Ear Biscuits with Rhett & Link - Ep. 27 Pomplamoose - Ear Biscuits

Episode Date: April 4, 2014

California-based musical-duo Pomplamoose sits down with Rhett & Link this week to discuss their virtual disappearance after initial viral success, the struggle of cultivating both a healthy personal relationship and business venture simultaneously, how to maintain a balance between playing into the YouTube algorithm and artistic integrity, and why 2014 is "The Year of Pomplamoose." To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This, this, this, this is Mythical. Welcome to Ear Biscuits, I'm Link. And I'm Rhett. It's time for another conversation with someone interesting from the internet. Or someone's, to be specific. That's Pamplemousse, a California-based musical duo consisting of real-life couple Jack Conte and Natalie Dawn. Okay, now, if you are a fan of music and or you are, so am I, or if you like getting inside the brains of musicians, then this ear biscuit is for you. I like to do that too. I'm super excited about this one. I almost went to medical school to

operate exclusively on the brains of musicians. Because they have a lot of money? No, just because I found their brains interesting and I wanted to press on it during surgery so they would make different notes and I could play music through their brains during surgery. I guess all musicians don't have a lot of money. It does get pretty deep in this conversation with Pomplamoose. It doesn't get that deep, though.

There is no brain pressing that happens. Now, here's the thing. We have been fans of Pomplamoose since way back. I'm talking like 2008, the dark ages of the internet. 2008. So when we ran into them at Playlist Live in Orlando,

you know, it was the first time we met them and we were ready to record some ear biscuits at Playlist and so they were the first one. And this wasn't planned. I got to say that we tried to work out a few interviews at Playlist, and so they were the first one. And this wasn't planned. I got to say that we tried to work out a few interviews at Playlist ahead of time, but we just saw Jack and Natalie in the suite.

What was it? The hospitality suite. They were enjoying some of the hospitality, and we said, we got to talk to Papa Moose. Huge fans, and we got to talk to them on Ear Biscuits. And an hour after meeting them, we brought them up to our hotel room and had this conversation. And I got to say, I don't know if we were like fanboying, but there was... I was fangirling.

I had gone beyond fanboying. There was some sort of connection that I felt like we made. So in listening to this Ear Biscuit, I think you can pick up on a friendship blossoming with Papa Moose. So if you don't know them, I'm glad you get to know them along with us in this Ear Biscuit, I think you can pick up on a friendship blossoming with Poplamoo. So if you don't know them, I'm glad you get to know them along with us in this Ear Biscuit. They gained attention through their incredibly creative covers of popular songs. And we're going to play a snippet of one here.

Yeah, this is, I think their most popular video to date. This is their cover of Beyonce's Single Ladies. Okay, so that was their first cover, I think. But they went on to do a lot of other amazing covers, including Michael Jackson's Beat It. They told him, don't you ever come around here Don't wanna see your face, you better disappear The fire's in their eyes and the words are really clear So beat it, just beat it Okay, I think you can tell by listening to that, this is no ordinary cover.

This is not just trying to make a song that sounds exactly like the original. They bring a totally unique musical approach to all their covers. But in addition to that, they do something that we can't display in audio form, and that is the visual approach, what they call video songs. We get into exactly what that is. And we also uncover what I guess I would call a chip on their shoulder surrounding the fact that they built their brand on covers when they are legitimate artists who have original songs, which they want to get out there as well.

Incredible original songs. Let's play a snippet of one. Can you introduce it like a radio DJ? Yeah. Next up, we've got an original from Pomplamoose, a band out of California, If You Think You Need Some Lovin'. And there's more where that came from. Next up, we've got, also from Pomplamoose Hail Mary

My feet were sold to this winding road My feet were sold, baby, long ago Oh Mary, I've left you a pile of dough Under the floorboards near Billy Joe's radio I don't see any reason why we just don't get into this conversation. I hope you're as excited as we are. We also talk about their relationship, why they disappeared from YouTube for a while, and then what their plans are for coming back stronger.

I was especially intrigued, Link, with how they balance their romantic life with their musical relationship. It's really quite an eye-opening thing. Here it is, our Ear Biscuit with Jack and Natalie of Pomplamoose. Qua-chow! Qua-chow! So this is something that you're encountering at this point, though, is lots of messages coming in.

You read some of them. You don't. What about fan mail? It all comes to one spot, which I know we need to designate, split off, and have a separate. Do you have a P.O. box? We do have a P.O. box, yeah. And do you read everything that comes to the P.O. box? No. We don't check the P.O.

box. That's another problem. So the main problem is we live in two different places right now. I just realized we haven't checked our mail since Courtney left. Yeah, it's been like months. Well, they'll shut it down and they'll burn everything. The USPS?

It's actually not a P.O. Right. It's actually not with, it's not a PO box. It's a physical address through UPS. So it's somebody's house? No, it's an actual box, but you get a physical address. It's not a PO box. It costs more, but it still goes to. Because some people don't deliver to PO boxes. Yeah.

Whatever. Oh, okay. As. boxes. Yeah. Whatever. Oh, okay. As interesting as the mail situation is... But you live separately right now. No, we live together. We live together. But you're living in two different places. Yes, because of...

I thought you would be like, no, yeah, I'm doing the solo career thing over here. You're asking if they're a couple. I know that they're a couple. Natalie and I live together in two different places. Sometimes we live where we record in just north of petaluma in sonoma county we live there together we that's where our studio is and then the other half the time we live at the patreon office in san francisco yeah so it's we are splitting time and right now you're you're

split up from each other no we live together live together. That's what I asked. Every night we spend together and every day. A lot of the nights. I understand. And days together. There are a couple, they live together, but there's two different places. That they both live. That we both live together at the same time.

It's pretty simple. You even speak at the same time. That's pretty sweet. Almost eight years, going on eight years together. Really? Well, now, was that like something you kind of had at the forefront right at the beginning of your career? You were like, we're a couple?

Because I remember asking, like, are they a couple? And it was like, no, I don't think so. I think they just sing together. Or friends. I don't know. They're just really good friends. Yeah. That was kind of you to not assume that we were in a relationship because i feel like a lot of people

who they do any sort of collaboration on youtube it's like they're in a relationship you know and it's like and then if and if you're not then everybody's disappointed and they're not gonna buy your itunes single or whatever yeah it's like when I found out that the people from Once weren't really a couple. I ruined it for them. It's heartbreaking. It's bad. How many movies do you watch when you realize that

you thought they weren't actors? They were just acting? I remember thinking that too, though. I do know what you're talking about. Because it was so indie. It was so indie. It had to be real. You thought it was so indie. It was so indie. It was like, had to be real. You thought it was found footage.

Yeah. The whole movie once. With all of its cuts and everything. Documentary. It was dark. You know, how recording studios are. It was a dark, right? First take sounds amazing.

Yeah. Go with it. Yeah, the engineer looks up from his magazine. He's like, wow, these guys are good. That's how it is in a recording studio. Starts messing around with all of this. Right. Now, the projectors.

