Brittany Howard on Alabama Shakes’ Surprise Reunion, I Must Be Dreaming, and Finding Hope in an Angry World

[SPEAKER_00]: It's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK from wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, that's why. [SPEAKER_01]: and welcome to another edition of Kyle Meredith with. [SPEAKER_01]: It's the interview series presented by WFPK at WFPK.org consequence and the consequence podcast network.

[SPEAKER_01]: Thanks for stopping by making your way here. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're not already, please do hit that subscribe button. [SPEAKER_01]: So you can get new interviews just like this one. [SPEAKER_01]: St. your way every single week you can grab us a Spotify, Apple podcast, NPR, WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube or the video versions.

[SPEAKER_01]: Anywhere you get your podcast from, you can subscribe. [SPEAKER_01]: To Kyle Meredith with please to give this series rating leave a review. [SPEAKER_01]: We've had some great guest drop on by lately We just talked with a Patrick Rennett and Danielle official about the dugout dads of course a Patrick you know Was ham from the Sandlot Danielle from a boy and girl meets world to Penga [SPEAKER_01]: They're in a new series features all the same lot guys, but it's not a senalant sequel Grace Cummings dropped in to talk about her new record bloodhorses We also hung out with a Scott Schreiner and Patrick Wilson of Weasor who just dropped their 20th album the go-at gold album and [SPEAKER_01]: Michael Hall was here.

[SPEAKER_01]: He's in the the new Hulu Fox game show called nation's dumbest. [SPEAKER_01]: David DeCovney, Lily Sullivan, Jay Shondra's Sankar, Phoenix, Guster Jane Seymour, just an example of what you get when you subscribe to the Kyle Meredith with podcast. [SPEAKER_01]: That's me, Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: Today, catch it up with Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes.

[SPEAKER_01]: They're back. [SPEAKER_01]: They've got their first album in 11 years, called I Must Be Dreaming. [SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about how Alabama Shakes unexpectedly found their way back after reuniting for a friend Brewery Fund Razor. [SPEAKER_01]: That led to a few songs to an EP.

[SPEAKER_01]: Eventually, this first record, this first record in more [SPEAKER_01]: Brittany's going to dig into the records psychedelic soul sound, rediscovering old songs like Hold On through like a new perspective of how the album founded story, where our private fears and doubts and dreams collide and in a pretty uncertain world.

[SPEAKER_01]: She's also going to open up about having to push herself to write when she really just wanted to disappear as she says and why the anger she sees right now actually gives her hope. [SPEAKER_01]: And also, we're talking a little bit about joining the power to the people concert alongside one of our heroes, Tom Morello.

[SPEAKER_01]: All that and more is we get into the record. [SPEAKER_01]: I must be dreaming. [SPEAKER_01]: It's Kyle Meredith with Brittany Howard of Alabama Shakes. [SPEAKER_02]: How are you today? [SPEAKER_01]: I was going to say you're back in the world, but I guess you've technically been in the Alabama Shakes world down for what?

[SPEAKER_01]: A couple years? [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think two years now. [SPEAKER_01]: What a fun, what a fun journey, I guess, to this record, which let me compliment you. [SPEAKER_01]: I must be dreaming. [SPEAKER_01]: Oh, thanks. [SPEAKER_01]: It's so good in the mood of it and like there's this, like it feels like a classic album already because there's not a lot of records these days that feel like album so much.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not even cut them down. [SPEAKER_01]: There's great songs, right? [SPEAKER_01]: But you all have made something like one great big piece of art, congratulations. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you very much. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much. [SPEAKER_01]: Good to hear. [SPEAKER_01]: So what's the story?

[SPEAKER_01]: Like we know you've been touring and we know you've been working on it, but how did it happen? [SPEAKER_01]: Like you go off your make your solo records, what brought you all back together? [SPEAKER_02]: And I started with a friend of ours. [SPEAKER_02]: He owns a bird in Tesqulusa, but when we're a younger band, I'm talking about when we got paid like $100 a show, [SPEAKER_02]: He wouldn't make sure we had something.

[SPEAKER_02]: He would make sure we had some more sleep. [SPEAKER_02]: And he was just our connection to the Tuscosso community. [SPEAKER_02]: So he means a great deal to us. [SPEAKER_02]: So when he called me and he was like, hey, COVID really hurt my brewery and doing a fundraiser where you come saying, I was like, a course.

