LINKS

Listen to Erick's romcom podcast Wild wherever you get your podcasts. We're sad to share that it was one of the series recently canceled in cutbacks by the LAist studios.

Read Courtney's interview with Jenny Lewis, if you're into that kind of thing.

TRANSCRIPT

Melissa: Hello, I'm Melissa Locker. 

Courtney: And I'm Courtney E. Smith. 

Melissa: And you are listening to Songs My Ex Ruined, the show where we talk about songs have been ruined by our exes. So, Eric Galindo, thank you for coming on the podcast with us.

Erick: It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me. 

Melissa: In your podcast series, Wild, you guys go through a whole bunch of stuff but you also sort of talk about your relationships and love and blah, blah, blah. So do you have a song that's been ruined for you by an ex? 

Erick: You know what? There was a time when I had lots of songs ruined by an ex, like I was thinking of this and I thought of like three or four at least. And I was like, “Oh yeah, that song used to be ruined but I feel like I've gotten closure maybe, and I can listen to the music again.” But there is one song that I think still like kind of hurts when I listen to it and it's “Oye Mi Amor” by Maná.

Erick: By like default, Spanish rock is just kind of sad and emo anyway but like every time I listen to it, I picture myself like heartbroken and like on the dance floor trying to dance my feelings away. And so it's hard still to even like even utter like “oye mi amor,” that sentence is hard for me. So, that definitely feels like the one song I still have not gotten over it being ruined by an ex.

Melissa: So tell us like, where are you? Paint the picture for us. 

Erick: Oh man. There's this, there used to be this club in L.A., I don’t know if it's still here, in Hollywood. It was called Club World and it was like ‘80s themed, at least on Sundays. And we started going cause it was like the one club you can go if you're 18 or over.

I of course had a fake ID, so it didn't really matter, I could go to any club. But that club is the club my friends would go to and then like, I remember like birthdays, we'd take limos there. It was like a whole scene and so, like just picture like a big warehouse that they've kind of broken into multiple rooms with multiple floors in every different room there's a different ‘80s theme. And in one of the rooms they had like rock en español. And so like I just picture myself in this room, like trying to pretend to be like unfazed by, you know, the fight I had just gotten into with my girlfriend. Or like, “Oh, I don't care.” You know, and trying to like dance and drink and sort of not feel my feelings as much as possible. But of course the song is so emotional that it just fucks you up so hard. And it's a song for my childhood that like every adult I grew up with listened to. And you don't imagine that one day you're gonna be like the 20 year old like heartbroken person listening to the song when you're listening to it as a kid. But you know, lo and behold, that that's who I was. And there's a parallel universe where I'm still like in that club just dancing to this sad fucking song. 

Courtney: You know, crying on the dance floor is like a whole genre of breakup song that we haven't like had anybody dip into on this podcast at all. But there is something so cathartic about it, the whole vibe.

Erick: Yeah, it's like in your body, right? Like the heartbreak is all up in your body and you just- yeah, it just, ugh, whew. 

Courtney: I feel that way about several Robyn albums. 

Melissa: Yeah, Robyn does a really good job of just like making like heartbreaking songs that you can dance to.

Erick: I'm not familiar with Robyn. What does Robin sing?

Courtney: “Call Your Girlfriend”

Melissa: She sings like “Dancing on My Own” and “Hang With Me,” I’m sure you’ve heard them.

Erick: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, for sure, yeah. I feel like it was, it is like a moment where like, it's like an empowering thing to do, right? To dance, even though you're sad. As a Latino, as a Mexican American, like, almost all our music is sad and also all our music is something you could dance to. So it's like, it's, we celebrate heartbreak so hard in our culture, so it's, it's interesting. Like, I think that's why so many Latinos, like ‘80s music and like Morrissey and Robyn. Like, now that you mentioned some of her songs, I'm like, oh yeah, I remember that. It slaps for sure. 

