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