June 11, 2025 • 35 mins
On this week's In Service Of Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz sits down with Steve Baltin to discuss the band's new album and tour, sone of their most memorable songs, musical friends and much more.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hey, Sea faulted and welcome the in service up this week.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm really excited to sit down one on one with
Counting Crows lit singer Adam Duritz.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The band just started a new tour last night. Chiane Tay.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
He has no lot to say about the band's great
new album, including the road, songwriting and much more.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Always been a huge Counting Crows fan.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Excited to Shann's will hope you enjoyed it as much
as I did.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So well, first off, thanks for being here today. Man,
It's always great to see you. It's been it's been
a couple of years, but I mean, shit, we go
back to thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sorry, do you mean to make you feel old as well?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Oh it's okay, I'm well aware.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The one thing I think what happens is when you
get that and you're like, there's no avoiding it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well you actually this is don the new record.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It's wonderful, you know, I mean for you, it feels
like such a collection of like just really fun, joyful stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm curious what was the span it was written?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
When was it written?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah? Like what was the span? Was written in a
short period or was it over years? Well?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
I wrote most of it in a few weeks, like
like the Sweet, The Sweet was written a couple of
years before that, and then all it was all written on.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
My friend's farm in England, where I've been spending a
lot of time.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
And but this half of it, after I finished it,
on the way home, I stopped in London to sing
on my friend's record. This band, Gang of youths Australian band.
They live in London, though, And a little while after
I got home, the singer dand del Pepe sent me
the record and it was just so good, and it made.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Me realize that the songs I'd finished weren't really good enough.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
They weren't at that level, most of them, And so
I kind of went I didn't go write new songs,
but I worked on those songs a little more, rewrote
the choruses for what became Under the Aurora, tightened up
Spaceman in Tulsa. I left Virginia Through the Rain the
(02:47):
same because that was I thought that was great from
the beginning, so I had to do some rewrites, but
then they were pretty much done and I just sat
on them for a couple of years. I think that
having that kind of ation where I realized there was
a bar I wasn't hitting. I didn't have a lot
of confidence when I did finish them, and I sort
(03:08):
of sat with them for a couple of years without
really sending them to the band or anything. And finally,
like last year, like it and.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Even were all newd Year's or a week after.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
So I called, uh, Millard and jam Are bass player
and drummer and Emma, and I said, I need everybody
to come to my house. I need you guys to
come here for like a week, and I need to
run through these songs and I need I need to
play them with you and figure it out they're good
because they're I've been kind of stretching myself and I
wrote some stuff that's a little beyond my ability to play,
(03:44):
so I couldn't really play it and figure out how
they were. And so I think I left me with
some doubts and I sat on them for two years,
and then I had the guys come to the house
and we I think January or February, and we uh
just demoed them here in the living room, and one
by one, I was like, oh, yeah, that's great, Okay,
that's great.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Okay, these are great. I don't know what I was thinking,
These are great, and then we were all really excited
about that.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
So I went in the studio a few weeks later
and recorded them.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That's really interesting to me, having talked to every artist
who ever freaking lived, from like James Brown to you know, whoever,
every artist doubts their songs. That's the most normal thing
in the world. So typically, is that unusual for you
or was this?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Never? Had it happened before?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Really?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Never, not once.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
I mean, I'll have songs that I don't think are
good enough, but I just probably won't finish them.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Never in my life.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
Have I written a group of songs and then gone,
oh shit, those aren't really good enough. It is literally
never happened to me once in my life. But uh,
it was a good thing because the the I think
I was really pressuring myself when I wrote them, and
they had the bones of being eight songs, they just
(05:02):
they weren't quite finished, and I.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Just tuned them up a bit, you know.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I took a section out of Spaceman in Tulsa, tightened
that up box cars. It was just it was so
it was only in my head. I knew the song
I had the chords, but I couldn't play it at all.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It was so.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Designed for guitar, you know, so essential electric guitar song
that I couldn't even play it on the piano. So
I couldn't finish it until I got the band to
really dem up with me and knew how it felt.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Aurora.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
It just had a chorus that wasn't good enough, I think,
and now it has a great chorus. I rewrote the
choruses for that one.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It just needed some tune ups.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
I mean, the bones of them were all there. And
then I wrote We'd Love for Me to Z, which
was I did not write on the phone, and it's
the only song I wrote here at home.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Sounds funny because, like I said, most artists, you know,
of course you're not going to release material you don't like,
but there's stills you usually a little So when you've
written songs in the past, have you just known right away?
Because I've talked about this with many artists, right and
it's like there are some songs you just fucking know,
you know that it's special. Then there are other ones
(06:14):
you're like, it's cool, but you're not sure how people
are going to respond to it. So have there been
certain songs of yours that you just like when you
wrote it, you're like, okay, Like a murder of one,
for example, is one of my favorite songs. And you
know it's funny. This is Potter's Lullaby to me as
some of the greatest lyrics I've ever heard. When you
(06:34):
wrote that, did you just know, Yeah, that's fucking special.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
I mean, I feel like I know when I'm writing
a song, I don't really finish them unless I love them.
I don't write a lot of songs. I don't write
twenty songs, thirty songs for a record and then put
ten on the record.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
I write.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Ten songs and put ten on the record, or maybe
on a few records, eleven or twelve. That's about it,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Like, I don't. There's not a world of unreleased Counting
Crow songs. I just don't. When I I wrote a lot.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Of songs until I got around to make it on our
first record, and then since then, I've pretty much just
written the songs for each album.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
With maybe one or two.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
But usually the extra ones weren't left off because they
weren't good. They were just left off because I couldn't
fit them in the sequence. You know, some of my
favorite songs I've ever written were left off of records
just because it didn't flow. You know, there's like three
or four songs Chelsea, good Luck Baby, I'm a Big Star.
(07:48):
It's not very many though, So.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
In other words, there's not gonna be like the Counting
Crows unreleased pot set like the Springsteen stuff.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
No, I don't have like the tracks like he had
that way. I just have never been that kind of writer.
I generally write like the sort of state of the Union,
this is where I am, And that's the songs that
make it on the record. Like I said with there's
two songs that didn't make it onto two, or three
that didn't make it onto Satellites one from This Desert Life.
(08:26):
I don't think there were any on Hard Candy. There's
two or three from Saturday Nights to Sunday mornings. Maybe. Yeah,
it's just not a lot. There were two or three
on Wonderland two for this album. These are just the
songs I wrote. Oh maybe there's one song that didn't
(08:51):
make it into the suite.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's fascinating to me though, because I've been talking with
songwriters for years, and you know, most of them will
tell you that song writing is like channeling. You kind
of put your intent app stuff comes in and like,
you know, Noah Gallagher has this hilarious quote like if
I don't pick it up, then Chris Martin will do.
