Speaker 1 (00:00):

<silence>

Moby (00:07):

Hello, Lindsay and Bagel. Hello

Lindsay (00:10):

Moby

Moby (00:10):

Bagel. Do you wanna say hi? Hi. Moby

Lindsay (00:13):

<laugh>. Yeah, you did a good job.

Moby (00:15):

Okay. So a few months ago, Lindsay and I tried something sort of unprecedented that we hadn't done before, which is we wrote a song from scratch and it was daunting because who knew, maybe it would've been terrible, but it actually ended up not being terrible. And we really enjoyed writing this song from scratch. And based on the feedback we got, it seems like people really enjoyed listening to the creation of the song. So with that in mind, a couple months has passed, we're gonna do it again, and we're gonna write a song from scratch, but this time it's going to be 100% based on your feedback. We're sort of gonna go randomly into the email grab bag and pick an email. And based on that email, we are going to write a song in whatever genre is suggested to us.

Lindsay (01:06):

Yes. We got a lot of responses and a lot of people asking for very similar things. So let me do a little email grab baggie. I'm gonna do a little like swirly cue with this mouse, and I'm gonna find one. Okay. Are you ready? I'm not even looking. Okay, I'm just gonna look at you. Okay. Yeah. Okay, I got one. Are you ready? Yep. It's from our friend Brandon.

Moby (01:25):

Oh, in Portland? Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (01:26):

<affirmative> Brando. Yep. And he said, of course, it's gotta be country since Lindsay's from Texas, and there should be slide guitar.

Moby (01:35):

Okay. <laugh> Country. So I don't know country music very well. You are from Texas. Am I, I don't wanna be presumptuous, but am I correct in assuming that country music might sort of be in your cultural DNA? Oh yeah.

Lindsay (01:50):

Like you, you scratch one layer and there's just a rooting tootin cowgirl under there. <laugh>

Moby (01:56):

<laugh>. Okay. So then we're, so we're gonna write a country song. Yeah. Okay. So a few years ago I was talking to a mutual friend of ours who's also from Texas mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I was saying like, the only country that I knew was like really old timey, like classic country. And this was adorable. She said, oh, you mean like the Dixie Chicks or Garth Brooks. Wow. And I was like, well, no, I kind of mean like Buck Owens or Hank Williams, like Yeah, yeah. Country from the fifties. So I think the last country song I listened to was off of Hank Greatest Hits, circa 1950 something. But

Lindsay (02:33):

That's the classics man. That's a good piece of knowledge to have because it's, that's the roots.

Moby (02:37):

So if we start with that, but again, like you're, you are young and country is in your d n a, so like it is, I

Lindsay (02:42):

Grew up on Garth

Moby (02:43):

Brooks. Maybe you can help us steer the country song. I mean, I, I just, all I know is like a few Hank Williams songs, some Buck Owen songs, maybe some Charlie Pride, uh, maybe some Merle Haggard. Oh, and Kris Kristofferson. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So that's my country reference.

Lindsay (03:00):

Well, there's so many genres of country, especially now. Like, there's like alternative country, there's Texas country more

Moby (03:08):

Like you've, you've confused me.

Lindsay (03:09):

Appalachian style, more honky tonk style. And then there's like a very progressive style. There's so many genres of country.

Moby (03:19):

So lyrically you are going to be the one most likely coming up with the lyrics.

Lindsay (03:25):

Yeah. Well, I see there's two things. Well, there's three things I know how to do well in my life. One is fall in love, the other one is be heartbroken. And the third one is just having a lot of joy about cars and grass.

Moby (03:36):

And by the way, when you say grass, I think you're talking about actual like lawn grass. Yeah.

Lindsay (03:41):

Lawn, you know, the simple things in life. Yeah. You know, like, by the way, ketchup up stains and baby laughs and like that. You know what I mean?

Moby (03:48):

But I think that <laugh> what you just said, there are two things that they can be like there, there are three things I'm good at. Falling in love and getting a broken heart. Oh yeah. Like, that's a, that's a pretty great start. Okay. So I'm gonna go get the guitar and I'm gonna start playing what I think of as country. And you can tell me if it's too old timey or not. Okay.

Lindsay (04:07):

Well maybe, maybe I'll pull up some examples. We don't have to play 'em on the podcast, but like, so you can hear kind of, it's 'cause it's very, very simple. It's

Moby (04:14):

Unbelievable. Okay. Well I'm, I'm gonna get the guitar and I'm gonna start playing. And you can, I don't want, I almost don't want to hear examples. I'd rather you tell me examples. Okay.

Lindsay (04:22):

I'm not good at music language though.

Moby (04:24):

I mean, it'll, it'll be as simple as faster. Slower. Okay. <laugh>. Uh, because I

Lindsay (04:29):

Feel like you're gonna go like, like that and I just,

Moby (04:34):

Why don't I get the guitar hurt and we'll see what happens. <laugh>. Here's what I think of when I think of country. Okay. Is that way too old timey? That's like, it's

Lindsay (04:54):

Very old timey. It's

Moby (04:55):

Like campfire. So the traditional in, in country, the one, here's one thing I sort of know is it's usually based around a very similar chord progression. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in this case, it'll be like, we could start with g

Speaker 4 (05:13):

We near, near near.

Moby (05:18):

We go up to sea.

Speaker 4 (05:21):

We near, near near.

Moby (05:37):

That's my, like, if you held a gun to my head and said, play country, that's what I would play. Does does that sound like country? Well,

Lindsay (05:44):

It's a version of country, but the thing is, there's just so many. There's just so many. But

Moby (05:48):

We have to pick one versions. I guess more like fast would be like,

Lindsay (06:06):

That sounds like country,

Moby (06:07):

But I like, I want it to be a little like sort of slowish and a little bit like, a little bit melancholy. Like I don't want us to be like,

Lindsay (06:20):

Yeah, that's a song about somebody named like, like Porch Soup Sally. Yeah.

