“Kooky Tantric” (w/ Robyn)

In the words of one of the greatest pop stars of all time, “Fuck a app!” (except whichever one you use for podcasts). Robyn joins us to talk her upcoming, stellar album “Sexistential.” Topics range from the tantric kookiness of the writing process, covering your own songs, and the age-old question: Would you eat your baby? Lived-in experiences with Max “Just a Guy” Martin and the idea of nostalgia being lethal. And of COURSE Robyn gives a cool answer to The Question in the form of a Neneh Cherry song. So come take a warm auditory bath like the song “Honey” IDTSH’s on Close Friends etiquette. Well-lit intercourse. Being early to hating Elon and all the men and boys who are withOUT. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:53Speaker 00

  Look, man. There. Oh, I see. Wow. Oh, and look over there. Wow, is that culture? Yes. Oh, my goodness. Wow. Los Culturistas.

• 1:03Speaker 01

  Ding dong, Los Culturistas calling. Did you know I was having like such a reflective day today because like just going through the oeuvre. We've had so many formative memories.

• 1:15Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 1:16Speaker 01

  With our guest music. In fact, I remember the very first time I ever even heard about our guest was was way, way back. And then it feels like like truly like throughout the eras, there's always been that moment.

• 1:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:32Speaker 01

  Because this is a true like defining artist of our time who gives something like every few years comes back out and is like, don't forget.

• 1:42Speaker 02

  We, I surely never have.

• 1:44Speaker 01

  We dropped acid upstate and listened to Honey.

• 1:48Speaker 02

  I told our guests when I met them backstage at Radio City, it was so intimate.

• 1:54Speaker 01

  By the way, that was an epic performance.

• 1:56Speaker 02

  Oh my God, it was so amazing.

• 1:56Speaker 01

  I'll never forget this.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Our guest and David Byrne.

• 1:59Speaker 03

  It was an amazing evening.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  It was a miss. That was, let's talk about it. But real quick, I just want to say, like, I came out of the bathroom, you were sitting alone in the green room, and then you were like, "Hi," and I was like, "I can't do this."

• 2:11Speaker 01

  This is too much.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  And then I word vomited and I was like, "So, um, I was in a K-hole two summers ago, and what healed me was Ariana Grande, Be Alright." And when I got into bed, I got under the covers and just looped Honey, the album, for about like six hours straight, and it saved me.

• 2:30Speaker 01

  This is not the first time you have been flabbergasted that a celebrity is in front of you, and you said, "I was in a K-hole and..." This is like the second or third time I've heard of him saying that. And he doesn't even like frequent ketamine. Don't be concerned.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  No, don't be concerned. It's not, I don't have a substance problem.

• 2:47Speaker 01

  Famous thing that people with non-substance problems say. And I have really good news for everyone.

• 2:52Speaker 02

  She's here. The album is called Sexistential.

• 2:57Speaker 01

  That's what I was gonna say was the good news. So great.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  That's the good news. Um, "Fuck a app," in the words of our guest.

• 3:04Speaker 01

  "Adam Driver makes her horny. She reveals this on the album." We've heard it, by the way. Sorry, I know that's gonna make y'all feel some type of way, but we've heard it and you gotta wait.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  Our friend has heard it. Gia Tolentino has heard it.

• 3:17Speaker 01

  And I'm sure because sure it tastes.

• 3:18Speaker 02

  Because she's writing. She's writing about our guest.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Let's just, let's just get into it because it is truly an honor for our first guest of the year to be, like, it's beyond one and only, but the one and only, Robin!

• 3:36Speaker 03

  I'm so happy to be here.

• 3:37Speaker 01

  Oh, this is like a joy for us.

• 3:39Speaker 03

  No, it's a joy for me. Thank you for telling me all these sweet things. My heart's racing.

• 3:44Speaker 01

  We haven't even begun.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  I feel so complimented.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  Complimented.

• 3:47Speaker 03

  Is that how it's?

• 3:48Speaker 02

  Absolutely. Because I could see the, um, the face crack when I was telling you about my K-hole. And you were like, "I don't know what to say to this guy." What's your memory of that?

• 4:00Speaker 03

  No, I loved it. I thought you were being so vulnerable.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  We're often vulnerable here. Our acid trip was also you.

• 4:07Speaker 03

  I truly appreciate it. I know that I'm so happy I could help you out.

• 4:11Speaker 02

  And I feel the sincerity in that. But it was like, I laugh about it now. But like, I mean, that song is so, you know, important. The title track of Honey. And I feel like, I feel like I really admire how you just took up the space with that album to be, to have the sensuality with your production and your vocal. And then now to understand that you are fulfilling a societal need to like, bring us back to the fucking club.

• 4:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 4:39Speaker 02

  And like, I want to start this interview by asking, what was this intention? Why this album? Why start from the ground up with a song like Dopamine that you've had in the bank for 10 years?

• 4:52Speaker 03

  Yeah. Well, I mean, I felt like I was on a spaceship. Like I'd been floating around in space, totally lost, going through very existential things. And I was crashing back into the atmosphere of the earth and like kind of back into myself. And that's what I wanted it. That was my picture of what the album was gonna be. Just this feeling of like, impact and a dust of emotion, a cloud of emotion just rising up and not having to explain too much. And then just letting it settle. And I wanted there to be layers in there and lots of things for people to come back to and relate to. But also this like very just high impact, strong like force.

• 5:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:40Speaker 03

  That's where I was in my life.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:42Speaker 03

  And so that's what came out of my body. I had a son.

• 5:47Speaker 02

  Yeah, you birthed Sexistential.

• 5:49Speaker 03

  Also had, yeah, lots of things to write about.

• 5:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, absolutely.

• 5:52Speaker 03

  But the album's not about my son. It's about. Maybe the time before.

• 5:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, what I loved about, like, you recently said that you feel like it's your life's purpose to remain horny.

• 6:03Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 6:04Speaker 01

  And to keep driving towards horniness. By the way, I deeply feel that.

• 6:07Speaker 02

  I feel that.

• 6:08Speaker 01

  I, I, you're, you're amongst friends.

• 6:11Speaker 03

  Great.

• 6:11Speaker 01

  And so I, I would describe the album as a horny little album. I mean, like, I think-

• 6:16Speaker 03

  A horny little slutty album.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  It's a horny little slutty album, and I do feel like we do need those reminders, you know, to go out, because I do think, like, I don't know, maybe this is like a boring thing to say because it's so obvious, but we are isolated. We do need reminders to go out and dance and like low-key touch each other.

• 6:33Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 6:33Speaker 01

  And you also describe horniness as not just about being sex, about being curious.

• 6:38Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly, about being curious, about having the time and space to feel pleasure and to enjoy my life and to have that not have been taken away from me by stress, by politics, by just the world going crazy. And so it's like, it's, it's an act of resistance, but it's also just like fun and how I would want my life to always be, if I can, it's a luxury and no pressure. Like, if you're not horny, that's okay too.

• 7:06Speaker 01

  That's fine. But again, it's not, but it's not necessarily about sex, which is kind of like, it's kind of freeing, you know what I mean? Like, it's like, it's not like we're not putting pressure on anyone to go out there and go crazy, but it's like, whatever it means to you is emboldening.

• 7:21Speaker 03

  Totally. It's like how you approach anything, I guess.

• 7:24Speaker 02

  Be horny for life.

• 7:25Speaker 03

  Be horny for life.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  Title of that.

• 7:26Speaker 02

  Horny for life.

• 7:27Speaker 03

  Horny for life.

• 7:28Speaker 02

  In, in every sense, like, be horny for the duration of the time you're on this earth.

• 7:32Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 7:33Speaker 02

  And then be, be, um, have a sexual drive towards like the things in this world as much as you can.

• 7:40Speaker 03

  Yes, be tantric, like, let things like build and feel exciting and not rushed, but, but kind of like- Pleasurable at the same time.

• 7:51Speaker 02

  Was tantric like the process? Was that like you and Klaus like being like, let's get like kooky? No, that's a terrible word.

• 8:00Speaker 03

  No, I like it.

• 8:01Speaker 02

  Okay. I don't mean to equate tantric, like the tantric with kookyness.

• 8:07Speaker 01

  Kooky tantric could be a whole vibe. You know what I mean? I'm looking dead at the camera.

• 8:11Speaker 03

  It's kinky. No, me and Klaus were not getting kinky.

• 8:14Speaker 01

  To be clear.

• 8:15Speaker 03

  Yes, but we, we've been, you know, we've been so close for so many years. And in this weird way, we, we don't, well, we see each other sometimes in our personal life or like without, outside of the studio as well, of course. But, but it's mostly just him and me like just exposing ourselves to each other over and over and over again for like now, what is it? Like 20 years?

• 8:43Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 8:43Speaker 03

  And having not fallouts, but periods where we don't necessarily want to be with each other and then coming back to it. And, and we, I think why we get along is also because we have the same work ethic. We like to work a long time on things and make sure we like it. And we don't have a problem with that. And so tantric is definitely a part of it. There's this like, we're both okay with it not being comfortable all the time, which I think is also, it has to be that way in order to get to the good stuff. I think you have to be uncomfortable, be able to become uncomfortable with each other.