You feel like it's like that for yours and more
of a craft where you sit down and do it.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
I mean, I think it's a lot of inspiration and
a lot of craft that goes.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Into it, you know, it just.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
I mean I get in these periods where I'm just writing,
you know, like when a lot of times it happens
while we're making the record, you know, for this Desert
Life on Hard Candy, I think I wrote half those
records in the studio. I know I wrote Missus Potter's
Lollo By while we're in the studio, Colored Blind, Baby,
Al Big Star, Now Kid Things. Uh, you know, it's
(09:48):
about half the record. Same thing for a Hard Candy.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
That's really interesting because like I said, I'm fascinated with
the song any stuff. But I mean, let's talk about
playing this album live. You know, it's I mean, it
feels like and I'm sure you've heard this so many times.
It feels like a theatrical thing. Is it something where
you would do it and can in like order from
start to finish?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Or well, the suite we've always played in its entirety. Well,
we've never played any songs from the suite separately live,
you know, but we've played every time we've done it,
we've played the whole thing. I don't know about the uh,
(10:36):
the Sweet tooth, side side A. I mean, those aren't
those don't have to play in their entirety. They're separate songs.
But the Sweet works really well as a whole. Like
there's talk of playing things separately, but.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I like playing that quartet straight through.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
So will it ever become a show? What would it
ever become a show? Is it something you'd ever want
to take the theater or anything? I mean, it feels
like it's so written for that this record.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Yeah, that's sweet. Oh No, I don't think so. I mean,
it's a it's just a series of rock songs. There's
not really a story there that way. I mean they're interconnected,
but not in a plot line. They're thematically they flow together.
(11:31):
I don't I don't see that being a if I
was going to do work from Broadway or something like that,
and I was working on one about ten or fifteen
years ago with a friend. Those are all separate songs.
I don't I would do a musical of I don't
think of like a jukebox line. I get a lot
(11:51):
of offers for that all the time. People come to
me with they've got some idea for a script, and
it doesn't really interest me. I like the idea of
writing for the theater, but I wouldn't write for the theater.
I mean a couple of songs that I didn't use
on records were a part of the theater piece we
(12:12):
worked on.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Chelsea was good Luck.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Was Possibility Days, which is on Somewhere Under Wonderland, was
originally a part of this theater piece, and while we
still hadn't finished it, we were recording Somewhere into Wonderland
and actually put it at the end of the record.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
But that was written for this theater piece.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
In fact, so was Pallisaates Park, which ended up on
Somewhere into Wonderland was I didn't have the lyrics, but
that piece of music was a scene was written for
this scene in the play where they were at Coney Island,
and I never got around writing that scene, and eventually
(12:56):
I wrote the song about Pallisaates Park instead for the
but that music was originally part of the theater piece.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I mean, it's fun for you to stretch out and
do something totally different like that.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I think it was really.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
That year. You know, we did a couple of different things.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
I also we did Underwater Sunshine, that covers album, and
we also and I worked on.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
The theater piece, and it was really.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
I think it changed that year of spending time seeing
the other people's songs and experiencing like the perspective that
other people wrote from, and also for the first time
writing songs for people other than myself, like my first
time writing for a women's voice or writing for a
women's perspective because some of the characters were women. You know,
(13:46):
that really opened up the way I wrote songs. I
think I had always been very very autobiographical before that,
and in writing, in singing the covers and also in
writing for the theater, I realized I could tell stories
that were about how I felt without being about you know,
the plot of my life that I can tell a
(14:08):
story like Paula Saints Park, which is not about me
at all plot wise, but it's completely about me as
far as all the feelings in it, and I think
that really changed the way I wrote it. And you
can hear a lot of that on the Whole Somewhere
Under Wonderland album, and on this record there's a lot
of songs that are written from the perspective of characters
that aren't me but are about how I feel. You know,
(14:31):
everything on this record or not everything, but a lot
of these songs are written for different characters. The guy
in Virginia, through the Rain, the whole everything, the Bobby
and Iraq, Kings, elevator boots, what do you call it,
space fans. Also they're all you know, they're not the characters,
(14:55):
not really mean any of them, but all the feelings are.
And I really think I learned that that year singing
cover songs and also writing for the theater.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
So excunny when you think of then the artists who
you know really have done that well over the years,
And the first person that comes to mind for me
is Tom Waits, because you look at a song like
what's he building in there? And it's like who the
fuck is that about? But it's such a great song.
Are there artists that really inspire you for the way
they're able to do that, and that once you developed
(15:36):
that skill, you kind of went back and appreciated the
way they did that?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Well.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
I think, you know, most artists, you know, Dylan has
a lot of songs that aren't about himself, sort of Springsteen,
you know. I think that's it's not uncommon. I think
there's a lot of autobiographical writing too. But I don't
know why. It just never occurred to me that, like,
(16:05):
it's still about me in a way in all those songs.
It's just you know, it's like an author who writes
a novel that's his it's fiction, but he's expressing his perspective,
you know. And I think I don't know why. I
just never really tried that much. And then I realized,
oh okay, that just really opened up everything I could do.
(16:27):
But I you know, I would think just about every
songwriter other than me had somehow learned that. I don't
know why it took me so late in life to
figure it out.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, But it's funny because there's definitely some people do
it better, like anything there's some people who just are
exceptional at it, you know, and it's like there are
some people who and there are I mean again, I
talked to a million songwriters, and there are some people
who just have a hard time getting out of their
own self, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Yeah, But I mean I don't know that I thought
about it at all.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
It's hard to sometimes it's hard to apply the lessons
that you obviously know from.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Other people to yourself because you're still in yourself.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
I mean, you know, after singing all those cover songs
that year, it really occurred to me what a waste
of time, what a waste it was to only sing
one person's songs your whole life, even if that person
is yourself, you know, Like I was, so it was
so refreshing to like experience all those other perspectives and
to interpret all the other people's music. And I was like,
(17:42):
when we had done it, I really felt like, well,
I could do a bunch more albums of just covers.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I would really really enjoy that and it would be
really rewarding for me.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
But then there's a weird prejudice about that, like where
it's not cool people really dismiss albums of covers. I
think we got used to it with Dylan, that oh,
everyone should write their own songs. But I also think
there's it's not the all end all of music. But
(18:19):
I would have loved to do more of it, but
it was so like the response was so sort of
negative that it's hard to do it. Really.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's interesting to me because, like, you know, I became
friendly with Rod Stewart, and he in the seventies was
a very underrated songwriter, but he's also one of the
greatest interpreters of all time. Songwriter, yeah, but again, also
an amazing interpreter. And it's funny how you know, some
people managed to translate that. And maybe it's interesting because
(18:52):
people have just always loved your songwriting, so they associate
you with songwriter. I don't know, but it's fascinating because
they're like, I mean, look, even Springsteen, he's one of
the greatest songwriters of all time. He does lots of
covers in concerts and stuff. So are there other artists that, like,
who would be your dream artist to cover?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Like, No, I don't really think of it that way.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
I think I just find some song I really want
to you know, it's not it's not necessarily like from
my favorite artists or my favorite songs. Like I don't
necessarily want to cover songs just because I love them.
