Speaker 1: West Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio. This classic
Speaker 1: episode was produced by the team at Pandora. Hey it's
Speaker 1: on pay bill. Check out this QLs classic from November second,
Speaker 1: two thousand and sixteen. We sit down with recording artist Kimbra.
Speaker 1: She talks about leading from New Zealand, the world, wildlife,
Speaker 1: Silver Lake, California, and how she makes records in this
Speaker 1: episode originally aired on Pandora. Check it out. Kimbra Johnson lazy.
Speaker 1: Now before we even get started, we gotta know, how
Speaker 1: did you get such a black last name as Johnson. Wait,
Speaker 1: your full.
Speaker 2: Name is kim Kimber. That's even that's kind of yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: like that.
Speaker 1: I feel like you gotta you come from the wrong
Speaker 1: side of the tracks.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I only realized that when I moved
Speaker 2: over here. I'm from New Zealand obviously, And aren't.
Speaker 1: You from Hamilton, New Zealand.
Speaker 2: How did you know that?
Speaker 1: Because I have a computer, How do I know anything?
Speaker 1: You're just trying to bring it back to Hamilton. That's funny,
Speaker 1: that's funny.
Speaker 2: Hamilton's not the most well known place in New Zealand.
Speaker 1: But I can't say I've been there and or no
Speaker 1: can I ask, do you get tired of people kind
Speaker 1: of lumping? I feel like New Zealand is the Jersey
Speaker 1: to New York or the Baltimore to Washington kind of.
Speaker 1: I mean, I know it's cool, but.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, but people over here, I.
Speaker 1: Just tend to think like it's one big giant under Australia.
Speaker 2: There's so many, you know, there's four million people in
Speaker 2: New Zealand. It's tiny, you know, So I understand. And
Speaker 2: I spent five years in Australia, moved there when I
Speaker 2: was seventeen before I came to the States, so I understand.
Speaker 1: It's you know, how long you been in the States.
Speaker 1: How long you been here?
Speaker 2: Oh, over three years now. I did LA for nearly
Speaker 2: two years and then I'm about a year into living
Speaker 2: in New York.
Speaker 1: Wow. What's been the biggest adjustment for you so far? Oh?
Speaker 2: Man, I'm so happy here. I love walking and getting
Speaker 2: on the subway and taking like just simple things like
Speaker 2: that that change your experience of a city so much.
Speaker 2: You know, I was always in the back of ubers
Speaker 2: in La. I didn't have a car. So I'm just
Speaker 2: loving I live like in the East Village, just so
Speaker 2: much history there as well so many amazing people that
Speaker 2: have lived in that area.
Speaker 1: So, so, wait, you drive You didn't drive in lle
Speaker 1: I know, right, drive in New York City.
Speaker 2: I don't drive in New York.
Speaker 3: No.
Speaker 2: I had a full driver's license, but I just never
Speaker 2: got on the car of here. I mean, we drive
Speaker 2: on the other side of the road, so it would
Speaker 2: be challenging.
Speaker 1: You know. Wait, so you don't drive here?
Speaker 2: I had no, I don't drive.
Speaker 1: Wait a minute in America. The first time we met,
Speaker 1: I made you like a four hundred song driving playlist.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that was a friend. That was Yeah, you
Speaker 2: made a sick playlist for the road trip. But I
Speaker 2: did that with a friend.
Speaker 1: Oh okay, did I make you for no reason whatsoever?
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna I see. Yeah, So I well, I
Speaker 1: guess we would all like to know about your humble beginnings.
Speaker 1: One You're You're, You're. You have a wise soul for
Speaker 1: someone that is four months younger than a tribe called
Speaker 1: Quest debut album. Every time I see your birth year,
Speaker 1: I'm like, I was a freshman in college when you
Speaker 1: were born. But you you seem to acquire a lot
Speaker 1: more knowledge than most people that I know that have
Speaker 1: a nine in the third year of their birth year
Speaker 1: as far as music's concerned, and without the really the
Speaker 1: development of the Internet being in full swing until ten
Speaker 1: years later. Like what were your first four years? Like
Speaker 1: that really has you curious about soul music of all things?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, Stevie Wonder was really big for me.
Speaker 2: I first started learning guitar when I was about thirteen fourteen.
Speaker 2: The guitar is my first instrument. That's what I first
Speaker 2: started writing on. And learning a lot of those and
Speaker 2: versions and stuff on guitar was super inspiring, you know,
Speaker 2: for opening my brain harmonically. And I was singing in
Speaker 2: a little choir at school that were doing a lot
Speaker 2: of Beach Boys covers, you know, and Sinatra, and this
Speaker 2: is like trippy stuff for a kid who's been you know.
Speaker 2: I also had on my R and B stuff I
Speaker 2: was listening to on the radio, Destiny's Child and all
Speaker 2: the Timberland era, you know. But then I was learning
Speaker 2: about these other styles of music and I first got
Speaker 2: into a boss A track. That's how I started all
Speaker 2: my early recordings, all the first album. So then the
Speaker 2: kind of producer had started lighting up, you know, and
Speaker 2: getting excited about listening to records in the sense of dimension,
Speaker 2: and it's just it's like the same as you man,
Speaker 2: you know, starting one artist and I mean Prince for example,
Speaker 2: and it takes you on such a journey and you
Speaker 2: just get super curious.
Speaker 1: It keeps you from being so dismissive, because even I meant,
Speaker 1: for whatever nerd degree I have of music, I mean,
Speaker 1: I definitely went through that period where, like you know,
Speaker 1: when I was six or seven, Marvin Gaye comes on,
Speaker 1: I'm just thinking, like, that's my aunt's music, right.
Speaker 2: Right, right, that's something that I'm impressed by.
Speaker 1: Being young, What kept you from being dismissive?
Speaker 2: That's right. We're cynical even, you know, because when you
Speaker 2: hit your teens, you start to be like quite niche
Speaker 2: with what you like. But I always had quite an openness,
Speaker 2: which I see as a gift. I guess. I was
Speaker 2: very intrigued by metal music, for example, like bands from
Speaker 2: New Jersey like the den'ger escape Plane and Sugar, you know,
Speaker 2: for the grooves, something about just from a really open
Speaker 2: standpoint of what at the time, like what what makes
Speaker 2: me feel so primally engaged to these rhythms, and then
Speaker 2: learning that a lot of it comes from Latin. You know,
Speaker 2: it's like you just become so fascinated with stuff and
Speaker 2: it didn't ever come cross my mind like, oh, that's
Speaker 2: that's cool, and that's not cool, and that's what my
Speaker 2: friends like, that's what they don't. It was just all sound,
Speaker 2: you know, And I don't think we retain that openness.
Speaker 2: Sometimes as we get older, we get a bit more,
Speaker 2: you know, into aesthetics and into taste, and that's great,
Speaker 2: all of that's really cool. But as a kid, I
Speaker 2: really I'm glad I had that openness.
Speaker 1: So you started songwriting. I know that you were songwriting
Speaker 1: by well you said your first.
Speaker 2: Instrument was well, I was writing just in you know,
Speaker 2: singing into cassette tapes and I was like eight or nine,
Speaker 2: just little silly songs, but they had structure, you know,
Speaker 2: verses and choruses. I love pop music as a formula
Speaker 2: for writing.
Speaker 1: Did they come from your family or like.
Speaker 2: Their doctor and nurses? So, I don't know, man, It's
Speaker 2: it was a really a who's your.
Speaker 1: Who is your who's that older who's the older brother? Figure?
Speaker 1: That no person?
Speaker 2: That well, No, I don't know. I think it was
Speaker 2: just I really talk about it almost more in a
Speaker 2: spiritual sense, because it's like something needs to come out,
Speaker 2: you know, when you have a need to express. And
Speaker 2: at that time I was asking just I was curious,
Speaker 2: you know, and this became a language malady was very intriguing.
Speaker 2: Lyrics were a way of like, yeah, just expression and
Speaker 2: then learning an instrument, of course, everything changes because you
Speaker 2: can start to really get deeper with the art form.
Speaker 4: Was there ever a moment where you realized that you
Speaker 4: could write songs like that?
Speaker 1: You realized like, I might can pay a bill off
Speaker 1: of this.
Speaker 2: Well, tell you something about New Zealand. It's really specialist.
Speaker 2: We have this competition. It's a high school band competition
Speaker 2: called the Rock Quest, and it's not televised or anything.
Speaker 2: It's not like American Idol or anything like that. It's
Speaker 2: kids in bands, you know, so kids literally stay in
Speaker 2: high school to enter this competition. It's super important for
Speaker 2: kids to school. And so I entered this competition as
Speaker 2: a soloist just on guitar, you know, playing songs from
Speaker 2: my bedroom that I thought were just for me, and
Speaker 2: I ended up being like the only girl in the
Speaker 2: finals and coming second in the whole country, which for
Speaker 2: New Zealand was a big deal. You know. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: at that point it's probably the same for you. You have
Speaker 2: those moments you go, hey, this is not only something
Speaker 2: that makes me really happy in my bedroom, but wow,
Speaker 2: people seem to be engaged with it. I'm being acknowledged
Speaker 2: for it, and maybe I can develop develop it more.
