THE ADAM BUXTON PODCAST - EP.266 - DEVENDRA BANHART

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Adam talks with American-Venezuelan singer-songwriter and visual artist, Devendra Banhart, about podcast jingles, the wisdom of cats, dead Dads, therapy, the place that religion has in Adam and Devendra's lives, songs that make you cry and The Greatest Night In Pop. Plus, two specially recorded versions of Devendra's songs, Fireflies and The Body Breaks, and Adam reports on his trip to see Radiohead play in London.Conversation recorded remotely on 19 July 2024Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production supportPodcast illustration by Helen GreenListen to Adam's album 'Buckle Up' Order Adam's book 'I Love You Byeee' Sign up for the newsletter on Adam's website (scroll down on homepage)RELATED LINKSDEVENDRA BANHART - CHARGER (LA BESTIA LIVE SESSION) - 2023 (YOUTUBE)DEVENDRA BANHART - THE SEVENTIES (OFFICIAL VISUALISER) - 2005 (YOUTUBE)WHAT'S IN MY BAG - DEVENDRA BANHART - 2023 (YOUTUBE)THE GREATEST NIGHT IN POP (TRAILER) - 2024 (YOUTUBE)RANDY CRAWFORD - ONE DAY I'LL FY AWAY - 1980 (YOUTUBE)THE MAVERICKS - DANCE THE NIGHT AWAY - 1998 (YOUTUBE)LIONEL RITCHIE - ALL NIGHT LONG (ALL NIGHT) - 1983 (YOUTUBE)ALDOUS HARDING TINY DESK - 2017 (YOUTUBE)POLLY HARVEY TINY DESK - 2023 (YOUTUBE)CA7RIEL & PACO AMOROSO TINY DESK - 2024 (YOUTUBE)ALDOUS HARDING KEXP - 2020 (YOUTUBE) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ho, ho! Ho! Ho! Adam Buxton here! In just over a week, I'll be meeting Joe Cornish to record our annual Christmas podcast. And as usual, we'd like to include a few contributions from you, the podcasts. The address for submissions is Adam Buxton Podcast at gmail.com. You'll also find that address on my website, adam dash buxton.co.com. A few things to bear in mind that'll really help us out before you start emailing. Thing one. Please make the subject header of your emails, Adam and Joe Christmas 2025.

5, followed by a description of the contents, for example, made-up joke, egg corn, travel-in-tail, or superb anecdote. Thing two, no personal or work-related messages, please, just things that will delight me, Joe, and your fellow listeners on Christmas Day, and please remember that whatever you send us might be made public. 3. Please keep it short. Just a few lines, ideally. We won't have time to read long messages or listen to long audio clips. 4. The deadline for contributions is Monday 1st of December at midnight. Thank you. I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. Now you have plucked that podcast out and started listening.

I took my microphone and found some human folk. Then I recorded all the noises while we spoke. My name is Adam Buxton. I'm a man. I want you to enjoy this. That's the plan. Hey, how are you doing podcasts? It's Adam Buxton here. What the F? That's the sound of a motor car. And indeed, all the other sounds you can hear are the sounds of the city. London town, to be precise. I'm staying here for a couple of days. Doing a bit of work. I had an audition yesterday. Definitely going to get that.

going to see a pop concert tonight. Radiohead. Have you heard of Radiohead? They're playing at the O2 and I'm going to go along with my family. Looking forward to that. Rosie is back in Norfolk and she's doing well and sends lots of love. I thought I would step outside to record this intro rather than just sitting in the room where I'm staying in East London. But you may be able to hear that it's raining. It's pretty cold here towards the end of November 2025. I found a small park to make me feel as if I'm in the countryside. This is Allen Gardens, right next to Brick Lane in East London.

And it's a small patch of green with an elevated train line that you can probably hear ahead of me. Wall's covered in graffiti everywhere you look around this part of town, but it's good graffiti. Anyway, it's not Clement, so I'll get on with my intro, and tell you about podcast number 266, which features a rambling conversation with American Venezuelan singer-songwriter and visual artist Devendra Banhart. Here's some Devendra facts for you. Devendra was born in 1981, in Houston, Texas. America, to a Venezuelan mother and an American father. Oh, there's a nice bird up there.

Bird entrain. His parents split up when Devendra was just two, whereupon he and his mother relocated to Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, located at the very top of the South American continent. This is where Devendra spent his childhood, absorbing Latin American folk traditions, visual art and bohemian culture, all of which informed the distinctive aesthetic that he would later develop. After returning to the US as a teen, Devendra earned a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute,

where he fell in with countercultural and experimental types, while nurturing his passions for visual art and music, often skipping classes to busk in and around the streets of San Francisco's, Castro District, where he was living. Devendra dropped out of college in the early 2000s and spent some time hanging out and playing music in Paris, where he landed gigs opening for visiting bands that included, on one occasion, Sonic Youth.

