Air - Playground Love (feat. Gordon Tracks)

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Speaker 1 The band Air is a duo from Versailles, France. The first EP came out in 1995, followed by their critically acclaimed debut album Moon Safari, which was an international hit.

Speaker 1 Then, they made the music for the film The Virgin Suicides, which was written and directed by Oscar winner Sophia Coppola, based on the novel by Jeffrey Eugenides.

Speaker 1 The movie came out in 1999, and it was Sofia Coppola's first film. An album version of Air's score came out in 2000 and was nominated for a Brit Award.

Speaker 1 Pitchfork put it at number four on their list of the best film scores of all time.

Speaker 1 In addition to the instrumental music that appears in the movie, Air also wrote a song for the end credits called Playground Love.

Speaker 1 That song featured Sophia Coppola's future husband, Tomas Mars, from the French band Phoenix on vocals. Phoenix was still a very new band, and he and Sophia hadn't even met yet.

Speaker 1 Tomas appears on the song under the name Gordon Tracks.

Speaker 1 So for this episode, I spoke to all of them. Nicola and JB from Air, Sophia Coppola, Tomas Mars, as well as Brian Reitzel, the music supervisor on the film.

Speaker 1 The story of the song Playground Love begins over 25 years ago, with Sophia Coppola starting her work on the Virgin Suicides.

Speaker 3 I'm Sophia Coppola.

Speaker 1 How did you first hear Air's music?

Speaker 3 I remember I was in London and I was writing the script for Virgin Suicide, so it was probably

Speaker 3 97 or 98. And I was in Rough Trade Record Shop, just looking around at albums.
And I saw Airs, I guess, a CD. And I remember just asking the guy, like, oh, is this good? Do you like it?

Speaker 3 And they recommended it. So I bought it and I took it home and I was listening to it while I was working on my script.

Speaker 3 And yeah, I just got really into the atmosphere of it.

Speaker 3 Because the story is set in the 70s, but it's actually 20 years in the future looking back at that time.

Speaker 3 I like the idea of not having music from the period for the score, that it's a memory, and then to have contemporary music that's related to the 70s. And it had that quality.

Speaker 4 It was both current and 70s retro. My name is Brian Reitzel.
I was the music supervisor for The Virgin Suicides. And this was before the release of Moon Safari.

Speaker 4 When Moon Safari did come out a few months later, it just sealed the deal, you know?

Speaker 2 How did you all actually meet?

Speaker 4 I I met the Air guys in LA when they were here doing a music video.

Speaker 2 It's a very LA classic story. Like we met him at the party at the Chateau Maron.
That's so unoriginal.

Speaker 2 I am Nicola from the band Air.

Speaker 5 I am J.B. Dankel, also from Air.

Speaker 5 And so we met him in a party, and then we decided to play with him some drums.

Speaker 2 Because Brian Redzel is also a drummer. He was in this band called Red Cross.

Speaker 4 They were putting together a band with all U.S. musicians to do a tour for Moon Safari.
So the timing was just perfect.

Speaker 1 Had you two ever had any experience scoring film before?

Speaker 2 No. No.
That's why it was cool because we never did some tracks, we never did movies. So we said, okay, let's go for the ride and see what happens.

Speaker 2 The style of the movie is very beautiful and it's kind of ethereal in a way. But we started by reading the book, and the book is much more dark.
So very fast.

Speaker 2 the idea was to do very dark music, especially because we were coming after Munsefari, which was a very light kind of easy listening album. And we wanted to show the dark side of us.

Speaker 2 And also it was a good way to avoid the second album syndrome because you can have a lot of pressure. But if you decide that the second album is a soundtrack, it's a totally different context.

Speaker 5 We had this concept that every part had to be understandable and listenable on its own. So it was not exactly like a real soundtrack.

Speaker 5 It was more like a sort of soundtrack-y pop album around the movie. And we had like some VHS tapes, like some sequences of the movie.
And we would improvise.

Speaker 1 How did the two of you write together? Are you in the same room when you're writing?

