If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.
But with Zinn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.
Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.
Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.
There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction, but there's only one Zinn.
Check out zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.
Warning, this product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
Hey, Ryan Reynolds here from Mint Mobile.
Now, I don't know if you've heard, but Mint's Premium Wireless is $15 a month.
But I'd like to offer one other perk.
We have no stores.
That means no small talk.
Crazy weather we're having.
No, it's not.
It's just weather.
It is an introvert's dream.
Give it a try at mintmobilecom.
Slash switch upfront payment of 45 for three-month plan, 15 per month equivalent required.
New customer offer first three months only, then full price plan options available.
Taxes and fees extra.
See mintmobile.com.
You're listening to Luke's English Podcast.
For more information, visit teacherluke.co.uk.
Hello listeners, welcome to this new episode of the podcast.
I hope you're doing well.
Yes, a brand new episode.
I think this is episode number 856 and it's been released hot on the heels of the last episode, which arrived on Wednesday morning, and I think this is being published on like Friday the 8th of December or Saturday the 9th of December, and you might be, who knows, maybe you're listening to this like years into the future and you just absolutely don't care when it was published.
But anyway, this has been released quite quickly after the last episode.
And why?
What's going on?
Well, I'm publishing several episodes per week for the next couple of weeks just because well, I've just got lots of stuff.
I've got lots of episodes that need to be published.
And some of them are fairly time sensitive, like this one, for example.
This is a conversation with my brother, James, about music.
And if you remember in the last episode that I did with James, it was called Topic Tombola.
We talked about different topics.
During that episode, James said that he was about to have an album released on a label like a properly released album of music.
Well, that's happened.
In fact, it was released on Touched Revolutions that's the record label last Friday, that's the 1st of December.
For example, when Leonardo DiCaprio has got a new film out or Taylor Swift has got a new album out, they do a promotional tour and they appear on all the TV shows and all the major podcasts talking about their latest work.
That's what's happening here, except it's not Taylor Swift or Leonardo DiCaprio.
It's much more interesting than that.
It's my brother, James.
And, in an attempt to promote his album, he's using all available options that he has, which is basically this podcast, I think.
Um, so we're going to talk a little bit about the album, but we'll also explore the subject of music a little bit, including some descriptions of how James actually makes his music.
And then probably some stuff about albums, favorite albums, first albums and stuff like that.
Okay.
So, it's a fairly big deal to have an album released on a label.
Now, obviously, this is a podcast for learners of English.
But, you know, I like to talk about lots of different topics.
Music is definitely one of those subjects.
And so, hello, James.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hello, thanks for having me on here again.
It's a pleasure.
I went on Brummie then for a second.
Thanks for having me on here again.
Thanks for having me on the podcast again.
We both did actually used to speak with a Birmingham accent, or more of a Coventry accent possibly.
Did we?
Do you think so?
There's clips of you definitely speaking like that. this yeah it used to sound a bit like that didn't i you know it used to come out a bit more sort of midlands sort of thing it's not full-on brummie but yeah sort of like that west midlands coventry sort of accent yeah maybe maybe i used to sound a bit more like that it was more high-pitched it was more go on give us a go when i was about 13 or something oh he gives a go on that you've oh he gives a go on that game boy Yeah, that's more like it.
Anyway, sorry to... No, that's all right.
Actually, on the subject of voices and stuff, I did get a couple of comments recently.
I was trying to find them just before recording this, but I couldn't find them.
But a couple of comments saying stuff like I really like James's voice and it's always nice to have James on the podcast.
I got an email from a Japanese listener who said, I love listening to episodes with James.
So that's nice, isn't it?
Look, you see, people...
People like listening to you on the podcast.
Anyway, congratulations on having an album released on a label.
Thanks.
How does it feel?
Good.
Slightly strange.
I mean, it's a big deal.
It's not that big a deal, but it is something I've sort of been aiming for for a while, or hoping for.
So, yeah, it's very I'm very appreciative.
Yeah, absolutely.
What's the album called again and what kind of music is it?
It's called Mood Selector for no good reason apart from that's a really bad pun.
Right, because you said this before, like mode selector, but no, mood selector.
Ooh, it doesn't really mean much, but it's just one of those punny sort of album titles.
It's got a nice ring to it, I think.
Yeah.
And your artist... Right number of syllables.
Right number of syllables?
It's just not too long, not too short.
Yeah, fair enough.
Mood selector.
Yeah, okay.
Maybe the syllable count...
It's important.
What kind of music is it?
It's electronic music.
I suppose you could say it's techno to some extent or ambient techno or even electronica.
Hold on a second, James.
Sorry to interrupt you, James.
I just forgot to mention this earlier.
I'm expecting the delivery of a package and the guy is calling me.
So I'm just, just hold on.
Let me just pause the podcast.
Shall I talk to the people?
If you like.
Yeah, you can keep doing that, but I'm going to just disappear for a bit to try and get this package okay.
Okay, in a bit.
What do we think this package is?
I'm gonna put money on a book but, who knows, he doesn't really buy music anymore, doesn't you know?
It's gone completely.
Uh, digital streams.
His music doesn't own any physical media so, unlikely to be music or dvd, Could be some clothes actually.
He's quite a big clothes fan.
Everything Luke owns is made by Levi's.
From his socks right through to his scarf.
All 100% Levi's.
Maybe a Beatles t-shirt.
That's Luke's kind of style.
If you want to try and copy at home, he's coming back.
I hear footsteps.
I'm gonna say it's clothes.
Actually he doesn't read that many books.
Likelihood of clothes.
Five to one.
Ten to one.
Five to one.
I'm gonna put a fiver.
Oh no, I'm gonna put a tenner an imaginary tenner on it being something clothes related.
Anyway, how are you doing?
I basically asked Luke if we could do this episode because I sort of felt the need to promote this thing, Not that it's a chore.
It's always nice.
In fact, sometimes I wish we didn't have to do the podcast.
We could just have a chat for an hour.
I mean we do that anyway, but it's a bit sort of.
You know, it's not quite the same as having a normal non-recorded chat.
I'll tell you about what I can see in front of me now.
I'm in the attic of the house where I live, which is a sort of office slash music space.
It's very untidy.
There's a poster of Tommy Guerrero on the wall from his album Soul Food Taqueria.
And there's a camera, there's drumsticks, there's a load of tapes.
I bought a tape tape recently, actually.
This is fascinating, I'm sure, for all of you out there.
If Luke cuts this, I wouldn't blame him.
So I'm surrounded by tapes, bits of office equipment.
And what was it?
Was it clothes?
What was the parcel?
Oh, my God.
I'm totally out of breath because...
I just had to run down four flights of stairs and then run back up holding a large box.
It's nothing particularly interesting, just...
I should be physically fit considering the number of stairs I go up and down every single day.
Living up on the fourth floor with no lift.
And my podcast room is on the sixth floor with no lift.
So I'm constantly up and down stairs all the time.
Let me just get my breath back here.
Hold on.
Was it clothes?
No.
Bollocks.
What, you thought it was clothes?
I put money on the fact that it would be clothes.
How much money did you put on it?
Ten pounds.
What, you went on to like, what sort of like bet, what would be called betfred.com?
Bet Luke's delivery, I don't know.
No, not clothes.
Just an imaginary tenner.
No, no, no, not clothes.
Not clothes.
It was actually something just very boring, really that probably no one's going to be very interested in learning about, but just something for me, just like podcast-related audio equipment that I probably don't even need.
Are your compressors and stuff?
Yeah, things like that, again, which I don't really need.
I mean, since we're talking about geeky audio tech type stuff, I suppose I could go into it.
