00:00:08 Speaker 1: Pushkin. Brittany Howard has never really been the type to do things quietly, whether it's fronting Alabama Shakes the voice that could fill a room and level it in the same breath, or striking out on her own with two solo records that hold her sound in wilder and more personal directions. She's spent the last decade refusing to stay in one place for long. Now she's back with the band mate Zach Cockrell and Heath Fog for a new Alabama Shake's album, I Must Be Dreaming, their first in eleven years, and on today's episode, I sit down with Brittany to talk about what it took to bring the band back together after all that time apart, and what this record sounds like on the other side of it. This is broken record, real musicians, real conversations. Here's my conversation with Brittany Howard. All right, so LA two days and you out. 00:01:00 Speaker 2: That's it. 00:01:00 Speaker 1: I feel good, Yeah, yeah. 00:01:02 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm ready to go home. I've been on the road a little bit, not very much, but went to Red Rocks immediately from like five hundred feet above sea level to like five and thirty eight feet above sea level felt great. The first day. Second day hit me. I was like, okay, all day nausea, coolest, do the show. Let's roll it to the show. Awesome. Then we go over to Reno and Reno, I didn't know the crowd was gonna be as lit as it was. It was like amazing. 00:01:34 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:01:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, the crowd was crazy. They're like standing up in their chairs. There was a couple like slow dancing to like this really sad song we got. 00:01:41 Speaker 1: Wow, yeah to one of the new. 00:01:43 Speaker 2: Songs, nah to Gemini. I've never seen anybody slow dance to Gemini before. 00:01:47 Speaker 1: Wow. 00:01:47 Speaker 2: That was cooled. That was different. It was interesting. And then we came to where we go next. I went to Berkeley, played two shows a degree. 00:01:56 Speaker 1: How was that? 00:01:56 Speaker 2: It was awesome? 00:01:57 Speaker 1: Yeah? I love Degree. That's great. That's a beautiful Like one of you guys, what's this, how'd you guys come back together? 00:02:04 Speaker 2: Well? Okay, So we have this buddy and he owns this bar in Tuscaloose, Alabama. And this buddy of ours name is Bow. He used to always take us in. You know, we show up the bar, pay us like one hundred bucks between like the four of us, and then he would put us up like on his couch or extra room or something. He always took care of us, and he was like, hey, since COVID my bar has been in trouble, couldn't you mind like coming and helping me out? Just playing? He was asking me, and I was like, yeah, I'll come through. But then I hit up the guys and I was like, hey, do I want to help Bowl out? Go do this thing? Everybody loves Bowl. They're like yeah, absolutely. So we get together and we're rehearsing the music and we're like, maybe we should just like get together and I don't know, do a tour, do a couple of tours or something, because it's like the ten year anniversary. It sounded color felt like a cool thing to do for the fans, and so we did that. And then and then you know, it progressed into like, oh, let's like record a single. Okay, So we thought we're gonna record like three songs, and then it progressed into like, well, we got seven songs, let's just make some more and make an album. So it kind of naturally unfolded like that. 00:03:12 Speaker 1: It's interesting that it didn't occur earlier that, like, I mean, if it was that, it seems like it's pretty easy once you guys were. 00:03:18 Speaker 2: Like I always told people, it's like, look, I never shut the door, never saying never. It's just gonna happen when it feels right, and that just happened to be the catalyst, and it felt like the right time. 00:03:31 Speaker 1: Coming back together. Did it feel like it? This feels like let's trying to explain to my fromd Ben here who works on the show with me, that the album feels it feels in some ways like you guys didn't miss a beat, like you guys went back to where you were. But in some ways it feels also like I can hear I don't know where you know necessarily everything you guys been up to in that time away. You've had a couple of solo albums, and I feel like I can also hear that there's a difference. There's something else that has been going on for like ten years, So I don't know if they had been playing other places, listening to different things. You've definitely been on your own journey musically, and so it does feel like it feels like a really good summation of like probably exactly where you guys are at, which is do you guys have a certain chemistry together. But then you've also probably grown substantially in a decade. Didn'tven think it had been a decade, But yeah, a decade, right. 00:04:26 Speaker 2: Yeah, I think our tastes have grown. I think we're wiser as people. You know, we're older, and we have more life experience. We know what we like, we know what we don't like. I think it was kind of like getting back in the studio. We had to reintroduce ourselves to what we were into, which is funny because I was into mostly like instrumental composition stuff. Was no singing. Now yeah, yeah, that's just kind of what I've been getting into. It's nice sometimes to make up scenarios in your head without the lyrics guiding you. Sometimes you know that's been nice, And then you know the guys have been into all kinds of other stuff. So we were like, okay, let's let's figure this out. How do we meet in the middle. And it's kind of the same thing as you know, boys and Girls when we first met first put out that first album. It's like, Okay, how do we make music together coming from all these different backgrounds? 00:05:17 Speaker 1: Well, you guys, but I guess the difference would be by the time you make that album, you guys that had years together just in terms of just being around each other forever day to day, right, like yeah, true, yeah, true. 00:05:27 Speaker 2: I mean like yeah, you know, Zach came on tour with me for the Britney Howard Project stuff, and so like making this album was you know, me and he talked over texts and phone and stuff like that, but we hadn't really hung out physically for like, probably I don't know, years a while, so it was cool being back in the room together again. And you know, it's kind of like we all got sweeter, like everybody just is that true? Yeah, it's like we're all I don't know, it's just nicer human beings than we used to be. We used to be crazy like wildcats, like in what why Oh I mean, I won't get into it was just the party lifestyle. Let me quit talking. 00:06:06 Speaker 1: Nah, keep talking. 00:06:08 Speaker 2: No, you know, we're just young. We've never been anywhere before. All of a sudden, we're like in Europe and England and Spain. We're just going out and having fun. Like you know, everybody thinks like metal bands, oh they're so crazy, they party too hard, But soul bands are the ones that actually party hard? 00:06:21 Speaker 1: Is that okay? 00:06:22 Speaker 2: Yeah? 00:06:22 Speaker 1: You know how shocked I was when I read to read the friends memoir and I realized there's a quote like pretty early Billy Preston is like, like you think you if you think like pop and rock artists, it's like it's soul on gospels or the wildest you. 00:06:36 Speaker 2: Gotta look out for them, but that's not us anymore. Which just like I said, we're just a bunch of sweeties now. 00:06:41 Speaker 1: So that's hod. So it was kind of like early on it was a stereotypical like you were being introduced to we were living a whole new world and lifestyle. 