I want to start with the The last two videos that you guys put out Are both the projector music video things So I want to pick your brain on that Have you patented this? And then go backwards No I've not patented it You should

I'm not sure that it's patentable I think it is I think it should be So you saw that I commented on the Lord Beck Tupac mashup one. Yeah. And I was just so excited. When I saw it, I was like, this is great.

This is amazing. And I was like, okay, it's already got 2 million views. And I was like, no, it doesn't. It hadn't broken a million views yet. So I was like. Still hasn't. It's the least I can do. And so I was actually frustrated for you guys, being a longtime fan.

We're both longtime fans. Yeah. For that one in particular to be so innovative in this particular projector type way, I was like, oh, this is another big one. So I was going to do my little part and comment, but... Now you regret commenting because it turns out it wasn't a big one. But you did... Well, I mean, it's approaching a million views and you did a you did a sequel you've done another one well i think there are a couple things going on for you right what's the

thought process and kind of doing the projectors yeah well so you know first of all pomplamoose is like getting back into the swing of it after not being a channel for like two years yeah um and you know we we took some time to like pursue solo projects and pomplamoose was like this thing that we did for fun and then it became the most successful thing that either one of us were involved with and then it felt like a burden because we felt like we had to keep it going and it was it it stopped being fun at a point the burden of artistry it it was it got to be a point it got to be uh we need to take this to the next level and we need to work with a manager and we need to make a hit song and right and it was just like and then we just we got sick and tired and depressed and we just took a break from it

because it was too it's too much we we psyched ourselves out so we're just getting back into it now and um so that's why i sort of don't feel bad it's like okay there's like two videos and we'll keep doing more and you know we'll make a bunch and maybe and maybe uh as we make more you know they feed on each other like the more you release the better the previous ones do and so as we release more of the you know those those other ones are gonna i'm sure, continue to do better. So was the, did the projector idea kind of light a spark to reinvigorate your channel? Or did you have a spark that this was the first application of it? Well, we've been working on recording.

We have probably about eight songs right now that we haven't released. Like the video as well? No, not the video as well, but just music. So deciding to get back into Pomplamoose was a hurdle in and of itself because we wanted Pomplamoose to be fun again. And there are so many things that get in the way of something being fun. So we were trying not to plan too far ahead to just make it about the music. And so we went back in, we recorded these several songs for the last few months, and then decided that it was time to

start putting stuff out. And the best way to put stuff out when you've been out of the loop for a while is to buy a bunch of projectors buy a bunch of project actually one project one projector yeah yeah okay you've been watching okay well you cover i didn't let you finish you do a cover is like you know it's that's that's... Right. That's because otherwise people aren't going to notice that you put out an original. So you start by putting out covers, and so we're going to slowly start putting out originals with those covers as well.

But the projector part of it, how did that come about? So that was an accident, yeah. So on my solo channel, I had been working with... So EDM is a very difficult thing to make, to do live. I don't even know what it stands for. Electronic dance music. Really? Yeah.

That's intuitive. You're wondering if I'm joking? I was actually looking at you like, I was not joking. I did know that. And if I know something, he feels free to not know it. I mean, I have space in my brain for something else. That's amazing. And that one doesn't seem like it would have taken up much space. Not sure how you got through 2013 without knowing what EDM was. The thing is we've had this discussion. I've explained it to him before.

I didn't believe you it seemed too simple. Okay. Right? Yeah. Okay okay so it's a difficult thing electronic dance music it's a difficult thing to uh to do live right so how do you bring it to youtube how do you create a live performance experience of electronic dance music the thing is uh it takes thousands of hours to craft those sounds they can't be produced live. I mean, I record a guitar and then I manipulate the crap out of it until it growls and screeches and grunges and has sub bass and is layered with other things. And there's a million. And it's impossible to show that like Pop'n Moose would show video songs, right? Like we would do.

Piano, bass. So I, you know, I wanted to do have some kind of video where the audio where the visuals wasn't the sound that was being made, but rather it was a visual representation of that sound. It made your brain go, ah, that's the same thing. So if it's a wobble bass, then you see a line kind of wobbling with the bass or you see flashes of lights and boxes at certain times so that there was some kind of synesthetic you know correlation between the sound and the video so i was experimenting with projectors and lighting things and one time i held up my hand because i was going to i was using a projector and i went hold up my hand to to grab something and my face got projected on my palm you're like oh and i was like whoa and I moved my hand forward and there was my face and I did this. No, and it was just cool to see the rest of the image behind my hand. Why were you projecting your face in the first place? I was projecting my face because I was projecting myself onto a screen.

I built a screen and I was playing a launchpad in front of the screen. And so I was projecting my face onto the screen and then I went to grab the launchpad and boom, there's my face. And I thought, wow, that's cool to see multiple dimensions with one projector. And then I held up a white card and my face popped and was really clear now. And then I put up a couple cards and just, just literally just white cards, like note cards and put them up at various depths and then dragged around images in Final Cut pro until they were on the cards that's a good feeling right when you discover something like that oh wow it was so cool looking it was so cool it's just to and you know to move around and see these things in three dimensions and then it was just

kind of snowballed from there it's like one video after the next just okay now more techniques more techniques more ideas so you were doing them on your your personal channel yes the projector yeah oh okay i haven't seen any of those yeah i gotta check those out yeah those have way over a million views really yeah really okay and what your personal channel is uh is is just my stuff just jack conti music yeah my solo stuff yeah got it yeah it's more like angry like edm like yeah kind of stuff hardcore like electro okay so so that was working on your channel so you brought it back over to go with this mashup that you guys yeah the pamplemousse channel to reinvigorate it yeah okay so it's kind of so it's kind of a proven thing that it's not it's not just two of them there's a lot of them on your channel that have gone viral yeah okay you guys kind of own

i mean kind of own that concept as far as i can tell i haven't i don't know if anybody's emulated it but i definitely one of the things we struggle with is thinking about innovating and doing things that people haven't done before and i think it was much easier to do that in 08 or 09. But now you're like, oh, that's been done. That's been done. It's kind of rare to find something that's that innovative, that cool, works that well. And that simple. Yeah.

It's like, oh, surely someone has done this before, right? No, they haven't. And it's just, it's amazing right there is projection mapping like people do projection mapping but it uses a lot of math and special software i haven't seen people like just drag shit around and not like use mapping software to make it perfect i think what's cool about the you know the the projection videos that we've done is that they're they they look kind of bad does that make sense like it look homemade-ish yeah you can tell that it's there's there's no fancy software or fancy know-how it's just it's just dragging stuff around

in final cut i mean you can see how it's made it's still got that very internet-y quality to it which charm yeah and you're actually drawing attention to how you do the technique so that people can appreciate it more. Right, exactly. And I mean, if we shift over to the video songs, I mean, you guys certainly innovated on that front as well in terms of coming up with that, which there were rules involved in making a video song. So take me back through those. And take me back through the concept of where you came up with that. Is this a collaborative part of it?

