We're stoked to have Adam, Jack And Ryan, aka AJR back on #MostRequestedLive this weekend. Check out the highlights and then watch the full interview below.
On their motivation to start making new music in quarantine:
"At the beginning, yes, we obviously had two tours scheduled that we had to cancel and hopefully reschedule at some point. We weren't really supposed to start writing music, but we did because we didn't really have anything else to do. So we sat down and we said, 'For the first time ever let's try to sit and write music rather than go out and be with friends, try to think of concepts.' We thought we'd failed pretty miserably, but it actually ended up working well. I think honestly, specifically because of the time. It's so weird and unprecedented and everyone is sort of anxious and fearful, and those feelings create emotions that could easily go into songs, so I think that kind of saved us."
On how it feels to have blown up commercially over the past year:
"It honestly feels amazing. It's really been our goal every step of the way to really be there for the fans... It was always about, let's give the fans something that they really care about and write lyrics that they really care about, and hopefully if it connects deep enough, they tell their friends about it, and it grows organically like that. So it feels amazing, honestly it's been a long road to get here."
On their decision to use their platform to speak out beyond the music:
"I think we feel very lucky that we have a platform at all, that anybody cares what we have to say, and so we want to look back at this time and say we were on the right side of history. For years, we've been writing songs about political messages, which is, I think in some ways just as important, because people consume our art as music. A social media post is one thing, but if you can really be yourself and integral to the song is this political message that you care about, I think that penetrates people more. I really wanna look back and say we did everything we could to be remembered and to do the right thing, whether it's Black Lives Matter, whether it's sustainability and climate change, or all of Adam's work at the UN. That's something incredibly important to us."
Watch AJR's full #MostRequestedLive Zoom interview with Maxwell below.
Check out AJR's video for their song "Bang!" below.