[piano intro] - [Announcer] "Shaped by Sound" is a co-production of PBS North Carolina and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The series is presented by Come Hear North Carolina.

[soft ethereal music] [record needle crackle] [soft synth music] - I'm James Mieczkowski.

And this is "Shaped by Sound."

You may have heard of Iron & Wine in iconic movie soundtracks like "Garden State" and "Twilight."

And if you know Iron & Wine, you might also know that his real name is Sam Beam, with multiple Grammy nominations and a massive national following.

What you might not know is that despite this exposure, he lives a quiet family life here in North Carolina.

Today On "Shaped by Sound," performing alongside shadow puppeteer collective Manual Cinema, and in conversation with me, Iron & Wine.

[gentle acoustic intro music] [upbeat acoustic music] [upbeat acoustic music] [warm string melodies] ♪ Anybody born knows how to play this little game ♪ ♪ First they light a candle in themselves ♪ ♪ They lean it up against the wind ♪ ♪ And then they run around the rain ♪ ♪ Anybody born plays pretty well ♪ [upbeat acoustic music] [warm string melodies] ♪ If they crawl into another's heart ♪ ♪ While someone counts to 10 ♪ ♪ Let's just say that's the hardest place to hide ♪ ♪ They jump out of their names ♪ ♪ Until the game begins again ♪ ♪ They open one another's empty eyes ♪ ♪ 'Til they rise like ashes off the ground ♪ ♪ Fall down like diamonds off the dead ♪ ♪ 'Til they go as though they're coming back ♪ ♪ Take their time like it's all they're gonna get ♪ [upbeat acoustic music] [warm string melodies] ♪ Anybody born knows how to play this little game ♪ ♪ No one can be born too many times ♪ ♪ First they kiss their lucky dice ♪ ♪ And then they dig themselves a grave ♪ ♪ They do this until it's killing them to try ♪ ♪ And try, and try, and try ♪ ♪ To rise like ashes off the ground ♪ ♪ Fall down like diamonds off the dead ♪ ♪ To go as though they're coming back ♪ ♪ Take their time like it's all they're gonna get ♪ ♪ To rise like ashes off the ground ♪ ♪ Fall down like diamonds off the dead ♪ ♪ Let's just say that the clues are few ♪ ♪ And the last one in's an egg ♪ ♪ They bend the map or just turn around ♪ ♪ If their life gets in the way ♪ ♪ Let's just say, let's just say ♪ ♪ That their life, it gets in the way-ay-ay-ay ♪ ♪ Let's just say, let's just say ♪ ♪ Say it ♪ ♪ Say it ♪ ♪ Let's just say, let's just say ♪ ♪ That life, it gets in the way-ay ♪ ♪ Ay-ay-ay-ay ♪ ♪ Let's just say, let's just say ♪ [upbeat music flourishes] - Sam Beam of Iron & Wine.

Thank you for being on "Shaped by Sound."

- It's great to be here James.

Thanks.

- You're in Hillsborough and you know you've got your family out there now and obviously and what's it like sort of being a dad, being a husband and sort of balancing this creative and professional life along with all that?

- I found that having a family is pretty grounding, for better or for worse.

- Yeah.

- And sometimes I do it right and sometimes I don't.

But you always have a, some kind of beacon you're looking for.

- Sure, and how does that sort of, that balance, how does that feed into you?

Like your work, your songwriting?

- I mean you definitely have to carve out your personal work time, you know, because the family always, you know, there's lots of logistical things to take care of.

It's a lot of time.

- Does that sort of like, that routine, does that sort of force you into like, turning on a creative switch or not?

- Yeah, I mean you have to.

I'm not gonna say it makes me feel creative, right?

But it definitely makes me say, yeah, I think it's nice to, have a punch-the-clock feeling.

You know, real building- - Yeah.

- songwriter kind of thing.

'Cause I really don't have anything to say.

I don't think most people have much to say unless they think they might have something to say.

- But you don't think that you have much to say?

- Obviously there's lots of songwriters who do have lots of things to say.

- Yeah.

- [laughs] Whether you want them to or not.

But I don't.

I like making things, you know, like using words as, you know, as like a color palette or something and then sort of getting lost in what kind of phrases turn you on, or not.

That's how I kind of make my thing.

But it takes a lot of time.

- Right.

- You definitely have to put the time in for better or for worse.

And so the punching the clock thing helps me feel like I got something done at the end of the day.

Whether it was one word or getting rid of some words.

[laughs] You know?

Yeah, just makes you feel like you're actually doing something.

- Yeah.

You're really wordsmithing.

- Exactly.

