Jena Malone on Flowers for Men, Sci-Fi Folk, and The Boroughs

0:00 [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_02]: And welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with it's the interview series presented by WFPK and WFPK.org Consequence and the consequence podcast network Thanks for making your way here.

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0:57 [SPEAKER_02]: We've had some great guest drop them by lately, including Sean Colvin was here, Peter Capaldi and Kush Jumbo. [SPEAKER_02]: Talked about the second season of a criminal record on Apple TV, talked with the almost the entire cast of the audacity on AMC, Barbie Ferreira and Devon Bostick dropped in to talk about the movie Mylin Kicks.

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1:47 [SPEAKER_02]: As we Kyle made today, we're talking with actress, writer, photographer, musician, genimalone. [SPEAKER_02]: I could talk forever about her famous movies. [SPEAKER_02]: Of course, we've seen her in in step mom and contact and hope, Donnie Darko, pride and prejudice into the wild little women, sucker punch.

2:08 [SPEAKER_02]: The Hunger Games saved one of my favorites in her filmography, and as I mentioned, she's also a musician. [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, she's got her first album in a decade, and it's actually the first under just her own name, and the album's called Flowers for Men, which I guess puts together like a decade of voice memos and poems and late night recordings into what she calls sci-fi folk.

2:31 [SPEAKER_02]: and we'll get into how becoming a parent reshaped her creativity, why she's more interested in building what she says new myths about love and the future than following the traditional songwriting rules. [SPEAKER_02]: And we'll talk about some tracks like you put on my mind and fuckboys and how they came from from flipping perspective, owning projection.

2:51 [SPEAKER_02]: We're also going to get in [SPEAKER_02]: to her new Netflix series, The Burrows. [SPEAKER_02]: This is from The Duffer Brothers, the guys that did strange or things. [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, this is the thing that follows strange or things. [SPEAKER_02]: As the synopsis goes here, in a seemingly picturesque retirement community, a group of unlikely heroes must band together to stop another worldly threat from stealing the one thing they don't have time.

3:15 [SPEAKER_02]: stacked cast on this thing. [SPEAKER_02]: Bill Pullman, Gina Davis, Clark Peters, Alfred Malina, Ed Bigley, Jr. just did name a few. [SPEAKER_02]: So we're going to be talking about the Burroughs, we're going to be talking about this new album, Flowers For Men, and I'll hold up more. [SPEAKER_02]: So let's get into it.

3:34 [SPEAKER_02]: It's Kyle Meredith with Jenna Malone. [SPEAKER_02]: How are you doing? [SPEAKER_04]: Dancing to the song with my son. [SPEAKER_04]: I was like, we need to get our energy moving. [SPEAKER_04]: I'm like, I've got four minutes. [SPEAKER_04]: Let's do this. [SPEAKER_02]: What's all of it? [SPEAKER_04]: It's our new favorite song right now.

3:47 [SPEAKER_04]: It's by this artist, Meek and E. And it's called Fabulous. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I've seen the name. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think I've heard this song. [SPEAKER_04]: But it's a really fun. [SPEAKER_04]: It's very like chapel inspired. [SPEAKER_04]: Sort of like church sacred voice. [SPEAKER_04]: But like also very, very fun.

4:06 [SPEAKER_02]: That sounds more productive. [SPEAKER_02]: My son just called me asking if you could get $20 for gas. [SPEAKER_02]: So. [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, okay. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's, it's different. [SPEAKER_04]: I get hit up for Robux money. [SPEAKER_04]: He's like, Mom, you can money for Robux and my, no, I'm good.

4:17 [SPEAKER_04]: I'm good. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, first off, I've been spinning the last few days, just living with this record, flower cement, and it's so good, and I also just have to be watching the screeners for the burrows. [SPEAKER_02]: So what a great time to be a fan of Jenna Malone. [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, wow.

4:32 [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, double. [SPEAKER_04]: That's so cool. [SPEAKER_04]: I love that. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, let's start with this album, too, because it has, it's been about a decade since you put music out into the world. [SPEAKER_02]: So, right, let's, that's the easy part, right? [SPEAKER_02]: The beginnings, like, what was the impetus for, for jumping back in?

