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Quest Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.

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What's Up?

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What's up with up? Ladies and gentlemen. This

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is Quest Love Supreme. I'm your

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host Quest Love with three Team Supreme.

0:17

Like, yeah, hello, how are you?

0:19

I am well excited friend.

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I know right, long time coming, long time

0:24

coming. What's you up to? What's what's

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going on out there?

0:28

Right now? It is not raining, So that's a good thing, and

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that's good.

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It's been raining since. I

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mean I was there for the noest

0:37

flood of Grammy Knight.

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It's still been raining since.

0:41

I guess, so I wasn't. I left and went to Brazils

0:43

on Grammy Night. But I heard it. It has been you.

0:45

Heard that Flaws you gotta you gotta drop it. I went to Salvador.

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I have a solid door.

0:49

So you know you went to Brazil for carnival.

0:53

For the best carnival? Yes, yes, flex

0:56

is that?

0:57

Yeah?

0:57

What once

1:00

year?

1:01

What was it? Like? Give me your forty five second

1:04

report?

1:04

I mean Salvador.

1:05

If anybody doesn't know about Salvador, Brazil is

1:07

beautifully black. It's the second largest black

1:10

populated place outside of the continent, so

1:13

it has all the flavor in all of the

1:15

ways and.

1:16

Just a lot. It was just beautiful.

1:18

It was beautiful and fun and the

1:20

food takes that better there. Yeah, they say,

1:22

just for you. So you know the three different cities. You party

1:24

in Rio and the people in South Polo

1:27

work, so the people in Rio can party.

1:28

And then yeah, the black folks are in Salvador.

1:31

Okay, you didn't go to Rio or the

1:33

other spots.

1:34

No, I was where you really want to be.

1:36

Literally, Amir, Salvador is the best

1:38

place to go for carnival.

1:40

I said, it's where the black people are who

1:42

started it?

1:44

Oh, hey, I didn't know. I'm

1:46

a product of the Philadelphia High School public

1:49

curriculum.

1:49

So yeah, but you're a world traveler.

1:52

I know. I just go to my hotel, eat my.

1:56

Iron We got

1:58

them all. I would love to take all your salad.

2:01

Well, yeah, you gotta let us know next time you're going.

2:03

You're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right, you're right.

2:06

We got to go there to do the Author Vericai episode.

2:08

That's the

2:11

Author Verkai. Yes, the Author Verica episode.

2:13

That's what we're doing.

2:14

By the way, how you know I didn't

2:17

get the peap heids coyotes collaborative

2:19

album with him.

2:20

Is it? Have you heard it or haven't listened

2:22

yet?

2:22

I haven't listened yet either.

2:24

Okay, what's up, Steve,

2:26

what's going on? How's life great?

2:28

I'm currently imagining

2:31

a vacation with La to Salvador.

2:36

I need it real bad.

2:39

Everything's great, looking forward

2:42

to this interview.

2:43

Here here's the dumb question, Steve. I got to

2:45

ask you a work question. Who's on the show today?

2:48

Jennifer Lopez and

2:50

uh Alan Richson and

2:53

Gary Clark Jr.

2:54

But we had a great musical guest yesterday. Who

2:57

Brittany Howard? Oh?

2:59

I was okay. I

3:02

was not at work yesterday.

3:06

You can't get mad at me, Brittany. I was not at

3:08

work yesterday. I had

3:10

to take a day off. Things were happening. Uh

3:13

Fan Tickeola. What's what's good man?

3:14

I'm good, Man, I'm good. I'm excited to have Brittany here

3:16

today.

3:17

Man.

3:17

I can't wait to talk about this new album.

3:19

Is hard Hard, got

3:21

me sweating already.

3:23

Wait are you in California, Bill Sherman, No,

3:25

I'm in New Jersey.

3:29

Yes, I mean you're usually

3:31

in the basement. So I was thrown.

3:33

Yeah, so I yeah, I'm

3:35

not in Black Brazil. I have a house in

3:37

New Jersey and this is what it looks like from the

3:39

kitchen.

3:40

I see, all right, that's that's what's up.

3:43

We got to teach Bill about light. You're supposed to be in

3:45

front of you.

3:46

You I like being the shadows.

3:49

Bill's flexing of his windows structure actually

3:51

made me think he was on vacation somewhere, so I

3:54

didn't realize that was just Jersey

3:57

ladies and gentlemen our guest today

4:00

as well as everyone said pretty much,

4:02

we've been waiting a long time for

4:04

this one, and it's finally happened. She

4:07

is a five time Grammy Award winner, and

4:10

she basically pours her entire life experience

4:12

into her songwriting, her

4:15

music, her production, and you

4:17

know, she's just a starra

4:20

within Ah at the end of the word

4:22

star. She's practically worked

4:25

with everyone named it, from Prince

4:27

to Verrtine White to Lemonoel Miranda

4:29

John Legend. The list goes completely

4:32

on and on and on. She has formed

4:34

several successful bands, including

4:37

one of my favorite Alabama

4:39

Shakes. Not to mention she's

4:41

here today to talk about her journey

4:43

through life, her journey through love and music.

4:46

And we're celebrating the release

4:49

of her sophomore album

4:51

entitled What Now and Welcome

4:55

Brittany Howard two Quest leftsupre

4:58

Yes.

4:58

Sir.

5:00

Us for having me, how

5:03

to do Crystal Bowls and Long.

5:05

Last, Long Last. Hey, everybody,

5:08

good to be here.

5:09

At Long Last.

5:10

Where are you right now, britt I'm

5:12

in the city. I'm looking out the window Lower

5:16

East Side.

5:17

Obviously you're you're on the promotional

5:20

run or you on a an

5:22

actual tour for your album.

5:24

I'm doing both at the same time. I'm on the promo

5:26

run, I'm doing tour. Yeah,

5:29

that's what we'm I here doing.

5:31

As Fante said, congratulations

5:33

on the record, Like it's it's

5:35

really awesome to hear your

5:38

artistic growth and and you

5:40

know, just the risk that you're taking

5:42

the album is incredible,

5:45

and you know all the atholatues that you're getting

5:47

on it. Congratulations are are

5:49

in order. We we love this record.

5:52

Yeah, I want to personally thank you for to

5:54

be still like and

5:57

like, thank you for that record. It is beautiful.

6:00

Thank you, thank you, thank you. Yeah,

6:03

I really appreciate it.

6:04

Yeah, there's a level envy

6:06

I have when a person releases

6:08

a new record, maybe because I'm

6:11

constipated ten years

6:14

and holding my own record hostitch.

6:19

That was like everyone like, you know, Gary

6:21

Clark's records coming out, Fritz Records

6:24

coming out, We just had Kareem Bailey Ray, Like

6:26

all these albums are coming out and I'm like still holding

6:28

my join hostage, and like, so,

6:31

what is the feeling you feel when it's

6:33

when it's over and you know it's

6:36

ready?

6:37

What do you mean like when it comes out? How's that foot?

6:39

Well, yeah, when you're done, Because for me, like

6:41

albums are almost like your

6:44

kids, I hold this close to the chest.

6:46

I don't play demos for people. I don't say,

6:48

hey, you want to hear a bit of that, Like I'm

6:51

so anxious feel on

6:53

letting it go. And then there's a point where

6:56

like whenever I

6:58

always master a record, maybe be like

7:00

two weeks before it's really

7:03

supposed to be turned in because I

7:05

almost have to have a morning process.

7:09

In literally letting

7:11

your kids go.

7:12

And I want to know, do you go through that or is this

7:15

just like, hey, here are my twelve

7:17

thirteen songs and I'm ready.

7:20

Yeah, I feel like I understand

7:22

where you're coming from. But for

7:24

me, it's kind of the opposite I'm like, I can't

7:26

wait to get this out in the world, because

7:28

you know how it isn't in this business.

7:31

You have to do the whole album cycle. You do the

7:33

touring, and you have to do the promo, and

7:36

you do all of this for

7:38

this album. And it's like, as soon as

7:40

I finish the album, I

7:42

can't wait to get it out. It's like a just

7:44

station process and what I imagine a

7:47

very pregnant woman feels like it's like I'm

7:49

ready for this thing to get out of me, you

7:51

know it, so I can move on with my life. And

7:54

it's kind of what it's like. I'm very proud of this project,

7:57

but I'm also very excited to

7:59

start a new one as well.

8:01

Already.

8:02

Are you a song cycle person or

8:04

you an album cycle person? Like do you just

8:07

write enough songs for the album

8:09

to come or is it even as the

8:11

album is done, you already have songs

8:14

in mustache or still writing, like.

8:17

There's still something on the cutting room floor. I think

8:20

I still have like six or seven that didn't make

8:22

the album, and it was it was just because

8:24

it was taken too long. Like I was

8:26

like, all right, I got enough here. I don't really

8:29

want to spend any more energy working these out. I'll

8:31

do this later. And I'm definitely

8:33

like an album cycle person like, as

8:36

soon as it feels like it,

8:38

it has the feel done. It has to feel cooked. And

8:41

I feel like once I have that feeling,

8:43

it's just like an intuition thing, then

8:45

I'm like, Okay, hear this, this is it. Now

8:47

let's do the sequence.

8:48

Oh what was the period of time between knowing

8:51

when it was done, like just knowing like that feeling

8:53

you were talking about of like, Okay, I feel like this is complete,

8:56

it's cooked. The time between

8:58

that and it actually coming out out and

9:00

being released.

9:01

Short this time, it

9:04

was like ten months. Oh

9:07

wow, that's a long long

9:09

y yeah yeah yeah yeah. Well

9:12

like post pandemic, things are

9:14

still just taking a long time to create because

9:16

we like final we liked the

9:18

objects when listening to music,

9:20

takes a long time to print those things. Everything's

9:23

just slower. So it took a long

9:25

time to get the whole shebang

9:27

ready.

9:28

Really, if this was like

9:30

a meal, then how long was your meal

9:32

prep and what was the preparation for

9:34

this album? In a sense that this this album is going to say

9:36

this, do you even do all of that in

9:39

your head.

9:40

No, I don't even think about that. It was just I

9:43

started this in March

9:45

of twenty twenty, so

9:47

it's pretty much like shut down. And I

9:49

didn't realize I was making an album. I was just going

9:51

and just make like songs for fun because

9:54

the world was terrifying and we

9:57

were all scared. So there's really nowhere it turned

9:59

to. So it's just like I used music

10:02

as my outlet once again. And when

10:04

I was making this album back in twenty twenty,

10:06

I didn't know I was making it. I was just like,

10:08

it's a journal entries, you know, And I

10:10

told myself, I'm just going there no

10:13

matter what happens. It's okay, doesn't matter what it sounds

10:15

like, doesn't matter the quality of it.