Do you guys work on the music together? And then one of you is geeking out more about how we transfer this into a video? How does that work? And where did the video song idea come from? It was Jack's idea. I could talk about it,? It was Jack's idea. I could talk about it, but it was Jack's idea. Is that kind of a division between you two

that you're taking more of the, okay, this is how we're going to do this music video, geeking out on that kind of thing? Is that more your thing? So I have a film background. Okay. But Natalie, she edited all the video songs. She all the editing oh really okay yeah on almost every single one of them um so uh but not for the projection videos uh i haven't done i haven't edited those but i did edit

almost all the the old pomplamoose videos okay yeah so you came up with the split screen the video concept a video song concept yeah so with so subject to certain rules yeah okay so so are you guys familiar with uh dogma shoot oh i can't remember don't remember the numbers there was a group of filmmakers in the 60s who got sick of Hollywood productions. Okay. And they came up with this set of rules that you have to shoot on location. You have to use direct sound. You can't overdub. And they just wanted something that was more real.

They just wanted something that was more organic and more like life and less like fake art. And, uh, I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that, but I like the idea of coming up with rules and constraints and parameters to help you be creative. And, and for us, the trouble was, okay, you know, here's our stuff on myspace and it gets three plays a day this is 2007 right so we're like nothing's happening on myspace and uh we're desperately trying to you know make music for a living and and we have all these songs and we need to figure out a way to convert somebody sends me a link to a guy who on youtube who's got 350 000 hits and he's singing in front of a webcam playing guitar and it's like like, what? You know, he's got an okay voice. It's not great. Okay. Guitar. Not great. It's like, why are we putting our songs on MySpace? We need to be putting our songs on YouTube. So how do we convert music to video where people are? Right. And so for me, the video song

was like a function. It was like an equation that converted music to video. And this sounds shitty. I don't mean to sound shitty when I say it this way, but it required not very much creativity to do. It wasn't it wasn't. It didn't take creative juice to make each video. We just would go in the studio and make the audio. And once the audio was made, the video kind of followed. Natalie did an amazing job editing, but it wasn't that we had to come up with a creative concept for every single music video.

Because you had rules. Yeah. And what were the rules? The rules were no lip syncing for instruments or voice. If you see it in the video, that's the take that you're actually hearing. So when you see Natalie singing, those are the takes that we used in the audio. And the second rule is no hidden sounds, no hidden sounds. So, so if you hear something in your earphones, at some point you, you saw it in the video.

So there's not every time it occurred, but at some point, you showed people what was happening. In other words, we're not hiding stuff from you. Like, you get to see how the music is actually happening as it's actually recorded.

Because I can tell you, when Beyonce records, she doesn't do it in heels and full makeup. She's in that sound booth in a freaking sweater, you know, with a bottle of water next to her,

and she probably looks like crap. Right? I mean, so... Well, as much like crap as Beyonce can. As Beyonce can, right, exactly. So she looks amazing. Are you saying I look like crap? Answer the question.

I think it's a fair question. No, you do not look like crap. You always look amazing. No. Because you're amazing. No. Now you guys can't run ads over this. I just sang a Brunar Mars song. We're good. We won't tell them. No. Now you guys can't run ads over this. I just sang a Brunar Mars song.

We're good. We won't tell them. Nope. Actually, Bruno's the guy who runs ads over this for us. Oh, okay. He's our ad guy. It's a side job. His name is Bruno Mars.

So was the, was this, I like the sort of the anti-feeling of the philosophy because there's so much that is faked on the internet and even lip-syncing videos. At the time that you guys were really breaking out, I mean, lip-syncing videos were still a big thing on YouTube. Was there a part of this that's like, oh, this is a great opportunity. I see that YouTube is a great platform, but we want to do it differently than it's being done.

Was that really sort of the philosophical approach? Definitely. There's some of that. And then there's also just some of the feeling that I enjoy when I see art is I can do that as opposed to I'll never be able to do that. Right. Like when I listen to a band who's just cloaked behind marketing and and sort of unattainable veils, I feel like I'll never that's something I'll never be able to achieve. They're perfect. They're on a cloud making perfection and letting the world listen to it. Right. And I'll never be a part of that. And I don't want people to feel like that when they listen to our art. I want them to feel like, wow, I could do that. I feel like that's a more inspiring feeling. That's a feeling that I appreciate when I see art that I like is a

feeling of empowerment as opposed to belittlement. I remember the first time that I heard Nirvana, it was actually seeing the music video for Smells Like Teen Spirit. And I remember my reaction was, I can do that. Something about the way that it was presented and the way that it sounded was very, the first time that I understood music as something that I could emulate. Now, I actually couldn't, but I was under the illusion that I could.

And I think that was, at least for me, that was something that was exciting that kind of drew me in. I also think I can do what you guys can do, but I can't. No, because I can safely say that I don't think that anything that you've ever seen in one of our videos

is what you're hearing. I can safely say that I don't think that anything that you've ever seen in one of our videos is what you're hearing. I can safely say that we haven't followed that philosophy. Because I'm just thinking about how much footage you've got to deal with. Well, with the number of takes that we have to do to sing something. Right, yeah, yeah. It would just be way too much footage and too much time. I mean, it's frustrating enough for us to just go through the audio takes alone to add... I don't want to see myself struggling to hit that note.

Yeah, no, well, so I'm just wondering how you guys kind of keep it so fun and just light and... Because I know behind the scenes and this is this is like a challenge for us like i know there's contracts and like negotiations business and lots of business and you know growing the channel and right and and okay more content and like right there's all those pressures and and then yet when you tune in, it's funny and silly, and how the F do you do that? Well, it's funny because you guys, I think, kind of remind me of Julian Smith.

You know, he's a YouTuber, a friend of ours who makes some incredible— Yeah. He's— It sounds familiar. I can't say it. He makes some incredible YouTube videos, but he is— Comedy comedy sketches that look amazing he's very much a filmmaker and he's very methodical he's i would say a perfectionist incredible artist so that everything that he does is is great and that's how i see what you guys do it comes from an artistic conviction that if there's not something struck within him that i hear you kind of articulate

that there's a chord within your you as an artist that has to be struck for you to continue to create right like we talked to him on air biscuits and one of the things he said was that there was a time when he kind of like last year he sort of stopped making videos because he felt like he was just like he didn't have anything great to do on YouTube anymore. And now he's kind of back, but he took this break. And we were talking about how- So what we're saying is we don't have that cord. No, I guess what I'm saying is,

I feel like we're so practical. Not that we, I mean, I would say, are we artists? Do we create? Yes, we technically do that. But we're so practical that we've kind of created this, like this is what we do Monday through Friday. We come into our studio. We are going to get this, this, and this done.