Moby (06:26):

Good old Porch soup. Sal <laugh> Porch Soup. Sally going around You don't porch here. Hey, I Porch Soup Sally Ring ring. Everybody knows that pork soup salad. She's a crazy, crazy little little pork soup salad. <laugh>

Lindsay (06:43):

<laugh>.

Moby (06:46):

So I think going a little more melon like, just like sweet, like

Lindsay (06:57):

A tender little country song about pretty Ladies and and Ketchup.

Speaker 1 (07:04):

<laugh>.

Moby (07:05):

Well, I really like that idea of like, like there are two things I'm good at falling in love and getting my heart broken.

Lindsay (07:13):

I also really love that. But what I also, let me just say this. I feel like I've never heard a, a, a country song about vegan delights.

Moby (07:26):

Yeah.

Lindsay (07:27):

Like, like singing about tofu popups with my Best Girl Larry <laugh>.

Moby (07:39):

Well, okay, so

Lindsay (07:40):

Here's, or is that too on the nose for, for

Moby (07:41):

Us? No, I love the idea of a, of vegan country western song, but I also love the idea of trying to do something. It's a little earnest. It's a little sweet.

Lindsay (07:53):

Okay. Earnest is rarely my go-to, but I can get there. I can do that.

Moby (07:57):

So, so, so here's my suggestion. Okay. We start with this chord. And then, so one thing, if we're going the next obvious chord is to go either here.

Lindsay (08:17):

Ooh,

Speaker 1 (08:22):

Whoa.

Moby (08:26):

We could go to a slightly unconventional, but still very pretty. A minor seventh chord. What do you think?

Lindsay (08:50):

I love it. I love it so much.

Moby (08:52):

Is it country is, I mean, is it like co country folk?

Lindsay (08:56):

I mean, maybe the country just comes from the lyrics and vocals.

Moby (08:59):

Okay. I mean, I think of like, because

Lindsay (09:01):

That is country, but it's, it's a more like, it's a kind of like laid back maybe poppier, ballady country. And that's great. I think that's great. I say this having very little familiarity with anything other than like listening to Garth Brooks in the backseat of my parents' car. So, you know, for all the country music lovers out there, I'm sorry. I'm not doing us justice.

Moby (09:35):

What I'm,

Lindsay (09:36):

I I mean I love that I, to me this is so beautiful

Moby (09:39):

Because also, so what we're gonna do is we're also gonna add a slide guitar part.

Lindsay (09:43):

How does that work?

Moby (09:44):

Okay, so the song we just did was in G Love that we could also have it be an E do a very similar thing where it's like,

Lindsay (10:10):

That's very pretty.

Moby (10:11):

Okay. So then slide would be, I'm I'm, and I'm gonna, we're gonna have to fake it 'cause real country slide is pedal steel slide, which I don't know how to play. That's a complicated holder instrument. So here let me, is

Lindsay (10:24):

Pedal slide kind of like, um, uh, what is the instrument in church's? Big horn horn. Piano,

Moby (10:33):

Organ, organ.

Lindsay (10:34):

Yeah.

Moby (10:35):

Big horn piano

Lindsay (10:36):

<laugh>. Um, is a pedal steel like an organ, like in the way it functions with the way you play the pedals? Is that how it works?

Moby (10:47):

Uh, I don't know. 'cause I've never played pedal steel. All I know is it's complicated. But so like, so what I did is I just tuned up one of the strings. So it's a chord. So I've got like the E on my low E and then the upper three strings are G#, B and E, which makes it, um, E major. But then you slide then A.

Lindsay (11:52):

This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen

Moby (11:55):

<laugh>.

Lindsay (11:55):

It sounds so cool. It's like you're a magician. I say this every time we do this, but I, the things that you're able to do musically, continually shock me.

Moby (12:07):

Um, so when I first moved to la did I ever tell you the story about David Lynch and the slide guitar? I'm not sure. Okay. So I moved to LA and I got invited to have Christmas at David Lynch's house 'cause we had become friends. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I was like, wow, what a wonderful way to be introduced to Los Angeles. Like having Christmas at David Lynch's house. And I was like, you know what? If I'm having Christmas with David Lynch at David Lynch's house, I have to get him a great present. And David is obsessed with guitars. He loves guitars, but he doesn't know how to play guitar. So I went to a music store in Santa Monica and I bought what's called a Hawaiian guitar. And a Hawaiian guitar is like a regular guitar but smaller. And you only play it with a slide, so you don't anybody can play them.

Lindsay (12:50):

That's what some notes that you were playing toward the high end sounded very Hawaiian. Yeah.

Moby (12:56):

So Hawaiian guitars are just slide guitars. And I gave him this guitar and boy oh boy, was it worth it because it was this beautiful vintage, like probably from like the fifties or sixties, like Hawaiian slide guitar and his eyes lit up and he was so taken and he was like, oh my. And then a, a few months later, uh, some magazine did a profile of him and in all the photos he's playing his Hawaiian slide guitar that I gave him. Oh

Lindsay (13:24):

My God, that's amazing.

Moby (13:25):

It was very sweet. So yeah. So, um, and then I, well I tuned back down to normal 'cause now it would be minor and

Lindsay (13:32):

Scary slide emotional, what's gonna happen? Whoa. That's fun.

Moby (13:58):

And I don't that, that's definitely not country country's sweet and pretty and we want to go, we wanna stay sweet and pretty. Yeah.

Lindsay (14:04):

We wanna stay sweet and pretty. We're talking about, we're talking about falling in love and heartbreak. We're really smashing two together. And maybe I'll even talk about the simple things and maybe we'll just do a country song that talks about everything country songs talk about.

Moby (14:17):

So tempo wise we can go very sweet and slow. Which is like,

Lindsay (14:37):

I feel like a ti not fast, fast, but like a tiny bit faster than that. Yeah. Yeah. That, does that feel good to you when you play that like that?