A few months later, he returned to the States and self-released a CD of demos that he'd been recording over the years, which found its way to Michael Jira, frontman of American experimental rock legends, swans. Michael was sufficiently impressed to help Devendra pull together more home recordings for release on the 2002 album, Oh Me Oh My. The songs on that record, and those that followed like Niño Rojo from 2004 and Cripple Crow from 2005, sounded pleasingly out of step

with the musical landscape of the early 2000s, where some of the biggest American acts included at that point, Eminem, Green Day, Destiny's Child, the White Stripes and Britney Spears. Meanwhile, Devendra's music often sounded as if it might have come out of the psychedelic folk scene of the late 60s, with critics noting the similarity of his voice

to that of young Mark Boland. And sometimes, the softly quavering vocal delivery makes me think of early Donovan too. Like those artists, there's something very ethereal, not to say, away with the fairies, about Devendra, both on record and now and then in conversation too. Not saying that disparagingly, I'm pro fairies. I actually applied to be away with the fairies,

but I was rejected. I had to join the Harries instead. But there's a wide range of styles across the ten or so albums that Devendra has released so far. One of my favourites of his was his 2009 album, What Will We Be, which is full of beautifully catchy, tuneful songs that are very hymn, but also steeped in his love of the 80s pop he grew up listening to, as well as Latin American influences, reggae, and much else besides.

His last record, 2023's Flying Wig, sounds different again, filled as it is with what some might call off-kilter pop, not a million miles from the sound of someone like Aldous Harding, or indeed Kate Le Bonn, who produced the record. My conversation with Devendra was recorded on an appropriately mellow and golden Norfolk evening back in July 24. Devendra was talking to me remotely via the Zoom from his home in Los Angeles, where of course it's mellow and golden every single day by law. Basically, the idea originally with Devendra was to record short introductions

for two lovely songs that he had recorded, especially for the podcast. and then play those at the end of an episode with another guest. But we ended up having a slightly longer conversation than I'd expected, with Devendra asking me a few questions about some of my podcast jingles. He knows how to flatter me. Anyway, he seemed genuinely to enjoy them, so we chatted about those. We also spoke about dead dads and therapy, in a fun way, of course. We also talked about the place that religion has, or doesn't.

have in our lives. And we talked about our shared love of the Netflix documentary, The Greatest Night in Pop, about the time in January 1985 when a group of legendary American musicians came together to record the song We Are the World in aid of famine relief in Africa. I've talked about that documentary before on this podcast. I do love it. It came out towards the beginning of last year, 2024, and it was fun to share my enthusiasm for one person, particular scene with Devendra. I'll be back at the end to say goodbye, but right now with Devendra Banhart. Here we go. Rambled chat. Let's have a ramble chat. We'll focus first on this, then concentrate on that. Come on let's chew the fat and have a ramble chat. Put on your

conversation coat and find your talking hat. Tell me about your Friday night and what you're And where you are and what you're up to and what the rest of your night looks like. Oh, Friday night. I was going to ask you the same thing. It looks like there's some synths in the corner in the back of your house there. What are those things? It looks like it's perched against the floor against the wall there.

That's a looper pedal. And then over there, there's just sort of MIDI keyboards and things like that. I'm very much an amateur musician. I'm someone who's been able to have a musical life thanks to technology because I don't have any formal playing skills. so I'm able to go on garage band and have fun with loops and pick out tunes on a MIDI keyboard and things like that. And I play a few chords on the guitar.

Did you compose and record the two songs that play on your show the most? I mean, there's that intro song and then there's the song about how we're going to have a conversation. Are those both yours? Oh, yeah, Rambl Chat. Oh, that's nice of you to have listened to it. Thank you. I appreciate that.

But I didn't compose them. No, those are, I mean, I composed some of the jingles from scratch, But those two are examples of things that I sang over bits of library music that I found. Have you talked about this at length on the podcast, those two songs? Not at length. Actually, having said that, the first one, the intro theme, I added one more podcast to the giant podcast bin. That's a piece of library music.

The second one, ramble chat. Let's have a ramble chat. That's Logic Pro. And those are loops. that I found in there. So I just pulled a load of those loops together and then added some random beats. And then it was very much layering up a symphony of blah, blah, blah.

I love it. Thanks, man. Well, you know, we're good. No, I want to talk about some of the, because already this podcast is so established and has its own lore. It's its own world. I've been trying to figure out what, what did,

like the second I started listening, and it was your voice, you're walking around, and we're hanging out with your dog. I was hooked, but it was like one or two seconds. I thought, okay, okay, I'm in. And what is it about your voice, the way you say the things you say? Obviously what you say, you're funny and charming and affable and have this. You know, you have the talent for this thing clearly because in two seconds I thought, oh, I get it.

I'm going to just listen to this podcast now. So that's something I've been trying to figure out. What is it that? Because it's not that's not that way for me at all. like this is this is torture i don't want to do this you know but well that's it must be that you do want to do this and you're you know you're so good at it but also you you must be excited to do this i think or is this like shit i have to go to work today no i love it it's great you know i i like your music very much it's really exciting to get to chat with you i don't know what you're

like as a person i've seen a few interviews with you but it's very nice to find you so up for the process. I never know how it's going to be. Sometimes I meet people and they don't know anything about the podcast and maybe their PR person has said that it's something worth doing and then, you know, they do it and maybe it's a Werner Herzog situation where really they're quite irritated by the technical process and they don't, they're not familiar with the podcast so they're a bit confused by why isn't it a more formal interview? But I really like it when it's like this, when it's getting to know someone who I'm already interested in and who I'm already well disposed to. And so it's like, it's as if I've come to Los Angeles and I've met you at a

party. And I'm like, oh, shit, man, I love your stuff. And then we get to talk for a little bit. So that's the nicest scenario as far as I'm concerned. Do you listen to a lot of podcasts? I do. Not a lot, but I do listen to them. And earlier when I said, I don't want to be doing this. What I mean is that, like you're saying, maybe Werner was irritated by the situation. I'm irritated by myself. The fact that I'm a part of this podcast, I find torturous. I wish I wasn't. I'd love to be a guest.

