Air - Playground Love (feat. Gordon Tracks)

The band Air is a duo from Versailles, France. Their first EP came out in 1995, followed by their critically acclaimed debut album, ‘Moon Safari,' which was an international hit. Then they made the music for the film ‘The Virgin Suicides,‘ which was written and directed by Oscar-winner Sofia Coppola, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides. The movie came out in 1999, and it was Sofia Coppola’s first film. An album version of Air’s score came out in 2000, and it was nominated for a Brit award. Pitchfork put it at number four on their list of the best film scores of all time. In addition to the instrumental music that appears in the movie, Air also wrote a song for the end credits called “Playground Love.” That song featured Sofia Coppola’s future husband, Thomas Mars, from the French band Phoenix, on vocals. Phoenix was still a very new band, and he and Sofia hadn’t even met yet. Thomas appears on the song under the name Gordon Tracks. So for this episode, I spoke to all of them: Nicolas and JB from Air; Sofia Coppola; Thomas Mars; as well as Brian Reitzell, the music supervisor of the film. For more info, visit songexploder.net/air. https://songexploder.net/air

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and, piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway.

• 0:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I'm going to be on tour, playing some shows this fall. I'm going to be in London on Wednesday, November 18th. I'm going to be performing solo at Rough Trade Records on Denmark Street, and I'm going to be in conversation about my music moderated by one of my favorite actors and writers, Matthew Bainton. And a ticket to the show also gets you a copy of my album on vinyl or CD. And in December, I'm going to be on tour supporting S. Carrie. We're going to be playing a bunch of shows in the Northeast US. So I hope to see you in one of those places. You can find all the details and get links to tickets at songexploder.net/live. That's songexploder.net/live.

• 0:55Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This episode is sponsored by Tidal. If you're an artist or if you know somebody making music, you should know about Tidal Upload. It's a way to share and sell music without the usual barriers. You can upload your music directly to Tidal at no cost. You decide how you want to release it. You can share it publicly with Tidal listeners, or you can keep it private until you're ready. Or you can sell your music directly through Tidal Upload. Your music will also be considered by Tidal's editorial team for their playlists. And if your track is selected for their spotlight program, you'll get $1,000 bonus and you'll be on one of their marquee playlists. And now, Tidal has dropped its platform fee to 0%, which means you keep more of your earnings there than on any other platform.

• 1:39Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Visit tidal.com/songexploder to create an account and start uploading your music for free. That's tidal.com/songexploder for zero platform fees on every sale. Your music, your earnings.

• 1:56Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This episode is sponsored by LinkedIn. Anyone who's ever had to spend money on marketing knows how tricky it can be to feel like you've spent that money wisely. Well, with LinkedIn Ads, you can be sure that you'll get a great return on your investment. You can target your campaigns by company, industry, job title, and more. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com/songexploder. That's LinkedIn.com/songexploder. Terms and conditions apply.

• 2:35Hrishikesh Hirway?

  The band AIR is a duo from Versailles, France. Their first EP came out in 1995, followed by their critically acclaimed debut album, Moon Safari, which was an international hit. Then they made the music for the film The Virgin Suicides, which was written and directed by Oscar winner Sofia Coppola, based on the novel by Jeffrey Janides. The movie came out in 1999, and it was Sofia Coppola's first film. An album version of AIR's score came out in 2000 and was nominated for a BRIT Award. Pitchfork put it at number four on their list of the best film scores of all time. In addition to the instrumental music that appears in the movie, AIR also wrote a song for the end credits called Playground Love.

• 3:18Hrishikesh Hirway?

  That song featured Sofia Coppola's future husband, Thomas Mars, from the French band Phoenix on vocals. Phoenix was still a very new band, and he and Sofia hadn't even met yet. Thomas appears on the song under the name Gordon Tracks.

• 3:43Hrishikesh Hirway?

  So for this episode, I spoke to all of them: Nicola and JB from AIR, Sofia Coppola, Thomas Mars, as well as Brian Reitzell, the music supervisor on the film. The story of the song Playground Love begins over 25 years ago, with Sofia Coppola starting her work on The Virgin Suicides.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  I'm Sofia Coppola.

