Moby (00:00:07):

Hi, this is Moby. Welcome to Moby Pod. Today we're gonna talk about the history of remixes and remix culture. And Lindsay, I think I'm even gonna open up a remix that I'm working on and sort of break it down to show all the different elements within the remix.

Lindsay (00:00:24):

I can't wait.

Moby (00:00:26):

Hopefully it's okay. Not just self-involved, middle-aged musician stuff.

Lindsay (00:00:30):

I'm sure it'll be much more

Moby (00:00:32):

Than that. I'm not, but thank you <laugh>.

Lindsay (00:00:33):

Um, we're also gonna talk about, uh, the song Walk With Me, which I'm so excited about because I just love that song so much. And we're gonna talk about some little stuff like human cells and our heroes, and I think it'll be really fun. So buckle up.

Moby (00:00:51):

<laugh>.

Lindsay (00:01:01):

So Moby,

Moby (00:01:02):

Yes.

Lindsay (00:01:03):

<laugh>, You make many remixes and we've collaborated for some time now. And you're always talking about remixes. And I understand the broad concept, which is you take a song that was there and you mix it into something new and, and different. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. But here's what I don't understand. A why do you do that? Why do you remix songs? And what goes into it for you? Like, when you imagine the concept of a remix, what does it inspire in your music brain?

Moby (00:01:37):

So, it's interesting cuz in the world of music, when you say remix, for the most part, everyone, and I'm talking about like record companies, musicians, whatever. For the most part, people either have a lot of experience with it or they pretend to, like, it might be one of those things that a lot of people, especially perhaps at record companies, don't fully understand what a remix is. So I don't think your question is overly basic or naive.

Lindsay (00:02:07):

<laugh>. Okay, good.

Moby (00:02:08):

I think it's one of these things where like, people are a little bit, not afraid, but like hesitant to admit that they don't actually know what a remix is. And so I'm gonna be a little bit of a grad student for a minute and.

Lindsay (00:02:24):

please do.

Moby (00:02:24):

So to answer the first question, and, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. This is sort of a little bit just based on my knowledge around remixing that one of the first remixes I was ever aware of, and it's a really fascinating story, is the Simon and Garfunkel song, the Sound of Silence. So Simon and Garfunkel had been a folk duo and they wrote the, an acoustic version of Sound of Silence, and it did nothing. They put it out on Columbia Records and it failed. As far as I know, Paul Simon then went back to college. I think he even went to to Oxford.

Moby (00:02:59):

So he left New York, went to England, and then a producer at Columbia fell in love with this song and he brought in a bunch of musicians to turn it into a rock song. So they brought it into the studio. He brought in a drummer, he brought in a bass player, an electric guitarist, and they replayed it and then remixed it and released it and became this huge hit. But Paul Simon, the story goes, was in Oxford. So like Columbia Records called Paul Simon and said, by the way, you might wanna come back cuz you have a number one single in the United States because this amazing producer at Columbia had remixed it. So that sort of looks at your first question of like, what's the purpose of a remix? The idea is to repurpose the original song, you know, to take a piece of music and either for creative reasons or commercial reasons, change it and modify it for a specific purpose.

Lindsay (00:03:53):

So there's a difference between a remixes, a whole song that you have redone, repurposed. A sample is just a piece of a song that you've repurposed.

Moby (00:04:03):

Yeah, yeah. A sample is a sample is just anything you can hear. Like a sample can be a hundredth of a second long or it can be 10 minutes long, but a, a sample is basically just, it's a little chunk of audio.

Lindsay (00:04:14):

Right. And the remix is the whole thing.

Moby (00:04:16):

Remix would be a whole song. And then what then, and this had been going on for a little while, but then more creative remixing started happening in the seventies with the advent of disco because a lot of record labels would put out a song and they would bring it to a nightclub DJ and say, Hey, can you play this new song by Diana Ross? Or by so-and-so? And the DJ would be like, "yeah, there's a big problem. It doesn't sound like anything else I'm playing." So then the record companies in the late sixties, early seventies started saying to DJs, "Can you remix this song into something you would play?" And originally that might've just meant like, make the drums louder, make the vocals bigger so that it would sound okay in a nightclub. But then eventually by the mid seventies, a lot of the remixers, the DJs were bringing in their own production.

Moby (00:05:10):

So they were essentially rerecording elements of the song and then remixing it so it could get played in discos. And then this is what really led to like the huge explosion of remixing. A lot of the remixes started being a lot bigger than the originals. And that's when the record companies realized, "oh, we had this original song and then we hired this dj, this producer, this remixer, to remix it. And the original song did nothing. But the remix became huge." A lot of disco songs, that was the case. And, but most of that was done in an analog world. Like you would bring in a percussionist, you would bring in a drummer, you'd bring in a bass player, you'd bring in someone playing keyboards. But then in the late seventies into the early eighties, suddenly digital technology and electronic technology meant that remixers didn't have to work with musicians.

Moby (00:06:02):

And they would work instead with drum programmers working with drum machines and people playing synthesizer, et cetera. And that's what led to the huge explosion. I mean, remixing was already quite big, but by the early eighties, remixing became just a standard part of putting out a record. Like in the sixties, remixing was barely existed in the seventies it became a big thing, but it was still, there weren't that many of them. By the eighties, whenever someone released a record, there would be a remix. It was just a given. Like if you were New Order or Depeche Mode or Dead or Alive or whomever, like if you released a song, there would be remixes. Hmm. And then what started happening there was that original idea of doing a remix. So nightclub DJs could play it, but then there became a lot of different types of nightclub DJs.

Moby (00:06:52):

And so they started doing, in the eighties, especially with hip hop, they started doing different types of remixes for different types of DJs. Like the late eighties was when I got my first foray into the world of remixing. Like, the first remix I ever did was for Mute Records. Um, it was for a band called Fortran 5. And I had never remixed a real artist before and I couldn't believe I'd been asked to do this. And I was so nervous. And I did the remix. And then very quickly after that I got asked by Brian Eno to do a remix and Michael Jackson and Freddy Mercury.

Lindsay (00:07:24):

Crazy. Freddy Mercury?

Moby (00:07:27):

Yeah. That was, that was disconcerting. Cause I did the Freddy Mercury remix after he died. But I had all his vocals sampled so I could, with a keyboard, make Freddy Mercury sing. And it felt very, it was very strange to be like, okay, the nature of these recordings, the vocal sounded like he was in the room with me.

Lindsay (00:07:46):

Crazy.

Moby (00:07:46):

So, and then to sort of keep going, uh, like for example, my first successful song was Go. But the original version of Go was incredibly minimalistic. And the song that became a hit was a remix. And this

Lindsay (00:08:00):

Your own remix?

Moby (00:08:01):

Yeah. So I did a remix of one of my songs, the original no one ever listened to, but the remix became this big top 10 record throughout Europe.

Lindsay (00:08:08):

Crazy.

Moby (00:08:09):

So is any of this interesting or helpful?

Lindsay (00:08:12):

No, it's really interesting. My question is, why not just make the original song the Remix? Especially with Go like, why didn't you do?

Moby (00:08:21):

Oh. Cause I didn't know.