But at the moment, you know, my microphone goes into a little mixer and that helps me balance the sound.
And then it goes into my recording device.
And what I just bought today, maybe because the other day I was a bit bored at a bit of a loose end in front of my laptop, which is a bit of a dangerous thing, isn't it sometimes, when you consider how easy it is to just blow loads of cash at the click of a button.
And that's pretty much exactly what I did.
I was like, right, I'm going to invest in this and this and this.
So I bought some stuff that's going to basically helped me to produce possibly even better sound quality.
But what I expect I've got in the back of my mind.
I expect that going to connect all of this gear up together and plug it all in and it's going to sound almost exactly the same as it sounded before, maybe slightly louder.
You know what they say, that the sound quality sort of is a big steep.
Is it a steep gradient?
So, like the, it's very easy at the bottom end to make improvements.
So if you've got terrible sound quality it's quite easy to get it pretty good.
But then to get from pretty good upwards is very, very slow progress At the end of that chain.
You can spend a lot of money to get something sounding slightly better.
Yes, yes, yes.
Very gradual incremental improvements in quality, even though you're investing probably quite a lot of money at the top end.
It's a bit like learning English, I suppose, at the very beginning.
You sort of put a certain amount of time in and you seem to make large steps, large improvements, lots of progress at the start.
And then at some point you start to plateau.
And even when you put in a similar amount of effort and time, the progress that you make is not quite as large as it was before.
So yeah, that's it.
That's what's going on.
But you know, I've got, I've got various different um ways in which I record my audio and the.
The audio, the listeners that you're listening to today, is just being recorded on two USB microphones, just plugged directly into our computers and then recorded over like a sort of a a sort of zoom type situation.
So I don't know this.
This is like in terms of investment.
This is like the cheapest, one of the cheapest ways.
Just a simple USB microphone is actually quite affordable.
But then the very high end which will be eventually when I've set all this stuff up in my podcasting room in my podcast.
That's going to be the more expensive end.
But who knows, you know, maybe most listeners probably just listening on a pair of earbuds on a bus somewhere.
You probably can't really tell the difference.
But anyway, for me, I enjoy playing with all that tech and all that gear.
I like it.
I mean, the BBC has very expensive compressors and stuff.
And people sometimes say, well, A, the BBC signal's strong.
And sometimes, when you taped a song off the radio, when you heard the actual song it didn't sound as good.
It sounds better on the radio because they have all these expensive compressors and boosters and saturators and things.
Yeah, yeah.
The DJs use it on their voices as well.
I think Tim Westwood used to use a hell of a lot of processing on his voice to make himself sound really deep and like cool yeah.
I'm basically going to sound like a god, you know, like a sort of.
I'm going to sound like some sort of Anglo-Saxon god of some sort, like the god of.
Well, we've already got the god of thunder.
That's Thor, isn't it?
And his dad Odin, who was the god of.
You could be the god of fidelity, the god of high fidelity, or i thought i could be the god of another type of weather.
We've got the god of thunder.
Maybe i could be the god of, like wind or something drizzle.
The god of drizzle yeah, the god of just a bit of rain, just like pat.
The god of patchy rain, sunshine and showers.
Anyway, what did you talk about while I was running up and down the stairs?
It was pretty boring.
I think she cut it out.
I was just musing on what you were buying.
Oh, really?
You buy a lot of Levi's products, and it was probably something Levi's related.
I actually bought a pair of Levi's jeans and a sweatshirt from Levi's yesterday, in fact.
I was close.
Yeah, pretty good, pretty close, pretty close prediction.
Um, so i was just saying that.
So your music, then this album it's electronic music, electronic dance music, edm as it's sometimes called right, do you favor?
Are you okay with that term i suppose?
I mean, it was never never a term when i was growing up.
It seems to be a new term coined by americans.
Yeah yeah, I suppose.
But, you know, in the music industry... It's fine.
It explains what it's saying.
Because if you just say dance music, that could mean anything, couldn't it?
Because there's lots of different types of dance music.
It could be like flamenco, couldn't it?
Yeah, it's fairly inoffensive, I suppose.
I mean, it used to be.
IDM was a thing when I was not growing up, but before edm i heard of idea, which is like intelligent dance music.
Intelligent dance music sounds a bit pretentious.
You dance intelligently, i don't know.
I, i don't.
I don't dance intelligently.
I can say that, missing the point.
Yeah, but no, either's fine.
Whatever, edm is fine.
Electronica's a bit wank as well, isn't it?
Yeah, I mean, it's like techno ambient acid house, house music.
I quite like the term ambient techno.
Yeah.
Because that's what it was called when I was first getting into it.
It was known as ambient techno.
So I quite like that.
Yeah.
I actually read something online about...
EDM or electronic dance music.
It's apparently ranked as the third most popular musical genre.
So there's me thinking all this.
This might be only of interest to a small, narrow portion of my audience, But you know it's the third most popular musical genre in the world after rock and pop.
It's then like electronic dance music so You know, it's got a huge appeal all around the world.
So there's no reason why large swathes of my audience won't be interested to hear about you know, the release of you know, an album in this genre.
So there you go.
There's the justification.
So how did this actually happen?
How did you end up getting a record deal?
Well, it's not really a deal.
It's just one album.
Is it?
But I just sent some demos out in the old-fashioned way.
I only sent out about two or three, actually, and luckily one of them went for it.
But the first guy I sent it to was another label that I'm into, which is all vinyl.
And he said, look, we're chocked, we're full.
But he said, it's really good and it's worth sending out.
So I thought, well, that's pretty positive.
So I will, I will continue.
And I think the second person I sent it to was like, yeah, have you got anything else out?
Blah, blah, blah.
And I was thinking, oh, that sounds interesting.
And then his name's Martin.
And then after a couple of emails back and forth, he said, do you want to do an hour?
Actually, he said, have you got an hour's worth ready?
And I hadn't, and I said yes anyway.
Right, yeah, it was a good idea.
I mean I could have got something together.
But as you start listening to it you're like oh, this needs to be better, this needs to be better.
So it always takes longer than you think because you start to self-edit it a bit.
I probably did have an hour's worth, but as soon as I started listening to it I was like okay, that needs to be better.
Anyway, so that was that.
And it's quite a little scene.
I mean, this label I've been interested in for a while.
The first thing I bought from them was this guy called Kias.
I think that's how you say it.
K-E-I-S-S.
And he had just a picture disc, a vinyl picture disc with a picture of an electron syncat on it or something.
What's that?
It's a sort of sampler type thing.
Oh, I thought it was a cat.
I thought it was a type of cat.
Ah, a sin cat.
Like an electric cat.
The design really appealed to me, listened to it, really liked it and bought it.
And then a couple of years later, I got the opportunity to do the same thing.
Okay, all right, cool.
And so it was released last Friday.
Did you have like, 1st of December?
Did you have a lavish and sort of very over the top launch party like they do in the music industry?
Of course.
Well, there was an online stream which was quite good fun, and I sort of got to take it over for two or three hours.
DJing live?
Yeah.
Well, not live, actually.
Pre-recorded sets, because I couldn't really work out.
Despite doing all this music stuff, I'm actually not very computer literate.
Or literate in general.
Well, I am.
No, I am.
I'm good at the things I do, but when it's a new thing, I mean especially I find things like streaming audio from one device through another onto the internet is just beyond my abilities.
Like I don't think I've ever managed to stream a DJ set from my Dex vinyl to.
I mean it should be really easy, and there's probably loads of people going God, it's easy, you just do that, that and then press that.
You know, God...
