Brittany Howard

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. What's Up?

Speaker 2 (00:10):
What's up with up? Ladies and gentlemen. This is Quest
Love Supreme. I'm your host Quest Love with three Team Supreme. Like, yeah, hello,
how are you?

Speaker 3 (00:19):
I am well excited friend.

Speaker 2 (00:21):
I know right, long time coming, long time coming. What's
you up to? What's what's going on out there?

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Right now? It is not raining, So that's a good thing,
and that's good.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's been raining since. I mean I was there for
the noest flood of Grammy Knight. It's still been raining since.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
I guess, so I wasn't. I left and went to
Brazils on Grammy Night. But I heard it. It has been you.

Speaker 3 (00:45):
Heard that Flaws you gotta you gotta drop it. I
went to Salvador. I have a solid door.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
So you know you went to Brazil for carnival.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
For the best carnival? Yes, yes, flex is that?

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (00:57):
What once year?

Speaker 1 (01:01):
What was it? Like? Give me your forty five second report?

Speaker 3 (01:04):
I mean Salvador.

Speaker 4 (01:05):
If anybody doesn't know about Salvador, Brazil is beautifully black.
It's the second largest black populated place outside of the continent,
so it has all the flavor in all of the
ways and.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
Just a lot. It was just beautiful.

Speaker 4 (01:18):
It was beautiful and fun and the food takes that
better there. Yeah, they say, just for you. So you
know the three different cities. You party in Rio and
the people in South Polo work, so the people in
Rio can party.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
And then yeah, the black folks are in Salvador.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
Okay, you didn't go to Rio or the other spots.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
No, I was where you really want to be.

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Literally, Amir, Salvador is the best place to go for carnival.

Speaker 3 (01:40):
I said, it's where the black people are who started it?

Speaker 1 (01:44):
Oh, hey, I didn't know. I'm a product of the
Philadelphia High School public curriculum.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
So yeah, but you're a world traveler.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
I know. I just go to my hotel, eat my.

Speaker 3 (01:56):
Iron We got them all. I would love to take
all your salad.

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, yeah, you gotta let us know next time you're going.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right,
you're right.

Speaker 1 (02:06):
We got to go there to do the Author Vericai episode.
That's the Author Verkai. Yes, the Author Verica episode.

Speaker 5 (02:13):
That's what we're doing.

Speaker 2 (02:14):
By the way, how you know I didn't get the
peap heids coyotes collaborative album with him.

Speaker 1 (02:20):
Is it? Have you heard it or haven't listened yet?

Speaker 6 (02:22):
I haven't listened yet either.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
Okay, what's up, Steve, what's going on? How's life great?

Speaker 7 (02:28):
I'm currently imagining a vacation with La to Salvador.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
I need it real bad.

Speaker 7 (02:39):
Everything's great, looking forward to this interview.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Here here's the dumb question, Steve. I got to ask
you a work question. Who's on the show today?

Speaker 7 (02:48):
Jennifer Lopez and uh Alan Richson and Gary Clark Jr.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
But we had a great musical guest yesterday. Who Brittany Howard? Oh?

Speaker 2 (02:59):
I was okay. I was not at work yesterday. You
can't get mad at me, Brittany. I was not at
work yesterday. I had to take a day off. Things
were happening. Uh Fan Tickeola. What's what's good man?

Speaker 6 (03:14):
I'm good, Man, I'm good. I'm excited to have Brittany
here today.

Speaker 8 (03:17):
Man.

Speaker 6 (03:17):
I can't wait to talk about this new album.

Speaker 3 (03:19):
Is hard Hard, got me sweating already.

Speaker 9 (03:23):
Wait are you in California, Bill Sherman, No, I'm in
New Jersey.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yes, I mean you're usually in the basement. So I
was thrown.

Speaker 9 (03:33):
Yeah, so I yeah, I'm not in Black Brazil. I
have a house in New Jersey and this is what
it looks like from the kitchen.

Speaker 1 (03:40):
I see, all right, that's that's what's up.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
We got to teach Bill about light. You're supposed to
be in front of you.

Speaker 9 (03:46):
You I like being the shadows.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Bill's flexing of his windows structure actually made me think
he was on vacation somewhere, so I didn't realize that
was just Jersey ladies and gentlemen our guest today as
well as everyone said pretty much, we've been waiting a
long time for this one, and it's finally happened. She
is a five time Grammy Award winner, and she basically

(04:11):
pours her entire life experience into her songwriting, her music,
her production, and you know, she's just a starra within
Ah at the end of the word star. She's practically
worked with everyone named it, from Prince to Verrtine White
to Lemonoel Miranda John Legend. The list goes completely on

(04:32):
and on and on. She has formed several successful bands,
including one of my favorite Alabama Shakes. Not to mention
she's here today to talk about her journey through life,
her journey through love and music. And we're celebrating the
release of her sophomore album entitled What Now and Welcome

(04:55):
Brittany Howard two Quest leftsupre Yes.

Speaker 5 (04:58):
Sir.

Speaker 3 (05:00):
Us for having me, how to do Crystal Bowls and Long.

Speaker 5 (05:05):
Last, Long Last. Hey, everybody, good to be here.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
At Long Last.

Speaker 5 (05:10):
Where are you right now, britt I'm in the city.
I'm looking out the window Lower East Side.

Speaker 2 (05:17):
Obviously you're you're on the promotional run or you on
a an actual tour for your album.

Speaker 5 (05:24):
I'm doing both at the same time. I'm on the
promo run, I'm doing tour. Yeah, that's what we'm I
here doing.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
As Fante said, congratulations on the record, Like it's it's
really awesome to hear your artistic growth and and you know,
just the risk that you're taking the album is incredible,
and you know all the atholatues that you're getting on it.
Congratulations are are in order. We we love this record.

Speaker 6 (05:52):
Yeah, I want to personally thank you for to be
still like and like, thank you for that record. It
is beautiful.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah, I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Yeah, there's a level envy I have when a person
releases a new record, maybe because I'm constipated ten years
and holding my own record hostitch. That was like everyone like,
you know, Gary Clark's records coming out, Fritz Records coming out,

(06:24):
We just had Kareem Bailey Ray, Like all these albums
are coming out and I'm like still holding my join hostage,
and like, so, what is the feeling you feel when
it's when it's over and you know it's ready?

Speaker 5 (06:37):
What do you mean like when it comes out? How's
that foot?

Speaker 2 (06:39):
Well, yeah, when you're done, Because for me, like albums
are almost like your kids, I hold this close to
the chest. I don't play demos for people. I don't say, hey,
you want to hear a bit of that, Like I'm
so anxious feel on letting it go. And then there's
a point where like whenever I always master a record,

(06:59):
maybe be like two weeks before it's really supposed to
be turned in because I almost have to have a
morning process.

Speaker 1 (07:09):
In literally letting your kids go.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
And I want to know, do you go through that
or is this just like, hey, here are my twelve
thirteen songs and I'm ready.

Speaker 5 (07:20):
Yeah, I feel like I understand where you're coming from.
But for me, it's kind of the opposite I'm like,
I can't wait to get this out in the world,
because you know how it isn't in this business. You
have to do the whole album cycle. You do the touring,
and you have to do the promo, and you do
all of this for this album. And it's like, as

(07:40):
soon as I finish the album, I can't wait to
get it out. It's like a just station process and
what I imagine a very pregnant woman feels like it's
like I'm ready for this thing to get out of me,
you know it, so I can move on with my life.
And it's kind of what it's like. I'm very proud
of this project, but I'm also very excited to start
a new one as well.

Speaker 4 (08:01):
Already.

Speaker 2 (08:02):
Are you a song cycle person or you an album
cycle person? Like do you just write enough songs for
the album to come or is it even as the
album is done, you already have songs in mustache or
still writing, like.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
There's still something on the cutting room floor. I think
I still have like six or seven that didn't make
the album, and it was it was just because it
was taken too long. Like I was like, all right,
I got enough here. I don't really want to spend
any more energy working these out. I'll do this later.
And I'm definitely like an album cycle person like, as
soon as it feels like it, it has the feel done.

(08:39):
It has to feel cooked. And I feel like once
I have that feeling, it's just like an intuition thing,
then I'm like, Okay, hear this, this is it. Now
let's do the sequence.

Speaker 6 (08:48):
Oh what was the period of time between knowing when
it was done, like just knowing like that feeling you
were talking about of like, Okay, I feel like this
is complete, it's cooked. The time between that and it
actually coming out out and being released.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
Short this time, it was like ten months. Oh wow,
that's a long long y yeah yeah yeah yeah. Well
like post pandemic, things are still just taking a long
time to create because we like final we liked the
objects when listening to music, takes a long time to
print those things. Everything's just slower. So it took a

(09:25):
long time to get the whole shebang ready.

Speaker 4 (09:28):
Really, if this was like a meal, then how long
was your meal prep and what was the preparation for
this album? In a sense that this this album is
going to say this, do you even do all of
that in your head.