Speaker 1: And they were fully realized, fully arranged songs.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they were there, they were. I was about fourteen
Speaker 2: at the time when that happened, and then later got
Speaker 2: signed at like seventeen. So from those ages, I was
Speaker 2: developing songs in the studio, learning how to record on
Speaker 2: an eight track, So the songs moved from being less
Speaker 2: guitar based and more recording the entire arrangement on vocals,
Speaker 2: and that was really inspiring to me, you know, fleshing
Speaker 2: out the drum beat, just beatboxing or just little silly ideas,
Speaker 2: but that became settled down. You know a song I
Speaker 2: wrote when I was sixteen, which is probably the song
Speaker 2: that broke me first here in America before the Gotya.
Speaker 1: Your debut?
Speaker 2: That was the debut.
Speaker 1: Yeah, So how do you How does your debut album
Speaker 1: feel in contrast to what you're working on now? As
Speaker 1: far as I always feel like you're working all your
Speaker 1: life on your first record.
Speaker 2: That's true. That's true.
Speaker 1: Artists wound up like separating themselves from their debut record
Speaker 1: once they grow and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I'm twenty six now. That record came
Speaker 2: out when I was twenty one. I started making it
Speaker 2: when I was about eighteen, you know. And the songs
Speaker 2: are those ones from your bedroom, you know that you've
Speaker 2: lived with all your life. And like you said, now
Speaker 2: it's like it's third album time for me, so you know,
Speaker 2: new city, new experiences. Everything's changed. The second album, The
Speaker 2: Golden Echo, for me, was kind of that was a
Speaker 2: very experimental time for me, you know, moving to LA
Speaker 2: and so much. Yeah, you're always drawing from where you're at,
Speaker 2: but the first You're right, there's something like listening to
Speaker 2: it now you kind of look at it like it's
Speaker 2: a young child you had or someone and someone you do.
Speaker 2: You know, you you you knew, but it's it's a
Speaker 2: strange connection that you have with your debut. Okay it was.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was actually trying to let the whole entire
Speaker 1: s Yeah, I mean, does it feel like a burden
Speaker 1: that you know, do you feel as though that's not
Speaker 1: a burden but it's sort of like an asterisk. Mainly
Speaker 1: people might only know you for that.
Speaker 2: That's understandable.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, the full spectrum of your Well, how
Speaker 1: did that collaboration come to.
Speaker 2: Be like so organic? It's it's kind of because I
Speaker 2: was making Vows and the main producer I worked with
Speaker 2: on the album was called Francois Titas, and I knew
Speaker 2: his work because he produced the first Gutia record and
Speaker 2: I was in love with it, you know. I was like,
Speaker 2: this is super prog pop. I was so into it,
Speaker 2: and I was like, I want to work with a
Speaker 2: guy that made that album. And so he introduced me
Speaker 2: and Wally, so we just became friends, and we didn't
Speaker 2: talk for a good year after we met, and then
Speaker 2: he just called me up one day. He's like, I've
Speaker 2: got this song. You know, I'm looking for, you know,
Speaker 2: the other character in the song, and can I come
Speaker 2: over this afternoon and show you it and see if
Speaker 2: you'd be down to singing And just came over or
Speaker 2: I had a little home bedroom studio, and it's just
Speaker 2: so organic. The whole thing. The video is like, never
Speaker 2: any notion that this was going to be what it was.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, how long did it take
Speaker 1: you guys to shoot that?
Speaker 2: As far as that that was the longest most grueling
Speaker 2: video shit I've ever done in my life, no question,
Speaker 2: that was. I mean it was a full yeah. So
Speaker 2: we didn't move for you know, it's like we took
Speaker 2: toilet breaks. But it was a good forteen hours in
Speaker 2: that position.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, with you know, sort of strategic breaks and then
Speaker 2: back in and just being fed nuts while we because
Speaker 2: it's six you know, six or seven photographs and then
Speaker 2: a second of you know, sorry, six or se six
Speaker 2: or seven seconds in a photograph. There's six or seven seconds,
Speaker 2: then a photograph then you know what I mean, you
Speaker 2: see the process. Yeah, it was. It was a long day.
Speaker 1: That was amazing. Of course, you had no idea that
Speaker 1: you know that would lead to.
Speaker 2: Well would you? I mean, the song is not like
Speaker 2: what you would hear on the radio, and it's kind
Speaker 2: of yeah it is right, yeah, well you know more
Speaker 2: than me. Man, I did not see that coming.
Speaker 1: That's amazing.
Speaker 2: That's but I'm here.
Speaker 1: I'm glad you didn't see that coming. So why why
Speaker 1: did you leave? I mean, what was the what was
Speaker 1: the community vibe like in as? Okay? Yes, I'm one
Speaker 1: of those people that will in New Zealand.
Speaker 2: Have been a bunch of times. I get it. But
Speaker 2: the thing is that you need to understand is different.
Speaker 2: There's a big difference. Well, first start, we do have
Speaker 2: very different accents. Mine is all over the place these days.
Speaker 2: But if you go to New Zealand and Australia, here
Speaker 2: very significant. Should we do the obvious one? Australian say
Speaker 2: fish and chips. New Zealanders say fish and chips. There's
Speaker 2: a lot more blunt, it's a lot more the eyes
Speaker 2: very different. That's New Zealand one on one Australian.
Speaker 1: Word.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, so that's a good one. It's a good
Speaker 2: starting place if you give a go back again.
Speaker 1: It's like Jersey, New Yorkers and New Jersey's always battle
Speaker 1: with their turf. In DC and Maryland battle with their turf.
Speaker 1: Is there a South North Carolina turf war going on?
Speaker 1: South Carolina North Carolina kind of sort of? I mean
Speaker 1: North Carolina.
Speaker 4: Well, first off, like when people speak of the Carolinas
Speaker 4: in North Carolina, we really just count ourselves. Like South
Speaker 4: Carolina is like its own separate thing, you know what
Speaker 4: I mean. And so in North Carolina, Our leading export
Speaker 4: other than basketball is racism. So you know, we we
Speaker 4: pride ourselves on that.
Speaker 1: And on the finest show, I mean only the finest.
Speaker 4: I mean it has been aged in oak barrels, like man,
Speaker 4: come on. So so yeah, it is kind of like
Speaker 4: that North Carolina. South Carolina don't really rock like that.
Speaker 4: And in North Carolina, Charlotte is like the capitol. Well no,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Charlotte is the biggest city.
Speaker 1: That's why all the.
Speaker 4: Banks are so Charlotte is like kind of they think
Speaker 4: they're aggressive. They're well they think they are, but they're
Speaker 4: really not. Yeah, kind of polity because it's like they
Speaker 4: kind of want to be Atlanta. So they're like in
Speaker 4: Atlanta on the cusp, you know what I mean, they
Speaker 4: trying to get there.
Speaker 1: But it's like, you know, it's like Atlanta is the
Speaker 1: Bentley and Charlotte is like the three hundred cust like
Speaker 1: it looked like.
Speaker 4: A Bentley into a real Bentley.
Speaker 1: Is the same with I mean, would who would have
Speaker 1: the upper hand between New Zealand and Australia culturally as.
Speaker 2: The upper hand in terms of now this is what
Speaker 2: are we talking.
Speaker 1: I don't want you to throw.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, oh, look they you know, like the
Speaker 2: landscape of the two countries are chalk and cheese. Really yeah,
Speaker 2: I really have to go there and experience it because
Speaker 2: they've both got so much to offer and they're both
Speaker 2: being a huge part of my journey. You know. I
Speaker 2: lived in Melbourne for five years, made vows there, and
Speaker 2: New Zealand's my home. That's where I grew up. That's
Speaker 2: where I go home every Christmas to see my family.
Speaker 2: So they're both important places in America is a really
Speaker 2: important place now for me. This is New York's a
Speaker 2: home for me now, you know, it's amazing here.
Speaker 1: Was it hard for you to leave there? Did you
Speaker 1: have to come to America just so that your music
Speaker 1: career could.
Speaker 2: I think it's it's like, I like the idea of
Speaker 2: continuing to move forward and having your experiences and form
Speaker 2: your art, you know. And I've made a record there.
Speaker 2: I felt like I'd taken a lot of experience from
Speaker 2: the place, and I just signed to Warner Brothers in
Speaker 2: LA and it felt like, yeah, let's do it, you know,
Speaker 2: a new experience, a new record. And then same thing
Speaker 2: with this one's third album. And I've gotten up and
Speaker 2: planted in the New City again. Something about that feels
Speaker 2: natural to me.
Speaker 1: I see, so in La you mentioned I know that
Speaker 1: you've you've crossed paths with the what I called the
Speaker 1: animaniacs of soul, like whenever the Cat, just like the
Speaker 1: way that they run that Tasmanian devil like swirl of
Speaker 1: wind running in that warner by this tower, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's how I think of that movement. I mean
Speaker 1: talking about no No, I was just thinking.
