Ride [Performance & Interview Only]

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Well, it's over. Who will wear the crown? I'm so tired of waiting. Tired of it wearing me down.

What are we fighting over? Who wins if it's destroyed? What is the prize if you win it?

Nothing lives in a fight. Oh, why do I feel this way? Like I'm hanging on the edge of the world.

Hanging on every word. Oh.

Why do I feel this way? Like I'm hanging on the edge of the world.

Hanging on every word you say. When this battle is over.

Are you gonna win the war? The one that you fight in a small house.

Wondering why.

What it was for.

You have nothing to offer. There's nowhere for you to go.

Because there's nothing inside you. Anybody wants to know.

Oh.

Why do I feel this way?

guitar solo

Why do I feel this way?

Like I'm hanging off the edge of the world

Hanging on every word

Oh

Why do I feel this way?

Like I'm hanging off the edge of the world

Hanging on every word

Every word you say

The next song is called Monaco

Monaco

That I know

If this is fear

It's time to go

To make your bones

Over the edge we go

This pressure

Is this the life I own?

It's even though my love

Momentary liberation

Broken by these pills

Prescriptions for relief

Broken by this country

We're getting smashed into pieces

Better take these pills

Cause everything's for sale

If this is being

There's no creation

And I know

If this is fear

It's time to go

To make your bones

Over the edge we go

This pressure

Is this the life I own?

To make your bones

Over the edge we go

Is this the life I own?

Is this the life

To make your bones

This pressure

Over the edge we go

If this is prayer

There's no creation that I know

If this is failure

It's hard to go to make your bones

Over the edge we go

This pressure, this pressure

This is the life I own

This is the life I owe

guitar solo

I don't know

You have known

Where I'm going

I don't know

Where I've been

Where I'm going

I thought I heard a voice

Crying out with him

To be forgotten

I thought I heard a voice

Crying out with him

Some people can't be forgotten

Some words can't be forgotten

Streets I've known

Enchant me

To be forgotten

Back to them

I don't know

What grows

Between us

I thought I heard a voice

Crying out with him

To be forgotten

I thought I heard a voice

Crying out with him

Some people can't be forgotten

To be forgotten

Some words can be forgotten

The system alerts the system failure

This is a system breakdown

Rex, body and soul

Rage, body and soul

To a place where it's gone

shine shining the thought in your mind that you're racing away from the light

tonight the feeling inside is the tension that's outside inside as you climb the face

of the rock has a feeling that's winding you tight it's all right your instincts are always right

let me know you're there

you think i'm ready yes i'm ready this is a window and i'm not waiting i'm not waiting

with no direction i'm all ready for say she

no reasoning nowhere home and i think i might lose my phone and in the moments now i feel that

finally i'm real

peace

let me know you're there

peace

let me know

yeah

shine shining the thought in your mind as you're racing away from the lights

tonight the feeling inside is attention that's outside of time as you climb the face of the rock

has a feeling that's winding you tight it's all right your instincts are always right

peace

let me know you're there

peace

let me know you're there

peace

© transcript Emily Beynon

Right, and then later included on Smile.

Probably one of the first songs we ever wrote, I think.

Oh, up there with him, yeah?

Oh, yeah.

How did you decide those two songs at the end here today?

We arrived on the bus this morning,

and we had a little message from our management

that you wanted two older ones,

so me and Andy made a quick decision,

along with the band, as we got out of our bunks.

And that was that.

Awesome.

That works.

Yeah.

So it's been about five years since the last record came out, right?

The last record came out in 2019.

Obviously, we've gone through a lot in the last five years.

There was a global pandemic, all sorts of stuff going on.

How has that affected this new record?

How did that change this record?

Yeah.

I mean, I think if you can come through that kind of adversity,

I mean, and there was a lot of time

that we were physically just trying to get together

to start making more music together,

and we just couldn't for various reasons.

Obviously, COVID was a massive part of that.

So I think in the end,

when you do,

plus there was some other adversity we had going on as well,

I think it just strengthens it

and reminds you about why we came together in the first place.