• 9:19Speaker 02

  There's a push pull.

• 9:20Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Like, it's so interesting that you see that as like part of the, the tantric of your, of your songwriting, right? It's like, I think you were talking recently about how like the songwriting process is not necessarily like fun.

• 9:35Speaker 03

  No, exactly.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  It's like, it's really hard and labored and like, you know this.

• 9:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Well, sometimes it's like, you hear artists talk about how like, oh, this happened very quickly and that's how I know it's good. But that's just a certain process that someone might have.

• 9:50Speaker 03

  I mean, usually I'm like, oh, can't be that good.

• 9:52Speaker 01

  Right, right. You're like, what's the catch on this song?

• 9:55Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 9:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:56Speaker 03

  Maybe.

• 9:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 9:58Speaker 03

  Sometimes it happens quickly.

• 9:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:00Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 10:00Speaker 01

  Do you have an example of like a song that did happen very quickly? And maybe you were like, I don't know, but you didn't touch it. And then ultimately it was what it was.

• 10:08Speaker 03

  Dancing on my own.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  I was, I don't know why I spiritually felt like that must have come through like in a channeled way.

• 10:14Speaker 03

  It was kind of a channeling thing.

• 10:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:17Speaker 03

  And sometimes it does happen with every heartbeat happen that way too. But I feel like there are like years or at least months of something leading up to that moment. And then you sometimes you just click in and you're able to just get it out in one go.

• 10:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:31Speaker 03

  But then dopamine took 10 years and you know, it's so different every time, I think.

• 10:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 10:38Speaker 03

  But the, I guess when you're acting, I mean, I think actors and comedians are just so good at it. Maybe sometimes better than musicians because you have to be vulnerable. You have to try things and you have to make yourself, like you have to be able to be ugly and weird and all those things to get to the thing.

• 10:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 10:57Speaker 03

  And, and sometimes when I get into studio with, with musicians that are really great, but not comfortable with that. It just, it's harder, right?

• 11:07Speaker 01

  Yeah. Well, with music, I feel like you can take your time to discover.

• 11:11Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:11Speaker 01

  Whereas like when you're an actor or a comedian, like you have to like be able to at least perform discovery. And so that discovery, I often feel like it's like, it's sometimes better to not look at any lines until right before so that they can feel really fresh. Well, you don't like being prepared. Exactly. I don't want to be prepared ever. That's what that is. But like for you, it's like to hear that dopamine took 10 years. It still feels like something that's very like organic, even if it felt like at times arduous. Or like you were like, I don't know if that's ever going to come to fruition, but I know I have it in the back pocket. Like it still feels like a new song.

• 11:48Speaker 03

  Exactly. And to get to that point, like you know, you might have something that is supposed to feel that way. Like you know that there's something in there like, oh, we could get to this point where it feels totally natural and organic.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  But it might not start out that way. And then it's like, you have to find it as if it was the first time. You can't fake it and like pull out the arpeggio bassline one more time and just like slap it on there. Like it has to be created from scratch and really. Intentionally made again, I think.

• 12:16Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:16Speaker 02

  Was it called dopamine all 10 years? Did the title change?

• 12:20Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, no, the title was so good. The chorus was there from the beginning. I mean, there were all these amazing people involved in it, too. It was Klaus and Tyre Cruise.

• 12:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, wow, Tyre Cruise.

• 12:31Speaker 03

  Yes, the chorus is written by Tyre Cruise. So I think, you know, it's this thing of deciding like how to deal with like this little gold that you know you have.

• 12:41Speaker 02

  Hmm.

• 12:42Speaker 03

  Where to place it.

• 12:43Speaker 01

  Wow, just to like return to Dancing on My Own for a second because I feel like on this podcast, Los Culturistas, if you're gonna be here, we have to give Dancing on My Own its moment, and this is why. Because when you, we went to go see you at Barclays and we just talked about this concert, our Rachel Senate episode, because it was when we were like recreationally ripping you s and poppers at the time, and thank God we were.

• 13:04Speaker 03

  I enjoyed that episode so much.

• 13:05Speaker 01

  Thank you for listening. Rachel will love that. But I remember like when you played Dancing on My Own at the show, it was so clear in that moment that that is like the defining anthem for us. Like, there's a few songs that feel like that. I would actually call I Love It by Charli XCX on Icona Pop, another one of those. When she did that song at the Sweat Tour, I felt the same way. Whereas afterwards, I remember you just like received for like quite a while, all this love that was flying at you from, from the audience. And I feel like the question that I feel like, you know, the basic question would be like, when did you realize that this song was that? Or how does it feel that this song is that?

• 13:50Speaker 01

  But I want to ask you is, what is your Dancing on My Own? Like, what are your defining pop anthems? Like, I want to know.

• 13:59Speaker 03

  Well, I mean, God, it would be Purple Rain.

• 14:03Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:05Speaker 02

  It's our Purple Rain. Keep going.

• 14:06Speaker 03

  Oh, wow.

• 14:07Speaker 01

  It's, but it didn't, I hope you could feel that because it is true. I mean, it's a release.

• 14:11Speaker 03

  Wow, I mean, if, if it makes you feel that way, then I'm, I'm super happy. I think Purple Rain has this like.

• 14:19Speaker 03

  Also this tantric thing, right?

• 14:20Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 14:21Speaker 03

  Where you wanna come back to it and you wanna feel the thing again and and I think um Small Town Boy with Bronski.

• 14:29Speaker 02

  Oh my god, yes.

• 14:31Speaker 03

  When he goes into that high note in the beginning.

• 14:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 14:33Speaker 03

  It just makes me wanna cry.

• 14:36Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  Um.

• 14:39Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 14:39Speaker 01

  I get this sense and let me, I'm guessing here, but I think probably, were you a Whitney fan?

• 14:44Speaker 03

  Yes, of course.

• 14:45Speaker 01

  I feel like there's like, like her, her anthemic stuff.

• 14:48Speaker 03

  But also Mariah.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  Mariah is just the best.

• 14:51Speaker 03

  A lot of Mariah when I was 12.

• 14:53Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 14:55Speaker 03

  A lot of trying to hit those high notes.

• 14:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, right.

• 14:59Speaker 03

  It never happened.

• 15:01Speaker 01

  Do you have a favorite Mariah?

• 15:02Speaker 03

  Hmm.

• 15:03Speaker 01

  It's a hard one to say.

• 15:04Speaker 03

  You know which my favorite Mariah is, but that's just because I love the original song as well is I can't live if living is without you.

• 15:12Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 15:13Speaker 01

  Yeah. She really just, that was already a brilliant song, but she just made it something else.

• 15:19Speaker 03

  It was amazing when that came.

• 15:21Speaker 02

  She's a good, good cover.

• 15:21Speaker 03

  With the live MTV session.

• 15:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:25Speaker 03

  With her hair and, oh my god, yeah.

• 15:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, she's, she's the queen of like, oh, I know you know this song in one way and I'm gonna live just rip it up.

• 15:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 15:34Speaker 01

  Like the other day, there was on, on my algorithm, I was scrolling by and there was this unbelievable video of Mariah and Whitney recording When You Believe.

• 15:42Speaker 03

  Oh, right.

• 15:42Speaker 01

  From the Prince of Egypt and it was just.

• 15:44Speaker 03

  They finally got together.

• 15:45Speaker 01

  Exactly, exactly.

• 15:46Speaker 03

  But also the way Mariah handled her whole thing and like how funny she is and

• 15:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:50Speaker 03

  you know, the intelligence of her.

• 15:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 15:53Speaker 03

  It's really entertaining.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  I mean, is it fair to say that you are, I love that, I love that you did this, there's, there's a track on, it's existential, Blow My Mind, which is like, it is like you covering yourself, but it's just a redux of, of a track of the same title.

• 16:09Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 16:10Speaker 02

  It was the third album, right?

• 16:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:12Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:13Speaker 03

  It's true.

• 16:14Speaker 02

  And like, I, talk about that because it's truly, especially if you listen to both those songs back to back, you're like, oh my god, this is just such a trip and like, this is sort of recontextualized now, I don't wanna give it totally away.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 16:28Speaker 02

  Um, but like, that is.

• 16:31Speaker 01

  Such a cool like refracting of like your old work. Old quote unquote as in like.

• 16:37Speaker 03

  No, totally.

• 16:38Speaker 01

  Past work into something that feels again like extremely current.

• 16:44Speaker 03

  That makes me very happy. I mean, I always loved the song. It was on an album that I released before I started my label. So it was in this kind of forgotten category and it was never really a single. And I think it's a brilliant song and me and also what happens when you have a kid is you just don't have that much time. I don't want to say that's the reason, but I was like looking back at my, because I had all these other old songs for the album. And so I was like, oh, this might be the time where I get to do a cover of my own song. And I always wanted to, and then we rewrote it so that it's about the present time. Now it's more about cute aggression, I think.

• 17:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:25Speaker 03

  When you love someone so much, you want to hurt them.

• 17:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, like you have a tantrum towards them.

• 17:29Speaker 03

  Like definitely.

• 17:32Speaker 01

  Do you want to eat your baby?

