QLS Classic: Nelly Furtado

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Of Course Love Supreme is a production of I Heart Radio.
This classic episode was produced by the team at Pandora
Ladies and Gentlemen. This is QLs classic from May seventeenth,
two thousand and seventeen. We talked to our old pal
Nellie for Time about our Poortuguese Canadian roots and her
work with Templand and the ups and downs of touching

(00:21):
a career, motherhood, squashing beef and normalcy. We hope you
enjoy this episode of Course Love supreame with Nelly for Time.
Here we go Sumo Sabrema, roll call, Sama son Son

(00:41):
Safrima roll call, ro call Some Sabrimo roll call, twenty
dollar Challenge. Yeah, we're you, Supreme fam nerds whose opening
bars don't rhyme war promiscuous, our bird, I got your

(01:05):
Frema roll call. My name't is Fonte on this instrumental
yea my whole family with jam to Nelly on Dance Central.
Roll Callama, roll call, my name is Sugar, say it right? Yeah,

(01:26):
Nellie for Tito, turn off the light rolling roll call.
I'm paid Bill, I can't take no more. Yeah, Yes,
I'll go knock yeah on a hundred doors roll call srimo,

(01:50):
roll call, frima roll builds my nombre. Yeah. For goodness sakes, yeah,
Canada does not only Yeah that young boy Drake roll
roll roll. I'm like, yeah, well is number one fan

(02:14):
Nellie po Tito's here? Yeah, I'll begot him, man Nellie,
That's who I am excited to rock with questions because
he's my chama roll primo rolla sorimo rolla roll ro

(02:54):
so I so I one, two, three, four five A
hundred dollars? Wait a minute, no, because like you said,
whoall number one fan? I didn't rhyme it with woda.
You're saying that that deserves the black guy thinking pointing
to us, that's what that belongs to. Welcome, ladies and

(03:19):
gentlemen to another a new edition of course, Love supremem
Course love this team Supreme. Say what's up? Yes too poor? No,
course Love Supreme our guest with us today. She is
a breath of fresh air. I shall say I've been

(03:40):
a longtime admire of this. Uh. I'll say Songbird h
for a voice or music, her artistry. She came out
the gate and two thousand as a solo artist with
her debut will Nelly kind of captured our hearts and
our minds and our ears with hits like turn off
the light. Uh ship on the radio, and I said,

(04:02):
I didn't say ellipsus, ellipsus on the radio. Uh. And
of course like a bird. She won multiple Juno Awards,
Grammy Awards. Uh. Not stopping there, she collaborated with uh
mega star acts like any r D, Missy Elliott and
the Roots. Yeah, all sacrifice. I forgot that she collaborated

(04:23):
on my own, so I appreciate that. Uh. There's also
nas Jurassic five s to well remembers. Uh, chaos can on,
it just goes on in Norm Paulok and Fieltisto. Probably
our most important collaboration I was in two thousand six
with her, uh, her third album which is loose uh

(04:43):
with Templand, and she didn't stop. Yeah, twelve million amazing.
If I sold twelve million copies, wouldn't anything? Twelve A
T shirt and it's over. She did you stopped there?
She released in all Spanish record in two thousand nine

(05:04):
with me. I'm not used to mirror the Wikipedia. Man,
this is this is well. I'm trying to cook. This
is let him cook. This is great. You don't understand

(05:28):
how much I change. This is. This is I thought
I thought I was coming in like I just thought
I wasn't used to it. I was appreciating this is
great yourself anyway, thank you all for interrupting me. Guys
some no problem here, Yeah, anyone else in engineers in you? Uh?

(05:52):
She's offering us her six studio album entitled Well, he
missed the part about my Latin grammy I mentioned I'm
mentioned that, but talk about me some more. Yes, I
covered your whole life. Thank you. I know that was good.

(06:14):
I don't know what's your social security Ladies and gentlemen's
childhood memory. Yes, and she's also heading up the Donald
Trump Russian Gate investigation. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Nellyford.
Thank you. Thanks. I was such a nice intro. It

(06:34):
was my first. Did I see you again? It's great
to see you too. What the hell? Yeah, man, it's
it's we occasionally send tweets. Okay, so you guys are close.
I guess we've been. I've been to Philly, that's legit.
I've been there in their old studio. Well, I don't

(06:56):
know what I know before then it was joint. He's
even in that studio forever. When have you ever seen
a stripper into Yes, yeah, that was so long ago.
That was like in two thousand one when we went
and went together in Philly and you guys like had
the whole thing written already, the chorus, and I was

(07:17):
bummed outcause I thought I'd get to co write with
you because I don't think sacrifices. I'm like, okay, like
this is cool and right now, like yeah, you should
have done that. It was vocals. It was fun though,
I like, look, I mean that album is amazing, but like, yeah,
so I was just happy to be there. It was fine.

(07:37):
You felt like Missy, like I'm gonna be on your
record just singing no hooks. That's kind of it. Like well,
because I always wrote my own song, so I had
actually that was the first time someone had written a
thing for me to sing, So I was like, but
it's the roots. So I was like, of course, like
I'm just happy to be here on be on your album.
And I sang fun to get that potion check next time,

(07:59):
and I just want to that. I was happy to
be there. There's always the future exactly. There's always the
future exactly. Yeah, you know what when I when I
first met you, Um, I think the very first time
we opened for you, we walked no this we we did.
We also sang together a bunch on Area one tour. Yea,

(08:20):
even before A performed, there was there was a show
we did together, and I know that we you came
on first and then we came on. But I came
in right when you were dancing to BBDs Poison. What. Yeah,
that was like you know that I did in my head,

(08:44):
I already had it picked out that you were just
a pop show on Tuesday that I saw on t
r L and you know, like like a bird leads
you to believe, at least at that time when the
single was just out, and we all looked at each other, Wait,
who is this on stage? Likely for t is the
same person, Like she was doing the dance that they

(09:06):
were doing in the video in the video, and so
it was like it was a well Nelly moment, like
we already knew you ll cool J and Mary and
one other act something Pepper on the same little routine. Yeah,
I didn't know, but then you explained to me about
your days even before your solo career with Nail Star
and that stuff. So Yeah, there's always so much, right,

(09:29):
I mean, you know that you're an artist, so it's
like there's so much that goes into who you are
that people don't see when you make like a product
or a packaged thing and you just roll with it.
It's okay, you know, but but the people you know
who end up like digging deeper and so maybe what
you do we're going to see. I make the same
mistake today, Like I judge artists all the time and
then I listened to their catalog and I feel so
guilty or see the show, you know, and I'm like, damn,

(09:51):
I should never judge an artist until i've actually, Like
the last night, I was listening to the new Drake
album because I'm like, well, let me just put this
on and listen to it, you know what I mean.
So like you can't speak on something unless you listen
to unless you go to the show. I feel like,
you know what's fair, he took you to South Africa
right now, she's making South Africa House. No, But like, honestly,

(10:13):
like I feel like I really feel like you can't
judge an artist until you listen to something a whole
album of one album at least and you go to
their live show or watch like YouTube livel clips or something.
But is it fair to listen to the first album
because sometimes not, it's not fair always listened to the
first one, because you know, sometimes you have to dig deeper. Yeah,
you have to dig a little deeper. I don't know,

(10:33):
I mean, but anyway, thanks for for talking about that,
because I mean, well, I wanted to know what what
you're beginnings. I said the word what they were that
at least led you to wanting to start a music career. Um, God,

(10:54):
I was young. I was young. Like I was, there
was no Mickey Mouse Club. I was from a small
town out of Victoria, BC, but there weren't even any
talent shows. But I had a church. I had a
Portuguese church community, so like I got to sing there.
I got to sing at church. Um at our festival
as we call them fastas where at the Fashta U

(11:16):
s And I sang with my mom in Portuguese. And
I was four years old, and I got up on
the stage and I just knew that I loved it.
I just knew that I wanted to be doing that
because I felt like I was spreading joy and love
and good vibes, and I just I felt that at
the age of four was really kind of weird. Um.
But I'd always sing songs like I would make up
songs on the spot from when I was apparently I

(11:37):
was two or three no around the house and my
sister would literally be like sing sing, make up a
song because my eyes would well up with tears and
I'd get super emotional. So it was always inside of me.
I didn't experiment at um moment PS one in the fall.
I didn't installation where I wrote songs with a hundred
strangers in the course of three hours, and I was

(11:57):
trying to explore this connection. We have to like the
source and why we write songs and why it comes
to you, and how we can tap into that and
prove that it's an empathic thing and prove that like
a song can prove how we're all similar rather than different. Um.
And yeah, without me making any Houston references, you there

(12:23):
are a hundred people in the room. No, okay, so
it was anywhere from like one person. The smallest group
was one person, and then the largest group was ten
people and a dog. The last group and the moment
passed one had this back to school fundraiser and I'm
friends with this performance. Aren't his name Ryan McNamara, And
he told me I could do anything with the one room.
He's like, do you want to room with this thing?
And I was like I do because I had this

(12:44):
idea I want to do this experiment where I sit
with my guitar. And this started in I used to
do songwriting workshops where ongoing, like in this place called Narrow,
Kenya and with these girls at this high school called Alisha.
So I go there all the time, made a bunch
of friends are over years working with this nonprofit. And
what I do is do a songwriting workshop and we
write a song, but it just exists in that moment

(13:06):
and then it's over, you know. So I'm very into
this idea that a song is just this expression. And
because you know as well as I, we don't record
everything we write. We just do it to do it,
you know what I mean. So I wanted to in
that room like okay, so like one person would walk
in and sit down, I'd have my guitar. I'd tape
tape on tape recorder because I didn't want it to
be like this branded moment that was videotaped. I wanted

(13:27):
it to exist in that moment. Yeah, And so they'd
come and sit down and I'd be like, Okay, what
did you dream last night? And they tell me about
their dream the night before, or I'd be like, what
was your favorite childhood vacation? And then I started singing
a song and they would contribute, sometimes if they had
any musical ability or not. And by the end, after
fifteen minutes, someone would knock on the door when I
had two minutes left. Then I would record the thing.

