April 1, 2024 • 39 mins
Adele – "There's something about Brittany [Howard] that puts fire in my soul – she’s so fucking full of soul, overflowing, dripping, that I almost can’t handle it."
Tonight's guest has some major, major fans: Kendrick Lamar, Tyler, The Creator, Fred again..., Chris Martin. The list could go on. Yet, the former Alabama Shakes frontwomen - and x5 Grammy Award winner - is totally grounded. Not to mention a total blast to hang out with.
She spoke to Greg Cochrane from her home in Nashville, where they were joined by her two dogs Wanda and Willie. They spoke about Brittany's love of angling, meditation and ignoring her smartphone; how she's humbled by the admiration from her musician peers; Brittany's love of the her local LGBTQ+ community; whether Alabama Shakes could ever re-unite.
Plus, she shares what must be one of THE great stories about playing a show at Prince's legendary home and studio, Paisley Park.
Recorded in January 2024. Find video clips of the chat on Tiktok and Instagram, @Midnightchatspod.
And if you picked up Brittany in a convertible car late one night in Madrid - let us know!
Further links:
Brittany's second solo album What Now, was released in February 2024.
Watch the lyric video for 'Prove It To You'
Episode shout outs:
Interview by Greg Cochrane
Editing by Stuart Stubbs
Mix and mastered by Flo Lines
Artwork by Kate Prior
Videos by Robbie Hamilton
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
He kisses me on her cheek, jumps off the stage
and disappears into nothing like it's literally like you disappear
in with the air. And I was like, I was
just like, what, he's a shape shifter, I swear, you know,
I was like in my eyes, playing tricks on me.
He just disappeared, and you know that was the last
I saw.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Prince Evening folks, Welcome to Midnight Chats, the music interview
podcast for late night listening. My name is Greg Cochrane.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm Stuart Stubbs, but that's completely irrelevant this evening because Greg,
you're the star of tonight's show along with Brittany Howard
is your guest. Tell me all about her.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, well, listen to you, and you know that I
love a quote, right, and I love this quote from Adele.
You're familiar with Adele Nope? Okay. Well, she's a musician, Okay,
sold a lot of albums over the years, and she's
got this great quote about this evening's podcast guest, and
she says, there's something about Brittany that puts fire in
(00:57):
my soul. She's so fucking full of soul, overflowing, dripping
that almost can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think Adele said that about me at one point.
Actually as well, that sounds that does sound familiar. Imagine
having Adele say that about you.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Adele needs to join in orderly queue because basically, so
many genius artists are a fan of Brittany Howard Tyler,
the creator, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, they are all huge
fans of hers. I mean, she's she's won five Grammys.
Like she she's like an artist artist. They absolutely love her.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Or what I particularly like about this episode when I
heard it was how much of a laugh? It's she
seems the talker. But we're gonna put a link in
the below in the show notes for the kissy dolls
thing that you're talking about. I'm not going to say
any more than that that're pretty creepy. I've just been
looking at the site again. There's real hair on these dolts.
Now that's coming up. There's a lot in this, including
(01:56):
her love for fishing, which I don't think we've ever
had a fisher, fisher an angler on the show before.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It is a first. Yeah, she's big into her angling.
As you're about to hear, I spoke to Brittany, she
was at home in Nashville when we spoke, and it
made the very depressing first week of January this year
a whole lot brighter. As you say. She's got amazing vibes,
great energy, and yeah, we've got to talk about fishing.
Got an a grade story about playing Prince's House, and
(02:26):
I wondered if Alabama Shakes would ever do anything else,
so I got to ask her about that too. One
extra thing I just wanted to add. Greg.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sorry, if you listen to this and you are one
of the people who sourced a convertible car for Britney
after her Madrid show, we are trying to find this
group of people she asked for a scooter. That was
it a scooter? I think it was a scooter.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think a moped or something a moped.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
They got a convertible car. If that is you, please
get in touch with the show, maybe via our socials.
We're at Midnight Chat's pod on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
We want this to be the Talk with Madrid. We're
launching We're officially launching the investigation right here, right now.
Brittany's got a solo album, a recent solo album out
and it's the second one. It's called what now. It's
really really great. I urge you to go and check
it out. And also we talk a bit about a
poem and that's included on that album and it's by
Maya Angelo and the title of that poem is a
(03:20):
brave and Startling Truth. So yeah, let's hear from Brittany
Howard on Midnight Chats.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh, I'm doing great, Thanks for having me on. I'm
excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
In my preparation for speaking to you, there's something I
need to know more about. I'm currently on a website
called Kissy DOLESUSA direct dot com, which sounds like the
kind of thing that would get me banned from the Internet,
but I found out about this via your TikTok a
few weeks ago. It's hilarious and so scary. Can you
(03:55):
describe what I'm looking at and where it's come from.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Listen, listen, listen. And as the CEO of Kissy Dolls
USA Direct dot com, you know, there's not a lot
that I'm going to say about it, except that we
get very bored on a tour bus and we take
things too far.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
These creations just for people listening. Basically, they are like miniatures.
The dolls obviously, but that the what are they made
out of?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Were they what's the material?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I found this very unusual clay okay on Amazon dot Com.
It's it's it's the most unusual clay I've ever worked with.
I don't know what it's made out of, but we
just started messing with it and it became kissy dolls,
you know, like little clayheads. We put little wigs on
them and we paint them up, give them names, pop
them on the internet. There for self.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I know there's literally a website store. I'm on it.
They're currently sold out. It's obviously very exclusive.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, they're hit, They're hit.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, they've all got all these dolls have got Uh,
they've got different names. My favorite one is Evelyn pec
Peeper Impact paper.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, that one, that's one of our first ones. Who created.
Zach Cockle is actually an artisan at the plant, and
uh that was that was one of his favorites. It
was hard to see her go.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Tell me, is theyre going to be more a They're
going to be more kissy dos coming soon.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
To be determined, maybe not early this year. Could we
kind of had the plant shut down for over the holidays,
so it might take a while to get things started
back up.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, fair enough that we know the demand is there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Though, the demand is there, and you know, I'm not
gonna say like I'm not purposefully creating more demand.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I'm going to post a link in the show notes
to to that thing so that anybody listened to this
feeling completely disorientated about what we're talking about can go
and check it out. But yeah, these dolls are They're
amazing and I was I was obsessed when I found.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Them, and I knew this would follow me.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, exactly what have you started, Brittany? This is the
thing now, I mean sticking on kind of uh, the
social media and like going I was, you know, in
my preparation for speaking to you, obviously, was checking out
kind of what you've been up to. And your your
dogs Wilma and uh, Wilma and Wanda also make regular
appearances on your social media. Is that Wilma or Wonder?
(06:14):
I can see in the background, Oh, that's Willie. She's
probably chewing on an extension cable.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Come here, don't do that. Here's Willy here say something
in the microphone.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Will Hey, everybody, they look so chilled? Is that is
that their personalities.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
No, no, no, one of them to turn it on
for the cameras. One of them's a puppy. As soon
as anybody's looking. She seems sweet, but she's a puppy.
And uh, it's been very difficult around here with her.
You know. She's a little dog. She likes to talk,
she likes to bark, she likes to be on the rugs.
(06:50):
So it's just been all hands on deck since I
got her. So put that on top of trying to
promote an album and trying to tour. What was I thinking,
I don't know, this is it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You're pep parent. It's a demanding thing.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You know. I googled. I was like, what is the
worst breed to house train? And it said, uh, Docsin
miniature Docsin. Yeah, they got reputation, they have a reputation.
I didn't really know that. It was too late by
the time I found that out, but I'm experiencing that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I know. They always say, like, you're you're a keen angler, right,
you love to go fishing, and like do you how
often do you get out? And do you do you
take the dogs with you when you go?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I cannot take Wanda. She has a high prey drive.
You know, she's also a little winy dog high prey drive,
and you know they were their bred to uh chase
and hunt small animals. A fish is a small animal,
and so I can't take her anywhere in near fish.
She has a fit. One time I was fishing, I
(07:47):
couldn't get the fish off of the hook fast enough.
She jumps like leaps in the air, lands on the hook.
Had to had to take her to the vet, huge
emergency vet bill. So she doesn't She's not allowed to
go at all anymore for her own safety. Wilma, she's new,
you know, I got I got her, and I haven't
taken her out fishing yet. We'll see how it goes.