00:06:50 Speaker 2: Yeah, we were living, you know, no regrets, like we were sweeties. We were just like you know, I don't know, just having fun. We were young, but now we're older. 00:06:58 Speaker 1: Were what were some what stands out from those early not even necessarily in a bad way, but like what was even some of the more charmed experiences. I mean, you like that record, you got that especially sounding that record was so big, and so I know there must have been some like real pinch me moments. 00:07:15 Speaker 2: One of the pinch me moments was probably just like meeting Bill Withers was really cool. He hung out with us after the show. He hung out with us and Michael Kewan Nuka's group, and that was awesome. That was really cool. You know, there's somebody you here ever since your little kid. Now there he is in the flesh, talking to you, smiling at you. And I remember, like I used to smoke cigarettes. I don't know more, but I remember being under the staircase, like hiding from Bill Withers because he had already reprimanded me. He was like, you gotta quit. And I was like okay, and then like it was my grandpa or something, I was like, let me hide under these stairs. He found me. What he said he was like, he was pointed at me and he's like, I see you. And I was like, oh my god, I gotta pinch myself. Bill Withers is over here, like, you know, trying to help me out. 00:08:06 Speaker 1: But you got to take that advice. I mean, look I did eventually. Whatever, Bill Withers, I feel like you kind of. 00:08:12 Speaker 2: Yeah, I know, and I knew then too. Yeah, I just being hard headed. 00:08:17 Speaker 1: That's a meeting Bill Withers is phenomenal because. 00:08:20 Speaker 2: Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, he's a cool guys. He's kind of everything you think he would be wise. You know, he's just got one of those voices when he speaks. You just listen to him and you know, yeah. 00:08:36 Speaker 1: Did he did he hear you got? Did you watch you guys play? Or hear the record? Was the effusive the. 00:08:43 Speaker 2: Yeah, you know he was. He was very excited about the whole thing. You know, he was just like I think I remember him saying, like, you know, you're going straight to the moon something like that, which is I can barely say it out loud because I'm you know, I'm still trying to digest that, because it's just I'm just grateful for an opportunity like that. So something like that happening is crazy. And you know, also there's like meeting my peers finally, like you know, Tyler creator, Child's Game, being a solange and just meeting those people and talking music with them and people I respect I'm inspired by as well, So that's always cool. You just never really never know who you're gonna run into. 00:09:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's funny because it's funny you bring up them as peers, because they definitely are peers, both creatively and also just like in terms of we're sort of like the artists who broke kind of around when you guys broke, but it's like it's funny because at the time you guys broke, there was soul music, but the soul music was like kind of like retro soul music with either like not disparagingly because there's some great artists, but like Charles Bradley, like in Sharon Jones recipes, it was phenomenal, but it was sort of like in that sort of vein of thing or like the Mark ronson whatever, right, and rock bands weren't really breaking, so you guys really like broke them all. You guys got or slipped through or broke the mold or transcended or went to the moon. Don'tend to go to the moon. 00:10:20 Speaker 2: It I actually don't know how that happened myself. I still think about that, like you always get that feeling of like why us and why not somebody else? Because you know, we were listening to all that daptone stuff. We loved Charles Bradley, we loved Sharon Jones, we loved Minihanan Street Band, we loved all those groups, and we were very studied to these groups. We loved how tight the rhythm sections were, and it's something we strived to to be like. But you know, we also had all these other influences too, and wanted to experiment just a little bit more. And I don't know, to me, that feels natural just to do something a little bit other, just to see what can happen, and especially bringing all of our music tastes together, it felt like that's just where that's where we had to end up. 00:11:06 Speaker 3: You know. 00:11:07 Speaker 2: We couldn't go full retro this way, because I don't know if that style would drive with all of our style of playing, you know, yeah, yeah, So I think we just did something a little bit more garage rock, like a little more aggressive because it felt good. It felt good too, especially as a woman. It felt good to front a group and be aggressive and not I don't know, just any stereotype just throw it to the side and just be full of I don't know, whatever rage or whatever it is that I'm body when I do my thing just feels good, feels cathartic, and it felt like the right thing to do. It felt honest. 00:11:45 Speaker 1: Did you always have like that? I wanna call a punk rock aggression? But it's like that, you know what I mean, like that rock sort of. 00:11:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd say, like from the get go, because we were listening to like MC five, we were listening to les Eppelin, Pink Floyd, Black Sabbath, I was listening to groups like Converge, American Nightmare. 00:12:05 Speaker 1: Wow, Converge. Yeah, they don't even get talked about much anymore. 00:12:09 Speaker 3: No. 00:12:09 Speaker 2: I like that shit though, Like that's that's It was just like whatever I could get my hands on or my ears on. Rather when I was coming into music and learning how to play, like if if it had any like, I don't know if it stuck out to me, I'm listening to it. I like it, I'm learning from it, and from the get go, it's like this is something I like ac DC. I like the way he plays guitar, The Kinks. Uh No, that just happened by accident. I actually didn't have my own guitar. That was our guitar players guitar, and he let me borrow it so I could play guitar. I didn't have one. 00:12:44 Speaker 1: Yeah, but then it just felt good. Yeah, it looked good too. 00:12:47 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was. It kind of became my thing, but it just happenstance. I kind of like, you know, just whatever sounds good is what I'll play. Yeah, And to this day that's how I am. I don't really stick to this or that. New guitars can be cool sometimes sometimes not. I just play whatever whatever I find. Really, Yeah, but what. 00:13:07 Speaker 1: You were saying, it was in ac DC Kinks. 