Source: https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/exclusive-ajr-busking-sober-rivers-cuomo-more
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 12:20:41+00:00

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Brothers Adam, Jack and Ryan Met of AJR found their unique sound the hard way, by cutting their teeth busking on the streets of New York City. A decade later, the band has just wrapped a 32-date sold-out North American tour, sharing their special brand of indie-pop infused with radio-hit hooks set against the kind of performance dynamic you can only learn through persistence and experimentation.
AJR have since become pop music juggernauts, flipping the proverbial pop script to explore production and songwriting from a new angle. On their second full-length album, 2017's The Click, the band came clean by tackling topics in an earnest way rarely seen in the genre. This is exemplified, for example, by the fresh approach on the effects of fame — or lack thereof — in "I'm Not Famous."
"That was probably the first song we wrote and released for The Click," says Jack Met. "With that song, we sat down and said, 'OK, we've done production, now let's see if we can really say something that no one has said before,' and that's where 'I'm Not Famous' came from. It's a song about why it's great to not be famous. We put that out and everyone just started really reacting well to it."
Despite the benefits of not being famous, AJR still find inspiration — and aspiration — from another member in the entertainment industry who has made a huge name for himself with his innovative and emotional storytelling.
"We want to be the Wes Anderson of music," adds Ryan Met. "When you watch a Wes Anderson movie and you laugh, not because it's funny — it's not a comedy — but you laugh because it's so blatant, and … so, 'Wow, I've never seen that in a movie before. …' It's so wry and so honest, but it's also emotional. So I think we think about that a lot, and that's really come to be AJR's voice."
Collectively, AJR's cinematic aesthetic and musical street smarts have yielded some magical moments. "Sober Up," their latest single from The Click, features a guest appearance from Weezer's GRAMMY-winning frontman Rivers Cuomo, the perfect fit for the infectious left-of-center pop tune.
"I think we wrote the song in probably 30 minutes, just starting with that idea of sober up, and wanting to use it as a metaphor for wanting to be young again," says Jack Met. "Rivers Cuomo is a completely different story."
He goes on to explain that Cuomo followed the guys on Twitter and sent a DM to the band praising their previous single, "Weak." Understandably excited by the endorsement, AJR went for it and asked if Cuomo would want to collaborate on a future track together. To their surprise, Cuomo said yes and wrote the bridge for "Sober Up."
Earlier this month, AJR branched out even further, collaborating with GRAMMY-nominated DJ/Producer Steve Aoki and GRAMMY-nominated rapper Lil Yachty on the song "Pretender," which started as a song that just missed the cut for The Click.
"It didn't fit into the flow of the album, and we ended up sending it to Steve Aoki's manager," says Ryan, who thought it would be the perfect fit for an EDM vibe. "The song is about being insecure and it's about trying to figure out how to fit into a friend group and just emulate other people. … Steve Aoki did a crazy amazing job with it. He literally turned it from a sad song into this really just monstrous banger, and then Lil Yachty came on and his verse is awesome."
With nothing but momentum behind AJR, the group is experiencing a fan response like nothing they've seen in their musical lives. From the Kanye West-inspired production-heavy approach to their 2015 debut album, Living Room, to their quirky pop breakthrough on The Click, their sights are now set on enhancing their live show.
"For a long time our band was basically only about making records," says Ryan Met. "The last two years or so, our live following has exponentially been increasing. … Our goal was, 'Let's just really surprise people. Let's try and create a spectacle and try and bring the theatrical element of Blue Man Group or a Broadway show to the live concert setting.'"
The result featured bucket drum breakdowns, remixes and a lot of crazy lights, vaulting AJR from playing to crowds of 300 in clubs to larger venues of 1,500 to 3,000 people. Ryan also reveals the band's plans to play 4,000- to 5,000-person venues, doubling their audience size yet again on tour this fall while also working on new music for their next album. There's no shortage of creative energy buzzing around inside the Met brothers.
"We are also releasing a deluxe version of The Click at some point this summer, and it'll have some new songs and some re-imagined versions of songs," says Adam Met. "We really just want to keep feeding the frenzy of fans that has kind of grown over the last year. We want to keep sharing new music with them."
And while the brothers Met still may not be considered by all to be "famous," AJR have come a long way from busking in Washington Square Park.
In an era where artists are as liberated as ever to blend genres, there are few combinations left unexplored, a fact that makes Steve Hackman's Stereo Hideout presentation of "Brahms V. Radiohead" all the more novel. With the help of a 55-piece orchestra and three fantastic guest vocalists, Hackman gave a one-night-only performance of the piece at the majestic Kings Theatre in Brooklyn, N.Y., on May 19.
As the show's re-composer, arranger and conductor, Hackman created a musical monster, melding Johannes Brahms' iconic romantic masterpiece "First Symphony" with Radiohead's electro-rock watershed album, OK Computer, which won for Best Alternative Music Performance and was nominated for Album Of The Year at the 40th GRAMMY Awards.
