Last week, some of us got to talk to Vampire Weekend, Santogold, and Zooey Deschanel via phone conference.
Stefania M., chatting up with Ezra of Vampire Weekend:
(Vampire Weekend with Chromeo at the MTVU Woodie Awards)
S: We just heard an awesome remix of “Cape Cod…” from a guy by the name of Esau Mwamwaya. We were just wondering what you guys think in general of people that remix your stuff or. You know, I don’t know if you’ve heard that one in particular. Do you guys get to hear remixes or do they do it without your permission? What do you guys feel about that?
E: Well, a lot of them have been done without permission. We’ve been very kind of careful only to let people that we really admire do official remixes.
S: Right.
E: But it’s always cool to hear unofficial ones too. I’m really excited about the (Chromeo) remix of “The Kids Don’t Stand a Chance” that’s going to come out I think next week and because I’ve known those guys for a while and I really am a huge fan of them but yeah, Esau Mwamwaya, I’ve actually met him and I collaborated with him on a song for his album and so he’s a really cool guy.
He lives in London and he was born in Malawi and he’s making this really great record with these producers called (Radio Clit) and to hear his take on that song… I think is awesome. So that’s actually an official remix. We like talked about it with them and I reckon they will put it out. Yeah, like that one a lot too.
S: And do you know on what medium the (Chromeo) remix will be released? Will it be digital?
E: I think it’ll probably be digital and on vinyl.
Kelsey McArdle’s all-too-brief chat with Zooey D.
Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Never did I think that I’d see the day where I’d get to speak one on one with one of my girly heroes (or heroines?). What is a girly hero, you ask? It’s one of those female celebrities that girls don’t actually loathe in secret. It’s one of those stars that girls want so badly to be, or at least emulate in any way, shape or form. It’s one of those famous artists that isn’t vain/pretentious/bitchy, only awesomely awesome (and adorable and well-dressed, but that’s neither here nor there), and that is Zooey D. in a nutshell.
I mean, who else can go from starring in “Elf” to writing music (not in that creepy actor-turned-musician type way) with a respected musician like M. Ward, creating one of the best (in my opinion) albums of 2008? She & Him’s Volume 1 is beyond fantastic and utterly charming, so chatting with my favorite half of the wonderful duo was just like a dream.
(Zooey in Elf)
(Zooey and M.Ward AKA She&Him)
Knowing that I (and Katie, as well) had only a brief moment to converse with Ms. Deschanel, we wanted to ask her something interesting. I couldn’t have asked for a better response!
Here is the transcript, as follows:
Me: Hi, there.
Zooey Deschanel: Hello?
Me: Hey, how are you?
Zooey Deschanel: Hi, good. How are you?
Me: Good. I just have a quick question for you. On Volume 1 you have two different covers, both from the 60s, which you mentioned that in the last question–the Beatles and Smokey Robinson. So what is it about the music of this era that you find so interesting?
Katie: And what is it that made you pick these particular songs?
Zooey Deschanel: You know, like the 60s I don’t know exactly why but it was just an era of, you know, there was just so much good music like spanning over that, you know, over that decade. I mean I think, you know, starting off in the early 60s with Motown and, you know, the songwriters from the (unintelligible) building writing a lot of, you know, songs for pop artists and later with the Beetles and the British invasion and, you know, bands taking a more executive role in terms of writing their own material. It just is a very diverse period and just so rich with like I mean such an incredible catalogue of music from the 60s.
“You Really Got a Hold On Me” is just such a classic song, the lyrics are it’s like, I mean just to hear that song, I mean just such a beautiful song. And then I Should Have Known Better also, you know, they’re just classic songs that both Matt and I had covered on our own in, you know, Matt had wanted to put I Should Have Known Better on another record and I had made a home demo of that and both of us had covered You Really Got a Hold On Me so it sort of seemed like pretty obvious choices.
But actually I Should Have Known Better, there was a cover of that on a Beach Boys record called Beach Boy Party and it was so different from the Beetles version but also so charming that I sort of, I was inspired to, you know, make another version of that song that hopefully was also charming.
Me: Oh, it was. It was great.
Zooey Deschanel: Thanks!
Me: Thank you so much.
END.
Ah, so there it was, my brief yet satisfying encounter with one of my girly heroes. Isn’t she a doll?
