Depend Robert Smith among the many of us who’re clinging to their Apple iPods for expensive life reasonably than shopping for into streaming companies. Whereas showing on the most recent episode of BBC’s Sidetracked with Annie and Nick podcast, the frontman of The Remedy revealed he’s sitting on a cache of the traditional MP3 gamers — every of which is curated to suit a sure temper.
Whereas describing his listening habits, Smith mentioned he doesn’t “stream music on precept and by no means have.” As an alternative, he’ll purchase bodily data and dip into his iPod assortment to revisit sure eras like ’70s disco after a “couple of beers.”
“I’ve received playlists, iPods. I’ve received hundreds and a great deal of totally different iPods with stickers on them so I do know at the hours of darkness which one’s gonna play which,” he mentioned. “So, they’ve all received stuff on them which fits my temper. There’s a lot music I’ve received — not in a nostalgic method, however stuff that I cannot simply transfer about to but additionally means one thing to me, jogs my memory of quite a lot of occasions and other people.
In consequence, it will be “disingenuous” of Smith to say he was totally in tune with current musical tendencies like brat summer season or Chappell Roan, however that doesn’t imply he didn’t admire their work.
“It will be a bit bizarre if I used to be like, ‘Yeah, it’s my favourite,’” he defined. “I believe what they did as artists is basically incredible. I believe that I’d be dishonest if I mentioned it’s what I hearken to at residence. So sure, I’ve been conscious of [Charli] for an extended, very long time. Chappell Roan, though she’s been doing it for some time as nicely, has solely actually emerged into wider consciousness over the previous yr. However anybody that basically will get out and does one thing, I simply suppose it’s nice.”
Elsewhere within the podcast, Smith addressed Chappell Roan’s very public struggles with fame and parasocial followers. Admitting it was a “sophisticated topic,” he mentioned, “You need folks to really feel like they’re partaking with you. However it’s a modern-world phenomenon that there’s a way of entitlement that didn’t was once there amongst followers.”
He added that there isn’t any attainable solution to practice for a sudden rise to fame: “When you’re elevated to a place of movie star or success over a fairly quick time period, it’s harder to take care of issues as a result of you don’t have any grounding in the best way to take care of just like the decrease stage.”
Watch the iPod section and hearken to the total episode under.
As for The Remedy, they just lately launched Songs of a Dwell World, a reside companion to their comeback album, Songs of a Misplaced World. Learn why the latter undertaking was among the finest albums of 2024, and seize your bodily copy right here.