Lindsay (00:08:22):

So Oh, so you, so you put it out and you're like, oh, this is an opportunity to make another version of a song that I made that I love.

Moby (00:08:30):

Yeah. Because it was easy, you know, it's like, well, as the songwriter and the producer and the Remixer, I'm in the same studio using the same equipment. I don't have to go out and hire anyone. And so then that started happening lots more in the nineties where the artist was the producer, was the Remixer. And then what really made a lot of record companies wake up to the power of remixing was when the original song was kind of obscure, but the remix became huge, like, there was a band called Primal Scream, and they had a song called Loaded. And Andrew Weatherall did a remix that became this massive hit. And the original, I like Primal Scream, but no one listened to the original. And then there's some instances where Fat Boy Slim did a remix of this song, Brimful of Asha by Corner Shop. And, and it became this huge international hit. And that kept happening. And that's when the budgets for remixes started going up and up and up because the remixes would go on and have this huge audience and the original, no one would ever listen to it.

Lindsay (00:09:35):

That's crazy. So does it work like you put out an album and the powers that be are like, do remixes for the song, the song, the song? Or do you just put out an album and then a few months later put out a bunch of remixes, just kind of sight unseen?

Moby (00:09:51):

Uh, both. Okay. Any, you know, depends on the nature of the record label. The nature of the artist, the nature of the remix, or how good the remix is. You know, like I've had some instances where, like, for example, I did a song with Debbie Harry, uh, called New York, New York. And she did a great job, to be honest, my version of it was just not very good. I didn't write a great song, I didn't do great production on it. And she did a wonderful job. But like the original, it's not great. But then this remixer named Arman Van Helden, the remix was great. So the remix went on and had this big life, whereas the original, the original is just not that good. Got it. And I guess it's a little bit like snake eating its own tail irony, where like, I've been a remixer for other people and my remixes have done well for other people.

Moby (00:10:41):

But then I've also been in the situation where like other people's remixes have done well for me and I love it. Like, there's this, one other aspect of this is a lot of remixes are unbelievably creative. You know, you send the Remixer your parts, you know, your original song and they remix it and they, like my friend Alex, he was in this band Holy Ghost! On uh, James Murphy from LCD Sound Systems label. And he and his partner Nick did a remix of a song of mine. And they brought in a horn section. They brought in Percussion. Like they did a very old school remix. And the remix was great. The original was okay, but the remix was so much better than the original.

Lindsay (00:11:18):

That is so cool. Do you think Andy Warhol was like a remixer for soup?

Moby (00:11:23):

<laugh> <laugh>? Well, that's the thing. I mean, you could look, take a broader view and say that remix culture is just collage, you know? It's repurposing. And, um, I forget who said it was at maybe Kandinsky in the early 20th century said Collage is the art form of the 20th century. So yeah, Andy Warhol, the pop artists, when he did his silkscreen paintings of Campbell Soup cans, that's a remix. You know, he took some original source material, changed it, repurposed it, and added his creativity to it. And ultimately that's what a remix is.

Lindsay (00:11:56):

There was a trend on TikTok where somebody would post someone telling a version of the story that was entirely untrue. And playing this section of a song that goes, that's the remix <laugh>. So it's like even in repurposing events to make the story match your point of view.

Moby (00:12:14):

Yeah. I mean, you could even say, like, for example, Trump's inauguration in 2017 was very poorly attended. You know, <laugh>, you can see the pictures and it's like clear, there aren't just, weren't that many people there. But he said it was the biggest inauguration history. And he had his people go back in and remix history. Like they went in Photoshop to make pictures that made it look like there were more people. So yeah, it's

Lindsay (00:12:39):

Oh, he's a big Kandinsky fan.

Moby (00:12:41):

<laugh>. But yeah, so that idea of remixing, like in its broadest sense is taking source material and simply modifying it for a purpose. You know, in some cases the purpose is to make people dance. In other cases like Trump, the purpose is to lie because you're an insane person.

Lindsay (00:13:01):

Yeah. Um, I wonder if we should start talking about Walk With Me, which you've made a remix for, but it's also on the upcoming album. Resound, if you wanna talk about Walk With Me and how you recorded the original and how you recorded the Resound version and why you made the a remix for that song.

Moby (00:13:20):

Sure. So it's a l a long-ish story that hopefully I won't ramble on too much about, but the beginning is really interesting. So somehow in the early 2000s I became good friends with Lou Reed and.

Lindsay (00:13:34):

that's pretty cool.

Moby (00:13:35):

You know, so like Lou and I, I remember one amazing night we had dinner, he, Lou and Laurie Anderson and Iman and David Bowie and I all had dinner together and I was like, what world am I living in when I'm having dinner in David Bowie's apartment with Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson and Iman. Yeah. That's fun. And I'm just the whole time pretending that this is normal. Like, cuz I, I lived across the street from David Bowie mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I came over and we all hung out and we were all just like relaxed friends, except I was with Lou Reed and David Bowie and Laurie Anderson and Iman.

Lindsay (00:14:03):

Nonsense.

Moby (00:14:03):

Yeah, I know. It's, I, yeah, that <laugh>, there's still a chance that that never happened and I'm just hallucinating <laugh>. But, so Lou and I became, we did a lot of stuff together. We played Walk on the Wild Side together at the Fader Fort at a South by Southwest. We played lots of fundraisers cuz he, he and Laurie were very involved in like pro-democratic fundraising mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And there was one Sunday, I don't remember the exact year, 2003, maybe 2004. And Lou emailed me and said, Hey, I'm having dinner with Laurie and Bill T Jones in Tribeca. Do you wanna join us? And I was like, of course Bill t Jones was this legendary choreographer. He was involved with Spring Awakening with Fela! Like just this revered, deservedly so revered legendary choreographer.

Lindsay (00:14:55):

Yeah. Definite legend.

Moby (00:14:56):

So I went to dinner and at one point during dinner, bill stood up and Bill is, you know this, at this point, I guess he was maybe in his sixties or seventies, like an an older, super attractive shaved head black man. And he got up and he started singing this song, Walk With Me and doing this spontaneous choreography in the middle of the restaurant. And everyone in the restaurant stopped cuz there's, it was very special to have this man suddenly acapella singing walk with me doing choreography. And then he pulled Lou up from his chair where Lou was sitting and started hugging and dancing with Lou. And Lou was a complicated person and Lou was oftentimes annoyed by things not with me. Like he was always kind and delightful with me, but like, almost everybody in the music business has a negative Lou Reed story about him being kind of difficult. It's not to malign Lou, but clearly like he, he had a cranky side, but when he, a

Lindsay (00:15:49):

Man who knows what he wants.

Moby (00:15:50):

Sure. <laugh>. Um, but so when Lou was dancing with Bill T Jones, Lou had his eyes closed and he looked like just the happiest baby. Like he was, so he had his, you know, his head resting on Bill's shoulder while Bill sang Walk With Me and Danced, did a spontaneous choreography and it was really a beautiful moment. So for my next record, I wanted to do a cover of Walk With Me and I wanted,

Lindsay (00:16:13):

And what is Where is Walk With Me?

Moby (00:16:15):

It's an old, you know, hun, at least a couple of hundred years old.

Lindsay (00:16:18):

Got it.

