Noel Takeover: Chelsea Ursin on Harold and Maude

Young Rocker podcast. Dear Young Rocker is a podcast that we do with um Jake Brennan of Double Elvis and of course Disgrace Land, the fantastic rock and roll true crime podcast, live show book, UH and kind of National Sensation. Um Jake met Chelsea and Boston, where he is also from.

She plays in bands. Um is a fantastic writer and created this series that's sort of a audio memoir where she gives advice to her younger self about getting through those awkward teenage years that I think we can all identify with no matter what walk of life here, and we've all been there and had to kind of find ourselves. And Chelsea finds herself through the power of rock um and bass playing and playing in bands, and it's a

really fantastic podcast. I highly recommended. UH. In this conversation, we talked about kind of her growing up in Massachusetts, how she came into her music taste and the wonderful nineteen seventy one how Ashby classic Harold and Maud. So let's jump right into it. Did you watch the movie last night? I didn't watch the whole thing. I put it on and I fell asleep. Same, I don't remember where I fell asleep, and it infiltrated my dreams a

little bit. I love when that happens. Yeah, it can also be kind of where like lately I've been listening to NPR a lot at night, and especially with all the crazy like coronavirus, like subconsciously here like the five AM newscast in my dreams, and then here it again when it replays at like a thirty and it'll be like kind of like a memory you know already already heard this, very like deja vu. It's a little weird. Yeah, you have like twenty eight days later dreams. Oh yeah, yeah,

things are heavy right now with all that stuff. Um, but Harold and Maude is is great. If I hadn't seen it in many years and I almost finished with it, I've been kind of like paging through it like ten seconds at a time, it's kind of you know, Okay, I remember this beat, I remember this beak, so I've seen it so many times I know it really well. There were a couple of little things I sort of forgot,

so I'm glad I mainly made it through. Yeah. Yeah, So I fell asleep last night and then this morning I was like, okay, I'll just watch like whatever the most googled clips are, you know, And I was like, I'll try to remember my favorite scenes. But every second of it is my favorite scene. Every second of it has what I like about the whole movie, which is just weirdness and like dark humor and weird people celebrating being weird and winning for being weird. And it's also

like shot beautifully, was framed really well and it's gorgeous. Yea. I we can get to this a little later. But I think there would be no Wes Anderson if there was no Harold and may Hey. Yeah for sure. When when did you first kind of discover this movie? I thought this was like a big movie for a lot of young people, like like realizing, oh, weirdo cinema from the sixties and seventies kind of this is a good

entry point into that world a little bit. I think I probably did see it the first time in high school. I don't have a memory of anyone showing it to me recommending it, I think inc I don't know, maybe my mom did or something, but I think I just picked it out of like the bargain bin at Walmart or something. I was like, Mom, I want to watch this, and she's like, that's a weird one, okay, And then I was like, oh my god, I don't think it's rated.

Are Aside from the suicide scenes, which are all staged, obviously, there's really no bad language or like, you know, explicit anything in it. It's just very dark, totally right. Yeah. I was just playing at the local art House theater that's really close to here, and I was considering taking my daughter to it, but then I realized, I think it's she's eleven little too dark and weird. I think, well,

she's into dark and weird stuff. But I first heard of Harold and Maud from the movie There's Something About Mary. There's a scene where Cameron Diaz and Ben Stiller are talking about their favorite movies, and they're both of their favorite movies is Harold and Oh my gosh, And I think because it was in that movie, which is such a gross out kind of goofball comedy, I assumed it was a upid movie. Like so I sort of discounted it for a long time because of that, but then

I discovered it. Um, yeah, I fell in love with it for sure. So as far as movies go, like when did you sort of start getting into more or let's say, I don't know, challenging stuff for like, when when did you kind of find your entry into like weirder movies or edgy or movies or what you would consider like your stuff. I don't know. I guess. I

guess high school. I think like every fourteen year old, Donnie Darko made such an impression on me, and I watched it a million times and I thought, I totally got it. We're not that far apart age wise. I'm thirty six, I think you're thirty one. So we have a lot of the same references. Like even like in your show, Dear Young Rocker, you were into a lot of the same music that I was at that age, even if it was like a few years of hard or whatever. But a lot of the references really rang

true for me. But like so Donnie Darko is a big one for me. It's also a big music movie for me, like it was for yeah, because of all the gothy eighties cynthy stuff in it, you know, turned me onto like Echo and the Bunny Man pants like that, and then like obviously Fight Club. You know, it doesn't hold up now as an adult. It's a little macho, bullshitty kind of, but boy did I love it when I was fortunately, Yeah, that was another one, like American

Beauty all that stuff. Um trying to think what else. Uh, it was a big one for you where you were like, Okay, this is like this is my favorite ship. I think it's Harold and really, yeah, I think this is my number one. It goes between this and Edward Scissor Hands, between my number one movies, but this one has more to it, but they're both about weird relationships and people being weird and being great for it. Edward Scissor Hands

is just so like its own thing. It's so stylized and kind of goth and established this like cinematic language

visually kind of. And this one is a lot more sparse and like you know, less adorned kind of, like it's very matter of fact, the way it presents everything, you know, but the themes and the writing and the interactions between it's like it's like it is a satire with all the suicide stuff and with the you know, the corporal like the it was his uncle, I guess, the with the missing arm he has, like the string that he pulls and does the salute. That guy's cartoonish,

you know, She's totally this like stock character. Kind of all authority figures are cartoonish, and that's what I love. The mom is so cartoonish, and so as a teen seeing that, it's like, yeah, coronups are obsessed with doing things the right way, but if you really think about it, it's all ridiculous and I don't want to be that way.