It's just sometimes you hear a song and you have
an idea and you have you feel like you have
a way through it, and it changes.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
All the time.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
But to me, a cover is more about like, can
I find my own version in there, something that really
becomes mine. It's not about an artist really, because I
don't necessarily cover songs by my favorite or my it's
not necessarily covering my favorite songs.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
They are songs I love, but.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
It's like it's like I have an idea how to
get inside them myself. It's something about Ross's or it's
weird because yeah, you're absolutely I think underrated is the
right word, because he's one of my favorite songwriters and
there's a period in his career where he's going record
for record with the Rolling Stones, and you could argue
that his output in the early seventies between the Faces
(20:17):
and his solo.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Albums is every bit as good as that.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
The great great Classic Stones period at the same time,
where they're doing sticky Fingers and only rock and roll,
and you know, they just Better's banquet.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know that.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Both of those artists they're going record for record and
but I don't. But I think in a way, Rod
was never appreciated that way, Like they're great songs, but
I don't think people necessarily thought of him as the
great songwriter. And as a result, when he covered stuff,
it was fine because people weren't.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Like thinking of him in the same way. They weren't
thinking of him.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Like Dylan or something, which is a mistake because he
was absolutely brilliant during that him and Ron Wood, the
stuff they did together, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, you go back and listen to songs like the
Killing of Georgie or I was only joking.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I mean, this is one of the best fucking songs
of all time.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Yeah, I'm not running from Gasoline Alley and only Picture
tells a story through the Rod Stored album.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
It's an incredible run of records right there.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, but that's what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It is weird because it's funny when you were just
saying you don't love to cover your favorite like it's
more song based for you.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I got stuck with.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Brian Ferry when he did a covers, when he did
a Dylan Covers album, you know, and that was interesting
because he went into just Dylan stuff, you know, the
same thing. Like Brian Ferry with Roxy Music wrote incredible songs,
but you know, he was always seen as a crooner.
So I think in a weird way, it's kind of
a testament to your songwriting that people think of you
(21:52):
as a singer songwriter first.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, I know, it's a weird thing. I mean that
Brian Ferry.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
Is a good example too, because like his covers, that
cover of Jealous Guy is fantastic, the Letting cover he
was always but he's such a great singer, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
That's the thing.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
It's like, it was nice to be a singer and
not a songwriter, like to be to just work on
the musical part of my interpretation, like just the musical
part of my skill as opposed to the composer's part
of my skill. That was really enjoyable to me. Like
I loved making that covers album. I thought it was
(22:31):
and I loved that year or two of playing those
songs on tour. I felt like it was such a
it opened the envelope so wide to me.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Well, it's always interesting too, because when you cover a song,
you again get to be able the nuance in it.
You like, you can hear a song like Jealous Guy
for thirty years and then you cover it and like
I talked to Brian about it because.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's a totally different song.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
So for you when you were doing that covers record,
were there songs then that like totally shame for you
and then made you think like, Okay, it'd be really
cool to cover this one just because you can hear
it in a holy way.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
Yeah, I mean that's just kind of what it was.
You hear a song and you'd have an idea, you'd
feel your way into it. That was what we were
looking more than anything else. It was just looking for
if you have a cool way into the song, do
you have a way to make it your own?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And I think we did a great job on that record.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
That record sounds like a Counting Crows record, even though
nothing on it is written by anyone who Counting Crows,
you know.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
So it was the last song and then we'll come
off with Governspirs This fastinating to me because again, like
being a huge Springsteen fan, that's always one of the
high points of a show is when he covers some
random song that you would never expect him to deal.
So what was the last song that you heard that
was just like God, that would be so much fun
to deal.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I don't know if I thought of any lately. Oh no,
I'm sorry. I had.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
My friend Stephen Kellogg I was we were during the pandemic.
We were doing a like a live stream at Bowery Electric.
He played, and then me and Amber played a bunch
of counting crow stuffing two. His two oldest daughters were
there when he played, and they did this song of
his called Almost Woke You Up? And I just thought, wow, man,
(24:26):
what a great it was a song of his. I
didn't know he was one of my best friends, but
I didn't know this song. And I was like, man,
that is a great song. And you know, a couple
of years later, after the pandemic, we were doing a
tour and he was touring with us, and I said
to him, you know what, we should work up a
version of all Almost Woke You Up and do it
with you and the girls, your daughters and our whole band,
(24:48):
and let's put he was opening for us. I'm like,
let's put it in our encore. So you do your
set and then we'll do our set and in our
encore you come back up on stage with Sophia and
Adeline and will You almost woke you up? And so
we I was like, I heard the song, I thought
this would be so great to cover, and so we
ended up doing that with him, and actually he did
(25:11):
a recording of it that that song is available. He
put it out as a single. It's really good and
it was just this idea I had for like building
out this song into like a full on like Counting
Crows and Stephen Kellogg's song, and it turned out great.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Well it's funny because that's how you post on your
Instagram at fire Aid gra Cy Abrams did the great
version of A Long December? And are there versions of
other songs you've heard? Are the versions of covers you've
heard other people do of yours that make you then
appreciate the song in a different way?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
If I've heard a lot, I mean Chris Karraba, he
used to do a really cool cover of.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
Angels and the Silences Chris from Bash Bash were Confessional.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
He had a great cover Angel of the Silences.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I heard uh.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Sarah Burrows used to play Omaha that I thought was
pretty cool too. I hadn't heard a lot of people
cover us though. I think my songs are kind of weird.
They're they're phrasing so weird on my songs. Maybe people
don't cover.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Them a lot. I'm not sure. Oh, you know, In
just this past year, m J.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Lenderman did a great cover of A long December two.
I thought I saw a clip of him playing at like,
what's the place called the peach Bit in in Asheville.
I think it's called I don't know what the name
of that venue is. It's in Ashville, North Carolina, and
he was playing a show there before New Year's.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And he did a cover of A long December. I
thought it was really good.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, it's funny that you say you feel like the
songs are weird. It's you know, it's always interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
As I started this off, I was saying, we go
back thirty years. Sorry, not making both of us feel old,
but you know, it's interesting when you go back and
hear stuff I've talked about.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
There's so many people.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You get such a different perspective because thirty years later
you're a different person.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You've had a whole life. So are there songs of
yours that you go back to now.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
When you think of going back out of a tour
that you're like, all right, I hear that in a
totally different way, or the meaning changes for you, or
you're just like, man, I can't wait to play that
one again, because it's like a new song for me.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
It's almost like somewhat different wrote it.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
Well, I mean, I think the meaning changes every night songs,
and it definitely changes over time, Like my perspective, Mister
Jones is a song about dreaming about being a rock star,
but also about knowing it's not going to turn out
the way you think it is.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And my perspective on that when.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
I wrote it and recorded it before any of that
had ever happened me is certainly different from how it
is now when I've been actually living that life for
thirty years.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
But I think that's true of all the songs.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
They they.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Change as you know, as time passes.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
We hadn't played Butterfly and Reverse in twenty years. We
only played it a couple times back in two thousand
and two when Hard Candy came out, and then we
never played it again really, And a few years ago
we started playing that every night, and it's so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I love playing it.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
I've probably haven't played it more now in the last
two years than I then in the rest of my
career combined. And yeah, it's a completely refreshing new thing.
