WEBVTT - Yola's Walk Through Fire 0:00:08.200 --> 0:00:13.680 Pushkin. Just a year ago, it might have seemed strange 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:15.920 for a black woman from England to record a country 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.560 album in Nashville, But then Oldtown Road held down the 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:21.840 top spot on Billboard's Hot one hundred for a record 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.160 breaking nineteen weeks, and black folks started reconnecting with their 0:00:25.160 --> 0:00:28.320 country roots on Twitter. You couldn't have seen it coming. 0:00:29.560 --> 0:00:31.479 Take it from the Black kid whose first concert was 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:36.559 Garth Brooks and was teased mercilessly for it. But Yola's 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.320 having a great year, singing on stage with legends like 0:00:39.320 --> 0:00:42.640 Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton, working with Brandy Carlyle and 0:00:42.640 --> 0:00:45.440 the Highwomen, even getting a shot out from Kendall Jenner 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.440 on Twitter. She spent years singing with folks like the 0:00:48.479 --> 0:00:51.760 Chemical Brothers, Massive Attack and her band Phantom Limb in England, 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:54.440 but after connecting with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys, 0:00:54.520 --> 0:00:59.120 her grand artistic vision came to life, soulful country the 0:00:59.160 --> 0:01:05.560 way it used to be. This is Broken Record Season 0:01:05.640 --> 0:01:09.240 three liner notes for the Digital Age. I'm justin Richmond. 0:01:13.400 --> 0:01:15.840 Just a quick note here. You can listen to all 0:01:15.880 --> 0:01:18.640 of the music mentioned in this episode on our playlist, 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:20.720 which you can find a link to in the show 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:24.520 notes for licensing reasons. Each time a song is referenced 0:01:24.520 --> 0:01:29.720 in this episode, you'll hear this sound effect all right. 0:01:30.360 --> 0:01:33.480 Enjoyed the episode. Bruce headlam met with Yola in New 0:01:33.560 --> 0:01:35.720 York over the summer. She'd been up late the night 0:01:35.760 --> 0:01:39.080 before doing a performance at YouTube Studio and Chelsea, but 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.240 she showed up anyway with two members of her band, 0:01:41.319 --> 0:01:43.520 ready to play some songs, talk about working with Dan 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:46.759 Arbach and about how surviving a house fire inspired her 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:50.280 to write her new album, walk Through Fire. She opened 0:01:50.280 --> 0:01:54.840 with a song from that record, right out in the Country. Well, 0:01:54.840 --> 0:01:58.280 I was right out in the country by Yola. Welcome 0:01:58.360 --> 0:02:00.680 to Broken Record. Thank you so much for coming. Oh, 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:03.200 thank you so much for having me, And thanks to 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:06.240 your two bandmates who came along. Yeah, this is Anthony 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:11.079 da Costa and Jerry Brannhat. Jerry is still grimacing over 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:15.160 that last notdy hit on Defender. I liked it. Yeah, 0:02:15.240 --> 0:02:17.639 you know, it was a it was a it was 0:02:17.680 --> 0:02:23.519 a choice. It was a choice, not an act one 0:02:24.240 --> 0:02:27.200 in the studio. Well, we know we like these. Uh, 0:02:27.480 --> 0:02:29.919 it was an emotional thing, you know. I was still 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:31.600 I was still bleeding a little bit out on this 0:02:31.760 --> 0:02:34.840 roads yeah, I had one more little finger drop to do, right, 0:02:35.240 --> 0:02:37.160 one more thing to say. Yeah, if you do, you 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:39.239 want to keep going because you could. If there's more 0:02:39.240 --> 0:02:43.120 to say, and the offender, please, could you guys clear 0:02:43.120 --> 0:02:49.400 the room at got some stuff to just let out? No, 0:02:50.040 --> 0:02:52.720 you wrote that song? Did you write that by yourself? 0:02:52.800 --> 0:02:57.160 Or was that? This one was co written by with 0:02:57.280 --> 0:03:01.360 myself and done our back. And we have made a 0:03:01.480 --> 0:03:07.480 habit of inviting fine gentlemen to help us write songs. 