Episode 58 : My Three Songs with Noah Rubin

Jake: 0:00

Coming to you almost live from Berkeley, California, it's Aaron's Radio Show, with your host, Aaron Gobler.

Aaron Gobler: 0:19

Thanks, Jake. And welcome, everybody to Episode 58. Welcome to My Three Songs where I play three special songs chosen by my guest, and we talked about why they chose each song. Today, my guest is Noah Rubin. Noah is the son of a good high school friend, Debi Rubin. He grew up in the same area I did in the suburbs of Philadelphia. And he now lives near me again, in the San Francisco Bay Area. Noah works as a software engineer at a large company in Silicon Valley. Welcome to the show. Noah, how are you today?

Noah Rubin: 1:20

I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you doing?

Aaron Gobler: 1:22

I'm doing well. You know, I usually ask my guests how the weather is where they are. And you're not geographically that far away from me. But I think the Silicon Valley tends to be hotter than Berkeley.

Noah Rubin: 1:30

Yeah, it's been pretty nice. I mean, I like hot weather. So you know, enjoying it. But it's like 75 right now, which is pretty good.

Aaron Gobler: 1:38

Oh, yeah. That's not bad. Noah, before we start, I'd like to acknowledge that you are the youngest guest I've ever had on the show. And most of my guests have been like 50 or older. And well, I've encouraged my own 20-something children to be guests, they've opted not to. I want to thank you for potentially opening up my audience to a younger crowd. What made you decide to be a guest?

Noah Rubin: 1:58

Yes. So I heard about the show from my Mom, as you mentioned before, but it was really interesting to me, because I'm like, super into music, the music that I listened to a lot I'm very passionate about. And I don't know, being able to like talk about it with someone else is really cool. So seemed like a great opportunity.

Aaron Gobler: 2:20

I certainly appreciate you deciding to be on the show. And I'm really eager to have a conversation about songs. And I'm not even aware really of the artists primarily or the songs. So I was introduced to a lot of new stuff in preparing for the show. So before we get started with your song list, is a question I ask every guest, How does music fit into your life? Like, is it in the background or the foreground of each day?

Noah Rubin: 2:44

That's a really interesting question. I think, for me, it's probably both. So it's in the background a lot. During the day, whenever I work, I find that I work best when I have music in the background, I do a lot of biking. That's like one of my favorite pastimes and my primary source of exercise. And one of the reasons why I like it so much is because I can listen to music, you know, listen to upbeat music, and that really gets me you know, encourages me to bike fast. So definitely in the background, sometimes, but also in the foreground, because, you know, the three artists that I have today are, you know, three of my favorites and very important to me, and I'm very, you know, into, you know, these albums and, and the lyrics and the stories and all of that. So definitely both.

Aaron Gobler: 3:29

And do you do when you're at work or you're biking, it sounds like you do choose particular playlist and they may not be the same songs that you choose, because you want to be in a certain kind of mindset.

Noah Rubin: 3:40

Yeah, definitely. I mostly listen to full albums. I'll definitely you know, listen to playlists of singles or random songs that I'll pick out sometimes. But very often I listen to albums start to finish. And yeah, depends on the mood if I'm you know, biking, and I want something upbeat, I have some go to artists or go-to albums that that I like to listen to. It's, you know, after my biking when I'm kind of chilling out, and I'm kind of tired. I have some music that fits that mood as well. If I'm working maybe some more general stuff, so definitely different artists and albums and songs for different moods.

Aaron Gobler: 4:16

And do you ever find yourself seeking out silence from music? Or do you find sometimes that when something is too silent or an environments too silent that you're longing to hear some music?

Noah Rubin: 4:26

I usually find myself, I guess, consuming some sort of media, like if I'm not listening to music, then maybe I'm watching you know, a TV show or a movie or a YouTube video or something. Maybe it's, you know, bordering on I don't want to say a problem but just, you know, constantly being entertained by something. But I do often find myself listening to music rather than sitting in silence if I'm alone.

Aaron Gobler: 4:54

Noah, you're a programmer just like me. I find that I when I sit down to do some programming I need to have some kind of music playing in the background. And sometimes I may turn it down a little bit if I'm trying to like, figure something out that's confounding at the moment. But I do find that it's triggering something in my brain. That's, that's maybe helping me with what I'm doing. But I do find it more distracting sometimes when I'm programming and it's quiet. Is that something that you experienced as well?