Melissa: I went to the Cruel World Festival in L.A. a couple weeks ago and there were so many like Mexican goths, which was like my personal favorite genre of goths. 

Erick: For sure, yeah.

Melissa: And a lot of people were wearing Morrissey shirts and I was just like, “He's not been canceled?” Many, many people do not, you know, mess with him anymore. But there was a lot of Morrissey folks. 

Erick: When you grow up where like, in like corrupt third world countries, it's hard to cancel anybody. Like we just don't cancel people. Like, it's just like, you know what I mean? Like the, the president of Mexico right now was like this guy who was kind of an elected on like a Bernie Sanders-style populism. He's Indigenous. He's like one of the few Indigenous presidents that like outwardly presents Indigenous. And he like immediately was like, “Uh, you know, I'm just gonna betray everybody and do whatever I want.” So like, it just, we don't know how to cancel people because everyone is so complicated that we grow up with. So I think Morrissey is like — don't get me wrong, there are some great Morrissey songs, but I was never like a fan boy of Morrissey cause he just seemed so depressed. And where I feel like a lot of the other people I listen to, they seemed like they were like the song was sad but they didn't seem like they were sad. Do you know what I mean? 

Courtney: Right, right. Like I've never thought that about Dave Gahan, like I'm sure he's fine. 

Erick: Yeah. like you listen to Selena and so Selena's not like, yeah, she's sad and like that song, she's thinking of someone outside her window and like I can picture her... But she's not like, “I'm straight up like a depressed person.” And I feel like Morrisey was just too much in his feelings for me to ever…

Melissa: Yeah, do you feel like you're like enabling him? Like if you, if you listen to his music, you're like encouraging him to stay depressed? You're like, no, no. Go to therapy.

Erick: For sure. It feels like musicians, for me, like I feel like I'm hanging out with them when I'm listening to the music. And I'm just like, Morrisey would be like that guy who like, you're like, “Yo, let's go out.” He is like, “What's the point?” And I'm just like, “I don't know, to go out. Why does it have to be a deeper meaning to everything?” And so I never fucked with him that hard. But I mean, my friends, like almost every friend I grew up with was a huge Morrisey fan. Even like my cousins in Mexico. So I'm not shocked at all that they are still repping Morrisey hard at the concerts.

Erick: Also, we don't throw anything away, so they bought those shirts, they're gonna use them. You know what I mean? 

Melissa: Yeah, fair. Fair. I mean, it's good. Reduce, reuse, recycle, right? I actually went and saw Morrissey with my brothers a few years ago, like long enough before he had gotten really like weird and right-wingy. And we we're watching the show and we realized that just because we had stopped listening to Morrissey did not mean he had stopped putting out albums. And so, so much of the show was just like songs we had never heard, had no connection to, so we just left and went and got a drink. 

Erick: That's hilarious. Yeah. I don't remember the last Morrissey album I listened to.

Melissa: And he's still out there putting out music.

Courtney: So tell us about this song that you chose. I don't know this artist at all, so give me some context.

Erick: Oh, really? Yeah, okay, so Maná is like, they're huge. For a long time, they held a record for most sold out shows at the Staples Center here in L.A. 

Courtney: Oh, wow. 

Melissa: Mm-hmm. They also have great hair. 

Courtney: Oh, okay.

Erick: Yeah, and they put on incredible productions, like very like rock opera-ish and — it's hard to compare them to like a band in like the U.S. for example, just because they're so international. They are like all across Latin America. And there's, you know, Latin American music, it's very regional. So, sometimes like you'll listen to like a song and it's like about a guy on a ranch crying over a bottle of beer or whatever. But Maná was like teenage angst stuff, and so it resonated across all like Latin American cultures in many ways. And they became so huge. They became Beatles-esque like in that world. And they're still together. They're almost like the Stones. Like they just keep getting older and they just keep playing. 

Melissa: Yeah, they've been around a really, really long time. 