Speaker 1 (14:52):

Because

Lindsay (14:52):

That feels like it really moves a little bit, but not too fast. It's still thoughtful. It's still, you can, you can kind of chew on it.

Moby (15:03):

Okay. So that's, so the temple will be roughly that. I like

Lindsay (15:06):

That a lot.

Moby (15:06):

And I, there was this one folk singer I loved and he did this really pretty chord thing that I kind of want to borrow slash steal, but it's maybe more folky. So it's this. Okay. Tell me what you think. If I can tell me if I should include this little, okay, I'll just play it. So you're playing G or is that too Bob diy. Like too folky.

Lindsay (15:36):

It's a, it's folky for sure, but it's also really beautiful. I don't know. I really like it even though it is folky.

Moby (15:46):

Okay. So here's what we're gonna do. Or rather, I'm sorry I'm not be trying to be all pedantic and controlling. Here's what I suggest <laugh>

Lindsay (15:53):

Okay.

Moby (15:54):

Is I this evening work on the music. Okay. And then tomorrow I'll play you what I've come up with. Okay. And maybe tonight as well, you could sketch out some lyric ideas.

Lindsay (16:08):

I've got some stuff swirling in the old

Moby (16:11):

New, the old brain pan. Yeah. My

Lindsay (16:12):

Brain pan's swirling.

Moby (16:21):

Okay. So tonight I'm gonna take these three slash four simple chords and I'll make something that is my approximation of country. And you can tell me, oh, that's more folk, that's more rock. It doesn't need, we will figure it out. Okay. So I won't get too attached to what I do tonight and I'll play you my rough country demo tomorrow and you can maybe share some lyrics.

Lindsay (16:41):

Okay, great. I'm excited about it. Okay, great.

Moby (16:59):

Okay, so day two of Country Western song making from scratch. I, last night tried to take what we discussed and turn it into the beginnings of a song.

Lindsay (17:12):

Okay. Alright.

Moby (17:13):

And I believe based on what you've told me, that you also, you wrote lyrics.

Lindsay (17:18):

Well, some, here's what I did. I, I wrote the beginnings of lyrics because I wasn't really sure which direction to take. I have a favorite, but we do have options.

Moby (17:28):

Okay. Uh, with bagel <laugh> squeaking in the background, it's

Lindsay (17:32):

Worth it. Please bear with us. Yeah. Because the joy she's getting from this right now is just beyond Oh,

Moby (17:36):

I beyond, yeah. There's no way I would even consider trying to edit this out. It's, or

Lindsay (17:40):

Take the ball away. We just can't.

Moby (17:42):

No. That sound is just bagel completely focused and happy. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

Lindsay (17:46):

That's the sound of anxiety leaving a tiny blog body

Moby (17:49):

<laugh>. So, okay. So can I play you the music I came up with? Yeah. And also just, I just wanna qualify it a little bit. I, as I mentioned yesterday, don't really understand country. I did, and maybe I shouldn't say this, but last night I went onto the Spotify machine and I listened. Wow. She's really, I'm really going

Lindsay (18:10):

For

Moby (18:10):

It. <laugh>. Um, I listened to some old country. Okay. Like Merle Hagger, Dolly Parton, um, buck that up. There was a playlist on Spotify that was tons of old country. And I went and listened to it just to sort of get a sense of like, what, what am I working with here? Yeah. But I don't know if I've, if I've come up with something that a country person would consider country or if I've gone more in a sort of rock direction, but I'll play it for you. Country can be

Lindsay (18:40):

Rocky.

Moby (18:42):

Okay. So this is my, what I came up with yesterday and the reason I'm being all sort of mealy mouth and wishy-washy about it is <laugh>, if you don't, given that you're from Texas and you grew up with country, if it doesn't resonate with you, I can go back and try and rewrite it.

Lindsay (18:58):

Country's a little loose these days, man. You can kind of let your freak flag fly.

Moby (19:04):

Okay. Well let me, okay, so then let me play you what I came up with. Okay. Ready? Here we go. And I can play individual parts, make it quieter, louder.

Lindsay (19:13):

Okay.

Moby (19:14):

So you'll notice, Ooh, you'll notice there's some slide guitar. Oh,

Lindsay (19:19):

Slip sliding away. <laugh>.

Speaker 1 (19:24):

Um,

Lindsay (19:25):

The slide guitar is very good and fun. Thank you. Now that we've, I've I really hear the like, tropical Hawaiian in the slide guitar now that we talked about it the other day. Yesterday.

Moby (19:35):

So, so that was the chorus. Here's the verse with little quieter slide guitar.

Speaker 1 (19:41):

This

Lindsay (19:41):

Is verse.

Speaker 1 (19:43):

Yep.

Moby (19:46):

And I've also, I added a little gospel organ here if you hear that. Um, then there's a bass. Um, and then here's, so I added a little middle, a pre-chorus. You ready? Here's the pre-chorus. Okay. Just a little like, where's it going? Okay. And now we're back to the chorus. Also, I did something a little weird. I added this weird piano and I play the, the weird piano. Yeah. It's a player piano.

Speaker 1 (20:33):

Ooh.

Moby (20:35):

Like an old timey saloon. I love it. Hey, we're an old timey saloon playing poker with the Clancy boys. <laugh>. Okay. So that's my does. I mean,

Lindsay (20:54):

I love this. I love this. My only, my only question would be if we wanted to make it a tiny click faster, do we have the ability to do that?

Moby (21:05):

Uh, I would have to go back and rewrite it.