Noah Rubin: 5:22

Yeah, I think I definitely agree with you. Sometimes if I'm working on something particularly challenging, or if I'm really trying to think through a problem, music with words can be distracting. So I'll put on something maybe ambient music or maybe some sort of a soundtrack, a video game, soundtrack or or movie soundtrack that doesn't have words in it. But I generally do find that music helps. I don't know it almost maybe like distracts some part of my brain or puts it on auto-pilot. And then the part that's focusing can really focus on it. So, so yeah.

Aaron Gobler: 5:52

Yeah, it's fascinating how that works. You mentioned just a moment ago, you said video game soundtrack? Can you give me some more background on that? One of the songs I had on the show several guests ago was an award-winning song for a video game. And so I didn't really understand that there was like this industry of really professionally-produced video games songs and or their albums, then, or is there a soundtrack to a particular video game? That's actually a set of songs you can purchase? It sounds like that's what you're describing?

Noah Rubin: 6:24

Yeah, absolutely. Typically, you know, obviously, you know, you'd expect a video game to have some sort of music, and I'm talking, you know, not maybe not so much like the mobile games, but like, the kinds of games you play on a computer or console, some of the bigger ones, you definitely expect them to have sort of an album, you know, music to go along with them. And so typically, most video games will have an album to accompany them. So for example, one game that I really like is called Celeste, it's a 2D platforming game about climbing a mountain. It's a very challenging game, but but a lot of fun. And so there's a soundtrack for it. And the soundtrack is it's an hour and 41 minutes, it's 21 songs. And it just, you know, it's all the stuff that you hear in the background, typically, you'd hear it on a loop. But here, you're hearing it really more in the foreground I guess, and you're hearing the primary part of it, but it's kind of cool to listen, you know, I listen through the soundtrack, sometimes. And then I can think about, like, the different areas in the game, or the different songs appeared, and what they kind of mean, to the story and all of that stuff. So it's kind of cool.

Aaron Gobler: 7:26

Yeah, and on that same note, just you talking about and me looking at your list, and some of the comments you made about your list. And this a lot of this seems very album-based, like and you mentioned just a moment ago about how you like listen to albums. And even though I grew up with albums, and I still have the physical, lots of physical albums and CDs, I just find myself listening to individual songs or lists or or playlists of artists that maybe it'll be like all the songs from that album, and then the next album, so in that way, I am listening to an album. But I feel like listening to an entire album is kind of a throwback. I'm wondering like how with today's technology, I'm assuming you're not buying vinyl or CDs. How were you then playing your albums?

Noah Rubin: 8:08

Yeah, that's a great question. And that's one of the reasons why I'm really excited to like talk on this show. Because all three of these songs that I've chose, I love all these songs. But they also sort of represent their albums as well, because all three of these albums are concept albums, varying degrees of concept albums, but you can enjoy the songs on their own. But if you listen to them all, you know, together from start to finish, then it's something more than the sum of its parts. Basically, there's a story or a theme that goes on. And to answer your question... so I use Spotify to listen to my music. But basically, I have a playlist for each artist that I like, and I just have all of their albums in chronological order of when they were released. And you know, I'll just go into an artist and, and pick an album and start and you know, usually start from the beginning and just listen through it.

Aaron Gobler: 8:57

Do you have a turntable? Maybe not where you are, but when you grew up, it was or like a stereo at all? Or did you use vinyl records at all?

Noah Rubin: 9:06

Honestly, no. I do have some I have some vinyl records of these albums, which, you know, the majority of the music I listened to is, you know, 2000 and beyond. And so you know, these are sort of more collector things than you know, a product of their time. But it definitely the whole album thing is not something from my childhood. The way that I was introduced to these to these artists kind of informed my way of listening I guess.

Aaron Gobler: 9:33

Okay, the whole idea of an album before CDs even were around or anything was really just for a lot of artists was an album, like a photo album or something that was a collection of things that were kind of relating to each other. And then the album seem to become, you know, just a bunch of individual singles and certain ones you know, were big and you'd have to buy the whole album just to hear those particular singles. There are plenty of artists... I'm just thinking of Taylor Swift as I don't know why she pops into my head, or maybe Beyonce where there's actually a theme to the album. And it's not just a collection of disparate songs. It's actually a themes kind of thing. And so I don't really know how often that still occurs. But that's kind of what you're describing here is these, these songs we're gonna be listening to are from albums that have some kind of, there's a cohesiveness, about the songs on that particular album. Would that be a good assessment?