Speaker 5 (09:40):
No, I don't even think about that. It was just
I started this in March of twenty twenty, so it's
pretty much like shut down. And I didn't realize I
was making an album. I was just going and just
make like songs for fun because the world was terrifying
and we were all scared. So there's really nowhere it
turned to. So it's just like I used music as

(10:02):
my outlet once again. And when I was making this
album back in twenty twenty, I didn't know I was
making it. I was just like, it's a journal entries,
you know, And I told myself, I'm just going there
no matter what happens. It's okay, doesn't matter what it
sounds like, doesn't matter the quality of it. It's just
something to do. And so it's been cooking for such
a long time. The meal prep has been insane. I

(10:24):
had walked into the kitchen, cut vegetables, walked back out.

Speaker 4 (10:27):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (10:29):
Well, let me ask you, how close to March thirteenth,
twenty twenty did you start the record.

Speaker 5 (10:37):
So I had just finished a London tour, I guess
the UK tour flew from London, got to New York
City and we had a fallon lined up, and we
had different shows lined up we're going to do, and
I was just looking at the state of things. I
was like, I don't think, no, this is going to happen.
So I actually flew home, what like on the twelfth
or the thirteenth, like I got to Nashville and then

(11:00):
things shut down, and I feel like I feel like
I started tinkering with things maybe like a month later.
I just know, like I finished Tiger King. As soon
as I finished Tiger King around stuff to do, I
guess I'll go make music because I'm a musician.

Speaker 6 (11:19):
What did you think of Joe exotic songs in Tiger King?

Speaker 5 (11:22):
Oh shit, I thought that listen, But it wasn't even
him right. It wasn't, which makes it richer. He just
wanted to act it out. What do I think about
the songs honestly as a body of work. As a

(11:45):
body of work, I'm go go ahead and give it
a six. Okay.

Speaker 2 (11:55):
A lot of these albums that I'm hearing sort of
got their genesis or they're beginning in twenty twenty and
they're just coming out now like four years later. I
don't think it's a coincidence that for a lot of us,
a lot of our art that we started creating in
twenty twenty in sort of the midst of panic and

(12:15):
the apocalypse air quotes the Apocalypse.

Speaker 1 (12:18):
I don't think it's a coincidence.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
So I guess I'll ask you how hard was it
or what was your relationship to creativity in the apocalypse,
you know, because like people are dying in real time,
family members are getting sick in real time, and like
all these things are happening. But for you, like, were

(12:40):
you like foxinging or like and I mean like more
like July August when we don't know if we're coming
or going.

Speaker 5 (12:48):
Yeah, I mean my relationship activity was definitely difficult during
that time. I was seeing like friends, especially on Instagram,
just like having output output output output, and I couldn't
believe it. I was like the last you know, kind
of where I was, Like I said, I was going
in and out of making little songs. And when I
say little songs, I mean they're like thirty seconds. They're

(13:09):
just little ideas. And I pushed myself to do that,
but honestly, it was like doing anything creative was a
survival mechanism. For me, couldn't go anywhere, I couldn't see
my friends, was always concerned about getting sick, was concerned
what was going to happen next, because not only didn't
we have the pandemic, but back in Nashville, we had
just had a tornado that had kind of devastated the

(13:31):
area where I was living. Oh, And it was like
one thing after the other, and a lot of people
like they didn't have rooms on their house, so people
trying to help each other out at the same time.
It's an extremely stressful kind of like position to be in.
So to me, the creativity was my lifeline to any
normalcy whatsoever. And it wasn't like I needed to have output,
and it wasn't like I needed to make anything great.

(13:53):
It was just I just needed to have any type
of like control at all.

Speaker 2 (13:56):
Really, another commonality in the pandemic was a pivot. Did
you discover another talent that you had in the pandemic? Uh,
that you didn't realize you had?

Speaker 5 (14:10):
Man, I think you know, listen, I kind of rediscovered
my love for fishing. Me and my dad used to fish.
I was a little girl, and during that time, because
I lived I lived in the country, I could just
go by myself and go fishing, and I kind of
I kind of got good at that. I guess if
you can if you can say you can get good
at fishing, yeah, got good at standing there, and.

Speaker 3 (14:34):
She's got good patience. That's what that means, and a
good fishing.

Speaker 1 (14:39):
Oh, Libra, Okay, Libra.

Speaker 5 (14:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
October October second. See, I was going, oh god, you're October.

Speaker 3 (14:49):
Uh, just like everybody you know, Wait a second.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
We can't be friends. I'm sorry, there's no room in
the end. My life is sort of a arted with everyone.
That's a result of post Valentine's Day.

Speaker 5 (15:06):
Good math.

Speaker 8 (15:08):
I you looked into that h every man drunk in
the year's Valentine's Day early literally last of September, early October.

Speaker 1 (15:24):
Where were you born?

Speaker 5 (15:25):
I was born in Huntsville Hospital. That's Huntsville, Alabama. I
was raised in Athens, Alabama.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
What's that town like?

Speaker 5 (15:33):
It's changed a lot now, but back on those littles,
lots of fields, cows, pastures. It's pretty flat where I live.
It's got tornadoes, lots of country people. We had good
diversity though, good diversities, lots of rich people, poor people,
black folks, white, folks, Mexican folks, all the folks.

Speaker 1 (15:53):
You grew up on a farm or like a city escape.

Speaker 2 (15:56):
I'm asking this because I have ties to Alabama, so
I'm trying to learn other parts of You.

Speaker 5 (16:02):
Mentioned that to me before. Yeah, but where I'm from
is rural. It's pretty rural. I live way back off
the road in the woods, and I grew up like
kind of like in a farm setting. But also my father,
my father was he's a tow truck driver, and he
had a junk yard, so I kind of grew up
like amongst junk, like a junk yard aesthetic, and also
had like this beautiful animals running around.

Speaker 1 (16:26):
So were you a learner or you know, did you
have a community of friends or.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
So I just played with like there was like little boys,
like the neighborhood little boys, because I lived way back
in the country off the road, so they would literally
just drive their little tractors down to my house and
we would just play in the creek and stuff like that,
Like it was like country country.

Speaker 4 (16:45):
Yo. Is it just me? I just had this conversation
with somebody the other day. You just made me think
of this tomboys. That's not a term that's used anymore.

Speaker 5 (16:55):
But than it was it was.

Speaker 3 (16:56):
I was a tomboy.

Speaker 4 (16:58):
I mean, yeah, but I don't even know it's politically
correct anymore.

Speaker 3 (17:02):
I don't know.

Speaker 5 (17:02):
I haven't thought about it a long time. I don't know.
But I definitely was one of those, you know, and
like my you know, it's interesting like my upbringing, Like
my dad. You know, he's a car salesman and he did,
you know, the toe jobs and stuff like that, so
he knew everybody in the community. So he would always
do like what we call horse trading, which is just
when you trade this for that. And I remember one

(17:24):
time he brought me home a pony, and I remember
being so excited about this pony. I was I only
girl on the street that had a little pony. And
the pony wasn't right in the head. So the pony
would like try to attack us and chase us and
bite us. It was eating meat. It was eating what
he was eating meats, It was eating birds.

Speaker 3 (17:43):
Oh yeah, yeah, not your dream, my little pony.

Speaker 5 (17:47):
No, it was not a dream. But all the kids
would come down and kind of check out the pony,
you know. Yeah, So that was my claim to family.

Speaker 2 (17:53):
Now I'm going to ask you around the dumb questions
that I never asked a person that was anything close
to equestrian life, because I don't know that many people
that have owned horses or ponies or any of those things.
And I hear this all the time, where like one
day I came home and my dad surprised me with
and usually a pony.

Speaker 1 (18:14):
What is the general like maintenance of owning one of
those things? Like I have a farm, now do I
plan on owning?

Speaker 2 (18:23):
And my farm actually comes with I have like a
barnyard that's a stable that can hold six of them
if I chose to own them right now?

Speaker 1 (18:33):
It's for storage. But what's what's the daily care routine
for that?

Speaker 5 (18:40):
The daily I mean honestly, like when it comes to
upkeep for a horse you're talking about, you got to
have your like regular vet visits. You gotta keep up
with the vitamins.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
Definitely, they take vitamins.

Speaker 5 (18:55):
Yeah, well it goes in the feed.

Speaker 3 (19:00):
We all need nutrition.

Speaker 1 (19:02):
You knew this.

Speaker 3 (19:03):
I mean, I'm nturprised.

Speaker 5 (19:06):
I'm not I'm not looking at questrian person, you know
what I'm saying.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
I didn't think I know either when he said, but.

Speaker 5 (19:11):
I remember what we used to do. You gotta take
care of hooks, You gotta take your care to coat.
When it's cold outside, you got to make sure that
everything's right for them. It's hot outside, you got to
make sure everything's right for them. Like I just did
a pretty high maintenance really, And they're also expensive, expensive creatures.

