WEBVTT - Jon Batiste 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:05.040 Hello, everyone, Welcome the inside the studio on iHeart Radio. 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:07.560 My name is Jordan runt Dog. But enough about me. 0:00:15.480 --> 0:00:17.880 You can see my guest today every weeknight on The 0:00:17.960 --> 0:00:20.560 Late Show with Stephen Colbert, where he leads his band 0:00:20.680 --> 0:00:23.279 Stay Human. But that's just a small portion of his 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.120 oversized resume. Born to a family of musicians in New Orleans, 0:00:27.240 --> 0:00:30.520 the Juilliard educated performer serves as the musical director of 0:00:30.520 --> 0:00:33.560 the Atlantic and the creative director of the National Jazz 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:36.600 Museum in Harlem. He also co composed the music for 0:00:36.600 --> 0:00:39.920 the latest Pixar masterpiece, Soul, which has released last fall. 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:42.720 If his expansive career has a through line, it's that 0:00:42.920 --> 0:00:46.880 music makes the world better. He often performs spontaneous public 0:00:46.920 --> 0:00:50.159 events that he calls love riots, spreading joy throughout his 0:00:50.200 --> 0:00:53.200 adopted city of New York. Over the summer, he used 0:00:53.240 --> 0:00:56.000 his voice to amplify protests for the Black Lives Matter 0:00:56.080 --> 0:00:58.440 movement in the wake of the murders of George Floyd 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:02.120 and Brianna Taylor. More recently, he performed for frontline workers 0:01:02.160 --> 0:01:04.840 at vaccination sites as part of New York Pops Up. 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:07.800 He continues to push for a higher social consciousness on 0:01:07.840 --> 0:01:10.560 his new album We Are, which is out today. It's 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:13.520 a record that blends the whole continuum of American music, 0:01:13.720 --> 0:01:16.360 from jazz and rock to country and hip hop. For 0:01:16.440 --> 0:01:19.920 such a community minded man, this album certainly took a village. 0:01:20.040 --> 0:01:23.160 There over a hundred musicians playing on it, including legends 0:01:23.160 --> 0:01:27.480 like Quincy Jones, Maybe Staples, Steve Jordan's and Trombone Shorty. 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:30.440 I'm so happy to speak to the maestro himself, Mr 0:01:30.520 --> 0:01:36.080 John Battit wait, oh wait, yeah, oh man, John, I'd 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:37.520 asked to do it with you. I got a little 0:01:37.520 --> 0:01:39.880 piano over here, but I don't want to embarrass myself, 0:01:40.000 --> 0:01:44.600 so I'll leave. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Man. What 0:01:44.720 --> 0:01:47.720 kind of piano. It's just a little cork nothing, a 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.640 little apartment living so I don't know. I don't know 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:51.720 if too, I don't have a lot of room. Oh 0:01:52.160 --> 0:01:56.640 you're killing it though, Oh mass, thank you so much 0:01:56.680 --> 0:01:58.720 for taking the time to talk today. It's it's it's 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.600 such a pleasure. I've got so many things I want 0:02:00.600 --> 0:02:07.320 to ask me. Well, yeah, oh man, this is really 0:02:07.320 --> 0:02:09.600 the perfect place to start. You're gearing up to release 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.240 your new album, we Are, and it's it's an album 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:15.000 that's just jam packed with warmth and joy. It's just 0:02:15.080 --> 0:02:17.280 coming out of every song. You can really feel it. 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:19.600 But before we dive into the specifics of the album, 0:02:19.680 --> 0:02:22.040 I wanted to ask you about a concept that runs 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:24.280 through all of your work, and I love it so much. 0:02:24.280 --> 0:02:26.480 I think it's so important to talk about social music. 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.000 Tell me if you would about that philosophy. I think 0:02:29.000 --> 0:02:31.560 it's so important to share that with people. Oh. Absolutely, 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:36.079 Social music is tapping into the power of music at 0:02:36.080 --> 0:02:40.079 its rawist form. And we've looked at music as entertainment 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.520 for so long and it's become a commodity, but you 0:02:43.600 --> 0:02:47.240 have to think that for centuries and centuries before it's 0:02:47.320 --> 0:02:49.400 become this thing that we put on t shirts and 0:02:49.440 --> 0:02:53.040 CDs and and we sell. It was a part of 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:56.600 the fabric of everyday life in communities. You have drum 0:02:56.639 --> 0:02:59.400 circles in Ghana, you'd have people passing the fiddle around. 