Episode 23 transcript

Note: this transcript is AI-generated, and as such, it may contain spelling or grammatical errors.

Chad (00:01.502)
Welcome back to the Aural Mess podcast. I am visited again this week by Jane Sheldon. Jane so graciously volunteered to come back, sort of born out of a conversation we were having on Instagram about Prefab Sprout and how sort of, you know, under appreciated they are as a band. So we were talking about that and I said that make a great podcast episode and Jane said, yeah, it would. And I said, great, you're going to co -host. So yeah.

Jane Sheldon (00:36.364)
like, okay, let's do it.

underrated British bands. Although I guess, I think we decided we're like, okay, let's talk about some other bands, not just prefab, although I'm sure we could spend the whole hour talking about prefab, but we decided let's add some Tears for Fears, let's add some Depeche Mode. So that was the pretext of us meeting today.

Chad (00:59.983)
Yeah, so we're going to cover three specific albums. We're going to start with Steve McQueen, which is sort of, I think Prefab's really, you know, breakthrough landmark, most popular album, maybe perhaps. And then we're going to move on to 1989 with Tears for Fears and Seeds of Love. And we're going to wrap up with sort of crashing headlong into the nineties with Violator by Depeche Mode. So jumping right in, I guess. So how did you first discover Prefab Sprout, Jane and...

you know, what sort of drew you to this album or to Prefab as a band.

Jane Sheldon (01:34.234)
Okay, I can tell you what happened. I did a song called Blue Dress with the band that I was in with my brother and another singer -songwriter named Jamie Wyatt. And a musician texted me and said, this reminds me a lot of the song called Cars and Girls by Pre -Fab Sprout. And I'd never heard of the band, and so I checked it out. And yeah, I could hear the sort of...

similarity right away. The melodies don't sound similar, but just sort of overall vibe. And then I kind of wanted to, you know, keep going deeper into that band and everything I heard from them I was interested in. You know, he's Paddy McAloon's really incredible songwriter. Very underrated and most people don't know them.

How did you find out?

Chad (02:28.528)
Yeah, so I was never heard of the band before and probably 1990, I think it was 90 or 91.

I had made friends with a bunch of folks that were spending the summer in South Jersey from Ireland, from Northern Ireland. And, you know, they were just naming all these great British bands that I had never heard of and Irish bands, you know, that they were talking about Prefab Sprout and The Las and, you know, I'm like the who and the who now. Right. So, yeah.

Jane Sheldon (02:58.49)
There she goes. That's the only song I haven't been a lot.

Chad (03:01.392)
The whole album is phenomenal. I mean, they were just like a one album thing. But yeah, that whole album is fabulous. But Cars and Girls was sort of my entree. That was the song that was, I guess, in hot rotation with those folks. And they played it for me and I just fell in love with it. And I just recently just told this story again on a different episode. But I kind of had this love hate thing with Springsteen being from Jersey. So that song was sort of a bittersweet for me because it kind of takes the piss out of Bruce and his

his lyrics. But at the same time, I feel like it's it's it's done out of out of love. It's like, I think he appreciates and loves Springsteen as a songwriter. But I think that, you know, he just had to make commentary on the whole, you know, every one of your songs is basically about cars and girls. Right. So kind of fit.

Jane Sheldon (03:53.627)
or maybe he's...

that surface take on springsting. Yeah, I think it's what, however you want to interpret it.

Chad (03:59.919)
Right.

Chad (04:05.2)
So from there, I kind of just springboarded into, you know, I listened to the whole album from Langley Park to Memphis, fell in love with that. And, you know, I said to my friend who turned me on to them, like, all right, now where else should I go from here? And, you know, he said, Steve McQueen's the next logical choice. It's probably their best album. So did that. And right around that time, Jordan, the comeback, I think, had just come out too. So it was, you know, relatively new. So between those three records, it was just like, you know, my sort of beginning of a love affair with Prefab.

Jane Sheldon (04:34.234)
Yeah, that's another great record.

Lots of great tunes on that one. Did you listen to the latest one he put out? Which was I think something megahertz, I can't remember the exact title, but it was like, I wanna say like damn the megahertz, but that's not it. That's it, yeah.

Chad (04:52.144)
It's I trawl the megahertz and yeah, it's I have it's it's epic. I mean, the title track is like this 20 minute long, mostly instrumental sort of musical drama more than it is a song. You know, it's it's crazy. It's it's not something you sit and listen to or, you know, I mean, I guess I don't I think it's more like car music or background music. But yeah, I mean.

And I can't wait to see if he ends up doing something else. You know, I know he's sort of having health issues and whatever, but I mean, who knows if he's got another album in him somewhere.

Jane Sheldon (05:28.698)
I think he really enjoys the writing. He's obsessed with the writing. He doesn't particularly, he hated touring. And he felt that touring got in the way of writing because it's sort of, you know, antagonistic, the touring lifestyle is antagonistic to the writing lifestyle. And...

He just wanted to be in a room writing. He doesn't even really want to record. He just wants to be, he just wants to be writing. But knowing that you can hear it kind of in some of the production choices. I think he, that's not his, not that there aren't great production choices on his records, because there definitely are, but I think he's more fascinated by the art of the songwriting, you know, and the storytelling.

Chad (06:23.952)
Yeah, there's lots of great storytelling in his songs. And yeah, it's funny, right before, I just read an article, re -read an article that came out a while back. It was in The Guardian. I'll link it in the show notes, but it's basically the story, short story of how they recorded Steve McQueen. And they talked to Paddy for a bit, and then they talked to Thomas Dolby for a bit. And Paddy was saying how there was a point where it felt like, you know, being in this big studio for like a month or whatever, however long it took him to record, he

He said, it didn't really feel like it was my record anymore. Like he said, to me, it was just my band playing and then everything else going on around that was sort of how the album came to be. Right. So, and you've got Thomas Dolby producing and playing different parts and, you know, sort of really doing some revolutionary stuff for 1984, 1985, when this was being recorded.

Jane Sheldon (07:16.954)
Yeah, yeah, it's that's right, I forgot Thomas Dolby recorded Steve McQueen. Did he produce it or did he, I thought he just came in at the end and remixed, no? He...

Chad (07:30.064)
I think he produced a lot of it and I think he was responsible for a lot of the song selection because when he met Paddy, it was right after their first record had come out. And I guess there's a lot of buzz around Paddy and Prefab and he got introduced and sort of went to Paddy's house, apartment, whatever, and just said that basically he had a shoe box full of songs, like, you know, just things written down and sketches on acoustic guitar. And they sat and Paddy played him like 40 songs.

and I guess Thomas Dolby picked out 12, right? And said, okay, here's your album. And sort of went away and started to think through how he could make some of these songs fuller and develop them into full tunes. And then went back and worked with Paddy to do just that.

