July 17, 2025 • 54 mins
It’s nearly impossible to pigeon-hole Brittany Davis musically, and you’ll hear why during this interview. Brittany is nothing short of a force of nature and her perspective on music, creativity and life in general. Whether you know Brittany’s work or not, this is an interview not to miss. To listen / watch: Audio-only: click on...
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(00:00):
because I can't see black or white, but when I touch the piano, it's our one instrument.
you
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
(00:23):
I've just had the honor and privilege of spending close to an hour with the sublimeBrittany Davis.
If you're unaware of Brittany's work, if ever there was a time to make sure you do checkout show notes, it's now and very, very highly recommend you check out Brittany's albums,
their work.
There's just so much with Painted Shield.
(00:46):
There's just so much to love here.
And as you'll hear and see in our interview with Brittany, their approach to creativity,there is just so much to like.
And it was an art of privilege speaking with them.
And I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.
So yeah, jump in and I'll talk to you at the end of the show.
(01:18):
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
How are you doing this fine evening?
I'm doing great, I'm doing great.
I'm really excited to speak with you.
And I thought we'd kick off with just talking about this amazing album of yours, BlackThunder.
I'd love to just start um talking, if you want to tell us about your experience inrecording that.
(01:39):
And I particularly want to call out, know your collaborators, Evan and Devon.
The press release mentioned that you guys barely knew each other before recording.
So I'm really interested in just your thoughts on how the recording went.
and getting to know each other as musicians and then putting together this amazing set ofsongs.
(01:59):
Well, one thing, know, Evan, Devine and I, I know we move around the city of Seattle and alot of other places, but like, just sitting down and making a whole album, like, we really
didn't plan that out.
It was really a impactful, like, emotional thing for me because I'm like, these guys areplaying music that I know in my spirit, but I don't know stylistically.
(02:28):
I don't know all the ins and outs of everything, but just recording with them was justlike a dream.
like having the freedom to just do whatever because we don't have the roadmaps when we'reimprovisational, it just takes it to a whole nother level and allows for the imagination
and creativity to really flow between all of us.
(02:52):
And getting to know them and hearing their stories and...
what makes them tick musically and sonically.
was just really interesting and it was powerful.
That's great.
And how long did it take when you first caught up with the other two where you felt likeyou had a rapport and that things were coming together for you musically to record?
(03:14):
Well, I feel like we just kind of started off with something like it.
The chemistry just built and built.
It just kind of felt like it was.
It was something I don't know.
Like I played a lot with Devon Evans, but Evan Floyd Barnes, I hadn't had a lot ofplaytime with him, but like he just stepped right in there.
(03:39):
As a matter of fact, when we started the process, it was just Devon and I.
And oh the engineer and co-producer, Josh Evans, was like, hey, let's get Evan in here.
This is getting good.
Let's see where this goes.
And we added Ev in, and it was just another layer of chemistry that's on top of what wewere already doing.
(04:04):
yeah, it was pretty gritty and just straight to the point.
was just like, boom.
It was lightning in a bottle, as a lot of people call it.
Yeah, actually that's a great analogy.
And so I'm really keen to explore that a bit further with the songs on the album.
So I've had the pleasure of listening to the album and I want, there was some, mean, thewhole thing is amazing, but I just wanted to call out three particular parts.
(04:32):
So firstly are those short pieces, the eight ancestors pieces that go throughout thealbum.
Just love them to bits.
Just tell us a little bit about how...
where the initial one came from because they're all variations on an amazing theme.
Just tell us about how those ancestor short pieces came together.
So the ancestor short pieces are the paths between the songs and they actually representthe power of unity, the power of a witness, the power of an origin.
(05:07):
How an album doesn't need to come from some mapped out produced plan all the time, but itcan come from a place of an origin.
or originate from a place that doesn't have to do with physicality at all.
Maybe it's something that's just straight up spiritual.
(05:28):
And when I was creating those ancestor sounds, they were the accompaniment to a song onthe album known as Sarah's Song.
And it was talking, it was basically the witnesses of the atrocities that happened to thisblack and slaves woman and
She is being heralded by these ancestors for being not only strong and resilient, butherself, even in the midst of these things.
(05:58):
And that she's not being kept a secret, but the story is being told and there's being acall to justice on her behalf.
And I think that that's what this music is for me.
It's a call to justice.
And so I was like, I need to put something in between these songs.
not only to give them meaning, to give them a witness.
(06:21):
And the ancestors from Sarah's song just seemed to do the tricks.
So we did a lot of different layers of those.
And we just, made it, we made it big.
We made it a whole witness, you know, a witness section, an origin section.
Yeah, it is absolutely amazing and yeah, it certainly has a huge amount of power.
(06:43):
So I love those to bits.
And um the other three songs I wanted to explore and I'd happily probably explore everytrack, but Mirrors was another one that totally stood out to me.
Just really had a big impact on me.
Just tell us again about your experience recording that and the inspiration behind thatone for you.
(07:03):
Well, one thing about Mirrors is that I love roads.
oh And so I'm just sitting behind this Whirlie and I'm just like, I'm feeling one with itat this point, it's like the second day.
And I'm just feeling the power of the Whirlie, just, you know, the way the air is movingthrough the cabinet, the way the Leslie is moving, the way that, you know, the tremolo is
(07:30):
moving, the way that
We mic'd the room the way that I'm sounding in the headphones and just these chords cometo me and Divine just starts to play and Evan on electric bass on that one really brought
out the power in it.
But the, you know, the simplicity and the delicate nature of the song just came out ofthat chemistry and out of that, out of that kind of the birthing place of all of that.
(08:00):
you know, just gentility but power with those three instruments working together.
And I just, I remember feeling vulnerable like that my whole life.
Like, Mirrors is a song talking about how as a woman and especially as a blind woman, Ifeel like a beautiful person, but I'm afraid to believe it based on what people say.
(08:29):
And some people say I'm beautiful, some people say I'm not.
And I don't know what to believe.
And this girl in the song is looking in these mirrors and it's like, she can't findherself, but she knows who she is in herself.
But in the mirrors, she can't see herself.
(08:51):
She can't find who she is on the inside, on the outside.
And...
She's not able to recognize the power of what it is that she brings to the table becauseall she's being given to source that power out is these mirrors.
And none of them look like her.
(09:12):
None of them give her the proper bearing that she knows that she is within.
And there's a part in the song where I'm like, these are the fears that we share.
These are the...
You know, these are the mirrors that we've been given.
You know, we're not tall enough.
We're not small enough.
We're not rich enough.
don't, we don't vote enough.
(09:35):
We don't scare enough.
We don't stare.
You know, all these different things that we're afraid that we're not.
And getting caught up in those snares and those false mirrors and what it means to have animage or a self-bearing image or a world-bearing image, which is really powerful to me.
because I don't have either.
(09:55):
I don't have the ability to compare myself to other people to know what they look like orwhat I look like or any of that because I'm constantly growing through myself with
expression.
I'm not doing that with sight.
All I have is what I express sonically or physically.
(10:20):
Yeah, beautifully pushed.
No, I couldn't agree more.
Yeah, look, for our viewers and listeners, every single song on this album is worth theprice of admission.
Mirrors, said, particularly one that had an impact on me.
the other two, Britney, I was absolutely loved amongst them all was Girl Don't You Knowand then Girl Now We're The Same.
(10:41):
Now, I don't want to assume.
that they're related, but I'm just fascinated by both those songs.
So starting with Girl Don't You Know, again, the process for that one.
So when it comes to Girl Don't You Know and Girl, we're both the same type of deal.
We're looking at the impact of time and space within the social construct of colorism orinterpretation of colorism.
(11:13):
And we're diverging, again, down that path of
mirrors.
What are we looking into?
You know?
I wear white gloves, your hands are bit, you know what I'm saying?
I wear white gloves, your skin is fair.
(11:35):
It's really something that dismisses the person and puts you in the place of likeobjectification.
And the girl don't you know is actually it's in reverse.
(11:55):
It's...
Girl, don't you know all of these things about yourself that are actually not good?
Things that actually break you and have left you broken.
So those are the things that are left after we're both the same.
We're so different, but now we're the same because it actually translates from...
(12:20):
your hands, your skin, the color, what I have, what you don't have, what I don't have, butwe still have the same thing.
We still have the same type of muscle or groups of muscles keeping us alive.
We still live on the same planet, but we have lost the power and what it means to actuallybe the same thing because we perceive more of the differences.
(12:50):
than we ever do the things that actually make us exactly the same.
And because of that, we get to a girl don't you know stage where we start talking abouthow bad our skin is, how bad our teeth are, how bad our family is, all of these different
things.
And mothers start berating their daughters for not following their footsteps becausethey're afraid of their daughters getting beat up out here in this world.
(13:17):
And they wouldn't have had that fear had we not
falling into objectivity and just objectification in general.
And I think, you know, that's one of the biggest problems with racism is kind of the grossnegligence and the power of, you know, objectification.