0:02:59.400 --> 0:03:03.120 In the Apple Asia, you have people singing songs, indigenous 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:08.040 people from America, Native Americans, the spirituals, folk songs. And 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:10.600 there's not many places left where there's that kind of 0:03:10.639 --> 0:03:13.320 social music. And my idea of social music is taking 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:17.560 all of those different forms of music and connecting them 0:03:17.600 --> 0:03:20.800 and creating a d categorized form of music that's a 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:22.840 part of the fabric of everyday life in the twenty 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.000 one century. And it sounds like it took a community, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.639 a whole village to put this album together. Some hundred 0:03:27.760 --> 0:03:30.080 artists have read the play on it. You've said that 0:03:30.080 --> 0:03:33.000 the blueprint of of We Are came together over six 0:03:33.080 --> 0:03:36.040 days in your dressing room. What was that process? Like? How? 0:03:36.080 --> 0:03:38.760 How was that? It was kinetic? Man? The energy was 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:40.640 in the air. You know, it was a great thing 0:03:40.760 --> 0:03:43.200 to capture because I was in the middle of so 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.040 many things, you know, doing the show, doing a musical, 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.320 during the score for a movie Pixar sold doing all 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:52.200 these things at one time. And I was coming in 0:03:52.240 --> 0:03:55.400 and out of my dressing room, and I had creatives 0:03:55.480 --> 0:03:58.880 and food deliveries and instruments all over the place, just 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:01.400 kind of around the clock for six days. And that's 0:04:01.400 --> 0:04:03.280 how we came up with the blueprint of the album. 0:04:03.360 --> 0:04:08.120 Autumn Roll, songwriter, Kids, old producer, myself, The three of 0:04:08.160 --> 0:04:10.480 us were kind of the nucleus of that six day session, 0:04:11.000 --> 0:04:13.480 and um, there were many many musicians coming in and out, 0:04:13.520 --> 0:04:15.520 as I said, But then over eight or nine months 0:04:15.560 --> 0:04:19.200 following that, six days. I built the record out, UM 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.920 built the vision out in l A, New Orleans and 0:04:23.000 --> 0:04:25.839 New York. And that was really a powerful thing because 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.680 it concluded during the first wave of the pandemic and 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:33.680 during the protest A lot of them, um you know, 0:04:34.200 --> 0:04:36.240 we're going on in New York City, and I led 0:04:36.600 --> 0:04:40.440 the first musical marches in New York City when um 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:44.159 we we found out about George Floyd, and um you know, 0:04:44.200 --> 0:04:46.240 there was so much going on, and I think all 0:04:46.279 --> 0:04:50.440 of that time was captured in this record. Yeah, for 0:04:50.440 --> 0:04:53.039 for making a record of social music. The events of 0:04:53.080 --> 0:04:55.400 that of the last year must have changed the meaning 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:57.320 of the music that you've written prior to that immense 0:04:57.360 --> 0:04:59.839 slateman with George Floyd, as you mentioned Brianna Taylor and 0:05:00.000 --> 0:05:02.559 and just the whole Black Lives Matter movement. I wanted 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.039 to ask you about the cover art for for for 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:07.719 We Are, because there's a lot of history in that font. 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:10.440 If you look closely, it's modeled after a very famous 0:05:10.480 --> 0:05:12.320 poster and in the the Civil rights movement. I want to 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:16.400 ask you about that. Absolutely the Memphis Sanitation workers strike, 0:05:16.520 --> 0:05:21.080 which Dr Martin Luther King Junior championed nationally just prior 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.120 to him being assassinated in which my grandfather was a 0:05:24.120 --> 0:05:27.120 part of, which you know, as as an activist, as 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:30.520 a as a leader in his community, as the president 0:05:30.920 --> 0:05:34.360 of the Hotel Workers Union and the Postal Workers Union 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:37.640 in Louisiana at different times he fought for the rights 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:40.920 of workers in in Louisiana. Um So, just the connection 0:05:41.000 --> 0:05:44.640 to my personal lineage and also the lineage of the 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.320 black diaspora and all of the heroes and unsung heroes. 