Moby (00:16:19):

And so I did a version of it and I thought it was nice. Very few people ever heard it. Um, but then it came time to do this new album, resound. And I had the opportunity to go back and revisit some songs that I loved that no one else had heard and Walk With Me With was one of them. And there's a singer in Los Angeles named Lady Blackbird, whose voice I just think is phenomenal. Like, I mean,

Lindsay (00:16:46):

I can say her voice blows my mind, it's so emotional and beautiful, her voice. And so, and she's really cool, <laugh>.

Moby (00:16:54):

And so I reached out to her to see if she would sing, Walk With Me on this album, this Deutsche Grammophon album, resound and to my Great Happiness, she said Yes. Like, I think we've talked about this, where sometimes I work with singers, I reach out to people and it takes a year to get them to respond. In this case, she and her manager responded like two minutes after I contacted them and they said, sure, of course. And I sent them the music. The next day they sent the vocals back.

Lindsay (00:17:21):

Wow.

Moby (00:17:22):

So the version that she did, which is on the album, is very austere. Like, I really wanted to create this minimalist very, almost like traditional one chord approach to the song. But then the people at Deutsche Grammophon heard it and they loved it, and they said, "Let's release it as a single." And I was like, "Really?" Like, I love this song. But when you think of a single, you think of Carly Ray Jepsen, you think of Olivia Rodrigo, you think of tho those pop people, you know,

Lindsay (00:17:55):

Pop stars, yeah.

Moby (00:17:56):

Bit loud, you think of big loud songs with huge choruses and the

Lindsay (00:17:59):

That'll stand out on the radio.

Moby (00:18:01):

Yeah. And the version of Walk With Me, it's basically an acapella with a little bit of instrumentation around it and I was like, I love this song, but how could this be a single? And so they were like, no, they love it. They want to put it out as a single. And so then I thought, well, let me play around with it and respectfully create some remixes, because for me to make a remix, it doesn't cost anything. I don't date and I don't socialize. So I have lots of free time to work on things. So I just <laugh> I made some remixes and one of them in particular I felt has a really nice quality. And that's the one that we're going to deconstruct here.

Lindsay (00:18:35):

Amazing. I can't wait to do that. Like, do you ever worry that the remixes will overshadow or confuse the original version? Or do you even care? You're just like, whichever one resonates, resonates?

Moby (00:18:49):

It's a great question. I mean, we live in this remix culture where at this point, for the most part, everyone's used to different versions, you know, it used to be stranger, like, there was this time in the late eighties, early nineties where like when you did a remix, people felt like you had hurt the original. And eventually they realized, oh, the original isn't changed at all. Like, if you want to go back and listen to the original, uh, it's always there. And sometimes people do remixes of songs that shouldn't be remixed. Like, I've heard some, you know, I don't wanna mention names, but like every now and then you hear a song that's so iconic, you're like, don't touch it. Like, like Yeah. Yeah. Especially don't try and make a club remix out of an iconic, beautiful song that should kind of be left alone. So I, so I am one of those people who occasionally thinks the source material should not be touched, but I'm also happy to be proven wrong. Uh, but yeah, like for example, if you were to remix a sculpture, you would mess up the original sculpture. If you remix a song, the original is, is untouched. Yeah. Um, so maybe some people get upset. Like I said, I, I might even be one of those people sometimes,

Lindsay (00:19:57):

At certain songs. Yeah, that makes sense. Like, I think that there's movies that should not have a sequel and should not be remade.

Moby (00:20:05):

Yeah. I mean, it reminds me a little bit of like, when they remade Fritz Lang's Metropolis, which was a black and white silent film, and they re they colorized it and added a modern soundtrack.

Lindsay (00:20:17):

Weird.

Moby (00:20:17):

And, you know, like, I mean, if it was done, I guess, I mean, as someone who has remixed a lot of things, far be it for me to criticize other people who remix or repurposed things. But it does seem like if it's done in the spirit of creativity, that can be a beautiful thing.

Lindsay (00:20:32):

Yeah.

Moby (00:20:32):

If it's done to just create new revenue streams from existing content that seems a little off.

Lindsay (00:20:37):

And it shows when, that's the only goal I will say I do like it when people do versions of old, of old ideas, like old books or old Shakespeare plays, like, um, like how Clueless was, uh, Emma or How, what was that, uh, 10 Things I Hate About You Was Taming of the Shrew. Like, I like those, those are really cool. But that's less of a re is it a remix or is it it's an updated,

Moby (00:21:03):

It's you're, I mean, you're repurposing source materials. So from my perspective, at his most basic, that is the basic criteria for remix culture. Have you identified source material and modified it or repurposed it?

Lindsay (00:21:17):

Okay. And let me ask you this question, because now I'm like, I do, I wanna learn how to remix a song, um, or how to remix Bagel's bark into a beautiful tune. When you hear a song, do you make music to go under it? Based on what, like how do you decide how you're gonna do that?

Moby (00:21:35):

Every single time it's different, you know, I mean, I remember one time, I, I was asked to do, um, some production and remix for Metallica. And so for fun, I did a jazz remix of one of their songs kind of just because I, I mean, I, of course I did more serious remixes, but I did this delicate jazz remix. They never told me, but I was told that they thought it was really funny. Like that someone would do a jazz lounge version of a Metallica song with James Hetfield's vocals.

Lindsay (00:22:06):

I kind of love that.

Moby (00:22:07):

So, but every song is different. Like sometimes, like when I remixed Michael Jackson's beat it, I turned it into basically like an early nineties rave song with break beats and weird Belgian style rave sounds. Sometimes you do remixes that are incredibly quiet, sometimes they're loud, sometimes they're dance oriented, sometimes they're rock oriented. Like every time it's different. Here's a slightly adorable story. <laugh>, I did a remix for Sound Garden. And I was talking to Chris Cornell. So Chris, you know, Chris Cornell was this wonderful, lovely human being, and he heard the remix and he was like, wow, thank you so much for doing this remix. This is so cool. And I was like, wow, thank you. It was my pleasure to remix Sound Garden. I love Sound Garden. And then he said, so what are you gonna do with it? And I had to explain to him like, oh, you own it. Like, <laugh>, this is your like, but he didn't, he was like, but you rewrote the song. I was like, yeah, but this is a remix, so now you like you, you and your record company own the remix. And he had the hardest time wrapping his head around that.

Lindsay (00:23:08):

That is so precious.

Moby (00:23:09):

Yeah. He was like, so what are you gonna do with your remix? I was like, well, it's not really mine, it's yours

Lindsay (00:23:13):

Too gentle for this world.

Moby (00:23:15):

Yep. So I have become aware of the fact that a lot of the remixes that I've done for other people, or that I've done for myself, or remixes that have been done for me are not in a playlist. So we are going to start a Spotify playlist of remixes that I've done for other people, remixes that have been done for me and remixes that I've done for myself. It's hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tracks, some of which might have just disappeared over the years. But we're, we're gonna start putting this playlist together. The link will be in the show notes for Moby Pod. And if you have any suggestions or any ideas about remixes that we've missed, please let us know what remixes we have forgotten to include in the Moby Remix playlist on Spotify.