4:46 [SPEAKER_04]: Well, it's funny. [SPEAKER_04]: It's sort of like, I think that art as commerce, it's very much like, what have you done lately, you know, but I don't, I don't. [SPEAKER_04]: scientifically or biologically know the truth of that statement like art never really goes away, you know, you're always kind of writing in the in the in the want of it or in the pursuit of it or or whether it has an end result of being released or finished or recorded.

5:15 [SPEAKER_04]: I think if it's something you're passionate about that passion tends to find a way, you know, [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, I hadn't finished a record and released a record for a long time. [SPEAKER_04]: I became a mom, it was obviously such a different time management space. [SPEAKER_04]: And I think the creation of being a parent, sort of punk rock, raw, [SPEAKER_04]: ability to be creating out of nothing every single day, 17,000 times a day.

5:47 [SPEAKER_01]: Sure. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, now a lot of people see how creative it is. [SPEAKER_04]: Like I think that that was one big giant awakening, where I was like, wow, I used to think parenting was so. [SPEAKER_04]: boring or you know like it created like boring people but really it's like so wildly immersive and you know you really have to be constantly pulling from your best self and re-re-ranging yourself so that they can be built properly and [SPEAKER_04]: Anyways, it just took me a while, but I was writing, I've been writing through the whole process.

6:19 [SPEAKER_04]: So the past sense turning 10 in May. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, I never stopped writing and I would just crawl into my closet and record voice memos and record while I was breastfeeding and just I feel like I had all of these little ideas. [SPEAKER_04]: Um, for songs kind of stowed away, like probably like 600 recordings, you know, like, and I think just two years ago, 2024, I was like, I think it's time.

6:46 [SPEAKER_04]: My son started, I felt like there was like, he had his friend group and school and I was like, do I have more time for myself? [SPEAKER_02]: Like something is not a fun realization. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: It was around eight, you know, where I was like, oh, I think, I mean, it wasn't true.

7:00 [SPEAKER_04]: I didn't have more time, but it felt like potentially I had a little bit more emotional spaciousness, you know, he needed less for me in that regard. [SPEAKER_04]: And I felt like I was ready to pour that tiny little bucket that now was mine back into my own self in a way. [SPEAKER_04]: So.

7:19 [SPEAKER_02]: I love the way that you put that like it's not that you 10 years of course that you've done music. [SPEAKER_02]: It's 10 years that you, you know, we finally finished a record and everything because because I relate to all of that minds minds 18 and a half now so he's a bit ahead of you, but I can remember I can remember putting the music aside.

7:36 [SPEAKER_02]: And then but and thinking I was maybe done with it playing with it and then when he was born I went out and bought a ukulele that day and and that became the creative part as you're saying like it's so interesting out that becomes the parts, you know, and what you share with each other musically as you were just talking about at the beginning, you know, yeah it's such a kids respond to it so much you know music is such a great.

7:58 [SPEAKER_04]: education, bonding, intimacy space, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so so so you had been writing this whole time. [SPEAKER_02]: I guess I'm a little surprised in maybe whatever. [SPEAKER_02]: That the record sounds so cohesive, you know, if these songs were sort of [SPEAKER_02]: in a way peace milled over the years until it was finally time, like it's still somewhat of a thematic record, not a cycle, no that's that's wrong.

8:28 [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe it's a cycle, not a straight arc is what I'm getting at. [SPEAKER_02]: That's how I heard it. [SPEAKER_04]: Hmm, yeah, yeah, I mean I appreciate that. [SPEAKER_04]: I know, I mean it's never, it's it's like not a dark. [SPEAKER_04]: that I know how to throw well because I'm so wildly untrained, like cohesion's not my tool kit, you know, it's not like, ooh, look at like, I'm the best cohesive artist, but some people are.

8:50 [SPEAKER_04]: Like I feel like if potentially I had studied music theory and had more ability to kind of contain and rope and add specificity technically to things. [SPEAKER_04]: I think that [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, and I do love that. [SPEAKER_04]: I love when you can, like, you know, I think the P.J.

9:08 [SPEAKER_04]: Harvey doesn't really, really well, where it's like, she's such an avant-garde containment. [SPEAKER_04]: Like, she goes all over the place on a record, but then you know that it's singularly that record. [SPEAKER_04]: Like, this song could never exist over on this record of hers, you know?