Instead of like waiting on the muse to pop by because it's not very...

It does what it wants.

- Right.

- You can't really count on it.

The first 10 years was like me fighting the success of the first record.

Just the, it was such a... Yeah, it just, it has like a pigeonholing effect anytime you have like some like, get success for a very specific sound.

- Right.

- And so, I mean I couldn't get much quieter so I just kept on getting louder.

♪ Say it's here where our pieces fall in place ♪ Any rain softly kisses us on the face ♪ Any wind means we're running ♪ ♪ We can sleep and see 'em coming ♪ ♪ Where we drift and call it dreaming ♪ ♪ We can weep and call it singing ♪ [tender acoustic music] ♪ Where we pray 'cause our hearts are strong enough ♪ ♪ We can bow, 'cause our music's warmer than blood ♪ ♪ Where we see enough to follow ♪ ♪ We can hear when we are hollow ♪ ♪ Where we keep the light we're given ♪ ♪ We can lose and call it living ♪ ♪ Where the sun isn't only sinking fast ♪ ♪ Every night knows how long it's supposed to last ♪ ♪ Where the time of our lives is all we have ♪ ♪ And we get a chance to say ♪ ♪ Before we ease away ♪ ♪ For all the love you've left behind ♪ ♪ You can have mine ♪ [soft shuffling percussive music] ♪ Say it's here where our pieces fall in place ♪ ♪ We can fear, 'cause the feeling's fine to betray ♪ ♪ Where our water isn't hidden ♪ ♪ We can burn and be forgiven ♪ ♪ Where our hands hurt from healing ♪ ♪ We can laugh without a reason ♪ ♪ 'Cause the sun isn't only sinking fast ♪ ♪ Every moon and our bodies make shining glass ♪ ♪ 'Cause the time of our lives is all we have ♪ ♪ And we get a chance to say ♪ ♪ Before we ease away ♪ ♪ For all the love you've left behind ♪ ♪ You can have mine ♪ ♪ Mine ♪ [soft shuffling percussive music] ♪ Mine ♪ It seems ridiculous to say I've always been into shadow puppets, [chuckles] but I have always been into shadow puppets.

- Wait, when did that start then?

Yeah?

- I mean in film school I learned a lot.

There's like films, you know, old animation films about shadow puppets, you know, I mean even like the butterfly with the hand thing, you know, or the dog or whatever.

You're like, yep, I see it.

- Yeah.

- You know what I mean?

And like, I'm with you, where are we going now?

- [James] Mm.

- It's just a really fun space to work in because the audience just gives you, they're on your side like immediately.

And so I find it really fun to stretch out and do those kinds of things.

So I've been talking to my management about working with shadow puppets, thinking maybe we'd get a couple here, you know, hippies with a bed sheet and a flashlight or something and do something.

But they were like, "Well, we just, that's funny that you say that because we just met this shadow puppet troupe from Chicago that, 'cause they do regular performances, and their name's Manuel Cinema and we're gonna call them."

And so it was a learning process for all of us.

I mean, I think it's fun 'cause I'm looking at the crowd and they're all like, you know, looking over.

[laughs] It's nice to not feel like the center of attention all the time.

- What do you think it does for sort of the storytelling that's happening?

Whether from you or from the shadow puppets?

Like what do you think about that?

- Well, the, I mean the idea is to keep interpreting the songs.

I mean, you know, there wasn't anything specific about that wasn't already being said in the song that I wanted to say.

And so it's really like making a music video or something.

You have this opportunity to like, make something that either dances with the song in a good way or is stamping on its feet or whatever.

[chuckles] - Yeah, do you think you'll continue to do like, things like that with your live performance in the future?

- I hope so.

I hope so, yeah.

- Yeah.

It's 'cause it seems like live music is evolving into a place where like this visual side of it is becoming more and more apparent and- - Yeah, I mean, I think we're all trying to do something to, you know, turn people's heads on the stage.

I mean, that's one way to make it a different experience than, you know, watching it on YouTube or something.

- I will say just as an audience member and watching you all work together, it's really cool to see the mediums combine because it does show, it does speak to the power, I guess, of that.

Right?

- Oh, thanks.

- Having a live interpretation of the song and creating a visual, and what that does for just story, period, right?

- Yeah, I mean I think people are, you know, whatever happens with technology and music and stuff people are always gonna wanna see a performance, whether it's, you know, a musical performance or a dance performance, you know, we're, that's what we do.

- We're still gonna put the shadow puppets against the wall with our hands.

Right?

- Exactly.