Yeah, that's exactly what I was just thinking, actually.
Just press, just do that, press that, and then, oh, God, it's easy.
But anyway.
So I didn't want to risk that.
So it was pre-recorded, and then we played the album in the middle of the night well, in the middle of the evening.
In the middle of the night, 3 am, are you?
Are you out there?
No, we're in bed, the peak time for everyone's just asleep.
And now the new album is what?
And i had a party in the local skate shop and we got drunk and listened to the album.
It's good okay fantastic yeah, proper sort of music biz, rock and roll stuff, Yeah.
Yeah.
So how do you actually make these tunes then?
Can you just give us a quick rundown without going into excessive detail?
You know, because I mean, although it's the third most popular genre of music in the world, we don't want to go into too much detail.
But basically, you know, I go to your place and you just got all this stuff.
It's all connected to itself, all these cables and these different drum machines and synthesizers and stuff.
How does it actually work?
What do you actually do?
You could show a couple of my YouTube videos on here if you wanted.
That's probably one way of explaining it.
Yeah.
Because I've got loads of videos of me doing this.
So I'm just saying you could stick that in the middle of the page somewhere.
But for the listeners...
It's, I mean, I started with a sampler.
That's the first thing I got my hands on.
So, you know, I think most people know what samplers are.
You take little bits of other people's music usually, or just drum sounds, or I mean they can be legally sourced.
Yeah, mostly they are actually, or some make your own samples from your drum machines or sample packs you could download or you know whatever hit things, and it's the easiest and the best way to get started really, because you don't need to worry about rigging loads of machines together.
It's very efficient.
You can apply effects more easily, so mostly it's done on a sampler.
A lot of the time what you're trying to do is make sounds.
You're trying to arrange sounds, make sounds and arrange them.
So you're kind of trying to make interesting sounds by putting effects on things and playing nice chords and tweaking things in unusual ways.
And then you're arranging them into sequences, into songs, into just simple grooves, into ambient abstract forms.
So a lot of it's relatively drum based, but then there's obviously lots of nice other bits as well.
Okay, and maybe i could just direct people to the page for this episode on my website if they want to see a couple of videos where you explain sort of your process for for how you make certain tunes right.
I haven't really done that, but a little bit.
The full-on way of doing it is by getting different machines for different elements and that rigging them all together by midi or via sync, synchronizing clicks yeah, so you get them all playing together.
You get a drum machine playing the drum groove and you maybe have some different effects on different channels.
So you might have a big reverb on the clap, so it's a big echoey kind of sound.
You might have some compression on there which is all running through different pedals then into your mixer.
Then you'd have a big keyboard type synth that's doing a sort of melody or some pads that's running in synchronization with the drums.
And then you'll be putting in some other little synth or making some squidgy noises which hopefully complements it all.
Maybe some other effects units and just rigging together as many bits of gear as you can.
It can take all day to get it all together how you want it.
And then when you've got it right, you just press a button and it all just springs into life and will play a really quite complex track.
Yeah.
And if you know what you're doing, you can make it play from start to finish.
You know just all pre-programmed.
Or you can kind of jam it live.
So you've got a groove going and you're bringing bits in and out and you're kind of affecting sounds and kind of has a bit more of a human feel that way.
So you can do it various ways and you can always layer things down and then layer on top of them, like with a four track i used to have, so you can get a basic groove down and then put layers on over the top afterwards.
Yeah, you can also sort of change the nature of the sounds, these different elements that you've got layering in.
You bring them in and bring them out, but you can also change the nature of them, sort of tweaking them, as you say.
So, especially if it's something like a 303 bassline generator which makes these amazing squidgy noises, you can kind of tweak those things as they go through the track which gives it It's alive.
I mean, that kind of stuff is definitely live.
I mean, you can't really...
You can't program that, can you?
You could, but it wouldn't be worth it.
I mean, half the feel of it is the human mixed with the computer.
Yeah, like some sort of cyborg from the future.
Yeah.
So how do people get this album?
Because some people definitely will want to get it, because the fans of the genre third most popular musical genre in the world, so you know, at least 30 percent of the of the earth are going to want to buy this album.
Well, if you've, if you've ever enjoyed my music episodes, do me a favor and just get this album.
Yeah, you can.
You can download it in any format you want, or you can buy.
It's an mp3.
No, you can do any format, including wav.
It's on bandcamp touch revolutions.
You've got the bloody link, haven't you?
Hold on a minute.
Hold on a minute.
I mean, no one types in links anyway.
You just type in Well yeah, but still I'll tell you what my name is actually very Google-able.
Yeah?
So if you just type in Glytek Audio Mood Selector, you will find it.
That's Glytek Audio G-L-Y-T-E-K Audio mood selector.
Just google that and it will take you to the bandcamp page.
Touch to revolutionsbandcampcom.
Slash album slash mood dash selector.
It'll take you there and then you can.
You can download it digitally or you can stream it there, or you can also buy a compact disc version of this that is available on compact disc.
It's limited edition, but that's possible too.
All right.
Yeah, get it.
There's only 150 of them in the world.
Be nice to sell out, because then I might get asked to do another one.
Exactly.
So just basically out of sympathy, I'm saying, go on, buy another one.
Yeah, even if you don't like electro, if you're in that 60s... Especially if you don't like it.
I mean, you need to convince yourself because it's good music.
So definitely if you don't like electronic music, buy it.
And if you do, buy it.
If you've heard James's music before and you definitely didn't like it, you should certainly buy the album, because how else are you going to change your mind if you don't actually own a copy and listen to it?
You know.
So I think even if you don't like it, you should buy it.
If you don't want to buy it, you should definitely buy it.
And if you do want to buy it, well, obviously, you've probably already bought it, in fact.
So, excellent, nice one.
And that's, you know, that's all going to help, isn't it?
It's going to help the world.
Something funny happened the other day.
I was on YouTube actually chatting to a fellow nerd about drum machines and stuff.
And I did a sort of little, very quick tutorial video, because someone said oh, I don't understand how to do this, you know?
So I just showed them how to do it.
And this guy I've been chatting to, who lives in Germany, was like.
I just listened to your tutorial and I noticed that Luke from Luke's English Podcast commented on one of your last videos, which is true because you had.
Yeah.
And he said, your voice sounds really familiar.
Are you who I think you are?
And you were like, I don't know, who do you think I am?
Yeah, that is what I wrote, actually.
And he recognised me from your podcast.
He's a listener.
Well, of course he is.
Everyone listens to this, or at least 33... No, he's not a listener.
He's a lepster.
Yeah.
Everyone listens to this podcast, James.
They all do.
So it's kind of weird.
So we've been kind of chatting online a few times.
Yeah.
And then he realized that he was a fan of your podcast.
And you as well.
You probably thought, oh, my God, I'm talking to the great James Thompson.
He did say that he enjoyed the ones, I think, yeah, I've checked.
His name is Christian.
Hello, Christian.
Hello, Christian.
If you're listening to this.
Hello.
He makes sample packs, good ones, with the aid of AI.
All right.
Nice one.
I think it's control.
If I'm going to give him a plug, I'd better check what it is.
All right, you're just checking what his actual username is.
His handle.
His avatar, whatever on YouTube is.
His control random.
Control like C-O-N-T-R-O-L and then the word random.
But while you're looking for that, while you're looking for his actual username on YouTube.
That's happened to me as well in the past where, for example, I was like, not long ago, I was interviewing new students at the school where I work.
Like people who've just like come to the British council because they want English lessons and they, before they go into class, they need to be interviewed to get a level check so that they're put in the right class.
Okay.
Yeah.