• 17:33Speaker 03

  Yeah, no, not.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Well, no, there's this thing where like people want to like. The plain way you ask, do you want to eat your baby? Eat, eat your baby.

• 17:40Speaker 03

  Yes, I want to eat his cheeks.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  I know.

• 17:43Speaker 03

  His butt cheeks too.

• 17:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. I always want to eat the baby's leg and foot.

• 17:48Speaker 03

  Yeah, like every part like.

• 17:49Speaker 01

  Doughy.

• 17:50Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:50Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. Good stuff.

• 17:52Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  This cannibalism is like totally innocent. It goes away as the baby gets older.

• 18:00Speaker 03

  Does it though?

• 18:01Speaker 01

  That's up to you. Let us know, I guess.

• 18:03Speaker 03

  I, I hear from people that doesn't like it's still like you, you want to do it to your 20 year old, but it's.

• 18:08Speaker 01

  How old is, is your baby?

• 18:10Speaker 03

  Soon to be four.

• 18:11Speaker 01

  Soon to be four. Okay. So this was like, soon to be four. So this was four years ago.

• 18:19Speaker 03

  Kitchen.

• 18:20Speaker 01

  I wonder because you just collaborated last year with Charli XCX. I'm not sure when you did the 360 remix.

• 18:27Speaker 03

  Yeah, it was, it was right before the album, her album was released. It was like six months before or something in the summer before it was released. And she was in Sweden and she, she. Texted me and she was like, I want to do this remix with you and Jonathan with Young Lean. And I just thought it was like the best idea ever.

• 18:48Speaker 01

  It's so sick.

• 18:48Speaker 03

  And of course, it came from her because she's brilliant.

• 18:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 18:51Speaker 03

  And, you know, had no idea what she was doing. We hadn't been in touch for a while. And I just thought with Crash, she was just, you could tell she was getting into her zone. She was ramping up this like perfect storm of emotion and like expression. And she was so sure of herself. And I was like, yeah, I just want to hear what you're doing. And she played some stuff and she said, oh, I think it's about, you know, I think the album is just about female relationships and how, you know, how complicated it is. And I was like, that's so interesting. And I think she wanted us to write something and I was just like, I didn't even know how to put myself in that position because I just love her so much.

• 19:30Speaker 03

  Like I could never even like think about how to find like a, like a, like a conflict.

• 19:37Speaker 01

  Right.

• 19:38Speaker 03

  Like I was trying, like trying to get into it. And then we did the remix as well and we wrote some other things. And it was so fun to talk to her and have like some time with her before it all happened.

• 19:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:53Speaker 03

  See her in that moment.

• 19:55Speaker 01

  I feel like you guys must have like so much in common that very few people have in common too. And the reason why I ask about like when your son or your, you know, was born, like she talks so much. She ruminates so much on that idea as well. So I wonder like what you were thinking when you heard that.

• 20:12Speaker 03

  She totally inspired me to go, to be personal, to be more personal than I had ever been with my own lyrics and to be specific, to not shy away from being very defined about what it is you want to say.

• 20:29Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:29Speaker 03

  I think the subject matter was already there, but just kind of like how she approached it and how she was so vulnerable and tough at the same time.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:38Speaker 03

  But we, it's true. We always, I think, connected on that. And I think with Jonathan as well, like we have that experience of being like, you know, just doing it on like different levels and in different worlds from like a very young age.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  Right.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  And it's funny, for me, it's, it's, it's beautiful because I don't really know if I've shared that experience with people, artists my own age, I feel like I can relate to. Charlie and like her generation in a different way than my own.

• 21:06Speaker 02

  It's clarifying if it's coming from, you know, something that is a little bit outside of yourself.

• 21:12Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  Or there's some level, like layer of remove there where you're like, oh, she's reminiscing on parenthood.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 21:19Speaker 02

  Um, in this very deep, vulnerable way on, on her, in her music.

• 21:24Speaker 03

  Mm hmm.

• 21:24Speaker 02

  I can also be irreverent in the way that she's irreverent. I feel like Sexistential, title track.

• 21:29Speaker 01

  Definitely.

• 21:30Speaker 02

  Is just.

• 21:31Speaker 01

  It's an id.

• 21:32Speaker 02

  It's, it's an id. It's so funny. It's like, you, you like, you, you even have this moment where it's like, your doctor confused as Adam Driver for Adam Sandler.

• 21:42Speaker 03

  I'm glad. Yes, you got it.

• 21:44Speaker 02

  It's so, it's so, but let's like, that is, um.

• 21:47Speaker 03

  It's a true story.

• 21:48Speaker 02

  It's a true story. I feel like, I feel like you, you haven't been this funny since Robin, since the first indie, since the first Konichiwa Records album.

• 21:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's true. Or silly.

• 21:59Speaker 02

  Or silly. I think both. Like it's silly, funny, kooky.

• 22:03Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 22:04Speaker 02

  Tantric. You know what I mean?

• 22:07Speaker 03

  I'm so happy that you feel that way because I, I wanted it to be that way. And I told Klaus, I was like, we have to write a rap about IVF. And he was like, oh.

• 22:16Speaker 01

  He was like, now let me look up what that means.

• 22:19Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly. Exactly. No, but actually he's one of those really, um, equal, like Swedish man. He's been at home with his kids.

• 22:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 22:29Speaker 03

  So, so he, he can relate, I think, but maybe not to the IVF part.

• 22:34Speaker 02

  Of course.

• 22:35Speaker 03

  I had the, the Sexistential was like the, you know, it was like the joke title of the album for a really long time. And then I was like, that was just going to be Sexistential. And then I was like, we have to write a song called Sexistential.

• 22:46Speaker 01

  Oh, that's how it came through.

• 22:48Speaker 03

  The last song we did. So it was like a very free space where, you know, we could go deeper into the things that we had already been talking about.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  Right.

• 22:55Speaker 01

  I think it's one of the standout tracks.

• 22:56Speaker 02

  It's one of the standouts. But then like the word Sexistential gets littered in other, like in Blow My Mind, like you hear it.

• 23:01Speaker 03

  Or in Talk To Me, I think.

• 23:03Speaker 01

  I love Talk To Me. Is that the official second single?

• 23:05Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 23:06Speaker 01

  Love it. Great choice.

• 23:07Speaker 03

  It's gonna come.

• 23:08Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 23:09Speaker 02

  It's gonna come soon.

• 23:09Speaker 01

  Well, it was out today.

• 23:10Speaker 03

  It's out today.

• 23:12Speaker 01

  So this is coming out a week from today. So it's been out a week.

• 23:14Speaker 03

  It's been out. You're late.

• 23:16Speaker 01

  You're late.

• 23:17Speaker 03

  It's out already.

• 23:18Speaker 01

  Um, I want to ask, how many songs is Max Martin on, on, on this?

• 23:21Speaker 03

  On two?

• 23:22Speaker 01

  Two.

• 23:22Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 23:23Speaker 01

  So that must be a very long relationship.

• 23:25Speaker 03

  Oh, yes.

• 23:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:27Speaker 03

  That's the longest one, but very sporadic in the sense that we've only really worked together on three, four songs, like two on my first album. One on the Body Talk. Release and then two now, five songs. Um, yeah, Max Martin is a very sincere, very smart and sensitive person. He always gets depicted as this machine who has a strategy and, you know, is like, almost like a robot. In a way, it is like working with AI because it, it's so fast.

• 23:57Speaker 01

  Right.

• 23:57Speaker 03

  And I think that's like, that, that is the inhuman kind of thing about him that it's so, like, the problems, like, solving is so quick.

• 24:07Speaker 01

  He knows his math.

• 24:08Speaker 03

  Oh, yeah.

• 24:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 24:09Speaker 03

  But it's not a, it's not a formula. It's like real sense of melody and like.

• 24:15Speaker 02

  It's experience.

• 24:16Speaker 03

  It's experience, exactly. But you know, him and Klaus went to the same class in the same music school.

• 24:21Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 24:21Speaker 03

  Yeah, in Sweden.

• 24:23Speaker 02

  So then, so then, so like, I mean, this, I feel like, you know, you are such a part of Max's story. And like, I think that is, I don't know, I think that must be a really interesting thing to like, just track mutually your, your, your, your pathways, like in, in this business that has changed so much.

• 24:48Speaker 03

  You know, when I came here, I was like, oh my God, this kind of building and this kind of like office hallway and my hair today and the mint.

• 25:01Speaker 02

  Is very what?

• 25:02Speaker 03

  It's, it was like I was coming back into like a record company building in 98.

• 25:08Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 25:08Speaker 03

  And I was like, you know.

• 25:09Speaker 01

  Well, we are A and R and we are gonna, we are, this is a signing meeting for us. We're interested in you.

• 25:14Speaker 03

  Can you get, um, a Wu-Tang member?

• 25:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 25:17Speaker 02

  Probably could. Riz is in the back.

• 25:19Speaker 01

  Can we get a Wu-Tang member?

