Add to Queue: Best 100 Songs I’ve Ever Heard
⤏ A PLAYLIST FOR THROWBACKS
⤏ CURATED BY CHARLIE HAVENICK
“The wound has no direction, Everybody needs a home and deserves protection”
—Big thief, “forgotten eyes”
What inspired you to name your album Best Boy Electric?
I’ve worked on and off in film in different capacities for the past few years and grew up sneaking onto sets as a kid, it was a big part of my coming of age. In the early 1900s, departments would ask heads of grip departments for their “best boy” to fill in. It’s really not that deep, it rolls off the tongue and something about it feels natural and jocose, but I think there’s something to be said about being the underdog or the youngest one in the room and showing that you have enough grit for people to actually take you seriously.
How did you select the songs to include on your album?
It’s a short album, but I guess brevity lends itself to intention. This is generally the order of the live set. Music (in a kind of more pop, occidental sense of the word) works inherently because of tension and resolve. I think the same is true for the album order. Tension, resolve, tension, resolve.
What feelings did you want to capture when putting together Best Boy Electric?
I hope that some of the songs are almost provocatively nostalgic. I wanted to capture a sense of recollection and pause. And also just wanted it to be fun.
In 3 words how do you want people to feel when listening to your music?
Warm, fuzzy, and blissed out... I guess that's four words.
What is the theme of your playlist?
A couple years ago I started making a playlist trying to narrow down the 100 best songs that I've heard in my life. They are objectively the best to me. This playlist is so all over the place, it might even be annoying to listen to. There is quite literally no cohesion whatsoever, it's like Chopin and shoegaze and UGK.
What’s one song you wish you wrote?
There’s a local band called Young Lovers and they have a song that they play at the end of their set called “Longest Drive”. It is a true shoegaze slowburner that just builds and builds and drops on you. I’ve teared up to it every time I've seen it live.
If you could collab with any musician, who would it be?
I want to say some dead jazz legend or a composer — Max Roach or Leonard Bernstein — but to be slightly more practical, alvvays is one of my favorite bands right now. I think we would make beautiful whammy bar love together.
If you could feature one of your songs in a movie or tv show, which song would it be and what movie/tv show?
I’d go back in time and write some twee jangle pop for Gilmore Girls. There she goes... there she goes again.
You can only listen to one artist for the rest of your life. Who would it be?
It’s become kind of a joke at this point, but I think my friends don’t realize that when I say I could listen to Vince Guraldi Charlie Brown Christmas for the rest of my life… I really do mean I could listen to Vince Guraldi Charlie Brown Christmas for the rest of my life. There's a video on youtube of a cellist and pedal steel player playing 'Christmas Time is Here' and it's genuinely like... the coolest thing ever.
Build your dream orchestra/band (can literally be any person, playing any instrument)
At the risk of being incredibly corny, I operate from the belief that a band is ultimately about community and the band that I have is the one that I want. When I first started making music, I felt really strongly about having a project that had core members on canonical *rock* *instruments*. The structure of life as a young person in 2023 is (sometimes) not one that lends itself to being in band consistently or long term. And so, the cycling group of bestie-musicians that I have is my dream orchestra. I'm stoked to see how this rolodex of musicians grows and changes.