I feel like it's like midnight right now. Do you mind?
Are you feeling jet that got You're just.
Well, I think I'm just like a little bit. I'm already kind of like exhausted from the tour.
It's only been three days, you know. This is Midnight Chats and welcome to episode eighty two, where tonight my guest is Adam Green, who you may know from way back in his Moldy Peaches days. That was a band that he formed when he was just fourteen years old with Kimya Dawson in nineteen ninety four. I suppose they didn't really reach us as a public until the early two thousands when the whole Strokes New York thing blew up.
They were a big part of that. They were a huge part of the freak folk scene to come out of New York at that time, but they disappeared quite quickly. They went on hiatus in two thousand and two, and since then Adam and Kimia have both been releasing solo albums. Adam's just put out his tenth, which is called Engineer Paradise. It comes with a comic book that you can download on his website for free, or you can buy a hard copy of it as well. We talk a bit
about that. But another thing that we talk about in this podcast, which is quite mad, is his Aladdin film. His album before this one that was a soundtrack to a reimagining of the Aladdin story. But as well as the soundtrack, Adam made a movie, a feature length movie where all of the props were made with papier mache, which is as insane as it sounds. He still did it though, and he painted all of the all of
the backdrops and the scenes. He cast Macaulay Culkin in it, and he overdubbed all the voices for some unknown reason, although we talk a little bit about that. So there's a link in the bottom of this podcast where you can view the whole film. It's up on YouTube. It's easy to find, but there is a link there. There's a few other links as well, because we do talk a lot about just some mad stuff that's Adam's done. He's an artist who just loves creating things and he
always goes the extra mile. So I've pointed, you know, you in a direction of a few of those things. Thank you for listening though, and don't forget I know, we go on about it a lot. But if you do like the podcast enough to consider supporting it, the best way you can do it is by subscribing to Loud and Quiet magazine. It costs three pounds a month and all the information is at Loud and Quiet dot com forward slash subscribe. This is a lovely window. We're
satin in West London. You obviously know London really well.
Now I know it pretty well, but I don't. I still need my phone maps to get around.
Sure, yeah, I think I still need those though, to be fair, But can you remember that when was the first time you came here? Because I should say the reason you know London so well out other than touring here and playing a lot here. Your wife grew up here, your family here, you visit a lot.
Yeah, I mean, you know, my wife grew up in West Hampstead and you know went to school around the corner from here, so you know, England has been sort of home base in different ways. Also because of rough Trade, you know, getting signed to that label when I was nineteen coming over here. So yeah, it's just been a lot of you know, a lot of London.
I like it, you know what.
So it was the first time you came here, was that on on rough Trade business? Was that as a musician you came.
Well, you know, the first first time I came here ever, was when I was fourteen years old on a family vacation. Okay, and honestly rough Trade, the Portobello Road store or wait no, and I'm sorry, there was the Covent Garden store.
That was it.
That was definitely on my destinations that you know, I was interested in going, you know, visiting here. It was like that in a Carnivie Street, right.
Did they live up to your expectations?
Yeah? It was neat of course.
That was a great record store when it was there.
Yeah, yeah, you know it's not there anymore.
No, No, it's it's they've moved a big one out east and they coasted down that central one. But that's anyone was tiny. It's like just to go down as spiral stairs to get it was underneath the skate shop.
Right right, yes, yes, So anyways, just so I I had brought I had at that time made a seven inch record that was a MOULDI Peaches record that was the first uh one, and and I brought it to the shop and they bought two copies from me.
Okay, you know, so you could go home and tell people that you were being stopped in London.
Yeah, it was fun.
Can you remember what your first impressions of.
This place was, well, as like a little kid.
Yeah, because you because because as you say, even back then you were you were already making music and the Maldi Peaches was a thing. Or even though you were fourteen, it.
Was a concept. I mean we had we had this one, this one little record. But yeah, I mean, you know, it was my Firstly, my first impressions were like eating like pub food like Plowman's something, you know, like actually, I think that food has changed so much since I first came up, right, Yeah, I mean, well, you know, I like I've developed taste.
For a lot of the sort of traditional British stuff.
I like it, you know, like like roast dinners.
Sure, I mean, uh, you know, any anything like you know, because like I was eating a lot of like roadstop food like ginsters, sandwiches and pickle whatever, Chad, what do you call it? Cheddar and pickle sandwich? But you know, yeah, but uh like I like that stuff, you know. And but but I've noticed that, uh, the country took like a massively transformative Uh you know, it's like as if they, like the government said that they had to change what the food.
Was, yeah, to get so so people would come back.