And so I was interviewing this woman, blah, blah, blah.
And I said to her, by the way, what do you do to improve your English?
Do you listen to any podcasts or anything?
And she was like, yeah, I do.
I listen to podcasts.
And I listen to, actually, wait a minute. are you Luke from Luke's English podcast?
I was like, yes, I am.
As a matter of fact, yes, that's me.
And she said, well, I definitely don't listen to your podcast.
No, she didn't say that.
She said, wow, I listened to your podcast.
Oh, this is amazing.
Fantastic.
And I was like, no, well, yes.
And the other day I was teaching a lesson.
I had a student in there that I'd never met before and I was talking to them and I leaned over his table to.
He asked me a question and then he said oh I, I watched your episode about chat GPT.
And I was like, oh, no, great, nice one.
So that does happen to me too.
Sometimes I've even had students in my classes who didn't realize it was me until like a few weeks in, you know when I actually said to them oh yeah, by the way everyone, I've got a podcast for learners of English.
It's called Luke's English Podcast.
And one girl went like that.
And I said, well, are you all right?
And she said, it's you.
And I was like, yeah, you've only just realized.
So that does happen quite a lot, you know, because at least 33 of the world you know all those people who like electronic dance music.
They also listen to Luke's English podcast.
You see, maybe there's a link, because we've done these episodes, we've promoted the genre so much that you know hip hop.
And heavy metal.
They don't stand a chance because of all of the airtime that we've given to this genre.
So did you find Christian's YouTube account?
It is Control Random, but it's without any vowels.
So C-N-T-R-L, random with no vowels?
Correct.
R-N-D-M.
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Hello, Christian.
Control rant on YouTube.
Yeah.
He makes sample packs.
Okay.
Nice one.
With the aid of AI, which I don't really understand.
He must have an AI.
Sure, it's AI and it's not just a guy called Al.
No, it's AI.
The aid of Al.
Mysterious Al.
No.
So I guess he asks AI to create sounds like snare, sounds in the style of Apex Twin and stuff, and it will do.
Oh.
That's good, isn't it?
All right.
But he makes good sample packs. so glide tech audio mood selector it is available now for streaming for download in various file formats or for limited edition cd digipack go ahead and just google the name of the album and you should find it what else about this album luke track three track three is there something special about that track oh yeah yeah yeah that's right yeah you've there's a sample of my daughter in there, isn't there?
We should play it now.
You can play a bit if you want.
So you can insert a bit here.
Yeah.
So that's my daughter.
That is the vocal featuring Luke's daughter.
She didn't even get a credit.
No, no royalties.
No royalties.
No, no writing credit.
You're having a laugh.
You might be hearing from her lawyer.
Oh, shoot.
No, it's so cute because when we visit, basically when we all get together at our parents' place, including you and your girlfriend and our parents me, my wife and kids that you and my daughter kind of collaborate on these musical projects.
You both get up fairly early, a little bit earlier than the rest of us.
Maybe you could play one of those as well in a sec because there's quite funny ones, aren't there?
Yeah, okay.
If you've got them somewhere.
Well, actually that reminds me that I think you two actually made a jingle for this podcast for whenever you're on the show, and I've forgotten to use it the last few episodes, so I have to bring that back.
Maybe I'll use it at the beginning of this episode, listeners.
So if you'll hear a little musical jingle announcing the presence of James on the podcast, that's something that James and my daughter came up with together.
So you guys get up in the morning quite early, and sometimes I'll come downstairs to get my cup of tea, and you're in the living room, and then my daughter's like, listen to this, and you've made some... piece of music with hers with her vocals on the top little house tune or something yeah like a funky little house tune with her singing on it and it's genuinely good as well so yeah so she's she's on the album uh on track three so there you go folks another reason why you you have to purchase this album to Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.
But with Zinn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.
Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.
Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.
There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction.
But there's only one Zinn.
Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.
Warning, this product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
Old school security kicks in after the break-in.
Too late.
SimpliSafe rewinds the story, stopping crime before it starts.
ActiveGuard Outdoor Protection uses AI-powered cameras to detect intruders, alert live monitoring agents and can deter intruders before they reach your door.
It's proactive protection, plus a 60-day money-back guarantee and no contracts.
To get 50% off your new system, go to simplisafe.com slash podcast.
That's simplisafe.com slash podcast.
There's no safe like SimpliSafe.
So since we're talking together about music James, and you've released a new album, we thought that we would talk about albums, right?
And the album, it's an interesting thing, isn't it?
When was it?
In the 1950s, 1960s, the album wasn't such a significant thing.
You know, singles were really what it was all about in the music industry.
And it wasn't until maybe the mid, probably the Beatles, that the album became such a significant product for an artist to produce, for a band to produce.
You think of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band or maybe those other Beatles albums where the album as a whole is a sort of musical statement, right?
And...
Certainly the Beatle albums.
You think of Pink Floyd and all those other artists in that similar sort of genre that the album is certainly a thing.
So let's talk a little bit about albums.
Do you remember the very first album that you ever bought?
Well, I bought a tape.
Does that count?
Yeah.
It was Happy Mondays, Pills and Thrills and Bellyaches.
Ah, classic.
£6.99, I think it was.
That seems to be quite expensive, for probably £1991 or something.
Yeah well, that's what it was in those days.
You're one of these people who likes to leave the labels on, which irritates me, so you'll buy it all the time.
Sometimes i do.
Sometimes you buy a cassette at the shop and it'll say 699 on it, with a yellow sticker or something, and you leave it on and i'm just like no, peel that off, just peel it off.
A little memory of where you bought it from though, isn't it fair enough?
Thrills and Pills and Bellyaches by the Happy Mondays.
What an amazing album.
Yeah, superb.
That's quite a cool album to have bought as your first album.
I think it's of heralded in the 90s, didn't it?
Yeah, 1990, 1991.
I think it might have even been 90.
Yeah, produced by Paul Oakenfold.
Yeah, it's definitely got a dance element to it, and some of the beats are very kind of loop-based, aren't they?
Yeah.
It's just beautiful production and the songs are ace and the vibe was strong and it's just a fantastic group.
It's an excellent album and it's got He really kind of whipped them into shape for that one kind of having it all synchronised like a dance beat, you know like a house track.
Yeah.
Really suited them, because they could be a bit sort of sloppy...
Yeah.
Which is, you know, kind of nice in its own way.
The previous album Bummed, is totally different and it's a lot more murky and live drums and nowhere near as kind of tight, and you know up front.
And it really makes a difference and it makes the whole thing kind of brighten up.
And it's really.
It's kind of dirty and dancey and kind of groovy, but it's also very poppy and, you know, very catchy.
Yeah, there are some really good little guitar riffs and guitar licks in there as well as like the kind of acid house piano sounds and things like that.
It's a really...
Yeah, it really is an excellent, excellent album.
And of course, Sean Ryder's lyrics are just really, really good.
I mean he's kind of like.
I mean he's got to be one of the best lyricists that we've had in the last few decades, right.
He's brilliant.
He's great.
I mean I've got.
I was thinking we could do an episode on Happy Mondays, but that would be probably a bit excessive.
Well, yeah, because they were very excessive, weren't they, as a group?
They were.
I've got a book of his lyrics.
If you can just hang on a second, I'll just grab it.
Okay.
But it's a proper kind of poetry book.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Faber and Faber.
You know, the British canon of poets, he's up there.
Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Just because the book happens to have a fluorescent yellow cover doesn't mean anything.
It's a valid poetry book.
Yeah.
So listeners, while James is going to get this book, we're talking about the group the Happy Mondays.