Erick: Yeah, since I was a kid, at least. I don't know a lot of their history, but I was very young when I first heard them. I was like five or something.

Melissa: And then, they kind of have a rotating membership, don't they? Like I feel like… 

Erick: Yes.

Melissa: … people are in and out and in and out all the time. Like if you did the flow chart of who was in them, you would get some crazy serial killer diagram. 

Courtney: Are they a boy band or a classic rock band? Like how does that work? 

Erick: It's — so rock, rock en espanol is very like ‘80s glam rock-ish. I would describe them, I think, like Cream. Like the guitar is just the king of rock en espanol. It's just all like electric rifts. That is why they would play it at this club that just played like hardcore ‘80s. It was because they sort of captured that aesthetic. But you know, their lyrics are in Spanish. But I do think like you can listen to it and even if you don't know Spanish, you can still feel like the emotional arc of the song.

Melissa: Yeah, my Spanish is terrible but you get it. Like, you know what's going on. Like, well enough. I don't know if I'd necessarily be, end up crying on the dance floor, but you get the emotion. 

Erick: Yeah, I mean, I feel like yeah, everybody handles Maná differently. You know, I thought about some of the other songs too, like I forgot that I used to have like this emotional connection to this song. And I found that that was the case with a lot of the music that like. For a long time, like, uh, Jenny Lewis was ruined for me. And like Rilo Kiley. 

Courtney: What? Just like the whole catalog? 

Erick: Kind of, yeah. 

Courtney: Oh man. 

Erick: Cause it would just remind me of like these heartbreaks in my life and then like, that was hard because you know, “A Better Son/Daughter” is one of my favorite songs of all time.

Courtney: So interesting how that song has become, like through the years, the one people really glommed onto. I heard that from a Millennial for the first time like a few years ago. And I was like, what? That album, that's so random. And it's just like the song for catharsis. 

Erick: But, well, because you know, there was, I feel like there was a period where like music was really capturing what it's like to fuck up, you know? And I feel like that's a song about like the pressure. And for me, you know, as, as the son of immigrants, like there's a lot of pressure to succeed. You're just like, my dad gave up his engineering career to like go work at a warehouse and like my mom did not get to even go to school even though she was like a straight A student. There's all this pressure. When I heard that song, I remember being like, “Oh man, that song really captures a lot of that, that angst and pressure.” And, and it was very cathartic to like, to really listen and like sing along to. And like scream it out. Like, you know, and “Like sometimes when you're on / You're really fucking on.” Like that, those lyrics are just incredible to me. And, and so I, There was a period where I couldn't listen to it without thinking of this person who I was like trying to get over, and now I'm like fine. Like I can listen to it, like I can show it to other people when they're like, what's a cool song from like the 2000’s? You know, I'm like, oh, you know, this song I feel like really did a good job. And there's a lot of stuff like that that I would, I would listen to with Rilo Kiley. Like I just love that they're from L.A. like, and Jenny Lewis grew up here and she was very proud of it, you know. And I'm, and as an L.A. kid, like who's very proud of L.A., I was always like a big, big fan. And I got to see her perform a lot of times. And one time she was performing at The Echo during like this like fundraiser where they were raising money and it was like Sarah Silverman and like Adam Scott was there and all these people, and Jenny was there and like I went up to her to like tell her how much I liked her. And then when I went up there, like the image of this woman who had like broken my heart over and over again popped into my brain and I just froze. And I just was like, hi. And I couldn't say fucking anything and I looked  like a crazy person. And I was just like, I'm sorry. And then, and then like, someone else came but it was like one of those moments where I was like forever trapped in amber in that moment. Just like, oh my God, I'm suddenly 18 again and like very sad and thankfully, like now these days I can listen. Like I saw she just had a new album come out. 

Courtney: Can I tell you an embarrassing Jenny Lewis story? 

Erick/Melissa: Absolutely, absolutely. 