(13:49):
Then I would wrap the kissette in the paper with
all our lyrics, and usually there were different reactions. Some
people would cry, there were two people fighting because some
people didn't know each other in the groups, because everybody
was trying to get think of the thing, and they
do like some people didn't like each other. But then
there was a lot of laughter. Um, and I felt
great because sometimes you wonder like will your inspiration ever

(14:10):
run out? You know what I mean? Will it ever
just like end? And then the tooth is more is
more like the more you share with people, like the
more you get how's it? I mean, I'm just trying
to figure out the logistics, like if I'm a fan
of Nellie for Tato, Like, wouldn't you be freaking out?
And like, how do you just calm them down? Just
to get to the point of the experiment. I think

(14:30):
they saw how chill I was, and Ryan had let
the room in this like really moody orange light, and
it was like, um back to school theme that night
at the museum. So it was almost like I was
a teacher. So you were coming into a classroom, it
was maybe just one or two people, maybe you were
with a friend, and so some people, yeah, maybe I
got them in this weird, vulnerable moment where they're like, whoa,

(14:53):
this is weird and why is she so chill and peaceful?
And they're probably like the version of me in that
room is nothing like anything they've seen in a video
or something. So I'm just like, hey, you know, I
started writing, because you know, it's a different vibe when
you write a song. It's nothing like your stage persona
or anything like that, and it's a whole other thing.

(15:15):
So most people were pretty calm. Some people, I don't know.
Some people were songwriters aspiring songwriters, and they would they
were just enjoying it. They're like, sweet, this is so cool.
Were there any particular moments in that experiment that stood
out to you, like, Um, these two people were arguing because, like,
the lady didn't like the lyrics this younger guy was
writing because they were kind of goofy. They had like

(15:36):
some like Prince Arthur reference or like something something crazy
or perverted or something. And then and then the lady
was all like, I don't like those, you know what
I mean? We had to agree, so it was like, oh, um,
there were some people who weren't really participating. They were
just staring at me. But I was still I know

(15:58):
you would have been. You would have been like, show
me how you're going to do this if I don't participate. Yeah,
but you asked me. You asked me. And then I
wrote this whole statement about it. And the whole point was,
since I was little, I never understood where the songs
came from. I was like, where is this words coming from?
The melodies? Blah blah blah the music in my head?
I never really understood it. So I just wanted to

(16:18):
explore that a little bit more, I guess. But the
answered your question is I eventually moved to Toronto after
I graduated high school from Victoria, a very small small town,
and I moved to Toronto and I got immersed in
the scene. There was an urban scene that was burgeoning,
and so I started a trip hop group with my
friend Talas and we called it nel Star and I
just kind of did my thing. And I was seventeen,

(16:40):
eighteen years old. I missed my parents. I moved back home.
I went to college for a year in Victoria about
a guitar. I started playing it like coffee shops and
trying to get my songwriting better. And then but right
before I left, I sang in a talent show called
the Honey Jam. I was eighteen, and it was mostly
rappers and R and B singers, all female. And then

(17:02):
I kind of came up there and did this like
weird little trip hop song. And my manager at the
time was there and he met him that night and
sort of kept in touch and ended up this is
It was like a Cinderella type thing. It was like, Oh,
you're getting flown to New York because they like your demo.
I think the reason why I was because do you

(17:22):
remember back in the day when people had professional writers
right there bio and you got a professional head shot
for your photos. So when you had a demo and
you were an artist who wanted a record deal, you
like would have a professional photo and a pio. So
I said, I don't want that. I want to stand out.
So I went to the local like gallery of mall

(17:42):
photo booth, like down the street from my aunts wher
I was staying on her sofa bed, and I took
strip mall photos of myself. I scanned them at work
because I had a job doing customer service at an
alarm company. I was like snuck into like the room
with the scanners and the computer, and I made friends
with the systems guy who worked there, let music and Peuter,
and I photocopied my own like strip mall photo like

(18:04):
cool crazy background, like did you have like dude Michael Jackson,
like coming out of a war? Not the Tupac background
wasn't like no, and like a dusty like orange curtain
behind your blue and I just made it look all

(18:25):
like trippy. And then I wrote not a bio. I
wrote like a weird mantra, like I just did like
a journal entry style bio. And at the time nobody
was doing that. Yeah, I was like, what made you
do that? I don't know. My manager was cool. He
was just like, this is great, this will make you
stand out. That's cool that you did this right down
what you said to me in your office that day,
you know where I said some super like megalamaniacal stuff

(18:49):
like I want to be Gandhi and mother like you
have that ambition that burning like kept me out of
my circumstance ambition, And you're just like, I wrote this
bio myself. I wrote some crazy like mantra journal entry
style bio and people were like, who's this girl? We
want to meet her? And I had a demo to
go with it. That was I should have done that. No,

(19:11):
because the protocol, at least that I learned is whatever
critic um pans your album the most, when when it's reviewed,
you get that person to write to write your bio,
so that way it's a conflict of interest from them
reviewing your album again. Black Man, music industry had the

(19:39):
same ones. The same ones will get you again. I'm
saying they don't like you. They'll continue to writer blah
blah blah has written your bio, your record, He'll pass
at Rolling Stone from giving you another you know. Mundane
three star writing. But yeah, yeah, yeah, black black Man.
If you I think, can we just say then that

(20:03):
the reviews all us artists when we're like we don't care,
so care it hurts when someone writes a bad review,
I think. But I'm saying that was it came out
the gate as in I mean, everyone universally agreed that
it was an unusual record for starters. I the thing

(20:25):
that impressed me about it the most was well, as
as Bill and I were noting before I realized that
your production team, uh was definitely into quote unquote real
hip hop. This is when I say real hip hop,
it's it's from the when the old guy, the old

(20:46):
hip hop fances real hip hop. Um. But it's just
certain nuances, certain snares used that I realized, like, oh,
whoever's producing this record really is dipped in the hip
hop culture because but it wasn't done in a way
where it exploits it, like you didn't come out the
gate or you weren't marketed as a hip hop artist. Yeah,

(21:09):
there were a lot of that come to us. It
was it was probably the most pure, you know, because
at least in between like you know, people's version of
hip like hip hop being infused inside the pop music
was like all right, let's steal my sunshine. Yeah, let's
get the in Peace to Presidents there, like the theme

(21:31):
the Scrubs or or you know Atlantis Mars Set using
in Piece the President, or George Michael using Funky Jump
and Missing Without Prejudice album. Yeah, it's just like okay,
like you know, let me just put this loop there.
But your people were using like some obscure ship and

(21:54):
using it the right way that real hip hop heads
were like, okay, cheat, she she just isn't the average
Oh god, the culture vulture. Yeah, yeah, like you're coming
on some real ship. So what was the process like
doing the first record? I'm glad you asked me that. Um,
so we we started with a demo and we did

(22:18):
it and Brian West's like attic studio. Three of us me,
Gerald Eaton and Brian West. They were part of an
R and B group called The Philosopher Kings. Um kind
of like what used to be called acid jazz pop,
like that kind of band. They're really good live and
really talented musicians. They've all gone on to have their
own production and writing careers. But anyway, I got two

(22:39):
of them. I got Brian West and Gerald Eaton, who
was a singer in the band. That was really key
because Gerald Eaton was such a good singer that he
really knew how to vocal arrange me. He really knew
how to like make sure that the vocals were interesting
and make sure that my harmonies were interesting on the album. Um.
Because there's a lot of ideas floating around. Yeah, I have.
The three of us we co produced the album together.