Jane Sheldon (08:17.626)
I think my favorite on the record is Goodbye Lucille, number one. There's a Goodbye Lucille number two. That was maybe the second song that really got me after Cars and Girls. And I send that song to a lot of my musician friends. I'm like, you have to hear this song, you have to hear this song. I don't know, it's a special one.

Chad (08:23.952)
Yeah.

Hahaha.

Chad (08:43.408)
And what makes it special for you, like why do you connect with that song so much?

Jane Sheldon (08:49.498)
You know, I think there's something about the kind of tension release, the build, that sort of harmonic thing that's happening with the bass and the Johnny, Johnny, ooh, like that's so hooky and the lyrics are interesting, you're still in love with Hayley Mills and why don't you give it a rest? There's a time for tears. It's just a cool moment in time.

Chad (09:17.169)
Yeah, and you have to wonder if he's talking to a younger version of himself or if this is addressed to anybody, right? And, you know, again, you know, it's open to interpretation, I guess. But.

The lyrics are just so spot on for some young 20 year old man, right? I mean, that's sort of who I imagine and that's sort of who I was, you know, in my 20s at that time. So I really felt that, you know, when I heard those lyrics. My favorite part of that song, and we can talk about instrumentation and musicianship in a minute, because there's some stuff there, but I love the life's not complete till your heart's missed a beat. And they sort of miss a beat when they do it the first time and the second time they sort of pause a different way before.

getting back in.

Jane Sheldon (09:59.45)
It's a, yeah, it's cool. No, it's clever.

Chad (10:04.625)
It's super clever and you know, I tend to like clever things, but not if it's just clever for the sake of being clever. And I feel like that's not like that's one thing that I never get sick of.

Jane Sheldon (10:15.866)
Yeah, they earned it. It wasn't snarky. It was just genuine cleverness. Yeah, there's every, every, there's so many great little pieces to that. The dee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -nee -

Chad (10:18.001)
Ha ha ha ha.

Yeah, for sure.

Chad (10:35.889)
Yeah, and the intro has got that sort of tick tock to it, you know, and it's what sounds like a clock winding down. And then he talks about, you know, how you're young, but the world's a million and, you know, right. So it's sort of got this whole essence of time, you know, I think in that, that's where it carries across the rest of the lyrics. Martin McAloon, by the way, fantastic bass player. You know, you don't really realize it until you pay attention to his bass parts.

And he's just so in the pocket with Neil Conti, who's also a really solid drummer. I mean, like top notch rhythm section. And it sort of supports some of the songs because you can't do the sorts of things that they're doing with all the different synthesizers. And, you know, a lot of it was sampled and sequenced and you need live musicians who can keep time, you know, and they do it effortlessly.

Jane Sheldon (11:29.146)
Yeah, it is a really good rhythm section. Super solid band all around. I don't know when they disbanded, do you? When did they decide? What was their last record that they made together?

Chad (11:43.44)
I don't know if it was an Andromeda Heights or there's another one that came out. Maybe it was after that. Hang on. Let's go look it up.

Chad (11:55.633)
Wait a minute. right. There was after Troll the Megahertz. So Troll the Megahertz, from my understanding, it wasn't really a prefab record because it was, but he released it under the name Prefab Sprout.

Jane Sheldon (12:04.954)
It was a Paddy work. Yeah.

Chad (12:09.969)
And then 2009 you have Let's Change the World with Music and they put out another one called Crimson Slash Red in 2013. Not familiar really with either one of those. I just never sort of, I mean I've listened to them but I just haven't really paid a whole lot of attention to them. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (12:29.466)
I'd like to hear all of his little demos. I'm sure he's got some great songs that none of us have heard because he hasn't tracked them yet.

Chad (12:37.905)
Yeah, and there are some unreleased tunes. You can find them, you know, they're all over YouTube. If you just Google, I mean search, search YouTube rather for, for prefab sprout, like, you know, besides unreleased tracks, there's a ton of material out there that, that sort of found its way out, which is great. I mean, and you can hear some, some seeds of, of other songs, I guess, when you're, when you're doing that.

So a couple other notes and then we could talk about maybe a few more of the songs but apparently Paddy first started to compose using a keyboard and it was a role in synthesizer For this album. So he says that you know within the course of about a week in June of 1984 He wrote when love breaks down appetite and desire ass. So I can't imagine writing those three songs in a lifetime

Jane Sheldon (13:27.802)
Yeah, works under pressure, you know.

Chad (13:29.072)
let alone in a week.

Chad (13:34.639)
Kind of like Dolly Parton writing, you know, I will always love you and Jolene and like the same afternoon, you know.

Jane Sheldon (13:38.298)
I know something. It's crazy. It's not really a true story. I mean, I know that that's a good story. I just don't, I don't know if it's a true story.

Chad (13:46.672)
She's never denied it as far as I know. So, you know, who knows? Maybe she's just going along with it. That's true.

Jane Sheldon (13:50.362)
Why let the truth get in the way of the story?

Jane Sheldon (13:57.209)
When Love Breaks Down is a beautiful, that's a great, that's a great song.

Chad (14:03.728)
Yeah, I love that one. I really like Appetite too. There's just something about it's like they got that driving rhythm to it. And you know, a lot of these songs are so much about yearning and loss. I mean, Bonnie is probably one of my favorite songs, period, you know, of all time, not just one of my favorite prefab sprout songs.

Jane Sheldon (14:17.626)
Bye.

Jane Sheldon (14:26.586)
Bonnie Don't Live at Home, right? That's the chorus. Bonnie Don't Live at Home. Yeah, that's beautiful. I think they remastered the record and they re -released, or he released acoustic tracks of all of those songs and the acoustic version of Bonnie is really beautiful. You can hear how just the structure of that song and just the bare bones of it. It's a really beautiful song.

Chad (14:29.103)
Yeah.

Chad (14:49.553)
Yeah. And Martin McEloom, by the way, is playing Prefab Sprout songs solo live acoustically all over Europe, apparently, like the last year or so. And I think he's still, he's still touring it. So, I don't think he's coming to the States. but if he does, I'm yeah. Yep.

Jane Sheldon (15:04.474)
Is that Paddy's brother? Is that Paddy's brother?

That's interesting. He didn't write the songs. Right? I mean, how did he write them?

Chad (15:10.448)
Yeah, I mean, and again, I guess... I don't think so. I mean, I don't know if he's got any co -writing credits or if he's written anything. I don't think so. I think it's all Paddy.