(08:09):
But I do love fishing. I've been doing it since
I was probably like four or five years old. It's
just something I would do with my family and it's continued.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, my dad was a keen angler and I haven't
got to do it much, but I always have like
fund memories of going out with him when I was young,
and like just spending that like one to one time
with my parent, Like is that where it came from
for you as well? And is that like the enduring
passion of getting out to spend some time on your own,
a bit of thinking time.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, you know, it's very grounding when you're out there
in nature. It just it's just kind of a reset,
I feel like. You know, for me, life can be
so hectic and it can feel very chaotic and never ending,
and you go out on the road and you're giving
(08:56):
a lot of energy, you're sleeping on a bus, you're sore,
and you come home and you just want to do
what I call is arriving, and you just want to
get back to yourself. And I found that fishing it's
a great way for me to do that. It's a
great way for me to reconnect to myself. And then
(09:17):
when I come back from the fishing trip, I feel
like a little bit more like I've arrived at home.
And I started fishing way back when, when my dad
and my mom used to fish for catfish a long
time ago, and it'd be like a picnic and we
sit out there and we spend time together and it
was really fun. And me and my dad continued that
tradition is just going out there and then sitting late
(09:38):
at night overnight sometimes to catch catfish. And I taught
him how to fish for bass. You know, all the
different techniques, and that's just something that makes us both
feel like little kids. And it's cool hanging out with
your parents, like having that kind of like inner child experience.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Do you have any like top memories of going fishing,
like particular locations or particular fish that you've caught that
you still wow, like this is it doesn't get better
than this.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I remember I was in Poland. I was like in
I think Warsaw and we had a day off and
I had asked the promoter at this festival, can you
take me fishing? And he thought it was hilarious. But
in Poland is a little different than America, like you
probably it's different from the United Kingdom as well. Like
here we have like public land you can just go
(10:25):
and fish. And there it's like you got like these
clubs or you have to ask for permission, okay, And
so we go to this club and had these giant
gates and we go through the skates and this place
is nice, like the landscaping was a ten out of ten.
And you go to the desk and check in and
I'm like, what the hell's going on here? And there's
this little guy. You know, they didn't think much about me.
(10:49):
They'd never seen somebody like me come in and ask
to go fishing, so to give me like a cane pole,
which is just a stick essentially with some corn, a
cane pole with some corn on a hook, and I'm
catching these little fish. I think they're calling him roach
catching his little tiny fish. And I was doing this
for about an hour and I turned around and look
at the guy and I was like, can so is
this bait? Or like what are we doing here? And
(11:11):
he started laughing and he's like, oh, you want to
catch real fish? Huh. I was like yeah. And you know,
we get in this little boat, this little plastic boat
to me and this guy, and this guy, I'm not
gonna say he was like he wasn't the kindest guy.
So we get in the boat. He passes me ride
and I'm nervous because this guy's like staring at me, like, oh,
(11:32):
she thinks she can catch a fish, So I like cast.
It was like a terrible cast. I was like embarrassed,
and he was like you could throw better than that.
She's like you're throwing like a girl. And I was like, okay,
Well where I'm from We don't say that no more,
but whatever, dude, and I cast it and I'm casting
out far, I let the lyric fall and I hook
(11:53):
into the biggest trout I've ever seen in my life.
It was, I mean, it must have been like thirty
inches long or something, I don't know, definitely a chunky,
chunky fish. And I look at this man's face and
he was looking at me in disbelief, in shock, and
I was like, oh yeah, buddy, I'm out here fishing.
You know what I'm saying. Howbit you didn't expect that?
And then we became best friends.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I was gonna say, that's the glee. The feeling of
just like of that moment must have been so good.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The glee is sharing that with a stranger. It was
a great memory. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In terms of get into music. We spoke once before.
It was a long time ago, Alabama, Shakespeare in the UK,
paying your first shows here, so this was like I'm
gonna say, twenty eleven, twenty twelve must have been. And
I remember we talked a lot about this sort of
strange and exotic food that you'd encountered on that first
trip to Europe. You'd been when I spoke to You've
(12:44):
been eating snails in Paris, You've been eating hagis in Scotland.
And I wondered whether, like any of those things became
like culinary favorites of yours in the end.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, No, I remember that trip. I remember that trip,
coming to the UK the first time and bringing this
little digital camera that my managers had given me, and
I remember having just the best time. And I took
pictures of everything. I took pictures of the red telephone
booths and and I was asking for a crumpet. I
(13:17):
was like, give me a crumpet, Give me where can
I find a crumpet? And then I finally had the crumpet.
I was like, oh, you're like, this is just average. Yeah,
it was pretty average. Yeah, but I but I did
it my little scavenger hunt, a little English scavenger hunt. Yeah,
mush I had the mushy peas. I had the fish
and chips. I had some sort of like what some
(13:38):
some sort of vinegar sauce I'll be putting on stuff.
I had that too. Uh yeah, fond memories.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I mean, what was what's your kind of like recollections
of that that period like generally, I mean literally a
few months before that, you're like still working jobs back home,
and then like you know, things start to move. You
know you're in the UK. Thing's probably pretty like overwhelming.
Like what your reflections on that period and the person
you were at that point.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean I was like I was like early twenties,
very young, so I had a lot of energy. I
was very excited to be going. I couldn't believe I
was like traveling the world. Never saw that coming for
my life, so I had eyes wide open. I wanted
to experience everything. I mean I remember being in Spain
(14:27):
and meeting these two people on the street and they
were like, we couldn't get tickets to your show. And
I was like, I'll give you a ticket. I'll give
you tickets to my show if you bring me a
moped after the show. And so like they're like, we will,
we will, we promise. So I give them the tickets.
I go out the back door after the show and
there's a convertible and I was like, this isn't a moped,
(14:47):
and they were like, well, it's the best we could do.
So I just hop in the car. We're just like
driving through Spain. At night. It was awesome. So I
just I had the best time. You know, I'd never
seen anything like it.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Did you sort of lean into the adventure of it?
Like did you sort of think this might only happen once?
Like I'm gonna I'm gonna get into convertible with two
people I've just met and go and see Madrid. Whatever
it was.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I was definitely like, not sure how long this is
gonna last. For I had high hopes and I was
willing to work really hard, but just living in a moment.
Like I said, I was like a young person and
we would stay out late and I mean we were
running amok. It was funny because like in Australia, we
were doing I think it's called Big Day Out so
(15:34):
traveling festival and so you travel around the whole country
and every night when the festival's over, they open up
a bar for the bands and the bands can go
to the bar and drink for free. And so we
go to the bar and uh, they quit serving us
after about the third bar. They were like, are y'all
album schicks? I was like, yeah we are, and they're like,
y'all gotta get out of here. We were showing out
(15:56):
we were showing out because I always tell people everybody's like, oh,
rock and roll bands, they must party so hard. No,
it's the soul bands, the soul bans. Something wrong with us.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I know, yeah that I've been to that festival and
I've actually been in those bars, and like that is
drinking them dry is pretty impressive. Yeah, yeah, who was
with you? Who were the other because it's like that
big day out I don't think happens anymore. But it
was like a touring. It was the same lineup, wasn't
it that moved around different cities in Australia and New Zealand.
(16:26):
So who was out on with you at that time?
Did you imagine like persuade any other bands to come
drinking with you?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm trying to remember so long ago, and I remember
Gay Clark Junior was there, Red Hat Chili Peppers was there.
I'm pretty sure, yeah, And it's kind of all I
can remember right now.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
It's obviously like a really exciting time for you. Right
now you're you know, you're sharing his second project under
your own name. It's called what Now. But I wanted
to reverse a couple of years if I may, and
I loved your album Jamie Really in twenty nineteen, and
a couple a couple of years later you released Jamie
Reimagined with where there was like a number of your
music peers reworked those songs in their own kind of
(17:12):
interpretations and in their own ways. That was people like
Bonnie Ver and Fred Again and Michael Kiwanuku and Childish Gambino,
so many amazing people. Those songs were really really personal
to you obviously, so what did you make of of
sort of handing them over to others to interpret them?
And we were there any of those that when they
came back to you for the first time, any of
those versions from other artists where you where you couldn't
(17:35):
believe what they've done with it.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I was so excited that people wanted to participate in
the project. I always love other creatives, and especially I
love how people hear different things. So it was just
like it was just like a like a like a
project of love. And I was just like, hey, do
you want to do you want to pick a song?