0:05:48.600 --> 0:05:51.240 That's what the album is about. It's my coming of 0:05:51.320 --> 0:05:53.400 age as an artist and as a person through my 0:05:53.480 --> 0:05:56.480 lineage and my craft, and also the coming of age 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:58.919 in the twenty one century of all of these different 0:05:58.960 --> 0:06:01.960 forms of black culture and social music. The title we 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:04.159 Are is so great because to me, it reminds me 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:06.600 one of those optical puzzles where you look at it 0:06:06.640 --> 0:06:08.560 one way, it looks like one thing, but then if 0:06:08.640 --> 0:06:11.000 your perspective a bit, it looks like something holy other 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:13.840 If we are as a question, it's an answer, it's 0:06:13.839 --> 0:06:16.280 a promise, it's an affirmation. It's so many different things. 0:06:16.400 --> 0:06:18.800 What does that title mean for you? That's it, You 0:06:18.880 --> 0:06:21.120 nailed it. It's one of those things that gives people 0:06:21.560 --> 0:06:24.559 the question and answer at the same time. It gives 0:06:24.600 --> 0:06:27.440 people a prayer and a hope, and also it gives 0:06:27.480 --> 0:06:29.520 them a vision of the future and of the past 0:06:29.560 --> 0:06:32.080 at the same time. The great art that I really 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:34.680 admire in what I strive to do is to exist 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:38.440 in the space of timelessness, which means that you're coming 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:42.240 from the past, the present, and in the future at 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:45.919 the same time. You're broadcasting what the vision of the 0:06:45.960 --> 0:06:49.039 future is through your art as you're inspired by what 0:06:49.120 --> 0:06:52.000 the vision of the past was and all the things 0:06:52.040 --> 0:06:54.760 that come from that, and then you're in the present 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.120 while making these two things come together. Such a great 0:06:58.160 --> 0:06:59.880 title for this time too, because it seems like it 0:07:00.000 --> 0:07:01.960 this moment, we've been doing a lot of soul searching, 0:07:02.080 --> 0:07:04.240 both as a country with this election, but also in 0:07:04.240 --> 0:07:06.440 the last year of being isolated. We've kind of been 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:08.280 forced to look in word in a lot of ways now. 0:07:08.320 --> 0:07:11.200 So it's perfect time for that time, man. We that's 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.960 the silver lining of this pandemic. I going to ask you, 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:16.920 I mean, thinking about how you've you've used music in 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:19.640 the in the in the civil justice marches last summer, 0:07:19.720 --> 0:07:22.760 and also in your love riots. Why is music so 0:07:22.800 --> 0:07:26.160 good at telling the truth? Or conveying the truth. Music 0:07:26.280 --> 0:07:30.240 is vibration, and as pure as form is vibration, and 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:36.360 the frequencies that music create are unable to be manufactured 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:41.560 or adjusted to tell a story that they don't contain. 0:07:42.200 --> 0:07:46.920 That vibration contains an energy and a meaning, and it 0:07:47.000 --> 0:07:49.720 can't tell a story that's not in the vibration. It's 0:07:49.800 --> 0:07:53.679 it's you hear a note the way I play that note. 0:07:54.800 --> 0:08:03.440 It's a different vibration, different meanings. Music is the art 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:08.680 of of mastering frequency and vibration and communicating those frequencies 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:12.200 and vibrations. So much of your art is about bringing 0:08:12.280 --> 0:08:15.080 joy to people, but also this this truth to people, 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:18.120 and those two points, joy and truth don't always exist 0:08:18.160 --> 0:08:21.320 in in harmony. Sometimes the truth isn't very joyful. Actually 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:24.040 recently does that? Is that ever hard for you to 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.720 to rationalize those two points? I think that the joy 0:08:27.880 --> 0:08:31.400 comes in knowing. The joy comes in knowing that we're 0:08:31.440 --> 0:08:35.240 here and we're part of a master plan, and this 0:08:35.559 --> 0:08:38.920 aspect of life, even the troublesome aspects of life, even 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:43.440 aspects of life that bring so much destruction, or part 0:08:43.440 --> 0:08:46.480 of that plan, and knowing that allows us to face 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.839 them with joy. Knowing that this is not the end 0:08:50.480 --> 0:08:54.079 um and it's not an optimism that's rooted in some 0:08:54.160 --> 0:08:58.040 sort of idealistic naive tape, but it's actually rooted in 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.920 facing the hearts rather than acting like it doesn't exist. 0:09:04.240 --> 0:09:07.160 At what point when you're writing does the audience enter 0:09:07.200 --> 0:09:10.000 your consciousness? When you're writing, are you writing purely for 0:09:10.080 --> 0:09:12.400 you and then you're thinking about presenting it to people? 