Speaker 1: Loud and Quiet presents Midnight Chats.
Speaker 2: This is episode twenty three of Midnight Chats. Welcome and
Speaker 2: thank you for listening, and thanks too to those who
Speaker 2: checked out. Samuel t Herring from Future Island speaking to
Speaker 2: Stuart on the last podcast. If you haven't heard it yet,
Speaker 2: I do recommend going back and listening. He was a
Speaker 2: really entertaining, engaging, honest guy. And while you're there, if
Speaker 2: you do listen to that one and you do like
Speaker 2: what you're hear on Midnight Chats, you can subscribe to
Speaker 2: our podcast. That means you'll automatically get a new episode,
Speaker 2: a new one of these every time. We publish one
Speaker 2: at midnight every two weeks, so onto this new one.
Speaker 2: Last week I went to the meetup with Gillian Banks,
Speaker 2: better known by her stage Banks, in a London hotel
Speaker 2: room before her show at the Roundhouse in Camden. It
Speaker 2: was a final night of the Californian artist's headline European tour.
Speaker 2: It was the first one she's done since she released
Speaker 2: her second album, The Alta in the autumn of last year.
Speaker 2: And to be honest, Banks doesn't do a huge amount
Speaker 2: of press and there's not an awful lot of information
Speaker 2: into these things like that out there with her. She's
Speaker 2: quite private. She's quite an enigmatic artist, and we've wanted
Speaker 2: to have her on Midnight Chatter for a while because
Speaker 2: I think that's part of her appeal, in everything that
Speaker 2: she kind of creates around the music that she makes.
Speaker 2: I suppose I went there hoping to find out a
Speaker 2: bit more about Gillian Banks, and I let you be
Speaker 2: the judge of whether that happened or not. So in person,
Speaker 2: Banks was really lovely, but she says to herself in
Speaker 2: this conversation that you're about to hear that she's very
Speaker 2: protective over her music and it comes from a very
Speaker 2: deeply personal place. And it's something that you might hear
Speaker 2: artists say regularly that they prefer their music through the talking.
Speaker 2: But I think that's certainly the case with Banks. I
Speaker 2: think that certainly had a preferences is to let the
Speaker 2: songs that she's written really kind of speak for her.
Speaker 2: After all, this is an artist who says she wrote
Speaker 2: her first songs as a necessary form of escape. It
Speaker 2: took her almost a decade before she'd actually go on
Speaker 2: to share them publicly. But we talked about a range
Speaker 2: of things, like her visits to London to record her
Speaker 2: early music and her memories of doing that, handling the
Speaker 2: psychological effects often quite difficult to deal with the day
Speaker 2: to day being out on the road touring. It's very
Speaker 2: honest about that. How she feeds her inspiration to keep
Speaker 2: making music, where she'd like to travel outside of the world,
Speaker 2: tours that she does support in the music, and why
Speaker 2: she'd never write a song and give it away to
Speaker 2: another artist. So, if you don't know Banks, this isn't
Speaker 2: going to tell you everything you need to know about her,
Speaker 2: but it might tell you a little bit more and
Speaker 2: hopefully this will be an interesting listen. This is Midnight
Speaker 2: Chats Episode twenty three with Banks Banks. Hello, welcome to
Speaker 2: Midnight Chats, Thanks for joining us, Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2: You're back in London, which is I imagine a place
Speaker 2: that you kind of have fond memories of, haven't been
Speaker 2: here a number of times over the years, but also
Speaker 2: recorded some of your first music I guests over here.
Speaker 2: What's it like being back in town?
Speaker 3: Feels good. It's pretty emotional being that's the last, you know,
Speaker 3: the last show of this tour, and this is the
Speaker 3: first tour of this album, so it's been really intense
Speaker 3: and a lot of growth and it feels good. I'm
Speaker 3: very I feel I feel quite nervous for the show tonight, actually.
