Latest / Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond / Brittany Howard Goes Solo

Transcript

Brittany Howard Goes Solo · Broken Record with Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam and Justin Richmond

• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Pushkin. Just a quick note here. You can listen to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: all of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist,
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: which you can find a link to in the show
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: notes for licensing reasons, each time a song is referenced
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: Enjoy the episode. The rootsiness of the Alabama Shakes is
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: super refreshing, which is why their success after the first release,
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: Boys and Girls, in twenty twelve wasn't surprising, but it
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: did seem to happen really really fast. In fact, their
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: lead singer, Brittany Howard, was still delivering mail for the
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Postal Service while writing some songs for the album. It
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: wound up with three Grammy nominations, including Best New Artist,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: plus the album's lead single, hold On, was named Song
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of the Year by Rolling Stone. Unlike most rock music
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: these days, you can hear the blues in their sound,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: but the Shakes don't sound like a throwback act. They
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: just sound soulful and funky and modern and raucous all
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: at the same time. This song, Dunes, is from their
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: second and most recent albums, Sound and Color. It earned
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: the group six Grammy nominations after it came out in
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. All the success surprised Britney Howard, the band's
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: powerhouse vocalist, guitarists, and songwriter, because she worked through a
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: serious bout of writer's block to get the album done.
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: That writer's block returned when she and the band got
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: together to make a third album, but this time, when
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: she dug deep to write, something more personal came out,
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: leading her to put the band on hold for a
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: second and write some songs for herself. This is Georgia,
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: from Brittany's debut solo album titled Jamie. On this week's
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: Broken Record, Britney talks with Rick Rubin about how a
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: couple of these songs came together, what was like to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: create and performed by herself, and later the interview, Britney
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: starts asking Rick questions and things get kind of weird.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: This is Broken Record Season three. Liner notes for the
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: middle Age. I'm justin Richmond. Here's a bit more of
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: brittany song Georgia. After her and Rick talk about how
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: the song came together? How did that one get written
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: and then recorded? Then I was into panga because that's
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: why I was doing a lot of writing for this record,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: and it was like lunchtime, so making a sandwich, and
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: I was reading this article and articles about this woman.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: Her name is Georgia and Muldrow. She's a producer, writer, rapper, singer,
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: maker of things in general, and I have a lot
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: of respect for I think she's wonderful and I love
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: her creativity. So I was like, she works with all
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: these people that I had a lot of respect for,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and I was like, man, I wish, I wish Georgia
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: would like notice me, because if she noticed me, that
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: means I'm dope too. And then I'm still reading this article,
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: I'm eating the sandwich, I'm squirm. I just want Georgia
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to notice me. And I was like, oh up, that's catchy.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: And then the bassline came in and I had this
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: idea for this warring the warring clad with the bass
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: and they're kind of doing separate things, and I was like,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I gotta gotta put the sandwich down. I gotta write
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: this song real quick. And then it turned into this
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: like it turned into a completely different story, turned into
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: this love song from a little girl to like an
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: older girl, and it turned into this like love song
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I'd never heard before. But I wish I had and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: then it just ends on this huge dream sequence. What
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: sounds like a dream sequence to me anyway. The organ
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: part in the middle is really dramatic and beautiful. Elsewhere
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: it really does yeah, really cinematic, really beautiful. We stuck
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: very closely to the demo and we just retract things
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: to make them sound more percussive and real, especially like
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: the Roads. We had a lot of contact mics on
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: the Roads, so that it sounded like something that was
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: tangible and not just something that's like really dreamy and unattainable,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: like what is that like. We wanted everything to feel
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: very visual and human and woody and close and familiar,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: So the contact mix had a big spot in that song. Cool.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: How did you make the original demo? They had a
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: little MIDI keyboard. I'm like a real tiny one, I
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: think the twenty eight keys or something, because twenty five keys,
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: because when I get them bigger than that, I don't
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: play them. It has to be like a tiny keyboard
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: because if I have a full size one, I just
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: get intimidated by it. So I had this little one.
