Post-Fame Plus 1.2

s1.2 Post-Fame-Plus

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alexi: Always ready.

Glen Erickson: Okay. Hello and welcome to Post Fame Plus Post Fame Plus is the season one bonus series between myself, Glen Erickson and Alexi Erickson, my daughter and co-host. Hi Alexi.

alexi: Hi.

Glen Erickson: always. So the premise of Post Fame Plus, uh, for us, of course, is our opportunity to do what we always did in our Post Fame segments, which is share musical ideas and inspirations, what’s new, all of that sort of stuff.

And we are following a format where one person brings a song. With some backstory and the other person brings a full album they think should be listened to as a full album with some backstory, of course, to [00:01:00] support their reasons. And the switch up this week is that I am doing this song and you are doing the full album.

So, which means I get to go first with the song. Are you ready? Are you ready for it?

alexi: I’m a little nervous.

Glen Erickson: Okay, well, I don’t know if you would’ve seen it, So there was a brand new single dropped that caught me by complete surprise last week, and I don’t know if you saw it, but it got me very excited.

It’s a song called Many Lives, lowercase m lowercase l by the band, Purity Ring.

alexi: I didn’t.

Glen Erickson: You didn’t see that

alexi: I’m so mad I did not at all.

Glen Erickson: brand new single from Purity Ring many lives. Which I think there’s even another song, it, it’s Teasing a full album because I’m pretty clear. So Purity Ring, uh, of course is a Canadian band, an actual, most people still consider they would be called an Edmonton [00:02:00] based band. Uh, just sort of based on some geography of Corin Roddick and Megan James.

And I think Megan was Edmonton and Corrin was Calgary and Edmonton, but. Yeah. Anyhow, we, we were quite happy to claim Purity Ring for ourselves and absolutely loved the band and they totally blew up with their electronic pop music back in, uh, like the 2015. Well, I mean, the first album, maybe it was 2012, the one that we fell in love with was released in 2015.

So, but they have a new song. Uh, it looks like a new album coming out. New song is called Many Lives. It’s very good and it sounds completely Purity Ring, so,

alexi: it

Glen Erickson: which is pretty awesome. Uh, backstory, of course. Lexi is October 21st, 2016.

alexi: Mm-hmm.

Glen Erickson: Daddy daughter date night. You were a little [00:03:00] over a little fresh into being 11 years old.

I think only, and we had. Probably for a couple years, I think gone out of the kids bop phase of learning music and loving music and into other things. I think your first concert I technically took you to was Selena Gomez, wasn’t it? At the arena? I.

alexi: Yeah. That was technically the first.

Glen Erickson: But to me, like this was the first concert, like I got you tickets before, you know, but to me this was taking you to something that I thought you could appreciate but was much more in my world.

So, um, it was at the Wind Spear Center and I had to go because I had seen the setup of what I still to this day think is probably one of the most beautiful stage performance setups.

alexi: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: I had ever seen, if you recall. So everything felt pink to me. That’s what I sort of remember it as is they needed the whole depth of the stage.

This is what’s fun is that [00:04:00] it’s just two of them. They’re electronic pop duo, like the, the, yeah, the guy Korin runs all the music and then Megan sings as far as the performance goes. And,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: And so it was like he had this like podium that looked like Superman’s crystal castles. Do you remember? It was just these different heights of these crystal looking like pillars in front of him, and he just would.

Touch them and they would do different things, and I’m sure he had some incredible setup to be able to run all of the tracks and the music and all this stuff. But the control over it was beautiful. But then behind it was just sheets of curtains of what looked like rope lights, right in just straight rows and columns, like a grid that was probably like 50 by 50.

With space hanging from the ceiling that she could weave her way and walk through and they had different timing for the lights and it was like spectacularly set up. [00:05:00] Yeah. And I loved it ’cause um, I just remember feeling like, because it was electronic music, but it was kind of this album. They brought in more vocals and stuff than the first album.

Fine. Um, well I always wanna call it Fine Shrine. That was the single, it was called Shrines, their first record. That kind of blew them up into world, but they became more lyrical and vocal with, with the next record, another eternity. So, um. And I loved it and I thought you would appreciate it and I’d play it for you in the car.

And you did. And then,

alexi: Yeah.

Glen Erickson: um, and I loved electronic music and I think nobody even knew I loved electronic music. ’cause I was like so clearly a guitar guy. But all the way back to high school when they had like the classic synthesizers in our, in our music room. Like, I mean, the. The classic, the truth synthesizer isn’t the one that just has all the patches and sounds and presets, right?