Speaker 2: I really, even though you've been playing the set kind
Speaker 2: of a couple of weeks now, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: I sometimes I get like that though, Like I'll be
Speaker 3: really good and then one random show I'll just feel
Speaker 3: a lot of anxiety over and then once I'm on stage,
Speaker 3: I'm good. But it's a crazy thing being on stage.
Speaker 2: Can it happen kind of randomly? Or is it? Do
Speaker 2: you think it's maybe something to do with being in
Speaker 2: London and knowing the city and maybe having friends here.
Speaker 2: Is it? Like what?
Speaker 3: Maybe? I think my nerves are also dependent on my
Speaker 3: exhaustion level, so like it's almost like the more tired
Speaker 3: I am, the more sensitive I am, the more nervous
Speaker 3: I get. So but I know that it'll be great.
Speaker 3: I'm you know, I'm just excited to be here. London
Speaker 3: is definitely a special place for me. You know, my
Speaker 3: first EP was called London because I made the whole
Speaker 3: thing here and it's kind of where my music was
Speaker 3: first embraced. So I'm super excited for the show.
Speaker 2: What your memories are the first time that you came
Speaker 2: to London. Was that was that when you actually came
Speaker 2: to do the recording aloud You've been previous.
Speaker 3: My first time I was in London was actually when
Speaker 3: I was a bit younger. I came with my mom,
Speaker 3: but I was only here for like two or three days,
Speaker 3: and you know, I was young, and I didn't really
Speaker 3: get to I think, you know, when I wrote the
Speaker 3: London EP, that was my first real time spending real
Speaker 3: time here, and it was also a crazy time in
Speaker 3: my life. I felt like it was like one of
Speaker 3: those milestones that you think back on, is like one
Speaker 3: of the the turning points where you go through a
Speaker 3: lot of growth in a really short amount of time,
Speaker 3: And that's what I was feeling just in my personal
Speaker 3: life at that time. And then coming to London and
Speaker 3: being around artists that thought the same way I did
Speaker 3: for the first time was just like super crazy. I felt.
Speaker 3: I felt like I found my people for the first
Speaker 3: time in my life. So that's kind of what London
Speaker 3: was to me, and that's why, you know, when I
Speaker 3: come back, I get really excited.
Speaker 2: Did it take time to kind of meet those people,
Speaker 2: make those friends, or were you already kind of connected
Speaker 2: to the people that you knew you sort of had
Speaker 2: a kindred spirit with over here.
Speaker 3: It was kind of like these particular few months I
Speaker 3: just happened. I think the universe was just looking out
Speaker 3: for me. I happened to meet all these people that
Speaker 3: I really connected with in a really short amount of time,
Speaker 3: and they all happened to be in the UK at
Speaker 3: the time, So it was kind of like I was like, Okay,
Speaker 3: let's just make a trip and just like jam it
Speaker 3: all in in two weeks, two and a half weeks,
Speaker 3: and so I was like in sessions every day for
Speaker 3: those two and a half weeks with those three people mainly,
Speaker 3: and just back to back to back, and it was
Speaker 3: just amazing. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for those people that don't know that early EPU,
Speaker 2: we're talking about people like totally enormous extinct dinosaur and
Speaker 2: it's always a mouthful. I'm glad I got it right there,
Speaker 2: and son who learn there as well, and Little Silver. Yeah, So,
Speaker 2: how how is it meeting those people for the first
Speaker 2: time and what kind of connection you've got to have
Speaker 2: with somebody in order to make music with them, because
Speaker 2: it's not as easy as just walking into a studio, No.