Speaker 2 Yeah. Were you even on the same piano?

Speaker 1 You sit at the piano together?

Speaker 2 Yeah. It's a four four hands recording.
I played the melody and Julie played the chords.

Speaker 5 We had like an eight-track recorder with no memory, and so when something was wrong, we had to re-record again and to replay it.

Speaker 5 So we would like replay constantly what we were doing, and it was a perfect way to learn the song.

Speaker 5 But this theme, this melody, these chords, we recorded them many times, like in many versions. We did like a vibraph version.

Speaker 2 We did an organ version, we did a Rhodes version. Brian Redzel flew to Paris, he did the drums.

Speaker 4 There were variations of a main theme threaded throughout the score.

Speaker 5 We kept the basic idea of it in a way the other versions were rehearsals.

Speaker 5 Thomas Pancalter from Deathpunk, he said something in an interview that I really understand.

Speaker 5 He said that he's always like putting everything in the trash. And this is a beautiful way to make music just to delete and to destroy constantly what you do.

Speaker 5 And at the end, there will be like something surviving and it's going to be good.

Speaker 2 They took this theme, high school events, all over the movie.

Speaker 2 And so they called us and they asked,

Speaker 2 yeah, we need to do a song for the credits.

Speaker 4 Rather than license a song, we thought it would be cooler and more classic to have our original song for the film.

Speaker 1 What's the significance for you of the end credit song in a film?

Speaker 3 I always feel like that's so important because it's kind of like your big finish. It's the end.
It's the feeling that the audience leaves with. And it's sort of a punctuation.

Speaker 3 So I always feel like it's really important.

Speaker 4 I think having an original end credit song is just a classic way to tie everything together, to have the music crystallize into one complete piece.

Speaker 4 I suggested a song arrangement with a vocal of the main theme, but I think it was hard for them at first. They had already delivered the score.
I was back in LA. They thought they were done, you know.

Speaker 4 Plus, we wanted vocals.

Speaker 5 At the time, we didn't sing on our albums, but I think we tried to describe this magic moment of having like two young people falling in love.

Speaker 5 First of all, you do some yogurts. You know,

Speaker 2 we call it yogurt.

Speaker 5 It means that you try to sing something, but it doesn't make any sense, and the sounds are falling naturally, and they transform into words.

Speaker 5 So, like, anytime or anywhere, this kind of thing, it has to sound good when you sing it through the vocoder.

Speaker 5 Anywhere you want.

Speaker 5 any time

Speaker 5 Anywhere

Speaker 5 Everything you'd say

Speaker 2 We were in Versailles and the only singer we knew in Versailles was Thomas

Speaker 6 So my name is Thomas Morris. Somehow for this specific project I was I picked Cordon Tracks as artist name.
And I'm a member of the band Phoenix. We have a long history with L

Speaker 6 because we were their backing band. They were going to tour in the UK first.

Speaker 6 The label thought, we just signed Phoenix. They don't have experience.
I'm sure they'd love to get some live experience and play with you guys. I was also playing drums in my band on the record.

Speaker 6 And so we thought, well, we'll be their backing band and i'll play drums and uh when we were rehearsing they just finished moon safari they were working on virgin suicides so it was really exciting for us because it was like going into like the headquarters of like a band about to explode internationally and so we called him i said man we have to do a song for this movie can you sing it and can you write lyrics and by the way can you do the drums as well i said yeah i'll do it they had written one line they had written anytime anywhere

Speaker 5 high school lover is in a f sharp and uh we changed it into c for uh thomas

Speaker 6 because of his vocal range yeah yeah for him to sing properly on it where did you start with lyrics i specifically saw the scene of trip fontaine on the football field There's also a famous shot of him getting into the high school in slow motion and all the girls are turning like his hair is blowing and the music was so inspiring that the words came really quickly

Speaker 6 did they give you any direction as to how they wanted you to sing the song so they are very loose on certain things and they're very extremely precise on others they are very loose on the lyrics, like everything that was my creativity somehow.

