Umphrey’s McGee and JamBase partner Osiris Media released the first episode of the new podcast, Talking Circles, revolving around UM’s upcoming album Asking For A Friend. Talking Circles, with episodes arriving monthly up until the record’s release on July 1, is a deep dive into the new LP featuring discussions with all six band members on creating the album from song craft to the recording process as well as how the songs fit in a live setting and more.
The first episode of Talking Circles sees Umphrey’s McGee singer-songwriter and guitarist Brendan Bayliss along with keyboardist Joel Cummins discussing the first single from Asking For A Friend, “I Don’t Know What I Want.” The episode opens up with Bayliss detailing how the song came to fruition, which, as with a good deal of the material on the record, is colored by the pandemic.
“I kind of operate the same method where it starts musically for me first and then I’ll find a melody. So the bassline…” as Brendan sings the bassline, listeners get a chance to hear the isolated bass track, a feature that will run throughout the podcast. “I’ll have that,” Bayliss continued, “and then I’ll almost improvise over it, recording, trying to sing things that work. So initially it’s trying to find something that I think is musically interesting or inspires me to keep working on it. So the melody comes first. Then when I start trying to think about what I want to specifically say lyrically, it’s early COVID so that’s right in the forefront of everything that I’m thinking about.”
Brendan goes on to explain how “I Don’t Know What I Want” was a combination of two musical ideas. UM keyboardist Joel Cummins also talks about his and the band’s role in taking what Bayliss has and expanding it into a fully-fledged song. Brendan then goes on to detail the song further and listeners get more behind-the-scenes glimpses into the tune through snippets of stems and more. As Cummins touches on and Bayliss extrapolates, the discussion shifts to song ownership and the importance of feedback from band members as well as being able to recognize what works and what doesn’t.
“Mathematically, for me, if I come up with 10 ideas, usually three of them are good,” Bayliss said. “So, if I were to force bad ideas on everybody, I don’t think it would benefit anybody.” The conversation then turns to how “I Don’t Know What I Want” fits into a live format. Both Brendan and Joel had some fascinating insights on how the song and others make their way to the stage and evolve from there.
Listen to the first episode of Talking Circles below:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/umphreys-mcgee-talking-circles/id1613800523
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Umphrey’s McGee Shares ‘I Don’t Know What I Want’ Single
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Umphrey’s McGee Announces New Album ‘Asking For A Friend’ & Shares Single