[SPEAKER_02]: But then I thought, well, he means a lot to Zack and he's too, but maybe I should call them up. [SPEAKER_02]: I said, hey, I want to do this thing. [SPEAKER_02]: They're like, yeah, I was like, well, let's do a secret. [SPEAKER_02]: So, I went out to the fundraiser, stood on stage, did two of my songs from my solo music, and then I told the crowd, like, oh wait, I forgot my electric guitar backstage, I'm gonna go back and get it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Go back and get it, and I walk out with the fellows, and we do hang loose, and we do hold on, and the whole audience there is just like, what, you know? [SPEAKER_02]: and it felt good, it felt good to rehearse those songs, to do that event, it felt good to see people so happy, our families happy, you know, and it kind of took me back to a place where, I don't know, every music was exciting, the world was exciting, it's like this nostalgia for ourselves.

[SPEAKER_02]: but coming, not just friends and fellow musicians, but also family. [SPEAKER_02]: And it felt good to be around the guys. [SPEAKER_02]: And we kind of started from there, started asking, hey, like, what do you listen to? [SPEAKER_02]: On listen to this, cool, I actually wrote this thing, you know, and it became us, writing music together.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it became us, want to do just the EP of three songs. [SPEAKER_02]: And that turned into a session where we did seven songs, and then we might have a little muscle doing out. [SPEAKER_02]: That's how we got here. [SPEAKER_02]: And I'm talking to you. [SPEAKER_01]: I mean, what a great way, what a great way, an unburdened way, I guess, is a thing to get to that.

[SPEAKER_01]: And I love hearing you talk about even tapping back into those songs, because I actually meant to go and look up St. Louis before this, and I didn't get around to it. [SPEAKER_01]: But I'm guessing there were songs you probably had put in the past for what when you were in the solo stuff, like really what was it tapping back into those tracks?

[SPEAKER_01]: Did it feel different than where you left off with them? [SPEAKER_02]: You know, I had to relearn them. [SPEAKER_01]: Uh-huh. [SPEAKER_02]: Now all of them, but some of them, I play, I feel like I play guitar, you know, funny way, especially when I was younger. [SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm like, why am I playing the chord backwards this way?

[SPEAKER_02]: Why am I stretching across the fingerboard this way? [SPEAKER_02]: Why this chord? [SPEAKER_02]: Why just three notes? [SPEAKER_02]: Like, you know, I'm having to wrap my head around this stuff. [SPEAKER_02]: But I'm like, it does fit good with heat's register. [SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of like, we were figuring it out.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then as we're playing this song, all of a sudden, your hand would slip to this place where you have been playing it for years. [SPEAKER_02]: It's like riding a bicycle. [SPEAKER_02]: And I go, oh, that was it. [SPEAKER_02]: and it felt good. [SPEAKER_02]: And especially, it felt great to do songs like, um, hold on, which was a song, no, I have played it maybe a million times by now, but it feels different playing it in this time period where I am.

[SPEAKER_01]: And that's the thing, right, because those songs, [SPEAKER_01]: And I think you guys talk about this in the album teaser and everything like the songs the way They've continued like even like sure the songs that you played over and over, but even the ones you haven't like they still continue to have a life without you You know finding those fans and just developing them We all have those don't we you know hundreds of them right we you have those songs in our life They just we care them with and they become something in our lives and we take over so suddenly here you are [SPEAKER_01]: playing them again for the first time, but to a lot of people, they never quite left.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm finding that to be true, since we're going on playing life, I'm finding that to be true, I'm finding that these songs mean a great deal to people, still, and that there's a lot of younger people who are 16, 17, 18 years old, never got to see his play, and these songs have been with them for a long while.

[SPEAKER_02]: and they finally get to come on and see us play. [SPEAKER_02]: They know all the words, all the parts by heart, and they're singing their hearts out to us. [SPEAKER_02]: And it's been amazing. [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, we'll take a quick pause real moment. [SPEAKER_01]: Just to remind you, if you're enjoying the interview, please do hit that subscribe button, it helps out so much, and we'll be right back right after this.