0:09:12.520 --> 0:09:14.040 Or are you do you have people in mind? Are 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:16.280 you conveying a message as you're writing, or does that 0:09:16.320 --> 0:09:19.400 come from thinking about what the creator is putting in 0:09:19.440 --> 0:09:22.240 me at that moment as the vessel, as this vehicle 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:26.600 for whatever I'm I'm I'm channeling. Um, it's being given 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:29.600 to me. I don't control that, So I think that 0:09:29.679 --> 0:09:33.720 I oftentimes think about the audience and the people after 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:36.880 the fact when I'm performing and i'm and I'm delivering 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:39.839 the message that I've I've channeled onto the page, onto 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.080 the record or onto the piano, into my voice and 0:09:43.200 --> 0:09:46.200 my dance moved or whatever it is. I'm I'm just 0:09:46.240 --> 0:09:49.880 thinking about that afterwards. Um. And this is how the 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:51.760 album was made. There were a lot of things going 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:54.320 on in the world, but it really was born out 0:09:54.360 --> 0:09:57.920 of this internal coming of age and this channeling of 0:09:58.000 --> 0:10:01.200 a message and a theme that given to me that 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:13.600 turned out to be very prescient for our time. I 0:10:13.679 --> 0:10:16.360 mentioned all the different artists who came together to make 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.800 this album with you, and there are people like Quinchy Jones, 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.920 Babs Staples, Steve Jordan's, Trumbone Shorty, just so many incredible names. 0:10:23.160 --> 0:10:25.360 Was there anyone who really intimidated you to work with? 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.320 Are you past that point? And everyone's just just an artist. 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:32.760 I always feel a great deal of reverence for anybody 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:36.720 who I'm able to work with, in particular everybody on 0:10:36.760 --> 0:10:38.920 this album. There's a story that I could tell about 0:10:38.920 --> 0:10:43.640 each person on this album that is a is a 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.439 life changing coming of age for me as an artist 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:48.520 and as a creator. You know, talking about the first 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:52.080 time I met Quincy Jones, or conversations with Mavis, or 0:10:52.440 --> 0:10:55.079 thinking about growing up in New Orleans with Trumbone Shorty, 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:57.520 p J. Morton, talking about the Saint Augustine High School, 0:10:57.559 --> 0:11:00.280 Marching Bay. You talked about the gospel sold old in 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.120 a quiet my grandfather's church, my dad is playing based 0:11:03.160 --> 0:11:05.920 on the album. You got Emily King on the album 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:10.760 who you know? It's just incredible musicians, Robert Randolph, incredible artists, 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:14.640 um and I just find that, you know, you got 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:16.559 over two hundred artists on it, but all of them 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:19.120 are meaningful. And that's what gives me that reverence, because 0:11:19.160 --> 0:11:21.880 it's humbling for me to be able to capture this 0:11:21.960 --> 0:11:23.960 thing that I have in my mind, that I'm carrying 0:11:24.120 --> 0:11:26.480 my soul and have all of the right people around 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.240 to really make it, make it be real. Almost seems 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.160 like he chose people like a painter chooses a shade 0:11:32.160 --> 0:11:35.240 of color, Get the right kind of green on there, 0:11:35.280 --> 0:11:39.080 the kind of blue to borrow Miles Davis phrase, you 0:11:39.120 --> 0:11:41.680 know what I mean, that's right, It's you're right, though, man, 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:45.040 I didn't. I didn't think about it like a album 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:47.600 where you get features for the name recognition or things 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:49.360 like that. I was just thinking about it from the 0:11:49.440 --> 0:11:54.720 perspective of I'm creating a master work. I'm creating something 0:11:54.760 --> 0:12:00.120 that only specific colors can fit within the context of 0:12:00.200 --> 0:12:03.920 this whole painting. And in a lot of ways, I 0:12:04.000 --> 0:12:08.160 like the analogy of it being made like a great 0:12:08.240 --> 0:12:11.199 novel um where you you don't skip chapters or you 0:12:11.200 --> 0:12:13.880 wouldn't know, you don't leave out words, or you wouldn't 0:12:13.880 --> 0:12:17.360 really know what was happening with the right level of acuity. 