(23:00):
We actually worked as a team and we UM. I
actually programmed like the baseline on turn Off the Line, like,
I just like actually played it on the keyboard, and
ship on the radio. I wrote on guitar, um, I
played the guitar on the record. UM. And I think
that the three of us were so invested in just
having fun. You know. Pro tools had just been invented,

(23:22):
so the actual process was interesting. Um. We were working
in this really cold had no heating, this like studio
place in Toronto in a warehouse building, and pro tools
kept crashing because Brian didn't fully know how to use
it yet and it was bugging out. So in the
long spells of time, yeah, looking at me, like, no,

(23:45):
it still crashes all the time, but like imagine like
when it first like literally, but you know, like when
it first came out, there were like a lot of
glitches and like he was trying to merge them. He
was trying to merge the middy with it um all
the sounds, and that was causing problems for us. UM.
And so I just like take naps and stuff. So
I'd wake up and Gerald will be like, your voice

(24:07):
sounds so cool right now. You gotta sing the vocal
for this song right now. And it'd be three in
the morning. I'd be like really be like yeah, and
I'd sing this this like hook or whatever. Um. The
other thing we were doing is we're one of the
records store a lot we were going to our friend
Aki Aki store called Cosmos in Toronto. Even that one's
the best we should go um anyway, So we we

(24:30):
would go there and get a lot of Brazilian music
and stuff like that and just kind of listen and
get inspired. Um, you know, everything from milch and cemented
to like Martino de Villa or whatever, and we would
sample it and and kind of create things that way. UM.
Un vocally too, I had experimented with a lot of
things in Nell Star that I kind of like ended

(24:51):
up kind of bringing that kind of like that sort
of uh sort of scat like singing, you know, that
kind of sing rap type of when you started when
you do, I don't know what you call. It was
very influenced by like Brazilian vocal percussion. Um, but the
process was long. So the reason, well, Nelly, that first
record sounds like that and it sounds like this crazy

(25:13):
postiche is because, um, it was very conscious the making
of it. Like I brought in albums that I love,
Like I was really into corner Shop at the time
when I was born for the seventh time. Yeah, first
groups to really merge pop with like cultural music, you
know what I mean. A lot of Indians. Yeah, thank
you for seeing me on that. Yeah. Yeah. But we'd

(25:41):
find like street busker street musicians in the subway, like
pillion vibraphone or sitar, and we'd be like, can you
come to the studio today, Like we had lots of
people come play and we just sample them. And well
we'd not sample them, like we wouldn't pay them. We'd
pay them for their session and then we would use
it in different ways. Um. But there's even Brazilian Baronbow.
There's some quirky instruments on there. So anyway, all that

(26:03):
hard work and time and energy and technical difficulties lead
to the sound of the album technical. So you saying mistakes, yeah, man,
like pro tools crashing, you know, and things like taking
longer to like one, there's a song on that album
that took one month to record, and I mean we're
in the studio everyday experimenting. Um it's called trying to

(26:24):
find a Way. Okay, okay, yeah, that makes sense that Okay,
it's somewhere that one. Yeah, so were you How did
you feel about the reception of the record. In the
first album, it was weird because I wanted it on

(26:45):
the radio to be the first single. I'm glad. I
just want to say, how do you represent that idea?
Like as I'm going to criticize the radio and to
be like, hey at me. But I don't think you
came off the gate thinking, oh it was you know

(27:05):
what it was? It was my friend, like you know,
your friends and then your real friends. So it's like
there's always like the Peanut Gallery who's like too cool
for everything, and it's like, oh, I feel like it
was a random conversation in a car and somebody said, no, no,
I mean us as if we are too cool and
we're snobs, and yeah, but that's cool. You can do that,

(27:27):
but not to your friends. So like someone in a car, no,
but like shoot on the radio happened because I was
in a car with a friend from back home. It
was a group of people and someone said to me, hey,
it was like more like an acquaintance, was like, you
signed a record deal. Make sure you don't make cheesy music,
make sure you don't make bad music, make sure you

(27:49):
make cool music. And I was like, excuse me, Like
that was like it's like really hating before you even
had a chance to do anything, and people just hate
just to hate, and so she read it was about that.
It was like, you know what, I don't need to
prove myself to you or anyone. I can just like
do what I want to do and I don't have
to worry about shoegazing, you know. And so yeah, so anyway,

(28:11):
so presenting to a record label, Yeah, Mo Austin, I
don't know, do you know, Mo Austin? Y? Yeah, man,
like he worked at DreamWorks, like my label had like
Lenny wear Onker and Moe Austin and like, oh really
yeah yeah, they were like the classic Yeah, we're not

(28:33):
real lucky. You know. I had these amazing seasoned people
behind me and they believed in everything I did. And
Lenny Waronker came to the studio when we're almost done,
wee Nelly, and he go he looked at me and
he goes, savor this moment. You will never make music
like this again because you're just starting out, and your
impression and the way you think and the way you
create will never be the same again. I was gonna

(28:55):
say that innocence and you can you can feel and
hear that innocence, like the boundaries of they're not being boundaries,
you cut coloring outside the lines and that sort of stuff.
You sort of you get the sense of that like, oh,
this is a person that's just discovering their body parts
metaphorically speaking, like you know, like, oh, the limited power

(29:17):
I have. And then it's almost like you get tainted
or uh, you know, there's there's there's a pressure on
your hands when you work upon following material like did
you how did you feel afterwards? Like I know exactly
what you mean because I hear that records when I
listen to them now, you know what I mean? So

(29:40):
like I heard I think I heard Drums album and
I was like, oh, I love how he doesn't care
and it just seems so you know, like there's an
intentional and it will never happen again. I was like,
oh my god, this is so beautiful because it's so free,
you know what I mean, like, oh, this is so free,
you know. Um, but anyway, um myself, yeah, oh my god,
you kdding me pressure. Plus I was a girl. I

(30:01):
was like a twenty twenty one year old girl all
of a sudden, like what like I'm nominated for Grammy
and like my mom's sitting next to me and we're
at the Grammys and I went to Grant like it
was all surreal. How do you feel when they announced
your name at night? I think I was there that
night when you one year Ye yeah you were probably there.
Yeah back in the good old days. Um, I mean

(30:22):
it was amazing. I was like, what you kind of
I mean you expected to win. I mean you were unstoppable.
I don't know, like it's still cool, like it's still
but the funny thing that happens is afterwards, I remember
I was living in I remember actually exactly, because I
was living in l A for like a year. I
remember you invited me to a party one night and
I couldn't go, And I don't remember why. I couldn't

(30:43):
convince my friend to come out with me, and I
didn't go my roommate my friend. But um, around that time,
I remember starting to feel like, oh, I gotta deal
with all the other ways I actually feel about this business,
you know what I mean? The starry eyes are gone.
I'm now wondering does it all come down to wearing
a pretty to us on the red carpet? And that

(31:04):
really messes with you when you're only twenty two. This
is before the second album. Yeah, it was right when
I was about to record You're worrying that you might
become the establishment that you were. Yeah, and that's why
my first single on Folklore is called Powerless. We're a
magically sign of the times. It asked me to sing
it tomorrow in the Today Show. I was like, is
this a typo? Do you risk you? What? Like? Do

(31:26):
you know what I mean? Like? People want to hear
songs like Powerless now, which was a like kind of
like a protest song, at the time. The first line says,
look at the time we're in I think I know.
But it's amazing to me that music can live on
in that way and still inspire people. Because the first
line says, paint my face in your magazines, make it
look whiter than it seems. Paint me over with your dreams.

(31:49):
Shove away my ethnicity because its life is too short
to live it just for you. But if you feel,
when you feel so powerless, what are you gonna do? Okay,
I gotta learn lyrics before tomorrow, are you? Yeah, gonna do?
So say what you want? But does that true now? Like, really,
at some point somebody because you're part of Yeah, somebody

(32:10):
really came at a label type of that way in
photo shoots. Yeah, I felt like there was an anglizations, anglicization, Yeah,
anglicization on me. I've always had all of skin, you
know what I mean. I was aware of that because
I grew up in a small town British colony. I
was like the only ethnic kid in my class in kindergarten,
so it's all relative. And then I and so by

(32:32):
the time I was done with my first record and
I was doing Powerless, I was like well what about
who am I really? You know what I mean? Like,
what what am I really about? And what do I
want to say on this next record? So I started
talking about the next record. I have a song called
like Fresh off the Boat. You know my parents are immigrants,
um I was born in Canada. I have a song
called picture Perfect about my dad's like immigrant dream of
like coming to Canada and how everything looks so good

(32:53):
in the old seventies photographs when you look at it.
Um So anyway, yeah, that's that's what happened. Yeah, sometimes
I would feel like there was a paradigm you needed
to fit into at the time actually didn't always match
how I felt, do you know what I mean? Yeah?

(33:15):
I have a theory about folklore, which is, you know
how like Weezer fans well now swear by Pinkerton, right,
like that's their pickets. I actually think that you're You're
folklore could be your Pinkerton moment because even though it's again,

(33:41):
you could tell that you were older, wiser, sort of
cynical eyes even based on the album cover, because when
I copped the record, that's the first thing I noticed.
I love the fact that you you've always kept your
logo the same, but based on the album cover even
I was like, oh, Nellie, it's serious here, like my tone,

(34:03):
my face, right, So I got little Nevus in my
belly too, about four months five months there. But I
also I also know that, I mean, what we also
have a common is that, um, well both of us
got shipped to Geffen. Oh my god, you were in
that crazy well yeah, because every before well we were

(34:25):
on m c A and when they announced in two
thousand three, like you know, we're getting rid of the
following eleven labels, such a weird feeling. We all got
shipped and it was like the racial draft, like why
is a cooler company buying me? It was the it
was the racial draft of all the black ones. Black

(34:46):
arts pretty much went over to Geffen, right, yeah, but
it was it was a weird process like Dr dre
told Uh, I mean Dr dre K kind of you
know told u uh president of Interscope Jimmy. Yeah, I
told Jimmy like, okay, here's the cool artist and wow,

(35:08):
doctor what yeah he comes through because he picked you,
but him not, you know what I'm saying, Like that's
so I'm just saying that Unfortunately, a lot of notable
records got overlooked in the shift of getting to that moment.