Chad (15:24.529)
Yeah. But you know, again, I'm sure just like any other band that brings stuff in, I'm sure he brought his own flavor to some of the songs or threw parts in here and there where he could. But yeah.

Jane Sheldon (15:39.674)
Yeah, and then what's the, I always forget the woman's name in the band. Rice, yeah, she's great. She adds such good texture to them.

Chad (15:39.92)
Alright.

Chad (15:44.944)
Wendy Smith.

Chad (15:51.761)
Yeah, their voices work really well together and she just has this ethereal angelic voice and it just melds with, you know, Paddy can be a little bit rough around the edges with some of his vocals and in a good way. So to have her sort of layered behind that, it's just, it works, it just works.

Jane Sheldon (16:02.458)
Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (16:10.01)
It kind of differentiated them too, out of that pool of English bands at the time. You know, having her in there, I think it really made them stand out.

Chad (16:22.609)
Yeah, for sure. And she's an interesting person too, because I think she is, I'm not sure like what her title is, but she's like the director or head of some program in Ireland for like music education. I think it's Ireland. And, you know, I follow her on social media and stuff and she's still like working in music, which I think is awesome. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (16:49.146)
That's great. That's really great. Yeah, because they've got to be, what, Paddy's got to be, what, in his late 60s, 70s? Yeah. Yeah, it's always cool to see them still doing it when they're all...

Chad (16:55.568)
Yeah, probably.

Chad (17:03.12)
Yeah, definitely. So what else about this album? Any other notes? Any other thoughts? I'm looking at some of the other songs that we didn't talk about.

Jane Sheldon (17:12.154)
What's the opener is what, fair and young? That's a cool song. That's a really great song. Yeah, it's a great.

Chad (17:14.128)
Yeah, Farron. That's a great song. And the cool thing about this album is there's so many references, like you mentioned, you know, still in love with Hayley Mills, you know, like 20 something year old me, I didn't know who the hell Hayley Mills was. I didn't know Farron Young. That was way later. That was way later.

Jane Sheldon (17:27.706)
Wait, you didn't watch the parent talk? I knew her when we both was at the time I was five.

Chad (17:38.063)
way later for me because my exposure to Parent Trap was the reboot because of my daughter. You know, like, yeah. Right.

Jane Sheldon (17:43.546)
Lindsay Lohan, which is all great. Also great. Love Lindsay. I just showed my son the parent, the original Parent Trap, which it's still a classic. Super dated, obviously, but you know.

Chad (18:03.567)
It's Jodie Foster, right, is the daughter.

Jane Sheldon (18:06.778)
No, it's Hayley Mills. Yeah.

Chad (18:08.559)
I'm sorry, I'm thinking Freaky Friday for Jodie Foster. I'm thinking the other mother daughter. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jane Sheldon (18:12.498)
well, and you know why? Because Lindsay Lohan was also on Freaky Friday, wasn't she? Yeah, she was in Freaky Friday and she was in the Parent Trap, so that makes sense. Yeah, yeah.

Chad (18:17.263)
Right. Yes. Correct.

Chad (18:22.799)
Yeah, got my signals crossed there. Mixed up my low hands.

Jane Sheldon (18:29.018)
That's right. Yeah, what are the other stand out? I mean, it's a whole out. It's one of those records front to back that you can just put on and enjoy.

Chad (18:42.575)
Yeah. And the liner notes, there's, there's a note from Paddy and it says something along the lines of, due to the exceptional length of this record, play it loud. All right. So of course I do. we have, so we talked about the first five tracks really. Number six is hallelujah. I love that song because it's, it's such a, I don't know, it's such a cynical sarcastic song and the lyrics just kill me.

Jane Sheldon (18:51.354)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (19:10.874)
Yeah. Yeah.

Chad (19:12.783)
you know, basically know hallelujahs or gifted voices to sing your praises. Right? So like, you know, I'm in love with you, but I'm not going to let you know it, you know.

Jane Sheldon (19:19.93)
Is, King of Rock and Roll is not on that record, right? That's on, it's on the next one, right? Okay. I know Paul, Paul McCartney liked that song and Paddy McAloon finally gets to meet Paul McCartney and Paul McCartney's like, I love that song. And I think Paddy was like, it's not really like representative of my body.

Chad (19:26.159)
That's on the next one.

Chad (19:35.855)
Of course he does.

Jane Sheldon (19:48.218)
He said he almost wrote it as kind of a joke because it's so none of it goes together at all but like that's why it works.

Chad (19:48.495)
Hahaha!

Chad (20:02.383)
Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (20:04.218)
Yeah, that was Paul's intro into the band.

Chad (20:07.983)
I can see him liking that song for some reason. It could have been a McCartney song.

What else do we have we have moving the river Love the line in that song that says here you got a new girlfriend, how's the wife taking it?

Jane Sheldon (20:31.322)
He could turn out, he could turn a phrase. He's a clever guy.

Chad (20:34.255)
Absolutely. Horst and Around, which I think is probably my least favorite song on the record.

Jane Sheldon (20:39.162)
That's why I skipped too. Yeah, that's like the only kind of skippable moment on that record.

Chad (20:44.303)
Yeah, it's not a bad song, but I think just doesn't compare to the rest, I guess, maybe, you know?

Jane Sheldon (20:48.474)
Yeah, it's not stellar.

Chad (20:51.919)
Track nine, Desire As. I've got six things on my mind, you're no longer one of them.

Jane Sheldon (21:00.058)
Hahaha!

Chad (21:03.983)
Like, who hurt you, Paddy McAloon?

Chad (21:12.303)
Yeah, just in that article that I mentioned, he says something along the lines of like, you know, I would never ever say that to anybody in real life. You know, he's like, I just didn't mean anything. It was just, you know, it sounded good. Right.

Jane Sheldon (21:22.33)
it works. Sometimes we just have to write what sings, you know? It doesn't, yeah, it doesn't need to be deeper than that.

Chad (21:30.735)
for sure. And then Blueberry Pie is probably the other throw away for me. Two and a half minute long track. Again, you know, it's fine, but not my favorite.

Jane Sheldon (21:41.146)
Yeah, I do love a two and a half minute song though. It is like a, it's just, you know, trim the fat, get in, get out. Like there's something about a good 220.

Chad (21:51.375)
Yeah, totally.

Jane Sheldon (21:52.602)
But you're right, this one's like, it's okay, I mean it's good, it's a good song, it's not, it's no goodbye Lucille.

