Hi, everyone! Last week, I got sit down and talk with one of my favorite YouTubers, Noah Lefevre, aka Polyphonic. The Canadian journalist is known for his in-depth video essays about music, and he focuses on many unusual aspects of artists or songs. For example, he made a video about why Kendrick Lamar says "What's the Yams?" on "King Kunta. Another really interesting video of his was when he explored who Elton John's "rocket man" really was. With almost 500,000 subscribers on YouTube and videos regularly hitting views in the millions, Polyphonic's videos never cease to amaze me. Talking with one of my inspirations to start bazzreviews in the first place really made me excited, and I am incredibly fortunate to have spoken with him.
bazzreviews: I know you were previously a journalist for other organizations before YouTube, but which YouTubers influenced you to start a career?
Noah Lefevre.: I think there are probably two or three that I would say are my biggest influences. One of the biggest one that I think shows a lot in my style is the Nerdwriter. The video he did on Steely Dan made me think, “Oh, hey, I want to do this”. Generally speaking, I’m pretty much obsessed with any type of video essay channel, Every Frame of Painting or Now You See Me. kaptainkristian was another big influence in the video essay realm, same with the PBS Idea Channel. The Idea Channel made want to apply a critical lens to the things that I loved, which was music.
br: I know you were involved in the journalism scene in Ottawa for a while, but how did it feel gaining worldwide attention with the videos you make?
N.L.: I used to be based out of Ottawa, but I live in Vancouver now. It’s still kind of surreal having almost 500,000 subscribers on YouTube now. Ottawa is my hometown, and 500,000 is half of the city’s population. It’s wild. A lot of the time, I just try not to think about it. If I let the numbers sink in too much, I feel like it would mess with me a bit. It’s not like what I do day to day is that fancy. It’s usually me in my office shooting and editing videos while I’m sitting in my pajamas. It’s a pretty casual job, and a lot of the time, I don’t try to think about how big or famous I am. I’m just a regular guy. It also helps that people don’t know who I am because of the nature of my channel. That is intentional, because I don’t show my face and keep my identity semi-obscure. I like being able to walk on the street without everyone recognizing me and saying, “Oh my god, you’re Polyphonic”, or something. It’s a decision I made early on, and I’m glad I did.
br: What’s your process for making a typical Polyphonic video?
N.L.: The process consists of a couple of steps. Sometimes, video ideas will come in a flash. I’ll have an idea I’m so obsessed with, that I’ll spend around three days listening or reading anything I can. For example, I’ve been listening to Stevie Wonder non-stop lately because I’m in the works of making a video about him. Other times, ideas sit and percolate. An idea might come to me when I’m listening to music or talking to people about music. Other times, I’ll flip through my record collection or my Spotify account and find an artist I’d like to do a video on. I’ll then think of a “take” for the piece, and go from there. I’ll do some research and work that into a script. Writing a script- complete with research- takes about a day. Once that’s done, I’ll either jump right into working on that script, or I’ll put it aside for the future. I still keep scripts that I wrote from six months or a year ago because I like to keep sitting on them until that flash strikes. In terms of producing the video, I’ll start by creating the thumbnail. This seems like kind of a counter-intuitive process, but it helps me find the aesthetic and feel I want to have for the video. It’s easier to do that with a static image rather than a video. It then comes down to the process of editing, where I’ll spend anywhere from three to seven days recording voice-over, editing video clips, and determining which songs and pictures best fit for the mood I want to evoke. I actually work pretty far in advance, usually a few months ahead of schedule. What tends to happen is I’ll finish a video, set it aside, and come back to it a week before it launches. I’ll often come at it with fresh eyes and catch things that I didn’t think about when I was first working on it. Once I make a few minor changes, it’s ready to launch.
br: What fuels your interest to tell certain stories like the significance of “What’s The Yams?” on To Pimp a Butterfly or finding out “Who Was Elton John’s Rocket Man”?