0:12:17.480 --> 0:12:20.920 So um, I think about the album like that. It's 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.040 a forty five minute novel. Even if you close your eye. 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.080 You know, if you close your eyes, in your mind's eye, 0:12:27.120 --> 0:12:28.959 you will see it as a movie. It's like you 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:31.160 don't skip a scene in the movie. And that's how 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.800 I encourage people to listen to it. Just absorb it 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:35.839 from the beginning to end. It's a forty five minute 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.800 meditation or prayer or dance party for your day every day. Like, 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.120 what's it like making music with your dad? That's gotta 0:12:42.160 --> 0:12:44.240 be something really special. I know he was a huge 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.600 part of what made you love music. He's incredible because 0:12:47.600 --> 0:12:51.000 he's such an intelligent man. He's just so well versed 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:55.280 in many different ways. He's an he's a real, real 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:58.080 inspiration to me as a person. So making music with 0:12:58.160 --> 0:13:00.600 him is great just because I get to spend time 0:13:00.640 --> 0:13:02.640 with him. In the last few years, you know, I 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.040 haven't really spent as much time because I'm so busy, 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:06.320 and I live in New York and they live in 0:13:06.320 --> 0:13:09.280 New Orleans, and I've been visiting. But it's never the 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:11.440 same when you don't live there. You visit for a 0:13:11.480 --> 0:13:13.520 couple of days at a time, and then a few 0:13:13.559 --> 0:13:15.880 months willgo by and you talk on the phone. But 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:18.679 that's not the same as hanging out making music, you know, 0:13:18.840 --> 0:13:21.360 living at home or him living up here. So it 0:13:21.440 --> 0:13:24.320 was really beautiful just for that alone, you know, and 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.240 in fact, I mean musically speaking. You know, if you 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:29.200 listen to what he plays, it's just you know, if 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.000 you listen to Cry, for instance, the way that he 0:13:31.400 --> 0:13:35.199 drives that song with Steve Jordan's He's playing the bass 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:37.080 and Steve is playing the drums and it's just like 0:13:37.120 --> 0:13:40.120 a machine. Is heck of a rhythm section. Tell me 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:42.360 about that song and that the song Cried harkens back 0:13:42.400 --> 0:13:45.560 to the Great Migration. Tell me more about about the 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:48.040 meeting behind that song. Incredibly powerful song, one of my 0:13:48.040 --> 0:13:51.240 favorites on the album. Oh Man, thank you, Thank you 0:13:51.320 --> 0:13:55.000 for listening and digging into that one, because I find 0:13:55.000 --> 0:13:56.880 that if you open your heart and your soul to 0:13:56.960 --> 0:14:00.000 this music, it will leave you full. And it's full 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.559 so much stuff, um, so many inspirations, and cry with 0:14:03.679 --> 0:14:06.480 something that I was inspired by the lineage of my 0:14:06.520 --> 0:14:09.320 family that actually are black family farmers, you know. Four 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:12.760 generations of black family farmers in Georgia and then also 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:15.960 um in Mississippi on both sides of my family, mother 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:20.000 and father side. There's that lineage that is rooted in 0:14:20.080 --> 0:14:24.600 the time after reconstruction and slavery of our ancestors, and 0:14:24.840 --> 0:14:27.760 they gave sustenance and worked the land and gave the 0:14:27.840 --> 0:14:31.840 people food that helped fuel the economy and feel fuel 0:14:31.840 --> 0:14:35.080 people's lives. And music came from that, and we think 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:38.120 about folk in Americana and we oftentimes don't think about 0:14:38.520 --> 0:14:41.400 the black contribution to that, which the song almost as 0:14:41.440 --> 0:14:43.880 a reclaiming of that. There's a great quote that you 0:14:43.920 --> 0:14:47.320 gave recently that and I'm I'm trying to recall off 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.080 top my head one of the one of the great 0:14:50.120 --> 0:14:52.400 twenty one of the goals for the twenty feet century 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:56.600 should be to recall, to recall where all our melodies 0:14:56.640 --> 0:14:58.760 came from. And I thought that was what I wanted 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:00.800 