Courtney: Okay. So I interviewed her for Refinery29. When On the Line came out and I was nervous about it because all those allegations about Ryan Adams had just dropped, and he produced some of the songs on this album and had worked with her previously. And I knew that I had to ask about it, which I find so uncomfortable, but, you know, journalistic duty and whatnot. And so I was really kind of nervous going into the interview because of that. And that was not my problem. So we're talking about all the songs on this album and I tell her that “Little White Dove” is my favorite song. And I'm like really connecting to it and it's so sad and I'm curious what it's about. And she's like, “Oh yeah, that song's about my mom dying and our really terrible relationship.” I was just like, “Oh, okay.:” 

Erick Oh, wow. 

Courtney: I don't have any follow up for that. Maybe just tell me about the song then, and in my mind I'm like, “If this is running as a Q&A and I'm writing my questions, well, I'm gonna look like a real dumbass, so. Hmm.” 

Melissa: Oh, but I feel like people so many times, like you project your, you know, your own thoughts and feelings onto the song and you have no idea like what the person is doing. 

Courtney: For sure, for sure. Like that was maybe the best argument I've ever heard for keeping some mystery around what a song is about. Like now that's all I think about when I hear that song and I'm just like, I couldn't be sorrier that I asked.

Erick: So she ruined the song for you. 

Courtney: Yeah, Jenny Lewis ruined her own song for me. She was really kind about it though. She was just like, “I'm so glad that it connected with you and that it does something for you. Yeah, it's about my mom dying and having to take care of her after she didn't take care of me as a child.” And I'm like, oh, cool. 

Melissa: Nice. 

Erick:  She’s lived a crazy life. Jenny Lewis. I mean Rabbit Fur Coat. 

Courtney: What a great album. Incredible.

Erick: Yeah, great album. Yeah, I remember I was working at like really far and I would just listen to it on like my L.A. traffic jams. 

Melissa: I think there's a lot of listening that gets done in L.A. traffic jams. I feel like podcast particularly are like…

Erick: Someone is listening to this in an L.A. traffic jam, as we speak, yeah. 

Courtney:  I'm sure they are.

Melissa: And we're back. You're listening to songs My Ex Ruined. 

Melissa: I feel like you're giving hope to so many people who we've had on the show and who've listened to the show because you've been able to reclaim these songs and actually listen to these artists again, which is great. 

Erick: Absolutely, yeah, I think it can happen. I think it's almost like you have to let it go and not think about it for a long time. And then, one day a song will hit you and it'll remind you of something completely different that has nothing to do with that one pain point you had. And I think that that is what I've been discovering with a lot of this music. 

Melissa: But what is about this Maná song that you can't get past? 

Erick: I think it's because it was like — there's a version of me that I feel like I've moved past sometimes. Just like that broken hearted, like feeling sorry for yourself guy. And I feel like it's intrinsically like intertwined with this song somehow. And the funny thing about this song is that like, I can't really point to one person that did this, but I remember it was like the song, if I was having troubles with my partner, if I was in a broken up, if I was like in an unrequited love situation, whatever it was, I would go to that song. And again, I feel like there was something about me trying to Pretend like it was okay to be sad. And I mean, it is okay to be sad, but  it was okay to be like in a shitty relationship or it was okay… Because like, you know what I mean? Like, it was like fatalistic and, and there was a version of me who was like, even as a writer like you're taught that like writers should be miserable and like creative should be miserable. And like if you heal, you will be not funny or not good anymore. And I feel like that song is tied in with all of that somehow. Or at least with that version of me, that used to believe that. There's this Hemingway quote that's like, the world breaks all of us. And whenever something shitty would happen, I'd be like, well, the world breaks all of us. And I'd play Maná and I'd feel like that's why that version of me still exists and deep inside of me. And so when I, that song still reminds me that like, “Oh shit, like I am capable of a lot of self-pity and I need to show it like it fucks with me.” You know? I don't know. 