(13:40):
That's where it all starts, is when you start looking at skin and not within.
Exactly.
Beautifully put again.
And Brittany, with Girl now we're the same.
I mean, one of the many brilliant lyrics in there is I am a black key, you are a whitekey.
That's OK.
We can make chords.
And you certainly bring that theme through in that song as well, don't you?
(14:01):
That's really something that I've always played with in my mind because I can't see blackor white.
But when I touch the piano, it's a one instrument and it has one uniform growth anddevelopment for me, which is it is a language.
It is a lifestyle.
(14:22):
And so when I think about black and white, I'm not thinking about the keys or even therace.
I'm thinking about
the gray, the unified, the beginning before time.
I'm thinking about what it means to be tied together by things that, I mean, it doesn'tmatter.
If you were a black person or white person in the 1800s, y'all both was in the 1800s.
(14:49):
If you're black, white, mixed, whatever you are in 2025, you're here together in 2025.
You are a part of
the gray matter that makes today or the now possible.
And so when I think of the black and white key, I think of the primordial, you know, chaosthat is the beginning of all things that we're all a part of and refuse by any means
(15:16):
necessary to acknowledge even in the fullness and the industriousness of how we existtoday.
Yeah, exactly.
again, brilliant.
um And I mean, obviously this is not even far from your first album, a long way off yourfirst album, Brittany.
(15:38):
I do want to talk about your first solo album, Image Issues as well.
just even probably starting off, what was, how different was recording Black Thunder tothat first album as far as your development as an artist and your maturity and so on?
Did it feel like two different processes or a continuation from that first album?
(15:59):
I have to be really clear when I say this.
I always tell people that music is my first language.
So it doesn't matter what kind of style you hear.
I'm always speaking the music language.
And so it's never a different project.
(16:20):
It's just a different conversation.
And the language stays the same.
I could speak English softly or could yell it at you, but it's still English.
oh And one of the things that image issues is it's a yell.
(16:40):
It is a very thought out, very produced, incantation of the broken pieces, the loop backs,the over-processing, you know, that comes with being in a world that requires sight
without
the visual organs.
(17:02):
And I can't put in the words what image issues and Black Thunder have that separate them.
But what I can say is that when they speak, they speak the same language.
They have the same narrative.
It's just a different narrator.
(17:23):
It's me saying as a blind person in image issues, I'm saying
These are the things that are happening in me.
And in this Black Thunder album, I guess what I feel like I'm saying, the narratorchanges.
It's just like us, us.
This is what is happening with us.
(17:46):
And now I realize that I'm a part of that.
That's bigger than even my own problems.
That's a great, yeah, great perspective.
And that's, yeah, you're right.
There is a really distinct difference there.
And so looking back on those amazing tracks on the first album, which is you, as you said,it's one language and it's not a matter of them being different.
(18:11):
But I mean, things like Love I'm Sick, I love the treadmill sequence of tracks.
uh It's just, I just love all that stuff to bits.
Just looking back, does it stay together for you as a coherent?
entity as far as you look back and I assume you're still very proud of that album becauseit's an amazing album.
(18:31):
Yeah, that was definitely soul therapy.
oh I got up on that operating table and really let a lot out.
Stuff that I probably have never said before and probably never will say again is on thatalbum, Image of Shoes.
And the reason is because I see it all the time.
(18:55):
People are speaking.
They're speaking sweet nothings into the ears of our consumer, which makes money, but itdoesn't create legacy.
It doesn't create depth.
It doesn't create any type of fullness in the mind.
(19:21):
And it makes it easy to stop and just be there and...
The nonsense, honestly, the nonsense.
And I'm not talking about the musicians.
I'm talking about the interpretation.
It's easy to be still when there's so much music that allows you to be who you think youwant to be because they're selling that to you.
(19:49):
And I think with image issues, I was like, I know they're not going to fully accept this.
But this is literally what we need to get to in order to impactfully state the obviouswithout being, I don't know, some kind of conscious rapper or something.
(20:14):
Love it.
Conscious.
Yeah, that's, that's a really great point.
No, that's, that's superb.
Thank you.
And then, um, just because you have nothing else to do, Brittany, you're also part of anamazing super group, Painted Shield.
You've got three albums out as part of that group.
Just tell us about, and I know I've read many interviews where you're quoted as being, youknow, one of the key secret source of that group being as successful as it is.
(20:40):
Just tell us about how you came to be part of that group and.
and what different experiences that brings for you.
So for me, P.S., it's just like, it's home.
I don't have any kind of fear or trepidation about.
(21:05):
playing with these guys and these are some of the most legendary names out here.
It's an honor to play with Stone Gosling and Matt Chamberlain and to sing with MasonJennings.
These guys are not small fries, but for me, feel like else.
(21:27):
They're like, again, they're like my witnesses.
They're like my origins.
The same way I was talking about the ancestors, they're like that for me.
They're my cheerleaders.
And I don't I don't feel I'm an integral part of it.
I feel like it's just all of us together.
(21:52):
Are you still there, Brittany?
You just dropped out.
mean, I think you're back now.
think I can see you there.
Yeah, that was good.
Yeah.
No.
it just, sometimes that happens.
It's great.
oh No, no, that's okay.
No problem at all.
So you were just saying how you don't feel particularly special with, with PS, but that,you know, they're all just there.
So just feel free to pick up that thread of conversation.
(22:14):
I can easily edit that together.
Sorry about that.
Well, no, with P.S.
I feel like they're really, they're home to me and their exposure to different types ofmusic for me is really like just, it's eye-opening for me to say the least, you know, for
(22:37):
lack of a better term.
It's eye-opening for me to be able to feel like even with these guys, with these names,
I can be at home and I can trust that what we do together is so powerful because it's us.
I know that I say I'm integral, but I'm not.
(22:57):
I'm just a piece of the pie.
just, maybe I'm the crust or maybe I'm the filling or different fruits or whatever, butI'm not integral.
I don't feel like that.
I feel like they're part of my heart.
So I don't think of them like, these big guys and I got to perform and this is what, youknow, like, no, these guys are right here with me.
(23:24):
We get in rehearsals and we have to like stop ourselves from grooving up stuff.
It's just great.
That is amazing and I assume then you, none of you are going anywhere.
I assume we can look forward to even more albums.
Come on, we gonna do more out there.
Yeah, bring it on.
That's amazing.
No, thank you.
(23:44):
And we'll definitely be linking to obviously both your albums and the PS stuff in our shownotes.
it's, yeah, I can't begin to emphasize as listeners and viewers that aren't aware ofBrittany's work.
It's all absolutely amazing to listen to.
Now I do want to briefly, Brittany Cover, you've been interviewed repeatedly about
your creativity and your experience of synesthesia and so on.
(24:07):
So I'll only ask one question on that because it is well documented.
But when you are in the process of creating new music, and as you've said, it's acontinuum, it's not as if they're all different pieces.
uh Has that ability changed over time as far as your approach to creativity?
You know, how do you...
(24:29):
It's such a hard question to ask.
is it a fire hose that you're taking a drink from here and there or it has changed overtime how you create music?
Well, sometimes I dream music and wake up and make it.
Sometimes I just lay down.
I don't make music.
(24:50):
I let it make itself.
I play.
That's all I do.
play.
just, and I mean not instrument.
I just play.
I'm a kid.
I like to play and mess stuff up and break it.
And that's how I make my music.
I know what I was saying.
(25:11):
I love, I just love it when things break.
Cause that's the glue that brings it all out, right?
When you're not thinking about how it's made,
or what it's made out of, this why and this where, where was it made?
(25:34):
I'm standing in the grocery store and I hear a cart and it's just one wheel and it makesone sound and it doesn't make it again.
It's not a repeated sound, but just the sound of that wheel creates a
like a pause in my thought and it clicks and I continue myself down that aisle.
(26:03):
I'm moving and I'm threading these sounds together in my mind just like I would produce ina track.
And a woman drops a jug of milk and she says, oh my gosh, you know, and you hear it andyou feel the movement under your feet.
It's in the air, it's electric, it's the ohms, it's the hertz, baby, it's everything.
(26:27):
It's everywhere.
And so when I'm making the music, it's not what or even, I don't know how to explain it.
It's literally like, it's everything that I am and everything that I do or don't do.
(26:49):
It's just.
Yeah, it's quiet.
It's quiet and it's loud.
I know it's crazy.
But it's, it's not a place for me that I go or any well that I dig from and like go, oh,well, these kind of notes go here.
And I'm just like, no, I don't know.
I don't know what goes anywhere.
Turn it on.
Let's see what happens.
(27:10):
Screech.
Oh, that was that.
That was interesting.
That absolutely makes sense, Brittany.
how do you, aside from, obviously do get to spend a bit of time and you've got obviouslysome brilliant keyboards and recording equipment there.
Is it just a matter of you record most things um as they come to mind or like what makesyou choose what you do actually lay down or do you just pretty much lay down everything
(27:39):
when you can and then choose?
I can, sometimes I miss it.
There's sometimes when I hate when that happens.
