0:08

Pushkin. Just

0:12

a quick note here. You can listen to

0:14

all of the music mentioned in this episode on

0:16

our playlist, which you can find a link to

0:18

in the show notes for licensing

0:21

reasons, each time a song is referenced

0:23

in this episode, you'll hear this

0:26

sound effect all

0:28

right. Enjoy the episode. The

0:32

rootsiness of the Alabama Shakes is super

0:34

refreshing, which is why their success

0:36

after the first release, Boys and Girls, in twenty

0:38

twelve wasn't surprising, but it

0:40

did seem to happen really really fast. In

0:43

fact, their lead singer, Brittany Howard, was still delivering

0:45

mail for the Postal Service while writing some songs

0:47

for the album. It wound up with three Grammy

0:50

nominations, including Best New Artist, plus

0:52

the album's lead single, hold On, was named Song of

0:54

the Year by Rolling Stone. Unlike

0:56

most rock music these days, you can hear the blues

0:59

in their sound, but the Shakes don't sound

1:01

like a throwback act. They just sound soulful

1:03

and funky and modern and raucous

1:06

all at the same time. This

1:09

song, Dunes, is from their second and most recent

1:11

albums, Sound and Color. It earned

1:13

the group six Grammy nominations after it came out

1:15

in twenty sixteen. All the success

1:18

surprised Britney Howard, the band's powerhouse

1:20

vocalist, guitarists, and songwriter, because

1:22

she worked through a serious bout of writer's block to get the

1:24

album done. That writer's block returned

1:26

when she and the band got together to make a third album,

1:29

but this time, when she dug deep to write, something

1:31

more personal came out, leading her to put the band

1:34

on hold for a second and write some songs for herself.

1:38

This is Georgia, from Brittany's debut solo

1:40

album titled Jamie. On this week's

1:42

Broken Record, Britney talks with Rick Rubin about

1:44

how a couple of these songs came together, what

1:46

was like to create and performed by herself, and

1:49

later the interview, Britney starts asking Rick questions

1:51

and things get kind of weird.

1:56

This is Broken Record Season three. Liner

1:59

notes for the middle Age. I'm justin

2:01

Richmond. Here's

2:05

a bit more of brittany song Georgia. After

2:08

her and Rick talk about how the song came together?

2:11

How did that one get written and then

2:14

recorded? Then I

2:16

was into panga because that's why I was doing a

2:18

lot of writing for this record, and it

2:20

was like lunchtime, so making

2:23

a sandwich, and I was reading this article and

2:25

articles about this woman. Her name is Georgia

2:27

and Muldrow. She's a

2:29

producer, writer, rapper, singer,

2:32

maker of things in general, and I

2:34

have a lot of respect for I think she's wonderful and

2:37

I love her creativity. So I was

2:39

like, she works with all these people

2:42

that I had a lot of respect for, and I was like, man, I wish, I

2:44

wish Georgia would like notice me, because

2:47

if she noticed me, that means I'm dope too.

2:50

And then I'm still reading this article, I'm

2:52

eating the sandwich, I'm squirm.

2:54

I just want Georgia to notice

2:57

me. And I was like, oh up, that's catchy.

2:59

And then the bassline came in and I

3:01

had this idea for this warring the

3:03

warring clad with the bass and they're kind of

3:06

doing separate things, and I was like, I

3:08

gotta gotta put the sandwich down. I gotta

3:10

write this song real quick. And then it

3:12

turned into this like it turned into a completely different

3:14

story, turned into this love song from

3:16

a little girl to like an older girl, and it turned

3:19

into this like love song I'd never heard

3:21

before. But I wish I had and

3:23

then it just ends on this huge

3:25

dream sequence. What sounds like a dream sequence

3:27

to me anyway. The organ part in the middle

3:29

is really dramatic and beautiful.

3:32

Elsewhere it really does yeah, really

3:34

cinematic, really beautiful. We

3:38

stuck very closely to the demo and

3:40

we just retract things to make

3:42

them sound more percussive

3:45

and real, especially like the

3:47

Roads. We had a lot of contact mics

3:49

on the Roads, so that it sounded

3:52

like something that was tangible

3:54

and not just something that's like really dreamy and unattainable,

3:57

like what is that like. We wanted everything

3:59

to feel very visual and human

4:02

and woody and close and familiar, So

4:05

the contact mix had a big

4:08

spot in that song. Cool.