And then the relationship between Harold and Maud and like as he kind of comes out of his shell, that is really real and feels very like natural, and it makes sense that you're sort of the viewer are in that same boat where everything else sort of like Charlie Brown's parents, you know, like they're the other, like the mamas, and then like the real action happens between you know, the kids, but yeah, right, and it's you know, even though mod is certainly not a kid, she's like a kid.

She's like a kid. Yeah, yeah, and it's it's it's it's so touching the way she's able to kind of like show him the little things in life that are like so exciting that he just like he had kind of just like gone over his head entirely, you know, right, and his mom had probably been like, Oh, you shouldn't

be into that. That's that's no good. And so he goes in the complete opposite direction of what mom wants and drives a hearse, of course, and then she buys him this like Aston Martin thing or this jag or whatever. He uh, you know, she's like, I like it very much. It's a little sports car. She's kind of trundles off, and then he gets the blowtorch and like turns it into a like a tricked out mini hearse, which is pretty awesome. Um, so let's talk a little bit about

your show, dear young rocker. I've described I think I just I love you're hanging out last night, and I described it in a in a way that I think

you liked. I'm trying to remember what it was like, you know, it's a it's kind of like a very confessional memoir of your kind of older self giving advice to your younger awkward, kind of like teenage self, going through all these changes emotionally and like, you know, schools sucks and you feel like isolated and you kind of find your your tribe through music and like your your comfort zone and like kind of learned to kind of

feel yourself like through finding all of this stuff. Can you talk a little bit about how this came together as a show and how that part of your life kind of came together. I guess, yeah, absolutely that you know that description is great because when I try to describe my show, I'm very I think of just format and technical stuff because my show doesn't fit in it

into any typical podcast category. So I'm like, okay, it's kind of like an audio book because it's an audio memoir, but there's a ton of music and sound design in it. Um and then I forget about the theme part, you know, the really important themes, and you just brought that all up.

The confessional memoir of feeling like, you know, an socially anxious weirdo who doesn't feel like they fit in with the people around them, even though I'm sure the people around me and almost all teenagers also feel like they can't be their real selves around other people. UM and so yeah, So the first half of each episode is memoir.

The second half is big Me, thirty one year old me um giving advice to that younger kid and hoping that they just feel seen and feel like it's okay to be going through whatever they're going through, because as a kid, I was you know, if I brought stuff to my parents in the language I had for what I was going who, they'd say, Oh, you need to just get out of your head, stop being sensitive, and you'll get over it. This is just a phase that's not helpful. You just you just okay, mom and Dad,

I'll do it like right now, you know. Yeah, So you just get the message that you're dumb and immature, and then you feel worse about yourself. So you you know, you turn to your diary or you know, your guitar or your video games or whatever it is. And for me, it was playing the bass and listening to the Smashing Pumpkins. That was the space where I was like, it's okay to have these feelings I have, Like I hear them in these lyrics, I feel them in these riffs, and

I feel like it's okay to be me. And so I think teens could really use that that kind of reassurance, like, yeah, have all the feelings now, because you don't have time to have them when you're older. And it's kind of sad that we we become callous because we have to get through life. And so I like, you know, reconnecting

with that part of me. And I think that's why I still love Harold and Maud because it's that idea that being amazed by art and music like you are when you're young is actually beautiful, and we should do that for our whole lives, not just when we're a kid finding our first band. You know, I feel pretty lucky because I have an eleven year old daughter and she's really entering that tween kind of phase or whatever.

She's really into like Billie Eilish, that's her hero, you know, in the same way that Billy Corgan was my hero. I mean seriously, like Smashing Pumpkins was my band, Like I was obsessed with them, Like I saw them like eight times I went to like signing and waited in

line for like hours and stuff. Like I even had this letter that I wrote to Billy Corgan about how much is music meant to me at the time, Like I went to the signing and I was going to give it to him, but I didn't because and then, you know, you get older and you realize how I mean, kind of lame that is because it's like you think you're so special, like you're the only time that feels this way about this art or this movie or this band, and then you really I mean, it doesn't diminish the feelings,

but it is kind of a reality check where it's, oh, there are other people too that, but it's it's it's it's sort of a positive thing where it's like, you know, I am that's how you find your tribe. Kind of you realize, oh, other people have the same experience with me. I'm not the only one or I'm not alone. But it also does suck a little of the specialness out

of it for a minute, you know. But yeah, it's funny we're talking about like a lot of your listeners are uh, female and are like identifying directly with your experience, but I you know, dudes have body issues too, Like I was an uncomfortable teenager and never felt like cool or like good looking or whatever. And you know, I