Oh, that hurts so damn.
When I miss it, there was one that I had this morning and it was so good and I missed it.
I was so sad.
But you know what?
It might come back in a different way.
And so like whenever I can touch it, I grab it.
(28:02):
just go for it.
Straight for the chest, man.
And I'm just like.
Okay, I don't care if I get a little sand in my shoe.
I don't care if it gets a little I don't care if it gets a little Junkie, I don't care ifit's a little messy.
I don't care if it's You know Unkempt it might be nothing But it's actually a it's a pulseI that's how I can say it's a pulse because sometimes I miss the beat and I'm not on tempo
(28:37):
and I can feel it when it's off and I'm like, ooh, but that off beat actually is right.
And there's something about it, man.
I grab it when I can.
It's right here.
And I'm just like, handfuls of ether come to me, comes to You know what I'm saying?
That's what Black Thunder is.
(28:59):
It's like the ultimate practice in that.
It is a study of that.
That's a study.
of what it means to just be in the space because literally we didn't have songs like okaywe're gonna play in this key and this style with this you know with this rhythmic you know
signature all these things no no none of it none of that
(29:24):
That's amazing.
so, I mean, in the Black Thunder sessions, Brittany, how much stuff do you have left over?
mean, are there five Black Thunders?
Haha, see you're smart.
You asked the real question.
See, that is a very, that is a very potent question because you know what?
There is more stuff.
(29:46):
I don't know if we're ever gonna hear it.
And I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to release it the way I want to, but I can tellyou one thing.
It's definitely there.
Yeah.
I feel like there's a Brittany vault, like there's a Prince vault.
just, I just have that feeling.
Yeah, no, that's great.
(30:06):
That's right.
Now, look, you're obviously a powerful voice in Music Brittany and you certainly deservean even more powerful voice.
And I just love a quote that was another interview you did.
I think it was from magazine, but
So just bear with me while I read out part of the quote and then ask you a question fromit.
(30:28):
you said, being an overweight, black, blind female from the wrong side of the tracks thathas no physical capital, no cultural capital, but I do have a message and I had to make a
choice to raise my voice despite all of the things that I didn't have.
I had to use the one thing that I did have.
Now that's a great quote.
How have people generally responded to you raising your voice musically?
(30:51):
It seems like everyone's responded positively, but I imagine you've had some mixedresponses as well.
It's been a good experience for you.
It's been a powerful experience and for the most part has been striking and you know inthe reception and in just the distance that I've been allowed to go with people and one of
(31:17):
the greatest gifts that I have is that everybody from my management to Loose GrooveRecords, Chris Moser,
Kevin Collibro, everybody that's working with me, they're like family, They really give methe space to really mess up and be like, girl, why did you do that?
(31:39):
But I still love you.
Get your butt back out there and do it again.
You know what saying?
And it's really something that I really am grateful for because I understand without ashadow of a doubt that the band, the, you know,
the workers, the people that are behind the scenes, they're not typically like family andfriends in most artists' journeys.
(32:06):
And they really got to look out for themselves.
And I have been so blessed to be able to just sit back, relax, and actually enjoy thepowerful impact that creativity has on the world from my perspective, because I'm not
worried about most things like that.
because I'm holding space for only creativity.
(32:31):
I thought I was gonna have to do all these different things and they're like, we got it,we got it, we got it, we got it.
And every time I turn my mind off, I come back and I realized that while I was in theroom, just like trying to figure out what to play, they already laid plans.
I don't have to do it.
(32:52):
And it's powerful because it's not about
getting off easy.
It's about getting off creatively, getting out creatively.
And yes, the response has been good, but we have a lot to do.
I want that response to continue to the development of my artistry because I want thatresponse not only for myself, I want it for everybody in this position.
(33:23):
Just like I said, you know, if
I'm big, black, blind, overweight, female, again, from the wrong side of the tracks.
It really matters to me that other big, black, blind, beautiful females from whatever sideof the track that you're from have the opportunity not only to speak their voice, but to
(33:46):
be received with the respect and the dignity due their art.
Yeah, incredible statement.
um No, I couldn't agree more.
I'm not even sure how to respond to that, Brittany, which is how powerful it was.
So, no, that's amazing.
um Thank you.
And just um on that, mean, you must have some big goals.
(34:06):
And so what are your goals?
So let's say for the next two, three, five or for your career.
Now, you may not know some of them, but what success to you?
Success is right now.
I feel it.
My heart is alive right here.
I can't wait to those days when I'm able to.
(34:29):
One of the things I want to do is I want to invite people to see with their senses and tohear, to touch, to imagine life in a sensory state and not just always in one sensory, you
know.
We've been pigeonholed into believing that vision or sight is actually vision, but it'snot.
(34:57):
I have vision without sight.
And I believe that my journey is going to take me to places to be able to build museumsthat actually incorporate true sensory experiences.
And they do that a lot for kids, but I'm talking about for adults.
(35:17):
I'm talking about for people who have sensory processing disorders and actually want toget to know what's around them and how they exist within it and how they actually resonate
with the context of life that's around them.
I want to do that musically and financially one of these days.
(35:41):
I'm going be up there talking, doing some TED Talks maybe.
I want to do that too.
uh
Yeah, you would nail a TED Talk, yeah?
We've gotta make that happen.
That'd be amazing.
Right?
Yeah, I second that motion.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
No, thank you.
related to that, there's a question I know is nearly impossible to answer, but what areBrittany Davis's creative limits?
(36:07):
Do you have any?
I hope not.
But if I do, I embraced them a long time ago, because I don't know what they are.
I think my creative limits, they must be somewhere, right?
I don't know.
I think when it comes to embarking upon journeys that I know is going to require me to betied down to one thing, ooh, I can't do it.
(36:35):
I got to have my room, baby.
I got to move here and there.
If I need to do a little this, I gotta do a little this.
And if that have to happen, it has to happen.
Because like I told you, I'm grabbing it.
If you're in a room and it's like, we're only doing, we're only doing hip hop.
And it's a song, it's a melody.
(36:55):
And they're like, nah, that ain't hip hop.
I'm like, no, don't let me lose it.
I gotta grab it.
It's right here.
I love it.
Yeah, no, couldn't agree more.
um And I know you've been playing gigs.
know you've been playing lots of gigs over the years, but I you've got some upcoming gigs.
um Am I right?
(37:17):
You're going to visit the UK.
You've got some international stuff coming up.
Yeah, I'm going to Europe.
I think it's October.
I can't remember all the dates right off the top of my head.
We'll link them.
um so is that your, that's not your first time overseas either, is it?
You've done that before.
Yes, this will be my third time overseas.
(37:40):
And I have actually been to the UK.
Shout out to the UK, baby.
Shout out to Glasgow.
Shout out to Montauk.
You know what I'm saying?
Switzerland.
We've been every, I can't believe I've been overseas.
And this is my third time.
Oh, we went to Germany too.
(38:02):
And do you notice a difference in audiences, Brittany, as far as response?
I, you know, I can't remember all, can't process all of that.
I don't know, but it definitely feels no matter where I go, I feel loved.
I feel like they want me to come back and they want me to have dinner and they want me toopen my eyes to see their world.
(38:31):
And I feel connected to them.
Like I can't even explain.
When I went to the Montreux Jazz Festival, I'm standing there and people are likesurrounding me off the stage trying to get me off the stage.
It's the whole festival.
I'm just...
It's festival season.
They stayed out till 5 o'clock.
(38:52):
They do it.
And as you know, it doesn't get much better than Montreux.
So Brittany, I do have to ask you one synthesizer question.
So I mean, we've seen in the background there, your amazing keyboards, and you'vementioned sort of your Lava Whirly, your Lava Rhodes.
Just tell us, what are your sort of favourite instruments that really get you fired upcreatively?
(39:15):
Come on Rhodes.
Come on Clavinet.
Come on.
I love anything that's got some movement in it.
I love Oregon.
I can't play one though.
But anything Hammond or Nord even.
I got this Nord up here as you're seeing.
(39:36):
We got this Yamaha montage over here.
I'm still trying to unpack all of her powers.
Yeah.
And this Juno over here, I just picked this up over here and it's just like...
It's small but it picks a punch.
That thing is stinky!
I ain't heard sounds like that in a long time.
(40:01):
It's like the Yamaha MX-49.
The MX series are just divine.
They got all that powerful instrumentation and all of that...
Just the movement of the sounds and just the versatility of the user.
You know, it's user friendly.
For those of you that don't know, it's really difficult to move through keyboard menus forsomebody who can't see a touch screen.
(40:26):
So that's why like with the Montage, I haven't really unpacked it all yet.
Because that touch screen is a scary thing, I'll tell you.
But yeah, with the MX 49 series or the MX series period.
no if it's 49, 61 or whatsoever, just you can press this button and bloop, there's allyour keyboards, bloop, there's all, I'm like, I love that, I love that.
(40:51):
Just to be able to save your settings, presets, layers, go ahead all Nord, you know, likeall of them, I love them, I love them all.
