>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin with jeffrey toobin and his new book, "american heiress: the wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes and trial of patty hearst." >> they are all legally related, but they are not necessarily the same thing. i have to say, this is the first book i've written that is at the border between journalism and history. >> rose: yeah. and fortunately, most of the people were still alive 40 years later, but it was enough in the past that it really felt like another time that i was writing about, not current events, and that was fun. >> rose: we continue with adam driver, the ac door from "girls" and "star wars." his project is arts in the armed forces where he brings theater to the military. >> having left for the military, when i got out and went to school was really the first time

i discovered sam shepard and found the language, how important language was and since i had just come from this military environment where there was an emphasis put on, you know, acronyms for acronyms, but there is not so much about using your words to describe your feelings, and i was notice ago change in myself, how i felt less aggressive and was able to, through plays, use my language more. >> rose: from theater to the music of beach house, we talk to victoria legrand and alex scally. >> if there is something really real there, we'll keep playing it, repeating it, pulling it and if we're lucky the words start coming out and the words and the sound, they form -- they can form -- >> the goal is to never lose the feeling that made you get excited about the idea in the first place. that's what we mean about listening to a song. any layer that you put on or bridge that you add or anything, change of a drum beat, anytime it leaves that feeling, you've gone the wrong way.

>> rose: toobin, driver and beach house when we continue. >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by the following: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: jeffrey toobin is here. h he is a staff writer at the "new yorker," he's a senior legal analyst at cnn. he writes books, too. the new book is called "american heiress: the wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes and trial of patty hearst." the "new york times" writes, in an age of terrorism, the chronicle of how a sedate

heiress named patricia morphed into a gun toeing, incorrective spouting, revolutionary holds a definitely fascination. i am pleased to have jeffrey toobin at this table. welcome. >> charlie. >> rose.how are you? >> rose: what sit with you and writing about big murders, o.j. simpson, for example. are you trying to carve out an interest here, it's compelling, their stories not told? >> you describe a logic and plan to my career which does not exist. >> rose: you were a prosecutor. you had cnn and -- >> i covered the o.j. simpson case in real time and wrote a book about it and twenty years later they made the miniseries about it so there was a big gap there. in the meantime i wrote two books about the supreme court, the recount in florida, the clinton scandals, so they are all legally related but not

necessarily the same thing. i have to say, this is the first book i have written that is at the border between journalism and history. fortunately, most of the people were still alive 40 years later, but it was enough in the past that it really felt like another time that i was writing about, not current events, and that was fun for me. i had never done that before. >> rose: and who was in the patty hearst case first, who was accessible and not? >> most predominantly patty hearst was not accessible. she didn't want to talk about it. she is in her early 60s now. her former body guard whom she married bernard shaw died in 2013, so she's a widow, grandmother, very involved in raising show dogs, and, you know -- >> rose: champion show dogs. champion. rocket, her winning shih tzu's photograph is in the book, so i'm all over this, charlie.

she sort of moved on. one of the many remarkable things about this story is she has led the life she was destined for anyway, you know, and that does not include taing about her life as tanya. the other part of it, which is a little more -- you know, i think has a little more edge, at least from my perspective, is she has given many interviews over the years, almost exclusively to people who don't know a lot about the facts of the case. i know a lot about the facts of the case, and there are parts of the story that do not reflect well on her, and i don't think she wants to talk about that. >> rose: like what part? mel's sporting goods. mel's sporting goods, just to shorten the story, she's kid snapped in february of '74, they rob the bank in april of '74, may 16, 1974, a month after the bank robbery, they flee to los angeles, there are nine of

them. eight s.l.a. members and patricia. six of them stay in a little house. three of them go shopping -- bill and emily harris and patricia. they go to a place called mel's sporting goods. bill harris, no genius, at least when it comes to this, decides to shoplift. patricia is across the street in the van alone. she is alone in the van, key in the ignition, she could walk away, do whatever she wanted, go home, go to the police, but she waits in the van. bill harris gets tackled on the sidewalk for shoplifting. so what does patty do across the street? does she run away? wait and see what happens? no. she picks up a machine gun and fires a fusillade of bullets across the street to try to free bill harris. thinks about it for a while. picks up another gun, fires more weapons, miraculously not hitting anyone, but succeeding