4:11

How did you make the original demo? They

4:14

had a little MIDI keyboard. I'm like a real tiny

4:16

one, I think the twenty eight keys

4:18

or something, because twenty five keys, because

4:20

when I get them bigger than that, I

4:23

don't play them. It has to be like a tiny

4:25

keyboard because if I have a full size one, I

4:28

just get intimidated by it. So I had

4:30

this little one. I

4:33

use logic logic, which is

4:35

cheaper than pro tools, so I use that and just

4:38

electric guitar, a little crappy amp I found.

4:41

That's about it. That's usually all I need, because

4:43

you know, you got your kid on the MIDI and then

4:46

nothing's like a real guitar, so you got to use a real guitar.

4:49

Do you buy any chance? Have the demo in your

4:51

phone? Yeah, but it's not as

4:53

good. I'd love to hear it. I'd love

4:55

to hear it, just to hear it, hear the process, you

4:57

know. Okay, that's a great

5:00

question. Can you can plug it in right behind you? There's

5:02

a little that chord yet, just

5:05

be fun to hear. Let's see here.

5:09

It's great, you

5:12

know. It just feels like molten lava

5:14

just poured all over me. And I have to listen to the

5:16

demos again. It's just so interesting how

5:19

how much of the idea is

5:21

there right from the beginning. Yeah,

5:24

a lot of my demos are like that. They're just like there

5:28

sound and Color was a song I did

5:30

that's pretty much exact from

5:32

album and shakes at Good. It's pretty much

5:34

exactly like my demo is the same

5:37

thing. Yeah, they

5:39

come prett complete, not very well

5:41

recorded, but pretty complete. Yeah. And

5:44

from the time that you were eating the sandwich

5:47

until that demo existed. How long was

5:49

it a couple of hours? So

5:52

same day the initial idea

5:55

comes. When did

5:57

the dream sequence ending? Did

6:00

you realize that was the choice you were gonna

6:02

be you were gonna make? Oh, it just kind of happened

6:04

naturally because I was like, I've run out of ideas.

6:07

Let me try just putting it through another sound

6:09

and see if that creates a different section.

6:12

And then it did, and then it made me think

6:14

in different ways, and then started

6:17

layering on all this like X files

6:19

sounds and big kick drum,

6:21

big dramatic ending. It's it

6:23

sounds like hearing

6:25

the demo makes it sound like

6:28

it comes to you very naturally

6:30

and easily, and that's beautiful to hear. Thanks.

6:34

Yeah, I think all those songs are really I fight

6:36

with and songs like that, I

6:39

just put them down. I said, don't

6:42

got it right now, or I just

6:44

never do anything with it at all. Yeah. Yeah,

6:48

How often do songs come?

6:52

I don't. I don't really, it's

6:54

not that easy for me. I feel like there's writers

6:57

out there who write wonderful songs

7:00

daily. They just they can sit down and

7:02

write two or three songs a day. Everybody's different.

7:05

For me, that's not

7:07

how it works for me. I am. I feel

7:09

very fortunate to receive any song I get,

7:12

and I try to see it through because the

7:14

way I think of it is like, if I'm as

7:17

long as I'm saying open enough to receive

7:19

this song, so to say, like if

7:21

I'm sitting there trying to think, Okay, I gotta

7:23

write a song, I gotta write a song. What's

7:26

it about? What's it about? Like that doesn't work,

7:28

really cuts me off from being creative. And

7:31

I think whenever I just relax, like making

7:33

a sandwich, pretty relaxing, that's

7:36

when things hit me. So I'm

7:38

the type of person that runs to

7:40

the studio whenever

7:42

I do get an idea because I realize it's very

7:44

special. So I wouldn't say they come super

7:47

super often. But then again, I'm not.

7:49

I'm also doing other things. I'm

7:52

just like a very mentally

7:54

active person. Out of the

7:57

way, let it come exactly.

8:01

We'll be back with more Rick Rubin's conversation with

8:03

Brittany Howard. We're

8:08

back with more from Brittany Howard. What's

8:11

the first time you ever sang in front of people?