Chad (21:59.567)
There aren't many goodbye loose skills and then the album closes with when the angels I Like the song I'm a big church organ guy. I'm not a church guy, but I love pipe organs and cathedral sounding organ parts and Real things and to me it's you can tell it's a synth and that's disappointing

You know, and I know that, you know, Thomas Dolby's like the, the, the king of synthesizers, but I felt like if you're going to put in a church organ part on it, they should have recorded a real church organ. That's, that's my, my, my nitpick there.

Jane Sheldon (22:32.442)
Yeah.

Chad (22:37.551)
Yeah, definitely.

Jane Sheldon (22:39.898)
Yeah, still a good song.

Chad (22:41.647)
Yeah, every song. And again, like you said, this is like, to me, it's an album. Like there's a lot of albums that there are three, four, five good tracks on and the rest are kind of like, eh, yeah, I might skip them or whatever, but this is something I can sit and listen to end to end and be happy about it.

Chad (23:01.359)
Well, do you want to move on to the next one? Seeds of Love. I will let you take point on this.

Jane Sheldon (23:05.146)
Yes, yes, absolutely. I was listening to it today in my car when I was driving. I had to drive from West Hollywood to back to where I live.

Jane Sheldon (23:18.01)
Do you have a favorite track?

Chad (23:22.063)
so I was not familiar with this album. I, for some reason, never really got all the way into Tears for Fears beyond like what was on the radio. So I knew the title track because that was, you know, a hit. I knew Advice for the Young at Heart and I can't remember if that was maybe on the radio. That's probably where I know it from. Okay. Yeah, that was a single. Yeah. So I know those two tracks and beyond that, I didn't really know the record. So when you mentioned it and I've, I've seen so many people talking about it online that I was like, all right, maybe.

Maybe I should give it a spin. So a couple of weeks ago when we were finalizing dates and times to record this, I threw it on, listened all the way through and I liked it. I really liked it a lot. Listen to it again today because I wanted to make some notes and point out some things that we could talk about. But I think my favorite song has to be the opening track, Woman in Chains.

It's just epic.

Jane Sheldon (24:20.666)
I think the story with the female voice on that record, her name is Oleta, Oleta Smith I believe is her name? Oleta Adams, I'm sorry, Oleta Adams. And they had heard her sing at a hotel. And she was like, she was a lounge singer.

Chad (24:29.263)
later Adams, yeah.

Jane Sheldon (24:39.13)
And they set out to make this record. And I think they started tracking. They had two different producers that they had been working with. And they were not satisfied, not happy with what they were achieving. They wanted to get more of an organic sound and kind of get away from all the sequencers and the sins that had made the other few records famous.

And so then they contacted Oleta and they brought her in and then they ended up producing it themselves. And to me, this is their most kind of Steely Danish record. You know, they spent like over a million pounds making it. And they spent seventy thousand pounds making songs from the big chair. And eventually this record broke them up. So after that, they toured the record. And then after that, Curt left the band. He was like, I'm done.

Chad (25:15.375)
Yeah.

Chad (25:24.879)
Ha ha ha ha ha.

Chad (25:33.087)
wow. Okay.

Jane Sheldon (25:34.842)
Yeah, and you can sort of hear, and I feel like the song, I don't know if you listened to Standing on the Corner of the Third World, it's a complete homage, I think, to Third World Man. It's so similar, like just tempo and the bass, and like it's very much, and I think they had, I think I read somewhere that they attempted, they wanted to get, they wanted it to kind of sound Steely Danish.

Chad (25:45.647)
Mm -hmm. Yep.

Chad (25:50.255)
Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (26:03.002)
in a way, and I think that was their little homage to that song. But yeah, Woman in Chains is stunner. And it's interesting that that is the opening track, because it's not obvious, right? It's not obvious. So it must have just been very special to them for them to put that as the opener.

Chad (26:18.991)
Yeah. Right.

Chad (26:27.183)
So I read an interview with, I think it was with both Curt and Roland and it was on the anniversary because they released a box set of the album with a bunch of like, you know, unreleased material and stuff like that. But they were talking about the fact that everybody wanted the sowing the seeds of love to be the opener because it was the obvious hit, the title track, you know, the whole thing. And I forget who it was now, damn it. But it's in the article, which I'll also link. But either Curt or Roland like fought for it.

no no no it has to be this song it has to be this song and he got his whoever it was got their way whichever one of them pushed it I'm sorry I forgot didn't put the name of my notes

Jane Sheldon (27:07.13)
I think they were very meticulous when it came to this record and it's like a record front to back and it takes you through sort of these emotional highs and lows and yeah, for them that was it, that was the opener. And then it goes, I think is the second track, is that Seeds of Love?

Chad (27:25.07)
no, the second one is Bad Man's Song, which also features Oleta Adams. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (27:28.122)
So good. So good. I think he wrote that because, Roland Orzabal, I think he overheard a couple people on his touring crew or something that were talking shit about him. And he wrote that song, I think he's the bad man, you know?

Chad (27:49.678)
wow. Right. I love there's like a gospel breakdown section about five minutes into the song and I wasn't expecting that and I made a note because I just I just loved that I thought that was a really cool direction for that song to go and I wasn't you know I wasn't thinking it was gonna get there and it did.

Jane Sheldon (28:11.802)
Yeah, is it the one that goes, faith can move mountains? That touching, yeah.

Chad (28:15.982)
Yeah, well, there's more of an instrumental, I think, and then it goes into that. I think it goes into that part right after. Yeah. But back to Woman in Chains, I just love the line, well, it's a world gone crazy, keeps a woman in chains. You know, sadly, that's still true in 2024. And yeah, unbelievable. And I will not accept the greatness of man. Just that line, like that blew me away.

Jane Sheldon (28:20.754)
yeah, it has a whole instrumental breakdown.

Jane Sheldon (28:34.17)
And how, right? I mean...

Jane Sheldon (28:43.002)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Chad (28:46.83)
And I think that's man writ large, right? But I mean, I took it in the context of, you know, men. Right? So, and you know.

Jane Sheldon (28:55.514)
Yeah, well, yeah, I mean, I think we can look at who's in charge of these patriarchal societies and who suffers, the women.

Chad (29:04.303)
Yeah, right. So I love that they were thinking this back in, yeah. So another little funny story that I sort of typed a little summary of from the article, but I guess this song, as well as standing on the corner of the third world, came out of a time when Roland was in therapy. So you mentioned that this album's like an emotional roller coaster.

Jane Sheldon (29:06.618)
world gone crazy.

Chad (29:29.326)
And I guess besides the tensions in the band, both Curt and Roland were going through some shit in their personal lives, like divorces and therapy and, you know, all kinds of personal issues. So Roland's wife convinced him to move from Bath to London so she could go to art school. So they moved the whole production of this album, I guess, to London. And, you know, it was one of the reasons why they were having such, you know, strife about it, I guess, because it was just one more thing that was a complication.

