Baker's Dozen

Artists discuss the 13 records that shaped their lives

13. Gogol BordelloPure Vida Conspiracy

I think this is the best record we have. I really do. I’ve never felt so gelled as a band and for the first we’re more able to strike the melodic power we always had but it was always lurking there in the noise. And that comes literally from starting to listen to each other and it’s something that not every band experiences and unfortunately most bands break up before they get to that point.

A band is a collection of tremendous egos – always. And not every band surpasses that point but when they do then their whole life starts looking different. It starts looking a lot less hostile for seemingly no reason because the answers to anything were never in the head to start with. The ego searches it in the head but the answers were never there. They were always in the feeling and the emotional intelligence. So for me, melody always leads the way. Melody comes first but I have no idea where that comes from. The melody will always find the right words. Melody is a speaker and it will always find the right words if you listen to what the melody says. And this album sounds like a fucking band playing a gypsy symphonic record as opposed to me with a bunch of my songs and my band backing me.

It sounds less like a monologue and more like a composed piece.

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