Lindsay (21:07):

Oh, then let's keep it the tempo that it is. 'cause I, I just didn't know how that works. Um, I think it's great. I love it. I think all of the instruments are great. I think the slide guitar sounds great. I love Tiny Saloon piano. It's so good. Um, I love this. I love it

Speaker 1 (21:28):

With

Moby (21:28):

The tiny saloon piano. Um, here, let me just, I'm just gonna mute the drums and the organ and the non-fun stuff. So we just have saloon, piano, and slide guitar. That's ridiculous. Right?

Lindsay (21:47):

It sounds like the last two people that are up and drunk and they're in a bar and they're like, I don't know <laugh>.

Moby (21:54):

Yeah. Well, might as well keep drinking because otherwise it's gonna wake up at some point. So deal the blackjack cards and blackjack cards. I don't know anything about that.

Lindsay (22:08):

<laugh>.

Moby (22:10):

Okay.

Lindsay (22:11):

I love it.

Moby (22:11):

Okay. Well, great. So I

Lindsay (22:13):

Love, they actually like, deeply love.

Moby (22:15):

Okay, well that's encouraging. Thank you. So let's, um, now take a look or listen to your lyrics.

Lindsay (22:22):

Okay. Your music is so much better than my lyrics. I feel like I need to do a little bit of more work on my lyrics, but I just, I mostly just wanted to have something on paper so that we could talk about which direction I'm gonna go in. Great.

Moby (22:35):

So I got my guitar out so we can sort of play. So here's, this isn't what I just played you, but this is, so it's sort of like,

Lindsay (22:48):

This is the chorus. This is verse,

Moby (22:52):

Chorus and verse are the same.

Lindsay (22:54):

Oh.

Moby (23:07):

So what we got here. So hands out the window

Lindsay (23:11):

Yeah.

Moby (23:12):

Of your faded navy truck. I'm sweating like a cold beer. I don't drink, but I'm drunk.

Lindsay (23:23):

I don't like this pre-chorus. I, I decided.

Moby (23:26):

Well, we haven't gotten to the, so we're still in the verses. Oh.

Lindsay (23:29):

So should I repeat this? So there should be two, but maybe it

Moby (23:33):

Could be you. I sort of like this simplicity. So I've got this second idea of yours, which is a simple life, not much to do, just finding love and losing it too. That's nice. Yeah. That,

Lindsay (24:01):

That is nice.

Moby (24:07):

And then, so you had written as a pre-chorus. I'm on fire. I can't decipher <laugh>. I don't know if we need the dec. I mean, it's kind of a,

Lindsay (24:21):

Decipher is not a great word, but basically I just wanted it to, the first idea that I have is kind of about a struggle with anxious avoidant relationships. And then the second one is kind of more about someone who is kind of always falling in and out of love. Um, and then the last one is kind of a, a gambling metaphor. <laugh>.

Moby (24:49):

Well, so I, for what it's worth, I'm really liking what we just like that, that the simple, the simple lyrics, the simple life, not much to do. Or is this too minimal? Just finding love and losing it. Two,

Lindsay (25:20):

It's pretty

Moby (25:25):

Well, I'm just good. Add a few little things.

Speaker 1 (25:32):

Falling

Moby (25:32):

In love.

Speaker 1 (25:35):

It's

Moby (25:35):

Flying in grief. There are no more words, which might be good Words. Words. <laugh> grass and ladies. And catch up in cup <laugh>. So, okay. I mean, I personally, I think that feels pretty nice. What do you think? Yeah, like, okay. Now let's try those earlier lyrics. Hands out the window of your faded truck. I'm sweating like a cold beer. I don't drink, but I'm drunk. I just did the same, I same trying to fill the Yeah. Repeated.

Lindsay (26:27):

Can we try the chorus with those words? I wonder if that sounds okay. You think it's too many words?

Moby (26:32):

Well, there's one thing you said yesterday that I really liked, which was that I'm only good at two things. You said I'm only good at three things You said like falling in love, getting my heart broken and eating snacks. So maybe we narrow it down to two things.

Lindsay (26:47):

Well the the second one kind of does that,

Moby (26:50):

But I like that as a personally as a literal line. Something about like, you know, I'm only good at two things. One is falling in love, the other is getting my heart broken. Something like that. Obviously that's lyrically a little awkward. Well,

Lindsay (27:21):

I tried to say that with the, I'm just good at two things. Falling in love and flying in grief.

Moby (27:27):

Flying in grief is pretty

Lindsay (27:29):

Well I was just trying to find what's the opposite of falling. Yeah. Into love. And so I just kind of did a little flips, do a verbal flips do. But I can still keep think, keep thinking about that because if we like this kind of, um, structure, I can just keep going on this and give us a bunch of options to choose from. Okay. And we can, um, we can just find the ones that work best and I'll just make a smattering and follow this kind of

Moby (27:57):

Thing. Yeah. I mean it's, I'm just good. Add a few little things. Falling in love by the way. Flying in grief. If we end up with flying in grief, I think that's a really nice poetic, good strong lyric. I think, I just think something that's a little more umph like that has like a little like emotional knife twist to it.

Lindsay (28:37):

But this pain has wings.

Moby (28:41):

No. 'cause Hmm.

Lindsay (28:41):

You said you wanted something that rhymes with things. I

Moby (28:43):

Know. Or, or, but I mean, 'cause grief sort of feels like it doesn't rhyme with things, but it does have a similar Yeah, E has

Lindsay (28:50):

The e

Moby (28:51):

I'm just good at a few little things falling in love, uh,

Lindsay (28:54):

And saying no to beef

Moby (28:56):

And <laugh> and uh, and, and I wish, I mean, it's like, and breaking my heartstrings and, you know,

Lindsay (29:05):

And the way love stings, that's

Moby (29:07):

Not bad. Yeah. But it's, I just don't, it doesn't

Lindsay (29:09):

Really make sense. Um, but

Moby (29:12):

I think you're in the right direction. I'm going to, um, yeah, I, and I'm, I'm not trying to bully us into this direction. I just really, when you said that yesterday, like I'm only good at two things. Well, I'm excluding snacks <laugh>, uh, the falling in love and getting my heart broken. I just really like that. But do you want We don't have to. We can go in any direction. No, I

Lindsay (29:35):

Like it. I think, I think also something you're leaning toward is like the simpler lyric because the other lyrics, like, if you look at the chorus here,

Moby (29:44):

It's pretty complicated. It's,

Lindsay (29:45):

It's a lot of words and

Moby (29:47):

I feel like you're, but let, let's try, I try it out just to Sure, sure. It's your far away gaze. Indecipherable face. Indecipherable is a very awkward word to sing. I can't tell what's down or up. Tender mistakes a cold. Embrace your miles away. But I'm stuck. I mean, that's, if we've lost in decipherable.