I mean, we have engineering degrees. Both of us have engineering degrees. So we don't come from a very informed artistic background. I think some of that, there's just this very practical approach. I mean, sometimes we get ready to record our morning show, mythical morning and we are not in a good mood but we're like this show is needs to be a bright spot in people's day so let's center ourselves and let's it's not that we're acting but it's just like for this show even if i'm worried about this thing for this show i'm doing this we're going to be happy we're going to make each other laugh and and that kind of thing

yeah so i think it's just it's just a very practical approach that we just we're going to make each other laugh and that kind of thing. So I think it's just a very practical approach that we just, we're not artistic enough. Honestly, I would say we're not artistic enough to get to the point where we would ever come to the conclusion like, oh, I, you know, this doesn't feel right, so I'm going to take a break. That's just. Well, I mean, you know, we've got a lot of, we've got families and there's a lot more at stake when there's other people that's true um so that's kind of a trump card but we also try to do other things at the same time that can

be in a new creative challenge like doing ear biscuits for us i'm not acting in any way i'm legitimately interested in you know who you guys are and where you're coming from and what you've created because i'm a fan so for me this is kind of this is a creative outlet whereas you know who you guys are where you're coming from and what you've created because i'm a fan so for me this is kind of this is a creative outlet whereas you know maybe 15 of the time doing good mythical morning every single weekday for us is something that uh i have to access something that i'm not feeling at the time so there's you, you know, it's, it's performing. Right. But it's not, so it's, it's creating in the moment, but it's not creating a whole album out of obligation. I certainly don't think we could do that. And I wouldn't expect any great

artist to do that. You know, you hear about people under contracts, I got to give Columbia Records another album. Like, does that answer your question? Totally. We're not half the artists you are. Right. Does that answer your question? Totally. We're not half the artists you are, and that's why we're talking to you. I beg to differ. But I want to find out, you know, we don't have time to hear each of your entire life's story, but I want to find out the point in which your lives intersected and maybe some things that you think contributed to which we can kind of get into this

the mentality that you have you know this this i would say it's a it's a pure artistic mentality that you bring to things that you would adopt a formula to bring to your your your work on youtube and just as musicians in general i want to kind of find out what contributed to that yeah uh so how did you guys meet yeah well uh we were going to the same university and uh which was freshman stanford stanford i've heard of it and um um so i was a freshman and jack was a senior rob in the So we've got a four-year discrepancy here. No, it's actually three because I was kind of early and she was kind of, yeah. Okay. I kind of redid a grade when I moved to France.

Different story. You moved to France to redo a grade so people wouldn't be like, oh, look at her, she's held back. I'm going to go to France to do that grade again. Yeah, I want to do this in French and see how different it is. Third grade in France was a little bit different. Is that how it was? It was.

When you go to France, you start talking like this. But it was... Okay, so you went to... You did fifth grade in America and you did fifth grade again in France. Yes, I did, and most people don't know that. Which one's better? Well, France was less comprehensible for me because I didn't speak French.

Probably. So that was why I would—any class I didn't understand. First of all, nobody spoke English in the whole school, and I didn't speak French, and it was a little country school where they would ring the bell to start classes. And anytime I couldn't understand what was happening in the lesson, they'd be like, Natalie, why don't you go spend time with the kindergartners and learn how to like write cursive and like play with puppets. And so that was my second fifth year was hanging out with French kindergartners. And then I learned French, and then everything was great.

Everything changed. And then later on, I met Jack at Stanford. Did you stay in France with your parents? Yeah, my parents were missionaries. And so I was in France and Belgium from 10 to 18. And then... Okay. Wow.

The formative years. Yes. What flavor missionary are we talking about here? Pentecostal Evangelical. Okay. Pentecostal Evangelical. What flavor missionary are we talking about here? Pentecostal Evangelical. Okay. Pentecostal Evangelical. What flavor is Salsa Picante Missionaries? What flavor? I would say

I thought that was like a some sort of Dorito. I didn't mean it in a derogative way. Cool Ranch Missionaries. Cool Ranch Missionaries. Coconut Lime Missionaries. Coconut lime missionaries. Okay, I was just trying to

I was trying to characterize it in a way that was like, there's positivity. I didn't want to add defensiveness. No. What flavor? It's more like, oh, what flavor? It's like a positive flavor. Yeah.

Cool ranch. I enjoy this flavor? It's like a positive flavor. Yeah. Cool ranch. I mean, that's what's good. I enjoy this flavor. This surprising flavor in my mouth. Right, spice of life kind of a thing. And so then at some point you decided. And I would say that Pentecostal, I would call that. A little spicy.

Spicy. A little spicy. You never know. It might reach out and bite you. It might. It might. But you'll be okay. It might.

If it's a snake, you'll be okay. So now we're... Are we on the right track here? We're a little bit off track So you were snake... Your parents were snake handling. Snake handling. We're in really a good place.

Okay. French snake handlers. Got it. So Stanford. So then, yeah. So then we met there. I was I was opening for his band

And he walked in And saw me Playing the bass And singing As Like solo? Solo I

You know This is college So just picture me Playing a bass He didn't have a chance With somebody On the drum day And

It was over Yeah I literally Itambé. It was over. I literally, it was kind of smoky, foggy in there. Oh, wow. And there's this tall, beautiful girl on stage with this huge bass. A bass. And just like... So not a stand-up bass, an electric bass. No, no, no.

It was an electric bass. Yes, yes, sorry. Yes, it was an electric bass. And yes, yes, sorry. Yes, it was an electric bass. And... I would play chords on it. I literally like, we locked eyes and I literally like was looking at her for like four seconds.

She was just looking at me. She does this thing when she plays where her head is tilted down. She like looks. She's looking at me and it was like one of those things where like I tripped over stuff and still like kept eye contact.

And then leaned over to my ex-boyfriend. Right. Who I didn't know was an ex-boyfriend. You didn't know was an ex-boyfriend. Wow. And said, who's that? Who is that? He was like, that's Natalie Dawn.

Her kisses are like jazz. I swear to God he said that to me. He said that really? Yeah. Oh my goodness. Oh, it was pretty funny. So this was a relationship that you had ended? Yeah. Oh, my goodness. Oh, it was pretty funny. So this was the relationship that you had ended. Yeah.

Because he's still showing her kisses were like jazz. Yeah, that was funny. Wow. That's amazing. I actually didn't know he said that. Mm-hmm. But I can totally believe it. And what were you singing?

Just a girl with a bass alone singing what? Johnny Cash? Well, no, no. I don't know why I said Johnny Cash. They were all originals. They were all things that I'd written. I figured out when I was actually about 18 that whenever I was writing songs, I was hearing intertwining melodies.

And so I asked my parents if they would get me a bass guitar because I w I wasn't really hearing chords so much as melodies. And so the, I would play sort of meandering melodies and the, so the vocal melody would sort of cross with the bass melody. And, and, and you do it do you do this the same style in your solo stuff now um no not not really um but a bass is a really important way of how jack and i write together yeah we basically natalie will often write a melody in a bass line and i just kind of fill in the holes yeah not really i wouldn't put it that way. That's often one way we write those. I feel like a lot of the times what happens is you write a really cool chord progression and have an idea for a melody and say, okay, now write a really cool bass line. Just write a bass line.

And then you sort of alter what you wrote to fit around the bass line. Is this an argument right now? No, I think we agree. I think we agree. Do you guys have arguments? And how heated do they get? Heated. Really?

