Dave Sitek has done more things while high than most of us will do sober. “I’ve been high pretty much most of my life,” he says at the beginning of this episode of Merry Jane’s “Deep Weed” video series, and to look at the breadth of his work—production work for Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Liars, Foals, Little Dragon, and Scarlett Johansson in addition to his own work with TV On The Radio—is its own testament to the powers of the substance.
Sitek’s recollections on the stuff is downright wistful, leading him to reminisce about his first high before describing how buying his first ounce made him feel like he’d won the lottery. “I thought it would last forever,” he says, “until I realized what kind of friends I had. I think it made it a week.”
“I think that almost everyone my age is in perpetual pursuit of the weed we smoked as teenagers,” he continues, unwittingly producing an ad-lib for anyone over 30—just replace “weed” and “smoked” for whatever it was that first spurred their imagination and sense of discovery. For Sitek, though, the connection is clear and innate, and has lead to some powerful stuff. Maybe he could show this big, weed-loving boy a thing or two about translating marijuana into creativity.