(35:30):
So I mean, how did you how did you personally feel,
uh when that album sort of got lost in translation
as far as the commercial it was kind of weird
because like I felt like, because always like kind of
playing guitar, more songs and kind of be more I
guess traditionally what you would see like more like a

(35:51):
rock aesthetic. I felt like it wasn't accepted because people
just wanted me be that girl with the pigtails and like,
you know, like the fun ethnic girl with hoop darres
bouncing around and it's like she was so happy. Why
is she mad? Wait? Because it's your freaking came at
what point in the middle early? Yeah? Yeah, do you
know what I mean? That's how I organically felt, Just

(36:12):
to be completely honest with you, I felt like, oh,
I'm not allowed to be angry, okay, Like I'm not
allowed to like be sing my truth. I'm not allowed
to be more emo? Why are you putting like why?
I'm like, you mean, it's that first feeling of like, oh, shoot,
I'm in a box. Yeah. I just kind of blame
it on like just people and perceptions, and luckily the

(36:33):
album took off in some markets. Thank god, it really
took off established in other markets. Yeah, like I think
the song was number one in Canada and like Germany
and some other places. And I've really felt love on
many levels, so it was okay. But um yeah, in
the U S. I was kind of like, oh, well,
I guess nobody wants to hear me singing about stuff.

(36:54):
I don't like inviting the hand that aren't we America.
It's just weird interesting. So I never really thought it
was about the label folding. Really, maybe I was wrong.
Maybe it helps, it helps. That's a really good song.
Try could have maybe been on the radio. I don't know,
but it helps to have I don't know your label
intact during the six or seven months. It would have

(37:17):
helped a bit. Yeah, probably because the same the same
happened with Comic Electric Circus, and then the transition happened
before because I was in here thinking Electric Circus that
might have been Actually when Nellie thought about like Folklore
was maybe a little bit of a went did the
same thing. She released it, and then DreamWorks sort of imploded.
This was all happened to simultaneously but it's still a

(37:39):
different project. So it's kind of like you'll never really
feel like, you know, if it was a lefty type project.
And you know, you bring up an important point because
I think it's perception too, so you as an artist,
you start to believe the type of like that album
wasn't as commercial and then you forget that. Wait a minute,

(38:00):
other people to blame I focused on people will say
the same thing about Electric Circuits. They won't remember that
the label folded. They'll be like, uh, but it wasn't
right because it still had life and oh yeah, I
loved it. I mean, but again, for common core fans
it might have. But then if Woe Nellie never beloved,

(38:21):
they could have been like, well Nellie, her debut was
a little bit weird, so it never connected. You know
what I'm trying to say. It's weird how that works.
But a second is always weird when it don't say that,
you know, it always getting weird title, you know, when
it don't say yeah people, yeah, weird. The thing was
I think well Nellie was. I think the charm of

(38:42):
well Nellie was the weirdness of it. It was a
weird record, but this one was more focused, and yeah,
it had more of a concept straighthead, which really leads
to it was like an exploration of identity really, but
that leads to when Loose came out paid Dirt, what's

(39:03):
the mouth? My introduction to Loose though was when you
did SNL and right and Google. Seriously, but I always

(39:24):
showed my midriff on tour. You remember you with Moby
with like a Borghini top on. You were like hippie
Molly like. That's why I was used to I more
than I've seen it in shoes, So what was okay?
Did you feel it? I've never seen your feet in
high heels. I saw them in sneakers. Yeah. Yeah, Sometimes

(39:46):
you just walk around beer with your beer feedback stage.
But with Loose, was it just all systems go and
let me just I had to you said him the Internet,
that's what you typed. Oh my god, that's so funny. No,

(40:11):
but you're right. It's a far cry from like my
like moon boots and crazy like raver pants. The first
time I did as a son, I mentioned that you
did work on get your Freaking Uh remix, which was
a full tomboy like no, no, no, but that was
that was That was a crucial old summit meeting between

(40:32):
you and the Timberland group. It was, and everybody forgot
about it because they were like, how did you meet Timberland?
There was actually didn't forget about it. There was actually
you guys. You guys worked together now the hip hop
people and not the black they know what's going on.
You guys. You worked with tim before before that remix.
The Right did a remix. We did three things before
loose Like, we did three things like the radio and

(40:52):
turn Off Light remix. We toured together on that tour.
We toured together. He was He came on the road
with Miss Jade for at least six or seven show
I forgot about because I was on ching and then yeah,
I'm sorry. So Jimmy Ivan actually told me to go
work with Timberland again, and he's like, of course, why

(41:14):
don't I think of it? Yeah? He was like, you know,
you guys made a promise with the work you've done
together and you haven't fulfilled on it. I think you
should go to Miami. Timberland's in a really great creative
space right now. And I was like sure. At that point,
I had already worked with Pharrell Scott Storge Nellie Hooper
in England. I was just like enjoying my record contract,

(41:37):
flying around with my daughter recording recording with people. So
I was like, okay, sure, and so because she's a toddler,
not in school yet or anything, he's not just having fun.
So we flew to Miami and worked with tim first
day speaker cot Fire straight up, we did man Eater
and the speaker caught fire. Yes to be a good

(42:00):
sign sounds bad. Heeded speaker's card on fire when uh
Eddie Van Halen did his solo and yeah, notable hits
have had burning speakers. Michael Jackson's hair actually live on
fire because the commercial was so hot, and Cameron was

(42:21):
actually covered by fire on the Confessions of Fire everyone. So,
so Ana was the first song you guys worked on? Yes,
what is the process or was it glow? You know

(42:43):
when you got your a game on and you're like,
I'm gonna pull out all the tricks in this first session.
You know, I'm gonna knock his socks off Timberland and Timberland. Yeah,
So I was all like, like, do you write this
top with my vocals? Like in this on Glow that's
on the record. And then we did Man eat Her
that same day. So what is he one of those? Sorry?

(43:07):
Is he one of those? Is he one of those
work from scratch producers or is it, like yeah, work
from dance wooth. So if he's dancing and he's hearing
the beat and his hand wants to do something different,
like the body's missing something, he'll add a sound so
that he can complete that physical physical connection. And it's

(43:35):
all vibe. It's all vibe. He's I don't know, he's
just powerful. He has this he has this connection. I
don't know. It's neat. And him and I are weird,
Like when we get together, we hardly see each other.
I just saw him because he invited me to come,
like meet some kids he was mentoring on a show
called The Pop Game HLN or something. I think. I

(43:56):
hope that's a network. But we get together, we tell
talk like old people. Like we're talking. We don't talk
about life, death, love, marriage, divorce, and we talk about
big things. There's no small talk with Timberland. Timberland doesn't
do small talk, and um right, you know yeah, no,
Tim doesn't do small talk. So it's the same approach

(44:17):
to music. There's no small talk, it's either good or
it's over and I don't care, you know what I mean.
It's either popping. It's either I'm moving and I'm loving
it or for lost interest, you know, so you're constantly
trying to get his interest back when you're writing. So
it's like, all right, you didn't feel like you're like
at the World series and you you gotta like, you know,
you gotta knock it out of the part. But if

(44:38):
you're if you're building a song from scratch, yeah, which
I imagine. He came up with the cadence the flow
for man Eater. He was like men, guns and roses
at all, like welcome to And then I wrote the hook,
and then he wrote the cadence for that, and then

(45:00):
wrote the lyrics. And then we had an amazing vocal
producer named Jim Bean's in there and he was just
coming up with really cool like harmonies and things like
say it right. Half the reason it's cool is because
there's all those little from about it. I can tell you,
you know, like all those little like call and responses.
That's what I think it takes it to the next level.
We were watching a Pink Floyd movie that day when

(45:21):
we did say it, right, I put an alien effect
on my voice to inspire myself and then I was
kind of like m hm hmm, you know, I just
started singing that and then uh yeah, him and I
just kinda just like ping pong, you know, in that type.
But Nate Dan Johns was in that session, like Nate Hills,
who's an incredible programmer and producers. So and I was

(45:43):
early days when they just started working together. This is
before right before they did justin Timberlake's album. We had
finished our album, so okay, Well, in that type of
collaboration process um where it's it's you and him Loan
working and with danger as well. Uh and you're kind

(46:04):
of building this Jenka game piece. Has there ever been
a time where you build something and the idea doesn't work?
Like how do you distingu or is it just everything
you work on adjusted until until it works. Because usually,
like in in a band scenario, like if I'm if

(46:27):
we're if me and the guys are playing a groove
and maybe it could stale out to forty five minutes,
or I could clearly see that the client isn't feeling this,
then I'll just throw it away and then we'll start
all over again. But because of the intricacy of Timberland's production,