Quantify that. We never raise our voices. We never raise our voices or throw things or anything. Never, never raise voices. Never yell at each other. But we do make each other sad sometimes. We do, yeah. As couples do, right?

That's a nice way to put it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Do you flee each other's presence? Like, I mean, my wife and I, when we, we've kind of fixed it for the most part. But early on in our relationship, we would have these knock-down, drag-out fights, which would mean she would run into the garage

and lock me out so I couldn't get to her anymore to have more of an argument. Wow. I would be trying to fix it, and she would be trying to process. Dang. That's pretty intense. That's what we do.

That is intense. She's like, just go away. Let me figure this out. You guys don't do that anymore. No, we don't. She doesn't sequester herself. It's not as heated. It's more, let's just talk this out.

Talk about it, yeah. We have cycles of upsetting each other too. Things that we've had to sort of break the cycle when we get into an argument. Like I'd say something that would unintentionally upset Jack. And then he would get frustrated at me. And then I would ask him why he was upset. And then he would say why he was upset.

And I'd apologize and be like, oh, I didn't mean to upset you. I hold grudges. And then he would, he wouldn't get over it. And then I would get angry at him for still being upset with me for something that I didn't mean to upset him about. Especially after you apologized. After I had apologized for unintentionally upsetting him. She's totally in the right here, by the way. I'm a jerk.

I was like very willing to admit, like, Natalie is the better person here. Like, absolutely. It takes me a little while to forgive. I don't know what that is, but I hold on to it. I just, I have emotional inertia. It just takes a while to like, to breathe out of me. Right. Yeah.

So I just have to give him a space and not, I have to not get angry at him for still processing everything, but he's gotten a lot better at like processing things faster. Because of you, because, because I'll do something really dickish and then I'll realize how much of a jerk I am. And I'll say I'm sorry. And you'll say, that's okay. I know you love me. And then you're like happy and chipper and talking about 30 Rock. And I'm like, what the F?

I was a dick. Why are you mad at me? Because I would be like mad at you for like a day. Yeah. Okay, so. And all of this came out in that first meeting, I assume. Right, yeah. So the kisses taste like jazz.

Where do you go from there? You're like, I gotta get some jazz. Right? Yeah, I mean, so what happened next? We dated for a couple of years and we didn't really collaborate on music because that's kind of like the kiss of death for a relationship. Well, we started by collaborating on music and it didn't work.

And then we broke up. Right. And then we got back together and we're like, no more music. And together, not separately, we could do music, but we weren't collaborating on it. And you were still at Stanford and you had graduated. Yes. And what were you doing at the time? I was doing a couple things.

I started off right after I graduated, I started off as an SAT tutor. Not really proud of that. Then I started working as doing background music for Google, actually. I was an in-house composer and did directed videos and things for them, for their in-house video production department. Really? Yeah. And they offered him... Because you had a degree in film?

Yeah. Well, I didn't have a degree in film. I had a degree in music. Okay. But I was actually going to go to film school after college i got in i was ready to go and then i see film school at the very last minute i didn't go because uh i was in a pop band and i wanted to to do music so i i did not compromise the other different band a different band and were you studying music also no i was i wasn't planning on being a musician i was uh

i don't know what I was planning on being, but I was definitely planning on doing something that made money and where I could actually have an income. But you didn't have a plan? What was the major? Well, I was majoring in art and mastering in French literature at the same time and don't really know what I was planning on doing with that i think i was just planning on getting two degrees right and then doing something that was not related to either right okay but yeah so so then what you guys your music broke up your relationship was

more important so you did music separately it's kind of a hobby you were kind of doing the the music job thing but yeah and then jack started posting some of his stuff on youtube um or myspace first i thought you said right yeah yeah myspace first but then youtube when did you start? 2007, I started uploading videos to YouTube. And at that point, he thought that it would be really good for me to have a YouTube channel too. So he produced my first song for me. But you had made the decision just as a couple, we're not going to collaborate on music because that was devastating the first time. Right. Right.

Yeah. And then what was it that made us start working on music together i think it was the response to that video yeah what was the first video you're talking on on her channel that with the song you produced yeah we ended up posting it on my channel okay um because i had more subscribers at the time and we wanted to get people over. To my channel. Yeah. Yeah. And all my subscribers said like, you know, Jack, really like your music, man, but this is really good. It was like, no offense, Jack, but this is like, we like this. And what was the song?

But you were not in it. No, no, no. I was in it. He was playing all of the instruments it was like a video but natalie was singing and you were but you kind of saw it as i'm a i'm like a producer and i'm playing some instruments and yeah it was and i'm in the video a little but it's her video for her thing i just kind of did some production on it right and it but this was an original uh so this was one of my originals.

This was it sort of at the end of producing it, though, we felt we both felt like it would be weird to call it a Natalie Dawn song because I had messed it up so much or not messed it up, but made it just something else. There was a lot of Jack in it. There was a lot of Jack in it. Yeah. And and so so we we when we posted it, we didn't even have a band name, right? No, we didn't have a band name until we wrote our first song together. Right. Which happened, I guess, about a month later. You were in my dorm room and you were playing the guitar.

And I just started singing over, I sang a melody over the guitar line that he was playing. And he said what's that and i said i don't know i just sang something and he was like well keep going and so and then we wrote our first song together and posted that so it happened very naturally it wasn't like all right let's have a meeting are we going to collaborate it was just like no just keep playing that i'll keep singing but we And it kept doing better than either of our solo projects. I think the way we rationalized it was that it was a side project. It wasn't either of our main focus. Then it started really taking off and we weren't super prepared for that.

What were the mechanics of that? Like what song or video really popped for Pamplemousse? Well, when I... And why did you call it Pamplemousse, by the way? Because we didn't care. If we would have cared. No, it's true. I mean, a friend of mine got back from France and we were talking about learning French.

And she told me that the funniest French word that she'd learned while she was there was pamplemousse, which means grapefruit. And and I thought, oh, yeah, that is a really weird word. And then the next day, Jack and I were like, yeah, let's I guess we should have a band name. What do you think about pamplemousse? Oh, yeah, that's good, I guess. There were no other suggestions for a band name. There was not a single other suggestion. So we just went with Pomplamoose. I got the URL, and we were Pomplamoose.

I mean, it's a good band. It's fabulous. I'm totally cool with it. It has an animal in it before all the hipster bands had animal names in their bands right yes it does it does um i'm i'm happy with the name too but it was an accident and it it was totally an afterthought um and uh what popped single ladies single ladies yeah that was the first one okay that was it yeah we. Yeah. We had 500,000 views overnight

in 2009 when that was a lot of views. Yeah. Right. We went from 10,000 to 50,000 subscribers in three months. Yeah. A couple. And was that, um, you know, a lot of people that we, we talked to, we get the impression that they sort of were kind of studying YouTube and kind of figuring out what would work. And they're like, Oh, well, if oh well if we do this this is gonna like what was the thought process behind saying we're gonna do this we're gonna cover single ladies yeah we produce a record for a an incredible singer-songwriter that i love named julian noones and uh and i was one day into youtube i just typed the beatles and her video popped up before any Beatles videos. And I was like, what? Yeah. What is happening here? And you already knew her. I did know her.