00:13:09 Speaker 2: Yeah, the Kinks. I like Dave Davies because his solos are always just so a motive. It's not really it doesn't always have to be technical to get your point across. And yeah, I just was pulled to that. I was like, I can do that. Yeah. 00:13:24 Speaker 1: Is that? 00:13:24 Speaker 2: Was that. 00:13:27 Speaker 1: A surprise to your parents? Like that in your family? I know you have a sister too, Like was that like, were you like an aberration in your household or was that like what everyone in your house was kind of? 00:13:37 Speaker 2: Well, I okay, So I have an uncle and he was kind of like a metal guitar player, but he also knew some Jimmy Hendrix and when I was a little girl, he woul plays songs like guns and Roses and Jimmy Hendricks and whatever he knew, and we thought it was like amazing, you know, And so I knew from a very early age. I want to do that. And then I had this other It's my great uncle. He played like bluegrass music, so he turned me on to you know, like classics like Elvis and and what else. I don't know. He liked Elvis, like the animals, he liked kind of this stuff. And so he had this woodworking shop and I remember staying up late one night and they were practicing their bluegrass band and I came in there and they gave me the microphone and I saying wild thing and I was singing what was I singing? I don't know, some Elvis songs. And I remember looking at all these grown men and and the way that my little voice affected them, and they were just shocked and smiling and laughing. And I sang until like I think my throat was bleeding, until my great aunt came in there. I was like, Bren, you got to go to bed, you know. And but I I loved that feeling of being amplified. And you know, maybe it goes back to just being heard being sing or something like that. Maybe, but you know, it was those moments that I was like, I think this is something that I really would like to do. 00:14:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, but everyone I think not everyone, but a lot of people like having a microphone in a bully pool bit and be heard. But yeah, it's like having a voice like that though, to have that in tandem with I mean, you know that's what everyone's not blessed with. 00:15:13 Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I didn't know I could sing until maybe I was like fifteen. 00:15:19 Speaker 1: How old are you there in that moment? Oh, I was like four or five, and it didn't occur to you then like based on the reaction like, oh man, maybe I can't they like what I was too little too. 00:15:29 Speaker 2: Yeah, But when I was like when I was eleven, I saw a band play for the first time and it was just like in my high school high school gym, and there was just like some high school kids playing and I was like, that is what I want to do, wow, Because it was so shocking to me that those kids I go to school with have like the secret, and the secret is they can play these instruments and have this effect on these people. And it was almost like slow motion, like I looked at the people dancing and I looked back at the guitar player and I was like, that's what I want to do. 00:16:01 Speaker 4: Wow. 00:16:02 Speaker 2: And turns out that guitar player was album Shake's guitar player, heath Way. Yeah. He later became our guitar player. Yeah. And I remember recording my own demos. I was always teaching myself instruments because I wanted to be in a band so bad. I was just like, I gotta practice everything because I don't know if I'm going to meet a drummer. I don't know if I'm going to meet a bass player. I don't know if I'm meet a guitar player. So I'm gonna be ready to play anything. So I was practicing, I was borrowing instruments, and I remember making a demo. I was using this app, well, the software called Audacity. You could just record a line. At the time. I made this little demo and I burnt it on City and I remember putting it on my mom's dresser and she had taken it to work with her. She had listened to it, came back from work and she was like, I didn't know you could sing. And that's when I was like, oh, maybe I can sing. And because I didn't really know, wow, And so I just like, you know, I practiced it. I didn't just show up singing. You know, I had to practice, and I practiced by singing long to albums and just trying to get the voice straight not shaky. 00:17:05 Speaker 1: So what albums would you sing to? 00:17:08 Speaker 2: Back then? It was like a lot of Queen Because I really liked Framemakery's harmonies. I was like, try to I go through the song over and again, pick a harmony and learned harmonies. And at the time, I think Red Hot Peppers by the Way came out. 00:17:23 Speaker 1: That's still one of my favorite albums. 00:17:24 Speaker 2: It's a great album. Yeah, and I would sing all of those songs and yeah, it was a third eye blind. I had a third eye blind city. I would sing all those songs and it was just getting my voice like ready. And eventually I found the right group of guys and I was able to be the singer and started banding. 00:17:43 Speaker 1: So how'd you reconnect with Heath? 00:17:46 Speaker 2: Oh? Well, so me and Zach so I So I had another demo and I knew Zach was a bass player because you know, we went to school together. So I brought a CD to Zach. Didn't really know him, but he had like cool band shirts, like I ad the dry event shirt on it, and I knew who that was and I was like, all that, that guy must be cool. So I gave him my CD and I was like, hey, man, like I play instruments too, this is this is where my music sounds like. You know, let me know if you ever want a jam. So he took the CD he had like a little Honda Civic, and I mean we both went to the Honda Civic. He listened to the demo CD, which is like very vulnerable to sit there and listen to your demo with somebody, but he was like, oh this is cool. Yeah we can jam, and I was like, oh cool. So we started getting together like not every day, but just about every day after school, and we started writing music together and eventually we found a drummer to play with, and that drummer knew some of Heath's buddies. So we had another demo and he showed it to Heath's buddies and Heath was like, oh man, you guys should open for my band. And I was like, cool, we'll open for you if you help our band by playing guitar. And he was like yeah, no problem. And I was like I got him because I had been I'd been trying to get Heath in a band. I didn't know how to approach him. He's older than me. I thought he was cooler than me because he played you know, he already played a bunch of cooler. 00:19:06 Speaker 1: You had that experience of being almost like a fan of him and a yeah. 00:19:09 Speaker 2: I know, And so then he joined us and it was just it was just on after that. 00:19:13 Speaker 1: Wow, it's so funny, those dynamics when you were that age, just like how how how large people can loose me? 00:19:20 Speaker 2: It's true. I thought he was unreachable. I was like, this guy's playing Prince, this guy's playing David Bowie, this guy he's playing the Kinks, He's playing all kinds of cool music. And I'm I was like, he's out of he's out of our league. But he wasn't. 00:19:33 Speaker 1: It's pretty savvy, though. I'll say, if you just that list, you just ran down, especially at that time, to be you know, yeah, well, because I would have been like, what early two thousands, I guess. 00:19:43 Speaker 2: Right, like yeah, maybe oh four. 00:19:45 Speaker 1: Yeah, So who's playing like Prince, Epoi and the Kings, especially in North Alabama and especially strange. 