Lake Street Dive Performs in the Studio
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Listener supported. WNYC Studios. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick. The band Lake Street Dive recorded their first album with money that their bassist had won in a songwriting contest. They were kids at the time, music students at the prestigious New England Conservatory.

But instead of playing classical or jazz, they gravitated over the years more and more toward a blend of Americana, pop, country, and rock music.

And they made it all their own. And like a lot of fans, I stumbled onto the band via YouTube years ago. And I really love their pop covers and their incredibly homey stage presence. For years, Lake Street Dive was a little underground, and they toured from one small venue to the next, losing band members and gaining some along the way. And now, almost 20 years later, Lake Street Dive finds themselves coming to the stage of Madison Square Garden.

And they joined us in the studio at WNYC. I know, I know. I'm not the one to sweep you off your feet. I believe we can make it. You're looking the back way from there. Coming after me. I think of us getting away. I don't mind, but I know it might be the best. It's not good to be good to me. I hope, I hope you're not all that weak and weak.

That's Good Together, a song on the record of the very same name by Lake Street Dive. That was great. Thank you. Thank you.

I think we should go around the table and everybody introduce themselves. So, Rachel. This is Rachel Price. I'm the singer in the band. This is Mike Calabrese. I'm the drummer. I'm Bridget Carney. I play the bass. I'm James Cornelison. I play the guitar. I'm Aki Burmese. I play the keyboards. And you sing. And sing sometimes. Everybody sings. You know, wind provoked. This equality, I don't know how to describe it otherwise. When I...

I should confess that I'm watching you on YouTube. It's because I'm working late at night and I want to take a break. And there's a certain happiness to this band. There's a lift that comes from listening, watching you. And one review from AllMusic says that Good Together, the song you just played, is a love song that, and this is a quote, could just as easily work as a love letter penned by the members of Lake Street Dive to each other.

I see blushes all around the table. And tears. And tears. Bridget is crying. She's weeping. But Bridget, is that accurate?

I think we do love each other a lot. I think that comes through. And yeah, and then definitely like joy and fun has always been like a priority sort of like I think it's what kept us together in the beginning. And it's what has gotten us through some of the just slog of like the early years of being a touring band. And even now there are like parts of the job that are really grueling. And so what's the grueling bit?

Oh, just being on the road, just being exhausted. Sometimes, like, a long tour, you play the same songs a lot. So, like, one example is, like, we've played the same set list a lot in the last couple months because we're putting on this new record. So you have to be able to make each other light up on stage. Like, you have to, like, Mike is great at, like, playing a drum fill that's, like,

It's for the audience, but it's really just for us. It's just for us to turn some heads and be like, oh yeah, we're playing a show. Let's have fun. Wake up. I've been listening to this band for years, and I thought it was my little bit of a secret. And then I get a press release, you're at Madison Square Garden. How do you fill up Madison Square Garden when you've been playing for years and years in, let's just say, smaller venues? Well, we have grown the show. We've got a horn section, percussionist,

and some more involved set design and all that. But also, I think my main inspiration for playing MSG is Billy Joel. And I've seen him there. He's been there a bit. He plays there a lot. And it feels like the club when he's playing there. Because he's so comfortable there. And he acts that way, too. He kind of plays that up. Yeah.

he's just like, yeah, welcome to my monthly gig, you know, here again at Madison Square Garden. And, you know, it won't be quite like that for us. We'll definitely be like at 12, 17,

psyched level, but I'd love it if we could in some ways make it feel intimate, make it feel like it's a gigantic dive bar. In college where we met, we were studying jazz. And so definitely the view of what life would look like was more like playing in like small clubs around New York City. Although it's been kind of a slow and steady path towards it, just like

basically grassroots, like knocking on doors, like, hi, have you heard of Lake Street Dive? Like, it's been kind of one person at a time and then they tell somebody else. But at the conservatory, this was a breakaway, this was considered a radical move to break away and play this kind of music as opposed to learning your Charles Mingus or whatever it is you're learning. Speak on that. Yeah. Not really. Yeah, well, New England Conservatory had a really broad definition of what jazz could mean and I think, like,

focuses on more of the fundamental building blocks of music and then you figure out what those are and then put them together in your own way in a semi-genreless fashion. So there were all sorts of weird bands floating around NEC when we were there. So how does the band become itself? What are the first meetings of the band? What kind of music are you playing and for whom? And what did you think it was going to be all about?

