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