in Montana I always had the idea of what
I thought New York would be like in my
head I went on a field trip when I was
think 17 or 18 with my drama class and
we went and saw you know L Phantom of
the Opera teenagers walking through
Manhattan it was so exciting you know we
were staying at the Paramount Hotel like
in Midtown you know the worst place to
be but walked all the way down to
Chelsea and I just felt
like like very natural it wasn't that
crazy to me even though most of my life
I'd just been in because I viewed it as
it's no different than High School
really you know the population density
of walking down the street in New York
is no different than walking through
busy hallways in a high school so and I
used to always tell my friends like the
high school hallways are preparation for
um maneuvering through everyday
life New York I love you but you're
bringing me
down New York I love you is one of those
songs that like it makes you he they
successfully prove that point that like
New York isn't what it was and but you
still want to listen to it when you're
walking around it's changed but it's
still amazing there's so many people
making great art all over it this sounds
so much more genuine than I wanted to
but it is when you live in New York the
amount of of human interaction you have
I mean is multiplied by hundredfold
every
day put in your headphones you listen to
LCD sound system and you get on the
subway and you just watch like 40
different examples of different kinds of
people like what everybody's reading
what they smell like what they actually
talk like to their friends what they
look like when they fall asleep all of
it is if as an artist is stuff to just
intake just a ton of information
to process and you know and that's
that's what makes it so special I
think living to New York was always the
fantasy of
[Music]
mine flying out to New York borrowed
$100 from my parents I'm not even joking
about this to play in a band that I
really really liked me trudging through
the snow to get to practices taking the
subway my friend who was on tour his
apartment opened up I got to stay in the
East Village it was just like all the
New York fantasies happening in a matter
of like three months it was remarkable
it was completely like the best
romantic move to New York situation I
could possibly ever ever imagine I live
in New York City when I found out that I
missed the opportunity to see the last
show they did here I made a playlist for
that day to mourn and just wallow in my
self-pity back in 20 for also applying
to grad schools in the East Coast and
West Coast during my senior year in
college we would have like record
listening parties all the time and we're
starting to hear this New York sound
that's coming from you know the DFA
scene I just made a decision like it's
basically now or never to move from New
York City when I first met James in '96
there was one bar drink land in the East
Village you know met him through some
friends Marcus and Dom Marcus lamin
who's now robot and you know this
other guy who they always said oh he's
an amazing writer he's going to like
write for Seinfeld or something I'm like
great and it was um James Murphy and
then post 911 the whole city was
traumatized but at the same time people
were like parting their asses off it was
like the end of the world almost and
like it was decadent and the on
Avenue A I think it was became really
popular and James was doing a night
there and like real late late late
nights real early early early
mornings New York is a very romantic
notion and it and it kind of fulfills it
actually sustains and exceeds your
romantic Notions it's one of the few
cities I think that that kind of does
that Al SS has gone so far you know
owning New York and having that New York
signature sound before they came it's
like dance music was like was over in
the UK you know it's still center of the
world there's still this romantic idea
of even though your your standard of
living isn't that great it just it's
doesn't matter because you're out all
the time so you're not even at home
actually more I think about it even when
I say all the weird stuff about it I
really like it even like the bloated
dead rats in the subway station it's
cool it's cool