Rachel? The first meeting of the band was when Mike Olson, who we've always referred to as McDuck, asked us...

individually in a very formal way to be in a band. That was me and Bridget and Mike. And it was at the end of our first year at NEC. He was envisioning a band that could play at a dive bar. So it would be like enough for, you know, it would be like the type of music that anyone could walk in and listen to. But we were at jazz school. So I think probably we needed to put like a twist on it that legitimized

you know, our tuition or something. So... And we were just exploring what it was like to just, like, play...

you know, tunes like that. And we sounded really, really weird, but I do think that we sounded like a band. How would you categorize the music of the band? There's the term Americana, there's the term this, that, and the other thing. Bridget, go. Bridget is a designated. Three favorite bands. Okay, you can go second. I'll just back up. I second whatever Bridget's about to say. Okay, I have three answers.

Myself. So there's soundtrack to a romantic comedy. There's roller skating music. And the latest one that we came up with is Chateauneuf-du-Pape.

Which is in reference to a lyric from Mike's song. And a classy wine situation. Exactly, yeah. But also a pun, so it really undercuts the classy. Gotcha. So it's a no answer is what you're telling me. Yeah. Because roller skating music is a little flutier than, okay, fair enough. I got my comeuppance there. Yeah. Yeah.

So when you sit down to write a song, it's one at a time, two at a time, everybody joins in. How does this work? And maybe sketch it out with one of the songs on the album. Well, Good Together is a great example. At least more recently, we, you know, in trying to write In the Room together, which is something that, you know, we've never done before, even after...

you know, 20 years together or seven years with Aki, we rolled Dungeons & Dragons dice to come up with parameters of a song, tempo, chords, and time signature. But we took those parameters and jammed on them for a little bit just to get the music together, recorded a little vamp, and whoever... In the same room? In the same room, yeah. And then whoever had rolled the dice...

took that little vamp on their phone and went off for 30 minutes and tried to put an idea down for lyrics and melody on top of it. Okay, I have to say that sounds insane way to... I agree. I can't agree more. How do you deal with these people? I've been with these guys for seven years. It must be very difficult. I have no explanation for this. Yeah, I'm sorry. Except that I may have been the one to introduce dodecahedron dice to our band life. What Michael doesn't say is we...

So when I first joined the band, people wrote songs as far as I know and then brought them to the band and the band jammed on the songs. And then the second record I was involved in, which I was like partially writing, partially

doing sideband stuff was like two people would write a song together and then present it to the group. This was the first time we all sat down and stared at each other and were like, what's the record going to be? And so the dice kind of helped break it up. But it did result in a lot of zany tunes. What was the idea behind this record? You want this record to be what? Well, I think Bridger came up with the term joyful rebellion. We were trying to like...

find a lasting, this is my interpretation of it, and please don't let me get too cerebral. We are trying to find-- - This is public radio. - Okay, great. I feel good about what I'm about to say. - Good. - We're trying to create an emotion that had a very long half-life.

And I think there's so much emphasis on sort of like rage, upset, disappointment. And I think those emotions have very short, they're very intense, but their half lives are very short. Like they, you rarely, you know,

linger on them months and months later unless you've like got a vengeance quest in a fantasy novel but joy is something that I think you carry a memory of joy with you sometimes for your entire life and just being reminded of it like remember the time we did that wonderful thing can fill you up with that kind of positive energy. Bridget was there any model of joyful rebellion that

In your listening history? Yes. In our recent band history, we got to play at Mavis Staple's 80th birthday party at the Apollo, which was amazing. She's still on the road. She's still on the road. She just had her 85th birthday. I know. Yeah. So we, for that concert, learned the song the Staple singers used to do called Just Another Soldier in the Army of Love.