I don't know if you've ever heard of them.
Right.
Some people are like, yeah, of course we have.
But some some other people listening to this would be like the what?
Yeah, the Happy Mondays.
And they were a group from Manchester, probably most famous in the 1990s.
They emerged in the 80s, recorded a few albums, and they were very excessive musicians, meaning that there was a lot of hedonism involved.
And it's the Manchester music scene of the 80s and 90s.
And you think of the Hacienda nightclub and all of the excessive things that that involves.
And I mean partly.
The story was told in that film that James and I always managed to mention when we talk about music, which is the film 24-Hour Party People.
Michael Winterbottom film with Steve Coogan in it.
And that does tell the story of a record label called Factory Records, which was based in Manchester.
And they signed the Happy Mondays as well as Joy Division and a few other bands and stuff.
And so that kind of tells the story.
So that's a great film, by the way, which you definitely should check out, 24-Hour Party People.
So I was just...
Sorry.
I was just filling everyone in a little bit on some details about who the Happy Mondays were.
And, of course, I managed to mention 24-hour party people, which we always seem to mention whenever we do a podcast together.
It's basically the best film ever made, so that's fair enough.
All right, go on.
Give us some Sean Ryder lyrics then, some poetry.
What do you want?
What do you want?
I don't know.
It's Cobb.
God's Cop.
Shall I read it in a Sean style or shall I read it in a poetry style?
I think you should read it in a serious poetry style.
I'm not sure if this is going to work.
No, no.
Read it in whatever style you think is going to make it work.
Okay.
God's cop.
I can virtually do anything I read.
Someone somewhere swam between your knees.
Hand me out fish.
Did some big teas.
Oh, man, did you fuck it.
Baby brother, I took it.
Then I pilfered the bag for the Amex gold.
Then I pilfered the bag for the Amex gold.
Because the Lord Chief Constable knows I'm owed.
And everybody said I told you so.
God made it easy.
God made it easy on me.
God made it easy on me.
Because me and the chief got soul to soul.
Me and the chief got slowly stoned.
Me and the chief got soul to soul.
Me and all the chiefs got slowly stoned.
I like it and I want it and I just don't need to stop it.
Because me and all the rich got mobile homes, homes.
Me and all the rich got mobile phones, bones.
God made it easy on me.
What's all that about?
What's that about?
Well, the good thing is, at the bottom, it explains some of these.
So the explanation is God's Cop is pretty much about James Anderson, the chief of Manchester police in the 80s and early 90s, who thought he could do what he liked and he claimed that God was talking to him.
Really?
It's hard to believe now, but the Chief of Manchester Police was actually going around telling people that God was talking to him.
He believed that he was acting on God's orders.
It seems mental looking back that the Chief of Police would come up with some nonsense like that and keep his job, but somehow seemed to fit in with the madness in Manchester at the time.
Wow, I didn't know that.
I knew it was about the chief of police, but I didn't realise that he was on some sort of mission from God.
That is very interesting.
A specific person, yeah.
Yeah.
Wow, okay.
All right.
So Thrills and Pills and Bellyaches, the first album you ever bought which gives you a lot of cred, a lot of credibility.
I've still got it somewhere.
Yeah, I know the cassette, yeah.
I kind of borrowed that tape lots of times.
And the artwork's brilliant on all the Happy Mondays as well.
Mm-hmm.
They're called Grand Central Design, I think.
They're really nice.
There's sweet rappers on the album, so there's English or British sweet rappers on one side and American ones on the other.
When you say sweet rappers, you mean, in American English, candy, candy rappers?
Yeah, candy bars, sweets.
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, okay.
And it's just a good one.
So I think the first album I ever bought, if you want to know, I mean, do you want to know?
What was the first album you ever bought?
The first, hey, it's funny that you ask.
I was just about to say.
So the first album I ever bought, I think, was Emergency on Planet Earth by Jamiroquai.
Yeah.
And he decided to solve that emergency by buying loads of supercars.
He did, didn't he?
So that first album, that Jamiroquai album yeah, it's all about environmental issues and about saving the planet.
And you're right, within three albums, like literally the third album after that, is essentially the Lamborghini logo.
And it's all about driving really fast cars around.
So, so much for the environment, Jamiroquai.
But the album's good.
Like the first three Jamiroquai albums are really good.
What do you think of Jamiroquai?
I could do without his rowling.
Do you remember that?
You came up with J.K.
Rowling.
Rowling is the thing that J.K. does.
That sort of funny dancing that he does, where he moves his feet around the floor and like Walking sideways and stuff walking around the furniture.
Yeah, that's Rowling.
It's like a picture.
You just find a picture of J.K.
Rowling.
If you Google, that's it.
If you go on Wikipedia and you search for J.K.
Rowling.
You get to that page where it says do you mean the author of the Harry Potter books or do you mean this picture of JK?
Rowling? in in the virtual insanity video um is there i mean i've i've tapped my foot along to cosmic girl many a time i'm sure yeah yeah yeah yeah um it's it's i wouldn't go out and buy it i wouldn't i wouldn't pick it up if it was free either um no it's all right it's it's it had its place didn't it the 90s was fun and it fitted in and it's kind of like your gateway drug into proper funk wasn't it Sort of, yeah.
But I certainly like the music.
I mean, I love that type of music.
I mean, how can you not?
It's really well done.
Yeah.
And his band, his band were amazing.
Again, the first three albums, they're all excellent.
And especially the bass player.
His bass player was just ridiculous.
Yeah.
And they used to say he sounded a bit like Stevie Wonder, but I didn't really think he did that much.
A little bit, yeah.
He was a sort of like condensed version of Stevie Wonder, Sly Stone from Sly and the Family Stone, and maybe you know a few other sort of similar sort of soul funk artists who either he was influenced by or he completely ripped off, you know.
So I don't know.
But anyway, that was the first album I ever bought, I think, and listened to it a lot.
Uh love, love that album.
Um, do you have?
I mean i'm i'm, i feel reluctant to ask you what's your favorite album of all time, because it's a really difficult question.
But if i did ask you what your favorite album of all time was, what would you say?
It's really tough.
Um, there's three that come to mind.
Um, Santana.
Yeah.
Braxis, that one.
Braxis, yeah.
It's just a perfect album really.
Yes, like it does work as an album, like it just sounds like you should put it on at the start and it just flows all the way through to the end.
Yes yes, it just reminds me of just.
It's just such a good mood i'm talking about mood selector it's such a good mood around it.
It's just, the vibe is just right on that album yes, and it's not too aggressive, it's not too heavy, but also it's got some sort of grit to it and it's really soulful And it's got loads of stuff going on.
And it's quite psychedelic, but it's not silly.
Yes.
It's just excellent all around.
And it sounds good even on the crappiest of pressings.
There's lots of copies around.
Some of them aren't that well-pressed, and it still sounds really good.
It doesn't need to be on a double album.
I don't buy all this.
Everything has to be on a double album these days.
It's just the record companies getting more money out of you.
I'm quite happy with two sides.
I don't like this.
Oh, it's got to be a special edition on colored vinyl and you've got to have two discs.
It's like, no, that's a pain in the ass.
Yeah, you have to keep getting up and changing.
Brax is perfectly fine on the cheap pressing on one side each side.
Yeah.
And it just reminds me of good red wine and good pizza or something like that.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's like a good Friday night stay in, get a nice bottle of red wine and order a good spicy pizza and listen to Abraxas with a couple of friends.
Yeah, you can't go wrong.
They're not even my favourite band or anything and their other albums, although they're really good, they're not quite up there.