That's the thing. The podcast is so incredibly, like, perfect for me in a way because I really love the, and I think we all do. That's why they're so popular is the feeling of alone together and the feeling of having, like, the party's happening in the room next door. And you're invited, sure. you just kind of want to do your own thing. But before I talk to you and bore the hell out of everybody, I want to say that those two songs, I was also hooked by those two.

I was in because of those two songs. The first one sounds like Robert Wyatt at a quinceaniera. Oh, wow. And the second one sounds like madness, like the band Madness at like Studio 54 or something. I thought these are great songs. Thanks. So good. Wow, that's amazing.

And what amazing references is. well, I'm very flattered by both those comparisons. Thanks so much. This is going great. Now, why, though, are you, why are you so down on yourself as a guest, though? Do you not like the interview process? Have you watched interviews back or read interviews back that have made you cringe and wish you didn't have to do them?

I think so. I think that must be it. But I also think that I'm not thinking about what I'm going to say while you're talking. I'm really listening to you, and I'd rather listen to you than tell you about my shit, me, me, me, me. At the same time, of course I want to share about myself, because I think I'm so special. I do. I think I'm so special. But at the same time, the older I get, the less my story matters to me. And the fact that I feel like you transcend the inherently performative kind of aspect of doing a podcast, because the little red button says record. so you better perform and I feel like I feel like why would I do any of this I do that I write songs

and I do these paintings so that's my version of of communicating so it's this that's this kind of thing it isn't like such a thrill and you know my friends the European friends they go I went out last night what I did oh we just had a couple drinks and talked till 2 a.m. and that's like a normal hang I had a birthday party and this is really I swear this is true I invited a few friends and it said, will you join me for drinks at this bar near my house from 6 to 6.15? This is my birthday party. And this is my birthday wish. This is my wish.

It didn't work out. I tried to leave and everyone had a couple margaritas and my friend Anna was just kind of grabbing me by the shirt. You're not leaving. Okay, fine. I stayed to like seven, I guess. But that's like my dream. Six to 6.15. Anyways, I do listen to a podcast.

I have a fantasy that while I'm painting and drawing, I have this huge playlist, all this music that I'm going to be listening to it. It's like I'm watching this movie. I'm painting to this music. But what I really do is listen to a podcast because it's such a cozy feeling. So, yeah, now I listen to yours. And I listen to Conan O'Brien's podcast. And I like Smartless. office hours and oh my friend really just got me into the blind boy boat club i like that like

louis thoreau's but what podcast do you listen to or is it like no i don't listen to that stuff i only listen to myself you listen to yourself every night you start with the first episode you listen every episode i used to do that a bit i used to stay up especially through the pandemic and I would enjoy a podcast, and during the lockdown, I listened to a lot more podcasts, especially one called Athletico Mints, which is British one about football. But it's not really about football, it's mainly about this guy, Bob Mortimer, who is in a British comedy duo called Vic and Bob. Yeah, yeah.

They're brilliant. But he's also brilliant. as a solo performer and a guy called Andy Dawson and he just does a lot of silly voices and I don't know anything about football. In fact, I actively dislike football but I love Athletico Mints. So he just goes off on these sort of flights of fancy

and impersonates these football personalities who are real but I don't know anything about them. So to me it's just like listening to a totally invented universe and not really getting any of the references but not really minding because they're just funny themselves. Yeah. When you watch a TV show or a movie or, I mean, that's one of the things,

we're talking about how unique podcasts. And you don't have, when I watch a show I love, I don't go, so nice hanging out with those people. I was hanging out with Julia Roberts in that movie. You don't have that feeling at all. So it is that. I had the same thing, but it was, I would have a beer in the bath and listen to live Jerry Garcia.

And that's almost like the musical version of a podcast. because I'm also hanging there. I'm hanging out with them with all what's going to happen. And there's some little feedback, a little thing. I can hear the murmur of the audience. So that's the closest, it's the musical version of the podcast. But I don't have that feeling when I'm listening to a recorded song of like, I'm hanging out with that band.

I'm hanging out with tears for fears during everybody wants to rule the world. No. But the live version, I have that feeling. And it's the same thing with a podcast versus any other form of kind of media or whatever that you're just hanging with the person. And that's why I feel like I'm ruining the podcast by being a part of it, because I'm not interested in myself. Get me out of here.

Let's talk about you. Well, luckily, though, to Vendra, you have a skill that I want to share with the listeners, some of whom will already be familiar with your work. Others will be discovering it for the first time, and I'm excited to share it with them. and you've been very kind and recorded a couple of versions of your songs, especially for the podcast. Thank you so much for doing that.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me on and inviting me to do that. And I think it's two-way street. Are you going to send me two of your songs? Sure, I'll send you whatever you want. I tell you what I could do is I can share a song with you about losing a phone charger because you had a song on your last album. I should have done that.

I should have done that. But I'll play that to you after we hear one of your songs. This one is called Fireflies. Would you like to say anything about Fireflies, or shall we just jump in there? Well, I always wished I'd studied entomology. I mean, I literally am into insects, you know, really into them. And that's all I want to say about this song. All right, here we go.

