Hey there, kids, welcome to the Phile for a Sunday, how are you? It's Breast Cancer Awareness Month, so just let me know if three's anything I can do this month to further the cause of healthy breasts.
Well, for most people, Friday night is a time to knock back some drinks with the friends and decompress from the work week. Unfortunately for everyone online, Friday night is an entirely different event for president's oldest son. Friday night, on the night most people would be out dancing, Donald Trump Jr. posted the weirdest photo of his dad, and it makes matters creepier when you consider he kicked off the weekend sharing photoshopped photos of his dad. What is life?! Behold: whatever comic-themed portion of hell is being exposed here.
Unsurprisingly, once the traumatizing piece of daddy-themed fan fare was shared, it immediately sent shivers down the collective spines of Twitter, Instagram, and any human who beheld it. There's actually entirely TOO MUCH to unpack here. Why does Superman suddenly have a beard?! That's not cannon. Also, WHY is Trump Jr making his dad sswole?! Please, no. It's hard to decipher if it's more or less creepy if Trump Jr. summoned a friend or assistant to photoshop this visual blasphemy. Can you imagine asking someone to photoshop spandex pecs onto your father?! Please say no. If you haven't suffered from nightmares in awhile, having this image etched into your brain should do the trick. People on Twitter are also understandably livid at the misrepresentation of Superman. There are millions of constituents who don't want to see a buff bearded Trump photoshopped as one of their comic book heroes. Hopefully you have wine, ice cream, or loved ones nearby so you can effectively cope with the aftermath of this image. It bears repeating, the psychology behind photoshopping a low-key sexy picture of your dad is beyond disturbing. Sweet dreams, if you can ever get yourself to sleep again!
The formerly disgraced Bill O'Reilly finally settled a $32 million sexual harassment case just a month before Fox News rehired him for a four-year $100 million dollar contract, reports "The New York Times." The 68-year-old television host was fired back in April after former colleague Lis Wiehl alleged that O'Reilly had sent her gay porn and other sexually explicit material during his ongoing sexual harassment of her. According to the "New York Times" report, O'Reilly was involved in five sexual harassment before Wiehl's allegations lost him his job. Despite, or perhaps, because of his unsavory track record with women, Fox News welcomed him back weeks after the hefty harassment suit was financially settled. This business move looks extra hypocritical given how fervently Fox News has been following and covering Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault allegations. In a statement, 21st Century Fox claimed it was not privy to the amount of O'Reilly's January settlement with the Fox News analyst Lis Wiehl, and regarded it as a personal issue between the two of them. "It’s politically and financially motivated and we can prove it with shocking information, but I’m not going to sit here in a courtroom for a year and a half and let my kids get beaten up every single day of their lives by a tabloid press that would sit there, and you know it," O'Reilly told the "New York Times."
On Thursday members of the right-wing student group Turning Point U.S.A. dressed in diapers to protest safe spaces at Kent University. Fully committed to their cause, the crew of conservatives even set up play pens, and came armed with pacifiers, rubber duckies, bubbles, and posters expressing their discontent for "safe spaces." While it's unclear exactly how they wanted the public to respond to these antics, the public certainly had a lot of questions about the use of diapers and baby attire. More specifically, people wondered, could this be a chance for right-wing students to express their deeply repressed fetishes?! The group itself was founded in 2012 by then 18-year-old Charlie Kirk and has sadly grown the past few years. They are perhaps the most known for their Professor Watchlist that lists college professors who "advance leftist propaganda." While they claim no official connection to the alt-right and the connected white supremacists, Kirk is a contributor to Breitbart. So, they probably keep the diapers on hand to contain all their inconsistent bullshit. Meanwhile, despite ideological differences, other people expressed support for the students inadvertently expressing their love of diaper play. The meta levels of satire in this thread prove that TPUSA's critique of liberal spaces backfired. Unless the students are truly ready to out their fetish, in which case, good on them?! I'm so conflicted. Hopefully, all of the energy and stimulation of the outside world exhausted TPUSA enough so they can go down for a long, long, nap.