8:13

Probably fourteen and fifteen it's like a talent

8:15

show at school, and I

8:17

was writing songs then horrible songs,

8:20

but I got there and did it. We got

8:22

people's choice says something. It's

8:25

like someone's drunk dad was out there going whoa

8:28

Like the drunk dad loved it. He was like, man,

8:30

y'all re mommy rush something like that. I

8:32

was like, what did you did

8:34

you like the experience of singing in front of people?

8:37

I guess so it was. It was weird. It was like I was

8:39

after something, but I still don't

8:41

know what that was. I was like trying to

8:43

achieve something. I'm

8:46

trying to put myself back into that headspace

8:48

of being like a teenager. Dare's

8:50

wouldn't be good again a good band

8:53

because my my ultimate goal, ironically

8:56

enough, should be in a band. And

8:59

I was gonna stop until I was in a band, and

9:02

then my next goal was like I'm not gonna stop until

9:05

we play a real show and an

9:07

album and this all these really basic goals.

9:10

You know, who would be the inspirations

9:13

for wanting to be in a band. It

9:15

was really weird. It was like at

9:18

my school, we had like this old gym,

9:20

had this old stage, and then one

9:22

night I was in marching band. I was like

9:24

eleven years old, and this older girl

9:27

who's in marching band came up to me. It was like, are

9:29

you going to the concert tonight? I was like what concert.

9:32

She's like, it's that the old gym. It's at seven o'clock.

9:34

You should come to it. It's gonna be bands. So

9:37

I show up by myself and

9:40

they had there's just these bands playing their kids I went

9:42

to school with, and they're really good, and

9:45

everybody's like dancing and I'm

9:47

like standing there. It was like such a moment that

9:49

was so surreal because

9:51

like all these kids are dancing and then I look at the stage

9:53

it's like a kid like I had pe with,

9:56

and like this like a kid that I knew, and

9:58

they're playing instruments and this

10:01

moment happened where I was just like I have to be in a band.

10:04

So cool, Yeah, so lucky that that happened.

10:06

Yeah. I was like, this is the ultimate thing that one can

10:08

do is do that. And and

10:10

ever since I was eleven, I was like looking

10:13

for band members. I remember teaching

10:15

like a few kids how to play instruments so that I could start

10:17

a band with them. Is the sheiks

10:19

your first band? No, so

10:22

what's your history? Wow,

10:25

I've been a lot of bands, a

10:27

lot of bands, a lot of bands I made, I formed.

10:30

I had wanted to be like the singer for some bands

10:32

and stuff because they're already formed, they are new to player instruments,

10:35

but they're like, nah, you don't look apart.

10:38

I was like, all right, I'll make

10:40

my own band then, and then proceeded

10:42

to just like train a lot of kids, like I

10:44

pulled out a marching band, Like just

10:46

how you play bass, Just how you play drums, Like you're

10:49

the drummer. Now practice the drums. You're

10:51

you're gonna be the guitar player. Because it's like the one

10:53

kid that could play the solo from I Wish You Were Here

10:57

that was a guitar player. So

11:00

many bands I can't even really count.

11:02

It would it would just be this menagerie

11:05

of different kids from

11:07

the band, and then we would always change our name

11:09

and always have different members. But it was always like me

11:12

and the drummer, Johnny, who's still

11:14

my best friend to this day. You

11:17

did that for how long? Say? From

11:20

eleven to I found

11:22

his Sheakes when I was twenty.

11:26

Yeah, And how did that come together.

11:28

Would they already playing together or no?

11:31

It was so Zach

11:34

bass player. I

11:37

had a psychology class with him.

11:39

Three of us all went to Sam High School. So

11:43

Zach who would always wear the T shirts they had like the

11:45

cool bands and nobody really knows about. So

11:47

I was like, man, I figure out how to talk

11:50

to Zach. I was really

11:52

shy. I was like, I didn't know I'd approach him.

11:54

He gave me nothing. I didn't know anything about his personality.

11:56

He's kind of a jerk when I first met him.