00:19:51 Speaker 2: Yeah, And I would sneak out and go to these house parties just to watch the band. You know, I wouldn't drink or anything like that. I was just like I wanted to go see them play. And I was trying to to calculate, like, Okay, how do they do this, how do they do that? Where are they getting this PA equipment? Because I was like, I'm gonna do what they're doing. Yeah, I'm gonna have house shows and I'm gonna do all this stuff. You know. I was plotting. Yeah, and I never thought he would actually be in my group, but that's how it worked out. 00:20:15 Speaker 1: That's great, man. I mean, you guys, this music was ever. You guys were touring everywhere. 00:20:21 Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it kind of happened like we became this unit. We were writing songs, but we didn't have anywhere to play the songs because in North Alabama they honestly wanted you to play four hours of covers. It was kind of rare back then to find a place where they wanted original music, like there's this one place and never would call us back like it was. And I was the booking agent. I was the manager, like, you know, I'm putting everything I had into it. And then Heath was like, oh, you know, we should go down to Tuscaloosa. They let bands play original music there. Cool. So Tuchcalusa is probably like, I don't know, like two or three hours away from where we're from. So we all hop in the car, get our gear, go down there and set up at this little bar called Egan's and that's we started playing our songs and people loved it. They responded to it. Went back again, went back again, went back again. And we also started playing this place called The Brick, which was in Decatur, Alabama, and we have fans like we have fans, you know. People liked it, and then we recorded a city. It all kind of starts from actually recording your music and sharing it, like it really does. Yeah, that's how everything starts. And so yeah, we had this demo and we recorded, like I remember, we went to this place called Pegasus Records, and it was like during a festival called w C. Handy Festival is in Florence, Alabama. It's gonna be recorded and we're gonna get to keep the recordings and put them online and this whole thing. And I'm like, awesome. We perform and there's this fella there named Patterson Hood. He's just sing or drop by truckers, and we looked up to them because you know, some of them guys were from North Alabama and they were able to get out and tour y, and to us, that was the goal, like if we could tour like we're made. 00:22:08 Speaker 1: You know, they were really doing that. 00:22:10 Speaker 2: Yeah, they're really doing it, of course, of course. Yeah. And so he saw us and called his managers and was like, you need to come check this band out. And that's what happened. And I feel like from that moment we were able to open up for them. I quit my job, like, I quit my job like as fast as I could. 00:22:28 Speaker 1: Where were you at? 00:22:29 Speaker 2: I was delivering mail for the United States Postal Service, and you know at that job, they work you hard. 00:22:36 Speaker 1: I only just discovered recently, like how crazy some of the demands are. Ye, it's crazy, Like you have X amount of seconds per house, like because you have to get around the block and X amount of minutes and if you don't then. 00:22:47 Speaker 2: That's like, oh yeah, let's talk about it. 00:22:49 Speaker 1: I didn't know this. Yeah, that's real. 00:22:52 Speaker 2: Yes, it's real. I was delivering mail and tornadoes, not one tornado, but several tornadoes. They had me out there and I called my supervisor, and I was like, hey, I'm gonna come back, and she's like, no, no, no, no, no, you can't come back. Go deliver the mail just faster, and then come back faster before more tornado show up. I was like, man, no. 00:23:14 Speaker 1: That's not much Charlie rain Hell sleep snow tornado. Yeah, that's not that's not in the slogan. 00:23:20 Speaker 2: No, I was not trying to die for nobody's mail. 00:23:22 Speaker 1: So that's wild. 00:23:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, And luckily, you know, we had that opportunity to go tour open for the truckers, and then we started, you know, more people started hearing about us, and then we went in did the CMJ Festival, and then journalists started writing about us, and we were on block. It just kind of like built, you know. And we had been around writing music and doing our things, especially me as accents, like two thousand and five, two thousand and four, and it kind of all just started happening, like the dreams were happening. I couldn't believe it. It's like it's like someone spoke into existence, you know, and yeah, started there. 00:23:58 Speaker 1: We'll be right back with more from the hour. It sounds like you were the one who was motivated to you know, as the booker, et cetera, to get things to the next level. But if you had really thought about it, it's not like there was really a place for an act like y'all at that point, you know what I mean, like a like a at a fest like you know, the Driver's Truckers, even as big as they were, So I don't's my memory suris they weren't getting booked at like a Coachella or you know, at the big festivals like that, you know, because they don't think there were thinking of roots music or music that had that lilt to it as being like hip at that time. 00:24:36 Speaker 2: You know, yeah, I guess. You know, our heroes were the things going on at depth tone and also the music we grew up on, like Otis Redding and the Supremes, you know, all led zepp On, all the stuff I named before. It's like that was what was that was our guiding light. We never imagined other people would respond how they did when we kind of mixed these things together. And and I don't know, I guess when I think about it, I knew a lot of groups that were kind of doing what we were doing. I think it was just like everything had to line up like divine, Like everything had to line up for it to work. Yeah, you know, we had to have the right people behind us too, Like anybody could have took our sound and managed it incorrectly and none of this could have happened. 00:25:25 Speaker 1: That's true. 00:25:25 Speaker 2: We had to have the right booking agent that was putting us in the right spots with the right people, and those things worked. Yeah, But I mean I never would have imagined like us from Athens, Alabama, which back then was a small town. You know, we had a we had like a sheriff's rodeo, That's kind of what we had going on. And now we're like playing Coachella, like we're headline in Coachella. Like you know, I'm still like pinched me to this day because it's like I can't believe the trajectory our lives took. 00:25:58 Speaker 1: It's wild. I mean, your voice is a huge part of it because in that time, when if I go to if I went to a festival and you guys were on the bill, there'd be a moment invariably happened at least a few times where I'd be walking from one stage to another hear your voice, like damn, just like, let's just pull you in, like I'm gonna go that way. I didn't even know they're playing right now, but here I go. I'm following this sound, you know, because your voice just goes. 00:26:27 Speaker 2: Yeah as loud as fuck. Yeah, for sure, certainly. 00:26:32 Speaker 1: Why why laughing? 