I mean that happens with all the songs, you know,
like just because with the exception of Long December, there's
no song I want to play every night, you know
what I mean, Like I get tired, You get tired
(28:57):
of anything. A Long Summer is the only exception to that.
I for some reason never tire of that song. But
everything else you do, and then it, you know, goes
out of the set for a little while, and when
it comes back in, it's great.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
You know, you're excited about playing it. It's it's really fresh.
Speaker 6 (29:14):
That happens all the time, because, especially at this point
in your career.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
We have you know, I don't know how many hundred.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Songs in catalog or something, and so you're not playing
everything every night, and there are things that you don't
play for years at a time, and.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Sometimes they come back and they seem great.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
And other times they just seem high, like too high
to see.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
But yeah, it's funny that you say there's stuff that
goes out for years.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I mean, aren't there certain songs like mister Jones around
here that simply if you don't do them, there's fucking
mutiny in the crowd.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
Well, certainly mister Jones. There's been years where we didn't
play it at all. We've been playing it every night
for a while in recent years. It just feels great,
so play it every night.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Round here.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I mean, there's definitely been periods where that was in
because there were certain arcs of the set where we
would open with either round Here or Sullivan Street, and
so on the nights when we played Sullivan Street, we
often wouldn't play round Here, just because you know, there's
a lot of songs you want to play. You can't
play too many songs from one album. So you know
(30:33):
you're gonna play mister Jones, if you're gonna play ran King,
and you're gonna play Omaha.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
You know you might not get to.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Round here if you play here, certainly, but also it
just could be that you just don't feel like it
that day. And the only thing I don't want to
do is start playing songs I don't want to play,
because then it's like you're gonna phone it in, and
I don't want what I want to be more important.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Than anything else.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Is great every night and put everything into it, leave
it all on stage every night. So I don't want
to play a song I don't want to play. Also
that'll make you hate that song. And I love my songs,
I really do, so I don't want to ruin them
for myself either by playing them on a night when
I don't feel like it. That's the great thing about
(31:22):
a long December. For some reason, I am just never
tired of it. I always want to play that song,
so you know that's always safe. But yeah, and I
suppose the audience is pissed on the nights we don't
play Mister Jones, but it does happen because our set
list changes every night. We don't make it until usually
(31:43):
after dinner. So you know, I'm not sure what I'm not,
you know, not dead certain.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
What we're going to play Bear, you know, and I
think that makes a great show. I was just curious
because again I from an audience. Unfortunately, Zoom is going
to run out in a few minutes, and before it
runs out, I do have to ask you for the
podcast portion the show is called in service of and
that comes from the idea of you know, musicians giving
(32:12):
back and how that inspires them. Now it inspires their
work and their career. So for you talk about the
importance of giving back and what that means to you
and how you and it's interesting because, you know, and
doing the show, we realized how broad that is. And
for example, when people say a song saved their life,
which I'm sure you've heard many times, that is absolutely
(32:34):
a form of giving back.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
No, I mean, as there's several ways that's always been
really important to me. One is I remember very clearly
struggling as a musician and how hard it was, you know,
and so I wanted to help other musicians.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
We I had several independent record companies trying really hard
to expose know, indie musicians.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
For the last how.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
Many years now run an indie music festival Underwater Sunshine
and with my friend Barbara Rockport Barbara Garrett now and
in the years before that, the Outlaw Road Show with
Ryan Spaulding, you know, and you know, we're trying to
like bring exposure to a lot of young artists. It's
(33:27):
free festival. We've always made it free because we want
to do as much as possible to make it as
easy as possible for people to discover young artists. And
the other thing we did was run the Graybird Foundations
for all these years. And the idea behind Graybird was
sort of to get people involved with the idea of
being involved, to show people that it doesn't necessarily have
(33:50):
to be a massive movement like that there are local
organizations doing small things in every town, in every city
to help their community. You know, it doesn't have to
be a national movement to save some bird. You know,
it could just be a group of people in your
town who clean up the park, you know, or who
(34:14):
provide health services to an AIDS clinic or a women's shelter.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
You know that, Like people think that.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
The people can feel really small in the world today
and feel like they can't make a difference because all
the problems are bigger than they are, and kind of
the idea behind gray Bird was to shed light on
local organizations and to kind of show people that there
are people in your town doing things for your town
(34:47):
that make a huge difference in the lives of everyone.
And then it doesn't have to be a massive movement.
It's very easy to make a difference right there in
place you live. That was kind of always the idea
behind Gravers.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Well, we're just.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
About to run out. Is there anything you want to
add or no.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I'm really excited about the new record coming out. I'm
excited to go out on Forward
Hey, Sea faulted and welcome the in service up this week.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
I'm really excited to sit down one on one with
Counting Crows lit singer Adam Duritz.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
The band just started a new tour last night. Chiane Tay.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
He has no lot to say about the band's great
new album, including the road, songwriting and much more.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
Always been a huge Counting Crows fan.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Excited to Shann's will hope you enjoyed it as much
as I did.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
So well, first off, thanks for being here today. Man,
It's always great to see you. It's been it's been
a couple of years, but I mean, shit, we go
back to thirty years.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Sorry, do you mean to make you feel old as well?
Speaker 4 (00:58):
Oh it's okay, I'm well aware.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:03):
The one thing I think what happens is when you
get that and you're like, there's no avoiding it.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Well you actually this is don the new record.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
It's wonderful, you know, I mean for you, it feels
like such a collection of like just really fun, joyful stuff.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
I'm curious what was the span it was written?
Speaker 4 (01:27):
When was it written?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Yeah? Like what was the span? Was written in a
short period or was it over years? Well?
Speaker 5 (01:35):
I wrote most of it in a few weeks, like
like the Sweet, The Sweet was written a couple of
years before that, and then all it was all written on.
Speaker 6 (01:49):
My friend's farm in England, where I've been spending a
lot of time.
Speaker 4 (01:53):
Uh.
Speaker 6 (01:54):
And but this half of it, after I finished it,
on the way home, I stopped in London to sing
on my friend's record. This band, Gang of youths Australian band.
They live in London, though, And a little while after
I got home, the singer dand del Pepe sent me
the record and it was just so good, and it made.
Speaker 4 (02:20):
Me realize that the songs I'd finished weren't really good enough.