Speaker 6 They really trusted me on this.

Speaker 6 But the rhythm of the song, they wanted it to be exactly on the grid.

Speaker 6 It was almost like if I was out of tune, it didn't matter. But if I was like slightly behind, that was a huge problem for them.
I remember them being very precise in that sense:

Speaker 2 Love is all

Speaker 2 my soul,

Speaker 2 you're my playground love.

Speaker 1 There's something really specific and kind of creepy in a great way. You're almost whispering when you sing.

Speaker 6 I remember growing up listening a lot to NXS on Kik. They have a recording technique that's pretty incredible because it makes it sound really close.

Speaker 6 This is before ASMR and it was Ultimate Year Candy growing up. And I remember that was a reference for myself.
I was like, I want it to sound like this.

Speaker 6 At the time, I didn't understand that you need the right amount of space between the mic and the voice. I was like, let me get as close as possible.

Speaker 6 So I was always, when I would set it up, it was always, I would push it so that it was so close.

Speaker 2 Yet, my hands are shaking.

Speaker 2 I feel my body remains.

Speaker 1 I have to ask you more about the Gordon tracks part. Why did you decide to record it under a pseudonym?

Speaker 6 Well, Phoenix hadn't released anything yet, and I didn't want everybody to talk about the air project when we were doing our Phoenix promo.

Speaker 6 I wanted it to be only about Phoenix, and I didn't want to stand out from the band. And then I always loved like pseudonym in the band Mars is not my real last name.

Speaker 6 It's just fun to have something that was even more exotic

Speaker 1 the story of playground love continues after this

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Speaker 1 What was your first reaction to Tomas's vocals?

Speaker 5 Me, when I heard him singing, I remember that I liked very much the lyrics because they were really, really super simple.

Speaker 1 Why did you like that they were simple?

Speaker 5 Because they were really understandable.

Speaker 5 And you know, I think that I'm not good in English, but I feel when it fits into the song well, and it was the case, you know, it was being delivered really clearly and properly, and so I liked it very much.

Speaker 2 I'm on fire

Speaker 2 on the playground.

Speaker 6 I love the lazy drumming. It's the Ringo fascination of just the most basic, simple drumming.

Speaker 6 Back then, a snare drum, if you would hear a snare drum that you like, you knew you were going to like the record.

Speaker 6 You couldn't judge an album by its cover, but you could judge a song by its snare drum sound.

Speaker 6 They understood that. It all came down to taste.

Speaker 2 That's what I like about drummers. I like when they have a cool attitude.
You know, like Ringo Stars, when you look at him playing, he's got a cool gesture. And Thomas...

Speaker 2 When he plays drums, he's so stylish, the way he holds his sticks and the way he holds his arms.

Speaker 2 You can't fail at making a bad drum take when you have this kind of attitude you know i always say it needs to sound like a record like you can bring me any good musician i know if he doesn't sound like a record he can be as good as he wants but that's what jb says about bob dylan bob dylan sounds like a record you can bring some better singers than him but they don't sound like record and so we wanted it as muted as possible and as like crunchy like has depth at the same time yeah that's the 70s way you know everything sounds dry the acoustic guitar there's no reverb.

Speaker 1 Who's playing the acoustic guitar on this track?

Speaker 2 I played it.

Speaker 5 The chords are changing to fit the melody, and that's why when it's repeating for the second time, the chord has to change into a diminished seventh.

Speaker 2 It's a very annoying chord to play on a guitar.

Speaker 5 But that makes like the original color of the song is because of the presence of this diminished sevens.

Speaker 5 Basically this song, the feeling of it is something that is flying because it stays on the same pace

Speaker 5 so it's like not moving, it's like flying.

Speaker 5 The beauty of it is there is like a sort of hesitation, like the cards don't know where to go.

Speaker 2 But each time he stopped singing, the song was kind of fading down a little bit.

Speaker 2 So the three of us, we talked and he said, yeah, I got a friend who lives nearby, plays saxophone, and I can call him so it will fill the gap. between the vocals.

