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PM: So there are a couple of tracks I'd love to go into, like "Happy"--that's my runaway first favorite. MKO: Excellent. PM: Yeah, I'm all over there. Can we back up on that tune all the way to its creation? MKO: Well, that song, actually, I had an idea of--I don't know, ideas probably that I didn't actually follow through on--but I had an idea of where the label had talked to me about doing--oh, look, Jill is on the other line. I'll have to call her back and tell her I was talking to you. PM: And tell her hi. MKO: Yeah, I will. Where was I--the label wanted to me to do some covers. And then I thought, well, if I'm going to do some covers, I'm going to do covers that my friends wrote. PM: Right. MKO: It was definitely more fun. And Jill had written that song a long time ago with Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne. PM: Oh, so it's just a write between those two. MKO: Yeah, and they just never did anything with it. So they didn't even actually--they couldn't find what they did. PM: They couldn't find it? MKO: I'd heard it long ago, and I think they did it on like ADAT or something--even something like pre ADAT that I had never heard of. But I just remembered it from hearing it, so it isn't that true to the cover, because I don't think we ever really found it. But I had her lyrics and the music. PM: Now, on or off the record, that ominous sound in the beginning, is that a sample? MKO: No. PM: They just imitated something from that--what was that song, was something about [with a deep voice] "walking in the rain" or something like that? MKO: Yeah, what's the name of that band? Well, Jill and Adam wrote it from a sample. But what I did is I just--we did it ourselves. PM: Just played it. MKO: Yeah. So we didn't sample it. PM: That's such a cool part, damn. MKO: Yeah, I know. [laughs] PM: Something harmonically got struck there that's just really, really good. Well, I guess they thought so, too--or all of yous. How did that end up on the track, that sound? Oh, they started, as you say, with a sample, so that's how... yeah. MKO: They wrote it as a sample--they took the sample, and I just remembered it. PM: Nice. MKO: I actually did this song in Northampton MA with my friend Ken Maiuri. PM: Oh, yeah. Of course, I want to talk about him, because about him I know almost nothing, and he seems very important on the record. MKO: Yeah, he's like one of those great multi-instrumentalists who is actually as good as--you know what I mean? He really can play everything, like total freak of nature, in a great way. PM: It's amazing how some people are like that. MKO: Yeah. So that's what we did; we recreated the sound of a loop, but we just did it organically. PM: Right. So Ken plays normally with Pedro the Lion, or has played, or-- MKO: He played with Pedro the Lion, and then they broke up, and he now plays a lot with Mark Mulcahy of Miracle Legion. And he also does this thing right now that they just had a movie out about--did you ever hear of the Young@Heart Chorus? PM: Oh, yeah, yeah, it's about the elderly people singing group, right? MKO: Exactly. PM: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I saw a trailer, it looked pretty great. MKO: Yeah, he plays with them, too. PM: Oh, my God! MKO: It's really a great movie. PM: Unbelievable. MKO: So that's Ken, anyway. He does lots of things. PM: So let's talk, then, about the great single, it must be the single, "Green Street." MKO: Yep. PM: "Green Street," that really should be the name--not just the name but the theme of a new hit TV show, I mean, that's perfect. MKO: Yeah. [laughs] PM: It's like tailor-made for a TV show--not only that, but the theme, the whole feel of "Green Street," it's just a beautiful-- MKO: Oh, thank you. PM: --TV type of thing. Who is playing guitar on that cut? MKO: So many people. I think Ken plays a lot of it. But then actually Jill and me. PM: Wow, there's some really rockin' guitar on that song. MKO: Thank you. PM: Obviously, your version of Randy Newman's "Living Without You" pointed up something really interesting but elusive to me. What's the story behind that cover and how it got reinvented musically? MKO: Oh, I just--it's such a great song, albeit dangerous to ever cover truly good songs. Do you know what I mean? PM: Of course, but sometimes you have to. MKO: It's always going to pale in comparison. But his original version is so like carnival-esque, sort of like a drunk person, I always imagine like "whaaaaa"--you know? [laughs] PM: I went and listened to some other version that must have been cut later. And I went, oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, there's all these voicings there that weren't in the original version. MKO: That was on Nilsson Does Newman. Do you have that? Did you hear that version of it? PM: I'm sure I have. But I thought I heard--I went to a Randy Newman iTunes site, and it was him singing, but it wasn't the original version of that song. And there were new voicings. And I went, no, no, no, I want to find that original one. MKO: Yeah, I've only heard the original one. But I think it's just like a perfectly written song to me. PM: It's uncanny good. [Randy Newman has released at least three different recordings of this song: there's an orchestrated one on his 1968 debut album, a solo version on the classic 1971 live album, and another solo rendition on The Randy Newman Songbook, Vol. 1 from 2003.] MKO: So I just did it as simple as possible, and kept it as a demo. PM: It's a very impressive and a touching reinvention of that song. MKO: Oh, thank you. PM: I thought it was really, really good. So did some of the stuff actually go down at Adam's studio? Is Stratosphere Sound his studio or the band's studio? MKO: It's his studio. Yeah, we did a lot of the overdubs--some of it I would start out actually in my apartment. PM: Right, on Pro Tools Light, like? MKO: Yeah. PM: Right. MKO: And then if I would meet up with Jill at Adam's studio, if she was in town doing a show in New York, I'd say, "Let's book at date at Adam's studio." And she'd come and do some singing and guitar work. PM: I interviewed Adam Schlesinger once, not so long ago. He was really a nice dude. MKO: Yeah, he's really nice. He's a really talented producer. PM: Yeah, and their songwriting, it's ridiculously good. MKO: And I like working at their studio because they have a little B room, which is perfect for us, because I'm just doing sort of little things here and there, I don't need a big cutting room.
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