0:03:07.480 --> 0:03:10.919 Bobby Wood helped us write, and Joe Allen helped us write, 0:03:11.120 --> 0:03:14.160 and Dan Penn helped us write, and Pat McLaughlin helped 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:18.720 us write, and so we were really spoiled rotten when 0:03:18.720 --> 0:03:22.880 it came to co writers in this case, Joel, Now, 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.240 no disrespect to those other gentlemen. But you co wrote 0:03:26.240 --> 0:03:31.959 with Dan Penn. Yes, who wrote I'm Your Puppet? Yes? 0:03:32.080 --> 0:03:35.280 Do write woman? Yes, Dark End of the Street. Of course. 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:39.080 For James Carr, I think yeah, And I haven't know, 0:03:39.600 --> 0:03:43.000 I haven't. Many gazillion other people sang that song, and 0:03:43.280 --> 0:03:48.440 obviously him and Spooner Aldham's represent rich reputation is just lifelong. 0:03:49.360 --> 0:03:51.119 So what was that like to sit in a room 0:03:51.160 --> 0:03:55.040 with Dan Penn. It was surreal, is what it was. 0:03:55.640 --> 0:03:57.640 The kids. I came into the room, and you know 0:03:57.680 --> 0:04:02.040 when you think, I swear I just saw somebody that 0:04:02.160 --> 0:04:04.920 I that I recognized just a little bit too keenly, 0:04:05.280 --> 0:04:08.200 and so you the first first you don't believe it, 0:04:08.280 --> 0:04:10.560 and then you're like, oh, okay, so that is who 0:04:10.600 --> 0:04:12.560 I thought I saw. Yeah, Now let me back up. 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.840 What where was the room? First of all? So the 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.040 room was easy I Sound studio in Nashville and that, 0:04:19.200 --> 0:04:21.520 yeah it is, yeah, And then what was the process 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:25.320 of rating after that? Sit down at a table with 0:04:25.400 --> 0:04:30.239 guitars and start strumming at each other until I've started 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:35.080 by telling a story supposed specifically in that session about 0:04:35.720 --> 0:04:38.920 house fire. I was in, okay, you tell us the 0:04:38.960 --> 0:04:40.600 story and then we'll go back to the writing room. 0:04:40.640 --> 0:04:44.240 But yeah, what was the story itself? Well, we were 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:47.200 just thinking about, okay, so what we'll be writing about, 0:04:47.279 --> 0:04:49.560 and they were just like, so, Dan was like, tell 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.200 me a bit about yourself for them. I well, I've 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:54.039 been talking about myself quite a lot over the past 0:04:54.080 --> 0:04:56.760 few days, but I suppose I haven't talked about this. 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.480 I'm wasn't the house fire recently And He's like okay something, 0:05:00.680 --> 0:05:02.640 and I was like, yeah, well, it was kind of 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:07.719 Christmas twenty fourteen going into twenty fifteen, and I was 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.760 just getting ready, getting the house ready, wrapping some presents 0:05:12.120 --> 0:05:17.120 in your houses were in Bristol, Ukka, and so I'm 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:20.560 wrapping and I'm getting ready to wrap this present for 0:05:20.600 --> 0:05:24.680 a friend of mine. That's a bioethanol burner. And it's 0:05:24.920 --> 0:05:28.479 a bioethanol burner. It's like a table centerpiece type thing. 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:30.800 It lets out a little heat. You know, you've got 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.960 a bit of bioethanol fueling it. It's like a natural accelerant. 0:05:35.040 --> 0:05:38.000 Under then it lets out a little flame, not too 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.200 dissimilar to a candle. And so I just thought, let's 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:43.320 make sure I've just got it's in the post, let's 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:46.160 make sure it works. And it worked just fine. I 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:48.320 put a bit of bioweth on in there. It worked 0:05:48.320 --> 0:05:51.000 just great. Problem was that the canister that had the 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:53.800 bioweth on it had a little leak around the kind 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.520 of cap, and so when I lit it, it worked perfectly. 