In today's episode of racist bullshit that could and should have been avoided: a page from a nursing textbook published by Pearson is making the rounds on Twitter. And sadly not because everyone suddenly wants to get in to nursing. The heading reads "Diversity and Culture" (already off to an awkward start) and it lays out, in detail, how various religious, racial and ethnic groups respond to pain. It's... painful.
If you're curious, the book is called "Nursing: A Concept-Based Approach to Learning, Volume I" and it's on Amazon if you'd like to leave a review. It includes extremely dubious "facts" about different groups of people, including that black people lie about their pain intensity, Hispanic people are either "stoic" or "expressive" (umm, like all people?) and Jewish people are "vocal and demanding of assistance." It's dangerous in a medical setting to treat people based on assumptions and stereotypes. As this point you might be thinking, "okay, slow your roll, Peverett, this book was probably created in the 1950s when people didn't have the education and awareness they have today." NOPE. IT WAS CREATED IN 2015. TWO YEARS AGO. The page was first brought to public attention by wellness advocate Onyx Moore, who shared it on Facebook on Monday, explaining that it's the perfect example of "how not to be even remotely culturally sensitive." The clip from the handbook was shared by Massachusetts resident Kelly Hills on Twitter, where it went viral. "HOLY SHIT!" she wrote, and tagged the publishing company. "Pearson actually published this racist bullshit in a nursing textbook." She followed up with this thread to clarify why the book is not only wrong but potentially dangerous. Kelly's tweet has been shared over 2,000 times in a day. And other people are calling out the handbook on Twitter, drawing more viral attention. Apparently this got Pearson's attention, and they responded with this tepid apology...
Pearson's beleaguered social media person (or perhaps Mr. or Mrs. Pearson him or herself), is apparently trying to fix the problem. Uhhh, okay. Good luck with that!
Children have a sweetness and innocence that can be terrifying when it's masking a well of pure evil. Kids in horror movies haunted our waking nightmares for years. But off-screen, the actors who played them have grown up to be seemingly normal adults who are not a threat to our well-being... as far as I can tell. That being said, if I ever run into them in the real world, I'm proceeding with caution. Anyway, for the next few entries I will be showing you some terrifying children from horror movies who are now normal adults. I'll start off with the Grady twins from The Shining.
Lisa and Louise Burns, 46, played the horror genre's most iconic scary children in 1980's The Shining. The Grady twins return from the dead to torment little protagonist Danny Torrence with their spooky refrain of "come play with us, Danny, forever, and ever." It's hard to go to a motel without imagining these two popping up in a hallway. But luckily, the Burns sisters are very much alive today and not haunting motel rooms, as far as I can tell. They both live in London, and though they have been mostly out of the public eye since The Shining, they share a Twitter feed and Facebook page, where they post pics like this...
Creepiness rating: I'd play with them forever, and ever. So, speaking of scary shit... look at this.
That's gonna give me nightmares tonight. Hey, it's Sunday, instead of doing this blog thing I should be listening to this record...
Maybe I'll just wait til Halloween. Nahhh... So, do you like your neighbors? I like mine, I don't even know them really though. Some people don't really have luck with their neighbors...
Hahaha. One thing you might know not about me is that I like to follow the rules... some people just take to a little too far like this woman...
Hey, do you remember Hillary Duff from Lizzie McGuire? Here she is today...
Do you feel old yet? Hahahahaha. I'm so stupid. So, if I had a TARDIS I think I'd like to go to 1970, but with my lick I'll hit 1870 instead and end up materializing next to this mound of bison skulls ready to be used for fertilizer...
The Walking Dead comes back on tonight and the new poster for it looks very familiar...
Earlier I mentioned the TPUSA right wing student group wearing diapers to protest safe spaces... well, their new poster explains it all...
Ha! Alright, one of my favorite things is pics of a side boob with tattoo so I am showing you oils of just that this month...
You're welcome. Alright, it's one week and two days til Halloween and you might be trying to figure out what to wear... well, I can help. How about dressing up as a sexy Donald Trump?
Nothing says "I know who the president is" like dressing up as Donald Trump! There's some costumes I am sick of seeing already I have to say. Like Jon Snow and Daenerys who will probably be the go-to couple costume of 2017... but remember: incest. Ew. Yeah, not so cute now, is it? Okay, it is still kinda cute. And now from the home office in Port Jefferson, New York, here is...
