Iron & Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Introduction

0:00You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and piece by piece tell the story of how they were made. I'm Rishikesh Hirwe.

0:10I'm going to be on tour for the next few weeks, and all the dates are at songexploder.net slash live. I'm going to be playing songs from my new album, In the Last Hour of Light, with a full band, and I'm going to be talking about the making of my album with a special guest moderator in each city. I get to be the interviewee instead of the interviewer. So I'm going to be joined by Jason Manzoukas, Samin Nosrat, Allison Russell, Joshua Molina, Ken Jennings and John Roderick, Min Jin Lee, and Adam Scott. It's a really personal album, and I hope you can make it out to one of the shows.

0:41You can get tickets and more info at songexploder.net slash live.

Revisiting Iron & Wine

0:48This week, I wanted to go back and revisit the episode that I made with Iron & Wine in the fall of 2022. And there are a couple reasons. One, there's a new Iron & Wine album that's coming out this month called Hen's Teeth. And secondly, I actually have a song of my own that's coming out today, the same day as this episode, and it features Iron & Wine on the track.

1:09It's called Stray Dogs, and it's the first song from an album that I'm releasing in April called In the Last Hour of Light. This Iron & Wine episode of the podcast is what actually led to our collaboration on the song. I'd been a huge fan of Iron & Wine for two decades, and this live taping, which happened in Wimberley, Texas, at the Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio, was the first time that I got to meet Sam Beam from Iron & Wine.

Sam Beam Interview

1:35So before we go back and listen to the episode itself, I thought it could be nice to talk to Sam about how this episode happened and then how that led to the making of Stray Dogs. Sam, do you remember what your thoughts were leading up to the day when we met? Oh, well, I'd heard some of your podcasts, you know, some of the song Exploders, and so I would try to keep up when, you know, you're very familiar with someone's voice, but have never seen their face. You know, it's always interesting to put the voice back into the mouth, the real mouth, and your voice fit right back into your face.

2:07It was cool.

2:09Yeah, we were talking about bands that we liked, and it was interesting to hear how familiar, and having never met you, how familiar you were with my writing. It was a nice surprise. One of the things that was really special for me that day was to tell you the story about my mom in 2003 when she'd come to visit me for the first time in L.A., and I'd been listening to your first album so much. And my mom, you know, she enjoyed some of the music that I listened to.

2:39Yeah, she's a huge post-punk fan, I'm sure. She was like, Fugazi only in the car. I get it, Rishi, yeah, I love it. But I said to my mom, I just, I love this album, you gotta hear this song. And I played her Upward Over the Mountain, just thinking that she would, you know, really enjoy it. Mother, remember the blink of an eye when I breathe through your body. But then, to my surprise, she started crying, and I'd never seen her have that kind of reaction to music before.

3:16And when we met, it had been a couple years since she'd passed away, but that's just a really precious memory to me. And it was very special for me just to be able to tell you that you had been responsible for this moment of connection between my mom and myself.

Collaboration Story

3:30So it was really, really special to get to do that taping. Right back at you, buddy. It was fun. And then something happened, which doesn't happen too often on the podcast, which is that we stayed in touch. Yeah, that's right. I came into town with my daughter that time, and we all went to lunch, and, you know, I just find it, like, better to have more friends than fewer. Yeah. And then a few months later, I texted you, and I said, Okay. I'm currently panicking a little.

3:56In a couple weeks, I'm going back to Blue Rock in Texas, where we did our live taping. They have a program where they let four songwriters come stay for a week and work on music. And I've never done something like that. I'm very nervous about not writing anything at all and squandering the opportunity. I had maybe a weird idea. I was wondering if you might be willing to think of a prompt for me, a sort of assignment. I think not wanting to let someone else down might be more powerful than my own paralysis, not to burden you with my problems, but if it would be fun slash interesting for you.

4:29I love giving other people word, man. It was great. And so you wrote back right away. You said, Sure thing. Try one of these, or all of them. Write a confession and defend yourself for something you've never done. Pick a line from an obituary and use it as the first line of your song. And the last one was, Describe a street you grew up on from the point of view of a stray dog. Oh, yeah. Honestly, it was pretty random. Imagine you're a dog. Yeah. But for some reason, it spoke to you and gave you, you know, inspiration you needed as a starting point to go somewhere else.

5:03It made me immediately think of when I was eight years old, I went to my mom's hometown in India, and there were just dogs running around on the street. And I was kind of scared of dogs growing up. And the idea of, like, stray dogs was pretty scary. Yeah. But these dogs were just having fun. It was like we weren't even there. The people did not matter to them at all. And they just had their own little community, and they were just running around having fun. And so that is the image that immediately came to mind.