And so we did it for that event, and then we kept it on our set list, and it just...

opened up a whole new door of sort of feelings on the stage and I think in the audience too. Like we have a bunch of songs that are relatable in the sort of romantic realm. Love songs, heartbreak songs, everybody's been there. But then there's this other universe of things we all share in terms of bigger picture struggles and bigger picture victories. And so this felt like, you know,

We were all going through some things that are in that world of what Aki was talking about, emotions with a shorter half-life. So we would kind of put those at the beginning of the song and then at the back half of the song put more of the hopeful solutions part of things. Richard Carney, who plays bass in Lake Street Dive. We'll continue and we'll hear another song in just a moment. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. Stick around.

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Visit justinwine.com and enter Radio 20 for 20% off your order. This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm David Remnick, and I've been speaking with the members of Lake Street Dive. The band takes its name, of course, from Lake Street in Minneapolis, which has its share of dives. But this is hardly a bar band or not anymore. Over many albums and many years together, they've become one of the tightest outfits around. Lake Street Dive's eighth studio album is called Naturally Good Together.

and they joined me to perform at WNYC. We'll continue our conversation.

I want to have you play the song "Shame, Shame, Shame," but first can you talk a little bit about what inspired the song and what was going on at the time? Yeah, I think, like, broadly speaking, it's about, like, a person in a position of power who's trying to resolve their own personal petty grievances from that position of power, and everyone else suffers the consequences. Are we thinking of anyone here? Well, does it remind you of anyone?

So yeah, this song was written in probably 2017, 2018.

And it's as vital today as it was then. It's as vital today as it was then. There is, like, the end of the song is, like, seeking a way forward. And there's a big, like, sing-along section there that just says, like, change is coming. Oh, yeah. Ain't no holding it back. Like, that kind of thing. Like, something that hopefully sticks in people's minds and can inspire them. But it's also, like, it's got this pretty long first half that's, like, hurting.

So let's hear you play a little bit from the song Shame, Shame, Shame. Sure. One, two, three. Hold your breath underwater Now the ones are back to the starter All done Shame, shame, shame Shame, shame, shame You, it's not a game, game Shame, shame, shame, shame On you, I bet you think you're a big man now

Rachel, we were just discussing before about the joy aspect of your music. The political aspect of music is also there too. What can it accomplish and what can it not accomplish, political music?

What music can really seek to do is unify people. You know, we play everywhere in the country. We go to every town, every big city, and play for wonderful people everywhere. And you see all kinds of people. And to understand that probably we're all sort of seeking the same sort of life in a lot of different ways, if that makes sense. Well, how would you describe that?

Just that I do think that people are trying to help one another. I do. I think that people are trying to be joyful and trying to live in conscious communities and a space where people are getting together and they're dancing to the same song and singing the same song and they're saying like, oh my God, you listen to this band. It's like such a wonderful place to be, which is why I feel like coming from

you know, 2017 playing a song like Shame, Shame, Shame has brought us to the point where when we went to make this record, we were like, how can we express sadness and grief and frustration, but put in, but also like put in a joyful message so that people can have this catharsis together. You've talked about the benefit of not having one big radio hit that everybody knows. And why is that benefit? Why is that a good thing?