Top Phive Reasons Why Trump Gave His Puerto Rico Response A "10"
5. It was indisputably 2017's best Presidential response to a Puerto Rico hurricane.
4. He perfectly hid his surprise upon learning that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens.
3. He thinks it's good when minorities suffer.
2. He offered to build a beautiful golf course where some hospital, nursing home or grade school used to be.
And the number one reason why Trump gave his Puerto Rico response a "10" is...
1. Despite all that paper towel tossing, he wasn't sore at all the next day.
Are you a lazy person? I bet you're not as lazy as this girl...
I wonder of she's reading the Phile. I doubt it. Okay, so, you know I live in Florida, right? Well, there's stuff that happens here in Florida that happens no where else in the universe. Well, maybe this story will...
Nazi Richard Spencer took his attention-seeking advocacy for a white ethno-state down to Gainesville on Thursday, where he addressed a near-empty crowd at the University of Florida. It wasn't a UF event. Rather, Nazi Richard Spencer simply invited himself and rented the space, and the governor of Florida declared a state of emergency as the university spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in security to prevent another Charlottesville. Also in preparation for the event, Nazis were asked to hide their swastikas. Protestors stood outside the venue, letting Nazi Richard Spencer know that Nazism is not welcome in the 21st century. There was literally a war some 70 years ago, and the bad guys lost.
Yesterday morning Trump revealed plans to release the JFK assassination files to the public. The government files have been concealed since 1992, following a Congress ruling stating that assassination documents could be released within 25 years, barring obstruction by the president. This means The National Archives has until October 26th to disclose the papers, unless Trump steps in. And it would appear, according to his tweet, that he'll allow at least some of the documents to see the light of day. "Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened," Trump tweeted. The assassination documents include a combination of FBI and CIA files detailing the investigation into JFK's death and Lee Harvey Oswald's possible motives. Of course, by merit of their content, the de-classification of the papers would also address the myriad of conspiracy theories surrounding the 35th president's assassination. One of which the current president championed during the 2016 election, when Trump accused Ted Cruz's father Rafael Cruz of colluding with Oswald. During the time of the rumors, Cruz declined to deny or admit to Trump's accusations. As of now, there is no proof connecting Cruz with the assassination. Still, others have theories about Trump's motives for releasing the papers. Is he doing this as a publicity stunt to distract from some shady legislation? Yes, of course, always. Is it hypocritical for him to potentially release these FBI and CIA documents while still hoarding his own tax returns?! Yes. Well, as it stands, it looks like we'll find out more details on JFK's death by October 26th, although Trump's statement could still technically be rescinded. The release of these papers could truly provide a holiday of sorts for conspiracy theorists of all stripes.
The 68th book to be pheatured in the Phile's Book Club is...
Robbie Robertson will be the guest on the Phile next Thursday.
Alright, today's guests are two singer-songwriters who have teamed up for the first time with the fantastic album "Little Windows." Please welcome to the Phile... Teddy Thompson and Kelly Jones.
Me: Hey, kids, welcome to the Phile. How are you?
Kelly: Yay! I'm good.
Teddy: Thank you.
Me: Teddy, we have a lot in common... you were from London, I was from London, you live in New York now, I lived in New York, your dad was a famous musician, my dad was a famous musician and your mom is named Linda. My mom was named Linda. And we kinda look the same. Hahaha. Crazy, right?
Teddy: That is crazy. Who was your dad?
Me: Lonesome Dave from Foghat. For those that don't know, your dad is the great Richard Thompson. Kelly and Teddy, you have a lot of great music individually out, but it's cool you got together and recorded the album "Little Windows." So, who did the main songwriting for this album?
Teddy: I take credit just for the first song on the album because there's lots where I definitely didn't come up with the beginning but I had the melody and the chorus and then I remember saying to our third co-writer Bill DeMain, "You know, I want it to be like 'I want you to love me too'." and he said, "How about 'never knew you loved me too'?" I said it but never thought it sounded good and he said that's great. So, I obviously helped to write the actual song.