11:58

But I was like, look, man, and I've

12:01

been writing these songs. I got this like demo. Do

12:03

you wanna listen to it? Because I know you play bass. He's

12:05

like yeah, okay, So go to the little Honda

12:07

Civic and we're sitting in it and he plays

12:10

it. He's like, yeah, it's pretty cool. And

12:12

I'm like, will you wanna come jam sometime? It's like, yeah,

12:14

I do that. So that's how I mean Zach got

12:16

started. We were just like musicians first

12:18

friends later and we you know, he taught

12:21

me a lot about a lot of different type of music, like

12:23

King Crimson and like lots

12:25

of Prague kind of music. But I

12:27

liked it. I got into it. So me

12:30

and Zach were real tight from the beginning. And I was

12:32

probably like sixteen, he

12:34

must have been seventeen. And then men

12:37

him were making this music and he's

12:40

the guitar player. He got to hold one

12:42

of our demos that we made. He was like, oh, they're

12:44

pretty good. We should get them to open

12:46

for us. And I was like, whoa.

12:48

You know, when a drummer we

12:51

ain't got a material, He's like, I'll help y'all

12:53

out. Here's Steve, Steve from the music store.

12:56

Now we're being and we we got

12:58

thirty minutes in material and we did our first

13:00

show. We did our first show Indicator, I'll be i'mna

13:02

pay for thirty minutes. It was amazing.

13:04

Like I remember walking up there and

13:06

being so nervous. Everybody's

13:09

looking at this crazy because I know we looked strange,

13:12

like our drummer's Davie. He had like a like

13:14

a a Clippers jersey

13:16

on or something, just the Clippers jersey,

13:19

and

13:20

and Zach had liked this little funny

13:22

mustache, and you know, he's

13:24

looked like a nice guy. And

13:26

then it was me, we're just like an odd bunch

13:29

and then I opened my mouth to

13:31

sing and then I just like blacked out. And

13:33

the next day and everybody's cheering and standing up

13:36

and they're like what's amazing and clapping,

13:39

and I was like, whoa,

13:41

I think that went really well. And then and then I

13:43

got paid. I

13:45

was like, what did get paid? Was

13:50

that first set all original material?

13:53

It was like all covers. I think we did. I

13:55

think we had three songs that originally original

13:58

material. Three songs that's just like James

14:00

Brown covers like Zeppelin CDC. Because

14:03

you wouldn't get hired where we're from if you didn't

14:05

play covers. How will live be

14:08

different? As a solo artist,

14:11

It's a lot more vulnerable, tell you that much, because

14:14

I don't. I'm a guitar player,

14:16

but in the Shakes, I played guitar all

14:18

the time, and this I play

14:20

guitar and like three songs because

14:23

they're the parts I wrote, are like way too technical

14:25

for me to sing and play. So

14:28

it's just me up there with

14:30

Mike and I'm like, okay, I've

14:33

never done this before, so it's new.

14:36

It's new, it's exciting, it's fun, but

14:38

at first is very very scary because I'm like I'm so

14:40

good at this thing that I don't do anymore.

14:44

Now what am I good at? Yeah? What do I do with my hands?

14:47

Exactly what I say all the time. Thanks for saying

14:49

that. I always say that. Nobody laughs, jeez.

14:54

Tell me about the solo work and how is this

14:56

solo work different than the band work. I

15:01

think the solo work, to me, is a lot different than the

15:03

band work. I loved the music we

15:05

made together as a band. I just think the solo

15:07

stuff is my

15:10

opportunity to be a whole lot more adventurous

15:12

and to steer my own ship and

15:15

to make my own triumphs and my own mistakes

15:18

explore, just

15:21

do whatever I want. There's

15:23

really no one to embarrass or anyone

15:26

to let down. It's really just like I get to just

15:28

be a free, creative person and

15:30

that means like everything to me. It's

15:33

very different. The process is different. It

15:36

was just I like this with here.

15:38

This is why I like it, this is how it makes me feel.