0:05:57.560 --> 0:06:00.520 I was like, that looks nice, okay, and then the 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:05.279 little bit of fire catches a little drip and it 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.440 catches the caister. Caister goes up. It's been dripping on 0:06:09.480 --> 0:06:12.440 my dress as I kind of moved my hands towards that, 0:06:12.920 --> 0:06:16.919 and so my dress goes up, and I'm a human 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:20.960 torch at this point, and I'm in shock, and so 0:06:21.040 --> 0:06:23.760 the first thing I'm thinking is I need to think 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:26.800 of something worse than being on fire, which is quite 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.960 a hard thought because it's not great. And so I'm 0:06:32.000 --> 0:06:35.320 really thinking how can I get out of this situation 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:38.599 that I'm in, especially given that I'm in shock and 0:06:38.600 --> 0:06:40.840 I'm in static shocks. I'm not really moving or doing 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:43.960 anything useful. And so I was like, Okay, let's think 0:06:43.960 --> 0:06:45.520 of something worse, because if I got over that, I 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.440 can get over this. And I thought of kind of 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:54.200 the life I was enduring, kind of pre twenty nine, 0:06:54.360 --> 0:07:01.160 pre thirty, which was just highly misogynistic, highly i'd say, 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:07.560 like the brand of racism that purposefully disguises itself, so 0:07:07.760 --> 0:07:10.520 of a kind of a wonderful brand of missology, noir 0:07:10.920 --> 0:07:14.080 and abuse and neglect and all sorts of things that 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.200 made that part of my life just an utter misery. 0:07:17.680 --> 0:07:20.560 And I kind of thought back on that time and 0:07:20.600 --> 0:07:22.800 I was like, you know what, I'd take my life 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:24.920 now on fire any day of the week, and I 0:07:24.920 --> 0:07:27.640 started laughing so hard. I laughed myself out of stack shock. 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.840 And then I stopped, dropped and rolled and put myself 0:07:30.840 --> 0:07:34.160 out like you're supposed to. And that moment of just 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.040 clearing out really felt like a moment of just being 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.400 able to start again and being free. And so I 0:07:41.440 --> 0:07:43.360 told this story to Dan Penn and Dan our Back 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:45.640 and they looked at me like I was a mad woman, 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:47.200 and I was like, well, we could write a song 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:51.120 about that, and we kind of got onto writing the 0:07:51.320 --> 0:07:56.560 title track of the album. That's an incredible story. Yeah, 0:07:56.600 --> 0:07:58.520 and this comes up and they say, let's turn it 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:00.360 into a song. What was that? Like, how did you 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:03.480 turn that into a song? Man? Well, Dan Penn's kind 0:08:03.480 --> 0:08:06.920 of doing this thing of looking up into the ether, 0:08:07.680 --> 0:08:10.120 kind of mumbling. I call it like the mumble right 0:08:10.200 --> 0:08:13.960 where you're not you haven't got a pretty disposed plan 0:08:14.080 --> 0:08:16.400 of what you're going to do, but you're just kind 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:22.520 of searching for it. So it's a m and just 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.880 like searching, and people that write this way will go 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.520 mrmy mmy murm, and there's no sense to it. It's 0:08:29.520 --> 0:08:32.720 almost like babble, and then words come out of the babble, 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:36.000 you know. And so yeah, sometimes you hear something and 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:38.680 it's not what the person was thinking of saying, and 0:08:39.000 --> 0:08:43.040 so I think the song appeared that way. It's amazing 0:08:43.080 --> 0:08:45.800 to hear that. Dan Penn is a great song wrote. 