in getting bill and emily harris back into the van. that is not the act, in my opinion, of a terrorized victim, that is the act of a co-conspirator. >> rose: so how did she become that, is the question. that's is what the book is about, right? >> that is the core of the mystery that is the patty hearst story. the s.l.a., this really rag-tag, basically ridiculous group of people -- >> rose: and not many of them. they call themselves an army, there were at most a dozen, three of them kidnap her. six of them hold her. you're talking about a very small group of people. they knew nothing about her except two things, one, she was a hearst and, two, she was a college student. but what they didn't know is that they found her at a very restless moment in her life. she was living, engaged to be married to stephen weed, a graduate student in philosophy, and she was unhappy. she didn't want to be married

but didn't want to admit she didn't want to be married to her parents. she had a contention relationship with her mother. she was starting to be politically aware. she was a kid. like many 19-year-olds, she was at a malleable place in her life. the s.l.a. kidnaps her, a horrible, violent act, stuff her in a trunk, put her in a closet, but after a couple of days, they open the door, listen to her, talk to her about politics and tell her the only thing we have to fear is the police attacking us, the only thing we have to fear is the f.b.i. we're on your side, we're trying to frio pressed people, we're trying to feed the poor. they get randy hearst, her father, to give millions of dollars to feet the poor, and she starts to be sympathetic, and she ultimately, in very short order, a little more than a month, joins in the bank robbery, the famous photograph

of her holding the machine gun and she's off and running and remains on the run for a year and a half. >> rose: so what has she said about herself? >> what she has said is that the kidnapping was horrible, which it certainly was, but that the horror continued after the kidnapping. she has said she was raped in the closet, she has said she was coerced into doing the bank robbery and was, in fact, in fear for her life the entire year and a half and couldn't escape because she was so afraid they were going to kill her and that the whole thing was nothing but alvictimmizing -- a victimizing of her from beginning to end. >> rose: and that is not plausible to you? >> it is not plawbledz to me. certain parts are true. i never want to minimize the trauma and horror of getting kidnapped. >> rose: where your total life is at their will, they could

shoot you at any moment. >> they could shoot you at any moment. but when you look at her behavior over the course of the year and a half, when you look how independently she behaved, when you look at how many opportunities she had to leave, to ask a police officer to help her. she was in a hospital with poison oak. she could have said, i'm patty hearst, can you take me home. she was with people during the year after most of the other s.l.a. people were killed with people who had no guns, including jack scott, the former sports activist, who had nothing to do with guns. his parents had her for a while, tried to talk her into leaving, going back to her parents, she wouldn't do it. if you just look at the facts of the case as opposed to the psychobabble that's imposed on the case, i think you conclude that she was a member of the s.l.a. >> rose: so she came to like them, to care about them? >> she fell in love with two of

them. the first was willie wolf, one of the six who were of the original kidnappers who was the member of the s.l.a. who was closest in background to her. he was only a year or so older than she was. he was the son of a physician from new milford, connecticut, grew up in an upper-middle class household, went to a prep school, went to berkeley, smart kid, studying archeology. they bonded in the house in daily city, california, where she was held and, in fact, he is one of the six who was killed by the lapd, los angeles police, on may 17, 1974. she writes and reads a famous eulogy of him where she talks about how much she loved him. i should add patty said she was forced to write that and she didn't write it herself. i don't buy that. later, during the next year, she

meets and falls in love with another member of this group called steven soliah, and even patty ac knowledges they had a consistent relationship for a while, were living together. >> rose: has there been reaction from her to the book? >> she expressed in public while i was writing it that she didn't want me to write it, and we have a very brief conversation and several conversations through intermediaries where she said she didn't want any part of it, didn't want me to write it. >> rose: what was the brief conversation? >> i can recite the whole conversation. this was after i had sent her several e-mails and gone through intermediaries and i said, patricia, this is jeff toobin. "oh, god," click. i can recite the entire conversation to you, charlie. >> rose: this is jeff toobin,