15:41

It stays, you know, pretty

15:43

simple. Play something else

15:45

from the new album, just for let's

15:50

see. That's

15:52

incredible. That's one of them. Thank you, it's

15:54

incredible. It's interesting

15:56

when you described going on stage the first

15:59

time and the feeling of blacking out

16:01

and then hearing people applaud

16:04

And when I hear this, my first

16:07

reaction is the person

16:09

who's singing that isn't it

16:11

is so in the music

16:14

that they don't exist outside of

16:16

the music. Yeah, it's I'd say

16:18

even as a performer, when I'm performing, it's

16:21

like, if I can't get into

16:23

my music, then I'm

16:25

That's what I'm most upset about when I leave a stage

16:27

is like I wasn't there, Like I couldn't

16:29

get in there. It's usually some sort of weird technical

16:31

difficulty or tiredness.

16:34

And is it something it just comes naturally to you, that

16:36

ability to kind of be in it? Yeah,

16:38

because I feel like I learned really early. Yes,

16:41

I feel like I learned really early on. Like if I'm

16:43

not feeling it, then why would anybody else feel it?

16:46

Yeah? And

16:48

how is that song written? Oh?

16:51

This song? I was short. It's

16:53

called Short and Sweet. I was sitting on my

16:55

back porch in Nashville.

16:58

I remember being like a really nice day, wasn't

17:01

too hot, and I

17:03

remember there being these wind chimes in the background,

17:06

And usually I don't record out there because of the wind chimes.

17:09

And of course I don't take the wind chimes down makes

17:12

too much sense. But that day I

17:14

was just messing around. I just got

17:16

this classical guitar and

17:20

just started playing these chords. Then the

17:23

first chord I opened up with, I don't even know what it's called,

17:27

doom, Doom Doom. It's

17:29

a really funny chord. I was like, Oh,

17:31

that's so nice. And then I thought, how

17:34

cool to be to start a song with this funny chord.

17:36

And then I went to the g and then I and

17:38

then the song just kind of came out. I just started

17:41

there's something between

17:43

it, like the words came out, and then I just

17:45

did it. Yeah, matter of moments.

17:48

And how are we able to remember it

17:51

was? I just had my phone there. Oh and you just turned

17:53

on the phone as soon as you started working on it. No,

17:55

I kind of had it going a little bit and

17:59

then I was like, oh, let me hit this record

18:01

button. Yeah, and then I just like it

18:03

was just kind of like top

18:06

of the head. Yeah, amazing,

18:09

it's really beautiful. Thank you so

18:11

much. We'll be

18:13

back with more from Brittany Howard. We're

18:20

back with more Brittany Howard's conversation with Rick

18:22

Rubin. Are you excited

18:25

to make more music, Yes,

18:29

that's all I want to do. Like I love

18:31

touring, I love I love being a performer,

18:33

of course. I love performing. I love meeting the fans.

18:36

I love being in a studio because I'm

18:38

inspired by the engineering aspect

18:40

of it and not knowing anything about it and

18:42

then finding out one little thing and then my

18:45

brain just going and making

18:47

the music and being

18:50

inspired from something like that. That's my

18:52

favorite thing to do, just to just mole

18:54

around his studio and figuring little things

18:56

out that excite me. Performers

18:59

a little front. Obviously, you're

19:02

on a bus for a long time,

19:04

like twenty people just like it's

19:06

just different. It's different.

19:09

Yeah, when you when

19:11

you talked about the Georgia song, you were

19:15

inspired by something you were reading an

19:17

article in that moment. How

19:19

often does does the inspiration

19:22

come from something in the world around

19:24

you? Pretty often.

19:26

I think this record was more inspired

19:29

by my my own life memories,

19:33

being nostalgic, just knowing

19:35

myself better. And

19:37

then the record before sound

19:39

and color came from watching a lot

19:41

of movies like Dune.

19:44

I watched Is it just done or is it Dunes?