Yeah, beautiful perspective.
um moving away from keyboards, are there other artists that you've either played with orjust growing up you admired?
Let's say three artists that have made the biggest impression on you as an artistyourself.
(41:18):
Who can I say?
Dang.
Man, I haven't played with these artists.
I'll say Stevie Wonder.
Yeah.
It's like Niamba 1.
Come on, Matthew Whitaker.
Yeah.
Niamba 2.
And, who else?
(41:39):
Oh, you know who else?
Alicia Keys.
my, oh.
Oh, stop it, stop it.
Don't get me started on that woman.
She's Louise.
Man, you know, I just know if we walked in the room, I don't need to talk.
We just need to sit down and start playing.
(42:00):
That's the kind of rapport I feel like me and Alicia gonna have.
Her and that, oh man, that instrument that she made with Native Instruments, thatelectric, Aresha Keys.
Oh my.
Yowwusss!
That thing is gnarly, man!
That thing is...ugh!
I can't...you know, I play a lot of VSTs, but this thing is gnarly.
(42:27):
I've been working on just like messing with all the macros on one preset.
I told you it was a preset!
I'm still on one!
I can't...I can't...I can't...I can't.
Alicia, stop it!
Stop it, Alicia.
Alright.
(42:48):
No, great.
That's amazing.
And speaking of us laughing, um Brittany, is there a time that something's gone reallywrong for you creatively or on stage that you can look back and laugh about now?
oh
there was this one time, cause I told you, I got to have my presets.
(43:09):
Everything's got to be where it's supposed to be.
Well, they struck my stuff and I didn't know it.
So when I went to go press the horn button, I'm expecting this big full chorus of horns tocome through.
And all I get is blah.
It's like horn number one.
(43:39):
can't be I'm having a breakdown and you know I can't see the goal you know I'm going youknow that I'm just like scrolling three four or five different you know patches to try to
get I'm like that thing it's so bad it's right
(44:03):
Thank
It's awful.
That's as good a train wreck as any great, work.
One of our other standard questions, Brittany, is we ask you to tag a keyboard player.
So someone that you would like to find out more about their life and career.
Would it be fair to say Alicia would be up there?
But otherwise.
(44:24):
up there.
Oh, but why I gotta choose one?
Okay, do I have to choose one?
Now you can choose multiple.
Charlie Puth whatcha doin man?
Get the heck outta here.
I'm done with him man.
He don't make no dang sense.
Oh man.
Okay, okay now y'all don't give me round up.
See, keyboard players.
(44:45):
Oh come on man.
Charlie Puth, Alicia Keys, where y'all at?
I'm trying to figure out where y'all at.
I don't wanna know what y'all doing.
I wanna know where y'all at.
So explain that more to me, as far as just the way they play or just their approach or...
(45:05):
Their memory, hold on, hold on, their memories go into their keys.
I know they do.
They don't play like, they don't play like they got issues with performance, but it's likethey play like they're memorizing what those keys are saying in everything that they do.
(45:26):
They're not, they're not performing, dude.
I'm tempted.
They're freaking, they're living those keys.
Yeah.
They're living those keys.
And Brittany, we're onto our standard question.
So we just um have the dreaded desert island discs question.
So if you have to choose five albums, what would they be?
(45:50):
Earth, Wind and Fire is all in all.
oh
Oh, I don't know the name of the album.
The Alicia album.
That's my baby.
Yeah, I'll find that out.
That's fine.
No problems.
Where she's like, I keep on falling in love.
(46:11):
Oh man, come on, get out.
Get out of here, man.
That's my song.
You don't know my...
That was my error for Alicia, man.
I'm...
Anyway.
Stevie.
Secret Life of Plants.
Bye,
(46:31):
I'm choose the secret life of all Who else?
Oh Man, I only get five on it.
I already been through three.
Yes Okay, I love R &B so I'm going tank sex love and pain.
Oh I love this freaking album is good.
(46:52):
Um I'm gonna take the 10 by the time this is over.
But why I Can't choose one more
Oh my gosh, who else?
And...
Okay, I love me some Kendrick Lamar, so I'm have to...
His newest drop of...
was the one?
(47:12):
Yeah, but no, I'll put it in the notes.
know the one you mean.
Yes, it's all, you know, it is where I love that whole album.
Yeah, look, he's a genius.
Great picks, Brittany.
Five excellent picks.
Thank you.
And what we usually do is finish off with what's called our quick fire 10.
(47:35):
So 10 short and sharp questions with hopefully some short and sharp answers if they're nottoo hard.
So do you recall the first album or piece of music that you heard as a child that reallyhad a big impact on you?
candy dough for...
sexy mood?
Yeah, yeah, that Candy Dolph stuff was great.
(47:59):
Yeah.
great stuff.
um Most important uh ritual for you before a gig.
So what do you need to do before you play live that you feel settled before you go onstage?
Eat me some chocolate.
Nice work.
I recommend that.
um If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
(48:21):
Pilots.
Thailand, there you go, I love it.
That would work too, that's great.
uh
Bye!
That's great.
um I think I know with your skills you don't need it, but transpose button or do you tendto change keys on the fly?
think it's the last Transpose.
(48:42):
you do transpose.
Transpose queen, baby.
I'll be all over the place.
I'm like, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.
And I'll be forgetting how transpose start playing the song.
Oh crap.
um Is there a favourite gig you've ever played?
ah There was this Picathon festival.
(49:04):
can't think of the word.
Was it Ork?
Was it Portland, Oregon?
I gotta ask my...
Oh, Picathon was it.
I loved Picathon.
That was so dope.
Oh, that was a cool festival.
Excellent.
Is there a favourite city you've played?
It sounds like Monterey was up there as a festival, but is there a favourite city?
(49:25):
What was my favorite city ever?
I don't know.
I love playing, what's it?
I think we played Austin.
I love playing Austin.
Yeah, was good.
My control was definitely up there though.
Yeah, yeah.
Is there a favourite song you've played at a gig in the last year?
Oh, well I guess Sepparicon, Sepparicon gets crazy.
(49:48):
m
It's a great song.
And name one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboardplayer easier.
Yeah.
And I cannot say I'm really surprised that, well, thought control, but even voice control,I'm really surprised that's never happened.
(50:09):
We're glad we could do it, it's like, horns.
Yeah, you would think so.
No, I think that will happen.
um Is there a favourite music soundtrack um or anything like that that you love listeningto?
So something to do with, you know, movies or TV or documentaries as far as music goes?
(50:31):
Ooh, I was all up in the us soundtrack and all up in the Mays Runner soundtrack.
Okay, but I can't choose one.
Okay, that's okay.
as well run around and ask some up and bokeh.
Yeah, love it.
And is there a favourite hobby or activity outside of music that you love doing?
So what keeps Brittany Davis sane outside of music?
(50:54):
Reading I love to read I love to
What type of books?
So horror or non-fiction or yeah any favorite?
If it falls out of the sky and hits me in the head, don't care what kind of book it is.
I'm just like, give me a book.
Is that a book?
I want that one.
(51:17):
I it.
I cannot thank you enough for your time.
um As I've already said in the introduction and I'll be saying in the wrap up to thisshow, listening to your music is an absolute revelation and a pleasure and a privilege.
And I cannot wait to hear even more of it, whether it comes out of the Brittany vault orthe stuff that you're still yet to create.
And we're super excited, hopefully, to see you in Australia at some stage in the future aswell.
(51:42):
I couldn't think of a better place to welcome you.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for your time.
Thank you!
And there we have it.
I hope you did enjoy that.
(52:02):
I certainly had one hell of a time talking with Brittany and as much as we laughed aboutBrittany's vault and Prince's vault, I feel like it's not too much hyperbole comparing
what they're both current and potential output to some great artists like Prince andStevie Wonder and so on.
think Brittany is an absolute force to be reckoned with and I cannot wait to hear what'scoming up in the future.
(52:27):
And as I said to them after the show, I would pay serious money to see Brittany performand it would be worth every single cent.
So yeah, again, thanks to Brittany for their time.
was an absolute privilege.
Thanks to you for your time as always.
And also a big thanks to our gold and silver supporters.
So the amazing Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering.
(52:47):
If you're creating your own work, I do recommend Midnight Mastering for great mixing andmastering services.
I've used Mike myself, yes he is a friend, but I've certainly used Mike's professionalservices and could not be happier.
The brilliant team at musicplayer.com forums, particularly the keyboard corner, lovehanging out there.
We've had some fun discussions in the past week on a whole range of topics and it's alwaysa joy to jump in there and have a chat.
(53:14):
Also the brilliant Dewey Evans from the Sunnylander Wales.
Thank you sir for your ongoing support.
And last but most definitely not least, the lovely Tammy Katcher from Tammy's musicals,Stu4Herd, long-term and ongoing support.
Thank you, Tammy.
So again, thank you for your time.
We'll be back all too soon for another interview and until then, keep on playing.
because I can't see black or white, but when I touch the piano, it's our one instrument.
you
Hello and welcome to the Keyboard Chronicles podcast for keyboard players.