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: I use logic logic, which is cheaper than pro tools,
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: so I use that and just electric guitar, a little
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: crappy amp I found. That's about it. That's usually all
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I need, because you know, you got your kid on
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the MIDI and then nothing's like a real guitar, so
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: you got to use a real guitar. Do you buy
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: any chance? Have the demo in your phone? Yeah, but
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: it's not as good. I'd love to hear it. I'd
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: love to hear it, just to hear it, hear the process,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: you know. Okay, that's a great question. Can you can
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: plug it in right behind you? There's a little that
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: chord yet, just be fun to hear. Let's see here.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: It's great, you know. It just feels like molten lava
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: just poured all over me. And I have to listen
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: to the demos again. It's just so interesting how how
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: much of the idea is there right from the beginning. Yeah,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of my demos are like that. They're just
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: like there sound and Color was a song I did
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: that's pretty much exact from album and shakes at Good.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: It's pretty much exactly like my demo is the same thing. Yeah,
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: they come prett complete, not very well recorded, but pretty complete. Yeah.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And from the time that you were eating the sandwich
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: until that demo existed. How long was it a couple
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: of hours? So same day the initial idea comes. When
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: did the dream sequence ending? Did you realize that was
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: the choice you were gonna be you were gonna make? Oh,
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: it just kind of happened naturally because I was like,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: I've run out of ideas. Let me try just putting
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: it through another sound and see if that creates a
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: different section. And then it did, and then it made
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: me think in different ways, and then started layering on
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: all this like X files sounds and big kick drum,
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: big dramatic ending. It's it sounds like hearing the demo
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: makes it sound like it comes to you very naturally
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and easily, and that's beautiful to hear. Thanks. Yeah, I
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: think all those songs are really I fight with and
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: songs like that, I just put them down. I said,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: don't got it right now, or I just never do
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: anything with it at all. Yeah. Yeah, How often do
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: songs come? I don't. I don't really, it's not that
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: easy for me. I feel like there's writers out there
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: who write wonderful songs daily. They just they can sit
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: down and write two or three songs a day. Everybody's different.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: For me, that's not how it works for me. I am.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: I feel very fortunate to receive any song I get,
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and I try to see it through because the way
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I think of it is like, if I'm as long
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: as I'm saying open enough to receive this song, so
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: to say, like if I'm sitting there trying to think, Okay,
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: I gotta write a song, I gotta write a song.
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: What's it about? What's it about? Like that doesn't work,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: really cuts me off from being creative. And I think
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: whenever I just relax, like making a sandwich, pretty relaxing,
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that's when things hit me. So I'm the type of
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: person that runs to the studio whenever I do get
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: an idea because I realize it's very special. So I
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: wouldn't say they come super super often. But then again,
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: I'm not. I'm also doing other things. I'm just like
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: a very mentally active person. Out of the way, let
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: it come exactly. We'll be back with more Rick Rubin's
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: conversation with Brittany Howard. We're back with more from Brittany Howard.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: What's the first time you ever sang in front of people?
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Probably fourteen and fifteen it's like a talent show at school,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: and I was writing songs then horrible songs, but I
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: got there and did it. We got people's choice says something.
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: It's like someone's drunk dad was out there going whoa
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Like the drunk dad loved it. He was like, man,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: y'all re mommy rush something like that. I was like,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: what did you did you like the experience of singing
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: in front of people? I guess so it was. It
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: was weird. It was like I was after something, but
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: I still don't know what that was. I was like
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: trying to achieve something. I'm trying to put myself back
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: into that headspace of being like a teenager. Dare's wouldn't
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: be good again a good band because my my ultimate goal,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: ironically enough, should be in a band. And I was
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: gonna stop until I was in a band, and then
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: my next goal was like I'm not gonna stop until
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: we play a real show and an album and this
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: all these really basic goals. You know, who would be
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: the inspirations for wanting to be in a band. It
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: was really weird. It was like at my school, we
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: had like this old gym, had this old stage, and
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: then one night I was in marching band. I was
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: like eleven years old, and this older girl who's in
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: marching band came up to me. It was like, are
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: you going to the concert tonight? I was like what concert.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: She's like, it's that the old gym. It's at seven o'clock.