Speaker 3: No, you have it's special. It's like when it's like
Speaker 3: kind of like dating almost, it's like two souls that
Speaker 3: come together and you just it's funny because sometimes you
Speaker 3: can really vibe with someone at one point in your
Speaker 3: life and then a few years later it's like maybe
Speaker 3: like our paths have like drifted or something like. It's
Speaker 3: it's a really magical time when two creative like souls
Speaker 3: can come together and create something together and be on
Speaker 3: the same wavelength. It's kind of like you're at that
Speaker 3: similar point in your life where it just works. And
Speaker 3: that kind of happened with all those people and they're
Speaker 3: dear to me still, and so yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 2: Deep question considering we've only just started, but do you
Speaker 2: sort of believe that fate sort of had something to
Speaker 2: do with that because you've been making music, you know,
Speaker 2: for almost a decade, but not necessarily kind of sharing
Speaker 2: it with the hour world, and like you said, those
Speaker 2: sort of ingredients came together and you felt at ease
Speaker 2: here in London to write that music.
Speaker 3: I don't know if the word what the word fate
Speaker 3: means even I think it was definitely it had to
Speaker 3: do with me finally being open, like finally putting myself
Speaker 3: out there and then it Yeah, I definitely think you know,
Speaker 3: it takes a lot of hard work and a lot
Speaker 3: of you have to have it, you know, you have
Speaker 3: to like believe and know who you are as an artist.
Speaker 3: But then it always takes a little bit of extra
Speaker 3: fairy dust in the end. And I think that I
Speaker 3: definitely had that with me. Yeah, and I still do
Speaker 3: the fact that I'm still doing this, so yeah, I
Speaker 3: don't know fate something like that. Yeah, I felt like
Speaker 3: the universe was definitely like pushing me in the right direction.
Speaker 3: It's like I've always followed my gut. That's like the
Speaker 3: most in my music comes from my gut. And then
Speaker 3: I've always followed my gut, and especially in terms of
Speaker 3: like making decisions for my career and who I feel
Speaker 3: like working with and who and just any decision that
Speaker 3: I make. So it's almost like this like I'm always
Speaker 3: like lured towards the right thing maybe and even if
Speaker 3: it ends up being the wrong thing, it was still
Speaker 3: the right thing. Because if it's if it's a decision
Speaker 3: made by following your gut, then you can't really follow
Speaker 3: yourself for it.
Speaker 2: I'm a great believer in that. I think It's true.
Speaker 2: I've always even if I've made wrong decisions, when I
Speaker 2: have followed my gut, I sort of have confidence in
Speaker 2: the decision that I've made it great because I know
Speaker 2: why I made it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Sometimes it's funny, like if you're going through a
Speaker 3: period of self doubt or or just anything, you find
Speaker 3: yourself asking other people's opinions. But always always at the
Speaker 3: end of the day. I like, for me, even when
Speaker 3: I've gone through periods where I if I'm doubting myself
Speaker 3: or something and I ask like six different people what
Speaker 3: they think, I never end up listening. So it's almost
Speaker 3: just like a journey to get back to your own mind.
Speaker 2: So, yeah, you mentioned earlier this is the first kind
Speaker 2: of big headline tool run that you've done in support
Speaker 2: of the Old Time. How has it been playing those
Speaker 2: songs every night?
Speaker 4: Oh my gosh, feels so good. I feel like I
Speaker 4: went through a lot in between albums mentally just to
Speaker 4: try and get my I wanted to enjoy this new
Speaker 4: life of mine more.
Speaker 3: Because I had time kind of a tough time with
Speaker 3: it the first album. And I think I've grown so
Speaker 3: much and I've my my music has grown and what
Speaker 3: I want to do on stage has grown, and so
Speaker 3: being able to finally after so long thinking about what
Speaker 3: I what that meant and what that was going to be,
Speaker 3: and then rehearsing and then like you know, letting my
Speaker 3: mind free creatively and letting myself be as you know,
Speaker 3: taking risks and challenging myself. Like I've really done that
Speaker 3: for this tour, in this live show, and it feels
Speaker 3: so good and it's the most one I've ever had.