I'm your host David Holloway and I'm thrilled as always to be here with you.
(00:23):
I've just had the honor and privilege of spending close to an hour with the sublimeBrittany Davis.
If you're unaware of Brittany's work, if ever there was a time to make sure you do checkout show notes, it's now and very, very highly recommend you check out Brittany's albums,
their work.
There's just so much with Painted Shield.
(00:46):
There's just so much to love here.
And as you'll hear and see in our interview with Brittany, their approach to creativity,there is just so much to like.
And it was an art of privilege speaking with them.
And I hope you enjoy the interview as much as I enjoyed recording it.
So yeah, jump in and I'll talk to you at the end of the show.
(01:18):
It's an absolute pleasure to have you on the show.
How are you doing this fine evening?
I'm doing great, I'm doing great.
I'm really excited to speak with you.
And I thought we'd kick off with just talking about this amazing album of yours, BlackThunder.
I'd love to just start um talking, if you want to tell us about your experience inrecording that.
(01:39):
And I particularly want to call out, know your collaborators, Evan and Devon.
The press release mentioned that you guys barely knew each other before recording.
So I'm really interested in just your thoughts on how the recording went.
and getting to know each other as musicians and then putting together this amazing set ofsongs.
(01:59):
Well, one thing, know, Evan, Devine and I, I know we move around the city of Seattle and alot of other places, but like, just sitting down and making a whole album, like, we really
didn't plan that out.
It was really a impactful, like, emotional thing for me because I'm like, these guys areplaying music that I know in my spirit, but I don't know stylistically.
(02:28):
I don't know all the ins and outs of everything, but just recording with them was justlike a dream.
like having the freedom to just do whatever because we don't have the roadmaps when we'reimprovisational, it just takes it to a whole nother level and allows for the imagination
and creativity to really flow between all of us.
(02:52):
And getting to know them and hearing their stories and...
what makes them tick musically and sonically.
was just really interesting and it was powerful.
That's great.
And how long did it take when you first caught up with the other two where you felt likeyou had a rapport and that things were coming together for you musically to record?
(03:14):
Well, I feel like we just kind of started off with something like it.
The chemistry just built and built.
It just kind of felt like it was.
It was something I don't know.
Like I played a lot with Devon Evans, but Evan Floyd Barnes, I hadn't had a lot ofplaytime with him, but like he just stepped right in there.
(03:39):
As a matter of fact, when we started the process, it was just Devon and I.
And oh the engineer and co-producer, Josh Evans, was like, hey, let's get Evan in here.
This is getting good.
Let's see where this goes.
And we added Ev in, and it was just another layer of chemistry that's on top of what wewere already doing.
(04:04):
yeah, it was pretty gritty and just straight to the point.
was just like, boom.
It was lightning in a bottle, as a lot of people call it.
Yeah, actually that's a great analogy.
And so I'm really keen to explore that a bit further with the songs on the album.
So I've had the pleasure of listening to the album and I want, there was some, mean, thewhole thing is amazing, but I just wanted to call out three particular parts.
(04:32):
So firstly are those short pieces, the eight ancestors pieces that go throughout thealbum.
Just love them to bits.
Just tell us a little bit about how...
where the initial one came from because they're all variations on an amazing theme.
Just tell us about how those ancestor short pieces came together.
So the ancestor short pieces are the paths between the songs and they actually representthe power of unity, the power of a witness, the power of an origin.
(05:07):
How an album doesn't need to come from some mapped out produced plan all the time, but itcan come from a place of an origin.
or originate from a place that doesn't have to do with physicality at all.
Maybe it's something that's just straight up spiritual.
(05:28):
And when I was creating those ancestor sounds, they were the accompaniment to a song onthe album known as Sarah's Song.
And it was talking, it was basically the witnesses of the atrocities that happened to thisblack and slaves woman and
She is being heralded by these ancestors for being not only strong and resilient, butherself, even in the midst of these things.
(05:58):
And that she's not being kept a secret, but the story is being told and there's being acall to justice on her behalf.
And I think that that's what this music is for me.
It's a call to justice.
And so I was like, I need to put something in between these songs.
not only to give them meaning, to give them a witness.
(06:21):
And the ancestors from Sarah's song just seemed to do the tricks.
So we did a lot of different layers of those.
And we just, made it, we made it big.
We made it a whole witness, you know, a witness section, an origin section.
Yeah, it is absolutely amazing and yeah, it certainly has a huge amount of power.
(06:43):
So I love those to bits.
And um the other three songs I wanted to explore and I'd happily probably explore everytrack, but Mirrors was another one that totally stood out to me.
Just really had a big impact on me.
Just tell us again about your experience recording that and the inspiration behind thatone for you.
(07:03):
Well, one thing about Mirrors is that I love roads.
oh And so I'm just sitting behind this Whirlie and I'm just like, I'm feeling one with itat this point, it's like the second day.
And I'm just feeling the power of the Whirlie, just, you know, the way the air is movingthrough the cabinet, the way the Leslie is moving, the way that, you know, the tremolo is
(07:30):
moving, the way that
We mic'd the room the way that I'm sounding in the headphones and just these chords cometo me and Divine just starts to play and Evan on electric bass on that one really brought
out the power in it.
But the, you know, the simplicity and the delicate nature of the song just came out ofthat chemistry and out of that, out of that kind of the birthing place of all of that.
(08:00):
you know, just gentility but power with those three instruments working together.
And I just, I remember feeling vulnerable like that my whole life.
Like, Mirrors is a song talking about how as a woman and especially as a blind woman, Ifeel like a beautiful person, but I'm afraid to believe it based on what people say.
(08:29):
And some people say I'm beautiful, some people say I'm not.
And I don't know what to believe.
And this girl in the song is looking in these mirrors and it's like, she can't findherself, but she knows who she is in herself.
But in the mirrors, she can't see herself.
(08:51):
She can't find who she is on the inside, on the outside.
And...
She's not able to recognize the power of what it is that she brings to the table becauseall she's being given to source that power out is these mirrors.
And none of them look like her.
(09:12):
None of them give her the proper bearing that she knows that she is within.
And there's a part in the song where I'm like, these are the fears that we share.
These are the...
You know, these are the mirrors that we've been given.
You know, we're not tall enough.
We're not small enough.
We're not rich enough.
don't, we don't vote enough.
(09:35):
We don't scare enough.
We don't stare.
You know, all these different things that we're afraid that we're not.
And getting caught up in those snares and those false mirrors and what it means to have animage or a self-bearing image or a world-bearing image, which is really powerful to me.
because I don't have either.
(09:55):
I don't have the ability to compare myself to other people to know what they look like orwhat I look like or any of that because I'm constantly growing through myself with
expression.
I'm not doing that with sight.
All I have is what I express sonically or physically.
(10:20):
Yeah, beautifully pushed.
No, I couldn't agree more.
Yeah, look, for our viewers and listeners, every single song on this album is worth theprice of admission.
Mirrors, said, particularly one that had an impact on me.
the other two, Britney, I was absolutely loved amongst them all was Girl Don't You Knowand then Girl Now We're The Same.
(10:41):
Now, I don't want to assume.
that they're related, but I'm just fascinated by both those songs.
So starting with Girl Don't You Know, again, the process for that one.
So when it comes to Girl Don't You Know and Girl, we're both the same type of deal.
We're looking at the impact of time and space within the social construct of colorism orinterpretation of colorism.
(11:13):
And we're diverging, again, down that path of
mirrors.
What are we looking into?
You know?
I wear white gloves, your hands are bit, you know what I'm saying?
I wear white gloves, your skin is fair.
(11:35):
It's really something that dismisses the person and puts you in the place of likeobjectification.
And the girl don't you know is actually it's in reverse.
(11:55):
It's...
Girl, don't you know all of these things about yourself that are actually not good?
Things that actually break you and have left you broken.
So those are the things that are left after we're both the same.
We're so different, but now we're the same because it actually translates from...
(12:20):
your hands, your skin, the color, what I have, what you don't have, what I don't have, butwe still have the same thing.
We still have the same type of muscle or groups of muscles keeping us alive.
We still live on the same planet, but we have lost the power and what it means to actuallybe the same thing because we perceive more of the differences.
(12:50):
than we ever do the things that actually make us exactly the same.
And because of that, we get to a girl don't you know stage where we start talking abouthow bad our skin is, how bad our teeth are, how bad our family is, all of these different
things.
And mothers start berating their daughters for not following their footsteps becausethey're afraid of their daughters getting beat up out here in this world.
(13:17):
And they wouldn't have had that fear had we not
falling into objectivity and just objectification in general.
And I think, you know, that's one of the biggest problems with racism is kind of the grossnegligence and the power of, you know, objectification.
(13:40):
That's where it all starts, is when you start looking at skin and not within.
Exactly.
Beautifully put again.
And Brittany, with Girl now we're the same.
I mean, one of the many brilliant lyrics in there is I am a black key, you are a whitekey.
