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Buzz Knight (4:44)

Taking a Walk well, we have a special happening on the Taking a Walk podcast. Jack and Ryan from ajr. Welcome.

Jack Met (4:52)

Thanks so much for having us.

Buzz Knight (4:54)

I complete the the Met trifecta. Had your your bro on a few months back and had a good time with him. I think. You're familiar with him, aren't you?

Ryan Met (5:05)

We know him.

Jack Met (5:06)

Yeah.

Buzz Knight (5:07)

Yeah. Run into him once in a while. But we're going to talk about the new EP and the Hollywood bowl and the rest of the tour.

Ryan Met (5:15)

Amazing.

Buzz Knight (5:16)

I'm gonna, I'm gonna ask you what no one's thinking. Hello and but first, before we get started, we like to ask this question, since we call the podcast Taking a Walk. If you could use your vivid imagination and you could take a walk with somebody, living or dead, who would you take a walk with? Where would you take that walk with them?

Sponsor/Advertisement Voice (5:41)

Oh.

Ryan Met (5:45)

The first thing that popped into my mind was Steve Jobs, probably because I know he'd like to take a lot of walks. Yeah, I don't know. I think visionaries like that come once in a generation and he just, his mind was so ahead of the curve. He so had his finger on the pulse in terms of what people enjoy, what people want to consume, the packaging, how to present it to them, how to combine art and commerce in the most elegant way Ever. I don't know. I think a walk with him would be nice.

Buzz Knight (6:19)

Do you think he'd be happy at the state of the world, particularly when it comes to screen addiction and things of that nature?

Ryan Met (6:28)

Probably not. Probably not. I think he was probably more about sort of innovation and imagination than what Apple has become more recently. That's my guess.

Buzz Knight (6:43)

You're up.

Jack Met (6:44)

Oh, me.

Ryan Met (6:48)

Sorry. Yeah. No, you're good.

Jack Met (6:50)

Our favorite. My favorite band is a band called Fountains of Wayne. And sadly, the. One of the members, Adam Schlesinger, was lost during COVID He passed away, and I never got the chance to meet him. And absolutely my favorite band of all time really shaped the way I, you know, enjoy music and write and shaped a lot of our sound. And I would have loved to meet him. I would definitely take a walk just to let him know, you know, how appreciative I am and get inside his. His musical mind.

Buzz Knight (7:20)

I'm so glad you brought him up, because he was one of many tragedies during the. The pandemic, and you can't let, you know, any of them slip by, no less the ones that touch us in particular, you know?

Jack Met (7:35)

Yeah, very much.

Ryan Met (7:36)

Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy, that feeling of, like. Because Brian Wilson was another one of those, like, for us, he passed away a month ago. I literally felt like a family member passed away. It's so crazy. Just the connection you can have with someone that doesn't know about your existence that just. I'm so connected to. You're feeling all the same things that I'm feeling. It's kind of like you're my brother.

Buzz Knight (8:00)

Your brother. By the way, do you have a guess who his answer was on the Taking a walk question?

Ryan Met (8:08)

Paul Simon.

Buzz Knight (8:09)

Bingo.

Ryan Met (8:10)

Got it.

Buzz Knight (8:12)

Wow. What do you win? What's the prize?

Ryan Met (8:16)

A walk with Paul Simon. Paul Simon.

Buzz Knight (8:18)

Not too bad. Yeah. I mean, and where you guys are, are from and what you've experienced so much in. In New York City. There's got to be thousands of places that you'd love to walk in New York City.

Jack Met (8:34)

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, what's so great is that, you know, we've lived here. I've lived here 30 years or so, and there's still just, like, thousands of places we haven't been. And I'll be walking and be like, this is a block I haven't been on before, and it's so small, but it's just so, like, rich with, you know, locations and places you haven't been. So we really walk everywhere, honestly.

Buzz Knight (8:57)

So I got. Before we get to the new ep. I've got a strange question to ask. What's the weirdest sound or everyday object that you've ever sampled for an AJR song? And how did it end up on the final track? Who wants to take that one first?

Ryan Met (9:18)

I'll take that.

Jack Met (9:19)

Yeah, Yeah, I know you have one in mind.