9:24 [SPEAKER_02]: Well, what was your first P.J. [SPEAKER_02]: Harvey record? [SPEAKER_02]: I noticed that you had one up on your, I think it was your Spotify page, maybe, as the artist pick. [SPEAKER_04]: Um, I discovered her first stories, stories by the city. [SPEAKER_04]: I was one of the stories by the sea, um, and then I went backwards.

9:42 [SPEAKER_04]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_04]: So I think that was the age that I was like, oh, this is a new, new artist to me. [SPEAKER_04]: But at that time, I was also super into like Liz Faire. [SPEAKER_04]: I think some of my very first instincts in music was like on you to Franco. [SPEAKER_04]: Like it was that kind of world.

9:59 [SPEAKER_04]: And then I just never turned back. [SPEAKER_04]: I just, I'm still, I'm still. [SPEAKER_04]: I love, like, forgetting that I've listened to a record for a while of hers and then I can put it on. [SPEAKER_04]: She's just such an amazing storyteller. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and that album's stories.

10:11 [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, that's the what a great entry point. [SPEAKER_02]: Maybe the easiest entry point, too, you know, before. [SPEAKER_04]: Oddly, it's the one that's held up the least for me, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: But I can understand that, but as an entry point, it's almost like the catchiest, I guess.

10:25 [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, there was a lot of public attention to it, you know. [SPEAKER_02]: And we'll be right back right after this. [SPEAKER_02]: Welcome back. [SPEAKER_02]: It's Kyle, Meredith with Jenna Malone. [SPEAKER_02]: So what do you realize then? [SPEAKER_02]: Now that this record comes together, I mean, what do you hear about it?

10:38 [SPEAKER_02]: Like, who are you as a songwriter now? [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I think there's even a line, right? [SPEAKER_02]: And set your sorrows down. [SPEAKER_02]: Who am I to become now? [SPEAKER_02]: And I know I'm taking that out of context, but it really works in this, you know, in this instance.

10:50 [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't know. [SPEAKER_04]: I think that I think when I stumbled upon how to describe the music, which is sort of sci-fi folk, I think it helped me realize the body that I was wanting to step into in these songs that it felt very much like I have a deep desire to like unearth new myths in the world.

11:14 [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like the myths that I inherited and my own social [SPEAKER_04]: Um, are not carrying me through to where I want to be what I want to become, and I [SPEAKER_04]: have such hope and admiration and I draw a lot of inspiration from where we can go, you know, like I just know that if we build up the future to be something incredible and really invest a lot of time in imagining her that I think that it will come true and so I felt like I wanted to find ways to build new stories.

11:53 [SPEAKER_04]: about love and acceptance and, you know, creating and, you know, all of it, just the human story, which feels also very much like a folk template of like how to be human, how to be of this earth, but also really wanting the future to know about it, you know, like really wanting it to actually be seed work for the world that we want to create that may not fully exist yet.

12:21 [SPEAKER_04]: So [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, what a perfect time. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, we're well sure changing all of humanity, you know, with the seeds of a son, why not? [SPEAKER_04]: Well, you know, one song at a time, you know, I'm a mom. [SPEAKER_04]: I can't help every, I think that as soon as I became a parent, no one really talks about that like instantly you're like, [SPEAKER_04]: It's like, it's like, oh, there's a thing where it's like, what's your villain's story?

12:41 [SPEAKER_04]: It's like instantly like I was like a vigilante, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: Like it's just like there's no, you can't escape the two. [SPEAKER_04]: Like instantly, like you hear a child screaming, you're like, oh, something's here. [SPEAKER_04]: You're thinking of emergencies. [SPEAKER_04]: Like you just, you're brain works in such a different way that you can't help but want to change the world, you know?

12:58 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, but you're, I mean, [SPEAKER_02]: as good a time as any right now what what a perfect time to be thinking about that you know is everything everything's burned to the ground you know everything's on fire you know we don't have to go too far in the direction but but it is kind of that idea you know like like you know in some sense right like this is not exactly a new topic right like people have been trying to figure this out for a while but if not now when because what a perfect time to do that it with what is going on in the world I guess [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and we're not grandmothers in it, you know, like there's something about being in my 40s like being a matron in this being potentially in my strongest body in mind, you know, like I'm not a child in this, you know, like it's like it's very much if there is work to be done it with it is my work to do, you know.