Before getting to the main event, Hackman treated his audience to a dynamic first set full of bold musical reinventions. One of the highlights was Hackman's daring treatment of what he called one of his favorite Radiohead songs, "Idioteque," from Kid A, the GRAMMY-winning 2000 follow-up to OK Computer. Drafting from the song's scrappy, pulsating rhythms, Hackman made full use of his orchestra to flesh out something new from the familiar melodies, an accomplishment he'd make time and time again over the course of the evening.
Hackman also brought out special guests, Time For Three, an uber-talented trio of musicians who have created an all-new vehicle for connecting classical music with modern pop and vice versa. They performed a song Hackman wrote for them called "Vertigo," leaving the crowd stunned by their virtuosic showmanship.
The night's first half showcased Hackman's versatility, ambition and collaborative aptitude, working in everything from traditional rock band instrumentation, an incredible guest rapper and his own adept singing, all joining in with the orchestra seamlessly enough to make it work, but imaginatively enough to make the audience understand they were witnessing something unique.
After intermission, and before the main program of "Brahms V. Radiohead" commenced, Hackman encouraged the audience to think differently about what they were about to hear.
"A lot of people would say that music like this doesn't belong together, possibly, and they would say there are barriers between these musics, and they're categorized into sort of artificial different camps," said Hackman. "In my mind, and I think in the mind of many of the musicians on this stage, those barriers are artificial, and they're in our minds, and if you can't see them, are they really there? Something to think about as we play 'Brahms V. Radiohead.'"
From the opening notes of "Airbag," the symphonic treatment of Radiohead's material felt familiar and melodic, and as Brahms' "First Movement" entered, the timbre of the orchestra promptly melded the two works sonically, setting the stage for an hour of drifting back and forth between styles, genres and eras.
Stereo Hideout's "Brahms V. Radiohead"
Hackman led a gorgeous version of "Paranoid Android" that barreled from its soaring melodic beginning into one of the night's most cathartic moments, with strings swelling, percussion pulsing and the vocals devolving into near-screams before the entire orchestra opened up into the song's dreamy outro. The song felt at home in the hands of the classical format.
The orchestra also took naturally to Hackman's rich arrangement of "Exit Music (For A Film)," and the three incredible featured vocalists — Kéren Tayár, Andrew Lipke and Will Post — cascaded through the three-part vocal harmony of "Karma Police" with commanding skill. While Brahms' material may have been more of a natural fit for the orchestra, it was interweaved into OK Computer as to take on its character without losing any of the composer's original passion and care.
In fact, Hackman spoke about how Brahms painstakingly composed his first symphony, taking more than two decades to carefully craft it under heavy influence from Ludwig van Beethoven and the pressure of being heralded as his successor.
"You can hear that pressure woven into every note in this symphony," said Hackman. "In Radiohead's case, the themes of OK Computer, they talk about how as the world becomes more digital and the world becomes more connected as far as information goes, we actually become more disconnected. They talk about emotional isolation. They talk about disasters politically at that time, and again, every lyric and note is channeled with those energies, so I think you'll find that they really have that in common, so the marriage is really possible."
Hackman and Stereo Hideout have built a reputation for connecting composers of the past with the pop music of today, including compositions such as "Bartók V. Björk," "Copland V. Bon Iver" and "Beethoven V. Coldplay," all aimed at changing the way we listen to and understand music in the context of history.
"Stereo Hideout is all about originality, boldness, virtuosity, and disruption," says Hackman. "It is its own new hybrid strand of music informed by masterpieces of the past but electrified by the techniques of today."
Set against the gorgeous backdrop of the newly remodeled King Theatre — complete with its soaring curved ceilings, ornate walls, gorgeous wood paneling, and a glazed terra-cotta ornamental façade — "Brahms V. Radiohead" provided music fans a new way of listening to two of history's greatest musical works outside the confines of their places on a timeline. Hackman re-composed and compiled something so creative and special yet so natural and real.
And if Brahms and Radiohead aren't your thing, don't worry, Stereo Hideout have you covered.
"We will be back in the fall with Stereo Hideout," says Hackman. "Tchaikovsky versus Drake."
"I have absolutely no idea what I'm really doing here," admits a nervous Nick Cave, walking to the front of the stage after opening his Conversations With Nick Cave event at New York City's Symphony Space with a moving solo piano rendition of "Sad Waters." The Australian-born cult-rock hero has decided it's time to have a dialog, of some sort, with his audience. "There was something about doing this that felt like it fit into a larger idea that I want to pursue in some kind of way … I don't even know what the idea is yet."
Even at what is presumed to be his most uncomfortable, Cave is still impossibly cool, dressed sharp in a black well-tailored suit, his black hair slicked back, his shoes shined. Later this year, Cave and his longtime band the Bad Seeds will play Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Barclays Center to thousands of screaming fans, but on this night the audience is comprised of a mere few hundred of his most devout fans, many of whom are eager to take advantage of the evening's loose question and answer format. The questions begin flying at Cave immediately.