Speaker 6 (02:26):
They weren't at that level, most of them, And so
I kind of went I didn't go write new songs,
but I worked on those songs a little more, rewrote
the choruses for what became Under the Aurora, tightened up
Spaceman in Tulsa. I left Virginia Through the Rain the
(02:47):
same because that was I thought that was great from
the beginning, so I had to do some rewrites, but
then they were pretty much done and I just sat
on them for a couple of years. I think that
having that kind of ation where I realized there was
a bar I wasn't hitting. I didn't have a lot
of confidence when I did finish them, and I sort
(03:08):
of sat with them for a couple of years without
really sending them to the band or anything. And finally,
like last year, like it and.
Speaker 4 (03:18):
Even were all newd Year's or a week after.
Speaker 6 (03:20):
So I called, uh, Millard and jam Are bass player
and drummer and Emma, and I said, I need everybody
to come to my house. I need you guys to
come here for like a week, and I need to
run through these songs and I need I need to
play them with you and figure it out they're good
because they're I've been kind of stretching myself and I
wrote some stuff that's a little beyond my ability to play,
(03:44):
so I couldn't really play it and figure out how
they were. And so I think I left me with
some doubts and I sat on them for two years,
and then I had the guys come to the house
and we I think January or February, and we uh
just demoed them here in the living room, and one
by one, I was like, oh, yeah, that's great, Okay,
that's great.
Speaker 4 (04:04):
Okay, these are great. I don't know what I was thinking,
These are great, and then we were all really excited
about that.
Speaker 6 (04:09):
So I went in the studio a few weeks later
and recorded them.
Speaker 3 (04:15):
That's really interesting to me, having talked to every artist
who ever freaking lived, from like James Brown to you know, whoever,
every artist doubts their songs. That's the most normal thing
in the world. So typically, is that unusual for you
or was this?
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Never? Had it happened before?
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Really?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Never, not once.
Speaker 6 (04:34):
I mean, I'll have songs that I don't think are
good enough, but I just probably won't finish them.
Speaker 4 (04:39):
Never in my life.
Speaker 6 (04:39):
Have I written a group of songs and then gone,
oh shit, those aren't really good enough. It is literally
never happened to me once in my life. But uh,
it was a good thing because the the I think
I was really pressuring myself when I wrote them, and
they had the bones of being eight songs, they just
(05:02):
they weren't quite finished, and I.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Just tuned them up a bit, you know.
Speaker 6 (05:06):
I took a section out of Spaceman in Tulsa, tightened
that up box cars. It was just it was so
it was only in my head. I knew the song
I had the chords, but I couldn't play it at all.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
It was so.
Speaker 6 (05:21):
Designed for guitar, you know, so essential electric guitar song
that I couldn't even play it on the piano. So
I couldn't finish it until I got the band to
really dem up with me and knew how it felt.
Speaker 4 (05:32):
Aurora.
Speaker 6 (05:33):
It just had a chorus that wasn't good enough, I think,
and now it has a great chorus. I rewrote the
choruses for that one.
Speaker 4 (05:40):
It just needed some tune ups.
Speaker 6 (05:41):
I mean, the bones of them were all there. And
then I wrote We'd Love for Me to Z, which
was I did not write on the phone, and it's
the only song I wrote here at home.
Speaker 4 (05:52):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Sounds funny because, like I said, most artists, you know,
of course you're not going to release material you don't like,
but there's stills you usually a little So when you've
written songs in the past, have you just known right away?
Because I've talked about this with many artists, right and
it's like there are some songs you just fucking know,
you know that it's special. Then there are other ones
(06:14):
you're like, it's cool, but you're not sure how people
are going to respond to it. So have there been
certain songs of yours that you just like when you
wrote it, you're like, okay, Like a murder of one,
for example, is one of my favorite songs. And you
know it's funny. This is Potter's Lullaby to me as
some of the greatest lyrics I've ever heard. When you
(06:34):
wrote that, did you just know, Yeah, that's fucking special.
Speaker 4 (06:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:40):
I mean, I feel like I know when I'm writing
a song, I don't really finish them unless I love them.
I don't write a lot of songs. I don't write
twenty songs, thirty songs for a record and then put
ten on the record.
Speaker 4 (06:51):
I write.
Speaker 6 (06:53):
Ten songs and put ten on the record, or maybe
on a few records, eleven or twelve. That's about it,
you know what I mean.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Like, I don't. There's not a world of unreleased Counting
Crow songs. I just don't. When I I wrote a lot.
Speaker 6 (07:11):
Of songs until I got around to make it on our
first record, and then since then, I've pretty much just
written the songs for each album.
Speaker 4 (07:19):
With maybe one or two.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
But usually the extra ones weren't left off because they
weren't good. They were just left off because I couldn't
fit them in the sequence. You know, some of my
favorite songs I've ever written were left off of records
just because it didn't flow. You know, there's like three
or four songs Chelsea, good Luck Baby, I'm a Big Star.
(07:48):
It's not very many though, So.
Speaker 3 (07:52):
In other words, there's not gonna be like the Counting
Crows unreleased pot set like the Springsteen stuff.
Speaker 6 (07:57):
No, I don't have like the tracks like he had
that way. I just have never been that kind of writer.
I generally write like the sort of state of the Union,
this is where I am, And that's the songs that
make it on the record. Like I said with there's
two songs that didn't make it onto two, or three
that didn't make it onto Satellites one from This Desert Life.
(08:26):
I don't think there were any on Hard Candy. There's
two or three from Saturday Nights to Sunday mornings. Maybe. Yeah,
it's just not a lot. There were two or three
on Wonderland two for this album. These are just the
songs I wrote. Oh maybe there's one song that didn't
(08:51):
make it into the suite.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (08:54):
That's fascinating to me though, because I've been talking with
songwriters for years, and you know, most of them will
tell you that song writing is like channeling. You kind
of put your intent app stuff comes in and like,
you know, Noah Gallagher has this hilarious quote like if
I don't pick it up, then Chris Martin will do.
You feel like it's like that for yours and more
of a craft where you sit down and do it.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
Oh, I don't know.
Speaker 6 (09:17):
I mean, I think it's a lot of inspiration and
a lot of craft that goes.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
Into it, you know, it just.
Speaker 6 (09:28):
I mean I get in these periods where I'm just writing,
you know, like when a lot of times it happens
while we're making the record, you know, for this Desert
Life on Hard Candy, I think I wrote half those
records in the studio. I know I wrote Missus Potter's
Lollo By while we're in the studio, Colored Blind, Baby,
Al Big Star, Now Kid Things. Uh, you know, it's
(09:48):
about half the record. Same thing for a Hard Candy.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
Huh.
Speaker 3 (09:57):
That's really interesting because like I said, I'm fascinated with
the song any stuff. But I mean, let's talk about
playing this album live. You know, it's I mean, it
feels like and I'm sure you've heard this so many times.
It feels like a theatrical thing. Is it something where
you would do it and can in like order from
start to finish?