13:49 [SPEAKER_02]: So let's get in the few of these songs then, and figure out how that works in the context. [SPEAKER_02]: And I brought up, set your sorrows down, which is great. [SPEAKER_02]: You've been on my mind. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I, from what I understand that I know the press released when I, like, this is sort of the most love.

14:05 [SPEAKER_02]: song here but also just what a great hook in the song like you know as we're talking about entry points in these catchy moments like this is that mode this I don't know if this is a fair this is the stories from the sea moments of this all right okay maybe that's so cool yeah so so so what is going on here because because it's not again it's not a straight line what you're saying in this song yeah if that's fair [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, no, it's definitely not it's not a traditional love story where it's like I love you you love me like I lost something it's very much it's [SPEAKER_04]: It's based on a poem.

14:41 [SPEAKER_04]: So I wrote this poem in my early 20s and it always kind of haunted me and I tried to make it a song with my band, the shoe. [SPEAKER_04]: And it kind of turned into this soft, lullaby. [SPEAKER_04]: And there was something sweet to it, but we never really finished it. [SPEAKER_04]: And then when I was starting to make this record, I just was like free styling.

14:59 [SPEAKER_04]: I was in this sort of like limmerant space of like obsession over wanting someone that wasn't really had nothing to do with this. [SPEAKER_04]: who the person really was. [SPEAKER_04]: It was just my own blind projections. [SPEAKER_04]: And I realized that I had sort of been in this space before often when I was younger.

15:17 [SPEAKER_04]: And it was the opposite where people were projecting onto me. [SPEAKER_04]: And now I was in a space where I was projecting onto someone. [SPEAKER_04]: And so I felt like what a sweet archive to be able to have a truth moment of feeling like I want to project and then use the verse of a poem.

15:33 [SPEAKER_04]: of when I was feeling like people were projecting on to me to sort of have both voices. [SPEAKER_04]: But it is very much like it's a woman that centers herself, her own pleasure and potentially gets vilanized for it. [SPEAKER_04]: But really, there's love to explore there. [SPEAKER_04]: And you know, there's gifts there.

15:52 [SPEAKER_04]: And it's still, you know, love story doesn't have to be sweet, I guess. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, and then in contrast, fuck boys. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, you know, you get fucked. [SPEAKER_02]: No accountability, no attachment. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, these are some of the phrases I wrote down with this song and everything, because I feel like there is that moment that you're talking about, but flipped and inverted in a way with, so what does that one come from then?

16:15 [SPEAKER_04]: I think that one was sort of coming from a more vulnerable, like let's look at a human heart, experiencing a lack of depth, a lack of attainment, a lack of accountability, [SPEAKER_04]: And it's not like I didn't want it to be a lashing song. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, it felt like it was kind of like an offering.

16:37 [SPEAKER_04]: It was a little bit of an invitation to be like, you know, maybe it's like a soft cautioning, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I don't know. [SPEAKER_04]: It felt very, it's almost like a nullaby in a way. [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_04]: I got to work with this incredible producer Jamie Jackson who's done some amazing scores and compositions and working together.

16:58 [SPEAKER_04]: She she birthed that like it was it was very much a small little thing that I had that I was like [SPEAKER_04]: It's too valid, like I just like, no, this is not the thing. [SPEAKER_04]: And she's like, go, go further, go further. [SPEAKER_04]: And I kept just being like, no, it's not the thing.

17:15 [SPEAKER_04]: And then we recorded it. [SPEAKER_04]: It wasn't the right thing. [SPEAKER_04]: It just never was the right thing until finally she came to me. [SPEAKER_04]: She's like, Jenna, I love the song, but the chorus is not right. [SPEAKER_04]: It's not right. [SPEAKER_04]: And I heard her and I was just like, you're right.