Lindsay (30:19):

Indecipherable is really a tough

Moby (30:21):

One. There's, because the other stuff can actually be done quite simply and nice because

Lindsay (30:25):

I kind of the the other one, um, of finding love and, uh, you know, falling love. It feels more general. But this one is about a person. But maybe I could combine them somehow.

Moby (30:44):

I mean that. So here, do you wanna try singing it? Okay, so which note? Okay, here's a, a starting note. Could be this the far away gaze

Lindsay (30:55):

Far away gaze. It's too far away. Gaze. I can't tell what's down

Speaker 1 (31:09):

Or up.

Lindsay (31:15):

Mistake. Something like that.

Moby (31:18):

Yeah, your voice is great. Cold.

Lindsay (31:23):

Embrace your miles away. But that feels like it's very repetitive. Should it go up from there? I you like that?

Moby (31:39):

I think I, I love this. I think the sentiment there is quite like, there's something about far away gaze I think is pretty tender. Mistakes is pretty

Lindsay (31:47):

Cold. Embrace. I love your miles away, but I'm, I like your miles away. I'm not in love with I'm lover and I'm not, lover is an awkward word. I'm not in love with. I can't tell what's down or up. So this can change.

Moby (32:03):

So, okay. I'm gonna leave you to figure out lyrically what you wanna do. Will that

Lindsay (32:07):

Be the same sound the same as the chorus?

Moby (32:09):

Yeah. So it's basically the verse is quiet. G d, C. Okay. And the chorus is louder. G, d, c.

Lindsay (32:18):

So maybe it's just like an octave change or something in chorus. Well,

Moby (32:22):

Vocally. Vocally. There's a, I wouldn't worry about it. We can, there's so many things we can do. Like the player piano only comes in in the choruses. Mm. There's a guitar part that only comes in the choruses. So there's lots of ways to build the chorus that doesn't involve like even changing melodies, you can just add harmony lines, you can add orchestration. I've got symbols in the chorus that aren't in the Okay. Stuff that you wouldn't even necessarily, you wouldn't notice. But that's where like, I think I've mentioned this before, like the Neil Young approach to songwriting is the choruses are the exact same as the verses just with some different stuff going on. Yeah, yeah,

Lindsay (32:59):

Yeah. Okay, great. I've got so many ideas now. Okay. Woo <laugh>.

Moby (33:04):

Okay then I'm gonna, I'm gonna go hit stop on the pro tools. Okay. And, uh, yeah. And then I'll export the music for you so you can write to it. Okay,

Lindsay (33:14):

Great.

Moby (33:25):

Okay. So we're back again and Lindsay, yesterday after you left, I tried out your lyrics and I sang them over the rough version of the song and added some sort of a vocal melody and phrasing. And what I'd really like to do is at some point record you singing. Okay. But first do you want to hear the sort of vocal melody phrasing approach? I did.

Lindsay (33:57):

I, yeah, I would love that.

Moby (33:58):

Okay. Here. So I will spark playing the music

Lindsay (34:01):

Spark, play

Moby (34:02):

Spark all sparks playing the music. And pretty soon you'll hear my vocal idea come in. I'm feeling a little embarrassed, but hopefully it's okay.

Lindsay (34:13):

No, I'm very excited.

Moby (34:16):

Okay. Well just to state the obvious. So that's music that's playing.

Lindsay (34:23):

I love it.

Moby (34:24):

Uh, and here comes

Lindsay (34:26):

Ooh, test in that Mikey. Here,

Moby (34:27):

Here comes some vocals.

Moby (sings) (34:30):

Simple life,

Lindsay (34:32):

Country Boy, <laugh>

Moby (sings) (34:36):

Not much to do.

Lindsay (34:39):

Yeah. Yeah.

Moby (34:41):

Okay. So that's me singing some words that you wrote. Signin

Moby (sings) (34:44):

Love. Ooh,

Moby (34:48):

I losing it too. Made it kind of austere and sad. Ooh,

Lindsay (34:54):

I like it.

Moby (34:55):

And here's like the little middle eight that is right now, not really doing much of anything, just me mumbling, blah blah, blah. But then we come to the chorus.

Moby (sings) (35:04):

I'm just good. Oh. Doing two things.

Lindsay (35:09):

That little, uh, piano, the kind of like the

Moby (35:13):

Honkytonk piano.

Lindsay (35:14):

Twangy honky piano is so good.

Moby (sings) (35:18):

When I was a young one, I only learned two things to get high on the low and the pain it brings.

Moby (35:29):

You wanna go back to the verse?

Moby (sings) (35:31):

How long

Speaker 1 (35:38):

Little

Moby (sings) (35:38):

Love and leave.

Moby (35:40):

What do we think so far?

Lindsay (35:42):

I'm so obsessed with it. I could die.

Moby (35:44):

Okay. Um, there goes

Moby (sings) (35:45):

My pride.

Moby (35:49):

And what do we, I mean, lyrically it's obviously pretty straightforward. It's

Lindsay (35:53):

Pretty straightforward. I do have a couple of ideas that are kind of,

Moby (35:56):

Here's the middle age that doesn't really do anything. Yeah. Mumbley Lyn mumbly. Mumbly doesn't.