• 4:03Hrishikesh Hirway?

  How did you first hear Air's music?

• 4:05Speaker 01

  I remember I was in London and I was writing the script for Virgin Suicide. So it was probably 97 or 98 and I was in Rough Trade Record Shop, just looking around at albums. And I saw Air's, I guess, a CD. And I remember just asking the guy like, oh, is this good? Do you like it? And they recommended it. So I bought it and I took it home and I was listening to it while I was working on my script. And I just got really into the atmosphere of it. And because the story is set in the 70s, but it's actually 20 years in the future, looking back at that time. I liked the idea of not having music from the period for the score, that it's a memory.

• 4:49Speaker 01

  And then to have contemporary music that's related to the 70s. And it had that quality.

• 4:56Speaker 02

  It was both current and 70s retro. My name is Brian Reitzell. I was the music supervisor for the Virgin Suicides. And this was before the release of Moon Safari. When Moon Safari did come out a few months later, it just sealed the deal, you know?

• 5:12Hrishikesh Hirway?

  How did you all actually meet?

• 5:13Speaker 02

  I met the Air guys in LA when they were here doing a music video.

• 5:17Speaker 03

  It's a very LA classic story. Like we met him at a party at the Chateau Marmont. That's so unoriginal.

• 5:25Speaker 03

  I am Nicolas from the band Air.

• 5:26Speaker 04

  I am Jaby Dunkel, also from Air. And so we met him in a party and then we decided to play with him some drums.

• 5:36Speaker 03

  Because Brian Reitzell is also a drummer. He was in this band called Red Cross.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  They were putting together a band with all US musicians to do a tour for Moon Safari. So the timing was just perfect.

• 5:49Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Had you two ever had any experience scoring film before?

• 5:53Speaker 01

  No.

• 5:54Speaker 03

  No, that's why it was cool because we never did soundtracks, we never did movies. So we said, okay, let's go for the ride and see what happens. The style of the movie is very beautiful and it's kind of ethereal in a way. But we started by reading the book and the book is much more dark. So very fast, the idea was to do very dark music, especially because we were coming after Moon Safari, which was a very light, kind of easy listening album. And we wanted to show the dark side of us. And also, it was a good way to avoid the second album syndrome, because you can have a lot of pressure. But if you decide that the second album is a soundtrack, it's a totally different context.

• 6:38Speaker 04

  We had this concept that every part had to be understandable and listenable on its own. So it was not exactly like a real soundtrack. It was more like a sort of soundtrack-y pop album around the movie. And we had like some VHS tapes, like some sequences of the movie. And we would improvise.

• 7:03Hrishikesh Hirway?

  How did the two of you write together? Are you in the same room when you're writing?

• 7:07Speaker 03

  Yeah, we were even on the same piano.

• 7:10Hrishikesh Hirway?

  You sit at the piano together?

• 7:12Speaker 03

  Yeah, it's a four-hands recording. I played the melody and JB played the chords.

• 7:29Speaker 04

  We had like an eight-track recorder with no memory. And so when something was wrong, we had to re-record again and to replay it. So we would replay constantly what we were doing. And it was a perfect way to learn the song.

• 7:47Speaker 04

  But this theme, this melody, these chords, we recorded them many times, like in many versions. We did like a vibraphone version.

• 8:03Speaker 04

  We did an organ version. We did a rose version.

• 8:06Speaker 03

  Brian Redzow flew to Paris. He did the drums.

• 8:14Speaker 02

  There were variations of a main theme threaded throughout the score.

• 8:19Speaker 04

  We kept the basic idea of it. In a way, the other versions were rehearsals. Thomas Bongaltier from Daft Punk, he said something in an interview that I really understand. He said that he's always like putting everything in the trash. And this is a beautiful way to make music, just to delete and to destroy constantly what you do. And at the end, there will be like something surviving. And it's gonna be good.

• 8:55Speaker 03

  They took this theme, high school love, and said, "All over the movie."

• 9:02Speaker 03

  And so they called us and they asked, "Yeah, we need to do a song for the credits."

• 9:08Speaker 02

  Rather than license the song, we thought it would be cooler and more classic to have our original song for the film.