Speaker 3: The show is so fun for me to do. Like
Speaker 3: I genuinely enjoy being on stage every single second that
Speaker 3: I'm there because I'm really inspired by what I'm doing
Speaker 3: right now. And sometimes when you like, especially with album cycles,
Speaker 3: because you know, this is only my second album, I'm
Speaker 3: still like, I still think of myself as a newcomer
Speaker 3: in this business because there are people who have put
Speaker 3: out six, seven, eight albums whatever. But I have to
Speaker 3: imagine that what I felt. But at the end of
Speaker 3: the Goddess era, which is like you've been performing these
Speaker 3: songs for three years and some of their meanings have
Speaker 3: changed to you, and some shows can start feeling quite robotic,
Speaker 3: like and finally, and when that starts happening is kind
Speaker 3: of when you know, okay, artistically, I need to do
Speaker 3: something else, like I need to write, I need to
Speaker 3: I need to reinvigorate myself creatively and feel really inspired again.
Speaker 3: And so, you know, giving myself the time to write
Speaker 3: this album and then they really think about creatively what
Speaker 3: I want to do for it and visual and live
Speaker 3: show wise, it's like it's so new and it's so
Speaker 3: fresh for me, and I feel so inspired by it
Speaker 3: right now, so it's making it really fun.
Speaker 2: I often think it's an interesting situation when an artist
Speaker 2: enjoys more success and plays bigger shows, because inevitably, when
Speaker 2: you have a bigger stage, you fill it with a
Speaker 2: bigger production, which means more people are involved, which means
Speaker 2: that in a sense, it has to become more organized
Speaker 2: and choreographed, and like you say, it could end up
Speaker 2: being a bit robotic because there are cues, and there
Speaker 2: are visuals, and there are lights that have to appear
Speaker 2: at the right moments. So how do you still find
Speaker 2: the kind of essence in your live performance so that
Speaker 2: every night it feels different?
Speaker 3: And it feels because every movement, you know, when you think,
Speaker 3: when I think of the word like choreography, it almost
Speaker 3: feels like there's someone who's coming in. It almost feels
Speaker 3: like that stereotypical like pop packaging world where it's like
Speaker 3: someone's coming in from an outsider is coming into trying
Speaker 3: like make you move the way they see fit. Whereas
Speaker 3: like this show that I'm doing, it's like every single
Speaker 3: creature involved in this show was picked because I believe
Speaker 3: in them and they inspire me. So like these moves
Speaker 3: that I'm doing are you know, from They're like these
Speaker 3: natural grooves that I just have always done but elevated.
Speaker 3: And the people that are on stage with me I have,
Speaker 3: you know, they represent these you know, these two girls
Speaker 3: Alison and Nadine, who I've taken on the road with me.
Speaker 3: It's just been so much fun because I mean, my music,
Speaker 3: I write all my music, It all comes from my heart,
Speaker 3: and so like when I move to it, it comes
Speaker 3: from inside of me. And then like when you when
Speaker 3: you find people that really understand you and you connect
Speaker 3: with and you're inspired by, and then they kind of
Speaker 3: like you're kind of doing all these grooves together that
Speaker 3: the music is naturally doing to you. It feels really
Speaker 3: organic and authentic, and it just feels like the next
Speaker 3: step for me and Nina McNeely is kind of my
Speaker 3: partner in that, and she's choreographed this crazy she knows
Speaker 3: me so well and and we've you know, she's like
Speaker 3: my soulmate movement wise, like my I don't know. It's
Speaker 3: good when you find people who inspire you. It doesn't
Speaker 3: feel like a robotic thing. It feels like every night
Speaker 3: that I've done this show so far, every movement feels
Speaker 3: like this like gritty, kind of like guttural thing, and
Speaker 3: it grows and it changes every night, and the audience
Speaker 3: changes every night, and it's my mood changes every night.
Speaker 3: I mean, like I said, today, I'm feeling a bit
Speaker 3: nervous and tired or something. And you know, on another day,
Speaker 3: I could have just been like in a really like loud,
Speaker 3: goofy mood, so like that would kind of go into
Speaker 3: my performance. So sometimes you feel more fragile, sometimes you
Speaker 3: feel more more like a warrior, and that kind of
Speaker 3: affects your performance. So it's always I'm just like, I'm
Speaker 3: just a human that makes music and performs it. So
Speaker 3: it changes every night.