Me: I love the sound of the late 50s and 60s you have on the album. How did you both come to working together and coming up wit that style for this record?
Kelly: I was familiar with Teddy's music and Teddy became familiar with mine and I think we quickly began to understand we both had some similar points of reference. I had seen Teddy do this Poundcake gig of his which was all celebrating country and pop songs from the 50s and I knew in my mind I was thinking it could be something like that but with a girl and a boy. I thought it would be fun and we would do it together.
Teddy: As opposed to man on man stuff I was doing. LOL.
Kelly: Hahahaha. There's a story in there.
Me: Where did the album title come from? You're not talking about Microsoft, right? Haha.
Kelly: It came from the line "life is full of little windows" from "Never Knew You Loved Me Too."
Me: So, which one of you wrote that line?
Kelly: Bill came up with it. Bill was such a pitch hitter for this project because in my opinion I think when you're co-writing with someone, especially if you are co-writing with three people, it could be very challenging to agree on a lyric. It's quicker to agree on a great melody but a lyric that really resonates with three people that's more challenging. So, I think that's one area of songwriting where he shines... just writing a classic lyric. So, yay to B.D.
Me: How was it with having a third person who is not part of the act so to speak? I have two sisters and it's not always easy having us all agree on something so I can't imagine how it is writing with three people.
Teddy: Well, I had three of something before so I knew how to do it. It's very important to make all three feel important and wanted, otherwise one of them is going to go "you're spending all the time with her." and she'll storm out wanting her money back and I'm not going through that again. Haha. Ahem. So, yes, but actually it can be challenging. Actually in this group, with the three of us our personalities worked very well and Bill DeMain was a very good figure between us. Not like he wasn't doing tins of the work because Kelly and I are the singers, it was nice to have an almost impartial third party who is not going to be performing the songs... he just really wanted them to be good songs.
Kelly: He could hear more objectively maybe.
Me: Did you three spend a lot of time together? I have to admit, you and Bill were very lucky if you know what I mean.
Kelly: Awe. We didn't have too much time together because Teddy lives in New York, I live in Los Angeles and Bill lives in Nashville. We hit all the major music cities in the U.S. We had to be very deliberate with the time that we had together so it was very structured. We like to say we were in the vein of the tin pan alley era or Brill Building era maybe. I remember he goal of lets try to write two songs a day. So, we came with ammunition and did our best and we were pretty successful I think.
Teddy: Yeah, we didn't have much time in actual days together. It was just nine or ten days total that we wrote all the songs.
Me: Is that Brill Building approach something you did before, Teddy?
Teddy: Yeah, but the difference back then is I went to the office on my own to write and that was just to get things done because when you are home you have the TV and the couch, and all that stuff. I did try that and it worked for me to try and finish up ideas. It works even better when there's other people around because you can't slack off because there's other people around. You can't keep taking breaks and stopping 'cause other people want to move things along.
Me: Are you both really good at finishing songs or do you leave songs not finished?
Teddy: I'm terrible about finishing songs. I don't know about you, Kelly. I don't finish anything unless I absolutely have to. Instead of writing 50 songs I've only written 10 and I definitely have 40 that I didn't finish because I can't be asked.
Kelly: Haha. That's hard. That's where the work comes in, right, because it's easy to get inspired to get an idea and maybe write a chorus or a first verse but the professional part of things comes into play when you actually have to finish it. That's the work.
Me: I'm a huge fan of Mike Viola, who was supposed to be on the Phile soooo many times. One day. I was excited to see he produced your record. Did he help write or come up with ideas or was he just involved in the recording process?
Kelly: He didn't write any of the songs with us though that would've been fun. We just never worked it out. We had some pre-production time with him, discussing introductions, what might be the best in regards to the keys for our voices. I have to say since I worked with Mike in the past Mike was much more micro-managing in the arrangement on previous projects I worked with him so it was interesting to see his evolution. In the studio he was a great leader but wouldn't you agree, Teddy, it was a great collaborative thing where the musicians had great ideas and deciding on the fly what was working.