to ask you more about that. That's speaking about going 0:15:00.840 --> 0:15:03.320 through your own history through music. I wanted to touch 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.600 on that a little bit. Well, our melodies come from 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:10.160 places that are rooted in our history and our lineage, 0:15:10.400 --> 0:15:14.440 and they go far far back into time before we 0:15:14.480 --> 0:15:17.840 can even be conscious of their existence. They're ubiquitous, they're 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:20.680 just in the air. There's so many melodies that are 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:25.280 just a part of of of life that in in 0:15:25.440 --> 0:15:30.880 making things into a commodity, we lose touch with how 0:15:31.040 --> 0:15:35.160 they function societally, We lose touch with how they function 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.840 within communities. You talk about Grio to African storytellers who 0:15:38.880 --> 0:15:41.920 pass the oral tradition down. Those come with melodies. There 0:15:41.920 --> 0:15:45.160 will come with dances, those come with rhythms, and you 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.120 talk about nursery rhymes, you talk about songs. All of 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.280 these things that seem to have been in existence before 0:15:51.360 --> 0:15:55.560 time itself, and we have to bring that back into 0:15:55.640 --> 0:15:59.760 time today because our trends in the thinking of genres 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.800 puts things in a box where we lose track of 0:16:02.880 --> 0:16:08.720 our melodic and cultural dna because we're trying these to 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:13.360 fit into formula marketing schemes. So that's really what social 0:16:13.440 --> 0:16:16.600 music is all about. I remember my one of uh 0:16:17.240 --> 0:16:19.840 music is a big point of bonding between me and 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:21.680 my own father, and I remember taking him to a 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.320 music festival and he saw I can't remember who the 0:16:24.400 --> 0:16:26.840 artist was, but afterwards we were talking and he was 0:16:26.880 --> 0:16:28.920 so jazzed about it because he was like, I don't 0:16:28.920 --> 0:16:30.720 know what genre that was. That was like a little 0:16:30.760 --> 0:16:32.160 bit of techno, a little bit R and B, a 0:16:32.200 --> 0:16:33.960 little bit of rock. And to see it through his 0:16:34.000 --> 0:16:37.160 eyes as a sixties something you're old man like, oh yeah, Genres, 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:39.320 it's all mixed now. And that that makes me think 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.120 of a track like I Need You, which you know 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:43.920 spans from the Lindy Hop to you rapping. I mean, 0:16:44.240 --> 0:16:46.960 tell me more about that song. That song is just infectious. 0:16:47.000 --> 0:16:49.560 That's just like a warm sunny day on record. I 0:16:49.600 --> 0:16:52.520 wanted that. I wanted that feeling, man, I wanted that 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:56.640 feeling of just um, unbridled joy. We were on the 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.920 set Alan Ferguson, the director, and Jamal McWilliams. That was 0:17:00.080 --> 0:17:04.200 uh um. That was our emo with creating the video, 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:06.000 which you see me doing the Lindy Hop of the 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.000 modern dance, but also the song itself was created. You know, 0:17:09.040 --> 0:17:12.159 Autumn Roll and Kissel and the three of us in 0:17:12.160 --> 0:17:14.640 the dressing room made this song on the last day 0:17:14.640 --> 0:17:17.679 of that that six seventh day run, and it was 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.760 really the thing that captured a lot of what the 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:26.040 album is about. In a very literal sense. It's literally 0:17:26.040 --> 0:17:30.480 a song you know, you got this baseline. It's literally 0:17:30.560 --> 0:17:34.320 a song that has that juke joint um chipland circuit 0:17:34.480 --> 0:17:38.120 black social music baseline from the you know the forties 0:17:38.480 --> 0:17:41.520 Little Richard you know that field mixed with a pop 0:17:41.880 --> 0:17:44.200 hip hop song that you were here on Z one hundreds. 0:17:44.240 --> 0:17:48.359 So that that is such a literal manifestation of what 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:50.920 the album is about and what social music is about. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.520 It's a continuum. It's all related, it's all linked. Yeah, 0:17:54.560 --> 0:18:00.000 it's all It's all connected. That's it. The video is spectacular. 