17:28 [SPEAKER_04]: And I went to work. [SPEAKER_04]: I went back to my drawing board and I was like, okay, what is this? [SPEAKER_04]: And I was like, fuck boys. [SPEAKER_04]: Flowers of deadly fuck was and so I just like found that chorus very quickly and then it lifted the whole thing so I don't know if you like it was very much her birthing that allowed that song to be yeah I love that when I love that it's like [SPEAKER_02]: It's like these lyrics over a steel guitar, you know, like that's one of the, and you've got these sci-fi vocals as we're talking about, which I think, I love how you put it in one of the press releases about, you know, using vocal effects to tell a story about life in 2026.

18:03 [SPEAKER_02]: So you already have this, you know, futuristic thing going on, and then using something like a steel guitar, whatever that might have been in a song like that one, like what a great choice that was. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and then we reverse the guitar. [SPEAKER_04]: So I mean, there's just, and we had this amazing player doing it, who's like played on all of the tracks and his stuff is just so perfect.

18:22 [SPEAKER_04]: I was like, oh my god, like. [SPEAKER_04]: It's so cool to get to collaborate with musicians, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: Like, I always think of myself as a non musician. [SPEAKER_04]: I like, I'll pretend to play anything in front of me, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: But it's like, only going to carry me so far.

18:36 [SPEAKER_04]: It's like, I don't feel wild and confident. [SPEAKER_04]: And when you, when you just meet a musician that's so confident, that they can just like, it's just speaking a language, you know? [SPEAKER_04]: It's getting here a whole history of a language emerging from an instrument. [SPEAKER_04]: And I felt like that's what we got from Lloyd on that one.

18:54 [SPEAKER_02]: Are you using these same musicians for the tour? [SPEAKER_02]: Cause you're gonna take this on the road too, right? [SPEAKER_04]: No, I'm actually kind of reconvening the tour, right? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, yeah, it's funny, I'm sort of set, it's sort of I'm posting about it soon. [SPEAKER_04]: But I've set the tour down for now, through, I've never done a traditional tour.

19:17 [SPEAKER_04]: And I just thought, I was like, sure, now's the time to do something different. [SPEAKER_04]: And the more I investigated it and built the budgets and built the schedules and tried to figure out what my higherings would be, I realized very quickly that touring is a place where you go in the red, right?

19:37 [SPEAKER_02]: Yes, it's absolutely that, yes. [SPEAKER_04]: It's really wild space and I just, listen, I'm not, I don't imagine music to ever be a space where you make a lot of money, but I just, [SPEAKER_04]: I don't know. [SPEAKER_04]: It just didn't feel like the right move. [SPEAKER_04]: I would.

19:52 [SPEAKER_04]: I've always approached shows like I just love doing things like off the cuff like playing girl bathrooms and elevators and parks and just for free for the birds, you know, invite someone invite no one and just it's that's always been a very creatively lucrative space for me and so. [SPEAKER_04]: If I was going to do traditional venues, that's already has a lack of creativity and the ability to really feel expressive, and then also if you're going into the red, it's like two deficiencies that I just didn't know how to rectify in my own brain, you know?

20:28 [SPEAKER_04]: So I think I'm going to go back to just what I know the best is creating really strange improvisational [SPEAKER_04]: impromptu shows maybe in a few cities that are free. [SPEAKER_04]: And just, you know, if I'm going to go in the red, I might as well go in in the red in a way that feels really rewarding, you know.

20:45 [SPEAKER_02]: I love that even more. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's one of the, like, like, you would hear the same thing from a lot of, you know, lifetime musicians. [SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, the folks that are doing it every day, because they're all trying to figure this out right now. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, everybody's trying to figure this out.

20:58 [SPEAKER_04]: And no one talks about it. [SPEAKER_04]: I was like, I mean, people will do talk about because I'm instantly, I was like, am I, am I gonna come back? [SPEAKER_04]: And then like I'm looking online and there's all these articles about like how it's not sustainable and how to get masters like killed every, you know, just like all the stuff like, oh, I just have reading these stories.

21:15 [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is how to be a mid-level artist in, you know, the current day. [SPEAKER_02]: It's nearly impossible. [SPEAKER_02]: In fact, I mean, I've got a poster of garbage over my shoulder. [SPEAKER_02]: Shirley Manson garbage says, it's impossible for them to tour any more because they're not making money, like even at that level.

