Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. 10 years ago, the indie folk band Lord Huron released a song called The Night We Met. It went triple platinum and has been streamed more than 3 billion times on Spotify. Lord Huron music is full of thoughtful lyricism, memorable melodies, and a lovely Americana sound. The band's new album is titled The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1, with songs written and produced by frontman Ben Schneider. The album uses his own life and the lives of fictional characters to explore love and loss and the freedom of hitting the open road.

Lord Huron just headlined Madison Square Garden last night, but before they leave the city, they were kind enough to stop by our studio for a special conversation and performance, and I think you brought everything, Ben.

Ben Schneider: I did, yes. All the people anyway.

Alison Stewart: It's so nice to talk to you.

Ben Schneider: Nice to talk to you, too. Thanks for having us.

Alison Stewart: All right, the first song we're going to start with is Bag of Bones. Set this up for us. Where's the song about? What's the song about?

Ben Schneider: This song? I don't know. I had the idea of somebody who just kind of stumbles their way through life, things happen around them, and somehow they make it work, and life goes on.

Alison Stewart: Life goes on. Let's hear Bag of Bones.

Speaker: 1, 2, 3, 4.

[MUSIC - Lord Huron: Bag of Bones]

Alison Stewart: That was Lord Huron. That's from their new album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. So, Bob,-- Sorry, Bob. Ben.

[laughter]

Alison Stewart: Bob Schneider, he's a good musician, too.

Ben Schneider: He is, too. Yes.

[laughter]

Ben Schneider: Not related as far as I know, though we've never done the test. We should test ourselves.

Alison Stewart: That would be kind of cool.

Ben Schneider: Yes.

Alison Stewart: Ben, would you please introduce us to the rest of the band?

Ben Schneider: Sure. Over here to my right, I've got Tom Renaud on guitar. Got Waylon Rector on guitar as well. He's done some vocals.

Alison Stewart: Nice to meet you.

Ben Schneider: We got Brandon Walters on guitar and vocals. Misty Boyce on keys, banjo, vocals. Miguel Briseño on the bass. Mark Barry tapping away on the suitcase and the snare over there.

Alison Stewart: Ben, this is your fifth studio album, yes?

Ben Schneider: That's right, yes.

Alison Stewart: How have you evolved since the very first album you put out?

Ben Schneider: That's a good question. I don't know. I think we've just kind of followed whatever we've been interested in with each album, which can take you to some strange, distant places, in our case. We've always been very hands-on with the stuff we make. We've produced everything since the beginning. The kind of settings have changed. We've gone through different studios. We've got our own studio in LA that we've worked in for years now. It's kind of our clubhouse, Whispering Pines, where we record, rehearse, make videos, get into trouble.

Alison Stewart: Like the last part.

[laughter]

Ben Schneider: Yes. That's just kind of been our clubhouse for the past 10 years or so. I don't know. I think really we've just tried to keep true to that ethos of following what we're interested in, not trying to follow trends too much or be too worried about what people are going to think of the things we make.

Alison Stewart: Each album is kind of wherever you are, is what the album's about.

Ben Schneider: Exactly. They are broken up into albums, but I kind of think of it as one long album that started in 2010 and will hopefully go until many years into the future.

Alison Stewart: What is something on this album that you wouldn't have been able to achieve before?

Ben Schneider: This album in particular had a real sense of collaboration in terms of reaching out to people who maybe in the past I would have been too nervous to reach out to. There's a spoken word song on the album called Who Laughs Last. We had demoed it with my voice at first. The story just really was wanting for a female voice, so my wife demoed it. That was great, but I kept hearing the actress Kristen Stewart's voice. I had just seen some movies she was in, some of Olivier Assayas's movies that she starred in. I just kept hearing her voice. I don't think 10 years ago we would have been able to get in touch with, to be honest, but somehow, through managers and whatnot, we got in touch, and she turned out to be a fan of the band, came to the studio, and cut the track. It was pretty special.

Alison Stewart: You want to hear a little bit of it?

Ben Schneider: Sure.

Alison Stewart: We got it queued up. Let's check it out.

Ben Schneider: Let's listen.

[MUSIC - Lord Huron: Who Laughs Last]

Alison Stewart: I've heard in a couple of places that you said that you've written for characters in this album. That's an example right there. What do you like about stepping out and stepping into the role of a character when you're writing a song?