Speaker 2: How are you now that you've done it for four
Speaker 2: or five years, like going on the road, that thing
Speaker 2: of performing every night moving to a different city, doing
Speaker 2: it again, repeat, repeat, repeat, in the sort of genuine
Speaker 2: day to day detail. How do you find that? Because
Speaker 2: it's not you know, we've spoken to artists on the
Speaker 2: podcast before who've said they love every moment of touring,
Speaker 2: but only the bit where they're on stage and the
Speaker 2: rest of it they can kind of take or leave
Speaker 2: really because it's hard and they don't need to struggle
Speaker 2: to find the kind of joy. And it might sound
Speaker 2: it might sound like it's a great luxury to move
Speaker 2: between these cities every day, but you don't really scared
Speaker 2: to see any of it, and you're really just kind
Speaker 2: of hopping from one hotel room to the next and
Speaker 2: then performing. So like the actual day today, it's quite grueling.
Speaker 2: So how do you find it?
Speaker 3: It's hard? I mean I had a like I said
Speaker 3: my first album, I did not I would I was
Speaker 3: I didn't get how people did this? It's can you
Speaker 3: like sometimes like cuss is that allowed on this? Yeah? Yeah?
Speaker 3: But I remember thinking like, how the fuck do people
Speaker 3: do this? Like I didn't understand how Like I would
Speaker 3: talk to my friends who had leoneld been touring for
Speaker 3: years and I'm like, but how like I don't understand.
Speaker 3: I was completely miserable and I felt like shit, and
Speaker 3: like it's unhealthy, and your body's on different time zones
Speaker 3: and you're homesick, and and you know you don't understand
Speaker 3: the language, so you think you you know, said something
Speaker 3: or ordered something and it's wrong. And then you only
Speaker 3: have a minute to get to sound check, and then
Speaker 3: you only have this long and then you're late for
Speaker 3: your show, and then you know it's just it's really
Speaker 3: hard and it is a grind. And for me, what
Speaker 3: I've learned is like the most important thing is having
Speaker 3: right energies around you, the right people around you, because
Speaker 3: if someone doesn't understand what who you are, and like
Speaker 3: I'm just any artist or any person needs the right
Speaker 3: people around them, especially when you're in a when you're
Speaker 3: exhausted and you're traveling and you need a lot of
Speaker 3: positive energy and a lot of like nurturing energy. And
Speaker 3: when I realized that now, the crew I have around
Speaker 3: me now is has completely changed my entire experience of touring.
Speaker 3: Like this is the most fun tour I've ever been on.
Speaker 3: For sure, I'm just having such a good time because
Speaker 3: first of all, the longer you do it, the more
Speaker 3: of a routine you can somehow find within having no routine,
Speaker 3: like and just yeah, like I said, just having the
Speaker 3: right people around you. It's kind of as simple and
Speaker 3: as hard as that.
Speaker 2: Often when people talk about artist's careers, they say, what
Speaker 2: an incredible thing to be able to travel the world.
Speaker 2: And as I said earlier, like, yes, you are in
Speaker 2: the sense that you're kind of moving from one place
Speaker 2: to another. But I'm playing shows every night, but never
Speaker 2: necessarily seeing a place. So are you away from touring
Speaker 2: and away from making music? Are you kind of an
Speaker 2: adventurous spirit anyway? Do you do you like traveling? Do
Speaker 2: you like seeing new things? Is that like something that
Speaker 2: you're really keen on? And regardless of the big cities
Speaker 2: that you play every night, is there somewhere in the
Speaker 2: world that you'd love to go to?