struggle with all of that stuff. And I found my you know, groove through a lot of the same ways, through like playing in bands and feeling confident when I was very timid and kind of awkward and didn't really believe in myself. And when I started like writing music and people would like, you know, see me perform, it

gave me this very empowered kind of feeling. And it really took me to where I am today in terms of being a I'm not in a band, but like I perform, I'm on the microphone all the time, I'm always presenting in something. So I really did kind of get me that level of confidence to like do this for a living. You know that's great. Yeah, And you know, so many of these feelings that I at the time

thought were so unique to me are so universal. And I still get I get tons of emails and social media messages from dads who were like, I just put this on because I heard about it, didn't think I would relate to it whatsoever. And oh my god, I felt the same way when I was a kid. I went through those same things, and as a teen like teen me says, Oh, if I was only you know, skinny, wore the cool clothes, knew all the good bands, and could play bass perfectly, then I'd have friends. Then I'd

feel good about myself. Um or if I wasn't a girl, if I was a boy, it would be so much easier. But I tell myself, no, that's not true, because boys feel this stuff too. People who are skinny feel this stuff too. People who are geniuses at music feel not good enough in other ways. No one is perfect in every way, and even if they were, they'd probably find

something to hate about themselves. Yeah, I mean, it's the whole grass is Always Greener syndrome to where it's like you see somebody else and you think they've got it all figuring out all together, and then if you really dug deep and had a conversation with that person, you'd realize they probably see something in you that you don't see in yourself that they wish they had. That's the biggest takeaway that I've you know, and getting older and realizing like no one is a percent what they seem.

Everyone struggling with something. So that's why just being open and like kind to people, and you know, trying to meet people halfway. It's just a good way to live, you know. And I try to teach my kid, right. You got to tell those those kids every chance you get how great they are in every way, and they're going to be grossed out by it and be like stopping, you're just my parents. You think I'm great because you

you know, made me. But they need those messages because they get so much of the opposite on social media. You know. They just even if no one's commenting negatively on their selfies, they see it happening to other people. They read these disgusting YouTube comments that are like X rated about kids their age posting, you know, their vlogs, and it's like, oh my god, we just need to

like bombard children with support and love. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, like, you know, with my daughter, she's eleven, and she's all over like TikTok and YouTube and stuff. I generally think that the way she uses it, she's pretty good at self curating like a positive experience. But the negativity always just kind of trickles in a little bit, even if you don't notice it, like or feel bombarded by it.

But it's interesting to see her. Like I realized, like she has been on this platform for long enough that she had like she'll do these comparison videos of like the same video she made like three years ago, and now you know, she'll do the same one and it'll be like I'm a different person now, but she it's like three years of her age, Like it makes a huge difference. There's a lot of changes, and she looks completely different, has different tastes and stuff, and it's just

always evolving. So why why do it as an audio like memoir like it instead of like a book or you know, there's other other ways you could have done it, like like a short film or something. Yeah. So you know that quote writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

It is, so Yeah, I wrote this as a book first. Um. I wanted to publish a book to you know, help kids and to say, hey us, there's a bunch of us women and girls out here just playing in bands for fun that aren't famous, Like we just do this because it helps us feel like a person. It's not just dudes playing in bar bands and whatever. And I got the feedback like, you can't publish a memoir because you are just playing in a bar band. You're not

a famous musician. Yeah, you know, memoirs by famous female musicians are becoming popular, but sorry, you got to get a platform. And then I was like, you know what, I'm going to do it as a podcast because you can still just put that out there yourself. And that way, all the musical elements that were so hard to write about, I could just sit down with a guitar, plug my interface in and play over me talking to like get

the emotion I wanted in there. Um, And I could actually recreate my high school band songs and the sounds of me picking up a guitar for the first time and going don don don donk. So it just brought it to this new level. And I had never thought about a career and audio or anything. Um. I mean actually I had, because it was a sound recording major for a year in college, but I didn't want it. I didn't think I wanted to do that as a lifestyle. Um. But then I you know, started making the show and

I was like, I love doing this. I love writing, but this is even more fun. So that's like audio storytelling. It sort of supports the narrative just the thing like at the end of the day, your your podcast is it's not fiction, but it is a narrative, like it's just it's a storytelling podcast, and it really immerses you in in it in The sound design is super rich and really evocative, and you do a great job with

that for sure. And if I knew how to make video and it wasn't prohibitively expensive, maybe I would have made it into, you know, a YouTube series or something. But audio is like, I know what I'm doing and I'll just try to make it cinematic through sound effects and stuff like that. I think, I think it's a good time for that. And you made the right choice. So you grew up in Massachusetts, like an in Worcester. Yeah,

so I grew up in central Massachusetts. I fun fact, I live not far or I lived not far from the central Tree of Massachusetts is the exact center of the state, and it was originally going to be the capital, but then they were like, nope, we need ships and stuff, so Boston's the capitol. But anyway, so now that which use Central mass used to be a bust in place, you know, when America first started, and now it's just

kind of like a sleepy suburb. You know, some people driving to Boston, but it's like cows and developments and good schools. Yeah, your parents still live there. Yeah, they both live out the area. How did you ever? Do you make it back? Often? Not that often. It's a pain in the butt to drive out there, but it's nice. It's like, oh my god, I can get a parking spot. There's no red lights, it's just stop signs. Because you live in in Cambridge, which is like basically just like

