Ezra Koenig Was A Public School Teacher Before Vampire Weekend | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

you guys come out of the gate with this. great album which you had essentially. just made yourself you made that album. yourself while you were all working. full-time jobs yeah so it's not like you. were signed and brought into this slick. situation you no and in fact we we. experimented with remixing some of the. songs to see like oh is is there a are. we missing some kind of professionalism. or something but it just didn't sound as. good so yeah it's really not the the. version that came out is not particular. particularly different than how it.

sounded when we were selling cdrs at our. shows so you're you come out with that. first record and then it seemed to me. like you were very. interested. in not having to be any slack coming out. with more material very quickly like and. that was a pressure did that come from. you did you feel this pressure like. we've just got to keep this going oh. yeah yeah I was obsessed because also. because I'd been working full time I was.

a a public school teacher 8th grade. English in New York and it felt like a. big deal to go you know tell the. principal I'm GNA go on toward the band. you so so let's say that's probably June. June that year I I taught a full year. and I'm like I'm go on toward the summer. so I don't think I'm going to come back. so it felt a little bit high stakes to. have this like brief moment of success. so it felt like let's keep this going um. before I go have to go back to being a. teacher or something so yeah I put a lot. of pressure on and the whole whole band.

to try to get our second album out. quickly I was obsessed with you really. didn't want to go back to teaching how. awful were those kids there were there. were I I have a lot of affection for for. the kids but it was yeah it was a very. difficult job and and also I just felt. like we had this rare opportunity so you. know no one can begrudge you wanting to. be a 30 Kids Care yeah a gee he's a huge. star.

um yeah so I yeah there was definitely. felt like we had to keep things going. and then also you know the putting out. your first album in many ways it was a. big success but then of course you're. dealing with criticism and haters for. the first time so then there's also that. part of you that felt like wanted to. continue to show more dimensions of the. band as quickly as possible yes yeah. because our first album it's very uh it. it was the perfect first album for us. but you know it was also so kind of. youthful and Collegiate and kind of like.

cheery and it always felt like such a. great starting point but yeah I did also. I was anxious to show like different. shades of the band yeah and people well. music critics especially and everybody. loves to say it's the sophomore slump. you know and uh Lauren Michaels told me. many times that they did the first year. of saret live which is October. 75 to uh summer of 76 you know.

June whatever and then they break for. the summer and he said every season. after that like the second season all he. heard was not as good as the first like. what the one with the. Muppets no what do you mean Steve Martin. doing King TTS like the third or fourth. you know right but that's all he heard. and then of then of course it was not as. good as you know 1975 to 1980 then it. was not as good as when and it was just. it's something that.

that follows you which is what I prefer. is you've never been good. right and you never will be and you. never will be I'm like Dad we've had. this conversation so there's this. there's this pressure to come out you do. three albums I think in a relatively. short time yeah within five years within. five years which is you know by today's. standards that's moving that's moving. quickly not as fast as the Beatles but. when I look which in some ways is what's. something people always say were like. well you know they made you know it was.

six months between the White Album and. you know whatever but yeah it it felt. fast and then and also for me I kind of. remember like uh I turned 30 when we. were finishing up the tour for the third. album and you know there were so many. reasons why I think a band's first three. albums tend to have like there's just. something really special about the first. three you can look through so many bands. where that that represents a unit a. Trilogy whatever our first record deal.

was a three album deal so there was so. many ways in which after that intense. five plus a couple year period of. touring it felt like okay turning 30. that was like a a speed run through my. 20s the band is now in a different place. and yeah time for a break and then six. years six and a half years yeah what did. you do during that time I did account. for your time young man I mean I I want. to see receipts guilty you know I did I.

did all sorts of stuff I mean you know. working on music trying a few different. things it's a little hard to remember. but the I remember thinking that the six. years felt like nothing you know and I. still kind of feel that way and and and. in some ways when I look back I feel. like we did it right which is like yeah. in your 20s do it as quickly like push. yourself to go as quickly as possible. but that pace into your 30s let alone. your 40s is insane yeah I I I can't. relate to it I don't want it you know I.

am so aware that so much of stuff that. I've done is because I had to just. because I was part of a machine where. you now you need to do another one and. then you have to do this and then you. have to do that and that there was. a uh if I did shows when I felt like I. might have done like five shows I don't. know do you know what I mean like. there's something that some and I don't. know if you've had that I'm sure you've. had that creatively Where It's just.

sometimes it's I guess it creativity can. happen in so many strange ways. but. sometimes the good thing comes really. easily or sometimes it sometimes it. comes when God damn it we need another. song No totally and and and i' I've. actually I struggle with it a bit just. because I have I used to when the ideas. wouldn't come or something I used to. feel more anxious like we this it's. important we got to get this album going.

and then I I learned a little more how. to calm down and and how to chill more. and then and then it it stopped. mattering to me that much how quickly. things came which is very like positive. for my life but not not positive for the. output so I I'm a little bit now like it. comes when it. comes we'll see I I've never regretted. the amount of time between albums like. looking back now so now you know we. started this in our early 20s uh this. year I turned 40 a bit of a milestone.

looking backwards and I think all right. we have five albums out if I'd been like. a little more of a nut and probably gone. harder and pushed harder maybe we have. seven albums out eight it just what. difference does it make yeah yeah you've. got an amazing body of work you've got a. great body of work and you can keep. adding to it but you're right I it's uh. um I think I mean first of all I could. take I think I'm getting getting better. at chilling yeah you are I think I am.

definitely but I had a major problem. with it for a long time well you had a. crazy crazy job for how way too long uh. yeah years and years and years of. craziness and um I. think there's no way having kids just. changes you it changes you so much and. it's and then you there's a while where. you think wait a minute is there be. creative versus be happy and then it. turns out well no that's ridiculous.

there's a way to be there's a way to do. both it can just come in so many. different forms right but when I'm not. creative or I do work I don't like now I. can blame my children yeah that's that's. why you had them you robbed me of what. could have been. genius you should do that you just yell. sometimes just yell you've robbed me of. a great. song I mean there's also something it's. funny about songs too like I I'm I'm not. trying to be too negative but I I've.

always looked at at other you know I I. think there's comedians who've done like. great work late into their life and. directors and novelists and stuff you. know the the number of people who. recorded their best albums in their 40s. or 50s or 60s the consensus would be. there's not a lot of people who have. done that so there's also some part of. me that feels like well if you only get. a certain number of songs in in this. life like really wait for them spread. them out out and you know don't don't.

rush through it you know right.