Speaker 4 (19:25):
That you gotta buy it a trailer, a mere like,
and you're gonna take it to the bet.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
You gotta take it to the bet.

Speaker 1 (19:30):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, I just never understood like the casualness of friends
of mine's, like, yeah, I brought my kid a horse
or whatever, but you know, I have anxiety trying to
consider should I get.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
A dog or not, let alone.

Speaker 9 (19:47):
Very different things.

Speaker 5 (19:48):
Yeah, I start with a dog, for sure.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
I'm not even starting with it because I traveled too much.
But you know, I just generally wanted to know. And
the neighbors that I have on both sides of the
house they have horses. I go up and pet it,
and part of me thinks, like, oh, it's not that bad.
But I know that there's some real ship that I
don't know.

Speaker 4 (20:09):
So and Brittany ain't say if she kept the pony
until it turned into a horse, did you did you.

Speaker 1 (20:13):
That's the part I wanted to do at the point
works that's two different.

Speaker 2 (20:19):
Well, I did not know that. I thought that. I
thought that ponies were puppies to.

Speaker 5 (20:25):
Horses, their own thing, their own thing. Ponies do not
turn into worses.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
Wait wait wait what they.

Speaker 5 (20:34):
Do not turn into horses? Ponies is his own thing.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
And they stay that size.

Speaker 5 (20:39):
They stay that size. Yeah they say that size, that's right. Yeah,
and they're kind of mean, to be honest with you.
Ponies are not super nice, really attitudes. All the ponies
I met have attitudes.

Speaker 4 (20:49):
Even the Shetland ones like real cutely, this is about
our enemy advertising.

Speaker 6 (20:56):
National Geographic Request, Love Supreme and Brittany.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah no, dude, this this platform is more for me
to learn shit, more than their records already mentioned the record.
I want to learn about this shit. How long did
you keep the pony before it was like okay, no more?

Speaker 5 (21:15):
Not long a trade? You know, we kind of traded things.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Up so like and that's just common, that's.

Speaker 5 (21:20):
Common around where I'm from. Yet, and so we had
traded like we had a quarter horse at first, and
then we traded the the quarter horse is like it's
like twenty five years old, so like, I couldn't do
anything with it, so we traded it for the pony.
And the whole reason we got the pony because the
pony was meaning to bite you. So that traded the
pony for a Gokart and then we were cool from

(21:41):
then on, no more horse. It's a good trade. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:46):
And what's this level of trading called again?

Speaker 5 (21:49):
This is called horse trading?

Speaker 9 (21:51):
Horse trading?

Speaker 1 (21:52):
Okay, that's the term I never heard before.

Speaker 2 (21:54):
So is it a thing where like once a month
you take what you want to trade to a place
and you trade it or you just go to your
neighbor and be like, yo, what you want for this?

Speaker 5 (22:03):
It's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Okay, okay, yeah.

Speaker 5 (22:06):
It's like I've been noticing that you have this in
the yard is a run. So I's like, well I
could run, I just ain't took it in. It's like, well,
I got this, I'll trade you this for that, and
then it's your job getting running. And then you take
that thing that now runs and trade it for something
else that you want. You know, you just trade up.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
I got it now. Can you tell me what your
first musical memory was?

Speaker 5 (22:30):
Oh? Man, first musical memory. My grandmother had like one
of those big consoles that has like the eight track
player and the record player and the speakers built in.
And I remember being really young, maybe four, and messing
around with all the vinyl yes and pulling out some

(22:52):
of the albums and had them all on the floor,
and my Grandma's like, what you're doing, you know, like
don't break them and all this, and I remember her
putting on the Thriller out them, but I remember hearing.
I remember hearing the speakers because it's like a tube system.
Remember them warm up, and then I could hear, you know,
songs of Thriller coming out of the speakers and being like,

(23:13):
what the hell is this? You know, kind of kind
of amazed in the name of by the whole thing,
not just the music, but just all of it, you know,
the warmth of it coming on?

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Was that your kind of I don't mean come to
Jesus moment, but for you, was that like the moment
where it's like, Okay, well I want to also express
myself in this way through music or.

Speaker 5 (23:42):
Nah, so no, not really. I mean I had that
kind of moment when I was eleven. I was in
middle school and in my middle school. I don't know
what if a grade eleven is fifth or sixth grade,
And there was a band from our school that had
rented out our gym and they were gonna put on
a show. And I remember all throughout the day everybody

(24:04):
was asking, are you gonna go to the show? You're
gonna go to the show? I was like, I don't know,
I'll see if I can get there. And so I
get to the gym and I'm by myself. I remember
being like super anxious because I don't really know anybody
at well. And the band plays and amusing them play
on stage and kids I went to school with. It
was like I didn't know these kids could do this.
There were so talented. Look at the effects they're having

(24:24):
on people. It was songs that I liked and I knew,
and it was like the coolest thing I had ever seen.
And it was in that moment standing in the gym
that I knew I wanted to be in a band,
and I wanted to make my own music and I
wanted to be up there like they were, like. I
think that was a come to Jesus moment for me.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
Okay, how long before you found other people that sort
of had a common love for music, Like was music
something that you kept close to the chest, or like
how big was the music community down there?

Speaker 5 (24:59):
It was a it was. It was so small. I
had to teach people how to play music to be
in a band.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
Wow.

Speaker 5 (25:06):
So I would go teach myself the instruments, and then
I would go back to school and I would just
try to find a kid with some sort of musical
talent like rhythm, and I'd be like, Okay, hey, do
you want to learn how to play bass guitar? Like
do you want learn how to play drums? And I
I would tutor them and see if that get to
a pointment where we could make music together. Some yes,
but a lot no, Like it just didn't happen. I

(25:27):
was trying to make it happen. And it wasn't until
I was probably like sixteen years old that I finally
met some kids who also were interested in making music.
And that was Zach Zach Copple Bassis for Alabama Shakes,
and then he Fogg who became a guitar player, and
it was them. So this whole thing really started from
my school.

Speaker 2 (25:47):
Was guitar, your very first instrument of choice or did
play other instruments as well.

Speaker 5 (25:54):
My first instrument, I guess technically is like piano, and
then drum, a drummer heart and then basically yeah, yeah, yeah,
a lot of my yeah, a lot of the drums
on my new record. I programmed those drums. I'm not
saying I could play them like that, but I can
hear it, you know, and uh yeah. Then I learned bass,

(26:17):
and then I only learned guitar because I had to.
I didn't really want to play guitar really, no, I
want to be in the rhythm section. I just one
I want to play bass.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
What is the gap though?

Speaker 4 (26:28):
Wait, the gap in between you knowing you wanted to
do this and you teaching folks that the music, Like,
how are you learning? You never kind of said that yet,
you just yeah.

Speaker 5 (26:39):
So at firstly I didn't have those instruments like drums.
I could have access to drums because there were a
set of drums at our school, so I could go
play those drums after school. When it came to bass guitar,
I would just borrow one from one of the rich kids, because, like,
I don't know what it was about school, Well, all
the rich kids had a bass guitar, let me borrow it,
you know, and let me borrow it. And so I

(27:01):
taught myself how to do that. And the guitar my
my sister had a guitar like tucked away back in
the closets, like one of those jcpenny guitars that looks
like a less Paul and it's like it's like one
hundred and fifty pounds. And that's what I learned on
was that guitar. So I was teaching myself.

Speaker 3 (27:19):
How long did it take?

Speaker 5 (27:21):
I mean, I haven't mastered any of those instruments, right,
that's what we're doing, okay, no, no, no, no no no. Honestly,
I was just learning as I went. So if I
picked something up, I would make something with it. I
would just learn as I went. So from from the
very beginning, I wanted to make my own music. That
was like the whole goal. That was like the whole purpose.
But when I was originally learning, I had to learn

(27:44):
other people's songs. So I just started with stuff that
was easy, like like Blink on a two, and I
was like kind of things like that that are pretty
easy power chord stuff, you know.

Speaker 1 (27:54):
So I'm gonna ask you am I the only one
that goes through this?

Speaker 2 (27:57):
Like sometimes when we'll ask people about their childhood, you're
thinking about your childhood too, but then you realize that
their childhood is actually your adulthood like childhood, and I'm like,
wait a minute. I was thirty three years old when
that came.

Speaker 1 (28:15):
Out, like.

Speaker 5 (28:17):
Pretty, don't do the math, don't do the math.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Don't do it.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
Don't do it. It hurts.

Speaker 1 (28:21):
I give my feelings hurt.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
I guess when we first played together was at the
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and we
were doing a tribute for Big Mama Thornton. In your childhood,
was there did anyone ever put you onto her? Or
was it like later in life when you discovered her.
I'm for a so called music historian. I you know,

(28:45):
I admit, and I'm ashamed of myth that. I was
probably in my mid forties before someone explained to me
who Big Mama Thornton was, even though like I've heard
hound Dog and all that stuff all my life, but I.