19:47

There's a Dune they watched

19:50

Dune, I was like, I gotta write a song about

19:52

that. Watched this a Kia

19:54

Krosawa movie called Dreams

19:57

Watch. I mean, I gotta gotta write

19:59

a song after watching that. Movies

20:02

really inspired my last record for sure,

20:04

because I'm like, I'm definitely like a visual person,

20:07

and if I see and if I'm seeing all those colors and things

20:09

like that, I already

20:11

have my own soundtrack. Even

20:13

though they're playing their sweeping soundtrack,

20:15

I have my soundtrack, and I'm like, it's so much

20:17

cooler in here, you know. So

20:19

that definitely inspired sound of color. And

20:22

then this one was just like my own life. I don't

20:24

think a lot of people stop and reflect on how

20:27

they got to where they are, or what kind of patterns

20:29

they repeat, or where they're going or what

20:31

they want. I don't I don't know if people really

20:33

pause and take stock of how

20:36

proud they should be of themselves already. And

20:39

you know, that was there was just something I was checking out

20:42

turning thirty. It was just checking out being more self

20:44

aware. And then it kind of begat

20:47

this record doing somethinking

20:49

like that. In the case of being inspired

20:51

by movies to wrect songs,

20:55

you talk about having the soundtrack going in

20:57

your head, So would

20:59

it be more would

21:03

it be more like you're watching a movie and you're

21:05

imagining the score that you would

21:07

do and that ends up being your song,

21:09

or might it be based on well,

21:12

this character in the movie is going through

21:14

this thing, so it's that emotion. Yeah,

21:19

definitely, the feeling, the definitely

21:21

the feeling. Also the

21:24

colors, the mood, what

21:26

and also what would I do here? All

21:29

of it? All of it kind of creates

21:31

a thing all together. It

21:33

can create or inspire me to write a

21:35

song. And I wrote

21:38

a song called Dunes after watching Dune.

21:41

But the topics really don't have anything to

21:43

do with each other. It's just the feeling of desolation.

21:48

Anything else interesting that you could

21:50

think of to talk about, yea,

21:53

all tons of things. Okay, let's you still

21:55

it's gonna be weird. I'm not

21:57

afraid. All right, we're flipping an interview. Can

22:01

you believe in aliens? I

22:03

believe in everything? Okay, so

22:05

yes, yeah, how about you? Yeah?

22:08

Definitely. Have you ever had any

22:11

other worldly or mystical experiences?

22:14

Yes? Tell me. I

22:16

used to live in a haunted house. It

22:19

was so haunted I moved out and

22:21

I was broke, So imagine it's

22:24

pretty haunted. What would be an

22:26

example of a haunting? Okay,

22:29

well I'll just put it to make a long story

22:31

short, getting locked out of my house

22:35

from from the inside out and having

22:38

doors and cabinets just slam

22:41

right in front of me or behind me,

22:44

and like blankets move,

22:47

curtains move, what

22:49

else? Oh my bass player has actually

22:51

seen a shadow go from

22:53

one room to another room. I've never seen anything well

22:55

besides like things move. And

22:58

eventually it just got like so it being bad

23:00

that I just like wasn't sleeping good. So

23:03

then I just moved out. I moved out in like twenty four

23:05

hours, moved out of the house. Yeah,

23:07

so something, I mean, it really freaked

23:09

me out bad because I didn't really believe

23:11

in ghosts. I thought, like I

23:14

thought my mom was just making it up that there's a ghost in house

23:17

to mess with me, but wasn't

23:20

about me. It's a pretty selfish thought. Actually there's

23:22

a ghost and house, and

23:24

so there's that. I lived in a haunted

23:27

house, but it was it was not so scary and

23:29

it was more friendly, friendly spirits really,

23:32

But that doesn't bother you knowing that there's like

23:34

a whole other dimension of beings

23:36

that can see you and you can't see them.

23:39

No, it bothers

23:42

me. I hate that. I hate

23:44

that just thinking

23:46

about it right now, Peeping Tom's

23:49

not that they care. I'm just saying, that's what I'm saying. It's like you're

23:52

assuming that they care. No, it's not.

23:54

It's not like I don't care. What I mean, they're maybe

23:57

they're dead. I don't know what it is. Maybe they're an

23:59

interdimensional now. I have no idea. I'm

24:01

just saying it freaks me out

24:04

not having the knowledge of it, Like I

24:06

don't understand it, and it makes me uncomfortable.

24:10

I'm familien though, I'm like,

24:13

oh, it packed me up. It's

24:15

been wild down here since

24:19

we're just doing this. Do you think a

24:23

song it's like an entity

24:26

or do you think it's not even like that. I've

24:28

never thought of it like that before, but someone

24:30

recently gave me that example,

24:34

and it sounded fign

24:36

when I heard it for the first time. But

24:38

as I think about it, there's

24:41

something. There's something about it, But I don't

24:43

I don't think that the song itself is the entity.