It's interesting, isn't it, how certain albums just seem to hit the right spot at the right moment, and like the conditions were just right when they recorded it.
That particular selection of songs, the personnel on the album and the playing on the album all just sort of come together in just the right way.
And it's just a really nicely rounded, um, thing to listen to.
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Um, so that comes to mind, um, sex pistols, nevermind the bollocks, here's the sex pistols.
Cause it's kind of a perfect rock rock and roll album for me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And it always gives me a buzz, you know, Yep.
At the start, it kind of gives you a kick.
It's quite aggressive and quite nasty at the beginning.
And by the end, I think the last track is EMI.
Yeah.
Which is just the funniest one.
And it leaves you just laughing almost, like...
It's just a really solid piece of work.
Yeah.
And it's kind of the ultimate rock and roll album in some ways, for like that kind of rock and roll, you know kind of gritty.
The guitar tone is just fucking great.
The balance is really good.
The drums are really good.
The vocals are like nothing else anyone's ever done.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the lyrics are completely next level.
Totally amazing.
And funny.
You know, it's not taking itself too seriously.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's fun.
It's enjoyable.
It's making a point.
It's nasty.
It's, you know, but it's witty.
Yes, yes, yes.
Intelligent.
And also stupid.
It's great.
It's just never get bored of it.
But if we're talking about a desert island situation, it might be a bit aggressive to have that as your only album.
No, you couldn't just listen to that for the rest of time.
So I think it's down to Abraxas and Ambient Works 1 by Apex Twin.
Oh, Selected Ambient Works.
Selected Ambient Works Volume 1.
1985 to 1992.
Yeah.
I think I'd just miss that so much if I didn't have it.
Um, it would probably override all other albums probably.
Yeah.
That's.
That's definitely one of my favorites as well, because it's um, it's just fits every single situation.
Like literally I can fall asleep to it if I, if I want to, uh, I can work with it on.
It's really good driving music.
Um it's, it's music you can have on the in the background when you've got people around, and also you could dance to it as well.
You know, it could be party music to an extent.
Yeah, and there's a few dark tunes on there which are kind of nicely weird enough, so it doesn't all feel too fluffy.
Yeah, and there's enough fluffy tunes where you can wake up to it like it's a really good morning album Yeah.
And by saying that there's darkness in it too, I guess you mean that there's like a certain amount of depth to it, right?
It covers a variety of moods and sort of feelings and stuff.
And there's a hell of a lot of space in there as well, like really interesting ambient space which is, I feel, like it's like a mentally healthy album.
I listen to it all the time and it always kind of clears my mind, makes me feel good, you know?
It's got some things very special about it that I don't really understand.
And also the production.
I think it was all mixed down to tape, like cassette tape.
So there's a couple of the tracks you can hear the tape kind of wobbling a little bit.
Yeah.
You know when tapes get a little bit crunched up and they kind of go... slightly?
Yeah.
They sound a bit muffled for a second.
It does that in a couple of places.
And when you mix things down to tape, it compresses them in a very kind of silvery kind of...
I mean, the Beatles used to talk about it, didn't they?
I mean, something about the medium of tape that has a certain quality to it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Kind of shiny, soft, shiny but papery at the same time.
It's very hard to explain, but it gives everything a certain grain, a bit like a film photograph has got that grain.
It's not pixels.
If you zoom into a film photograph, you'll never get pixels um to a negative it's.
You'll just get more and more grain until it's just pure grain and soft.
So there's no, there's no sort of digitization.
I mean there is at some point in that process, but the album was mixed down to a tape, so it's got that grainy analog and analog quality.
Yeah yeah yeah yeah absolutely um okay drenched, drenched in reverb, which is very kind of.
I don't know what kind of reverb is used, but it's very kind of.
How would you describe it?
It's just atmospheric.
It's like taking a.
It's kind of dusty almost or sort of like it's.
You can sort of It's got texture to it.
The reverb isn't super clean.
It's kind of a sort of textured graininess again.
It's like being in a wonderful, relaxing spa.
A big, huge, empty and relaxing spa, which is in the middle of a desert.
Mm-hmm.
And there's large windows all around the spa while you're relaxing in this pool.
And out the windows you see sort of like sand blowing over the sand dunes.
It's kind of like that, is it?
Yes, maybe this is a conversation.
I mean uh yes uh, i like um in the motorhead documentary you've got.
You've got um jarvis cocker, your mate jarvis, talking about motorhead and he said it's like being in, it's like being in some sort of wind, but there's like.
It's like it's like being in a wind, but there's there's a grain in it as well, and he's like that's it.
It's like standing in a sandstorm.
That's what, that's what most heads like.
It's like being in a sandstorm yeah, this is what apex twins first album.
It's like being in a swimming baths where there's like all that reverb storm outside.
Yeah, there's like children playing at the other end of the swimming baths and you can hear their reverb, the reverb, laughing and conversation.
Very high ceiling Yeah very, very high ceiling and lots of shiny glass windows and, you know, shiny surfaces.
And then outside there's a sandstorm.
Yeah, but you're safe inside.
But you're very safe inside.
You're feeling better than you felt for ages because you're in a spa slash swimming pool complex.
Yeah, something like that.
Yeah.
But there is a sandstorm raging outside.
Well, not a raging sandstorm, more maybe just like the beginnings of a sandstorm.
Gently wafting up against the windows.
Yeah, maybe a sunset over the desert or something like that.
Okay, okay, on Tatooine.
Yeah, yeah, could be.
Okay, when we were growing up we were quite lucky because our parents had a fairly large vinyl record collection and at some point we both started to investigate it and sort of discovered a few things in there, a few classic albums and stuff.
Um, do you what's your favorite album that you found in our parents record collection?
Can you think, oh god, there were so many?
Um One that I do quite a lot.
I mean, it's not the best, but I'll just think of a couple.
Yeah.
That Status Quo box set.
Wait.
With the really early Status Quo stuff on it.
Status Quo.
They're kind of like, yeah, this kind of classic dad rock group from the 70s and 80s and the 60s.
Yeah, but the 60s stuff is great.
I absolutely love early Status Quo.
Uh-huh.
And...
There's a song called In My Chair, which is really good.
It's kind of a psychedelic blues kind of tune.
Yeah.
But sung by some sort of London geezers.
Well, not that geezer-ish, but you know what I mean.
Yeah.
It's got a sort of London-y kind of vibe to it.
Yeah um, compared to, compared to the sort of californian psychedelia of the late 60s which was all very kind of yeah uh, i don't know how to describe like the london rock music from the same period had a bit more grit to it right, because the weather wasn't as nice.
Yeah, it's less happy, it's a bit more cynical, it's a bit more grumpy.
It's just a bit more English, really.
Right.
They're in some weird club somewhere and the Doors, Morrison Hotel was playing.
Wait, the album.
The album that Morrison Hotel.
The record was playing Roadhouse Blues, I think it is.
By the Doors.
Yeah.
And there was this couple dancing in the dance floor and they just said the whole scene was just so cool.
Yeah.
They were like, we should start making music like this, man.
This is way cooler than the stuff we're making.
Because they were making kind of pop psychedelia music.
Like kind of flower power pop stuff, right?
Yeah, a bit like Spinal Tap's early stuff.
Yeah, listen to the flower people.
Well, not quite, not quite.
But Pictures of Matchstick Men.
Yeah, yeah.
It's kind of pop psychedelic, I suppose.
Yeah.
They decided to go a bit more rootsy, rock and roll kind of blues, blues kind of bass.
But then that turned into quite cheesy the 80s status quo, which were hugely successful but maybe not quite as interesting.