Teddy: Yeah, first of all I think the songs were quote tight before be brought them to Mike. We were quite good at performance structure and editing things down like cutting the intro if it was too long. By the time we got the songs to Mike they were quite a tight bunch. He made a few suggestions... I just remember more editing... taking out a few bars, making it even tighter in a real pop way which was great. In the studio he was really good at taking people's ideas, picking the best ones and moving along and saying "try that now let's try this." He was a good leader, which is a real skill.
Me: Teddy, your mom, Linda Thompson worked on the album as well, am I right?
Teddy: Yeah, she likes to be involved in everything I do... even though I'm a grown man. Which I guess never ends, but that's great though. It's a nice problem to have, right?
Me: I guess. Do you play stuff to her when you are working on an album?
Teddy: Yeah, sometimes. She tends to help. She's not really the best person to play things to of mine because she's not an objective listener for the most part. It's better to play things when their finished. She loves this record and she did come visit us in the studio while we were recording and that was fun. I wouldn't really send her rough mixes because she'd just say, "I can't hear the vocal." or "it's amazing." She's 68, people hear things differently when they get to that age. It's a good view pint but it's not always the most useful because she hears everything very differently. She's old. Hahaha! Don't tell her I said that.
Me: Hahaha. I should interview her and your dad as well. Was this record recorded in a live setting? It sounds like it was.
Teddy: Yeah. It's the greatest. I could go on and on about it but there's lot of advantages... it sounds really good. We recorded live to tape so there was no pro-tools going on, it was just the tape machine running around and everyone playing at the same time in the same room. It just makes everybody play better... even the very best musicians because of digital recording and the way it's been going for 20 years, the best musicians seem to be in recording mode a lot of time when you're in the studio as opposed to live mode because they know in the back of their mind they could fix it if they made a mistake. But of that's not an option people play differently... they play like their lives depend on it. It's great. Also there's lot of other advantages, I'm a big fan of it. I think it's the way forward... abandon digital.
Kelly: You have to be willing to let go of the perfectionism to the benefit of the music. I sometimes struggle with, "oh, that wasn't quite right, that note was a little sharp, it was a little flat." But as time has revealed it is those little imperfections that make the while thing sound human.
Me: The album is very short, which is shame. Is that something that was planned, like the records from the 50s, or did it just happen?
Kelly: I don't know, it just happened. The songs just begged to be short. We just like the ten that we chose, right, Teddy?
Teddy: Yeah, we weren't trying. The only moment where we put all the songs together and were mastering maybe and you get that back and see the running time was a little bit of a shock. Twenty-five minutes and sixty-eight seconds? Shit, that's really short. But it was the right things for the songs.
Me: I love the song "Wondering." What are you wondering?
Kelly: In 2009 I left New York City, I was living there for seven years, to Nashville and I had a good fortune of Bill DeMain finding me on the radio. He sent me an email saying "I really like the record you did 'SheBang!,' would you like to ever want to get together and co-write?" I thought what?! No, who is this guy? I'm scared. So I said, "I'll meet you for a coffee instead." We met for a coffee and I quickly learned he was a total gentleman and a great guy. And then we set up a co-writing session and I think in thew second songwriting date we had, we would start writing and we thought what is the song that might inspire us today? What's the groove that might get us going? We were just writing songs, it wasn't for a particular project, it wasn't for anything. I was really into this record by Dolly Parton called "Bubbling Over" and freaking out over that title track. So we thought let's try to write something to that sort of grove... write our own little "Bubbling Over" and Bill had the start of that lyric and I liked it. Anyway, we wrote that song and it lived dormant in my computer and his computer for years. Then this project came along when Teddy and I started dabbling, singing together I thought, hmmm, maybe it could be a guy and a girl singing. We tried it, and it worked. That's one of my favorite songs, too.
Me: When did you both discover vocally you are both so compatible?
Teddy: I don't know. I mean when we were writing the songs we weren't really singing full force. We just sort of were writing. We didn't really know until we went into the studio because we hand't really sung much together. So we just kind of assumed it would work. If two people can sing, they're professionals, and they're talented in the very least it will be okay. I never really thought about it, I just assumed it was going to work. It was a bit of trial and error in the studio... how close were we standing, were we looking at each other, whose singing louder, whose singing quieter. There was some technical things to consider but we got there pretty quickly.