00:26:34 Speaker 2: I don't know it is. Yeah, you know, It's something I didn't discover I could do until I got with the guys because we were practicing in my house and we didn't have one of m PA systems, so I just had like this little practice hamp to sing out of. So in order to sing over all the instruments, I just had to really push yeah, And I didn't know I could sing like that until I started playing with them. It was kind of like a discovery and I was like, oh, I'll just do this. 00:27:00 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:27:00 Speaker 2: Yeah. 00:27:01 Speaker 1: Have you ever wrecked your voice? 00:27:03 Speaker 2: Not often really, No, it's just like it's just made that way. Yeah. It happens like from overuse. And also I wasn't taking good care of it, so every once in a while I will lose a voice, but most most most of the time at my shows, like I could, I could still do it. 00:27:18 Speaker 1: Yeah, wow, Yeah, let's play something from the new album. Chres. Yeah, let's just listen to a bit of the first track. Time kind of struck me when I when I when I first put it on, m m m hm. 00:27:52 Speaker 3: Hm at all had much. 00:28:08 Speaker 5: To the flow. 00:28:16 Speaker 6: So f. 00:28:36 Speaker 1: Scroll you like that drum roll. There's still there like a still an analog feel to this where it still feels like real, like you guys were in a space moving air around and that. But there's something about that. It almost feels like mad libbish J Dilla ish in the like the. 00:29:01 Speaker 2: There's a little there's there's a little hanging back from the beat in order to make that baseline work. Okay, yeah, that was that's hey, that's that's Zach. That's our best way, that's Zach. He showed me that, and I was just like, m this will do you know. I couldn't wait to cook something on it. I couldn't wait to do something with it, you know. And a lot of times on this album, that's where it began, Zach Zach's base, and he would just start playing something crazy that I've never really heard anything like, you know, especially coming from him, and I was just like, Wow, I'm very excited to write something for this. There's a lot of moments like that, Oh. 00:29:37 Speaker 1: If you had to speak for him, like where where does his gene where does his genius lide? Like how is he hearing these things? 00:29:45 Speaker 2: I mean, if you know what I know about Zach is he's like an encyclopedia. He doesn't forget things that I feel like a normal person would just forget. Like he remembers not only obscure albums, he also remembers everybody who played on that obscure album. And then he'll go find that bass player and then see everything else he played on, and then he'd be like, oh, like this guitar player. It's like a it's like a web, and he can remember all that stuff. So his references go so deep. And I think also, you know, he's a he's a huge fan of mad Lib, M F. Doom, he's a he's a friend, he's a fan of hip hop. So he kind of puts it all together and you know, there's something both he and I relate to. And it was just another example of like, Okay, let's take something like this and mix it with something like this. This is something I've kind of never heard before. That's exciting, And that's kind of how we got there. 00:30:38 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, how early And was that one of the songs that was going to be part of that initial few records like the single. 00:30:46 Speaker 2: Maybe it was kind of one of those things where we're just going in and seeing what sticks, like what can we complete? What's exciting to us? Yeah? Yeah, I'd say it was one of the ones. It was like early on. 00:30:57 Speaker 7: Yeah, and not a lot of guitar on it, just a little bit, just a little bit where would there be room for guitars, Like, there's a little guitar, it's a little bit, but it's more like we could tell that this song was gonna be like the melody, the bassline, and the slack drums. 00:31:13 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's what made it. That's what made it stand out to me though it's being the first for it being the first song back that you hear. I mean, I guess I heard the singles first one. I'm like, I'm gonna put the album on and listen to it. For that to be the thing that I heard, I was like, wow, it's just like this is It's what made me feel like this is a little the same but also pretty different. It was a bull move. 00:31:33 Speaker 2: Oh yeah, like I do I am aware that there's gonna be fans of hold On that are going to hear them and be like, you know what I'm saying. I'm like different now, but I'm I'm open to opening people's minds. So let it be the first track. 00:31:48 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, do you think both those things bands can exist together? 00:31:52 Speaker 2: Oh for sure? Yeah, Oh for sure, still room for that absolutely. I mean think about groups like Pink Floyd and how much that music has changed. You didn't even think about Led Zeppelin, and if you go from their first album to their last album, how much has changed and developed. It's like it touches on these things that are the foundation of the group. But I feel like they were still able to go into new territory and explore, and I feel like that's why the group lasted so long. 00:32:21 Speaker 1: It is striking because I don't. I tend to stick to the early Zeppelin albums. Yeah, late I've been going back to like the newer ones that were later in their career, and I'm like, wow, yeah they really were, because there's they're still so forward thinking or like early on, it's still so like this is pretty out there. But yeah, yeah they even take it, and they do take it a Notch further, Yeah, which is. 00:32:40 Speaker 2: Wild like black Dog compared to dancing days, it's kind of different, you know, But I respect that, and I can say it the same for like someone like David Bowie or even Prince, someone who just kept exploring and kept doing their thing, and they're very focused on what They're very focused, not on what the public was going to say. There are more just focused on like how do I keep myself interested? And I think that's what's special about those artists and why they're so iconic. I'd say the same thing about Byork too. There's like all this exploration and reinvention that I think always makes them interesting and yeah, I just respect that. 00:33:25 Speaker 1: Do you think about that for yourself? Is that a part of your calculus? I guess you do. You think, like how do I keep myself moving in interesting ways and keeping myself interested and moving the audience along with us and all that. 00:33:37 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's definitely what pushes me forward and keeps me interested in music. There's still so much I don't know, There's still so much I haven't discovered. And also, like music to me is such an important part of my expression. I feel like as long as I'm living I'm going to have something to say, something to express, and it's not always going to be the same way. It's not always going to be in the same genre. To me, it doesn't have to be something that's cohesive. It's just expression. I feel like that's one of our gifts as human beings, is the ability to do that. And I feel grateful that I have an audience for it, you know. Yeah, And I got to keep it interesting for myself. You know, I just don't think I could keep doing the same thing over and over again. That doesn't sound fun. 00:34:19 Speaker 1: A couple of years removed now from it, how did it feel doing something out on your own with your own name on it as opposed to the band name. I feel different, awesome. 