Noah Rubin: 10:28

Yeah, absolutely. And it definitely varies. So, you know, one of the songs we'll listen to is from an album that sort of has a general theme, it's a theme of like a long distance relationship and a relationship that sort of falls apart or dies. And then there's another song that's from this incredible five album collection that together make up a single story about the entire life of this fictional character. And, and it's incredible, every song, you know, it's six and a half hours worth of music. It's all telling one cohesive story of this person's life. And there's just some absolutely incredible things like that, that are that are out there.

Aaron Gobler: 11:05

That's quite a project and quite a lot of dedication by the artist for something like that.

Noah Rubin: 11:10

Absolutely.

Aaron Gobler: 11:11

Noah, that's a great segue to your list. So the songs that you chose were "The Sun and the Moon" by Mae from 2005, "A Lack of Color" by Death Cab for Cutie from 2003, and

"The Bitter Suite III: 11:23

Embrace" by The Dear Hunter from 2007. Now, Noah, I understand there is a theme to the three choices. Can you elaborate on that?

Noah Rubin: 11:32

Yes. So all three of these songs come from artists that were introduced to me by my former drum teacher, B.J. Capelli. So I took drum lessons with him from fifth grade through twelfth grade. So it was a pretty pretty long time, and I guess, maybe some formative years. But he introduced me to all of these artists and some other ones that I also love. And these are artists, these are, you know, my favorite artists of all time, ones that I go back to and that I've been listening to, for years. And you know, that's really had such a profound impact on my life, just because music is so important to me. And you know, before, before this back, you know, I guess I was elementary school, middle school, whatever, maybe people don't have as much of a defined music taste, but I was listening to a lot of, you know, just whatever happened to be on the radio. But you know, this introduced me to some of these bands that I really loved, and care about their music and understand some of the, you know, deeper messages that exist in the music. And so B.J. basically, single handedly defined my music taste, and it's had a big impact on my life. So I'm definitely gonna send this to him. I hope he's listening to it.

Aaron Gobler: 12:41

And if he's listening to this show, what's a new album and artist or song that you would want him to check out now?

Noah Rubin: 12:49

Yeah. So originally, I had a different option for the third song. It's from this album called The Idyll Opus, by this band called Adjy. A-D-J-Y, and it's a very recent release. It's just over a year old. But it's another one of these incredible concept albums. The physical release just came out recently. And it's actually a book. It's not a CD or a vinyl. It's this whole book. It has all the lyrics in it with all of these annotations on the side. There's biblical references, there's cross references between different songs. There's just all the language and and stuff in the songs is amazing. So it just goes in that same sort of concept album. It sounds kind of like The Dear Hunter. So I think that would be an album that he that he should check out.

Aaron Gobler: 13:38

Great. Well, I hope he gets a opportunity to listen to the show. And I'm sure you're eager to hear what he might think about those selections. Noah, I'm eager for us to listen to your songs together, and to discuss the particular significance of each song to you. So let's jump into your first song. "The Sun and the Moon" by Mae.

Aaron Gobler.: 13:59

Noah, this is a beautiful song and it put me in a very calm mood. I appreciate the minimal instrumentation, but it still has a robust sound production quality, and it's certainly a subtle but charming song. What inspired you to include this particular song on your list?

Noah Rubin: 14:25

Yes, so this is essentially the last song on the album, "The Everglow". And this album is sort of somewhere in the middle of the spectrum for a concept album, and it tells sort of a loose story about this person who is initially struggling a little bit through life and looking for love and then you know eventually arrives at this place called "the Everglow" and, and is able to find it and be happy. And so this song is sort of at the end. You know, after all the struggle that's that's happened and all the things that this person went through, and they're now at the end and they're very happy. And at peace, I guess, I think it's just a great end to the album and an end to the story. This song sonically is definitely not representative of the album, the rest of the album is a lot more guitar. And I don't want to say like a hard... I guess a harsher sound, but not in a bad way, just not, this is very, like calm and relaxing. And the other stuff is more in there. And I love all those other songs, don't get me wrong. But you know, this song is is, is a nice ending and sort of after everything that builds up to it, and you know, the way that it ends is very nice.