another little kind of borough I guess of Boston. Yeah, and it's where a billion million tech people are moving every second of every way, so it becomes more and more hard to navigate anywhere. Yeah, how do you how do you feel about that? Like just seeing that level of gentrification of the way cities changed in that way. Yeah, it's so quick because you know, the people in charge are so for it. They're like, let's give millions of dollars way to companies to like come here, and like great,

let's get more money. Let's you know, hopefully get taxes to fix these crumbling schools and are crumbling trains. But that never really happens and it just gets Yeah, it gets harder to drive places. Um, I think I can't remember the numbers, but I know I looked up some some statistics and the amount of cars being put on the road every day every day. They're like the rate of growth is higher than even like Seattle. I think

it's like out of control. And it's such an old city that like a lot of that infrastructure has got to be really in disrepair. Yeah. Yeah, the transit system. You know, they say, oh, well we have you know, maybe we don't have room for cars, but everyone can take to train. And you know, I've tried to commute by train rush hour. You can't even get on the train because it's so full. It just goes by you and doesn't stop. And I'm like, okay, so they need

more people on here. Yeah. Anyway, I could complain about Boston, aren't they But it won't. But it's beautiful full, It's a really pretty city. And I live in Cambridge near all the Like I lived near a house that like George Washington lived in for a little bit, and like all these beautiful mansions. I think Elizabeth Warren lived in my neighborhood. Yeah, it's like there's you know, beautiful rivers and ponds and stuff. But yeah, right now it's cold

and dead and whatever. It does get dark earlier there too than it does here, and it's so oppressively cold. I can't This winter didn't snow hardly at all. Yeah, but it's great to be down here and be warm. So as far as Boston bands go, I can think. I know the Pixies where they started in Boston. Yeah, well they started at U Mass, which is actually closer to where I grew up. It's like Western Mass. And then this is a big Boston band, The Cars is the biggest, probably m Boston. Um, that would be a

real bummer if Boston wasn't from Kansas. From Kansas, you know, no idea, they better be, they better be. Um. I recently told someone that Credence clear Water Revival was from California, and they were so upset and like, how did you not get that memo? But you wait, you you thought they were? No they I told someone they were and they were like, aren't they from the South? And I was like no. They just thing like that it's fake. Did you not know that? You didn't know that? Yeah,

they're from California. They just go do do yeah, sometimes you don't know it's true. Um, what So tell me a little bit more about like did your parents have good tasted music, Like were they kind of turning you onto stuff like Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and the Beatles and stuff. No, I mean I think my dad said, like, oh, when I was sixteen, I went to a Black Sabbath concert and I couldn't hear for three days afterwards. It was terrible. It was too cloud. Yeah, and he mostly would put

on like classical in the car. But he was also really into like the stuff that was popular when I was growing up, which is Britney Spears in the Backstreet Boys and in Sync. Yeah. He had this little um Suzuki Samurai jeep that was white and he had painted like hot pink and neon green stripes on it, like a Barbie jeep, and we'd like drive around blasting Britney sparrows and stuff. Is an interesting guy. And then my mom, Yeah, she's just like, uh, like popular kind of dance club music.

She liked to go to the club and dance. So there was a lot of like, I know, rhydom, is that a handsome and like that kind of stuff. I had a lot of those club mixed CDs because she liked to like practice dancing at home. So how did you go from that? Which is a really interesting that is not what I usually hear about dance musical taste. I'm into it. How did you go from that to like finding your own stuff, like the stuff that really did it for you? Did it take a little trial

and error? Do you have any periods that you're sort of like embarrassed by when you look back a little bit. I mean, I think the first like loud rock I got into it was Lincoln Park because hybrid theory came out when I was in sixth grade or seventh grade or something, and that's what I was like, Okay, yeah, this guy's having feelings. He's screaming about them. There's a loud guitar going along with it. It's catchy, you know. I felt like this is the you know, these are

the feelings I have inside. Um. I think I could have liked them more if there wasn't that rap element. Yeah. I didn't like the wrapping parts either. That was a golden time for that. You know. It's like you had your limp biscuits and you had your your Lincoln Parks and Incubus too totally Thank You was all right though, like they kind of weren't as egregious Anta and you know, of all the ends though that you could classify as like rap metal, I think Rage Against the Machine is

probably the one that still really holds up. And the guy's actually a good rapper. He's got a cool delivery that's very unique, and the lyrics are strong, and you've got Tom Morello's little wicky wicky guitar stuff with his Alan wrenches and he's almost like the Thurst and more of like of rap rock, right, Yeah, interesting, Yeah, so that it was the time for that, and then yeah, maybe probably going against what my parents liked was probably

one big appeal to me. And there weren't musicians, so stuff about like people actually playing guitars and whatever that really appealed to me. Um. I still don't know how I really got into the Pumpkins, except they were on the radio a lot in the nineties when I was a little kid, and I heard it was like such a massive record, huge everywhere. Yeah. Um still don't have a copy of that one on vinyl because it's like very very expensive and large it is. Yeah, but that's yeah.