Me: There's a song on the album that wasn't written by any of you two... where did that song come from?
Kelly: I think I heard that song, "You Can't Call Me Baby," first. In actuality Teddy and I tried to record "Wondering" and "You Can't Call Me Baby" before we ever had those "Little Window" sessions. Those are the two songs where we thought let's just try and record a couple of songs. Bill had shared that demo with me, he had made a demo with Georgia Middleman. He might've had his Swan Dive singing partner Molly Felder singing it. I can't remember now. I just loved "You Can't Call Me Baby," it's so lovable. It reminded me a lot of Buck Owens so "Wondering" being very country and "You Can't Call Me Baby" having this almost county thing I thought these two songs might be a nice way to start. They were our gateway songs. I'm a big fan of that song. Teddy hates to acknowledge that he didn't write it though.
Teddy: I probably did write it in someway.
Me: Kelly, you mentioned "Shebang!" which you made with Mike. I love that album! I love the song "There Goes My Baby." What was it like writing with Mike?
Kelly: Awe, thank you. Writing with Mike was exceptional. He as you know is a really brilliant musician. We wrote that song further into the process for "Shebang!" I already had "Same Songs" and "Over Thinking," then we wrote "Subway Song" and a couple of others. He had already relocated to L.A., I was living in New York... I remember I was in L.A. on a trip and we were sitting on his back patio of his home. He has a real gift of accessing a stream of thought, consciousness, ideas, of other people. I think sometimes I experienced that alone but I find that very difficult when other people are in the room because you have to be very vulnerable I think, to something bigger than yourself or to go into yourself maybe. We were tossing around lyrics there but it was not the Brill Building style we did with Bill and Teddy... it was much more here's an idea and finding time when we could. There was no one better to make the album with than Mike because he just has this pop kind of framework. He knows if it's going too far way out of the box, so we kept it very tight. He's a genius really.
Me: It's so different from your other album "Alta Loma," isn't it?
Kelly: Oh, yeah. I did that part by necessity because I didn't have a lot of money to spend making a record and part because I had people over the years at my shows say, "I wish you had a record which is just your voice and your guitar." So I just decided this is the time to do it. I have a little recording set up at my house and recorded some strings and some pedal steel elsewhere at a studio in L.A. I deliberately wanted to do something by myself and have it feel a little more intimate.
Me: Teddy, I have to ask you about your earlier work. Is your writing style the same now as it was when you started out making your solo records?
Teddy: Ummm, it was just easier at the beginning. When you're young, just before you make a record, you write songs that just seem to happen all the time. At least that was my experience. And then after a couple of records it becomes I'm just writing for a record... I better write and better make sure I have enough songs and are they good enough. It changes your relationship to writing a bit. Now I don't really write that much at all unless somebody holds a tape recorder to my head. I think it a little bit like the bigger picture of growing up and how important it is to not forget how to play as you become an adult but we all do lose that a little bit and you have to remind yourself, especially if you're in a creative profession to play and to have fun. Not be too grown up and be a kid.
Me: Did you take anything about songwriting from your parents at all?
Teddy: I don't know. It's hard to say. Not directly but later on. I didn't listen to their music when I was first getting into music but later on I certainly did and it's ingrained. I think it's more subconscious than anything else. I think it's definite Thompson gene, folly gene, that I have in there somewhere there within me. But I don't remember ever listening to anything of there's and thinking yeah, that's good. I'm gonna try and write like that. It's a little osmosis.
Me: You have a country connection, and you're English... does anybody ever comment on that?
Teddy: Yeah, I've been told many times isn't it strange that you're English and you like country music and you sound a bit country but the sensibility made a lot of sense to me. The country music I listened to early on was that style of clever songwriting where they'll be a witty phrase, maybe something that was funny and sad at the same time, or clever titles. Things that make you cry and smile simultaneously, and could be a bit sarcastic too. The English sense of humour to me is very compatible to that. I was listening to country music and it spoke to me. I have the same sense of hour, the same sensibility. Fuck you, I love you, whatever it is. It makes perfect sense to me.