10:17

It's just something to do. And

10:19

so it's been cooking for such a

10:21

long time. The meal prep has been insane.

10:24

I had walked into the kitchen, cut vegetables, walked

10:26

back out.

10:27

You know what I mean.

10:29

Well, let me ask you, how

10:31

close to March thirteenth,

10:34

twenty twenty did you start

10:36

the record.

10:37

So I had just finished

10:40

a London tour, I guess the UK

10:42

tour flew from London, got to New

10:44

York City and we had a fallon

10:47

lined up, and we had different shows lined up

10:49

we're going to do, and I was

10:51

just looking at the state of things. I was like, I don't think, no, this

10:53

is going to happen. So I actually flew home,

10:56

what like on the twelfth or the thirteenth, like I

10:58

got to Nashville and then things shut

11:00

down, and I feel like I

11:03

feel like I started tinkering

11:05

with things maybe like a month later.

11:08

I just know, like I finished Tiger King. As

11:10

soon as I finished Tiger King around

11:12

stuff to do, I

11:14

guess I'll go make music because I'm a musician.

11:19

What did you think of Joe exotic songs

11:21

in Tiger King?

11:22

Oh shit, I thought that

11:27

listen, But it wasn't even him right.

11:29

It wasn't,

11:33

which makes it richer. He

11:36

just wanted to act it out.

11:41

What do I think about the songs honestly as

11:44

a body of work. As a body of work,

11:46

I'm go go ahead and give it a six. Okay.

11:55

A lot of these albums that I'm hearing

11:58

sort of got their genesis or they're beginning

12:00

in twenty twenty and they're just coming out now

12:02

like four years later. I don't think

12:04

it's a coincidence that for a

12:07

lot of us, a lot of our art that we started

12:09

creating in twenty

12:11

twenty in sort of the midst

12:13

of panic and the

12:15

apocalypse air quotes the Apocalypse.

12:18

I don't think it's a coincidence.

12:19

So I guess I'll ask you how

12:22

hard was it or what was

12:24

your relationship to creativity in

12:27

the apocalypse, you know, because like

12:29

people are dying in real time, family

12:32

members are getting sick in real time,

12:35

and like all these things are happening. But

12:38

for you, like, were

12:40

you like foxinging or like and

12:43

I mean like more like July August

12:45

when we don't know if we're coming or going.

12:48

Yeah, I mean my relationship activity

12:50

was definitely difficult during that time.

12:53

I was seeing like friends, especially on Instagram,

12:56

just like having output output output output,

12:58

and I couldn't believe it. I was like

13:00

the last you know, kind of where I was, Like I

13:02

said, I was going in and out of

13:05

making little songs. And when I say little songs,

13:07

I mean they're like thirty seconds. They're just little ideas.

13:10

And I pushed myself to do that, but

13:13

honestly, it was like doing anything

13:15

creative was a survival

13:17

mechanism. For me, couldn't go anywhere,

13:20

I couldn't see my friends, was always

13:22

concerned about getting sick, was concerned what

13:24

was going to happen next, because not only

13:26

didn't we have the pandemic, but back in Nashville,

13:28

we had just had a tornado that had

13:30

kind of devastated the area where I was living.

13:33

Oh, And it was like one thing after the

13:35

other, and a lot of people like they didn't have rooms

13:37

on their house, so people trying to help each other out at the same

13:39

time. It's an extremely stressful kind

13:41

of like position to be in. So

13:44

to me, the creativity was my lifeline to

13:47

any normalcy whatsoever. And it

13:49

wasn't like I needed to have output, and

13:51

it wasn't like I needed to make anything great. It

13:53

was just I just needed to have any type of like control

13:55

at all.

13:56

Really, another commonality

13:59

in the pandemic was a pivot.

14:01

Did you discover another talent that you

14:03

had in the pandemic? Uh,

14:06

that you didn't realize

14:08

you had?

14:10

Man, I

14:12

think you know, listen, I kind of rediscovered

14:14

my love for fishing. Me and my dad used

14:16

to fish. I was a little girl, and

14:19

during that time, because I lived I lived in the country,

14:21

I could just go by myself and go fishing,

14:24

and I kind of I kind of got

14:26

good at that. I guess if you can if you can say you can

14:28

get good at fishing, yeah,

14:31

got good at standing there, and.

14:34

She's got good patience. That's what that means, and

14:37

a good fishing.

14:39

Oh, Libra, Okay, Libra.

14:42

Yeah.

14:43

October October

14:45

second. See, I was going, oh

14:47

god, you're October.

14:49

Uh, just like everybody you know, Wait

14:52

a second.

14:53

We can't be friends. I'm sorry, there's

14:56

no room in the end. My life

14:59

is sort of a arted with everyone.

15:01

That's a result of post Valentine's Day.

15:06

Good math.

15:08

I you looked into that h every

15:11

man drunk in the year's Valentine's

15:14

Day early literally

15:17

last of September, early October.

15:24

Where were you born?

15:25

I was born in Huntsville Hospital.

15:28

That's Huntsville, Alabama. I was raised

15:30

in Athens, Alabama.

15:32

What's that town like?

15:33

It's changed a lot now, but back on those littles,

15:35

lots of fields, cows,

15:39

pastures. It's pretty

15:41

flat where I live. It's got tornadoes,

15:44

lots of country people. We had good

15:46

diversity though, good diversities, lots of rich

15:48

people, poor people, black

15:51

folks, white, folks, Mexican folks, all

15:53

the folks.

15:53

You grew up on a farm or like a city

15:56

escape.

15:56

I'm asking this because I have ties to Alabama,

15:59

so I'm trying to learn other parts of

16:02

You.

16:02

Mentioned that to me before. Yeah, but where

16:04

I'm from is rural. It's pretty rural. I

16:06

live way back off the road in the woods, and

16:08

I grew up like kind of like in a farm setting. But

16:11

also my father, my father was he's

16:14

a tow truck driver, and he had a junk yard,

16:16

so I kind of grew up like amongst

16:20

junk, like a junk yard aesthetic, and also

16:22

had like this beautiful animals running around.

16:26

So were you a learner or you

16:28

know, did you have a community of friends or.

16:31

So I just played with

16:33

like there was like little boys, like the neighborhood

16:35

little boys, because I lived way back in the country

16:38

off the road, so they would

16:40

literally just drive their little tractors down to my house

16:42

and we would just play in the creek and stuff like that, Like it

16:44

was like country country.

16:45

Yo. Is it just me? I just had this conversation

16:48

with somebody the other day. You just made me think of this tomboys.

16:50

That's not a term that's used anymore.

16:55

But than it was it was.

16:56

I was a tomboy.

16:58

I mean, yeah, but I don't even know it's

17:00

politically correct anymore.

17:02

I don't know.

17:02

I haven't thought about it a long time. I

17:05

don't know. But I definitely was one

17:07

of those, you know, and

17:10

like my you know, it's interesting like my upbringing,

17:12

Like my dad. You know, he's a car salesman and he

17:15

did, you know, the toe jobs and stuff

17:17

like that, so he knew everybody in the community. So he would

17:19

always do like what we call horse trading, which is just when you

17:21

trade this for that. And I

17:23

remember one time he brought me home a pony, and

17:26

I remember being so excited about this pony. I

17:28

was I only girl on the street that had a little pony.

17:30

And the pony wasn't right in the head.

17:33

So the pony would like try to attack us and chase

17:35

us and bite us. It was eating meat. It

17:39

was eating what he was eating meats, It was

17:41

eating birds.

17:43

Oh yeah, yeah, not

17:45

your dream, my little pony.

17:47

No, it was not a dream. But all the kids would come

17:49

down and kind of check out the pony, you

17:51

know. Yeah, So that was my claim to

17:53

family.

17:53

Now I'm going to ask you around the dumb questions

17:55

that I never asked a person that was

17:58

anything close to equestrian

18:00

life, because I don't know

18:03

that many people that have owned horses

18:06

or ponies or any of those things. And

18:08

I hear this all the time, where like one day I came

18:10

home and my dad surprised me with and

18:13

usually a pony.

18:14

What is the general like

18:16

maintenance of owning

18:19

one of those things? Like I have a farm, now

18:22

do I plan on owning?

18:23

And my farm actually comes with I

18:26

have like a barnyard that's a

18:28

stable that can hold six

18:31

of them if I chose to own them right now?

18:33

It's for storage. But what's

18:36

what's the daily care routine

18:38

for that?

18:40

The daily I mean honestly, like when it comes

18:42

to upkeep for a horse

18:45

you're talking about, you got

18:47

to have your like regular vet visits.

18:50

You gotta keep up with the vitamins.

18:53

Definitely, they take vitamins.

18:55

Yeah, well it goes in the feed.

19:00

We all need nutrition.

19:02

You knew this.

19:03

I mean, I'm nturprised.

19:06

I'm not I'm not looking at questrian

19:08

person, you know what I'm saying.

19:08

I didn't think I know either when he said, but.

19:11

I remember what we used to do. You gotta take care of hooks,

19:14

You gotta take your care to coat. When it's cold

19:16

outside, you got to make sure that everything's

19:18

right for them. It's hot outside, you got to make sure everything's

19:20

right for them. Like I just did a pretty high maintenance

19:23

really, And they're also expensive, expensive creatures.

19:25

That you gotta buy it a trailer, a mere like,

19:27

and you're gonna take it to the bet.

19:28

You gotta take it to the bet.

19:30

Okay.

19:30

Yeah, I just never understood like

19:33

the casualness of friends

19:35

of mine's, like, yeah, I brought my kid a horse

19:37

or whatever, but you know, I have

19:41

anxiety trying to consider

19:43

should I get.

19:43

A dog or not, let alone.

19:47

Very different things.

19:48

Yeah, I start with a dog, for sure.

19:50

I'm not even starting with it because I traveled too much.

19:52

But you know, I just generally

19:55

wanted to know. And the neighbors that I

19:57

have on both sides of the house

19:59

they have horses. I go up and pet

20:01

it, and part of me thinks, like, oh,

20:04

it's not that bad. But I know that there's

20:06

some real ship that I don't know.

20:09

So and Brittany ain't say if she kept the pony

20:11

until it turned into a horse, did you did you.