5:33A pack of stray dogs by my uncle's house Tearing down the street A streak of wild legs and open mouths In love with their lives and lesbians Remembering that and remembering the feeling that I got from those dogs Also reminded me of the feeling that I had When I was younger and with my friends who I used to play in a band with

6:05I thought about how much I missed them And how much I missed the way that life used to feel back then We used to be That free So before I even got to Texas, I wrote a draft of this song, and I sent it to you. Yeah, it's cool. I thought it was fun that you jumped in. It's a very meditative style that you have, and I thought it was really fun to hear where you went with it. You just happened to say the right combination of words to me.

6:35Yeah. And that's a song that I would have never thought of without that phrase to bounce off of. So then, when it came time to record the album, I wrote to you and took another big swing, and I asked if you would sing on it, since it was already tied to you, and so much of the album's about my family, and my mom and I had bonded over your music. Yeah. And you wrote back right away, and you said, of course, no sweat, which is amazing. I can't believe The joy that poured out of them

7:07Mangy and Ling What was the process like for you when you were recording the vocals for this song? I kind of listened through a couple of times and see if it's something that I should sing over a bunch of stuff, or just sort of duck in and out and just try to make an arrangement thing. So I was just trying to give weight to certain sections. Yeah, I love digging into other people's melodies and seeing how I can participate.

7:42And then another person on this song is Billy Crockett, who owns Blue Rock, where we did our episode, and where I did that songwriting residency. And he's an amazing musician, and he kind of brought us together. So I asked him to play the guitar solo on this song.

8:05I found like collaborations are the most exciting, to me anyway, because you never know. So you've got to be game, and you've got to sort of be vulnerable. But I find that that's the way to surprise yourself. When you get to a point like us, you write a lot of songs, it gets harder and harder to surprise yourself. But you start involving other people, and it gets pretty easy. Well, I really can't thank you enough for being a part of it. It really... Oh, man. It's really incredible for me. That's amazing. You're so kind. It was a treat to participate.

8:35You know, making music is fun. Making music with friends is the best.

8:40Thank you so much for listening to this extended intro, and I hope you'll check out Stray Dogs, which is out now. You can go to songexploder.net slash straydogs to listen. And if you want to stay in touch with me about my own music and the album that's coming up, please sign up for my newsletter. You can also find that on the Song Exploder website. The new Iron & Wine album is out February 27th.

Flightless Bird Story

9:02It's called Hen's Teeth. But right now, here's the episode from November 2022 about the Iron & Wine classic, Flightless Bird, American Mouth.

9:14In 2002, Sam Beam's first album as Iron & Wine was released on Sub Pop Records. He'd given them a bunch of demos, and rather than have him re-record those songs, they just released the demos themselves. Since then, he's put out five more full-length albums, and he's been nominated for multiple Grammys. For this episode, Sam looked back at the making of his song, Flightless Bird, American Mouth, from his 2007 album, The Shepherd's Dog. A year after that album came out, the song was used prominently in a scene in the movie Twilight,

9:46and it's been one of the most popular Iron & Wine songs ever since. I talked to Sam at Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio in Wimberley, Texas, in front of a small audience. Coming up, you'll hear the original demo he recorded, and how that transformed into the final version of the song. Have I found you?

10:11Flightless Bird Grounded Me And I lost you

Song Creation Process

10:27I'm Sam Beam, and I have a musical project called Iron & Wine.

10:38My family was growing, and I was traveling the world more, traveling the country and the world, and seeing more of the universe. We had been living in Florida for a while, and we were getting ready to move to Texas. That was also in a time right after 9-11. And it was still pretty fresh. And the way that made us all feel differently about the world, or just the way the world was changing in that time. And I was also a young man,

11:09coming to terms with histories that I had learned, and I was reacting to this difference between the myth and the reality. I was a quick, wet boy Diving for candy coins All over your street Light eyes Wide on my plastic toy That demo was recorded in 2004,

11:44and it sounds like those early Iron & Wine records, because I used the same process. I got the sense pretty early that it was like a rite of passage kind of story. It's me talking to America and describing our relationship. Have I found you Flightless bird Jealous Weeping

12:18I used to multitrack the drums one head at a time And so my kids and my wife at the time, they always complained about, you know, hearing this boom Boom, boom You know, or a

12:48bing, bing, bing You know, or someone said in the back room At that point, I was definitely learning about demo-itis as well. Because if you develop a demo too well, and you try to chase the thing, it's impossible. More with Iron & Wine after this.