So apparently while she was in class at art school, he was going to primal therapy.

Jane Sheldon (30:05.914)
Yeah.

Chad (30:07.822)
And that's where the name Tears for Fears came out of, which I never knew until I read the article today. So interesting tie in. But he says, it was a 25 minute walk to the therapist's office and that walk gave birth to a couple of cracking songs. Women in Chains came out of the experience of therapy, of talking about my feelings of my mother being a stripper who was abused by my father and standing on the corner of the third world was part of those same emotions. That song wasn't difficult to write. Whoa. Right.

Jane Sheldon (30:10.106)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (30:37.21)
Yeah. Yeah.

I know that the next record, so they break up and then Roland puts out Elemental, which actually is my, I think it's my favorite record. But it's hard because it hurt, wasn't involved. So I didn't, I don't know if it's, I mean, it's still a Tears for Fears record, but, and that whole record really talks about, I think they're breaking up and.

Chad (30:50.286)
Really?

Jane Sheldon (31:03.706)
There's a line in one of the songs and it's, we used to sit and talk about primal scream to exercise our past as our adolescent dreams. And so I think that's a big play, but he plays that out a lot in his songwriting.

Chad (31:13.262)
Mm.

Chad (31:17.006)
Yeah, huh, that's fascinating.

Jane Sheldon (31:20.026)
Yeah, it's elemental is a really good record. I recommend listening to that. It might be your foray into some more tears.

Chad (31:30.094)
I think it will be, yeah, I'll definitely check that out. So moving down the line, title track hit song, you know, the one everybody knows, I guess, sowing the seeds of love. I hated this song when it came out.

Chad (31:51.117)
I don't know. You know, and again, like I mentioned before we started recording that this album, as much as I'm impressed with it, I'm not sure I love it yet. You know, like there's a couple of standout songs for me, but I think maybe coming to it so late.

It sounds like 1989 to me. It's just drenched in reverb. Yes, there's more organic sound and instrumentation and there's definitely nods to Silly Dan and the production's really well done. But you put on a Silly Dan record and you can't tell it was recorded in the 70s for the most part, right? I mean, the original albums anyway. I put this on and I hear 89 because I think that was like my musical awakening. I was 17 years old. I was really starting to branch out and listen to more

you know, in different sorts of things. So to me, sowing the seeds of love was like a song on the radio. It was a little twee for my tastes. And I think it was in my, my hate for the song was influenced by all the other stuff that I was listening to in 89, which was like public enemy, the dead Kennedy's, you know, yeah.

Jane Sheldon (32:58.202)
You were kind of...

Yeah, that's funny you say that because I actually feel like this record sounds pretty timeless to me And I think that they wanted it to and I think that that's why they spent so much time and energy and money to like get away from That 80s sound but it sounds it sounds very big in the way that 80s records sound you know like you write lots of reverb and So many different so many tracks and layers and it sounds like a huge production, but I don't know that it

Screens 89 to me, but fair point to you. You know, I get it.

Chad (33:38.287)
Yeah, I think one thing standing on the corner of the third world, the one thing I wasn't crazy about in that track and I made a note to is, and the same thing that I just made the...

comment about with prefab is there's a couple of horn parts that sort of weave through and I don't think they're real horns and if they are they sound like synth horns and again you're taking all this time and effort and money to do this great production and really craft these songs why not have live horns if they're not they might be I can't tell you know just from the couple of listens I'm gonna have to go see if I can dig that up on Discogs or something and see if I can

Jane Sheldon (34:10.458)
Yeah.

Chad (34:18.64)
if they're like actual horn players credited on that track. But it just, it sounded synthetic and that sort of took away from, you know, that part of the instrumentation for me.

Jane Sheldon (34:28.666)
Yeah, they very well could be sampled.

Chad (34:31.854)
Yeah. So advice for the young at heart. I like that song, believe it or not. Maybe because I'm getting old, but...

Jane Sheldon (34:38.49)
that's on.

I think there was a pretty good cup somebody did a cover of it. It's like Kylie Minogue. Am I wrong? Somebody maybe not Kylie Minogue but somebody like Kylie Minogue did a cover of that.

Chad (34:48.622)
I don't know.

Jane Sheldon (34:55.226)
But it is a good song. It holds up. It's catchy. It's an ear worm. It sounds tropical. You know? It kind of transports you somewhere else.

Chad (34:58.542)
Yeah.

Yeah, for sure.

It does.

Chad (35:09.262)
Yeah, I can totally hear that song on a sunny day with, you know, yeah, Tropical's a good comparison.

Chad (35:22.222)
So next up we talked about standing on the corner of the third world man.

Jane Sheldon (35:27.446)
I think that's a challenge and a podcast episode like how do you relate any song back to Steely Van?

Chad (35:37.43)
Somehow I managed to do it pretty much every week. Some Steely Dan reference comes up even when I'm not trying. Track number six is Swords and Knives and number seven is Year of the Knife, which I thought was... Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (35:52.25)
I love here at the knife. And just a little bit of a theme, like, you know, jagged edge.

Chad (35:57.006)
Right. Yeah. And, you know, again, like, like you said, the lyrics, I mean, it's, this is like a dark, depressing album when you listen to the words. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (36:04.314)
It is. Yeah. Swords and Knives, not that I don't like that song, it's just kind of one that I skipped over to get to Year of the Knife, because I think Year of the Knife might be my favorite track on the record. Yeah, it's just, it gets me. You know?

Chad (36:19.63)
Hmm, okay.

Chad (36:34.926)
Yeah, for sure. I really like that song. And then last track, Famous Last Words, which, you know, great way to close any record.

Jane Sheldon (36:45.05)
They were actually going to call this the record famous last words because he was like, this is probably going to be our last record. And then I guess I don't know who won.

Chad (36:49.994)
prophetic

Chad (37:02.574)
But great song and you know, I mean you can obviously interpret the words as you know, end of the world or end of a relationship or maybe both. You know, I kind of got both vibes from it but probably my second favorite song if I had to pick. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (37:17.978)
Yeah, yeah, it's a good one. Well, I hope you listen to more Tears for Fears. I think you're ready for it now.

Chad (37:25.998)
I think I'm ready to. So they broke up. Roland put out another album under the Tears for Fears name. When did Curt kind of come back into the band and didn't they just put an album out recently or like within the last five years or so?