Aaron Gobler: 15:35

That does underscore how individual songs can have their own quality to them. But then in the context of all the rest of the songs, it could have a very different kind of feeling like, in this case, you're saying it's kind of like, the culmination or the conclusion, but listen to it, you know, with the other songs, like you're saying that are that are more intense, per se, this is kind of a nice outro relaxing to kind of feel. And then if, if you're just listening to a song like this on its own, you might appreciate it more in the context of having the other songs in front of it.

Noah Rubin: 16:09

Yeah, you can definitely appreciate it both ways. You know, if I'm in more of a calm mood, this is, you know, a good song that I listen to a lot on its own, but listening through the album, and you know, hearing everything else, and knowing that you're going to end up here is also really great. So there's, there's something to be gained in both ways. This was probably the first real, I guess, the first band that I really, like, loved or had a strong feeling for, you know, before then I would just listen to whatever was on the radio. But now, you know, here's a band that I, you know, I really know their discography. And, and I really love their sound and all that. So really the first band like that for me.

Aaron Gobler: 16:46

Do you feel they've been consistent across their albums? Or have they tried different types of um ... some bands will try different styles as they create their art?

Noah Rubin: 16:55

Yeah, that's a great question. I think this band kind of has maybe three or four distinct periods. There was an album before this that, I guess has a similar sound. This one's maybe a bit more polished. The next album that they did, they were on a major label, and they tried to go mainstream. And that personally is my least favorite album of theirs. It's not a bad album. But it's not my my favorite of theirs. And then after that, they kind of went back to a little bit more like this sound, they took a long break, and then they came back with stuff that sounded a bit more experimental, which I also really liked. And I think that they're essentially broken-up. Now the individual members are doing kind of their own thing at this point. So in my senior year of high school, which was the last year that I took drum lessons with B.J., I actually learned the entirety of this album, on the drums I learned. There's technically fifteen songs, the first song and last song or a prologue and epilogue so there's not really music there. So really thirteen songs, but I learned you know, all of these songs, I learned all of the drum parts for that recital. I did sort of a drummer study on the drummer Jacob Marshall, where I talked about some of the... we called them like Jacob-isms, just like the distinct stylistic choices that he made. So that was sort of my my culminating drum project and my presentation. That's why it was pretty sad for me when he left the band, but that also gave me you know, a deeper appreciation of you know, this music.

Aaron Gobler: 18:26

Well, that's great. So let's jump to your next song, which is "A Lack of Color" by Death Cab for Cutie. Let's give that a listen. And we'll talk about it on the other side.

Aaron Gobler.: 18:49

Noah, when I first heard of Death Cab for Cutie back in the 2000s I thought they might be a death metal rock band. But honestly, I had not heard a single song by them until this week. And I started exploring a number of their tunes. And a lot of them are very subtle and beautiful, like this one ... and other ones are more, you know, more boppy but I do want to go back and spend more time listening to their catalogue. Why did you choose to include this particular song in your list?

Noah Rubin: 19:16

Yes, so this song, I guess I'd say it's probably my favorite song. If I had to pick one song. That's the answer that I've given for a long time is this song. I don't know. So this is a you know, it's a relatively short song. But it manages to do a lot in that time. It's a really really sad song and it creates sort of this mood and the lyrics I want to talk about the lyrics because they're very, they're very dense. And there's a you know, there's a dichotomy in the lyrics but some of them are very dense if you dig into them a little bit, but it just does a lot with that short time. This is also the last song on this album. A lot of my favorite songs are the last songs on albums. Because you know, obviously the last song on an album is the last thing you're gonna hear the last chance to sort of summarize everything and, and leave a last impression. And so when an album has a really good, you know, last song, it really makes me appreciate that album a lot more. And you know, therefore I like a lot of the these last songs are a lot of my favorites.

Aaron Gobler: 20:17

I went through YouTube and just popped in and out of a number of their songs, but I didn't really concentrate on this particular album. But like you said, this is kind of a bookmark or, or bookend, it is a bookend for the album, just like the first song would be the other bookend. In comparison to the first song we listened to where you said, this was kind of a resolution and calm finish to that album, where does this fit in to the canon of that album? Where does this fit in into the story of, of this album by Death Cab?