Speaker 3: Yeah? I mean, I don't think anyone could do this
Speaker 3: if they weren't an adventurous spirit, because it's just you're
Speaker 3: out of your elements so often that you would go
Speaker 3: insane if you weren't. But yeah, I mean, I love
Speaker 3: I get so bored, Like I get bored really easily.
Speaker 3: And if I'm not inspired, sometimes I feel like uninspired
Speaker 3: and bored are similar words. If I'm either of those things,
Speaker 3: I've like my skin turns gray, like I just become
Speaker 3: like I feel like I don't feel good. And so
Speaker 3: for me, touring does kind of fill that whole sometimes.
Speaker 3: And a place that I definitely would want to go
Speaker 3: to is India.
Speaker 2: What attracts you about the idea of going to India?
Speaker 2: Is it the kind of just.
Speaker 3: Like the colors, the flood, the people, everything, It just
Speaker 3: looks so beautiful every single thing I read about it,
Speaker 3: I've seen the culture. I've just never been anywhere like it.
Speaker 2: My wife's just come back from India. She worked in
Speaker 2: a she volunteered in a children's orphanage, Oh wow, for
Speaker 2: ten days, and there was the first time she'd been
Speaker 2: to India and she was in Delhi and she had
Speaker 2: an incredible experience. Yeah, like she can't wait to go back.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Everyone I've talked to who has been there, and
Speaker 3: I don't know if I've ever talked to someone who's
Speaker 3: played there. Even I feel like everyone I've talked to
Speaker 3: has just gone there as a just an experience. But
Speaker 3: it's funny because I was touring for you know, I
Speaker 3: toured the Goddess album for like three years, and then
Speaker 3: anytime my dad or my mom or a friend or
Speaker 3: something would be like, do you want to get out
Speaker 3: of town for a few days, I'd be like absolutely not.
Speaker 3: Like if I'm not forced to be on the plane,
Speaker 3: I will never step on a plane. But then I
Speaker 3: took a trip to Italy with my family before the
Speaker 3: Altar came out, and it was the first trip I
Speaker 3: had gone on that wasn't like for work or for
Speaker 3: touring or for shows or whatever, and I was like, whoa,
Speaker 3: Like it's so different, Like I completely forgot that, Like yeah,
Speaker 3: like you think you're It's like you trick yourself into
Speaker 3: thinking you're on holiday, but you're absolutely not.
Speaker 2: Like so where did you go in Italy? Would you
Speaker 2: enjoy yourself?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we went to a few different places. We were
Speaker 3: in post Sitana, which was incredible, and then yeah, we
Speaker 3: just kind of ventured around. But it's.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a beautiful country, Italy. I'd like to go
Speaker 2: there more. I've only ever really been to Rome in Venice, Venis,
Speaker 2: I would highly recommend. It's a pretty crazy place. It's
Speaker 2: come out of somebody's imagination at some point.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I feel it seems fake or something.
Speaker 2: What's life like when you go back home now? Then
Speaker 2: do you find it still got a sort of magnetic
Speaker 2: pool when you're when you're out on the road, or
Speaker 2: do you still do you enjoy like going home and
Speaker 2: like the comforts and the friends and the family. Is
Speaker 2: that an important thing still? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, you need that. When I'm on tour,
Speaker 3: after three weeks, I start saying I need to go home,
Speaker 3: And then when I'm at home for longer than three weeks,
Speaker 3: I say I need to go on tour. So it's
Speaker 3: like I'm constantly unsatisfied.
Speaker 2: What's you mentioned the trying to constantly feed like your
Speaker 2: inspiration and to make sure you know your your kind
Speaker 2: of own well being is dependent on that. Yeah, how
Speaker 2: do you ensure that you do that? How do you?
Speaker 2: How do you how do you keep feeding your inspiration?