Speaker 5 (28:57):
Remember doing his sister. Was that a tharp?

Speaker 1 (28:59):
Though?

Speaker 2 (29:00):
Oh my god, you know what you want to edit that? Yes, yeah,
quest love makes mistakes. Yes, I had a brain fart.

Speaker 9 (29:10):
I'm sorry he was Atorian questlove.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Things. I'm sorry. I meant Sister Rose at a thought.

Speaker 2 (29:18):
Yeah, were you at all familiar with her in your
childhood or did that come to you later in life.

Speaker 5 (29:24):
It definitely came to me later in life, maybe mid twenties.
Mid twenties is when I started getting curious about these
women blues players, right, And then I had started hearing about, well,
there's this woman that kind of inspired Chuck Berry and
inspired of us Presley and had the electric guitar. And
someone told me about it because I played an SG

(29:46):
and they're like, oh, this like sister was at a tharpe.
She also put a SG. She put an SG custom
in white. And I was like, oh, I've never heard
of her. So I started looking into her stuff and
I was like, the stuff she's actually playing on the
guitar is so was unique. It's it's her voice on
that guitar. Nobody else is doing it. It's crazy, it's
actually hard, it's hard to play how she's playing. And

(30:09):
so that's when I kind of started diving into her
stuff and in her story, which her story is really
interesting as well.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
In your childhood or in your teens. Who was your
north star by that point as far as like singing
was concerned, as far as like who's just like your
go to artists that you loved.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
In my teens, It was David Bowie. Wow. Yeah, because
it was like the Hole aesthetic and the songwriting was
like it had like a lot of different mixtures in it,
which I really liked. It had like some some show
tunes to it as well, you know what I mean.

(30:51):
Like I can hear his inspirations being like from Broadway,
and then like also he was taking things like from
Kabuki theater, and he was borrowing rhythms from R and
B and he was doing jazzy things, and it was
just fascinating to me. And I liked his voice. I
thought it was really interesting how I used his voice too.
He wasn't trying to be like a professional singer, technical singer.

(31:11):
It was just he was just like giving like he
was giving vignettes. He was giving like small scenes from
a movie or something every song. I thought that was cool.
So I became obsessed with.

Speaker 3 (31:21):
It, Okay, obsessed to what levels.

Speaker 5 (31:23):
I had everything. I had everything he had ever done.

Speaker 6 (31:26):
You have Labyrinth?

Speaker 3 (31:27):
Yes, I was about I love it.

Speaker 6 (31:30):
Yes, okay, I was like, okay, what era of boy
is this?

Speaker 3 (31:36):
Early?

Speaker 6 (31:37):
Is this eighty four?

Speaker 4 (31:38):
Literally?

Speaker 5 (31:40):
Oh, I was listening to like ten Man, I was
listening to all of it. I didn't like it. I
listened to it.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
Yeah it yeah, you know, it's weird, all right. So
I worked in a record store eighty eight eighty nine
when the first tim in the album came out, and okay,
so we traded in the record store for the Internet.
But if you hang out in a record store long enough,
you're going to meet two or three know it all

(32:09):
snobs that have their like unsolicited opinions on stuff, and
suddenly their opinions become your opinions. And working in that
record store and like, think of Jack Black's character and
U yeah, yeah, Like I had like two of those guys,
and you know, we had to put the ten Men

(32:29):
display up and all that stuff, and they were just like, ah, man,
this shit sucks. And of course, you know, everyone wants
you to go back to when you know, your first
seven years, when you're blowing everyone's mind and when it
was just your secret before the world had you. And
it's so weird because I'm working on this doc right
now and Timmin's performance, I will say that if you

(32:51):
really give and if you can find any of their
performances online. And I don't know how much they did.
I know they did a few promotional shows and whatnot,
but I would almost say that tim Men was almost
like a precursor to grunge. Yeah, I mean, if I
can borrow from gen Z, it was. It was giving,

(33:14):
it was given Soundgarden, it was giving alls and chains,
it was borderline. It was somewhere between like early Smashing Pumpkins.
And I know when we say grunge, you just automatically,
non grunge hits will just think like, oh smells like
teen spirit, you.

Speaker 1 (33:32):
Know, that sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (33:33):
But I mean, yeah, like I realized that Oh Bowie's
fan base had the younger generation after the same thing
with Prince. If you remember that Prince got booed at
the Rolling Stones opening for the Rolling Stones back in
eighty one, Like baby boomers were not Prince's audience. Prince

(33:54):
was the older brother of gen X, So you know,
some three or four years later that audience is going
to grasp the Prince And yeah, it's it's weird that
even I would say that all Bowie fans should probably
revisit ten Man, or at least try to find them
in concert. It was actually awesome. Like if you're a

(34:17):
fan of grunge, I would say that they're the percursive
to that.

Speaker 1 (34:20):
So, but that's my opinion anyone else besides Bowie.

Speaker 5 (34:29):
Let's see started off pretty hard with David Bowie, and
then I found out about Pink Floyd. I hadn't heard
Pink Floyd before. I remember being like, oh, it's like fifteen,
riding in the back of my friend's car and she
starts playing it was the Dark Side of the Side
of the Moon. Yeah, yeah, And I was like, what

(34:50):
the hell is this? This is this is so many
different types of music. This is like jazz, this is
like I never heard any type of music like it.
I remember hearing it in the back of a buckless sound.
I remember hearing hearing it, and I remember getting so
excited because I didn't know you could do music like
I don't know you could take everything like that, mix.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
It together without psychedelics.

Speaker 5 (35:13):
No psychadelics. I just I'm just getting ride home from school.

Speaker 1 (35:16):
Oh wow, that's what's said. Have you have you ever
done The Wizard of Oz test to it.

Speaker 5 (35:21):
No, I've never done that.

Speaker 1 (35:22):
Have you heard about it?

Speaker 5 (35:24):
I've heard about it.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
Yeah, it's up until maybe the end of money.

Speaker 5 (35:30):
It literally it really does.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
If it's perfect, is.

Speaker 3 (35:34):
The wisd of is it?

Speaker 1 (35:36):
I thought it was pulled the Wall and not Dark.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Nah, a dark said on the third line where you're
supposed to start. You're supposed to start the record on
the third line. Roar of MGM. And literally it plays
perfectly even when it turns into color.

Speaker 1 (35:51):
That's when the.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Bells money starts money and they start doing the dance
and all that stuff. And then towards the end it's like, okay,
now he definitely did it up until money.

Speaker 1 (36:01):
I'll say that much. Have you ever watched The Wall?

Speaker 5 (36:04):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (36:05):
Yeah, I first saw The Wall in the like The
Wall was the first pandemic film that I watched before
I started obsessing over Fantasia. And I don't know, man,
I it's almost like we owe Roger an apology letter

(36:25):
because I know that, you know, for all intents and purposes,
like we credit Michael Jackson for video innovation, but for
that thing to come out in nineteen seventy nine, which
is basically pretty much you know, if you were to
take like the fifteen best videos you've seen on MTV
for the first four years.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Like between eighty one and eighty five.

Speaker 2 (36:49):
Then I would say, like The Wall was all that
in nineteen seventy nine, and he just never truly got
the credit. Like again, I discovered The Wall in twenty two,
like long after after that effect, so I you know,
I highly recommend it.

Speaker 5 (37:05):
But I mean, yeah, when I was in high school,
I was like a cult classic. If you had to
sit down and watch The Wall, we all knew it
was something special and everybody was, you know, trying to
experiment with drugs and watch The Wall and we're at
a party the Walls on like that was like the
cool thing, you know.

Speaker 1 (37:22):
Yep, I recommend it. You know, before twenty twenty, I
really wasn't big on drinking or psychedelics at all, like
an occasional cookie or a gummy of that sort of thing.
But you know, most people said, like you'd experienced it outside.
I'm I'm still not an outside person. I want to
be inside when I do it because I don't know,

(37:46):
fear of control or whatever. But someone suggested to me
to watch Fantasia and there's two verds there's Fantasia and
then Fantasia two just came out in two thousand. Without Psychedelics.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
You'll see something in that movie, but with it, Oh
my god, there's there's a it's a whole nother level
of like.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
I use that pretty much.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
I'd watch it like once maybe twice a week while
kind of making, and then after that I would get
ideas for Summer of Soul, like oh, want to do
this and that and this and that, and kind of
the panic level of Summer of Soul's editing. I would
say was really inspired just by like ideas I had
from doing that. Sometimes you have to get into someone

(38:29):
else's art in order to.

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Create your own.

Speaker 2 (38:34):
I want to ask, so, did you start Permuta Triangle
before the Alabama Shakes.

Speaker 5 (38:39):
No?

Speaker 2 (38:40):
That was after, okay after, So Alabama Shakes was your
first first group?

