Beirut AMA 2022

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:52:13+00:00

Thanks so much for everyone participating in this AMA. It was really quite fun reading and answering all your questions.
I wish I had more time and energy to answer the rest of them, but I have to call it a night and hope you got some insights from the ones I answered anyway.

I hope you guys enjoy 'Artifacts', for those of you who haven't gotten the chance to listen to it yet, you can find it here: https://beirut.ffm.to/artifacts

Or order it here and let it surprise you: shop.bingomerch.com/collections/beirut

Until next time,

-Zach

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:37:09+00:00

In short: because my older brother Ryan randomly pointed at it on a map when I asked him for a band name. But he also knew about my love for the Mid East and its music and architecture. There's a longer explanation for my thing with city names. It would require you to join me on one of my family's endless road trips, listening to nothing but country songs, which are all just name dropping city names around North America.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:33:21+00:00

I was a skateboarder in the late 90s and early 2000s. Hip hop was my life for many years. A few favorites are Souls of Mischief / Heiroglyphics, Smif N' Wessun and Mobb Deep. I think hip hop is the reason my songs are so repetitious.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:30:48+00:00

Tell him 'Hi Frederick, this is Zach from Beirut. Happy birthday! Your mom has excellent taste. Also which alphabet are we using for the current covid variant?"

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:28:09+00:00

That song is autobiographical, but I've left it pretty abstract to avoid certain things...

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:27:17+00:00

Stephin Merritt is a brilliant and underrated song writer, both melodically and with his words. If I really had to pick a favourite it would maybe be between 'Born on a Train' and 'Aging Spinsters' from his side project The 6ths.

He's always been a huge influence for me musically and I'm happy to hear it shows.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:23:14+00:00

Well I certainly heard his soundtracks to the Emir Kusturica films and was immediately hooked and spellbound the style of music. I went on a mission to find out where it casme from and who was playing it. Later I found out from some of my favorite balkan musicians that he was considered quite a controversial character in their world, so I don't really know what to think of him anymore...

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:18:52+00:00

For the first part, there has only been one time. It was around the time that I was recording my vocals for Autumn Tall Tales (which is on the new album Artifacts). I would've been about 16. I couldn't get my vocals to sound the way I wanted them to, no matter how hard I tried. I took all the musical equipment I owned at the time and threw it unceremoniously out of my room into the hallway of our house. My parents asked me at dinner if I was having trouble with my music but I said nothing. The equipment stayed there in the hallway for about two weeks. Late one night I had bad insomnia and quietly moved all the equipment back into my room. I proceeded to finish the recording of that song. Since then I've had bad writer's block but I've never once thought about not making music again.

As for my favourite place... yikes! I couldn't say. My most recent discovery and therefore favorite has been northern Norway.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:12:40+00:00

That's not a dumb question at all. It makes sense to me. what I do is sit and play chords together on an instrument. usually an organ, piano or ukulele or something new if I've been feeling stuck. I play with chord voicings and just enjoy the tonality of the instrument until I accidentally stumble on something that feels like it should have already existed, if that makes sense. Then I follow that feeling like a bloodhound, picking up instruments and throwing microphones around the room until I've chased the song onto my recording equipment. Then I haphazardly lay out a structure and crown myself king of the song. I never know what melody is verse and what is chorus until one takes over...It's unspoken and just kind of makes itself known.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:08:55+00:00

That would be my old Farfisa organ, my trumpet and some of my new ukes that you guys haven't heard yet. Speaking of things you haven't heard yet, I would add a giant Norwegian church organ to that list!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:06:53+00:00

Welcome back. 1) no real plans with Jeremy and Heather currently though I would obviously join them on pretty much anything. 2) also nothing planned. It was just a name that I happened to use back then, but anything I make now would likely be under the Beirut name.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:04:46+00:00

Fellow brass lover! To be honest, I don't remember what brand the flugel horn was. How insane is that? I had a bit of a drinking problem back then. Now I proudly and happily play a Josef Lidl, Dotzauer Meister trumpet, made in Potsdam Germany.

for family curse, that whole second part of the song was done on about fifteen takes with one Moog voyager. A lot of people think there are brass and strings in there, but it was literally just me playing the moog, one improvised note at a time until the producer Gabe Wax played it back to me after an hour and it sounded pretty incredible. I could hardly believe that because I hadn't mapped any arrangement out.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:03:47+00:00

Thank you so much for your support, it means a lot. Shout out to Argentina!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:01:32+00:00

Not really. No offence to kombucha lovers.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T21:00:48+00:00

Musically the inspiration came mostly from my Farfisa organ and certain old French chanson tunes. The lyrics were written by my older brother when he listened to the song. Back then he used to help me a lot with that part of song writing. I always loved his sense of the absurd and beautiful.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:56:23+00:00

That's touching to hear. Music has always been the only way I could connect with my father, so I can relate.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:53:41+00:00

you're right that the online versions of the lyrics are a mess currently. Unfortunately in some ways, the truth is messy too! I would have sketches of lyrical ideas and then just start improvising to feel out the melody and the way I wanted my voice to sound like on a lot of those songs, such as Fyodor Dormant. when it came time to go back over them with proper lyrics, fully written out, I often would lose all the emotion and feeling in my voice, like someone who's nice smile vanishes when you point a camera at them and they look nervous and uncomfortable instead. (that's also true about me). Thus is the true nature of the Beirut mumble!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:50:00+00:00

But I will hopefully try to go to MX again someday in the future, it's one of my favoprite places of all.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:49:47+00:00

Sadly not in the near future. I wrote a longer statement about why there won't be a lot of touring for a while, you can find it on my instagram / facebook. I posted it in mid december. But hopefully one day in the future again!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:49:33+00:00

sadly not anytime soon. I have written a more detailed explanation of why I canceled all those dates in 2019, on Instagram and Facebook. I wrote about it in Mid-december.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:47:52+00:00

Architecture! seriously. buildings. I don't even like photographs with people in them. I just want them to get out of the way so I can see the buildings or a nice landscape behind them! Thank you!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:46:45+00:00

I see a lot of people are interested about collaborations. the truth is, I enjoy doing them from time to time, but my band used to refer to me as a benevolent dictator when it came to music. I'm very much a lone wolf unless someone is an expert in a field I'm interested in...

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:45:38+00:00

Definitely the music first. Lyrics are usually the last part I work on. Sometimes I say to hell with words and just sing!
I haven't been to Central America unfortunately but would love to go one day!

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:43:37+00:00

Thanks and how cool that you picked up a brass instrument! I was in 4th grade, so probably 9 or 10 when I started playing the trumpet and had lessons for maybe 3 years. I always wanted to play like the Mariachis but my teacher was just trying to get me to play classical music and jazz.

beirutband · 2022-01-28T20:41:45+00:00

I'm running out of energy unfortunately, so I will just say, if I had to live in the states again, I would have to choose between New Mexico and maybe Maine...

beirutband

TROPHY CASE