Speaker 3: But I think a lot of it is the people
Speaker 3: who you surround yourself with, Like I've really been learning
Speaker 3: that so much more than ever the last year and
Speaker 3: a half or so, because people's minds are the most
Speaker 3: intricate things in the world, and if somebody is like,
Speaker 3: if you're around people who you connect with and inspire you,
Speaker 3: then maybe they'll show you something, show you a dancer
Speaker 3: that you're in that they're into, or show you a
Speaker 3: movie or you know, an exhibit or I don't know,
Speaker 3: or even just hanging out with some you know. It's
Speaker 3: it's more just like having fun is really inspiring. It's
Speaker 3: not it's not as much so about like it's not
Speaker 3: always so obvious it's like, let's go to an art
Speaker 3: exhibit or like, let's like listen to this amazing song
Speaker 3: or watch this amazing movie. Like for me, it's not
Speaker 3: really like that, like if I'm like excited by my
Speaker 3: own life, that's inspiring to me. It's it's yeah, it's
Speaker 3: more about that.
Speaker 2: Do you listen to music when you're on the road,
Speaker 2: other people's music?
Speaker 3: You know? I do, But I'm I sometimes feel so
Speaker 3: like people think I'm nuts when I say this, But
Speaker 3: I actually like when I'm writing an album and when
Speaker 3: I'm like doing shows night after night during the day,
Speaker 3: I actually don't really listen to music. I kind of
Speaker 3: like it to be quiet almost like even when I'm
Speaker 3: getting ready for shows, I just like it's like a
Speaker 3: quiet I don't know.
Speaker 2: It's funny the things that people help to get themselves
Speaker 2: into that zone to be able to write in to be.
Speaker 2: A guy called Reggie Snow who's from Dublin needs a
Speaker 2: rapper and he makes kind of you know, Kendrick Lamar
Speaker 2: esque kind of hip hop I suppose. But when he writes,
Speaker 2: he said, he always sits down and he always puts
Speaker 2: on a classic jazz like, you know, interesting, and he's like,
Speaker 2: that's what I need. It's basically, this's my equivalent of
Speaker 2: kind of silence or that sort of blanket noise that
Speaker 2: I need in order to concentrate.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was like, that's that's interesting because you're constantly writing,
Speaker 2: you're just writing lyrics, you're kind of you're you know,
Speaker 2: he's thinking about how he's going to deliver them and
Speaker 2: the kind of pace and the rhythm and all those
Speaker 2: sort of things, and yet he's kind of got jazz
Speaker 2: on in the background. And I was kind of like,
Speaker 2: I'd be totally distracted by that.
Speaker 3: I think, yeah, yeah, everybody has their own way. I
Speaker 3: think a lot of it also has to do with
Speaker 3: how you got into music. Like I got into music
Speaker 3: because I needed an outlet so bad so and I
Speaker 3: taught you know, I never took lessons, I never went
Speaker 3: to school, forward, I never you know, took piano lessons
Speaker 3: or singing lessons or anything, and like it all came
Speaker 3: so from this like necessity of exhaling out all of
Speaker 3: this heavy gravity that was extra on my shoulders, and
Speaker 3: so it comes more from my gut. Like I'm sure
Speaker 3: not saying that that person doesn't come. I'm just saying
Speaker 3: like for me, it's like if a like three chords
Speaker 3: will start, is like the atmosphere that I need. I
Speaker 3: just need like a cozy studio with like you know,
Speaker 3: a mood of some sort whatever I'm in, and then
Speaker 3: it just takes some sort of like it's always starts
Speaker 3: with like a melodic chant, like an almost meditative chant.
Speaker 3: There's a part in my show where I kind of
Speaker 3: go through the motions about make a song, but it
Speaker 3: always starts with that, with like a chant, melodic chant.
Speaker 2: And let's talk about the altar for a moment. How
Speaker 2: did you feel about the kind of reception to that
Speaker 2: album and most specifically the kind of conversations that you've
Speaker 2: had with your fans about songs on the album. When
Speaker 2: you meet people, what have the conversation has been like
Speaker 2: with your fans about them.
