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He says the carbon dioxide smoke that billowed from the bottom of the ship was a bit of a problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was so much on the original one that people in the front row were passing out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>http://youtu.be/zEfIkuTtzQ4?t=4m43s\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Walden just finished helping the Smithsonian’s \u003ca href=\"http://nmaahc.si.edu/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Museum of African American History and Culture\u003c/a> put the replica back together. The original was destroyed in the 1980s after the band went into debt. But Walden told museum specialist Kevin Strait that the replica was at George Clinton’s Tallahassee, Fla., home studio. Strait leaped into action to acquire it and was dazzled by his first sight of the ship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Part of the ceiling was carved out so that the crown part of the Mothership could fit,” Strait says, laughing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Strait says the Mothership is the most iconic stage prop in African-American musical history, partly because it provides context and perspective to the evolution of black stagecraft. 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"headTitle": "Jeff Goldblum Plays a Jazz Show Almost Every Week. No, Really. | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Did you know the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOmJLk1lu08&t=1m25s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">theme music\u003c/a> to \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> has lyrics?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, according to Jeff Goldblum, who played “Dr. Ian Malcolm” in the film, here they are:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In Jurassic Park\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scary in the dark\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>I’m so scared that I’ll be eaten.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>At least that’s what Goldblum said — or, rather, sang — at a recent performance of the jazz show he plays in Los Angeles almost every week. He’s been playing there since the 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum’s long-time hobby might come as a surprise to his fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actor, now 61 years old, has been performing in movies, television, and on stage for more than four decades. In addition to \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>, he’s acted in \u003cem>Independence Day\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Grand Budapest Hotel\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Big Chill\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Fly\u003c/em> and dozens of other films and TV shows, where he provides that uniquely wry, charming, and unpredictable edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before Jeff Goldblum was an actor, he played piano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m from Pittsburgh, and I played piano when I was a kid,” Goldblum says before a recent performance. “I got the idea to play out and about in cocktail lounges when I was, like, 15, and got a job or two.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136700\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg\" alt=\"Goldblum's acting career still comes first, but when he's not busy acting, he gets his band together for an improvised set.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goldblum’s acting career still comes first, but when he’s not busy acting, he gets his band together for an improvised set. \u003ccite>(Hayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ever since, whenever he’s not playing a character on set, he’s playing a piano at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These days and for many years, I just hardly spend a day where I don’t pass a piano in my place and just play for as long as I can,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meet The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometime in the 1990s — and he can’t recall exactly when — Goldblum got a band together through a friend of a friend named John Mastro, who had connections in the local music scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just started playing,” says Mastro, who still manages the band. There was “no advertising or anything. It was just something to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The semi-regular group of professional jazz players that perform with Goldblum even took on a name, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. They’re named for a friend of Goldblum’s family back in Pittsburgh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum says he still prioritizes his acting career, so the shows have not always been exactly weekly. But when he’s not busy, he’ll get his band together for the very loose, improvised three-hour show at an L.A. club called Rockwell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we have a kind of hootenanny, or be-in, or some kind of a jam session is what they call it,” Goldblum says, “and people seem to enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Working The Room\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136702\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg\" alt=\"Fans take their picture with Goldblum before the show at Rockwell club in Los Angeles. Goldblum likes to mingle with audience members before the show. "Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum," says John Mastro, the band's manager.