Speaker 2: Of you know, thunder Cat worked a lot on the
Speaker 2: last album. Yeah he became Yeah, it's and again, man,
Speaker 2: all of these connections have been so organic. It's even
Speaker 2: how I kind of met you. It was just a
Speaker 2: mutual like, you know.
Speaker 1: I kind of stalked you.
Speaker 2: I don't put it on public, you know.
Speaker 4: But look, I wasn't go down.
Speaker 1: I wasn't in the I kept it out thought. I
Speaker 1: kept it out in the open. I saw her this
Speaker 1: is I first saw her on Lino and usually the
Speaker 1: music act is the very last segment before the show changes.
Speaker 1: And we were this this is obviously in the early
Speaker 1: part of UH Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, because I
Speaker 1: was still running home to watch the show afterwards. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean after like a year, then that wore off
Speaker 1: and I stopped. But I'm just saying that when she
Speaker 1: was on like, I was amazed, and you know, then
Speaker 1: I stalked her in Twitter.
Speaker 2: And then I'm glad you did.
Speaker 4: Hey, sometimes the stalker wis That is the lesson of today.
Speaker 1: I don't never lets keep you from the woman you
Speaker 1: look that sometimes to stalk her, wimp. I just had
Speaker 1: to take someone give me. I gotta say, you just
Speaker 1: spit on your computer. I did computer. Good job, good job. No,
Speaker 1: I don't love you, Kimber. No, I mean I should
Speaker 1: have get a direct message. You're taking that ship direct
Speaker 1: because now now now it's in the world. No, in all,
Speaker 1: in all seriousness.
Speaker 2: So organic relationships, yeah, just friends, you know, people that
Speaker 2: you meet out or at a gym or you know,
Speaker 2: the same way we did. And all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: I was living at a farm in LA It was
Speaker 2: very weird. Yeah, I'd like eight sheep man, eight sheep
Speaker 2: in the backyard.
Speaker 1: Yeah angels.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is this lady. I found it on Craigslist
Speaker 2: and she had a little urban city farm at the
Speaker 2: back of her house in Silver Lake. Three sheet dogs,
Speaker 2: twenty chickens.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 2: So thunder Cat Steve Stephen come over and we would
Speaker 2: just hang out with the animals and then he'd be like,
Speaker 2: play me what you're working on. And he'd be like, oh,
Speaker 2: I've got an idea, you know, press recording. That's just
Speaker 2: how it started. We're just lying like outside with the animals,
Speaker 2: listening to tunes that I was working on. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: I lived in Silver Lake for you, there was a
Speaker 1: farm in silver Lake.
Speaker 2: No one believes me.
Speaker 1: I moved out of silver Lake because the skunk used
Speaker 1: to chase me home.
Speaker 2: Wow.
Speaker 1: Wow, No, like if you weren't home at a certain hour,
Speaker 1: you know, wild animals, that's.
Speaker 2: Well, check this out. Coyotes do you say coyotes?
Speaker 1: Coyotes?
Speaker 2: Coyotes. Coyotes came and ate six of the chickens. So
Speaker 2: we had to get three sheep dogs. They were like tough,
Speaker 2: you know, they were the sheep dogs. They kept everyone safe. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Wow, you really did live on the farm.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So it just started out hanging out of the
Speaker 2: farm and then all of a sudden he was tracking
Speaker 2: ideas and then he was like the base, you know,
Speaker 2: sound of the last record. So it's very cool when
Speaker 2: things happened like that.
Speaker 1: Very creative individual death undercat.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's.
Speaker 1: So still I'm still stuck on farm animal. Can we
Speaker 1: talk about the skunk chasing you? Because there's there's more,
Speaker 1: there's way. I've got a mental image in my head
Speaker 1: running away from the car. Yeah, okay, So like I
Speaker 1: would drive, I would drive up a hill if you
Speaker 1: know California streets, and like some of them are full
Speaker 1: of hills and it's really dark there, and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: I drive and then you'd see, you know, their their eyes.
Speaker 1: There's like three or four of them, maybe in front
Speaker 1: of my door. And I didn't know what to do.
Speaker 1: So I thought, okay, this is a smart idea. Let
Speaker 1: me get back in the car and I'm going to
Speaker 1: approach them at like fifty miles per hour. Like I
Speaker 1: was in a zone of like maybe you should be
Speaker 1: doing twenty. So I figured if I do fifty, house,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll run away. But what I didn't know
Speaker 1: was that in the face of fear they spray you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I know that now. And literally I got my entire
Speaker 1: like my bill for the car rental. They thought I
Speaker 1: had a lot. They're like, wait, we know you you
Speaker 1: don't smoke weed. And I was like this is skunks
Speaker 1: And I explained and they were like, yeah, you can't
Speaker 1: scare a skunk because they will spray you. Yeah, my
Speaker 1: car and me never get sprayed by a skunk, let
Speaker 1: alone three of them. You have to bathe and tomato sauce.
Speaker 1: Is that a true? Is that a true? I didn't
Speaker 1: know about that, like to get well. I tried to
Speaker 1: dismiss it, but then like, thank god for like we
Speaker 1: culture because everyone just thought like I had the good ship,
Speaker 1: but you always smell like a bakery. No, it was
Speaker 1: the opposite of a bakery. I smelled like I had
Speaker 1: that good feel, like somebody that was on his way
Speaker 1: to it. Yeah. Now that was the worst. Like that
Speaker 1: was mischief night. I don't know if people still celebrate that.
Speaker 1: It was like the night before Halloween. Uh, not to mention,
Speaker 1: I got egged the next night. I got egged in
Speaker 1: Silver Lake. Oh wow, it was a bad first week
Speaker 1: out there. Yeah. So that's my skunk story in Silver Lake. Okay,
Speaker 1: so right about now, you're working on your your third
Speaker 1: album and what is your your your vision or your
Speaker 1: how do you even grow past the level experiments that you've.
Speaker 2: Been Yeah, yeah, well I'm excited to do new things.
Speaker 2: You know. The last record was like a maximalist album.
Speaker 2: I got to meet all these amazing people and kind
Speaker 2: of just invited them all down to the studio, you
Speaker 2: know why not, which was super cool. But I'm really
Speaker 2: enjoying like trying more of a directness with some of
Speaker 2: the beats that I'm writing and things that I'm you know,
Speaker 2: doing as demos. There are a lot more to the
Speaker 2: point than I've ever been, which is exciting and probably
Speaker 2: comes with age and maturity. You kind of start to
Speaker 2: turn more things off and you don't have to do
Speaker 2: as many flourishes to get emotion across, you know, I've
Speaker 2: had more experiences. Yeah, I'm inspired by a lot of
Speaker 2: records at the moment. I've been spending a lot of
Speaker 2: time in Ethiopia the last couple of years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to say, your Instagram is kind
Speaker 1: of off the chain you just came back from.
Speaker 2: Yeah, It's just crazy that place. It's gotten so under
Speaker 2: my skin, Like I'm hoping to go back every year
Speaker 2: if I can. It's just that powerful. Not only the
Speaker 2: music and the food and the culture, but the people
Speaker 2: have really touched me. And that wasn't really doing gigs
Speaker 2: or anything that was just more doing some kind of work,
Speaker 2: like more on a spirit to like spending time with
Speaker 2: the woman over there. A lot of them are HIV
Speaker 2: positive and kind of being a part of a team
Speaker 2: that does work over this. So that's been really cool
Speaker 2: and I'm really into that balance, you know, of taking
Speaker 2: time completely off music. Have you ever done that?
Speaker 5: Man?
Speaker 2: Seventeen projects? But then it's kind of like you no,
Speaker 2: but it's it is like the you are amazing at that. Actually,
Speaker 2: you know how you have your finger and all out
Speaker 2: of differents that are varied.
Speaker 1: You know, well, is this your version of you need
Speaker 1: to recharge before you start creating, so you have to
Speaker 1: take yourself out of music too.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's one way of looking at it
Speaker 2: for sure, and just fill up with different yeah, ideas,
Speaker 2: experiences and and and being. It's something very powerful about
Speaker 2: being completely anonymous in that place and not there to
Speaker 2: be a musician with all of your that skill set
Speaker 2: of that what that brings, but just to be a
Speaker 2: human being you know, and observe and offer your heart
Speaker 2: and office. So that's been really powerful and I'm excited
Speaker 2: to now channel you know, the rawness of some of
Speaker 2: those experiences into you know, my next body of work.
Speaker 1: Do you have, well, any artist, especially on artists on
Speaker 1: a major label, do you have any thoughts whatsoever about
Speaker 1: you know, how far to the left you can lean
Speaker 1: as far as experimentations are concerned, and how yeah, far
Speaker 1: to the right you should go to make sure that
Speaker 1: it's easily adjustable. Yeah, there was ongoing wars with your
Speaker 1: current A and R right now.
Speaker 2: I mean, of course, I think I asked that question
Speaker 2: to my other musician friends as well. It's like the
Speaker 2: balance is always the same, We're all trying to balance it.
Speaker 2: I'm lucky at Warner Brothers. We talked about this when
Speaker 2: we did the Prince panel. Like Lenny Warnaker like has
Speaker 2: been with me from day one. There he's got amazing music.
