Just on the heels of the arrival of their brand new album OK ORCHESTRA, the three brothers that make up the pop trio, AJR joined RADIO.COM’s Megan Holiday to celebrate the debut of their newest record and share details about the making of their fourth studio album.
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As soon as the restrictions from the year-long pandemic fell into place, Ryan Met tells us that he and his brothers, Adam Met and Jack Met put all their energy into making a new album. After a year, the brothers behind AJR say it's been “nonstop for us.” Ryan adds, “we can look up and say ‘Oh wow, we have something we’re proud of.’”
During the making of OK ORCHESTRA, Jack explains, “it was a very up and down kind of album. It was probably the least consistent emotion-wise…. basically, there were such lows in this album… and there have been moments of like ‘wow this is truly the most emotional song we’ve ever written, I can’t believe how easy this is to write.’” Jack also adds, “it was almost like a movie, writing this thing for us.”
Living by the mantra, “and it is given that no one is perfect therefore everyone fails,” AJR is always ready to “ride the wave.” While the ongoing pandemic has been stifling and detrimental in copious ways, the band has woven their ups and downs into this new body of work, where the outcome feels like a shining achievement.
“Way Less Sad” is the auditory manifestation of the brothers learning to “ride the wave” and take the successes and pitfalls as artists as meaningful moments.
Jack shares that “Way Less Sad” was born out of a moment eight years ago when the band decided to sample “My Little Town” by Simon and Garfunkel. Jack also tells us that after being approached by Kygo’s team and then subsequently, Cardi B’s team for new songs, AJR developed their “My Little Town” sample even further.
However, after falling in love with the track and both Kygo and Cardi B going in a different direction, AJR decided to keep it for themselves, which ultimately lead to the final sound we hear on “Way Less Sad.”
Most recently, the MLB used “Way Less Sad” in a commercial to promote Baseball’s opening day on ESPN and a return to a normal season. Seeing their own song being used for something else lead the band to feel even more confident in the track.
In a tweet, AJR said, “So cool when these songs we write develop whole new lives in whole new places. You’re gonna be hearing A LOT of Way Less Sad during A LOT of baseball games haha.”
Going into writing and recording OK ORCHESTRA, Ryan notes, “I don’t think we consciously did anything differently from our past albums, I think just naturally we want to just keep improving on our writing ability and kind of on our workflow also.”
Now, when listening to a new AJR track, the band wants you to slowly understand all the deep complexities woven into each track. On a first listen, one might develop a surface level admiration for the song, but by the third listen, AJR wants you to understand all their deeper meanings and to feel like one couldn’t “live without” the song.
While they can’t exactly share when, AJR is going on tour, and plans to perform songs from their new album, live. As we are hopefully on the brink of ushering in a “Way Less Sad” summer, we are also excited to usher in AJR’s OK ORCHESTRA era.
Check out AJR’s full interview above.
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