This is Devendra with Fireflies. A trail of light from a firefly There's a song that's playing Just a song that's playing now Had a lot of dreams that went by Was a song that we were singing Just a song that we were singing When I said I wasn't leaving

That's when I know that I was leaving We had a lot of time to make it worse. We had a lot of time to make it worse. I know you tried to get near. Was a song I just couldn't hear? Now I see you in a stranger's eyes. There's so much I wish I could say. Just a song I'll sing anyway.

When I said I wouldn't need it. That's when I knew that I were needed Night after night Night after night Beautiful. That was fireflies. Where did you record that, Devendra? In my house, just downstairs, there's this little room where I record demos

and have a view of a fig tree. It's quite nice and fortunate. And you live in the country, yeah? Yeah, I'm out in. Norfolk outside Norwich. It's a beautiful Friday evening here. Where are you? Los Angeles. Yeah, Manico Park in Los Angeles.

And it's quite beautiful as well. Although the kind of, the air is laced with the fragrance of garbage water. Oh, bin juice. Yeah, bin juice. Ben juice. Garbage water and bin juice. Welcome to garbage water and bin juice. So you're in Norfolk, near Norwich?

Yes, that's right. Norfolk County. It's just pronounced Norfolk. Well, you know, but that's nice. I want to move to the country. Who doesn't? I get it. Yeah.

I'm surprised that you seem like a country person. Thank you. Your family is from Venezuela, is that right? Yeah, which is the jungle. Where we're from the jungle? You know, I grew up in Caracas, but even Caracas, like this major metropolis, is a jungle city. Like you live with the definition of entropy.

You'd live with this hungry, living green beast that is really eating, wants to eat you and he's going to eat you. At night, it sounds like psycho. Sounds like the violins of psycho, but it's the crickets, and it's just, but it's, I mean, it's like murderous, hungry, I'm going to get you. And they sound sharp. I think that must add to some of the collective subconsciousness. everyone there. And then yeah, yeah, the rust, everything's trying to just swallow all these

things that humans try to make. It's pretty beautiful. But it's, and from the view from where I grew up, you know, you look out. It's just, I see sometimes a sloth, slowly climbing up a tree and stuff. So it's like a good jungle. But I feel like country where you're living, you know, country living, that, I feel like that would suit me. And I think that's maybe the next move. If I'm fortunate to have another move. And where would you go? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I was talking to my therapist about this yesterday, just yesterday. And that's a pretty good question. So what is the, what is the, what is the, can you tell me a reoccurring subject of your therapy sessions?

That's a pretty good first date question. Well, I mean, I'm not currently in therapy. I've only ever done therapy once for a period of about eight months after my mother died in 2020. And I, I was at that point without parents. That was the last parent. And the combination of that and the lockdown and various feelings of mortality and middle age and all sorts of things conspired to make me feel sufficiently crazy that I thought it was time to check in with a professional. And that was sort of useful. And I think we talked a lot about my relationship with my wife.

And we talked a lot about my relationship with my dad. That's the big one that sort of splurges over everything is the father relationship. I keep coming back to that one with quite tedious regularity. How about you? Well, I have a therapist that I love very much. I'd had different therapists through my life. The first time was an eight-month period, and it was amazing, and I went for a specific reason, and it felt like a lot was uncovered.

And then suddenly I got this, like, little pea-sized bump on my arm, and then about a week later it was a golf ball. And then I went to the doctor and they said, well, it looks like some mass and we're not sure if it's benign or not, but let's just remove it and they removed it. It was a very clear kind of physical manifestation of metaphysical kind of trauma or emotion that had been locked in.

They're kind of released. And that was years and years ago. And then through the years, I just give it a try. And then finally, I've got someone that I really love working with and it feels like a particular relationship that I'm just not going to get. It is. It's a different relationship from the one I'll have with any friend, with a lover, with a family member. You know, it's so specific, and I think you're going to express things that you don't express with anyone else.

And there's a lot of use, there's something very useful to that. And it's also like, if someone tries to give me a foot massage or a back massage, I go, thank you so much, but two seconds is good. I'd rather pay someone I'll pay someone and then I feel comfortable getting that massage you know so I don't really want a free

really short massage I'd rather just pay for it okay and that's how I feel about therapy but about my father I don't know my biological father he killed himself on Halloween five six years ago

fuck I'm sorry no no it's okay I wasn't raised by him and I never called him dad The person I call dad is alive And I remember I was nine years old When I said Can I call you dad? I was so nervous

Maybe I was 11 even I never called anyone dad yet I have a very Just we were in a Volkswagen quantum Parked on the side of the PCH Just moved to America I remember like so nervous Like later on

Was the first show I ever played Was how nervous I was, when I asked my stepfather, can I call you dad? So I hadn't called my biological father, dad at all. But it was sad because we were just getting to know each other. And he killed himself on Halloween. Still my favorite holiday, though, Halloween, I'll tell you that. That must have been at least a session with the therapist chatting about the Halloween suicide, wasn't it? I think, yeah, yeah, we talk about it. We talk about it. But, But I think a lot of the sessions lately are about enjoying thinking about moving and how fortunate I am that I have that opportunity.

