The Con

Chris Walla also was Tegan and Sarah's producer for a couple of albums, I think.

He did The Con, I know for sure, and I think maybe Sainthood as well.

And they're one of my favorite bands, so...

He does pretty good production work.

But you put all of this in a blender, and there's a 12-minute long song.

There are punk albums that I have that aren't even 12.

12 minutes long um and so for all of that like it requires a lot of your attention like it demands a lot of your attention and a lot of trying to figure out like what instrument is making that noise like stuff that is and so it shouldn't work for me in some ways and it should because of the content and so i for that reason it's just really unique and fun and it is to the point that i'll have towards the start of like even by decemberist standards this is sort of like a hard turn, a left turn at Albuquerque, a left turn at Portlandia for them.

Because, like, the first song I ever heard from them was, I think, Engine Driver.

[laughs]

[laughs] There's this documentary about Teagan and Sara making The Con, and the l- the degree of, like, grief that they were pushing through in order to make The Con, and it's just, uh, to know that, to have that information, does push those albums and those projects to a greater degree of infamy in my mind.

I don't know if my own work...

And I talk a lot about process, and I talk a lot about particularly with the poems, um, particularly with my new book of poems, which I think will be interesting for people to encounter.

It was like-

Yeah

... how can I make people feel sad by being, like, as vibrant as I can about the biggest possible feeling? And instead, asking people over and over again, what my work is doing so much more frequently than I think it, it gets credit for, I think, is checking in with people on the condition of their heart.

And that is something I learned from Scott, and I wouldn't be the same writer if not for that, if for...