(17:58):
You want to try to like redo it? And a
lot of people said yes, And I remember all of them,
I think are fantastic. I remember specifically listening to Little
Dragons version of Presence, and there's this drum outro at
the end that I absolutely did not expect, and the
(18:20):
whole thing rises and gets to this like fever pitch,
and I just got I thought it was so cool
and I couldn't really have thought of that myself, and
that's the magic of the whole thing. And then also
I loved Michael keiwan Nuka's version of thirteenth century Medal,
absolutely insane, and also Bonavere's version of Short and Sweet
(18:41):
is still one of my favorites to this day. I'll
still sit down and listen to that. And yeah, I
just love what people did with it. I just think
it's such a cool thing to do.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, I left with Donald Glover did as well. I
thought it was yeh.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Oh, absolutely, ol Fred again, come on, everybody's brilliant. Everybody's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's true, It's true. This song's was so personal, like
you didn't mind kind of like trusting him, putting him
in the hands of somebody else, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
No, not at all. I didn't even give it a
second thought. Really. I was just like, these people are
all good. I can't wait to hear what they do.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You've always received such like warm encouragement from like other musicians,
like throughout the years of doing this, like right across
the spectrum, like from literally like Adele to Tyler the Creator,
Chris Martin to Kendrick Lamar. What kind of what does
that sort of support mean to you when somebody speaks
highly of your work? Does it feel you in any
(19:33):
way or either kind of person that sort of just goes, oh,
that's nice, thanks very much, But you know, I'm just
doing my own thing.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
No, I think it's incredibly humbling because I'm all my
reaction is always like, oh my god, I didn't know
who I am. Like that's literally my reaction because I
don't know who's listening to what. I don't really know
how far my work's getting. That's not something I really
pay a lot of attention to. Like, I'm just here
trying to live a good, peaceful life, and then I
make music sometimes and then I'll put it out and
(20:02):
I'll support it, and I'll do all this work. And
it's just so amazing to me when people I respect
and look up to are doing the same thing with me,
and it just makes it so Yeah, encouraging is definitely
the word like so encouraging, Like, Okay, I'm on the
right path, I'm doing the right thing. I can still
do this, you know. And I just have high regard
for everyone you just listed, like I just think they're inspirations,
(20:27):
you know what I'm saying. Yeah, how incredible is that?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And you got to play some shows with Kendrick Lamar
going back a couple of years. I reckon Kendrick Lamar
fly fishing Europe twenty twenty five. You should do that thing.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
All right? If Kendrick, here's this, like, listen, I'll meet
you where you are. We'll go fishing. We can talk
about meditation, we can play some flutes, we can hang out.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
That sounds like the kind of invitation he coverfus, Well,
I will see.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He's a busy guy.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And what about meditation? Is that you practice transcendental meditation?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I do? I do twice a day.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And how has that come to develop for you? And
how does that help you? And how does that feed
into your mindset creative process.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Some people have brands that never stop. It's just an
endless barrage of thoughts and meaningless chatter. And then on
top of living in a world that's also chaotic and
full of information twenty four to seven, it can really
shortwire a lot of things. It just becomes incredibly overwhelming,
(21:29):
and you lose track of time and you forget important
things you're supposed to do, like it just can't catch up,
you know. And so I feel like with the Transcendental Meditation,
it's created a lot of space for me to have
more peace, like mentally, and of course if you have
peace there, everything else spreads from that. And it's just
(21:51):
made me a kinder, more patient person with more capacity
just for the world in general and all the people
and puppies in it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, just think about the puppies. It's I mean, the
album What Now, it's kind of I love the quote
that you gave about it, which is just like we
all feel like we're in a some of us feel
like we're in a world just trying to hang on
to our soul, like we're just sort of gripping on
just thinking like what can go wrong next basically, and
then it sort of comes with this sense of like
(22:21):
existential dread, and you know, and that can feel like
a bit of a downward spiral.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So I wondered, like, how have you if it's been
like that for a few years, right, Like? And I
wondered day to day, like how are you with that?
With that stuff? Do you, like, do you find yourself
scrolling on your phone like doom scrolling looking at the
bad news? Do you find yourself like having to just
like not do that, like, just put that aside. I'm
gonna not engage sometimes for the benefit of my own sanity.
(22:52):
What do you do with all of that stuff?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
What do I do with all of it? It depends, No,
I do not do scroll. In fact, I have a
pretty healthy relationship with my phone. I don't know where
it is most of the time. That's good, that's a
good thing. I think what's more important than cell phones
is personal relationships. And if one of my friends comes
(23:15):
to me and they're really disturbed by something going on
in the world, we'll talk about it. And sometimes you
can feel very helpless and powerless living in this world
and being seeing all the news from so far away
of really terrible, awful things happening. All I can do
is support my friends sometimes sometimes you know, not all
the time, but sometimes it's like the people around me
(23:38):
who are scared need love and I am blessed to
be able to provide that. And sometimes it's just the
things around us. It's the only things we can control.
And I lean into that and that sometimes that's all
you got. And on the other hand, sometimes you can
do more. And when I'm I find the opportun tunity
(24:00):
to do that, I'll also lean into that. Especially in
my community. We got a lot of stuff going on
just here where I'm from as far as trans rights go,
and also some jerry mandering, and that's stuff that I'm
able to contribute to, and I do do that because
I just want for everybody to live a peaceful life,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, definitely. What's the kind of sense there? Have you
been able to join some marches and things like that
around the trans rights in the in the region?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Oh, for sure, there's there are marches, and there's also
just a lot of community outreach that we have here,
and there's a lot of lawyers who do really really
good work that you're able to support. And also as musicians,
we get together and we put on this huge concert
(24:50):
here it was last year to raise money and to
support to support each other in the LGBTQ community, and
im I feel really lucky to be here surrounded by
people like that because it is Tennessee and it is
the South, and it is slow for progress, but there's
still people here on the ground that are taking care
of each other.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, and historically obviously an incredibly important place in terms
of forging progress, like social progress. So like, you know,
the fact that it's still happening now is both discouraging
because we wish it wasn't, but equally, like you know,
you you it sounds like you've met a community people
that are really forging like a positive pathway there.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Oh yeah, well, and there'll always be people like that
in places like this and we'll never stop.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just twenty twenty four, in the kind of specter of
elections and whatnot, how does it make you feel about
how it's all going to kind of unfold?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, Jesus, next question?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Fair enough? Fair enough, we'd have to dedicate a whole
podcast to that, No doubt we are. I mean just
just sort of sticking on the theme of the kind
of of of what now and that sense of like
overwhelm and and you know, a world kind of slightly
out of control, there's the Maya Angelo poem that you
(26:07):
sample on the albums, really really resonant and a beautiful
moment in terms of the flow of the whole thing.
Wondered if you talk a little bit about the how
you first came across that piece, what you love about it,
and why you wanted to include it on the record,
and what the point of including on the record was.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Sure. So, I'm really inspired musically by people's voices. Sometimes
I can just hear someone speak and to me, it's
like music. So my Angelou has on those voices, I
consider it like this really beautiful fabric, you know. And
so I was cleaning my baseboards in my house and
(26:42):
I just had it on the loud speaker and it
would just as YouTube would play, like a bunch of
different speeches or people reading her poetry. And then it
started playing the speech she was given to United Nations,
and I was listening to what she was saying, and
I was like, oh wow, And I go to TV
and I'm watching it and I was just so incredibly
moved by it, like what she was saying and the
way I interpreted it was humans, you know, have always
(27:06):
been a destructive force, but we have so much potential
because we're also such a super creative force. Like when
we work together, we can just keep adapting and keep
inventing and keep building bridges, and it's just like incredible
what we could do. And I just thought it was
(27:27):
so courageous for her to talk to these nations, some
of which, like you know, who knows everybody has agendas
and she's sitting here just talking to them about something
so human. And I was like, you know, I just
really relate to that right now. It was during the
pandemic when I heard it, and obviously we had to
(27:48):
shelter in place and we couldn't touch each other or
see each other. And I was fine with it at first,
but then I started missing people, like even their shittiness,
like just you know, people cussing it each other and
just people people waving at each other and giving a
weird smile, just little things I didn't know i'd miss.
(28:11):
And I felt so inspired by her words and it
made me rethink on humanity, and so I just wanted
to sit down and kind of express myself. And you know,
I'm not as eloquent as her, but I was just like,
you know, I feel that way too. I feel that
way too, and so I wanted to put that on
(28:32):
the album, and I wanted you know, a lot of
people have heard that speech, but for those who haven't,
I just wanted to share that, and I just wanted
to make sure that they could check it out.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I also love the fact that it's sort of the
songs and almost kind of orbit around that moment as well.
