Yeasayer's Anand Wilder Breaks Down Their Album "Fragrant World"

Get the scoop straight from the band before the LP drops tomorrow.

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Image via Complex Original
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“Fingers Never Bleed”

Anand: “It kind of reminds me of a Boyz II Men song. [Laughs.] This one kind of captures a demented R&B sound. It’s a little bit skittish, kind of abstract in the beginning, then drops into a more R&B flavored chorus. It’s about people that don’t work or use their hands. A criticism of people who don’t create anything.”

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“Longevity”

Anand: “This was a single that we were all really excited about as being a new direction for the band. There’s a great sounding sub-bass in it, and a pretty good melody that goes back and forth. A lot of good drops. The [meaning of the song] is in the lyrics, so it can you can take it however you want. But I’m into longevity.”

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“Blue Paper”

Anand: “We were trying to be as minimal as possible. Just a few elements. I don’t know if we achieved it, but that was the goal with that one. It was inspired by Prince. I wish Prince could sing it.

"This song is actually two separate recordings glued together. You can notice at the end. The tempo changes at the end. We took two different completely distinct recordings, and pasted them together.”

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“Henrietta”

Anand: “'Henrietta' went through a lot of changes. You can look at old live footage of how we used to play it and it’s much more straightforward. We kind of revamped the beat, and made a more linear song structure. And then at the end, it kind of repeats at nauseum. It’s got some great riffs in the beginning, and a pretty nice emotional build at the end.

"The song is about Henrietta Lacks, [a famous woman from Baltimore whose cancer cells lived on after her death]. There’s a great Radiolab [episode] about her. I’m from Baltimore, but I didn’t write the song. Chris wrote it. He basically heard the Radiolab, read the book about The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and then wrote the song about it.”

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“Devil and the Deed”

Anand: “That song was written around a cello sample. We debuted that on Conan [O'Brien's talk show] about a year ago, before we even recorded. You can find it online, and see the performance, and from there, you can see the development of that song. But that was written around the time of the Conan performance, and then went through some changes.

"Yeah, we wanted to play something new rather than play a song off Odd Blood, and I think our record company was not too happy about that. [Laughs.] It doesn’t really help to sell albums to play a song that’s not on any albums. But I don’t think [Conan] really cared. It was kind of an honor for us to be playing a song on his show that no one had ever heard before. It was totally exclusive. Conan’s really cool.”

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“No Bones”

Anand: “We were really trying to make a schizophrenic, contemporary dance song. We used a really cool sequencer called an Electribe to get the initial riff at the beginning of the song. The riff was recorded live, using the sequencer as an instrument, sliding the pitch fader up and down.

"Everything starts with the computer. We demo stuff at home, and bring it in and see what we want to make into a Yeasayer song. And it’s always computer based. But there’s always live stuff involved. If you don’t have that, the music suffers in terms of dynamics. It’s always good to have a human touch in there.

"There’s a lot of live performance on the record, but it’s generally cut up, and placed, and tweaked. There’s something to be said for analog equipment, like a vintage guitar amp or something. But we also want to be at the forefront of technology. We like both.”

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“Reagan’s Skeleton”

Anand: “Yeah, I think this [would sound great on the radio]. It’s kind of a straight up, four to the floor disco beat, with a little bit of a stilted backbeat in there. We recorded this after our initial recording sessions in the fall with this guy who had all this analog synth gear we could hook up to, to get that warmth, grit, edge that you can’t get out of digital.

"I don’t think the political message in this song is that hidden. It’s kind of like a zombie, skeleton party. And yeah, Ronald Reagan, I think that’s the one! [Laughs.]

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“Demon Road”

Anand: “This is a pretty cool song. We actually recorded it in two separate sessions too, the beginning part and then the end part. It’s probably my favorite song on the album, actually. I like this one a lot. It’s just one of those songs. I like the sound of it. I feel like it’s a moment of uplift. I think “Reagan’s Skeleton” and “Demon Road” are kind of uplifting songs, and not too harsh.”

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“Damaged Goods”

Anand: “This is like if Art Garfunkel was to do an Italian disco song. [Laughs.]

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“Folk Hero Schtick”

Anand: “We were trying to pack as many influences as we could into one song. It’s kind of schizophrenic. It goes all over the place. It’s a little bit of a throwback to our psychedelic era, with the swirling, 12-string guitars. This is kind of directed at a sort of egomaniacal rock star who thinks he’s connected to the people.”

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“Glass of the Microscope”

Anand: “This went through a bunch of incarnations. It’s a pretty ballad to end the album. Chris wrote it as kind of an homage to like, a Roy Orbison song like 'In Dreams,' that go from start to finish and keep building. We wanted to make a song that was a little bit softer and sweeter sounding.”

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