• 25:25Speaker 01

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• 28:54Speaker 01

  I feel like the story of Max Martin is obviously understanding pop music and creating pop music as we know it today in many ways, but also understanding artists. Like what he gets from and what he's able to channel from someone like Taylor and someone like Ariana, you know, go over, this is just recent, and you throughout the years. Like, I feel like he really helps to not define artists, because artists define themselves, but hone in and make specific and therefore, like, sometimes even make funny what an artist can do, because they have like a bit that they can keep coming back to.

• 29:31Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 29:31Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? And like, that's, I guess, where like the reheating your own nachos comes from, when people say it about certain people. It's like, no, this is just my style.

• 29:39Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's actually, it just happens to be like the biggest one over the year. The one that's like...

• 29:46Speaker 03

  Dominated all the charts for so long, but it is actually really personal and.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I got to, I got to meet him once.

• 29:52Speaker 03

  Yeah, how was that?

• 29:53Speaker 02

  It was so interesting because it's like you're saying, like, I was expecting this like larger than life, like very methodical, precise person. But he's lovely. But we, we, we went to go see Spamalot with Ari.

• 30:05Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 30:06Speaker 02

  And he's just like, easygoing, wonderful, nice, kind, like chill person. And I was like, this is, and I didn't say this to him, but I was just like, this is, it's like you said, it's like, it's not what his portrayal is as like this prolific songwriter and hitmaker. It's like, oh, he's, he's a, not to reduce it, but he's a guy.

• 30:25Speaker 03

  He's a guy.

• 30:25Speaker 02

  You know?

• 30:26Speaker 03

  No, totally.

• 30:26Speaker 02

  And in a great way, he's a guy.

• 30:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, and he's, he's, he has, actually has something like, almost like grace.

• 30:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 30:33Speaker 03

  He has grace. Like, he will, mm, go deeper and like find the, like you're saying, like the real meaning behind that artist and what they're trying to say. And he will go for like, the, the higher kind of background, I think. And he kind of has, you know, he has good morals. He, he hired new, really amazing, beautiful, uh, female producers like Elvira, who worked on Addison Rae and.

• 31:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:01Speaker 03

  You know, he's like making, um, good decisions with his legacy.

• 31:04Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 31:05Speaker 03

  But then he's also, you know, when I worked with him the first time, like, he was this young person who was just so ambitious and really wanted to win. That's also a part of it. And he is obsessed with statistics and he will like, you know, he, he, it's, it's amazing to see someone with that much success and it doesn't, like, he really goes at it as if he's trying to win, like, the first time, every time.

• 31:29Speaker 02

  Every time.

• 31:29Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's really amazing.

• 31:30Speaker 02

  Hungry.

• 31:31Speaker 03

  Yeah, hungry still.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Yeah. Um, I mean, the deeper meaning behind, the, the, the way he finds deeper meaning, like, I feel like you have a sense of what your deeper meaning is. You don't have to share it with us, but I feel like it's so interesting that you've, in the past, said things about like, oh, I wanted to, to, to sort of have an inflection point after dancing on my own. I didn't want to be known as like the heartbreak musician necessarily.

• 31:54Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  And I, and you said recently, I think on Zayn Lo, you were like, nostalgia is like a perilous thing.

• 32:01Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:02Speaker 02

  Like a lethal thing. But I, but I, what I loved about the Brooklyn Paramount setlist. Setlist was that like it just woven like your full discography so beautifully. And then you sang Show Me Love for the first time in like, what, like 10 years.

• 32:14Speaker 01

  Great arrangement of it, too.

• 32:16Speaker 02

  So it's like, so it's like, I wonder like what your relationship is now to like the way you, not nostalgia, but the way you look back on your own work.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  I look back on the first album and maybe the second one as well, which is like a lot of sympathy and love for, you know, the situation I was in. It was.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  You were young.

• 32:34Speaker 03

  It was insane. Like, it was really trippy to come from Sweden into the culture that I thought I knew because I grew not grown up with it and then realizing how lost in translation you are sometimes as a European in America, especially if you if you don't know the culture.

• 32:51Speaker 02

  Right.

• 32:53Speaker 03

  And just little things like, like how America is very divided, I think, between like children and grownups. And I was still a teenager and just finding myself like in this very kind of, you know, you're in a kind of a separated world.

• 33:06Speaker 02

  Right. In a very adult industry.

• 33:09Speaker 03

  In a very adult, in the 90s, I mean.

• 33:11Speaker 01

  When there was nothing, no one was, no one even would know how to ask if you were okay.

• 33:15Speaker 03

  There was no me too.

• 33:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly.

• 33:17Speaker 03

  It was like, yeah. I would say that, you know, being a pop star, a teenage pop star is like a lethal, it's a lethal situation and it can really get you.

• 33:28Speaker 02

  Well, yeah.

• 33:28Speaker 03

  And it, but I was prepared in the sense that, you know, a safe haven back home and, I don't know, what was the question?

• 33:37Speaker 02

  The question was, how do you, but this is, this is actually dovetails perfectly into something else that I want to ask you about.

• 33:41Speaker 03

  Nostalgia. We talked about nostalgia.

• 33:43Speaker 01

  Nostalgia as a perilous thing.

• 33:45Speaker 03

  But I don't know, maybe you want to go somewhere else.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  Well, no, I mean, finish the thought. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to cut in.

• 33:50Speaker 03

  No, not at all. I don't even know what I was saying. I think, I think nostalgia is dangerous, yeah. But I think, you know, playing Show Me Love is not, doesn't feel nostalgic. I mean, of course, it's nostalgic, but in the good sense.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  Yes, yes.

• 34:04Speaker 03

  That there's something that that's real and that's a part of people's lives. And that's not for me to have any opinion about, you know, and I love the song.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  Right. Yeah. And you're not singing it as the teenage version of you. You're singing it as you now, and therefore it's a different song in a way. And is that, did that speak to the choice to arrange it the way you did?

• 34:22Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 34:22Speaker 01

  There you go.

• 34:23Speaker 03

  Because it brings out the softness of it and the beautiful melody and you can hear what's there that's maybe, you know. Timeless or whatever.

• 34:32Speaker 02

  Yes, I think I think what nostalgia, what makes nostalgia lethal, as you're saying, is that it is treating the past as like aspirational.

• 34:40Speaker 03

  Yes, exactly.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  And that's never what you want to be.

• 34:43Speaker 03

  It's an illusion also.

• 34:45Speaker 02

  Like, it's like, oh, we got to go back to this better time.

• 34:48Speaker 01

  This thing that's over.

• 34:49Speaker 03

  Depressing.

• 34:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, that's like, I'm sorry to make it about this, it's like a fascist idea. Like, we got to go back to like the way things were.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:56Speaker 02

  You know what I mean?

• 34:57Speaker 03

  It's so true.

• 34:57Speaker 02

  So like, but you're like, you already know this like deep down, but I want, but the thing I want to like dovetail into is like, I think you maybe don't get enough credit for being, for inventing the notion of like, an independent pop star. I think like going and making your own label or just putting out your music, like your own way. Now it's like indie pop is such a thing, right?

• 35:21Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:21Speaker 02

  But I feel like you, I feel like you don't get enough credit for that, that you really modeled this thing, even for someone like Charlie who like knows, oh, I am going to do like one for me, one for them. And the one for me thing is the most, is the thing that brought her, her most success, I would argue with Brad.

• 35:37Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 35:37Speaker 02

  Like that was supposed to be like, that was supposed to break away from Crash, where she was like, you know, fulfilling the contract for the label, doing like what a pop, traditional pop star album would, would look like. But I feel like you've, you've kind of blueprinted out this thing for a lot of people, which is like, you can do it on your own terms.

• 35:56Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 35:57Speaker 02

  And I feel like, I hope you get that sense now as we're like all coming together once again to like celebrate Robin. That it, that it, that it comes your way.

• 36:05Speaker 03

  I'm taking it in, thank you.

• 36:07Speaker 01

  Are you ever surprised when a certain artist like, who's a, because I feel like Gracie Abrams is like, when you listen to her music, like it's a totally different genre than you might think, but she, was it she that invited you to perform with her?

• 36:19Speaker 03

  Yes, she did.

• 36:20Speaker 01

  Was that, where was this, Glastonbury?

• 36:21Speaker 03

  No, it was Chicago.

• 36:23Speaker 01

  Oh, yes, yes.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  What's the big festival, Lollapalooza?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  Lollapalooza, that's what it was.

• 36:27Speaker 03

  No, she invited me and, and she was so sweet and, you know, gave me all this space and I got to do dancing on my own and. Um, you know, and anyone that gives me that love, it's like very, it's a big compliment.

• 36:40Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 36:40Speaker 03

  It's always amazing.

• 36:42Speaker 01

  Well, we would like to ask you the central question of our podcast.

• 36:46Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 36:46Speaker 01

  So, and I bet you are the answer to this question for many people. But Robin, what was the culture that made you say culture was for you? This defining, whether it's pop culture at large, movie, song, a specific moment, something in the environment that you can look back and say, I'm probably me do in large part to that.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  I think I have to say Buffalo Stance with Neneh Cherry.

• 37:12Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 37:14Speaker 03

  You know, being like 10 years old and then hearing Raw Like Sushi for the first time.