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: You should come to it. It's gonna be bands. So
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I show up by myself and they had there's just
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: these bands playing their kids I went to school with,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: and they're really good, and everybody's like dancing and I'm
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: like standing there. It was like such a moment that
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: was so surreal because like all these kids are dancing
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and then I look at the stage it's like a
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: kid like I had pe with, and like this like
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: a kid that I knew, and they're playing instruments and
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: this moment happened where I was just like I have
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: to be in a band. So cool, Yeah, so lucky
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: that that happened. Yeah. I was like, this is the
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: ultimate thing that one can do is do that. And
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: and ever since I was eleven, I was like looking
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: for band members. I remember teaching like a few kids
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: how to play instruments so that I could start a
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: band with them. Is the sheiks your first band? No,
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: so what's your history? Wow, I've been a lot of bands,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: a lot of bands, a lot of bands I made,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: I formed. I had wanted to be like the singer
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: for some bands and stuff because they're already formed, they
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: are new to player instruments, but they're like, nah, you
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: don't look apart. I was like, all right, I'll make
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: my own band then, and then proceeded to just like
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: train a lot of kids, like I pulled out a
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: marching band, Like just how you play bass, Just how
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: you play drums, Like you're the drummer. Now practice the drums.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: You're you're gonna be the guitar player. Because it's like
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: the one kid that could play the solo from I
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: Wish You Were Here that was a guitar player. So
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: many bands I can't even really count. It would it
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: would just be this menagerie of different kids from the band,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and then we would always change our name and always
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: have different members. But it was always like me and
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: the drummer, Johnny, who's still my best friend to this day.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: You did that for how long? Say? From eleven to
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: I found his Sheakes when I was twenty. Yeah, And
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: how did that come together. Would they already playing together
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: or no? It was so Zach bass player. I had
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: a psychology class with him. Three of us all went
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: to Sam High School. So Zach who would always wear
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the T shirts they had like the cool bands and
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: nobody really knows about. So I was like, man, I
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: figure out how to talk to Zach. I was really shy.
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: I was like, I didn't know I'd approach him. He
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: gave me nothing. I didn't know anything about his personality.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: He's kind of a jerk when I first met him.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: But I was like, look, man, and I've been writing
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: these songs. I got this like demo. Do you wanna
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: listen to it? Because I know you play bass. He's
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: like yeah, okay, So go to the little Honda Civic
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and we're sitting in it and he plays it. He's like, yeah,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. And I'm like, will you wanna come
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: jam sometime? It's like, yeah, I do that. So that's
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: how I mean Zach got started. We were just like
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: musicians first friends later and we you know, he taught
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: me a lot about a lot of different type of music,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: like King Crimson and like lots of Prague kind of music.
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: But I liked it. I got into it. So me
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: and Zach were real tight from the beginning. And I
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: was probably like sixteen, he must have been seventeen. And
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: then men him were making this music and he's the
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: guitar player. He got to hold one of our demos
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that we made. He was like, oh, they're pretty good.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: We should get them to open for us. And I
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: was like, whoa. You know, when a drummer we ain't
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: got a material, He's like, I'll help y'all out. Here's Steve,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: Steve from the music store. Now we're being and we
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: we got thirty minutes in material and we did our
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: first show. We did our first show Indicator, I'll be
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: i'mna pay for thirty minutes. It was amazing. Like I
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: remember walking up there and being so nervous. Everybody's looking
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: at this crazy because I know we looked strange, like
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: our drummer's Davie. He had like a like a a
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: Clippers jersey on or something, just the Clippers jersey, and
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: and Zach had liked this little funny mustache, and you know,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: he's looked like a nice guy. And then it was me,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: we're just like an odd bunch and then I opened
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: my mouth to sing and then I just like blacked out.
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: And the next day and everybody's cheering and standing up
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: and they're like what's amazing and clapping, and I was like, whoa,
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: I think that went really well. And then and then
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: I got paid. I was like, what did get paid?