Speaker 1: He's still there.
Speaker 2: He's my main he signed me to Warner Brothers.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, that is still there even when we
Speaker 1: did that. Prince Banel, Yeah, him all the time, Prince Yes.
Speaker 1: James Taylor, Yeah.
Speaker 2: He purchased Randy Newman Records. He did the band like
Speaker 2: Park's first record. I mean, this guy is an incredibly
Speaker 2: musical mind. He'll be I'll be showing a special story.
Speaker 2: I mean, just think of how cool this is. Like
Speaker 2: I'll be showing him, you know, you're expecting the A
Speaker 2: and I to tell you to make the chorus bigger, right,
Speaker 2: and you know it's a classic thing. Make it.
Speaker 6: But he'll be like, well, I think, you know, I
Speaker 6: think in the third bar you could make it a
Speaker 6: little more harmonically complex Ian what if you put a
Speaker 6: sound there, you know, just and he will really talk
Speaker 6: to me in that sense of like, you know, it
Speaker 6: just needs a different contrast at that point. And this
Speaker 6: to me is very inspiring, you know, to be able
Speaker 6: to have those kinds of.
Speaker 1: Conversations music in that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe lucky.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't trust that situation.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, I've had my battles, of course,
Speaker 2: you know, and I continue to and that's kind of
Speaker 2: I think the tension that kind of needs to be
Speaker 2: there as well, in a sense that it pushes me
Speaker 2: to explore both sides. And I have a great love
Speaker 2: of pop music, but I feel very strongly that what
Speaker 2: I have to offer is notes is a unique perspective
Speaker 2: on that.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I think if you look at it the
Speaker 2: right way, it can be fun. Maybe then it's awful
Speaker 2: sometimes you know, it is. I mean it is really
Speaker 2: hard sometimes, of course, if you're really going for a
Speaker 2: vision and and and people are there to essentially water
Speaker 2: that down. You know. Wow, you know a lot of
Speaker 2: heated conversations and you have to fight hard, you do.
Speaker 2: And I think we you know, we're just talking about
Speaker 2: Prince and it's been very inspiring for me to go
Speaker 2: back into him as an artist and really be so
Speaker 2: reminded of how he never backed down on things, you know,
Speaker 2: and and fought hard, but also was super smart and
Speaker 2: always listened. That's what Lenny always says. Man, he's like
Speaker 2: Prince would you know, he would never he would never
Speaker 2: not be listening to you. He would always be taking
Speaker 2: it in, you know, and he would always go away.
Speaker 2: He'd hang up when he'd be like, I'm not changing
Speaker 2: the record, you know, I'm not, you know. And they
Speaker 2: thought they didn't have an urban song for Diamonds and Parsons.
Speaker 1: I'm not.
Speaker 2: You work it out, you know. But then that night
Speaker 2: he went back to the studio and he he may
Speaker 2: get off, right. He just came in with it the
Speaker 2: next day and put it on the desk.
Speaker 1: That's right when we first spoke about Prince you told
Speaker 1: me your favorite record was Diamonds and Pearls.
Speaker 2: I've seen any of the for you is probably one
Speaker 2: of my favorites, right up there with it.
Speaker 1: You're really big on vocal arrangements, and.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm saying. That's when I got the A
Speaker 2: Trex started making you know, arrangements with only voice.
Speaker 1: So how okay, So you've probably mastered that. I know
Speaker 1: a lot of people that use that device.
Speaker 3: The A t Rex Machineah yeah, but you're probably the
Speaker 3: one person that I know that will find ways to
Speaker 3: push it into Okay.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say it like it's the C word.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say commercial, but to least make
Speaker 1: it more accessible because I know that a lot of artists,
Speaker 1: uh that use that are far on the left as
Speaker 1: far as experimenting is concerned.
Speaker 2: Right.
Speaker 1: What what drew you to that as your weapon of choice?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And well, I think it all comes from feeling limitation.
Speaker 2: So I was doing geeks with just guitar. When I
Speaker 2: first started playing in New Zealand at little Bass my
Speaker 2: dad would take me. You know, I was like sixteen,
Speaker 2: and so I couldn't get in and then I fell
Speaker 2: I needed to express more color, you know, and get
Speaker 2: more across in the performances. So when I learned this
Speaker 2: little boss it was you know, the boss loop pedals,
Speaker 2: the classic ones. I never really really really read the manual,
Speaker 2: but just kind of all right.
Speaker 1: Let me break it down just in case people don't know. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this device is to sing with yourself, yourself over okay, Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: That's right, that's right. Yeah you can. You can put
Speaker 2: your instrument down altogether and just.
Speaker 1: Form a bed for guitars first, and then people started
Speaker 1: to sing into the device.
Speaker 2: Yeah that's right. I never used it with guitar though,
Speaker 2: I only used it with vocals, and then eventually found that,
Speaker 2: you know, my voice has a very different texture when
Speaker 2: it's layered, and you know, can sound like a different instrument.
Speaker 2: So I started putting down the guitar and becoming more
Speaker 2: fascinated with that as a as an instrument and of itself.
Speaker 1: You know, do you keep every performance fresh as do
Speaker 1: you have a go to way for using those effects.
Speaker 2: Or here's a funny story for you. When you saw
Speaker 2: Jay Lenno. Okay, that was I still refused to play
Speaker 2: to a click track at that point. Okay, So usually
Speaker 2: when you're doing live television, you probably want to get
Speaker 2: the loop like sync so it doesn't completely fall out
Speaker 2: of time. On the live television. I was very stubborn
Speaker 2: and we had to do it like three times, you know,
Speaker 2: because I was so nervous. My finger was shaking something.
Speaker 2: Because I do. I change it every time, you know,
Speaker 2: I start up the intro just kind of with a
Speaker 2: new loop each time to keep it fresh, because I
Speaker 2: don't want it to get to uh yeah, rehearsed, you
Speaker 2: know too rehearsed, or feeling like, okay, here we go,
Speaker 2: she does this, bud, she does that pod. I really
Speaker 2: thrived on the danger aspect, but of course live television
Speaker 2: is different, you know, you camera crew, and so from
Speaker 2: that point onward, I decided to start, you know, involving
Speaker 2: Nableton live in the set, and we have aspects now
Speaker 2: that a're a little more yeah, you know, locked in.
Speaker 2: But there's something to me that's very important with every
Speaker 2: live show that there's room for collapse, you know, or
Speaker 2: at least the chance of collapse. But you do know
Speaker 2: what I'm talking about, because living on the edge of
Speaker 2: that tension is what's so.
Speaker 1: Has it ever broken down on you? And concert?
Speaker 2: Of course, I mean, you know, and again there's a
Speaker 2: chance for a very human moment, you know, which, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know, we always can back it up if things
Speaker 2: fall out and you ask the audience can we do
Speaker 2: it again? And it's cool. I think always have to
Speaker 2: keep that this somehow.
Speaker 1: Okay, So I want to know basic things about your
Speaker 1: your life musically related? What was what was your first concert?
Speaker 2: It's a band called silver Chair. Oh yeah, we'll check
Speaker 2: it out. They that's right, that's right now. They were fourteen,
Speaker 2: they were twelve. Therefore they were a grund rock band
Speaker 2: from Australia. But you probably don't know this about Silverchair though.
Speaker 2: After they had their big blow up with the grunge band,
Speaker 2: they started making some very wild pop music and Van
Speaker 2: Dyke Parks himself says that he puts Daniel Jones on
Speaker 2: the same level as Brian Wilson as a song Yes,
Speaker 2: he does. Now check this out. The song we just played,
Speaker 2: Daniel Jones wrote that with me. We did that together
Speaker 2: on the piano. He plays the piano on the song
Speaker 2: on the record Daniel Johns from Silverchair.
Speaker 1: Wow, really thought you got.
Speaker 2: To get on the later record.
Speaker 1: That reminds me of when I found out that dude
Speaker 1: from Spin Doctors worked with Blal on his demo. Yeah
Speaker 1: it was wild, that's crazy.
Speaker 2: And Butlal is on the last album.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like ten minutes to really make me comprehend.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait, who produces no Spin Doctors. I said, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: wow who produced this? Who produced it? I refused to
Speaker 1: believe it. That's amazing. So okay, this is the second
Speaker 1: time that we mentioned h Van Dyke parks like, how
Speaker 1: did your pass even cross? Because I mean, yeah, he's
Speaker 1: the god.
Speaker 2: Oh he is just he's my fairy godfather. He is
Speaker 2: the sweetest. He really is like this ethereal magical person
Speaker 2: in my life. So Lenny, I mean Lenny is very
Speaker 2: close with Van Dyke, and I had said, what a
Speaker 2: huge fan I was of the Silver Chair record called Diorama,
Speaker 2: and Van Dyke arranged the strings for the whole album.
Speaker 2: Can you imagine this band that had become a huge,
Speaker 2: you know success as a grunge, you know, garage rock band,
Speaker 2: and then they make a record that I swear these
Speaker 2: songs modulate like ten times within each you know, five minutes,
Speaker 2: and he gets Van Dyke to arrange all the strings
Speaker 2: on you know, he learns piano for the album. I
Speaker 2: just thought it was incredible.