And there was definitely, for me anyway,

a kind of feeling that I felt almost everything was reset

and a little bit like how we sort of started out in a way.

It kind of reminded me of that time

from our early days at the Brambley Art School drama room

when we first jammed.

Yeah.

So for me,

it kind of went like that, yeah.

And I think coming through that,

it's a bit of a cliche,

but it's sort of,

you come through that stuff

and then it just strengthens the whole thing,

I believe.

Yeah.

Did you,

so that brings up a good point.

Were you all in different places at this point?

I mean, we were.

We were.

I mean, yeah,

because we,

I mean,

half of the band had partners that were shielding as well.

So yeah,

we were a little bit.

And then slowly,

we kind of came together in my studio,

which sort of felt like home,

which was kind of like,

which was nice

because it was a nice sort of feeling for us to have

and just to finally kind of be back together.

Go like,

oh yeah,

we're like that band,

right.

Great.

This is good.

We can play music now.

We've come through that darkness,

you know,

so yeah.

That's awesome.

I always like to ask too,

like,

besides making music during the pandemic,

obviously you had a lot of free time on your hands.

So any like weird hobbies that any of you picked up?

Totally putting you on the spot right now.

I painted my whole house.

I just got so,

did you pay,

did you pay it like an interesting color or just like repaint the whole thing?

I didn't make any really out of their choices.

Okay.

But now I did,

I did quite a good job.

I think,

I mean,

because of the beauty of internet and the,

I mean,

I managed to remain pretty busy,

but in isolation in the studio.

So that was good.

And you know,

it's kind of a new studio anyway for me.

So it almost enforced those hours to kind of work out exactly what the hell all these buttons and things were.

Yeah.

Did in my studio.

So it kind of forced that.

But yeah,

it was,

it is weird that isolation time after a while in,

in a,

in a studio like that.

But habit wise,

nothing's really springing to mind at the moment,

but I'm sure there were a few strange things going on.

Yeah.

You got quite good at cooking.

I mean,

you were cooking up some mean Indian food.

Yeah.

I mean,

so darling rice became a staple for me and I'm still kind of just vibing on that and living on that.

How are you the only thing I can cook so that that helps.

Were you watching like YouTube videos?

How,

how'd you get into that?

Which,

which videos,

YouTube videos,

YouTube?

Not really.

I don't,

I mean,

I didn't watch it.

I mean,

I watched some videos.

I watched a lot of Adam Curtis documentaries is a kind of BBC documentary guy,

which informed a few of the lyrics on this album.

And I,

and I,

I love,

I love that.

I love this documentary.

So I definitely did quite a bit of that.

Yeah.

I have a friend who got really into cooking Indian food during the pandemic and he watched videos of just like this,

little,

little grandma in India who would post like at like 40 followers or something like that.

Oh,

well now I'd get on YouTube and watch that for sure.

Yeah.

We'll do the link swap after this.

Yeah,

absolutely.

So you guys took a hiatus for almost 20 years and the second stint is now longer than your original stint was when you first started.

Uh,

how do you think that you've changed as a band since then?

Come on,

Andy.

Um,

Oh,

we're just older and wiser,

you know,

we're just,

we're just able to keep it all together a bit more.

Yeah.

You know,

I think definitely.

And,

you know,

and I think that hiatus was really good cause it wasn't like we were sort of sitting around doing that.

I mean,

everyone went on to do great stuff,

which actually serves the whole thing now in a way.

Um,

so it,

it,

I wouldn't personally,

I wouldn't really change anything about that.

And,

and you know,

we were after the first time,

it was just nice to sort of be apart from each other for a while,

but,

but we've all been good pretty much,

you know,

a few months after that kind of initial break thing,

it was like,

we were fine.

I think if any bands out there are having problems,

just take 20 years off and see,

you know,

we'll fix it.

And we came back and played the biggest shows we've ever played in our lives.

So it's like,

so if we could take another 20 years off now,

we'd be doing all right,

I think.

But,

uh,

for obvious reasons,

we can't.

Yeah.

Uh,

you literally took the next question out of my mouth.

I was going to ask you,

you said that you're older and wiser now,

and you know,

there's so many younger bands that are starting out that may be having like creative differences

or trying to figure out band dynamics.