I think maybe there's a Jeffrey Lewis song that people have to listen to about the food, how he loves the food here. Really yeah, I think it's called My favorite thing about England is the food.
You gotta listen to it. I mean it is really great. Anyway, everyone should listen to all of Jeff's music.
Well you must know him quite well.
Yeah, well we both came out of the anti folks scene in New York, and Jeff is really like native to that. I mean, you know, the Ani folks scene is sort of you know, centralized around.
The East Village.
Well, actually, the Ani folk scene kind of doesn't even really exist in that way anymore because there's no official open mic because it closed Sidewalk Cafe.
Is that just because of gentrification?
Well, you know, the I think the owner was sick of owning that restaurant and you know didn't care if you know it meant this or that too, you know a group of people, you know, I mean I think that he cared, but just not enough not to sell
it right, you know. And but but along Avenue A is sort of the stretch of you know, this sort of and when I when I came to the city, people were like carrying acoustic guitars down Avenue A. Like that was you know, like everyone had a guitar, you know, and you could like sit in the park and play.
And well yeah, with that been like the late nineties, late nineties, okay radio, Okay, I.
Mean that's when I first started to play out in the city, you know, because I'm from the suburbs. But yeah, like and Jeff grew up right near there. He's like I think he grew up on like fourth and fourth and a right, so he was you know, like I remember the first time when the when the Village Voice gave Jeff a bad review, and I thought, but he is the Village Voice. I mean, he's the like he's the kid that actually grew up here, you know, telling
you what he thinks. But in New York, it's like, you know, I kind of like this idea that like everyone has to sort of walk past each other, like you know, like I mean, I'm you know, can like stumble out of a you know whatever, my friend's apartment and walk by like Al Gore yeah or whatever, you know, I mean like because it's just New York and everyone is like sharing this like little piece of terrain, you know, and that I like that.
Who is the best person you've walked past in the street in New York?
Just that for some reason that Al Gore popped in my head because that was unexpected.
True.
Yeah, I just one time I just walked right by Al Gore and I was like, oh, that was weird. But yeah, I mean, uh, who's the craziest person I walked by? The First person I ever saw that was famous in New.
York was John Waters.
Okay, it was.
Really you know, I I you know, I was I was in high school, kind of same kind of temperament where I was going to go like show people that I did art. And I and I went to Chelsea because you know, I heard that's like an exciting place for for for art and and you know I had seen that movie Basket Yacht. Yeah, and you know I was like making drawings, like you know, on the sidewalk
and like trying to get people to buy them. And John Waters walked by, and I tried to get him to buy my drawing, you know, uh no.
But it was cool to see him. I bet it was, you know, yeah, I don't know. And uh uh.
It's funny because you know, you walk by people like or you know, I you know, like for example, Rick Okaesa had just has just died recently, but I remember I'd always walked by him and he's such a you know, he was such a tall guy and he looked so distinctive. You know when I think about walking downtown, like if you passed by like Jim Jarmush or like people like that that are so you know, it's almost like the reason why people come to live.
In New York. And yeah, yeah, so it's neat. So and lou Reid, you know who used to walk around.
Did you ever speak to lou Reid?
I did? I did, well, very briefly.
Okay, how was that? Because we had Karen I was on the podcast a few episodes ago and we were talking about lou Reid and I asked her if she'd ever met him, and she said she hadn't she had had the opportunity to, and she decides to think better of it. She didn't want to go there, you.
Know, maybe she she was kind of wise. I mean one time I was invited to a concert of his and I, you know, he we were a bunch of us were in a circle and he started telling this long anecdote about you know, I think it was like about his friend's funeral, and it ended with a joke. And the whole time I was, you know, thinking, oh my god, lou Reid's talking, Louie's talking. And then when he ended with the joke, like I didn't laugh because I you know, I I didn't even get the joke.
I didn't know what was happening. And he just was like, well I thought that was funny, but whatever. But you know, but you would see him. I mean, like lots of my friends have stories, and you know, like he'd be like in the movie theater or you know, like you get like I remember, I remember walking out of the subway and like he was just there in like some leather pants, and I was like, wow, the reads on you know. Yeah, I mean, and it's cool. I mean,
but these are silly stories. I don't these aren't even stories. But you know, but whatever, it's cool to walk around and I like that people all have to see each other.
Yeah, and there is something still like even if you kind of don't really it's not very cool, is it to say that you buy into the fame thing. But at the same time, if you see someone who is unmistakably this big character from you know, film or TV, right, there is something that is a little thrill in seeing them in real life.
Definitely.
You know, I think you almost know how famous somebody is or how much gravity they have by how much you can't think about anything else than that they're next to you. Yeah, that's how you can figure it out.