then oh, god, click. >> yes. >> rose: the supreme court. yes. >> rose: what happened to merrick garland? >> certainly nothing till november. i don't think there is a chance he will be confirmed till the lame duck period. >> rose: a special session will be called -- >> and especially if the democrats retake the senate, there are certainly republicans who think, okay, let's get the 63-year-old moderate instead of the 45-year-old liberal. >> rose: we have to say one thing, merrick brian garland is a nominee for the superior courts he had nothing to do with the pat harris case. >> yeah. >> rose: go ahead. i think mitch mcconnell, the senate republican leader, has made clear that he does not think this president, barack

obama, should fill this seat, and i think that will apply till january 20. >> rose: the fact isfall hillary clinton won the president y, she would appoint likely someone to the left of americmerrick garland. >> mcconnell can't go back on that. you have senators like ted cruz and tom cotton who are not going to allow a lightning fast process. they will fight any nominee from the democrats. >> rose: they both on the judiciary? >> cruz, is i'm not sure about cotton. but the point is they will not allow a rapid-fire confirmation. the interesting question to me is what does hillary clinton do if she wins and merrick garland's nomination is sitting there on january 20th? i think she has an interesting political opportunity and dilemma. her base will want her to appoint someone more younger and liberal. >> rose: right. but she has a big agenda in

front of the congress, shepts to get infrastructure and immigration through. if she nominates a controversial candidate on january 20th, that's the first six months. >> rose: sucked the air out of the other conversations. >> yes. there is a possibility if she goes to mitch mcconnell and says, let's make a deal, i'll give you merrick garland but you've got to push him through and not filibuster him. >> rose: right. or get my younger, more liberal nominee and we can fight it out. so i think she is going to have an interesting political dilemma, but there's a small matter she has to win the election. >> rose: of course, that's a big matter. but day by day -- >> if you had to bet, you would certainly bet -- >> rose: but we don't know and things could change in all those stories and all those things you have to say.

but at the same time, how conservative is he? how moderate is he? how liberal is he is this. >> i would say he's about like stephen breyer. >> rose: centrist left? yes. >> rose: that's what hillary says she is. >> and so is president barack obama and elena kagan. sotomayor has turned out more left than center left. >> rose: is she the most liberal member of the court? >> yes. she and ginsburg are close but i think sonia sotomayor, especially on criminal matters, has really taken the lead and decided to be the voice of sort of the "black lives matter" movement, in effect, on the supreme court, and i think that's very significant and important and useful to have someone like that on the supreme court. but i think merrick garland would be another vote to cut back on citizens united, another vote which is the case of

campaign finance. >> rose: that was mentioned by her, i think, in her speeches. >> repeatedly. another vote for trying to roll back the restrictions on voting rights that many states have imposed. signing he would vote. if you look at stephen breyer's record, he votes with ginsburg almost all the time. the four ricials on the court, ginsburg, sotomayor, kagan and breyer, they vote together almost all the times. >> rose: as do the conservatives. >> well, this is something the reps are upset about are the liberals are in lock step and we lose roberts on healthcare, kennedy on gay rights, and that turned out to be very significant. >> rose: and what's the loss of justice scalia mean to the court? for someone who covers the court, not in terms of what your political beliefs are. >> epic importance. liberals can't lose cases

anymore. the liberals -- the worst thing that can happen now with liberals is they have 4 to 4 ties because they vote together all the time. >> rose: as you just said. and that means that there will not be conservative precedence established by this court henceforth. it's a huge change in my lifetime. and oral arguments which is, of course, not decisions, totally different at the court. justice scalia was such a larger-than-life figure at the court and such an aggressive questioner, the court looks different, it sounds different, and the results are different. it's just an epic change. >> rose: so you will miss him? i'm not sure i would put it that way. i miss the theater of it. >> rose: no, no, i'm not talking about the theater of the thing, i'm talking about the dynomism of the ideas.