And about these two cats. I have two cats. You know, actually, I really like Eckartel. You know, Eckartel is so popular and you can buy their books at the airport. I'm sure that Heathrow, he's got power of now. But anyways, he has a great line, which is, I have met many Zen masters. most of them were cats yes my sister's going to be nodding at that

what are your cats called oh they're a yeshay potato and pemma prada slimy and but why I find them I mean they're so fun to have around and I love them but what they communicate about how to be loved is so I need that daily reminder which is

you know respect and patience seem to be these two main ingredients of loving someone. You know, respect my space, respect what I'm asking of you, and be patient with me. Hmm. You know, it just doesn't work when I go like, wow, let's play. Or yeah, you're mine. You know, any of these things, any of my neurosis starts to kind of creep in,

they will communicate. No, no, no. That's really not how it works. So I've been finding that really cool. But what happened? Can you talk about your father? What was that relationship like? Oh, man, I've talked about him so much.

It's ludicrous. But potted history is that nothing terrible happened at all. He was a lovely man. He lived to a ripe old age, 91. But he was older. He was from another generation. And he was quite stern, quite conservative in every sense of the word. And I think that he was.

He had ambitions for me and my life that I didn't fulfill. Oh. And I think when I ended up being a silly comedian and doing a lot of toilet jokes and recreating movies with toys, which is what I did on TV, quite a lot in the 90s with my comedy partner. I think he found it a little bit mystifying, and I always got the sense. he just thought he'd failed because I wasn't like a more sensible person. Wow. That's very, that's just painful for everyone. It is, but that's what happens with parents, though, don't you think?

It's like, they probably, I would think that most children, or at least a lot of children, have a sense that their parents are disappointed in them somehow. And you just hand that shit on to. the children that you have, it's inevitable because you have such high hopes for them and it starts out, you sort of think, right, I'm going to have kids and I'm going to do everything right and I'm not going to make any of the mistakes that my parents made. I'm going to give them a brilliant life and turn them into the kind of people that I wished I could have been, but never quite nailed. Sounds so easy. Simple, done. I mean, I get all, I don't have kids,

so I should definitely be giving advice about this. And in fact, I think about Ram Dass, who didn't have kids either, but his, I think if I ever did have kids, what his beautiful line about that is, as far as children are concerned, just tend to the soil, let the flower do its thing. Oh, that's a good one. I think I'd give that a try. But I'd probably end up being like, no, grow like this and go this way and be a different flower. Don't tend to the soil like that.

You're doing it all wrong for crying out loud. Tend to the soil a bit harder. Put your back into it. Come on. that's what I'd be like were your parents also kind of seeking enlightenment in that way or was that something that you came to independently oh I want to ask you that question too I wonder what was the kind of what was the religious slash spiritual signifiers in your home you know what what would you identify as being other than this normal world stuff I wonder so you think about that and

then I'll answer your question really quick. I was born into a family of these two people that were meditating around me a lot. There were Buddhist sculptures, the fat little cherubic Buddha sculptures everywhere, and then some more Thai-looking Buddha sculptures, some copies of Be Here Now, and things like that. So I grew up in that environment that was kind of eastern fetishizing eastern esoteric world plus with my Indian name so I felt quite comfortable and attracted to that stuff I would see my mom meditating and I would think oh she's up there in the clouds like flying around seeing all these deities I bet and they would read to me the stories from just early those Hindu cartoons you know the story of Ganesh and Saraswati and Lakshmi

So I was familiar with all that stuff and loved it. But also, you know, I read Tintin as well. But Tintin and Tibet, no less. Anyways, I thought, wow, so this is interesting. This mysticism, this mystical stuff is really fascinating. It was until much later that I, in my 30s where I really actually joined a religion and started to actually practice and build my life around these practices and these rituals that I do every day. and I still laugh at that concept of imagining someone meditating being just out there,

oh, and bliss, you know, could not be further for the truth in terms of my experience. I'm just sitting, I'm more there than I am the rest of the day. Everything else is this like, I'm out there, out there. And then I'm sitting down, I'm just dealing with myself, my shit. And at moments, it's beautiful, but most of the time it is nightmare. It's an apocalypse. But tell me about, were you surrounded with, where the crucifixes around, we're going to church or you know where we're going to temple i don't know we're going to

to synagogue i don't know what was happening no none of that it's a hard no for spirituality it was a spiritual wasteland i think both my parents grew up religious and actually my mom stayed religious and she went back to being a regular churchgoer in the last 20 years of her life when she was no longer living with my dad and when her children had left home and her life was hers again. And so then she reconnected with the church. And I think it was important to her faith. But we didn't really get a sense of that when we were living at home. We didn't go to church regularly. We were sent away to boarding school. And I think part of the deal with the schools that we were sent to was that there were regular church services. So I know my parents felt that that was an

important thing that they wanted their children to experience. But I'm sorry to say that it never, you know, as far as we were concerned as students at those schools, it never really meant anything to us. It was something that we had to do. And we went there and we thought about other things and we zoned out. And, you know, they were happy moments and quasi-spirited. spiritual moments singing hymns when I think back some of those hymns are absolute bangers so when you're singing for those in peril on the sea and things like that well I bet that that all of that helped you discover art you know because you didn't get wow it's so turned on by the imagery that spoke to you comically because there's I think you're kind of born with this what it's because

it means fascinating what I'm attracted to naturally versus what I just have no relationship with even though I grew up around. Well, in Venezuela, it's church, and it's a Christian thing. But I just thought, well, this is interesting, but I have no, it doesn't speak to me. But then I'm a Buddhist and certain Buddhist deities, particularly in Vajrayana, I'm just weeping. I'm just weeping. I cannot believe their beauty, and I'm in love.