[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome back, it's Kyle Meredith with Brittany Howard. [SPEAKER_01]: Does it take the weight off of your shoulders being in the band again, not being just the solo artist? [SPEAKER_01]: Or is that added weight of history replacing of any of that part of it? [SPEAKER_01]: Like it sounds very joyful and easy, you know, very easy, but you kind of wonder it's like those just, now there's different areas.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a different time, too. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, it's a different time for music. [SPEAKER_02]: I'd say, you know, in the best 10 years, since we released Sound and Color, [SPEAKER_02]: industry is almost changed completely, I'd say. [SPEAKER_02]: So there's that part that can be a little bird of some bird of some, but the music and the play in the music lie and interacting with people and audience and things like that has changed.

[SPEAKER_02]: That feels just as good as it has ever did. [SPEAKER_02]: If anything, I'd say might feel a little bit better and the reason I say that is because [SPEAKER_02]: I see this as such a blessing, so I have such a gratefulness to be able to do this to affect people and to be with people. [SPEAKER_02]: It's really amazing.

[SPEAKER_01]: And the way you all come together again, as I was saying with this album, I mean, to start with just a few songs and to start with, you know, all right, we're gonna do an EP or whatever, and for it, build like, because when I hear it, like it sounds like you all are tapping in to a musical well, [SPEAKER_01]: you know, across the whole thing, you know, whether you called 70s or, you know, psychedelic solar, whatever.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's there, it's in it. [SPEAKER_01]: Is there a point where you all realize like, oh, we're on to something, let's lean into that. [SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I mean, to keep it simple, we just, if we'd like it, we'd pursue it. [SPEAKER_02]: So Zach, you know, and Heath, we're sending me demos.

[SPEAKER_02]: And whatever I was like, ooh, what is that? [SPEAKER_02]: I've never heard of baseline quite like that. [SPEAKER_02]: that's picking my interest, that's picking my curiosity about what can I possibly say on this. [SPEAKER_02]: And that fell fresh, that fell new. [SPEAKER_02]: I know that we weren't going into recreate anything, we weren't going into recreate boys and girls or sound and color.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's kind of just like what we asked each other, what do you into now? [SPEAKER_02]: And we went from there. [SPEAKER_01]: And you even, I just realized the boy's anger will sound a color. [SPEAKER_01]: You didn't go for a word and word title this time around. [SPEAKER_02]: So that's crazy about that.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's not even conscious. [SPEAKER_02]: Somebody has some of what I would do there. [SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, what do you mean? [SPEAKER_01]: No, no. [SPEAKER_01]: What is it? [SPEAKER_01]: I was thinking like, it was the band Kings of Leon. [SPEAKER_01]: We're all of their albums has to be five syllables.

[SPEAKER_01]: That's what it is. [SPEAKER_01]: Like you, you didn't go for it. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: No, no, no, no, no. [SPEAKER_02]: I feel like every time we start getting boxed in, we kind of just jump to the side a little bit. [SPEAKER_01]: That's it, yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: But it is like the sound of it is so cool.

[SPEAKER_01]: Like there's this moment in it. [SPEAKER_01]: Like I keep going back to like garden into, into hope, I feel, hope coming. [SPEAKER_01]: like just the feeling of those and that's where I started things like oh there's got to be that moment where you're like oh that's it we've got a sound for this record like it almost feels like it feels like that can't be an accident by the end of the record and that's what I was getting at the minute ago.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's the interesting thing I think about this album is each song to me is very much its own planet and when you put these things together and you sequence these things together you start to notice it tells a story that you didn't even know you were writing [SPEAKER_02]: And I've been little moments like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just showing like, yeah, you can work on each song because it's own vignette. [SPEAKER_02]: And yet, because of the people writing it, it is all connected, and it all sounds very cohesive. [SPEAKER_01]: So what became the story that you realized that you wrote? [SPEAKER_02]: You know, we all have our own internal dialogues, our own internal worlds, the things that keep coming up in our minds over and over again, our worries, our doubts, our hopes, our dreams.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think when those internal things meet the external world, especially when the world is so uncertain and even a little scary, I think that's where this album lies is on that line. [SPEAKER_02]: of this meeting that and you open up your eyes and you say, oh my goodness, where have I been?

[SPEAKER_02]: I must be dreaming, and then at the same time, inside, there's all of these helpful things and all of these little joyful moments at the same time, and all of these things exist, and I think that's what this album sounds like. [SPEAKER_01]: And then you get to that song, I was like, I feel homecoming.

[SPEAKER_01]: Which is what a fun, it's almost playful. [SPEAKER_01]: because yeah, I feel hope coming, which isn't to say that it has arrived yet. [SPEAKER_01]: Exactly. [SPEAKER_01]: Now, when did you write that? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, has it changed since you've written it? [SPEAKER_01]: Like, is there hope yet?

