [SPEAKER_03]: So we had these four days in his studio, putting this, you know, work, but really we're just hanging out and chatting and doing a bit of recording on this track.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was amazing, and I connected with him, and he connected with me, and we sort of came to the end of that week, [SPEAKER_03]: we realized we wanted to work with one another. [SPEAKER_03]: I really wanted to work with him. [SPEAKER_03]: Because to me, when you work with someone, [SPEAKER_03]: It's not just the kind of the craft that to me you have to have a personal connection. [SPEAKER_03]: It's quite an emotional journey making the piece of music it can be.
[SPEAKER_03]: What my experience of it is it's peaks and troughs and ups and downs and you need to have somebody that you sort of trust and love. [SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, so Paul and I started working together, we didn't go into the second lockdown. [SPEAKER_03]: Second lockdown was quite grim and I sort of spiral down and found myself in this dark place, this deep depression.
[SPEAKER_03]: And part of my therapy and part of my way of dealing with it was [SPEAKER_03]: of going to this little room in the house from in the morning when the kids who I'm schooling and my wife was working online and was just picking up the time playing and with no expectation, no not trying to not try to write songs it was literally [SPEAKER_03]: as a form of finding some peace. [SPEAKER_03]: And that sort of lasted for about nine months.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I came out of it and sort of came out of this start place and had done a lot of healing and I spent a lot of time in Wales and in the hills and in our home there. [SPEAKER_03]: in the natural world outside in the countryside. [SPEAKER_03]: And what I realized was I had these doing that process. [SPEAKER_03]: I just anything that seemed anything that kind of resonated. [SPEAKER_03]: I just literally put on a voicemail. [SPEAKER_03]: I didn't judge it.
[SPEAKER_03]: In fact, halfway through a three-quarters of a way through I started sort of reviewing what I put down on. [SPEAKER_03]: And what is this? [SPEAKER_03]: This is, I'm really not, I don't like this at all. [SPEAKER_03]: Anyway, I come out of this place. [SPEAKER_03]: And I'm, you know, Paul and I are recommitting and we're, we're, we're going to make some music.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I suddenly realize that I've got all these sort of little, little nuggets, these little gems of musical motifs that represent this sort of, this, this dark place, but then there's a beauty there as well. [SPEAKER_03]: There's a beauty in that place as well. [SPEAKER_03]: There's a, [SPEAKER_03]: If you're not scared of being in that place, if you don't keep running, which I've done, and actually locked down for me, like, I couldn't run anywhere anymore.
[SPEAKER_03]: I had to sit with this stuff. [SPEAKER_03]: And when you confront it, there is a beauty. [SPEAKER_03]: It's a journey. [SPEAKER_03]: It's a dark night of the salt. [SPEAKER_03]: And so there's my music literally there. [SPEAKER_03]: There are the, if you like the embers, [SPEAKER_03]: and I just needed to blow on them and add some more word and, you know, craft them into something else and that's what we did with Paul and Riley.
[SPEAKER_03]: And those, those, those, those, that they became, they became these songs. [SPEAKER_03]: And then the process we worked with other musicians got other musicians in. [SPEAKER_03]: And we had a lot of life in there, you know, Paul's got a family. [SPEAKER_03]: I've got a family trying to help the kids.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, our primary thing was locked down was so cruel for the children and so as a parent and as a father I'm you know when you make a music it's great that you know it takes a bat burner when you're dealing with your families we all do so but what was great about it is that we were able to feed that into the music in a kind of way because by [SPEAKER_03]: by making our family and our loved ones our priority. [SPEAKER_03]: It's just good karma for the record.
[SPEAKER_03]: It means you feed in that soul and to the music. [SPEAKER_03]: You feed that emotion into the record indirectly or, you know, so it was a really, it was a really lovely process. [SPEAKER_03]: It was challenging. [SPEAKER_03]: It was, [SPEAKER_03]: We had some transcendent moments, and it was just an amazing journey. [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle, Meredith with Eddle Brian.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the press bio, you quoted, window berry. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm here in Louisville, Kentucky. [SPEAKER_01]: So, you know, window looms large in our world, but that line to no dark, go dark. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that's what you're talking about right there, right? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, yeah, you're not running away from them. [SPEAKER_03]: To know the dark, go dark. [SPEAKER_03]: And you know, even the dark has wings and the idea that that poem was when I read that.
[SPEAKER_03]: Because he's interesting, isn't because he's a farmer as well. [SPEAKER_03]: So he lives in the land.