Lindsay (36:02):

Yeah. No. I like, I like yearn. The word yearn. I really

Speaker 1 (36:06):

Love, I just do

Moby (sings) (36:09):

Doing two things.

Speaker 1 (36:11):

Falling in love. Ooh. It's so fun. <laugh>.

Moby (36:14):

I <laugh>. I think that ever

Moby (sings) (36:19):

Since I was a young one, I only learned two things to get high on love. And the painted bring, well, I'm just good. Two, two things that's fallen in love. And flying in grief. Ever since I was a young one, I only learned two things to get high on love. And the painted brings.

Moby (36:58):

Okay. So now the music has stopped. The vocal idea has stopped. And let's discuss,

Lindsay (37:05):

First of all, I love it. I love what you did musically and with the phrasing. I think it's so fun. Um, so I love it. There's just a few little things like tiny tweaks I would change. Okay. So in the chorus we say things in love twice. So I was thinking we can get away with saying love twice, but I don't think things is necessarily our strongest word to use two times. So I was thinking for the second part of the chorus to say, since I was young, longed for the sting, getting high on love and the pain it brings. Doesn't that feel nice?

Moby (37:40):

Okay. So what, what, what's the, what's the first chorus again? I don't quite remember.

Lindsay (37:44):

The first one is I'm just good. Doing two things. Falling in love. Flyin' in grief since I was young, long for stinging high love and the pain it brings.

Moby (37:57):

Okay, great. Does

Lindsay (37:59):

That feel fun? I just feel like it changes things is hard to say two times. Yeah.

Moby (38:03):

It felt weird. But it also, I think that there can be a degree of creative license. Like if, even though saying things twice is a little awkward, if that's what feels right, then we can do that. Yeah.

Lindsay (38:16):

I just, I love the word stings. Yeah. And I feel like it has a place in there, uh, like long for the sting. Uh, like I just feel like, yeah. That feels a little more like emotionally narrative. And then for the middle eight, I thought maybe just, just saying this hard, it yearns slowly and easily throughout that middle eight section. Yeah. Because we don't say heart or yearns throughout. And I feel like the song really needs the word heart and the word yearns. So let's just get those little suckers in there at the last minute. Sneak it in. And that's all, everything else I think is so wonderful.

Moby (38:46):

Okay. So one question I have is a little more general. Okay. Okay. 'cause originally I said like, I don't have history with country music. Yeah. And my assumption is you do, 'cause you were, you know, you grew up in Texas, you grew up in Georgia. Like Yeah.

Lindsay (39:02):

I've got a lot of country going on in in the background.

Moby (39:05):

Um, I mean, you actually have family members who voted for Trump. Like I feel like multiple. Yeah. And then I grew up in Connecticut, you know, born in New York, grew up in Connecticut, but I actually have a weird history with country of my own. Okay. More recently, I, I did a song on, on the album, um, reprise with Kris Kristofferson. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the way I met Kris Kristofferson was about, I guess 15 years ago I was playing a fundraiser for the Institute of Music and Neurologic function. And he agreed to be a guest, which I thought was very generous of him. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. 'cause I'd never actually met him. And we played some songs together and we played me and Bobby McGee, the famous song that Janis Joplin recorded. That he wrote. I I

Lindsay (39:47):

Didn't know he wrote that

Moby (39:47):

Song. Yeah. And it was one of those amazing moments. I was like, wow. I've sung heroes with David Bowie. I've sung Walk on the Wild Side with Lou Reed and now I've sung Me and Bobby McGee with Kris Kristofferson. Crazy. So that's my more recent self-involved slight country history. Although most people know Chris Kristofferson. 'cause he was in the Blade movies. What was he

Lindsay (40:06):

In Blade movies?

Moby (40:07):

I think he was like, like Wesley Snipes' handler. Whoa.

Lindsay (40:11):

Cool.

Moby (40:12):

Yeah. But in any case, I remembered when I was growing up, my mom dated a pedal steel guitar player. Whoa. And so he played in a country band. And I don't know if this was good parenting or not, but my mom would, we would drive all around New England going to bars, honky tonk bars when I was like seven, six or seven years old to see her boyfriend play pedal steel with this country western band. Eventually he stole a bunch of stuff from her and moved out. But he left his records. And so I got to, I grew up listening to his records, but one of the sad parts was, and I thought this was normal. I remember in therapy, I was telling my therapist this, that like, we'd be in a bar somewhere in New England, some honky tonk bar, and it would start to get late. And my mom, I would be like, oh mom, I'm tired. And she'd be like, oh, okay, here are the car keys. And I'd go sleep in the car. And I saw this was the most normal thing in the world. Like, oh, kid's tired. He goes to sleep in the car in the parking lot at some dive bar in New England. Turns out that's maybe not normal.

Lindsay (41:11):

I, um, I can see how today that c p s would be called pretty quickly <laugh> on a child sleeping in a car outside of a bar

Moby (41:22):

Because the mom is in the bar drinking beer while her vaguely homeless pedal steel guitar playing boyfriend plays Johnny Cash covers.

Lindsay (41:33):

I mean, yeah, it's a little weird. Okay. It's a little, it's not normal. Okay. So maybe you have negative feelings about country music because

Moby (41:40):

No, I actually like Country Mu I like old-school country music. Like I, 'cause I thought, and maybe we're really going down a rabbit hole that has nothing to do with this song. When I was growing up, my criteria for evaluating wellbeing was simply, was my mom happy or angry? Mm. You know? So as long as she was happy, I felt okay. And so if I was going to sleep in a car, in a parking lot of a dive bar when I was six years old, my mom was happy. So I was like, oh, I guess this is okay. Whoa. As opposed to if she was making cereal and she was angry, like that was bad. Yeah.

