Brendon Urie | In Conversation

[Music] hi I'm Charlotte Gunn and we are here with mr. Panic at the Disco Brendon Urie hi how you doing that's a great intro thank you yeah good so you just got back from Wales yeah the biggest weekend was it the biggest weekend it felt that way it was amazing that was so cool we I was telling telling Claire that we on the way up we drove in from London so it was like about three and a half hour bus ride and we were sitting in the back lounge and we were talking about the setlist we were like well I don't want to play these two songs so let's let's do the one that we've never rehearsed that we don't really know and we just listened to it like 10 times on the bus over and over just listen to see they're like I hope we know it I don't know and we got on stage and played it and it went okay you know but I love doing that I love terrifying myself so it made it it made the biggest weekend like even bigger so great how do you actually never rehearsed it we had never ever seen we had our friend Kenny our guitar player playing the acoustic guitar to the song but we were just trying to retain all the lyrics yeah it was crazy I write a lot of lyrics oh it's fun so it's been two years since last record and you've been kind of busy yeah I've been on Broadway and in kinky boots how's that it was awesome that was terrifying I I almost cancelled actually like the day before I called my manager Scott was like I don't know if I can go I'm free I'm really freaking out I don't know if I should go because like trust me it's okay and then I've learned that if I kind of steer into that skid and jump in headfirst into something I'm terrified about that usually I'll just subside all the anger and fear and anxiety to the side just so I can get through the whole process and then I'm usually happy at the end because I just jumped into something I was so scared about in the reward feel so much greater you know was it lifelong ambition or someone just approached you and you decided to do it oh but I I've been dreaming of theater and doing musicals and stuff as a kid you know just being raised on that stuff and when we got the invite to go see it I've been listening to the soundtrack maybe a couple months just as a fan of Cyndi Lauper in the movie and to tell Ejiofor and all those beautiful people so I we okay we get to the theater and to play I'm laughing I'm crying it's making me feel so many emotions at the end of it I'm like first up on my feet like just burst into tears loving it like so happy then they invited us back and they asked if you know I wanted to be a part of the company and I was like in any capacity I will I will sell your merch I will punch some people to their seats I will do whatever to be a part of this family because the energy in here is amazing and they were like well would you want to be the lead it was like the guy with the British accent I should do that I had to do a an hour of just an hour of like diction coaching and accent coaching and identity but this girl immediate reaction who's amazing but I showed her she's like well just show me what kind of you know North Hampton accent you can do and I was like okay I did it and she was like okay it's a little Australian so let's steer away from that but she had to give me certain pointers but I'm so glad I did it it was very specific North Hampton very specific yeah I still don't think I nailed it but it was stuff fun very fun that's cool and did you have to do any vocal training different but I mean obviously you have amazing rate everybody knows that by you but was it different a different style of singing absolutely I will say the Broadway are some of the most talented singers and the hardest-working people the schedule is grueling on its own but vocally it is so exhausting because especially for the two lead parts because for me as Charlie price I have three arguments back to back to back so I'm screening top of my lungs just you know getting all this emotion out and then I have the highest song I have to sing and all these high notes and belting and no one's helping me and I'm just like I hope you know I don't work but you're so tired at that point that I had to work with a couple people I work to this woman Cyndi Lauper's that's a cool name drop I work with Cyndi Lauper's vocal coach her name's Katie and Resta and she gave me some tips I never knew were me up pulling your tongue yeah there's always like Broadway tricks so she helped me get my tongue unstuck which is I guess a thing and yeah you just like stomp your foot down and hope that you get the note I guess you know that was really the biggest lesson I had to learn when it taught me a lot I used it all for the album especially yeah I was gonna say so new record pray for my kid out June 20 seconds right right yeah good my right yeah and so yeah what did you take from that into album like you kind of like really there was a lot of just vocally I was trying to push myself because my vocals definitely got stronger on Broadway because of this things I had to sing for the show and the fact that it wasn't my own music was also different the whole show you know I'm singing these other songs made by other people for other people trying to mirror what they did in some way but when I got into the studio I realized like my vocals had had ended up in different places and opened up certain parts that I never knew existed and I was like this is fun no I have an extra aspect to explore and discover and figure out where I land perfectly so yeah I was hitting notes higher/lower different formants in your tone and it's I learned a lot so there's there's a lot of Broadway on the south what is the general theme is it kind of raised personal