♪ Ooh-ooh-ooh ♪ ♪ We all ran back into the briers ♪ ♪ We told our children 'bout a foreign shore ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ Threw our boots into the fire ♪ ♪ We told 'em all about a tug of war ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ 'Bout a seed and a shovel ♪ ♪ About a prison and a promised land ♪ ♪ The dream of a devil ♪ ♪ A hurtin' and a healin' hand ♪ [intimate tuneful music] [singers harmonize softly] ♪ We held our words up in the mirror ♪ ♪ We told our children how to hold their tongues ♪ ♪ And our heads beneath the river ♪ ♪ Told 'em all about an iron lung ♪ ♪ Ooh ♪ ♪ 'Bout the sins of a father ♪ ♪ A junkie and a jubilee ♪ ♪ The roots in the water ♪ ♪ The killin' in the quiet line of trees ♪ ♪ Trees ♪ ♪ Of trees ♪ ♪ All our morning kisses in the covers ♪ ♪ They told our children what worthy means ♪ ♪ You wrapped your arms around another ♪ ♪ Told 'em love was worth a pile of beans ♪ ♪ Tell 'em 'bout the call of the ocean ♪ ♪ The singers and the endless song ♪ ♪ The body and the motion ♪ ♪ How the music never lasts too long, too long ♪ ♪ Too long ♪ ♪ Way too long ♪ ♪ Long ♪ ♪ Long, long, long ♪ ♪ 'Cause the music never lasts too long ♪ ♪ 'Cause the music never lasts too long ♪ ♪ For the singers and the endless song ♪ ♪ Low-lit alley and the wedding bed ♪ ♪ Firstborn sucker in the spider's web ♪ ♪ 'Cause the music never lasts ♪ ♪ Mind and the muscle and the weary mile ♪ ♪ Heart and the hustle and the empty sky ♪ ♪ Just an empty sky, tell 'em about it, girls ♪ ♪ Tangled up truth and the perfect teeth ♪ ♪ Pilgrim and a picking through the chaff and wheat ♪ ♪ For the singers, for the singers ♪ ♪ Breeze in the summer and the nose will know ♪ ♪ Sleep through the winter when the cold wind blows ♪ ♪ On the singers ♪ ♪ Blows on the singers ♪ ♪ Lame duck lion and the thorny crown ♪ ♪ Proud punk mule and the heavy plow ♪ ♪ Tell 'bout the plow, girls ♪ ♪ Butterfly kiss and the call for blood ♪ ♪ Pig and the preacher and the holy mud ♪ ♪ For the singers, it never lasts ♪ ♪ Sunburned belly and the mother's moon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ Coming way too soon ♪ ♪ For the singers, the singers ♪ ♪ Low lit alley and the wedding band ♪ ♪ First born sucker and the spider's web ♪ ♪ All the singers, for the singers ♪ ♪ Mind and the muscle and the weary mile ♪ ♪ Heart and the hustle and the empty sky ♪ ♪ The music never lasts, it never ♪ ♪ Tangled up truth and the perfect teeth ♪ ♪ Pilgrim and the picking through the chaff and wheat ♪ ♪ Through the chaff and wheat ♪ ♪ Tell 'em about it, girls ♪ ♪ Breeze in the summer and the nose will know ♪ ♪ Sleep through the winter when the cold wind blows ♪ ♪ And it blows and it blows ♪ ♪ It blows, it blows ♪ ♪ Lame duck lion and the thorny crown ♪ ♪ Proud punk mule and the heavy plow ♪ ♪ All the singers, the singers, the singers ♪ ♪ Butterfly kiss and the call for blood ♪ ♪ Pig and the preacher and the holy mud ♪ ♪ Oh the mud, the mud ♪ ♪ The singers, the singers ♪ ♪ Sunburned belly and the mother's moon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ It's the end of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ ♪ End of the music coming way too soon ♪ - You know, your music has been used in film and television so much.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I've been lucky.

- I mean, "Garden State," "Twilight."

There's like, I looked it up on how many television shows there were.

It's just immense.

- Yeah.

We're trying to get 'em all.

- Yeah, why not?

- Yeah.

- And there's not that many out there now, right?

[Sam laughs] But I'm wondering, so like, on this other side of your career, I guess, like what's it like to see your music sort of interpreted in this visual medium?

- Yeah, it's always been- - That's not your own.

- Really cool.

I mean, I think it's cool.

I've also met like lots of people in the film industry and had like opportunities, like, producers say like, "Well, you wanna make a movie or something?"

I'm like, "What the...?"

You know?

[laughs] - Yeah.

- You know, before this career, I would've, you know, killed a man to be in that position.

Now I'm like, I have nothing, no movie that I wanna make.