Lindsay (42:13):

So cereal for breakfast, bad

Moby (42:15):

Cereal for breakfast, good cereal for breakfast, served by an angry person smoking cigarettes bad. Yeah. That's

Lindsay (42:21):

Bad.

Moby (42:22):

But like, you know, a happy drunk mom saying, yeah, sure. Here are the keys. Go sleep in the car in the winter. You know, hindsight I was like, yeah, maybe Child Protective Services would have a dimm view of that. <laugh>. Yeah. But I thought it was fine because she was happy. And so I just would go sleep in the car. And

Lindsay (42:38):

Also it's like, we do what our parents tell us to do and we're like, oh, well, they're the adult. So they know, they know what's right and wrong. Clearly they're the grownup. Uh,

Moby (42:46):

And now

Lindsay (42:47):

It turns out that's not always true.

Moby (42:48):

<laugh>. I mean, in hindsight, expecting like a 26 old person to be that much of a grownup is maybe, I mean they're, they're a 26 year old is a child. Yeah.

Lindsay (43:00):

A 26 year old is a child. I feel like, I think there's a way that parents are a little more hovering than they used to be. A little more conscious. And sometimes I think that's bad. But when you tell me stories like that, I think it's really good. <laugh>. I mean, considering that's the alternative.

Moby (43:14):

It is amazing. Now we're really going down a complete weird tangential rabbit hole. How, like I was growing up in the seventies and everything we did was horrible and unsafe. Like cars didn't have seat belts. Parents drove high and drunk and smoking cigarettes all the time. All the food we ate was just garbage and bike helmets didn't even exist. Like, so you would be like six years old riding your bike for miles at dark in a snowstorm, like getting sleeted on with no helmet. How did any of us survive?

Lindsay (43:47):

Well, I don't know. I mean, there's also a case, I was just reading something about, I think the Atlantic put something out about how kids used to learn that way. Kids used to be able, not from like, the lack of safety measures. Like obviously we should have seat belts and helmets. But you know, I think that no child goes out without supervision anymore. It's very rare that they are able to explore by themselves with like a sense of individuality.

Moby (44:11):

It does seem like when, when, at least when I, and, and again, I don't know if this was the case when you were growing up, but when I was growing up, we just left the house like on a Saturday. You'd leave the house at nine in the morning, you'd come home at nine at night when you were seven years old and you would explore, like, you'd find abandoned buildings or you'd break into the school or, or

Lindsay (44:32):

You'd go dig a hole. Yeah. You know, sometimes we'd just go dig a hole.

Moby (44:36):

You'd just go set things on fire. You'd like, everything was <laugh> and there would, but this was just normal. There was never that question. Like you'd, you know, you

Lindsay (44:44):

Go find snacks at somebody's house, their parents gives you a snack, you go back out, you go back wherever you need to go.

Moby (44:50):

Yeah. And I, I don't know if that exists anymore. Like do, are kids still allowed to ride their bikes to abandoned houses and go exploring? I, I

Lindsay (45:00):

Don't know. I don't know. I think it's less common than it once was. Okay. I'll just

Moby (45:04):

Say that. Well, I'm glad that I survived. Me too. But I'm glad that I grew up at a time when you could just get on your bike with your friends and ride for three miles when you're seven years old to discover an abandoned house. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it was so much fun. Yeah. So, okay. That is a profoundly long tangent <laugh>, but how about, uh, we will now record your vocals. My vox Your Vox. And we will, uh, 'cause it might take a minute. And so I've, my thought is if you want, we could document the process of you recording your vocals, but it might be easier and more comfortable for you if we just record your vocals and then play people your finished vocals.

Lindsay (45:47):

Yeah, I think that makes more sense. It's like, you know, they don't need to hear the recording of the recording though. They'll hear the recording.

Moby (45:52):

Okay. So we'll use my vocal as a guide vocal and we'll record your vocals and we'll be back in one second with your finished vocals. Great.

Moby (46:09):

So we recorded your vocals and then I took your vocals. And last night while you and bagel were out being social. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I stayed home as I like to do. And I, I think I finished the song. Okay. So I, I arranged everything and I did what I think is a finished mix. Like, I'm not a great mixer, so someone else could definitely make it better. But I think I've got it to the point where it's a listenable finished mix. Okay. And the only thing, so at the very end for drama, you'll hear I added some orchestral parts. Ooh. Which seemed a little weird. 'cause like it's country western. Like you don't normally think of orchestral elements in a country Western song.

Lindsay (46:53):

I wouldn't say that. I don't Oh. I mean, not that I've heard it necessarily, but it sounds like a nice thing.

Moby (46:59):

It just, I think towards the end of the song, it gives it like an emotional lift when all of a sudden there's this new sonic element that comes in. Amazing.

Lindsay (47:08):

I think that's so exciting.

Moby (47:09):

Okay, so as we did last time, should we just play it without talking and just listen? Yeah. And so like, our friends who are listening can listen as well. Yes. And then when it's done, you can tell me what you think. If I did an okay job arranging it and everything, what do

Lindsay (47:23):

You think about it?

Moby (47:24):

I really like it. Really? It's so catchy. Like last night as I was lying in bed, battling my crippling insomnia, it's very catchy. Like the chorus, I just couldn't get the chorus outta my head. Really? Yeah. Like earworm chorus. That's great. It's very exciting. Yeah. Okay. So enough, enough my yapping, enough my yapping. Let me, uh, play you. What I think of is, we'll call it like a finished mix that someone else could finish better. But I think for the purposes of our listening and playing it for other people, it's, it's pretty good. Okay, great.