It's a lovely, kind of like this little magnet in
the middle of the record, so like, yeah, it's such
a great touch.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, thank you, And what a gorgeous voice to sink
down into. Also very meditative.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I always loved the variety on the album, the fact
that like Prove It to You is like a massive
club banger, Like I just kind of I can't wait
to hear that song like in a festival field or
in a club, like it's sweaty basement club, Like what, Yeah,
that's the kind of thing that you wouldn't have been
able to put on an Alabama Shakes record, obviously, but
like what's yeah, what where did that song come from?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Listen? I don't know it's I started using this new software.
Usually I use Logic when I'm recording. This time, I
used reason. I never used it before, so I'm just
like messing around in it. And so I just started
making like a four on the floor beat and it
was super fun. And then I added all the elements
(29:43):
and I was like, I actually like this, this is
this is actually banging. And then I just started singing
and these words just started coming out, and then the
hook happened and I was like, man, this is this
is cool. And I didn't think that I would put
it on an album, but it just ended up on there.
I was like, I don't no, it still belongs. I
know it's out of left feel, but it still belongs.
(30:04):
And this is still me. You know, I'm not doing
anything that's not me. I love all this type of music.
I love the boiler room, I love house music. I
always have, and so why not try my hand at it?
Just very simply, just very simply try my hand at it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I reckon, you should make a whole album of like
of banging club anthems. It's it's so yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
That's a great idea. I should. I should. I could
be like Marshmallow, you know, like a put something on
my head. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I wanted to add that, I mean that what now.
The title track on the album as well, is such
a kind of a fantastic kind of moment, and it,
you know, so powerful, reminds me of so many amazing artists,
including people like Prints in terms of just the sounds
and there's the vibrancy of it, and it reminded me
that once upon a time you went and played at
(30:57):
Prince's house, Like twenty fifteen, Obama Shakes went and played
that right, went into Paisley Park, Like what how does
that happen? Like do you get an email from somebody
saying do you want to bring all of your kit
and come to Prince's house to play a show?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
So sort of we had played in Minneapolis at like
first half, and I think that's where Purple Rain was shot.
So some people from Princess I don't know crew came
to the show and they enjoyed the show. And I
don't know if someone asked Prince like, hey, they're good.
(31:35):
You know, I don't know what happened. But the next
thing we know, Prince's assistant is like calling and it's like, hey,
do you think that they could stay and do Paisley
Park tomorrow? And obviously we bent over backwards to make
that happen. And yeah, we get to the compound. There's
some rules like like no cussing and no eating of
(31:57):
meat and stuff like that, which you know, regrettably we
did break all them rolls. But what are you gonna go?
And then we waited around, you know, we did some
sound checking, and then Prince apparently was like, hey, Prince
would like to meet you guys. Did y'all want to
come back there? And so, like I was like, if
I'm going to be princes, everybody's going to be prince.
(32:18):
So like fifteen of us went back into his little
studio and there he was, and you know, he's just
like a you know, a small framed guy, and he
was running all beige and some and some natural linen toms.
I'll never forget them. He's wearning natural. And yeah, we
sat down on this couch, like shoved all of us
on this couch, and he was funny, like he was
(32:39):
a funny guy, and so we were like cutting up
and laughing and then he was like, well, I'd like
to play give me all love with you? What key
is it in? I was so shocked. I forgot what
key was in. I was like, ah, I was like,
I have no idea. I don't know. We'll figure it out.
We'll tell you at a later date, but yeah, please
hop up there and do it. So I'm in a
shock because like Prince is like number want in my household.
(33:00):
Like just from the time I even had ears, I
was listening to Prince and so it's showtime right fast forward,
it's showtime. We're playing that song and Prince isn't showing up.
He just hasn't shown up. And We're like, oh, no,
he changed his mind. And I'm like, oh. So we
get to the like the kind of bridge section where
(33:21):
the song changes right and we're playing it. We're playing it,
we're playing it, were playing it. He never shows up,
so we end the song. But then he does show up.
He jumps on the stage like it was nothing. It
must have been a six foot stage. He just leaps
in the air, and I was like what. He picks
up the guitar and he just starts he starts shredding.
So we started back up again and men, me and
(33:45):
Prince do that kind of like like we do like
a little double solo moment, and we probably up there
five minutes and it was incredible, like it was, he
played incredibly and then after it's all said and down,
the crowds going crazy, he jumps off the stage and
he kisses me on the cheek, jumps off the stage
and disappears into nothing like It's literally like he disappeared
(34:05):
in the thin air. And I was like, I was
just like what, he's a shape shifter. I swear, I
you know, I was like in my eyes, playing tricks
on me. He just disappeared, and you know, that was
the last I saw a prince. But he did call me.
After the show was all said and done, everybody's packed up,
We're getting on the bus and Trevor, his assistant, passes
(34:25):
me the cell phone and he's like, someone wants to
talk to you. And I go hello, and he goes, hey,
that was pretty fun, wasn't it. And it was like,
oh my god. I was like yeah, it was so fun.
I was like a little girl. I was like yeah.
And he was like, be checking your email becuse I'm
gonna get in touch with you because I want i
want to make some music with you. And I was
(34:46):
like yes, absolutely, And I checked my email, all of
my emails every day I checked the spam to junk
everything every day until the day I heard he passed away.
And you know, rest in power, Prince. And that's my
Prince story.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You know, it's such a good story. And you're right,
I mean Prince, I mean, he sadly passed like I
don't know, less than a year later than that show. Like,
what a shame you didn't get to go back to
the studio and make some music.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Ah, well, what's meant to be will be?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I suppose Yeah, And you definitely had your Prince moment.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, and that meant everything to me, being noticed by
somebody like that. To me, it was just the pinnacle.
There's a pinnacle.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, did you manage to get I know that? Like
your parents are super proud of everything that you've done,
Like I mean, you said that it was such a
big deal growing up like Prince in your household. Were
they there or were they there for that show? And
if they weren't, what did they make of it? When
you got to tell that story for the first time?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
My dad said, what everybody was super elated. Everybody was
super excited. Everybody was beside themselves. You know, it was
just like, oh my god, any player. Prints. Of course,
my dad tells everybody in the entire town. And it
was too so it wasn't like I could prepare, like Dad,
fly out here right now, you know, it was. It
was so short notice. But yeah, my dad's super proud
(36:12):
even to this day. Yeah, my dad tells it like
he was there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Oh, Betty does final couple of things before before I
let you go your solo work. I love it. And
it's so like exploratory and it's your opportunity to kind
of visit every different part of yourself and your kind
of like your musical interest. Like you're just saying, like
you you know, make a club banger. Yeah, great, stick
it on that. And honestly, yeah, you're right. It doesn't
feel out of place whatsoever. It's just like it's just
(36:38):
the flow of the thing. It just comes so like
in terms of music making going forward, do you kind
of like, do you ever imagine like doing an Alabama
Shakes thing again, or can you explore what you need
to explore by doing other things?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I don't know yet. You know. The whole thing is,
I'm very grateful that I was put on this earth
with the ability to kind of craft this talent of
singing and making music, and I've always been really grateful
for that, for the opportunity to do it on such
(37:15):
a level. And I just so I feel like my
job is to follow that creativity and that passion, and
I just go wherever it takes me. You know, I've
done a lot of different projects and I just go
whereever I'm receiving music. And so the way I see
it is, if I start thinking, like, oh, would be
(37:36):
really great to play with the guys again, I feel
like creatively drawn to do this, that's a conversation I
have with the guys and we'll figure it out from there.
But like, as of right now, it's just been like
this really amazing process of letting myself be seen and
be vulnerable and tell my story. And so I'm just
(37:56):
following that and I'm grateful that I receive that at all.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Inspired me to go out and do some fishing. I
feel like I need to do this. Now, what's your
top tip for getting started? If I wanted to go
and do some fly fishing? What shall I do? What
do I need? Where should I start?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And be honest with you, just go to a fly
fish outfitter. So like it's called fly fish and shop
and you say, hey, I'm really interested in learning how
to do this. They will just give you a guide
who will take you out. You will catch fish, and
you'll be able to tell if you like it. Night Like,
you can go do this thing on your own, but
it's just so much easier and more efficient if you
(38:32):
just get someone to help you. That's my advice, help tip.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Brittany, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
I really really enjoyed speaking to you, and I wish
you all the best for the months to come and
everything that's happening for you right now.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Oh, thank you so much. Me and Willy say thank
you for having us on. It's been a blast.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for Idio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
We are Midnight Chats pod.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
For more information, visit loudan Quiet dot com.
He kisses me on her cheek, jumps off the stage
and disappears into nothing like it's literally like you disappear
in with the air. And I was like, I was
just like, what, he's a shape shifter, I swear, you know,
I was like in my eyes, playing tricks on me.