Speaker 3: I don't know how much they connect to it. I
Speaker 3: try not to focus on the reception of my music,
Speaker 3: to be honest. I mean, I know, I seeing people
Speaker 3: scream my lyrics at these shows has been incredible and fulfilling.
Speaker 3: But uh, yeah, I think it's been great. I think
Speaker 3: it's been awesome. I'm just focusing on how I feel
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And how do you feel like it's sort
Speaker 2: of six months on after the release of it.
Speaker 3: I feel good. I feel I'm protective of it and
Speaker 3: proud of it and excited by it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, You've still got like a kind of great connection
Speaker 2: to it because it often people kind of a once
Speaker 2: a a head of things and you already be thinking
Speaker 2: about the music that you want to write next. You
Speaker 2: that kind of person. Who are you still living with that? Help?
Speaker 3: Well, I'm always making music, and I don't think about
Speaker 3: music in terms of albums, So it's more about like
Speaker 3: each song has its own little meaning or big meaning,
Speaker 3: and I think, you know, every time it's like you
Speaker 3: get it, you're getting to I'm still getting to know them,
Speaker 3: you know, when I perform, I'm still getting to know
Speaker 3: the songs. And but I'm always writing songs, but they're
Speaker 3: not mutually exclusive, Like you don't have to. If you're
Speaker 3: making music, you can't still live with the other music
Speaker 3: you've made. So I'm living with this music, and I'm
Speaker 3: still learning the ins and outs of you know, the
Speaker 3: dimensions of performing each song and how I want to
Speaker 3: move to them and how they make me feel different
Speaker 3: depending on what night I'm singing them and all that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you've talked in the past about how making
Speaker 2: music for you is a kind of intensely personal thing.
Speaker 2: So would you ever if you wrote a song and
Speaker 2: you didn't you didn't like it anymore, you didn't for
Speaker 2: it worked for you, would you ever give it away?
Speaker 2: Would you ever give it to another artist?
Speaker 3: I don't know. I've been asked that question so many times,
Speaker 3: And some days when I'm asked it, I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: I would never, And then some days I'm like, that's
Speaker 3: maybe that sounds naive and I should like think more
Speaker 3: about it before I respond so abruptly. But I don't
Speaker 3: know if it feels if I wrote something like really personal,
Speaker 3: like about my life, I would never like I couldn't
Speaker 3: like it. I don't know, it would have to I
Speaker 3: would have to like remove if I was writing a song. No,
Speaker 3: I'm just I just can't imagine doing it because I
Speaker 3: don't write. I write about my own personal life, and
Speaker 3: it's always it always means a lot to me when
Speaker 3: I make something. If I were to ever write something
Speaker 3: ahead of time for somebody else and then they said, like,
Speaker 3: I want to write a song about this, then like
Speaker 3: that would I guess I could potentially think about it,
Speaker 3: but that's not even how I write, like it would
Speaker 3: probably be a shit song because that sounds like a
Speaker 3: really heartless way to make music. So I don't know,
Speaker 3: I can't really imagine it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a completely understandable because it might be. It
Speaker 2: would when you put all of your kind of your
Speaker 2: personal kind of experience and feeling to hear those words
Speaker 2: beings come out with somebody else's mouth, might be I
Speaker 2: would be like, nah, I don't believe it. Finally, then
Speaker 2: the this this this year ahead, like kind of you
Speaker 2: said that this is the the most you've enjoyed touring
Speaker 2: and playing those songs from the altar every night. What
Speaker 2: are you most looking forward to about the rest of
Speaker 2: twenty seventeen?
Speaker 3: Just more growth, learning, just make more music and perform more.
Speaker 3: I'm just excited. I love what I do. It's I'm
Speaker 3: really blessed Field. I'm so grateful to do this. I
Speaker 3: know that it's you know, it's pretty special being able
Speaker 3: to travel and and sing songs that I'm that I wrote.
Speaker 3: So I'm just looking forward to doing it where that.
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