• 9:21Hrishikesh Hirway?

  What's the significance for you of the end credits song in a film?

• 9:25Speaker 01

  I always feel that's so important because it's kind of like your big finish. It's the end. It's the feeling that you, the audience, leaves with. And it's sort of a punctuation, so I always feel like it's really important.

• 9:36Speaker 02

  I think having an original end credits song is just a classic way to tie everything together, to have the music crystallize into one complete piece. I suggested a song arrangement with a vocal of the main theme, but I think it was hard for them at first. They had already delivered the score. "I was back in L.A." They thought they were done, you know? Plus, we wanted vocals.

• 9:57Speaker 03

  At the time, we didn't sing on our albums.

• 10:00Speaker 04

  But I think we tried to describe this magic moment of having like two young people falling in love. First of all, you do some yogurts.

• 10:13Speaker 04

  We call it yogurts. It means that you try to sing something, but it doesn't make any sense. And the sounds are falling naturally, and they're transformed into words. So like, anytime or anywhere, this kind of thing, it has to sound good when you sing it through the vocal.

• 11:02Speaker 03

  We were in Versailles and the only singer we knew in Versailles was Thomas.

• 11:07Speaker 05

  So my name is Thomas Morris. Somehow for this specific project, I picked "Cordon Tracks" as an artist name. And I'm a member of the band Phoenix. We have a long history with L. Because we were their backing band. They were going to tour in the UK first. The label thought, "We just signed Phoenix, they don't have experience." "I'm sure they'd love to get some live experience and play with you guys." I was also playing drums in my band on the record. And so we thought, "Well, we'll be their backing band and I'll play drums." And when we were rehearsing, they just finished "Moon Safari", they were working on "Version Suicide". So it was really exciting for us

• 11:52Speaker 05

  because it was like going into the headquarters of a band about to explode internationally.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  And so we called him. I said, "Man, we have to do a song for this movie. Can you sing it and can you write lyrics? And by the way, can you do the drums as well?" I said, "Yeah, I'll do it."

• 12:11Speaker 05

  They had written one line. They had written "anytime, anywhere".

• 12:16Speaker 04

  "High School Lover" is in F# and we changed it into C for Thomas.

• 12:25Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Because of his vocal range?

• 12:26Speaker 04

  Yeah, for him to sing properly on it.

• 12:29Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Where did you start with lyrics?

• 12:31Speaker 05

  I specifically saw the scene of Tripp Fontaine on the football field. I also saw a famous shot of him getting into the high school in slow motion and all the girls are turning, like his hair is blowing. And the music was so inspiring that the words came really quickly.

• 13:03Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Did they give you any direction as to how they wanted you to sing the song?

• 13:07Speaker 05

  So they are very loose on certain things and they're very extremely precise on others. They are very loose on the lyrics. Like, everything that was my creativity somehow, they really trusted me on this. But the rhythm of the song, they wanted it to be exactly on the grid. It was almost like if I was out of tune, it didn't matter. But if I was like slightly behind, that was a huge problem for them. I remember them being very precise in that sense.

• 13:48Hrishikesh Hirway?

  There's something really specific and kind of creepy in a great way. You're almost whispering when you sing.

• 13:54Speaker 05

  I remember growing up listening a lot to Inexcess on kick. They have a recording technique that's pretty incredible because it makes it sound really close. This is before ASMR and it was ultimate ear candy growing up. And I remember that was a reference for myself. I was like, I want it to sound like this. At the time, I didn't understand that you need the right amount of space between the mic and the voice. I was like, let me get as close as possible. So I was always, when I would set it up, it was always, I would push it so that I was so close.

• 14:46Hrishikesh Hirway?

  I have to ask you more about the Gordon Tracks part. Why did you decide to record it under a pseudonym?

• 14:52Speaker 05

  Well, Phoenix hadn't released anything yet. And I didn't want everybody to talk about the Air Project when we were doing our Phoenix promo. I wanted it to be only about Phoenix and I didn't want to stand out from the band. And then I always loved like pseudonym. In the band, Mars is not my real last name. It's just fun to have something that was even more exotic.

• 15:20Hrishikesh Hirway?

  The story of Playground Love continues after this.