(46:47):
you know, does every song have to be take no prisoners? Like, yeah,
does it have to be finished to completion or do
you have like five songs that we worked on that
didn't make the record. And you know, just in him
and I had a really cool experience with Loose because
every single song we made was on the album. That's

(47:11):
what I wanted to know. Everything made it. It was
nothing left over. Okay, there were two things that didn't
end up getting completed. Um one was a song I
started with justin timber Lake and it was called crowd Control,
but that was late in the game because I was
almost done. And then there was like a song that

(47:32):
some other weird song. I just remember it feeling like
a Shakira song. I don't remember what it was, but
it was like it just had that feel, but I did.
We never finished it and and then we just it
just fell to the wayside, you know. But it was
very um potent our time together in that particular wave,

(47:53):
and we just finished all the songs all in the
same section of time. Now, did you feel nervous? And
it's like we couldn't make a bad song at that
time or something. It was weird. It's easy to be
in the zone. And at the time, like kids met too,
you know, because like Chris Martin from Coldplay was in town,

(48:15):
so we invited him. I knew him. Timberlin did not
know him, but admired him. And it was a big
cold Play wave at the time. I invited Chris In
and he wrote the hook All good Things Coming to
an End? Would you End? Have been a huge hit
around the world. So things like that happened to like
it was just a wave. It was just a moment

(48:35):
were you at all worried about not the label, but
in terms of your original, everyone has their original in
my In my case, it's almost like the barbershop theory.
You know, I don't know if you ever have the
your barbershop thoughts, like Terik has barbershop thoughts. This verse,
I gotta face the dudes in the barbershop when this verse,

(48:59):
which is like his his sounding his sound board, which
could be an okay thing, and sometimes it can also
be a handicap And I see it more as a
handicapped than anything. What what why is it a handicapped
for you, well, I see it because it's a handicap
because if your initial say, if her crew of six

(49:21):
has those thoughts about if that's echo in her head,
like yo, don't make shift on the radio or keep
it real or what you know whatever music fans be like,
you know the side I ready for you? Are you thinking?
You know? What? Is my original crew back at home
going to think? When I dropped this record with Timberland,

(49:41):
which has the potential to sell the jillions, which it did,
I mean, but it's also a risk because it's such
a one eighty from how you started, Like were you
worried it all? I was really just kind of with Loose.
I just kind of well two things. I came up
with the title Loose about two years before I got
into studio with Timberland. I wanted to make a more

(50:04):
broad project because I found that my early material didn't
translate well to larger arena festival shows because of the sounds.
So I really dreamed of playing arenas with a broader
sounding album. So I wanted to also prove to myself
that I can make a big, shiny pop album like
any other pop star. And I just set myself to

(50:27):
that challenge because I'm really challenge motivated, So I just
set that goal for myself. I was like, I want
to make something huge ship because to see if I
can do it. You know, I admire because I know
that most people, especially that are hip hop based, are
so again, so at least my generation was so keep
it real and anti pop that well, then I know

(50:50):
I could do in a way that I still loved. Right,
But I'm saying that I think it's actually I think
it's I think pop is is noble, which I know
it's weird to say. I'm not saying that. You know,
I'm the world's biggest tailors with him, but I kind
of you, I respect her stee. It's like kind of

(51:10):
like a fifty million of his fans can't be wrong
with anything, not even that, not even that. No, no, no, no,
not even that. It's just that I feel like with
pop music, it's hard to write a song that millions
and millions and millions of people who all feel is great.
At the same I think it's harder to like. Okay,
some of the producers that we've interviewed on the show

(51:30):
have made some of their best work with limited materials
and then or even with like princes or whatever. Like
when you have limited materials, you're your most creative. But
when you're giving the world then suddenly like results are
if you as best. I think it's harder to write
simple pop songs. I agree. If again, I always say,

(51:53):
like phrenologies water like eleven minutes, I had the whole
diagram out. Okay, so minute number seven, we're gonna go
to you know, free jazz here, and then we're gonna
pant the left and right and do all this crazy ship.
I could do ship like that my sleep. I could
never do a three minute It's like a It's like
you could just throw colors up against the canvas and

(52:14):
call the ship abstract. But it's harder to draw a
perfect circle, you know what I mean? Accident no, no,
but there's a there's the beauty's I think it's hard
to ship. It's hard to be disciplined. It's hard to
be disciplined. It's hard to bull's eye something that can

(52:34):
can translate two millions. But oh no, I would just saying.
I do think once you find out what that formula is,
it's easy to replicate it though, like if you but
the hard thing is finding it and caring about it
because you know it, but you just don't feel like
doing it sometimes. Know. I think that's because at the

(52:56):
time you always give us a girl record. On the
Roots album, we talked about like you but no. But
that's the thing though. I think the misperception, especially with
the Roots, is that, oh, you guys are artists. You
don't want to sell, you don't want to get play.
I don't know how to do it. But you knew
Water was not gonna be a pop record. You understand
what I'm saying, Like, Oh, I know, I know how

(53:18):
to do what I do well, which is the opposite.
But until I became a DJ in the last five
years and really understand what people respond to, now I
know what the answer is. I still don't know if
I know album no, I don't know how to execute it.
But I'm just saying that I know what the answer

(53:38):
is now. Back then, I thought, hey, just put a
girl on the hook, then it will be a hit. No,
man so much more than there's so much of his image,
And I think in like lifestyle, because I mean, it's
not really you selling the music like you're selling the lifestyle.
You're selling you know, it's like some kind of cold
personality ship, you know what I mean. So it's like
it's way different now. Yeah, you gotta be a personality
for your even talented. So it's because like I could

(54:02):
make a future record, but like I'm a dad of two.
I mean not the futures out of dad, but the
dad of six. Yeah. Yeah, it's like, who's gonna believe that? Is?
Like mother, Well, let me ask because by that time
you had a daughter, Like, yeah I did. Having kids
changed you. Yeah, a few things, like I feel like, okay,
So my inspiration for Luce was definitely like a look

(54:25):
to albums like like Madonna Ray of Light. Right, it's pop,
but it had so much artistry and direction, and it
had a sheen and a kind of mystery too to it.
I thought, um, and then Janet Jackson's album when she
came out as Janet, when she had the photo, the
photo with someone holding her one behind my eye was

(54:48):
so inspired by that album. As a I guess fourteen
fifteen year old, my friends and I they called us
the Janets. We all had very curly, long hair, and
I really wanted Loose to be like my Janet album.
I did, and it was yeah, my version right five
vanilla version, and um yeah, and so would Promiscuous. I

(55:09):
had trepidations. I was like, wow, I've never seen a
song like this before. Um, but well, I'll say you
sold it well because when I saw SNL, I was like, whoa,
I hardly knew you. Yeah, you must have been like
that because you had known me like real early days,

(55:30):
you know. Yeah, and no, it's not even criticism. I
was like, I'm with this, but it came from my
heart because I always I did grow up an R
and B and hip hop music, so for me, it
was very natural to sing that way. It was very
natural to sing that type of music. You know, I
was in my heart. So I just you know what
I really think it is. I think my musical vocabulary

(55:50):
is large, So that's why I can't. I don't fit
into a box. And every album is different because I
just I didn't like to speak the language in different ways,
the music musical language. You know, when you grow up
playing instruments, you play the black notes on a page
like there's no genre. You know, it should be a
democratic thing. I think music, you know, do you feel freedom?
And that because you know a lot of artists don't
really have that at the end of Like some people

(56:12):
would want to do other things, but I feel like,
what you you can do so many things because you're
not in a box. But do you feel that privilege
in that way? I guess so, because I don't know
how to do it any other way. Like I don't
know how to adhere to a genre. I don't know
what that is. I don't I don't know what that is.
You know what I mean? Or if I did know,
I would get bored after doing it once I get
so bored, I get bored. And that's pretty much. That's

(56:33):
all it is. I just very curious person. I just
led by my curiosity and if I can be interested
in something, then I'll do it, you know. But if
I have no interest, I just can't. I just can't
do it. Well. The success of Loose was really impressed
in it, Like did you expect especially coming off of Folklore?

