Song Exploder - Khruangbin - So We Won't Forget

Episode Date: July 15, 2020

Khruangbin is a band from Houston, Texas, who first formed in 2010. NME called them the "low key superstars" of psychedelic music. They’ve released three albums. The most recent, which came out in June 2020, is called Mordechai. In the past, most of Khruangbin’s songs have been instrumental, or if they did have vocals, they'd be minimal. Their new album is different. It features vocals prominently, and in this episode, the three of them explain their philosophy on vocals and their process on writing lyrics. I spoke to each of them to get their perspective on how they made the song "So We Won’t Forget." songexploder.net/khruangbin

You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishi Khrushikai. Krangben is a band from Houston, Texas, who first formed in 2010. Anami called them the low-key superstars of psychedelic music. They've released three albums, and the most recent is called Mordecai. It came out in June 2020. In the past, most of Krung-Bin's songs have been instrumental, or if they did have vocals, they'd be minimal. Their new album is different.

It features vocals and lyrics prominently, and in this episode, the three of them explain their philosophy on vocals and their process of writing lyrics. I spoke to each of them to get their perspective on how they made the song, so we won't forget. This is Laura Lee. My name is Mark Spear, and I play guitar. My name is DJ, and I play drums for Krugben. We wrote everything musically, in terms of guitar bass and drums. We wrote at the farm in Burton, Texas. We've always recorded there since the beginning.

beginning. For us, it's the perfect place to write because there's minimal distractions out there. It's very quiet. No Wi-Fi on the property. Wide open Texas landscapes, cows, lots of grass, trees, a really good place to center yourself. It's where the vast majority of all of our songs were written. But I don't do my best work in a sort of like jammy situation. I like my own time. I like to be in my own head with each song. I was listening to this song called Kushi by this Pakistani singer, Nausea Hassan. It was really funky on the bottom,

but the vocals were really sweeping and pretty and like a light. I wanted to have a song that made me feel the way that song did. So the song started with bass, and we kind of hand stuff off back and forth, and so everybody, Everybody in the band has their own time with each song. I went in just kind of like, okay, this is what she's doing. This is where I want to be.

This is the space that I need to take up to support that bass line. And I tried this thing with ghost notes with some drags on the snare and kind of create a feel. Once you learn something, it sounds different than when you're trying to figure it out. You know, that searchy sound, that part of the process. is actually what we capture when we record the instrumental part in the barn. You want to sound unsure, you want the raw, like this is just me coming up with this in the moment, sound. I remember plugging the guitar in and just trying different stuff because the bass and drums already sounded really good to me,

but I also had no idea melodically what I wanted to do. So I just kind of started off playing this kind of finger style guitar part directly inspired by Western Centralizing. Western Central African guitar players. I love that kind of polyrhythmic, polyphonic music. I think it's some of the most beautiful in the world. I kind of wanted to do something like that. So I wanted to have that sort of melancholy guitar melody on top of this like disco minimal vibe.

That's how it started. There's a really nice balance between us of novice and expert. Mark and DJ are both very experienced players. They've been playing professionally for a long time, and a lot of that professional time was in church. And the guys that play gospel, those guys have chops. When the three of us first started hanging out, Laura wasn't even playing bass yet,

which is so weird even when I think about it. I used to be really insecure about not being as good as they were, technically. but I've learned that my naivity is actually a strength. I'm always surprised at what Laura comes up with because it's just a different approach to melody and rhythms. We'll go in and we'll learn a song, and then our engineer Steve hits record. Usually the magic is around take two or take three.

The bass guitar and drums are all recorded live in the barn for this whole album, because that's how you catch the feeling or the groove. There's something that you miss when you're tracking things individually. And I totally understand that if you track a guitar

in an isolated place, that you're going to get a cleaner, more editable thing. But then there's a sort of magic that's lost. And for my own creation, I want as much of the magic as I can get. Sometimes when we record

the things in the barn, when we leave, it's a complete song. It doesn't need any. anything else. But when we finished recording, we knew that there was still something missing, and it wasn't complete. We like, you know, the song needs something else on top. So we recorded the guitar, bass, and drums in May, and then didn't come back to this album until November. During the break, we tried not to listen to what we made, because we all understand how important

it can be to take a break from your work. So we kind of just put it on the back burner and went about our lives. I needed a little bit of nurturing last summer before we went back into the studio. The touring lifestyle in general had kind of caught up with me. We'd pretty much been on the road nonstop for three and a half years. And you get lost in it. You know, I missed weddings and birthdays and babies being born when I was a little girl. I wanted to be a writer.