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: Was that first set all original material? It was like
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: all covers. I think we did. I think we had
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: three songs that originally original material. Three songs that's just
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: like James Brown covers like Zeppelin CDC. Because you wouldn't
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: get hired where we're from if you didn't play covers.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: How will live be different? As a solo artist, It's
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: a lot more vulnerable, tell you that much, because I don't.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: I'm a guitar player, but in the Shakes, I played
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: guitar all the time, and this I play guitar and
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: like three songs because they're the parts I wrote, are
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: like way too technical for me to sing and play.
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: So it's just me up there with Mike and I'm like, okay,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: I've never done this before, so it's new. It's new,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: it's exciting, it's fun, but at first is very very
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: scary because I'm like I'm so good at this thing
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: that I don't do anymore. Now what am I good at? Yeah?
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: What do I do with my hands? Exactly what I
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: say all the time. Thanks for saying that. I always
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: say that. Nobody laughs, jeez. Tell me about the solo
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: work and how is this solo work different than the
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: band work. I think the solo work, to me, is
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: a lot different than the band work. I loved the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: music we made together as a band. I just think
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: the solo stuff is my opportunity to be a whole
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: lot more adventurous and to steer my own ship and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: to make my own triumphs and my own mistakes explore,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: just do whatever I want. There's really no one to
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: embarrass or anyone to let down. It's really just like
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: I get to just be a free, creative person and
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: that means like everything to me. It's very different. The
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: process is different. It was just I like this with here.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: This is why I like it, this is how it
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: makes me feel. It stays, you know, pretty simple. Play
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: something else from the new album, just for let's see.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: That's incredible. That's one of them. Thank you, it's incredible.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: It's interesting when you described going on stage the first
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: time and the feeling of blacking out and then hearing
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: people applaud And when I hear this, my first reaction
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: is the person who's singing that isn't it is so
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: in the music that they don't exist outside of the music. Yeah,
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: it's I'd say even as a performer, when I'm performing,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: it's like, if I can't get into my music, then
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: I'm That's what I'm most upset about when I leave
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: a stage is like I wasn't there, Like I couldn't
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: get in there. It's usually some sort of weird technical
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: difficulty or tiredness. And is it something it just comes
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: naturally to you, that ability to kind of be in it? Yeah,
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: because I feel like I learned really early. Yes, I
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: feel like I learned really early on. Like if I'm
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: not feeling it, then why would anybody else feel it? Yeah?
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: And how is that song written? Oh? This song? I
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: was short. It's called Short and Sweet. I was sitting
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: on my back porch in Nashville. I remember being like
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: a really nice day, wasn't too hot, and I remember
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: there being these wind chimes in the background, And usually
• 17:07
  Speaker 1: I don't record out there because of the wind chimes.
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: And of course I don't take the wind chimes down
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: makes too much sense. But that day I was just
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: messing around. I just got this classical guitar and just
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: started playing these chords. Then the first chord I opened
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: up with, I don't even know what it's called, doom,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: Doom Doom. It's a really funny chord. I was like, Oh,
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: that's so nice. And then I thought, how cool to
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: be to start a song with this funny chord. And
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: then I went to the g and then I and
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: then the song just kind of came out. I just
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: started there's something between it, like the words came out,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: and then I just did it. Yeah, matter of moments.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: And how are we able to remember it was? I
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: just had my phone there. Oh and you just turned
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: on the phone as soon as you started working on it. No,
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: I kind of had it going a little bit and
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: then I was like, oh, let me hit this record button. Yeah,
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: and then I just like it was just kind of
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: like top of the head. Yeah, amazing, it's really beautiful.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much. We'll be back with more from
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: Brittany Howard. We're back with more Brittany Howard's conversation with
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: Rick Rubin. Are you excited to make more music, Yes,
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: that's all I want to do. Like I love touring,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: I love I love being a performer, of course. I
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: love performing. I love meeting the fans. I love being
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: in a studio because I'm inspired by the engineering aspect
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: of it and not knowing anything about it and then
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: finding out one little thing and then my brain just
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: going and making the music and being inspired from something
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: like that. That's my favorite thing to do, just to
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: just mole around his studio and figuring little things out
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: that excite me. Performers a little front. Obviously, you're on
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: a bus for a long time, like twenty people just
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: like it's just different. It's different. Yeah, when you when
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: you talked about the Georgia song, you were inspired by
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: something you were reading an article in that moment. How
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: often does does the inspiration come from something in the
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: world around you? Pretty often. I think this record was
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: more inspired by my my own life memories, being nostalgic,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: just knowing myself better. And then the record before sound
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: and color came from watching a lot of movies like Dune.