20:13

That's the part I wanted to do at the

20:15

point works that's two

20:17

different.

20:19

Well, I did not know that. I thought

20:21

that. I thought that ponies were puppies

20:24

to.

20:25

Horses, their own

20:27

thing, their own thing. Ponies do not turn

20:29

into worses.

20:30

Wait wait wait what

20:34

they.

20:34

Do not turn into horses? Ponies is

20:36

his own thing.

20:38

And they stay that size.

20:39

They stay that size. Yeah they say that size, that's right.

20:42

Yeah, and they're kind of mean, to be honest with you. Ponies

20:44

are not super nice, really attitudes.

20:47

All the ponies I met have attitudes.

20:49

Even the Shetland ones like real cutely,

20:52

this is about our enemy advertising.

20:56

National Geographic Request, Love Supreme

20:58

and Brittany.

21:00

Yeah no, dude,

21:02

this this platform is more for me to learn shit,

21:05

more than their records

21:07

already mentioned the record. I want to learn

21:09

about this shit. How long did you

21:11

keep the pony before it was like okay, no

21:13

more?

21:15

Not long a trade? You know, we kind

21:17

of traded things.

21:18

Up so like and that's just common, that's.

21:20

Common around where I'm from. Yet, and

21:22

so we had traded like we had

21:25

a quarter horse at

21:27

first, and then we traded

21:29

the the quarter horse is like it's like twenty

21:31

five years old, so like, I couldn't do

21:33

anything with it, so we traded it for the

21:35

pony. And the whole reason we got the pony because

21:37

the pony was meaning to bite you. So that traded

21:39

the pony for a Gokart and then we were cool from then

21:41

on, no more horse. It's

21:44

a good trade. Yeah.

21:46

And what's this level of trading called again?

21:49

This is called horse trading?

21:51

Horse trading?

21:52

Okay, that's the term I never heard before.

21:54

So is it a thing where like once a month you

21:56

take what you want to trade to

21:59

a place and you trade it or you just go to your

22:01

neighbor and be like, yo, what you want for

22:03

this?

22:03

It's a lifestyle. It's a lifestyle.

22:05

Okay, okay, yeah.

22:06

It's like I've been noticing that you have this in

22:08

the yard is a run. So I's like, well

22:11

I could run, I just ain't took it in. It's like, well,

22:14

I got this, I'll trade you this for that, and then it's

22:16

your job getting running. And then you take that thing

22:18

that now runs and trade it for something else that you want.

22:20

You know, you just trade up.

22:23

I got it now. Can you tell me what your first

22:26

musical memory was?

22:30

Oh? Man, first musical

22:32

memory. My grandmother

22:35

had like one of those big consoles

22:37

that has like the eight track player and

22:40

the record player and the speakers built in. And

22:42

I remember being really young,

22:45

maybe four, and messing around

22:47

with all the vinyl yes

22:50

and pulling out some of the albums

22:52

and had them all on the floor, and my Grandma's

22:55

like, what you're doing, you know, like don't break them and all this,

22:57

and I remember her putting on the Thriller

22:59

out them, but I

23:02

remember hearing. I remember hearing the speakers because

23:04

it's like a tube system. Remember them warm

23:06

up, and then I could hear, you

23:09

know, songs of Thriller coming out

23:11

of the speakers and being like,

23:13

what the hell is this? You know, kind

23:16

of kind of amazed in the name of

23:18

by the whole thing, not just the music, but just

23:20

all of it, you know, the warmth

23:22

of it coming on?

23:25

Was that your kind

23:27

of I don't mean come

23:29

to Jesus moment, but for

23:32

you, was that like the moment where it's like, Okay, well

23:36

I want to also express myself

23:38

in this way through music or.

23:42

Nah, so no, not really. I mean

23:44

I had that kind of moment when I was eleven. I

23:48

was in middle school and

23:50

in my middle school. I don't know what if a grade eleven

23:53

is fifth or sixth grade, And

23:57

there was a band from our school that had

23:59

rented out our gym and they were gonna

24:01

put on a show. And I remember all throughout

24:03

the day everybody was asking, are you gonna go to the show? You're

24:05

gonna go to the show? I was like, I don't know, I'll see

24:07

if I can get there. And so I get to the gym

24:09

and I'm by myself. I remember being like super anxious

24:11

because I don't really know anybody at well. And

24:14

the band plays and amusing them

24:16

play on stage and kids I went to school with. It

24:19

was like I didn't know these kids could

24:21

do this. There were so talented.

24:23

Look at the effects they're having on people. It

24:25

was songs that I liked and I knew, and it was

24:27

like the coolest thing I had ever seen. And it was in

24:30

that moment standing in the gym

24:32

that I knew I wanted to be in a band, and

24:34

I wanted to make my own music and I wanted

24:37

to be up there like they were, like. I think that was a come

24:39

to Jesus moment for me.

24:41

Okay, how long

24:43

before you found

24:46

other people that sort of had a

24:49

common love for music, Like

24:52

was music something that you kept close to the chest,

24:54

or like how

24:56

big was the music community down there?

24:59

It was a it was. It was so small.

25:02

I had to teach people how to play music

25:04

to be in a band.

25:06

Wow.

25:06

So I would go teach myself the instruments,

25:08

and then I would go back to school and I would just try

25:11

to find a kid with some sort of musical talent

25:13

like rhythm, and I'd be like, Okay, hey,

25:15

do you want to learn how to play bass guitar? Like do you want

25:17

learn how to play drums? And I I would

25:19

tutor them and see if that get to a pointment

25:21

where we could make music together. Some

25:24

yes, but a lot no, Like it just

25:26

didn't happen. I was trying to make it happen. And

25:28

it wasn't until I was probably like sixteen

25:31

years old that I finally

25:33

met some kids who also were interested

25:35

in making music. And that was Zach

25:38

Zach Copple Bassis for Alabama Shakes,

25:40

and then he Fogg who became a

25:42

guitar player, and it was them. So this

25:44

whole thing really started from my school.

25:47

Was guitar, your very

25:50

first instrument of choice or did play other

25:52

instruments as well.

25:54

My first instrument, I guess technically

25:56

is like piano, and then drum,

26:01

a drummer heart and then

26:03

basically yeah,

26:06

yeah, yeah, a lot of my yeah, a lot

26:08

of the drums on my new record. I programmed those drums.

26:11

I'm not saying I could play them like

26:13

that, but I can hear it, you know, and

26:16

uh yeah. Then I learned bass, and then I only

26:18

learned guitar because I had to. I didn't

26:20

really want to play guitar really,

26:23

no, I want to be in the rhythm section. I just one I want

26:25

to play bass.

26:27

What is the gap though?

26:28

Wait, the gap in between you knowing

26:30

you wanted to do this and you teaching

26:33

folks that the music, Like, how are you

26:35

learning? You never kind of said that yet,

26:38

you just yeah.

26:39

So at firstly I didn't have those instruments

26:42

like drums. I could have access to drums

26:44

because there were a set of drums

26:46

at our school, so I could go play those drums after

26:49

school. When it came to bass guitar,

26:51

I would just borrow one from one of the rich kids, because,

26:53

like, I don't know what it was about school, Well, all the rich kids had

26:55

a bass guitar, let

26:58

me borrow it, you know, and let me borrow it. And so

27:01

I taught myself how to do that. And

27:03

the guitar my my sister

27:06

had a guitar like tucked away

27:08

back in the closets, like one of those jcpenny guitars

27:11

that looks like a less Paul and it's

27:13

like it's like one hundred and fifty pounds. And

27:15

that's what I learned on was that guitar.

27:18

So I was teaching myself.

27:19

How long did it take?

27:21

I mean, I haven't mastered any of those instruments,

27:25

right, that's what we're doing, okay, no, no,

27:27

no, no no no. Honestly, I

27:29

was just learning as I went. So if I picked something

27:32

up, I would make something with it. I

27:34

would just learn as I went. So from

27:36

from the very beginning, I wanted to make my own music. That

27:38

was like the whole goal. That was like the whole purpose. But

27:42

when I was originally learning, I

27:44

had to learn other people's songs. So I just

27:46

started with stuff that was easy, like

27:48

like Blink on a two, and I was

27:50

like kind of things like that that are pretty easy power chord

27:52

stuff, you know.

27:54

So I'm gonna ask you am I the only one

27:56

that goes through this?

27:57

Like sometimes when we'll ask people about their childhood,

28:00

you're thinking about your childhood too, but then

28:03

you realize that their childhood is actually

28:06

your adulthood like

28:11

childhood, and I'm like, wait

28:13

a minute. I was thirty three years old when that came.

28:15

Out, like.

28:17

Pretty, don't do the math, don't do the math.

28:19

Don't do it.

28:20

Don't do it. It hurts.

28:21

I give my feelings hurt.

28:23

I guess when we first played together was

28:26

at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in

28:28

Cleveland and we were

28:31

doing a tribute for Big

28:33

Mama Thornton. In your childhood,

28:35

was there did anyone ever put

28:37

you onto her? Or was it like later in life when

28:40

you discovered her. I'm for

28:42

a so called music historian. I you

28:45

know, I admit, and I'm ashamed of

28:47

myth that. I was probably in my mid forties

28:49

before someone explained to me who Big Mama

28:52

Thornton was, even though like

28:54

I've heard hound Dog and all that stuff all

28:56

my life, but I.

28:57

Remember doing his sister. Was that a tharp?

28:59

Though?

29:00

Oh my god, you

29:04

know what you want to edit that?

29:06

Yes, yeah, quest love makes mistakes.

29:08

Yes, I had a brain fart.

29:10

I'm sorry he was Atorian questlove.

29:14

Things. I'm sorry. I meant Sister

29:17

Rose at a thought.

29:18

Yeah, were you at all familiar with her in

29:20

your childhood or did

29:22

that come to you later in life.

29:24

It definitely came to me later in life, maybe

29:26

mid twenties. Mid twenties is when I

29:29

started getting curious about these

29:32

women blues players, right, And

29:35

then I had started hearing about, well, there's this

29:37

woman that kind of inspired Chuck Berry and

29:39

inspired of us Presley and had

29:41

the electric guitar. And someone

29:44

told me about it because I played an SG and

29:46

they're like, oh, this like sister was at a tharpe. She also put

29:48

a SG. She put an SG custom in white.