0:08:45.920 --> 0:08:51.440 That's how he just sits down noodles and nonsense lyrics 0:08:51.600 --> 0:08:55.600 and well something merges. Yeah, but it's almost like you're 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.880 looking for vowels and then there's a meaning somewhere kind 0:08:59.880 --> 0:09:02.319 of in the recess of your mind, you know. And 0:09:02.360 --> 0:09:05.920 what you're doing is you're searching for that elegant meaning 0:09:06.559 --> 0:09:08.680 in the recess of your mind. Is that of trying 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:11.880 to muscle it with the prefrontal cortex, you know. And 0:09:12.200 --> 0:09:15.520 I think like some of like the most elegant ways 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:20.960 of writing come from just esthetically moving through things that 0:09:21.080 --> 0:09:24.599 feel like they belong together, and moving through vows that 0:09:24.640 --> 0:09:27.760 feel like they belong together, through kind of feelings that 0:09:27.800 --> 0:09:30.360 you're searching for that feel like they need to be said. 0:09:30.600 --> 0:09:33.240 You know, Do you ever feel something blocking that even 0:09:33.280 --> 0:09:37.560 in a room with other writers, Like it depends how 0:09:38.120 --> 0:09:41.920 comfortable you are in that environment. If you feel comfortable, 0:09:42.040 --> 0:09:47.359 then like there is it's just a conversation. It's just connection. 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:51.920 You know, it's the same when you can get so 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:55.640 much more out of everything you do, writing it, doing 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:59.320 a vocal, be it, playing a show. The more that 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:01.560 you feel connect to the people that you're working with, 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:06.120 that more you see your potential rise. And and so 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:08.880 like that's everything that I'm trying to do with my life, 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:14.120 certainly since is make deeper connections to people that I'm 0:10:14.120 --> 0:10:19.080 working with and make a more familial energy, and that 0:10:19.200 --> 0:10:23.680 familiar ergy always leads back to me being more productive. Like, 0:10:23.880 --> 0:10:27.320 there are instances in which I've found myself in these 0:10:27.440 --> 0:10:30.440 environments where I've surpassed what I thought I could do 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.760 that day. Now, in the case of that song walked 0:10:33.760 --> 0:10:37.640 Through Fire, did you really able to finish it that day? Yeah, 0:10:38.040 --> 0:10:42.080 Like we wrote thirty songs thereabouts in a space of 0:10:42.120 --> 0:10:45.480 about five days. When we were in a song like, 0:10:46.120 --> 0:10:49.679 the flow was supernatural. We'll be back with more from 0:10:49.760 --> 0:10:56.920 Yola after this break. We're back with more of Bruce's 0:10:56.960 --> 0:11:01.200 interview with Yola. Now, people who've heard your songs on 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:08.960 country music stations maybe wondering trying to place your accent 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:13.000 in the Southern United States. I know, because there are 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:17.280 around ours in my accent. If I say the word are, 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:22.200 you can hear it are and that's also seeing it. Yeah, 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.880 it's a hint of where I'm from. You see Bristol, 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:29.320 Bristol of black Beard the Pirate. No, less, I didn't 0:11:29.360 --> 0:11:33.719 know that. Yes, he's the accent. So people think Bristolian 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:40.319 sounds like pirates. On contrair, Pirates sounds like Bristolians. So 0:11:40.440 --> 0:11:43.199 now were you Were you born in Bristol? Yes, okay, 0:11:43.360 --> 0:11:45.679 And which for people that on a Bristol it's on 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:52.440 the west coast coast. It's like a port town, port city, 0:11:52.960 --> 0:11:55.960 not too far from Cardiff and Whales, so it's on 0:11:56.040 --> 0:12:00.199 the west about two hours drive west of London. Tell 0:12:00.240 --> 0:12:04.160 me about growing up in Bristol. So I went to 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:08.920 high school in Bristol, but I grew up I suppose, 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:11.800 kind of elementary school in a small town still in 0:12:11.840 --> 0:12:14.920 the kind of postcode, but twelve miles outside of Bristol. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.520 And we were one of a very small number of 0:12:19.520 --> 0:12:22.000 people of color in that environment. And it was a 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:25.360 very right leaning town at the time or village at 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:29.200 the time. And so like the usual things that you 0:12:29.280 --> 0:12:32.200 kind of get used to in life of that stare 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:37.120 when you walk into any shop and kids learning kind 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:39.880 of the N word from their parents, and their parents 0:12:39.920 --> 0:12:42.360 having maybe the wherewithal to not say it with the kids. 0:12:42.720 --> 0:12:45.400 Not quite, but you know, everyone's saying it when you're 0:12:45.400 --> 0:12:48.240 not there kind of thing, which is very British way 0:12:48.440 --> 0:12:50.320 to be. You know, we're not very out and out 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:53.920 with our prejudice. It's all just everything you ever try 0:12:53.920 --> 0:12:57.880 and do is kind of slightly affected slash heavily affected 0:12:57.920 --> 0:13:03.880 by people's opinions, people's assumptions of you. People's surprised that 0:13:03.920 --> 0:13:07.240 you can speak the English language clearly. And what was 0:13:07.320 --> 0:13:10.520 high school like that? While I was like the poor 0:13:10.600 --> 0:13:13.840 kid in a kind of well a borderline almost rich 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:17.360 kid's school, not quite. I tried going to a regular school, 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.080 and it costs. We just didn't have any money. We 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.400 used to kind of like get food out of the 0:13:23.440 --> 0:13:26.719 supermarket bins and stuff, and my mom had like four 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.960 or five jobs at any one time, and I was 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:31.920 a latchkey kid, you know. And so it was one 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:36.120 of those situations where it dawned on us that trying 0:13:36.160 --> 0:13:39.480 to pass an entrance exam and go to a school 0:13:39.480 --> 0:13:42.720 where you could get everything paid for might actually buy 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:46.640 me some meals. We could actually eat without having to 0:13:46.720 --> 0:13:49.880 kind of lean on any of the neighbors to buy 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.439 extra kind of avon makeup. My mum was also a 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:56.880 n avon lady, and I'd like that anyway in which 0:13:56.880 --> 0:13:58.319 you could lean on people. It was just like the 0:13:58.400 --> 0:14:03.320 hustle was real with that woman. I mean so yeah, 0:14:03.559 --> 0:14:06.200 like anything that gave us, like maybe a little her 0:14:06.200 --> 0:14:10.240 a bit more breathing space would was seen as a benefit. 0:14:10.559 --> 0:14:12.640 And me and my sister were a stone called nerds, 0:14:12.679 --> 0:14:17.040 and so we did that entrance exams too, like I 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.720 did a grammar school kind of thing. My sister went 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:23.480 to a girls' school and we had to pass over 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:26.240 I know, I think like ninety something percent to be 0:14:26.240 --> 0:14:29.440 able to get everything taken care of. We had to 0:14:29.440 --> 0:14:31.760 do that and also be sufficiently poor enough, and we 0:14:32.240 --> 0:14:36.520 knew we had poor covered. How did the interesting music 0:14:36.560 --> 0:14:43.280 start the birth canal? Yeah, just straight out straight out 0:14:43.360 --> 0:14:48.880 like singing and speaking well simultaneous. And so I don't 0:14:48.880 --> 0:14:52.200 have a living, living memory of not singing. And I 0:14:52.280 --> 0:14:55.760 used to dance a lot as well, and so just 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:57.880 I had a very much like a performing arts kind 0:14:57.920 --> 0:15:00.640 of feel as