You're like, that's Julia is the Beatles result. Yeah. And that's when I started learning about SEO and started thinking about covering songs. And again, this like people were covering songs back then, but not like people are covering songs back then but not like people are covering songs now i mean now like people just go through the itunes top 10 and they just crank them out like we week after week in 2009 people were not doing that like cover songs was not a method like nobody was doing that um there were some people who were covering pop songs but they weren't like itunes top 10 it was like, what songs do I like? Oh, yeah. I like this Mariah Carey song.

Right. And this old Bella Flex song. And, oh, here's a new one. And I like the one that just came out on the radio. I'll do that one. And then, you know, so it wasn't systematized. It wasn't calculated pandering to get views. And now it very much is.

And, you know, I guess I feel bad about that. We are partaking in that. Yeah. I don't know. See, I feel like it's so important to be innovative and try something different. And yet the system is optimized for SEO, right? It's like we all know how the algorithms work. Yeah.

And ignoring it is honestly just shooting yourself in the foot. Like it really is. So I'm not, I haven't figured out a way around it yet. I would love to. But yeah, it feels like panic. But you found a way. I mean, not only with the fact the video format of the video song being this innovative creative expression, being this innovative creative expression but you found a way to do a cover of Beyonce or Michael Jackson or whoever the case may be that is very much uniquely your voices you're the the pomplamoose

sound that I think that you know I mean I guess that was calculated but i mean that maybe that's the redemptive aspect of it for you guys from an artist's perspective yeah we don't take a song and and not you know think about how to re-harmonize and restructure it and and present it in a different way exactly yeah we usually take one element of the song and then ditch everything else. Right. So we'll like take just the melody or just a chorus sometimes, or we'll combine pieces of songs that we like the chorus of this with the verse of that because they would work nicely together or the chords of this song with the verse melody of that's right.

So yeah, we usually just like take something and then we strip everything else away. And I guess that makes it feel a little bit more uh creative yeah i totally yeah i mean i definitely when you talk about it i see that just what we talked about that the pure artistic approach uh that pure artists in each one of you kind of has this like hesitancy that i i wish we didn't have to do a cover song i wish we could just do the original things but at the same time Like you feel like you're apologizing almost even here. But in... And I feel like to kind of go back to the differences,

like the way that we think about it, I think there is... We definitely talk about how we want to be innovative. We don't want to do something that somebody else has done. But we definitely sit around and think like, if you want to stay in this YouTube thing, you have to look at those patterns, and you have to adapt, and you have to...

Some people just flat out just game the system. Just game it. And we don't want to do that. It's an arms race, man. But you have to take into account the reality. But the cool thing about what you guys do is you're like, man, that was so... There was something so innovative about that cover

that wasn't just a typical cover and it immediately draws you into the band and the originals you know it kind of moves you into that experience like what else have these guys done because i can tell that they can write songs just because you know i can tell that there's something else going on here this isn't just somebody who has a producer good cover band yeah a good voice yeah thank you and i would go beyond that it's like we're i think we're trying to convince you guys not to be ashamed of what you're doing you should be proud this is you know you guys are doing great i would go a step further and say that i mean you guys if it wasn't for what you did, I mean, you look at the walk off the earth of the YouTube space now. I think them being some of the, you know, the foremost, most successful in that way of, OK, we're taking this cover, but we're doing it in this extremely creative expression of it.

You know, I haven't talked to them about you guys, but I have to assume that they wouldn't be here if it wasn't for you guys innovating in that way. I think that it's inspired people to be creative. And there may be some gaming the system to it or working within the system, but also doing that subject to your own convictions, so to speak. I think it's funny how many sort of versions of the metaphor there really are for the combination of gaming and true artistic creativity. Just even in music, when Natalie and and i write music we think of a combination

of uh tension and release right so like chords that sound nice and chords that sound a little like they're not settled yet and then they settle and that's nice and like having a balance of in and out and tension and release and gaming the system and not gaming the system and you know being creative and following the algorithm, you kind of have to apply in and out to every aspect of your business and your creativity. Because if you're 100% pure artist about it and you don't at least acknowledge the system,

then you write beautiful songs that nobody ever hears yeah and um and that's like one thing that we're figuring out trying to figure out how to cope with is like okay we feel like a little bit ashamed but at the same time we you know we want people to hear our music because we're proud of it you you know? And so, so we feel like we owe it to ourselves to, to take advantage of the things that we know how to do. Has anyone ever confronted you? You know, you seem to have this defensive stance, but have you heard that from anybody? Totally. Really? Yeah. Like besides the comments, because I mean, I'm talking about like in face to face. It's mostly when we get lumped into the category of bands on YouTube.

Oh, yeah. Bands do great covering songs on YouTube, but nobody can actually sell originals. Right. No, like none of them are actually songwriters. They're just cover bands. You know, and then the list. YouTube cover artists. YouTube cover artists.

Sensation. Oh, really? Pomplamoose. Yeah. Like that whole media thing that. Yeah. Yeah. And the truth is, like, our original songs have just as many or more hits as some of our covers do.

Right. It's not, you know, it's just that, you know, people know us for the covers, and that's our own fault, right? We made the covers. Was that part of the, would you call it a burnout, like that you guys experienced? And when was that and what led to it? And was part of it like feeling like, oh, hamsters in a wheel.

If you want to do this, you have to play this game. And what led to the burnout? Oh, my gosh. So many things led to the burnout. It's really hard to just... Just pick out the juiciest, most personal aspect of it and tell us about that. Juiciest, most personal aspect of it? What would that be?

Yeah, toss it back to her. Is it what you're actually thinking of? I can think of a couple of pretty Go for it One of them, okay One of them was that both Jack's So Jack's mom and my dad had cancer And were really sick

And we were spending a lot of time dealing with cancer. And the idea of writing fun pop material just wasn't really speaking to either of us. We were having trouble. And we even kind of associated Pomplamoose with the illness in a lot of ways. It was, it got, I don't know, it was just, that's probably the darkest element of it. What do you mean, associated it with the illness? I think because Jack's mom liked Pomplamoose so much,

she loved the band so much, and then her loss just sort of made it difficult to, um, I guess, uh, appreciate the success of the band. She was also sick for a long time. So I, I've spent three years at, you know, at, at her house. Um, you know, and there, there's also an element of, sorry, it's getting pretty heavy. This is some heavy, heavy stuff here, but, um here. But, you know, I don't regret the choice that I made of being there and being with my family. And for three years, everything else kind of stopped, you know. And I don't regret that. I'm happy that we did that.