Speaker 1: Okay, what's the now Now this is the educational portion
Speaker 1: of of our.
Speaker 2: Radio show Diorama. Yeah, yeah, so I loved.
Speaker 1: That exactly why I wanted this show something Yeah, and
Speaker 1: nerd out. So you're saying that Diorama was their their
Speaker 1: left turn, their departure album.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right. Yeah, and you know it didn't do
Speaker 2: so well in terms of a commercially you know, but.
Speaker 1: I have a theory now, as a person that really
Speaker 1: doesn't know much about Silver Chair, what was the album
Speaker 1: that came out before?
Speaker 2: Oh, that would have been Neon Ballroom. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: it was soon after the big one was I don't
Speaker 2: know what the big one was in America, frog Stump
Speaker 2: or oh wow, they were fourteen Wow, that was something
Speaker 2: like that school or maybe sixteen or I don't know.
Speaker 1: So they were massively large, and you know, these cute
Speaker 1: kids playing adult music. And I have a theory about uh,
Speaker 1: what they called the Departure records, which you know, I
Speaker 1: mean you'll see it as like, oh, spiritual maturity and
Speaker 1: growing into the thing, and I guess and it's not
Speaker 1: coming from a cynical place. But for every departure album
Speaker 1: that there is, there's always the mountain or the shadow
Speaker 1: of the eclipse of an album or an image that
Speaker 1: they can't escape. And they will do anything, sometimes consciously
Speaker 1: and other times subconsciously, like in the case of the
Speaker 1: Beastie Boys making Paul's Boutique, they wanted to wash away
Speaker 1: the braddy frat boy image. That fight for your right
Speaker 1: was in the case of there's a ride going on
Speaker 1: by Sly, you know, having just conquered Woodstock in nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty nine and you know, had four top ten hits
Speaker 1: and finally like the dream was realized after like three
Speaker 1: album attempts to make them slam the family stone such
Speaker 1: a you know, a household name, and then he kind
Speaker 1: of turns his back on everything, I mean, making an
Speaker 1: innovative funk record while doing it. But still, you know,
Speaker 1: Prince definitely, I'm reading this manuscript, this book right now
Speaker 1: of him actually planning Purple Rain and then also planning
Speaker 1: his exit strategy. Wow, making around the other day even
Speaker 1: before the Purple Rain.
Speaker 2: Tour, and it's just he's sword he had a vision,
Speaker 2: is that clips.
Speaker 4: That's going to get trapped into so Okay, So with
Speaker 4: that said, would you consider Phrenology to be the roots.
Speaker 1: Bunch of record? You know what I'm I will probably
Speaker 1: say that now, maybe I'll take two twenty five percent
Speaker 1: credit of it being self sabotage, as in not wanting
Speaker 1: to follow things fall apart. But if I'm really truly
Speaker 1: honest tipping point, no no no no no no no
Speaker 1: no no no no, because I really felt like the
Speaker 1: departure for me, no, that that was us being normal,
Speaker 1: that was us trying to be like ground zero normal,
Speaker 1: which I know. My point is that I think with Phrenology,
Speaker 1: with what was happening with Neil Soul, like I shot
Speaker 1: a Neil Soul coke commercial like half the CALORIESK. Like
Speaker 1: only one of those commercials came out, but it was
Speaker 1: like we did a five part commercial. It was like
Speaker 1: me Amel Angie Stone Music, Soul Child, like we were
Speaker 1: all playing like you know, categories like you know, like
Speaker 1: we didn't Wow, it never came out. It never came
Speaker 1: out like one of them came. It was like aries all.
Speaker 7: The Wow Neil Soul game night with Yeah, it was
Speaker 7: like that basically like real life.
Speaker 1: No, but I mean it there was a point where
Speaker 1: I felt like maybe okay because because of us not
Speaker 1: knowing that we were gonna win the Grammy, and then
Speaker 1: Tarik wanted to shoot a movie and I wanted to
Speaker 1: see Voodoo through through the tour, like we took two
Speaker 1: thousand off, which should have been the cash in year,
Speaker 1: you know, and instead we were like, okay, we'll come
Speaker 1: back January two thousand and one and do it all
Speaker 1: over again. And then it was just like maybe we
Speaker 1: felt like our territorial pissing marks were getting violated. So
Speaker 1: it's sort of like, okay, well we're gonna show y'all,
Speaker 1: we're gonna do everything but neo soul. But then everyone
Speaker 1: had that idea because you know, I mean Stane Cone
Speaker 1: and definitely Speaker Box had that that we're going to
Speaker 1: turn our back on this thing. Like everybody was going contrary,
Speaker 1: including D'Angelo, like you know, when we started Black Messiah,
Speaker 1: like it was going to be way more radical, way
Speaker 1: more wow it. You know, in his mind he wanted
Speaker 1: to do like fishbones, give a monkey brain give I
Speaker 1: can't pronounce it, yeah, you know, so I guess I
Speaker 1: don't know, I mean, but it still worked for us,
Speaker 1: that's the thing. Though it still worked so I feel
Speaker 1: like the tipping point wasn't our departure record, but it
Speaker 1: was just like it was the album that I had
Speaker 1: the least, and I was just like, Okay, what do
Speaker 1: I do. I'll take instructions.
Speaker 2: Sometimes I look at making albums like an itch you
Speaker 2: need to scratch, you know. And when you said something
Speaker 2: about like the eclipse or the vision, that something that's
Speaker 2: lingering and the subconscious that you need to kind of
Speaker 2: grab for after you've had a moment with a record
Speaker 2: or I don't know, there's there's there's something in the
Speaker 2: back of your mind that you're like, I need to
Speaker 2: get it this. I need to unveil this something that's there.
Speaker 2: And whether that be a highly you know six you
Speaker 2: don't know whether that's going to Like do you listen.
Speaker 1: To someone and that gets you amped? Like last week
Speaker 1: Common played me like five songs from his new record Wow,
Speaker 1: and I was feeling some sort of and I'm working
Speaker 1: on this record, so I'm feeling some sort of way
Speaker 1: like yo, I gotta come with it, Like I really
Speaker 1: gotta come with it. So I'll say the first time
Speaker 1: in ten years I felt like really, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: when Dyla died then I was just like, I don't
Speaker 1: want to do music no more and only like one
Speaker 1: record a year, that sort of thing. So maybe between
Speaker 1: like two thousand and six and twenty sixteen, I had
Speaker 1: this dark law of not really wanting to put my
Speaker 1: heart into the record process, like just put all that
Speaker 1: passion one record in one record. Now, I'm just like,
Speaker 1: I gotta come with it. So like, is there an
Speaker 1: artist that you hear that gets your juices flowing? And
Speaker 1: I don't mean like I could do that. I don't
Speaker 1: mean that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but I mean, oh man, there are just there's
Speaker 2: so many. I will say that as we were talking
Speaker 2: about New Zealand before, there's some very special things that
Speaker 2: come out of New Zealand. And there's two brothers and
Speaker 2: I listened a lot to well, you know, Unknown Mortal
Speaker 2: oakstro I'm shore. So that's Ruben Nielsen, who I've known
Speaker 2: for years because he had a punk band when I
Speaker 2: was a kid, and I used to go to his
Speaker 2: shows and sneak in underage and be front row. They
Speaker 2: were called the mint Chicks. They were so rare, they
Speaker 2: were great, and the singer of the band huh they
Speaker 2: were punk, yeah, super post punk, kind of super screamy,
Speaker 2: but but you know, great kind of melodic guitar lines,
Speaker 2: very angular rhythms.
Speaker 1: It was.
Speaker 2: It was fantastic. And the lead singer of that band
Speaker 2: was Cody Nielsen, which is Ruben's brother. Now he has
Speaker 2: his own side projects, his on Ricos. I can't start
Speaker 2: listening to it, and like, they just keep reinventing themselves.
Speaker 2: You know, I've seen not everyone knows their stories, but
Speaker 2: they just keep starting these projects. And to me, that's
Speaker 2: really inspiring. And when you say like I've got to
Speaker 2: come with it or kind of keep on that, that
Speaker 2: new energy, I don't know, it's it's cool inspires me.
Speaker 1: What was the first record you ever purchased?
Speaker 2: Wow? You know what? One of the very first albums
Speaker 2: I ever bought with my own money was Frank by
Speaker 2: Amy wine House. We've talked about this before, and I
Speaker 2: told you what an important artist she was for me
Speaker 2: for those reasons. I listened to lots of other albums
Speaker 2: before then, but there was something very special about picking
Speaker 2: that up. I didn't know anything about her. I was like,
Speaker 2: just looks sick on the front cover.
Speaker 1: Wait, you just did it based on the album cover.
Speaker 2: I don't know anything.
Speaker 1: You didn't hear anything.