just like I'm talking three and four, 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.360 this is just normal for me. To what we be 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:08.280 singing just everything like whatever was in the charts. So 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:12.040 I could be singing like something that was like R 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.680 and B like oh and I say, not rhythm and blues, 0:15:14.720 --> 0:15:17.400 but like modern R and B like Brownstone or something, 0:15:17.600 --> 0:15:19.400 and then I could be singing Elton John and then 0:15:19.440 --> 0:15:21.800 I could be singing Navana, and then I could be 0:15:21.840 --> 0:15:25.920 singing like there was no kind of continuity, and the 0:15:26.000 --> 0:15:28.440 charts weren't really like that. It was very like you 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.480 could be anywhere kind of Certainly in the UK, the 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:34.040 charts were all over the shop. You could have like 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:38.240 Beck and be York in the charts and then just 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:44.800 something unbelievably poppy and then something unbelievably country. It's funny 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:47.200 because the charts here or not like that. The churches 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:52.320 are very regulated by AR and they were like they 0:15:52.360 --> 0:15:56.000 are like that in the UK a lot more now, yeah, 0:15:56.040 --> 0:15:59.560 but in the nineties it was like a free for all, 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:05.320 and so it kind of manufactures eclecticism, and I think 0:16:05.360 --> 0:16:09.600 a lot of people from maybe my generation specifically experienced that, 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:15.000 having like the most crazy kind of mixtapes where you're like, oh, 0:16:15.040 --> 0:16:18.400 I really love caress One and I really love Blood, 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.160 how's this school, going to go together, you don't care, 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:25.840 you know, And so I think that gave people license 0:16:25.920 --> 0:16:29.920 to release music that maybe was a little more kind 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.840 of left field. And what was the country music that 0:16:33.320 --> 0:16:36.920 got your attention? Then? Ah? Well, for me, Dolly got 0:16:36.920 --> 0:16:38.960 my attention. My mother was a Dolly fan, and so 0:16:39.080 --> 0:16:41.480 that got me early doors. Do you remember what the 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:45.120 Dolly song was that you? Yeah, it was Joe Lene. 0:16:45.400 --> 0:16:48.480 It was the album Joelene that got me straight away. 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:51.240 And I was like, I just loved the feel of it. 0:16:51.280 --> 0:16:55.760 I loved the groove of it and pleading nature of it. 0:16:55.840 --> 0:16:58.480 I noticed when I sang it, it didn't feel when 0:16:58.520 --> 0:17:00.520 I used to kind of sing R and B, it 0:17:00.560 --> 0:17:03.720 didn't feel natural in my body to sing. And then 0:17:03.760 --> 0:17:05.600 I'd sing Jolie and it felt more natural in my 0:17:05.640 --> 0:17:08.959 body to sing. And I was like, that's weird, and 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:10.840 I'll just put that to a side. Let's deal with 0:17:10.880 --> 0:17:15.639 that later. That's a whole can of worms. Yeah, it 0:17:15.720 --> 0:17:19.680 was a whole can of worms. Although like, certainly when 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:22.080 I got older, it dawned on me that that was weird. 0:17:23.000 --> 0:17:27.680 Apparently that was weird. It felt more natural to sing 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.199 those songs. And I was into Aretha. I listened to 0:17:31.200 --> 0:17:34.439 a lot of Aretha's like a child. My mom was 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:38.719 into that as well, and that really like again, like 0:17:39.440 --> 0:17:42.200 it's impossible not to be fascinated by her as a 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.400 singer and as a writer and a player. But I 0:17:45.440 --> 0:17:50.399 saw more similarity between certainly the kind of the spiritual 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.159 side of her music, the gospel side. Young Gifted in 0:17:55.200 --> 0:17:57.399 Black was probably the first record that I kind of 0:17:57.440 --> 0:18:01.960 got attached to because I never heard anything addressed to 0:18:02.280 --> 0:18:06.800 a black child before. And how do you sing in church? 