Like, like the old [00:06:00] Yamaha DX seven and everything since, but like the Roland Juno and these other ones where it was based on modulation, right? And so you would just press a key and you could set the the pass and the oscillation and these filters. And these sounds would sometimes like progress through a little a algorithm or, anyhow, I absolutely loved all of those textures so much and I would play with them forever.

And I got into electronic bands later, like, um, M 83 was a big one that I think for a lot of people that kind of crossed over into indie music in a band called Caribou. And then I liked the ones that became. A little more clean and on the nose, like Tyco and The Postal Service, it basically came into that.

Um, but a lot of vocals and melody still in those ones, not pure, kind of the more indie shoe GRI of M 83 and then got into bands like Blonde Redhead and Phantogram, [00:07:00] and then even a band called Brood, which I thought was incredible. All sort of felt like they rippled out of this stuff. So, um. Anyhow, all of that to me, I could pull all of that into a nutshell of what the best part of it is to me.

And often it was that Purity Ring album and sort of all crystallized around us going for that little, daddy date night thing, which I don’t know how sharing a photo works. Can you see this?

alexi: Oh

Glen Erickson: no, I don’t know how this works on here. If it’s not working. I’m gonna do an edit. I’m gonna, okay.

Well, I don’t know how it works in the recording. If I have to just plop the photo in. I’ll fix it afterwards. This was our outfit date. We had the matching black Chuck Taylor’s, of course, and black jeans, or I don’t know if you, yeah, I think yours are jeans. But you had the cutest little pink top. Anyhow, um, she had, she’s wearing this sweet little, if you can’t see it, I’ll post this photo probably on our social ’cause it’s so cute.

I still, I [00:08:00] still dress like that. Like this is the funny thing, like 10 years later I’m just wearing all black like jeans, my keys lanyard, hanging out with my black leather jacket over top of a black hoodie and my black toque classic

Um, yeah, a hundred percent. And you’re just wearing the most adorable little pink thing with your hair.

And anyhow, and it was perfect pink to go to Purity Ring.

alexi: I felt so I remember that was like my first like cropped piece of clothing ever and I like I was just the coolest little like punk girl ever. I had this, oh,

Glen Erickson: Uh, well, I loved it. That was absolutely. Awesome. And that’s like I had to go, you know what? I had to go troll your mom’s Facebook to find that photo.

alexi: That’s kind of awful, but

Glen Erickson: I,

alexi: of adoring.

Glen Erickson: I knew it existed and I didn’t know where I couldn’t find it. And I had to troll your mom’s Facebook photos all the way [00:09:00] back.

alexi: For ages, I’ve seen our Selena Gomez one,

Glen Erickson: Oh yeah, me too.

alexi: scenes with like the, like bright hearts and poker dot whatever on them, but I haven’t seen that one.

Glen Erickson: You mean the leggings that had just like bright color shapes all over them? Yeah. And that was at the old McEwen host, that photo. I remember it really well. But yeah, I had to go dig ’cause I knew that one existed and anyhow, it was fun. Anyhow, so that’s, um, I was so excited when their new single came out and that it is a really good song, many Lives by Purity ring.

So, um, that was, that was my single.

alexi: Okay, well I’ll have to listen to it.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

alexi: Uh, crazy. I dunno how you, I dunno how you introduced a new song and also threw me back down memory lane so hard in one go. No problem.

Glen Erickson: That’s what it’s supposed to do for us music, so, okay. So that’s my song. And you told me you had an album that was gonna be fairly [00:10:00] predictable, so.

alexi: Yeah. Just outta the ballpark. Just guess what, what even band, it’s gonna be, you actually might be wrong because I’m,

Glen Erickson: Well, I don’t want to guess ’cause I’m pretty sure I’m gonna be wrong ’cause you’re like, it’s gonna be predictable. And I’m like, that could be like three, there’s three different ways I could come at predictable for you. So I’m not, I’m not sure. A part of me thought is it gonna like the Lumineers kind of edge where it was like,

alexi: That’s too basic. That’s too like,

Glen Erickson: okay.

See that’s what I mean. Is that the, is when you say predictable, is it basic? So I’m not gonna guess so I’m gonna let, I’m just gonna let you do it.

alexi: That was your guess, basically. Okay. Um, no. Okay. I chose this ’cause it’s become very like, full circle and I feel like it’s gonna be full circle for the rest of my life. Um, but backseat lovers classic for

Glen Erickson: Yep.

alexi: Um, their album Waiting to Spill, that’s, that’s the one I’ve chosen for my first album [00:11:00] because, um, this was like the first album for me. That like really was like yeah, like start to finish, like could listen to, came out, let me look. I think 2020, when did we go to Vancouver together

Glen Erickson: For bleachers?

alexi: for bleachers 2020.