00:34:30 Speaker 2: Yeah, it was different of course, because, like you know, all the mistakes were going to be my mistakes to make. If the ship sailed, it's up to me. If it's sank, that's on me. It's cool whatever happens, you know. It's just something I had always wanted to try to make what I'm hearing, what I'm feeling, just like that. And for once, like like pretty selfishly, I just didn't want any feedback. I just wanted to do it and whatever happens happens, you know, and it felt great. Yeah, honestly did very freeing in a way. 00:35:09 Speaker 1: So you really were like the final You were the lone voice. You would make something and you would be the loan critic of whether or not it was gonna oh for sure, and how it was gonna work and why it was gonna work. Was like, was it did it feel? I don't know, did it feel? Just got to be hard coming from a group that I mean, I guess it's either easy because or feels good because you feel free, or it's hard because it's a whole new thing way of working that relies solely on you. 00:35:38 Speaker 2: It's a good scary. It's one of them good scaries you know, you come across in life. It's just like, this is something I've always wanted to try. Now it's here, let's do it, and whatever happens happens. At least you did it, you know, And I'm lucky that it worked out. I'm lucky that I had a fan base that was into it and interested and wanted to listen, wanted to come back, and you know, we went on a grand tour across the world, trying to introduce who Britney Howard is. 00:36:07 Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like you have to start. It was kind of starting over in a way. 00:36:13 Speaker 2: Yeah, and it was also a rocky start, you know, like a lot of artists who were trying to release music around COVID. It was like, oh yeah, yeah, but we didn't give up. We didn't give up. We went back to the studio and we made another one. And you know, I intend on still doing that. 00:36:30 Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, why not, you know, I mean I'm assuming also keep Alabama Shak's going, right. 00:36:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, the guys want to do it for sure. 00:36:36 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:36:36 Speaker 2: Like to me, Albama Shaks is like, it's got to be something that we're all having fun doing. It's got to be something that's like we want to express ourselves this way. My worst nightmare as a musician at all is having to do this because it's my job. I would really want to enjoy this. Once it starts stressing me out too much, I'm just like, ooh no, Like I'll go find something to them still makes me happy, you know what I'm saying, Because at the end of the day, it's like I want to come from my honest place. I don't want to just do it to make money, and you know, I don't want to do it just to be someone who is famous. I think like I have. I don't know. I think I got an honest approach to it where I just want to make stuff because I don't fully understand what I'm doing, and that's exciting to me. 00:37:22 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Did you ever reach a point where you were feeling a bit like this isn't fun anymore? 00:37:30 Speaker 2: Oh? Yeah, I mean it was like it was like one of them. It's one of the good problems. It's like, listen, we could keep toring, we could keep doing this thing, keep keep it going. But I was just feeling really, really tired. And it's almost like sometimes when you're good at something, the success can obviously have its downsides. And the downsides like I miss my family. They're getting older and I'm just gone. And time goes by so fast when you're touring because your schedules laid out for you for like, you know, a year to two years, and I missed just doing normal stuff. I missed the changing of seasons, I miss birds. And I'm not complaining because I realized, like you know, I'm blessed at the end of the day, and I'm grateful with the end of the day, of course, but I did also realize, like, you know, you can also steer the train, you know what I mean. It doesn't have to be something that gets away from you. And it's not something I regret either. I think it was like a lifesaver. Honestly, you know. I was able to take time and just like take care of myself and also my life had changed so much and I needed to reconnect to me, you know. 00:38:38 Speaker 1: Talking about getting things getting getting away from you. Just put out the second single, It's American Dream. Just listen to quick, a little bit of this real quick spitch smitch, listen to a lot and now it's I'm realizing. It reminds me of like almost like if there's hell blow, it's all gonna go where it's like fucking a hard bassline. Yeah it's right, I guess, but it's still soulful oh yeah, oh yeah, and saying something at the same time. 00:40:06 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's like it's like Curtis but it's also like sludge rock. 00:40:10 Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, Curtis meets Swans Hell Yeah. Yeah like that. 00:40:17 Speaker 2: Zach is another thing Zach sent to me, and this was we had we hit the basement. He actually sent that to me years ago. That's something we did years ago, and all those problems I'm talking about, they're still here, except like now worse. So like part of me was like, should I go re record my voices to reflect more current times? But I was like, man, let what that was be what that was, don't try to adapt it, just just let it be. And it was impossible not to react to the world around me. When he sent me that, it felt like this heavy baseline that was like kind of tugging at my heart. It's almost that feeling you feel like it's grief, but it's ongoing because you just kind of look at the world and you're just like, damn, I just don't know where to begin, you know, and putting those feelings somewhere was kind of cathartic at the time, and you know, that's what that baseline brought out of me. 00:41:15 Speaker 5: Wow. 00:41:15 Speaker 1: And so what that was that's songs how old? 00:41:19 Speaker 2: Oh, maybe like five years or something? 00:41:21 Speaker 1: Five years Okay, Yeah, it was that some of your guys were going to do maybe like testing the waters back then to get back to something or well, me. 00:41:30 Speaker 2: And Zach would kind of just toss ideas back and forth, just for fun. There was no promise on what was going to happen. It was just like, it's just we just do that because that's what we do. 00:41:40 Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, after the break, we'll be back with Brittany Howard. This moment is brought to you by Sarah Nevada's Hazy Little Thing. You go to beer for good times? 