record or yeah like what what's the vibe it is it's it's I guess two counts you know it's a lot of my religious upbringing which I love bringing into play into my art because I can't deny it from my history you know just my childhood the cultural significance of you know the Mormon faith in who I became as an adult had to be used in the album so being able to have you know themes like praying for the wicked and all these things you know I swear to god I'll never repent mama can I get an amen hook it up yeah it's just it I like doing that but it's also talking about where I saw myself as a kid too now like I dreamed of this since I was a kid of being where I'm at you know being a singer for a band and like being a rock star I used to make cardboard cutouts of guitars just out of a gaurd cardboard box and paint it and draw do the strings everything and then tie yarn around it and then just sit in front of the mirror and like act like I was singing blink-182 songs and like Queen songs a day but I would just lose myself you know dreaming of being on stage so a lot of the record is talking about that you know as a song high hopes that talks about that and a letter to my mom Hey look ma I made it that's a fun one yeah and sonically is it kind of more poppy or like a real mishmash again you think a little bit more of a mishmash but there are some like more productions I was listening to a lot more newer stuff and trying to learn like why I like to these new songs so much I'm trying to like I'm like Kendrick Lamar is a huge one Drake scissor that whole album is so beautiful to leap and kailani cardi B there's a lot of amazing fuel and harness coming out right now and I was just enamored with their production styles and their lyrics so yeah stealing a lot from a lot of different people but then also going back to roots of like jazz and and folk music and rock and classical and stuff I try to use it all there's a song called Roaring Twenties on the album that specifically talks about Broadway and like how much I was homesick but I loved being out there so it was kind of a bittersweet experience so being able talk about that and then make it sound like a speakeasy in the 30s or 20s is so fun to do I'm a sucker for that stuff and the video for salmon tell me are you okay those guys did not survive I yeah basically cloud campus who is a genius we had done two videos previous we did this is gospel was the first one that we ever did and then we wanted to tie that together with something else we had thought about at that point like we should do a trilogy and tie the story into something else we'll figure out the prequel later which ended up being same in but then we went to yeah we've got small and then Emperor's New Clothes and force amen we tied it in like how do I die I have to do something really evil so I still still this devil's key I was like all I want to do is honestly I want to like pick up guys and throw them out windows and like cut hands off and he was like okay okay aesthetically I'll probably be like a Kill Bill Kingsman and I was like yes that's gonna be perfect that's really what we did we're just like let's make a campy and gory and fun and I just want to kick some ass and the potato thing somebody even paid attention a little bit to the video I'm supposed to be cooking pasta and then there's Continental in the oven you don't mix Italian in Continental keep it separate what are you doing so there's potatoes and asparagus and I stick a knife through and put it through a guy's head so we thought it would be fun to send out mystery potatoes to fans and kids we're so confused and that makes me so happy it's that's like as dark as I go that's as a vindictiveness I'll be I'll be like I made you guys confuse that's fun yeah that's great and so your fan base I think it's a pretty pretty hardcore yeah yeah like it I guess there's two sizes that one must be amazing but also like you mentioned lastly you have to like move house tents yeah yeah it's good and bad yeah it's like you said it's it's good sometimes it's good most the time and then certain aspects can not be so good yeah we had found like our dream house you know I wrote and recorded this album there and the studio is having a blast like in this dream home loving it and we started getting you know packages and stuff sent to the house it's like that's fun you know I'll send some stuff send it back and then I think you know giving an inch they took a mile and then they started showing up to the house and jumping to gain and like showing up to the door and we were just trying out a nice quiet night in and you know a couple times my wife was home alone and like had to answer the door and was like yeah this really isn't appropriate guys I really would have not appreciate you guys showing up to our house is very not okay you know please leave and so we had to deal with it a couple times but at that point we just kind of felt unsafe and we're like you know people already know the address we might as well move but luckily we did we found a place that we fell in love with it's even better I also have a studio so it's just yeah we just moved adjacent okay that's good and yes so we put a post out on our Instagram and asked people to apply okay we got 1800 replies I thought I would ask you some of the questions that the reason I say so they said in high hopes you sing there's a line I've got one more run and it's gonna be a sight to see oh yes quite a lot of them are concerned that this suggests it may be the last panic album sure I could see that what do you think about that I mean I didn't take it that way but who knows you know III honestly like I'm one of those guys I'm so impulsive I could say that this will never