• 37:19Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 37:20Speaker 03

  I remember it was like summer break. I was playing cards with my friends in the country house and we were just playing this album over and over again. And we all knew that she was Swedish.

• 37:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:32Speaker 03

  And, and that her real last name is Carlsson.

• 37:36Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:36Speaker 03

  Just like mine. And I was just like, that's amazing. If she's Swedish, I can also be that way, you know?

• 37:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 37:45Speaker 03

  This kind of really sexy and powerful playful energy. And it was pop music and it was made for me. It was not made for my parents. It was made for, for, for a new generation and it was mixing and it was undefinable. It was like New York and Sweden and London and it was in her language as well. And, and the things that she was saying was so empowering.

• 38:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 38:12Speaker 03

  And vulnerable, just man child, like being so critical about, um, like toxic masculinity, but also saying like, no money, man, can we marry her? Like she was so real.

• 38:28Speaker 01

  Yeah. And speaking to ideas that had not been spoken to.

• 38:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 38:32Speaker 01

  In pop music or maybe even music at large. Like it just didn't feel like we, this was area we had tread before. When I think about Sweden, I think when a lot of people think about Sweden, I've only been once to Stockholm, but I went to like the Museum of Pop Music and it's really an ABBA and Eurovision museum. But is, is the culture like? You mentioned, obviously, this song and this this album. But is the pop music culture, as long as you can remember, was it that thick in the air? Like, like, the way that, like, they say LA is Hollywood and, you know. This, like, people have their industries, like, is it very thick in the air, like, the pop music?

• 39:10Speaker 03

  I think it is now. I don't think it was when I was little. I think we were still a very, you know, I don't know what this word will mean to people here. But like, it was, you know, Sweden in the old days. So there were only two, three TV channels.

• 39:29Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:30Speaker 03

  You know, we had maybe four radio stations, no commercial radio yet. No way to find, like, American music. You had to go to the store for import CLPs or CDs. Like, it was not easy to be concerned or into popular culture.

• 39:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 39:51Speaker 03

  When I was a teenager, you really had to work for it.

• 39:53Speaker 01

  Wow.

• 39:54Speaker 03

  So in that sense, no. But then, when I started working, which was so early, I, you know, all the people that I was working with was, you know, maybe 20 or, like, sometimes even 30 years older than me. And then, you know, I, I got in touch with, you know, like, a, like, a more connected part of Stockholm, which was like, I don't know, like Johan Rink and Jonas Åkelen and these, like, more commercial directors that had been traveling and working outside of Sweden and, and, and the Cardigans and, you know, all these other, like, Swedes that were connected to the outside world. But not, nobody my age had that network. It was much later that it happened for, like, my generation.

• 40:38Speaker 03

  But now I think there are so many young musicians and artists in Sweden that really feel supported by the legacy of the music. And of course, like, Abba is, you know, the Year zero, year one.

• 40:54Speaker 01

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 40:55Speaker 03

  And then kind of, you know, Max Martin, of course. And all these producers that are now creating popular culture all over the world. It's like, I guess we're like the third or fourth biggest music export country in the world.

• 41:09Speaker 01

  That makes a lot of sense. I mean, you, I feel like it's always like, whenever you hear an artist went to Sweden, you're like, oh, here we go.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  Here we go. It's gonna be pop.

• 41:18Speaker 01

  Where did she go? She was spotted where? Like, I remember it's like, it's like, I remember years ago, like Kelly Clarkson, they were putting her second album together and they felt like she didn't have a full album. So they sent her to Sweden. They sent her to Max.

• 41:32Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:33Speaker 01

  And then she had Since You Been Gone.

• 41:34Speaker 02

  Right.

• 41:34Speaker 01

  And it does feel like there's.

• 41:35Speaker 03

  Oh, what a song.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  Since You Been Gone, the best. It's insane. Yeah, that's like one of those.

• 41:41Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 41:41Speaker 01

  And I remember that's like one of the ones that will last. And it feels like Max does hand you that.

• 41:47Speaker 03

  No, totally.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  Every few years.

• 41:49Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 41:49Speaker 01

  Or more.

• 41:50Speaker 03

  He still does, yeah.

• 41:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 41:52Speaker 03

  And he's still into the songwriting, like he will, he's not producing that much anymore. He'll leave it to the younger producers, but he's like in there like, and still writes a lot.

• 42:01Speaker 01

  I feel like a lot of people don't really realize how it works, like what a real producer really does, you know what I mean? So when you have a concept or an idea or a strong urge and you go to Max, like there, what exactly is, is that? What, what, what happens then?

• 42:18Speaker 03

  I mean, it's different every time, but this time it was, I had this beginning of a song with Talk To Me and me and Oscar worked on it a little bit and then started producing it together and then Max came in and did his thing and heard what I was thinking for the chorus and he was like, yes, you should go there. And then he kind of left me with this riddle. He was like, but just think about these chords and that kind of transition melodically, da, da, da. And he just left and then I solved it when he was away because of the instruction he gave me. So this, this kind of like. I don't know, Andy Warhol way of working maybe?

• 43:03Speaker 02

  Oh, interesting.

• 43:03Speaker 03

  You know, like he will see it and he'll give instructions. Sometimes he will write as well. He did, he wrote things on other, on the other song we did and on Talk To Me as well. But, but it's very, very smart. It's very intelligent, very, very good the way he works.

• 43:20Speaker 01

  So when we talk about producing, really, I think a better way to explain it for people that don't really get it is that really what they're doing is directing you, right? Like, he gets a lot of credit as like an amazing vocal producer because of the ways in which he's brought new vocal stuff out of artists. He certainly did with, like, you can actually mark, like, you can see, like, there was someone, like, Ariana says, I think, with Break Free, or was that Zed?

• 43:43Speaker 02

  That was Zed.

• 43:43Speaker 01

  But like, what he did was, he was like, I really need the straight tone singing for this kind of song.

• 43:48Speaker 03

  Oh, totally.

• 43:48Speaker 01

  It's like, like, working with a producer as like a vocal director.

• 43:52Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, he did, no, he gave Ari that direction, yes.

• 43:54Speaker 01

  Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think people don't realize that it's like, that's what that job is.

• 43:59Speaker 03

  The way Britney sings on the first album is really like her singing.

• 44:04Speaker 02

  Like the way Max wants her to.

• 44:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, that kind of clue.

• 44:07Speaker 03

  No, he kind of did the demos. I mean, she's an amazing singer, but like, he did the demos, like, the, like, all the demos are him doing that. And it's really, yeah, you're right, he's very into the sounds of things, too. It doesn't really, it might not be about the words, it might more be about the vocal or like the vowel.

• 44:26Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:27Speaker 03

  Or like where the consonant hits. But I think with him, it's more, it's still songwriting, it's still, but it's more conceptual now, but a lot of producers are, you know, a producer is still like the person who's making the sound.

• 44:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 44:40Speaker 03

  On the record, and I think that's also what he used to do.

• 44:44Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 44:44Speaker 03

  It's just now he's like a little bit bird's view, maybe.

• 44:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, more executive, I guess, yeah.

• 44:50Speaker 02

  But I feel like you... I feel like your voice is so precise. That's what I've always loved about the quality and the timbre is that it's clean isn't the right word. It's just, it's just, it's perfectly matched with like a Swedish sensibility in a way of like making music, which is that it's like right on target.

• 45:12Speaker 02

  And one of my favorite episodes of Song Exploder is your episode about Honey.

• 45:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:15Speaker 02

  Where you do like So good. It's like the initial like track of it was on the girls' episode. And then the evolution of it, just the way it becomes just this warm expansive song. Is so beautiful. And I feel like the way that you are the way that you're occupying all this range between like a warmth and then like a dryness and dopamine. Where you're like, we're just singing about, we're building from the ground up this, this idea that like, it's just a chemical thing.

• 45:43Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 45:44Speaker 02

  You know, like that is, I think those are the perfect bookends for me, like in, in, in the recent discography.

• 45:51Speaker 02

  So anyway.

• 45:51Speaker 03

  That's great. I think both of those songs, both Dopamine and Honey, what they do have is they have a lot of rhythm in the words.

• 45:58Speaker 02

  They throb.

• 45:59Speaker 03

  There's a lot of like conversational lyrics and conversational like almost like talking singing in them. And I really enjoy that.

• 46:09Speaker 02

  I still get lost in Honey. I will put Honey on a flight.

• 46:12Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:13Speaker 02

  And I will, it, it feels like I'm taking a bath.

• 46:16Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 46:17Speaker 02

  And I will fall asleep to it and then I'll come back. I'll, I'll wake up again. And I'll fall back asleep.

• 46:22Speaker 03

  Perfect.

• 46:23Speaker 02

  It's, it's, it's, I, for years I've done this.

• 46:26Speaker 03

  It's kind of like, that's perfect because the feeling, you know, when you have a nap in the day?

• 46:31Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 46:32Speaker 03

  When you're like in that in-between state and your body feels weightless.

• 46:35Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:36Speaker 03

  That was what I was trying to find when I was writing it. Cause I was in a kind of a bad state myself.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  A K-hole?

• 46:47Speaker 01

  Now you're enough to tell us.