Ryan Met (9:21)

Yeah. I think just to give a little context, we do like to sample a lot of kind of weird sounds. I think when you produce for long enough, you get a little bit bored of the same kind of snares and the kind of online sound banks that are available to everybody, and you start to realize, oh, here's how I make sounds. Or drum sonic palettes that are actually unique to me that nobody else has used. You start looking for real things in your life and recontextualizing them. So definitely a weird one that we did was we sampled the. Or I guess we enlisted the guy. The voice of the New York City subway system. The guy who goes, stand clear of the closing doors, please. We asked him to record the Here We Go on Bang. And that really. That was almost like a fun collaboration more than a sample, because we weren't sure exactly what we wanted that sound to be. We got our dad to record something that was like, here we go. And we got our neighbor to do, like, here we go. We weren't quite sure what the affect was, and as soon as he did it, it's like, oh, there's, like. There's the alpha guy telling me, here we go. Like, there's a. There's a leader in the room right now. So it really influenced the direction of the song. But we've. Yeah, we've sampled, like, School Bell, like Recess Bells. That's really fun to kind of. When you're bringing in a chorus, like, kind of up top, sonically above everything else, just kind of catches your attention. I think there's something subconscious going on when people listen. They're like, oh, time for recess. I should. I should listen little things like that. Whistles, elephant sounds. Yeah, we. We've sampled elephants, horses, galloping. Yeah, A lot of animal stuff.

Jack Met (11:04)

So we've done a lot.

Buzz Knight (11:05)

Who influenced the. The sampling of. Of unique sounds in your. In your career?

Ryan Met (11:11)

I think it's our love of movies. I think it probably comes from that. It's very much. When we write, it's okay, who's our character here? Often it is like, somewhere between me and Jack when we're writing, but, like, what's our way in? That's sort of how to make It, I guess a more three dimensional song. Like, okay, this is a love song, but it's from this, like, the most insecure part of us or the most desperate part of us. Like, who's this character? And then in terms of the sound effects, it sort of puts you there. So, like, we're not just sampling an elephant randomly. Like, if we want to create the feeling of chaos. Unhinged beat start of the album. That's a place where I want to tuck in an elephant because I'm just suddenly in a movie where the zoo doors break open and the animals are running rampant around the city. The horse galloping is like, here's a song about the. The inspiration of, okay, I can make my life better. So that's where I'm hearing, like, the galloping of a horse very much ties into, like, where I want to be in the movie.

Buzz Knight (12:17)

All right, Ryan, you first. And then Jack, Favorite movie of all time and why it just lives in infamy.

Ryan Met (12:26)

Hmm. I'm going to go with you. I'm going to go with Social Network.

Buzz Knight (12:35)

Okay.

Ryan Met (12:37)

Yeah. I think it's just. It's the most rewatchable movie. The dialog just feels like candy. The. The character is so unlike. Like, Mark Zuckerberg is, like, so unlikable and likable at the same time. The soundtrack's amazing. I just think it's a perfect movie. Maybe I'll go.

Jack Met (12:56)

I mean, I've watched this movie a million times. I've watched it recently again, and it kind of became my favorite. Maybe Hannah and Her Sisters, the Woody Allen movie. I think growing up in New York, it just encapsulates New York perfectly. Characters are just so well thought out. I think my favorite movies are the ones that when they finish, I can just watch it again from the beginning. And that's probably the main one for me.

Buzz Knight (13:18)

My wife and I just watched it the other night. We had just gone through a whole, hey, what's our top 20? Or whatever. And then we were like, oh, wait, we haven't watched Hannah and her sisters in a while. And I love it for all the reasons you just described. It's Love Letter to, you know, to New York. And just richness of all the characters. So many classic scenes, for sure.

Jack Met (13:41)

Yeah, definitely.

Buzz Knight (13:43)

So let's talk about what no one's thinking. First of all, congratulations on it, but it wasn't supposed to happen this year. Is that correct?

Jack Met (13:53)

Yeah, that is correct. This year was really supposed to be us only working on this Broadway show that we're working on. And I Think there was this, like, moment of, like, weirdness about not writing something about, like. Like, are we still able to do it? Almost. Almost like an anxiety. And I think I came to Ryan. We were like, let's just try something. And it started turning into this, like, group of songs that at first weren't so great, that they were, like, the starts of something. And then I think that even frustrated us further. I'm like, wait, no.

Ryan Met (14:29)

Have we lost how to write? Yeah.

Jack Met (14:31)

And then there was a moment where we're like, we should really kind of get into this a little bit. And there was a moment where we realized the last few years of our life and a little trying for us, there's been, like, loss in our family and career stuff and questions about relationships and all this stuff. And. Sorry. Our dog is kind of going wild in front of us right now.