[SPEAKER_03]: I really resonated with that poem so deeply in his words and and it's like, yeah, and it's not being a scared of the dark You know for me it was a bit like when you when you feel comfortable You know, as you said, no the dark go into go if you want to you know go into the dark, no the dark And it's like sitting in a dark labyrinth and it's like you don't know how to get out of there, but it's almost like you find like in the the the the the The
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, thesis and the minor sort, the Greek myth, the Greek myth, you try and find your thread and that's your intuition trying to find it through. [SPEAKER_03]: And what's beautiful is that this journey is the hero's journey. [SPEAKER_03]: It's the journey. [SPEAKER_03]: It's a soul journey. [SPEAKER_03]: And it's well documented. [SPEAKER_03]: And it's written about by beautiful poets and express by when or bury it's a genre of the cross.
[SPEAKER_03]: It's Joseph Campbell, the hero's journey. [SPEAKER_03]: or the hero with a thousand faces, yeah, and it's all these things, and it's Dante's inferno midway through life, I got lost in the woods. [SPEAKER_03]: So there's so much beautiful, beautiful writing and music that you sort of can hang on to and go, it's okay, this isn't just good [SPEAKER_03]: I take my time, I'm just going to be here and be present with it and sit in it, sit in the fire.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's interesting now to hear all of this and think about how that does come out musically, because it's a very earthy album, which is ironic, it's not the word, but the fact that the last album was titled Earth, and this is a very earthy album, and that was much more, I don't know, like I was thinking about the title track.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, Blue Morpho and I wrote down it's like we're taking a walk with you in the woods like that's what that track feels like yeah like right when you start hearing that exactly like like once you figure out [SPEAKER_01]: What's taking shape? [SPEAKER_01]: Do you then follow that song's path for the whole record? [SPEAKER_03]: It's interesting because each song has its own place.
[SPEAKER_03]: And what's sort of miraculous about the creative process that I love and that I'm, when I connect with something, it becomes very cinematic and like you said it for me, it is being out in nature, that song particularly. [SPEAKER_03]: But it's so what's so interesting about the process, [SPEAKER_03]: that the kernel of that song is a guitar motif. [SPEAKER_03]: And even when that emerged when I had that thing I was playing, you suddenly feel the potential of what this thing can be.
[SPEAKER_03]: And suddenly it presents itself. [SPEAKER_03]: It's not me saying, oh, I want it to be like that. [SPEAKER_03]: It's like a child when a child is born. [SPEAKER_03]: a child is a baby's born and the character of that baby is very of that soul is very, very much in that baby.
[SPEAKER_03]: You know, the birth can often be if it's, you know, like with our kids born at home and the birth, each birth is very different from my wife, but the birth that children was really reflective of kind of then out 22 and 20. [SPEAKER_03]: So it's like this with songs, these things emerge and you feel the potential.
[SPEAKER_03]: So for me, it becomes, it's not an exercise of the mind, it's an exercise of, oh, this is what it is, oh, okay, this is what it is, and for me, when that song came out, it really felt like it felt like being in the edge of the matcha Atlantica in Brazil where we lived in 2013, and it felt like, [SPEAKER_03]: late afternoon and it felt like the butterfly, the blue more fun.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it's just these funny little notes that come out, but it's sort of the kind of the miracle of the process it's. [SPEAKER_03]: It's so, that for me is the most exciting moment because you're not expecting it and then this thing happens and it goes, what the, wow, what is this?
[SPEAKER_03]: And you can then feel that you can, you can almost feel like I'm in it, I couldn't hear Tornu's string arrangements, but you can, [SPEAKER_03]: You know that there's potential for something very beautiful there. [SPEAKER_03]: So, yeah, it's a really interesting process. [SPEAKER_03]: And each song like, I mean, incantations are song that opens up, proceeds that, that's very much being in the lab, sitting in the darkness.
[SPEAKER_03]: And that motif, that guitar motif again was captured. [SPEAKER_03]: It was just that one moment was captured. [SPEAKER_03]: So, okay, in that motif and that rhythm, [SPEAKER_03]: It feels like I'm in this dark place, but there is a light there. [SPEAKER_03]: There is a thread there, I'm not gonna be, I'm not in a dungeon. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm in somewhere that's dark, but there is a route by just have to figure out what it is and I have to trust in it.
[SPEAKER_03]: And actually, the chorus is all about, you know, it's all about the earth and it's all about the idea that the planet heals us, this earth and there is, you know, [SPEAKER_03]: In Wales, so we are it's it's very Celtic and the calts are very very rooted in in in that in their earth and their worship of of their deities and that.