21:32 [SPEAKER_02]: You have to be up there or doing living room shows own like, you know, if you're going to be, you know, or something like that, or something, well, I think what you're doing is maybe this artist thing you could do. [SPEAKER_02]: And maybe the most interesting as well. [SPEAKER_02]: You know, you just, I mean, I, I just feel like if you're not going to cover your bases, you know, then jump and don't on top of, you know, having multiple careers and and Hollywood and everything because the old saying goes, you know, if you want to book a show or if you want to book a project book vacation.

22:01 [SPEAKER_04]: So yeah, all right exactly exactly. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so the moment you go on tour is the moment somebody's going to say hey can you can you can you can you be available You know, so it's that's got to be rough too. [SPEAKER_04]: The good thing about playing girls bathrooms is it's widely available So it's very easy to you know do it whenever you want so yeah, and we'll be right back right after this Welcome back.

22:22 [SPEAKER_02]: It's Kyle Meredith with Jenna Malone [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I do quickly want to bring up the burrows, which is going to be on Netflix at the end of May. [SPEAKER_02]: It's coming out. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm about halfway through it, by the way. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh great. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm enjoying it way more than I try to enjoy it because I thought, okay, so we're going to be talking.

22:42 [SPEAKER_02]: I had the screeners already lined up, you know, and I was like, well, I'll watch a few of them to kind of just get the idea. [SPEAKER_02]: And then put them to the side in case because I might talk to more of the cast later in that way, you know, I can go in with that fresh and then I couldn't stop and now I'm over halfway through it and I'm like I'm going to end up watching the rest of this probably today or something like that and then I'll just have to go back and watch it again.

23:03 [SPEAKER_04]: So, I felt the same way because I was like, I know this story and then I got this great person and I was like, oh, I kind of, I kind of loved this. [SPEAKER_04]: I'm kind of really into this, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: So, so, so what do you want to say that it's because this is the first deaf or brother's after stranger that has to be said, you know, this is their first project, so it's not nothing.

23:21 [SPEAKER_02]: I was so like, [SPEAKER_02]: when you're going into sci-fi and so many in the times these days and this is always great a group of movies like this, but it's like the kids save the world. [SPEAKER_02]: And this is the flip in a way that I haven't seen since the 80s with cocoon and batteries not included and things like that, you know.

23:36 [SPEAKER_04]: Well, I love these to batteries not included. [SPEAKER_04]: I always I always reference like verbs and cocoon, but that's a really good one as well. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: Um, I just, you know, I missed those films that I feel like you can just turn on and the whole family can kind of gather in and grab something.

23:54 [SPEAKER_04]: And I feel like what was really magical about stranger things that it felt like kids were like, this is like, they, they were really into it. [SPEAKER_04]: And then also adults were like, this is smart, you know, there's more here. [SPEAKER_04]: And I, I just feel like that world is kind of fleeting a little bit in film and which is fine.

24:15 [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, some things evaporate and then they'll come back in other ways. [SPEAKER_04]: But I didn't realize how much I had been craving more narratives that invites the whole family in that doesn't talk down. [SPEAKER_04]: And I just felt like this felt like a really fun exploration of mystery and, you know, [SPEAKER_04]: after life and just life on this earth that I hadn't seen before.

24:41 [SPEAKER_04]: And I just also thought it was so rad to get to work with such living legends, you know, like a superb cast. [SPEAKER_02]: No, it's the cast is insane. [SPEAKER_02]: You just keep seeing one face that was like, oh my god, they're in it and they're in there in Gina Davis and you know, and just everybody that's in there I mean, what a great project to be.

25:00 [SPEAKER_02]: And you know, [SPEAKER_02]: to your point, and I'll turn this into a question in that there will be a question mark at the end of this, but what, because mortality and grief, so much of this show has to do with this, what does it have to say to you in that sense? [SPEAKER_04]: Well, I don't know.

25:20 [SPEAKER_04]: I think that there's, it's like a thing where it's like, we'll always write about love because we'll never fully know what it is. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, we're still figuring it out, [SPEAKER_04]: I think it's a similar thing where we just, we have to keep writing about it. [SPEAKER_04]: We have to keep imagining it because it's such an important part of being able to live in an authentic and full way on this planet is sort of nowhere we're going, you know.