>> i think the ideas are important. justice thomas. >> rose: is there no different in just thomas and scalia? >> certainly orally. thomas asked one question after ten years, but justice thomas is a very powerful intellectual voice for originalism on the court. he's patronized by a lot of people, and he's a serious person. >> rose: talk about justice thomas in terms of how you see him as a justice. >> the most conservative justice on the court since the 1930s. >> rose: more than scalia. absolutely. >> rose: this book, "american heiress," a fascinating story of patty hearst, somebody like o.j. simpson but in a different way, part of the curiosity of america about how somebody unexpectedly gets involved in criminal acts. "american heiress" is a wild saga of the kidnapping, crimes

of patty hearst by jeffrey toobin. adam driver is here known as adam sackler in hbo's girls and in "star wars" the force awakens, a juilliard-trained actor and veteran of the united states marine corps. in 2008 he founded arts in the armed forces, seeking to bridge the cultural gap between the armed forces and performing arts communities by bringing the best of modern american theater to the military. from august 11 to august 14, driver will be in south korea to stage a production of "lobby hero," pleased to have him at the table for the first time. welcome. >> thank you for having me. good to be here. >> rose: the idea that you wanted to do this thing came from where? from your experience in the marines, in theater, from seeing some connection that other people hadn't thought about?

>> basically being at school from being in the military was the first time i felt i was exposed, knowing nothing really about the theater, community or culture or plays or play wrights or the characters in them. i was interested in the high school but left for the military and when i got out and went to school is the first time i discovered sam shepherd and found out how important language was and since i had just come from this military environment where there was an emphasis put on, you know, acronyms for acronyms but not so much about using your words to describe your feelings, and i was thoughts ago change in myself how i felt less aggressive and how i was able to through plays use my language more and regret not having that, when i was in the military and wanted to share that with my friends, basically. that was kind of the genesis of it.

>> rose: and when you now share it with military friends, do they feel the same thing? has it been something that was an instant kind of, you know, adam, you're right? >> yeah, definitely. i remember i met them afterwards. i got out early and i was in school trying to explain to them where pajamas and i talk about my feelings in acting -- and acting school and i could see they were very apprehensive as to what i actually did all day. but it was something about seeing something live and watching somebody live without a filter of a screen or like people get the connection right away. then also because of the material that we pick, it's not shakespeare or the greeks or not that there is anything wrong with that, but the mammoth or nature of vans, it's very accessible material. i don't think to generalize the military culture is used to being exposed to.

so the language breaks down barriers right away. >> rose: is this akin to what's been happening in some prisons in america, the use of theater there in a sense to engage and to give people an introduction to theater in a different way? >> yeah, i think a culture, i think there is, like, a strong stereotype, which is odd, since really the birth of theater was from a military environment. you know, the greeks and all these elected generals who wrote plays for a culture that was at war over the course of time, obviously have been stereotyped, that culture won't understand. they want to see the dallas cheerleaders or prisoners want to see something violent and aggressive. they're told that group of people won't respond to any kind of complexity or nuance like you see in theater was insane to me.

so that hopefully we're trying to break that stereotype. >> rose: this is what you said to i think vanessa gr riogratis. you said for me becoming a man had a lot to do with learning communication and i learned about that by acting, emphasis on the marine corps. you say using my words made me less aggressive as a person, less angry. it is the liberation of being able to give voice to what you feel. >> right, and doing it from playwrights who are way smarter than i am, being able to embody their language and suddenly the material resonates in ways that isn't so obvious. we could do streamers which is a great play, but we try to -- >> rose: streamers -- david ray.

>> rose: right. which we do other david rabe things but we try to focus away from military theme and show characters that are struggling through the human problems we all share and pick diverse audiences that accurately reflect them back. it's not civilians telling military audience what it's like to be in the micialghts not that people can't understand a different culture, but we're not going in with pre-conceived notions about what people will respond to and don't. one of my favorite things -- i'm rambling -- but we did laura lenny read this monologue from china by scott oregon and it was about an employer reprimanding an employee for not wearing a bra. all the male marines at camp pendleton said i thought

the whole thing was good to go, loved the plays, understood what you were after. there was the one monologue about the woman yelling at her employee for not wearing a bra was an indirect attack on the ways we do in military, that there is a point for structure and uniformity and we thought you were kind of saying that, you know, you're mocking our kind of -- the structure that we have in place for a good reason, and then the female marines were leaving the audience, saying i loved it all, especially the one monologue, because i know what it's like to be a female in a very male dominated culture and to wear my hair under my cover. >> rose: how did you come to juilliard? >> i was interested in acting before i went into the military, then really after september 11th, i feel like most people my age and that time doing nothing, you know, was like working as a telemarketer at the 4h fairgrounds, i felt like i wanted to be involved and wanted retribution, and the