He just disappeared, and you know that was the last
I saw.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Prince Evening folks, Welcome to Midnight Chats, the music interview
podcast for late night listening. My name is Greg Cochrane.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
I'm Stuart Stubbs, but that's completely irrelevant this evening because Greg,
you're the star of tonight's show along with Brittany Howard
is your guest. Tell me all about her.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yeah, well, listen to you, and you know that I
love a quote, right, and I love this quote from Adele.
You're familiar with Adele Nope? Okay. Well, she's a musician, Okay,
sold a lot of albums over the years, and she's
got this great quote about this evening's podcast guest, and
she says, there's something about Brittany that puts fire in
(00:57):
my soul. She's so fucking full of soul, overflowing, dripping
that almost can't handle it.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I think Adele said that about me at one point.
Actually as well, that sounds that does sound familiar. Imagine
having Adele say that about you.
Speaker 2 (01:12):
Adele needs to join in orderly queue because basically, so
many genius artists are a fan of Brittany Howard Tyler,
the creator, Childish Gambino, Kendrick Lamar, they are all huge
fans of hers. I mean, she's she's won five Grammys.
Like she she's like an artist artist. They absolutely love her.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
Or what I particularly like about this episode when I
heard it was how much of a laugh? It's she
seems the talker. But we're gonna put a link in
the below in the show notes for the kissy dolls
thing that you're talking about. I'm not going to say
any more than that that're pretty creepy. I've just been
looking at the site again. There's real hair on these dolts.
Now that's coming up. There's a lot in this, including
(01:56):
her love for fishing, which I don't think we've ever
had a fisher, fisher an angler on the show before.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
It is a first. Yeah, she's big into her angling.
As you're about to hear, I spoke to Brittany, she
was at home in Nashville when we spoke, and it
made the very depressing first week of January this year
a whole lot brighter. As you say. She's got amazing vibes,
great energy, and yeah, we've got to talk about fishing.
Got an a grade story about playing Prince's House, and
(02:26):
I wondered if Alabama Shakes would ever do anything else,
so I got to ask her about that too. One
extra thing I just wanted to add. Greg.
Speaker 3 (02:32):
Sorry, if you listen to this and you are one
of the people who sourced a convertible car for Britney
after her Madrid show, we are trying to find this
group of people she asked for a scooter. That was
it a scooter? I think it was a scooter.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
I think a moped or something a moped.
Speaker 3 (02:51):
They got a convertible car. If that is you, please
get in touch with the show, maybe via our socials.
We're at Midnight Chat's pod on Instagram.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
We want this to be the Talk with Madrid. We're
launching We're officially launching the investigation right here, right now.
Brittany's got a solo album, a recent solo album out
and it's the second one. It's called what now. It's
really really great. I urge you to go and check
it out. And also we talk a bit about a
poem and that's included on that album and it's by
Maya Angelo and the title of that poem is a
(03:20):
brave and Startling Truth. So yeah, let's hear from Brittany
Howard on Midnight Chats.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Oh, I'm doing great, Thanks for having me on. I'm
excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
In my preparation for speaking to you, there's something I
need to know more about. I'm currently on a website
called Kissy DOLESUSA direct dot com, which sounds like the
kind of thing that would get me banned from the Internet,
but I found out about this via your TikTok a
few weeks ago. It's hilarious and so scary. Can you
(03:55):
describe what I'm looking at and where it's come from.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Listen, listen, listen. And as the CEO of Kissy Dolls
USA Direct dot com, you know, there's not a lot
that I'm going to say about it, except that we
get very bored on a tour bus and we take
things too far.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
These creations just for people listening. Basically, they are like miniatures.
The dolls obviously, but that the what are they made
out of?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Well?
Speaker 2 (04:20):
Were they what's the material?
Speaker 1 (04:22):
I found this very unusual clay okay on Amazon dot Com.
It's it's it's the most unusual clay I've ever worked with.
I don't know what it's made out of, but we
just started messing with it and it became kissy dolls,
you know, like little clayheads. We put little wigs on
them and we paint them up, give them names, pop
them on the internet. There for self.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
I know there's literally a website store. I'm on it.
They're currently sold out. It's obviously very exclusive.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
Yeah, they're hit, They're hit.
Speaker 2 (04:51):
Yeah, they've all got all these dolls have got Uh,
they've got different names. My favorite one is Evelyn pec
Peeper Impact paper.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Yeah, that one, that's one of our first ones. Who created.
Zach Cockle is actually an artisan at the plant, and
uh that was that was one of his favorites. It
was hard to see her go.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
Tell me, is theyre going to be more a They're
going to be more kissy dos coming soon.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
To be determined, maybe not early this year. Could we
kind of had the plant shut down for over the holidays,
so it might take a while to get things started
back up.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
Yeah, fair enough that we know the demand is there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
Though, the demand is there, and you know, I'm not
gonna say like I'm not purposefully creating more demand.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
I'm going to post a link in the show notes
to to that thing so that anybody listened to this
feeling completely disorientated about what we're talking about can go
and check it out. But yeah, these dolls are They're
amazing and I was I was obsessed when I found.
Speaker 1 (05:51):
Them, and I knew this would follow me.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, exactly what have you started, Brittany? This is the
thing now, I mean sticking on kind of uh, the
social media and like going I was, you know, in
my preparation for speaking to you, obviously, was checking out
kind of what you've been up to. And your your
dogs Wilma and uh, Wilma and Wanda also make regular
appearances on your social media. Is that Wilma or Wonder?
(06:14):
I can see in the background, Oh, that's Willie. She's
probably chewing on an extension cable.
Speaker 1 (06:19):
Come here, don't do that. Here's Willy here say something
in the microphone.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Will Hey, everybody, they look so chilled? Is that is
that their personalities.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
No, no, no, one of them to turn it on
for the cameras. One of them's a puppy. As soon
as anybody's looking. She seems sweet, but she's a puppy.
And uh, it's been very difficult around here with her.
You know. She's a little dog. She likes to talk,
she likes to bark, she likes to be on the rugs.
(06:50):
So it's just been all hands on deck since I
got her. So put that on top of trying to
promote an album and trying to tour. What was I thinking,
I don't know, this is it.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
You're pep parent. It's a demanding thing.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
You know. I googled. I was like, what is the
worst breed to house train? And it said, uh, Docsin
miniature Docsin. Yeah, they got reputation, they have a reputation.
I didn't really know that. It was too late by
the time I found that out, but I'm experiencing that.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
I know. They always say, like, you're you're a keen angler, right,
you love to go fishing, and like do you how
often do you get out? And do you do you
take the dogs with you when you go?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
I cannot take Wanda. She has a high prey drive.
You know, she's also a little winy dog high prey drive,
and you know they were their bred to uh chase
and hunt small animals. A fish is a small animal,
and so I can't take her anywhere in near fish.
She has a fit. One time I was fishing, I
(07:47):
couldn't get the fish off of the hook fast enough.
She jumps like leaps in the air, lands on the hook.
Had to had to take her to the vet, huge
emergency vet bill. So she doesn't She's not allowed to
go at all anymore for her own safety. Wilma, she's new,
you know, I got I got her, and I haven't
taken her out fishing yet. We'll see how it goes.
(08:09):
But I do love fishing. I've been doing it since
I was probably like four or five years old. It's
just something I would do with my family and it's continued.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Yeah, my dad was a keen angler and I haven't
got to do it much, but I always have like
fund memories of going out with him when I was young,
and like just spending that like one to one time
with my parent, Like is that where it came from
for you as well? And is that like the enduring
passion of getting out to spend some time on your own,
a bit of thinking time.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah, you know, it's very grounding when you're out there
in nature. It just it's just kind of a reset,
I feel like. You know, for me, life can be
so hectic and it can feel very chaotic and never ending,
and you go out on the road and you're giving
(08:56):
a lot of energy, you're sleeping on a bus, you're sore,
and you come home and you just want to do
what I call is arriving, and you just want to
get back to yourself. And I found that fishing it's
a great way for me to do that. It's a
great way for me to reconnect to myself. And then
(09:17):
when I come back from the fishing trip, I feel
like a little bit more like I've arrived at home.
And I started fishing way back when, when my dad
and my mom used to fish for catfish a long
time ago, and it'd be like a picnic and we
sit out there and we spend time together and it
was really fun. And me and my dad continued that
tradition is just going out there and then sitting late
(09:38):
at night overnight sometimes to catch catfish. And I taught
him how to fish for bass. You know, all the
different techniques, and that's just something that makes us both
feel like little kids. And it's cool hanging out with
your parents, like having that kind of like inner child experience.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
Do you have any like top memories of going fishing,
like particular locations or particular fish that you've caught that
you still wow, like this is it doesn't get better
than this.