[SPEAKER_03]: the connection with spirit was very much with the land and you can feel it it's almost like there are spells in the land there's you know in Shakespeare you've got the three witches in Macbeth you know to bubble bubble ton and trouble and I had this image of almost like these these I don't want to call them witches because that's due to service but these incredible
[SPEAKER_03]: women kind of ushering spells and ushering, you know, potions and healing, but it's all within the earth. [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it felt very, very rooted in this old, old lands. [SPEAKER_03]: And yeah, I was just bringing all this stuff together and you know, it might sound a bit mad, but I think there's a part of songwriting that is quite mad. [SPEAKER_01]: And we'll be right back right after this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, that leadoff track too, you know, teachers later on, it's, it's got its own fight, but there's a moment in that leadoff track that you're talking about and I hope this isn't unfair, but I thought, oh, there's a moment and it's the only moment on the record that kind of reminds me of Radiohead. [SPEAKER_01]: Really? [SPEAKER_01]: Later on in the song, the, the, the, the, who was that sort of happened there.
[SPEAKER_03]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: And you know, just knowing that that was sort of becoming parallel in your life again, like, does any of this record affect then how you saw or heard your old band? [SPEAKER_01]: That's a good question. [SPEAKER_03]: I hadn't really thought about that. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I'm, I'm, you know, you know, we did some shows last year. [SPEAKER_03]: Right. [SPEAKER_03]: And that was just such a glorious, [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, I was just amazing.
[SPEAKER_03]: It was, I think it's, for me, it was definitely that my favorite ever touring that we've ever done. [SPEAKER_03]: And I think I just, my overwhelming sense is sort of love and gratitude. [SPEAKER_03]: Love for, for my brothers, love for the audience and the people come along and, you know, and co-create those evenings. [SPEAKER_03]: And they were sort of, they were magical. [SPEAKER_03]: They were really, really magical. [SPEAKER_03]: We were all blown away.
[SPEAKER_03]: Everybody in the room was, you know, the band and the, [SPEAKER_03]: But gratitude for this journey, the extraordinary journey that me and my brothers have been on life, you know, just this 1985 and we for all its schools together. [SPEAKER_03]: You know, it was exactly 40 years. [SPEAKER_03]: One of the nights I was trying to work out when we did our first gig. [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, Philip didn't play in Johnny didn't play, but Colin Tom and I did.
[SPEAKER_03]: And it was an 18th birthday party in, I think it was November 1985. [SPEAKER_03]: And it was my friend Karen Edwards. [SPEAKER_03]: It was her birthday party. [SPEAKER_03]: And all the things he rugby club just side Oxford.
[SPEAKER_03]: And I was trying to find out the exact date for it because I wanted to surprise everybody and said, [SPEAKER_03]: You know, in London or something and I could say this is the 40th anniversary of the first gig where Colin Phil and Tom and actually what I haven't that night was this is a little bit of I don't you know interested a little bit of Radi head so we had a drum machine Tom had this little boss doctor rhythm drum machine
[SPEAKER_03]: and it broke down halfway through the set and couldn't get it going so it was just really embarrassing when front of all of our friends and we're trying to be cool and you joined a band because you love music also there was a girl I'm trying to you know I really want to be my girlfriend
[SPEAKER_03]: And it breaks down and it's a bit, and it was that night, I remember afterwards, we all went to this, you know, we all huddle back stage and we went, you know, we've got to find a drummer. [SPEAKER_03]: And I said, I said, well, there's Phil Selle, but Phil was in the year above me in two years above Tom and Colin, and it's like a big ask asking, and he's in the cool year, and he was in this cool band called Jungle Telegraph.
[SPEAKER_03]: and Phil and I used to drink in the same pub with part same group, but he was older than me, and I was a bit, you know, there's an etiquette isn't there at school, you don't go, you wait for the older boys to come and talk to you, you don't go start unless you're cocky and I wasn't cocky.
[SPEAKER_03]: So I said to, I said, well listen, I'm going to the Warwick, which is the public's who drink it, so I'm going to the Warwick tomorrow night, Phil will be in there, when I ask, so the next night I go in and
[SPEAKER_03]: And I liked to think there was a jukebox and I sort of wandered up the jukebox and put some waspings and music on and he came out and anyway it wasn't like that so we're just standing then I went up to him and he'd heard that the drum machine had broken down and he said to me he said how did the gig go?