Speaker 1 (38:44):
Can you talk about the formation of that?

Speaker 5 (38:47):
So, I you know, I was. I was in high
school and I have been looking for people to play
with and as seen a couple of guys in my
school that were interested in music, playing music, and they
were like dedicated to it. So I really wanted to them.
I was trying to figure out some younger than them
and me being me, I was like, why would they
want to talk to me? Like I'm younger than them,

(39:08):
I look different than them. We don't travel in the
same groups. I don't know how I'm gonna have my end.
So I went made a little demo like by myself,
and I used to use like audacity, so it's like
super easy to record with. Sounded terrible back back in
the day, and so I brought him to a CD
and I was like, Hey, this is to Zach bass
player who later became the bass player of Alabama Shakes.

(39:29):
I was like, hey, I made this music. I don't know.
I just wonder if you everyone to come like jam
on me sometime play music with me. Sometimes he was
like yeah, let's go listen to it. So we go
to the parking lot of high school sitting in his
Honda chord. He plays it and he's like, oh, this
is cool. He's like, yeah, I'd like to like to
come over and play. So that's spout when I was
like fifteen sixteen, and me and Zach started playing every
day and we were learning how to play like at

(39:50):
the time, it was like prog rock. So we're like
doing yes and King Crimson. We're like learning that kind
of stuff. This is new to me, but I'm fascinated
by it because it's all really technically different, cool stuff.
And we started writing together and then we made a
demo and Heath, who later became a guitar player for
The Shakes, heard that and was like, I want y'all
to open, Like, can y'all open for my band? And

(40:13):
I was like, man, we don't even got a band.
It's just like us. So we went down to the
music store and the best drummer in town worked at
the music store. We only had one music store in town. Hey, man,
you want to come play with us. He's like, I
don't know. We show him our demo. He's like, I'll
check it out. Come by, I'll see what y'all about.
So then we started playing together and then we opened

(40:35):
up for Heat's group, and honestly, that's like, what did it?
The first time we played together, we knew that we
had something, and so we started them working on our
own material and that later became the Albama Shik's Four
of Us.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
I got hip to you guys via Jack White.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
It was pretty much like you know, screwing from the
Mountaintops about you guys and whatnot for you? Did you
have any expectations of where this journey was going to
take you in terms of, like.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
I'm trying, from the time we started a band, which
I'm saying we started a band when I probably had
just graduated high school two thousand and seven, I'd say, like,
that's really when we started playing our own shows with
our own music. And then I feel like whenever Boys
and Girls came out with like twenty twelve, eleven, yeah, yeah, yeah,
I mean, it wasn't that long, but we played all

(41:25):
the time, and we played for no money, and all
we did was get together Tuesdays and Thursdays and write
new music, write new music, write new music, work on
the set, work on the set. And to me, it
was just like miraculous that anything happened at all because
at a certain point, I just I just like accepted
that I was going to be a male carrier. I
was going to deliver mail and I'll play music on

(41:47):
the side, and that was going to be my life.
I was okay with that.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
Well, let me ask, because I'm curious about band dynamics,
like anyone being a band or a unit in.

Speaker 1 (42:00):
Know post millennial times.

Speaker 2 (42:01):
It's almost like as it's like aliens landing, because you know,
pretty much life is built for the solo artists post
art post two thousand. When the band is forming, is
there a general agreement like of who the leader is?
Or is it like a thing where it's like, okay,
it's democracy and we all have a say, or like

(42:24):
how do.

Speaker 1 (42:24):
You handle.

Speaker 2 (42:26):
Banned decisions and whatnot? Like how do you how do
you deal with those dynamics?

Speaker 5 (42:32):
For us, it was a democracy that's we honestly communicated
a lot why or why not we shouldn't do something right?
And the better you were and just talking about your
feelings usually the more.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
What's that, the.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
More the more it will go your way because the
better the better you were, the better you were communicating
why you didn't want to do this. It was it
was almost like in a court of law, but it
came from an emotional place. I really don't want to
do this because X y Z, this is cheesy, this
is that, this is yeah. Yeah, you know, if you
were quieter, you didn't get as much as your wife

(43:10):
because it's like nobody's hearing what you have to say.
But we would all sit down and talk.

Speaker 2 (43:15):
You know, Okay, I would assume that their reception of
boys and girls was not overwhelming, but it was definitely,
you know, to come out the gate. And I'm speaking
as a person that took four attempts to finally come
out the gate. What is it like on your debut

(43:36):
to come out the gate and instantly become critical dartlings
And what is that feeling?

Speaker 5 (43:43):
Surreal? So absolutely surreal.

Speaker 2 (43:47):
You described like the first moment when you realize like,
oh shit, we're really going to be a thing.

Speaker 5 (43:55):
Yeah, I do. I do remember it. It popped in
my head as soon as you said I remember. It
was in Nashville on Broadway and there's like the Secret Club.
I don't know, I don't know anything about that life.
We had just got through playing the Blue Room with
Jack White. Jack White invited just to play his third
Man records, and I was excited to meet Jack White
because I love the White stripes. And then if kings

(44:16):
Leon is there, and I at the time, like I
had like the first two records, loved kings Lynn and
they're coming up, They're coming up to me and they're like,
you know, I think you're gonna make it like all
this stuff, you know, and I'm like, these guys tell
me I'm gonna make it. And so I remember going
to the secret little bar after the show, and you know,

(44:38):
it was kind of fancy. I'd never been in that
environment before. And I remember there's a balcony outside. It
was me and the drummer, Steve, and I go out
there and and Steve were crying and I was like,
I looked at him. I was like, why are you crying?
He was like, I just think I really think we're
gonna do something. And I was like, damn, you think so.
And then I started crying and We're just out there

(45:00):
this emotional moment that's like, I can't believe this is
happening to us. It was just all of our circumstances.
It was just like such a miracle happening in our lives.
It was just like it's like a Superman came in
to save you, you know, you.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Huh yeah, yeah. It's like right on, so much of.

Speaker 5 (45:15):
My life at the poverty line, and now I had
an opportunity for the first time ever, you know, And
that's what it felt like.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
You all collectively moved to Nashville or No.

Speaker 5 (45:25):
I was the first one to move to Nashville, and
that was later. It was like much later. Yeah, I've
say Nathan's for a long time.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
I'm being told that Nashville is pretty much the last
bashion of hope for the serious musician? Is it that
like every singer songwriter I know, especially now, like I
peeped one person's Instagram feed and suddenly, you know, like
when you peep one Instagram feed, your algorithms was suddenly

(45:53):
I didn't realize the staggering amount of songwriters and I
just thought like, oh, it must be just country. No,
it's every musician is like I gotta go to Nashville
to make it the way that an actress is like
I gotta go to Hollywood. What is it about Nashville
that just calls out not even a musician.

Speaker 1 (46:15):
You what is it? What is it? For me?

Speaker 5 (46:18):
It was a practical thing. Nashville Airport goes a lot
of different places. That's really all it was. And I had,
you know, when I moved there initially, so I'm from
a small town. Nashville was kind of besides Birmingham, that
was the next biggest town. That's where you could go
see the bands you want to see who go see
live music. So I was always going up there to
go see bands, and so I made friends up there,

(46:41):
so naturally I wanted to go to be where my
friends were. So that's how I ended up in Nashville.
But I stay in Nashville because it's practical. Like my
family's an hour and a half away, the airport's fifteen
minutes away. Now I have good friends in the city,
and that's I mean. I'm not gonna say I get
out there and watch a lot of music. I don't really,
I'm kind of a home by.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
I just want to say congratulations, Brittany Howard. You you've
continued a long tradition quest love supreme antics where I
will romanticize something and if you subject just takes this
and does this.

Speaker 3 (47:18):
But there is a beauty to Nashville. I've only lately.

Speaker 4 (47:21):
I had never been there in my whole life up
until the last five years, because of the whole because
they have the Black Music Museum now in Nashville, which
I'm on a small board for. But also witnessing like
Black Americana and some of those bands and the rise
of like black folks claiming their country again is a
beautiful It's beautiful.

Speaker 1 (47:38):
It is.

Speaker 5 (47:38):
It is beautiful.

Speaker 1 (47:39):
It is beautiful, and.

Speaker 5 (47:41):
I do love that about Nashville. And I actually love
the younger people that live there now in the music
that they're doing. It's actually really exciting. We got like
house clubs now. Well I don't know if I just
say that, but like we have house parties.

Speaker 2 (47:53):
Now Brittany's my house music but actual house yeah, joint
meaning or.

Speaker 5 (48:01):
Well, it's like, you know, everything they do is legal.
That's what I'm saying there.

Speaker 2 (48:06):
And okay, no, no, no, I thought you in the house music,
I was like, oh, a club culture is coming to Nashville.

Speaker 1 (48:10):
I get it.