Speaker 1 (10:03):
I remember I was in Poland. I was like in
I think Warsaw and we had a day off and
I had asked the promoter at this festival, can you
take me fishing? And he thought it was hilarious. But
in Poland is a little different than America, like you
probably it's different from the United Kingdom as well. Like
here we have like public land you can just go
(10:25):
and fish. And there it's like you got like these
clubs or you have to ask for permission, okay, And
so we go to this club and had these giant
gates and we go through the skates and this place
is nice, like the landscaping was a ten out of ten.
And you go to the desk and check in and
I'm like, what the hell's going on here? And there's
this little guy. You know, they didn't think much about me.
(10:49):
They'd never seen somebody like me come in and ask
to go fishing, so to give me like a cane pole,
which is just a stick essentially with some corn, a
cane pole with some corn on a hook, and I'm
catching these little fish. I think they're calling him roach
catching his little tiny fish. And I was doing this
for about an hour and I turned around and look
at the guy and I was like, can so is
this bait? Or like what are we doing here? And
(11:11):
he started laughing and he's like, oh, you want to
catch real fish? Huh. I was like yeah. And you know,
we get in this little boat, this little plastic boat
to me and this guy, and this guy, I'm not
gonna say he was like he wasn't the kindest guy.
So we get in the boat. He passes me ride
and I'm nervous because this guy's like staring at me, like, oh,
(11:32):
she thinks she can catch a fish, So I like cast.
It was like a terrible cast. I was like embarrassed,
and he was like you could throw better than that.
She's like you're throwing like a girl. And I was like, okay,
Well where I'm from We don't say that no more,
but whatever, dude, and I cast it and I'm casting
out far, I let the lyric fall and I hook
(11:53):
into the biggest trout I've ever seen in my life.
It was, I mean, it must have been like thirty
inches long or something, I don't know, definitely a chunky,
chunky fish. And I look at this man's face and
he was looking at me in disbelief, in shock, and
I was like, oh yeah, buddy, I'm out here fishing.
You know what I'm saying. Howbit you didn't expect that?
And then we became best friends.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
I was gonna say, that's the glee. The feeling of
just like of that moment must have been so good.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
The glee is sharing that with a stranger. It was
a great memory. I'll never forget it.
Speaker 2 (12:22):
In terms of get into music. We spoke once before.
It was a long time ago, Alabama, Shakespeare in the UK,
paying your first shows here, so this was like I'm
gonna say, twenty eleven, twenty twelve must have been. And
I remember we talked a lot about this sort of
strange and exotic food that you'd encountered on that first
trip to Europe. You'd been when I spoke to You've
(12:44):
been eating snails in Paris, You've been eating hagis in Scotland.
And I wondered whether, like any of those things became
like culinary favorites of yours in the end.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
No, No, I remember that trip. I remember that trip,
coming to the UK the first time and bringing this
little digital camera that my managers had given me, and
I remember having just the best time. And I took
pictures of everything. I took pictures of the red telephone
booths and and I was asking for a crumpet. I
(13:17):
was like, give me a crumpet, Give me where can
I find a crumpet? And then I finally had the crumpet.
I was like, oh, you're like, this is just average. Yeah,
it was pretty average. Yeah, but I but I did
it my little scavenger hunt, a little English scavenger hunt. Yeah,
mush I had the mushy peas. I had the fish
and chips. I had some sort of like what some
(13:38):
some sort of vinegar sauce I'll be putting on stuff.
I had that too. Uh yeah, fond memories.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
I mean, what was what's your kind of like recollections
of that that period like generally, I mean literally a
few months before that, you're like still working jobs back home,
and then like you know, things start to move. You
know you're in the UK. Thing's probably pretty like overwhelming.
Like what your reflections on that period and the person
you were at that point.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean I was like I was like early twenties,
very young, so I had a lot of energy. I
was very excited to be going. I couldn't believe I
was like traveling the world. Never saw that coming for
my life, so I had eyes wide open. I wanted
to experience everything. I mean I remember being in Spain
(14:27):
and meeting these two people on the street and they
were like, we couldn't get tickets to your show. And
I was like, I'll give you a ticket. I'll give
you tickets to my show if you bring me a
moped after the show. And so like they're like, we will,
we will, we promise. So I give them the tickets.
I go out the back door after the show and
there's a convertible and I was like, this isn't a moped,
(14:47):
and they were like, well, it's the best we could do.
So I just hop in the car. We're just like
driving through Spain. At night. It was awesome. So I
just I had the best time. You know, I'd never
seen anything like it.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
Did you sort of lean into the adventure of it?
Like did you sort of think this might only happen once?
Like I'm gonna I'm gonna get into convertible with two
people I've just met and go and see Madrid. Whatever
it was.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
I was definitely like, not sure how long this is
gonna last. For I had high hopes and I was
willing to work really hard, but just living in a moment.
Like I said, I was like a young person and
we would stay out late and I mean we were
running amok. It was funny because like in Australia, we
were doing I think it's called Big Day Out so
(15:34):
traveling festival and so you travel around the whole country
and every night when the festival's over, they open up
a bar for the bands and the bands can go
to the bar and drink for free. And so we
go to the bar and uh, they quit serving us
after about the third bar. They were like, are y'all
album schicks? I was like, yeah we are, and they're like,
y'all gotta get out of here. We were showing out
(15:56):
we were showing out because I always tell people everybody's like, oh,
rock and roll bands, they must party so hard. No,
it's the soul bands, the soul bans. Something wrong with us.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
I know, yeah that I've been to that festival and
I've actually been in those bars, and like that is
drinking them dry is pretty impressive. Yeah, yeah, who was
with you? Who were the other because it's like that
big day out I don't think happens anymore. But it
was like a touring. It was the same lineup, wasn't
it that moved around different cities in Australia and New Zealand.
(16:26):
So who was out on with you at that time?
Did you imagine like persuade any other bands to come
drinking with you?
Speaker 1 (16:32):
I'm trying to remember so long ago, and I remember
Gay Clark Junior was there, Red Hat Chili Peppers was there.
I'm pretty sure, yeah, And it's kind of all I
can remember right now.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
It's obviously like a really exciting time for you. Right
now you're you know, you're sharing his second project under
your own name. It's called what Now. But I wanted
to reverse a couple of years if I may, and
I loved your album Jamie Really in twenty nineteen, and
a couple a couple of years later you released Jamie
Reimagined with where there was like a number of your
music peers reworked those songs in their own kind of
(17:12):
interpretations and in their own ways. That was people like
Bonnie Ver and Fred Again and Michael Kiwanuku and Childish Gambino,
so many amazing people. Those songs were really really personal
to you obviously, so what did you make of of
sort of handing them over to others to interpret them?
And we were there any of those that when they
came back to you for the first time, any of
those versions from other artists where you where you couldn't
(17:35):
believe what they've done with it.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I was so excited that people wanted to participate in
the project. I always love other creatives, and especially I
love how people hear different things. So it was just
like it was just like a like a like a
project of love. And I was just like, hey, do
you want to do you want to pick a song?
(17:58):
You want to try to like redo it? And a
lot of people said yes, And I remember all of them,
I think are fantastic. I remember specifically listening to Little
Dragons version of Presence, and there's this drum outro at
the end that I absolutely did not expect, and the
(18:20):
whole thing rises and gets to this like fever pitch,
and I just got I thought it was so cool
and I couldn't really have thought of that myself, and
that's the magic of the whole thing. And then also
I loved Michael keiwan Nuka's version of thirteenth century Medal,
absolutely insane, and also Bonavere's version of Short and Sweet
(18:41):
is still one of my favorites to this day. I'll
still sit down and listen to that. And yeah, I
just love what people did with it. I just think
it's such a cool thing to do.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Yeah, I left with Donald Glover did as well. I
thought it was yeh.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Oh, absolutely, ol Fred again, come on, everybody's brilliant. Everybody's brilliant.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
It's true, It's true. This song's was so personal, like
you didn't mind kind of like trusting him, putting him
in the hands of somebody else, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (19:06):
No, not at all. I didn't even give it a
second thought. Really. I was just like, these people are
all good. I can't wait to hear what they do.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
You've always received such like warm encouragement from like other musicians,
like throughout the years of doing this, like right across
the spectrum, like from literally like Adele to Tyler the Creator,
Chris Martin to Kendrick Lamar. What kind of what does
that sort of support mean to you when somebody speaks
highly of your work? Does it feel you in any
(19:33):
way or either kind of person that sort of just goes, oh,
that's nice, thanks very much, But you know, I'm just
doing my own thing.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
No, I think it's incredibly humbling because I'm all my
reaction is always like, oh my god, I didn't know
who I am. Like that's literally my reaction because I
don't know who's listening to what. I don't really know
how far my work's getting. That's not something I really
pay a lot of attention to. Like, I'm just here
trying to live a good, peaceful life, and then I
make music sometimes and then I'll put it out and
(20:02):
I'll support it, and I'll do all this work. And
it's just so amazing to me when people I respect
and look up to are doing the same thing with me,
and it just makes it so Yeah, encouraging is definitely
the word like so encouraging, Like, Okay, I'm on the
right path, I'm doing the right thing. I can still
do this, you know. And I just have high regard
for everyone you just listed, like I just think they're inspirations,
(20:27):
you know what I'm saying. Yeah, how incredible is that?
