STEPHEN TO ANNE MARIE:

SB: What is your favorite song?

AM: This month I’m going to give you my top three, because DAMN.

#1 Never Never Never by Baio

#2 This World by Astral Weeks

#3 Bittersweet by Sam Soto

SB: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

AM: Aw, look….we both featured Alfie Templeton this month but different songs. It is crazy how long it has been since that happened, really.

SB: In a similar vein to your question, name a time/place/moment/food? where you got into a conversation about music with a stranger. Were you on a first date? Were you talking to a lobby boy in Amsterdam? I’m imagining a normal conversation and then at some point music came up and the next thing you know it’s 2 hours later, you’re a few more drinks in and have a new list of artists to check out.

AM: I love that "lobby boy” is now synonymous in our lexicon for “guy Anne Marie might be attracted to.” I wish I could say Amsterdam but the last time I remember having a moment with a lobby boy was at an undisclosed cafe in my neighborhood. He works there and happens to look a lot like Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It’s one of those “he’s always so nice and you’re always so nice but nobody’s ever going to make a move” type deals. Anyway, the cafe is always slammed with patrons, but the last time I dined in (pre-pandemic) I remember there was this wonderfully floaty song on, something modern but also straight out of Ipanema. I asked if he could find out the song name or artist for me. Sixty seconds later, there he was with a post-it and the information. I was hoping that he’d have left his number on the back…but sadly, all I have to remember him by is the song. I like to think it’s “our song” now.

ANNE MARIE TO STEPHEN:

AM: What is your favorite song?

SB: You're making it really tough on me this month. Lots of solid choices. Definitely one of those months where I have a favorite for a few days, then start to gravitate towards another one. I think ultimately I gotta go with Last Night by Dabeull just because it's strange and has a great groove. But Monster Rally was right behind it.

AM: Have you heard any of these tracks before?

SB: Had a few this month. LAUREL, Alfie Templeton and Kiiara.

AM: This month I want you to reach out to someone you know well and don't talk about music with regularly and ask them for some album recommendations. They don't have to be new but they do have to be new to you. Then tell me about your rabbit hole, whether it's fruitful or not.

SB: Ok, so I connected with my friend Chris who's a huge movie buff. But not just the way most of us are, he's really into the sound production of movies. So much so that he built a Dolby Atmos setup in his house just so he could enjoy the films that are coming out nowadays as they were intended. We got on the topic of scores - mostly because of Tenet, which he was raving about and that led to the topic of Ludwig Goransson, who I'm sure you're very familiar with and I have some awareness of. I mean who debuts with the Creed soundtrack? Bonkers. I feel like Black Panther was really influential on him, and influenced a lot of his work after that, especially The Mandalorian. So I went into a rabbit hole of his movie scores and interviews where he talked about working with great directors and what each of them brought to the table. And yeah, he's only 36. As you'd expect, this interview where he talks about starting to work with Nolan on Tenet is wonderful: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jp4ReNDz7DI.