Jane Sheldon (37:37.626)
Yeah, they did. It's a really great record. It's called The Tipping Point. And I think Roland's wife passed away from alcoholism. Yeah, and it was really awful. And it's sort of a, I think a lot of the songs are about that struggle. But there's, that's also a really great record. I need to listen to more of it. But the first couple of tracks that I listened to, they blew me away.

Chad (37:42.414)
Okay.

Chad (37:49.806)
Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (38:04.474)
And so they broke up and then I think around 2000, they got back together and they released a record called Everybody Loves a Happy Ending, which is a great record title for a.

Jane Sheldon (38:22.138)
our Come Back Together record. And also there's a lot of great tracks on that, Lady Bird.

Chad (38:38.03)
Yeah, I'm going to have to do, you know, I knew the couple albums before and then I'll have to, you know, complete my, my education.

Jane Sheldon (38:44.148)
Secret World. My favorite track off of that record is Secret World. Really good song.

Chad (38:50.862)
I feel like that sounds familiar. Was it a single or? Okay, I probably heard it when it came out, I'm sure.

Jane Sheldon (38:52.866)
Yeah. It was a single. Yeah.

Chad (39:03.918)
Great. Well, anything else on Seeds of Love, Tears for Fears?

Jane Sheldon (39:11.13)
I mean, songs from the big chair, that's also, that could be a whole other podcast. I just covered, Everybody Wants to Rule the World. I did, for my, I mean, not, I didn't record it, but my, I'm in a little, I'm in a dad band with some dads at my son's school. We perform at like the events for the school. And so we did, we added that into the rotation. We did, we did Everybody Wants to Rule the World. It's a big, yeah, it doesn't, it doesn't work.

Chad (39:19.406)
wow.

Chad (39:29.966)
Cool.

Chad (39:37.774)
I love that song.

Jane Sheldon (39:43.226)
So good. I thought it was gonna be, I suggested that, it's like, let's do Rebellence World of World. It's like, everybody knows it, but it's actually, the song structure is a little bit more deceptive than you think it is. It was one of those where we were like, because there's a huge instrumental break in between the kind of, the verses and the chorus comes back around, there's like a double chorus, but it's just a brilliant song.

Chad (40:05.006)
Yeah, it is. And the production on that's amazing. That to me sounds like the 80s, but in a good way. Yeah. And I remember the video and they're like driving, I don't know where they are. Maybe they're in England, but they're in this convertible and like just heading down this like highway out in the middle of nowhere.

Jane Sheldon (40:12.186)
Southway. Yeah.

Yeah, good.

Chad (40:25.358)
It's just sort of, the song evokes that for me, I guess, maybe because of the connection with the visual in the video. But yeah, that's a never skip. When that comes on, it's just turn the volume up.

Jane Sheldon (40:38.49)
association with Elemental because my dad was a Big Tears for Fears fan and Elemental was his favorite record and so we had a cassette of that and I remember taking a road trip with my parents and we were driving up the Pacific Coast Highway and going up to Santa Barbara and playing that record kind of evokes that for me still, that drive, being on the ocean and yeah, the dunes.

Chad (41:04.59)
That's cool. I love when a song or an album just sort of brings back like another sense memory, you know, it's such a cool thing.

For sure. All right. Well, why don't we travel forward a year? Depeche Mode's violator. Yeah. So 1990 finds Depeche Mode, I think sort of, you know, hanging on to the end of the eighties, but sort of crashing into the nineties. This record.

really caught my ear. I had liked Depeche Mode a lot. You know, Black Celebration, Music for the Masses, all the singles, you know, People Are People. I mean...

So many great songs with so many hits. And for some reason they're inextricably linked. Well, not for some reason, I can tell you why they're inextricably linked with the cure for me, because I think I got into both of those bands around the same time. And while they're not necessarily similar, you know, musically, they just sort of came out of that same eighties, you know, post -punk, right. And sort of went off in different directions. But, you know, again, like I think I,

I had like a Cure mix on side A of a cassette and like a Depeche Mode mix on side B of a cassette and played that like all the time, right? So that's how I kind of got into them, you know, from friends and I think a girlfriend at the time was really into them. So she was always playing it. And then when this record came out, I was a freshman in college. So...

Chad (42:47.088)
It was just like nothing that they had done. I mean, it's, yeah, it sounds like the Peshmo, but it doesn't. I mean, it does. It sounds like them, but there's like an extra layer. And I don't know if that's because of the production, because they, they brought flood in to produce. But what do you think? What's your take on the.

Jane Sheldon (43:05.818)
Yeah, I was eight in 1982, so I don't really remember, like, it didn't affect me then, you know, but it's clearly, you know, I think it's the record that has stood the test of time. Personal Jesus, right, that's probably my favorite track off of the record.

And they did this clever guerrilla marketing ad where they would take out, they took out a couple ads in different personal sections around England, like Personnels, and it said your own personal Jesus, and then a phone number. And people would call the phone number and you'd hear the song. And it was, yeah, and then it kind of spread, right? Isn't that clever marketing? So clever.

Chad (43:46.927)
no way, I didn't know that.

Chad (43:52.303)
Super clever. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (43:56.858)
But yeah, it's an enduring great record. And the more Depeche Mode I hear, the more I'm like, I need more Depeche Mode in my life. I need to go a little bit deeper. Because I haven't gone deep enough, you know? I think I was more, you mentioned The Cure. I think I was more in The Cure, The Cure, The Smiths, Tears. That was sort of more of my wheelhouse. And Depeche.

Chad (44:10.543)
Yeah, I would say go backwards.

Jane Sheldon (44:21.754)
But every time I heard it, I would never turn it off. I just never, I just never, I don't know, I didn't go too deep.

Chad (44:29.615)
Yeah. I would go backwards if you're going to revisit now. everything after 1990 is pretty good. Like songs of faith and devotion is a great album, but to me, like the, the 84 to 89, you know, to, to, through violator era is, is my favorite. it's just, you know, I guess more bleak and this album is pretty dark by the way too, but, you know, they, they really, the funny thing is, you know, their, their first album or two, they were like,

Brit electro pop. I mean, they were very perky poppy tones. Like, you know, just can't get enough. Right. You know that song.

Jane Sheldon (45:08.634)
I forget that that's to Peshma.

Chad (45:10.258)
Yeah, and you wouldn't. Yeah, but you wouldn't like exactly you wouldn't think it was them unless you knew.

Jane Sheldon (45:12.218)
Great song.

put it with policy of truth. Yeah, you're not putting those two together.

Chad (45:19.846)
So why don't we run down? well, one more note that I had. So this was actually sort of their first real mainstream success too. Four songs hit the top 100 in Billboard in that year in 1990. So Enjoy the Silence, Policy of Truth, Personal Jesus, and World in My Eyes were all in the Billboard Hot 100. So yeah, I think it was the first time they really sort of broke through.