be the last but I don't know what's gonna happen tomorrow you know I might wake up and be like I'm done being a musician I'm an actor now I will go do theater I don't know what's gonna happen I don't have any plans to eat that never like anytime soon I want to be Mick Jagger you know I like Mick Jagger's aids just still doing it you know that's that's the dream is to go into your 70s you know yeah so there's no plan for that but I'm glad that that freaked them out a little bit yeah someone else wanted to know if he had any traditions before you go into the studio or started writing songs like any little rituals that you have um yeah I don't know if I could share no I do i yeah I do like to I think that the best way to write is when you're relaxed if if you are in a state where you can let ideas freely flow and not be too combative with people and not let the ego get in the way I think that's really helpful and what helps me is all smoke a joint and I'm in California so it's legal but yeah smoke a joint I usually have a beer and that usually just calms me down puts me in a place where I'm a little more at ease and I can let the music kind of guide me into something that makes me feel excited about something rather than overthinking an idea that's usually what I do a lot of times though my best research and best traditions that I've kept is just researching music and what that means is I spend two hours just listening to other artists and figuring out what I like what I don't like about that and then I decide from then like oh that'd be cool to copy a song like this and usually the song ends have different anyways yeah but when you listen to an artist enough and you want to do a song like them as yourself it'll probably sound like you but that's a really good if you guys are unsure about writing songs it's trying to copy somebody else's I trust that it will not sound the same as theirs and it's great well yeah some other people were kind of wondering how did you get started as a songwriter or people wanting to SAP a band like oh yeah well that's it's exactly that I when I first started writing as a kid I was probably 11 years old got my first acoustic guitar little baby mountain guitar and my dad got me for like 50 bucks and I played the hell out of that thing I would just sit there and pluck along listen to music and like oh that's that note and try to figure out why that was that but mostly was just copying other people's songs you know it was bands like System of a Down and their vana I would just sit there and copy their chords be like why does that feel that way just trying to mimic what they were doing so yeah I think you know imitation highest form of flattery but also the best tool for learning how to song right yourself just copy what somebody else did you know perfect and and then we had some kind of like slightly rounding quickfire questions so I'm gonna I'm gonna fire at you right now and do you like bananas love bananas do you like cats I like that have you ever ridden a horse how was your debut my teas been great thank you what's your favorite cereal oh man my favorite cereal honey bunches of oats with almonds do you like pineapple on a pizza I love pineapple on pizza I'm one of those for you what would your drag name be Drizella cocaine Laurel or Yanni it's Laurel because I hear things in the low register it's tightly Laurel it's not alright it's 100 coming up this summer you got writing your leads coming up yes I it I'm beyond excited for two reasons the fact that we're doing co-headline with the enteric Limbaugh that I'm such a Kendrick Lamar fan that I'm gonna have to kind of keep myself at bay to him knowing that I'm going to want to pounce and be like you're the best you know and just I don't want to freak him out so I'll keep my distance have you met him before never met him before but I am exciting mass effect he seems like the coolest like just the most down-to-earth honest you know straightforward but what's running what I'm reading memories for you you guys played that oh yeah well the first time we ever played we got 30 seconds into our first song I got bottled knocked out you know then when I came to two minutes later apparently through the video I woke up my best buddy Zach was standing above me I was like how much times gone by I said a couple minutes is the band offstage yeah they're over there okay went to them what are you guys doing get back in what get on stage we have to finish our set here's like okay slow down crazy you just got a concussion so then I ran back out there purple eye at all and just said let's see how you guys do with my left side you know and then nobody threw a thing and that's when I was like okay this means something you know me we got through it I feel like we earned our stripes yeah definitely that was fun and every time since then it's been like increasingly better it's so I love any legs so much okay so what come finals expects a lot of new stuff album aboout by then obviously album will be out we'll be playing so many new songs and this time now that we're doing co-headline we get to finally bring production which we've never really done before we had lights before and like smoke and that was it we're gonna have some fun little it's just little tricks on stage yet fight yeah it'll be good I'm sorry that's gonna be good oh cool man thank you very much yeah we'll look forward to seeing you throughout the summer awesome okay

Channel: NME

Views: 340,579

Rating: 4.9837008 out of 5

Keywords: NME, New Music, Music, Brendon Urie, Panic at the disco, brendon urie interview, panic at the disco interview

Id: 5UH-7SeknJI

Length: 15min 57sec (957 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 15 2018