That's OK.
We can make chords.
And you certainly bring that theme through in that song as well, don't you?
(14:01):
That's really something that I've always played with in my mind because I can't see blackor white.
But when I touch the piano, it's a one instrument and it has one uniform growth anddevelopment for me, which is it is a language.
It is a lifestyle.
(14:22):
And so when I think about black and white, I'm not thinking about the keys or even therace.
I'm thinking about
the gray, the unified, the beginning before time.
I'm thinking about what it means to be tied together by things that, I mean, it doesn'tmatter.
If you were a black person or white person in the 1800s, y'all both was in the 1800s.
(14:49):
If you're black, white, mixed, whatever you are in 2025, you're here together in 2025.
You are a part of
the gray matter that makes today or the now possible.
And so when I think of the black and white key, I think of the primordial, you know, chaosthat is the beginning of all things that we're all a part of and refuse by any means
(15:16):
necessary to acknowledge even in the fullness and the industriousness of how we existtoday.
Yeah, exactly.
again, brilliant.
um And I mean, obviously this is not even far from your first album, a long way off yourfirst album, Brittany.
(15:38):
I do want to talk about your first solo album, Image Issues as well.
just even probably starting off, what was, how different was recording Black Thunder tothat first album as far as your development as an artist and your maturity and so on?
Did it feel like two different processes or a continuation from that first album?
(15:59):
I have to be really clear when I say this.
I always tell people that music is my first language.
So it doesn't matter what kind of style you hear.
I'm always speaking the music language.
And so it's never a different project.
(16:20):
It's just a different conversation.
And the language stays the same.
I could speak English softly or could yell it at you, but it's still English.
oh And one of the things that image issues is it's a yell.
(16:40):
It is a very thought out, very produced, incantation of the broken pieces, the loop backs,the over-processing, you know, that comes with being in a world that requires sight
without
the visual organs.
(17:02):
And I can't put in the words what image issues and Black Thunder have that separate them.
But what I can say is that when they speak, they speak the same language.
They have the same narrative.
It's just a different narrator.
(17:23):
It's me saying as a blind person in image issues, I'm saying
These are the things that are happening in me.
And in this Black Thunder album, I guess what I feel like I'm saying, the narratorchanges.
It's just like us, us.
This is what is happening with us.
(17:46):
And now I realize that I'm a part of that.
That's bigger than even my own problems.
That's a great, yeah, great perspective.
And that's, yeah, you're right.
There is a really distinct difference there.
And so looking back on those amazing tracks on the first album, which is you, as you said,it's one language and it's not a matter of them being different.
(18:11):
But I mean, things like Love I'm Sick, I love the treadmill sequence of tracks.
uh It's just, I just love all that stuff to bits.
Just looking back, does it stay together for you as a coherent?
entity as far as you look back and I assume you're still very proud of that album becauseit's an amazing album.
(18:31):
Yeah, that was definitely soul therapy.
oh I got up on that operating table and really let a lot out.
Stuff that I probably have never said before and probably never will say again is on thatalbum, Image of Shoes.
And the reason is because I see it all the time.
(18:55):
People are speaking.
They're speaking sweet nothings into the ears of our consumer, which makes money, but itdoesn't create legacy.
It doesn't create depth.
It doesn't create any type of fullness in the mind.
(19:21):
And it makes it easy to stop and just be there and...
The nonsense, honestly, the nonsense.
And I'm not talking about the musicians.
I'm talking about the interpretation.
It's easy to be still when there's so much music that allows you to be who you think youwant to be because they're selling that to you.
(19:49):
And I think with image issues, I was like, I know they're not going to fully accept this.
But this is literally what we need to get to in order to impactfully state the obviouswithout being, I don't know, some kind of conscious rapper or something.
(20:14):
Love it.
Conscious.
Yeah, that's, that's a really great point.
No, that's, that's superb.
Thank you.
And then, um, just because you have nothing else to do, Brittany, you're also part of anamazing super group, Painted Shield.
You've got three albums out as part of that group.
Just tell us about, and I know I've read many interviews where you're quoted as being, youknow, one of the key secret source of that group being as successful as it is.
(20:40):
Just tell us about how you came to be part of that group and.
and what different experiences that brings for you.
So for me, P.S., it's just like, it's home.
I don't have any kind of fear or trepidation about.
(21:05):
playing with these guys and these are some of the most legendary names out here.
It's an honor to play with Stone Gosling and Matt Chamberlain and to sing with MasonJennings.
These guys are not small fries, but for me, feel like else.
(21:27):
They're like, again, they're like my witnesses.
They're like my origins.
The same way I was talking about the ancestors, they're like that for me.
They're my cheerleaders.
And I don't I don't feel I'm an integral part of it.
I feel like it's just all of us together.
(21:52):
Are you still there, Brittany?
You just dropped out.
mean, I think you're back now.
think I can see you there.
Yeah, that was good.
Yeah.
No.
it just, sometimes that happens.
It's great.
oh No, no, that's okay.
No problem at all.
So you were just saying how you don't feel particularly special with, with PS, but that,you know, they're all just there.
So just feel free to pick up that thread of conversation.
(22:14):
I can easily edit that together.
Sorry about that.
Well, no, with P.S.
I feel like they're really, they're home to me and their exposure to different types ofmusic for me is really like just, it's eye-opening for me to say the least, you know, for
(22:37):
lack of a better term.
It's eye-opening for me to be able to feel like even with these guys, with these names,
I can be at home and I can trust that what we do together is so powerful because it's us.
I know that I say I'm integral, but I'm not.
(22:57):
I'm just a piece of the pie.
just, maybe I'm the crust or maybe I'm the filling or different fruits or whatever, butI'm not integral.
I don't feel like that.
I feel like they're part of my heart.
So I don't think of them like, these big guys and I got to perform and this is what, youknow, like, no, these guys are right here with me.
(23:24):
We get in rehearsals and we have to like stop ourselves from grooving up stuff.
It's just great.
That is amazing and I assume then you, none of you are going anywhere.
I assume we can look forward to even more albums.
Come on, we gonna do more out there.
Yeah, bring it on.
That's amazing.
No, thank you.
(23:44):
And we'll definitely be linking to obviously both your albums and the PS stuff in our shownotes.
it's, yeah, I can't begin to emphasize as listeners and viewers that aren't aware ofBrittany's work.
It's all absolutely amazing to listen to.
Now I do want to briefly, Brittany Cover, you've been interviewed repeatedly about
your creativity and your experience of synesthesia and so on.
(24:07):
So I'll only ask one question on that because it is well documented.
But when you are in the process of creating new music, and as you've said, it's acontinuum, it's not as if they're all different pieces.
uh Has that ability changed over time as far as your approach to creativity?
You know, how do you...
(24:29):
It's such a hard question to ask.
is it a fire hose that you're taking a drink from here and there or it has changed overtime how you create music?
Well, sometimes I dream music and wake up and make it.
Sometimes I just lay down.
I don't make music.
(24:50):
I let it make itself.
I play.
That's all I do.
play.
just, and I mean not instrument.
I just play.
I'm a kid.
I like to play and mess stuff up and break it.
And that's how I make my music.
I know what I was saying.
(25:11):
I love, I just love it when things break.
Cause that's the glue that brings it all out, right?
When you're not thinking about how it's made,
or what it's made out of, this why and this where, where was it made?
(25:34):
I'm standing in the grocery store and I hear a cart and it's just one wheel and it makesone sound and it doesn't make it again.
It's not a repeated sound, but just the sound of that wheel creates a
like a pause in my thought and it clicks and I continue myself down that aisle.
(26:03):
I'm moving and I'm threading these sounds together in my mind just like I would produce ina track.
And a woman drops a jug of milk and she says, oh my gosh, you know, and you hear it andyou feel the movement under your feet.
It's in the air, it's electric, it's the ohms, it's the hertz, baby, it's everything.
(26:27):
It's everywhere.
And so when I'm making the music, it's not what or even, I don't know how to explain it.
It's literally like, it's everything that I am and everything that I do or don't do.
(26:49):
It's just.
Yeah, it's quiet.
It's quiet and it's loud.
I know it's crazy.
But it's, it's not a place for me that I go or any well that I dig from and like go, oh,well, these kind of notes go here.
And I'm just like, no, I don't know.
I don't know what goes anywhere.
Turn it on.
Let's see what happens.
(27:10):
Screech.
Oh, that was that.
That was interesting.
That absolutely makes sense, Brittany.
how do you, aside from, obviously do get to spend a bit of time and you've got obviouslysome brilliant keyboards and recording equipment there.
Is it just a matter of you record most things um as they come to mind or like what makesyou choose what you do actually lay down or do you just pretty much lay down everything
(27:39):
when you can and then choose?
I can, sometimes I miss it.
There's sometimes when I hate when that happens.
Oh, that hurts so damn.
When I miss it, there was one that I had this morning and it was so good and I missed it.
I was so sad.
But you know what?
It might come back in a different way.