Yeah, yeah, that's when you know they're famous. Yeah. So the new records, you've our Engine to Paradise, right, it comes with a comic this one, right, But.
Well no it doesn't.
I mean, well, there is a comic component, you know, like there's the kind of companion piece is a comic and a and a graph. So the graphic novel and the album, and they kind of are I wrote them both at the same time, so they have overlapping lines, sure, and you know thematically maybe connected, but you know, very loosely. And so the graphic novel anyone can download for free if they want, just go to my website. It's Adam Green dot info and you can download a PDF of
the whole book. It's like one hundred and fifty pages, right, and the album, you know, people can stream.
Sure and with the But the is the comic about robot insects, that's why. Yes, okay, yeah, So to tell tell me a bit about the comic, yeah, okay.
Well, so there is a species of AI robot insects called insects with an X like sex, okay, and they are made by this sort of visionary inventor called the Doge of the Internet, who runs this sort of like futuristic idealistic tech company. And so she's developed this new species of brilliant insects.
And then the.
People of the regular world, which is the world of my a Ladin movie. This in a way, this whole story is basically the sequel in a way to My Laddin movie. Okay, right, And so it's in regular world and the people in regular world are getting upset because
kind of like the xenophobic things with immigration. The insects are coming in and you know, they're kind of their other and they're taking their jobs and you know, surpassing them in certain ways, and they're suspicious of it, and you know, they want them out, and because of some disinformation, kind of insidious plot, they end up like having a clash of civilizations and they go to war. And the first half of the book is in the sort of war,
and the second half is in the afterlife. So the second half of the book, we're in the afterlife and you get to see kind of like different.
You know, the ways.
I mean, I read a bit about the afterlife from different mythologies, and I kind of made a composite of you know, all after lives. You get a little bit of Tibetan Buddhists the best of Yeah, it's kind.
I think it's funny.
You can google afterlife on online and you know, there's so much information about it.
You can learn so much that sounds pretty gnarly. But then for anyone that's seeing your Aladdin film, as you mentioned, this kind of all fits together. Yeah, because so to fill people in if they're not aware of this, your last album was an Aladdin, a soundtrack to a remake of a film of Aladdin. The Aladdin story.
It was it was it was like my interpretation of the Aladdin.
Myth But yeah, but it wasn't only that it was also made in pepe mache right on hand drawn sets.
Yeah.
Like, because the thing is people, I think people don't really picture it if I describe it. I think people think that I'm talking about like I made a stop motion version of Aladdin.
But it's not that. It's like real people.
People are acting in full rooms that we made out of cardboard and paper, so they look like they're in a cartoon because like I kind of drew, I drew all of the lines and it looks like you're in a drawing of life.
Yeah. It is absolutely like such a mammoth task to do that. Yeah, I'll put a link under this podcast. Yeah, because you can see the whole thing. You can see the whole thing on YouTube.
Just type Adam Green's Aladdin into YouTube and you can watch it.
And it's and it's like an hour and twenty.
It's a it's a feature film and it stars you know, Macaulay Culchin is in it, Ali A Shokat from Arrested Development, Natasha Leone from you know, God, I don't know, she's from a million things. You know people know here from Orange is Orange is the New Black, sums of Beverly Hills. She's like an iconic actress. I mean, it has the painter. Francesco Clemente is the genie.
He plays the genie.
Yeah, and Jack Dishall, who's like my my moldy.
Peaches, you know, friend.
He plays He plays two parts and he's fucking brilliant.
Okay.
I mean people should go and see this, put this into that computer and watch this because the amount of effort that went into this. I mean, how long did it take to make this?
Of years?
You know, a lot of these projects has been taking me years to do. I mean, including the graphic novel. I mean, like it's gotten to this point now where when I come up with an idea, I think, okay, this is going to take me like three years, four years, you know, because that we had to make thirty rooms out of out of from scratch, you know, and we made five hundred objects that go into the rooms. So it was kind of like we made car keys, door knobs, whatever, anything,
you know. Any like we made a ferrari you know at paper mache, like we made you know, everything that you needed for the movie was made. There's nothing that's not artificial, and in a way, it's almost the inverse
of the Dogma ninety five manifesto. Do you remember that it was like large Venturia where they had to I think they had all kinds of rules saying that they needed to shoot in locations and they couldn't bring any props in right, and they couldn't like change anything about it, and they couldn't use any like artific official uh you know, noises or something, and so so my, you know whatever. Aesthetic here is the opposite of that. There's no real
things allowed in the movie. Everything has to be crafted and made. There's you know, if you have a telephone, you have to make it out of cardboard.
Everything was you know.