And at some point in my life, I realized that if I wanted to make stories, I had to go out and collect them. So, you know, I went on this hike in California with someone I just met who was so kind to me, who saw that I needed a friend and took me on this beautiful hike. And after that day, I sort of realized that I had a lot of stories in my back pocket to tell. I was saying, you know what, actually in my life, I've lived a life of adventure, and I have all of these stories that I've collected, and I should write them down so that I remember them. So after my hike, I came to Houston, and I took a day of silence. I didn't listen to anything.

I tried to not even talk to myself in my own head, just be in silence with a pen and a notebook. And I just wrote everything I could. And while I was writing, I would think about other stories that came up, and I didn't want to forget any of them. So I had all of these post-its to remind me or to trigger these different stories that were coming up in my mind. And this just ended up being a story of its own, just writing about holding onto a memory. When we got back, Laura had all this stuff scribbled in her journal, and she and Mark did a brilliant job of putting all that together. making beautiful lyrics out of these notes. I would flip through my notebook and look for stories or sentiments or words that seem to fit

the tone of the song. And then I'll get a separate piece of paper and write those fragments on it, you know, and hand it to Mark and DJ and see which lines or words resonate with them. And so then I would start pulling sentences off the page, putting them onto a new page, arranging them out like a lyric. It's important for us that the words speak true to all of us because we all sing it together. You know, we don't have a lead singer. You know, it's all of us or none.

That's just how it works. I don't think anyone in the band particularly likes to sing, but we do enjoy the texture that a vocal brings to the music. But no, no one in the band will claim to be a vocalist. We much prefer the sound of us singing together. Like we stand together. There's one mic, and we all sing behind it. I like it because you can't have melodies that are super, super complex

because everyone has to sing them. And there's no space for a bunch of riffing. It's just, here's the melody. This is how you sing it. Call me what you want. Call me what you need. Boys don't have to say. Keep it to my side.

Coming up playing at the church with DJ, the choir is made up of a lot of people. And not all those people are like trained singers. And there might be a few voices that are like just a little off. And it's just off and afterwards. Like I feel so good. Like I love that sound, man. If you had a choir for people that sang perfectly, then it might not actually have that rich full sound because everything is so perfectly in tune or so perfectly timed.

But you've got to have a little bit of realness. We're also usually trying to find words that sing pretty, that sound nice to sing. There's the lyric, not enough paper, not enough letters, so we won't forget. There's never enough to write down everything you want to remember. And that was the sort of feeling I was trying to say, but the original statement was not enough paper, not enough words, so we won't forget. And it was a real point of contention. And Mark was totally right. enough words, doesn't sound very pretty, but not enough letters has a nicer cadence.

Because in Khrn bin history we haven't had that many vocals, the key in which we write isn't such a big deal. But the original key that was in, we couldn't sing along to. We each have different ranges, so you have to write within that Venn diagram where they all can sing and sound good. And so in order to keep the integrity of the vocals, which we all decided was important, we had to change the key of the song, which we'd never done before. So we moved it down. And once we did that, we're like, oh, it sounds so much better.

The vocals are singing a lot better. It sounds more like us. So in order to change it, Mark and I had to both re-record our parts in the studio. And that was a challenge for us because it's always been a part of our thing. that the guitar bass and drums were recorded together at the farm. You know, we kind of had to come to terms with it. And in the end, we decided to keep the drums from the farm so that the farm was still in the song,

and that Mark and I would re-record our parts in a key that we could sing. I was like, okay, well, I'll practice tonight, we'll come in the morning, and I'll do it. But I tend to get insecure when everybody's watching me play a part. there's something comforting when we're all playing together because everybody's concentrating on their own thing. But if I'm playing by myself in the studio and everybody's listening to me play,

I'm nervous about messing up because I know they're going to hear it. Steve Christensen is our engineer. DJ and Steve were sitting right next to me and remember Steve being like, don't worry, dude, we can do this as many times as you need. If you've got to punch something in, we can punch something in. And he pressed record

and it was a perfect take from start to finish. And I remember looking up at DJ really wide-eyed being like, oh my God. And DJ was like, one take, Jake, one take, Jake. It was a huge moment for me as a player because that just never happens. So if I was worried I lost any magic from it not being the recording at the farm, I gained it back in a way.