Courtney: It's an existential crisis. 

Erick: Like yeah, it's a question for my therapist for sure, but I don't know why I still fla— like I'm telling you, I can flash back to like, So many different moments when I was listening to Mana in a very indulgent self piteous way, and I don't think there was any other song that I could do that with because it sort of combined like, you know, as a Latino, it combined this like, this like Americanism with this like, cause like it's a rock song, right? Which is like an American art form, but it's in Spanish, which speaks to my Mexican heritage. So I feel like there was a unique sort of combination of things. And I know this because there recently — like, you know, I'm in a very healthy relationship now in a healthy relationship with myself and with my partner and we were at a party and the song came on. And I was like, “Oh man, this song is fucking me up. Like I am sad right now and I don't have any reason to be like sad.” And that's how I knew like, oh, that song still fucking destroys me. And so I tried to avoid it, I guess. And I wasn't even aware of how much power it still held over me until we listened to it and this, I mean, this is like a month ago, and I was just like, damn.I'm still 18 somewhere, you know? I'm still an 18 year old kid who's crying to Maná, which is okay. But I'm not gonna listen to that song anymore. 

Courtney: I mean, it sounds like parts work, like internal family systems therapy where there are all these versions of you still in there and they need something. Like that they're hanging out, or if they're blocking you, if they're holding a song hostage, they need some sort of resolution to that feeling they're carrying around.Whatever that core belief might be. 

Erick: Yeah, that's a very good observation. I'm sure there's a lot of family stuff wrapped into it, cause it is like a song the adults would listen to. There's a, there's like this other band called Los Bukis, which was huge, huge band that also like, like a lot of my family listened to. And there's this song called “Navidad Sin Ti,” which is just basically like about a, a guy experiencing Christmas without his loved one for the first time.

Erick: And that one was also like really hard for me to listen to a lot because it reminded me of death. Especially around the holidays. Like one of my best friends who was also my cousin was killed during one Christmas, and so I would listen to that song. And during the pandemic I was asked to write a piece about Christmas, you know. And I did. And I wrote about this song, and I wrote about my cousin's passing and, and some sort of the, like the hard Christmases I had. And after that, I was able to be okay with the song, like oddly. And so there is, I think, hope for people like to process, like if they really want to have a relationship with the song. It's like if you can have a relationship with like your relatives that you didn't get along with as a kid, like if you can transform that, I think you, you can transform your relationship with music. But I think the Maná song still scares me. It's like when I was young I was afraid to go to therapy cause I was afraid I was gonna discover some crazy trauma that I was suppressing. And I feel like I'm worried if I really start to examine my relationship with Mana at this point, I'm like, “Man, what is gonna happen? What is deep inside? Where is this coming from?” 

Courtney: It's all right. You'll do the work when you're ready to do that work. 

Melissa: Yeah, but I also feel like sometimes there's just those songs, like sometimes like music is so powerful and so emotional, and once you like kind of put those connections onto a song, I feel like sometimes they're just there forever. 

Erick: It's a very powerful medium, for sure. Like my co-host on Wild, Megan Tan, she talks about audio in a way where like, like a smell, like we’re just talking about smell, you know, where like you hear a thing and you immediately are transported to that moment when you first heard it. And I think that music is even more powerful than just, you know, like a soundbite because the intention is to make you feel something. 

Melissa: Yeah, well, it's like the woman who apparently achieved full orgasm at the Tchaikovsky show. 

Courtney: Sorry, what? 

Melissa: You didn't hear about this?

Courtney: Excuse me, no?

Erick: Oh this is recent? 

Melissa: Oh, this is very recent. It was just like in April or May. Someone was listening to Tchaikovsky’s “Symphony No. 5,” at the L.A. Philharmonic actually.

Erick: Jesus Christ.