Jane Sheldon (45:42.522)
Yeah, that's a huge one.

Chad (45:48.882)
All right, so why don't we go track by track?

Jane Sheldon (45:50.65)
was like a riot. I think they had like a signing here in Los Angeles and there was they didn't like 20 ,000 people showed up at this warehouse and people got hurt. It was it was and it was sponsored I think by K -Rock and so K -Rock and like they sent they had it like they had to make amends in some way and so to PESH mode they did these like limited edition cassettes to the people that were injured at the show or at the meeting.

Chad (45:55.218)
Really?

Chad (46:00.082)
wow.

Chad (46:17.266)
wow.

Jane Sheldon (46:19.802)
Like, sorry you got hurt, but here's a cassette.

Chad (46:21.939)
And Depeche Mode's not a band again that I would equate with like, you know, rioting. I mean, geez. But I guess.

Jane Sheldon (46:29.306)
Yeah. Yeah. Dave Cahan. Yeah.

Chad (46:38.002)
So the album opens up with World in My Eyes and man, what a groove, what a hook. You know, it's like this bleep bloop synth pop kind of thing and then it just sort of kicks in, doubles up and then just goes for it.

Jane Sheldon (46:56.794)
Yeah, it was a good choice for the opener, I think, except the tone.

Chad (46:59.602)
Yeah, I have a really funny memory around the song. So again, freshman year of college, I bought this on cassette probably, and I'm, you know, it was just played in our dorm or whatever. And I had this really good friend, her name was Kelly, and she was just like the coolest person in the world, but.

She, you know, we'd all like pregame in somebody's room or whatever. I remember distinctly one night we were in my dorm room. We put on violator, world of my eyes kicks in and she starts doing this like sort of mashup dance of voguing and the robot.

And I'm not even gonna try to approximate it because I'll just embarrass myself but it was like one of the funniest things I think I've ever seen and To this day like that's my association. Yeah, when that song comes on I see Kelly like, you know doing all this and Yeah, it's hilarious

Jane Sheldon (47:44.602)
Is that your association now with the record? Everything, right? Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (47:54.202)
You'll have to link the video to the part I'm doing on the episode.

Chad (47:56.211)
I don't have a video. Damn it. I wish you know, I wish I went to college in the iPhone era. Yeah, Kelly, if you're watching, I'm gonna need you to record that. She'll go viral for sure. Track two, Sweetest Perfection. So takes the sort of, you know, the bop that has whirled in my eyes and then slows things down a little bit.

Jane Sheldon (48:02.042)
Ali, we need a video.

Jane Sheldon (48:09.274)
We'll put you on TikTok.

Big moment.

Chad (48:26.13)
Right, it talks about the sweetest perfection I call my own, the sweetest injection of any kind. So are we talking about the obvious? Are we talking about drugs? Nobody knows. What do you think?

Jane Sheldon (48:39.034)
I think it's open for interpretation, as good lyrics are, right? It can be whatever you want it to be.

Chad (48:40.806)
Right.

Yeah, maybe it's both, you know, who knows? I know, I know, I don't know who in Depeche Mode, you know, may or may not have had a drug thing, but who knows?

Chad (49:01.586)
Yeah. So personal Jesus, you mentioned, and I love that that gorilla marketing thing, but anything else to say on the song? I mean, I feel like. Yeah.

Jane Sheldon (49:10.714)
I'm just like right now thinking of the doom. Doom to doom. Doom. Doom. That's so good.

Chad (49:16.818)
It's got like that twangy sort of Western guitar, which I don't think we'd ever heard in a Depeche Mode song before that, right? So yeah, it was sort of uncharacteristic, but it just works.

Jane Sheldon (49:25.018)
Yeah, it's different.

Jane Sheldon (49:30.522)
Yeah, reach out and touch faith, right?

Chad (49:33.682)
Yeah, I feel like I remember them getting some shit a little web. yeah. Yeah. it's cheeky as hell. And I remember them. I feel like I remember them getting some shit for that. I don't know if it was from, you know, the religious front or whatever, but yeah, I mean, I know that was it was. It was a little controversial.

Jane Sheldon (49:35.386)
It's very tongue in cheek.

Jane Sheldon (49:50.33)
You're taking the Lord's name in vain.

What's the lyrics? Someone to be upset, someone to be oppressed, someone to bless. Is that it? Someone to be upset, someone to bless. Yeah, that's great.

Chad (50:06.321)
yeah, yeah, I think so.

Yep. All right, track.

Jane Sheldon (50:13.85)
I kind of was messing with the piano cover of Policy of Truth. I didn't record it, but I was like, I've never heard a piano version of this song.

Chad (50:20.401)
Mmm.

Jane Sheldon (50:26.81)
Maybe I'll get that one up on its legs.

Chad (50:30.321)
Yeah, you should. I would love that.

Jane Sheldon (50:32.25)
Yeah, it's a great one.

Chad (50:34.225)
I can totally hear that on the piano.

Jane Sheldon (50:36.858)
Yeah. Never before is what you swore the time before.

Chad (50:39.057)
Uhhh...

Yeah.

Love it. Great lyric. Track four, Halo. Not much to say about this one. I think this is also not a skip necessarily, but not a standout.

Jane Sheldon (50:56.922)
I don't even remember that sound. I don't even know how to cut.

Chad (51:02.545)
I can't tell you how it goes. I haven't. Yeah. Well, we'll have to play it or link it down in the, in the notes for people, waiting for the night. Same thing. you know, I think those are the two sort of tracks in the middle of all the hits. They kind of, they kind of get lost and they're not, again, just like the prefab thing. They're not bad songs. They're just, you know, not, not of the caliber of maybe the rest of, of it.

Jane Sheldon (51:18.33)
Right, so like we need some more things and album cuts.

Jane Sheldon (51:29.562)
Listen, it's hard to have 12 personal Jesuses.

Chad (51:33.445)
I don't even have one personal Jesus chain

Jane Sheldon (51:37.242)
Yeah.

Chad (51:43.025)
Enjoy the silence, probably my favorite song on the record if I had to pick one.

Jane Sheldon (51:53.37)
Words are meaningless. Right? Words are meaningless and forgettable. Yeah, it's a great song.

Chad (51:58.161)
Yeah.

Words are very unnecessary, they can only do harm.

Jane Sheldon (52:03.706)
Bye.

How does that song, how does it open?

Chad (52:09.68)
Words like violence break the silence. I'm crashing in into my little world. I don't know why I know these off the top of my head, but I do.