You know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (20:32):
And you got to play some shows with Kendrick Lamar
going back a couple of years. I reckon Kendrick Lamar
fly fishing Europe twenty twenty five. You should do that thing.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
All right? If Kendrick, here's this, like, listen, I'll meet
you where you are. We'll go fishing. We can talk
about meditation, we can play some flutes, we can hang out.
Speaker 2 (20:50):
That sounds like the kind of invitation he coverfus, Well,
I will see.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
He's a busy guy.
Speaker 2 (20:55):
And what about meditation? Is that you practice transcendental meditation?
Speaker 1 (20:59):
Is that right?
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:00):
I do? I do twice a day.
Speaker 2 (21:02):
And how has that come to develop for you? And
how does that help you? And how does that feed
into your mindset creative process.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Some people have brands that never stop. It's just an
endless barrage of thoughts and meaningless chatter. And then on
top of living in a world that's also chaotic and
full of information twenty four to seven, it can really
shortwire a lot of things. It just becomes incredibly overwhelming,
(21:29):
and you lose track of time and you forget important
things you're supposed to do, like it just can't catch up,
you know. And so I feel like with the Transcendental Meditation,
it's created a lot of space for me to have
more peace, like mentally, and of course if you have
peace there, everything else spreads from that. And it's just
(21:51):
made me a kinder, more patient person with more capacity
just for the world in general and all the people
and puppies in it.
Speaker 2 (22:01):
Yeah, just think about the puppies. It's I mean, the
album What Now, it's kind of I love the quote
that you gave about it, which is just like we
all feel like we're in a some of us feel
like we're in a world just trying to hang on
to our soul, like we're just sort of gripping on
just thinking like what can go wrong next basically, and
then it sort of comes with this sense of like
(22:21):
existential dread, and you know, and that can feel like
a bit of a downward spiral.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
I guess.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
So I wondered, like, how have you if it's been
like that for a few years, right, Like? And I
wondered day to day, like how are you with that?
With that stuff? Do you, like, do you find yourself
scrolling on your phone like doom scrolling looking at the
bad news? Do you find yourself like having to just
like not do that, like, just put that aside. I'm
gonna not engage sometimes for the benefit of my own sanity.
(22:52):
What do you do with all of that stuff?
Speaker 1 (22:54):
What do I do with all of it? It depends, No,
I do not do scroll. In fact, I have a
pretty healthy relationship with my phone. I don't know where
it is most of the time. That's good, that's a
good thing. I think what's more important than cell phones
is personal relationships. And if one of my friends comes
(23:15):
to me and they're really disturbed by something going on
in the world, we'll talk about it. And sometimes you
can feel very helpless and powerless living in this world
and being seeing all the news from so far away
of really terrible, awful things happening. All I can do
is support my friends sometimes sometimes you know, not all
the time, but sometimes it's like the people around me
(23:38):
who are scared need love and I am blessed to
be able to provide that. And sometimes it's just the
things around us. It's the only things we can control.
And I lean into that and that sometimes that's all
you got. And on the other hand, sometimes you can
do more. And when I'm I find the opportun tunity
(24:00):
to do that, I'll also lean into that. Especially in
my community. We got a lot of stuff going on
just here where I'm from as far as trans rights go,
and also some jerry mandering, and that's stuff that I'm
able to contribute to, and I do do that because
I just want for everybody to live a peaceful life,
you know what I mean?
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Yeah, definitely. What's the kind of sense there? Have you
been able to join some marches and things like that
around the trans rights in the in the region?
Speaker 1 (24:27):
Oh, for sure, there's there are marches, and there's also
just a lot of community outreach that we have here,
and there's a lot of lawyers who do really really
good work that you're able to support. And also as musicians,
we get together and we put on this huge concert
(24:50):
here it was last year to raise money and to
support to support each other in the LGBTQ community, and
im I feel really lucky to be here surrounded by
people like that because it is Tennessee and it is
the South, and it is slow for progress, but there's
still people here on the ground that are taking care
of each other.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
Yeah, and historically obviously an incredibly important place in terms
of forging progress, like social progress. So like, you know,
the fact that it's still happening now is both discouraging
because we wish it wasn't, but equally, like you know,
you you it sounds like you've met a community people
that are really forging like a positive pathway there.
Speaker 1 (25:28):
Oh yeah, well, and there'll always be people like that
in places like this and we'll never stop.
Speaker 2 (25:33):
Just twenty twenty four, in the kind of specter of
elections and whatnot, how does it make you feel about
how it's all going to kind of unfold?
Speaker 1 (25:42):
Well, Jesus, next question?
Speaker 2 (25:45):
Fair enough? Fair enough, we'd have to dedicate a whole
podcast to that, No doubt we are. I mean just
just sort of sticking on the theme of the kind
of of of what now and that sense of like
overwhelm and and you know, a world kind of slightly
out of control, there's the Maya Angelo poem that you
(26:07):
sample on the albums, really really resonant and a beautiful
moment in terms of the flow of the whole thing.
Wondered if you talk a little bit about the how
you first came across that piece, what you love about it,
and why you wanted to include it on the record,
and what the point of including on the record was.
Speaker 1 (26:22):
Sure. So, I'm really inspired musically by people's voices. Sometimes
I can just hear someone speak and to me, it's
like music. So my Angelou has on those voices, I
consider it like this really beautiful fabric, you know. And
so I was cleaning my baseboards in my house and
(26:42):
I just had it on the loud speaker and it
would just as YouTube would play, like a bunch of
different speeches or people reading her poetry. And then it
started playing the speech she was given to United Nations,
and I was listening to what she was saying, and
I was like, oh wow, And I go to TV
and I'm watching it and I was just so incredibly
moved by it, like what she was saying and the
way I interpreted it was humans, you know, have always
(27:06):
been a destructive force, but we have so much potential
because we're also such a super creative force. Like when
we work together, we can just keep adapting and keep
inventing and keep building bridges, and it's just like incredible
what we could do. And I just thought it was
(27:27):
so courageous for her to talk to these nations, some
of which, like you know, who knows everybody has agendas
and she's sitting here just talking to them about something
so human. And I was like, you know, I just
really relate to that right now. It was during the
pandemic when I heard it, and obviously we had to
(27:48):
shelter in place and we couldn't touch each other or
see each other. And I was fine with it at first,
but then I started missing people, like even their shittiness,
like just you know, people cussing it each other and
just people people waving at each other and giving a
weird smile, just little things I didn't know i'd miss.
(28:11):
And I felt so inspired by her words and it
made me rethink on humanity, and so I just wanted
to sit down and kind of express myself. And you know,
I'm not as eloquent as her, but I was just like,
you know, I feel that way too. I feel that
way too, and so I wanted to put that on
(28:32):
the album, and I wanted you know, a lot of
people have heard that speech, but for those who haven't,
I just wanted to share that, and I just wanted
to make sure that they could check it out.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I also love the fact that it's sort of the
songs and almost kind of orbit around that moment as well.
It's a lovely, kind of like this little magnet in
the middle of the record, so like, yeah, it's such
a great touch.
Speaker 1 (28:52):
Yeah, thank you, And what a gorgeous voice to sink
down into. Also very meditative.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
I always loved the variety on the album, the fact
that like Prove It to You is like a massive
club banger, Like I just kind of I can't wait
to hear that song like in a festival field or
in a club, like it's sweaty basement club, Like what, Yeah,
that's the kind of thing that you wouldn't have been
able to put on an Alabama Shakes record, obviously, but
like what's yeah, what where did that song come from?
Speaker 1 (29:22):
Listen? I don't know it's I started using this new software.
