“Live From Abbey Road” airing on Friday, March 12 at 8PM ET/PT. Below are excerpts from some of the all-star performers featured in this episode, including the bands Fleet Foxes, Manchester Orchestra and singers PJ Harvey and John Parish.
Andy Hull [singer/songwriter of Manchester Orchestra] on their song “Pride”:
“I mean, a lot of people thought we were an “emo” band. So we were like, ‘What can we do to make people realize we’re not an “emo” band?’ Let’s make a stoner, Black Sabbath, ridiculous song.”
Robin Pecknold [lead singer of Fleet Foxes] on their song “Mykonos”:
“I had no concept of what Mykonos was. It’s about somebody who’s burned so many bridges that they’re just going to move instead of deal with it. Mykonos seemed like the name of a kind of place you would just scurry off to in shame to start a new life.”
Andy Hull [singer/songwriter of Manchester Orchestra] on the process of writing “I’ve Got a Friend”:
“I had to come to all you guys [the other members of the band] and be like, ‘It’s like really weird. It had got this first part, this second part, and this third part, and then they repeat.’ And then somebody looked at me, being a smartass, and was like, “Oh, like a verse, bridge, chorus? And then a verse, bridge, chorus?'”
PJ Harvey on working together with John Parish:
“It is absolutely both of us with both of our desires meeting at the middle point. Both of us are producing that record and both of us are responsible for the vision that we have for it getting to that place, and we sort of just continually support each other; and if one of us trips up, the other sort of picks up, you know what I mean, so we sort of carry on that way.”
Robin Pecknold [lead singer of Fleet Foxes] on forming the band in Seattle:
“Seattle’s a pretty small town. I think within three indie rock shows at the Crocodile you kind of have a good idea of who everyone in town is.”
PJ Harvey on receiving music from John Parish:
“It’s just a very excited thing to be handed as a writer of words, I think. All the ingredients are there waiting to happen and I feel like I’m filling in the missing pieces.”