Speaker 6 (10:14):
Or well, the suite we've always played in its entirety. Well,
we've never played any songs from the suite separately live,
you know, but we've played every time we've done it,
we've played the whole thing. I don't know about the uh,
(10:36):
the Sweet tooth, side side A. I mean, those aren't
those don't have to play in their entirety. They're separate songs.
But the Sweet works really well as a whole. Like
there's talk of playing things separately, but.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (10:51):
I like playing that quartet straight through.
Speaker 3 (10:56):
So will it ever become a show? What would it
ever become a show? Is it something you'd ever want
to take the theater or anything? I mean, it feels
like it's so written for that this record.
Speaker 6 (11:10):
Yeah, that's sweet. Oh No, I don't think so. I mean,
it's a it's just a series of rock songs. There's
not really a story there that way. I mean they're interconnected,
but not in a plot line. They're thematically they flow together.
(11:31):
I don't I don't see that being a if I
was going to do work from Broadway or something like that,
and I was working on one about ten or fifteen
years ago with a friend. Those are all separate songs.
I don't I would do a musical of I don't
think of like a jukebox line. I get a lot
(11:51):
of offers for that all the time. People come to
me with they've got some idea for a script, and
it doesn't really interest me. I like the idea of
writing for the theater, but I wouldn't write for the theater.
I mean a couple of songs that I didn't use
on records were a part of the theater piece we
(12:12):
worked on.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Chelsea was good Luck.
Speaker 6 (12:14):
Was Possibility Days, which is on Somewhere Under Wonderland, was
originally a part of this theater piece, and while we
still hadn't finished it, we were recording Somewhere into Wonderland
and actually put it at the end of the record.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
But that was written for this theater piece.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
In fact, so was Pallisaates Park, which ended up on
Somewhere into Wonderland was I didn't have the lyrics, but
that piece of music was a scene was written for
this scene in the play where they were at Coney Island,
and I never got around writing that scene, and eventually
(12:56):
I wrote the song about Pallisaates Park instead for the
but that music was originally part of the theater piece.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I mean, it's fun for you to stretch out and
do something totally different like that.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, it was cool.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I think it was really.
Speaker 4 (13:13):
That year. You know, we did a couple of different things.
Speaker 6 (13:15):
I also we did Underwater Sunshine, that covers album, and
we also and I worked on.
Speaker 4 (13:22):
The theater piece, and it was really.
Speaker 6 (13:25):
I think it changed that year of spending time seeing
the other people's songs and experiencing like the perspective that
other people wrote from, and also for the first time
writing songs for people other than myself, like my first
time writing for a women's voice or writing for a
women's perspective because some of the characters were women. You know,
(13:46):
that really opened up the way I wrote songs. I
think I had always been very very autobiographical before that,
and in writing, in singing the covers and also in
writing for the theater, I realized I could tell stories
that were about how I felt without being about you know,
the plot of my life that I can tell a
(14:08):
story like Paula Saints Park, which is not about me
at all plot wise, but it's completely about me as
far as all the feelings in it, and I think
that really changed the way I wrote it. And you
can hear a lot of that on the Whole Somewhere
Under Wonderland album, and on this record there's a lot
of songs that are written from the perspective of characters
that aren't me but are about how I feel. You know,
(14:31):
everything on this record or not everything, but a lot
of these songs are written for different characters. The guy
in Virginia, through the Rain, the whole everything, the Bobby
and Iraq, Kings, elevator boots, what do you call it,
space fans. Also they're all you know, they're not the characters,
(14:55):
not really mean any of them, but all the feelings are.
And I really think I learned that that year singing
cover songs and also writing for the theater.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
So excunny when you think of then the artists who
you know really have done that well over the years,
And the first person that comes to mind for me
is Tom Waits, because you look at a song like
what's he building in there? And it's like who the
fuck is that about? But it's such a great song.
Are there artists that really inspire you for the way
they're able to do that, and that once you developed
(15:36):
that skill, you kind of went back and appreciated the
way they did that?
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Well.
Speaker 6 (15:41):
I think, you know, most artists, you know, Dylan has
a lot of songs that aren't about himself, sort of Springsteen,
you know. I think that's it's not uncommon. I think
there's a lot of autobiographical writing too. But I don't
know why. It just never occurred to me that, like,
(16:05):
it's still about me in a way in all those songs.
It's just you know, it's like an author who writes
a novel that's his it's fiction, but he's expressing his perspective,
you know. And I think I don't know why. I
just never really tried that much. And then I realized,
oh okay, that just really opened up everything I could do.
(16:27):
But I you know, I would think just about every
songwriter other than me had somehow learned that. I don't
know why it took me so late in life to
figure it out.
Speaker 3 (16:37):
Yeah, But it's funny because there's definitely some people do
it better, like anything there's some people who just are
exceptional at it, you know, and it's like there are
some people who and there are I mean again, I
talked to a million songwriters, and there are some people
who just have a hard time getting out of their
own self, you know.
Speaker 4 (16:59):
Yeah, But I mean I don't know that I thought
about it at all.
Speaker 6 (17:05):
It's hard to sometimes it's hard to apply the lessons
that you obviously know from.
Speaker 4 (17:13):
Other people to yourself because you're still in yourself.
Speaker 6 (17:20):
I mean, you know, after singing all those cover songs
that year, it really occurred to me what a waste
of time, what a waste it was to only sing
one person's songs your whole life, even if that person
is yourself, you know, Like I was, so it was
so refreshing to like experience all those other perspectives and
to interpret all the other people's music. And I was like,
(17:42):
when we had done it, I really felt like, well,
I could do a bunch more albums of just covers.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
I would really really enjoy that and it would be
really rewarding for me.
Speaker 6 (17:56):
But then there's a weird prejudice about that, like where
it's not cool people really dismiss albums of covers. I
think we got used to it with Dylan, that oh,
everyone should write their own songs. But I also think
there's it's not the all end all of music. But
(18:19):
I would have loved to do more of it, but
it was so like the response was so sort of
negative that it's hard to do it. Really.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
That's interesting to me because, like, you know, I became
friendly with Rod Stewart, and he in the seventies was
a very underrated songwriter, but he's also one of the
greatest interpreters of all time. Songwriter, yeah, but again, also
an amazing interpreter. And it's funny how you know, some
people managed to translate that. And maybe it's interesting because
(18:52):
people have just always loved your songwriting, so they associate
you with songwriter. I don't know, but it's fascinating because
they're like, I mean, look, even Springsteen, he's one of
the greatest songwriters of all time. He does lots of
covers in concerts and stuff. So are there other artists that, like,
who would be your dream artist to cover?
Speaker 4 (19:12):
Like, No, I don't really think of it that way.
Speaker 6 (19:14):
I think I just find some song I really want
to you know, it's not it's not necessarily like from
my favorite artists or my favorite songs. Like I don't
necessarily want to cover songs just because I love them.