• 46:48Speaker 03

  Not, not, but like a very long one, like a depression.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  Existential k-hole.

• 46:53Speaker 02

  Depression, depression, depression.

• 46:54Speaker 03

  More like a depression. And I was trying, I was trying to find my, my, my, so actually, yeah, like in a way, like find my way out of a bad spot.

• 47:02Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 47:03Speaker 03

  And I couldn't see it, so I had to kind of like create it.

• 47:07Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 47:08Speaker 03

  So I'm really happy to hear that that still happens for you. Cause it happens actually for me too, when we play it live now, I'm like, wow, this feels really good.

• 47:16Speaker 01

  Is, is it your favorite, is it the one that you play where you're like, I think this song is my favorite one?

• 47:21Speaker 03

  Where I'm feeling myself?

• 47:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:23Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 47:24Speaker 02

  Totally.

• 47:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I feel like that's, that's gotta be true.

• 47:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:28Speaker 03

  I'm proud of that song.

• 47:29Speaker 01

  Sometimes like you must listen back and be like, I really am Robin.

• 47:33Speaker 03

  I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not gonna agree with that. I feel that, that feels cheesy, but yeah, it's a good song.

• 47:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 47:39Speaker 01

  Did you love playing the Brooklyn Paramount? What a cool space that is.

• 47:42Speaker 03

  I love playing New York.

• 47:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, New York is the best.

• 47:44Speaker 03

  I just love playing here.

• 47:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 47:47Speaker 02

  Brooklyn Paramount, slanted, banked floor.

• 47:51Speaker 01

  So it's a good view for everybody.

• 47:52Speaker 02

  For everybody, even in the back.

• 47:53Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 47:54Speaker 01

  And the sound is good.

• 47:55Speaker 03

  The sound is good, although they need to, you know, fix their fire alarm thing.

• 47:59Speaker 02

  Oh, was it going off? Did something go off?

• 48:01Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 48:02Speaker 01

  No. I'm happy you said it.

• 48:05Speaker 03

  First song.

• 48:05Speaker 01

  Now they will.

• 48:06Speaker 03

  Two minutes in, we were like in the, in the peak of missing you.

• 48:10Speaker 02

  Fuck.

• 48:10Speaker 03

  And then like all sound disappears and I just had to go off stage for like 10 minutes. But then we came back on like, and we, we did it so that we, we started right where we ended.

• 48:20Speaker 01

  Oh, nice.

• 48:20Speaker 03

  So it was like right in the middle, it was like, we came back on, it was like, rah.

• 48:25Speaker 02

  Oh, perfect.

• 48:26Speaker 03

  It was a good, it was a good, um, yeah, it turned out.

• 48:29Speaker 02

  The building next door did, set on, did, did burn down though.

• 48:33Speaker 01

  The fire alarm was real. Oops, sorry. Wait, this is a weird question, but what's your relationship to adrenaline?

• 48:40Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 48:42Speaker 03

  Well.

• 48:44Speaker 03

  Adrenaline is like a necessary evil, I think. I'm so used to it because it's being nervous, right?

• 48:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:53Speaker 02

  You still get nervous.

• 48:54Speaker 03

  Yeah, I still get nervous, but I can define it more now as an adrenaline rush. And I know, I recognize it. And when you do, when you go on stage, you, I mean, you both know how that feels. And when you do something over and over again, you, after a little bit at least, you get used to it. If you, if you stay on it, you, you get used to that feeling and you can kind of handle that.

• 49:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 49:17Speaker 01

  And use it and write it.

• 49:18Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:19Speaker 01

  I almost asked it because I feel there's so much adrenaline in your music. And there's so much like, you know, tension, but release of tension. And that's like speaks directly to adrenaline.

• 49:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 49:32Speaker 01

  And so I was like looking at you and I was like, I wonder if she's ever jumped out of a plane.

• 49:35Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 49:36Speaker 03

  I would never jump out of a plane.

• 49:38Speaker 01

  So that's what I'm saying.

• 49:38Speaker 03

  No, like I'm, I'm not a adrenaline junkie. Definitely dopamine, but that's so much nicer.

• 49:46Speaker 01

  It's nice.

• 49:46Speaker 03

  The adrenaline is not so nice.

• 49:48Speaker 01

  You're right.

• 49:49Speaker 02

  You're right.

• 49:50Speaker 01

  But they speak to each other.

• 49:51Speaker 03

  They, they come always hand in hand.

• 49:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 49:54Speaker 03

  Like little friends coming together.

• 49:55Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 49:56Speaker 03

  I think adrenaline is like, maybe like that's a really cool thing to do a bit, bitter blocker, because you can kind of, then you can experience where you're supposed to land after the adrenaline.

• 50:10Speaker 01

  Right.

• 50:11Speaker 03

  And I think like handling that first, you know, five minutes of the show is about just managing the adrenaline until it's like, until you're settled in.

• 50:19Speaker 01

  Exactly.

• 50:20Speaker 03

  And just kind of imagining that place, because if you go on the adrenaline, you'll just start doing, yes, it feels good to go with the energy, but usually that's when you're like screaming a little bit too much.

• 50:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, exactly. You're not in control of your.

• 50:33Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:33Speaker 01

  Artistry and your instrument because it got out of hand.

• 50:37Speaker 03

  Yes. And also what happens in a band, I don't know if it has, if it's the same thing with other people when you're doing comedy. It's like you, when you go too hard, it's like you lose each other a little bit.

• 50:46Speaker 02

  Yes, yes, yes.

• 50:47Speaker 03

  And if, if everyone pulls back, it's like you can hear each other. And then there's like a good feedback loop instead of like the crazy one.

• 50:53Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:53Speaker 02

  Like we gotta manage this thing that's like a little bit outlying and we, we gotta pull it back down.

• 50:58Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 50:59Speaker 02

  Or something. Totally. I mean, I feel like.

• 51:03Speaker 02

  I feel like the awareness of it, though, is the helpful thing. And that's like, even like you writing a song called Dopamine. The reason I asked if it was still called that 10 years ago is because I feel like the word has a new sort of like

• 51:14Speaker 03

  I know.

• 51:15Speaker 01

  It got really en vogue for us, like, over the past, like, few years.

• 51:19Speaker 03

  And I was so excited about that. I was just so like, wow, this word, I can feel it. It's like so, um.

• 51:26Speaker 02

  Relevant, is that not the right word?

• 51:28Speaker 03

  No, but it's so true.

• 51:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 51:30Speaker 03

  And I felt that 10 years ago, and that's why I held on to it. And I, you know, I don't know, it's not so good for the world that we're still in that space. But I think we are because of social media. And I think, you know, the dopamine hits that we're getting. Everyone is more aware of what addiction is now, which I think is a great thing. But it's also because everyone has to be aware of it, because everyone is addicted.

• 51:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, yep.

• 51:53Speaker 03

  And, and so, yeah, the song is more relevant now than it was 10 years ago, which is cool.

• 51:58Speaker 01

  That's really cool.

• 51:59Speaker 02

  No, I, I, I do think so because

• 52:02Speaker 03

  Yeah, you're right.

• 52:03Speaker 02

  When I listen to that song, I go, yes, it is like demystifying this thing. And it demystifies even the addiction of like being on our phones. Whereas like, I think there is this like bigger movement now of just everybody kind of being like, oh, let's, that's, let's put that in another room. Let's put the phone in like the closet.

• 52:24Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 52:24Speaker 02

  Like, it's, it's not in my bedroom anymore. And I'm like the last person to, I mean, like

• 52:28Speaker 01

  No, you're not. You're a pioneer of this. People do not sleep with the phone in the other room, even if they're saying it.

• 52:33Speaker 03

  That's true.

• 52:34Speaker 02

  I, I can't. Now it's like, it's dangerous. I feel it's, it's like my body is, like, the adrenaline kicks in where I'm like, I gotta put this away.

• 52:42Speaker 03

  But I hope you don't feel this way about falling in love.

• 52:45Speaker 02

  Oh, no, that's so sweet.

• 52:47Speaker 01

  I don't think he does.

• 52:48Speaker 02

  No, no. Oh, that's so nice.

• 52:51Speaker 01

  What makes you ask that?

• 52:53Speaker 03

  Because I think there's almost this like, at least on my feed, there's this like aversion to falling in love.

• 53:00Speaker 01

  You think it's because, you think it's because of something societal? Or do you think people are just

• 53:05Speaker 03

  Something societal where we're like afraid of losing control. We're like always decoding our physical responses to

• 53:13Speaker 03

  It's like, we're not taking it seriously because it's just a chemical substance. It's just this chain reaction in our body and like, being in love is stupid, or, you know.

• 53:24Speaker 02

  It's also hard. I mean, like, that's, I think that's another part of it is it's like, we are increasingly living in a time when things can be really easy.

• 53:34Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:34Speaker 02

  And relationships and love is never gonna be easy.

• 53:37Speaker 03

  It's easy to just write it off.

• 53:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 53:39Speaker 03

  It's not supposed to feel like this. Yeah.

• 53:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, you can't cheat it.

• 53:44Speaker 02

  There's, um, there's like a decline in the feeling of awe.

• 53:47Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:48Speaker 01

  Hmm.