Uh,

do you have any good advice?

For any band who's,

who's kind of trying to figure out where they want to go and what they want to do?

Just try and stick with it because things can happen.

I mean,

it's only when you don't stick with it and it's over,

but as long as you stick with it,

um,

you know,

things happen.

And it's really,

really particularly difficult now,

I think for young bands,

because there's a sort of lack of finance,

the,

the whole industry is a little bit broken in that way.

I know for sure.

I think everybody,

I don't know any musicians that come in my studio that don't all work at the same time.

So I think it's really tricky,

but,

um,

just try and hang in there and stick with it would be my advice.

Yeah.

It's much harder these days.

People have to work jobs and do music.

It's not many people that can afford to do bands,

a band,

the same way we did when we were young,

you know,

students or whatever.

It's,

um,

in those days,

you,

you know,

you had government grants to go to college,

so you could go to art school and while you were there,

you could sort of figure out what you wanted to do and buy a guitar.

What we wanted to do was not art,

it was music.

But you know,

people now wouldn't have that choice in the UK.

Yeah.

It's,

it's,

it's really,

it's really tough.

But like you say,

maybe out of that toughness and I think,

you know,

good music always comes through and good bands always do,

but it certainly is really tough.

And some sort of streaming revenue going to artists would be a big help.

Well,

in fact,

a huge help.

And in a lot of ways,

a kind of a band saver because bands need a bit to develop.

I don't think people just are doing this to sort of be rich anymore,

but you,

you just kind of need a bit to develop and then you've got your next ride.

You've got your next radio heads.

But I think without that,

a lot of people are falling apart,

a lot of people are falling apart before they kind of even get that.

Yeah.

It's a,

it's a tough world to navigate nowadays.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Yeah.

Well,

uh,

we should maybe end with tons of great bands out there though.

So it's,

it's,

it's heartening to see a lot of bands out,

new bands all the time that excite me.

And yeah,

you know,

don't ask me to name any,

cause I won't,

I'll go,

I always go blank and someone asked me to name some,

but I thought about it for a second.

There's loads of good music out there.

Yeah.

I'm sure you're playing most of it.

Fontaine's DC,

we can agree on.

And we're into that band at the moment.

Yeah.

That new single too.

I've been absolutely loving them.

Yeah.

There's a lot,

there's a lot,

and a lot of great bands coming from the studio.

So it is always really heartening and encouraging.

And it also really also keeps us slightly wiser and older people on our toes.

Yeah.

Cause there's no,

no room for complacency.

Absolutely.

Um,

is there any way,

or is there anywhere that you would like to go that you haven't got now?

Like you've been around for,

I think we're going to do it.

I think we're off.

Apparently we're off to Mongolia.

Oh,

I'm Mark's hit list.

For 20 years.

I'm not sure.

I'm not sure what's going to happen.

We get there.

Um,

but,

it,

it came up on a tour list and we do the far east again,

uh,

in July and Oz and New Zealand and stuff.

And then Mongolia came up and Bangkok.

So it's like,

that's,

that would be interesting.

Yeah.

But,

other tick list places I'd like to go to,

um,

nice to do a bit more in South America.

Again,

we did Brazil,

but Argentina would be nice as well.

Loz,

any ideas?

Where do you want to go?

Yeah.

I don't remember.

Prague?

Prague.

Are we going to do,

yeah,

well that's,

that's happening as well.

We're going to take that one off soon as well.

So yeah,

we're,

there's definitely a lot of,

um,

traveling and shows coming up soon.

That's awesome.

Well,

thank you so much for taking time out of your busy tour schedule to stop by and play a bunch

of songs for us.

This has been great.

Thank you.

Anytime.

Thanks for the KEXP.

Anytime.

It means a lot.

Thank you.

Yeah,

absolutely.

Once again,

this is live on KEXP with Ride.

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Any recipes for curry on there?

Yeah.

We'll add some recipes for curry.

Yeah.

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yeah,

I will absolutely get you some links.

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This is Ride,

live on KEXP.

Thank you.