Buzz Knight (14:53)

We encourage dogs from paying a visit on taking a walk, so do not worry. In fact, you didn't hear a dog sound being sampled earlier? It was Elmer barking at another Amazon delivery or something.

Jack Met (15:08)

Oh, okay. I didn't hear it, but amazing. Yeah.

Buzz Knight (15:12)

What's your dog's name, first of all?

Jack Met (15:14)

Blue.

Buzz Knight (15:15)

Blue. All right, welcome, Blue.

Jack Met (15:17)

We have. We have Blue and Shay here.

Buzz Knight (15:19)

All right, welcome. I see what they're up to.

Ryan Met (15:24)

Yep. I know they're friendly.

Buzz Knight (15:25)

Yeah.

Ryan Met (15:26)

Sorry. Yeah.

Jack Met (15:26)

No, just to finish what I was saying. Yeah. I think we realized that there was a lot going on in our life, and we weren't really tapping into that. We were maybe suppressing a little bit of it. And as soon as we realized that, it all kind of came out and we put all of that into the music, and we came up with five songs.

Buzz Knight (15:41)

Was there ever still, as you had embarked on the process, still doubt that it wouldn't come together?

Ryan Met (15:48)

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I think this new music, more than anything we've made before, is, like, directly from our lives in a way. I'm trying to think what's different about it. I think we're just, like, really now just saying exactly what we feel, how we feel it. Almost like a diary entry. For whatever reason, where we're at in our lives, that's feeling, like, the most truthful thing I think in the past, obviously, all of our songs come from truth, but we're also balancing. How do we make it catchy? How do we. How do we have fun in the way that we say this and maybe, like, use metaphors or whatever, and. And that's, like, a totally valid type of songwriting. Just something about our headspace now is like, if we're not saying exactly what we feel, the way we feel it, it's disingenuous. It's not like it doesn't feel purposeful. And so I think this EP was an extra challenge because we were like, okay, we're going to write. We have a song called a dog song on this ep, and it's from the point of view of our dog. And that very much could go in a terrible direction in a gimmicky kind of, like, here's things that dogs do. I laid down for a nap or whatever. It could, like, turn into, like, a funny, gimmicky song. But we were like, no, no. Let's literally demonstrate exactly what our dog is watching us do and see from his naive, innocent perspective all the stuff that's happening in our lives. And so I think stuff like that is feeling really difficult to write, but very rewarding to listen back to.

Buzz Knight (17:26)

Take us behind the song Betty as well.

Ryan Met (17:30)

Yeah, that's another perfect example where me and Jack were sitting on that track for, what, two years? Yeah. Jack came up with that melody of the chorus of the da da da da da da. And we were slowly chipping away at it over, like, the course of two years. We were. We were singing Benny instead of Betty. We were going, benny, I really hope you like my style. And it was just nonsense, but it was fun to say. And at a certain point we were like, okay, let's stop. Just writing a song that's just catchy and just fun to say. What are we feeling? Me and Jack, like, divulge to our. To each other. Like, some stuff we were talking about in therapy about, like, just, like a fear of commitment in general. Like in. In. In our lives, like, how uncertain we are about, like, what does the rest of our life look like, whether it be a relationship or career or whatever. And you realize, oh, wait, we're both talking about this in therapy every week. Like, of course we need to write a song about this. And at that point, we kind of made the turn to Betty. And I really hope you're on. Here's, like, a realistic look at, I think, how a lot of people our age feel, which is, like, when you know, you know, is not so obvious. Like, there's a lot of other factors, and it's not a very sexy, romantic way to think, but I think it's just a more realistic way to think about committing and love.

Buzz Knight (18:52)

Talk about some of your other favorites, which I would imagine would be every song on the ep. So let's walk through it yeah.

Ryan Met (19:01)

What am I missing? I'm trying to think what I miss.

Jack Met (19:04)

The big goodbye.

Ryan Met (19:05)

Oh, the big goodbye. Yeah, the big. I mean, like, that took what, five years to make? Yeah. Just.

Jack Met (19:13)

We had this sample in the beginning of the song. Oh, this is another good one that we sampled. There's a song called the Auctioneer. I think that's what the original song is called. And it's this barbershop quartet. And in the beginning, it's 525. Really? Give me 30. It's, you know, an auctioneer doing his thing. And we always thought that that was just, like, so percussive and so interesting and had never been done before. And we always wanted to sample it. And Ryan just made a beat for it and it turned into this, like, great driving groove, and we just had it forever. And it's tough to start a song from that place because it's so weird. It's like, where do you even go from there? What kind of song is this gonna be? So it took us a really long time to do, and eventually we wrote a very, like, partyish song and then tried another party ish song and then, like, a weird song. And then eventually it landed on this sort of, like, emotional story about someone saying goodbye to their hometown and having mixed feelings about leaving.