00:41:52 Speaker 3: Does it? 00:41:53 Speaker 1: Just since sound to a great backyard barbecue Before we even see it, you hear the grill sizzling, the pool splashing, and that one mistakable laugh at a playlist's pack with your favorite songs, and you've got everything you need. Just good food, good company, and a hazy little thing in hand while the afternoon rolls on. That's what we're building today. Welcome to Part one of the Sierra Nevada Sounds of Summer series. This playlist is made for the backyard hang where nobody's in a rush to leave. Check it. I'll walk you through a few of the tracks I'll be queuing up at my next barbecue. First of all, what's a backyard hang without a nineties banger? I want to kick things off with Jermaine Duprieze money and a Thing featuring Jay Z. This ninety eight classic keeps the energy high, and of course after bringing energy up, you want to cool things down. It's hot anyways, So let's play some Running for Your Love by the Brothers Johnson from Right On Time, George Johnson, Lewis Thunder Thumbs Johnson, The Tower of Power brass section, Harvey Mason Senior on drums, Quincy Jones on production. This thing is incredible. And then, just because I love the air guitar while I'm cooking, I'm gonna play how Soon Is Now? By the Smiths. Thing about a barbecue playlist is that it should keep the energy easy, the afternoon moving, and the conversation going. And of course don't forget to keep the cooler stocked. If you ever reached for cheers when your favorite song comes on, you're ready to embrace the haze with Hazy Little Thing from Sierra, Nevada. Hazy, citrusy, smooth, juicy but not sweet, hoppy but not bitter, America's best selling Hazy IPA for good reason, Hazy Little Thing, enjoy responsibly. I should say, when come in here, get in here, you will stop by security. I feel like you know, maybe I was like, hey, might be because of this. 00:43:40 Speaker 2: I wouldn't put it past the administration to start singling people out, you know, who knows. 00:43:46 Speaker 1: Do you think about that? Because it does feel like as bad as things were ten years ago, five years ago, it does feel particularly bleak or dire or particularly the stakes are higher, scarier, Like do you think about that or. 00:43:59 Speaker 2: A, yeah, all that's true. I think I think like everybody feels that it's very uncertain times, but not many people saying much, you know, and I feel the same way. I feel like there's not a lot of leadership. You know, we don't have Martin Luther King in this day and age that's saying like this is what we're gonna do. Meet me here, We're gonna march on this, which may be a good idea, honestly, because there's all kinds of people starting, all kinds of acts of resistance around this country and around the world. Really, and maybe that's the way it needs to be in this day and age, because nowadays they could just shut you down so fast, you know, and target you and whatever. I think. I think now it's gonna be about community, It's gonna be about small things that happen everywhere all the time. Maybe that's it. I don't actually have the answers. I don't know myself, but like all I can do is a small part. And you know, everybody has a gift, and I feel like now more than ever, it's a time to share your gift because like you got it for a reason. You know, if your gift is speaking to people to make them feel stronger, more whole, more powerful, do that lean into that. People need that right now because just like I said, I'm not sure who to look to or what to look towards. And you know, our gift is making this music and making people feel together in that way. I just feel like this is the time of the great togetherness, Like we got to get out of this individual mindset and start leaning on community because like, who knows what's going to happen. 00:45:34 Speaker 1: I have no idea, and you feel like it's a great get you. I feel it's like the great sellout. 00:45:39 Speaker 2: Or we're watching that happen and we're saying, like, oh, they don't care about us. It looks like we got to care about us. It's like the true power to the people moment. You know, we you know, unfortunately we did need somebody like this administration to show us how fucked up it is. It's very fucked up, and I think the people who are vo for them. I'm starting to hear more and more people being like, whoops, you know, I didn't know it's gonna be that bad. You know all that we did. 00:46:08 Speaker 1: I mean, being from Alabama, do you feel like you know a lot? I mean just being from California, mind you, I know a lot of people in my circle and my family, you know, I mean, like, yeah, how is that in your I don't want you know, the circle of people. You know. 00:46:25 Speaker 2: I'm not gonna lie like some people are cut out because it kind of got down to morality. I don't think, you know, invisible borders should make it reasonable to capture children, tear them away from their parents, and just take them to wherever. I don't think there's any part of politics that would make that justifiable. I think that crosses a line of humanity. I just don't fuck with it. I don't fuck with that reasoning. It's it's senseless, it's immoral, it's inhuman, and anybody who's for that is just not for me, you know, and not using their reasoning. There's something in them that is fucked up and broken. That's what I think. How can you allow that? You know, especially in America. We call ourselves the greatest country in the world, but look what we're doing. You know, people scared to get sick. 00:47:26 Speaker 1: Yeah, you know. 00:47:28 Speaker 2: I can't tell tell you how many people I know that just won't go to the doctor, you know, because it can't afford it. Like the greatest country in the world, though, I don't know, man. I think it's perfectly healthy to criticize what's going on and to be outraged and to want things to change. I think that's absolutely reasonable because you know, they talk about social contracts and how we're supposed to act, but what about when they break the social contract? 00:47:51 Speaker 1: There's no repercussions there. 00:47:52 Speaker 2: Yeah, we're paying y'all. So anyways, that's how I feel about all that. 00:47:56 Speaker 1: That's like when it's like when you owe the bank money versus when they owe you money. We need it now versus I will get that to you in six What I need. 00:48:05 Speaker 6: That now to. 00:48:08 Speaker 2: Go down there? Got it if you go down there in jail exactly. It's like that. 00:48:14 Speaker 1: But you know, rules for thee not for me. It's the you know, what I mean. But that's great. I mean, I'm just thanks for thanks for thanks for saying something, because it's you know, it does feel like a particularly quiet moment, even though things are ratcheted up. It's like, damn man, it's kind of crickets. 00:48:29 Speaker 2: People are scared. 00:48:30 Speaker 8: Yeah, yeah, yeah, this isn't something else. Let's play a song, come on, play garden. Oh yeah, let's do that some nice nice reset. 00:48:44 Speaker 2: Huh yeah, a little reset at something. Just way to you up your hand, No, you're standing. 00:49:07 Speaker 4: The left wing. 00:49:10 Speaker 6: Is what if sa should be. 00:49:18 Speaker 2: Don't get to persave. 00:49:21 Speaker 9: She's love love you true, don't thinking winter, that should be waiting for come spring. 00:49:40 Speaker 5: If you don't lot God love. 00:49:46 Speaker 4: If you don't show you love, oh shame me so much more to me than to you. 00:49:59 Speaker 5: All. Yeah, I love that. 00:50:23 Speaker 1: That's a beautiful song. 00:50:25 Speaker 2: Thank you God. 00:50:26 Speaker 1: How was it working with Sean Everett? Again? 00:50:30 Speaker 2: It was great? 