0:03

listener, supported wnycstudios

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new sounds dot or again the

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studios w n y c

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this does sound check i'm

0:25

john safer and today for the first

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time since march of twenty twenty

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four back in our old studio

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here in lower manhattan and my guests

0:35

are the richmond virginia duo

0:37

known as lean year emily

0:39

racks and rick oliver some both

0:41

singing and playing keyboards linear

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joined us in this very room back and

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twenty eighteen when the bandage just released

0:48

its self titled debut album now

0:51

for years and one pandemic later

0:54

they join us with a new record and co

0:56

called sides and the album full

0:58

of songs about greece and

1:00

memory the the things we lose

1:03

and the things that remains and

1:05

lean you are going to play some of those songs

1:07

for us here in the studio today this

1:09

one is nighttime

5:13

that is when year with a live

5:16

performance of night time it's from

5:18

their latest album called sides

5:20

and the duo was comprised

5:22

of emily wrecks and rick oliver

5:25

some ah full singing

5:27

and emily you're playing it says

5:29

melodrama but that's not an early seventies

5:32

it's not now

5:33

it the it's the awesome new

5:36

melodrama money

5:36

and so it a digital version

5:39

of what used to be essentially a portable tape

5:41

recorder yeah with yes living here

5:44

and rick you'll be swapping

5:46

instruments throughout this sad

5:49

but starting on what does look like

5:51

a room with a vintage wurlitzer organ

5:54

and guess and nineteen seventy one

5:57

wow that's pretty specific added

5:59

that hear how to say that about

6:02

sixty days every than that as as such

6:05

, i'm with

6:07

a name like lean year emily

6:10

people are not expecting lush

6:13

ig landscape sonic landscapes

6:16

even , sides is

6:19

is very kind as a very pensive

6:21

of the song very nocturnal very

6:25

less of the kind of sulky sound

6:27

of the first record did you set out

6:30

to make something with a slightly

6:32

different sound the second time around

6:35

i think you is a pretty natural

6:37

evolution

6:39

are you

6:40

we ended up writing quite a few songs

6:43

on t is more than

6:46

guitar , there's only one guitar song

6:48

on this record so on

6:51

then i think quite a bit also

6:55

the melodrama so , just

6:57

i think it's a think it ended up those those

6:59

based tracks ended up just being

7:01

really fall and lush i'm

7:04

an aide we stepped away from maybe

7:06

some of the the

7:08

of focus of the first records you

7:11

know leave

7:12

i mean i've always considered sort of ambient

7:14

folks so register he

7:17

, down on the ambient ambient

7:20

air is the

7:22

titles sides the

7:25

the story as i understand it is the

7:27

meaning of that title now that's

7:30

not what it was when the two of you

7:32

set out to make this record

7:34

initially was gonna be a record

7:36

with a lot of other feature performers

7:39

of conflict balance ah

7:42

and dad would seem to reflect

7:45

stir

7:46

a lot of things in in the world prevent

7:49

pandemic and are on

7:51

the precipice is in the sort of goals

7:54

and gaps you know through the

7:56

recent political hummel

7:58

that we've seen right and

7:59

i think then

8:03

in april of two thousand and eighteen

8:05

my dad died and over

8:08

the course of the next year my mom developed

8:11

dementia and she died

8:13

at the went a few weeks after the vaccine

8:15

came out and we were

8:17

recording us about three days prior

8:19

to that and are in michigan

8:21

with michigan recall and

8:25

are we had our dog orca up there

8:27

and he unexpectedly died and

8:29

so it was sort of these you

8:31

know these these the idea of

8:34

of of the gholston transition

8:36

and the precipice just took on new

8:39

proportions and and

8:41

then we came back and actually recorded as

8:43

a few months after all and

8:45

all of that

8:47

though at a on literally

8:49

emily on a different side of

8:52

things them when you went into that mr

8:54

yeah i think the names of all to act and

8:57

am i think there's ways in which

8:59

losses , as it's a conflict

9:02

and it's also you know know

9:04

had this had unlike

9:06

a lot of folks who lost people to covered we are

9:09

able to be with our loved ones when they were passing

9:11

i'm and we are eternally grateful

9:13

are that but

9:16

he you know how green do it into it it's

9:18

hard work dying you know like if there

9:20

was we spent this kind of weekend vigil

9:22

with you know our our beloved dog

9:24

and or rex beloved mother and

9:27

on there was mother

9:29

in which the feeling that original

9:31

feeling just it kind of carried

9:33

through in this strange way and you know

9:35

and and and it being about kind of thresholds

9:37

and being in between things and so