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: I watched Is it just done or is it Dunes?
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: There's a Dune they watched Dune, I was like, I
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: gotta write a song about that. Watched this a Kia
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Krosawa movie called Dreams Watch. I mean, I gotta gotta
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: write a song after watching that. Movies really inspired my
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: last record for sure, because I'm like, I'm definitely like
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: a visual person, and if I see and if I'm
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: seeing all those colors and things like that, I already
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: have my own soundtrack. Even though they're playing their sweeping soundtrack,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: I have my soundtrack, and I'm like, it's so much
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: cooler in here, you know. So that definitely inspired sound
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: of color. And then this one was just like my
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: own life. I don't think a lot of people stop
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: and reflect on how they got to where they are,
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: or what kind of patterns they repeat, or where they're
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: going or what they want. I don't I don't know
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: if people really pause and take stock of how proud
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: they should be of themselves already. And you know, that
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: was there was just something I was checking out turning thirty.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: It was just checking out being more self aware. And
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: then it kind of begat this record doing somethinking like that.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: In the case of being inspired by movies to wrect songs,
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: you talk about having the soundtrack going in your head,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: So would it be more would it be more like
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: you're watching a movie and you're imagining the score that
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: you would do and that ends up being your song,
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: or might it be based on well, this character in
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: the movie is going through this thing, so it's that emotion. Yeah, definitely,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: the feeling, the definitely the feeling. Also the colors, the mood,
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: what and also what would I do here? All of it?
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: All of it kind of creates a thing all together.
• 21:33
  Speaker 1: It can create or inspire me to write a song.
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: And I wrote a song called Dunes after watching Dune.
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: But the topics really don't have anything to do with
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: each other. It's just the feeling of desolation. Anything else
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: interesting that you could think of to talk about, yea,
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: all tons of things. Okay, let's you still it's gonna
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: be weird. I'm not afraid. All right, we're flipping an interview.
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: Can you believe in aliens? I believe in everything? Okay,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: so yes, yeah, how about you? Yeah? Definitely. Have you
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: ever had any other worldly or mystical experiences? Yes? Tell me.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: I used to live in a haunted house. It was
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: so haunted I moved out and I was broke, So
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: imagine it's pretty haunted. What would be an example of
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: a haunting? Okay, well I'll just put it to make
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: a long story short, getting locked out of my house
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: from from the inside out and having doors and cabinets
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: just slam right in front of me or behind me,
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: and like blankets move, curtains move, what else? Oh my
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: bass player has actually seen a shadow go from one
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: room to another room. I've never seen anything well besides
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: like things move. And eventually it just got like so
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: it being bad that I just like wasn't sleeping good.
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: So then I just moved out. I moved out in
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: like twenty four hours, moved out of the house. Yeah,
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: so something, I mean, it really freaked me out bad
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: because I didn't really believe in ghosts. I thought, like
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: I thought my mom was just making it up that
• 23:15
  Speaker 1: there's a ghost in house to mess with me, but
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: wasn't about me. It's a pretty selfish thought. Actually there's
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: a ghost and house, and so there's that. I lived
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: in a haunted house, but it was it was not
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: so scary and it was more friendly, friendly spirits really,
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: But that doesn't bother you knowing that there's like a
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: whole other dimension of beings that can see you and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: you can't see them. No, it bothers me. I hate that.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: I hate that just thinking about it right now, Peeping
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: Tom's not that they care. I'm just saying, that's what
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's like you're assuming that they care. No,
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: it's not. It's not like I don't care. What I mean,
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: they're maybe they're dead. I don't know what it is.