Oh was there any was there ever a point we're making this when you just thought what am I doing? I'm just driving myself insane? Let's forget it.
Well, you know what's funny is the Aladdin the movie.
The character of Aladdin has a genie, and the genie gives gives a Laddin, you know, unlimited material things. But what's funny is if you make Aladdin, you have to be the genie, you know what I mean, because you have to make all.
That stuff that's sic.
Yeah, so so in a way. I had to be Aladdin and the Genie and had to make it happen.
And your genie's the lamp in your Aladdin.
I had help too.
I had like a crew, a lot of volunteers, honestly, because it started with like a Kickstarter campaign, So I had lots of like, honestly, people that contributed to the movie that wanted to just like get started. Some of them actually that was their first movie and now they're in like the film industry and stuff. Even though I'm not in the film industry. I never made it.
Would you like to be in the film industry?
No?
No, But I mean, you know, uh, well, the thing is, I I have a little bit of a chip on my shoulder because I wanted to make the war in the Paradise. I wanted to make it as a war movie, right, you know, with the album. Yeah, but it wasn't tenable. You know, it was going to be a way bigger budget than Aladdin, and Aladdin really lost money, like it was like a life fucking machine.
You know.
It was like it was a suck of finances. But you know, but it was it was it was worth it, but I couldn't. No one would ever, like it would not make sense for anyone to invest in a movie that I make, because it's not the profit motives are never there, like you know, I think.
Like, no, you're just make You're making it for the for making it, right.
I think I want to tell like kind of my personal story as like a you know, the myth of my what I feel like is happening in my soul or something you know, that's like what that's like what turns me on.
It makes me want to make a movie.
But that doesn't necessarily like translate to the reason why somebody else would want to have me make a movie, you know. And I think, you know, in this case, like I was in Warren Paradise, I was taking like kind of the idea of the idea of war and maybe even the subplot of war and peace and kind of trying to like you know, massage my own life into into that plot and like kind of negotiate and all the characters are sort of me I kind of like, you know, have them say various lines that you know
I'm writing down. But yeah, so ultimately I think, uh, it's not I think I think as far as in general with artists, I think like, I'm on the really low end of an artist that thinks about, you know, how it's going to make money. When I'm thinking of an idea, It's it's pretty low.
That's on the list.
It's very low on the list, you know.
I was going to ask you if if you've done because you do do these kind of big projects that take a lot of time and there's a lot of investment in there, and there's just a lot of effort goes into it. I was going to ask you if you've ever started one that you've that has been too much and you've just not done it? But is it? Is it?
This?
Is it the film version of your new album? Is that what that would be?
Well?
No, no, because I think that for that, I think that when I decided to make it as a graphic novel, I mean, like I could not stress enough how that making it into a graphic novel like is in no way taking the easy way out. It's so difficult to make one hundred and fifty page graphic novel like. I worked with Toby Goodshank and Tom Bain, and we like we had to draw it for six months. We like scheduled three nights a week and drew it and it
took forever. I mean, it was not like the easy way out, and actually it was kind of a cool chance to do something that I hadn't done before. Yeah, but now I'm in the middle of a poem I've been writing for the last year about medieval times, and that's been my next project. And sometimes I do wake up and I think, what have I gotten myself into with this?
How long is this poem?
Right now? It's like about fifty pages?
All right, okay, but it's.
I'm trying to let it little it down.
This is the this is the this is the one that's testing you the most.
Uh, you know, it's just a challenge you.
I want to write a poem that people will people will be able to to really feel, you know what I mean. And so that's not the case with most poems, Like I think people that there'n't really having an audience of you know, at least people I know they don't really read like long poems. So I wanted to make something that, like I thought people would actually be able
to engage with. So it takes a while because I'm really it's really important to me, like I want every line to be just good enough that people like will not give up on this poem.
Would you have any desire to be in someone else's film?
No, And that's what people assume that I like acting. The truth is for the Aladdin movie, I was Aladdin. But that was only because I was the most famous person I could get to play Aladdin, right, Like, no.
One, no one was interested in doing it. No one wanted to don't want to be Aladdin.
No, they don't want No.
One wanted to have the whole movie ride on them, right, Okay, you know, but it was ridiculous because if you think about it, it's like, I'm not an actor and I've never been in a movie.
And then did you enjoy it?
Did you enjoy the acting?
There were moments, but no, I think I found to
be really stressful. It's like, you know, and I mean I remember the first day of shooting, like weyeled action and you know, in walked in, uh you know, Ali a shockhad and Natasha Leone, who are both like you know, they're on tons of there are tons of movies and shows and they were doing a perfect performance first time of the scene, and I remember thinking, oh, I have a line, what's my line, you know, and and it was like such a eye opening experience that like how
seriously I had to take this, And then from from then on, like I actually think this is one of the times in my life I really didn't drink. I actually sobered up to do this because I just I just I couldn't have any drinks.