Lindsay (sings) (48:34):

Not much to do. Just love

Speaker 1 (49:56):

I

Lindsay (sings) (50:10):

There goes

Speaker 1 (50:11):

My,

Lindsay (51:55):

It sounds like a real country song. It sounds really good. I love the orchestral part at the end too. And you made my voice sound like a real voice. <laugh>

Moby (52:04):

<laugh>. Well, so not to make you feel uncomfortable. Oh God. But your country western voice is great. Like, you, like everyone just heard how good it is. Okay. So originally I thought, okay, we'll both sing on it. Like you'll, we'll have a duet, I'll maybe do some harmony parts mm-hmm. <affirmative>, et cetera. But then I was working on it yesterday and I was like, wow, your country voice, I mean your voice is great, but like your country voice is so good that I was like, I don't wanna why, why add my inbred New England <laugh> old guy voice to it when it just sounded all it sounded great already

Lindsay (52:41):

The whole time I was expecting your voice to come in and it just never did. Nope.

Moby (52:44):

Wow. Yeah. Why? I mean like, you have this great voice, you're from Texas. The song is really lovely. You wrote the words, why would I intrude upon that? Wow.

Lindsay (52:54):

Thanks. That's really nice. <laugh>. I, I just, the, I mean the music that you put together feels so distinctly country, but also I love that you added the orchestral bit at the end because it kind of feels like you got to put a bit of your stamp on it in a way. You know what I mean?

Moby (53:12):

Well I wanted to give it a little emotional lift. 'cause the chorus does repeat a bunch of times. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (53:18):

<affirmative>, it does give it some, it changes it up a little

Moby (53:21):

Bit. I mean, if we were working on this more, I would do a lot more to it. Like I would add a gospel choir who could come in, different instrument, et cetera. You know, like, maybe not orchestral stuff, but I thought at, you know, late last night as I was finishing, I was like, you know what, let me just add some quick orchestral parts that will give it that soaring emotional lift at the end. I love

Lindsay (53:41):

It. It does soar. It makes me think that because you're so good at this, you should start, uh, a country band called Mo Boots. Mo

Moby (53:49):

Boots. Yeah. No, I've heard you. <laugh> <laugh>. I was just trying to, I was like, like very quickly trying to process. I was like, okay, is that better than I think it is? And I just don't get it <laugh> because it's, it's not really a pun, but it's sort of is a pun. Like, and also, I don't know if Mo Boots is an expression like, so it's sort of like just the first part of my name with the word boots. Yeah. Added, yeah. Like cowboy boots, but a portmanteau of Mo Boots, <laugh> Moby and Okay.

Lindsay (54:22):

I just really like it personally.

Moby (54:24):

Okay. What a great idea. <laugh>.

Lindsay (54:26):

Thank you. That's very

Moby (54:27):

Generous. So, okay, so that's the song. Uh, we started a couple days ago and now it's finished. And I love this process of starting from scratch and writing songs. It's really

Lindsay (54:39):

Fun to do. Yeah. And you're really good at that, at doing it fast. It's amazing how fast you put that stuff together. It's crazy to me.

Moby (54:45):

Well I've been making music for a long time. I

Lindsay (54:47):

Know, but still, it's just like unbelievable the speed with which you are able to do it. Whether, I mean, yes, it's because you've been doing it for so long, but it's still is very impressive to me.

Moby (54:58):

Well, thanks. Uh, so I guess we should say goodbye now. Yeah.

Lindsay (55:01):

Well first of all, I wanna say thank you to listening Dear Listener, because we really, really enjoy making these for you. And I also wanna thank Jonathan Nesvadba, who edits these, um, Moby Pod episodes and does such a wonderful job and we're very grateful for him.

Moby (55:17):

To that end, I wonder if Jonathan's going to have a hard time with this episode. Why?

Lindsay (55:22):

Because he's in Texas and it's country.

Moby (55:24):

I mean, he grew up differently 'cause he grew up singing like Catholic church music and listening to the Beatles. But he still is. He's grew up in Texas. He currently lives in Texas. I wonder if this is gonna be triggering. So Jonathan, we're sorry if this is triggering or if he's just completely taken aback. 'cause he's like, oh, this is not country. You can't add these. So in any case, Jonathan, thank you for editing. What might be a triggering song in a triggering genre? Music?

Lindsay (55:52):

I mean, look, it's not country, it's mo boots.

Moby (55:55):

No, please

Lindsay (55:56):

<laugh>.

Moby (55:57):

It makes me so uncomfortable. Like,

Lindsay (56:00):

So Thanks Jonathan. You're amazing. And then I also wanna thank Human Content who distributes this podcast out into the world. Um, and I also wanna thank Bagel for being very careful with chewing that sweet potato treat earlier because I was scared and she did a good job. And also wanna say thank you to Moby for being prolific and magical when it comes to musical things.

Moby (56:19):

Uh, and thanks Lindsay for writing great lyrics and having a phenomenal, surprisingly phenomenal country Western voice. Thanks.

Lindsay (56:27):

It's really nice.

Moby (56:28):

<laugh>. And because you were, you said you were scared before recording your vocals.

Lindsay (56:33):

Yeah, I was. Well, because I never know if it's gonna be sound good or anything <laugh> because sometimes I get scared, nervous and then like, sounds don't come out of my mouth.

Moby (56:44):

Yeah, I, I experience that sometimes or like, you don't know what, like you get stuck in between notes and Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Lindsay (56:52):

<affirmative>. Well, and there's stuff like I know very well. There's things I'm not very good at. Like sometimes I get pitchy and I don't match notes and I cannot do do harmonies. And so I just, I know my limitations, but I feel like that worked out really well. I guess I found my

Moby (57:06):

Niche. Yep. You sounded great. And the last thing I just wanna say is because we love writing these songs from scratch in different genres, please give us suggestions about what genres we should tackle next. Because I'd like to do this every few months, just like, oh, me too. Pick a new genre based on a suggestion. Like, this one came from Brando. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> in Portland. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So let's see who suggests the next genre.

Lindsay (57:29):

Okay, great. Um, email us your genre suggestions to MobyPod@moby.com and we will read your message and send you one back.