13:12Song Exploder is sponsored by the game Mixtape. And to learn more, I talked to one of the creators. My name is Johnny Galvatron. I'm the writer and director of Mixtape. It's about three teenagers on their last day of high school going to their final party together, listening to the greatest mixtape of all time. And where did the idea for this game originally come from? Just wanting to make a game based around That's Good by Devo, which is the greatest song of all time. There's just something alive in that song that speaks to me. And it's very much a game about being a music lover

13:43and someone who appreciates music and knows where to place it in their life. And then game-wise, there are different kinds of mechanics. There's different kinds of music. There's different kind of art style. So the game as a whole should be viewed as a mixtape and kind of this artistry of arrangement. And so how is the game itself like a mixtape? So usually in a video game, you will have a standard set of mechanics, which might be fighting. But in a mixtape, there's different people saying different things

14:14with different vibes. And you want each song to be given its own experience, its own life. And you want to use the medium. That's what's kind of important about making video games. You want to use the medium to show what the music is showing. We have this song, BJ Thomas, most of all, where a friend gets betrayed and she floats back through town and just kind of knocks everything out of her way as she floats through town and you control her. And like, what a beautiful way to kind of use that song and to use a mechanic and input to show the betrayal

14:44and the despondency and the sadness. And when you can get all those things mixed together and hit those crescendos where you hit between video game, music, narrative, that's the goal, that's the diamond that you aim for. I think you would really dig it. Mixtape comes out May 7th on console and PC. Check it out at mixtape.game.

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16:39You can create email and social media campaigns so you can find your customers. So start your business today with the industry's best business partner, Shopify, and start seeing new sales. Sign up for your $1 per month trial today at shopify.com slash song exploder. Go to shopify.com slash song exploder. Again, that's shopify.com slash song exploder. I was building my own studio.

17:10So I brought in Brian Deck who had recorded the record before that, Our Endless Number Days. We did that in Chicago. That was my first experience in a studio and it was frustrating and illuminating everything. And so I got the bug, bought a bunch of gear and he came to Texas and helped me set it up and we got to work. I also had a bunch of kids and I had to take them to school or change a diaper or whatever. It was a mess. But it was also, you know, it was part of the adventure,

17:40setting up this mad factory at your house and trying to, you know, make a life out of it. And so Brian would make a loop, like some interesting loop, and I would play a guitar.

18:00And then go back and we would record everything else, track by track.

18:09I was a quick, wet boy Diving too deep for coins I changed one of the lyrics from that demo that you played because I decided diving too deep for coins was better than my candy coins. I liked the idea of reflecting on yourself as someone diving too deep for things that you were after. And the other stuff was me just reminiscing

18:39about my neighborhood as a kid, you know, running around on the streetlights. Then when the cops closed the fair I cut my long baby hair Stole me a dog-eared map And called for you everywhere I was also really into Allen Ginsberg at the time and some of the other beat poets,

19:10just their way of describing America. A lot of incongruous images thrown up against each other. I think the beginning of it the imagery is innocent and then it gets more complex and more frustrated as the thing goes on. Have I found you, flightless bird, the innocent part of America or have I lost you, the American mouth with a big pill stuck going down?

19:41Have I found you, flightless bird, jealous, weeping, oh, lost you American mouth, big pill, blue

20:15And then once I got to the idea of like America being a mouth the rest kind of felt like that things are going wrong. This is Brian Deck Brian's a drummer. It's one of the reasons I wanted to work with him because I wish I could go back in time and be part of the rhythm section but I'm not that good

20:46but that's where my heart is and so I wanted a producer who loved that as much as me. What's interesting, you can hear this room it's not like a treated room at all it was just this round room it was a terrible idea to record drums in there.

21:11That's Rob Berger playing the piano. I love bringing other musicians in I mean, the demos are, you know, just me and, you know, I can flesh it out a bunch but the fun comes when you bring other people in and they expand what you're doing in a way that you would never imagine.

21:30Rob, the piano player, is also an incredible accordion player. Mostly I just wanted new voices new sounds that I hadn't used before and I had plenty to choose from because the early records were so sparse.

21:53That's an acoustic electric guitar with a tool called the E-bow it basically makes the string vibrate the way, you know, a violin bow would and so it gives this long sustain.

22:15My grandma used to play piano in church and I remember as a tiny kid like she would sing the harmonies you know, standing beside me and I'd like listen to her and the music in your ear just kind of starts to expand and you're like, ooh, that's fun. listening to her woke up something in my brain or tickled it in a way that just made it really happy. At the time I just really liked stacking harmonies. Pissing on magazine

22:46Photos those fish and lures Thrown in the cold and clean Blood of Christ mountain stream I had done a bunch of hiking I had done a bunch of hiking in the Sangre de Cristo mountains in New Mexico and so I was just kind of like using the words.