It's just sometimes you hear a song and you have
an idea and you have you feel like you have
a way through it, and it changes.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
All the time.
Speaker 6 (19:34):
But to me, a cover is more about like, can
I find my own version in there, something that really
becomes mine. It's not about an artist really, because I
don't necessarily cover songs by my favorite or my it's
not necessarily covering my favorite songs.
Speaker 4 (19:53):
They are songs I love, but.
Speaker 6 (19:55):
It's like it's like I have an idea how to
get inside them myself. It's something about Ross's or it's
weird because yeah, you're absolutely I think underrated is the
right word, because he's one of my favorite songwriters and
there's a period in his career where he's going record
for record with the Rolling Stones, and you could argue
that his output in the early seventies between the Faces
(20:17):
and his solo.
Speaker 4 (20:18):
Albums is every bit as good as that.
Speaker 6 (20:21):
The great great Classic Stones period at the same time,
where they're doing sticky Fingers and only rock and roll,
and you know, they just Better's banquet.
Speaker 4 (20:30):
You know that.
Speaker 6 (20:32):
Both of those artists they're going record for record and
but I don't. But I think in a way, Rod
was never appreciated that way, Like they're great songs, but
I don't think people necessarily thought of him as the
great songwriter. And as a result, when he covered stuff,
it was fine because people weren't.
Speaker 4 (20:52):
Like thinking of him in the same way. They weren't
thinking of him.
Speaker 6 (20:54):
Like Dylan or something, which is a mistake because he
was absolutely brilliant during that him and Ron Wood, the
stuff they did together, it's incredible.
Speaker 3 (21:05):
Yeah, you go back and listen to songs like the
Killing of Georgie or I was only joking.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
I mean, this is one of the best fucking songs
of all time.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
Yeah, I'm not running from Gasoline Alley and only Picture
tells a story through the Rod Stored album.
Speaker 4 (21:19):
It's an incredible run of records right there.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
Yeah, but that's what I was saying.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
It is weird because it's funny when you were just
saying you don't love to cover your favorite like it's
more song based for you.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
I got stuck with.
Speaker 3 (21:31):
Brian Ferry when he did a covers, when he did
a Dylan Covers album, you know, and that was interesting
because he went into just Dylan stuff, you know, the
same thing. Like Brian Ferry with Roxy Music wrote incredible songs,
but you know, he was always seen as a crooner.
So I think in a weird way, it's kind of
a testament to your songwriting that people think of you
(21:52):
as a singer songwriter first.
Speaker 4 (21:55):
Yeah, I know, it's a weird thing. I mean that
Brian Ferry.
Speaker 6 (21:58):
Is a good example too, because like his covers, that
cover of Jealous Guy is fantastic, the Letting cover he
was always but he's such a great singer, you know.
Speaker 4 (22:09):
That's the thing.
Speaker 6 (22:09):
It's like, it was nice to be a singer and
not a songwriter, like to be to just work on
the musical part of my interpretation, like just the musical
part of my skill as opposed to the composer's part
of my skill. That was really enjoyable to me. Like
I loved making that covers album. I thought it was
(22:31):
and I loved that year or two of playing those
songs on tour. I felt like it was such a
it opened the envelope so wide to me.
Speaker 3 (22:44):
Well, it's always interesting too, because when you cover a song,
you again get to be able the nuance in it.
You like, you can hear a song like Jealous Guy
for thirty years and then you cover it and like
I talked to Brian about it because.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
It's a totally different song.
Speaker 3 (22:58):
So for you when you were doing that covers record,
were there songs then that like totally shame for you
and then made you think like, Okay, it'd be really
cool to cover this one just because you can hear
it in a holy way.
Speaker 6 (23:10):
Yeah, I mean that's just kind of what it was.
You hear a song and you'd have an idea, you'd
feel your way into it. That was what we were
looking more than anything else. It was just looking for
if you have a cool way into the song, do
you have a way to make it your own?
Speaker 4 (23:25):
And I think we did a great job on that record.
Speaker 6 (23:28):
That record sounds like a Counting Crows record, even though
nothing on it is written by anyone who Counting Crows,
you know.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
So it was the last song and then we'll come
off with Governspirs This fastinating to me because again, like
being a huge Springsteen fan, that's always one of the
high points of a show is when he covers some
random song that you would never expect him to deal.
So what was the last song that you heard that
was just like God, that would be so much fun
to deal.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I don't know if I thought of any lately. Oh no,
I'm sorry. I had.
Speaker 6 (24:03):
My friend Stephen Kellogg I was we were during the pandemic.
We were doing a like a live stream at Bowery Electric.
He played, and then me and Amber played a bunch
of counting crow stuffing two. His two oldest daughters were
there when he played, and they did this song of
his called Almost Woke You Up? And I just thought, wow, man,
(24:26):
what a great it was a song of his. I
didn't know he was one of my best friends, but
I didn't know this song. And I was like, man,
that is a great song. And you know, a couple
of years later, after the pandemic, we were doing a
tour and he was touring with us, and I said
to him, you know what, we should work up a
version of all Almost Woke You Up and do it
with you and the girls, your daughters and our whole band,
(24:48):
and let's put he was opening for us. I'm like,
let's put it in our encore. So you do your
set and then we'll do our set and in our
encore you come back up on stage with Sophia and
Adeline and will You almost woke you up? And so
we I was like, I heard the song, I thought
this would be so great to cover, and so we
ended up doing that with him, and actually he did
(25:11):
a recording of it that that song is available. He
put it out as a single. It's really good and
it was just this idea I had for like building
out this song into like a full on like Counting
Crows and Stephen Kellogg's song, and it turned out great.
Speaker 4 (25:29):
It's fantastic.
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Well it's funny because that's how you post on your
Instagram at fire Aid gra Cy Abrams did the great
version of A Long December? And are there versions of
other songs you've heard? Are the versions of covers you've
heard other people do of yours that make you then
appreciate the song in a different way?
Speaker 4 (25:48):
If I've heard a lot, I mean Chris Karraba, he
used to do a really cool cover of.
Speaker 6 (25:55):
Angels and the Silences Chris from Bash Bash were Confessional.
Speaker 4 (25:59):
He had a great cover Angel of the Silences.
Speaker 1 (26:02):
I heard uh.
Speaker 6 (26:06):
Sarah Burrows used to play Omaha that I thought was
pretty cool too. I hadn't heard a lot of people
cover us though. I think my songs are kind of weird.
They're they're phrasing so weird on my songs. Maybe people
don't cover.
Speaker 4 (26:22):
Them a lot. I'm not sure. Oh, you know, In
just this past year, m J.
Speaker 6 (26:28):
Lenderman did a great cover of A long December two.
I thought I saw a clip of him playing at like,
what's the place called the peach Bit in in Asheville.
I think it's called I don't know what the name
of that venue is. It's in Ashville, North Carolina, and
he was playing a show there before New Year's.