Buzz Knight (20:09)

I love that. Absolutely. I love the honesty and the, you know, the tension of it as well. You know, so beautifully put together. Have you ever had a moment with this project or any other project where there was complete disagreement on a musical direction? And then, if so, how did you resolve it?

Ryan Met (20:36)

I feel like at this point we kind of know what to trust each other for. The answer is yes. But I think that if Jack comes to me and says, I promise this melody is catchier than this melody, I'm just gonna trust him. Like, he just has the ear for that. If I come to him and tell him, I promise this line is going to make people cry and this line isn't, and we're fighting over it. He's going to trust me on that. So I think probably the emotion is more of my forte and the catchiness, but also the coolness of the song is more of his forte. I'm not, like, I don't. It's not how my brain works of, like, is this cool? Are people going to think this is cool? I just know I like it and it makes me feel something. And Jack's a little more in tuned with, like, our kids our age gonna think this is. Or too Broadwayish and weird.

Buzz Knight (21:29)

That makes sense. So I'm curious, for a band that has, you know, put its, you know, stake down with sheer independence in everything that you've done and the way that you've done it, do you ever worry that you're going to lose that independent streak?

Ryan Met (21:51)

Well, I think us, we obviously do a lot of almost everything ourselves at this point. And it's been out of necessity, honestly. We grew up, we didn't really know anybody in the industry. We didn't really have money to go pay someone to make a music video for us. So we just needed to learn all of these skills. And looking back, I'm really grateful that we did to be able to be self sustainable, I guess is the word, and make all of the art yourself and kind of have the vision to complete the whole thing as a package. The artwork and the music videos and even the social media, which is like a form of art, I guess, the music and the tour. I'm really grateful that we out of necessity needed to develop all those skills because I think fans sense it. I think me as a consumer, I can kind of tell when an artist got an outside treatment for a music video and it's like them in the convertible car or whatever. Like I can kind of feel that someone else wrote this treatment for a music video for you and this didn't come from your pov. And so that's all I want to see from artists is I want feel connected to you. I want to feel like we're having an honest conversation. And so I think that's helped us to have like a more honest conversation with the fans.

Buzz Knight (23:09)

I mean, Jack, isn't it gratifying watching other artists take the independent road?

Jack Met (23:15)

Yeah, definitely. I think it's leading to a kind of a good, honest place in music. And I'm glad that we were, you know, have been doing it such a long time and we could say we were one of the early ones on it.

Buzz Knight (23:28)

So how do you guys handle criticism differently compared to maybe a couple of years back when, you know, world was weird, obviously at that time. But how do you think your handling of things like that has sort of evolved and grown?

Ryan Met (23:50)

I think it used to.

Jack Met (23:51)

We definitely get our fair share of criticism on the Internet and bad reviews and insults and everything like that. And I think we've always been a band that's like, either you love us or you hate us really. And there's never. There's not. Hasn't been anything in between. It bothered us when we were first starting out, honestly, as it bothers everyone and we couldn't Help but check all the comments and see what people have to say. And you almost get, like, a weird addiction to it, you know, to checking it. And over the years, it's just felt more like noise to us. I think we've come to the realization that the things that people don't like about us are the things that we love about us, the things that we're really excited to do in music. For instance, you know, the bang sample. Here we go. I could imagine there's a lot of people that are going, they sampled the subway guy. And me and Ryan go, yeah, we sampled the subway guy. So at that point, it's like, what's really. It's. It's kind of a waste of time to listen when you. When you have this security and confidence in what you're doing.

Buzz Knight (24:54)

But I also think the way you have built and the way you treat your fan base gives you, you know, extra leverage, in fact, of what you can do and how you're going to approach things, because you. You guys really respect your fans and. And. And. And treat them like gold. So I think that goes a long way in this process, don't you?