0:18:06.840 --> 0:18:10.879 Did you go to church? I'm I'm from England. It 0:18:10.920 --> 0:18:15.600 ain't the same. It's all like all things by dam 0:18:15.760 --> 0:18:20.080 Beatif it's so stiff, there are churches that are a 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.359 bit less stiff. But it isn't. It's not our green 0:18:23.400 --> 0:18:26.080 I'll tell you that right now. When because you played 0:18:26.760 --> 0:18:30.720 right in the country, which has that southern kind of 0:18:30.720 --> 0:18:34.600 American feel and the way Southerners feel about the country 0:18:34.640 --> 0:18:37.680 in wide open spaces here you grew up in the 0:18:37.760 --> 0:18:44.800 sort of suburbs around Bristol. Yeah, that whole frame of reference. 0:18:44.840 --> 0:18:46.480 Did you find in Dolly Parton and a lot of 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:48.640 country music? What did that mean to you growing up? 0:18:48.720 --> 0:18:51.919 Because you're in a very, very different place well kind of, 0:18:52.200 --> 0:18:55.840 and so Bristol if you, if anyone that's visited Bristol, 0:18:56.480 --> 0:19:00.840 it falls away to countryside somewhat immediately. And so even 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:05.119 though I wasn't very far outside, it doesn't take five 0:19:05.240 --> 0:19:08.600 minutes from the edge of Bristol for it to be 0:19:10.119 --> 0:19:13.040 instant countryside. And so by the time you get twelve 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:15.480 miles out. At the time of me growing up, anyway, 0:19:15.840 --> 0:19:18.600 I was in a village that was maybe two horseshoes 0:19:18.680 --> 0:19:21.720 of houses, one of which had a shops kind of 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:23.800 linking one horse shoe to the other, a set of 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.840 shops and like you could count them on both hands. 0:19:26.920 --> 0:19:30.520 It was not a big place, and then predominantly surrounded 0:19:30.560 --> 0:19:34.080 by small farms and a high school and that was it, 0:19:34.240 --> 0:19:39.040 you know. And so my kind of growing up environment 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.879 was very much kind of climbing trees and whittling and 0:19:44.000 --> 0:19:47.840 fishing and hide and seek and tall grass fields and 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:53.199 such things that were not city kids ways of growing up. 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:56.760 So that part of country music, the wide open spaces 0:19:56.440 --> 0:19:59.040 that made sense to you. Yeah, that was just how 0:19:59.080 --> 0:20:03.600 I grew up. You know. We didn't really have any stuff, 0:20:05.520 --> 0:20:08.800 Like I had friends that had like, you know, toys 0:20:08.840 --> 0:20:12.000 and things I had one bald, my little pony that 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:19.760 we used to call my little skinhead. My sister will 0:20:19.800 --> 0:20:23.280 love this. Yeah, she used to eat plastic and my 0:20:23.760 --> 0:20:27.320 mum was like, your sister eats plastic, so you can't 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:29.600 have my little pony with hair. And I'm like, it's 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:31.600 the whole point of the thing. Why would you do 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.440 this to me? Anyway, she shaves the thing's head and 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:37.920 so and then promptly my sister starts chewing one, of course, 0:20:38.440 --> 0:20:41.440 and so I'm like, great, that's that's the only nice 0:20:41.480 --> 0:20:44.439 thing I had. Why can't we have nice things? Do 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:46.760 you want to do another song? I'd really love to. 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.720 We'd like to do that title track for you please. 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:56.480 This one is called walk Through Fire. That was the 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:00.160 title track off Yola's new record, walk Through Fire. We'll 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.080 be back with more of an interview with Bruce after 0:21:02.119 --> 0:21:12.560 the break. We're back with Yola and Bruce. You are scheduled, 0:21:12.560 --> 0:21:16.359 I think to play at the Rieman. Yes, the Rieman, 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:20.640 the Home of country music. That sure is what it is. 