Speaker 4 (26:48):
And he did a cover of A long December. I
thought it was really good.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, it's funny that you say you feel like the
songs are weird. It's you know, it's always interesting.
Speaker 3 (27:05):
As I started this off, I was saying, we go
back thirty years. Sorry, not making both of us feel old,
but you know, it's interesting when you go back and
hear stuff I've talked about.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
There's so many people.
Speaker 3 (27:15):
You get such a different perspective because thirty years later
you're a different person.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
You've had a whole life. So are there songs of
yours that you go back to now.
Speaker 3 (27:25):
When you think of going back out of a tour
that you're like, all right, I hear that in a
totally different way, or the meaning changes for you, or
you're just like, man, I can't wait to play that
one again, because it's like a new song for me.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
It's almost like somewhat different wrote it.
Speaker 6 (27:40):
Well, I mean, I think the meaning changes every night songs,
and it definitely changes over time, Like my perspective, Mister
Jones is a song about dreaming about being a rock star,
but also about knowing it's not going to turn out
the way you think it is.
Speaker 4 (27:55):
And my perspective on that when.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
I wrote it and recorded it before any of that
had ever happened me is certainly different from how it
is now when I've been actually living that life for
thirty years.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
But I think that's true of all the songs.
Speaker 1 (28:09):
They they.
Speaker 4 (28:11):
Change as you know, as time passes.
Speaker 6 (28:15):
We hadn't played Butterfly and Reverse in twenty years. We
only played it a couple times back in two thousand
and two when Hard Candy came out, and then we
never played it again really, And a few years ago
we started playing that every night, and it's so beautiful.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I love playing it.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
I've probably haven't played it more now in the last
two years than I then in the rest of my
career combined. And yeah, it's a completely refreshing new thing.
I mean that happens with all the songs, you know,
like just because with the exception of Long December, there's
no song I want to play every night, you know
what I mean, Like I get tired, You get tired
(28:57):
of anything. A Long Summer is the only exception to that.
I for some reason never tire of that song. But
everything else you do, and then it, you know, goes
out of the set for a little while, and when
it comes back in, it's great.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
You know, you're excited about playing it. It's it's really fresh.
Speaker 6 (29:14):
That happens all the time, because, especially at this point
in your career.
Speaker 4 (29:18):
We have you know, I don't know how many hundred.
Speaker 6 (29:20):
Songs in catalog or something, and so you're not playing
everything every night, and there are things that you don't
play for years at a time, and.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Sometimes they come back and they seem great.
Speaker 6 (29:31):
And other times they just seem high, like too high
to see.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
But yeah, it's funny that you say there's stuff that
goes out for years.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
I mean, aren't there certain songs like mister Jones around
here that simply if you don't do them, there's fucking
mutiny in the crowd.
Speaker 6 (29:51):
Well, certainly mister Jones. There's been years where we didn't
play it at all. We've been playing it every night
for a while in recent years. It just feels great,
so play it every night.
Speaker 4 (30:08):
Round here.
Speaker 6 (30:08):
I mean, there's definitely been periods where that was in
because there were certain arcs of the set where we
would open with either round Here or Sullivan Street, and
so on the nights when we played Sullivan Street, we
often wouldn't play round Here, just because you know, there's
a lot of songs you want to play. You can't
play too many songs from one album. So you know
(30:33):
you're gonna play mister Jones, if you're gonna play ran King,
and you're gonna play Omaha.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
You know you might not get to.
Speaker 6 (30:44):
Round here if you play here, certainly, but also it
just could be that you just don't feel like it
that day. And the only thing I don't want to
do is start playing songs I don't want to play,
because then it's like you're gonna phone it in, and
I don't want what I want to be more important.
Speaker 4 (31:01):
Than anything else.
Speaker 6 (31:02):
Is great every night and put everything into it, leave
it all on stage every night. So I don't want
to play a song I don't want to play. Also
that'll make you hate that song. And I love my songs,
I really do, so I don't want to ruin them
for myself either by playing them on a night when
I don't feel like it. That's the great thing about
(31:22):
a long December. For some reason, I am just never
tired of it. I always want to play that song,
so you know that's always safe. But yeah, and I
suppose the audience is pissed on the nights we don't
play Mister Jones, but it does happen because our set
list changes every night. We don't make it until usually
(31:43):
after dinner. So you know, I'm not sure what I'm not,
you know, not dead certain.
Speaker 3 (31:52):
What we're going to play Bear, you know, and I
think that makes a great show. I was just curious
because again I from an audience. Unfortunately, Zoom is going
to run out in a few minutes, and before it
runs out, I do have to ask you for the
podcast portion the show is called in service of and
that comes from the idea of you know, musicians giving
(32:12):
back and how that inspires them. Now it inspires their
work and their career. So for you talk about the
importance of giving back and what that means to you
and how you and it's interesting because, you know, and
doing the show, we realized how broad that is. And
for example, when people say a song saved their life,
which I'm sure you've heard many times, that is absolutely
(32:34):
a form of giving back.
Speaker 6 (32:38):
No, I mean, as there's several ways that's always been
really important to me. One is I remember very clearly
struggling as a musician and how hard it was, you know,
and so I wanted to help other musicians.
Speaker 4 (32:53):
You know.
Speaker 6 (32:53):
We I had several independent record companies trying really hard
to expose know, indie musicians.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
For the last how.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
Many years now run an indie music festival Underwater Sunshine
and with my friend Barbara Rockport Barbara Garrett now and
in the years before that, the Outlaw Road Show with
Ryan Spaulding, you know, and you know, we're trying to
like bring exposure to a lot of young artists. It's
(33:27):
free festival. We've always made it free because we want
to do as much as possible to make it as
easy as possible for people to discover young artists. And
the other thing we did was run the Graybird Foundations
for all these years. And the idea behind Graybird was
sort of to get people involved with the idea of
being involved, to show people that it doesn't necessarily have
(33:50):
to be a massive movement like that there are local
organizations doing small things in every town, in every city
to help their community. You know, it doesn't have to
be a national movement to save some bird. You know,
it could just be a group of people in your
town who clean up the park, you know, or who
(34:14):
provide health services to an AIDS clinic or a women's shelter.
Speaker 4 (34:20):
You know that, Like people think that.
Speaker 6 (34:25):
The people can feel really small in the world today
and feel like they can't make a difference because all
the problems are bigger than they are, and kind of
the idea behind gray Bird was to shed light on
local organizations and to kind of show people that there
are people in your town doing things for your town
(34:47):
that make a huge difference in the lives of everyone.
And then it doesn't have to be a massive movement.
It's very easy to make a difference right there in
place you live. That was kind of always the idea
behind Gravers.
Speaker 4 (35:02):
Well, we're just.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
About to run out. Is there anything you want to
add or no.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
I'm really excited about the new record coming out. I'm
excited to go out on Forward
Hosts And Creators
Elvis Duran
Garrett
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