• 53:48Speaker 02

  You know what I mean?

• 53:49Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:50Speaker 02

  And I, I truly, I truly, I feel that whenever I listen to you, but I think when we went to the Barclay show in 2019, I certainly felt that, poppers notwithstanding. It like-

• 54:04Speaker 01

  The poppers are the problem.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  And like, when like, when like, the curtain drops. In, in, in the honey show, or was it the curtain, like a veil?

• 54:13Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:13Speaker 02

  Like, that's like, I'll never forget that. Like, that's awe. I'm like, oh my god, I'm experiencing this with a bunch of other people. And I do wanna say this before we go to, I don't think so, honey, like, I think there's something a little bit, I know we all love nightlife here and like, going out and going to the club.

• 54:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 54:27Speaker 02

  Something about the club is a little like, uh, it's not totally clicking right now because everyone's there for a different reason. Either you're there to listen to music or to connect your friends, or you're there to like, fuck, and that's okay too. Or you're there to do drugs and that's fine too, but it's just, we're all there for a different, like, the organizing principle there is a little bit. Scattered. And like-

• 54:46Speaker 03

  I don't know, cuz I don't go out anymore.

• 54:48Speaker 02

  No problem. That's just how it is now, where I'm like, oh, like, yeah, like, I've been out like, a few times in the last couple of months and like, they've been fine, but there's, there's, there hasn't been like, a sublime thing of like, oh my god, I had the best night out dancing, and that's very much attainable, and that happens all the time. But I will say, going to a concert, everyone's there for more like-

• 55:08Speaker 03

  Oh, it's true.

• 55:09Speaker 02

  The same collective- We have a mission. We're there to enjoy a performance.

• 55:14Speaker 03

  Right.

• 55:14Speaker 02

  And, and then we all leave going like, that was amazing.

• 55:17Speaker 03

  Wow, that's great.

• 55:19Speaker 02

  You know?

• 55:19Speaker 03

  That is cool about going to live shows, I agree.

• 55:22Speaker 01

  Do you still go to live shows?

• 55:23Speaker 03

  I do. I love going to live shows.

• 55:25Speaker 01

  What are, can you talk about some that have been like?

• 55:27Speaker 03

  Well, I wish I could give you like, five examples, but I'm just, I just, I'm a single working mom, so I don't have- But, that much time, but I, I went to see Catriona and Paco Maroso, do you know that band?

• 55:39Speaker 02

  No, but we're gonna check that out.

• 55:40Speaker 03

  Yes, you should.

• 55:43Speaker 03

  That was amazing.

• 55:43Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:45Speaker 03

  Very all over the place, but that's their thing.

• 55:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, good.

• 55:48Speaker 03

  That's like the only thing I've seen lately.

• 55:50Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 55:50Speaker 03

  But I recommend it.

• 55:51Speaker 01

  Yeah. Okay, good.

• 55:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 55:53Speaker 02

  Noted.

• 55:53Speaker 01

  We will source.

• 55:54Speaker 02

  We will source.

• 55:59Speaker 01

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• 58:54Speaker 02

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• 58:59Speaker 01

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• 59:27Speaker 02

  It's time for I Don't Think So Honey.

• 59:28Speaker 01

  It's time for I Don't Think So Honey. And this is our one-minute segment where we just come in and we just tear something up in pop culture. Not necessarily because it did anything wrong, but it's just not its day. And regrettably, I will, I will start.

• 59:43Speaker 02

  Okay, this is Matt Rogers, I Don't Think So Honey, his time starts now.

• 59:45Speaker 01

  I Don't Think So Honey gay guy is on Close Friends asking, do you want me to take you off? Yes or no? It's a trap. It's a trap. You are the one that should be discerning about your close friends list. You look at it and you curate it. It is your close friends list. I'm sure. Sure, this also happens heterosexually as well. People are like, do you want to keep looking at my butt? It's like, if now you, yes, no, maybe. It's like, now there's a complex. Before, it was just, we were all on our close friends, like, in a vacuum.

• 1:00:15Speaker 02

  Thirty seconds.

• 1:00:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, sometimes I'm scrolling and whoop, there's your whole body. And that's just something that we're all engaging in and entering into. And the invisible contract that is Instagram. But now you've made it an actual contract that I have to check boxes on?

• 1:00:30Speaker 02

  Fifteen seconds.

• 1:00:31Speaker 01

  No, take the anus off of me and put the anus back there if you want it. I, by the way, am always gonna say yes, keep me on.

• 1:00:40Speaker 02

  Five seconds.

• 1:00:41Speaker 01

  Even if I'm bothered by it, I want to be on it, because then I'd feel left out. And that, I don't think so, honey.

• 1:00:46Speaker 02

  And that's one minute. Oh, my god. That was...

• 1:00:48Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 1:00:49Speaker 02

  Very, very good.

• 1:00:49Speaker 01

  It's my second one of the year. We're cooking.

• 1:00:51Speaker 02

  We're cooking.

• 1:00:52Speaker 01

  But you know what I mean? It's like, sometimes it's just like, like, and you know what? Bless everyone out there sharing. But it's just like, when you ask, it's like, no. I don't know.

• 1:01:03Speaker 02

  I'm never gonna turn it down.

• 1:01:04Speaker 01

  I don't ever say no.

• 1:01:05Speaker 02

  I'm happy to be included.

• 1:01:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, yeah, you always, you always gotta like, you always gotta be generous with that.

• 1:01:10Speaker 01

  Yes, yes. Are you active on Instagram?

• 1:01:12Speaker 03

  I am, yeah.

• 1:01:13Speaker 01

  Are you one of a lot of gay guys' close friends?

• 1:01:15Speaker 03

  Yeah, some.

• 1:01:16Speaker 01

  I bet you are.

• 1:01:17Speaker 03

  That happens, yes.

• 1:01:19Speaker 02

  You're seeing a lot of, like, mirror selfies. Anuses, of course.

• 1:01:23Speaker 01

  What they allow on close friends is my boy.

• 1:01:25Speaker 03

  It's the body part we all have in common.

• 1:01:27Speaker 02

  It's beautiful.

• 1:01:28Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a beautiful thing.

• 1:01:28Speaker 02

  Everybody poops.

• 1:01:29Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:01:30Speaker 01

  It's actually rule of culture number six. We all have an anus in common. That's a pluribus.

• 1:01:36Speaker 02

  That's a pluribus.

• 1:01:37Speaker 01

  That's the pluribus I don't want to see.

• 1:01:38Speaker 03

  If that isn't a pluribus, I don't know what is.

• 1:01:43Speaker 01

  Okay, so food for thought, everyone. By the way, like, again, keep me on, but just, I guess, hide that one close friends story for me. Do you want me still be here? It's like, give me a break.

• 1:01:53Speaker 02

  No, that, that...

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  And we already knew you were thirsty. Now you're being thirsty for this answer? Please.

• 1:01:59Speaker 02

  They just want to get...

• 1:02:00Speaker 01

  But if you're trying to be respectful, that's good, too. All right, Bowen Yang, you ready?

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:02:04Speaker 01

  This is Bowen Yang's I Don't Think So Honey, his time starts now.

• 1:02:07Speaker 02

  I don't think so, honey. Having sex with the lights off? Turn them on, show me.

• 1:02:11Speaker 01

  I can't see.

• 1:02:12Speaker 02

  I want to see. It's not about, don't, no need to be self-conscious. We're already, we're already at that stage. There's no need to be shy.

• 1:02:20Speaker 03

  Totally agree.

• 1:02:21Speaker 02

  Let's just, trust me.

• 1:02:24Speaker 02

  I'm into it. Even if it's not that great, it's still, bad sex is still pretty good. You know what I mean? Keep it, it doesn't have to, I'm not saying blast it like this.

• 1:02:37Speaker 01

  Thirty seconds.

• 1:02:37Speaker 02

  Doesn't have to be overhead, can be a little bit ambient, can be a little, you know, nightlight there, a little.

• 1:02:43Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  Can't be like a nurse's office, a doctor's office.

• 1:02:46Speaker 02

  I'm not saying clinical, I'm just saying like, I wanna see a little bit.

• 1:02:50Speaker 03

  I wanna see it all.

• 1:02:51Speaker 01

  I wanna see it all. Fifteen seconds.

• 1:02:53Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:02:53Speaker 02

  You know, having sex with the lights off, I get that it's a preference for some. I wanna be able to grow up around in the light, not grow up around in the dark.

• 1:03:02Speaker 03

  Totally.

• 1:03:03Speaker 02

  And that way, we're just, we're setting ourselves up for success for some accuracy and precision.

• 1:03:11Speaker 01

  And that's one minute. I couldn't agree with you more, Bo and Yang.

• 1:03:14Speaker 02

  That's true.

• 1:03:15Speaker 01

  I also feel like, you know, you're there to have sex with that person. You're not there to have sex with the idea of a human form.

• 1:03:22Speaker 02

  A mound of flesh.

• 1:03:23Speaker 01

  Like, yeah.

• 1:03:24Speaker 03

  I just think seeing it is very sexy.

• 1:03:26Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 1:03:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:28Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 1:03:29Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:03:29Speaker 01

  Okay, are you ready?