Glen Erickson: No, that was after that. That was maybe three years ago. So 22.

alexi: Okay, let me look. ‘ cause this is important. this album came out, so for Backseat Lovers, they had, um, their first album come out and it had songs like Killby Girl, um, that like blew up

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

alexi: the internet, uh, and became very, I don’t know, kind of popular. Um. then they didn’t release for a while and then they came out with this album waiting, waiting to spill. it was just like a very more like, mature and like, [00:12:00] I don’t know, like, just like, it was almost like a different band. Like they just like found their rhythm. but it’s so like the whole album is just basically about like and growth and like uncertainty. Just like all the, like good and bad and everything in between.

Feelings of like getting older, like as a person. yeah. So I like, I don’t know. I found it when we went on that Vancouver trip, um, because it was relatively new that year and yeah, I downloaded it and when we were in the, from the time we like got to the airport until we got off the plane, I just had the album on repeat looping. Um, like a little bit of a crazy person I think, but, um,

Glen Erickson: Like a, like a guy in a hospital room playing a, an album over

alexi: played an

Glen Erickson: A little crazy.

alexi: Yeah. Sounds familiar. Um, yeah, so I wrote, I wrote a couple things about it. Um, the last song on the track, it’s called Viciously Lonely, and it’s [00:13:00] like such a last song of an album. Song, if that makes

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

alexi: wraps up like, I’ve never heard an album Choose a last song for said album. Like better, like it

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

alexi: up everything you feel while you listen to the whole album up in like a song. and then the last like 20 seconds of that song is just like, obviously like an audio recording of. band in their studio all chatting and it’s like evidently like raining outside and it’s like you’re kinda like a fly on the wall of like them producing the album.

And I just think that’s such a cool kinda artsy little take to throw onto the end of an album. which I really like. And they’re like a bunch of young men too. So like the whole album of being about like. Kind of growing up and then throwing that out on there. I don’t know. I love that. But um,

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

alexi: like a lot of like raw vulnerability, messy kind of coming of age is what I was writing. they have a lot of guitar in it,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: [00:14:00] for texture, if that makes sense. Like

Glen Erickson: Yep.

alexi: just like.

Glen Erickson: It’s not riff based.

alexi: It is not, it’s they, have like guitar already within songs and then I just like always throw on another layer of like guitar for like texture in a song and they do it so beautifully. yeah,

Glen Erickson: So my, my interaction with you on that is I, would you say this was like a gateway band, an album for you to a lot of the current bands, I think there’s a lot of bands that fit in this kind of vertical now. And, and you’re right, if we go back three years. you know, I feel like maybe that is accurate to when you started playing playlists in the car.

That felt like they were my potential playlists and we started to evolve, you know, into similar spaces with music again for the first time in a long time. So, yeah, that’s what makes me think that question right away is if that was kind [00:15:00] of the gateway into that for you. Because you’re right. I was always kind of taken with like, oh, Lexi’s listening to indie rock bands, kind of, but it’s kind of a new indie rock that isn’t.

You know, it’s not like the old version of the explosion of like, when, when, when, like the strokes and, and, um, the high, yeah. All those ones like were like, they were still so guitar heavy, riffy, and you’re right, this felt more like foster the people, which kind of was a, a pre predecessor for, but you know, yeah.

Kind of felt like that to me.

alexi: yeah. No, it was, feel like it’s exactly that. Like that was kind of like my, know. That was kind of like, I think it also reflected, I. Like kind of that period of my life, like that when I discovered it, I feel like I was in a transition period of like growing up, obviously.

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

alexi: it was just like a weird like kind of reflection of like I was at that moment when I found it. yeah, [00:16:00] like my music taste was changing and like my style was changing and like, all those fun things.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

alexi: then it definitely, definitely got into me like. Getting into this kind of style of music? Way more, for sure. Uh, yeah. And it has like, three of the songs on her are still like, some of my all time songs,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: like I would say, yeah, there’s no misses.

All of them. I’m like, they’re like beautifully. There’s one of them on there and it’s like, it literally is just like a beautifully composed like ballad and it’s like. The vocals give you like this achy feeling and like you just like, it’s like sad song almost, but then like there’s just like a very like indie kinda like

Glen Erickson: Mm-hmm.

alexi: on and then all of a sudden you like burst into the chorus and then you’re like, wait, what?

Just, I don’t know. It’s great. I love it.

Glen Erickson: Well, I mean that’s what a great album does for you is it kind of takes you through that ride. But also I think it’s [00:17:00] interesting ’cause there’s not a lot of records where you actually talk about the subject matter. So it’s not, that’s one of the first things that I noticed in your initial description and then you followed it up actually talking about how it related.