marine corps, to me, was the top of the pyramid as far as military service was so, if i'm going to do it, i'm going to do that and i'm going to be in infantry and go all the way. but then when i got out of the military, i had kind of a false idea that -- well, civilian problems are easy. we have to wait in line. you know, like it's the wrong percentage of milk, you know, like what are civilian problems that are easily manageable and solvable. anything i want to do i can do in a civilian world which is an illusion. t i had misconceived notions about -- you know. >> rose: do you think most actors would benefit from the kind of experience you had? >> yeah, a lot of actors have never been on a military base or their associations with the military culture is through film and television. one of the first things laura lenny said is, oh, i thought it

was like the f troop through it's not at all. you forget that they're people and these people have feelings and they just happen to have a job where the stakes are really high. >> rose: if your experiences made you see acting differently. >> i think of acting as a service. >> rose: that's what i mean. as opposed to -- i mean, obviously, it's a very egotistical or it can be an egotistical, vain, seemingly unnecessary profession, but seeing it as a tool and taking it outside of new york to people who have never been to a play, you really, i feel, see firsthand, watching people see a theater experience for the first time, and not knowing how effective a live performance can be, really, for me, even though acting is many things, you know, a political act, it's, you know,

a calling or whatever acronym -- not acronym, but adjective is applicable, but it is a service and to use it as that takes the pressure off, i think, in doing it, also. because you're really just one part of a bigger thing, the same thing as a military unit. you're one role in a larger machine. if you don't show up, then things aren't going to happen. same thing if you're not there to support your partners or the people you're with, then what are you doing. i guess it's giving me less tolerance for things like that where it's not a team effort. >> rose: less tolerance for people who don't appreciate the team or the mission, that it's a shared goal. >> somebody's paying a lot of money for a lot of people to be in one place at one time to tell a story that's hopefully bigger than any one person. hopefully it better be worth it and i think i took that from the military, too. everyone's away from their

families. in acting you pretend to be in life or death circumstances and in the military you are in life or death circumstances. it better be for a good reason, i guess, and why take it lightly, i guess. >> rose: there are those, and we know the stories in terms of suffering from some kind of depression coming out because they miss that aspect. >> for sure, yeah. >> rose: of what their life has been. >> and also, speaking from my own experience, you're aware of what you can do in a day. you have so much -- in the military, your day is structured and at the end it's look at all the things i've done. when you come back to civilian, it's where can i plug in all this energy? i'm 23, 24, i have all of this -- you know, i'm strong, healthy, i want to do something, i want to, you know, looking for that kind of discipline and structure and there is not a lot of places you can put it, especially if you're an infantry marine, how are you going to

apply that to -- you know, the business world is going to give you a shot and not think you're going to flip out because you were in the military for some reason. >> rose: do you have any regret about leaving i -- leavig the military? >> at first, yeah. i didn't complete it. >> rose: you had a medical discharge. >> yes. i didn't complete it with the people i was with. but civilian life is great, just the freedom. >> rose: the lack of someone deciding what you're going to do and spend every minute of your time. >> yeah, and also insofar as this, trying to continue your service, you don't have to worry about the bureaucracy of your rank in comparison to trying to get things done. >> rose: tell us who an adam sackler is for those who haven't seen "girls." >> a rye no, sir rouse who runs full force at something until he

gets bored or distracted and turns and can only see what's in front of him. he's lena's boyfriend, hannah, on the show who kind of over the course of six seasons -- we just finished a couple of weeks ago -- kind of evolves into being more committed to double down to being an actor and, you know, back and forth in his relationship with hannah. >> rose: how about the force awakens? how did that happen? >> j.j., i had done the movie lincoln that kathy kennedy was the producer on and she recommended me to j.j., and j.j. had only seen "girls," and i flew out to l.a. and met him at "bad robot" and we tal -- talked about the character. there was no script. he kind of gave me a general sense of it and then there was months of thinking about it. a month afterward said do you

want to do it, and i wanted to think about it a long time. >> rose: why did you have to think about it? >> i mean, there was no script and i think more so just the idea scared me a lot, you know, i was a fan of those movies and, you know, it's like a big hollywood kind of thing. >> rose: but were you thinking, i'm not sure i'm up to doing this? or were you thinking i'm not sure i want this, because it may take me to a place i really didn't want to go? >> no, i never thought of where it would take me. i thought of what if the stakes are so big, what if i get there and have no ideas and it's going to be bad, that i'm going to be bad and sink it and mostly just because of failure on such a big scale like that is a terrifying idea. >> rose: but it's also given you a huge profile now. >> yeah, yeah. well, yes, it definitely made things easier for ataf.