29:51

And I was like, oh, I've never heard of her. So

29:54

I started looking into her stuff and I was like, the

29:56

stuff she's actually playing on the guitar

29:59

is so was unique. It's it's

30:02

her voice on that guitar. Nobody else is doing

30:04

it. It's crazy, it's actually hard,

30:06

it's hard to play how she's playing. And

30:09

so that's when I kind of started

30:11

diving into her stuff and in her story, which her

30:13

story is really interesting as well.

30:15

In your childhood or in

30:18

your teens. Who was your north

30:20

star by that point as far as like singing

30:22

was concerned, as far as like

30:25

who's just like your go to artists

30:29

that you loved.

30:30

In my teens, It was David

30:33

Bowie. Wow. Yeah,

30:36

because it was like the Hole aesthetic

30:39

and the songwriting

30:42

was like it had like a lot of different mixtures

30:45

in it, which I really liked. It had

30:47

like some some show tunes to

30:49

it as well, you know what I mean. Like I

30:51

can hear his inspirations being

30:54

like from Broadway, and then like also he was taking

30:57

things like from Kabuki theater, and he was

30:59

borrowing rhythms from R and B and he

31:01

was doing jazzy things, and it was

31:03

just fascinating to me. And I

31:05

liked his voice. I thought it was really interesting how I used

31:07

his voice too. He wasn't trying to be like

31:09

a professional singer, technical singer. It

31:11

was just he was just like giving like

31:14

he was giving vignettes. He was giving like small

31:16

scenes from a movie or something every song. I

31:19

thought that was cool. So I became obsessed with.

31:21

It, Okay, obsessed to what levels.

31:23

I had everything. I had everything he had ever done.

31:26

You have Labyrinth?

31:27

Yes, I was about I love it.

31:30

Yes, okay,

31:34

I was like, okay, what era of boy is this?

31:36

Early?

31:37

Is this eighty four?

31:38

Literally?

31:40

Oh, I was listening to like ten Man, I

31:43

was listening to all of it. I didn't like it. I listened

31:46

to it.

31:47

Yeah it yeah, you know,

31:49

it's weird, all right. So I worked in a record store

31:53

eighty eight eighty nine when the first

31:55

tim in the album came out, and

31:58

okay, so we traded in the record store for

32:01

the Internet. But if you

32:03

hang out in a record store long enough, you're

32:06

going to meet two or

32:08

three know it all snobs that have their

32:10

like unsolicited opinions on stuff, and

32:12

suddenly their opinions become your opinions. And

32:15

working in that record store and like, think

32:17

of Jack Black's character and

32:20

U yeah,

32:22

yeah, Like I had like

32:24

two of those guys, and you

32:27

know, we had to put the ten Men display

32:30

up and all that stuff, and they were just like, ah, man,

32:32

this shit sucks. And of course, you

32:34

know, everyone wants you to go back to when you know, your

32:36

first seven years, when you're blowing everyone's mind

32:38

and when it was just your secret before

32:40

the world had you. And it's so weird

32:43

because I'm working

32:45

on this doc right now and Timmin's

32:48

performance, I will say

32:50

that if you really give and if you can find

32:52

any of their performances online. And

32:55

I don't know how much they did. I know they

32:57

did a few promotional shows

33:00

and whatnot, but I would almost

33:02

say that tim Men was almost like a precursor

33:04

to grunge. Yeah,

33:07

I mean, if I can borrow

33:09

from gen Z, it was. It was

33:12

giving, it

33:14

was given Soundgarden, it was

33:16

giving alls and

33:18

chains, it was borderline. It

33:20

was somewhere between like early Smashing

33:23

Pumpkins. And I know when

33:25

we say grunge, you just automatically,

33:27

non grunge hits will just think like, oh

33:29

smells like teen spirit, you.

33:32

Know, that sort of thing.

33:33

But I mean, yeah,

33:35

like I realized that Oh

33:38

Bowie's fan base had

33:40

the younger generation after the same thing

33:42

with Prince. If you remember that Prince got

33:44

booed at the Rolling Stones

33:48

opening for the Rolling Stones back in eighty one, Like

33:51

baby boomers were not Prince's audience.

33:54

Prince was the older brother of gen X,

33:56

So you know, some

33:59

three or four years later that audience

34:01

is going to grasp the Prince And yeah, it's

34:03

it's weird that even I would

34:06

say that all Bowie fans should

34:08

probably revisit ten

34:10

Man, or at least try to find

34:12

them in concert. It was

34:15

actually awesome. Like if you're a fan of grunge,

34:17

I would say that they're the percursive

34:20

to that.

34:20

So, but that's my opinion anyone

34:27

else besides Bowie.

34:29

Let's see started

34:31

off pretty hard with David Bowie, and

34:34

then I found out about

34:36

Pink Floyd. I hadn't heard Pink

34:38

Floyd before. I remember being like, oh,

34:40

it's like fifteen, riding in

34:42

the back of my friend's car and

34:45

she starts playing it was the Dark

34:47

Side of the Side of the Moon. Yeah, yeah,

34:50

And I was like, what the hell is this?

34:52

This is this is so

34:54

many different types of music. This is

34:56

like jazz, this is like I never heard any

34:58

type of music like it. I remember hearing it

35:00

in the back of a buckless sound.

35:03

I remember hearing hearing it, and I remember

35:05

getting so excited because I

35:07

didn't know you could do music like I don't know you could take everything

35:09

like that, mix.

35:10

It together without psychedelics.

35:13

No psychadelics. I just I'm just getting ride home

35:15

from school.

35:16

Oh wow, that's what's said. Have

35:18

you have you ever done The Wizard of Oz test to it.

35:21

No, I've never done that.

35:22

Have you heard about it?

35:24

I've heard about it.

35:25

Yeah, it's up until maybe

35:29

the end of money.

35:30

It literally it really

35:32

does.

35:33

If it's perfect, is.

35:34

The wisd of is it?

35:36

I thought it was pulled the Wall and not Dark.

35:38

Nah, a dark said on the third line

35:40

where you're supposed to start. You're

35:42

supposed to start the record on the third line. Roar

35:45

of MGM. And literally

35:48

it plays perfectly even when it turns

35:50

into color.

35:51

That's when the.

35:52

Bells money

35:54

starts money and they start doing the dance

35:56

and all that stuff. And then towards the end it's like, okay,

35:59

now he definitely did it up until

36:01

money.

36:01

I'll say that much. Have you ever watched The

36:03

Wall?

36:04

Oh?

36:05

Yeah, I first

36:07

saw The Wall in the like The Wall

36:09

was the first pandemic film that

36:12

I watched before I started obsessing

36:15

over Fantasia. And

36:19

I don't know, man, I it's

36:21

almost like we owe Roger an

36:24

apology letter because I know that, you

36:27

know, for all intents and purposes, like we credit

36:30

Michael Jackson for video innovation,

36:33

but for that thing to come out in nineteen seventy

36:35

nine, which is basically pretty

36:39

much you know, if you were

36:41

to take like the fifteen best videos you've

36:43

seen on MTV for the first

36:46

four years.

36:46

Like between eighty one and eighty five.

36:49

Then I

36:51

would say, like The Wall was all that in nineteen

36:53

seventy nine, and he just never truly

36:56

got the credit. Like again, I discovered

36:58

The Wall in twenty two, like long

37:01

after after that effect,

37:03

so I you know, I highly recommend it.

37:05

But I mean, yeah, when I was in high

37:07

school, I was like a cult classic. If you had to sit down

37:09

and watch The Wall, we all knew it was something

37:12

special and everybody was, you know, trying

37:14

to experiment with drugs and watch The Wall

37:17

and we're at a party the

37:19

Walls on like that was like the cool thing, you

37:21

know.

37:22

Yep, I recommend it. You

37:25

know, before twenty twenty, I really wasn't big

37:27

on drinking or psychedelics

37:29

at all, like an occasional cookie

37:32

or a gummy of that sort of thing. But

37:35

you know, most people said, like you'd experienced

37:37

it outside. I'm

37:39

I'm still not an outside person. I

37:42

want to be inside when I do it because I

37:45

don't know, fear of control

37:47

or whatever. But someone suggested

37:50

to me to watch Fantasia and there's

37:52

two verds there's Fantasia and then Fantasia

37:54

two just came out in two thousand.

37:57

Without Psychedelics.

37:58

You'll see something in that movie, but

38:00

with it, Oh my god, there's there's a it's

38:02

a whole nother level of like.

38:05

I use that pretty much.

38:07

I'd watch it like once maybe twice a

38:09

week while kind of making,

38:12

and then after that I would get ideas for Summer

38:15

of Soul, like oh, want to do this and

38:17

that and this and that, and kind of the panic

38:19

level of Summer of Soul's editing.

38:22

I would say was really inspired just

38:24

by like ideas I had

38:26

from doing that. Sometimes you have to

38:29

get into someone else's art in order to.

38:32

Create your own.

38:34

I want to ask, so, did you start Permuta

38:36

Triangle before the Alabama Shakes.

38:39

No?

38:40

That was after, okay after, So

38:42

Alabama Shakes was your first first

38:44

group?

38:44

Can you talk about the formation of that?

38:47

So, I you know, I was. I was in high school and

38:50

I have been looking for people to play with and

38:53

as seen a couple of guys in my school

38:55

that were interested in music, playing music, and they were like

38:57

dedicated to it. So I really

38:59

wanted to them. I was trying to figure out

39:02

some younger than them and me

39:04

being me, I was like, why would they want to talk to me? Like

39:06

I'm younger than them, I look

39:08

different than them. We don't travel in the same groups.

39:10

I don't know how I'm gonna have my end. So I went

39:13

made a little demo like by myself, and

39:15

I used to use like audacity, so it's like super

39:17

easy to record with. Sounded terrible back

39:20

back in the day, and so I brought

39:22

him to a CD and I was like, Hey, this is

39:24

to Zach bass player who later became

39:26

the bass player of Alabama Shakes. I

39:29

was like, hey, I made this music. I don't know. I just wonder

39:31

if you everyone to come like jam on me sometime play

39:33

music with me. Sometimes he was like yeah,

39:36

let's go listen to it. So we go to the parking lot of

39:38

high school sitting in his Honda chord. He

39:40

plays it and he's like, oh, this is cool. He's like, yeah,

39:43

I'd like to like to come over and play. So that's

39:45

spout when I was like fifteen sixteen, and me and Zach started

39:47

playing every day and we were learning how to play

39:50

like at the time, it was like prog rock. So we're

39:52

like doing yes and King

39:55

Crimson. We're like learning that kind of stuff. This is new

39:57

to me, but I'm fascinated by it because it's all really

39:59

technically different, cool stuff. And

40:02

we started writing together and then we made a demo

40:05

and Heath, who later became a guitar

40:07

player for The Shakes, heard that and was like,

40:09

I want y'all to open, Like, can y'all open for

40:12

my band? And I was like, man, we don't even

40:14

got a band. It's just like us. So

40:16

we went down to the music store and the best drummer

40:19

in town worked at the music store.