Melissa: And just like apparently had a full on orgasm and the whole audience was like, what the hell just happened? I'm just saying music can move you.

Erick: I will say as like a man who has dedicated his life to try and give women orgasms, that infuriates me. They were able to do it through a fucking song. You serious? Jesus Christ. You know how hard I've worked? 

Melissa: You know, work on your playlist. Try some Tchaikovsky. You never know.

Courtney: Look, I feel we've established on this podcast, sex playlists never work. They never achieve the desired results. It's a spontaneous situation. You cannot pre-create a soundtrack to it. This has been decided. 

Erick: You know, it's funny, when I was in my 20s, I was the manager for my friend's band. And so sometimes I would play their music, just put like the iPod on shuffle and then it is really weird to be getting down with someone and then like your friend's voice on.

Courtney: Yeah, you’re like, oh, this is uncomfortable now. Awkward. 

Erick: I know, this is very weird. Javi, you're in the room with me?

Melissa: Yeah, I also feel like I'd be the sort of person who would have a hard time not being like, “Oh, oh, I know these guys!”  

Erick: I know, right. Actually, I'm the manager. I'm their manager. 

Melissa: Fun fact, this song's about me. 

Erick: I wrote the hook to this one. 

Melissa: Okay, but wait, so I feel like probably Adam Levine probably plays Maroon 5 while making sweet, sweet love to Instagram models.

Courtney: Oh yeah.

Erick: What was that song? That song about the “in the crying rain?” 

Melissa: There's probably so many songs.

Courtney: I make it my business to not know any Maroon 5 songs unless I have to. 

Erick: Man, there was a song I remember, yeah, that was a very sad song about somebody crying in the rain. Which is maybe how I feel when I listen to Maná’s “Oye Mi Amor.” Like I'm fucking Adam Levine crying in the rain, ugh. 

Courtney: Never, ever, ever lower yourself to a comparison with Adam Levine. You're so much better than that.

Erick: This is why I listen to the song, cause I do not wanna feel like that. 

Courtney: Yeah, fair.

Melissa: So you've had these painful experiences, and you're now in a happy relationship. But you recently wrote a romcom. 

Erick: We wrote a romcom. We turned it into a podcast. And it was interesting because I think, one of the things — growing up, I was obsessed with romcoms, but I never saw a romcom with like people from the Mexican-American perspective. And I really wanted to do that. 

Melissa: I mean, JLo's been in a ton of romcoms. 

Courtney: She had to play a white person in every single one of them.

Erick: I know, that's what I'm saying. And, and, and I will say like, The JLo stuff, like it is cool. Like I love Maid in Manhattan. That's like one of my favorite romcoms. And also Out of Sight. 

Courtney: Out of Sight is so good, but that's not a romcom.

Melissa: That’s not a romcom. 

Erick: I will go to my grave saying it's a romcom. 

Melissa: Is it? What?

Courtney: Not a romcom.

Erick: See I knew…I would say it’s a romcom. Anyway, I think it's a rocom, but my point is like I never got to see a romcom that was about like people from where I grew up. And so we got to make one and it was based on my life and it was based on this incredible thing that happened to me, which is like I was on a road trip with this person. And on the first day of this elaborately planned road trip, she broke up with me. And then we finished the road trip anyway. Yeah, so we turned that into like a story because it wound up sort of being this transformative moment for me, and something that really stuck with me. And, even when it was happening to me, I remember thinking like, “Oh my God, this is gonna make a great story someday.” 

Melissa: That's the sign of a true writer. 

Courtney: Yeah, it's true.