(56:53):
Was it just like let me throw the spaghetti on
the wall and see what happened and nothing to lose? Yeah,
But then sadly it's like, I mean, twelve millions note
in the scoff at. Yeah, it was crazy. So at
the height of the madness of you surpassing even your
debut record. I mean, what was what was it like suddenly,

(57:16):
like especially were you having to be an artist, having
to be a mommy, to be a songwriter, like wearing
all these heads? Where does that? You know? What does
ten million feel like? At the height of the madness,
it was exhausting. I was so tired because I was
traveling with my daughter around the world. Um I two years. Yeah,

(57:42):
Like I toured, like I was making the record when
I made Loose she had she was almost two. Who
were you on tour with at the time? Okay, so
I made the record. Then it was like, I guess
she was three when I brought her on the road
because by the time we went on the road, I
was just like three, three years four years old anyway,
So I was really tired. I was on the road.
It was amazing because I got to play these arena

(58:02):
shows that I had dreamed of, right, and it was like, oh,
these songs sound great in an arena. This is cool,
and now fit in all the old songs too, and
it was like really fun. Um, but yeah, it's a
lot of pressure because this okay, this is what I
will tell you and I sympathize when I see pop
stars with these huge careers because I know what they're
really thinking, and what they're really thinking is, wow, I

(58:25):
had two number ones. Why was my third single not
number one? I feel like a failure. I have an
arena tour. Why isn't Hamburg sold out? I have a
sold out arena tour. Why didn't we sell out Hamburg
and Munich? So you're one of the people that if
a people loveeople in the room love you, you only
care about the one that's like indifferent. It's the nature

(58:48):
of the business because all all business models are based
on growth and yeah, so that's the problem with the
music business is because you can never stay on top.
So it's like you're on top and all your worried
about and every single person who's number one right now,
all they're worried about is this album gonna hit? Is
this gonna hit? Like? Am I gonna like? That? Never
goes away? Like I was at a sting concert and

(59:10):
like somewhere strange like Latvia. I ended up there because
I had a show and he saw me. He was
going to his car and goes, oh, thank god, I
didn't know you were here, I would have been so nervous,
and I'm thinking it's never good enough for these positive artists.
You're still that nerd who like nobody likes me crazy,

(59:31):
or you're worried that you don't have credibility, or you're
worried that the Peanut Gallery doesn't like you anymore because
she's like you know what I'm saying, like you're here's
always somebody to prove something too. It's never perfect. There
is no yellow people to keep me in line. Yes,
but that's why. But no, no, no, that that happens
a lot. Like you'll you'll find out that you do

(59:53):
your best shows ever in obscure towns that you know,
industry people aren't watching you. Like have you ever had
a really really good l A show, really good New
York show? A handful? You know, like no, I can
remember maybe one. You know, yeah, it's it's always a fail.

(01:00:15):
But yet you know, Montana the best show ever because yeah,
I mean there's no pressure of of of people watching you.
You know, the people there are actually want to be there.
And the other thing, when you have radio singles, you
think people are just there to be cool and they're

(01:00:37):
just there because your thing is the cool thing to
do that night. It's very different than when you have
an album that's less successful and you know everybody who's
there they actually want to be there, not because the
radio had commercial. Your friend invited you. You like my
outfit in the video, you know what, it's real stuff.
It's real stuff you think about. So okay, So how

(01:00:58):
do you do you think I'm crazy? Right? I don't
think what is she? Because I'm on I was on
the other side of radio for the last two years,
So I'm just really thinking about it in an artist way.
I never thought about that, like that's true. Okay, cool, Okay,
I think you're crazy. That's my workshop. That would be good.

(01:01:19):
You would fit right in at the songwriting workshop. I
want to see one of these Montana roots ships, Steve whatever. Anyway,
So with with. But that's so self defeating. It's a
horrible attitude to be like they're only here because because

(01:01:40):
they're they're following a wave. That's that's not me. I
don't think that happens. Don't. You don't come out of
the house just because your outfit was keeping in the video.
You come out of house at least I like one
to two songs like not it totally happens. It does
and the thing is, okay, an obscure way to look
at it. But if your breakout, if your true breakout
arena album is your third record, and you know you

(01:02:01):
had some heat on the first, like, how do you
if you have a lot of broth and very little chicken?
Yeah meat, did you ever have moments where you're like
that's amazing, Okay, well yeah, a lot of strange uh
here right, so good on the radio broth. Yeah, But

(01:02:24):
I'm just saying that if you're there because you know
a particular fan, it's really there for like oh, they're
gonna come in live when I start or whatever, then
it's like how do you past your show? Then? Like okay,
well do you want to get the die hards? And
it's hard. You know what I used to do on
the Looster, I play parties. Just begun this track from

(01:02:46):
my first albums like bad, He's just being gun and
I do this whole like you know, yeah, like this
like did I do this all like vocal percussion thing?
And that kind of got my jolly's off in that song,
like I was like, okay, I'm being artistic in this
song and any as my old fans might know this one.
And I enjoyed all that. I love playing that role.
I love putting all the fancy ball down and singing

(01:03:07):
show time like it was fun but you know, it
was fun times. I enjoy it all. It's fun learning
a new skill. It's fun learning how to act on
stage and do choreography. And that was cool. I liked it.
Wait a minute, Oh, wait a minute, Wait a minute. Okay,
I'm sorry, I said a moment. I just had a

(01:03:29):
moment that I totally forgot about. Okay, Damn, I feel
like I'm about to have a lie you moment. Okay,
And I'm also gonna mirror it up because I gotta
be sort of ambiguous with the question. I love these
because I don't want to be still disclaiming. Yeah, yeah,
there's a lot of I would be more prefaced than

(01:03:51):
it is. S Okay, did you really hit t L
seat Now I'm playing, don't playing and play? That was
us your question? Okay, Um, I have a question about
give it to me. Okay, Yeah, now we know who

(01:04:16):
Timberland was brushing shots at the purple guy. That was
That was justin? That was justin? Oh, and tim Oh
Timberland particularly, that was a story and we know that
Justin was, okay, you're just laying all the teams because
because people listen, they don't all the give it to me.

(01:04:37):
Was just just established this show as a common denominator, alright,
But everybody asked to listen to contact. So Justin was
talking about Prince Timberland was distin Scott stories. Can I
ask you? Can ask you a question? Can I ask
you a question? And we don't have to mention the
name a disclaimer? So my disclaimer is it? Let me

(01:05:02):
just say it was like at the end of the movie,
it's like the thoughts and feelings of the artists did
not reflects because nobody we We recorded the verses separately.
I was there to help write the hook, right, and
I wrote my verse, but I was not present when
Justin recorded his verse, and I was not present when
Timberlin recorded his question. My question is just yes or no? Yeah?

(01:05:31):
Were you uh bucking at some I okay because I'm not.
I'm also here's the thing that egged on Though I
was egged on in the studio and I name names,
it wasn't necessarily simple. In secondly, um Yeah. Secondly, here's

(01:05:54):
the bad story because we're made up. We've made up
because there's a thing. But I was honest with her
about it when she was hired. I was hired by
that person to do their birthday party and I didn't
know nothing about it. The record, who is it? Dude?
Not only did I play the record, I don't know
who it is? That who it played twice? No, he's

(01:06:14):
given us context clues. This is like how many years
ago was it? Like dog, No, no statue of limitation.
I'm establishing a precedence of the show that I'm not.
I'm not throwing people under the bus. No, we're not history.
I will tell you off air, I will tell you.
I'm sorry. This is where I got a quest of

(01:06:36):
supreme the moment I got set the president. Anyway, I
was hired by this particular person to do their birthday party,
not knowing the history of the song. And this is
just when the ship came out. So this was like,
usually my first five records, two of those records are
going to be the song of the moment. And I

(01:06:57):
played this ship and goddamn, the whole party just looked
at me and ran up to me like are you crazy?
And I was like uh, and then finally the person
came to me and someone explains. Someone explained to me,
and then I was I just trying to just sadly

(01:07:20):
took the record off and put Billy geno. We made up.
We made up at Princess Diana's memorial show at Wembley
Arena in London, England, and it was a beautiful moment.
I'm glad right now. Yeah, I'm thinking about the rest
man making a dissong. Ever, bad Karma, Bad Karma came back. Yeah,

(01:07:45):
it's bad Karma, bad Karma. Wait, what do you mean
it came back? Well, it was a number one song.
So at first you're like, you know, and it was fine,
you know, like the hook, you know that that's just
like the little things we said in our verses, but
like we didn't need to do that. We could have
probably done it without it being like that, Like that
was just a subplot and you didn't even know about
it when you played it at the show. And I

(01:08:07):
ret net out real slowly. It's never a good thing, um,
but um, you know, it was a good experience. It
was a good experience, and I was, I was, I
guess as honorable as one could be doing that type
of thing. Like she asked me about it to my
face at an event, and I actually said, yes, it is,

(01:08:29):
and this is why, and it's so polite. Though I
wouldn't know. I was ready to say, that's awfully considered
of you. And she didn't agree, and she didn't agree
with what I said. Um the lyrics if you don't know.
But it was fine. We kind of worked it out likely,

(01:08:50):
you know, out We thought it had a happy and
I was in the wrong. You ever publicly talked about this, um,
like really detailed? No, Actually, oh my god, that trick.

(01:09:11):
It's I'm not going to be pumped on my own show.
We're not. We're talking about history. If I bring up
the Holocaust and that the womanly thing that was interested
in that, you admitted that it was your fault. No, well,

(01:09:34):
I think so there was no real reason for me
to just go on that. No, no, no, It's like
it would only do much if she was continuing, is
all it was. But it was like I was definding
my creativity, or that's how I saw it. And I
might have been wrong about the things I was kind
of thought, the things that motivated it um and she
kind of also like explained that, and it was still

(01:09:55):
kind of heated at that moment, but we made up,
which was so closed. Yeah, we made up. Let's move on. Listen,
if we can, if we can talk to listeners, Google,
if we if we can talk to Prodigy about the
jay Z beef, how about all of it, because the
world knows there was a prodigy, Jason. I'm gonna tell you.
I google Nelly for child Old Beef and her name
was came up immediately that I just don't want to say.