>> rose: adam driver on the line. >> yes, but then you have to fight for the right kind of money because the arts is always tricky to raise money for because it's not data-driven philanthropy especially when people want to support worthy causes like ptsd, give us money and it goes to art and may not be an immediate benefit -- i think i lost your question. >> rose: tell me about kilo, how did you see him? >> because it was j.j. and because i was expecting hollywood movies. obviously i have a strong chip on my shoulder it's a lot about spectacle and not character. >> rose: it is. i would say the first words out of j.j.'s mouth were story and character and will give you

nuance to play and hopefully not generic. their relationship is the idea of parents and fathers. >> rose: true with speilberg, too. >> what's that? >> rose: sense of story, parent and father and same stories in terms of the perspective of relationships and character. >> and for some reason studios don't see that's what makes those movies have a long life. they're interested in long life, not something that has a lasting impact. >> rose: has any of this changed your ambition, in the best sense of the way. i mean, clearly, ambition in terms of what you're doing here is ambition. >> yes, sometimes it's ahead of me where i think -- i mean, the fact i'm sitting here at this table talking to you is -- about a nonprofit we started six years ago at juilliard is way ahead of what i imagined, and sometimes

knowing that the attention is on you sometimes, i don't feel yet comfortable with or even being a spokesperson or cheerleader for any kind of cause, i never imagined that something like that would be my life or i would be comfortable doing it, so sometimes i'm getting more comfortable to it. i don't know if that answered your question. >> rose: my point, too though, is with your fame -- whatever, that's the word. >> right. >> rose: -- and high profile, but it is popularity and fame, with that, can you do more for this nonprofit? >> oh, for sure, yeah. just because people, even though -- whereas before they were like, what is it, theater? okay, we're fans of "star wars," but you can come here. (laughter) that's what i was saying about fundraising, you have to take the right money to feel you can sleep well. what's this nonprofit? sure, but come to our bank and

take a picture with my daughter -- no. does anyone want to support the cause? >> rose: yeah. we're making it less about me in the future and telling a group of people that they can't intellectually understand a play is absurd to me. >> rose: exactly. and keeping that away from people that generally won't have exposure -- >> rose: because you can connect it to your own life. >> right. >> rose: it's about all the basic emotions you guys, men and women in the marines feel. >> right, and again, you know, we have, like, tony kushner and all these great writers hearing their language, it's hard not to make the connection to what's great about and what's terrible about and what's difficult about being a human and being alive, and there is no other community, specifically the military, where those stakes are just so high, you know. everyone's away from their families and needs a way to process. >> rose: thank you for coming.

thank you so much for having me. >> rose: adam driver back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: victoria legrand and alex scally are here, they are known at beach house and they have spent the last 12 years creating music together and have become one of indie rock's most consistent bands. their sound is hypnotic and ethereal. the band's latest album "thank your lucky stars" comes two months after their previous release. rolling stone calls ate pure vision of the realities of love, balancing the rush of romance with the burdens that can come along with it. here is beach house we are forming the single "rough song," in our studio. middl ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ no the middle of the party ♪ found a hole to be sorry ♪ through the glass ♪ drank a memory of her face ♪ . ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ all the charm in the evening ♪ peridot television ♪ loveless another ♪ daughter and mother

♪ shut the door ♪ she'll have no more ♪ another vodka cocktail party ♪ her story unravels like a ribbon in the windy distance ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

♪ school girls were praying ♪ lace curtains fading ♪ dealedearly beloved ♪ ♪ hard to hear she spit on you and made your bloody nose more bloody ♪ ♪ shut the door ♪ she'll have no more ♪ another vodka cocktail party ♪ ♪