• 15:27Hrishikesh Hirway?

  There's a new podcast called Before the Moment with Nile Rodgers. In every legendary music career, there's a moment right before it all changes. And in every episode of this podcast, Nile Rodgers talks to a legendary musician about the choices, the events, and the relationships that shaped their career before the moment that everything changed for them. Every story is unique and opens a window into the lives of some of the biggest names in music. And Nile is the perfect person to lead these conversations because for over 50 years, he's played guitar with artists like Diana Ross, David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk, and Beyoncé. In the first season of the podcast, some of Nile's guests include John Legend, Miguel, and more.

• 16:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  New episodes are coming out every other Tuesday. Listen to Before the Moment with Nile Rodgers wherever you get your podcasts. This episode is sponsored by the podcast What It's Like to Be. Do you ever think about what other people's workdays look like? Satisfying some of that curiosity is the idea at the heart of bestselling author Dan Heath's podcast, which is called What It's Like to Be. In each episode, Dan interviews someone from a different profession to find out what it's like to be a professional Santa Claus, or a Secret Service agent, or a long-haul truck driver, or an aerospace engineer at NASA, just to name a few examples.

• 16:52Hrishikesh Hirway?

  The show gives you an insider view into all kinds of jobs from a wide range of industries, answering questions like, what do mail carriers learn about us from our mail? There are so many jobs out there that exist only as titles in our imagination, if they even register that much. This show is a chance to reach beyond what you know or think you know. If you're curious to learn more about the work lives of other people, check out What It's Like to Be wherever you get podcasts.

• 17:18Speaker 06

  Support comes from Wise, the smart way to manage the currencies you need around the globe. Fed up with losing out to hidden fees when you send your money abroad with your everyday bank? Choose the smart way: Wise. You can count on the exchange rate you'd usually find on Google. No unwelcome surprises. Plus, ditch that "where's my money" feeling. Most transfers arrive in under 20 seconds. Join millions saving billions on hidden fees. Be smart, get wise. Download the Wise app today. T's and C's apply.

• 17:52Hrishikesh Hirway?

  What was your first reaction to Tomas's vocals?

• 17:55Speaker 04

  Me, when I heard him singing, I remember that I liked very much the lyrics because they were really, really super simple.

• 18:04Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Why did you like that they were simple?

• 18:05Speaker 04

  Because they were really understandable. And you know, I think that I'm not good in English, but I feel when it fits into the song well. And it was the case, you know, it was being delivered really clearly and properly. And so I liked it very much.

• 18:33Speaker 05

  I love the lazy drumming. It's the Ringo fascination of just the most basic, simple drumming. Back then, a snare drum, if you would hear a snare drum that you like, you knew you were gonna like the record. You couldn't judge an album by its cover, but you could judge a song by its snare drum sound. They understood that. It all came down to taste.

• 18:58Speaker 03

  That's what I like about drummers. I like when they have a cool attitude. You know, like Ringo Starr's. When you look at him playing, he's got a cool gesture. And Tomas, when he played drums, he's so stylish. The way he holds his sticks and the way he holds his arms. You can't fail in making a bad drum take when you have this kind of attitude, you know? I always say it needs to sound like a record. Like, you can bring me any good musician I know, if it doesn't sound like a record. It can be as good as you want, but that's what JB says about Bob Dylan. Bob Dylan sounds like a record. You can bring some better singers than him, but they don't sound like a record.

• 19:32Speaker 05

  And so we wanted it as muted as possible and as crunchy, like has depth at the same time.

• 19:38Speaker 03

  Yeah, that's the 70s way, you know? Everything sounds dry. The acoustic guitar, there's no reverb.

• 19:50Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Who's playing the acoustic guitar on this track?

• 19:52Speaker 03

  I played it.

• 19:54Speaker 04

  The chords are changing to fit the melody, and that's why when it's repeating for the second time, the chord has to change into a diminished seventh.

• 20:07Speaker 03

  It's a very annoying chord to play on a guitar.

• 20:09Speaker 04

  But that makes like the original color of the song is because of the presence of this diminished seventh.

• 20:28Speaker 04

  Basically, this song, the feeling of it, is something that is flying, because it stays on the same bass. So it's like not moving, it's like flying.