And so like whenever I can touch it, I grab it.
(28:02):
just go for it.
Straight for the chest, man.
And I'm just like.
Okay, I don't care if I get a little sand in my shoe.
I don't care if it gets a little I don't care if it gets a little Junkie, I don't care ifit's a little messy.
I don't care if it's You know Unkempt it might be nothing But it's actually a it's a pulseI that's how I can say it's a pulse because sometimes I miss the beat and I'm not on tempo
(28:37):
and I can feel it when it's off and I'm like, ooh, but that off beat actually is right.
And there's something about it, man.
I grab it when I can.
It's right here.
And I'm just like, handfuls of ether come to me, comes to You know what I'm saying?
That's what Black Thunder is.
(28:59):
It's like the ultimate practice in that.
It is a study of that.
That's a study.
of what it means to just be in the space because literally we didn't have songs like okaywe're gonna play in this key and this style with this you know with this rhythmic you know
signature all these things no no none of it none of that
(29:24):
That's amazing.
so, I mean, in the Black Thunder sessions, Brittany, how much stuff do you have left over?
mean, are there five Black Thunders?
Haha, see you're smart.
You asked the real question.
See, that is a very, that is a very potent question because you know what?
There is more stuff.
(29:46):
I don't know if we're ever gonna hear it.
And I don't know if I'm ever gonna be able to release it the way I want to, but I can tellyou one thing.
It's definitely there.
Yeah.
I feel like there's a Brittany vault, like there's a Prince vault.
just, I just have that feeling.
Yeah, no, that's great.
(30:06):
That's right.
Now, look, you're obviously a powerful voice in Music Brittany and you certainly deservean even more powerful voice.
And I just love a quote that was another interview you did.
I think it was from magazine, but
So just bear with me while I read out part of the quote and then ask you a question fromit.
(30:28):
you said, being an overweight, black, blind female from the wrong side of the tracks thathas no physical capital, no cultural capital, but I do have a message and I had to make a
choice to raise my voice despite all of the things that I didn't have.
I had to use the one thing that I did have.
Now that's a great quote.
How have people generally responded to you raising your voice musically?
(30:51):
It seems like everyone's responded positively, but I imagine you've had some mixedresponses as well.
It's been a good experience for you.
It's been a powerful experience and for the most part has been striking and you know inthe reception and in just the distance that I've been allowed to go with people and one of
(31:17):
the greatest gifts that I have is that everybody from my management to Loose GrooveRecords, Chris Moser,
Kevin Collibro, everybody that's working with me, they're like family, They really give methe space to really mess up and be like, girl, why did you do that?
(31:39):
But I still love you.
Get your butt back out there and do it again.
You know what saying?
And it's really something that I really am grateful for because I understand without ashadow of a doubt that the band, the, you know,
the workers, the people that are behind the scenes, they're not typically like family andfriends in most artists' journeys.
(32:06):
And they really got to look out for themselves.
And I have been so blessed to be able to just sit back, relax, and actually enjoy thepowerful impact that creativity has on the world from my perspective, because I'm not
worried about most things like that.
because I'm holding space for only creativity.
(32:31):
I thought I was gonna have to do all these different things and they're like, we got it,we got it, we got it, we got it.
And every time I turn my mind off, I come back and I realized that while I was in theroom, just like trying to figure out what to play, they already laid plans.
I don't have to do it.
(32:52):
And it's powerful because it's not about
getting off easy.
It's about getting off creatively, getting out creatively.
And yes, the response has been good, but we have a lot to do.
I want that response to continue to the development of my artistry because I want thatresponse not only for myself, I want it for everybody in this position.
(33:23):
Just like I said, you know, if
I'm big, black, blind, overweight, female, again, from the wrong side of the tracks.
It really matters to me that other big, black, blind, beautiful females from whatever sideof the track that you're from have the opportunity not only to speak their voice, but to
(33:46):
be received with the respect and the dignity due their art.
Yeah, incredible statement.
um No, I couldn't agree more.
I'm not even sure how to respond to that, Brittany, which is how powerful it was.
So, no, that's amazing.
um Thank you.
And just um on that, mean, you must have some big goals.
(34:06):
And so what are your goals?
So let's say for the next two, three, five or for your career.
Now, you may not know some of them, but what success to you?
Success is right now.
I feel it.
My heart is alive right here.
I can't wait to those days when I'm able to.
(34:29):
One of the things I want to do is I want to invite people to see with their senses and tohear, to touch, to imagine life in a sensory state and not just always in one sensory, you
know.
We've been pigeonholed into believing that vision or sight is actually vision, but it'snot.
(34:57):
I have vision without sight.
And I believe that my journey is going to take me to places to be able to build museumsthat actually incorporate true sensory experiences.
And they do that a lot for kids, but I'm talking about for adults.
(35:17):
I'm talking about for people who have sensory processing disorders and actually want toget to know what's around them and how they exist within it and how they actually resonate
with the context of life that's around them.
I want to do that musically and financially one of these days.
(35:41):
I'm going be up there talking, doing some TED Talks maybe.
I want to do that too.
uh
Yeah, you would nail a TED Talk, yeah?
We've gotta make that happen.
That'd be amazing.
Right?
Yeah, I second that motion.
Yeah, no, absolutely.
No, thank you.
related to that, there's a question I know is nearly impossible to answer, but what areBrittany Davis's creative limits?
(36:07):
Do you have any?
I hope not.
But if I do, I embraced them a long time ago, because I don't know what they are.
I think my creative limits, they must be somewhere, right?
I don't know.
I think when it comes to embarking upon journeys that I know is going to require me to betied down to one thing, ooh, I can't do it.
(36:35):
I got to have my room, baby.
I got to move here and there.
If I need to do a little this, I gotta do a little this.
And if that have to happen, it has to happen.
Because like I told you, I'm grabbing it.
If you're in a room and it's like, we're only doing, we're only doing hip hop.
And it's a song, it's a melody.
(36:55):
And they're like, nah, that ain't hip hop.
I'm like, no, don't let me lose it.
I gotta grab it.
It's right here.
I love it.
Yeah, no, couldn't agree more.
um And I know you've been playing gigs.
know you've been playing lots of gigs over the years, but I you've got some upcoming gigs.
um Am I right?
(37:17):
You're going to visit the UK.
You've got some international stuff coming up.
Yeah, I'm going to Europe.
I think it's October.
I can't remember all the dates right off the top of my head.
We'll link them.
um so is that your, that's not your first time overseas either, is it?
You've done that before.
Yes, this will be my third time overseas.
(37:40):
And I have actually been to the UK.
Shout out to the UK, baby.
Shout out to Glasgow.
Shout out to Montauk.
You know what I'm saying?
Switzerland.
We've been every, I can't believe I've been overseas.
And this is my third time.
Oh, we went to Germany too.
(38:02):
And do you notice a difference in audiences, Brittany, as far as response?
I, you know, I can't remember all, can't process all of that.
I don't know, but it definitely feels no matter where I go, I feel loved.
I feel like they want me to come back and they want me to have dinner and they want me toopen my eyes to see their world.
(38:31):
And I feel connected to them.
Like I can't even explain.
When I went to the Montreux Jazz Festival, I'm standing there and people are likesurrounding me off the stage trying to get me off the stage.
It's the whole festival.
I'm just...
It's festival season.
They stayed out till 5 o'clock.
(38:52):
They do it.
And as you know, it doesn't get much better than Montreux.
So Brittany, I do have to ask you one synthesizer question.
So I mean, we've seen in the background there, your amazing keyboards, and you'vementioned sort of your Lava Whirly, your Lava Rhodes.
Just tell us, what are your sort of favourite instruments that really get you fired upcreatively?
(39:15):
Come on Rhodes.
Come on Clavinet.
Come on.
I love anything that's got some movement in it.
I love Oregon.
I can't play one though.
But anything Hammond or Nord even.
I got this Nord up here as you're seeing.
(39:36):
We got this Yamaha montage over here.
I'm still trying to unpack all of her powers.
Yeah.
And this Juno over here, I just picked this up over here and it's just like...
It's small but it picks a punch.
That thing is stinky!
I ain't heard sounds like that in a long time.
(40:01):
It's like the Yamaha MX-49.
The MX series are just divine.
They got all that powerful instrumentation and all of that...
Just the movement of the sounds and just the versatility of the user.
You know, it's user friendly.
For those of you that don't know, it's really difficult to move through keyboard menus forsomebody who can't see a touch screen.
(40:26):
So that's why like with the Montage, I haven't really unpacked it all yet.
Because that touch screen is a scary thing, I'll tell you.
But yeah, with the MX 49 series or the MX series period.
no if it's 49, 61 or whatsoever, just you can press this button and bloop, there's allyour keyboards, bloop, there's all, I'm like, I love that, I love that.
(40:51):
Just to be able to save your settings, presets, layers, go ahead all Nord, you know, likeall of them, I love them, I love them all.
Yeah, beautiful perspective.
um moving away from keyboards, are there other artists that you've either played with orjust growing up you admired?