You know, to just where you were at that time in your life, and you’re always going to attach that album now to that period of your life too, which is a cool thing that we have and that’s relatable with everybody. I love those conversations with people. I.

alexi: sure. And I didn’t realize it at the time either. Like I think is the other thing like that, like I remember album being from that time in my life, but I, I chose it for this podcast. but I, I went back to it recently and then I was listening to it and then I was like, oh, this was so like, you know, that phase in my life.

And then I was like actually like

Glen Erickson: Hmm.

alexi: the lyrics and I was like. Oh, like

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: that part of my life, probably like for a reason.

Glen Erickson: I like that you noted that the last song felt [00:18:00] like it was a deliberate last song and a perfect fit, because I don’t feel like we notice that very much anymore. I mean, A, we’re partially doing this ’cause I don’t think people think about full albums the way that they used to through the most of the history of recorded music, because they were so locked to a format.

So a full album was a physical thing you call in your hand that could actually only play. So many minutes of music and they would just cre And so the medium came around to defining how people like built music releases and, and the way that they sat in our lives. And that kind of changed into the MP three area.

Area or era, sorry. And then into the Spotify streaming era. Obviously with, I don’t always notice if bands pay attention or, or the way they used to it. It seemed like they were specifically selecting which songs went in what order, and so

alexi: Yeah,

Glen Erickson: I think it’s special just [00:19:00] when you love a full album, if you can actually feel like it had that kind of a care and attention put into it.

alexi: right. When, um, when I was in Europe last summer, Kind of like bigger albums I was waiting for came out um, Eric, my boyfriend, like we were texting about them at the time of like, um, you know, like, oh listen, gimme your thoughts kinda thing. But that’s one thing he had said. He was like, oh, like I always listen first song to last song in order.

Like I don’t hit shuffle on Spotify or anything. ’cause he is like, the artists like, do it for a reason and that like, just doesn’t get like, respected the same way anymore.

Glen Erickson: That’s great.

alexi: Like shuffling or like hitting a random song. And I was just like, oh. Like I’ve been doing that for such a long time, but I never like thought about it that way.

And I was like, that’s so true.

Glen Erickson: Yep.

alexi: And again, like if you shuffled that album and that like came second, all I think that would just be lost on you.

Glen Erickson: Yeah. Okay. One last question, [00:20:00] um, about that album or that band for you? ’cause I’m just curious. So, uh, I sort of said it felt like that was a gateway and that since that. Like there’s been a kind of an explosion of a lot of bands that could probably fit all on a similar playlist. Now, what is one other band that you feel kind of is the easiest first next step for somebody?

Like if you listen to this, you’re probably also gonna want to listen to what.

alexi: lemme look at that. Era of my life. Um, that’s hard I think I got launched into like so much. Okay. Um, of maybe Joe P it’s not a band, it’s an artist. Maybe Joe P

Glen Erickson: Yeah, that’s fair. I know that he’s big for you and that’s very [00:21:00] similar. I think you’re right.

alexi: it’s. Yeah, I think he, takes it a, a good way also. Um, no, that’s like less, I don’t know, like there’s, there’s so many that come up to my brain that are just like different versions of it and I’m looking and like,

Glen Erickson: Yeah, but like what’s, what’s the biggest one? Like what’s the,

alexi: Oh, I have like a bunch that are like kinda. Maybe, um,

Glen Erickson: okay, I’m waiting for you to say, I’m waiting for you to say the biggest one. The most obvious one to me that anybody should know.

alexi: What,

Glen Erickson: There should be one that you should say off the top of your tongue. Like if you’ve been talking about backseat lovers, everyone should also know Dell Water gap.

alexi: okay. Okay. Sure.

Glen Erickson: Am I not wrong?

Like,

alexi: really correct. Um,

Glen Erickson: I mean that’s two songs from that artist that, that are like on every cool [00:22:00] indie bop playlist that I’ve ever made.

alexi: He feels a little Yes. He’s like backseat lovers. And then you like, have a little touch of like, pop

Glen Erickson: Yeah, it’s a little more pop. Yeah, that’s fair.

alexi: was gonna say, um, also like Bri, what’s his name? Briton. Marney,

Glen Erickson: Yeah.

alexi: yeah. Him as well.

Glen Erickson: Okay.

alexi: He’s. He’s on the same playing

Glen Erickson: Yeah, we got a real banger too. Okay, well that’s awesome. We covered

alexi: Yep.

Glen Erickson: pretty decent ground, some pretty important. Eras of history and even got the cutest photo into all of this. So this is, um, it’s gonna be so out there. So this was a fantastic episode of Post Fame Plus. looking forward to the next one where we’ll switch it back and you’ll take over the song and I’ll have to come up with another album.

So looking forward to it. Okay,

alexi: Okay,

Glen Erickson: we got through it. Thank you. Bye.

alexi: bye.

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