And people are like begging me to do something.

I'm like, what the?

Life is weird.

You just never know.

- Yeah.

- You know?

You just follow your muse and see where it goes.

But it's been wonderful to approach it from that direction where I was always trying to bang on the door on the other side of the house, you know.

But to slip in through the back was pretty interesting.

- Yeah.

- Not planned, but also really cool.

- And what, so I mean that also like gave you this just large exposure.

- Yeah.

Yeah, I don't think...

It's hard to say, you know, there's lots of moments that have happened along the way that like, I don't know where I would be if this hadn't happened or this hadn't, you know, what would you...?

It's hard to say, you know, to talk about those things.

But at the same time, I can say before "Garden State," this movie came out and the song was on the soundtrack.

We played to a certain size rooms.

And then after that, those rooms were double in size.

And then the "Twilight" thing came out and that room was double.

You know, it was a really big effect.

And also, you know, I feel really lucky in the sense that I've probably been a miserable failure at anything else, but I got, I landed in the right spot, you know, to be a happy person with my personality, my commitment to what my skills are.

I feel really lucky.

So mostly what's been making me happy, was just sort of appreciating it.

- Thank you so much for being here.

- Yeah, it's super cool.

- It was an incredible production and thank you so much for joining us.

- Thank you.

It was great.

- I mean, just an, a pleasure to do that with y'all.

- Thanks, man, you guys did a great job and everybody was so cool.

It was fun.

- Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

- Yeah.

Thank you, James.

- All righty.

- Thanks, everybody.

♪ All in good time, I gave it my best ♪ ♪ I was alone 'til I found myself ♪ ♪ Grew up to be a man more or less ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ All in good time, I drifted away ♪ ♪ I ran my mouth 'til I'd nothin' to say ♪ ♪ You broke my heart, then I was okay ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ [bittersweet alt country music] ♪ All in good time, I trusted my eyes ♪ ♪ I treated my losses like clouds in the sky ♪ ♪ Finally picked on someone my size ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ All in good time, I followed my nose ♪ ♪ I learned where to bleed when a night comes to blows ♪ ♪ Tried on your love, then I folded those clothes ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ Throw your bread to falling birds ♪ ♪ Buried friends and wasted words ♪ ♪ Somethin' wants to eat us all alive ♪ ♪ All in good time, my angel came back ♪ ♪ Made us some money, but that didn't last ♪ ♪ We wouldn't cry, but we couldn't laugh ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ All in good time, we fell like a star ♪ ♪ We closed our eyes, and we opened our arms ♪ ♪ Ran off the road in our own stolen car ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ [warm alt country instrumental music] ♪ All in good time, and that's what it was ♪ ♪ We mistook that cash in the mattress for love ♪ ♪ Dropped all our weapons and we shrank from the blood ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ All in good time, we'd nothing to prove ♪ ♪ We took the bait 'til we'd lost a tooth ♪ ♪ No one believed it, but we told the truth ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ [warm alt country instrumental music] ♪ All in good time, our plan went to sh... ♪ Ooh, can't say that on TV!

♪ I told my future by reading your lips ♪ ♪ You wore my ring 'til it didn't fit ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ [drums building up] ♪ All in good time, we suffered enough ♪ ♪ We met our muscle when push came to shove ♪ ♪ And swept all that broken glass under the rug ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ Dancin' 'til we both collapse ♪ ♪ Wishin' we could hide our tracks ♪ ♪ Somethin' wants to eat us all alive ♪ ♪ All in good time, we'll remember when ♪ ♪ Say our goodbyes and our hellos again ♪ ♪ Huff, and we'll puff until they let us in ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ All in good time, we'll land on our feet ♪ ♪ Your mother will sigh, and my soldier will sleep ♪ ♪ We'll swim the ocean, fishes set free ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ ♪ We'll swim the ocean ♪ ♪ All in good time ♪ [warm alt country music flourishes] ["Anybody's Game" by Iron & Wine] [upbeat acoustic music] [warm string melodies] [upbeat acoustic music] [warm string melodies] ♪ Anybody born knows how to play this little game ♪ ♪ First they light a candle in themselves ♪ ♪ They lean it up against the wind ♪ ♪ And then they run around the rain ♪ ♪ Anybody born plays pretty well ♪ - [James] Thanks for joining us on "Shaped by Sound."

If you'd like to hear the songs we discussed today, you can find them over on our website at pbsc.org/ShapedbySound, or you can find them on YouTube.

- [Announcer] Shaped by Sound is a co-production of PBS North Carolina and the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources.

The series is presented by Come Hear North Carolina.

[soft ethereal music]