Let's say three artists that have made the biggest impression on you as an artistyourself.
(41:18):
Who can I say?
Dang.
Man, I haven't played with these artists.
I'll say Stevie Wonder.
Yeah.
It's like Niamba 1.
Come on, Matthew Whitaker.
Yeah.
Niamba 2.
And, who else?
(41:39):
Oh, you know who else?
Alicia Keys.
my, oh.
Oh, stop it, stop it.
Don't get me started on that woman.
She's Louise.
Man, you know, I just know if we walked in the room, I don't need to talk.
We just need to sit down and start playing.
(42:00):
That's the kind of rapport I feel like me and Alicia gonna have.
Her and that, oh man, that instrument that she made with Native Instruments, thatelectric, Aresha Keys.
Oh my.
Yowwusss!
That thing is gnarly, man!
That thing is...ugh!
I can't...you know, I play a lot of VSTs, but this thing is gnarly.
(42:27):
I've been working on just like messing with all the macros on one preset.
I told you it was a preset!
I'm still on one!
I can't...I can't...I can't...I can't.
Alicia, stop it!
Stop it, Alicia.
Alright.
(42:48):
No, great.
That's amazing.
And speaking of us laughing, um Brittany, is there a time that something's gone reallywrong for you creatively or on stage that you can look back and laugh about now?
oh
there was this one time, cause I told you, I got to have my presets.
(43:09):
Everything's got to be where it's supposed to be.
Well, they struck my stuff and I didn't know it.
So when I went to go press the horn button, I'm expecting this big full chorus of horns tocome through.
And all I get is blah.
It's like horn number one.
(43:39):
can't be I'm having a breakdown and you know I can't see the goal you know I'm going youknow that I'm just like scrolling three four or five different you know patches to try to
get I'm like that thing it's so bad it's right
(44:03):
Thank
It's awful.
That's as good a train wreck as any great, work.
One of our other standard questions, Brittany, is we ask you to tag a keyboard player.
So someone that you would like to find out more about their life and career.
Would it be fair to say Alicia would be up there?
But otherwise.
(44:24):
up there.
Oh, but why I gotta choose one?
Okay, do I have to choose one?
Now you can choose multiple.
Charlie Puth whatcha doin man?
Get the heck outta here.
I'm done with him man.
He don't make no dang sense.
Oh man.
Okay, okay now y'all don't give me round up.
See, keyboard players.
(44:45):
Oh come on man.
Charlie Puth, Alicia Keys, where y'all at?
I'm trying to figure out where y'all at.
I don't wanna know what y'all doing.
I wanna know where y'all at.
So explain that more to me, as far as just the way they play or just their approach or...
(45:05):
Their memory, hold on, hold on, their memories go into their keys.
I know they do.
They don't play like, they don't play like they got issues with performance, but it's likethey play like they're memorizing what those keys are saying in everything that they do.
(45:26):
They're not, they're not performing, dude.
I'm tempted.
They're freaking, they're living those keys.
Yeah.
They're living those keys.
And Brittany, we're onto our standard question.
So we just um have the dreaded desert island discs question.
So if you have to choose five albums, what would they be?
(45:50):
Earth, Wind and Fire is all in all.
oh
Oh, I don't know the name of the album.
The Alicia album.
That's my baby.
Yeah, I'll find that out.
That's fine.
No problems.
Where she's like, I keep on falling in love.
(46:11):
Oh man, come on, get out.
Get out of here, man.
That's my song.
You don't know my...
That was my error for Alicia, man.
I'm...
Anyway.
Stevie.
Secret Life of Plants.
Bye,
(46:31):
I'm choose the secret life of all Who else?
Oh Man, I only get five on it.
I already been through three.
Yes Okay, I love R &B so I'm going tank sex love and pain.
Oh I love this freaking album is good.
(46:52):
Um I'm gonna take the 10 by the time this is over.
But why I Can't choose one more
Oh my gosh, who else?
And...
Okay, I love me some Kendrick Lamar, so I'm have to...
His newest drop of...
was the one?
(47:12):
Yeah, but no, I'll put it in the notes.
know the one you mean.
Yes, it's all, you know, it is where I love that whole album.
Yeah, look, he's a genius.
Great picks, Brittany.
Five excellent picks.
Thank you.
And what we usually do is finish off with what's called our quick fire 10.
(47:35):
So 10 short and sharp questions with hopefully some short and sharp answers if they're nottoo hard.
So do you recall the first album or piece of music that you heard as a child that reallyhad a big impact on you?
candy dough for...
sexy mood?
Yeah, yeah, that Candy Dolph stuff was great.
(47:59):
Yeah.
great stuff.
um Most important uh ritual for you before a gig.
So what do you need to do before you play live that you feel settled before you go onstage?
Eat me some chocolate.
Nice work.
I recommend that.
um If you hadn't been a musician, what do you think your career choice would have been?
(48:21):
Pilots.
Thailand, there you go, I love it.
That would work too, that's great.
uh
Bye!
That's great.
um I think I know with your skills you don't need it, but transpose button or do you tendto change keys on the fly?
think it's the last Transpose.
(48:42):
you do transpose.
Transpose queen, baby.
I'll be all over the place.
I'm like, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh.
And I'll be forgetting how transpose start playing the song.
Oh crap.
um Is there a favourite gig you've ever played?
ah There was this Picathon festival.
(49:04):
can't think of the word.
Was it Ork?
Was it Portland, Oregon?
I gotta ask my...
Oh, Picathon was it.
I loved Picathon.
That was so dope.
Oh, that was a cool festival.
Excellent.
Is there a favourite city you've played?
It sounds like Monterey was up there as a festival, but is there a favourite city?
(49:25):
What was my favorite city ever?
I don't know.
I love playing, what's it?
I think we played Austin.
I love playing Austin.
Yeah, was good.
My control was definitely up there though.
Yeah, yeah.
Is there a favourite song you've played at a gig in the last year?
Oh, well I guess Sepparicon, Sepparicon gets crazy.
(49:48):
m
It's a great song.
And name one thing you'd like to see invented that would make your life as a keyboardplayer easier.
Yeah.
And I cannot say I'm really surprised that, well, thought control, but even voice control,I'm really surprised that's never happened.
(50:09):
We're glad we could do it, it's like, horns.
Yeah, you would think so.
No, I think that will happen.
um Is there a favourite music soundtrack um or anything like that that you love listeningto?
So something to do with, you know, movies or TV or documentaries as far as music goes?
(50:31):
Ooh, I was all up in the us soundtrack and all up in the Mays Runner soundtrack.
Okay, but I can't choose one.
Okay, that's okay.
as well run around and ask some up and bokeh.
Yeah, love it.
And is there a favourite hobby or activity outside of music that you love doing?
So what keeps Brittany Davis sane outside of music?
(50:54):
Reading I love to read I love to
What type of books?
So horror or non-fiction or yeah any favorite?
If it falls out of the sky and hits me in the head, don't care what kind of book it is.
I'm just like, give me a book.
Is that a book?
I want that one.
(51:17):
I it.
I cannot thank you enough for your time.
um As I've already said in the introduction and I'll be saying in the wrap up to thisshow, listening to your music is an absolute revelation and a pleasure and a privilege.
And I cannot wait to hear even more of it, whether it comes out of the Brittany vault orthe stuff that you're still yet to create.
And we're super excited, hopefully, to see you in Australia at some stage in the future aswell.
(51:42):
I couldn't think of a better place to welcome you.
Again, I cannot thank you enough for your time.
Thank you!
And there we have it.
I hope you did enjoy that.
(52:02):
I certainly had one hell of a time talking with Brittany and as much as we laughed aboutBrittany's vault and Prince's vault, I feel like it's not too much hyperbole comparing
what they're both current and potential output to some great artists like Prince andStevie Wonder and so on.
think Brittany is an absolute force to be reckoned with and I cannot wait to hear what'scoming up in the future.
(52:27):
And as I said to them after the show, I would pay serious money to see Brittany performand it would be worth every single cent.
So yeah, again, thanks to Brittany for their time.
was an absolute privilege.
Thanks to you for your time as always.
And also a big thanks to our gold and silver supporters.
So the amazing Mike Wilcox at Midnight Mastering.
(52:47):
If you're creating your own work, I do recommend Midnight Mastering for great mixing andmastering services.
I've used Mike myself, yes he is a friend, but I've certainly used Mike's professionalservices and could not be happier.
The brilliant team at musicplayer.com forums, particularly the keyboard corner, lovehanging out there.
We've had some fun discussions in the past week on a whole range of topics and it's alwaysa joy to jump in there and have a chat.
(53:14):
Also the brilliant Dewey Evans from the Sunnylander Wales.
Thank you sir for your ongoing support.
And last but most definitely not least, the lovely Tammy Katcher from Tammy's musicals,Stu4Herd, long-term and ongoing support.
Thank you, Tammy.
So again, thank you for your time.
We'll be back all too soon for another interview and until then, keep on playing.
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