9:40

it's doc the

9:42

next one that you're going to do marriages

9:45

heaven and hell

9:46

emily

9:48

the

9:49

the kind of the journey that the to v

9:51

went on in the making of this

9:53

did it change the songwriting process

9:58

i think i think it

9:59

we we still use like a lot of that

10:02

were very into this kind of ghostwriting

10:04

thing that i can't remember five we talked

10:06

about this last time but we

10:09

all these sort of playing and singing

10:11

and singing room and rec will

10:13

be either sir have intentionally

10:16

kind of half their or actually

10:19

physically in another room and we

10:21

elected try to understand

10:24

kind of what misunderstood between us so

10:26

he'll say you i think i heard you

10:28

say they're so are you know

10:30

to take it from there that's the additives

10:33

sort of moon other

10:34

yeah that there's kind of like another

10:37

rider and the space but i will say that with

10:39

this particular song like rec

10:41

was upstairs one day and then just

10:43

like pop downstairs

10:45

the great i wrote a complete so i'm

10:47

in , tournament is is

10:50

island or rather the hit and the and which

10:53

is his have is like okay

10:55

yeah so that sounds like a big yes

10:58

it did change suffer right a progressives

11:00

you suddenly done something you hadn't done

11:02

before i'm not unless

11:05

hadn't done and the bathroom time often

11:07

leads to make nothing else

11:09

i think uncover a couple of the songs

11:11

came out though i especially for rec i i

11:14

for me it's much more of kinda like a long

11:16

drawn out tortured process that was the

11:18

first song on a record legs heroes

11:21

the night that are pop died

11:23

on and as you had a couple moments like that

11:25

where it was just like this this has a run

11:27

they're kind of them right let's

11:30

hear i was here the results on the song

11:32

called marriage of heaven and hell

11:35

and for this one rig will strap

11:37

on the electric guitar emily's

11:40

still behind the melodrama here in our

11:42

studio it's lean year

11:44

and another live performance of performance song

11:46

from their new album sides

14:51

once again lean near

14:53

live in the studio and

14:55

marriage of heaven and hell one of the

14:57

songs from their sophomore release

15:00

the new album called sides and

15:03

, a album from

15:05

note one has this kind

15:08

this i dunno ominous

15:10

quality to it you know if the opening of legs

15:13

i dunno if that's a real thumb piano or

15:15

a a kalimba it's a real it's yeah

15:18

i it it reminded me it some

15:20

reason of tubular

15:22

bells you know the the mike oldfield piece

15:25

that was used in the exorcist was nice

15:27

famously yeah i'm

15:30

is it nice yeah

15:32

we like yeah and and

15:34

rick a you know in your other life

15:36

as a filmmaker you know you're

15:38

interested a filmmaker

15:41

know splashes of color on

15:43

on the the visual canvas and things

15:45

like that and there are these little

15:47

touches around the edges of the mix

15:50

some times and there are

15:53

moments that almost sound like

15:55

they came out of a horror movie you know

15:57

it's not just the opening of legs a

15:59

when

15:59

it emily when you sing about the

16:02

the big thing up ahead

16:11

they say that

16:15

lyric first of all

16:18

sort of implies that the

16:20

big thing up ahead is not going to be saying

16:22

you know ephesus i am

16:25

yes but then in a song like

16:27

pains you have

16:29

the weird distorted vocal and the wandering

17:02

a lot of the signifiers that we would get

17:04

in a horror movie are

17:07

, on this record record that's

17:09

interesting i've been writing a horror movies

17:11

or the past five years that and just

17:14

casting now so i'm imagining way some

17:18

the kind of realize the other day was and

17:21

of about his mom you ,

17:23

i mean it's it's not really but it's it's

17:26

it's it's all of these

17:28

things it's interesting writing music especially

17:30

writing think in the way when you get to collaborate

17:33

between two people what

17:35

comes out is just like it's

17:37

drawing on the big pool of things

17:39

that you happen to be swimming and swimming

17:42

the moment so yeah it also

17:44

feels like a particular trepidation time

17:46

where there's a low grade a mean even outs prior

17:48

to the pandemic in the pandemic is you

17:51

know inflame then somewhere but like a

17:53

lot of a low grade anxiety

17:55

that you know we're we're in the the

17:57

postures of normalcy but there's some

18:00

just right below the surface

18:02

that you know you want to you

18:05

know if you don't want to just run from you want

18:07

to sort of commune with you know that

18:09

it makes it makes little more comfortable so

18:11

that censor something looming

18:14

you know war or lurking

18:16

here is is strong and

18:18

a lot of this so sides

18:22

as as as you mentioned before you

18:24

know it it turned out to be a different

18:26

album coming out of the process

18:28

than them when you went in that's

18:30

already now some

18:33

time ago have you started

18:35

on and a new batch of songs

18:37