N.L.: Part of that comes from my journalism background, I’ve been trained to tell stories. While I will do analysis sometimes, I think stories engage people. My rule is that I’ll try to make a video that I would find interesting, and I like telling stories a lot more. The “What’s the Yams?” video was the third video I ever released, but it was the first one I had made. It just came from me really liking “King Kunta”, and I was wondering why Kendrick was saying “What’s the Yams?”. The Elton John one came from me wanting to focus on one single song rather than his whole career. If I tried focusing on his career, it would be a very difficult task. That’s why I try to go really in-depth on one thing rather than give an overview of something. I was listening to “Rocket Man” a lot, and I said, “I bet there’s an interesting story behind this”. Sure enough, there was. Sometimes, I’ll look up a song and not really find an angle or a take that I can work with. The biggest thing that I’ve learned is that people who create music, or any type of art for that matter, put a lot of thought and effort into it. Because of that, there’s always interesting stories to be found behind songs. Most of my videos discuss music that is widely loved and respected, so my goal is to to show people a new way to appreciate something they already love.
br: Which videos have been your favorite to research and make?
N.L.: I think one of my favorites would have to be the Frank Sinatra video I did. He was an artist where I enjoyed everything I listened to, but I didn’t know too much about him. It was fun to learn a lot more in the research process, and he’s obviously one of the greats. I decided to do an angle that was a bit different, almost a hot take, if you will. I really enjoy making bold statements and then defending them. It’s almost like the Beach Boys video I made that said “Good Vibrations” is one of the greatest songs of all time. It’s a pretty bold take, and I felt pretty good making it. I wanted to start by making it inflammatory, and then have you agree with me by the end of the video. I really enjoyed making the video on the band Klaatu, the band everyone thought was the Beatles. It wasn’t really a music story, just a story about how people want to believe stuff. I was really proud of making it purely because it was a weird snippet of music history. However, if I had to pick my favorite video I’ve made to date, it would probably be the one I did on Kind of Blue. I love Miles Davis and Kind of Blue, but I never knew why I loved it. I wanted to look in to what made me so interested in it, and why it was that special. Through that, I found my angle and learned about modal jazz, which I had never known about before. After it was all done, I was glad that I could confirm that there was really something special about this album. Most importantly, the aesthetics of the video were fun to make as well.
br: Do you currently have any video ideas in the works right now?
N.L.: I’ve got four to five videos finished at the moment, but I’m really excited to announce that I’m starting to work on a new video platform called Nebula. I’ve launched my first trilogy of videos on there about Led Zeppelin’s epics, “Stairway to Heaven”, “Kashmir”, and “Achilles’ Last Stand”. The “Stairway to Heaven” video is going to be released on YouTube, and the other two are Nebula exclusives. This is a project that I’ve been working on for a long time, and I’m really excited to finally put them out. I have a pretty interesting take on the “Stairway to Heaven” video, but I won’t spoil it for you.
br: Can I make a few video suggestions?
N.L.: Sure, go ahead! I love taking suggestions, but I can’t promise anything.
br: I think you could do cool ones about each of MF DOOM’s aliases, a look at King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Nonagon Infinity, and maybe another video on Kanye West.
N.L.: I’ve considered doing a video DOOM’s record Mm… Food for a while because it’s such a weird album. It’s one of the most interesting concepts in rap music because it’s a rapper talking about how he likes foods. Going back to King Gizzard, a buddy of mine, Middle 8, made a video on them. I will keep that in mind, though. For Kanye, I did one video about “Power”, and I also did another video with the YouTuber All Def Media. It was about Kanye West and art.
br: What goals do you have for the future?
N.L.: I think the big things is that I want to keep making interesting videos and stay fresh. I’m starting to move towards some longer-form stuff, the videos on music and the Vietnam War were my first multi-part series. The Zeppelin trilogy on Nebula is also in that style. I might also consider making documentaries or writing a book in the future. It’s hard to say for the time being. I’m just trying to make videos that inspire people and teach them new ways to listen to music. My favorite comment to get is when people say “Oh my god, I never thought you’d do a video on this artist.” I want to be unpredictable and want to have people log in every Thursday having no idea seeing what to expect from Polyphonic.
I would like to thank Noah again for giving his time for an interview. He was one of the nicest people I've interviewed, and we had a great time talking about music. For those who haven't checked out Polyphonic's videos, I strongly suggest you do. They're some of the sharpest and most well-made that you can find on YouTube. Happy watching, and see you again next time with some more amazing bazzreviews content!
To support Polyphonic's content, go to https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXkNod_JcH7PleOjwK_8rYQ
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