You don't want people just, especially when it's one song, I think that could be difficult. Like if they at least like 10 of your songs and they come to your show and you play like four of them, then everybody's going to be happy. And then you might have like,

a weird new like goth metal record that you made and you're like I'm only gonna play two of these but I got this is what I'm feeling right now you know I'm just I'm what just popped into my head is a video of I saw a video of Chapel Roan who somebody said it was taken earlier this week in November of last year she was playing for 200 people and

Now she's one of the biggest stars in the world and this is a video of her on stage Weeping and the audience is very supportive, you know, but she's just like we think because she's so freaked out or so happy No, no so freaked out because it's so much because it happened so fast that I mean people might say like oh like what are you? Complaining about you're so famous now, whatever this it but it's like that happening so fast could be traumatic. No doubt, you know and

And yet bring it on? Well, I will say that at this point, you know, knowing who we are, knowing that we like each other, you know, we would be able to dissipate any, I think,

huge fame if that were to befall us but so I'm not I'm not really that scared if it happens I'm not necessarily in the bring it on camp but but yeah bring it on I guess there you go a moment of honesty yeah come on who doesn't want that there you go to an extent the last song I'll ask you to play is also the last song on the album with the great title Set Sail Prometheus and Eros now who wrote that

You're pointing back and forth, Bridget. Aki and Aki. Okay. What's the story, Aki, behind that song? Bridget sent me a stanza and maybe explained to me that she envisioned people landing on a planet after this planet had been ruined or something like that. Yeah, it's a near future imagined apocalypse. What occasion is that? Oh.

Anything illegal? Well, no. Really? I was just sitting down. I wanted to write like a kind of McCartney piano song. So the Prometheus and Eros concept is like Prometheus giving fire to man and that kind of representing like man's insatiable desire for like growth and invention and expansion. And so...

Prometheus is counterbalanced by arrows, the, the God of love, um, which is hopefully what will save us. And that means like love for each other, like lifting each other up, supporting each other, looking out for each other. Um, now those two, uh,

Greek mythological characters like never actually interacted in Greek mythology so this is kind of like fan fiction for them yeah Greek fan fiction you get this stanza you open your email or it's been texted to you and you think okay now I know what to do with this 100% Bridget knew

She had a slight science fiction premise and she sent it to the right person. If Bridget says Prometheus and Eros are hanging out, how would they converse with each other? How would they dialogue? And that's basically how I tried to do it, but within the strictures of the stanzas that Bridget gave me. So you go back and forth, back and forth, and then you all get in a room and start talking.

Working it out. We added a guitar solo. It sounds like tremendous fun. Everything about Set Sail was fun. Are you kidding? Aki and I are doing our best Celine Dion, Bebo Bryson. Oh, yeah. Fulfilling a childhood dream to do a Disney soundtrack. Yeah. Is that in the future? Disney soundtracks?

I'm there. Call us up. We're sitting at the phone. I hear you got my number. That's a bring it on. I can get by. Yeah. Bring it on. Yeah. I can't believe that we met natural explorers. We are natural disasters. Beset us from the start. Threatening to break my heart.

Set sail unto the breeze One more kiss from a kiss can't be lost in trance Off into the twilight we so often that the gods might regret their empty vow Bring to join us now Let's sail

Hold your breath for day Imagine the looks on their face Meritable monsters we Cynics and imposters D.I.D. and the beast Not small It cuts me to the mouth Atheists and arrows Beast of my broken heart We took this

Rachel Price, Richard Carney, Mike Calabrese, Aki Burmese, and James Cornielson are Lake Street Dive. They're performing at Madison Square Garden this weekend. I'm David Remnick. Thanks for joining us. See you next time. The New Yorker Radio Hour is a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker. Our theme music was composed and performed by Meryl Garbus of Tune Yards with additional music by Louis Mitchell.

This episode was produced by Max Balton, Adam Howard, David Krasnow, Jeffrey Masters, Louis Mitchell, Jared Paul, and Ursula Sommer. With guidance from Emily Botin and assistance from Michael May, David Gable, and Alejandra Deque. And we had additional help this week from Irene Trudell. The New Yorker Radio Hour is supported in part by the Cherena Endowment Fund.

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