Erick: Truly. So we, we turned it into a romcom. I feel like I, I learned a big, a big lesson about myself going through that, and I wanted to sort of recreate that for the audience. And we got together, we put a writer's room together and we really, really talked about like, what does it mean to be in love for like our generation and how we deal with stuff. And also it's not like Maid in Manhattan, right? Like our life is not like some rich dude comes and suddenly we're saved. Like that's not real. And so we wanted to do like a real portrait of what it's like to be in a relationship that could end at any moment. And, we don't have a lot of options. for me specifically, it was like, I didn't have a place to live suddenly. You know, like these are the kinds of things that happen when you break up with someone in like life now, right? Like people cohabit together and they can barely afford the rent. And then what happens if you break up and now you don't have a place to live? these are the kinds of things we wanted to talk about. And thankfully, the writer's room was full of very smart people who have gone through their own different versions of love. And we were able to put together a really unique retelling of this event that happened to me, through through the magic of fiction. You know, because I think if we learn anything from the Twilight Zone is like if we feel like allegory is the best way to tell stories sometimes. And so yeah, man, it was so much fun. Like making the first season of Wild really helped me understand, really helped me heal from a lot of stuff. And, and making season 2 of Wild really made me appreciate like the person I've become now, going through all that. It's funny, you know, it, it sounds very serious, but it is a romcom and I think it's funny at least.

Melissa: I thought it was funny. Going back to this road trip that you went on, did you have road trip playlists?

Erick: Oh yeah, yeah. Lots of road trip playlists.

Melissa: And did any of those songs end up getting ruined or are they all just part of a delightful soundtrack? 

Erick: I will say like, yeah, there's some songs that we talk about on the show that make an appearance like “Uptown Funk.” Which is a song that you might not think would make an appearance in a romcom, but it does. There are songs on there you'll hear like, you know, we got permission from Lizzo to play some Lizzo. I feel like Lizzo is like one of those people that like is just so empowering through music. And that was one of those songs that really fucked me up for a while. Like, “Cuz I Love You,” specifically.

That song was a hard one for me. And it went all the way, full circle, where like I actually wound up using that song to ask a girl out. Like years after that song was like fucking me up, I was able to sort of transform it. And I feel like that is kind of the ethos of Wild, like that we can transform these moments that are so hard when we're going through them, but later can really be our best benefit, our biggest benefit, you know?

Courtney: I love that. That makes me feel oddly hopeful. 

Erick: That is, that is my hope to make everyone feel oddly hopeful. 

Melissa: But I feel like talking with you though is actually very inspiring, because I feel like so many people on the show come on and they're like, “I will never listen to that song ever again.” And you're really like, “No, you can reclaim it, you can work through it, you can, you know, take those songs back.” And I love that. 

Erick: Absolutely. I hope, I hope so. 

Melissa: Yeah, I also feel like you're a very rare bird and that I feel like you listen to the lyrics. 

Erick: Absolutely. I am the lyrics. The lyrics are more important to me than the music. Cause I'm a writer, you know, Like, when I liked the song as a kid, the first thing I'd do is try to find the lyrics, you know? And, and now it's really easy. But when I was growing up, the internet was like very nascent and it was really hard to find lyrics, especially to like Spanish music. So, I would have to like sit, sit there and like transcribe them. Like I'd write them in a notebook, you know. And like I'd rewind. Then we used to have tapes, like I would record the songs off the radio like, which was very illegal, I guess, but… 

Courtney: No, the courts ruled ultimately it was fine. 

Erick: Oh, really? Oh, nice. 

Courtney: Yeah. 

Erick: Okay, good.

Courtney:  If you tried to sell those tapes: a problem. But yeah.

Erick: Yeah, I don't think anyone was gonna buy like the Back to the Future soundtrack rerecorded over and over again. Yeah. Yeah, I would write the lyrics down. Especially hip hop, right? Because hip hop was like, “Oh, what the fuck did he just say?” Like, oh man. 

Courtney: That's how I felt about LL Cool J’s “I Need Love.” I was just like, oh, men are allowed to be sensitive  too? Cool. Neat.

Erick: Right?

I feel like the lyrics now, because they's so few in songs now, right? Songs are so sparse with the lyrics. And they have to say so much more than they used to have to say, with just a few bars. And so I'm always like there like listening and I think Kendrick does a great job.