40:21

We only had one music store in town. Hey,

40:23

man, you want to come play with us. He's like,

40:25

I don't know. We show him our demo. He's

40:27

like, I'll check it out. Come

40:29

by, I'll see what y'all about. So then we started

40:31

playing together and

40:34

then we opened up for Heat's group, and honestly,

40:36

that's like, what did it? The first time we played together,

40:39

we knew that we had something, and so

40:41

we started them working on our own material and

40:44

that later became the Albama Shik's Four

40:47

of Us.

40:48

I got hip to you guys via Jack

40:51

White.

40:52

It was pretty much like you know, screwing

40:54

from the Mountaintops about you guys and whatnot

40:57

for you? Did you have any expectations

41:00

of where this journey was going

41:02

to take you in terms of, like.

41:04

I'm trying, from the time we started

41:06

a band, which I'm saying

41:08

we started a band when I probably had just graduated

41:10

high school two thousand and seven,

41:13

I'd say, like, that's really when we started playing our own shows

41:15

with our own music. And then I feel

41:17

like whenever Boys and Girls came out

41:19

with like twenty twelve, eleven, yeah,

41:21

yeah, yeah, I mean, it wasn't that long,

41:24

but we played all the time, and we played for no money,

41:27

and all we did was get together Tuesdays and

41:29

Thursdays and write new music, write new music,

41:31

write new music, work on the set, work on the set.

41:35

And to me, it was just like miraculous

41:38

that anything happened at all because at

41:40

a certain point, I just I just like accepted

41:43

that I was going to be a male carrier.

41:45

I was going to deliver mail and I'll play

41:47

music on the side, and that was going to be my life. I

41:49

was okay with that.

41:51

Well, let me ask, because I'm

41:53

curious about band

41:55

dynamics, like anyone being a band

41:58

or a unit in.

42:00

Know post millennial times.

42:01

It's almost like as it's like aliens

42:04

landing, because you know, pretty

42:06

much life is built for the solo artists

42:09

post art post two

42:11

thousand. When the band is forming,

42:15

is there a general agreement like of

42:17

who the leader is?

42:19

Or is it like a thing where it's like, okay, it's democracy

42:22

and we all have a say, or like how do.

42:24

You handle.

42:26

Banned decisions and

42:29

whatnot? Like how do you how do you deal with those

42:31

dynamics?

42:32

For us, it was a democracy

42:35

that's we honestly communicated

42:38

a lot why or why not we

42:40

shouldn't do something right? And

42:42

the better you were and just talking

42:44

about your feelings usually the more.

42:47

What's that, the.

42:50

More the more it will go your way because the

42:52

better the better you were, the better you were

42:54

communicating why you didn't want to do this. It

42:57

was it was almost like in a court of law, but

42:59

it came from an emotional place. I

43:01

really don't want to do this because X

43:04

y Z, this is cheesy, this is that, this is yeah.

43:06

Yeah, you know, if you were quieter,

43:09

you didn't get as much as your wife because it's like nobody's

43:11

hearing what you have to say. But we would

43:14

all sit down and talk.

43:15

You know, Okay, I

43:17

would assume that their reception

43:20

of boys and girls was not

43:22

overwhelming, but it was definitely, you

43:25

know, to come out the gate. And

43:28

I'm speaking as a person that took four attempts

43:30

to finally come out

43:32

the gate. What is it like

43:35

on your debut to come out the gate and

43:37

instantly become critical

43:40

dartlings And what is that

43:42

feeling?

43:43

Surreal? So absolutely surreal.

43:47

You described like the first moment when

43:49

you realize like, oh shit,

43:51

we're really going to be a

43:53

thing.

43:55

Yeah, I do. I do remember it. It popped

43:57

in my head as soon as you said I remember. It

43:59

was in Nashville on Broadway and there's

44:01

like the Secret Club. I don't know, I don't know anything

44:03

about that life. We

44:05

had just got through playing the Blue Room

44:09

with Jack White. Jack White invited just to play his third

44:11

Man records, and I was excited to meet

44:13

Jack White because I love the White stripes. And

44:15

then if kings Leon is there, and

44:17

I at the time, like I had like the first two

44:19

records, loved kings Lynn and

44:24

they're coming up, They're coming up to me and they're

44:26

like, you know, I think you're

44:28

gonna make it like all this stuff, you know, and

44:32

I'm like, these guys tell me I'm gonna make it. And

44:34

so I remember going to the secret little bar after the show,

44:37

and you know, it was kind of fancy.

44:39

I'd never been in that environment before. And I

44:41

remember there's a balcony outside.

44:43

It was me and the drummer, Steve, and I go

44:45

out there and and Steve were crying

44:48

and I was like, I looked at him. I was like, why are you crying? He

44:51

was like, I just think I really think

44:53

we're gonna do something. And I was like, damn,

44:55

you think so. And then I started crying and We're just out

44:57

there this

45:00

emotional moment that's like, I can't believe

45:02

this is happening to us. It was just

45:04

all of our circumstances. It was just like such a miracle

45:06

happening in our lives. It was just like it's

45:09

like a Superman came in to save you, you know, you.

45:12

Huh yeah, yeah. It's like right on, so much

45:14

of.

45:15

My life at the poverty line, and now

45:17

I had an opportunity for the first time ever, you

45:19

know, And that's what it felt like.

45:21

You all collectively moved to Nashville or

45:24

No.

45:25

I was the first one to move to Nashville, and that was later.

45:27

It was like much later. Yeah, I've

45:29

say Nathan's for a long time.

45:31

I'm being told that Nashville

45:34

is pretty much the last bashion

45:37

of hope for the serious

45:39

musician? Is

45:41

it that like every singer songwriter

45:44

I know, especially now, like I peeped

45:46

one person's Instagram feed and suddenly,

45:48

you know, like when you peep one Instagram feed, your

45:51

algorithms was suddenly I

45:53

didn't realize the staggering amount

45:56

of songwriters and I

45:58

just thought like, oh, it must be just country. No, it's

46:00

every musician is like I

46:03

gotta go to Nashville to make it the way

46:05

that an actress is like I gotta go

46:07

to Hollywood. What

46:09

is it about Nashville that

46:11

just calls out not

46:14

even a musician.

46:15

You what is it? What is it?

46:18

For me?

46:18

It was a practical thing. Nashville

46:21

Airport goes a lot of different places. That's

46:25

really all it was. And I had, you

46:27

know, when I moved there initially, so I'm

46:29

from a small town. Nashville was kind of besides

46:31

Birmingham, that was the next biggest town. That's where you could

46:33

go see the bands you want to see who

46:36

go see live music. So I was always going

46:38

up there to go see bands, and so I

46:40

made friends up there, so naturally

46:42

I wanted to go to be where my friends were. So

46:44

that's how I ended up in Nashville. But I stay in

46:46

Nashville because it's practical. Like my

46:48

family's an hour and a half away, the

46:51

airport's fifteen minutes away. Now

46:53

I have good friends in the city, and

46:55

that's I mean. I'm not gonna say I get out there and watch a lot

46:57

of music. I don't really, I'm kind of a home by.

47:00

I just want to say congratulations, Brittany

47:03

Howard. You you've continued a long

47:05

tradition quest

47:08

love supreme antics where I will

47:10

romanticize something and

47:13

if you subject just takes this and does

47:15

this.

47:18

But there is a beauty to Nashville.

47:20

I've only lately.

47:21

I had never been there in my whole life up until the last five

47:23

years, because of the whole because they have the

47:25

Black Music Museum now in Nashville, which

47:27

I'm on a small board for. But also witnessing

47:30

like Black Americana and some of those

47:32

bands and the rise of like black

47:34

folks claiming their country again is a beautiful

47:37

It's beautiful.

47:38

It is.

47:38

It is beautiful.

47:39

It is beautiful, and.

47:41

I do love that about Nashville. And I actually

47:43

love the younger people that

47:45

live there now in the music that they're doing. It's actually

47:47

really exciting. We got like house clubs now.

47:50

Well I don't know if I just say that, but like

47:52

we have house parties.

47:53

Now Brittany's

47:56

my house music but actual house yeah,

47:59

joint meaning or.

48:01

Well, it's like, you know, everything

48:03

they do is legal. That's what I'm saying

48:05

there.

48:06

And okay, no, no, no, I thought you in the house

48:08

music, I was like, oh, a club culture is coming to Nashville.

48:10

I get it.

48:10

No, that is what I'm saying. That's what That is what I'm saying.

48:13

Oh okay, yeah, And.

48:15

They get their own speaker systems together and it's

48:17

cool. It's like really cool. It's really lively. I'll

48:19

go out. I'll go to that, but not for long

48:21

because I like to sleep nowadays, but like I'll go for

48:24

a couple of hours, you know what I mean. And

48:26

there's that happening in Nashville. That's cool.

48:29

And there's a part of me that almost wants the gate keep it,

48:31

to keep it pure, because Nashville, you have to keep

48:33

in mind it's also a tourist town, but

48:35

we also have to live in a tourist town.

48:37

You don't already coming colnizing your precious

48:40

now.

48:40

Amazon already moved to Nashville. Honey, it's

48:42

official.

48:43

It's it's gone.

48:43

It's over. It's over, Oracles living, and it's

48:45

over. It's over. We got top golf,

48:49

Hey, top golf?

48:52

What you know about top golf?

48:53

A mere Yeah, I'm a human

48:55

being? Like, yeah, I don't. What

48:59

do I know about top off? Like you? What a

49:01

human being? Do you know?

49:03

We'll invite every walk of life to a

49:05

game night like Doctor

49:07

Game Night.

49:08

Of course.

49:08

I'm from the Bowling We used to do the Bowling

49:10

twenty. You got to keep the gold back at.

49:12

It, I

49:17

will ask at its height? Was

49:19

there a moment when?