Ben Schneider: Well, my own personal experience in life is only so broad. I've only had 42 short years on Earth, and I've only lived so many experiences. I've always found that I get a lot of value out of reading fiction. I think there's often a straighter line to the truth in fiction because you can just get it down to the essentials of what's true about something, strangely. I've always liked putting myself in other people's shoes and imagining just playing out scenarios from another point of view. I think that helps have empathy for other people, and also makes for better stories because you can do anything.

Alison Stewart: This is the right show if you like music and you like fiction, because we talk about books constantly.

Ben Schneider: It's great.

Alison Stewart: What are you reading lately?

Ben Schneider: I've been on a big Thomas Hardy kick for the past year. My wife got me into Tess of the d'Urbervilles, which is still my favorite novel right now. Just finished Return of the Native, and now I'm starting Far from the Madding Crowd. He's just a really special writer because he writes these very pastoral stories about love, ostensibly, but there's always a lot of existential philosophy smuggled in, which seems really contemporary, even though it's late 19th-century stuff. I've just found a lot of inspiration from those books lately.

Alison Stewart: How does the inspiration go from literature into a song? Just three minutes, four minutes, versus reading a giant book?

Ben Schneider: I think taking some of those ideas about trying to smuggle in philosophy, and also creating a vessel where people can put their own experiences. One of the things I've always tried to do in songs is leave space, not be too specific with details, so that people can insert their own biography in the space between the words, so that they can kind of inhabit the song and ascribe their own meaning to it. Because to me, the other half of a song is the meaning that the listener ascribes to it.

Alison Stewart: Think about your songs. What's one where you had to smuggle in some philosophy?

Ben Schneider: I think every single one, I try to put a little something, even if it's kind of a straightforward tune like this next one, Nothing I Need, which is just about I think everybody has a moment in their life when they realize something they've been pursuing out of want is maybe not exactly the thing they need, which is like a simple life experience. I kind of took that as a starting point and just explored the dimensions of that, that a life can go through.

Alison Stewart: Well, you just did my job. For me, that was a segue of all times.

[laughter]

Ben Schneider: I've always wanted to be a radio personality.

Alison Stewart: There you go. Yes. Lord Huron, they're going to perform Nothing I Need.

Speaker: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

[MUSIC - Lord Huron: Nothing I Need]

Alison Stewart: That's Nothing I Need. My guest is Ben Schneider and his band, Lord Huron. They are playing songs from their new album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. We'll have more after a quick break. This is All Of It.

[music]

Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest is Ben Schneider and his band, Lord Huron. They're in-studio playing songs from their new album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. This was co-produced with Matthew Neighbour, right?

Ben Schneider: That's right, yes.

Alison Stewart: He produced Role Model and Laufey, "Lay-vay".

Ben Schneider: Yes, he's done a lot of stuff.

Alison Stewart: What made him the right collaborator for this album?

Ben Schneider: I actually met him through another artist named Allison Ponthier, who sang on our last record. She was doing some songs with him in LA, and then called me out to help write some stuff. I just hit it off with Matt. He seemed to really understand where I'm coming from creatively and have the right skill set to support the things I'm not good at, which is a lot of technical stuff. We just hit it off and hit the ground running in terms of how I wanted the record to sound and what he could bring to it. That was a really fruitful collaboration. Just like a good friend now, too, which is always the best thing.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting. Producers are always supposed to bring out the best in an artist. A producer in radio or producer in TV. What did he bring out the best in Lord Huron?

Ben Schneider: I guess the band can speak to this a little bit too, but I think he's just really good at encouraging us and letting us take the time that it takes sometimes to get to the right thing. Some producers have more of a philosophy of hurry it up because, I don't know, maybe something's most original at its genesis, which can be true, but I think we're more tinkerers naturally, and we just like to take our time.

Alison Stewart: Who tinkers the most out of this group?

Ben Schneider: I don't know. Mark can take his time tinkering, that's for sure. I think all of us like to dig in and play around with sounds. We're not analog purists or anything; we like to mix it all together. I think digital stuff has its own sonic signature that's interesting, too. Trying to incorporate all the latest tech with all the old tech is kind of fun.

Alison Stewart: What was the latest tech that you were like, "Oh, that's okay. We can do that"?

Ben Schneider: Speak and Say, no, just kidding.