Speaker 2 And he called him and we saw this young kid, very young, like maybe 18. We told him we really like the Lurit song Work on the White Side.
Yeah, Work on the White Side.

Speaker 2 And can you sound like that a little bit?

Speaker 2 And he did it in one take.

Speaker 5 In the morning I came earlier and I had to do some vocals and I did like three notes following the chords.

Speaker 5 I'm singing quite out of tune, but uh for some reason, when you add some reverb and when you put it on the back, that's okay.

Speaker 5 It makes a sort of like feminine waves of sounds behind, and it makes a good, how to say, cream of sound

Speaker 5 behind, because you don't really hear them, but they are there and you feel the presence of it all over the song.

Speaker 4 It was exactly what Sophie and I had hoped would happen. You know, there's some really amazing 70s pop songs in the film, and it held up next to them.

Speaker 5 I don't know if it helped her to edit and cut the movie, but I think that on the last two weeks she gave to the movie something much more glamour and something much more romantic.

Speaker 5 I think that she has cut the moments where it was kind of dark and negative and she turned it into a love story in a way and the song helped.

Speaker 2 The movie was presented in Sundance.

Speaker 2 and the record company had the idea to do a showcase to promote the soundtrack.

Speaker 3 They played at Sundance for a premiere and Tama played with them. That's when we first met.

Speaker 2 And so since then, as in the fairy tales, you know, they got married and had a lot of children.

Speaker 3 I love that song and I love when Tama plays it, especially when he plays it in concert now or live. I feel like that's my song.

Speaker 6 It's such a fun story for us. One of my daughters was playing it yesterday.
And so I came in the kitchen and I heard her play the song.

Speaker 6 I thought like that's so special that she likes the song that brought our parents together.

Speaker 1 And now, here is Playground Love by Air, featuring Gordon tracks in its entirety.

Speaker 1 I'm a high school lover,

Speaker 1 and you're my favorite flavor.

Speaker 1 Love is all

Speaker 1 my soul,

Speaker 1 you're my playground love.

Speaker 1 Yet my hands are shaking.

Speaker 1 I feel my body remains.

Speaker 1 Times no matter

Speaker 1 I'm on fire

Speaker 1 on the playground.

Speaker 1 You're the piece of gold

Speaker 1 that flushes all my soul

Speaker 1 extra talent

Speaker 1 on the ground.

Speaker 1 You're my playground, love.

Speaker 1 In itself

Speaker 1 in the way

Speaker 1 you're my playground love.

Speaker 1 Visit song exploder.net/slash slash air for more. There's a new 25th anniversary analog mix version of the Virgin Suicides album called The Virgin Suicides Redux that came out this year.

Speaker 1 There's a link to buy it on the Song Exploder site. You can also watch the music video for the song Playground Love, which was directed by Sophia Coppola and her brother, Roman Coppola.

Speaker 1 Also, if you like this episode and you want to hear more and more from some of these folks specifically, there's an episode that I did with Phoenix from 2017, episode 112.

Speaker 1 And there's an episode I did with Brian Reitzel, episode 15, from way back in 2014. You can find those and all the other episodes of the podcast at songexploder.net slash episodes.

Speaker 1 This wraps up the 12th year of Song Exploder, which feels hard to believe even as I say it. I'll be back in January, and I hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Speaker 1 In the meantime, this episode was produced by me, Craig Ely, Mary Dolan, and Kathleen Smith, with production assistance from Tiger Bisco.

Speaker 1 The episode artwork is by Carlos Lerma, and I made the show's theme music and logo.

Speaker 1 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 at radiotopia.fm.

Speaker 1 I write a newsletter where I talk about the making of some of these episodes and about music and film and TV and generally about the creative process.

Speaker 1 You can find a link to the newsletter on the Song Exploder website. You can also get a Song Exploder shirt, which makes a great gift, by the way, at songexploder.net/slash shirt.

Speaker 1 I'm Rishi Kesh Hirway. Thanks for listening.

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