Lindsay (00:24:15):

So before we enter into the world of the remix of Walk With Me walkthrough, I have some important things I'd like to discuss with you.

Moby (00:24:26):

Okay, great.

Lindsay (00:24:27):

<laugh>, first of all, I want to know your most favorite recent fact that you've discovered. It doesn't have to be recent, I guess, but just a favorite fact that we haven't talked about on the pod before.

Moby (00:24:37):

Okay. And it's actually one that's been, it's an updated fact. Okay. So in the early seventies, a biologist released a report, I forget his name, basically stating that 90% of our bodies, like is non-human. So the, the statistic was that only about 10% of our bodies were actually human. That the vast majority of the cells on us, in us, et cetera, were bacteria, other types of creatures, et cetera. That fact has been upgraded, sadly, I loved that fact that like 90% of us was not human. Turns out it's more like 50%. Even the NIH have reported that the more accurate data point is that 50% of who we are is not us. I love the, the weird paradox in that, the fact that at least half of us is not us, you know, that we are just these essentially like fleshy buses for bacteria like shepherding bacteria and other things from the time we're born until the time we're dying.

Moby (00:25:44):

The bacteria do fine with every part of the journey. The only thing they don't like is when we bathe, apparently bacteria really don't do too well with like, well obviously antibacterial sprays and things, but they really don't like bathing. Which, if you're a fan of bacteria the way I am, like I just appreciate them. They've been around way longer than we have. I mean, bacteria are three and a half billion years old. So I feel like every time I bathe I have to sort of, you know, apologize to the billions and billions of bacteria I'm killing by bathing

Lindsay (00:26:15):

Poor bacteria.

Moby (00:26:17):

Poor bacteria. I feel, I mean, I'm nothing, you know, like I'm around for a few decades. These bacteria are three and a half billion years old. It's like I have to show them a little respect.

Lindsay (00:26:25):

Yeah, totally. Let me ask you something important. Do you find yourself feeling the urge when you're walking around? Go "Choo choo, here comes the meat train!" Since you're just a meat train for bacterias

Moby (00:26:36):

<laugh>. Uh, I, yeah. Have I ever up until this moment, the little phrase choo choo, here comes the meat train has never crossed my mind. But I guess that's what we are. But

Lindsay (00:26:48):

That's what we are, we're just carrying around passengers.

Moby (00:26:50):

We're carrying these.

Lindsay (00:26:51):

It could also be meat plane, meat car, beat

Moby (00:26:53):

Bus. Yeah. We're carrying these bacteria from yesterday to tomorrow. That is, we're basically like time we're, we're time travel vehicles for bacteria.

Lindsay (00:27:03):

It's like you don't have pets, but you also kind of do

Moby (00:27:07):

Trillions of them. <laugh> trillions of these little guys. And did I ever tell you my microscope story? No. So <laugh> about, I guess 10 or 12 years ago, I was having Christmas at David Lynch's house. And as I was leaving I noticed he had this really fancy microscope and I was like, wow, what a cool microscope. And David said, and I'm gonna do my David Lynch impersonation. He said, Moby borrow it. I don't use it anymore. And so I borrowed the David Lynch microscope, I took it back home and I started playing around with it. And I walked to a stream in Los Angeles. There aren't too many streams in Los Angeles, and I got a cup of stream water and I took it home and I took the tiniest little eyedropper of stream water and I put it on a slide. And this is probably completely self-evident for anyone who's a biologist or has their own fancy microscope. But I looked at this little bitty dollop of stream water under the microscope. It's a universe. Yeah. It was, you pull focus and like every time you pull focus you see new creatures. Like there's so many creatures and this is just like the tiniest little dollop of stream water. And it just makes you realize the unseen microscopic world is so unbelievably vast.

Lindsay (00:28:18):

Like the universes within universes on our little tiny planet.

Moby (00:28:23):

Yeah. I mean the human experience, human perception is practically speaking nothing. Like we don't see even one-tenth of 1% of 1% of 1% of the life that's on us.

Lindsay (00:28:37):

Mm-hmm. <affirmative> or around us.

Moby (00:28:38):

Or around us. And that's there constantly <affirmative> and we have no, no awareness of it unless we smell a little bit. Right. You know, or unless we get sick. Right. If we get an infection, then we're like, oh, I guess there's bacteria. But the truth is the world is just a wash in this sea of bacteria.

Lindsay (00:28:53):

Beautiful bacteria.

Moby (00:28:54):

I think, I mean it also in their little lies protects us. Like people have, not to ramble on too long about this, but there have been lots of studies showing that excessive bathing is actually really bad for you.

Lindsay (00:29:05):

Yeah. Your skin needs some of that bacteria. But then there's also like, okay, this is something I've never looked up before, but now I'm wondering, so when you take a probiotic supplement, are you just taking a little capsule of bacteria?

Moby (00:29:17):

Yeah. That's why it needs to be refrigerated

Lindsay (00:29:19):

Because they're living organisms,

Moby (00:29:20):

They're alive. Like when you take a capsule of probiotics, you're eating, ideally you're eating bacteria that's alive. And a lot of people eat probiotics that are not alive. And it's kind of pointless. Like you have to be eating living bacteria. Like if you, or same thing if like fermented foods, kimchi, kefir, tempe, miso, like these fermented foods, the benefit is they all have living bacteria. Like when you make miso soup, you're not supposed to heat it above 130 degrees because that kills off the bacteria. Wow. I'm a font of data around bacteria <laugh>. So my, my very unbelievably long-winded rambling fact is the fact that at least 50% of who we are is bacteria.

Lindsay (00:30:04):

I think it's a beautiful fact.

Moby (00:30:05):

Okay. So what's yours?

Lindsay (00:30:06):

Well mine is something that I think you might like, which is archeologists found the skull of what seems to be a very well-to-do man in the bronze age. So that could be 3,300 to 1200 BC somewhere in there who has signs of having brain surgery but the kind of brain surgery where they cut a little hole in your brain.

Moby (00:30:30):

Trepanning.

Lindsay (00:30:31):

Yes. That's exactly what it's called. You know about this.

Moby (00:30:33):

Yeah. Trepanning is they, they still do it. They

Lindsay (00:30:36):

Cut a little hole in your brain. A tiny hole. Yeah. To relieve pressure.

Moby (00:30:39):

Well, trepanning, I actually met someone who had, had trepanning done six times to

Lindsay (00:30:45):

Their brain, to their head.

Moby (00:30:46):

Yeah. She worked there was this amazing vegan restaurant in lower Manhattan, and this woman was a monk who worked there. So she had a shaved head. So you could see Hert tropan scars and, and I what went there all the time. And eventually I was like, so have you had trepanning done? And apparently, at least according to her, and according to internet information, trepanning, like it can be quite euphoric. It gives you an sense of enlightenment. Like it's, it's part of some spiritual traditions. I, I mean, I personally don't want to have drills put into my head. Well

Lindsay (00:31:20):

They stopped doing it because I don't know how effective it was. And also people were dying of infections more than they were actually being cured of anything.

Moby (00:31:28):

Oh, I think they still do it. I mean, according to this woman, there is like a trepanning underground of like, I mean think of like the Burning Man people who get like all sorts of crazy piercings.and things like, they're definitely,

Lindsay (00:31:38):

There's one more hole in the head.