Ryan Met (25:20)

I think so, yeah. I feel like when we tour, when we come out on stage, there's just, like, an understanding. Like, we're all friends here. Like, we design our show in a way. Like, within the first four minutes, Jack's, like, making fun of me on stage. Like, he's, like, roasting me and Brother Banter in a brothery way. And like, yeah, that's basically just our personalities anyway. But it's also a little bit by design of just like, hey, we're. We're in a safe space here. Like, I'm not taking anything seriously. He's not taking it. We might roast you guys at some point during the show. Like, it's kind of this subconscious thing that we like to establish of, like, we're all friends here. We're dancing very weird on stage. Feel free for you guys to also dance very weird. None of this is said out loud, but it's all just kind of understood. And so I think that probably really helps if you feel like you're in a safe space surrounded by people that you're already friends with. You could just kind of, like, take big swings.

Buzz Knight (26:17)

So there's another milestone that's coming up. You've just finished a milestone in terms of the Madison Square Garden appearance, which, of course, I know you don't take that lightly at all. And then you've got this other one that just sort of crept up this little venue called the Hollywood bowl on October 4th. Tell me how this feels and the immenseness of it to you.

Jack Met (26:46)

Yeah, I mean, there's only a handful of venues, I think, in the world that are, like, truly iconic, that are, like, household names, you know, if you will, like Madison Square Garden, Red rocks. And I'd say Hollywood bowl is absolutely up there. And I think it's one of the last ones that we haven't. We actually haven't seen any shows there before, funny enough. So we have not been. But obviously we've heard that it's a magical place, so we're just nothing but excited to kind of at this point, you know, it's really cool. We've been doing this 20 years now of being a band, and to still have milestones that we can check off, especially something so huge, is really exciting.

Buzz Knight (27:27)

So cool. Now, is Adam going to be part of that?

Ryan Met (27:32)

We can't disclose that. He might pop in.

Buzz Knight (27:36)

Okay. That's disclosing something, right?

Ryan Met (27:39)

Yeah.

Buzz Knight (27:40)

That's exciting. That's so great. Well, in closing, I want to ask you which AJR lyrics best describes your current mindset?

Jack Met (27:56)

We have a song called Karma that really holds, like, a special place in my heart. It's always a song that I related to the choruses. I've been so good I've been helpful and friendly I've been so good why am I feeling empty? I've been so good this year I've been so good but it's still getting harder I've been so good where the hell is the karma? I've been so good this year and I always feel like that life is so up and down and you kind of can't get out of your mind in terms of, like, if I am such a good person, why are things still going poorly for me? Where is that karma? And it's sort of a part of maybe growing up, trying to get away from that, but it's difficult, so I always have that on my mind.

Ryan Met (28:38)

We have a line in our song Turning Out, Part three. That's, uh. Don't. Don't overthink it. One day at a time, kid. Add up the days. No, no, one day. What's the very end of it? Uh, days. You got someone who loves, and then.

Jack Met (28:53)

Love isn't big yet. It's literally, let's do today.

Ryan Met (28:56)

Let's do today. I think you'll turn out to like it. Um, I forgot my own lyric, and that's very much like, where I'm at. It's like one day at a time. Be here present right now.

Buzz Knight (29:08)

Oh man, I'm I'm so grateful that you guys took this time to be on Taking a Walk. Congrats on what no one's thinking and the rest of the tour, including the Hollywood Bowl. My God, I'm so excited for you guys. Jack and Ryan, thanks for being on Taking a Walk man.

Jack Met (29:25)

Awesome. Thanks for having us. Great.

Buzz Knight (29:29)

Thanks for listening to this episode of the Taking a Walk podcast. Share this and other episodes with your friends and follow us at the so you never miss an episode. Taking a Walk is available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of Taking a Walk is brought to you by Chase Sapphire Reserve Whether I'm booking my next vacation or going to a concert, Chase Sapphire Reserve is my gateway to the world's most captivating destinations. When I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve card, I get eight times points on all the purchases I make through Chase Travel and even access to one of a kind experiences like music festivals and sports events. And that's not even mentioning how the card gets me into the Sapphire Lounge by the club at select airports nationwide. No matter where I'm walking, travel is more rewarding with Chase Sapphire Reserve. Discover more@chase.com SapphireReserve cards issued by JP Morgan Chase Bank NA member FDIC subject to credit approval Terms Apply Tired of.

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Ryan Met (31:42)

Please welcome aboard the Johnson family.

Buzz Knight (31:45)

The whole fam's here for the Disney cruise. So you know we came to play and listen. The adults are gonna have a ball first.

Jack Met (31:53)

We're chilling in the infinity pool, on.

Buzz Knight (31:56)

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Buzz Knight (33:17)

This is an iHeart podcast.