49:21

And again my obsession with how people

49:24

can create and do bands together,

49:26

the same questions I asked Fante with

49:29

Little Brother, is there a moment

49:32

where it stops

49:35

being fun? Or you

49:37

know when you when you released your first solo record,

49:40

I was like, uh oh, like because

49:43

often when people release a solo record,

49:46

I'm hoping that they realize that you

49:49

can go off and do separate projects, but you

49:51

can always come back to home base and

49:54

keep the brand alive, or keep my

49:57

dream alive.

49:58

I won't say the dream, but.

49:59

You know you well, yeah, because

50:01

I want to see more bands in existence, so

50:04

in your in a way that

50:06

you can express it without it being awkward. What

50:09

was the decision that led up to breaking

50:11

up the band?

50:13

We have been working incredibly

50:16

hard for a long number of years

50:19

and it came to a point where people

50:22

got to go home and live their lives.

50:24

But I had never really got to live my life

50:26

because I was working on the next album,

50:29

or I was doing this, I was doing that, and

50:32

it's just like I was just tired, just

50:36

tired. And it was like a hard decision

50:38

because like those are my brothers, you know what I'm saying, Like all

50:40

of our lives experiences miracle

50:43

at the same time, we saw the world

50:45

together and

50:47

we created beautiful things together. It's

50:50

really difficult to choose myself,

50:53

I'll be honest. It's difficult

50:55

to take care of my own mental,

50:58

spiritual, and emotional health. But there's

51:00

a choice I made because I wasn't enjoying

51:02

creating. Nothing was coming

51:04

to me. I was just kind of tired of the whole

51:06

business. It was

51:08

like I didn't even like music no more, you know what I mean.

51:11

It's just like I think it was just overworked, and

51:14

it was a kind of situation where

51:16

it's like even if I took a break, I don't know if I would have come

51:18

back, you know what I mean. It's nobody's fault.

51:21

It's just conditional.

51:22

Yeah, I would think that would actually

51:24

be more of a business or more of a burden

51:28

now that everything's going to fall on you. Like

51:30

I'm certain that as a solo artist,

51:33

yes, you could complete autonomy

51:36

in terms of how you sonically want stuff

51:38

to sound, or songs

51:40

you want to do, or whatever control

51:42

that it is that you want to musically, how you want

51:44

it to sound.

51:46

But I would figure that it's even more of a burden

51:49

that way. For you.

51:51

Was it a matter of like

51:53

song choices, what you wanted to do or how you wanted

51:55

something to sound, or arrangements

51:58

or level of musicians and

52:00

sip? Like, what was it about

52:03

being a soul artist that made you say,

52:05

look, this is the end of the road and I have to

52:07

do this now.

52:09

I think what you're saying is part of it. It's all

52:11

kind of part of it wanted to

52:13

hear what it sounds like

52:15

if I create something without anybody

52:18

editing it as part of it, Like what

52:20

if I can just do this on my own. What if I can just write music

52:22

like this on my own. I need to

52:24

write recipe, I need to write parts. I

52:27

you know, it's like it's just a freedom, a creative

52:29

freedom, and I thought life is short.

52:32

I think it's worth giving out a shot, giving that a

52:34

chance to see what I can do with it. That's part of it.

52:36

And as far as like having a burden being

52:39

a solo artist, I just feel like there's not

52:41

as much of a burden as you would think, because

52:44

at the end of the day, when I don't want to do

52:46

this anymore, I'm not

52:48

like having to affect other people's lives as

52:51

much as I was in the shakes. Like

52:53

if I said I don't want to tour this year, that's

52:55

affecting all of them. And

52:57

what if I don't want to go back out, that's affecting all

52:59

of them all of the time. So you're

53:01

kind of tied together, you know what I'm saying. And

53:04

when when you're on your own, it's

53:06

like the ship sinks or the ship

53:09

sales like and it's all up to me.

53:12

So it's a different type of fulfillment, you know what I

53:14

mean.

53:14

I'd like to know because you are you

53:16

were an intersectional and in a racial

53:19

band, how hard

53:21

is it to get

53:24

people to understand culturally

53:27

where you're coming from when

53:29

you're kind of a kind of alone

53:32

but still in a crowd of people, Like,

53:34

is it easy to explain things? Are they

53:36

sensitive to these things? Or was it

53:39

always a teachable lesson? And not even

53:41

with your bandmates, but just as

53:43

you guys are operating as a band.

53:46

I think that's a good question. It's

53:48

like nothing we ever really had to talk about.

53:51

It was just this is me, this

53:53

is my expression, this is how I feel about this.

53:55

We never had really have we never really

53:57

had to have conversations because

54:00

by the time, like when we were talking about the band, by

54:02

the time the band kind of concluded, we

54:07

had all grown a lot in a lot

54:09

of different ways, and

54:11

it kind of got to the point where I was just like, well,

54:14

I don't want any of my expressions to affect you or

54:16

vice versa. How I feel about something

54:19

shouldn't affect you, and how you feel about something should

54:21

you know? It started to become a little bit more like how

54:25

do I say, like, uh, some

54:28

of us were different, that's all. Yeah, we just

54:30

grew into different people difference.

54:33

You worked on sound and color with one of

54:35

my favorite producers,

54:38

Blake Mills. He describe what that process

54:40

was like working with them.

54:42

Sure, yeah, there were there were some songs. So

54:45

usually when I come to the studio, I have everything already

54:47

demoed out, like how I wanted sound, and

54:49

it don't sound good yet, but it's just the ideas

54:51

there, and I'll have all the parts

54:54

laid out. And there was a few

54:56

songs I just couldn't seem to get finished.

54:59

You know. Work with Blake was cool because

55:02

we both just put our heads together and tried to

55:04

figure out where we can take this thing. And

55:06

one of the songs, you know, I had, like it's called it a song

55:08

called the Greatest and it was like a

55:10

slow kind of ballad thing. Yeah, and he was

55:12

like, oh, just beat it up, there you go. There was

55:15

now it's like this punk rock thing and it was really cool. It

55:17

was like a it's like a Ramones type thing, and

55:19

I liked that. And then there was like

55:22

obviously getting the sounds and tones where

55:24

we're working with a shine everyy and we

55:26

were all of us were like a part of

55:28

that process, especially like the mixing and

55:30

finding the different sounds. And then

55:34

I think for like the final

55:36

song, finishing some of the lyrics to to

55:39

think it was Gemini song, Gemini finishing

55:41

lyrics to that, and

55:43

and the process was like having

55:46

Blake work with you is like it's nice to have someone

55:48

like a light of fire underneath you and keep you on

55:50

task, because I feel like sometimes

55:53

as songwriters and musicians, having

55:55

an idea of finishing it is a whole

55:58

it's a whole thing. Yeah.

56:00

Yeah, Could you talk

56:02

about what the process was like

56:05

producing your own records, like being in

56:08

total control of it and

56:10

and kind of

56:12

using that as you're not

56:15

soapbox or pool pit like that

56:17

being your confessional kind

56:19

of project. Can you can you explain

56:22

just the process of making the Jamie record.

56:24

Yeah, it was actually kind of a supernatural process,

56:27

to be honest with you. I went to

56:30

to Panga in a you

56:33

know, it's like that mountain outside La

56:36

and it's got like the hip They said there's hippies there. I didn't

56:38

mean any, but I rented

56:40

this house and I had like

56:43

three songs and I knew

56:45

that, and three I think it was like three weeks

56:47

a month. I had to go into the studio and I had to record,

56:49

and I didn't have anything, and I wasn't getting anything, Like

56:52

I don't I don't smoke weed. I like win By some weed.

56:54

And I sat down and I was like, I gotta I gotta connect

56:57

with the muse. I have to get inspired. I don't

56:59

have anything. So I called a psychic

57:01

and the psychic was like, oh, you already got She's

57:03

like, you already got in bad, the record's already done. I

57:06

was like, what do you mean. She's like, you already have

57:08

the songs, you just got to find them.

57:10

I was like, this doesn't make any sense. So now

57:12

I'm miserable because I don't waste the money on the psychic.

57:15

But I

57:18

have I have four songs. And

57:21

I go to the studio and I tell Sean,

57:23

I don't know, this is what I got. Let's get the band in hair,

57:25

let's do this, and maybe as the

57:28

days go by out I'll find time to create

57:30

some new ones. I don't know. As

57:32

we would sit down with the band, have lunch, we'd

57:34

have these conversations and then they would

57:36

just say, like a particular word, like

57:39

one of the words was Jehovah's Witness, and

57:41

I had remembered right when they said it. Oh my

57:43

god, I have a project in logic called Jehovah's

57:45

Witness. And it was cool because I've been named.

57:47

I name my projects like whatever, because

57:50

I have to have to name them before I can save

57:52

them on my system. So

57:55

I had to get someone all the way back in

57:57

Nashville to send me

57:59

in higher projects. And that's how I got

58:01

the album together. It would be every day

58:04

going in and someone would just say a phrase and I'd

58:06

be like, that's a song. Now

58:08

I have the song, baby, Now I have the song

58:10

GoAhead, and all these things are getting pulled in

58:13

and like it just

58:15

came together like that. It was crazy. It's

58:17

like I did already have them. So the psychic

58:20

was right, like it was technically correct.

58:24

What was the inspiration because actually,

58:27

to be honest, I forgot

58:29

where I was. But I sh zamed something

58:33

I heard, uh uh

58:35

said the kid singing,

58:37

and I she zammed it and I

58:40

realized I didn't. I didn't know at the

58:42

time that you actually remixed

58:46

the Jamie album or had a slew

58:48

of people from Ninth

58:50

Wonder and Georgia and and Bad Not Good

58:53

and and uh I

58:55

think, uh.

58:57

Yeah yeah Glover.

58:58

Glover worked on a joint too, right, So

59:00

I got deep into that. What was what was the process

59:03

of doing that? Because it was almost like a whole

59:05

new album.

59:07

Yeah, I mean the process was like, first

59:09

things first, I just want to reach out to people whose

59:12

music and ideas I really respect.

59:14

What if y'all wanted to remix

59:17

one of these songs real quick? What would it sound like

59:19

if you did it? And honestly, like everybody

59:21

was super excited to do it. And every

59:23

time a new song would come out and get so excited

59:26

and I'd run out to my car and I just sit there and listen to

59:28

him be blown away. Like Little Dragon did

59:30

some stuff, Fredigan did some stuff, Michael and

59:32

Nuka did some stuff, and just like people

59:34

I've always like kind of wanted to work with, and

59:37

this is kind of an easy way to get to work together.