Jane Sheldon (52:18.682)
Your Tepecho poetry book. Sit back right there.

Chad (52:23.024)
That's right.

I love Dave Gayhan's voice too, just because he's right in my register. So not that I'm a Dave Gayhan level singer, but he's one of my favorite people to emulate when I'm in the car by myself and I'm just belting out shit on the way to work or whatever. Like.

Jane Sheldon (52:43.866)
I was gonna say like, is that your karaoke? Depeche Mode's actually good karaoke. I have a friend who always goes for Depeche Mode at karaoke.

Chad (52:47.728)
Yeah.

Chad (52:52.88)
Yeah, I think strange love and enjoy the silence or two that I could really nail at karaoke.

Jane Sheldon (52:58.682)
because everybody has like a karaoke go -to.

Chad (53:02.)
What's yours?

Jane Sheldon (53:03.674)
I do meatloaves two out of three ain't bad. Because everybody does Paradise by the dashboard light and I'm like, I'm gonna do this.

Chad (53:07.728)
wow.

Chad (53:15.92)
You gotta do the non -obvious one and just blow people out of their seats.

Jane Sheldon (53:19.642)
Yeah, it's not up.

Chad (53:21.84)
Last time I went to karaoke, which is years ago, I did Honesty by Billy Joel. And I don't think anybody was expecting it.

Jane Sheldon (53:34.33)
I have a female friend who does New York State of Mind, but she is amazing. She's an actress and she does this whole interpretive thing. It's brilliant.

Chad (53:38.736)
wow.

Chad (53:47.086)
That's cool. I actually won a duet karaoke competition in a bar when I was probably 26 or 27. A friend of mine, Melissa and I, just were like, you know, hanging out and we ended up like at this place that was doing karaoke and we're like, let's do it. So we signed up for the duet piece and we did Rock This Town by the Stray Cats and we won.

Jane Sheldon (54:13.05)
Music.

Chad (54:13.966)
It was so random, but we just traded off verses and you know, she was a great singer. So yeah, I think she carried us.

Jane Sheldon (54:22.202)
I mean, I can imagine that there was some stiff competition.

Chad (54:27.438)
Not really. We're talking like, you know, little, little dive bar in South Jersey in the nineties. You know, nothing, nothing to write home about, but, yeah, it was fun. Bragging rights. All right. So track seven on violator policy of truth. Another banger.

Jane Sheldon (54:45.53)
Yeah.

Chad (54:47.95)
You had something to hide, should have hidden it, shouldn't you?

Jane Sheldon (54:50.602)
Yeah, now you're not satisfied with what you're being put through. It's a great lyric. It's just time to pay the price. It's time to face the sacrifice. Is that it?

Chad (54:55.886)
Right?

Chad (55:05.55)
I think so, yeah. The delivery of proof.

Jane Sheldon (55:07.002)
This is the delivery of proof in the policy of truth.

Chad (55:12.11)
Some great harmonies in that pre -chorus part too that you were just singing. I love that.

Jane Sheldon (55:16.41)
Yeah, it's a really good song. Do do do do do do. Yeah, it's great.

Chad (55:26.094)
Alright, we have two left. So, blue dress, which is kind of funny because you mentioned you have a song blue dress.

Jane Sheldon (55:30.81)
Yeah. Doesn't sound like that one.

It sounds like Cars and Girls from Prefix. yeah, there it's a good wrap up.

Chad (55:37.327)
Right. But funny how it all kind of comes together, right? It's like, you know, it's, it's, it's yeah, totally. and then the last track is clean. again, two songs that I, if I, you put them on, I'd know them, but right now I couldn't tell you how they go. Cause I just haven't listened to the whole album and forever. but I know they're good songs because, you know, again, this whole album is just great and to end, but, I don't have a whole lot to say about either one.

Jane Sheldon (56:04.25)
And listen, you have those four hits on that one record. I may have...

Chad (56:08.014)
Yeah, four out of nine's not bad.

Jane Sheldon (56:10.554)
Better than two? Is it the same math as two out of three? No.

Chad (56:16.814)
Now, Meatloaf's got a little bit of an edge there.

Chad (56:24.558)
Alright, well, that brings us to the end of the three albums that we were going to talk about. What else is going on? How's the songwriting? How's the playing out? I know last we spoke you had a couple of pending shows coming up and...

Jane Sheldon (56:37.338)
Yeah, things are good. I have a couple songs that have been recorded and they're basically mixed. There's maybe a couple little tweaks that we're figuring out, you know, the particulars of releasing and getting album work and that kind of, the other stuff that's not just the writing and recording, you know. So I'll let you know about those. And yeah, I have a bunch of other songs I need to get.

Chad (57:00.494)
Right.

Chad (57:11.502)
Yeah, I'm excited to hear them.

Jane Sheldon (57:14.362)
And have you been making your memes? I've been a little bit off of social media lately. I've been trying to like Instagram diet. I feel a lot better not being on there.

Chad (57:17.394)
Hahaha!

Chad (57:26.19)
Me too. I've slowed down a little bit between Twitter and Instagram the last month or so. But yeah, I'm still throwing out a meme here and there. I'll see something that I think is funny and, you know, go find a template for it. Or if I see another meme that just reminds me of something Steely Dan. So, but, you know, instead of like every day, it's like a couple of times a week now, but I'm still having fun with it, you know. And.

Jane Sheldon (57:47.93)
I mean, I feel like memes are, that's good, good clean pun, better than scrolling mindlessly. You're actually kind of trying to create something, trying to figure out how to make this clever.

Chad (57:53.038)
Ha ha!

Chad (57:59.822)
Yeah, exactly. And I'm still, you know, really lucky to have a backlog of episodes of the podcast and the can that haven't actually hit the air yet. So, I mean, I'm, you know, I think you're episode 22 and 17 just dropped. So I still have five to edit and process. And, you know, just when I think that I'm sort of running out of steam with, with guest hosts, I just get.

somebody who, you know, I've either already spoken to, wants to come back and talk about something new, or I've got somebody that I haven't, you know, tapped yet that, that I've, I've grabbed and brought in. So it's, it's been going really well. It's been, I'm having fun. Yeah. Cool. All right. Well, it's great talking to you again. Thanks so much for, for, you know, volunteering to do this episode. Definitely.

Jane Sheldon (58:48.474)
It was fun. It was fun revisiting those three very different and all excellent records.

Chad (58:55.277)
Absolutely. I look forward to seeing and hearing your new stuff when it comes out. So you have to let us know and I will link it and we'll talk to you soon. All right. Thanks, Jane. See you.

Jane Sheldon (59:04.794)
Have a great day.