But I couldn't, I didn't do much else in that time period. And I feel really guilty about being angry about that too. Not to turn this into a therapy session, but like I feel bad that that frustrates me. Right. And all of that then gets wrapped in with Pomplamoose because like i wasn't able to do pomplamoose i wasn't out able to come out with videos weekly i had to be somewhere else and then i start feeling guilty that that makes me angry and all of that is wrapped inside pomplamoose and it yeah it imploded on itself. So that was like 2010, 11, and 12, or 11, 12, 13? 9, 10, and 11.

Okay. And both of you guys were going through that? 8, 9, 10. 8, 9, 10. Okay, really? 8, 9, 10. 8, 9, 10. So pretty much right when it was getting started.

Right when it was getting started, yeah. Okay. And you were both going through that with a parent. That's what you said, right? Yeah. My dad's illness happened. They were overlapping, but a little bit later, and it wasn't quite as severe as Jack's mom's illness.

But, yeah, we were both struggling with that. And also the Pomplamoose business had been something that Jack was primarily running and that I wasn't really taking the reins for during all of this. And so that was frustrating as well. I think you feeling like you were trying to pull the whole thing and that we hadn't really divided up roles successfully. Yeah. And that's something that took a bit of time to figure out.

And now... It's a little better, but we still have different... I'm a total workaholic and I just work all the time. And Natalie loves quality of life and at five likes to relax and cook dinner and watch a TV show. And that's something I really need to do and we do. It does make the dynamic interesting and tough, you know? And, and like, that's something that we talk about all the time is like, is, is our, our, cause I think kind of what I do is almost unhealthy, you know, but,

but at the same time, I feel, you know, like we, like we got to, I don't know. time I feel, you know, like we, like we got to, I don't know. Yeah. I feel like we've, we've somehow managed to find some sort of a balance. It's good now. I feel like it works really well now. It's gotten so much better, but it took several years of us figuring out our relationship, um, and sort of re actually rebuilding our relationship after jack's mom passed and and like oh you know before we could actually have a successful business on top of the relationship we had to have a strong relationship and now i feel like that now we're there Pomplamoose can take off again. And do you feel that, do you feel now that, you know, moving forward or now that your musical careers are more defined by Pomplamoose than they are your individual careers separately? For sure. Yeah. I mean, Pomplamoose is the, yeah, no one knows my solo stuff. I mean, your solo stuff was taking off pretty nicely last year.

Still, though, people know me as half of Pomplamoose. They don't, yeah. But do you feel a need to, for all the reasons that you said earlier, to maintain the solo career because that keeps things healthier? It's a separate outlet. Yeah, it's a different sort of expression. Yeah, I think that there's probably a good chance that Pomplamoose will always sort of take breaks.

It's healthy to have other outlets of expression and to not always be working together. Right now we're in a phase where we're really excited to be working together. But, you know, after putting out an album and going on tour three times, we might be ready to just sort of like go back to our separate studios and have dinner together but like not be working so closely together every day. And we both kind of understand that and feel it out and um i think it was fortunate that for for the two years when we weren't working on pomplamoose that we uh we were both good with focusing on our solo careers then

it's never it's never like oh i really want to and the other person is like no you've been in sync in that way. Yeah, yeah. So that's good. So it sounds like this is the year of Poplar Moose again. Oh, yeah. And are you talking about it that way on your channel? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah. We're like totally gearing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like we're calling the whole thing season two. Okay. That was season one. Yep. It's like that was season one. Yep. That's all done.

And now it's season two. So what do we, what can we look forward to? What's the plan? What's in the wings? Obviously more current covers, but also we've recorded several originals. Okay. So that'll be a combination of guilt. Right.

Lots of guilt for you guys to still work through. Okay, so... Tension and release, tension and release. Tension and release. Yes. I like that analogy. So how many originals do you have? I think you already told us that you had like six or so.

Yeah, it's like five or six. Yeah, five or six originals. And then we've also got some oldie covers that we're kind of stoked about. Yeah, like five or six older covers. And then we'll be releasing, recording and releasing timely, we call them timely covers, chart toppers, as we go on and promote the album. And then a tour in the fall.

And then probably a European tour after that, and then possibly another U.S. tour after that. So the first portion of the year up until fall is going to be about releasing new material, new videos, and then after that it's going to be about playing live for the rest of the year. Now have you ever, when you were touring before, did you guys plan this much ahead of time, like a year, like this is what we're doing this year so this is the most significant

sort of strategy that you've ever implemented yeah yeah yeah we've figured a lot of stuff out i feel like it's the first year oh it's so it's so weird to look back and think about how little we understood when we when when fame just sort of landed in our lap very briefly. It was. It was. It was YouTube fame. And it landed in our lap. And we were not expecting it.

Yeah. It's a particular type of thing. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Next thing you know, you're in a car commercial. Right? Yeah.

Let's talk about that. Oh, boy. What car commercial was it hyundai and toyota as well we did toyota but we weren't acting in the toyota no loyalty but so you did a song or i don't was it a cover that you guys did or were they originals uh all covers in both commercials uh toyota was mr sandman hyundai was all christmas songs yeah i remember when was christmas themed right yeah yeah three hyundai christmas commercials okay and so uh and how how was that for the uh the artists within because you know how it is i mean you know doing a

commercial we really don't feel that bad about commercials i actually have a thing about like i think a lot of people peg me for a hipster and like, no corporations. I'm like not about that at all. I think brand integrations are like one of the best ways for artists to make money. I'd so much rather have a brand pay me to write a song than a record label because the brand isn't going to tell me what BPMs to write the song at. They're not going to get and say, we don't like that lyric. The brand's like, I don't know, is that good? And I'm like, yeah, it's good.

And they're like, okay. And then they put it out. They're not dipping their toes in my creative pot, whereas a label is... Also, when a brand gives you money, you don't have to pay it back to them. That's right. Yeah, it's not indentured servitude.

Yeah, brand... I'm just glad to hear that you don't feel bad about that too. Oh, yeah. I'm glad you're focusing your guilt oh yeah covers yeah i'm really focused i got a magnifying glass on that cover guilt yeah but you'll sell out all over the place that's great we love that hey trust me we've done we've sold out many times over oh yeah no i actually i love i have a video from 2009 that i posted it's's a vlog where I'm like not – it's not like begging, but I'm basically like saying brands. Like there's all these creative people making videos. Like use us.

Like pay us to make cool stuff and do thoughtful integrations. Like if you – whatever, like the wine thing with Hannah and My Dr know, My Drunk Kitchen, like that's a beautiful integration. It makes sense. It's native. It's just awesome. And like that's a great way for the, it's a win for the wine company. It's a win for My Drunk Kitchen. It's just awesome.

And I was trying to explain this in the video. And now it's like, I feel like brands are really doing this. Like there's so many integrations now, and a lot of them are natural. Some of them aren't as natural, but I'm so thrilled about that. It's so much better than signing a crummy contract and giving away your future revenue for 10 years. And the thing about Hyundai especially was that when they came to us, first of all, I got an email. I thought it was a joke. First of all, I got an email.

I thought it was a joke. I opened up the email, and it was probably two lines, and said, Hey, we're writing you on behalf of Hyundai. Like your videos. Was wondering if you guys ever thought of being on television. Being on television. Being on television. And it was for real.