That was kind of like pub rock, really, wasn't it?
Well, sort of, yeah.
Denim rock.
Yeah, they wore a lot of denim.
But it was huge.
It was massive.
It was, wasn't it?
I mean, they opened Live Aid.
That's where people might know them from, the opening of Live Aid, if anyone remembers that.
Probably wasn't such a big deal around the world as it was in the UK.
No, it was...
It was a big deal in the UK.
Yeah 1985, Live Aid, a big charity concert in order to raise money to help starving children in was it Ethiopia?
And yeah, all the biggest names in rock music got together.
There was a concert in London and another one in America.
And yeah.
A lot of that stuff seems quite outdated now, because the kind of just throwing money at stuff, oh yeah, but well yeah, they got.
Not all the money goes to the right people and yeah, it's kind of this whole thing of like, white people go to save, you know, poor starving people and they made out.
I mean, people got the impression that the whole of africa was like that as well.
Yes, it was maybe more about the egos of the artists involved saying hey, look at this, we're saving the world.
Whereas actually when you got down to the sort of the street level of it yeah, the money that they raised just went to the sort of leaders of those countries.
And often they were like military leaders who were really corrupt.
Allegedly.
Allegedly, yeah.
And then not a lot of that money actually ended up helping out the poor starving people.
Although, having said that, a lot of it did.
A lot of it definitely did.
You know, they really did do a lot.
But I suppose the issue is that they were kind of treating the symptoms rather than treating the cause of the famine.
And anyway, it's very complicated.
But still, you know, it's a good thing to do.
I mean, it's a worthwhile, well-intentioned.
Very well-intentioned, yeah.
Yeah.
But anyway they Status Quo opened that concert and there's famous footage which people can see on on YouTube and stuff of Queen performing there, notably like Freddie Mercury, one of his greatest performances.
And you see Princess Diana in the audience, like really enjoying it.
She loved Status Quo.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Another one I can think of, just quickly, is that Neil Innes track, Them, is it called?
Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
So there was a Neil Innes album called Off the Record.
I think it was Off the Record or On the Record, because there's actually two Neil Innes albums On the Record and Off the Record.
And it's basically two albums of songs that were featured in his extraordinary television programme, which was basically a series of music videos.
But the albums and that particular album, absolutely brilliant.
And certainly one of my favourite albums of all time.
And it's all these songs in these different genres.
But Neil Innes' musical, like his songwriting was just amazing.
You know, I actually put him up there with the Beatles in terms of like how much I like his songs.
But there's that one track yeah, called Them.
How do you describe it?
The the story of evolution yeah, but told in a very weird sort of way about how these.
It sort of like describes this massive sweep of history, of like describing creatures that come out of the ocean and come onto the land and learn to like breathe the air and then they feed on each other, you know, and without malice or remorse.
Yeah, yeah.
And the whole time there's this sort of awesome music.
Romino-esque kind of synth wash.
Yeah.
And I mean, the song actually disturbs me.
And when I was a kid listening to that song, it used to scare me.
And it still does have that sort of effect.
It kind of disturbs me.
Something about the how to, how to describe it passage of time that it describes so well, exactly the huge passage of time that it describes, and the, the kind of yeah the, the remorselessness of of life and its pursuit for survival, sort of thing.
Yeah amazing absolutely, absolutely amazing piece of work.
It starts out.
They came in countless numbers.
Countless numbers, yeah.
Hold on.
Let's see if I can find it.
I'm just finding it.
Okay, here we go.
So I'm going to read it to you.
They came in countless numbers, without hope, without hopelessness, on jelly limbs faceless, crawling out of the living sea.
The green world welcomed them.
It sweetened the air for them and above all, the sun warmed them and dried them by night in dreamless sleep.
The new life filled them, piping strange harmonies in the blood, fusing the beginnings of bones.
Then hunger awoke them And, sleepy with a sense of being, they arose and moved inland, fulfilling their newfound needs.
They called out to one another.
The winds carried their cries over mountains, through forests, across deserts and oceans.
Great distances were traveled.
The strong devoured the weak.
The quick devoured the slow.
The cunning devoured the foolish.
They fed on each other without malice or remorse.
Their purpose was survival.
Life was their achievement.
They formed into groups.
Some took to the air.
Some burrowed underground and some returned to the water.
From ice cap to ice cap, the globe rang with their cleverness and with each turn gave them meaning.
That's inspired stuff.
That really is.
Okay, well, James, we talked about various albums and stuff.
Yeah.
Including your own album.
I think we should probably stop now.
Because how can we... Yeah, let's keep it brief.
Yeah, okay.
But thanks for talking to us.
And remember listeners.
Glytek Audio glide tech.
Glide tech audio mood selector.
Google it, buy it and just make the world that little bit better.
Okay, all right for james.
And by by consequence, hopefully maybe that will send out a ripple into the universe that you know, just to just push things in a more positive direction and you can start by buying this album.
There you go, Save the world.
Save the world today by Mood Selector by Glytek Audio.
Cheers, Luke.
All right.
Thanks to you too.
All right, everyone.
All right.
See you next time.
Okay.
Cheers.
Bye.
Bye-bye.
So that was my brother there talking about his new album, which is available now.
Did you get the message?
I think so.
And so here we are at the end of the episode.
I'm going to do a little bit of a ramble here.
You listened all the way through to the end, which is nice of you.
I really hope this was interesting for you and that you were sort of engaged and interested by the topic of conversation.
And I wonder how much of this actually meant anything to you, because I'm well aware that I've got people listening to this all over the world, different types of people in different situations, and maybe the things that James and I think about and talk about might be a million miles away from reality, the sorts of things that you think about on a daily basis.
So I don't know.
But were you aware of the different bits of music?
We talked about those different albums.
I wonder if you're aware of that stuff.
And what about you?
Maybe you could leave a comment describing your favourite albums.
So...
What was the first album you ever bought?
Do you remember?
Did you buy it on cassette, CD, vinyl?
Did you buy it on some sort of streaming service?
What was the first album you ever bought?
And what's your favourite album of the moment?
It's difficult to answer what your favourite album of all time is.
A bit like saying what your favourite film of all time is.
But what's just your favourite album at the moment?
What comes to you as an album that you love to listen to?
There you go.
And...
Are you in that sort of, I say it's 30% of the world, I don't know.
I mean, are you one of those people who is a fan of electronic music?
You can just leave your comments in the comments section.
So I don't know if you noticed the recording quality during this episode.
It wasn't the best, was it?
It really wasn't.
Now, I did mention, nearer the beginning of the episode, that we were recording this in In a very sort of basic way, just using simple USB microphones, ones that plug directly into our computers and, And so that might have accounted for a slight drop in quality, but not only that, I actually had a problem with the recording.
Okay, so I was recording this one remotely obviously.
James was in his house in London.
I was in my apartment, my pod room.
No, I was actually in my apartment.
I recorded that one at home and in Paris.
So we recorded it over.
We didn't use Zoom.
We used another remote recording application thing, but there was a problem with it.
I actually had a problem with the recording when I went to review the files, the recorded files.
James's side of the conversation was corrupted and there was only like eight minutes worth of it, which is an absolute nightmare for a podcaster.
If you've just recorded a conversation and then you review the results and you realize that one file hasn't worked properly, it's terrible.
So I had to go back into my online meeting thing and get a backup recording okay, which is called the I think they call it a cloud recording.
So I had to get the cloud recording, which is significantly lower in quality than to the files that I would have received if they'd worked properly.
So, you know, pretty low-quality cloud recording for this episode.
Did you notice?
And sorry about that if it made it difficult for you to hear.