• 20:45Speaker 04

  The beauty of it is there is like a sort of hesitation, like the chords don't know where to go.

• 20:52Speaker 03

  But each time he stopped singing, the song was kind of fading down a little bit. So the three of us, we talked, and he said, "Yeah, I got a friend, he lives nearby, he plays saxophone, and I can call him, so it will fill the gap between the vocals." And he called him, and we saw this young kid, very young, like maybe eighteen. We told him we really like the Lurid song.

• 21:17Speaker 04

  Walk on the Wild Side.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  Yeah, Walk on the Wild Side. And can you sound like that a little bit? And he did it in one take.

• 21:54Speaker 04

  In the morning, I came earlier, and I had to do some vocals, and I did like three notes, following the chords.

• 22:08Speaker 04

  I'm singing quite out of tune. But for some reason, when you add some reverb and you put it on the back, that's okay. It makes a sort of feminine waves of sounds behind. And it makes a good, how to say, cream of sound behind. Because you don't really hear them, but they are there and you feel the presence of it all over the song.

• 22:58Speaker 02

  It was exactly what Sofia and I had hoped would happen. You know, there's some really amazing 70s pop songs in the film and it held up next to them.

• 23:09Speaker 04

  I don't know if it helped her to edit and cut the movie, but I think that on the last two weeks, she gave to the movie something much more glamour and something much more romantic. I think that she has cut the moments where it was kind of dark and negative. And she turned it into a love story in a way. And the song helped.

• 23:33Speaker 03

  The movie was presented in Sundance. And the record company had the idea to do a showcase to promote the soundtrack.

• 23:40Speaker 01

  They played at Sundance for our premiere. And Tama played with them. That's when we first met.

• 23:46Speaker 03

  And so since then, as in the fairy tales, you know, they got married and had a lot of children.

• 23:53Speaker 01

  I love that song and I love when Tama plays it, especially when he plays it in concert now or live. I feel like that's my song.

• 24:00Speaker 05

  It's such a fun story for us. One of my daughter was playing it yesterday. And so I came in the kitchen and I heard her play the song. Thought like, that's so special that she likes the song that brought our parents together.

• 24:35Hrishikesh Hirway?

  And now, here's Playground Love by Air, featuring Gordon Traxx in its entirety.

• 26:47Speaker 07

  I'm a high school lover.

• 26:59Speaker 07

  And you're my favorite flavor.

• 27:09Speaker 07

  Love is all. Oh, my soul. You're my playground love.

• 27:36Speaker 07

  Yet my hands are shaking.

• 27:46Speaker 07

  I feel my body remains.

• 27:57Speaker 07

  Times no matter. I'm on fire. On the playground love.

• 28:11Hrishikesh Hirway?

  Visit songexploder.net/air for more. There's a new 25th anniversary analog mix version of The Virgin Suicides album called "The Virgin Suicides Redux" that came out this year. There's a link to buy it on the Song Exploder site. You can also watch the music video for the song "Playground Love", which was directed by Sofia Coppola and her brother Roman Coppola. Also, if you liked this episode and you want to hear more and more from some of these folks specifically, there's an episode that I did with Phoenix from 2017, episode 112, and there's an episode I did with Brian Reitzell, episode 15, from way back in 2014. You can find those and all the other episodes of the podcast at songexploder.net/episodes.

• 28:56Hrishikesh Hirway?

  This wraps up the 12th year of Song Exploder, which feels hard to believe even as I say it. I'll be back in January, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday. In the meantime, this episode was produced by me, Craig Ely, Mary Dolan, and Kathleen Smith, with production assistance from Tiger Biscuit. The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows at radiotopia.fm. I write a newsletter where I talk about the making of some of these episodes, and about music, and film, and TV, and generally about the creative process. You can find a link to the newsletter

• 29:40Hrishikesh Hirway?

  on the Song Exploder website. You can also get a Song Exploder shirt, which makes a great gift, by the way, at songexploder.net/shirt. I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway. Thanks for listening.

• 29:59Speaker 07

  Radiotopia.

• 30:02Speaker 07

  From PRX.