Perhaps Cave's nerves were put at ease when he saw most of his fans doing the asking were many times more petrified than him at the reality of speaking with their idol.
"I adore you," one fan began with a stammer. "Me too," replied Cave, igniting the room into laughter. The questions pour in, covering a topical potpourri from humor to death, his feelings on cell phones at shows to performing in Israel, and working many projects from novels to film scoring.
"Lyric writing is my main interest," says Cave before he decides a question posed about the gradual slowing of his performance tempos of "Mercy Seat" over the years is best answered with a "really slow" performance of the song itself. He heads back to the comforts of the piano and plays the song, one of his most well-known, with a thoughtful devotion to each word, possibly as a byproduct of the unique format of the night where every syllable seemed on the table for discussion.
Neither the crowd nor Cave shied away from talking about the tragic loss of Cave's son Arthur. Fans shared their similar stories of loss, lauding Cave for helping them cope through his music and his 2016 film documenting his creative and healing processes, One More Time With Feeling, which was nominated for Best Music Film at the 60th GRAMMY Awards.
Cave cites a poem by Philip Larkin called "The Mower" as being particularly helpful in his time of grief. "We must be careful of eachother/ We must be kind while there is time," were the poem's final lines he repeated in his mind like a mantra of healing.
Musically, Cave took requests and plowed through a wide range of his songs on the piano in spurts of two or three throughout the night, including gems such as "Stranger Than Kindness," which featured music by Blixa Bargeld and lyrics by Anita Lane; "Papa Won't Leave You, Henry," at a tempo and volume more suitable for New York's Upper West Side; and his classic "Into My Arms," at the request of a couple celebrating their anniversary.
There was no shortage of questions at the ready whenever Cave took a break from the piano. Because of — or perhaps despite — the audience's eclectic questions, he covered a lot of ground: his connection to the songs as a narrator, saying "Certainly over the last three to four records, I'm writing about myself;" his thoughts on the 12 steps and recovery, saying "I'm very familiar with it, unfortunately"; and his painstaking creative process, describing how you must "prepare yourself for the small miracle of songwriting."
Cave opened up about some of his chief collaborators, including Bargeld and Warren Ellis, and revealed his predilection for collaborating with women. He recounted recent sessions with Marianne Faithful, his friendship with Kylie Minogue and his respect for PJ Harvey (whom he calls by her given name, "Polly") as evidence of how his voice and aesthetic work well musically with female artists. Later, he'd play "Henry Lee," a duet featuring Harvey from his groundbreaking 1996 album Murder Ballads, and her voice seemed to sneak into fans' minds at all the right parts.
At 60 years old, Cave admitted he listens to less and less new music these days, but said there are always staples for him such as Neil Young, Nina Simone, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and Van Morrison. He also admitted he was late to the party on appreciating some of his British '80s alt-rock contemporaries like the Cure and the Smiths, and told inspiring yet chilling stories of working with Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin. Perhaps the most promising news of the night was that Grinderman, Cave's daring psych-blues side-project with Ellis and other Bad Seeds is "waiting in the wings."
Throughout the night Cave seemed present, if not self-aware, as if it were his intention in hosting an open discussion to be stumped, and have a breakthrough. He gave a particularly articulate answer to his thoughts on chaos versus order, finding the perfect place in his life and work for both, and when confronted with the question of religion, he glanced over his right shoulder back at the piano at which he just performed "God Is In The House."
"It feels unfair that I am taking aim at something that has a lot of value to someone," Cave thinks out loud in what feels like a real-time realization. "Truth is not the ultimate ideal, meaning is the ultimate ideal."
Not all of the questions or answers were quite so heavy or philosophical. The audience had the chance to find out what kind of sandwich Cave prefers ("nothing with meat in it"), why he likes meditation (his wife, Susie, saw an immediate change), that his son Earl is becoming an acting star (complete with his own superfans who wait in hotel lobbies to meet him), and whether or not he should bring back his mustache (a show of hands in the room revealed the jury is still out). But eventually the so-called "Humans of Nick Cave" would go a little too far out in left field.
"There's so many problems with that question, I'll play a song for you," Cave said, sidestepping one particularly sticky inquiry, and the crown chuckled and cheered.
Cave played "Mermaids," honored a request for "Love Letter" and dove back into his middle years with the Bad Seeds for "The Ship Song," "And No More Shall We Part" and "Far From Me." Fittingly, he closed the evening with "Skeleton Tree," the title track from his latest album and a symbol for the tragic, regenerative and transformative time in this aging punk's creative life.
If his Conversations With … concept yields anything for Cave, it's an escape back to reality of how adored, enjoyed and respected his work is, and his fans hope that through this dialog he finds exactly what he's looking for.

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