Noah Rubin: 20:48

I'm really glad that you that you asked that question. So basically, you know, the first song on this album is called "The New Year", it's actually a tradition of mine every year, right before midnight, on New Year's, I start playing that song. And if you started I think like 40-something seconds before the New Year, the song will say "so this is the new year" right when it hits midnight. So that's been a tradition for a while. But it's very, that song is a lot more hopeful. You know, it's the new year and there's you know, some some celebration. And then the album kind of it's not really as much of a story is like a feeling but it goes through this sort of idea of of a long distance relationship. And that's what transatlanticism means. It's the idea of you know, relationship. You know, the Atlantic Ocean is like a metaphor for a great distance, you know, between people. And then it comes to the song at the end, which is a really sad song where the relationship is completely completely gone at this point. And you may have heard at the end, there's that weird noise that kind of sounds maybe like an airplane, like the inside of an airplane. But that exact same noise plays at the beginning of the first song. And if you put the album on a loop, and close your eyes, you won't actually know precisely when the song ends, and when the first song begins again. So I think that also has a meaning of, you know, some sort of a loop, you know, in this story.

Aaron Gobler: 22:08

To me, it sounded like not like full-on static, but like you said it was just kind of like a white noise. And yeah, I guess it can be interpreted a lot of different ways, like someone tuning in hearing this whole thing, and then kind of tuning out, you know, or I have to listen to the whole album to get that to get that feel. Was there anything else you wanted to mention about the song that I didn't ask you about?

Noah Rubin: 22:30

You know, I don't need to do a whole, like, dissertation, on the on the lyrics, I just want to say, there's a really interesting dichotomy. So the first part, the lyrics are very dense, there's these these lines, you know, the first part, he says,"when I see you, I really see you upside down, but my brain was better picks you up and turns you around". So on one hand, that's referring to the phenomenon where the brain actually sees images upside down, like the way that the light enters your eye, is actually upside down, and your brain sort of corrects it. But it also, you know, it, you know, in a more metaphorical sense, you know, sort of this idea of, you know, you're seeing things, you know, in a different way than they really are, in reality. And then it's repeated again, in the second part, "if you feel discouraged, there's a lack of color here, please don't worry, it's really bursting at the seams from observing everything to spectrums, A to Z." So again, there's a scientific phenomenon of we only see a very small portion of the entire spectrum of light. And again, it's that idea of things aren't the way that they seem, you know, he's trying to say, you know, things are actually much better than they seem, you know, but in reality, I guess, you know, maybe they aren't. And then there's this shift, you know, he says, "This is fact, not fiction for the first time in years," and it shifts from this very metaphorical language to this description, where he's, you know, drunk and calling it 703. And, and leaving a message and saying, you know, "I should have given you a reason to stay." And it's a, it's a real shift, not in the, in the tone of the songs, but in the tone of the lyrics to this particular situation, you know, sort of saying, maybe he was trying to reason, or to say, you know, things are better than they seem, you know, trying to logic that out. And then at the end, you know, this is the reality, you know, he's alone, he's drunk and very sad. So it's just, I don't know, the lyrics in the song are really interesting to me.

Aaron Gobler.: 24:16

Do you think he's trying to talk to himself ... to console or counsel himself by saying, you know, there's a lack of color, and but it's actually okay. And there's actually ..."I'm bursting at the seams". There seems to be a certain amount of remorse, like you said, is the song him talking to himself? Or is it really him talking to another person?

Noah Rubin: 24:36

Yeah, it's hard to say, I could definitely see it either way, I could see, you know, this is sort of trying to convince, you know, convince this person to stay. And the second half, you know, you see that it fails, or maybe the entire thing is taking place, sort of in the mindset of the second half. And you know, he's kind of thinking, you know, thinking through this relationship and how it failed and then, you know, gets drunk and upset and all of that I could definitely see it either way.

Aaron Gobler: 25:02

Are the rest of the songs in that kind of vein in terms of really having enjoyable or digestible but not simple, more complex concepts? Are the rest of the songs like that?