♪ ♪ oh... ♪ ♪ oh... ♪ totems in the night ♪ i want to forget ♪ all that wasn't right ♪ i need to leave ♪ totems in the night ♪ i want to forget ♪ all that wasn't right ♪ i need to leave it ♪ totems in the night ♪ i want to forget ♪ all that wasn't right ♪ she needs to leave it

♪ ♪ ♪ >> rose: victoria legrand and alex scally are here, the baltimore-based duo known as beach house have spent the last 12 years creating nukes together and have become one of indie rock's most consistent bands. their instantly recognizable sound is both hypnotic and ethereal. the band's latest album "thank you lucky stars" comes two months after their previous release. rolling stone calls it a pure vision of the realities of love, balancing the rush of performance with the burdens

that can come along with it. here a is beach house performing "the traveler in our studio. i am pleased to have victoria legrand and alex scally for the first time. welcome. >> thank you. >> rose: tell me about the first time you two met. did you know, i think one of you used the phrase, musical soul mates? >> we didn't know but when we first met on the porch of your family home in baltimore, i handed him a c.d. of music, and music was already just in play between us. we were playing in the basement of my house and we were continuing from there. the music was -- i don't know what you call it, fate or whatever. >> it was at the heart of the

genesis of our friendship. it's always been there. >> rose: did you have the same instincts or sense of what music could be? >> i think it's always been just very, very natural. there's never been even a misstep in it, it's been so natural. >> the music was the best friend. >> rose: yeah, and how did baltimore influence you? >> i think more than anything baltimore has been, for me personally, and it's different because alex is born and raised, i moved there in 2004 and it's become a home. it's been a haven. it's been a place where we made wonderful friendships with people, and see ago change over the last 12 years, the music scene has changed in many ways and will always change because it's very unique, but it's been a community that has given so much. >> rose: is it a music talent? i think it's a music talent but it's not bustling like

new york or l.a. or other cities might be. >> rose: that sometimes can be good as a haven. >> it's refreshing. that's the perfect word is haven. baltimore for me feels like -- unlike other cities like new york where there is all the precious put on you all the time, it's a place that lets you be. >> rose: have you sought fame like so many musicians seek fame? >> i think that's a dangerous path to travel seeking fame. i think we've gotten lucky. we've also worked very hard, and i think that if you love something, that's what's going to take you someplace. i think seeking financial gains -- i've read too many stories and heard too many -- >> we sought to have our music heard, so as much as that brings fame, but i think the other things like social media and just having ourselves be known for anything besides music, we've tried to not have that. >> rose: do you prefer smaller

venues? >> yeah, we do. we like to be able to feel everybody in the room and not have the experience stop halfway through and there be this blob in the back that's just there that you can't connect to. >> i think arenas were never a part of beach house destiny. >> our music doesn't really play in a big room. >> rose: but there is balance between your own artistic integrity and commercial success. >> absolutely. >> rose: and you have a sense that you have found that together? >> i believe that we have, through instinct, tuition and doing things from a natural place, we've tried our best. >> rose: when was this released? >> late last year. two released in 2015. this was the second album released last year. the first was "depression cherry." >> rose: that's a remarkable sense of productivity. >> it's a lot of work. the beatles did it all the time, right? they were putting out a record every five months or something for a bunch of years. >> rose: if it's good enough for the beatles, it's good enough for you.

who writes? >> we both do. >> rose: do you write together or separate songs? >> i would say we do most of the writing together and i think, you know, we're two different people so our brains -- we're not always together, so if someone thinks of something, we're doing that separately, but the writing, the true evolution of beach house and the songs is something that we have always collaborated together. >> rose: and the name came from? >> the name came from, like i always like to believe, it came from the air, but, yeah, we were just exploring the feeling of that first -- when we worked on the first record, we were in this particular world. you're in a different universe every time you make a record but we were wondering where our band existed and beach house is something that we got lucky. >> rose: what comes first? together you and then you attach lyrics to it? >> i get inspired by words just in general, like throughout the

days. phrases come into my brain, but when things really flow out, music is what's inspiring, the stories and the narratives and all that. >> rose:. >> rose: someone said about you you're always looking to find out what the song wants. what does that mean? >> respecting the beast. >> rose: respecting the beast. what's the beast? the beast is... >> the song, like the material, the vibrations. >> rose: what the words in the music end up being. >> yeah, there is an emotional color that starts to come out of something, you know, and you don't know what that is right away, but you get this feeling, and the feeling can be blank, but it's a real thing, and some pieces of music don't have it and other pieces do. so if there's something really real there, we'll just keep playing it, repeating it, pulling it and if we're lucky the words start coming out, and the words and the sound, they can form instantly.