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I feel that coming is good enough for me. [SPEAKER_02]: I think when I look at the world, I see people realizing we could do better, but there's no one that's just going to do it for us. [SPEAKER_02]: There's no leader and there's no savior. [SPEAKER_02]: We are leaders, we have to save yours.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think people have been touched by this fire, so to speak, that has to make them move. [SPEAKER_02]: I don't think we can go on being the exact same people that we have been. [SPEAKER_02]: I think it's time for more responsibility for ourselves, but also for each other, to encourage each other.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I see this anger and it's just outrage and it makes me very hopeful. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, what was it? [SPEAKER_01]: There was so many people talking about how, you know, if we remember like back in pandemic, you're like, man, I wonder if we're going to come out of this pandemic changed.

[SPEAKER_01]: And we didn't really, you know, like things just kind of went eventually back to, you know, a lot of the ways we're doing, but to your point, what is going on now, and I'm with you, like I agree with you, it was like, maybe this is it, like we're starting, like even the people that couldn't see it at first, you know, sure there's still something there, but there's a lot more people going, oh, and it is like, maybe this is the thing that finally gets us to where we're going, I don't know.

[SPEAKER_01]: How much enough is your enough is a kind of the question and to meet a moment like that in a song like I don't know if that makes it easier like like by assignment like man. [SPEAKER_01]: There's a lot of stuff happening. [SPEAKER_01]: I want to write. [SPEAKER_01]: I want to meet the moment.

[SPEAKER_01]: I want to meet the moment. [SPEAKER_01]: either for you as a songwriter? [SPEAKER_01]: I am gonna be very honest. [SPEAKER_02]: I didn't feel like writing any music or singing any songs. [SPEAKER_02]: I very much wanted to almost disappear. [SPEAKER_02]: because it's easier that way to not, to go on autopilot and just do the little things that you like to do.

[SPEAKER_02]: And do this here and do that there. [SPEAKER_02]: I mean, I felt like that was the easy way out was to do that. [SPEAKER_02]: Like, I'll say it in an easy way through would be to do that, but that's not at all what it happened to me. [SPEAKER_02]: Instead, I feel like I was forced asking myself to take a force to look at myself [SPEAKER_02]: when you want to feel nothing.

[SPEAKER_02]: But what's under that feeling when you feel nothing? [SPEAKER_02]: What songs do you possibly have to share? [SPEAKER_02]: What stories do you possibly want to tell at this moment when you're kind of afraid and not super sure what's gonna happen next? [SPEAKER_02]: It was like, you had to push through that to get to a song.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not very difficult, not gonna lie. [SPEAKER_02]: There was something I didn't want to do, but I also knew that I actually did want to do it. [SPEAKER_02]: And so I'm very proud of this album for existing in the first place. [SPEAKER_01]: But especially considering. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I was at Fiona Apple, I don't know if you keep up with her.

[SPEAKER_01]: She was, you know, she pops out every now and then, and she was talking the other day. [SPEAKER_01]: And she's like, the reason why I haven't finished a record right now is because I want it to say so much. [SPEAKER_01]: And I just can't figure out how, you know, to say it. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's like that, that seems to be the block.

[SPEAKER_01]: And it's almost like you found that same block. [SPEAKER_01]: and your own way through it's, you know, that's, yeah, that's true. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, absolutely commendable. [SPEAKER_01]: And it's such a great song. [SPEAKER_01]: Like that's the great thing about it. [SPEAKER_01]: Like that's still, that's a great song for now and that's gonna be a great song 20 years from now, you know, that's, that's, that's a success.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I hope the hope is arrived by the end. [SPEAKER_01]: Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha [SPEAKER_01]: hey we'll take a quick pause real moment just to remind you if you're enjoying the interview please do hit that subscribe button it helps out so much and we'll be right back right after this welcome back it's Kyle Meredith with Brittany Howard you guys are um i know back on the road uh i don't know if you're doing how many tour dates but i saw let the road and uh you're going to be playing Cincinnati with Tedeski Trucks Band

[SPEAKER_02]: Hell yeah, I'm sure you guys have done shows at them before listen, we've run into each other before and I feel like we played festivals before but as far as like stand on the same stage playing one after the other I think this is our first time just a debut. [SPEAKER_01]: Wow, that's uh [SPEAKER_01]: Guitar nerd dream right there, that whole night.

