Zach Condon, the creative force behind the band Beirut, toured hard in until his body said stop in the one way he couldn't ignore. It tried getting me exhausted. And I think once it found the voice and it kind of pulled the plug on that, it realized that it could shut everything down.
So Zach Condon told me he went looking for a place to regroup. He wanted somewhere icy and dark. And so I kind of went looking for the most extreme version of that in northern Norway. When you're playing it, it's like riding a bicycle because you're pumping air into the bellows with your feet. You mean you're actually pedaling your feet like a bicycle. You're literally pedaling your feet like a bicycle, yeah. And it - also, it gives you some kind of room for expression and other such things that you wouldn't have on a church organ, for example.
It's the same kind of reeds. It's just a different system of kind of bellows and air, I guess. SHAPIRO: And so how much of you is thinking, oh, I've got the place to create my next album and make new music, as opposed to I just need to lick my wounds and recover and be away from people for a little while. I mean, that was my entire purpose. But, yeah, once I saw the pictures of the pump organ and I found out that it was in tune and it worked, I kind of went into autopilot. Like, I wasn't really thinking anymore.
I was just reacting. And I was packing five suitcases full of equipment and making these plans as if it was a studio visit. It was a very meditative track, and it was a very meditative night. I actually was writing that at Agvar's ph house. Agvar is the guy who let me play the church organ and collects and repairs pump organs from around northern Norway, actually. You were there in the Arctic winter. The first month was mostly darkness.
And I think my parents thought I might go there and lose my mind. I always have. Actually, since I was about 11 years old, I've suffered from really bad insomnia.