>> the goal is to never lose the feeling that made you get excited about the idea in the first place. that's what we mean by listening to the songs. any layer you put on, bridge you add or anything, change of a drum beat, anytime it leaves that feeling, you've gone the wrong way. >> rose: make sure you feel the thing you felt when you put the words on and put it together. >> try to keep some flame. >> rose: is there a role model for what you want to achieve? >> endless role models, i guess. >> rose: who? someone i loved is bob dylan for his uncompromising nature. >> rose: and poetry. and for so many reasons, just the way he is. neil young is someone we looked up to because he never did a commercial once and had so much integrity. >> i always loved janis joplin, jim morrison. >> rose: they seem as much for listening to their own drummer as anything else. >> they are beacons of uncompromising light in a certain way, and we can't all be

as radical and change history as, let's say, bob dylan or neil young or anyone else, but you can at least try to forge your own way. >> rose: so what can you do. don't know if we have that much control over it. even though i grew up with a musical background, i don't think i could guarantee i'm doing what i'm doing now. i think it's been about a certain tenacity, a love, obsession. >> rose: the obsession to -- the obsession of making things. i think making things is a lot about it. it's a certain creative force and i think some people have it more than other people. it's a playfulness, a childishness, you keep your inner child. >> to actualize a dream that you've had. >> rose: are you happiest creating the music in terms of writing and the lyrics and the music and the arranging, or are

you happiest when you are performing? >> there are different sides of the coin. >> rose: same experience. yeah, it's like they're both wonderful. >> rose: thank you for coming. back in a moment. stay with us. >> rose: for more about this program and earlier episodes, visit us online at pbs.org and charlierose.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ when i come home ♪ you're just lying there ♪ face against the wall ♪ never had a care ♪ ♪ ♪ i am just a traveler

♪ there's no light in this room ♪ ♪ and the body's aching at night ♪ ♪ would i be acting up ♪ if i said it's not enough ♪ ♪ ♪ who knows who else who is with ♪ ♪ no one is with the traveler ♪ there's a light in my eyes ♪ and a future invisible now ♪ ♪ ♪ heard it's your birthday ♪ candles in a row ♪ better blow them quick ♪ before they're melting on the

floor ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ you were never a traveler ♪ there's no light in your room ♪ ♪ and the bodies don't ache in the night ♪ ♪ would i be acting up ♪ if i said not that much ♪ ♪ ♪ who else would do anything for the traveler ♪ ♪ there's a light in her eyes ♪ and a future visible touch ♪ ♪

♪ i was looking out of the window at the sky ♪ ♪ starless vigil of a life that has gone by ♪ ♪ saturn turning and i feel

there's not much more ♪ ♪ for a vision of the night turn off your light ♪ ♪ >> rose: funding for "charlie rose" has been provided by: >> and by bloomberg, a provider of multimedia news and information services worldwide. captioning sponsored by rose communications captioned by media access group captioned by

[ mid-tempo music plays ]

[ paper rustling ] [ dog barking ] [ dog whines ] [ wind whistling ] [ wind whistling ] [ engine turns over ] [ engine revs ] [ engine shuts off ] [ rainfall, footsteps splashing ]

"film school shorts" is made possible by a grant from maurice kanbar, celebrating the vitality and power of the moving image, and by the members of kqed.

this is nightly business report with tyler matheson and sue here. >> job machine. the economy created a lot of jobs last month, sending stocks to a record. but a near term rate hike may not be a done deal yet. >> bristol myers squib shares plunged today, wiping out billions in market value as a high profile cancer drag failed. meet the electrician who started his own business and is now advising other entrepreneurs to become d more on nightly business report for friday, august 5th. >> good evening, everyone. the s&p 500 and the nasdaq closed at all time highs and for that, you can t