Me: Back to "Little Windows," there's some songs on that CD that are more country than others... like "Better at Lying." Am I right?
Kelly: Yeah, I love that song. Sometimes between our sessions Bill and I... because Bill and I are good buddy's, now we are all good buddy's because we've all gone through this process. At the time we were still putting it together Bill and I would chat on the phone about our lives and be like, hmmm, what songs are we missing, or whatever. Could it be a certain theme or a certain groove. The waltz came up and remember he sent over few little lyrics snippets. That was one that I started... we finished it all together but that was one that I thought this could be like a sweet waltz. You know what's funny? We almost didn't include it. I almost thought it's too much like you took my future. It's an emotional space even though the music is different... it has a different meter, but... now I'm so glad it ended up on the record because I do like it. It has its own identity and it is sad. And I love a sad song.
Me: The band is great on the record, right?
Teddy: The band was fantastic. I mean credit there goes to Mike being the producer, he basically put the band together. Amazing. It was a real pleasure to do that, being in the trenches together, recording it live. You feel really in out, nobody was fixing things, or I'll do that again later and figure it out. It had to be RIGHT now, we are going to mix it tonight. It was great, it was really exciting.
Me: I love the song "Make a Wish On Me." That song seems to have a Bo Diddley like riff going on. Do you have any memories of writing that one?
Teddy: I feel like every record I've ever made I've had the same experience where at some point I go we need a different beat. Do we have a waltz? Better do a waltz. The other one to do, especially with this genre of music is to do a Bo Diddley beat. So, we intentionally try to write a song with a Bo Diddley beat. So, we started with a beat.
Kelly: Remember we had an outtake, Teddy, with a song called "Better from a Distance"? We had one song thinking we were going to do the Bo Diddley beat then we would write. Then we would be away from each other and listen and we'd reconvene... we're like no, it's not good enough. Remember that?
Teddy: No. I remember the song, but I don't remember that. I like to edit my history into something slick. There were no mistakes like that, we were brilliant.
Kelly: There were no bad songs ever.
Teddy: There were no bad songs, it all was perfect.
Kelly: I know. We did do it with "Make a Wish..." That was our second attempt at the Bo Diddley beat.
Me: The theme of relationships on that album... was that planned or did it full into place when you wrote the album?
Teddy: We weren't trying to hard, it just seemed obvious. That's what good songs are about and we are a girl and a boy singing them. It don't think we ever stopped and thought, hey, we should have a song about coal mining or the political landscape.
Me: So, what's happening for you two next? Teddy, you have a new solo album coming out?
Teddy: Yeah, I haven't actually started on it yet but I almost have. I almost started it a few times but now I think I'm really about to start it.
Me: Kelly, what about you?
Kelly: Same here. I don't know when, I don't know how but I'll do it. I'm also working on a masters degree... I'm doing a juggle. I'm doing the musicians juggle right now so I'm hoping to get a lot of things done by next summer.
Me: Do you think you can both handle working together again on another record?
Teddy: Yeah, I'm just hoping to live through the rest of the year. Yeah, we'll do it again. Like anything there's a certain level of success where in order to do this again we have to sell enough records. Even in this day and age we have to make the money back that we spent. So we'll see how it pans out.
Kelly: I have ideas. Hahaha.
Me: Well, I look forward to that. I have a copy of the album so you got my money. Hahaha.
Kelly: Thank you.
Me: Congrats on the album, kids. Go ahead and mention your websites. Thanks for both being on the Phile, and Teddy, tell your parents I want to interview them, and I hope to have you both back soon.
Kelly: Nice to meet you, Jason. Kellyjones.com.
Teddy: Teddythompson.net. Okay, bye, take care.
That about does it for this entry of the Phile. Thanks to my guests Teddy Thompson and Kelly Jones. The Phile will be back tomorrow with Jason Isbell. What a great name... Jason. Haha. Spread the word, not the turd. Don't let snakes and alligators bite you. Bye, love you, bye.
Not if it pleases me. No, you can't stop me, not if it pleases me. - Graham Parker
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