[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, yeah, I won't be taking notes. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, that's it. [SPEAKER_01]: And then I'm also looking forward because in this sense that what we're talking about right now, you're going to be on the bill for the power of the people show. [SPEAKER_02]: That's right. [SPEAKER_01]: Got that's like, okay, so that's the same thing.

[SPEAKER_01]: Meeting a moments. [SPEAKER_01]: Like, are you already thinking about like, what am I playing that night? [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_02]: Literally, I don't know what I'm playing yet. [SPEAKER_02]: But, you know, by the time I'm there, I'll hang it all figured out and I'm looking forward to it and I'm looking forward to being a part of something like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: It feels like a big moment that everybody's going to want to look at and especially experience so. [SPEAKER_02]: And also, I mean, Tom and Relo, I grew up on Tom and Relo. [SPEAKER_02]: I grew up on Rage because of the machine, so what an honor. [SPEAKER_01]: Absolutely. [SPEAKER_01]: I want to now I want to hear Alabama shakes cover Rage against the machine sometime.

[SPEAKER_01]: Let's make a couple of harm. [SPEAKER_01]: Please make that happen. [SPEAKER_01]: Seriously, in the meantime, I must be throwing it. [SPEAKER_01]: It's, it's, you've never put out a bad record. [SPEAKER_01]: And this is such a great record. [SPEAKER_01]: And I so appreciate what you all are doing out there and still making it happen.

[SPEAKER_01]: But, you know, the stuff you're putting out in the world is making it a better place. [SPEAKER_01]: And I mean that. [SPEAKER_02]: Oh, thank you very much. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_02]: Thank you. [SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's been so great to talk to you again. [SPEAKER_01]: We'll see you down on the road.

[SPEAKER_02]: All right, see you down a road. [SPEAKER_01]: And my thanks to Brittany Howard, Alabama Shakes, the new record is called, I must be dreaming. [SPEAKER_01]: Thanks to you for checking out the episode. [SPEAKER_01]: If you're not already, again, remember to hit that subscribe button before you get out to keep up with all the interviews that I put out every single week at Spotify, Apple podcast, NPR.

[SPEAKER_01]: WFPK.org, consequence, YouTube for the video versions anywhere you get your podcast from. [SPEAKER_01]: You can subscribe to Kyle Meredith with, and please give us a series of rating, leave a review wherever you're listening or watching from. [SPEAKER_01]: And after that, join me over at WFPK.

[SPEAKER_01]: WFPK.org. [SPEAKER_01]: You can stream the show on there every week, night, six p.m. Eastern. [SPEAKER_01]: It's four hours of classic alternative indie rock, Americana. [SPEAKER_01]: You get the best in new music. [SPEAKER_01]: bonus interviews, lots of music news as well and film news.

[SPEAKER_01]: One of my recent shows featured some some classics and favorites from Lucinda Williams, Deep Purple, The War on Drugs, The Dandy War Halls, John Prime, Aretha Franklin, The Replacements, The Jayhawks, Nious Mitchell, Olivia Dean, Bellex, One, YouTube, Donnie and Joe Emerson, Joy of the Ladykins, Sneaker Pimps, and my interviews with everyone from Rupert Grant, you know him as Ron Weesley, the Harry Potter universe, [SPEAKER_01]: Common, Tim Robbins, Edward Norton, Michael Shannon, Emily Hampshire, Thomas Lennon, Kate Seagull, Ben Giverd, Robert Plant, Vernon Reed, just an example of what you can hear.

[SPEAKER_01]: When you tune in, weeknights, 6 p.m. Eastern at wfpk.org. [SPEAKER_01]: Consequence has your music and film news. [SPEAKER_01]: You can also find me on any of the social media sites that's always at Kyle Meredith. [SPEAKER_01]: Please do like, follow along. [SPEAKER_01]: That does it for another edition of Kyle Meredith, I'll see you next time.

[SPEAKER_00]: Consequence podcast network, it's easy to hear your favorite artist on WFPK for wherever you are. [SPEAKER_00]: Listen on your smart speaker, live stream from our website at WFPK.org from Louisville Public Media.

Brittany Howard on Alabama Shakes’ Surprise Reunion, I Must Be Dreaming, and Finding Hope in an Angry World

Kapitelklicken springt direkt hin

Shownotes

Transkriptvom Podcast bereitgestellt · Zeitmarken springen hin