Moby (00:31:39):

I guarantee that there are some people, like some burners who are probably getting trepanned right now.

Lindsay (00:31:46):

Well, they have a version of it that's called craniotomy where they remove a piece of the skull to get to the brain so they can treat other conditions like get, get a brain tumor out.

Moby (00:31:54):

Well, I think, I mean, cuz trepanning, my understanding is it's not actually to treat an illness, it's to sort of foster enlightenment and euphoria. Whoa. That's, I'm, maybe someone listening is a trepanner or an expert on trepanning and they have a different perspective. If so, please let us know. But I, based on my conversations, it was very interesting seeing this woman with six perfect circular scars on her head from trepanning.

Lindsay (00:32:21):

So they cut it out and they let her brain breathe for a minute and then they just pop that skull piece back in.

Moby (00:32:26):

I think they let it heal. Like they leave it open and then they, I I don't, I didn't actually talk to her about that. Like I was more interested in like, why in the 21st century would you be getting trepanned

Lindsay (00:32:38):

Because it feels real good?

Moby (00:32:39):

I, according to...

Lindsay (00:32:40):

That's amazing. Yeah.

Moby (00:32:41):

So,

Lindsay (00:32:41):

But anyway, I guess I was just shocked by the fact that so long ago they were doing brain surgeries.

Moby (00:32:48):

Yep. I mean, but, but I, again, because it was trepanning back then, this bronze age man, my assumption is it was more a spiritual practice as opposed to surgery. Or again an assumption would be he might have had some mental illness and they thought that by opening up his brain a little bit, it would release the demons that were possessing him.

Lindsay (00:33:07):

Yeah. I'm sure there was some sort of element of "You are sick because there's a demonn in your brain and we have to release the brain demon."

Moby (00:33:14):

Yeah.

Lindsay (00:33:15):

Makes sense.

Moby (00:33:16):

Maybe he was happier.

Lindsay (00:33:17):

Maybe so? Anyway, that's my fact. Okay. Is old, old school brain surgeries

Moby (00:33:21):

From the, so two good facts like that 50% of us is, at least 50% of us is bacteria and not human. And that people have been drilling holes in their head for a long time.

Lindsay (00:33:33):

For thousands of years.

Moby (00:33:33):

of their own free will. Yeah.

Moby (00:33:43):

So what else you wanna talk about today?

Lindsay (00:33:45):

Who is your current hero?

Moby (00:33:48):

Okay. I know who, I know who I'm gonna pick.

Lindsay (00:33:51):

Okay. Who are you gonna pick?

Moby (00:33:52):

Should I go first? Yes. Okay. My hero, it's, it's someone we both know. Okay. Is our friend Lindsay Lewis.

Lindsay (00:34:01):

Oh.

Moby (00:34:02):

And I assume that very few people listening would know who she is. So Lindsay's a friend of ours, not you, Lindsay, other Lindsay. The other Lindsay. We, we sort of to, to avoid confusion, we call you Bagel Lindsay and Lindsay Lewis is Dexter Lindsay

Lindsay (00:34:17):

Cuz she has a cute, adorable dog named Dexter.

Moby (00:34:20):

Yeah. So Dexter Lindsay is my hero because she is this, I think the expression's a polymath. Like she doesn't just, she actually's a math teacher, but she does all these other things and she manages to work animal rights and veganism into everything she does., you know, like there are a lot of us activists who, like, we post on social media, we go to marches, we do things and that's great. But like she's a college professo And in a way she kind of forces her kids to do math problems around animal agriculture.

Lindsay (00:34:55):

We'll say, invites them to do math problems.

Moby (00:34:57):

And I think that's the way she works her animal activism into being a professor. And some of the times the teach the kids might not like it, but she's like, it's a math problem. It just happens to be about animal agriculture , like it's not indoctrination, you know, it's using animal agriculture as the foundation for math problems. But I think that's quite interesting. But also, she's a really gifted painter as you know and she does so much free art for animal organizations.

Lindsay (00:35:22):

She also made me a free art once.

Moby (00:35:23):

And then lastly, she's a standup comedian and she's a really gifted standup comedian. And when she does her standup comedy, she keeps working veganism and animal rights into her standup comedy. So she's my hero apart from the fact that, that she's our friend, but like, because she is incorporating her animal rights activism into these disciplines where traditionally activism is not a big part of it. Standup comedy and being a college professor.

Lindsay (00:35:50):

But also something about Lindsay that I find to be special as her, as her friend, but also in a more general sense is her fearlessness that she doesn't care what people think. She doesn't care if she challenges someone in a way that makes them push back at her, like she's ready for it because she believes in it so much. It's just, she's a very, very powerful person. But also it's very rare to be like, yeah, I teach math and I paint and I'm a standup comedian. And I also make a delicious candied cashew.

Moby (00:36:22):

Yeah. She does make a really good cashew.

Lindsay (00:36:24):

Yeah. <laugh>. Um,

Moby (00:36:25):

But yeah, you're right. That sort of leaning into conflict in a, like, you know, in a really fascinating way cuz most of us, a lot of people are very conflict averse or confrontation averse. And she seems to thrive on, like, she seems to love the idea that when she puts something out into the world, a lot of people might respond adversely to

Lindsay (00:36:46):

It. Well especially because I think we all know very well by now how people respond to a plant-based animal rights type of thing. Yeah. Where there's, you know, they just say bacon a bunch of times or say that like we're, we are from caves and should eat flesh of beings. Like really absurd things

Moby (00:37:05):

Because what could be more offensive than people who care about animals and human health and workers and the environment. Like

Lindsay (00:37:12):

Yeah. How dare I know all the things to fight back against. But, but yeah. She knows what like the kind of canned responses are gonna be and she just doesn't give a shit.

Moby (00:37:19):

Yep.

Lindsay (00:37:19):

And it is so cool. I love that she's your hero.

Moby (00:37:21):

Yeah. So, our friend Dexter Lindsay. Lindsay Lewis is my hero this week.

Lindsay (00:37:27):

Oh. But wait, we forgot to mention that he also does amazing like animations and stuff like that mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. She's just great. There's really nothing she doesn't do. She also dresses amazing and has the most beautiful hair in America

Moby (00:37:38):

And in a very delightful, endearing way. Knows nothing about the news. I know like on January 6th, unless Taylor Swift <laugh>, I was texting her on January 6th while the insurrection was happening, you know, thousands of people attacking the capitol building. I said, wow, there's a coup happening. And her response was, don't be such a drama queen <laugh>. And I was just like, okay. Cuz she doesn't,

Lindsay (00:38:01):

She has no, understanding of the news.

Moby (00:38:01):

She knows math, she knows Dexter, she knows Taylor Swift, she knows comedy, but like, it's kind of delightful that she like, is thrilled to not know that there's a coup and an insurrection happening while it's happening.

Lindsay (00:38:15):

But it's beyond just politics. Because I'll send a picture of, uh, Pamela Anderson. And she'll be like, who's that? Yeah. She just doesn't know who any any public figures are

Moby (00:38:25):

Unless it's Taylor Swift

Lindsay (00:38:26):

Unless it's Taylor Swift, it's just, it's pretty endearing. Yeah. And something I love and also envy about her, honestly.