Speaker 2: I listened to it in the record store, but I
Speaker 2: picked it up because you know, you know, when you
Speaker 2: I love that. I missed that the CD on and
Speaker 2: I am listening to it and I thought, this sounds
Speaker 2: great because she she was a guitarist too, and she
Speaker 2: was playing these jazz and versions that I was learning,
Speaker 2: but she had beats. And that's what I always felt was,
Speaker 2: you know, I wanted to explore. I want to get
Speaker 2: tougher with my son. I want to be a safe songwriter,
Speaker 2: you know, just keep it all pretty, and I wanted
Speaker 2: it to have, you know, like some balls, and she was, man,
Speaker 2: she just took me to school, you know, and all
Speaker 2: of these singers. And it's so funny, man, how the
Speaker 2: world connects people. Isn't that crazy?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 1: So I'm just like, how do you know about beats? Though?
Speaker 1: I mean, like the average I'm just saying I'm trying
Speaker 1: not to be cultural elitist or sexist or any of
Speaker 1: these things, but normally there is an older figure, trickled
Speaker 1: down person Like I'm the youngest people of people in
Speaker 1: my brood, so this was handed down. I mean, what
Speaker 1: about you guys, Like were you I had an older
Speaker 1: sister who was really into music. She's the one that
Speaker 1: got me in the hip hop. She's the one that
Speaker 1: pretty much triple Prince. Yeah, yeah, where did you fall?
Speaker 1: William Bill? I was into jazz and I had really
Speaker 1: great teachers in high school, and then I went to
Speaker 1: Africa and when I was in college and that sort
Speaker 1: of I love how the white people. No, I'm the
Speaker 1: only one in this room that's not that hasn't been.
Speaker 4: I've been to South Africa, but that doesn't you know, Yeah,
Speaker 4: that's not real Africa apparently not. Yeah, I mean from
Speaker 4: what from you talk to people from the content, they
Speaker 4: say that that's like the most westernized country.
Speaker 1: I want to it's the most really hard right now Africa.
Speaker 2: Yet I'm just saying, but it does bring to mind
Speaker 2: actually when we're talking about being young and what was inspiring.
Speaker 2: I love musical theater and always this makes me sound
Speaker 2: like I was a musical theater but I you know,
Speaker 2: I was really drawn to the Well, there's such a
Speaker 2: connotation with that.
Speaker 1: Your heads down. Oh no, I'm just listening. I'm just listening.
Speaker 1: You weren't in musical theater? Hell no, why now?
Speaker 2: I know that's what I mean.
Speaker 1: It wasn't me say heal like h e no man,
Speaker 1: like I tried. I tried. I know now, Okay, so
Speaker 1: we have three theater kids in there before. I did
Speaker 1: a couple of places before I knew.
Speaker 2: Yo. You know what I did?
Speaker 1: I did brew. I did hair in high school. I
Speaker 1: didn't I did hair. I talked about I did like
Speaker 1: mus school, but I was in music. I forgot about that.
Speaker 7: I did hair.
Speaker 1: I did like school Christmas places and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: I was about to say, everyone in this room needs
Speaker 1: to stop lying. I know y'all was involved with music
Speaker 1: I did. I was a black Sanna actually really yeah,
Speaker 1: have the beard back then. I was like thirteen at
Speaker 1: the time, but I was. I was black Sanna in
Speaker 1: a really white school in Indiana. So in Indian all
Speaker 1: the places, right, they was hanging in Indiana? Yeah, Like,
Speaker 1: I wait, did you think about the hazy shaded criminals
Speaker 1: criminal Okay, wait, we're getting off all the roop no period.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I think some of the melodic interests might
Speaker 2: have come from a love of that. But when you're
Speaker 2: talking about beats, I know what you mean. I'm trying
Speaker 2: to think I love Jurassic Five When I was in
Speaker 2: high school. I listened to them a lot. You know.
Speaker 2: There were certain acts that got me thinking, why does
Speaker 2: this make my body move like this? And you see,
Speaker 2: I started to write vocal lines that were percussive, you know,
Speaker 2: I wanted to find the bits between to sing it.
Speaker 1: So maybe that's what I'm now seeing the Jurassic Five.
Speaker 1: What happened to Wait, I'm gonna tell you something funny.
Speaker 1: I love them too. They were great. So imagine it
Speaker 1: being like nineteen ninety nine, ninety eight, ninety nine, right,
Speaker 1: and so okay, I'm in my agent's office and we
Speaker 1: got to offer. And okay, I don't mean it's no
Speaker 1: sort of way, just understand the logistics of the situation.
Speaker 1: She's saying that, Okay, you guys are going to open
Speaker 1: for or Jurassic five and Black Eyed Peas and we
Speaker 1: started laughing. He was like, wait what he said? You
Speaker 1: guys want to open? I was like, open?
Speaker 8: Now?
Speaker 1: Was ninety nine? This before Fergie came. The Peas and
Speaker 1: Jurassic five was like the consistential underground group groups that
Speaker 1: were normally open for the roots, who at this time
Speaker 1: were in their platinum powers or whatever. But no, the
Speaker 1: thing was is that hip hop so rarely came down
Speaker 1: Under to Australia to New Zealand that whoever just went
Speaker 1: over there was the man and did five days. If
Speaker 1: you did big day out, the big festival, then suddenly
Speaker 1: you became. So there was like an inside joke that like, yo,
Speaker 1: Jurassic five can play stadiums in Australia. Probably it's like
Speaker 1: Black Eyed Peas have an audience of ten thousand in Australia.
Speaker 1: Ben Harper can play stadiums like so all the acts
Speaker 1: that I mean it was the Roots used to play
Speaker 1: like we would go to places that no one else
Speaker 1: would go and then conquered. So I always wondered I
Speaker 1: was going to ask what was the Jurassic five effect
Speaker 1: on they were like the Beatles, Yeah, because no one
Speaker 1: else would go over there.
Speaker 2: That's right when New Zealand's interesting. We're talking about the differences,
Speaker 2: but R and B and soul is very important in
Speaker 2: New Zealand, more important. I'd say. It's funny because of
Speaker 2: course you have Highest Coyote and these incredible arm b
Speaker 2: x coming out of Australia, but it's more of a
Speaker 2: rock thing, you know, with a lot of the music
Speaker 2: when you're growing up New Zealand. The Maldi people are
Speaker 2: very amazing rhythmic music, very melodic, very soulful. You know,
Speaker 2: they're playing churches. They have the mutte eyes. So hip
Speaker 2: hop's very big in New Zealand. Hip hop's really big
Speaker 2: and soul artists said, yeah, I remember these these head
Speaker 2: these are artists were headlining huge venues. You know, they
Speaker 2: were big. And you know, when you live so far away,
Speaker 2: I mean from New York, it's probably takes me twenty
Speaker 2: two hours to get home, almost something insane. You know,
Speaker 2: you're so curious about music from other parts of the world.
Speaker 2: It becomes a I don't know, it becomes a little obsession.
Speaker 2: You know, I've found something on I was around at
Speaker 2: the start of blogs and everything, obviously, and your friends
Speaker 2: starts telling you about this thing, you know, and then
Speaker 2: you take a little rabbit hole with that and you're
Speaker 2: so far from it that it's so exotic and exciting.
Speaker 1: So have you coming back to Australia, I mean after
Speaker 1: your Grammy success or whatever, like was it the.
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: Have you had a homecoming welcome as far as New Zealand?
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, you know it's a big deal. You know,
Speaker 2: it's a big deal for a country so small when
Speaker 2: artists get recognized and in America, same for Australia, but
Speaker 2: especially for New Zealand because yeah, like I said, there's
Speaker 2: only formally in people there, you know, So it's it
Speaker 2: is a real trip when we are able to connect
Speaker 2: and on a sort of global level, so.
Speaker 1: You're able to go home and still like be regular.
Speaker 1: Can you go to the grocery.
Speaker 2: Store in Hamilton. Yeah it's different, Yeah, it's definitely different.
Speaker 2: I lay pretty low, like I'm all about getting back
Speaker 2: to nature when I'm there, you know, to the ocean.
Speaker 2: And I didn't have a farm in New Zealand. Don't
Speaker 2: grow up on a farm. I only had a farm
Speaker 2: in La.
Speaker 1: I'll still never understand that ship. All right, I just moved. Okay, wait,
Speaker 1: what are your what are your plans for the future?
Speaker 2: Oh that old question?
Speaker 1: I sound like very white.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, like I said, I'm writing. I'm writing more
Speaker 2: than I've ever readen which is exciting, and I'm excited
Speaker 2: to start sharing some of that. So putting new music
Speaker 2: out maybe even before the album and then I start
Speaker 2: the album yeah pretty soon, man, next month, I'm going
Speaker 2: to start getting into production, writing more writing New York
Speaker 2: I'm doing a lot of improvised collaborations. The stuff you
Speaker 2: came to the Space Jam and this new improvisation collective
Speaker 2: called Exo Tech. Yeah, man, it's kind of the name
Speaker 2: kind of came from an interest in like exotica music
Speaker 2: and kind of Brazilian rhythms and also technology, you know,
Speaker 2: using gadgets and crazy loopers and industrial sounds. You know.
Speaker 2: It's like fourteen people in the core ensemble.
Speaker 1: From overplaying.