I needed to focus.
It'd be present in the times.
Yeah, it was. It was crazy.
And then you know, and I had to pretend that I was doing stuff that I wasn't doing, which is hard.
I thought you did a good job, thanks, because you also, you.
Know, I kind of got to Seinfeld myself through it because it's like, you know, it's like kind of like my world. So I can kind of like you know, be like the Garfield character that doesn't really have to like overact it, yeah, you know, and the other people have to really be convincing. But I'm just sort of like I think people think, oh, it's like it's happening in his Like it's like in Seinfeld, it's like happening in his world.
Yeah. Sure, you know, I don't feel you need to say this if you can't tell me, But was there anyone that you wanted to get to be Aladdin. That said no, which is why Michael Sarah.
Okay, I thought he would be great.
He would have been good.
Yeah, I don't think he anything. You wanted to do it.
They didn't want to do it.
I asked Justin Long.
I don't know Justin Justin Long.
Justin Long. He's Dodgeball.
Oh guy, he's got dark hair.
Yeah, he's in He's in a jeepers creepers.
I know the guy.
Yeah, I think the guy, like I asked some people, you know, I I you know.
Actually dev Hines was supposed to be the Sultan, Okay.
You know, and then he ended up not being able to make it at the last minute.
Okay, because he wasn't because you did a film before this as well.
Yeah, the dev was in which death wasn't.
Yeah, which is called wrong ferrari the.
Wrong ferrari, which rong ferrariy is sort of the prototype for a Laddin. It's more it's it's an iPhone film, so.
That was shot all on an iPhone. Yes, that's also a feature length film. Yes, it's long, and it's got that's that's got Macaulay Culkins in that as well, and it's got some of the same characters.
It has some of the same characters Farmer Dave, who's sort of CEO of Nintendo Records, which is like a record label that wants to sign me, and I play sort of myself on that. I'm like, I play like a sort of character called Greenster who's like doesn't want to go on any more tours.
And uh, yeah, the wrong Ferrari is.
You know, it's kind of a funny thing because because you know, shooting a movie on an iPhone, which you know, I hadn't really like it was this was this is the first iPhone that had a camera, so there wasn't really like a precedent for shooting a movie on a phone. By the way, all of my movies I do is overdubs, which is also like kind of funny because I really like I got into make movies from these Jodorowski and Fellini movies which are always overdubbed, so I never considered
like using the sound. So I always have people like kind of read the lines that I want them to read after the fact.
Does not cost even more money because.
It's even more complicated. They have to come back later. Yeah, but I get to change their line, you know, even at the end. And also I just I like this surrealness, Like I like, I honestly like how when you have an overdub line, even if they're saying the same thing, there's something slightly like off about it, and it makes you feel like you're in Like I just wanted the movie to feel like it was a foreign film.
Like, well, I think you did it. Thank you, vision accomplished. So do you think that's it for films for you?
No?
Well, you know, okay for maybe for acting in them. For acting probably yeah, but you know, like a father. John Misty had kind of repriised that role because he asked me to do his music video for Total Entertainment Forever, and I got my friends. We have an art collective called four GB, which is Toby good Shang, Tom Baine, and Macaulay Cokin. I got them to do it with me, so we kind of co directed a follow John Misty video, right, And it's in that style. So honestly, if somebody has
a budget, it's like, great, we just do. I would totally direct movies like anytime, but yeah, like I don't want to fund them myself.
Because it's too expensive. Yeah, yeah, you know, writing the poem is actually pretty cheap.
Yeah, yeah, you found that, you found the way to go.
I love it.
I could write poems if honestly, if my job was just writing my notebook all day, I'd be so happy. Like if people, like, if anyone wants to just stop all this stuff and just have me do the notebook stuff, I'm down, Like, I'll just give you lines that I like.
You know, I don't care.
Have you what about writing for others? Have you got any interest in that?
Maybe?
As I ever been on the table, well.
I think, you know, like I've done duets, you know, like with with the Binky Shapiro and in The Moldy Peaches where I write with somebody else, but it's like, you know, I get to sort of it's sort of
like both of our thing. So I like that, you know, because I like it especially if I feel like the person, like I really understand the person, so it's like really specific, like with Kimia and with Pinkie like that, I just really like understood that I could do duets with them, and like you know what I mean, like it was natural if somebody just came to me randomly and said they wanted to do a duet. I don't think that I would do it right, just like really it's it's
actually awful. Like I think I'm just like in this
one sense, like I'm very uncompromising in this. Like I just it's because I have a private garden, which is like my own muse is like a private little garden, and it's really I feel like it's really nice and I get I go for a walk and it opens up and like I just like I just enjoy it and it's fun in there and it's colorful, and I can like make up anything I want, and like I don't let anyone get in there to like tell me what to do about it, you know what I mean.