were weird is where does that seem to

18:39

be taking you

18:41

yeah i ,

18:43

we're sorta kick around a lot of her we

18:45

have a a ton of unfinished

18:47

voice memos vs

18:50

return to like schools his listeners

18:52

their own to us we i think

18:54

really need to get back in the bathtub yeah

18:56

exactly specifically reddit

18:58

we

18:58

we'd love to just do any p

19:01

m maybe , like

19:03

a couple friends or something that

19:06

i think group that that's something

19:07

in okay yeah well wasn't that the original

19:10

idea for sides was get a couple of minor

19:13

yes , realist oh yes

19:15

very nice emily

19:18

a wanted to ask you about i

19:21

hear it specifically in the next song you're going

19:23

to do but there are moments in your songs

19:25

were your lyrics lines

19:29

hand to not line i

19:32

know where you would expect

19:34

those

19:35

lyrics to land rhythmically you

19:37

know there's they're kind of like sprung

19:39

from the rhythm of the of the song

19:41

and if you look if you read

19:43

the lyrics for this next song for example

19:47

the way they read on the page is not the waves

19:49

sing them and that kind of the

19:52

yet the phrasing is just it's it's all

19:54

over the place and i am i just so

19:57

i don't really have a question here other than what

19:59

the heck

19:59

yeah i think it's

20:02

we're has consistently all of

20:04

a killer killer's this

20:05

eleven lassitude it may

20:07

not see the save for a thing of all

20:09

members in the man that isis but

20:11

i just i don't i don't know i think

20:14

i love it yeah it's yeah

20:16

it's that they tend to repeat the same

20:18

freezing but it does i

20:20

don't know it it feels like it emerges as

20:23

are playing and i mean i think also we

20:25

have fewer attacks on

20:27

this record that are like this but on the previous

20:30

record more this i mean

20:32

as the space monitor on track that is

20:34

just kind of like it's same throughout the whole songs

20:36

you know a , i sort

20:38

of love that because it means you just can

20:40

be anywhere and do com

20:42

anything with it but it's in

20:45

the room with you again

20:46

it almost sounds i mean

20:48

i know you're singing but it almost sounds like

20:50

the rhythms of speech which are not you

20:53

know the kind of the same rhythms

20:55

of as song totally alright

20:58

let's , let's hear this performance

21:00

of a trouble with being warm

21:03

which is a one of the singles from

21:05

the album sides the latest from the

21:07

band lean year and for this one one

21:10

is going to move behind move newly

21:13

retuned and about

21:15

to be used for the first time in over two

21:17

years steinway piano so

21:19

piano here once again lean year with

21:21

year song called trouble with being warm

26:13

trouble with being war miss the

26:16

name of the song from the band lean

26:18

years the duo from richmond virginia

26:20

here in our new sound studio

26:23

and the album called

26:25

sides is their most recent rick

26:27

is is the mountains still

26:29

your most recent film it is yeah

26:32

yeah them was team and twenty nineteen

26:34

and time so this

26:37

horror film will that be the next thing

26:39

or to have something else already in the pipeline yeah

26:41

yeah hopefully it'll be it'll be next

26:44

and but it's set in the twelfth century

26:46

so under , convent

26:49

construction involved so it's her the

26:51

plaque really does

26:53

, twelfth century none hildegard

26:56

of bingen figure into your story mean

26:58

will a she's a patron saint

27:00

of india okay sorry

27:04

nice something to look forward to

27:06

ah emily to get in

27:07

in that side of things at all

27:10

i won't weep i produced

27:12

a couple like music videos

27:15

we did one with sharon than that in an

27:17

angel olsen and i also my favorite

27:19

thing that i got see with reckless we

27:22

have produced a little

27:24

music doc that he did are now

27:26

what

27:26

august and see went on to memphis

27:29

and hung out with him for a couple days which was

27:31

when he put out that great

27:33

that was it

27:35

new york us

27:37

i'm emily i have a a

27:40

, question for you and it as simply

27:42

this how high does your voice go

27:45

and the reason i ask is because he have been here a little

27:47

bit of end to of this

27:49

yes and there were moments where a slight

27:53

is she doing that that it i mean has a rich

27:55

or arena tell you something to their

27:58

own ended smattering of

28:10

it's pretty high notes

28:12

are you getting up into you

28:14

, kind of coloratura soprano

28:16

territory at times and in the

28:19

song called and which we will use to

28:21

to wrap things up before we do emily

28:23

racks rick oliver some real pleasure

28:25

to to have the two of you congratulations

28:28

on sides which is a a

28:30

in its own very restrained way

28:33

a super compelling record thank you so

28:36

much and watch

28:38

the videos that we've shot of the live

28:40

performances of lean year

28:42

and my thanks to our videographer eric

28:44

weber our technical director as always

28:47

irene fidel our producer karen have

28:49

like i'm john shaffer