Speaker 2: This is the fascinating thing about it is when everyone's
Speaker 2: tuned in and you're kind of aware of how many
Speaker 2: people are on stage. Of course, it's it's very easy
Speaker 2: for it to become lasagnia. You know. It's just layers
Speaker 2: and layers, but some very special things that happened when
Speaker 2: you're conscious of that. So everyone is listening intent intently
Speaker 2: to each other.
Speaker 1: So everybody just plays.
Speaker 2: Afterwards and then yeah, that's right, and then we have
Speaker 2: over developed the ideas we perform in the rounds. Everyone
Speaker 2: one in the audience is quite intimately involved. There's a
Speaker 2: bit of conducting, a bit of head nods, a bit
Speaker 2: of hand signals with things, but essentially it's just just
Speaker 2: going into the unknown, you know, and it's very liberating.
Speaker 2: It's very liberating for someone who spends a lot of
Speaker 2: time in studio like I do, and you know, being
Speaker 2: very intentional about my recordings and production. This is a
Speaker 2: time for me to just get back in that space
Speaker 2: of pure expression improvisation.
Speaker 1: It's great. Oh boy, how was your day to day?
Speaker 1: Those are questions now I'm talking about you a bit
Speaker 1: like you actually.
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, my dad's good, My dad's good.
Speaker 1: It was bullets from the matrix.
Speaker 2: No, no, I just there's a lot of people in
Speaker 2: this room.
Speaker 7: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So with that collective Exo Tech, which is Sophia Bruce,
Speaker 2: who you just heard, this is our kind of joint
Speaker 2: little improvisation group and we're starting a Red Bull in
Speaker 2: Artists residency where we're developing these songs, yeah, for kind
Speaker 2: of to be kind of releasable or at least just
Speaker 2: kind of developing them from the improvised context, which has
Speaker 2: always been interesting to me because live music is such
Speaker 2: a particular thing, the process from taking live jams. David
Speaker 2: Burn's very interesting with this, of course, you know, because
Speaker 2: so many of the Talking Heads records were kind of
Speaker 2: developed from live There so many records gosh, of course, yeah,
Speaker 2: but I've just been watching his documentary Let's Stopped Making
Speaker 2: Sense one, and that's kind of what we're exploring for
Speaker 2: this in artist residency at Red Bull, and I've been
Speaker 2: spending a lot of time preparing lyrics for this and
Speaker 2: kind of getting in his zone of yeah, taking them
Speaker 2: from the stage to the studio.
Speaker 1: See. I don't know if you know this by design
Speaker 1: or if you're just doing this organically, but you know,
Speaker 1: I've always felt, you know, the idea of community, which
Speaker 1: is something that record labels kind of discourage. Yeah, they'd
Speaker 1: rather deal with an artist one on one and not
Speaker 1: deal with groups or pool families of groups and that
Speaker 1: sort of thing, because they're harder to control. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: always felt that, uh, the best music movements and the
Speaker 1: most successful music comes from uh cruise and people. If
Speaker 1: you look at Motown, you know they were a crew
Speaker 1: and your native tongues. Of course, Prince his own crops.
Speaker 1: So I mean yeah, So is I mean is that
Speaker 1: your is that you're end game to gather a community
Speaker 1: of people and and cultivate them and create this music.
Speaker 2: And I encourage it wherever I can. You know, I
Speaker 2: think I've been very blessed to kind of magnetize the
Speaker 2: right people wherever I move, and by I mean the
Speaker 2: right like just the open people that are down to gym,
Speaker 2: And it always ends up being something that's sound, you know,
Speaker 2: like something that comes to inform the music. And I
Speaker 2: work alone, you know, I'm not a band. It's I
Speaker 2: make these songs in my bedroom and then I bring
Speaker 2: in people when I hit walls, you know. And so
Speaker 2: even the band that you heard when we played Leno, like,
Speaker 2: they become very close collaborators of mine now because I
Speaker 2: kind of hit these moments where I reach the limitations
Speaker 2: of my own skills, you know, and at that point,
Speaker 2: I really like to play on that as much as possible,
Speaker 2: be like who can I draw from? Who I can?
Speaker 2: It's black being a painter, you know, and you have
Speaker 2: this pellette all around you all the time. And I'm
Speaker 2: inspired by the same people you said that weren't afraid
Speaker 2: to be, like all right, you know, where does this
Speaker 2: need to go? Who have I got that I know
Speaker 2: can help me take this even further?
Speaker 1: But you also seem very nomadish or gypsy ish, I mean,
Speaker 1: just constantly moving. And so how do you like when
Speaker 1: will you? Will you leave New York? Once all your resources.
Speaker 2: Are and seasons.
Speaker 8: You know.
Speaker 2: The farm time was kind of there was a period
Speaker 2: where I was very isolated there and I didn't leave.
Speaker 2: I don't leave much, you know. I just stayed inside
Speaker 2: and did That's right, That's that's right. Because the kitchen
Speaker 2: was outside as well, so I cooked like outside. But
Speaker 2: then it was just the bedroom and the bed and side,
Speaker 2: so it was very it was strange animals, it was weird.
Speaker 2: But then there would be these seasons where I did
Speaker 2: like space Jam. I started space Jam in l A, Okay.
Speaker 2: It was every Sunday night. I put it on Twitter.
Speaker 2: I called it space Jam. I thought it was fun.
Speaker 2: Wait a minute, I don't think I didn't tell Warner Brothers.
Speaker 2: You know, I just wanted to do this for fun.
Speaker 2: It's was I had, what was doing a tour with
Speaker 2: Janelle Monae in Australia and New Zealand and it got
Speaker 2: canceled because she got very sick, and I came back
Speaker 2: to America and I was just restless. You know. We
Speaker 2: were just about to do a tour and so I thought, well,
Speaker 2: I'm here, let's do something. And you know, or a
Speaker 2: thundercap did it most weeks. Miguel came down to jam
Speaker 2: with me, and this is likes a big guys that
Speaker 2: you know don't have to do that, but they would
Speaker 2: just get up and just go into the unknown with me.
Speaker 2: It was very powerful.
Speaker 1: And you're doing in New York for a while. Bring
Speaker 1: it back.
Speaker 2: I'm kind of focused on the exotech thing for a
Speaker 2: bit now, but I like the idea of bringing space
Speaker 2: Jam back in cities and on the road if we're
Speaker 2: all feeling up for it, going to a little venue nearby,
Speaker 2: and then the spirit of the people we mentioned continuing
Speaker 2: that conversation. So there's seasons of being very engaged with
Speaker 2: community and seasons where I really withdraw.
Speaker 1: Now, should you leave New York? Do you have any
Speaker 1: other fantasy destinations that you would you know, would you
Speaker 1: go to Europe next? See what's up?
Speaker 2: And well check this out? No, I just got back
Speaker 2: from London. I was there like a couple of weeks ago.
Speaker 2: But Japan, I've never been to.
Speaker 1: Japan, even as a professional artist.
Speaker 2: Never, I've never been to Japan.
Speaker 1: Oh man. Now, Japan has been kind of tough lately,
Speaker 1: I think, like over for the past couple of years.
Speaker 1: Why is other Bill laughing at the punchline? Before because
Speaker 1: it was just like here comes some old man wisdom
Speaker 1: about Japan.
Speaker 4: Here I go, because like they had the earth the earthquake,
Speaker 4: it was the tsunami. They had like a natural disaster.
Speaker 4: And then you know it was that and that like
Speaker 4: like up for real over there because we were trying
Speaker 4: to get over there for a minute.
Speaker 1: Back and you have to go to I've been once
Speaker 1: in two thousand and four. It was not a really
Speaker 1: good experience. No, I didn't like it. I didn't. There's
Speaker 1: a story there, man, It's always a story. Bron So
Speaker 1: I went to Japan. Never met it was an African
Speaker 1: American male the PC title. I went, man like No,
Speaker 1: I went. We went. Okay, we went over there and
Speaker 1: we went over there.
Speaker 7: We was over there under some some false pretenses for
Speaker 7: one and to this is a little brother edis LB.
Speaker 1: This is two thousand and four. So we went over
Speaker 1: there and we went over there, and I remember the first.
Speaker 4: Night we got out there were just out walking around
Speaker 4: and we was trying to go to a strip club.
Speaker 4: And so I mean and forever I'm not really the
Speaker 4: strip club dude like that, because strip clubs are about
Speaker 4: pageantry and I think just like a lot of you know,
Speaker 4: it's a lot of Yeah, it's a lot of that,
Speaker 4: and I'm not really into that. I'm not into the
Speaker 4: seeing the tricks.
Speaker 1: And all that stuff. I just from North Carolina, I know.
Speaker 4: But see, but that's another story because it was a
Speaker 4: strip club we had called fourteen k But you I'm
Speaker 4: sure you know it was legendary.
Speaker 1: So I'm not gonna get into that right now because
Speaker 1: that's not the family. Yeah, I love you, honey. That
Speaker 1: was before I became Washington.