25:51 [SPEAKER_04]: I've always been fascinated by it. [SPEAKER_04]: I love when people write into that space. [SPEAKER_04]: I think it's a ripe for new narratives, new myths to emerge. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and to go back to, you know, it's like cocoon, like those films that I watched as a child, it was like they were never centering elders.

26:10 [SPEAKER_04]: Like I could pick five movies for the past 40 years that like stirred. [SPEAKER_04]: our elders. [SPEAKER_04]: And I just think that it's like of all the times throughout history. [SPEAKER_04]: It's a pretty good time to be centering our elders right now. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, like it's like maybe the best time because they might have a few things to offer us.

26:28 [SPEAKER_04]: It's been a long way. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and it is it's so fun to watch them go through the adventure, you know, and and and the story so we're in. [SPEAKER_02]: I love that it's in the desert and that's that's like one of those weird sub sub genres that a lot of my favorite movies like you can be desert weird.

26:44 [SPEAKER_02]: You know, like, you're more from that part of the country, you're right, you're more from that part of the guy. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm in Louisville, Kentucky, so, man, okay. [SPEAKER_02]: But so the view, it's like, oh, desert weird. [SPEAKER_02]: That's a fun genre right there, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

26:57 [SPEAKER_04]: It's really good. [SPEAKER_04]: And it's so American in this strange. [SPEAKER_04]: Got such an Americano, like the desert. [SPEAKER_04]: It's full of all of America's mysteries, you know, in a way. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, I can't wait to see where the story goes. [SPEAKER_02]: You just started maybe figuring out turning on the TVs and something big happens to the the real estate lady and everything So that's exactly where I've left off right now.

27:24 [SPEAKER_02]: So it's a fun start. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, so so that's the burrows and then then this new album Flowers for men title right flowers for men. [SPEAKER_02]: What a great title [SPEAKER_02]: It's such a great listen. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm so happy that you're back to doing this. [SPEAKER_02]: Well, back to where we can hear you doing this again, so I really appreciate that and I really appreciate it as well.

27:47 [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you for listening and having such great questions, you know. [SPEAKER_04]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_02]: So great to talk to you. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for taking the time. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, of course. [SPEAKER_04]: Thank you, Kyle. [SPEAKER_04]: Beautiful day.

27:56 [SPEAKER_02]: My thanks to Jenna Malone Flowers for men is the new album, The Burrows, you can find on Netflix. [SPEAKER_02]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode. [SPEAKER_02]: Hit that subscribe button before you get out of here, if you're not ready to keep up with all the interviews that I put out every single week from Spotify, Apple Podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions or anywhere you get your podcast from.

28:19 [SPEAKER_02]: You can subscribe to Kyle Mayer with, and again, please do give this series a rating leave a review if you feel so inspired. [SPEAKER_02]: After that, you can head over to WFPK.org, where I do a show Monday through Friday starting at 6 p.m. Eastern. [SPEAKER_02]: It's four hours of classic indie and alternative.

28:35 [SPEAKER_02]: You get the best in new music. [SPEAKER_02]: There are bonus interviews, lots of music news as well. [SPEAKER_02]: One of my recent shows, featured some classics and favorites. [SPEAKER_02]: From Mitsky, the lemon head, Cheryl Crowe, Blondy, Rachel Yamagata, Marin Morris, India, Ari, Suki, Waterhouse, Lea, Blavans, a psychedelic first social distortion, Miles Davis, Nina Simone, Our Lady Peas, No Caps, Rap Boys, and my interviews with Adele.

29:02 [SPEAKER_02]: Marissa Tomay, Adriana, Steve Zahn, Kate Pearson of the B-52s, that's what you can hear when you tune in week night starting 6 p.m. Eastern and WFPK.ORG. [SPEAKER_02]: Consequence as your music and film news, you can also find me on any of the social media sites, the address is always at Kyle Meredith, please do like, follow along.

29:22 [SPEAKER_02]: That does it for another edition. [SPEAKER_02]: I'm Kyle Meredith, I'll see you next time. [SPEAKER_03]: Consequence Podcast Network. [SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.