Mark did all the percussion parts and he's the sound of Krungman percussion. We would spend time to develop a part that sounds good with everything playing. You know, it can't step on the bass, can't step on the drums, can't step on the vocals.

Also, his approach to playing percussion parts is totally different than the approach that I would take, which is great because I think when he and I play together he's able to fill in spots. That makes sense. Just two different sets of timing

where things land. One may tend to lean back a little bit, one may be a little bit ahead. And, you know, when they come together, it's better to sound like two people versus one person doing everything. I think my favorite part is the CNAIR. So a Cynar is this like synth drum

from late 70s, early 80s. It's basically you've got a synthesizer built into a drum. It's like this sound of like, you can do all these kind of crazy, like, it's almost like spaceship sounds. To me, it added so much, like, bounce. Yeah, I love that part, man.

That's my favorite part of the song, honestly. We got into the end of the recording session, and keyboards were the last thing that went on. And for Mark's birthday, a bunch of his friends, we all pitched in and get this huge birthday gift. It was a Moog Voyager. So he was really excited to get it and play it on this record. I'm especially fond of the last year.

which I'm pretty sure was Mark's doing because he loves a twist. The lyrics kind of repeat themselves throughout the song, and the only time they change is at the end, which is, say you remember, for I think I've lost it. And that just felt like a dagger to the heart because the whole thing is about, oh, holding on, I'm holding on, I'm holding on, and it's like, oh, no, it's gone. And it felt like a, you know, sad, but,

beautifully sad way to end. I haven't seen it since I was a little kid, but in the never-ending story, too, I don't remember which character it was, but basically every time they made a wish, they lost a memory. She only had so many wishes left, but every time she wished,

she would also lose something, and that was the sort of payment for getting whatever she wished for. One of the most valuable things we have is our collection of memories or things that have happened to us. I'm always writing things in my notes and my phone because I'm super forgetful.

During the process of making this album, we were doing a lot of touring, a year's worth of just traveling around the world, playing these shows. And night to night, a lot of times it ends up just kind of all running together. And it's really important to keep a sort of diary to remember the little moments that happen along the way

that you don't want to forget. I think the best one in the band at doing that is probably Laura Lee, because she's always telling us about, oh, this is what we were doing a year ago, and it'll be something, albeit small, like, wow, I remember that happening. You know, I've forgotten about that. I'm glad you wrote it down. So, in a sense, this song is about that. It's about capturing all these things and writing them down before they disappear. And now here's So We Won't Forget by Krungbin in its intention.

Visit SongExploder.net to learn more about Krung Bin. You'll also find links to buy or stream the song, and you can watch the music video for it. I have a new album of my own coming out on April 24th. It's been about 15 years since I last put out a full length, and this is the first one that'll be out under my own name, Rishi Kesh Her Way. I started making Song Exploder when I was feeling lost in my own music career. And then for over a decade, I've gotten to have these incredible conversations about the process of making. music, talking to other artists, and it made me completely rethink my relationship to music

and my way of writing songs. And this album is the product of all of that. It features contributions from some of my favorite artists, including some folks that you may have heard on this podcast, like Iron and Wine, Kevin Morby, Vagabon, Fenlily, and the producer Phil Wine Rope. I'm going to be on tour playing in cities across the U.S. starting in April, and I'm trying to bring the spirit of the podcast with me. So every show that I'm playing will begin with a con. conversation about the album with a different amazing guest moderator in each city, like Adam Scott, Samin Nasrat, Jason Manzuchas, Josh Molina, Minjin Lee, Ken Jennings, John Roderick, Austin Cleon, and more. They're all going to be my conversation partners on stage,

and then I'll play with my band. The album is called In the Last Hour of Light, and the first couple songs are out now. You can listen to the music and get tickets for the shows on my website, Rishikash.co. Or just go to songexploder.net slash live. That's songexploder.net slash live. Thanks. Next time on Song Exploder, Waxahatchie. Song Exploder is made by me, Rishi K. Shirway, with producer Christian Coons, production assistant Olivia Wood, and illustrator Carlos Lerma. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a collective of creative, independent podcasts. You can learn more about all the shows at Radiotopia.fm. If you'd like to

To support this podcast, you can get a Song Exploder t-shirt at Songexploader.net slash shirt. You can also follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at Song Exploder. My name is Rishi Kesh Hereway. Thanks for listening.