Moby (00:38:32):

So who's who's your hero? Well,

Lindsay (00:38:34):

I'll tell you, and I think it's because she's been in the news a lot lately, but also I just think she's kind of a badass, is the Fulton County District Attorney, Fani Willis.

Moby (00:38:42):

Oh, good choice. I'm, I'm right there with you. She, I, I love my choice as hero, but Fani is remarkable.

Lindsay (00:38:48):

She manages to have a little bit of swagger and all of this amazing stuff that she's doing. But also she's been doing, she was a prosecutor for 19 years. She's the first black woman to lead the Georgia's largest DA office. It's just, she's cool. Yep. And another fearless person who seems to have no fear.

Moby (00:39:06):

Phenomenal choice.

Lindsay (00:39:07):

Yeah. Thanks. I just, I've been reading about her and I'm like, what an amazing role model. Like what an amazing thing for like young girls to see and be like, oh,

Moby (00:39:15):

I couldn't agree more.

Lindsay (00:39:16):

Yeah. We love her.

Lindsay (00:39:27):

Moby. I know that you are a prolific musician,

Moby (00:39:32):

uhoh <laugh>,

Lindsay (00:39:34):

But I also know that you have very little, if any, familiarity with current music in the zeitgeist.

Moby (00:39:41):

Yeah. I mean, I'm, if I'm being completely honest, I take a little bit of pride in the fact that I don't know anything about contemporary pop music. Like, I'm sure some of it's fine, but I've never heard a Harry Styles song. I heard one Olivia Rodrigo song and I thought it sounded like a nice old new wave song. Um, I like Kendrick Lamar. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but like pop music. I mean, I, I'm not in the demographic like it's, it's music for like 14 year old kids on Snapchat. Like, it'd be weird if, wouldn't it be weird if I was intimately aware of what was going on in the world of pop music?

Lindsay (00:40:17):

I don't think that would be weird because you are a musician who is in the business of music.

Moby (00:40:21):

But I guess there's also, if I'm being honest, there's a part of me that like, it's just depressing that it's so a political that it's not challenging. Like, it doesn't, like I watched the last time I watched The Grammys, it was so depressing be, this was a few years ago because no one mentioned politics. No one used their platform as a vehicle for activism. Everyone was just like, you know, especially like the, the wealthy musicians who are just trying to get wealthier, it seems wrong. Like, if you have enough money, like why do you need more? Like if you have one house, why do you need three? If you have one car, why do you need five? Why? Like, I just don't understand that like, that culture of excess, especially when you have a platform that could be used to draw attention to important issues. In any case, I don't think that's what you wanted to talk about. You want, you wanna talk about me being old and ignorant and knowing nothing about pop music?

Lindsay (00:41:12):

Yes. That's exactly what I wanna talk about though. I, I don't think that you are old or ignorant, but I do think that your lack of knowledge around pop music is really, really funny. Because I think that pop music is one of those things that passively, it's not like it's something that I will throw on and listen to when I'm at home and dancing around cleaning my dishes. But I have a passing familiarity with, with so many songs just because I have social media and go to grocery stores. You know what I mean?

Moby (00:41:38):

Yeah. I mean, every now and then, I know a song. Like there was that song Take Me To Church. I knew that.

Lindsay (00:41:43):

Yeah. That, oh that was a very good song from

Moby (00:41:46):

Um, I also like that song Royals by Lorde.

Lindsay (00:41:48):

Okay. There was a,

Moby (00:41:49):

And I like, I like some Beyonce songs from a quite a long time ago. But as far as anything going on now, I have no idea.

Lindsay (00:41:56):

So to that end, I wanna play a little game of "finish the lyric". Okay. With a Miley Cyrus song where, I don't know if you know about this and this song has been out for a while now, but she has a song called Flowers and it basically copy, it's, it's like a call and response that's just like the other side of a Bruno Mars song. Almost. Exactly. I'll send it to you and listen to it. It's like he's saying, "I should have bought you flowers" and she's saying "I can buy myself flowers." And basically,

Moby (00:42:23):

oh, I saw billboard around that. Now I understand it. Cause there was a billboard that said "I can buy my own flowers." And I was like, "Okay, what's that?"

Lindsay (00:42:28):

So it basically answers exactly this Bruno Mars song. Like every single piece, her song is the answer or like the kind of self-empowering version of that. So I'm gonna

Moby (00:42:40):

Say maybe it might be making a little bit too much effort. I don't know. I mean Okay. I haven't heard it so I don't know. I do know there's one Bruno Mars song. I know cuz they use it on a family guy episode for like 30 seconds. It's like this very upbeat song. I couldn't, I haven't. Yes. So, so I have heard 30 seconds of a Bruno Mars song. Cause they use it in Family Guy.

Lindsay (00:43:00):

I do love a good Bruno Mars song. It's catchy, fun. dancey, poppy. I love it. But anyway, hers is the kind of response to that song almost. Exactly. And I don't think he has a credit on her song. Okay. I don't think. Anyway, that's kind.

Moby (00:43:13):

So, so you're gonna ask me to complete.

Lindsay (00:43:15):

So I'm gonna have you complete the lyric. So the lyric is, and I'm gonna say everything up to the part that you finish.

Moby (00:43:21):

Yeah.

Lindsay (00:43:21):

"I can buy myself flowers. I can hold my own hand, talk to myself for hours. Say things <blank>... "

Moby (00:43:31):

"I can buy my own flowers, talk, hold my own hand, talk to myself for hours and say things that... Only Bagel would understand."

Lindsay (00:43:43):

<laugh> Close! That's actually very close. And honestly I think an improvement on the lyric. No offense, Miley.

Moby (00:43:49):

Okay. So what's her lyric?

Lindsay (00:43:50):

"Say things you don't understand."

Moby (00:43:53):

I like the idea of Bagel understanding as opposed to excluding like Bagel saying like Bagel would understand that's inclusive. As opposed to you don't understand, "say things you don't understand?" It's like, oh, come on <laugh>. So okay, I am gonna vote for my lyrics. That is inclusive with Bagel as opposed to excluding whoever the "you" in that song is great. Also, maybe I'm a little Miley and I used to, we've, we've done some stuff together in the past. Um, but she stopped being a vegan and that makes me sad.

Lindsay (00:44:23):

I get that.

Moby (00:44:23):

So there's a little bit of resentment on my part. I'm like, come on. Like, it's just so sad when people are like, when anyone says like, I used to be vegan. I'm like, oh, come on. No, stop it. Like, just stay vegan above all else.

Lindsay (00:44:36):

She does rescue a lot of dogs and boy does she look good right now.

Moby (00:44:40):

Okay.

Lindsay (00:44:41):

So that's something.

Moby (00:44:42):

Sure.

Lindsay (00:44:43):

<laugh>.

Lindsay (00:44:53):

So now we just need to make up a song and I think maybe we should make up a song about being half bacteria.

Moby (00:45:00):

Yeah! Great! Um, and you wanna play an instrument too?

Lindsay (00:45:03):

I just wanna bang on something.

Moby (00:45:05):

Okay, so I have an idea. What, I have a guitar here and I have a banjo.