Noah Rubin: 25:14

A lot of their music is kind of like that, you know, there are some things that may have, you know, a double meaning or you know, a second meaning. There are definitely a lot of other songs like that. This is a particular example that I've like thought about a lot. And I didn't notice this for a long time. But when I really looked at the lyrics and noticed it, I thought it was kind of a beautiful thing. But there are definitely other lyrics of theirs that do things like this.

Aaron Gobler: 25:40

And the last song on your list is "The Bitter

Suite III: 25:43

Embrace" by The Dear Hunter. And I just want to note that it's "Bitter Suite" S-U-I-T-E so it's little play on words there. And that the band's name is The Dear Hunter D-E-A-R... not as in the animal deer. So that was another interesting play on the words there. So without further ado, let's give a listen to "The Bitter Suite III: Embrace" by The Dear Hunter.

Aaron Gobler.: 26:21

Noah, I really like this song. It has like this dreamlike parts at the beginning. And then it gets into this really intense feeling. And it's just really intriguing to listen to. It reminds me a little of Radiohead, and also the band Keane, specifically, because Keane has the really clear keyboard sound that's prominent in a lot of their songs. So I'm eager to know, what inspired you to include this particular song on your list?

Noah Rubin: 26:47

Yes, so this song is, you know, part of a much larger story, I won't go too much into the details. But basically, this band, The Dear Hunter, D-E-A-R Hunter, like you said, they released a collection of five albums that are, you know, together called "The Acts". And they tell the story of this unnamed character who most people refer to as Hunter, like the band's name, basically, you know, Act One, he's growing up in this very sheltered life out in the woods and the beginning of Act Two, his his mother dies, he doesn't, you know, the father is another story, his mother dies, he travels into the city. And he's very naive, he, you know, he's lived his whole life with just his mother out in the woods. But he travels into the city, he discovers a brothel called The Dime. And this story, this this song is actually, you know, he goes in, he meets this woman named Miss Leading, which is another pun, lots of puns here, he meets this woman, and, you know, this song, I won't go too much into the lyrics. This is, you know, basically what happens there. But the story goes on, he later, you know, finds out the truth about her and gets very angry. There's another song that I was going to pick a little bit later in the album called "Red Hands", where he basically finds out the truth and, and he's very mad, but at the same time, you know, she never really lied to him. You know, he didn't realize, you know, what, exactly her profession entailed. But, you know, the story goes on from there, at the end of the album, he goes off to fight in World War I, and our Act Three is him fighting in the war. And the story continues from there. But it's just such an incredible project and an incredible story, that I wanted to include a piece of it, and this album is my favorite album out of the five. So I picked a song from there.

Aaron Gobler: 28:34

Thank you for picking this one and sharing it. Did you hear the song and experience this song first? Or did you just experience this as part of listening to the album? And when did you get this realization about the meaning or the actual lyrics? Like where were you picking up the lyrics and understanding the context of all this as you were listening to it? Or did you go back and kind of research it?

Noah Rubin: 28:56

You know, I think I had an idea that there was something more obviously, you know, the names of the album's kind of hint at that. And some of the names of the songs, you know, this is "The Bitter Suite III" and there's a total of six of them. Six Bitter Suite songs across the five albums. So some of those things can give a hint. But I definitely, you know, got into the music more. And then I went back and really read, there's some great write ups on the internet that explain the story very well. So I really went back in later, and did that. I think that the great thing about this song, and all of the songs that I've said is that you can enjoy the songs on their own as songs, you can enjoy the album as an album. But if you really dig into the story, there's like another layer there. So it's good music on its own. And you gotta... you know, the music has to be good on its own. But then there's also another layer there and I think that that's just like really cool.

Aaron Gobler: 29:48

Well, that's awesome. I didn't realize this kind of stuff existed. And then I I've said this often during the show is that I don't go and seek out a lot of stuff. And so through the show I've been exposed to I don't know over 70 or 80 songs maybe that I've never heard before, this has been great for me, because I'm hearing stuff that I wouldn't normally seek out. I really appreciate you bringing these songs to the fore. I certainly appreciate your passion for these particular songs. I also see in this in the choice of these particular songs, because I know each of these songs doesn't represent the whole catalog of the artists, they all seem to have some kind of mostly mellow, calming, mostly ethereal kind of feel to them, versus I guess, some other songs in these artists' catalogs, which may be more upbeat. So do you feel like there was something also thematic about the these three songs in that regard?