Speaker 5 (48:10):
No, that is what I'm saying. That's what That is
what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (48:13):
Oh okay, yeah, And.

Speaker 5 (48:15):
They get their own speaker systems together and it's cool.
It's like really cool. It's really lively. I'll go out.
I'll go to that, but not for long because I
like to sleep nowadays, but like I'll go for a
couple of hours, you know what I mean. And there's
that happening in Nashville. That's cool. And there's a part
of me that almost wants the gate keep it, to
keep it pure, because Nashville, you have to keep in
mind it's also a tourist town, but we also have

(48:36):
to live in a tourist town.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
You don't already coming colnizing your precious now.

Speaker 4 (48:40):
Amazon already moved to Nashville. Honey, it's official.

Speaker 3 (48:43):
It's it's gone.

Speaker 5 (48:43):
It's over. It's over, Oracles living, and it's over. It's over.
We got top golf, Hey, top golf?

Speaker 3 (48:52):
What you know about top golf?

Speaker 1 (48:53):
A mere Yeah, I'm a human being? Like, yeah, I don't.
What do I know about top off? Like you? What
a human being? Do you know?

Speaker 2 (49:03):
We'll invite every walk of life to a game night
like Doctor Game Night.

Speaker 1 (49:08):
Of course.

Speaker 4 (49:08):
I'm from the Bowling We used to do the Bowling twenty.
You got to keep the gold back at.

Speaker 1 (49:12):
It, I will ask at its height? Was there a
moment when?

Speaker 2 (49:21):
And again my obsession with how people can create and
do bands together, the same questions I asked Fante with
Little Brother, is there a moment where it stops being fun?
Or you know when you when you released your first
solo record, I was like, uh oh, like because often

(49:44):
when people release a solo record, I'm hoping that they
realize that you can go off and do separate projects,
but you can always come back to home base and
keep the brand alive, or keep my dream alive.

Speaker 1 (49:58):
I won't say the dream, but.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
You know you well, yeah, because I want to see
more bands in existence, so in your in a way
that you can express it without it being awkward. What
was the decision that led up to breaking up the band?

Speaker 5 (50:13):
We have been working incredibly hard for a long number
of years and it came to a point where people
got to go home and live their lives. But I
had never really got to live my life because I
was working on the next album, or I was doing this,
I was doing that, and it's just like I was
just tired, just tired. And it was like a hard

(50:37):
decision because like those are my brothers, you know what
I'm saying, Like all of our lives experiences miracle at
the same time, we saw the world together and we
created beautiful things together. It's really difficult to choose myself,
I'll be honest. It's difficult to take care of my
own mental, spiritual, and emotional health. But there's a choice

(51:00):
I made because I wasn't enjoying creating. Nothing was coming
to me. I was just kind of tired of the
whole business. It was like I didn't even like music
no more, you know what I mean. It's just like
I think it was just overworked, and it was a
kind of situation where it's like even if I took
a break, I don't know if I would have come back,
you know what I mean. It's nobody's fault. It's just conditional.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
Yeah, I would think that would actually be more of
a business or more of a burden now that everything's
going to fall on you. Like I'm certain that as
a solo artist, yes, you could complete autonomy in terms
of how you sonically want stuff to sound, or songs
you want to do, or whatever control that it is

(51:43):
that you want to musically, how you want it to sound.

Speaker 1 (51:46):
But I would figure that it's even more of a
burden that way. For you.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
Was it a matter of like song choices, what you
wanted to do or how you wanted something to sound,
or arrangements or level of musicians and sip? Like, what
was it about being a soul artist that made you say, look,
this is the end of the road and I have
to do this now.

Speaker 5 (52:09):
I think what you're saying is part of it. It's
all kind of part of it wanted to hear what
it sounds like if I create something without anybody editing
it as part of it, Like what if I can
just do this on my own. What if I can
just write music like this on my own. I need
to write recipe, I need to write parts. I you know,
it's like it's just a freedom, a creative freedom, and

(52:30):
I thought life is short. I think it's worth giving
out a shot, giving that a chance to see what
I can do with it. That's part of it. And
as far as like having a burden being a solo artist,
I just feel like there's not as much of a
burden as you would think, because at the end of
the day, when I don't want to do this anymore,
I'm not like having to affect other people's lives as

(52:51):
much as I was in the shakes. Like if I
said I don't want to tour this year, that's affecting
all of them. And what if I don't want to
go back out, that's affecting all of them all of
the time. So you're kind of tied together, you know
what I'm saying. And when when you're on your own,
it's like the ship sinks or the ship sales like
and it's all up to me. So it's a different

(53:12):
type of fulfillment, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (53:14):
I'd like to know because you are you were an
intersectional and in a racial band, how hard is it
to get people to understand culturally where you're coming from
when you're kind of a kind of alone but still
in a crowd of people, Like, is it easy to

(53:35):
explain things? Are they sensitive to these things? Or was
it always a teachable lesson? And not even with your bandmates,
but just as you guys are operating as a band.

Speaker 5 (53:46):
I think that's a good question. It's like nothing we
ever really had to talk about. It was just this
is me, this is my expression, this is how I
feel about this. We never had really have we never
really had to have conversations because by the time, like
when we were talking about the band, by the time
the band kind of concluded, we had all grown a

(54:08):
lot in a lot of different ways, and it kind
of got to the point where I was just like, well,
I don't want any of my expressions to affect you
or vice versa. How I feel about something shouldn't affect you,
and how you feel about something should you know? It
started to become a little bit more like how do
I say, like, uh, some of us were different, that's all. Yeah,

(54:30):
we just grew into different people difference.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
You worked on sound and color with one of my
favorite producers, Blake Mills. He describe what that process was
like working with them.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
Sure, yeah, there were there were some songs. So usually
when I come to the studio, I have everything already
demoed out, like how I wanted sound, and it don't
sound good yet, but it's just the ideas there, and
I'll have all the parts laid out. And there was
a few songs I just couldn't seem to get finished.
You know. Work with Blake was cool because we both
just put our heads together and tried to figure out

(55:04):
where we can take this thing. And one of the songs,
you know, I had, like it's called it a song
called the Greatest and it was like a slow kind
of ballad thing. Yeah, and he was like, oh, just
beat it up, there you go. There was now it's
like this punk rock thing and it was really cool.
It was like a it's like a Ramones type thing,
and I liked that. And then there was like obviously
getting the sounds and tones where we're working with a

(55:25):
shine everyy and we were all of us were like
a part of that process, especially like the mixing and
finding the different sounds. And then I think for like
the final song, finishing some of the lyrics to to
think it was Gemini song, Gemini finishing lyrics to that,
and and the process was like having Blake work with

(55:46):
you is like it's nice to have someone like a
light of fire underneath you and keep you on task,
because I feel like sometimes as songwriters and musicians, having
an idea of finishing it is a whole it's a
whole thing. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
Yeah, Could you talk about what the process was like
producing your own records, like being in total control of
it and and kind of using that as you're not
soapbox or pool pit like that being your confessional kind
of project. Can you can you explain just the process

(56:23):
of making the Jamie record.

Speaker 5 (56:24):
Yeah, it was actually kind of a supernatural process, to
be honest with you. I went to to Panga in
a you know, it's like that mountain outside La and
it's got like the hip They said there's hippies there.
I didn't mean any, but I rented this house and
I had like three songs and I knew that, and

(56:45):
three I think it was like three weeks a month.
I had to go into the studio and I had
to record, and I didn't have anything, and I wasn't
getting anything, Like I don't I don't smoke weed. I
like win By some weed. And I sat down and
I was like, I gotta I gotta connect with the muse.
I have to get inspired. I don't have anything. So
I called a psychic and the psychic was like, oh,
you already got She's like, you already got in bad,
the record's already done. I was like, what do you mean.

(57:07):
She's like, you already have the songs, you just got
to find them. I was like, this doesn't make any sense.
So now I'm miserable because I don't waste the money
on the psychic. But I have I have four songs.
And I go to the studio and I tell Sean,
I don't know, this is what I got. Let's get
the band in hair, let's do this, and maybe as

(57:27):
the days go by out I'll find time to create
some new ones. I don't know. As we would sit
down with the band, have lunch, we'd have these conversations
and then they would just say, like a particular word,
like one of the words was Jehovah's Witness, and I
had remembered right when they said it. Oh my god,
I have a project in logic called Jehovah's Witness. And
it was cool because I've been named. I name my

(57:48):
projects like whatever, because I have to have to name
them before I can save them on my system. So
I had to get someone all the way back in
Nashville to send me in higher projects. And that's how
I got the album together. It would be every day
going in and someone would just say a phrase and
I'd be like, that's a song. Now I have the song, baby,

(58:10):
Now I have the song GoAhead, and all these things
are getting pulled in and like it just came together
like that. It was crazy. It's like I did already
have them. So the psychic was right, like it was
technically correct.