Lindsay (00:45:10):

Okay.

Moby (00:45:12):

So what I thought I would do is I would take the guitar and give it an open tuning where you could just play it and it's like, it's gonna sound nice. And I'll play the banjo around that open tuning. Okay. And this is what it would normally sound like. That's, that's a regular good old fashioned guitar tuning. Okay. So I'm going to turn it into, let me think. What chord should it be? How about just, we'll keep nice and simple. Give you a nice D major okay.

Lindsay (00:45:37):

It's one of my favorite of the chord types.

Moby (00:45:40):

Okay. So we take the E string and tune it down to a D. So here's the D string... And here's the E string. So go... <tunes guitar> Now they're the same note just by an octave. And so we'll take the G string and tune it up to the A <tunes guitar> hoping it doesn't break. Now we're gonna take the B string, bring that down to an A as well. <tunes guitar>

Lindsay (00:46:10):

Woo. Hello

Moby (00:46:11):

<laugh>. So now we have, this is an open, so tune to an open D chord. <plays guitar chord> Okay. Doesn't that sound nice? ,

Lindsay (00:46:18):

Oh that's beautiful!

Moby (00:46:19):

And so that way you don't have to know how to play guitar. You can just go, <strums rhythm pattern>

Lindsay (00:46:26):

You know, you're putting a lot of faith in me thinking that I can even strum to a beat.

Moby (00:46:30):

You don't, I mean you don't really have to do anything. So now I got my banjo. Um, yeah. And now I've got my banjo here. So

Lindsay (00:46:46):

Yeah, we're gonna write a song about

Moby (00:46:50):

<hums> Well, but you gotta play as well.

Lindsay (00:46:52):

I don't know. I'm having a really hard time doing anything other than playing my open tunings.

Moby (00:46:59):

Um, <sings> "Well it turns out that we're not human." You hear me Lynn?

Speaker 3 (00:47:18):

Yeah.

Moby (00:47:20):

<sings> "Well it turns out" <speaks> when you play banjo, you gotta make your voice kind of banjo. "Like, well it turns out" like you, like you're sitting down on the farm in 1915.) <sings> "Well, it turns out we're not human after all. Not at all human. Just 50% human. And the rest of us is tiny little bugs."

Moby (00:47:49):

You like, you like my old timey agricultural banjo voice?

Lindsay (00:47:54):

Your agricultural voice

Moby (00:47:55):

<sings> Well!

Lindsay (00:47:56):

<laugh>

Moby (00:47:57):

<laugh>. Hi Bagel.

Lindsay (00:47:59):

Bagel liked that too!

Moby (00:48:02):

Um, <plays banjo rifff> Okay, so that's the made up song with open tuning and banjo about the fact that we are 50% bacteria.

Lindsay (00:48:18):

I thought it was so good.

Moby (00:48:31):

Okay, so I have opened up this remix that I've done of Walk With Me and I thought I could sort of play you how it's come together because maybe that's interesting.

Lindsay (00:48:43):

I find it to be interesting and also the opportunity to listen to Lady Blackbird. I will accept it literally anytime.

Moby (00:48:51):

Okay, so here I'll start with her vocals.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:48:55):

<sings> Walk with Me, walk with Me.

Moby (00:49:04):

That's her amazing voice. What do you think?

Lindsay (00:49:07):

So good.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:49:09):

Oh...

Moby (00:49:11):

And then I added a little bit of interesting delay and reverb. which would sound like this.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:49:22):

<sings> Walk with me Lord

Moby (00:49:27):

With a sort of a dubbed sound. What do you think so far?

Lindsay (00:49:33):

I mean, I'll take, yeah, I think it's great.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:49:36):

<sings> Oh Lord...

Moby (00:49:38):

And then I would add a little kick drum.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:49:42):

<sings> Won't you walk with me?

Moby (00:49:46):

Which on its own isn't that interesting? And then maybe a little snare drum

Lady Blackbird recording (00:49:49):

<sings> Walk with me, Lord

Moby (00:49:56):

Just Checking in. Do you have any questions or thoughts?

Lindsay (00:49:58):

Well, I'm, I'm, I'm choosing to trust the process because I feel like kick drums are one of those things that makes sense with more friends.

Moby (00:50:11):

<laughs> So here's just, okay, so here we just have super simple kick drum and snare on its own. And should

Lindsay (00:50:18):

We add, oh that snare is really bringing it home for

Moby (00:50:20):

Me. But if we add a couple of friends, like some more drums. Is that, is that what you're saying by friends?

Lindsay (00:50:24):

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Ooh, okay. That's what I'm talking about people.

Moby (00:50:29):

Okay. So it's sort of almost old school jungle break beat. Um, so those are the, the drums. And we'll bring her vocals back ready?

Lady Blackbird recording (00:50:42):

<sings> Walk with me, Lord

Moby (00:50:47):

So you see how the remix is sort of starting to come together?

Lindsay (00:50:50):

I do. Its cool.

Moby (00:50:52):

Um, and now I would add a bass part.

Moby (00:50:59):

I'm gonna take, everything else is just vocals and bass.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:51:01):

<sings> Won't you walk me?

Lindsay (00:51:05):

Totally different song. All of a sudden.

Moby (00:51:08):

Can we bring back the drums?

Lady Blackbird recording (00:51:09):

<sings> Walk with me. Walk with me.

Moby (00:51:19):

So that's, we'll call that like our rhythm friends because you said friends. Okay. And then I added all these sounds and keyboards. So here's one thing that I just called "odd sound." I don't even know what it is. Some weird synthesizer I had. Isn't that weird? I mean, what is that?

Lindsay (00:51:46):

Kooky! It's cute. It's kind of adorable. Like it would be the theme song for a precious tiny soft robot.

Moby (00:51:52):

<laugh>. Yeah. This is the soft robot talking <laugh>. Did I just call it "odd sound" cuz it's like an old weird digital synthesizer through a whole bunch of processing and then we add in this little weird keyboard sound, which is very pretty, I think

Lindsay (00:52:10):

Very pretty, very ethereal.

Moby (00:52:12):

So here's the ethereal pretty keyboard with the robot talking. And then what do you say? We bring the drums back in. Oh yeah. And then

Lady Blackbird recording (00:52:29):

<sings> Walk with me.

Moby (00:52:33):

So it's starting to come together, right?

Lady Blackbird recording (00:52:35):

<sings> walk with me.

Moby (00:52:36):

But we're not done. There's still a lot more. So, okay. Okay. So now we just have the instruments take out some of the drums. Should I leave? I'll leave the bass in. But here is an old, I love collecting weird old nightclub organs. And so here's a weird old Farfisa

Lindsay (00:53:07):

Farfisa?

Moby (00:53:07):

That's a type of old nightclub organ. But isn't that an interesting sound?

Lindsay (00:53:12):

It's a really cool sound.

Moby (00:53:14):

And then we add in a little synthesizer.

Lindsay (00:53:20):

Ooh.

Moby (00:53:21):

Yep.

Lindsay (00:53:21):

Hey. That had the back and forth between the two.

Moby (00:53:23):

Yeah. You love that.