Noah Rubin: 30:39

Yeah, that's an interesting thing, because I didn't really think about that. Because definitely, you know, if I had picked other songs on these albums, it would have had a different feel, you know, sonically speaking? So I definitely, I definitely do agree with that. And I think, I don't know. I mean, I like a lot of genres. But I guess, you know, maybe that kind of music is just something that I go back to, you know, that sort of sound a lot of, you know, I like a lot of longer songs, two of the songs you listen to are pretty long. And a lot of them I guess, kind of have a sound like that, that they you know, go on for a while. So, I don't know, I like that about it.

Aaron Gobler: 31:18

So Noah, is there anything else you'd like to share about your selections, things you may have thought about while the songs were playing? Or answers to questions that I haven't asked?

Noah Rubin: 31:26

Not too much, I guess, um, you know, I'll say a lot of these bands, I guess Death Cab is the other one you heard of, and definitely the most well known of the three I say well known, I'd say the average person maybe has heard of them. But these other bands are definitely a lot smaller. And a lot of the music that I listened to, is from, you know, a lot of these smaller bands, a lot of it, you know, it's been recommended to me, by people, especially you know, B.J. who I mentioned earlier, or a lot of them I found on Spotify. But a lot of these smaller bands, I find, I don't want to sound like you know, I'm born in the wrong generation, or like, be pretentious or anything. But I feel like if you seek out these small bands, the smaller bands, they're doing like these really cool projects, and not that the bigger popular stuff is bad. But just, you know, you were saying like, you know, you didn't realize that maybe all this stuff still existed or existed in the first place. But you know, the smaller bands, if you can find them, which is the hard part, there are, you know, lots of really cool things like this that are that are going on.

Aaron Gobler: 32:27

And do you believe that the ability to self-publish or just to you know, put things out there electronically, instead of having to get a distribution network or you know, getting it pressed onto some kind of CD or vinyl, that that makes a difference for this kind of genre or this kind of style, you can be very organic in getting your listeners or fans for your music?

Noah Rubin: 32:49

Absolutely. I think Spotify is some of the best money that I spend every month just because the recommendations are so good. And I found a lot of bands that I love through that. And you know, a lot of them are very small bands that definitely don't have the resources to put themselves out in front of a lot of people. But they're able to find these smaller but very dedicated audiences through you know, stuff on the internet and music recommendations and all that. So it definitely makes a difference and letting these you know, smaller bands, do different things, experiment with different things and then find an audience that enjoys it, absolutely.

Aaron Gobler: 33:27

Yeah, it's a much different time than when we were you know, just on vinyl. And that was it. You had to put your record out on vinyl, and you had to get physically the record to people to listen to it. And then to promote it and, and such. So it's really remarkable.

Noah Rubin: 33:41

Yeah.

Aaron Gobler: 33:42

Well, Noah, I had a lot of fun. I learned a lot and I'm really delighted to talk to someone who is who was younger than 50. No offense to all people I've interviewed who were who were older than 50. And I feel like there is hope for me to get younger folks on the show. So I hope you had a good time too.

Noah Rubin: 34:01

Yeah, this was a great experience to just talk about some of this music that I really love and you know, share it, you know, and great questions that you asked as well. So it was a great experience.

Aaron Gobler: 34:11

Great. Thank you again for for taking the time to put your list together. Thanks for being on the show. And to my listeners. If you want to be part of the show, start by going to our website Aaron's Radio dot show and clicking on the My Three Songs button on the homepage. You can also sign up for our mailing list so you'll know immediately when a new episode is available. You can also find Aaron's radio show on your favorite podcast service. But the podcast episodes only include interviews and no licensed music. Before we wrap up this episode, I wanted to let you know of an experimental format we have for the radio show called Dedications. If you're familiar with Casey Kasem's Top 40 show. He would read a dedication written by one listener with hopes that it would reach the ears of another listener and then he would play the song. I'm hoping to recapture some of that man Magic. So I'm asking you, if you have a dedication you'd like to make to somebody. Please go to Aaron's Radio dot show slash dedications to submit yours. Once I receive a few, I'll begin making episodes based on those dedications.

Aaron Gobler.: 35:17

So until next time, keep your ears and mind open and let more music into your world.

Female voice: 35:39

You're listening to Aaron's Radio Show.