If you think about it, though, the fact that they were as amos as they were is kind of interesting because he's got this really like a feminine kind of delivery. But but still they're kind of like muscular, macho type rock at the times. But then some of the tracks would be very gentle and kind of like, you know, we Melan Melancholi, right, But they had so many hits singles, like it was just kind of mind boggling on that

record especially, and they're also different. Yeah, and then you know, to put out a double album like that for their third record was such a ballzy move. I think everyone thought it was gonna like Tank and it just totally blew up. Like I saw him on that tour. Um, it was right when Jimmy Chamberlain left because he had

like he had drug problems. And yeah, there was that thing where the keyboard player Odd or whatever, who was actually I don't know if you knew that she was Wendy Melvoin's brother, Wendy Wendy and Lisa from the Revolution. That's her brother who died um and he uh eat and so then he was replaced by some studio drummer. It was Matt Walker who also used to play for Tori Amos a lot and uh and Fiona Apple really

really good kind of hired Guns studio drummer. But yeah, I saw that tour and the girl I was dating at the time was in like sixth grade. I guess she wore like silver pants. Yeah, like totally got all go out. Yeah. I mean that bullet Bullet with butter butter Oh my god, Bullet with Butterfly Wings video hit me so hard, the imagery in that and everything they're wearing. And Darcy has this like glittery I makeup that I wanted so bad, and like no stores in the mall

had anything that looked like that. This is pretty hot topic. This is pretty hot topic, and it was so the hot topic. Look, yeah, silver pants, black black black black eye makeup even on the guys like really thick, and that's what I wanted to look like. That video was the last time he had hair. Yeah, that's right, and he had like dyed black hair. Uh um, yeah, I mean that was and then that yeah, he was bald in the Tonight to Night video. That was the next

one that would have been the next single. Yeah and zero Yeah, such a weird choice. I know, yeah they did.

It's like, you know, again, doing something totally weird that you don't think people are going to catch onto, And then it became a really popular They actually recorded Siamese Dream here in Atlanta at the studio I can't remember the name, but with with Butch Vig was the Nirvana producer or whatever, and um, you know, I mean Billy Correy was a notorious like ego maniacal kind of like Overlord where he played all he would replace everyone's parts, like,

you know, not let anyone play on the record and stuff. And I just worshiped him and thought his like whole vibe and his whole like sad boy kind of imagery. It just really connected with me. And so as I've gotten older and started to reassess a little bit, I

kind of think he's sort of a dick. Yeah. I just was so the right time for me, and it almost made me feel I had to rethink, like was he just kind of like running like a long con on like kids, you know, Like was he really was kind of just like I think he's just an eternal teenager. I just think he didn't have to grow up because he just got famous. You know at that point when he still wasn't mature. The word I would used to

describe him now is petulant. He always comes off as very like the world against him and like he's wrong. And now he owns a wrestling league and he made this really embarrassing like cage match promo, or he's reciting the lyrics to pull up with butterfly wings and this really like cheesy poetry slam kind of way. And he's wearing like a hoodie. He looks like eminem or something. He's kind of piecing around the the octagon cage and I'm stop ruining my child retired. There are so many

on this list for me, the just retire. Like to me, I'm like, okay, Billy Corgan rip circle two thousand. You know, I just pretend nothing else ever happened after that. And I think same with like Weezer. You know, I just can't.

I don't. You know some people are like those first two records are just like perfect records, perfect, and then everything after that is just like did you just like you were you were always a nerd, but you have you figured out how to parlay it into like some creative thing and now you're just kind of sound like a clueless nerd. You know. Yeah, it became like big Bang theory nerd, like just like watered down, Like, Okay, here's the riff that people like that we do the most.

Let's just cheese it up and like keep recycling it and make the words even more. And at first I was like, is this it's just like ironic, Like when Beverly Hills came out. I was like, Okay, maybe he's just like pushing the irony to this point of like totally performative whatever. And I was like, no, this is just the music he wants to write. We retired. It's true, I don't know. It's hard to quit chasing that money.

You know. It's one of those things too, where it's like you can get all of the accolades and all of the fame, but if you have that inherent insecurity or whatever, you always need a little more. You need that reinforcement, and then people, once you get famous, people start pampering that. Like, before these guys were famous, they only had whatever, two guitars at their disposal and however many ideas in their head. But once it's like, oh, you can use the studio with every plug in and

pedal you could ever imagine a million different sound engineers. Yeah, you can do whatever you want. And they're still just kind of trying to do the same thing. And then all this money and all these people are like, oh, we'll just make it better for you, and it's just sad and and thankfully some of them know when to hang it up. Drives me crazy, though, is like the fake out break up and then the inevitable reunion and

then how many times, Yeah, Smashing Pumpkins did it. You know, they're doing this, They're doing the festival circuit right now. They're playing a shaky Kneese festival here, And it's part of me that kind of wants to go. But I also, like, I think I would be a little sad because you know that time is kind of gone, you know, and it's sort of like a pale comparison to the way I remember it. You know, someone saw them recently and told me it was worth it. I think they just