Speaker 4: The Blood of jus So now so lizal So So
Speaker 4: now that So japan were trying to go to the
Speaker 4: joint and so we walk up to the door and
Speaker 4: as soon as we get to the door, a little
Speaker 4: dude comes out no no, no, no Japanese.
Speaker 1: Only like we didn't even let us in. We was like,
Speaker 1: oh wor so like that right there was just kind
Speaker 1: I was like, fuck this fucking place. I mean the
Speaker 1: first day, I swear to God. First day.
Speaker 4: So we left and I think we ended up eating
Speaker 4: like McDonald's for the rest of the day. And then
Speaker 4: first of the time we were there, we didn't get
Speaker 4: some Kobe beef. Though we went to Kobe and we
Speaker 4: had some Kobe Beef and like I saw one black guy.
Speaker 1: In uh in the train, I love each other. We
Speaker 1: were just so happy. I've never been so happy to
Speaker 1: see another black man in my life. You see, I'm
Speaker 1: dead ass man. I ain't making nothing shit up, but.
Speaker 2: It was, it was, it was.
Speaker 1: It was a very same for a moment.
Speaker 4: The crowds are very different, so they're not really like
Speaker 4: a big like making a lot of noise. They just
Speaker 4: watch very probably, but after the show, I mean they're
Speaker 4: really they they get me. But no, I haven't been
Speaker 4: since oll four. Now I'm really not in a rushback
Speaker 4: to go, but I hope you go, and I'm sure
Speaker 4: you'll killed it.
Speaker 1: I'm actually kind of weirded out by Man.
Speaker 2: I gotta make this right, man, Yeah you do, because no,
Speaker 2: I'm he's Wow, you.
Speaker 1: Might have like of Tokyo despite the fact, no, despite
Speaker 1: the fact, man, let's go. Their largest shoe size size ten,
Speaker 1: and you know their Jeane size is thirty four. I mean,
Speaker 1: I Tokyo is my third favorite place on earth. Wow. Wow.
Speaker 1: What's the first two? If I had to leave the
Speaker 1: Tri State area to live somewhere else. Number one is Portland, Oregon.
Speaker 1: What number two is Austin, Texas. Number three is Tokyo.
Speaker 1: Number four is the Bay Area. Hopefully I can afford.
Speaker 1: If I can afford it, I can't afford it on
Speaker 1: my salary.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 1: Number we're like camping out here. Number five is uh London.
Speaker 1: But uh wow, the fact that you've actually thought about
Speaker 1: that though, that's the very that you've plotted it out.
Speaker 1: I base okay. Portland has uh probably some of the
Speaker 1: probably the best used record store shopping, the best quality
Speaker 1: of records for cheap, Like when they see me, they
Speaker 1: won't charge me five hundred dollars for a Gault McDermott record.
Speaker 1: Like if I walk into a Connecticut spot, then suddenly
Speaker 1: it's nine thousand dollars, Like they don't know the true
Speaker 1: value of like that stuff I really love. There's more
Speaker 1: strip clubs per capita in Portland, and I've never been
Speaker 1: to one. Every time I go, I'm in and out.
Speaker 1: Nike Headquarters been there. Uh yeah. So I mean if
Speaker 1: you have good record shopping, great strip clubs and don't
Speaker 1: take much. And the food capital, I mean the food
Speaker 1: truck capital of the United States to me is Portland.
Speaker 2: That's true. Unknown more orchestra and Portland now I mean
Speaker 2: he's from New Zealand, but he works out of Portland.
Speaker 1: Now man, smart man, smart man. Well, Kimber, I really
Speaker 1: truly appreciate you for taking your time out of your
Speaker 1: busy schedule. Schedule, it's not as.
Speaker 2: Busy as yours. Well, no, you know it's you are insane.
Speaker 1: Though.
Speaker 2: No, we're not going to We're not gonna.
Speaker 1: Okay, but yeah, I say we should have thought, go ahead, go.
Speaker 2: In with how many projects it took?
Speaker 1: Look, I took a four day vacation last week. Where
Speaker 1: did you go? I just I did nothing in Los
Speaker 1: Angeles for four days. That wasn't answered my text messages.
Speaker 1: I did, yeah, I said, except to answer my text
Speaker 1: I did, okay, Yeah. I stayed in bed and it was.
Speaker 1: It was the worst feeling ever made to not do anything.
Speaker 1: That The only thing I did was I figured out
Speaker 1: how to get rid of of ten gigs of music.
Speaker 1: I didn't need my DJ computer Like that was the
Speaker 1: only work I did. You actually do that for me
Speaker 1: because I cannot do that. That's you cant figure out
Speaker 1: which one is the kill? No, you got it. You
Speaker 1: only need one. Don't stop to get enough. You don't
Speaker 1: need seventeen like I'm literally I always I'll have to
Speaker 1: have like all the different edits and not necessarily, no,
Speaker 1: I'll keep the individual edits. But I had, like, you know,
Speaker 1: i'd like for j like heart Knock Life for a
Speaker 1: billion of them that I didn't need. So yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean cleaning out my hard drives my favorite pastime. But no,
Speaker 1: I took a four day vacation and I hated every
Speaker 1: I didn't hate.
Speaker 2: It, but it was just you need to be doing
Speaker 2: things that you sleep.
Speaker 1: So much that you get tired from sleeping.
Speaker 2: Yeah, deaf.
Speaker 1: No, I got trapped in that cycle.
Speaker 2: That's a thing.
Speaker 1: And then I was like, oh, this is what depression
Speaker 1: feels like. So let me get out of when you
Speaker 1: vacation's supposed to go.
Speaker 4: Out because otherwise that it becomes like social isolated, Like
Speaker 4: that's can't.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's why DJ so much like I don't.
Speaker 1: I'm not a let's go to the bar. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I'm a I'll DJ in the bar and then you
Speaker 1: know that's me going out for shopping, you know that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. I mean, I now record shop for
Speaker 1: other people, like my new ship is now taking what
Speaker 1: we're doing. I tell you, record shopping before no no,
Speaker 1: I'm saying I record shop for you. Well no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 1: I like my thing now is whenever the parents, whenever
Speaker 1: the kids of the past, like you know you my
Speaker 1: kids in the pet sound like, then I'll be like,
Speaker 1: let's go to me. But and then I'll buy them
Speaker 1: like a thousand records like I'm I've started at least
Speaker 1: thirty record collections. Wow, Because I mean, I'm not doing
Speaker 1: to be all noble. No, I'm just addicted to going
Speaker 1: to a record shop in shopping. Yeah, I'm not going
Speaker 1: to buy like another led Zeppelin three records, Love Scholarship
Speaker 1: Foundation for All Musical Can we get out of this, guys, please? Yes,
Speaker 1: Kimber answer your question.
Speaker 2: I yeah, you take that.
Speaker 1: I took a four day vacation. In the future, I'm
Speaker 1: going to take another seven days off. I'm gonna get
Speaker 1: on a train and and hobo. I'm actually waking because
Speaker 1: you keep talking about taking my favorite thing on Earth
Speaker 1: or just taking a Literally, I got a well the
Speaker 1: best travels in uh Canada. So I'm gonna you.
Speaker 2: Should go to New Zealand take a train through New Zealand.
Speaker 1: Initially I was going to go to India, but I
Speaker 1: can't it to travel there and then to do the
Speaker 1: four day trek and then the comeback I did and
Speaker 1: a half. Yeah, I would need three three weeks to
Speaker 1: really recovering. But yeah, I plan on going from New
Speaker 1: York to San fran then Vancouver back to New York.
Speaker 1: Vancouver to New York. You can rent your own car,
Speaker 1: have old tiny you know. I get to imagine what
Speaker 1: travel was like in the forties without being discriminated, travel
Speaker 1: like the best last hears like spens of racism every time.
Speaker 1: That hilarious.
Speaker 2: It is we covered so much, Yes we did.
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, So with that said, uh, kimber once again,
Speaker 1: we thank you very much for greasing us with your
Speaker 1: presence and your music and your artistry and your stories
Speaker 1: and your journey. Give it up, lady and gentlemen, for
Speaker 1: Kimberly Johnson.
Speaker 5: Yes, Kimberly, it's onund Look you're saying, Kimberly, Oh it is.
Speaker 5: I know it's kim bro Like you're saying, were your
Speaker 5: parents trying to do Kimberly?
Speaker 1: I think they're trying to do Kimberly. Okay.
Speaker 8: ET Awards celebrates black with Kimberly Johnson going to be lit,
Speaker 8: it's going to be This smells like that moment, This.
Speaker 1: Spells like that moment is Zoolander before waking up, Before
Speaker 1: you go go where. He's like, I don't think you
Speaker 1: thought that. I thought you thought that I was repent. Yes,
Speaker 1: I know it's Kimbra Lee Johnson. That's more. It's more
Speaker 1: authentic that way, not Kimberly. But I think your parents
Speaker 1: are trying to name me Kimberly and just didn't know,
Speaker 1: you know, it could have been one name. All right, Yes, well,
Speaker 1: kim Bra Lee Johnson. We thank you very much. To
Speaker 1: thank you, of course. Love Supreme is a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1: This classic episode was produced by the team apt Pandora.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
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