Speaker 2 (58:24):
What was the inspiration because actually, to be honest, I
forgot where I was. But I sh zamed something I heard,
uh uh said the kid singing, and I she zammed
it and I realized I didn't. I didn't know at
the time that you actually remixed the Jamie album or

(58:47):
had a slew of people from Ninth Wonder and Georgia
and and Bad Not Good and and uh I think, uh.

Speaker 1 (58:57):
Yeah yeah Glover.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Glover worked on a joint too, right, So I got
deep into that. What was what was the process of
doing that? Because it was almost like a whole new album.

Speaker 5 (59:07):
Yeah, I mean the process was like, first things first,
I just want to reach out to people whose music
and ideas I really respect. What if y'all wanted to
remix one of these songs real quick? What would it
sound like if you did it? And honestly, like everybody
was super excited to do it. And every time a
new song would come out and get so excited and
I'd run out to my car and I just sit

(59:27):
there and listen to him be blown away. Like Little
Dragon did some stuff, Fredigan did some stuff, Michael and
Nuka did some stuff, and just like people I've always
like kind of wanted to work with, and this is
kind of an easy way to get to work together.
The overall is the song and the materials already there,
just rearrange it like how would you have done it?
And it was so interesting to listen to it was

(59:48):
it was so cool, such such a cool project.

Speaker 4 (59:51):
It reminds me of like the Verve Remix projects like
you just did their own album. Can I just ask
you talk about a lot of things self care wise
in this conversation. I'm curious how it's evolved now that
you are by yourself and you have to figure out
all of these you know, it's just everything has changed
in the dynamic. Although you have this whole level, next

(01:00:13):
level of freedom, you also have a next level of attention.

Speaker 3 (01:00:16):
So what does that?

Speaker 4 (01:00:17):
Yeah, responsibility, Like Fonte said, like, so what does self
care on a daily look for you?

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
Look like for you on the daily? So I do meditation.
I do transdidal meditation. So I've been doing that for
I guess a couple of years. Yeah, helps, it helps
a lot. How much time?

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
How much time do you spend on it?

Speaker 5 (01:00:36):
That's twenty minutes twice to day.

Speaker 1 (01:00:39):
Yep, that's why I was late to this joint.

Speaker 3 (01:00:42):
Okay, excused, excuse?

Speaker 5 (01:00:44):
Well, that creates you know, it's amazing what it does.
Creates a lot of space in my life. I got
one of the minds. It runs all day and when
I lay down, don't want to stop running, you know,
So that that's really helpful and gives me patience for
anything that I come up against, me space for people
who love me and who I want to take care of,

(01:01:04):
helping me be a better performer because I'm not overwhelmed,
not stressed out all the time, because you know, it
just can be very stressful.

Speaker 1 (01:01:10):
Do you have anxiety performing?

Speaker 5 (01:01:13):
No, I don't have anxiety performing. But you know, performing
to me is really it's the pinnacle of what I do.
Like I love making records, I also love performing, and
when I perform, I really I really do try my
best man and like it's just it's the point where
I get to be free, Like in my physical form,
I get to be free. Nobody can touch me, you

(01:01:34):
know what I'm saying, Like this is my space, this
is my thing. We feel that, Yeah, And I just
I spend like when I'm on tour now, I just
spend all of my time making sure I'm ready for
that thing. You know, that's the most important thing when
I'm out here.

Speaker 6 (01:01:49):
I want to ask you work on this new record
with a good buddy of mine, Nate Smith Nick, what's
it like collaborating with him? And how'd you guys meet
and start work?

Speaker 5 (01:02:01):
So I love Nate, I'm a drummer at heart. I
love drummers, right, I've been I've been a fan of
you Quest for a very very long time, in a yeah,
very long time. And of course, and I had been started.
I started to see Nate and I started to see
the way he played, and I thought the way he
played was so interesting because so emotional. Of course it's

(01:02:23):
super technical, but there's also just so much feeling in
it when he's playing. And I started watching his videos
and I thought to myself before I made the album, Jamie,
if I'm going to get any drummer to play on this,
who would be? And I just because I had just
found him, and it just kind of broke off into
watching his videos. I was like, I'm just gonna ask them.
I's gonna ask Nate. Let's see if you'll do it.

(01:02:45):
And he said yes, came to the studio, we made
that album together, and then I was like, will you
go on the road with me? And I had to
a little convincing we know you did that. Well, they
say yes, And now I get to play with him
like every night, all the time. He's just the one
just incredible. It's just incredible, incredible. I feel like the
luckiest person I get to be on stage with someone

(01:03:06):
like a musician like that.

Speaker 9 (01:03:07):
Does he only play three drums on the road? Think
he has a kick a stare in a high hat.
That's like it's ship, It's like the quest Love method.
It's like all you need?

Speaker 1 (01:03:14):
Right?

Speaker 9 (01:03:14):
Does he does he have drums on the road?

Speaker 5 (01:03:16):
Not? During my show we got him playing. Yeah, he
got two kick drums, two toms. It's really bad.

Speaker 4 (01:03:24):
Yeah, Brittany, can I ask you about the visuals for
this this album, or at least for the first the single,
and tell me about Like I'm just curious too, because again,
you want your soul, you want your solo joints, So
tell me about what you just how it even came
to fruition and to the album cover, because what we're
seeing today is not how you perform as well, it's

(01:03:45):
like a whole.

Speaker 5 (01:03:45):
So for the visuals for the album cover, I really
I really like movies. I really like Japanese movies and
koreand movies, and I like kier Kursawa and Cursawa's got
this movie called Dream and I never hear people really
talking about it, but it's the most beautiful movie. And
the things he was trying in that film are incredible, colorful,

(01:04:09):
unique storylines. You kind of show up and you're supposed
to just know what's going on. It's like all this
like folklore, and at the same time he's weaving in
his own life story and it's all just very deep
and metaphorical. I was very inspired by that visual element,
like the visual elements from that film, and so when
I went to do my album cover, I wanted it

(01:04:29):
to feel kind of like a dream where it's like
you're sitting in a place that is seemingly like very
beautiful and very comfortable, but in truth, there's like a
storm in the background and there's rattlesnakes and the flowers
and it's twenty degrees outside. Because that was the reality.
The reality was that's not Ai. I woke up at
two twenty am to drive us to the mountains Ai Ai. No, No,

(01:04:53):
that's Ai. That's real, real, real, And then the video
and then the video for what Now. Yes, yeah, so
the song went Now. It kind of reminds me of
like Michael Jackson. It kind of reminds me of like
this nostalgia from when I was a kid, like RoboCop.
I don't know, like like yeah, just like the vascilline
on the lens effect, Like so that's what I That's

(01:05:16):
what I wanted to give it. I wanted to give
it this kind of like matrix like Ninja like RoboCop,
like like just aesthetic to it because the.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
Song to me, because you're hardly in it.

Speaker 5 (01:05:26):
No, I don't like being I don't like being amge
videos takes to them.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Smart like that's the Haerowsmith way.

Speaker 5 (01:05:33):
Yeah, it's exhaustic.

Speaker 2 (01:05:39):
I'd be remiss if I didn't ask what was it
like to record at Sound and Porium For those that
don't know, Sound and Poorium in Nashville is like a
legend fucking dairy studio owned by RCA Records, Like all
the greats have recorded there. I was surprised it's still

(01:06:00):
up in operational running. And my big side of that
question is how did you wind up with Prince's board?

Speaker 5 (01:06:10):
Yeah? Sounding Poium is great, you know, the first and
foremost I want to I want a real chamber, like
wherever I'm recording, they got one of those. I want
a big room because I want to be able to
position mics wherever I need to, or if I have
like a binaural mic and to center room. I want
to be able to space things out as far as
I want to. If I want to throw my voice,
I can be in the corner room. I got plenty

(01:06:30):
of space to do this. Got plenty of space to
do whatever you want. So that's one of the things
I love about signing Porium. And they already got all
the gear you need. They got the tape machines. You
know you're not calling in and bringing this stuff. They
got a lot of the They have a great board.
I think they just got like a They used to
have a need board, which I really really really like,
but now they got this API board. Is it's nice too.
It's good. I like it so Soundportum shot them out.

(01:06:54):
I'll keep going there as long as they'll have me.
I love it there. It's like home away from home
at this point. Nice Now when it comes to the
Princess console, Yeah, it didn't belong to Prince himself. This
has been getting all over the world. It's like a
game of telephone Chris Moon so Prince, you know, he
recorded his first album twice. Yeah, it was like in
the Bay Area. This board had been in Minneapolis, but

(01:07:16):
the MCI board, but the fella who hadn't wanted to
take it to the Bay Area with him, so he
took it from Minneapolis to like, I don't know, somewhere
around San Francisco. That album got recorded. The first time
Prince did it, he said didn't like it. You know,
we all know that story because the other musicians were playing.
So then he scrapped that and where he went and
recorded the actual album was a different board. So that's

(01:07:38):
that's just the providence of it. And the fella who
had took it to there then took it to Nashville,
and that's how it got in Nashville. And that's how
I got a hold of it. Of Course when I
paid for it, I didn't buy it because it was
Prince's board. I just I just saw this like MCI
board with the MCI tape machine that comes together in
a moment, and I was like, yeah, I want that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:58):
There's I forget the studio it was.