I just it's like you can't give me an idea, like I don't want it, Like you know what I mean, I don't. It's not that like I don't. If I have something and you can tell me, like a criticis some of it, I think I can accept that and incorporate that into Like you know, if you say, oh, I saw that scene in that movie and it's boring, it was too long, I'd be like, Okay, let's work
on that. But as far as like somebody coming to me and saying, you know, you should really make a version of your of Pinocchio.
You know, not interesting, No, not interesting, No way, it has to come from inside.
Okay, what about when like in the Peaches, then when when Kimia would bring a track, would it just be that you'd always write on tracks together then?
So, yeah, we'd always write together, so it would be.
As much yours as it was hers at that point.
Well, yeah, a lot of the Genesis and multipitacha stuff was like, you know, either in my parents' basement and it was like a track that I was working on that I would bring him in on, or we would be walking down the street and start singing stuff to each other, or we would have like an inside joke that would get out of hand and it would turn into a song, or like a nickname for somebody that would become a song. Yeah, I mean it was always like that kind of thing.
You know.
It still kind of blows my mind knowing that you were like thirteen when you started fourteen, when when kim fourteen, you were fourteen. It blows my way that you were that young, but also that she was like nine years older than you.
Yes, which but she looked like a kid. It was weird.
Yeah, I mean it also went like once your adults, I cast you know, that's not a huge, huge difference, but when you're twenty three and you're hanging out with a fourteen year like, that's just nothing.
My parents were honestly like, oh, you have an older friend, you know, Like I don't know, I don't think they knew what was going on, you know, because it was
like almost like she was my babysitter. I mean, you know, she was sort of I would go, you know, we would we would go, you know, like see concerts like the Makeup and Dubble Narcotic sound System, we saw Unwound, just different shows and you know, Kimmy, you with sort of like chaperone me right, But then she'd get like wrecked and she was you know, I'd have to like you'd just get her home. But it was funny, but it.
Was kind of it felt. It also felt with the Maldi pitches, like from the outside at least that you kind of organically came to note right, like you made it organically, Like it didn't feel like you would chase. Was there a point where you were chasing a deal or becoming famous or.
Well, you know, I think that we we really, for some reason felt like the home recorded record we made was like, you know, just perfect or something. You know, we thought it was like we didn't want to change it, and we sometimes people would hook us up with like record label people and they would you know, assume that it was a demo and they would start talking about what we were going to do for the for the record, and they didn't understand that we felt that this was
the record. And so it was only really Rough Trade that you know, that first said, oh, this is perfect, you know, put this out like they wanted to put it out. But that was in the wake of us opening up for The Strokes, right when the sign the Strokes signed, and then Rough Trade basically said we want more New York City bands, and they were like, who's cool and the Matt Hickey who sent the Strokes said Moldy Peaches.
So that that was it.
You know, we were like this, I think we're the second band that they signed from New York.
Sure, so it just kind of came to you really, you didn't have to chase it down.
We didn't end up chasing it.
I mean, it's actually kind of a funny story how everything started for me is like I I used to and this is in a sense kind of proactive on my part, but MTV used to They used to like broadcast live from uh Times Square, right, and it was kind of exciting, like.
If yeah, we're a window behind them.
Yeah, if you call it, we're calling the summer of ninety eight something like that. MTV used to have them. They had there's like a very live element and you know, people were coming up from the street and people were they were like they were in the street doing TV.
And uh.
Actually, I think that there's a clip maybe of like Pete Doherty on MTV or something. I saw something like somewhere he's on some show like that, like he's standing on like.
There is He's he's waiting for an Oasis records be released. I think.
Okay, yeah exactly. Yeah.
So that kind of thing was happening in New York all the time with MTV, and so I used to get dressed up in like whatever what I thought was my best coolest clothes, and I would just go to the MTV building and stand outside, right, and sometimes they would just say come upstairs, be on a show.
So they what would you do nothing?
I just like, well, you know, I'm being held okay, like I would be in the audience of Total Request live. And then one time they said, do I want to be on a karaoke show where I sing karaoke? So I was like, sure, how old were you at this point? Eighteen seventeen something like that. So they have me come up and I sang this karaoke song and then during the instead of doing the song, I ended up doing a Moldy Peaches song called these Burgers Are Crazy Right, and the people really.
