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- Do you get writer's block?
What do you do if it's just,
a song just isn't working for you?
- I think people think that songwriters
get good at songwriting.
I think you just sort of do it.
- You do get better.
But every song's a blank slate.
- I think what's funny is it's not like
building a table or something
where sometimes you build for a year
and then in the shower you have a better idea
than that whole year.
- Jack, for you and Love, Simon
these high school romance movies
in the past have always resulted in these
sort of classic soundtrack songs.
Were you thinking about that when you
were making the music for those?
- Yeah.
Well I had never done a soundtrack before.
I'd only done songs
and doing a song is
the soundtrack is, I believe so much in soundtracks.
I was raised, my generation Reality Bites was really big
which I still hear any of those songs
and I go right to the film.
I love John Hughes.
He's a big part of my life growing up.
I grew up in a real suburban environment
and kind of had to dream about a lot of things
not really experience them.
There wasn't a lot of drugs or sex or anything.
It was sort of in your room thinking about it
and I always felt that John Hughes and those songs
spoke to that.
I don't know if anyone went to Catholic school
or something like
- I did, yes.
- It's different/same where it's just like
this little world.
I started touring when I was 15.
So before that was just in the bedroom
writing songs and thinking about things
and going right out into the world.
John Hughes and those songs meant a lot to me.
So I thought when I started talking
about the soundtrack, you try to ask yourself
you spend a lot of years of your life
not being invited.
And then if you have any success,
you start getting invited.
You have to start asking yourself,
"Can I actually help here
or do I just want to do this?"
You know what I mean?
Don't you have those things like someone asks
you to do something.
You're like, "Oh, that sounds amazing."
And then you think, well,
am I actually going to help or do I just want to do it?
- That's my ambition.
That's my talent.
- Totally.
The concept to work on a soundtrack
is they mean a lot to me and when I saw the film
cause even the film just like this idea
of an LGBT love story rocketing to the mainstream.
It could go so wrong or so right.
It could really be this gross corporate spin
on a group of people or it could be beautiful.
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- So, artists are often influenced
by the current political climate.
I'm curious, for you all,
how are you feeling about the climate
we're living in now and how is that
inspiring your work?
- You turn on the TV and every commercial
is so absurdly woke and on one hand,
it's incredible.
But on the other hand, there's a part of me
that's still like, "You guys didn't give a shit."
Until it became part of a money-making machine.
- Or trendy.
- I think we're living in a weird time right now
where it's like being politicized has become mainstream.
So it's almost like artists can't afford
to not be politicized which sort of bastardizes the concept.
So I think, for example,
you've got the whole world dancing Uptown Funk
and then you, as a figure, are donating
and spreading information about places.
So it's like it doesn't have to be in the song
because we know the forces behind the song
are part of the future.
- What is your go-to karaoke song
and is there a song that you think people
should stop karaoking?
- Wow.
- On the Billy Joel tip, I would say
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
not just 'cause it's long,
but I think it's kind of cool
if you can go through all the motions.
- You can act it out,
bottle of red, bottle of white.
- And you can be Brenda or Eddie.
I think Billy Joel has gotten a tough break
sometimes and those songs need to be
- He's a great songwriter.
- Some people are weirdly like
- Well it's been, it's like the thing
like it depends on how you heard it.
- True.
- And where you heard came in at.
- Alright, and our last question here,
Who was the first concert you ever attended?
- My dad took me to see Al Kooper
who is probably famous for Super Session
and the first Blood, Sweat and Tears album
but there's a song on the first
Blood, Sweat and Tears album called I Love You
which I saw him perform it
and it's still one of the greatest songs ever.
That was like a small show and he had
- Al Kooper is the sample from Passing Me By
by The Pharcyde, as well.
It's his cover of Season of the Witch
that is the sample.
- Al Kooper's a bit of a hero.
- He's great, he did the organ in the Rolling Stones.
- It's funny what looking back on 60s and 70s
who got their due and who didn't
'cause not a lot of people my age know about Al Kooper
and he's one of the greatest to me.
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