Following their stellar performance as part of the Red Bull Studio Sessions, Manchester Orchestra’s captain, Andy Hull, sat down with us to discuss the band’s complex new album, Simple Math, and the joys of peaches.
Andy Hull loves peaches so much that if you’re a fan of the band, he would greatly appreciate peaches on the road, or anything peach flavoured or shaped. He loves them so much, and would not stop talking about them!
A young, complex man in a simple world, or maybe the other way around, Hull might say “weird” when he means “unconventional” and “crazy” when he means “genius.” Either way, upon the release of Simple Math, the unconventionally talented genius known as Andy Hull will soon confirm the sweet smell of success is just peachy.
Simple Math is a great title. Care to elaborate on it’s meaning?
Yes, Simple Math is an ironic title for the record because it’s so layered and crazy. [The album] is very concise. We didn’t want to bore anyone. So, it's 10 songs that are really challenging. I think people will like them after the first listen, but it’s really one of those records where after the 10th listen, you’re gonna be pulling back and going “this song” and then all of the sudden you like the song right after that a little bit, and then you like the one you didn’t like the first time. ‘Cause at the end of the day, the songs are really the best songs we’ve ever written. The artwork is conceptually very simple. Unique geometric shapes and everything is neat. It’s simple math. It’s a puzzle, and each song is like a little piece that goes into it. Simple Math.
Did you enjoy your Red Bull Session today?
It was awesome. It was really cool. We’re in the new day of Manchester [Orchestra], with a new drummer and these new songs. So it was really nice to have the affirmation when you’re playing in the studio and you can hear what everybody is doing, and you’re like, “Ok, we actually are good.” It was an awesome, really cool experience today.
One of the first songs released from Simple Math is the pivotal track, April Fool, it’s a real game changer.
In the story of the album, the whole album being a concept record, that’s the song where it’s a new day. It’s where me, as the character, started to change my life, from rock bottom. It’s like a spewing of crazy thoughts and cool lines. The first line says: “I was born an April fool, full of gold to brothel and it saved all my sins.” It’s kind of a weird play on words referring to a parable in the old testament. Lyrically, it has the most lyrics in the whole record.
Your album is a concept record, do you have aspirations to take it to Broadway, like Green Day did with American Idiot?
It could actually do that because the songs are so crazy. I think it’s a story that could definitely be a movie. The record sounds like a crazy person wrote it. It bounces back and forth. Where our last record had the hook-the verse-the hook, this is like one hook here, and then another hook, and then the song changes, and the third hook . So there’ll be nine hooks in a song, but none of them ever repeat.
It’s definitely kind of like we didn’t really think about a hit, you know? You can’t really think about a hit if you’re writing a concept record. Really, and this is my attempt to make the greatest album of all time.
Are you into the whole LARP’ing scene? (That’s Live Action Role Playing)
There’s this great [French] grunge band called Winston Audio that I signed to our record label. The lead singer is this real tall lanky guy named Daniel Dewitt. In conversation one night we found out that he was a warlock when he was 13 years old. And you’d never guess, ’cause he sings like Kurt Cobain, but he’s just a total nerd. He’s all, “I don’t remember my [warlock] name.” We’re all: “Bullshit, man!”
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Yeah, that stuff’s awesome.
I’m neurotic into NBA Basketball and grilling. I love movies. Music.
What’s your favourite movie?
Anything Woody Allen made. Everything. He really hit home runs with Love and Death, and then Interiors, and Annie Hall, and then Stardust Memories. That’s an insane streak of movies that really affected and influenced me growing up. I own every movie he’s ever done.
Being from Atlanta, have peaches influenced you in your writing?
Peaches are pretty much the biggest part of my life.
You say it “sounds like” a crazy person wrote it, but did a crazy person actually write it?
Yeah, I think the “crazy me” did, for sure. Not the “irrational me,” but the “jumping all over the place” me. I think people are gonna like it, and love it [Simple Math], as it goes on.
It’s not instantly satisfying.
You don’t really start to understand the record until the fifth song. You’re like, “Jesus what is this, where is this going now?”
And that’s where there’s like four home runs in a row.
It sounds a lot like life.
Maybe. I don’t know. I’m only 24 years old.
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