0:18:00.040 --> 0:18:02.320 I mean, it's it's a showing a scene of a 0:18:02.680 --> 0:18:06.160 nineteen thirties chipland circuit you joint come into life and 0:18:06.200 --> 0:18:08.399 you you got moves. I gotta say, I know, I 0:18:08.480 --> 0:18:11.520 love it, man. I love that. You know, dancing is 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.480 fun because it allows people to be liberated just by 0:18:15.520 --> 0:18:18.600 seeing you. That was the greatness, you know what I mean? 0:18:18.640 --> 0:18:20.800 They see you and it's just like, even if they're 0:18:20.840 --> 0:18:24.600 not dancing, there's a freedom that emerges within maybe they 0:18:24.640 --> 0:18:27.200 I want to ask you, is there a musical era 0:18:27.280 --> 0:18:29.480 that's the most fascinating for you that you would have 0:18:29.480 --> 0:18:31.240 liked to have lived through? Would you want to have 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:33.400 done the Lindy Hop in the thirties or or looked 0:18:33.440 --> 0:18:35.919 through some other some other time or man. You know, 0:18:36.400 --> 0:18:38.840 I find a lot of different eras fascinating. I would 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:42.240 love to um have have experienced. But I oftentimes think 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:44.479 about the future. I want to live in the future. 0:18:44.600 --> 0:18:46.520 I want to know what music is going. I want 0:18:46.520 --> 0:18:49.320 to create it. I want to use elements of the past, 0:18:49.400 --> 0:18:53.760 like the golden age of of American popular song and 0:18:53.880 --> 0:18:59.320 American music where classical musicians and first generation immigrants mixed 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:03.679 with lack musicians playing blues jazz, all of the different 0:19:03.680 --> 0:19:06.719 forms of pop music of that day in the twenties 0:19:06.760 --> 0:19:10.520 and thirties. You know that era where the music was blended. UM. 0:19:10.560 --> 0:19:12.480 I think about that. I think about the era of 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:17.080 time and um in in in Benin and what the 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.600 europe but tradition with the europe of people. You know 0:19:19.640 --> 0:19:22.480 what my lineage is actually from UM if you go 0:19:22.600 --> 0:19:25.440 way back, just how did they make music and worship? 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:27.520 You know, when I travel to Africa, when I go 0:19:27.640 --> 0:19:31.400 to um different parts of the world like Havanna, if 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.439 I go to Brazil and experience those ways that the 0:19:35.600 --> 0:19:38.760 music is still just like in New Orleans and Haiti, 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:41.080 import of prints, you know where the music is still 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:45.680 in the street, pouring out of people's houses, in the hallways, 0:19:45.680 --> 0:19:48.600 on the porch, going to the beginning of those traditions 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:50.919 in different parts of the world. You know, that's my 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:54.080 vision of the future. Actually, let's take all of that stuff, 0:19:54.320 --> 0:19:57.000 because now is the first time in history where I 0:19:57.040 --> 0:20:00.439 could connect those traditions and create something and that is 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:05.320 completely of without category. And it's so interesting because we forget, 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:08.680 you know, growing up, you know, being especially in Northeastern 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:11.720 United States, that that music for thousands of years was 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:13.880 part of the community. I mean, now it's something that 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:16.040 there's this prevalent notion that music is something that you 0:20:16.160 --> 0:20:18.680 get to do if you're good enough, and then we 0:20:18.760 --> 0:20:22.000 sticky on the stage above other people. I think always 0:20:22.000 --> 0:20:24.200 thought that was an interesting metaphor. And everyone gets together 0:20:24.280 --> 0:20:26.520 and kind of watches you and your mother, and how 0:20:26.560 --> 0:20:28.439 do you combat that? How do you see ways of 0:20:28.480 --> 0:20:31.480 making music more inclusive and bringing it back to being 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:34.560 a community experience, like like your love riots for example. 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:36.800 Well that's it, man, The love riot is one of 0:20:36.800 --> 0:20:39.919 the things that I dreamed, and it's a vision that 0:20:40.000 --> 0:20:43.640 I got in a dream from the creator to do 0:20:43.760 --> 0:20:48.640 this communal aspect of music at every show, and even 0:20:48.680 --> 0:20:50.199 before we did it at shows, we did it in 0:20:50.200 --> 0:20:52.720 the subways and street corners in New York City. We 0:20:52.880 --> 0:20:54.760 leave Juliart. We all, you know, at the time the 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.800 band was predominantly from Juliart. My classmates and I would 0:20:57.800 --> 0:20:59.840 go down the subway and play for people in the 0:21:00.040 --> 0:21:03.720 arame thirties, thirty minute concert, thirty minute performance, whatever you 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:07.119