(01:10:20):
I never went down beef lane again. You know, I
learned my lesson. You've been down beef Lean. I just
want to talk about the Holocaust. The Holocaust on question.
That was an unnamed dictator, a little mustache. We don't

(01:10:44):
want to say his name because you know, we don't
want to roughly the feathers or to bring up you know,
google it, but Google you do it didn't really just
compare that. I'm taking my show back, damn it. Did
this Aprison from you watching some old Wild Orchid videos? Okay,
I liked it. I liked Wild orchis stop Oh my god,

(01:11:06):
I really regret. Please Hitler, this is so funny can
please Yes, I feel like you're the most proudest of
this record. I love that record because it's hard to
like sing like properly in another language. I mean, when

(01:11:28):
I was little, I learned Portuguese first. Um, Spanish came
easily by, like grade nine. I guess I was fourteen
when I started to learn Spanish. When I came out
with Wolly, this amazing artist from Colombia named Juanas invited
me to sing on this song that became an international
hit called photo Raphia. So it was a big song,
big duet. And after that I just kind of got
embraced by the Latin community and so I decided to

(01:11:50):
do a full album in Spanish. But I did it.
Did It wasn't translations. It was like I had had
the opportunity to do like a translations album of blues,
but I wasn't feeling it, so I waited till I
could do it right. I hooked up with a great
co writer named Alex Cuba, who was based in Toronto,
and we started a Spanish alp Them in the Snow
in Toronto, and it ended up way bigger than I

(01:12:11):
ever thought, because um, all these artists really just joined
onto the you know, onto the project, and it featured
seven or eight really great collaborations and work with my
favorite Salam Salam. I love Salon. Do you guys ever
get together here? Ah? He is currently working on the

(01:12:31):
never Ending Roots album that you know, I didn't know
that he's on the project with you. Yeah. I love
that guy. I love so much. She even like he
embraced the opportunity to do Spanish records, you know, so
we worked on that. Why not Portuguese? Just curious because
first I know, see there's me again doing idiosyncratic and

(01:12:52):
I'm like everybody asked me that, They're like, why why
not Portuguese? And I'm just like, I don't know. I started.
I like Latin pop markets, you know, and if I
did Portuguese would probably be more um um boutique, like
Photto music or something, because they don't get nominated for
Latin Grammy that they do actually to make matters more confusing.
So like Laudo Pusins Italian, she's one of Latin Grammy,

(01:13:14):
cut Ton of A Loso's Brazilian, he's one of Latin Grammy.
It's kind of broad the whole genre, but like um
Portuguese is Hispanic on the U S census form. Very confusing,
very confusing, very confusing, And so I decided to sing
a Latin pop album, kind of like a very inspired

(01:13:34):
by like rock and Espanio stuff like that. You know.
Julia to Venegas, she co wrote a couple of tracks.
She's a Mexican artist, had a rapper named Mala Lama,
she's from Spain. I had like a proper Mexican runcherro singer,
Jandro Fernandez week Flamenco. I really went there with it.
I had fun with it, and I collaborated a lot,
and honestly, the Latin world, the Latin world of music

(01:13:56):
is far larger than I ever imagined, and it was welcoming.
I felt a sense of community that I really really,
really really was about to say, did you go to
the Latin Grammys and like, how did you feel in
that community? Amazing? Yeah I did. Yeah, I felt um,
I don't know, it was all felt humbled by it too,

(01:14:17):
right because yeah, here I am this English singer. And
then I decided to make a Spanish album and it
gets embraced. So it was like, wow, I feel very lucky.
But I also feel indebted to the artists have collaborated with,
like on ess Right, it takes people to kind of
bring you in, right, like with any genre, right, Yeah,
you need somebody to vouch for you. Yet he's right,

(01:14:41):
not not right now? I motherfucking for the squad in
good times in bad time. Josh Groban's on my Spanish album,
so he like, I want to sing in Spanish and

(01:15:02):
I was like, great, I sent him the song and um,
well no, I invited him and he said, oh, that
would be a good opportunity. And he's saying, so there
was both of us like singing the Spanish song together.
But you forgive me for asking this question, cause I'm
about to go listen to the album, but I haven't.
Are there? Yeah? Is there are there any like samba
sasa nova type influence in the samba? I'm sorry, it's

(01:15:27):
it's side. Yeah yeah, um not really. The closest thing.
There's a Flamenco song there's like a real like like ah,
salm did that truck? That's my favorite. I think that's
a probably the best track. It's called Strong and is

(01:15:48):
this amazing Flamenco singer for this really throaty, powerful voice
she's Uh, she's amazing. Wait. Salam also worked on the
next Joe to a Spirited Salam and I did a
song called something which features nas and uh another track
that Salam did on Spirit Wash. He did more than

(01:16:11):
one that ended up on the record. He did some
B sides too. Um, why did you write a lot
together Rodney Jerkins? Yeah, Dark Child, let me tell you
what amazing. I'll tell you what he does. You want
to know? And how many Michael Jackson stories did you

(01:16:31):
get to hear? This is what he's like when you
write with him. So he'll sit behind the keyboard and
he looks at you when he's writing. So he'll be
like and he's like he's moving and he's looking in
your eyes while he's writing. And um, I loved working
with Rodney. Actually, Rodney is a very good vocal arranger.

(01:16:53):
As we all know. He produced Say My Name, He
produced The Boy is Mine Like Hello. And it wasn't
until I was in the studio. I walked around and
I had this crazy moment where I realized he had
produced all my favorite nineties R and B records, And
that's why we did the song Big Hoops and we
reference all my favorite nineties artists on that song because
I don't know, I guess I was in that that

(01:17:15):
energy was the last record I made with Interscope, and
I actually, I don't know. There was a bit of
pressure to make something big and bouncy again because it
was my next English project after Loose Um. But I
was just having fun. Like Rannie and I had a
genuine connection. We had genuine connection and and vibe together. Um.
I did enjoy making that album as well, which which

(01:17:37):
leads us to the right now. The thing is when
I saw the cover. When I saw the cover to
the right, I was like, why did you drop your logo? Who?
Who designed your logo? I'm a I'm a font nerd
by the way, so I know, do you know it's
like a sacred geometry logo and my friend from It's
called Create. It's like a media company and I'm trying,

(01:18:00):
I know, and they did, um yeah, they did a
new logo for me. And it's basically based on all
these like mathematical equations of like space and um angles
and stuff like that. And I just really liked, I know,
I get so bored to drop your your classic psychedelic logo.

(01:18:20):
I think so I just got so sick of seeing
that big old thing on every cover. Like I was like,
not a game, it's I just looked like I had
all the same album cover every time. Like I was
just like, oh this this I know, but I'm independent
now so I don't care. And I was like whatever,
I know. It's just it's just so rare. As as

(01:18:45):
a lover of record collecting, it's so rare. Define product
with good consistent logo has their consistent logo. Chicago. Chicago
has theirs. Uh well, Uta has more of a local
than like fonts associated. I mean you know, I mean

(01:19:05):
the Roots have kept are are are boring? Uh blue
not Vitica American typewriter. Yeah. But when you when you
when you be thrown off if you saw a Roots
album in any font other than what you're used to seeing.
I didn't even realize what you said that, but I
guess something because you don't like the Roots. I love them.

(01:19:31):
But Netley's album looks like it reminds me of like
those eighties albums. Everybody goes to that stage of like
the secret life of plants when you put the picture
inside the block of color and I lost everybody. Yeah,
I want you for that. Thank you did everybody did
anything that way? Yeah, but with my friend on it. Honestly,

(01:20:02):
I just wanted to capture the energy space of mine
that I was in when I recorded. And I did
that photo shoot for Internet stuff and I ended up
using it for the album cover because it was like
snapshot of kind of the week. I finished the album
in Dallas, Texas, and the artwork features local Dallas artists
and visual artists. The artwork on the fronts by Samantha mccurity.

(01:20:23):
You can't see the whole thing, but you buy the vine.
I should have brought you a vinyl. Why the hell
did I not bring this final to you? It's so
cool but you open it up and it's just has
a sense of community. Just I met a lot of
cool people in Dallas and I ended up working on
all these projects with them, the video directors from Dallas.
There's a good musical community down there. Did you stop

(01:20:43):
Bob Parks Jr. You ever met him? I've not met him.
Really talented uh keyboardists, Clabinett, he plays it all on
my album. There's a really cool I don't know if
you go to record stores a lot, but I used
to work at my friends store in Toronto a couple
of years ago. One of the after selling millions of
records did I did for fun? The key the key

(01:21:04):
to uh? I forget? This is the leader, the leader
of Polyrhythmic Spreeic Spree owns like one of the coolest
record stores, mom and pop spots in Dallas. Right now.
It's escaping me, is it? No, Cliff, don't, don't give

(01:21:27):
me to quote it, but it's it's a really John
Congleton produced all the records Polsonic Spree, who did my record? Yeah,
that's what I'm saying. In that area of Dallas. Yeah,
it's a vibe. It's like you know what it is,
It's like that whole like like artists and then like
the patriots of the arts, you know, and then there's
this great divide, and I think it creates this wildness

(01:21:51):
to like the left side, you know what I mean,
Like it just creates this more you have to kind
of you got to be even weirder in Dallas to
be weird, you know what I mean. So you gotta
gotta really how do you how do you feel to
be How does it feel to be on your own
and truly independently, without without label of labels. Well, I

(01:22:12):
really followed my heart. I really wanted to work with
John Congleton, and Annie from St. Vincent introduced me to him.
We clicked, and I just in my heart thought, I
want to know what it's like to work with like
an alternative producer, Like I want to see what that's like.
I want to see if I could do it. And
when I met him, we started working and interscope. I

(01:22:32):
was still with them, but I always kind of go
off and do my own thing and don't really tell
them what I'm doing. But eventually I did, and it
felt like they were kind of like, yeah, well maybe
we could do this or that or this, and I
was like, no, I really want to finish this album
with John Congleton. So I was able to get my
album back from them. Wow, I owned this album masters.