59:39

The overall is the song and the materials

59:42

already there, just rearrange it like how would

59:44

you have done it? And it was so interesting to listen

59:46

to it was it was so

59:49

cool, such such a cool project.

59:51

It reminds me of like the Verve Remix projects

59:53

like you just did their own album.

59:58

Can I just ask you talk about a

1:00:01

lot of things self care wise in this conversation.

1:00:03

I'm curious how it's evolved

1:00:06

now that you are by yourself and you

1:00:08

have to figure out all of these you know, it's just everything

1:00:10

has changed in the dynamic. Although you have this whole level,

1:00:12

next level of freedom, you also have a next

1:00:15

level of attention.

1:00:16

So what does that?

1:00:17

Yeah, responsibility, Like Fonte said,

1:00:20

like, so what does self care on a daily

1:00:22

look for you?

1:00:23

Look like for you on the

1:00:25

daily? So I do meditation.

1:00:27

I do transdidal meditation. So I've been

1:00:29

doing that for I guess a

1:00:31

couple of years. Yeah, helps, it helps

1:00:33

a lot. How much time?

1:00:35

How much time do you spend on it?

1:00:36

That's twenty minutes twice to day.

1:00:39

Yep, that's why I was late to this

1:00:41

joint.

1:00:42

Okay, excused, excuse?

1:00:44

Well, that creates you know, it's amazing what it does. Creates

1:00:46

a lot of space in my life. I got

1:00:48

one of the minds. It runs all day and

1:00:50

when I lay down, don't want to stop running, you know, So

1:00:54

that that's really helpful and gives

1:00:56

me patience for anything that I come

1:00:58

up against, me space for people who

1:01:01

love me and who I want to take care of, helping

1:01:04

me be a better performer because I'm not overwhelmed,

1:01:06

not stressed out all the time, because you know, it just

1:01:09

can be very stressful.

1:01:10

Do you have anxiety performing?

1:01:13

No, I don't have anxiety performing. But

1:01:15

you know, performing to me is really

1:01:18

it's the pinnacle of what I do. Like I love

1:01:21

making records, I also love

1:01:23

performing, and when I perform, I really I

1:01:25

really do try my best man and like it's

1:01:28

just it's the point where I get to be free,

1:01:30

Like in my physical form, I get to be free. Nobody

1:01:32

can touch me, you know what I'm saying, Like this

1:01:35

is my space, this is my thing. We

1:01:37

feel that, Yeah, And I just I

1:01:39

spend like when I'm on tour now, I

1:01:42

just spend all of my time making sure

1:01:44

I'm ready for that thing. You know, that's

1:01:46

the most important thing when I'm out here.

1:01:49

I want to ask you work on

1:01:51

this new record with a good buddy of

1:01:54

mine, Nate Smith Nick,

1:01:56

what's it like collaborating with him? And

1:01:58

how'd you guys meet and start work?

1:02:01

So I love Nate, I'm a drummer at

1:02:03

heart. I love drummers, right, I've

1:02:06

been I've been a fan of you Quest for a very very long

1:02:08

time, in a yeah,

1:02:12

very long time. And of

1:02:14

course, and I had

1:02:16

been started. I started to see Nate and I started to see the way

1:02:18

he played, and I thought the way he played was so interesting

1:02:20

because so emotional. Of course

1:02:23

it's super technical, but there's also just so much

1:02:25

feeling in it when he's playing. And

1:02:28

I started watching his videos and

1:02:30

I thought to myself before I made the album, Jamie,

1:02:32

if I'm going to get any drummer to play on this, who

1:02:35

would be? And I just because

1:02:38

I had just found him, and it just kind of broke off

1:02:40

into watching his videos. I was like, I'm just gonna

1:02:42

ask them. I's gonna ask Nate. Let's see if you'll do it.

1:02:45

And he said yes, came to the studio,

1:02:47

we made that album together, and then I was like, will you

1:02:49

go on the road with me? And I

1:02:51

had to a little convincing we know you did that.

1:02:54

Well, they say yes, And now I

1:02:56

get to play with him like every night, all

1:02:58

the time. He's just the one

1:03:00

just incredible. It's just incredible, incredible.

1:03:03

I feel like the luckiest person I get to be on stage

1:03:05

with someone like a musician like that.

1:03:07

Does he only play three drums on the road? Think

1:03:10

he has a kick a stare in a high hat. That's like it's

1:03:12

ship, It's like the quest Love method. It's like all you need?

1:03:14

Right?

1:03:14

Does he does he have drums on the road?

1:03:16

Not? During my show we got him playing. Yeah,

1:03:20

he got two kick drums, two toms.

1:03:23

It's really bad.

1:03:24

Yeah, Brittany,

1:03:26

can I ask you about the visuals for this this album,

1:03:29

or at least for the first the single, and

1:03:32

tell me about Like I'm

1:03:34

just curious too, because again, you want your soul, you want

1:03:36

your solo joints, So tell me about what you just

1:03:38

how it even came to fruition and to

1:03:41

the album cover, because what we're seeing today

1:03:43

is not how you perform as well, it's like a whole.

1:03:45

So for the visuals for the

1:03:47

album cover, I really I really

1:03:50

like movies. I really like Japanese

1:03:52

movies and koreand movies, and I

1:03:55

like kier Kursawa and

1:03:57

Cursawa's got this movie called Dream and

1:04:00

I never hear people really talking about it, but it's the

1:04:02

most beautiful movie. And

1:04:05

the things he was trying in that film are incredible, colorful,

1:04:09

unique storylines. You

1:04:11

kind of show up and you're supposed to just know what's going

1:04:13

on. It's like all this like folklore,

1:04:15

and at the same time he's weaving in his own life story

1:04:18

and it's all just very deep and

1:04:21

metaphorical. I was very

1:04:23

inspired by that visual element, like

1:04:25

the visual elements from that film, and so when

1:04:27

I went to do my album cover, I

1:04:29

wanted it to feel kind of like a dream where it's

1:04:31

like you're sitting in a place that is seemingly like

1:04:34

very beautiful and very comfortable,

1:04:36

but in truth, there's like a storm in

1:04:38

the background and there's rattlesnakes

1:04:41

and the flowers and it's

1:04:43

twenty degrees outside. Because that was the reality.

1:04:46

The reality was that's not Ai. I woke

1:04:48

up at two twenty am to drive us to the

1:04:50

mountains Ai Ai.

1:04:53

No, No, that's Ai. That's real, real, real, And

1:04:56

then the video and then the video

1:04:58

for what Now. Yes, yeah,

1:05:01

so the song went Now. It kind of reminds me of

1:05:03

like Michael Jackson. It kind of reminds me of like

1:05:05

this nostalgia from when I was a kid, like RoboCop.

1:05:09

I don't know, like like yeah,

1:05:11

just like the vascilline on the lens effect, Like

1:05:14

so that's what I That's what I wanted

1:05:16

to give it. I wanted to give it this kind of like matrix

1:05:19

like Ninja like RoboCop,

1:05:21

like like just aesthetic

1:05:23

to it because the.

1:05:24

Song to me, because you're hardly in it.

1:05:26

No, I don't like being I don't like being amge videos takes

1:05:28

to them.

1:05:30

Smart like that's the Haerowsmith

1:05:32

way.

1:05:33

Yeah, it's exhaustic.

1:05:39

I'd be remiss if I didn't ask what

1:05:42

was it like to record

1:05:44

at Sound and Porium For

1:05:47

those that don't know, Sound and Poorium in Nashville

1:05:50

is like a legend

1:05:52

fucking dairy studio owned by RCA

1:05:54

Records, Like all the greats

1:05:56

have recorded there. I was surprised

1:05:59

it's still up in operational running.

1:06:03

And my big side of

1:06:05

that question is how did

1:06:07

you wind up with Prince's board?

1:06:10

Yeah? Sounding Poium is great,

1:06:12

you know, the first and foremost

1:06:15

I want to I want a real chamber, like wherever

1:06:17

I'm recording, they got one of those. I

1:06:20

want a big room because I want to be able to position mics

1:06:22

wherever I need to, or if I have like a binaural

1:06:24

mic and to center room. I want to be

1:06:26

able to space things out as far as I want to. If I want to

1:06:28

throw my voice, I can be in the corner room. I got plenty of

1:06:30

space to do this. Got plenty of space

1:06:32

to do whatever you want. So that's one of the things

1:06:34

I love about signing Porium. And

1:06:37

they already got all the gear you need. They got the tape

1:06:39

machines. You know you're not calling

1:06:41

in and bringing this stuff. They got a lot of the

1:06:43

They have a great board. I think they just got like a They

1:06:46

used to have a need board, which I really really really like, but

1:06:48

now they got this API board. Is it's nice too.

1:06:50

It's good. I like it so

1:06:52

Soundportum shot them out. I'll keep going there

1:06:54

as long as they'll have me. I love it there. It's like home

1:06:56

away from home at this point. Nice Now when it

1:06:58

comes to the Princess console, Yeah, it

1:07:00

didn't belong to Prince himself. This has been getting

1:07:03

all over the world. It's like a game of telephone

1:07:05

Chris Moon so Prince, you know, he

1:07:08

recorded his first album twice. Yeah,

1:07:11

it was like in the Bay Area. This

1:07:13

board had been in Minneapolis, but

1:07:16

the MCI board, but the fella

1:07:18

who hadn't wanted to take it to the Bay Area with him,

1:07:20

so he took it from Minneapolis to like, I

1:07:22

don't know, somewhere around San Francisco. That

1:07:25

album got recorded. The

1:07:27

first time Prince did it, he said didn't like it.

1:07:29

You know, we all know that story because the other

1:07:31

musicians were playing. So then he scrapped

1:07:34

that and where he went and recorded the actual

1:07:36

album was a different board. So that's

1:07:38

that's just the providence of it. And

1:07:41

the fella who had took it to there

1:07:43

then took it to Nashville, and that's how

1:07:45

it got in Nashville. And that's how I got a hold of it. Of

1:07:47

Course when I paid for it, I didn't buy it because it was Prince's

1:07:50

board. I just I just saw this like MCI

1:07:52

board with the MCI tape machine that comes

1:07:54

together in a moment, and I was

1:07:57

like, yeah, I want that.

1:07:58

There's I forget the studio

1:08:01

it was.