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Maybe they're an interdimensional now. I have no idea. I'm
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: just saying it freaks me out not having the knowledge
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: of it, Like I don't understand it, and it makes
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: me uncomfortable. I'm familien though, I'm like, oh, it packed
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: me up. It's been wild down here since we're just
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: doing this. Do you think a song it's like an
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: entity or do you think it's not even like that.
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: I've never thought of it like that before, but someone
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: recently gave me that example, and it sounded fign when
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: I heard it for the first time. But as I
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: think about it, there's something. There's something about it, But
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: I don't I don't think that the song itself is
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the entity. I think it's more of an expression of
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: something else. It's like language isn't us it's it's more
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: like a vehicle we use. Yes, I agree, I mean
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: like you said, expression, it's expression, especially with just the
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: landscape of what's happening behind the vocal telling the story.
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: The vocals telling the story. But then the music is
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: so important too. One of my favorite composers is David Axelrod.
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: Incredible the way he could move you with the tone
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: of the guitar, the size of the drums, and of
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: course obviously all the composition happening. But everything mattered that
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: that as as a songwriter and whatever I will do
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: in the future, everything does matter. And he's one of
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: my first teachers that showed me why everything matters, because
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: in the end, you have a landscape, you have such
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: a big story you're telling. I remember telling my partner
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: about why I like jazz music because she didn't understand
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: it's why I was listening to it, and I was like,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: you know, it's telling the story based on who's doing it,
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: but it's telling the story of a time that we
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: didn't understand. But it's blatantly telling me what it felt
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: like to walk down the streets of you know. Selma
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Alabama nineteens. Everything's there, that's all the information I need. Yeah,
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: you can read a book, of course, books are wonderful too,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: it's a different form. But the music tells me everything
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: I need to know about the mood, what you're afraid,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: there's colors in it. It's like there's so much information
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: when you don't say anything. But then when you're saying something,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: you're directing my thoughts of what to think. You know
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: what I'm saying. That's the key. I think what you
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: just said is the key to it. Is that the
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: book or the movie tells you what to think, and
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: then music puts you in a place where you can
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: feel your feelings, your own feelings. Yeah, it really opens
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: you up. Yeah, yeah, especially just music. Yeah. I think
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: poetry also can can also have that effect. I feel
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: like it's it's open enough where I don't feel like
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: poetry is telling me what to think, especially when the
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: poets that are really good at it. And I think
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I think all of expression of creativity, I think that
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: really good stuff is what connects us back to ourselves.
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: So even when you're looking at a giant painting, and
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: I never understood art because I wasn't understanding what I
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: was supposed to get from it. But now I've gotten
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: older and I see some pieces and I'm just like, wow,
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: this makes me feel like childhood, but like also like
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I'm just I'm getting it more and more,
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I think, the more I learned about myself just as
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: a person, and that's been just been really really cool
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: and eye opening, especially like on this earth, all I
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: want to do is create things, So it's been cool
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: learning how to do that from everything that's differ from
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: what I do, you know, But then also it ain't
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: so different from painting what I do, you know what
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, It's not so different. I don't think so either.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: Brittany Howard's first solo album, Jamie, came out this fall.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You can check it out by subscribing to our playlists
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: for the episode at Broken Record podcast dot com. You
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: can also sign up for behind the scenes newsletter and
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: check out other episodes of the podcast while you're there.
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: I also want to let you know that Broken Record
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is going on a short hiatus, but we'll be back
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: in January with episodes of the podcast, and I'm really
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: excited to share got Ozzy Osborne with Sharon Bob, We're
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: from the Grateful Dead, Kenny Beats, Nick Lowe, The XX,
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: and a lot more. Plus we'll be releasing episodes every
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: week in the new year. Broken Record is produced with
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: help from Jason Gambrel, Milo Bell, and Lea Rose. Our
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: theme music is by Kenny Beats. I'll catch you back
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: in January. I'm justin Richmond. Thanks for listening.