Usually I use Logic when I'm recording. This time, I
used reason. I never used it before, so I'm just
like messing around in it. And so I just started
making like a four on the floor beat and it
was super fun. And then I added all the elements
(29:43):
and I was like, I actually like this, this is
this is actually banging. And then I just started singing
and these words just started coming out, and then the
hook happened and I was like, man, this is this
is cool. And I didn't think that I would put
it on an album, but it just ended up on there.
I was like, I don't no, it still belongs. I
know it's out of left feel, but it still belongs.
(30:04):
And this is still me. You know, I'm not doing
anything that's not me. I love all this type of music.
I love the boiler room, I love house music. I
always have, and so why not try my hand at it?
Just very simply, just very simply try my hand at it.
Speaker 2 (30:19):
I reckon, you should make a whole album of like
of banging club anthems. It's it's so yeah, it's so good.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
That's a great idea. I should. I should. I could
be like Marshmallow, you know, like a put something on
my head. I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:36):
I wanted to add that, I mean that what now.
The title track on the album as well, is such
a kind of a fantastic kind of moment, and it,
you know, so powerful, reminds me of so many amazing artists,
including people like Prints in terms of just the sounds
and there's the vibrancy of it, and it reminded me
that once upon a time you went and played at
(30:57):
Prince's house, Like twenty fifteen, Obama Shakes went and played
that right, went into Paisley Park, Like what how does
that happen? Like do you get an email from somebody
saying do you want to bring all of your kit
and come to Prince's house to play a show?
Speaker 1 (31:13):
So sort of we had played in Minneapolis at like
first half, and I think that's where Purple Rain was shot.
So some people from Princess I don't know crew came
to the show and they enjoyed the show. And I
don't know if someone asked Prince like, hey, they're good.
(31:35):
You know, I don't know what happened. But the next
thing we know, Prince's assistant is like calling and it's like, hey,
do you think that they could stay and do Paisley
Park tomorrow? And obviously we bent over backwards to make
that happen. And yeah, we get to the compound. There's
some rules like like no cussing and no eating of
(31:57):
meat and stuff like that, which you know, regrettably we
did break all them rolls. But what are you gonna go?
And then we waited around, you know, we did some
sound checking, and then Prince apparently was like, hey, Prince
would like to meet you guys. Did y'all want to
come back there? And so, like I was like, if
I'm going to be princes, everybody's going to be prince.
(32:18):
So like fifteen of us went back into his little
studio and there he was, and you know, he's just
like a you know, a small framed guy, and he
was running all beige and some and some natural linen toms.
I'll never forget them. He's wearning natural. And yeah, we
sat down on this couch, like shoved all of us
on this couch, and he was funny, like he was
(32:39):
a funny guy, and so we were like cutting up
and laughing and then he was like, well, I'd like
to play give me all love with you? What key
is it in? I was so shocked. I forgot what
key was in. I was like, ah, I was like,
I have no idea. I don't know. We'll figure it out.
We'll tell you at a later date, but yeah, please
hop up there and do it. So I'm in a
shock because like Prince is like number want in my household.
(33:00):
Like just from the time I even had ears, I
was listening to Prince and so it's showtime right fast forward,
it's showtime. We're playing that song and Prince isn't showing up.
He just hasn't shown up. And We're like, oh, no,
he changed his mind. And I'm like, oh. So we
get to the like the kind of bridge section where
(33:21):
the song changes right and we're playing it. We're playing it,
we're playing it, were playing it. He never shows up,
so we end the song. But then he does show up.
He jumps on the stage like it was nothing. It
must have been a six foot stage. He just leaps
in the air, and I was like what. He picks
up the guitar and he just starts he starts shredding.
So we started back up again and men, me and
(33:45):
Prince do that kind of like like we do like
a little double solo moment, and we probably up there
five minutes and it was incredible, like it was, he
played incredibly and then after it's all said and down,
the crowds going crazy, he jumps off the stage and
he kisses me on the cheek, jumps off the stage
and disappears into nothing like It's literally like he disappeared
(34:05):
in the thin air. And I was like, I was
just like what, he's a shape shifter. I swear, I
you know, I was like in my eyes, playing tricks
on me. He just disappeared, and you know, that was
the last I saw a prince. But he did call me.
After the show was all said and done, everybody's packed up,
We're getting on the bus and Trevor, his assistant, passes
(34:25):
me the cell phone and he's like, someone wants to
talk to you. And I go hello, and he goes, hey,
that was pretty fun, wasn't it. And it was like,
oh my god. I was like yeah, it was so fun.
I was like a little girl. I was like yeah.
And he was like, be checking your email becuse I'm
gonna get in touch with you because I want i
want to make some music with you. And I was
(34:46):
like yes, absolutely, And I checked my email, all of
my emails every day I checked the spam to junk
everything every day until the day I heard he passed away.
And you know, rest in power, Prince. And that's my
Prince story.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
You know, it's such a good story. And you're right,
I mean Prince, I mean, he sadly passed like I
don't know, less than a year later than that show. Like,
what a shame you didn't get to go back to
the studio and make some music.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Ah, well, what's meant to be will be?
Speaker 2 (35:21):
I suppose Yeah, And you definitely had your Prince moment.
Speaker 1 (35:26):
Yeah, and that meant everything to me, being noticed by
somebody like that. To me, it was just the pinnacle.
There's a pinnacle.
Speaker 2 (35:34):
Yeah, did you manage to get I know that? Like
your parents are super proud of everything that you've done,
Like I mean, you said that it was such a
big deal growing up like Prince in your household. Were
they there or were they there for that show? And
if they weren't, what did they make of it? When
you got to tell that story for the first time?
Speaker 1 (35:50):
My dad said, what everybody was super elated. Everybody was
super excited. Everybody was beside themselves. You know, it was
just like, oh my god, any player. Prints. Of course,
my dad tells everybody in the entire town. And it
was too so it wasn't like I could prepare, like Dad,
fly out here right now, you know, it was. It
was so short notice. But yeah, my dad's super proud
(36:12):
even to this day. Yeah, my dad tells it like
he was there. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:16):
Oh, Betty does final couple of things before before I
let you go your solo work. I love it. And
it's so like exploratory and it's your opportunity to kind
of visit every different part of yourself and your kind
of like your musical interest. Like you're just saying, like
you you know, make a club banger. Yeah, great, stick
it on that. And honestly, yeah, you're right. It doesn't
feel out of place whatsoever. It's just like it's just
(36:38):
the flow of the thing. It just comes so like
in terms of music making going forward, do you kind
of like, do you ever imagine like doing an Alabama
Shakes thing again, or can you explore what you need
to explore by doing other things?
Speaker 1 (36:54):
I don't know yet. You know. The whole thing is,
I'm very grateful that I was put on this earth
with the ability to kind of craft this talent of
singing and making music, and I've always been really grateful
for that, for the opportunity to do it on such
(37:15):
a level. And I just so I feel like my
job is to follow that creativity and that passion, and
I just go wherever it takes me. You know, I've
done a lot of different projects and I just go
whereever I'm receiving music. And so the way I see
it is, if I start thinking, like, oh, would be
(37:36):
really great to play with the guys again, I feel
like creatively drawn to do this, that's a conversation I
have with the guys and we'll figure it out from there.
But like, as of right now, it's just been like
this really amazing process of letting myself be seen and
be vulnerable and tell my story. And so I'm just
(37:56):
following that and I'm grateful that I receive that at all.
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Inspired me to go out and do some fishing. I
feel like I need to do this. Now, what's your
top tip for getting started? If I wanted to go
and do some fly fishing? What shall I do? What
do I need? Where should I start?
Speaker 1 (38:11):
And be honest with you, just go to a fly
fish outfitter. So like it's called fly fish and shop
and you say, hey, I'm really interested in learning how
to do this. They will just give you a guide
who will take you out. You will catch fish, and
you'll be able to tell if you like it. Night Like,
you can go do this thing on your own, but
it's just so much easier and more efficient if you
(38:32):
just get someone to help you. That's my advice, help tip.
Speaker 2 (38:36):
Brittany, thank you so much for coming on the podcast.
I really really enjoyed speaking to you, and I wish
you all the best for the months to come and
everything that's happening for you right now.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
Oh, thank you so much. Me and Willy say thank
you for having us on. It's been a blast.
Speaker 2 (38:55):
Midnight Chats is a joint production between Loud and Quiet
and Atomized Studios for Idio. It's hosted by Stuart Stubbs
and Greg Cochrane, mixed and mastered by Flow Lines, and
edited by Stuart Stubbs. Find us on Instagram and TikTok
to watch clips from our recordings and much much more.
We are Midnight Chats pod.
Speaker 3 (39:14):
For more information, visit loudan Quiet dot com.
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