played a ton of old songs. They definitely they have to, I mean, yeah, yeah. But then then you have like the rare thing like a band like Radiohead that knows when they they won't make a record unless they have a record in them, yeah, you know, and go do some other stuff and make a record when you really want to, not just to pay the bills and this, right. I don't think they would ever be like, Okay, this is the last Radiohead record, we're breaking up forever. I

don't think they would just wouldn't talk about it. They would just not make something for fifteen years and then maybe come back. It's like, well, we never went away, we just did other tough you know, right. Yeah, Oh, Green Day is another one that turned into just kind of like a content machine line. That's true. Yeah, they're mega mega fans, and then there's like a Broadway musical

based on the American Idiot or whatever. Maybe it's great to be fair, that record has some pretty fun, catchy songs. It's not my thing, but it's like, yeah, that's the last one I can, you know, sort of enjoy. At the time when that came out, I saw them on that tour and I was like fourteen, and I protested.

Every time they played an American Idiot song, I like sat down, and every time they played like a dookeye song, I stood up and I was like, yeah, but but now in retrospect, like that albums, you know, I can still listen to that. After that, I just got kind of like, they have a new one that just came out that's supposed to be like more throwback. He's supposed to be like that's what they say about every one. It's like every new Star Wars movie. No, but this

one's more like the original. It has that. And then I go see it, I'm like, Okay, it was okay, it was all better than the last one. That's how I feel about The Green Day. Thanks're like, no, this one's really it. That's how I feel about Star Wars in general. Though, Like me and Chuck always talk about this, like he grew up when Star Wars was like new, you know, it was like no one's ever seen anything like this. It's completely out of the clear blue sky.

There's this massive new thing that no one's ever seen, and he just was obsessed with it because it was like he saw when it first hit the theaters. And I think he's got this like built in reverence for it that I just don't really have. So it's easy for me to be like they're just kind of cheesy space movies. But people have this, like, you know, the sacred feeling towards that stuff because of I think when

it hit them in their lives. And it's the same with music, you know a lot of Like an older friend of mine, UM hates Pink Floyd's The Wall because another Brick in the Wall was such a ubiquitous single, and to him it was Pink Floyd going disco, which I would never have thought of, but it is disco. It does have a disco kind of vibe to it. But he hated that record, And to me, when I when I when I found out about that record, this is the greatest thing I've ever heard in my life.

So it's all about, like you know, perspective and stuff and where you come at the material. It's all relative. Yeah, yeah, we'll look back on stuff so differently. Um and yeah. With Star Wars, it's just the PR thing. I'm like, if I was doing a PR campaign for a new Star Wars, what would I do try to make people spread the rumor to each other that this one is the greatest one ever made. So immediately when I hear that kind of stuff, I'm like, you understand someone paid

for you to have that feeling. Like, I just really like the prequels the best, honestly. Yeah, I think George Lucas really got it right finally. Yeah, how do you feel about this whole idea of like revisionist movie history like George Lucas where he like takes his original movies and like retools that and then the original versions aren't available to anyone anymore. I think so too, Yeah, I

think so too well. Speaking of movies, Harold and Mont came out in nineteen seventy one and has that sixties of quality to it. It It feels like a sixties movie. Those bell bottoms are big. Then in the coats there's a lot of big like puppy coats and like you know, furry collars and stuff, and like a lot of lapels um. The way his mother dresses very like you know, what's what what? What? What What is? She She's like an heiress or something. It's not even Dad's never around. You really

know how they made their money. She has not like fallen woman vibe around her, like she's desperately clinging to her jewels and her goofy hairdo and our hats and stuff. There's a scene where she goes swimming and She's wearing this absurd bathing cat flowers on it, and then Harold's

like floating in the pool. She's just like kind of you know, it's a long shot, and you see her like just do going about her routine and getting in the pool and taking off her her robe and then she dives as she's just doing her laps, and did you see Harold floating there? And she just kind of regards him with contempt but then goes on with her

her swimming. Um, that's the thing about this movie. It's well, there's a lot of things with this movie, but one thing that I can identify with is like negative reinforcement or the idea of like I only get attention if I do bad things or if I like make a spectacle or whatever. Because at the end of the day, it's like he tells the story to Maud were really quick. For anyone who hasn't seen you should watch the movie before you listen to this conversation. But Harold is kind

of disaffected. Um, I would say, right at sixteen, maybe it feels like he hasn't been driving for very long. He's got this hurst that he drives. He's sort of death obsessed. Um, he constantly stages these these suicides elaborate. I want to say he's like twenty though I think they mentioned his age at some point. I think it's kind of like he would be in college, that's becoming

a man. Yeah, his mom wants him to get married, Like if you're not going to have a like get married, that actually makes But he looks he's you know, he looks like a teenager, really does, and and and and yeah, he sort of the he acts like one too, because he really is kind of listless, and you know, he lives at home. He doesn't really do anything except go to funerals, other people's funerals, um, and stage these elaborate

suicide things. And Maud is someone he meets who also is like he's dropping on a funeral or crashing a funeral. I guess you could call it. She's an older woman who is kind of the antithesis of Harold. She's like really obsessed with life and like she steals cars for fun and just like you know, has these crazy inventions. She's got like this smell machine that like has these little sense she can load and it's got like this weird gas mask. And someone's like snow in New Yorker's