Is on live TV, this is going out live.
You know. I don't know that it was live, but it was. It was.
It was taped and they broadcasted. But anyways, it was funny because the people were really into it. They loved it, and and it was like a little bit of like a it was kind of like a little bit of breaking with reality from the show because like it was, it was sort of like just not according to the script of the show, and I think it was surprising. And then the somehow I got the people to chant it with me, and it seemed like the show went off the rails. And so anyways, when this show aired
for that week. When I walked around New York City, everyone would be like, oh, you're that guy that did that crazy thing on MTV. So like, you know, all of a sudden, like I was like, you know, this was like my week where you know, everyone was like, oh, you know, I did this thing. And I went into the store Other Music, which is you know, which was a famous music shop at the time that's now closed of course, and they said, oh, my god, this is
the guy from MTV that did that. For some reason, the people at the store working were like excited that I was in the store and I had my album, and then they said, oh, we'll take your album.
You know. Then they like.
Put a plack up and reviewed it and like gave a whole they gave a whole space, and people used to go to Other Music and just buy CDs from their recommendation. So I was able to sell like maybe thirty or forty copies of my CD from just from being on the shelf at Other Music with a with like a little card. And one of those people that bought it was like a CMJ journalist that put it as the album of the week. And then it resulted in like the booker of the Mercury Lounge eventually like
inviting me to have a show. So like, all this stuff kind of happened because I did this goofy thing on MTV, right, you know what I mean?
And like, and that's kind I'm guessing that's why that was so and that.
That is proactive in a way, I think, yeah, because that's kind of taking faid into your owneah, hustling a little bit, taking trying to get you know. You know, that's why I think kids these days you don't want to do like you know, just like whatever viral YouTube videos or in Instagram, it's the same kind of thing,
you know. Just they're just hoping to have some kind of a weird you know thing where people pay attention to it for a second and then they can transition that to actually having like an art career or something.
Yeah.
Yeah, the I mean obviously in that instance, like that obviously works out brilliantly. Yeah, from you standing outside wearing some cool clothes, right, obviously you couldn't have imagined and that's where that was going to lead to.
No way, no, no, did you.
Just think so when you went down there? Just did you just think I'm just gonna go down there and see what I can make happen.
I just thought. I don't remember what I was thinking.
I remember thinking, yeah, like you know, I would like, you know, to have people hear about my music or my band or you know whatever.
I would like, you know.
I felt like I have something I want to give for myself artistically, and I want to sing, I want to say, I guess and like, you know, this is maybe like a place I can start to say it because it's MTV, you know what I mean, So they should be aware of me or something, do you know what I mean?
Like I don't know, yeah, but.
Like you know, it just like I always had a notebook in my pocket and was writing, and I just like really just believed in what I was writing down in my notebook, right, you know.
Yeah, Because it also kind of felt felt like like equally just as it felt like the multi peachers kind of effortlessly kind of climbed up and became this thing. Also, it feels like just as they were there, they kind of went again in a similarly natural way. Is that how it?
Well, you know, but empty, the empty I'm sorry, MOULTI peachers got we we got built up a lot by the sort of enemy culture and then kind of torn down in the next breath, you know, like it was my first experience with that sort of like what people say about the press and everything. I think we released the County Fairs Rainbow single after we played Redding Festival, which was at that time kind of the Mouldi Peachers highlight,
and then they just panned it. They gave it like a you know, a terrible review, and people acted like, yeah, multi peachers, you know whatever. So it was, it was it was a very really quick like love you hate you kind of thing that was kind of weird. And then and then it was a not until really Juno came out that Moulti Peachers got such a you know,
kind of reappraisal. But then but meanwhile I was in I had gone over a lot to you know, to Germany and France, where like my solo albums were like just really unexpectedly doing really well.
Yeah, particularly in Germany.
Right, Yeah, I was. I was in the charts. I was in the top ten.
It what do you think it was about your stuff that the Germans got so much?
Well, you know the thing is that people don't a lot of people don't understand unless you were in Germany at the time. But you know, but I became a German pop star, and so I had this period of my life where maybe about four months or so, where I couldn't even walk down the street in Germany, you know, like it was.
It was wild.
I was on the cover of like Rolling Stone, I was. I think it was number I was number two in the charts, like I was. I was, like on the cover of the newspaper.
What do you but what do you think it was about? Like, I don't know, your stuff that kind of resonated there more than anywhere else.
I have no idea, you know what I mean?
Like actually I assumed that they thought that it was of good quality. I don't you know what I mean. It was funny, but you know it, but I don't know. But yeah, I don't think that that was it. I think that that was part of it. I think that I think they thought that somehow they needed somebody like me.