• 1:03:31Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:03:31Speaker 01

  This is Robyn's, I don't think so, honey. All right, this is gonna rip, I know it. Robyn's time starts now.

• 1:03:37Speaker 03

  Okay, I don't think so, honey. Well, I always hated Elon Musk. You know, I always hated him, way before it was like cool to hate him.

• 1:03:46Speaker 01

  Yes, yes.

• 1:03:47Speaker 03

  Because there was a time where there wasn't cool to hate him.

• 1:03:49Speaker 02

  A small, I don't know, man.

• 1:03:52Speaker 03

  But we didn't think about him that much at least. But you know what happened? For me, I started hating him when he put a Tesla into space with a David Bowie song on it. He actually shot a car into space. As if there wasn't like enough shit floating around.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  Thirty seconds.

• 1:04:08Speaker 03

  And my, okay, so this is the thing, I think there should be democracy in space.

• 1:04:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:12Speaker 03

  There should be democracy on Earth too.

• 1:04:14Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 1:04:14Speaker 03

  Yes, which we really maybe don't even have at the moment, but. The fact that anyone or any like commercial company can decide what to do with like natural resources and also do tacky things.

• 1:04:27Speaker 01

  Tacky.

• 1:04:28Speaker 03

  Like sending a stupid fucking car into space.

• 1:04:32Speaker 01

  Five seconds.

• 1:04:33Speaker 03

  That's also dangerous for people. Like, think about the astronauts that are like up there in like the International Space Station and they don't really know what's gonna hit them or whatever. Like, I just think it's like, can we all just like have a vote on whoever gets to do anything there?

• 1:04:48Speaker 01

  And that's one minute, but keep going. Because I honestly, like, I so agree. Almost everything he does now makes my skin crawl.

• 1:04:56Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:04:56Speaker 01

  And what really bugs me, like, which is a core thing of what you said, is when any old person thinks that just because a song is out there and you could you can stream it or buy it, that you can use it for your bullshit.

• 1:05:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:08Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:05:08Speaker 03

  The fact that he, like, the best song in the world, and he put it on his, just to sell cars and shit.

• 1:05:13Speaker 01

  Was it Life on Mars?

• 1:05:14Speaker 03

  It was Space Odyssey with-

• 1:05:16Speaker 02

  Space Odyssey, okay.

• 1:05:17Speaker 03

  David Bowie, like-

• 1:05:19Speaker 01

  No. That's not what he was talking about. Whatever you think, no.

• 1:05:23Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:05:24Speaker 01

  I-

• 1:05:25Speaker 03

  No, exactly.

• 1:05:25Speaker 01

  Whatever you think, you can't talk about David Bowie.

• 1:05:28Speaker 03

  No.

• 1:05:29Speaker 02

  Exactly. He would turn in his grave. You're right. It's not safe for the people who are up there. You're an astronaut doing, working your whole life to be an astronaut.

• 1:05:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:05:36Speaker 02

  All of a sudden, a fucking Model Y comes barreling towards you.

• 1:05:41Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 1:05:41Speaker 02

  With an iPad for a fucking dashboard.

• 1:05:43Speaker 03

  You know what I mean.

• 1:05:44Speaker 02

  No way.

• 1:05:45Speaker 03

  No way. What's the name-

• 1:05:46Speaker 01

  I didn't know he did that.

• 1:05:47Speaker 03

  No, he did that.

• 1:05:48Speaker 01

  What's the name of what?

• 1:05:49Speaker 02

  Just because he's done so many other stupid shit.

• 1:05:50Speaker 03

  What's the name of the amazing movie with brown beautiful woman? It's lost in space. She's twirling around.

• 1:05:58Speaker 01

  Oh, Gravity.

• 1:05:59Speaker 03

  You know.

• 1:06:00Speaker 01

  Sandra Bullock.

• 1:06:01Speaker 03

  Imagine if a Tesla comes instead of George Clooney. It was like a Tesla coming. It's like fake doll and like a David Bowie song.

• 1:06:11Speaker 01

  Ew! That movie is truly amazing.

• 1:06:14Speaker 02

  It's amazing.

• 1:06:14Speaker 03

  That is amazing.

• 1:06:14Speaker 01

  She is so brilliant in that.

• 1:06:16Speaker 03

  But I also think we should hate on Jeff Bezos. I mean-

• 1:06:19Speaker 01

  One hundred percent.

• 1:06:20Speaker 03

  He also did that. He went up to spa- up in space, and then he came down and he put out on whatever social media, he was like, "Now, I realize that we really have to protect..." This beautiful pearl in the universe. I'm like, okay, so you had to like destroy the human race.

• 1:06:39Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:06:40Speaker 03

  Like destroy the environment.

• 1:06:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, too late to protect.

• 1:06:43Speaker 03

  To go up so that we all could have you realize this thing that everyone else understands.

• 1:06:49Speaker 02

  Read a book.

• 1:06:50Speaker 03

  Nobody else had to do that to get that this is important.

• 1:06:53Speaker 01

  Now that I've cut off my leg, I realize it'd be better to have two.

• 1:06:57Speaker 03

  Yeah, exactly.

• 1:06:59Speaker 01

  Shut up.

• 1:06:59Speaker 03

  But also it's not your leg, it's everybody's leg.

• 1:07:01Speaker 02

  It's everybody's leg. Oh my, it's the one leg we share.

• 1:07:05Speaker 01

  All these, all these guys are missing something. Like that line of billionaires that was behind Trump when he was inaugurated.

• 1:07:15Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:07:15Speaker 01

  They're all, they are without.

• 1:07:18Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:07:18Speaker 02

  They're without.

• 1:07:19Speaker 01

  They are without.

• 1:07:20Speaker 03

  Out, everything.

• 1:07:22Speaker 01

  I think that there are so many people who are without in some way. Not necessarily the way they are without. I do believe they are without souls and also like, like a function that, like an empathic function. But I think that there is an idea that that is in some way aspirational because it's, it's, it helps you be the best capitalist. If you don't care, then you're going to be the most successful because you didn't care to begin with. So you're not going to have any checkpoints. Well, they don't. And you might find that you might have stand that person, but suddenly you're realizing, oh wait, you do have an emotional checkpoint and that's good, but you are too late.

• 1:08:02Speaker 02

  You are too late.

• 1:08:03Speaker 01

  And it is fucked up and you should feel bad and it's okay that people feel bad.

• 1:08:07Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  I will also say that. Everyone being like, oh, I have buyer's remorse with the Trump thing. I used to stand Elon, now I don't know. Feel bad, feel bad. It's fine.

• 1:08:17Speaker 02

  It's fine. This is just to revive one of Matt's old catchphrases, which was precious one, you're without.

• 1:08:24Speaker 01

  Precious one, you are without.

• 1:08:25Speaker 02

  You are without.

• 1:08:26Speaker 01

  It's a way to get empathy, but let people know.

• 1:08:28Speaker 02

  Let people know that they're lacking.

• 1:08:29Speaker 01

  Precious one, you are without.

• 1:08:31Speaker 02

  Who's not lacking is our guest.

• 1:08:33Speaker 01

  Or us now that we're gonna have a new album soon.

• 1:08:36Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 1:08:36Speaker 01

  And all your work, which is so important to us.

• 1:08:39Speaker 03

  Thank you.

• 1:08:39Speaker 01

  And so important to anyone who loves music.

• 1:08:43Speaker 03

  Thank you so much.

• 1:08:43Speaker 01

  I'm telling you, like, it's just so cool for us to be able to say that we have platform that you would wanna come hang out with us on. Like, it's truly one of the moments of the podcast that we're like, I can't believe that it's come this far. You're just the best.

• 1:08:57Speaker 03

  I love you, guys. I love you for having me on here. I listen to you all the time.

• 1:09:01Speaker 01

  That's so wild.

• 1:09:03Speaker 03

  And I'm so happy that you're saying all of this to my face.

• 1:09:06Speaker 01

  Yeah, we love you.

• 1:09:07Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 1:09:08Speaker 02

  Love you, Robyn. Okay, well, we end every episode with a song.

• 1:09:11Speaker 03

  And if you do me right, I'm gonna do right by you. And if you keep it tight, I'm gonna confide in you. Let me tell you, man, it would be tough for that, too.

• 1:09:21Speaker 02

  That's our key is all over.

• 1:09:22Speaker 01

  No, I don't think my key was that weird.

• 1:09:24Speaker 03

  It was great.

• 1:09:25Speaker 01

  It was a great thing. He's always dragging me for my key.

• 1:09:27Speaker 03

  No, it was great key. I just, it was too high for me.

• 1:09:32Speaker 01

  So I was wrong.

• 1:09:33Speaker 02

  I was wrong. Bye.

• 1:09:34Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 1:09:38Speaker 02

  Last Cultureist is a production by Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and iHeartRadio Podcasts.

• 1:09:42Speaker 01

  Created and hosted by Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. Executive produced by Anna Hosni and produced by Becca Ramos.

• 1:09:48Speaker 02

  Edited and mixed by Doug Bain.

• 1:09:50Speaker 01

  And our music is by Henry Kupersky.

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

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