So it feels like a karmic thing. And so you didn't necessarily feel that when you'd go to the forced church service, and that longing is still there. even though if we know it or not. And you maybe discover it through music and through art, through comedy, right? Maybe you saw some early paintings and heard some songs that you go, whoa, this is metaphysical. This is mystical. Yeah, 100%.

It was all about music. I got all of that from listening to David Bowie from listening to five years for the first time and getting lost in that song. And being totally transported and weird music, you know, I love the music. music on the radio. I love madness. I love all that music in the early 80s in the UK that was really an explosion for so much odd stylistically varied music. I don't, I mean, I guess that's the music I grew up with, so I have a fondness for it. But I feel like it was a particularly, peculiarly, peculiarly adventurous time in music with that kind of post-punk, new wave. And so catchy. Yeah. Undeniably catchy. I think the specials changed my life without a doubt. And I was obsessed. I didn't like one single bad manners song, yet I thought they were the coolest band in the world. And of course, the body snatchers, all those bands is the best. Yeah. So you also probably found a sense of community too. Yeah, there were so many other people. I mean, I bonded with many people throughout my life over David Bowie and talking heads and people like that. You know, the feelings you described. um that you got from spirituality and and being moved to tears and that's what i get from music and still do do you have an answer for is there a song that you you go you know what let's change the

song because that i'm going to get too emotional can you think of that song and i'm sure there's a few but which one comes up it's a song that you go maybe i'm not right now i can't really do that because it's going to hit some spots well actually i think about this a lot and i've asked a few people that question. I was going to ask you about that. Because music is definitely something that I got from my mum. She was a big music fan. And so that's much more connected with her. And after she died, in fact, I think the night after she died, I set myself the challenge of listening to One Day I'll Fly Away by Randy Crawford, because that was a song that she introduced me to and that I always will associate with her

and that was hardcore trying to get through that and just because it was so baldly descriptive of everything that had just happened the fact that she just died and everything about it, the yearning and the otherness in that song and oh man I follow the night

can't stay. That's my life When will I begin? My life again One day I'll fly away That's a beautiful song anyway But listening to that after my Ma died, that was hardcore. But also

So, actually, a song that people don't really believe that it can possibly make me emotional, but it does for some reason, is Dance the Night Away by the Mavericks. I don't think I know how that goes. I just want to dance the night away. You know that one? It sounds familiar. With Senor readers who can sway. Mavricks.

Geez, I feel like I've heard it, but I can't even picture it. But I love hearing you sing it. I just want to dance the night away With senioritas who can sway Right now tomorrow's looking bright Just like the sunny morning light Why does that make you Why does that get you weepy?

Because it's so kind of madly joyful. So you're up, your tears, you're raised to tears. You have that feeling? Yeah. There's just something about, like when you see, when you see something done really well, I always remember my dad saying about these ice dancers called Torville and Dean. Do you remember them? No, I don't recall.

They were amazing. They were sort of Olympic champions. Are they like binge juice and garbage? What? They did a famous routine to Revelle's Bolero. And they captured the imagination of the world with their ice dancing routine. And I always remember my dad saying, it's just so extraordinary to see anything done that well.

There's something very special about it. And it's true. When you see brilliant sports people at the peak of their powers, and you just think wow look at them go that is magic it's quite moving you know and for some reason that is encapsulated in dance the night away by the mavericks for me it's just so kind of madly optimistic and joyful despite how cruel and cold the world is it's like they're like fuck it let's just dance the night away with seigneuritas who can sway and uh yeah it's wonderful I had a moment of this, I can, I can kind of, I can relate to having that, feeling that way about a song really recently, which is listening to All Night Long, which is, what's his name?

Perfect example, perfect example. Rich, which is his name? Lionel Richie, yeah. I was listening to that song, I was in Japan, and I'm listening to that song, which I had never noticed. I never, I never heard it as an adult. It's a song you grew up with, right? So this is just recently, it's like three weeks ago. And I'm listening to that song because I just watched that We Are the World Documentary

and it was so moving. I love that documentary so much. I was surprised. I was kind of voiding if who cares. I'm not interested, but then I watched it. It's incredible. So I got re-interested in Lionel Ritchie and check out his catalog. I'm listening to All Night Long.

He does, first of all, there's like eight accents that he does in that song. It's hilarious. He's Jamaican. He's British. It's the whole thing. It's super funny and weird. And you cannot. help but feel this bliss, joy feeling. And I started to dance. I'm just walking around in headphones

and I'm walking around, talk to you. And I started to dance. And I realized I never dance. I do not dance. And I don't see people just dancing, maybe even a quick little dance walking around. Something about that made me really emotional, made it really sad. And it was something really beautiful about, you know, this, oh, wow, I can just kind of dance anytime, anywhere. This is a strange feeling. I get that from that song too. And that was fun, that documentary, wasn't it, about We Are the World? Did you like, did you like that bit with Bob Dylan looking absolutely lost?

Of course. Of course. It's the best, the best. It is the best. It also was so humanizing. Yeah. It's so sweet because I don't think of him as somebody that I've ever, you know, he's just not a person. I mean, Bob is just some other being that's some spectral phantom being that is some,

Not at all here. So to see him go, I'm not sure how to do this. Just to even have this human moment. Let me talk to Stevie Wonder. And then Steve does his imitation of Bob and how to sing it. It's the coolest thing. I loved it. I loved it.

