Episode 14: It's Not Your Fault

Osiris

Baby, it's not your fault

Baby, it's not your fault at all

I honestly thought that It's Not Your Fault was not going to make the album.

I thought it was going to be in the bottom three for everybody.

And for me, there were songs like

All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want, All I Want

always October, or songs that I really felt strongly about.

And I was willing to, I don't know, I don't want to say willing, but I was okay with

this, we'll just record it, and we'll have it, and then if we need some bonus release footage,

or here's some surprise, you know, down the road,

maybe that's why it was so easy, because we did it really quickly.

It's a very simple song, the structure's super easy.

This lies below the surface

Welcome back to Talking Circles, a podcast about Umphreys McGee's 2022 album, Asking for a Friend.

Today, on the final episode of the series, we're talking about the song It's Not Your Fault.

Talking about this song led to a conversation with a friend, who said,

about Brendan Bayliss' long-standing appreciation of Neil Young,

which we are including here as part of this final episode.

There's one part where we do the riff and we count to three,

and then there's one part where we do the riff and count to four,

which I think that's just classic Umphreys, where we used to make things really difficult

and challenging, we'd do weird numbers just because, well, why does it have to always be four?

So this was one where,

I think it was so simple that we put a little odd time meter in there just to kind of make it,

I don't know, more legitimate.

And it was funny because we sound checked it for the first time last week,

and I think everybody forgot about the four-three part.

And we messed it up.

I was like, oh, yeah, three, four, no, four, three.

That's just a little Umphreys-ism.

Kind of make it sparkle.

And that's it.

Yeah.

We'll be right back.

As part of this conversation about the potential to overcomplicate simple songs,

Brendan talked about how the band got going in that direction in the first place.

When we first started writing,

everything was new,

and the music at the time that was on the radio was garbage.

So we were all listening to progressive rock,

and I remember consciously listening to Billy Cobham

and to Mahavishnu Orchestra and to a lot of Zappa and Yes

and all this stuff that none of that shit was A-core.

Changed to a third chord, first chord.

It was all complicated.

So that's all we listened to.

And we made things difficult for difficult's sake.

We felt like that was A, going to challenge us,

but also we had chops and we had pride and we were trying to show off.

Not show off, but just demonstrate that, hey, we can play.

So let's show that in our compositions.

Each one is its own thing now.

It doesn't have to.

It doesn't have to always be difficult.

So this simple song, It's Not Your Fault,

has that one little odd time thing,

but it's not done in a way that's out of spite.

It actually, I think, serves the song.

I have a giant poster.

You can't see it.

It's in my back music room,

and it's just giant.

It says, what would Neil Young do?

And I often kind of think about that.

And even if it's not musical, what would he do?

He would just be cool.

Welcome to the Neil Young Appreciation section of the podcast.

Talking Circles producer Brian Brinkman, also a huge Neil fan,

has been trying to get Brendan to wax poetic about Neil all season.

And finally, we've arrived.

I have good friends that hate him.

And it's just...

It's just...

I don't understand.

To this day, I still will take the bait

and get in that argument every time.

I look at Neil Young, and you look at his career as, you know,

he went from Buffalo Springfield to, you know,

probably the biggest band at the time,

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young,

that was touring with just guitars.

They were playing stadiums.

And then going to crazy horror...

He's been up and down to theaters and then to stadiums

and then back down to theaters and clubs.

And he's kind of...

Had this career that has never been just, like, always slam dunk.

And I respect that.

He just kind of puts his head down.

I don't know.

It must be nice, though, because, you know,

when you have writing credit

and you're getting all those royalties from those songs from the 60s,

it gives you a little breathing room

where it doesn't matter if you're not selling out a stadium.

So, again, that's...

I can't compare myself to them

because I wouldn't know what that breathing room would feel like.

The breathing room is going to come through V8 juice.

As we got further into the discussion of Neil Young,

Bayless shared his respect for Neil's wide range.

After the gold rush, that...

See, it's weird because it's like...

I like...

I like some of his piano stuff,

but I love the Crazy Horse stuff.

I think with the Live at Massey Hall show he does in Ontario,

he's got old...

That...

Within maybe two years, he writes all those songs.

Hitchhiker just came out, Pocahontas, like, that stuff.

I have eras of...

How about this?

I have eras of him that I don't like.

I don't like a lot of the stuff he did after the 70s.

Like, the whole This Note's For You,

all that stuff, I can't do it.

And then Rockin' on a Free...

I jump off, and then I jump back on for Harvest Moon.

And Harvest Moon is awesome.

And if Neil Young makes him feel slightly self-conscious

about making music, he's not hiding it.

Well, all the musicians that I love and respect and look up to

are in such a different, I don't know, echelon, different category.

I feel...

I've always kind of felt like I'm looking up,

like I'm going to get...

I don't want to get busted any day now.

Like, we're kind of, like, sneaking under the radar.

Do we...

I'm always not self-deprecating, but I just...

Like, for example, if we're headlining a festival,

I'm always like, ooh, it can't be that good if we're the headliners.

So in comparison to all the music I listen to,

I wouldn't even compare myself to any of these people.

As we close out this series,

looking at the making of Asking for a Friend,

Brendan reflected on the...

band celebrating its 25th anniversary.

If you would have told me 25 years ago

that I'd be looking at a 25th anniversary tour,

I would have...

I mean, I wouldn't have believed you.

Just that mathematically, the odds of pulling anything,

anything, in any...

I don't care what line of work it is,

just to stay employed for 25 years doing anything

is a challenge in itself,

let alone something where there's this much emotional investment,

because when you're in a band like this,

it's not like a 9-to-5 job where it's Friday and you clock out

and you don't take any of that home

and then you don't have to think about it

until Monday morning at 9 a.m.

It's very different.

So it's not lost on me how special it is.

The band's 25th anniversary tour will kick off in January of 2023.

And that's a wrap for us.

We want to thank you for listening to this podcast

about the making of Asking for a Friend.

We hope this has given you a behind-the-scenes look

at the making of these songs

and a greater appreciation for the album.

Thank you, and get home safe.

Talking Circles is a production of Osiris Media and Umphreys McGee.

Audio production by Matt Dwyer.

Written and produced by Brian Brinkman, RJB, and Kevin Browning.

All interviews and audio used with permission from Umphreys McGee.

Osiris.