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:24.919 What do you think that's going to be? Like, I 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:30.440 have no idea. You are you know country music has 0:21:30.520 --> 0:21:35.240 not historically had a lot of black performers and typically 0:21:35.280 --> 0:21:38.800 the ones. I guess other than Charlie Pride have people 0:21:38.800 --> 0:21:43.320 who've made their bones and other in other like Tina 0:21:43.359 --> 0:21:46.320 Turner did did a good country album. Ray Charles of 0:21:46.359 --> 0:21:50.680 course did Sisters points. That's true, Yeah, that fairytale songs 0:21:50.680 --> 0:21:54.560 were real. Arthur crud Up, I guess back in the 0:21:54.600 --> 0:21:59.200 day staples to a degree, Huh, I guess that's true too. 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:03.520 You've got some staples in your voice that definitely was 0:22:03.560 --> 0:22:07.840 a massive influence. Maybes helped me understand my voice because 0:22:07.840 --> 0:22:09.919 I didn't hear a lot of people that were, you know, 0:22:10.119 --> 0:22:13.600 at that gruffiness, and so I felt like a bit 0:22:13.640 --> 0:22:17.520 of a vocal weirdo. She helped me out in that way. 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:22.359 Have you met her? Yes, we played Luck Reunion together. 0:22:22.520 --> 0:22:27.960 What was that like? Amazing? It's on Willie Nelson's ranch, 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:31.359 and we all did like a last song and she 0:22:31.440 --> 0:22:34.680 invited her everyone up from that's been playing that stage 0:22:34.680 --> 0:22:38.639 of that day, which were all women, all singer songwriters 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:42.400 in their own right and amazing musicians, and we got 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:46.159 up and we sang with her, and invariably each one 0:22:46.160 --> 0:22:48.320 of us hugged her before we went off, just like 0:22:49.480 --> 0:22:52.439 just like drawn into the majesty of her kind of 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:55.880 warmth and her kind of very natural way. Yeah, she's 0:22:56.720 --> 0:22:59.679 the saying never meet her heroes unless your heroes mayvis 0:23:00.520 --> 0:23:06.639 is right? Is the saying is it important to you 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:10.320 that country music, mainstream country music embraces what you do? 0:23:11.760 --> 0:23:15.040 For me? I'm eclectic, and I say that word all 0:23:15.080 --> 0:23:18.399 the time because it's true. I love classic pop music 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.199 as much as I love classic soul music, as much 0:23:21.240 --> 0:23:24.040 as I love classic country and classic rock music. So 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:29.440 it's so important to make sure that I'm accepted everywhere, 0:23:29.480 --> 0:23:32.760 not just exclusively within that. I don't think sonically, when 0:23:32.800 --> 0:23:34.679 you listen to this record, that's the only thing you 0:23:34.800 --> 0:23:38.480 hear by any stretch of the imagination. It's just that 0:23:38.520 --> 0:23:40.919 it maybe pokes out more because I'm a woman of 0:23:40.960 --> 0:23:44.000 color that people are like, so country, and I'm like, yeah, 0:23:44.040 --> 0:23:46.119 what about the other things? But it sticks out that 0:23:46.240 --> 0:23:49.320 much because of who I am. You know, if I 0:23:49.400 --> 0:23:54.200 was someone else, maybe less. So when you started being 0:23:54.240 --> 0:23:57.600 a professional in music, how did you approach it? What 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:02.439 did you do well? The first professional job I probably 0:24:02.440 --> 0:24:06.479 took was jazz gig. I had a friend in school. 0:24:07.040 --> 0:24:09.199 Actually i'd going to a different school, but I had 0:24:09.240 --> 0:24:12.720 a friend in school who had a like someone she 0:24:12.800 --> 0:24:16.640 grew up with who was also a kid and played sax, 0:24:16.840 --> 0:24:20.120 and they were kind of looking for someone to sing 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:23.840 on this show. And they'd had their singer drop out 0:24:23.880 --> 0:24:28.000 or something, and so they just were they were looking 0:24:28.000 --> 0:24:31.880 for somebody. And I kind of got the call. They're like, hey, 0:24:32.359 --> 0:24:34.439