23:17It's a roundabout long-winded fancy way to say there are things sacred things that I don't think are being treated as sacred. You know, there's something something vulnerable is being exploited. Like, I think advertising is bullshit. That kind of thing. I mean, obviously it serves a purpose but like if you get lost in those things you miss out on some of this beautiful cold clean Blood of Christ water. You know it was just sort of

23:47this American feeling. The high piano stuff is Rob We had a really weird filter thing called the Sherman and anytime we had a spot where we didn't know where to go it was like Sherman see what happens.

24:12It was my studio so for better or for worse I could work on it whenever I wanted to. I was able to approach it the way that I would a painting. You work on something walk away clear your head look at a lot of other painting to work on other stuff and come back and address it in a totally different mindset and usually have a new idea of how to approach it. Like in the second section of the song where you're just sort of building

24:42more and more girth you know just making it thicker the drones and all the different clangs and tambourines it kind of starts quiet then it gets joyous and a little haywire-ish and it's fun. You can give me a little bit more I'll see you next time by Lesley in the next thing. the show and the and you in the next the song and

25:12in the next one of the and the the the song the and the the song and the La-la-la-la-la, la-la-la-la-la Ooh, ooh You know, I wrote this song, and oddly enough,

25:45it's been the most well-known from this movie that it was in, Twilight. You know, it came out around the time they were filming this movie, And as far as I've been told the story, a reputable source told me that Kristen Stewart was listening to it in her headphones while they were blocking this dance scene. And she was watching going, oh, this kind of fits. You know, you guys want to put this on some speakers. And they listened to it so many times, it just stuck in their brain and it became a replaceable song for them.

26:19But yeah, it changed my life.

26:24And, you know, we were doing better than I had ever imagined. I don't know what I'm doing. I don't know how to read music. I don't know what I'm playing. I just enjoy making songs. I never imagined that this would be my career. And so I had already felt like the luckiest person on the planet. And then when it got on the soundtrack and the audience just sort of blossomed and bloomed in this way that I never imagined, it was a huge part of the building of my career.

26:54You never know, man. You never know where they're going to land. I feel like what happens in the song is a statement.

27:25This is what it was like when I was young. And this is what I'm frustrated about now. Growing up and getting older and starting to understand how things work and just feeling unsettled. I don't feel like this narrator ever reached some kind of resolution. I think it's just more of like things are different now and I don't think they're great. I don't know who I am. Am I the flightless bird in the American mouth? You know, it feels like somewhere in between those things.

27:56Anytime someone's griping about the state of their country it's because they're frustrated and don't feel like they can change it except by saying it.

28:06And I love America. I mean, it's fine to like love America and criticize it at the same time. It's what we do. But we usually criticize the things we love the most.

Song Meaning and Impact

28:15And now, here's Flightless Bird, American Mouth by Iron & Wine in its entirety. I was a quick, wet boy Diving too deep Four coins All of your street Light eyes White on my Plastic toys

28:47Then when the cops Closed the fair I cut my long Baby hair Stole me Stole me A dog Eared Map Called for you Everywhere Have I found you Lightless Bird Jealous Weep And No

29:17Weep And Weep No Lost you American Mouth Big Blue Now I'm a fat Now I'm a fat house cat, nursing my sore blunt tongue, watching the warm poison bats go through the white fence.

30:01Cracks pissing on magazine, photos of those fish and roars thrown in the cold and clean, where the cries mountain streamed. Have I found you, flightless bird, grounded with me?

30:39We have not lost you, American love. We have not lost you, American love. We have not lost you, American love. We have not lost you, American love.

31:13We have not lost you, American love. We have not lost you, American love. Thank you.

31:55Thank you.

32:25For more, visit songexploder.net. You'll find links to buy or stream Flightless Bird American Mouth.

32:37Song Exploder and the show's theme music were created by me. I produced this episode with Craig Ely, with artwork by Carlos Lerma, music clearance by Kathleen Smith, and production assistance from Mary Dolan. Special thanks to Billy and Dodie Crockett at Blue Rock Artist Ranch and Studio. And special thanks to the folks at PRX who put the taping together. Song Exploder is a proud member of Radiotopia from PRX, a network of independent, listener-supported, artist-owned podcasts. You can learn more about our shows

33:08at radiotopia.fm. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at Rishi Hirwe, and you can follow the show at Song Exploder. You can also get a Song Exploder t-shirt at songexploder.net slash shirt. I'm Rishikesh Hirwe. Thanks for listening. Radiotopia from PRX I want to tell you about another Radiotopia show

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