It was one of the last tours of Hot Fuss.
We'd been writing songs during sound checks.
There was so much need on our part
to get another record going.
There were some chords that were floating around
from months before.
A lot of ideas are created off just a chord progression
that you try and do something with
and it evolves from there.
That one was almost accidental.
Towards the end of a practice.
Towards the end of the night…
Mark was playing around with a bass line.
Dave suggested we go up. He added a note.
So a three-note riff became a four-note riff
because of something he suggested.
He was messing around with these three chords.
I was like: "Oh! Add these two and then go back to it."
It was those first three chords
that just, you know, awakened us.
To have four people be so in tune
and be able to tap into the universe
for a second is magic, you know.
And we're really lucky, I think,
you know, to have had that happen at all.
It was just nice to know that you had something good
that you could get behind,
but the labour came.
At what point do you start coming up with lyrics?
This is another one of those strange moments
where I have a lot come to me right away.
"He doesn't look a thing like Jesus,
but he talks like a gentleman
like you imagine when you were young."
That was the first day.
He doesn't look a thing like Jesus
but he talks like a gentleman
like you imagine when you were young
That made it a lot easier to write around
because I had something foundational there.
It helped, I think,
direct me for the rest of the record, too.
Your ears pricked by the word "Jesus"
and then you get the delivery of the guitar riff.
It sort of fulfils a lot of different emotions.
-It's not obvious. -No.
And that's what makes the track brilliant.
Can we climb this mountain? I don't know
Higher now than ever before
I know we can make it if we take it slow
Let's take it easy Easy now, watch it go
I knew there was some kind of redemption
that was going to be a thread.
I think it had to do with
things that I was going through.
Excess and debauchery in rock and roll, you know,
had been sort of glorified and glamourised for so long.
You know, we sort of got thrust into it.
And I realised right away that that wasn't for me.
One of the things that I also got in the stands
is a piece of the song that
I don't think is in the song.
This part.
-Higher, higher -Yeah!
There's another…
Ok, we took ass at that lyric.
This is, again, where Flood and Moulder were crucial.
You know, you need people to tell you no.
There we go! Saved it from…
loitering in the bargain bins.
Higher, higher
I said he doesn't look a thing like Jesus
Thank heavens that didn't make it onto the final mix.
I'd forgotten about it until just now.
How'd that get sent to you?
Yeah, why do you have that?
Take his laptop, now.