1:08:01

But when Jill

1:08:03

Scott first moved to Nashville,

1:08:07

Uh, we shot

1:08:10

the video for whatever the first single

1:08:12

was of her album in the studio

1:08:15

and coincidentally, the

1:08:19

API board that

1:08:22

recorded the Purple Raine record and subsequently

1:08:24

around the World in the Day Wow

1:08:27

is also in Nashville,

1:08:29

and I'm like, wow, why is Nashville becoming

1:08:31

the.

1:08:33

Landing spot for all of princess

1:08:36

gear?

1:08:36

So it's interesting.

1:08:38

Have you ever recorded Jack White studio or

1:08:40

went there or man?

1:08:43

Yeah? Oh Third Man? Yeah,

1:08:46

yeah, yeah, I think yeah,

1:08:49

I think the shiks that did some like singles

1:08:51

over there at Third Man, Okay, yeah.

1:08:54

I also been to his place he has he has a studio

1:08:56

at his place too one a

1:08:58

long time ago, and did a couple a couple

1:09:00

of singles with him. Yeah.

1:09:03

Pretty how much stuff like these days?

1:09:05

Is it?

1:09:06

Are you doing that digital based versus

1:09:08

analog based? It seems like you're

1:09:10

just talking about about chambers and binormal mic seems

1:09:13

very analogy to me, but like some

1:09:15

of the sounds seem very digital. I don't know, Like where

1:09:17

what do you do? Are you

1:09:19

consciously like making decisions based on my kind of

1:09:21

thing is just kind of all just all a bunch

1:09:23

of paint and you're just painting with.

1:09:25

All of it.

1:09:26

So I so when I start off doing my demos,

1:09:29

it's usually digital because it's handy.

1:09:32

I can pull from lots of different ideas really

1:09:34

quickly. So I'll start there, But

1:09:36

I know, ultimately I want to do something analog, uh

1:09:40

to me, and you know everybody

1:09:42

has an opinion about this, but to me, the

1:09:44

analog is just more

1:09:47

fun because you can accidentally

1:09:50

do shit with analog. That

1:09:52

is just because there's a wiring problem or

1:09:55

this one sounds different than that one. Why is that.

1:09:57

It's just like there's something to it. There's something in the wiring, in

1:09:59

the circuitry, in the tubes, and

1:10:02

then putting everything down the tape just kind of like a

1:10:04

nice way of smushing everything together. Just

1:10:07

it's just like so like it's

1:10:10

such a it's such a small detail, but

1:10:12

I really do think I can feel and hear

1:10:14

the difference, and personally, when I'm making music

1:10:17

is more fun. It's just more fun.

1:10:19

All right, Before we wrap up, I don't

1:10:21

want to be intrusive, but you did bring it up.

1:10:23

Can you share with me what your mantra

1:10:25

word is in your team?

1:10:27

I can't, you know, I can't. I'm

1:10:30

not gonna that word.

1:10:33

Yeah, all right, So when you when you do TM,

1:10:36

like like meditation, okay,

1:10:39

yeah, transit, yes, So all

1:10:41

right. When I first got introduced to meditation,

1:10:43

of course, was in the pandemic and I felt

1:10:45

the world's fucking coming to an end. So

1:10:48

I became like a meditation obsessive.

1:10:51

I was going about it all wrong, like I was doing.

1:10:55

I would do like two hours to two and

1:10:57

a half hours in the morning before

1:10:59

I get out of bed of anything,

1:11:02

DMT meditate like every type of breath

1:11:04

of fire, all that stuff, and then I do an additional

1:11:07

two hours before I go to bed.

1:11:09

And a friend was like, wait, you

1:11:11

meditate four hours a day?

1:11:13

Yeah, how do you have that time?

1:11:15

I was the world's time. Yeah.

1:11:18

All I had was DJing for five

1:11:21

hours and work a bid on Summer Soul.

1:11:23

But I was doing nothing, and I

1:11:25

was just like, I need to keep my sanity. I need to keep

1:11:27

my sanity. And they

1:11:29

were basically like.

1:11:30

All right, that's cute, but you're doing it

1:11:32

wrong and you really and

1:11:36

so he gave me a clip. Weird

1:11:38

enough, Jerry Seinfeld has

1:11:40

a clip on YouTube of

1:11:42

all people in the world, and he's

1:11:44

like, the key to my success

1:11:47

is tim trans meditation.

1:11:49

And you know, I

1:11:53

met him maybe

1:11:55

seven months later and I asked him about it.

1:11:58

I was like, so, what did you mean the key to your success?

1:12:00

Yes, and he's like, well, we

1:12:02

will break for lunch on Seinfeld

1:12:04

and instead of me going to lunch

1:12:06

them forty five minutes, I'll go to my trailer

1:12:10

and I'll do tam

1:12:13

for like maybe ten to fifteen minutes always,

1:12:17

and then I'll go about my day. And I was

1:12:19

like, well, I don't get it ten

1:12:21

minutes I do four hours and he started laughing,

1:12:24

like you're doing it wrong. And so

1:12:27

basically, there's a gentleman named Bob

1:12:29

Roth who I got put

1:12:31

onto.

1:12:32

And what it is.

1:12:33

Is that you're assigned a word

1:12:35

and you're supposed to keep that word unique to

1:12:37

yourself. I've talked to some

1:12:39

people and you know we trade off words whatever,

1:12:42

but yes, you're supposed

1:12:44

to keep it to yourself, and you're basically supposed

1:12:47

to sit. So I sit in this office

1:12:49

and I sit in the dark, and

1:12:53

pretty much you say, you're your mantra

1:12:55

or your chant.

1:12:56

If you remember what's love got.

1:12:57

To do with it, I'm young holder

1:13:00

and get killed right.

1:13:01

Exactly, or if you're a fan of what's happening

1:13:03

now.

1:13:07

I'm sorry, all

1:13:10

right, I'm talking about what's happening. But yeah, I mean,

1:13:13

even you know that's words.

1:13:15

But some people just sit and

1:13:18

hum. Sometimes I get lazy and don't do the chant

1:13:21

and I'll just sit hmm. And

1:13:26

what it does is just basically, if

1:13:29

you live a life in which you gotta make

1:13:32

panic decisions with seconds

1:13:34

left on the clock, Like I live in a

1:13:36

constant state of panic where it's you

1:13:39

know, I this guy deadline and that deadline

1:13:41

and where's your notes from da da da da da, and you're

1:13:44

ten minutes later here and that sort of thing. So sometimes

1:13:46

you just gotta sit for ten minutes

1:13:49

in silence. It's it's

1:13:51

what keeps your sanity because

1:13:53

if you don't do that, you're

1:13:55

going to drink.

1:13:56

I need a drink.

1:13:58

I need something, you know, So I'd

1:14:00

rather when I get to the place. And

1:14:03

you know, even though we

1:14:05

were talking before we started recording, I

1:14:07

have probably one of the most stressful nights of

1:14:09

my life last night, so

1:14:11

I had to do therapy and TM

1:14:14

like like old.

1:14:16

School of mirror like an hour. So it's

1:14:19

it's the thing that keeps you.

1:14:21

From making

1:14:23

rash decisions that will affect the rest of your

1:14:25

life or unfortunately for some people in

1:14:27

their life. So with

1:14:31

that said, I actually want to,

1:14:33

you know, thank you, especially the way

1:14:35

that the album is crafted with the interludes and

1:14:38

and you know, in the same vein

1:14:40

of is what Andre is doing with his project.

1:14:43

Like, I love the fact that post

1:14:46

pandemic times, we're getting new

1:14:49

versions of black artistry

1:14:51

because oftentimes, like we're

1:14:54

very close to the chest when it comes to being vulnerable

1:14:57

and letting our feelings out there

1:14:59

and and sharing with people. So

1:15:02

yeah, congratulations on too, man, it's really

1:15:04

inspiration.

1:15:04

On Thank you for doing

1:15:07

the show with us. Ritt, Thanks so much.

1:15:09

Yeah, congratulations on freedom.

1:15:13

Appreciate that. Thank thank you.

1:15:15

We can we can see it and hear it. On you

1:15:17

your freedom. It's awesome. I'm taking some of

1:15:19

it, thank you, and.

1:15:20

I appreciate that because I know, like this

1:15:23

process of people just probing into your life

1:15:25

and all those things is the part of

1:15:27

the music, viz. That is the most uncomfortable

1:15:30

where we just want to sing and whatnot.

1:15:32

But thank you.

1:15:33

It's it's good to give somebody their flowers. That's

1:15:35

just as uncomfortable as I am with taking

1:15:38

it.

1:15:38

So and listen, and

1:15:40

happy Women's History Month, because you're

1:15:42

always making history of my book.

1:15:44

This voice is historic.

1:15:45

And hey, thank you so much, thank

1:15:47

you so much. I appreciate it.

1:15:48

Yeah, all right, So when we havealf of Fan

1:15:50

Tigolo, Laya and Sugar

1:15:53

Steve and brand new Bill. That's

1:15:55

right, I got to give you a new day.

1:15:59

I'm sorry, all right. We got

1:16:03

oh for Bill, brand new Bill

1:16:05

and uh superior superioris

1:16:10

Steve.

1:16:10

I love it Bill, Bill and Brittany done

1:16:12

it. They yalked on the street together.

1:16:14

Brittany on the street.

1:16:15

I don't think you ain't been on the street.

1:16:18

Damn. We got Brittany on the street.

1:16:20

It's perfect for the street.

1:16:22

Yeah, she's just perfect in general.

1:16:24

That's true.

1:16:25

Okay, all right, I'll take that today. Hey, thank

1:16:27

you, thank you.

1:16:29

All right.

1:16:29

So until the next time, ladies and gentlemen, this

1:16:32

was Quest Love Supreme. We'll see you on the next gogram.

1:16:34

Thank you, thank

1:16:38

you for listening to Quest Love Supreme. Hosted

1:16:41

by a Mayor, Quest Love Thompson,

1:16:43

Why You, Saint Claire, Fan Coleman,

1:16:47

Sugar, Steve Mandel.

1:16:49

And Unpaid Bill Shan. Executive

1:16:52

producers are Mere Quest Love

1:16:54

Thompson, Jeanne g Brian

1:16:57

Calton, Produced by

1:17:00

Brittany, Benjamin Cousin,

1:17:02

Jake Payne, Eliah Sinclair,

1:17:06

edited by Alex Conroy, Produced

1:17:09

by iHeart by Noel Brown, furs

1:17:18

Love Supreme is the production of iHeartRadio.

1:17:24

For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit

1:17:26

the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

1:17:29

or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.