[SPEAKER_03]: I said because he'd heard we're doing a gig and I said well it's pretty good yeah I don't want to go like we were crap and we need a drummer you want to play a bit hard to get right so it's like yeah you know it's like
[SPEAKER_03]: like Danny Zuko and and then sneaky and grease right you like so well we would we would and above that one about a percent one percent of their cool you know and I say well you know yeah it was pretty good you know but but our drum machine broke down he goes oh yeah okay yeah and I said done we've got band practice some first day do you fancy coming along he's like [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, why not? [SPEAKER_03]: And it was brilliant.
[SPEAKER_03]: He was in from then on and we laughed because I reminded because I remember my memory of that first first verse was Tom saying to fit. [SPEAKER_03]: Can you drum any faster? [SPEAKER_03]: And I think there was a moment when we were rehearsing on the set we were doing a sound check in one of the case. [SPEAKER_03]: And I remember I think there was something Tom didn't say that to Phillip, obviously. [SPEAKER_03]: And I think I said that to Phillip as a joke.
[SPEAKER_03]: And he knew exactly what I said. [SPEAKER_03]: So can you, you know, on 15, can you drum any faster? [SPEAKER_03]: And he knew exactly what I was talking to. [SPEAKER_03]: So there's just, what am I saying here? [SPEAKER_03]: I told you a little story. [SPEAKER_03]: I'm saying here that it's been an, I'm full of incredible gratitude and love and thanks for that. [SPEAKER_03]: I, my worlds are, you know, they're, they're, what's so lovely is it feels they're both can coexist.
[SPEAKER_03]: The radio had to think and go out and tour and, you know, and that we've all, and that's the mothership, I guess, for all of us. [SPEAKER_03]: But we've got these little satellites, you know, that's the smile and there's Tom's got us. [SPEAKER_03]: So, I'm just going to come out late in the year, thinking, Johnny's got his stuff and, you know, Philips got his stuff and causes playing with Nick Cave and the bad seeds and
[SPEAKER_03]: It's really, it's really, but there's this, I think when we get together, it's like family and it's like, it's like, okay, we slot in and it's, it's, it's kind of, it and those, I gotta say, you know, I might, it might sound strange, but it's the first time I realize that those are really had songs that they're pretty good, right? [SPEAKER_03]: I mean, you know, I've got some distance on them and you go, these are actually really good songs.
[SPEAKER_03]: Well, I'm glad that he realized that as well, you know, finally, but it's that thing of like, you know, the time and not playing it and, you know, a few more years on you about it. [SPEAKER_03]: Oh, yeah, I think it's something that's a really fucking good song. [SPEAKER_03]: Yeah, it's such a blessing. [SPEAKER_03]: I feel very, very, yeah, I feel blessed, very, very blessed and thankful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, and it's great for us fans to getting both of those worlds from all of you all. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm really happy to see that radio has back a really young, but I'm seriously happy to be hearing more music from you. [SPEAKER_01]: I loved Earth so much and to follow up with Blue Morpho, seriously is exactly what I was hoping for as a fan as well. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_03]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_03]: That's so lovely. [SPEAKER_03]: That's so kind of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, and it's so great talking to you again. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_01]: Thank you, Kyle. [SPEAKER_01]: My thanks to Edo Brian Blue Morpho, is his latest solo album. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, hit that subscribe button while you're hanging around so you can keep up with all the interviews that are put out every single week at Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, Consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast from. [SPEAKER_01]: You can [SPEAKER_01]: And please, to give this series a rating and leave a review where every you're listening or watching from. [SPEAKER_01]: After that, you can head over to wfpk.org.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's where I do a show Monday through Friday, starting at 6 p.m. Eastern. [SPEAKER_01]: It's four hours of classics. [SPEAKER_01]: You get a great classical alternative and any rock. [SPEAKER_01]: tons of new music and music and film news and lots of bonus interviews as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, one of my recent shows had some classics and favorites from Digible Planets, Devon, Gilphilly, and Nina Simone, the small faces, the doors, food fighters, Nirvana, Aquanets, Harry Styles, Robert Finley, Dr. Dog, Hive, Tory Amos, the Smiths, War, Freakslug, soccer mommy, and my interviews with Billy Corrigan of The Smash of Pumpkins, Jerry Cantrell of Alice and Chains and Derek [SPEAKER_01]: That's what happens every week night starting 6 p.m. Eastern at WFPK.ORG.
[SPEAKER_01]: Consequence says your music and film news. [SPEAKER_01]: You can also find me on any of the social media sites. [SPEAKER_01]: The address is always at Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: Please do like. [SPEAKER_01]: Follow along. [SPEAKER_01]: That does it for another edition. [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: I'll see you next time. [SPEAKER_02]: Consequence podcast network. [SPEAKER_02]: Cheers.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK for more ever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.