Speaker 2 (01:08:01):
But when Jill Scott first moved to Nashville, Uh, we
shot the video for whatever the first single was of
her album in the studio and coincidentally, the API board

(01:08:22):
that recorded the Purple Raine record and subsequently around the
World in the Day Wow is also in Nashville, and
I'm like, wow, why is Nashville becoming the.

Speaker 1 (01:08:33):
Landing spot for all of princess gear?

Speaker 5 (01:08:36):
So it's interesting.

Speaker 1 (01:08:38):
Have you ever recorded Jack White studio or went there
or man?

Speaker 5 (01:08:43):
Yeah? Oh Third Man? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think yeah,
I think the shiks that did some like singles over
there at Third Man, Okay, yeah. I also been to
his place he has he has a studio at his
place too one a long time ago, and did a
couple a couple of singles with him. Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:09:03):
Pretty how much stuff like these days?

Speaker 1 (01:09:05):
Is it?

Speaker 9 (01:09:06):
Are you doing that digital based versus analog based? It
seems like you're just talking about about chambers and binormal
mic seems very analogy to me, but like some of
the sounds seem very digital. I don't know, Like where
what do you do? Are you consciously like making decisions
based on my kind of thing is just kind of
all just all a bunch of paint and you're just
painting with.

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
All of it.

Speaker 5 (01:09:26):
So I so when I start off doing my demos,
it's usually digital because it's handy. I can pull from
lots of different ideas really quickly. So I'll start there,
But I know, ultimately I want to do something analog,
uh to me, and you know everybody has an opinion
about this, but to me, the analog is just more

(01:09:47):
fun because you can accidentally do shit with analog. That
is just because there's a wiring problem or this one
sounds different than that one. Why is that. It's just
like there's something to it. There's something in the wiring,
in the circuitry, in the tubes, and then putting everything
down the tape just kind of like a nice way
of smushing everything together. Just it's just like so like

(01:10:10):
it's such a it's such a small detail, but I
really do think I can feel and hear the difference,
and personally, when I'm making music is more fun. It's
just more fun.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
All right, Before we wrap up, I don't want to
be intrusive, but you did bring it up.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
Can you share with me what your mantra word is
in your team?

Speaker 5 (01:10:27):
I can't, you know, I can't. I'm not gonna that word.

Speaker 2 (01:10:33):
Yeah, all right, So when you when you do TM,
like like meditation, okay, yeah, transit, yes, So all right.
When I first got introduced to meditation, of course, was
in the pandemic and I felt the world's fucking coming
to an end. So I became like a meditation obsessive.
I was going about it all wrong, like I was doing.

(01:10:55):
I would do like two hours to two and a
half hours in the morning before I get out of
bed of anything, DMT meditate like every type of breath
of fire, all that stuff, and then I do an
additional two hours before I go to bed. And a
friend was like, wait, you meditate four hours a day?

Speaker 9 (01:11:13):
Yeah, how do you have that time?

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
I was the world's time. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:18):
All I had was DJing for five hours and work
a bid on Summer Soul.

Speaker 1 (01:11:23):
But I was doing nothing, and I was just like,
I need to keep my sanity. I need to keep
my sanity. And they were basically like.

Speaker 2 (01:11:30):
All right, that's cute, but you're doing it wrong and
you really and so he gave me a clip. Weird enough,
Jerry Seinfeld has a clip on YouTube of all people
in the world, and he's like, the key to my
success is tim trans meditation. And you know, I met

(01:11:54):
him maybe seven months later and I asked him about it.
I was like, so, what did you mean the key
to your success? Yes, and he's like, well, we will
break for lunch on Seinfeld and instead of me going
to lunch them forty five minutes, I'll go to my
trailer and I'll do tam for like maybe ten to
fifteen minutes always, and then I'll go about my day.

(01:12:18):
And I was like, well, I don't get it ten
minutes I do four hours and he started laughing, like
you're doing it wrong. And so basically, there's a gentleman
named Bob Roth who I got put onto.

Speaker 1 (01:12:32):
And what it is.

Speaker 2 (01:12:33):
Is that you're assigned a word and you're supposed to
keep that word unique to yourself. I've talked to some
people and you know we trade off words whatever, but yes,
you're supposed to keep it to yourself, and you're basically
supposed to sit. So I sit in this office and
I sit in the dark, and pretty much you say,

(01:12:54):
you're your mantra or your chant.

Speaker 1 (01:12:56):
If you remember what's love got.

Speaker 3 (01:12:57):
To do with it, I'm young holder and get killed right.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Exactly, or if you're a fan of what's happening now.

Speaker 2 (01:13:07):
I'm sorry, all right, I'm talking about what's happening. But yeah,
I mean, even you know that's words. But some people
just sit and hum. Sometimes I get lazy and don't
do the chant and I'll just sit hmm. And what
it does is just basically, if you live a life

(01:13:30):
in which you gotta make panic decisions with seconds left
on the clock, Like I live in a constant state
of panic where it's you know, I this guy deadline
and that deadline and where's your notes from da da
da da da, and you're ten minutes later here and
that sort of thing. So sometimes you just gotta sit
for ten minutes in silence. It's it's what keeps your

(01:13:52):
sanity because if you don't do that, you're going to drink.

Speaker 1 (01:13:56):
I need a drink.

Speaker 2 (01:13:58):
I need something, you know, So I'd rather when I
get to the place. And you know, even though we
were talking before we started recording, I have probably one
of the most stressful nights of my life last night,
so I had to do therapy and TM like like old.

Speaker 1 (01:14:16):
School of mirror like an hour. So it's it's the
thing that keeps you.

Speaker 2 (01:14:21):
From making rash decisions that will affect the rest of
your life or unfortunately for some people in their life.
So with that said, I actually want to, you know,
thank you, especially the way that the album is crafted
with the interludes and and you know, in the same
vein of is what Andre is doing with his project. Like,

(01:14:43):
I love the fact that post pandemic times, we're getting
new versions of black artistry because oftentimes, like we're very
close to the chest when it comes to being vulnerable
and letting our feelings out there and and sharing with people.
So yeah, congratulations on too, man, it's really inspiration.

Speaker 1 (01:15:04):
On Thank you for doing the show with us. Ritt,
Thanks so much.

Speaker 3 (01:15:09):
Yeah, congratulations on freedom.

Speaker 5 (01:15:13):
Appreciate that. Thank thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:15:15):
We can we can see it and hear it. On
you your freedom. It's awesome. I'm taking some of it,
thank you, and.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
I appreciate that because I know, like this process of
people just probing into your life and all those things
is the part of the music, viz. That is the
most uncomfortable where we just want to sing and whatnot.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
But thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
It's it's good to give somebody their flowers. That's just
as uncomfortable as I am with taking it.

Speaker 4 (01:15:38):
So and listen, and happy Women's History Month, because you're
always making history of my book.

Speaker 3 (01:15:44):
This voice is historic.

Speaker 5 (01:15:45):
And hey, thank you so much, thank you so much.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:48):
Yeah, all right, So when we havealf of Fan Tigolo,
Laya and Sugar Steve and brand new Bill. That's right,
I got to give you a new day. I'm sorry,
all right. We got oh for Bill, brand new Bill
and uh superior superioris Steve.

Speaker 3 (01:16:10):
I love it Bill, Bill and Brittany done it. They
yalked on the street together.

Speaker 9 (01:16:14):
Brittany on the street.

Speaker 3 (01:16:15):
I don't think you ain't been on the street.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
Damn. We got Brittany on the street.

Speaker 3 (01:16:20):
It's perfect for the street.

Speaker 9 (01:16:22):
Yeah, she's just perfect in general.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
That's true.

Speaker 5 (01:16:25):
Okay, all right, I'll take that today. Hey, thank you,
thank you.

Speaker 8 (01:16:29):
All right.

Speaker 2 (01:16:29):
So until the next time, ladies and gentlemen, this was
Quest Love Supreme. We'll see you on the next gogram.
Thank you, thank you for listening to Quest Love Supreme.
Hosted by a Mayor, Quest Love Thompson, Why You, Saint Claire,
Fan Coleman, Sugar, Steve Mandel.

Speaker 1 (01:16:49):
And Unpaid Bill Shan. Executive producers are Mere Quest Love Thompson,
Jeanne g Brian Calton, Produced by Brittany, Benjamin Cousin, Jake Payne,
Eliah Sinclair, edited by Alex Conroy, Produced by iHeart by

(01:17:10):
Noel Brown, furs Love Supreme is the production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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