Melissa: I mean he's amazing. 

Erick: I feel like Kendrick is doing a podcast like low-key, like he's like dropping like an album that's just telling you a story from beginning to end to music. And so I'm always like riveted, like listening to the lyrics. 

Melissa: Yeah. I mean, there's a reason he won Pulitzer. 

Courtney: Yeah, I was gonna say. 

Erick: Right, exactly. Like Dylan too, right? 

Melissa: Yeah, well, Dylan, you have to understand what the hell he's saying — which is a challenge.

Erick: That's part of it though. That's part of looking up the lyrics. 

Courtney: Yeah, If you want it badly enough, you will find it.

Erick: I remember Bone Thugs-N-Harmony would just be like <gibberish noises>. And I'd be like, “What the fuck did they just say?” And I'd have to go look it up. And it's like, “It the first of the month / so get your checks and cash up.” And I'm like, oh, okay. I understand this song because, yeah, we're on food stamps. I understand. You know, it's the first of the month. But so the lyrics are like key to me, for sure.

Melissa: Yeah, no, I mean I'm the same way. It's like I love lyrics, but I feel like Courtney and I have talked about this a lot on this show is like, oh, there's so many men who don't listen to the lyrics and will like send you a song that is so wildly inappropriate. And you're just like, you clearly don't listen — like I feel like you're being nice if you say you don't listen to the lyrics, because if you did listen to the lyrics and you sent me the song, we have a problem. 

Courtney: Yeah, you might be psychotic. 

Erick: Oh no. I always listen and I always wonder like, “Oh, what is, what was going on in this person's life when they wrote this song?” Like my all time dream, dream, dream podcast — they asked me this recently in an interview, like if you could do any podcasts, what would you do? And I would like do a like 40 episode bar-by-bar breakdown of “Drunk In Love” with Beyonce and Jay-Z. And investigate what every single word meant, cause I feel like it's about the first time they had sex and I'm just like so fascinated by the lyrics in that song. The moment’s just like, what are they saying? What's going on?

Courtney: Yeah, that's true — and very purposeful word choices and word twists from her in that song. Very deliberate delivery.

Erick:  Clearly they, they do not care about ruining priceless works of art. Like they had sex on a Warhol? Like, I don't know what's going on, but I really want to know. 

Courtney: That’s what Warhol would want, let's be honest. 

Melissa: Yeah, that's true. Warhol would be probably totally down with that. 

Courtney: He’d be like delighted.

Courtney: I think this was like so great and I'm so glad that you picked a classic Spanish rock song. that's really cool. And not the direction I expected to go in today. 

Melissa: Yeah, but I hope at some point you can reclaim Maná and that song won't make you cry on the dance floor.

Erick: I think I will. I think that is that is my hope. And I hope like people that have been on your show can reclaim their songs like, because I do feel like music is so personal. 

Courtney: I think some of them have, just during the course of the show, decided to reclaim their songs, which I love.

Erick: That's good cause I just, I just, you've helped me with the Maná song. So I'm just like, yeah, this is — it helps to talk about shit that you don't even know is like stuck in your psyche, you know? 

Melissa: Yeah, this is like musical therapy. 

Erick:  It is, it's really nice. It's really nice. 

Courtney: Except we are totally untrained and let's hope this all works out well.

Melissa: But we're definitely sending you a bill, and we don't take insurance. 

Erick: That's okay. That is okay. I'm gonna send you back a box of donuts. That's what I'm gonna pay with. 

Melissa: Well, thank you Erick. Tell people where they can find you. 

Erick: Yeah, I'm on Instagram, Eric Galindo. Twitter too, for the time being I guess. But yeah, you know, you can listen to Wild wherever you listen to podcasts. 

Melissa: Everyone should go listen to Wild, you know, just follow Erick around Los Angeles and you know, also the internet.