It was for real. And I replied and was like, sure, what are the details? Here's my lawyer. Right. And they got back crazy person and they got back and it was for real um and uh and they wanted us to make music they they wanted us to cover public domain songs which we would then own we own those songs so we get to sell them and you know put them on an ep which we did and we did an entire we get to sell them and put them on an EP, which we did, and we did an entire...

We didn't sell them. We didn't sell them. We gave them away and raised about $130,000 in charity after the Hyundai campaign for books. For the Trent School District. Yeah. So we got to make the music. We got to film the videos at home with very, very little intervention from them in

terms of them even being in the room. They gave us nice cameras, but then they just sort of backed out. Um, and then I got to edit the commercials just like I edit all of our video songs. And so it really just felt like making three very short Pomplamoose videos. That they were going to buy the airtime for. Yeah. It was like, hey, can we put your videos on television? Yes.

Yes. Sometimes it all works out. That's beautiful. It was awesome. Yeah. I wish we got more stuff like that. Yeah. Okay.

So last question from me, at least. I don't know how many questions you have. If you could have anyone cover your song, an original song, and feel guilty about it, who would it be? Anyone. Tom Waits. Really? Get it? Yeah. Drop that voice on it yeah it's like taking in the direction yeah tom waits tom waits if if i'm gonna get into tom waits what album should i buy first

because i'm still an album guy rain dogs rain rain dogs oh my god rain dogs d-o-g-s dogs yeah two words two words rain dogs wow he's he sounds like an 85 year old hermit and he's 32 it's it's unbelievable you know but the smart thing about singing like that is you always sound good no matter how old you get when you start singing like that right yeah we saw chris christoph We saw Kris Kristofferson with Merle Haggard at the Greek, and Merle didn't hold up as well as Kris Kristofferson because Kris was kind of always that Sunday morning coming down kind of place. Yeah. So it was pretty.

It works. It was pretty great. It's a good strategy. What about you, Natalie? If anyone were to cover one of our songs gosh and feel guilty about it who should it be i'd hope for i would honestly i'd i'd be happy if if someone like like beyonce covered our songs that's what i'd aim for the script yeah which song huh which song i don't know single ladies that was a really good song well you know what i think she's done that it's a great video

that would never work in the genre of r&b all right well this is uh it's been fabulous it's been great we would ask you to sign the uh we actually get people to sign the table but since this is a hotel room table... I mean, you could. We don't want them to charge you for that. Our credit card is going to be held responsible. I have to say, this is a very weird thing. I feel like you guys know so much about us.

Really? And, yeah. It's usually more dimly lit, so it doesn't feel as weird. Okay. I feel like you're just staring into our souls now. You feel like you need to interview us now? We don't know you guys. We'll be on your podcast. Yeah.

Next episode. Do you have a podcast? No. Okay. We'll be your first guest. We'll record it for you. When you guys get around to that. Thanks, guys.

Hey, for you. When you guys get around to that. Thanks, guys. Hey, thank you. And there it was, our hotel-based conversation with Pomplamoose. Could you feel the relationship blossoming with them over the course of the conversation? You mean their relationship with each other, their romantic relationship? No, their relationship with Rhett and Link. I feel like we were, we really became friends.

You know, having never had a conversation except for that one that was recorded for the Ear Biscuit. Well, I felt like they connected well with me. And all I gotta do is connect well with one of us. And then the other one gets in automatically. I'm just kidding. No connected well with me. And all I got to do is connect well with one of us, and then the other one gets in automatically. I'm just kidding. No, they liked me. I think they made equal eye contact with you.

So, I mean, you know. And I think maybe we helped out their relationship. Who knows? Well, you know, I will say, and I love it when this happens, and it happens on a pretty regular basis, and it just reminds me that, uh, why I love doing this show. And that is after we got through with our conversation, Jack and Natalie said, you know what? Uh, we didn't know we were going to end up talking about some of that stuff.

You know, even the stuff with, uh, their parents' cancer and they, they hadn't really, you know, it's not that it's not public, but they hadn't talked about it in that way before in a setting like this. Yeah, I'm glad they felt comfortable talking to us because we're such good friends.

Yeah, and so, you know, maybe the next time I go into the DJ voice, I will be introducing some sort of collaborative musical thing. Could happen.

I mean, we're such good friends. We could write a song about friendships. We could write a song about friendships. We could write a song about two guys who are friends, who are friends

with a couple who sing together. Yeah. It's a great relationship that we're in with a couple. We're in a relationship. My relationship

with a couple. I think that is probably a book. Third and fourth wheel bringing up the rear a couple. I think that is probably a book. Third and fourth wheel, bringing up the rear. Yeah, I think we should probably not try to write songs just in the moment on Ear Biscuits. I think we should think about things before we try to do that again. But I unabashedly own the fact that Ear Biscuits is our ploy

to befriend even more people who are interesting on the internet. And hopefully you feel like you are forging a friendship along with us, that you're sitting at the table with us or in the hotel room if we happen to be filming from somewhere else. Let us know what you thought about this Ear Biscuit. A great way to do that, it helps us out a lot, is if you leave a review on iTunes, if you leave a comment on SoundCloud, that helps us out a lot.

It continues to send the Ear Biscuits up where other people can discover it. And another thing you can do to help people discover it is just tweet the link that we share. We always share a link over on our Tumblr page, which also goes to our Twitter and our Facebook, and you can just use the hashtag Ear Biscuits and share that with your friends

so everyone can enjoy the biscuits. Yeah, thanks for your help there. Also, tweet at Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose is how you spell it. Pomplamoose. Pomplamoose. Let them know what you thought and that you appreciated the friendshipization.

Yeah. And if you want to say that, you know, Rhett and Link are really big fans, they're probably going to listen to this, but, you know, you can remind them on Twitter and fans, they're probably going to listen to this, but, you know, you can remind them on Twitter and you can talk about how we need to musically collaborate. Two guys befriending a couple. We're in a quadraship with palm full of moves.

First of all, we should probably consult our wives before we start a quad. Our wives are friends too. A quadraship. We got instant families. Six people. You know what? We should just go, you know what? Maybe we should just do a triple date. I think that's what it should be. That would make it a lot less awkward. Why are we not, why haven't we thought about that until right now? Just triple date with our wives. Or

Pomplamoose could keep our kids and we could just. Go on a double date. No. Or we could each just date our wives separately. But I get my wife, right? Yep. You can have your wife. I'll have my wife. Jack and Natalie will keep our children. And then they'll write a song for us.

And then when we get back, we'll record it. Our kids. This is a good idea. In a relationship with Poplar Moose. We should just quit now. While we go on a date with our wives. I like the lounge singer directionless vibe that the song that we know that we're going to co-write

with Pablo Moussa is taking on, since none of their music sounds like that. Well, we're going to be a Vegas act with them. That's how it's going to end. All right. Thanks for ear-biscuiting with us. Hear you next week.