Lindsay (00:53:26):

Ooh! Oh my god. Oh my

Moby (00:53:27):

God. And you love the back and forth between the two ears. I

Lindsay (00:53:29):

Love it so much.

Moby (00:53:31):

Um, and here's another synthesizer. And maybe even just that with the vocals could be nice. Yeah,

Lindsay (00:53:43):

Let's try that.

Moby (00:53:44):

Okay, so here's these pretty little synthesizer with some vocals

Lady Blackbird recording (00:53:49):

<sings> Walk with me, Lord.

Moby (00:53:54):

Just have to ask you, Linds, is this? Am I just being completely self-involved or is this interesting?

Lindsay (00:53:59):

It's very interesting to me. But also the ear thing was very, I really loved that. Um, but also it's really cool how, because any of them separately, they feel so sparse. But the way that you've managed to make them together, so

Moby (00:54:17):

Well, do you wanna hear the robot again?

Lindsay (00:54:20):

I really do. It's so cute.

Moby (00:54:21):

Okay, here's your cute little robot.

Moby (00:54:27):

Now we'll bring in everything. You ready? So, got robot, kick drum, kick-snare, little drum friends, bass, keyboard. Sit. And now we have, that's everything.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:54:49):

<sings> Walk with me, Lord. Walk with me, Lord. Oh Lord, this tedious journey. Won't you walk with me?

Moby (00:55:01):

What do you think?

Lindsay (00:55:02):

I like it so much. Can I listen to it for another minute?

Moby (00:55:04):

Okay.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:55:09):

<sings> Walk with me, Lord. Walk with me, Lord. Oh Lord, this tedious journey. Won't you walk with me?

Moby (00:55:27):

Do you want me to take some parts out or, or do you think we've listened to all the different parts enough?

Lindsay (00:55:33):

I love all the parts. No, I think

Lindsay (00:55:36):

That's So cool to hear them all separately and then hear how they all work together. It's just a really fun thing.

Moby (00:55:42):

What If we take Out the drums and just have this nice,

Lindsay (00:55:46):

Ooh, that's a fun thing. Let's try that.

Moby (00:56:25):

So I thought maybe to wrap it up, we would just let her voice go on its own.

Lady Blackbird recording (00:56:31):

Yeah. This tedious journey. Won't you walk me?

Moby (00:56:55):

What do you think? I

Lindsay (00:56:56):

Like that so much. It's so good. I love that song. I love her voice and the music is really

Moby (00:57:00):

Great. Do you want, you wanna do something fun? Uh, yes. Okay. So you know how you love that back and forth delay thing. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (00:57:07):

<affirmative>. Yeah. It's the

Moby (00:57:08):

Best. Okay. So here I'm gonna take the last little phrase of her voice and give it that effect that you like. Hopefully. Ooh, cool. Hopefully it's gonna work. It's your favorite effect.

Lindsay (00:57:26):

It's like I can't even talk when it's happening cause I'm like, oh, this is so great.

Moby (00:57:34):

I can put it through reverb. So it sort of disappears. Sounds like crickets on a summer night, doesn't it? Or Frogies?

Lindsay (00:57:45):

It does. It sounds like,

Moby (00:57:47):

Like you're out in the country and there's a little frogies,

Lindsay (00:57:51):

Either that or an an, an alarm in the distance and cricket

Moby (00:57:58):

<laugh>. Okay. We'll say goodbye to our little cricket frog binaural sound <laugh>. Okay. So that's, yeah, that's the deconstructed remix that started with just her voice. Hopefully that was interesting. And not just me being completely self-involved.

Lindsay (00:58:36):

So we have a listener question this week from a few people that emailed Mobypod@moby.com. Ric Allport and Joel Wells are very curious about who the hell I am. <laugh>. And I really get that. So I, I feel like I should tell you because I think there's some confusion about why, why I am here.

Moby (00:58:58):

Okay. I mean, I, I know who you are. Do you want me to, do you want me,

Lindsay (00:59:02):

I'm very curious about your Yes, no, please.

Moby (00:59:04):

Okay. So first and foremost, you are the mother of Bagel.

Lindsay (00:59:09):

Yes. That is a very important

Moby (00:59:10):

Thing. Um, kind of how, if I was describing myself first and foremost, I'm the litter mate of Bagel. Yeah. <laugh>. And you are a gifted writer and comedian and actor. And up until the Pandemic you were working at different companies in Los Angeles making comedy, different content shows, et cetera. And then the Pandemic happened. And you and I were talking and you said that you wanted to do work that was more meaningful , you know, that addressed animal rights, activism that addressed issues of racial justice, human justice, environmental justice. And I thought, you know what? I've got this weird little production company called Little Walnut, why don't we work on it together? So you came on board to do that sort of run Little Walnut and then we thought, let's start a podcast. So you are my friend and mother of Bagel and the woman who runs Little Walnut Production Company. and a gifted writer comedian, who's also my co-host of this podcast. So I understand your, your public stature might not be the same as mine, but in my mind, we are like the co-equal hosts of this. And basically anything funny and interesting that we talk about, it's your idea.

Lindsay (01:00:25):

<laugh>. Well, I don't know about Interesting because you also have a knowledge of things that I can't even begin to, uh, understand. But also you covered that pretty well. I mean, those are the basics.

Moby (01:00:36):

So that's who you

Lindsay (01:00:37):

Are, right. I mean, I'm sure there are other things about me, but that really is the groundwork.

Moby (01:00:40):

You're, you're from Texas and also Georgia and also Hawaii a little bit. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but mainly Texas and Georgia and yeah. I'm sure. I mean there's lots more, but I also don't want to, I don't wanna like give away your address. I don't want to.

Lindsay (01:00:53):

Yeah, please don't! <Laugh>.

Moby (01:00:55):

Yeah.

Lindsay (01:01:05):

Thanks everyone so much for listening. Just a reminder to send your questions to mobypod@moby.com if there's anything you want us to talk about or address. Um, but don't send anything mean because it does hurt my feelings. <laugh>. Uh,

Moby (01:01:23):

So just to reiterate two things. So the email address is mobypod@moby.com. Correct? It is, it's true. And the second thing to reiterate is yet just if you can, maybe don't say anything mean cuz Lindsay's very sensitive and there's already enough hard stuff going on in the world, like we don't need to add to it.

Lindsay (01:01:40):

Yeah. There's actual people that are doing harm on this planet. Be mean to them.

Moby (01:01:44):

Yeah.

Lindsay (01:01:44):

Because you're really good at it. Some of you. Another thing is that if you like our podcast and what we're doing and saying and talking about, tell your friends and subscribe to us on wherever you listen to your podcast. That would be really nice. And we would love that. You can even leave a review if you're so inclined, if that's something that you're into doing. Um, I wanna take a minute to thank our editor and our music producer, Jonathan Nesvadba, and to thank Human Content for helping us to get this out into the

Moby (01:02:12):

World and to thank Fanni Willis for doing a great job and being an inspiring DA

Lindsay (01:02:17):

And helping this country be a better place.

Moby (01:02:19):

Yeah. And hopefully putting Trump behind bars.

Lindsay (01:02:21):

Yay, <laugh>. Um, okay. Thanks everybody so much. We'll see you in two weeks!