one or whatever. There's some different ones, but she kind of takes Haro on her wing a little bit and

teaches him to kind of to live, you know. And it sounds a little trite when you put it like that, but when you actually really spend time with these characters, you realize, like it's such a universal thing, Like, you know, how easy it is to let life pass you by, kind of if you get so hung up on like what you're supposed to be or you know, what you how you failed in some way, and you're also supposed to pretend that you're never going to die. And if

you focus on death, it's supposed to be this. You know, there's supposed to be something wrong with you. And that's why Harold's mom sends him to therapy because he's focused on death. Um, but mod is kind of like, I'm celebrating life and death. I'm celebrating life because I'm realistic about death and I know what's going to happen, and so I go to funerals and celebrate them, right, which

is certainly a thing in a lot of traditions. I mean, everyone, we're all marching towards death, you know, so why not treat it with reverence as opposed to like fear, you know, like in New Orleans, for example, Like New Orleans funerals are like these giant parties. They're like parades. You know. It's a whole different It's not somber affair at all. It's about celebrating life when it comes to an end, which is inevitable. Yeah, and I have to point to

my tattoo here you cannot see. But basically I went to so I lived near Harvard. I went to the Harvard Graveyard, which has you know, stones from like the sixteen twenties and stuff really really really old. And so back in the day, you know, people died way more often. They died young all the time. And so people didn't I mean, no one wanted to die, but they didn't fear death in the same way. And they didn't it wasn't such a taboo thing, um, and so grave stones

would kind of celebrate death. So they had these like laughing skeletons and stuff on him, and these really cute See my tattoo specifically is from one grave. I think the woman's name was like a lizz a bit wiggles

Worth Wadsley or something amazing like that. Um. But it has this this kind of cartoonish cute skull with pretty wings on it, and it has two little baby cherubs holding like some kind of drapery thing over a gravestone gravestone, and then it says memento to say mortalum, which means remember to live your mortal And you know, sometimes people go, oh, that's so dark, and I'm like, it's gonna happen to you.

And that's the whole point of these death heads they would put on gravestones, is so when you're walking through the cemetery, you you know, the dead person is trying to say to you, like you're gonna be here before you know it, Like live your life while you're up there and not down here, buddy. Even like the Day of the Dead tradition like in in in Mexico, you know,

it's all about celebration. It's it's it's there's some mournfulness to it, but it's sort of like healthy amounts I think when people either pretend like it's not real or they get obsessed with it. Those are two extremes that have a similar quality where it's sort of like I don't know. I think having a healthy respect for death and treating it like, you know, not a some inevitable thing that we're all marching towards, but just sort of

like a part of life. That's what this movie does a really good job because it has this amazing twist

spoiler alert. But it's like she's, you know, he's a suicide obsessed and um, he has this accident at a at a boarding school where he almost blows up the lab and he just leaves and they think he's been killed, and so they literally these cops come and tell his mother that he's been killed, and he's snuck in the house and sees all this going down from the balcony and realizes that he got more attention and affection from his mother when she thought he was dead than when

he was alive. And he's telling Maud like, and I decided I'd rather be I would I like being dead better or whatever, And then of course Maud, you know, teaches him how to say and dance and do all this you know stuff just to enjoy life. And then she kills herself, right, But that's also like a form of control because she's like eighty years old, and she decides that's you know, when she wants to check out.

And I think she's decided it probably a while ago, because it's a great movie to watch a bunch of times, because you get more out of it, like you see hints of the twist ending more when you watch it the second time. That kind of stuff. Because the in the scene where she meets Harold, she says something there at a funeral, she says it all it'll be all

over on my birthday or whatever. Yeah, she says like, oh, this person died at like seventy nine, like that's perfect, I think, or something like I think eighty is the perfect time to go. And I'm seventy nine right now, um hint hint um. And so yeah, she's planned her death. So that means she has this distinct window of time

to really live. And so I don't know if before that she was living like this, but if you know, it's like getting you know, h a cancer diagnosis or something and someone tells you, oh my god, you have exactly three months to live. What are you gonna do? I kind of thing. She had always been living like that. She's got so much crap in her house and you know, it goes back to the other the other twists. Later on you find out she's a death camp survivor. She

has the tattoo on arms. Yeah, there's some heavy stuff in there. Yeah. Yeah, So I think kind of that influence her. When she survived that, it's like she had a new life and she started protesting and just living

however she wanted to. Yeah, very kind of bohemian kind of you know, not care free, it's not the right word at all, but like, yeah, it's like she just cared about it's like not taking life too seriously, but also taking it very seriously and like the experience of life, but still being silly and like getting joy from kind of goofy stuff. And then you know, at the end of the movie, um, when he finds out that's that's that's a really intense moment. She just kind of very

casually says like I've taken I took the tablets. It's a crier. And then he just kind of like camera just like focused on his eyes and his eyes get really big and he just goes like what And then it cuts like to him like driving frantically. Oh God, gives me chills. And then it's like raining. It's such oh my god, yeah, it's raining. All the ambulance is driving to the hospital, and she's just kind of like, yeah, I'm going now, girls, very lovely time. I'm glad we