I think I was doing at the time kind of music that was almost like a little bit influenced by cabaret music, like you know, Jacques Barrell and Kurt Viile and you know, kind of like sort of old German music. I don't know, I was kind of I made this sort of German cabaret record.
I think they really liked it.
I remember that time well, I remember you being on the cover of the Road and Stein.
There and it was funny, you know, it was and it and it didn't quite last. I mean I thought it would last longer. I mean it continues to kind of last. But now when I go back, you know, for example, I'm doing a tour right now, right, I'm going to play Earth and Hackney tomorrow and I won't play I don't think it's a big of a venue in Berlin, right, you know. It's it's it's things change
or saying in Paris. You know, it seems like in the UK and Paris might and in France, but really Paris, because I don't think they care about me in the rest of France. But my career has like kind of just slowly, you know, it's been twenty years and it's like slowly kind of grown with like new people getting into it. And then Germany it was like I was nobody. I was a pop star, you know, then like a crashed you know, But I also didn't really play the game.
Like I mean, I remember people saying, you know, don't you want to collaborate with so and so and do like a duet or don't you want to you know, they were like, you know, they were being sensible about how you maintain being a German pop star, and I was like not interested in it. And I was always just kind of really like, you know, just like assuming that everyone was going to come along for every you know,
kind of like thing that I was thinking about. But I do feel a little bit misunderstood in that sense. I think that people really really don't understand a lot what I'm doing, Like I mean, even though it actually is something that I'm thinking about and does make sense to me.
Do you in what sense? Do you think they think that it's that It's like if you take Aladdin for.
Example, because they think it's they think it's random. Yeah, they think it's they think it's random, which is not.
They think it's they think it's not throw out.
Yeah, they think it's childish, which is not. It's actually just average. And then I think that they think I have no idea what people think. I you know, I I think that if people really understood that it's like a process that takes like three or four years to do one of these things, and it's like worked one every day. I think they would. I think that that's not for people right now. I don't think that people are into that stuff. I think that's not where we're
at right you know. Like like I feel like I kind of approach these things with like pretty lofty goals, and I really assume that people are going to go along with me for like an intellectual ride that they're not going to do sure, you know, or whatever some people do. But I'm a little bit I am a little bit disappointed with people in a way because, like I you know, because I feel like I'm not treating
people like they're dumb. I'm treating them like smart that they can like handle me talking to them this way.
So how do you think that that people will genuinely react to your poem when it is done?
I have low expectations, but I mean, but I always hope in a way, like I hope for the best. I mean, I hope that people will read it like you know, like you know, like some you know, like like a real labor of like you know, loving a pursuit of the truth or something, you know.
M if you've got anything else in the in the works other than the poem is the main thing right now, as well as the touring this record.
And yeah, like the poem is really it, I mean, which is so funny. If you ever want to start stop a conversation and just tell them what you're working on a poem, then no one really wants to engage.
Is that your thing? At the moment that dinner parties you say.
Yeah, yeah, I'm working on a poem.
It's like, oh cool, I'm never going to read that. That's what they think, you know, I don't know. I mean, I didn't want to make it, you know, It's just like.
I don't know. You know. It's almost like sometimes you feel like when.
You're you know, when you when you really you're really really working really hard on like you know, on art projects, and you know you're really trying to make them good, it almost feels like those projects have fangs and people are like really scared of like a really good.
Art project, right, you need to try less?
Yeah, yeah exactly.
They're like, me, know, maybe if you just had like less good lines and like gave it me a little less than like I could, like, you know, think about those few lines and you know what I mean, it's.
Like whatever, yeah, don't give me too much. Yeah, don't give me too much.
We're in a bite sized culture, I guess the Twitter culture where everything's small.
But I mean essensively.
You know, people were at the Globe Theater, you know, you know and watch like Midsummer Night's Stream or something. It wasn't like a highbrow activity.
You know.
Those aren't actually high brow plays. They're just written in kind of like sort of like Middle English, e not really Middle English, but you know, some kind of in between language. Yeah, yeah, Elizabethan English. And you know those are those are for normal people. And you know what i mean, like and and like I mean, I mean I'm not saying that I'm getting there, but that's what kind of I aspire to make things like Midsummer Summer Night's Stream for people.
You know, That's what I'm trying to do, you know.
And I mean you could be the judge of whether or not to get there, but I mean that's actually the idiom that I'm trying to work in, you know what I mean. And I feel like that's uncomfortable for people because people don't like want somebody to try to write a Midsummer and I stream for them.
They want somebody to like write something worse
Anyway, good night,