Alison Stewart: [laughs]

Ben Schneider: Just the fact that we're using simulated amps and stuff, those have come a long way in recent years. Even with our live show now, we're using a lot of simulation amps rather than old tube amps to make it easier for the crew. There's a lot of versatility in it.

Alison Stewart: I like saying the title of your album, The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. I'm not sure what it means. [laughs] What does it mean?

Ben Schneider: That's the name of a jukebox that has appeared. It's been showing up in our videos and stuff for five or six years now. It's kind of a character. It's the idea of this jukebox that just appears here and there. Nobody really knows where it came from or what it does, but it seems like you can change your fate by what you select on this jukebox.

Alison Stewart: Ooh.

Ben Schneider: Yes. It's just a thought experiment to think about if you could do that. Like any good Twilight Zone episode, there'd be a downside. There'd be a Faustian bargain that you'd have to enter into in order to use that thing. What happens? What's the dark side of being in control of your own destiny? I think it's an interesting thing to consider.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Ben Schneider and the band Lord Huron. We're playing songs from their album. They're playing songs. I'm listening. It's called The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. I want to talk a little bit about The Night We Met, when that first song first hit, and it really took off. Reflecting back on 10 years. How do you think that song changed the trajectory of your career?

Ben Schneider: Well, it's interesting because even at that point, we'd already done a pretty good job getting out there and getting a fan base, so we had a good starting place. I think that was crucial because I think there would have been the risk of falling into one-hit wonder territory, which, of course, we're very thankful for the success of the song, but we don't want to just be defined by that one moment in our career. I think what it's done is just made us more secure, and we can keep experimenting without feeling beholden to anybody.

It's given us creative freedom, which I think we would have insisted on anyway, but at least this way we can be a little more comfortable and not worry too much about record sales and stuff like that, which has been great. We'll take all comers in terms of who's coming out to shows. I know that's made things like Madison Square Garden even a possibility.

Alison Stewart: It's interesting because it's got a whole new audience because of TikTok.

Ben Schneider: Yes, it's gone through these phases. The original boost it got was it was used in a Netflix show. Then, saw that hump, then it faded off again, and then people started using it on their TikToks.

Alison Stewart: What's it like to see your music find new life online?

Ben Schneider: It's really cool. It's exciting. Like I said, we're not interested in being- or at least I can't speak for everybody- but I'm not interested in being famous myself, but I really want our music to be famous and as well-known as possible. The fact that it's just the song is the thing that's known throughout the world, that feels good, not our latest relationships or anything like that, not on the cover of OK! Magazine. It's cool that it's just the music is the focus.

Alison Stewart: You've been on a lot of tours, a lot of interviews. What's something you haven't been asked that you've wanted to just talk about? I'm curious.

Ben Schneider: People ask pretty good questions lately.

Alison Stewart: That's good.

Ben Schneider: Yes, it's been nice that some of the subtler aspects of our music that I think we've just been really consistent with, but are maybe, I don't know, less apparent at first, are being more recognized now. Not so much what I haven't been asked, but the stuff that I am being asked now about just some of the more existential elements of our music. I think that's interesting to me. I think the mystery, that's a common thread that runs through our music, is something I'm really interested in talking about. Just because I think lately, especially later in life, I'm realizing how mystery and beauty are so intertwined. They're almost like the same thing to me now. I think exploring those things is really the most interesting aspect of life.

Alison Stewart: Are you having a better time writing songs in your 40-somethings versus--

Ben Schneider: Yes, I am. The mysteries of the world just keep unfolding as I go through life. I think that's really great. It gets deeper as you get older, I think, and you have more experience and more things to ponder. All those big mysteries, love and consciousness, and the cosmos, they all just seem to become richer the older I get.

Alison Stewart: Can we hear another song?

Ben Schneider: Sure.

Alison Stewart: This is going to be Used To Know. What's the song about?

Ben Schneider: This song is about mystery. It's about those elements that transcend time and space and maybe even the grave.

Alison Stewart: This is Lord Huron with Used To Know.

Speaker: 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4.

[MUSIC - Lord Huron: Used To Know]

Alison Stewart: That was Used To Know from the album The Cosmic Selector Vol. 1. My guests have been Ben Schneider and his band Lord Huron. Thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Ben Schneider: Thanks for having us. It was fun.

Alison Stewart: Really appreciate it.