Mine is pretty similar to yours, except that if I was Kurt, I might have put “In Bloom” first and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” second. I really want to see what yours would be! I feel like I get really hung up on the songs thematically going in order too and I wonder if that’s something you do, or if you feel like your songs exist in different universes and it’s just about what flows well together?
Something stripped down and emotional that feels like the record already happened and this is the transition song back into the rest of your life. Like it really feels like you’ve wrapped up the story you’re trying to tell, whether you leave it on a note of some kind of closure or like “this is never gonna be okay EVER”. I love having this spot be lyrically synced up with the concept of the whole record. Here is where I like to start leading people towards the end thematically too. Another stretch out moment, whether it’s like the one “fast song” or more of a ballad, a change it up moment. The song that ends up being the best song but you’re trying to be nonchalant about it, crucial for keeping the album’s momentum going.Ĩ. Where the band can “stretch out” as I think you put it a few months ago.ħ. Depending on how hard or soft you go on the last track, I feel like whatever other elements you’re gonna bring to the record, this is a good spot for that. Either you go hard or you go soft, you gotta show some depth here.ĥ. Where you prove shit is gonna keep getting good, the song your friends tell you is their favorite song but you’re not as sure if it should be a single.Ĥ. Something that might be even better than “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Shorter, more direct, a little less flashy.ģ. Whatever your “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is gonna be.Ģ. LOL yes I love this okay, we should’ve done this years ago.ġ. nothing too experimental-can you briefly describe tracks 1 through 10? So I figured I’d start by asking you to do a little exercise: assuming a 10-song record that’s more or less on the pop end of things-i.e. I know you and I can both obsess a bit about album sequencing-we’ve spent a lot of time in the past couple years bouncing potential sequencings off each other via text and just generally talking about what makes a good track 3 or whatever. I can only assume this is because everyone assumes she’s going to be famous one day, so they have to stake their claim now.Īnyway, listen to the new Alien Boy song that I produced: I’ve noticed that the submissions keep mentioning exactly how long they’ve known Sonia. After all, Sonia and I originally clicked in part due to being fellow compulsive planners and schemers about band stuff, and what exactly is “band stuff” if not structured fun? In that spirit, I’ll just quickly mention that one of those recent schemes has involved asking various people to submit what-without giving too much away-I’d call “testimonials” about something Sonia’s involved in.
My solution was to have a bit of “structured fun” with this interview, in contrast with the unstructured seriousness that I’d say this series has tended towards so far. Sonia is one of my favorite musicians and favorite people in the world, and we’ve had conversations like the ones I have on this page so many times, I was worried that reading this installment might feel like trying to listen to a certain kind of podcast for the first time: these people’s friendship isn’t as entertaining as they think it is. Leading off with my usual meandering, three-to-four paragraph gassing-up of today’s interview subject would probably be even more “inside baseball” than the interview itself could easily have been.