And Stevie Wonder, I mean, because it's a two-pronged attack from, what's his face, the producer, Quincy Jones. So, Bob, for listeners, for those of you who haven't seen this documentary, there's a bit they're recording we are the world they're sort of doing all the arrangements they're figuring out which of these super celebrities is going to sing which line they get to bob dillon's line there's a chance we're taking we're saving our own lives and that's that's that's how it ends up but he doesn't know how to sing it at all so he's literally mumbling he's like uh chance to take taken the saving i don't i don't really know what I'm doing. And so Quincy Jones takes him over to Stevie Wonder and says, Stevie, just give him some ideas. Stevie Wonder does a Bob Dylan impression and sort of gives him a read on the line basically, doesn't he? So cool. And it's perfect. And so he just, so basically Bob Dylan ends up doing an impression of Stevie Wonder's Bob Dylan impression. Oh, that's so cool. I mean, that's how I wrote

all my first songs was trying to cover songs and it sounded so off. It was so far from the song I was trying to cover. I was like, well, I guess I have my own song now. Hmm. You know what? The other song that you have done a beautiful version of for us is called The Body Breaks. And that's an older one. That's from your album Rejoicing Hands, I think. 2000. Yeah. Yeah, that's an old one. Oh, hello. Look at that. There's a beautiful cat there. Hello. Can I take a screenshot of you and your beautiful cat. Of course. Here we go.

One, two, three. You're a Hollywood cat now. But listen. Look at that. It's been so nice meeting you and talking with you, Devendra. Thank you so much for giving up your time. Thanks, Adam. Total pleasure.

I love your work. It's an honor to be a part of this. I'm listening to every episode except for this one. You owe me two songs? Oh, yes. Hey, look, I'll play you my charger one quickly. Now, let's see if I can do this. This is a jingle that features two elements.

One element is a conservative philosopher that my dad was fond of, a guy called Roger Scruton. And it's elements of an essay, an audio essay that I heard of Roger Scruton's, where he's talking about the deadening effect of hearing pop music everywhere you go in public. and that was a sentiment that my dad strongly agreed with so I put that in this jingle and then there's another section in the jingle which is a sort of I'm sort of channeling my dad

and he is complaining about not being able to find his phone charger which is why I thought of your song Charger from your last album Is that real melody? Have you see my phone charger? I'd have it right there. Did you see it? Have you got it?

Where's my charger got? Where's my phone charger? The battery's about to die. It was on the table. Woo! Round and round in their heads go the chord progressions, the empty lyrics and the impoverished fragments of tune. And boom goes the brain box.

At the start of every bar. At the start of every bar. Boom goes the brain box. There you go. So that was, Musically, it was inspired by Playboy Carty. I mean, all I heard was the follow-up to We Are the World, and all I saw was the world finally singing in harmony.

To boom goes the brain. box. I mean, and your father's voice is incredible. It's incredible. I love this song. It's brilliant. Good job. Thank you so much. Well, it's an honor to play it to you and it's quite surreal experience having having you enjoy it. So thank you. But now we are going to conclude with your beautiful version of the body breaks. Is there something you would like to say about this song? It's not as good as where's my charger? Oh, my song. Well, I've caught it. The actual name of the jingle. Yeah, what's the name the jingle. I call it Playboy Buckles is the actual how it's labeled. Amazing. Okay, so this song that you're about to play that I recorded just for you called The Body Breaks is my attempt at covering

Playboy Buckles. And like I said, I don't do covers well, so it ended up sounding a little bit different. All right, great. Here is Devendra singing a specially recorded version of the Body Breaks. So, I'm going to I'm I'm I'm going to be the I'm going to

I'm going to I'm going to I'm going to I'm the and I'm I'm Your body breaks and your body is fine, I'm open to yours and I'm open to mind.

takes its time but you'll get over yours and I hope to get up the night and the sun will shine and the moon will rise your body calls yeah your body calls out it whispers it furs but it ends with a shout your body burns yeah your body burns yeah your body burns until mine is with yours mine will burn on my flesh things out Mama come put me out

Ooh Your body sways like the wind Your body sways like the wind on a swing A bridge through a loo Your body stays then your body moves old I'd really rather not dwell on when yours will be gone Still within the dark There'll always be a little shine

One tiny spark Forever yours and mine Wait. Continue. Hey, welcome back, Podcats. That was Devendra Banhart. performance there was of a track called The Body Breaks. Now, you may be able to hear that I am no longer in London town.

It's a day later, and I'm back in Norfolk. On a beautiful sunny day now, although it is very cold. But the skies are blue. Over there, you can hear the sounds of guys cutting down Christmas trees. Santa's murderous Christmas tree elves. Rosie is back with me She is loping along beside me We just had a bit of a

A toilet emergency I won't go into detail Suffice to say that I think her change of diet Following her teeth operation Has complicated things in the nether regions As far as her movements go

Trying to use all the euphemisms I possibly can to protect you from the reality of what just happened, which was unprecedented with dog legs. It was basically a... Imagine the biggest dingleberry you've ever seen in your entire life in the most hairiest zone. I've said too much, haven't I?

But that was quite an operation to sort that out, wasn't it, Rosie? I do not consent to being spoken about this way. I apologize, but it's only to illustrate that we love you. And we'd do anything for you. And I hope you would do the same for me. If that happened with me, let's wait and say, shall we? Yeah, okay.