(01:22:54):
Wait wait out, wait a minute, you had a conversation
with them. No, my manager helped me, Like I haven't literally,
but I'm just saying that they were willing two amicably
part with you. Um yeah, yeah, they gave me my

(01:23:17):
my master. They gave me them like I got to
keep the masters in of this new record, and um,
it was a blessing because I was able to make
this beautifully produced album essentially independently, you know, which is
you're not usually able to do that, you know, because
John's are really in demand producer. So um, it took.
We took our time with it because we're both really busy.
But yeah, man, you know, sometimes it's just time to

(01:23:41):
move on. Really confused. I need this. That's the sound
of my brain right now. Which you have to do
more with relationships, Like there's there's a lot of old
relationships in the music business, like the people you don't
see on TV. I guess, I guess if you ask,

(01:24:02):
And it's like, you know, like between business relationships like
sometimes like there are certain people who know how to
get stuff done quickly. I'm just lucky enough to be
working with some of them at the time. The only
reason why mind bloom is because now that I think
of it, I think I did the same thing. Good
it happens. We know what j I asked Jay, like, YO,

(01:24:24):
take us with you to death Champ and he's like,
that's I want to get involved in Jimmy's business. And
I simply just asked him. But my my selling point
was I was like dude, you have seventeen mega platinum
artists on interscope. I said, are we doing is wasting
your money? You won't miss us? And he sat and

(01:24:47):
thought about it. It's like, okay, thanks and that was it.
And I because you were respectful, you know what I mean.
And I think even when I presented what I was
working on with John, I was just it. Did you
get saying if you sell, if you wrote a handwritten note,
you know what I mean, you sell twelve million units,

(01:25:07):
I'd be yeah, I kind of want to make sure
you're good to the last drop. Okay, Okay, that's yeah,
Like it's always risk involved, I guess, but like they
still get the got some Jordan five time left in you.
So it's like that to me, That to me is

(01:25:28):
an amazing like I can't believe that happens. Yeah, it's
like a kind of like a little mini miracle. I
guess I felt it grateful. But then when I signed
those documents, I said, wow, I signed this record contract.
Nine is a long time ago because I take too
much time in between albums. So for me signing a
six album deal like at that age and have a
new you don't think right when you signed it first

(01:25:50):
record catch You're like yeah, like it's an album. You
read it. I was always smart about reading my paperwork.
But at the same time, you're not really processing, like
how much time? You don't know that it's going to
take that long to record six records, you know? So
what do you? What do you? It happens something I wanted?
I mean you've you've taken. I mean you're kind of

(01:26:11):
taken the dream. As far as an evolution is concerned.
He made all types of records, done, all types of
collaborations and musical experiments like what what I never believe
in happy, I believe in satisfied. So what yah? When
at what point are you satisfied? Like can if you

(01:26:31):
were to stop now you are you Like, okay, you
have a beautiful daughter. You pretty much lived in the dream,
Like what is what is the satisfaction destination for you? Um?
For me? Um? Okay? If I had to stop today
and I was like, okay, I'm gonna quit now, I'm
never gonna make music again. Um, I might regret like

(01:26:53):
never doing like a Portuguese language album. Actually I didn't
mean to put that on you, no, but it's no,
it's not you. Um, yeah, so so that that could
be cool at some point, but again I won't know
until across that bridge. But yeah, generally speaking, I just
wanted this time. This time. It's been really cool. Like

(01:27:14):
a week after I got out of my record contract,
like like I think a month later, I was rehearsing
with Dev Hines because we were going to sing together
at his charity show he did. Did you go to
that at the Harlem Apollo? Was really cool? It was
for It's a fundraiser um, And so I said to him, Hey, Dev,
you know I'm not with my label anymore, so we
could put out our new song on cassette like and

(01:27:36):
sell it at the merch table for charity. So that's
the type of stuff you can never do if you're
on a major label. Who is who has a cassette player?
Don't know right now? Get a boom buxa. And also
I did an installation at Art Basil this year with
my friend who's a photographer. So normally, like you can't
just do that stuff when you're signed to a contract.

(01:28:00):
Um sound art installations, songwriting and you know what I'm saying,
It's just a different flow in your brain and it's
really nice. I've been experienced inventing with that, so I'm
gonna see where that takes me. You know, I don't
really know. I just wanted to keep asking questions. You know,
I took a playwriting class last year at university that
was fun. So maybe writing arrangements or something for like

(01:28:21):
a different type of like paradigm may be theatrical. I'm
not sure. See, I get the feeling that you know,
the the ongoing, the ongoing evolution. Well, you know, she'll
probably prime minister. Well, I was gonna ask you, like,
musically Toronto has been put on the map since you
first stepped on to feel like a collaborations coming up? Yeah,

(01:28:52):
you know, I feel cool, um because I watched the
scene grow and I stayed in that city. I've stayed
in Toronto my whole life and career wow from age
eighteen owt. But like I've watched it grow urban scenes
finally on the international map. I mean, we were just
doing our thing time. Thanks, But I mean I need

(01:29:16):
to know did my stro my stroke frash West let
your backbone slide? Was that a hit over here back? Okay?
Because I wouldn't know because we play can con in
Canada growing up sot of everything you see and listen
to his Canadians. It's called cancan. Yeah, it's a government rule.
Yeah before Clear Channel took Yeah. So so basically speaking, yeah,

(01:29:41):
it's so nice to meet these new artists that are
coming out and they have an appreciation for what happened
in the past, but then they're moving things forward. So,
like my favorite from Toronto was his name is River
tiber and Record. Yeah. Man, he's based in Toronto. New
new artists, you got to look out for Mustafa Ahmed.
I've known I'm say and he was fifteen. He sings,

(01:30:02):
he's a spoken word poet. I really got to look
out for him. He's making his UM. He's managed by
Doc actually and he's making his for his debut right now.
Thanks No. I was literally going to ask you to
put us on to some new Canadian act Also, I
really like Charlotte day Wilson's EP. Have you heard it? Yeah, manager,
she's on She's on bad, bad, not good new album

(01:30:23):
as well. Fonts are and I feel irrelevant because i
Q is stuff coming out. Fonte's Drake's Spirit Animal. Really,
Drake is going on record to say that this man,

(01:30:45):
I can see animal Yeah yeah, yeah, he said that
and um yeah on he dedicated his um, he dedicated
his he want a b M I ward I think,
and he dedicated it to me. Really, he dedicated it
to me. He dedicated to me Andre and uh Kanye,

(01:31:06):
and they asked me what I thought about it, and
I was like, I think it's great, but I wish
you would have dedicated time to do a verse from
my album. And we haven't speake since you don't love
the brother It's all good, you know, get that gun
sign yea, I have a soft shots fired in. Yeah,

(01:31:29):
we've done. We worked early early on in his career
and uh, I mean he's always didn't know you did.
I don't know. Yeah, find out to later that he
was on the Loose tour because he's saying backgrounds for
Soccrates On a couple of shows tour he sang background first,
got to start somewhere, he did, that's all start on
the bottom. He did double No, he did doubles for Soccrates. Yeah,

(01:31:53):
on like I think three or four shows on our
Canadian tour of Loose. Yeah, but I didn't know at
the time, Like I just found this out recently. But
everybody loves Drake. Everybody's so proud of him, right, right, y'all,
she said, She said, everybody loves right. It was for
the Cean Tower to be on the cover of an album.

(01:32:14):
It's a beautiful Bill Well, Nellie, thank you very much
for joining us today at the Qua ls Peanut Gallery.
Give it up for now. Everybody needs the Peanut Gallery
album Rounded. Please get the new album. Ride the Ride,
the Ride. I'm sorry. You got to enjoy it or

(01:32:35):
get off of it? Yes, yes, you've been thinking that
all day. Haven't you just enjoyed? Get off? Anyway, We're
getting off the ride. Behalf Fantigolo and Sugar Steve and
Boss Bill and I'm paid Bill and yat it Off

(01:33:00):
the ride. This is Question Love Quest Love Supreme. Thank
you very much, Nellie. I appreciate it. Cors Love Supreme
is a production of My Heart Radio. This classic episode
was produced by the team at and Door. For more
podcasts for My heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

(01:33:23):
Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

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