Sure

... and then it even...

And the metaphor for the song came later, and then eventually I, I realized that it was the title track too.

So it was, like, sort of a triple whammy in that regard.

But it was, um, it was, it was really just an image that I had of growing up in the Midwest of a, of a landfill.

Like, I had never really seen land features before.

It was, like, a, um...

What do you remember about that time?

So what'd you do? You moved to Chicago, started getting into the music scene?

Yeah, and it was like, the music scene was amazing in Chicago at the time, but I was pretty young.

I was like, I didn't really know how to like, I was like, where do you just go and knock on someone's door? You know, like I didn't really know what I was doing yet.

I was making a lot of weird music on cassette.

I didn't even have a four track yet at that point.

But the miraculous thing that happened was I got a job at a place called the Old Town School of Folk Music, which is sort of a cultural institution in Chicago, but it's a place that like, if you don't, know it, it's sort of hard to describe.

A lot of really famous people came out of there as teachers.

Wow, that song's a vibe, man.

My question for you is when you come up against that, what have you figured out as a solution?

Well, I am present, but I'm not sane.

And I'm definitely very self-doubting and all the everything.

And I think I do get that a lot where people are like, you seem so centered and stuff.

And I think...

And this is again, I've answered this question before, but I'll say it again like that.

I think if you hear like a centeredness or calmness in my music, it's because it's me kicking back against the darker voices, you know, like it's a it is a self soothing mechanism.

And I wonder, I mean, is that how you would quantify it? Do you think your intuition is your instincts or your superpower?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I got signed to Sub Pop, and it was a total failure.

And not because of Sub Pop or anything, but I feel like Root Bats, from a musical perspective, was not what was happening at that moment.

Especially not with Sub Pop.

Especially not with Sub Pop, and it was kind of like...

Was that Iron and Wine era? Yeah, and we toured with Iron and Wine and stuff, too.

And then now, you know, 30 years later, 20 years later, you can look back and be like, oh, it's really wild that these things intertwined in just the right way to create the foundation for this thing that it is.

Like, this guy is just-- He's working so much." But, but then I learned that that is kind of the whole story of this new record, is that it was unusual for you to have basically written two records at once.

Yeah.

It's sort of like a double album.

Baby Man, which is the predecessor to it, which literally, they were recorded within, I don't know, uh...

They were recorded within 12-- written and recorded within 12 weeks of each other.

So, um, and, uh, and Baby Man was completely written and recorded in 10 days.

So, and I'm not saying that as some kind of a parlor trick either, or, [laughs] or that I did it as some sort of mandate.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, both Fruit Bats tour vans before...

Like we've been on a bus now for a few years, but, um, we sort of w- so we went from...

In 2002, when I got signed to Sub Pop, I got a little bit of tour support, nothing crazy, but enough that in 2002 money I was able to put a down payment on a used Ford Econoline van, and that was named Dark Star-

[chuckles]

... was Dark Star, and that was probably like 2000...

I wanna say like I had that from 2002 to probably 2015, give or take.

Please help me welcome Eric D. Johnson from Fruitbats.

Okay, I was told when I tune, not to banter while I tune, which is my natural inclination.

So you have to just watch me awkwardly tune, and then I'll come back to the banter.

I don't even have any banter.

Here's a song.

There are times that I pray for this ship to go down And for me to be the only one, the only one to drown And also days that I've wished that I'd cease to exist But I never go and say those words aloud Because I never want to let you people down And there are moments in the dawn All conclusions foregone And the memories are lingering And the ghosts are gathering round I watch the sunrise through the yard Thinking maybe I'll find God Looking for an answer in the clouds Trying so hard not to let you people down No, I never want to let you people down Let you people down Let you people down Still waiting around for some mystical shift in the wind.

So honey, please,

It's Eric D. Johnson from Fruit Bats.