In the description of today's podcast, you'll find a handful of links to a couple of Devendra-related videos. One of them is... Ooh, Rosie, a little sneeze there. One of them is Devendra's appearance on What's in My Bag in which interesting people get to wander around amoeba records in Los Angeles and pick out music they're interested in and talk about it. That's one of those YouTube shows where I can watch about 20 on the trot.

One day, I'd like to spend an entire evening with some other people who are similarly minded and watch just loads of what's in my bag interspersed with tiny desk concerts on NPR. And maybe a few of those K-E-X-P. Is that what they're called concerts? They do some really good ones. Actually, we did a bit of that the other night, me and my son.

First watching Eddie Murphy clips after I watched the Netflix documentary about Eddie Murphy, which I half enjoyed, first half loved, second half, but it did make me go back and watch some of the less offensive highlights of Eddie's live material. Still pretty funny a lot of that. And we also had a munch on some tiny desks. Recent one with pulp, Aldous Harding.

She's a very unnerving. compelling performer. Also, if you haven't seen that, Catreel and Topako Amoroso, Tiny Desk Concert, that's good fun. Since I did my intro, we went to see Radiohead, when I say we, me and the family, and some of our pals Garth Jennings, with whom I made some music videos for Radiohead back in 2007,

just after they'd released InRey, And we did the video, myself and Garth, for jigsaw falling into place, among others, with the helmet cams. And when they played that song at the O2 on Saturday night, that was quite a moment. And Garth and I exchanged looks. I think we both felt on some level that it's slightly our song too. Okay, so we didn't write it or perform it or anything like that. But we made the music video. So we are at least a footnote in the life of that song. And they did an amazing version of it. I had heard them play it before, but they nailed everything that is so thrilling about that song when they performed it the other night. And that was just one of

many songs that sounded as good as I've ever heard them. Live. Exit music for a film, which is one of the songs from OK Computer that I have to confess I never really loved as much as some of the other ones on there. You know, it's that one. It's obviously good. But maybe it was, I don't know, I think I used to find it a bit much because it builds into a real, like, everything's happening and all the synthesizers are rumbling.

And I used to prefer some of the mellower tracks like subterranean homesick alien. And then, you know, paranoid android, yes, great. You've got all the drama in there. But I don't know. Anyway, so I never connected with exit music before. But on Saturday, it was incredible. It was incredible.

His voice is great. And also the lighting and the visuals. They're playing in the round. and they've got this cylinder of semi-transparent screens on which live visuals play, but all the visuals are heavily processed and have various different effects applied to them, depending on what song is playing.

And that plus this beautiful light show. And then all the people holding up the lights on their phones in some of the tracks, like no surprises, and that one, exit music. In the O2 arena, which is 25,000 people, I think it was full to capacity, perhaps more people in there than they've ever had because they are playing in the round

so they're able to use every space, really, to get audience in. And it was really one of those moments where you just think, come on, this is great, us all here, singing and, experiencing this at the same time. And there were, there were so many moments like that. Weird fishes is another one where the crowd go nuts. And, but jigsaw falling into place, all those, who, woo, and the audience are all chanting along. And, wow, nothing beats that

feeling of being in a big crowd and all just being a part of that music and seeing it performed so well. so the actual show itself was amazing getting into the o2 and then getting out again going on the tube that wasn't that much fun but it wasn't too bad like immediately afterwards we got out and the thousands of people all heading towards the entrance for north greenwich tube made my heart sink and i said to my wife i don't think i can handle that it's going to give me the fear let's just walk She said, we can't walk. So we got in the scrum. But it moved fairly quickly.

It was mad, though. It was like there had been some disastrous event. And just this mob of people moving as one into the station and then down the escalator kind of filtering themselves in. Just this blob of humanity. people right up against each other, barely standing up, like sometimes you feel you're being kept upright by just the pressure of all the people around you, pinning you in place.

It's not good if you've got agoraphobia. And then on the escalator as well, I was thinking, I hope nobody trips over, otherwise it's going to be gnarly. Anyway, it was fine. And it was a nice atmosphere. It was a mix of people who had just been hanging out at the O2 and a lot of radio head concert goers and everyone was in a good mood

there was no shouting and bad bad, you know, sometimes you go to a far right rally and afterwards the crowd is a little more agitated I find on the tube. Wasn't like that. On Saturday I'm happy to say. Hey, I forgot to say before I'm going to be on TV on Friday

with the Adam Buxton band We're going to play a song from Buckle Up Not sure exactly which song we're going to play yet We were thinking maybe shorts Or maybe tea towel Anyway, we're playing it on the last leg With Adam Hills and Josh and Alex And that's live, live television

Performing music on live television Pretty sure I haven't done that before so tune in see what happens wish me luck well look that's it for this week thank you to Seamus Murphy Mitchell for his always invaluable production support thanks to Helen Green she does the artwork for the podcast

thank you to everyone at ACAST who liaises with my sponsors but as ever my most hearty heartfelt thanks go to you I appreciate you coming back and exploring another episode. Hope you had a good time. How'd you feel about a creepy hug? Sure you do come here. Hey, good to see you.

Hope you're doing all right. And until next time, we hang out in the same sonic space. Please go carefully because it's very unpredictable out there. And for what it's worth, I love you. Bye! Like and subscribe Like and subscribe

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