00:50:31 Speaker 1: Yeah. 00:50:31 Speaker 2: Yeah, I've been working Sean. I've been working with Sean for like, I don't know, ten years or something. I love Sean. I feel like, uh, you know, if I had a left hand and a right hand and then another right hand, that would be. 00:50:43 Speaker 1: Sean, give you the second right hand. 00:50:45 Speaker 2: Yeah, even the second right hand. That's my guy. Yeah, he's awesome. I love working with him. He's he's just the kind of guy that's like says yes to everything, which is so wonderful when you're trying to create something. 00:50:57 Speaker 1: Yeah, how'd you first meet him? 00:51:00 Speaker 2: Met Himon Sound and color Blake Mills had brought him in to do the engineering and we just hit it off. Like I just love his personality is so positive and it's so like supportive. He's like, yeah, just do that, Just do that. If it sucks, we'll delete it. Just do it, you know. And that's great to have him studio. 00:51:21 Speaker 1: That's a pretty reasonable approach. It's awesome, you know. 00:51:25 Speaker 2: I admire him and I always say this, but I admire him the most for not being someone who's had so much success, for just not being someone who's like I don't think that's gonna work. I think this is gonna work. He's always listening to what somebody wants to do and he just tries to support it. 00:51:41 Speaker 1: Yeah, he's not looking to insert himself and direct you in a way that's. 00:51:48 Speaker 2: Not usually. I mean, if he has a good idea, I'm like, hey, yeah, let me hear that good idea, you know. But he's the same way with me. It's just like, oh, you have an idea, let's go in there and do it whatever it may be. You know, we've done some crazy we don some silly stuff in the studio to try to get cool sounds, like on Stay High. You know, I have the great Nate Smith playing drums. He gave Nate some chopsticks to play drums on because he thought it would improve the tone, which I think it did. What was Nate's Oh, I think he recorded his reaction. He was just like what he laughed, but he played, he played well, Yeah, chopsticks are not Nate is always in pocket. 00:52:27 Speaker 1: Of course, but that's pretty wild. Yeah, that is pretty wild. 00:52:30 Speaker 3: Yeah. 00:52:32 Speaker 1: And Zach played some drums on the new album too. 00:52:34 Speaker 2: Yeah, he actually played for that song Garden. Did he Yeah, yeah, we just didn't have a drummer that day and I was like, Zach, just do it. 00:52:42 Speaker 1: And he did it. 00:52:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, he did great. 00:52:43 Speaker 1: He's not a great on that. Yeah, I'll tell him please do Okay, when does the I don't even know when is the album out. 00:52:51 Speaker 2: Like August, like late August, I think is when we're going to do it. 00:52:55 Speaker 1: So it'll be like a full by the time it comes out. You have sat with it for for a while. Wow. Yeah, do you feel like you've already moved on? How do you? Yeah, like that feels like a long time said or something. 00:53:07 Speaker 2: It does for us. I mean it feels like a year really some of these songs. I'm definitely like excited to play these songs to the public. I'm excited to let the fans have the songs, do what you will with them, and I'm excited to like maybe maybe write some new songs. 00:53:27 Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, would you ever write some new songs and try them out on the. 00:53:31 Speaker 2: Road, Yeah, if we had, if something was cooking and we've come up with it, yeah, of course absolutely. Like that's how hold On was made in the first place. I didn't have lyrics. I just went up there and did it, you know, like I knew I wanted to say hold on, and I just inserted it into this music the guys were doing, and we just like did it live, like at a show one night and I was like, oh, there it is, and then we recorded that. Where were you, Uh it's a place called the Brick and Decater, Alabama. 00:53:59 Speaker 1: Okay, Yeah, And we just got on stage and did it, and. 00:54:02 Speaker 2: I noticed people in the audience in front of me were singing it like they thought we were doing a cover. And I was like, oh, this must be it. I'll do this and that's how that's how it was. That was an inception of it. 00:54:14 Speaker 1: Wow. So you just told the guys that let's do that song even though I don't really I don't really got to handle it yet. 00:54:20 Speaker 2: I thought the pressure would make me come up with something, which it did. 00:54:22 Speaker 1: That's crazy. 00:54:23 Speaker 2: Yeah, Sometimes like you don't need to overthink it. You just need to like be thrown into the fire. And in that case, that worked. 00:54:30 Speaker 1: That's really crazy, I mean, and that's you mean, that was like, that's a that's a that's a real hit. 00:54:36 Speaker 2: Changed our lives. Yeah, JESU, sure, it's a gift. 00:54:41 Speaker 1: That's why maybe should try that again too. 00:54:44 Speaker 2: It's like I would be trying that all the time, kind of I got about that. 00:54:47 Speaker 1: Let's just go try something live. I'm gonna I'm gonna come up with some words right. 00:54:50 Speaker 2: Here, risky. 00:54:51 Speaker 1: Yeah, it could be real bad man. Well, thanks for talking about the album. It's a beautiful thing for having me. Yeah, and of course, something you want to hear from it. 00:55:02 Speaker 2: Oh my goodness, what's something y'all want to. 00:55:07 Speaker 3: You? 00:55:07 Speaker 2: Over there on the couch? Easy? 00:55:10 Speaker 1: All right, easy, let's go. Who's on this one? 00:55:24 Speaker 2: Noamond Bay Easy? 00:55:32 Speaker 5: Stay? 00:55:38 Speaker 2: Maybe easy, Corb, Maggy. 00:55:48 Speaker 6: Stay. 00:56:00 Speaker 5: I think it is so quick love make car. 00:56:15 Speaker 6: I been. 00:56:24 Speaker 4: All this time. 00:56:31 Speaker 5: I spent look at me, I was speaking the killer and moody. 00:57:43 Speaker 6: So made. 00:57:53 Speaker 1: I love that part into da in the the acoustic so nice, man? 00:58:01 Speaker 2: Is that about Yeah? 00:58:03 Speaker 1: I was gonna say, she did knock out about her? 00:58:10 Speaker 2: That's easy? Played the one about me? 00:58:20 Speaker 1: Do you have to show that to her before you play? Or did you was that written for? Did you play it for? 00:58:24 Speaker 5: Or did you know? 00:58:25 Speaker 2: I like wrote it at the studio and I came home and played it for her, and you know it was a keeper for sure? 00:58:30 Speaker 1: Okay, great, Yeah it worked. I don't know if that was intended effect for Yeah, it worked. It worked amazing. It was great to great to hang with you, with you so much. Uh and uh yeah, see you out on the road. 00:58:48 Speaker 2: I guess I see you out there. 00:58:49 Speaker 1: Yeah. In the episode of description, you'll find a link to a playlist of our favorite songs from Brittany Howard and Alabama Shakes. Be sure to check out YouTube dot com slash Broken Podcast to see all our interviews, and be sure to follow us on Instagram at the Broken Record Pod. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose, with marketing and help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan. Our engineer is Ben Tomaday. Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries and if you like this show, please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast. App Our theme musics by Kenny Beats. I'm justin Richmond.