24:46

I think it's more of an expression of

24:48

something else. It's

24:51

like language isn't us it's

24:55

it's more like a vehicle we use.

24:58

Yes, I agree, I mean

25:01

like you said, expression, it's expression,

25:05

especially with just

25:10

the landscape of what's happening behind

25:13

the vocal telling the story. The vocals

25:15

telling the story. But then the music is

25:17

so important too. One of my favorite

25:19

composers is David Axelrod.

25:21

Incredible the

25:24

way he could move you with

25:27

the tone of the guitar, the size

25:29

of the drums, and of course obviously

25:31

all the composition happening. But everything mattered

25:34

that that as as

25:36

a songwriter and whatever I will do in the future,

25:39

everything does matter. And he's

25:41

one of my first teachers that showed

25:43

me why everything matters, because

25:45

in the end, you have a landscape,

25:48

you have such a big story you're telling.

25:50

I remember telling my partner about why I like

25:52

jazz music because

25:57

she didn't understand it's why I was

25:59

listening to it, and I was like, you know,

26:01

it's telling the story based on who's

26:03

doing it, but it's telling the story of a

26:05

time that we

26:08

didn't understand. But it's

26:10

blatantly telling me what it felt like to

26:14

walk down the streets of

26:18

you know. Selma Alabama

26:21

nineteens. Everything's there, that's

26:23

all the information I need. Yeah, you can read a book,

26:25

of course, books are wonderful too, it's a different form.

26:28

But the music tells me everything I need to know about

26:30

the mood, what you're afraid,

26:32

there's colors in it. It's like there's so much

26:34

information when you don't say anything. But

26:37

then when you're saying something, you're directing my thoughts

26:39

of what to think. You know what I'm saying. That's

26:42

the key. I think what you just said is the

26:44

key to it. Is that the

26:47

book or the movie tells you

26:49

what to think, and then music

26:53

puts you in a place where you can

26:56

feel your feelings, your own

26:58

feelings. Yeah, it really opens you up.

27:00

Yeah, yeah, especially

27:03

just music. Yeah. I think poetry

27:05

also can can also have that effect.

27:07

I feel like it's it's open enough

27:10

where I don't feel like poetry is telling me what to

27:13

think, especially

27:15

when the poets that are really good at it. And

27:18

I think I think all of expression of

27:20

creativity, I think that really

27:22

good stuff is what connects us back to ourselves.

27:25

So even when you're looking at a giant painting, and

27:28

I never understood art

27:30

because I wasn't understanding what I was supposed

27:33

to get from it. But now I've gotten older

27:35

and I see some pieces and I'm just like,

27:37

wow, this makes me feel like childhood, but like

27:39

also like I

27:42

don't know, I'm just I'm getting it more

27:44

and more, I think, the more I learned about myself

27:47

just as a person, and that's

27:49

been just been really really cool and eye

27:51

opening, especially like on this

27:53

earth, all I want to do is create things, So

27:56

it's been cool learning

27:58

how to do that from everything that's differ from

28:00

what I do, you know, But then

28:02

also it ain't so different from painting what

28:05

I do, you know what I mean, It's not so

28:07

different. I don't think so either. Brittany

28:13

Howard's first solo album, Jamie, came out

28:15

this fall. You can check it out by subscribing

28:17

to our playlists for the episode at Broken Record podcast

28:19

dot com. You can also sign up for behind

28:22

the scenes newsletter and check out other episodes

28:24

of the podcast while you're there. I

28:26

also want to let you know that Broken Record is going on a short

28:28

hiatus, but we'll be back in January with episodes

28:30

of the podcast, and I'm really excited to share

28:33

got Ozzy Osborne with Sharon Bob,

28:35

We're from the Grateful Dead, Kenny Beats,

28:37

Nick Lowe, The XX, and a lot

28:39

more. Plus we'll be releasing episodes

28:41

every week in the new year. Broken

28:44

Record is produced with help from Jason Gambrel, Milo

28:46

Bell, and Lea Rose. Our theme music

28:48

is by Kenny Beats. I'll catch you back in January.

28:50

I'm justin Richmond. Thanks for listening.