had this time together. And it's his first love and she's dying in front of him. Oh my goodness. It's all but but but then you know it could have gone in such a different direction. It could have ended with him like reverting back into like his Moby ways. But you realize he'd never actually put anything on the line before. And she she makes the point earlier in the movies where she's like, you know, you gotta live, you know, maybe even get hurt, you know, like, but

just put it all out there. I got like tearing up even thinking about it. Um, And like he does. He does that, and he honors her by like, you know, he basically stages his own death. He drives his car off this cliff, and you do you think he's done that? That's it. There's the moment where you think he drove the car off the cliff, but then you see him kind of walking away playing the banjo. Yeah, and another thing we haven't touched on, but when I went to like look at a you know, re look at the

wiki and whatever. As soon as I started typing Harold and mod the like number one googled question came up. Did Harold and Maud sleep together? So that's a big thing in the movie, is the age difference. You know, she's like I thought they did. They definitely do. Yeah, there's a scene, but once again, it's implied, and it's like done in a cute way, like they wake up and he's like blowing bubbles in bed, but her hands down for the first time. Um, and it's I think

it's implied he lost his virginity to her too. And then it goes to the scene where he's being counseled by a priest and the priest is saying it's wrong for him to have slept with her, even though they're both consenting adults. He's young, but he's not. He's like twenty or something, like I said, And that's one of the funniest parts. The priest is just like, oh, the drooping against your own young so creepy. But it was funny to me that people google that and we're still

so focused on that. That's true, that's true, But but but you're right there, like maybe no, this was was the on our conversation here. Um, all of the authority figures are so over the top caricatures, like the priest, the soldier, the therapists, the mother, like they're all these like total caricatures of like what what that the most extreme version

of what that thing would be? Like she's the most extreme, overbearing yet aloof mother and she's just like this cartoonishly aristocratic kind of like above it all kind of you know, person who doesn't very surfacy, you know, and she's always setting him up on these like computer dates. So the computer dates are so funny. Oh my god. The girls who come in who get chosen are just oh my god.

Like the first one is the I don't know if she's the first one, but there's a woman who's like a young woman who's a she works for like a chicken feed company, and it's like, oh, yeah, my job is very important. I have to calculate like the pounds of chicken feed for the whole area, like a whole state or something like that. Um. And then Harold can't even participate in these dates because they're so yeah stupid,

they're so like you know, not him at all. Although my favorite one I was just watching before we started was she's like an actress and he does the Harry Carry kind of situation with like the ceremonial Japanese knife and he lays out the mat and does the whole thing, and you know, he's trying to freak these girls out so they'll leave him alone, and this woman, uh just runs with it and like, you know, does this really scenery chewing like macbeth suicide scene and it kind of

freaks him out, which is kind of funny to see the tables turned, but obviously still wasn't a wasn't a love connection there, But yeah, that's that's I'm really was really surprised that no one had picked this movie yet on the movie crush, So I'm glad you've been able to tell me it's um. Where can folks find you on the internet? And obviously we can find Dear Young Rocker anywhere you get podcasts, certainly, and there is dear Young Rocker dot com which is a very nice looking

website and proud of it, thank you. And you can follow me on Instagram at deer Young Rocker and I post a bunch of stuff there and I'm on Twitter two at rocker dear nice. Yeah, it's it's very true, like your Instagram for that show is a lot behind the scenes stuff, a lot of you're talking about episodes while you're making them, and it's definitely not just like a you know, a show at count that some admin is running. Like your very hands on and I'd like

to share other people's pictures. Sometimes people will send me pictures of themselves as young rockers and I'll like share those on my story. Those are great if you put hashtag your young rocker if you were also a weird little musician at some point and you also have a band, right, I do have a band, yeah, thanks, It's called Banana, and you know we have a band camp with our

music on it. It's a little hard to find, but I think if you search like Banana Massachusetts band and you guys ever go on tour and stuff for yeah, we um. I mean we play, you know, I'm from Boston, so we play New England and New York mostly, but I would love to come down here and play the next year. Sometimes we would love to have you. Well, Chelsea, thanks for joining me on movie Crush. Yeah, thanks great

to be here. No, Chelsea is the best. Um. It was really lucky enough to have her in Atlanta for the last few days doing some guest spots on other shows that I work on, including Ridiculous History and stuff Mom never told you, so be on the lookout for those episodes with Chelsea coming out again soon. Um. Got to spend some time with her, went to a concert together with some other co workers of the band Destroyer, and I think hopefully we showed her a good Atlanta

time and hope to have her back very soon. Um. But right now, I think there are three remaining episodes of Dear Young Rocker yet to publish, but you've got a nice I think eight episode run to get into it, and then um, you'll have three more wonderful episodes to finish up the series coming soon, so check that out. In the meantime, if you want to check out movie Crush online, you can do so at movie Crush on Instagram and Facebook and all the places. Just search for

a movie Crush it will come up. Chuck will be back for the next proper interview episode, and of course you've got your your minis as well, Missy Chuck and see you next time, folks. M Louie Crush has produced, edited, and engineered by Ramsay Hunt here in our home studio at Pont City Market, Atlanta, Georgia. For I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.