James's side of the conversation was certainly a lot quieter and I've tried to repair that in post-production.
But there's really only a certain amount that you can do.
The cloud recording file was just a single file with both James and me on it.
So there wasn't that much I could do to repair the difference in volume.
But anyway.
And I partly mentioned that because, as I said, at the beginning of the episode, I did talk about the audio quality of episodes and the fact that I'd bought some new audio equipment right.
That's what happened when I had to go running down the stairs to meet the delivery guy and then run back up the stairs with a big box.
So all that equipment that I bought, I tested it out yesterday afternoon.
And you know what?
I'm just going to send it all back.
I'm sending it all back.
It's just completely unnecessary.
The setup that I've got here in my podcast room is fine.
It's totally good enough, I think.
I think the quality is decent.
And the reason I'm sending all that stuff back is like well, first of all, I did spend quite a lot of money on it, right?
It was a kind of an impulse purchase.
Like I said, I just started surfing the internet.
Not that anyone says that anymore.
I started looking online at different bits of audio processing equipment compressors, preamps and stuff like that.
And I just bought a bunch of stuff online.
But having tested it out yesterday, I realized, no, this is not significantly better.
This is almost the same as my current setup.
And my current setup is a lot more simple.
I mean, I've got various different parts in my audio chain.
I know this is fascinating for you, right?
I've got various different elements in there and I think they do a good enough job.
So there was no need for me to shell out a bunch of cash for extra stuff that took up even more room when it really was already fine.
So that's all going to get sent back.
So that was completely unnecessary.
And so while I was running down the stairs to pick up that package, James continued talking, and I didn't hear that bit.
But having reviewed this episode, I did hear the stuff that James said.
Well, first of all, he said that I only wear Levi's clothing, which is only partially true.
I do wear clothes from other shops as well, notably places like Uniqlo.
I think basically at any given time, I'm basically wearing Levi's and Uniqlo clothing.
You know, I like to keep it simple.
But also he.
He said that sometimes.
So he said that he enjoyed having these conversations with me, but he thought that sometimes he would be quite happy just to have a conversation with me without recording it, which made me think, oh right okay, maybe I should just call him sometimes and just have a conversation, without feeling the need to record it and then publish it for the entire world to listen to.
So that's something to bear in mind.
Maybe in the future I can just call him, like a normal person speaks to another person without having to record everything.
I do have a sort of...
What's the word for it?
I do feel compelled.
I do feel the urge to just record all my conversations, which is, I suppose, a little bit strange.
But then again, then again, you know, you, my listeners, you get to hear these things.
So I don't know.
What do you think?
Shall I just in the future just call my brother and just have a normal conversation like normal humans do?
Or should I record our conversations again in the future?
Maybe I can do a bit of both, you know, maybe I can just be, I can just talk to him like normal people do.
And then every now and then also do recordings.
That's probably the best way to do that.
So yeah, this episode actually was a, was an unplanned episode.
And James asked me just the day before we recorded.
So we recorded this two days ago.
I'm publishing this today, the day that I'm recording this ending part.
So a couple of days ago James just texted me and said do you reckon you would be able to do some sort of promotion for the new album?
Would you be able to mention it on the podcast?
And I thought well yeah, I could do like a sort of one or two minute mention of the album at the beginning of the episode, like I do sometimes right, sometimes before the jingle.
I'll mention certain things just like little announcements like, for example, if I say you know, go and see Paul Taylor at his show, you can get the tickets from his website, or this, that or the other.
But because recently I've got so many other like I needed to promote James's album as soon as possible, because I think the The guy who runs the record label is his name Martin.
I think Martin had spoken to James and said, you know, we need to do some promotion for this.
Do you know any way that you can do that as soon as possible?
And so obviously, James considered this podcast, because you know, everyone in the world listens to this, don't they?
And I have so much influence over global affairs.
Right.
He automatically thought that this would be a good place to talk about the album.
And so yeah, because I've already got like various pre jingle announcements, that I decided why not just have a whole conversation about this instead?
And we can expand the conversation to talk about our favorite albums later.
So that's what happened, right?
And so there we are.
That explains this episode, all right?
This kind of bonus episode, I suppose.
Episode 800 and... What is it?
856?
857 will arrive next week, probably on Wednesday morning, maybe Tuesday morning. we'll see.
And that's a two-part episode.
Normally I would publish the whole thing in one single part, but there's like an hour and a half of it.
And recently I've been kind of thinking maybe I shouldn't be publishing these long episodes as single episodes.
This is the kind of constant debate that I'm having with myself, which is like should I be publishing?
If I have a long recording, shall I publish it as one single episode or shall I break it up into several parts?
Well, the next one, episode 857 and 858, that's going to be in two parts.
OK, I've got a couple of guests with me.
No, it's not Amber and Paul, but I did have them recently.
Those Amber and Paul episodes, two of them will be published in January.
But a couple of other guests, a couple of other friends came into the pod room recently and we recorded a long episode together.
So that's going to be published in two parts, first part arriving Tuesday or Wednesday next week, and then, a couple of days later, you'll get the next part, and then we'll continue.
So lots of episodes being published in December.
That's just... I don't know why, really.
I mean, just sometimes...
Sometimes you just have lots of stuff to say and it all happens all at the same time.
But you don't mind, do you?
Especially if you're listening all the way up to this point, then you're probably a sort of dedicated Lepster and you're happy to just listen to all the new content.
So there.
All right.
And then as we approach Christmas, I've got a Christmas themed episode planned.
Haven't actually recorded it yet, but that's planned.
And I've got a kind of end of the year news quiz with Stephen from Send7podcast.com. planned.
Again, not recorded, so who knows?
You never know.
There might be some sort of force majeure, some sort of act of God, which means that that doesn't actually happen.
So I don't mean to get your hopes up or anything, but just a little idea, a little hint, a little flavour of what you can expect for the rest of December.
A few more episodes and then I'll be on holiday.
But hopefully I'll have enough stuff in the bank to to automatically publish a couple of episodes while I'm away on my Christmas holiday.
And then I will be back in the saddle in January to continue podcasting into 2024.
And that will be my 15th year of Luke's English Podcast.
Yes.
OK, listeners.
So thank you so much for listening to this point.
And thank you to James for his contribution to this episode.
And I look forward to reading your comments.
And don't forget, Glitec Audio Mood Selector.
Just Google it and you can get your own copy.
OK.
All right.
Good.
Speak to you next time then.
But for now, it's time to say goodbye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Bye.
Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast.
If you're a smoker or vapor ready to make a change, you really only need one good reason.
But with Zinn Nicotine Pouches, you'll discover many good reasons.
Zinn is America's number one nicotine pouch brand.
Plus, Zinn offers a robust rewards program.
There are lots of options when it comes to nicotine satisfaction.
But there's only one Zinn.
Check out Zinn.com slash find to find Zinn at a store near you.
Warning, this product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.
What makes a great pair of glasses?
At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost.
Their designer quality frames start at 95, including prescription lenses, plus scratch resistant, smudge resistant and anti-reflective coatings and UV protection and free adjustments for life.
To find your next pair of glasses, sunglasses or contact lenses, or to find the Warby Parker store nearest you, head over to warbyparkercom.
That's warbyparker.com. if you enjoyed this episode of luke's english podcast consider signing up for luke's english podcast premium you'll get regular premium episodes with stories vocabulary grammar and pronunciation teaching from me and the usual moments of humor and fun plus with your subscription you will be directly supporting my work and making this whole podcast project possible For more information about Luke's English Podcast Premium, go to teacherluke.co.uk slash premium info.
