“I tried to go to community college for a while, and it's a funny story. I walked into the English class on the first day, and they told us to write about what we did over the summer. I can't remember exactly, but I think I walked out exactly at that point and went to the office to ask for my money back.” ThinkingWritingFirstsI CanStoriesRememberAsksCommunityClassCollegeOfficeSummerCommunity CollegeFunny StoryEnglish Class Author:Zach Condon
“I didn't realize how different our band's senses of melody actually were. I would write a part that just made perfect sense to me, but for them, it was mind-boggling. Likewise, they could play stuff with relative ease that I never could have. If there was something lost in translation melodically, it wouldn't work at all - we'd just be 17 people in a giant room staring awkwardly at each other. When that happened, I'd go home, figure out what was wrong, fix it, and then return to smooth sailing.” PeopleWritingDifferentHomeRealizingPerfectStaringMelodyRelativeSmoothSailingTranslations Author:Zach Condon
“I felt like I needed to get a few side projects out of my system before I settled in to do the new record. Usually what's asked of you, everything's a year cycle. When you get caught up in that cycle, it can be kind of brutal, actually. It was good I got to take a year off, with no pressure coming from anywhere.” KindBe KindBrutalCaught Up Author:Zach Condon
“You can never not feel like that, as a working artist these days. It's funny - time off makes me nervous, but so does time on. At least the pressure wasn't coming from outside.” ArtistNervous Author:Zach Condon
“I released that side of things really as kind of an introduction to where I came from musically, back in the day when all I had was a keyboard, a drum machine, and a four-track. So I was doing these little synth-pop ditties, and it's how I learned to write.” WritingKindIntroduction Author:Zach Condon
“It's just not an image I had ever put out about myself - the bedroom synth guy. The whole thing seemed ridiculous.” GuyRidiculousBedroom Author:Zach Condon
“It feels much more natural to move forward and grow with the instruments I've grown accustomed to. Piano, accordion, brass, ukulele.” MovingNaturalMoving Forward Author:Zach Condon
“I was always looking outside of myself for stories and ideas and influences and then I kind of realized in 2010, that all of this time, I've developed a "sound." And I've never fully explored it.” KindInfluence Author:Zach Condon
“There was always a unique Beirut sound, it was always there, and so this time I just dove straight into that, instead of daydreaming and wandering.” UniqueWanderDaydreamingDove Author:Zach Condon
“I can't work in Brooklyn. Unless I'm completely locked away in a studio, there's just too much distraction and stimulation.” Distraction Author:Zach Condon
“What was pretty crazy was to plan a wedding around a tour. It felt very getting-hitched-in-Vegas style. It was like, we played a show in Salt Lake City, ran to New Mexico, we got married, and then I was off to Lisbon.” CrazyStyleMarriedRan Author:Zach Condon
“It's a little cheeky; growing up in Santa Fe was kind of a weird experience, because it's such a touristy town. So sometimes it feels a little like you're in a town that's just on display. You walk around downtown and all the shops are galleries or high end boutiques, so it can feel like you don't belong there even though you are from there.” KindSometimesGrowing UpLike YouCheeky Author:Zach Condon
“I mean the reason that I started writing close to home, "Santa Fe," et cetera, was a kind of looking back on past events. I don't know, it's just some of the dark spaces I've been. And it feels like with a music career and whatnot, I've been able to crawl out of those places. So it's interesting to look back on them and try to hold on to the feeling of what you went through.” WritingTryingKindMeanReasonFeelingsHomePastDarkInterestingLooking Back Author:Zach Condon
“It's a weird thing to be nineteen and be in the public eye. It was a crazy thing, it was a big deal to me, and it changed me in a lot of ways. And now that it's five, six years later, I wanted to look back at that, the start of it all, the excitement and the naïveté about it, and it just fascinated me to reflect on all that.” EyeCrazyChangedExcitement Author:Zach Condon
“I write one step at a time, always finishing off the part I'm working on before even thinking about the next part. I need to hear it all together before deciding what goes next. I even mix before moving on...in other words, I write by recording.” ThinkingNeedsWritingTogetherMovingNextStepsSongwritingFinishingOne Step At A Time Author:Zach Condon
“The way Jacques Brel writes a story, getting into the character, bringing out all his faults and qualities in the same song.... Not that I could ever write in such an epic way, but it really is a different way to go about writing lyrics...and I find that quite inspiring.” WayWritingDifferentCharacterStoriesSongQualityFaultsDifferent WaysSongwritingEpic Author:Zach Condon