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136702\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans take their picture with Goldblum before the show at Rockwell club in Los Angeles. Goldblum likes to mingle with audience members before the show. “Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum,” says John Mastro, the band’s manager. \u003ccite>(Hayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big part of the audience’s enjoyment comes from the joy Goldblum takes in working a room full of Goldblum acolytes and fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I consider myself a social lubricant as much as a musician really,” Goldblum says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a recent show, Goldblum meets two musicians in the audience, Ryan Thorn and Jessica Hall. The three spontaneously start singing the aria, “Caro Mio Ben” together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the greatest moment ever,” says Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the greatest moment of \u003cem>my\u003c/em> life,” Goldblum shoots back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum’s willingness to interact with everyone, taking photos, and playing little games with people in the audience, tends to put many of the very nervous fans at ease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After hundreds of shows, I’m amused every time,” says Mastro, as Goldblum takes photo after photo with people in the audience. “Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Exactly How He Is In The Movies’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many of the fans, the show has nothing to do with jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> was my favorite movie since I was a little kid,” says Jay Salahi. “I’ve probably seen that movie 200 times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The generation of people who grew up watching Goldblum star in 1990s blockbusters have embraced the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, both his \u003ca href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20xynh/hi_this_is_jeff_goldblum_go_ahead_im_all_ears_ask/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Ask Me Anything”\u003c/a> on Reddit, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJelEXaPhJ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fan tribute on YouTube\u003c/a> to his eccentric way of laughing in \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> went viral online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As someone born in the 80s,” says Lucy Shanahan in between songs, “\u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> was kind of up there in terms of life moments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at least for fan Zach Johnson, Goldblum makes good on those expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His persona, his stage presence, how he is in person,” Johnson says, are “exactly how he is in the movies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Show Comes First\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136704\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg\" alt=\"Goldblum's band is named The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, after a family friend back in Pittsburgh.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goldblum’s band is named The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, after a family friend back in Pittsburgh. \u003ccite>(ayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the rotating group of musicians that plays with Goldblum, it’s been an odd but fun ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They perform loose, improvised versions of jazz standards like “Summertime,” “Watermelon Man” or “The Sidewinder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I actually like to play things that I’m surprised that I’m playing, have never played before,” Goldblum says. “I like to cold read stuff and kind of, you know, make it up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Goldblum says, until very recently, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra never rehearsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between songs, Goldblum banters with the audience, plays the movie game, or assures people that he tied his bow tie himself. “I can undo it right now and show you,” he says of a green Brooks Brothers number. “It’s not a clip-on!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the group might lack in technical discipline, bassist Tim Emmons says, they make up in showmanship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jeff’s much more personable than most band leaders,” Emmons says. “I go sometimes to play jazz gigs, and the people [in the band] don’t talk to the audience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drummer Kenny Elliott says Goldblum provides a welcome shot of joy to the local jazz scene. When he got the call to perform with the group, he says, “I jumped out of my pants to do it!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘I Just Like To Play’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum makes clear that he has no “careerist ambitions” about his music. “I just like to play,” he says. At the end of the show, he’s fairly unassuming about the three-hour performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had no idea what we were gonna do, actually,” he says. “It was kind of fun, wasn’t it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He stays after the final set to chat with fans, take photos and say his goodbyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if he’s not up to anything else, Goldblum will be out there again next Wednesday, working the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tom Dreisbach is an associate producer with NPR’s \u003c/em>\u003cem>weekend \u003c/em>All Things Considered\u003cem>. NPR’s Daniel Hajek also contributed to this story.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jeff+Goldblum+Plays+A+Jazz+Show+Almost+Every+Week.+No%2C+Really.&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Known for his roles in \u003cem>The Big Chill\u003c/em> and \u003cem>The Fly\u003c/em>, the actor hosts a weekly show in Los Angeles with his band, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. Among the songs: the lyrics to \u003cem>Jurassic Park's\u003c/em> theme music.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Did you know the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOmJLk1lu08&t=1m25s\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">theme music\u003c/a> to \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> has lyrics?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, according to Jeff Goldblum, who played “Dr. Ian Malcolm” in the film, here they are:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>In Jurassic Park\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>Scary in the dark\u003c/em>\u003cbr>\u003cem>I’m so scared that I’ll be eaten.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>At least that’s what Goldblum said — or, rather, sang — at a recent performance of the jazz show he plays in Los Angeles almost every week. He’s been playing there since the 1990s.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum’s long-time hobby might come as a surprise to his fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The actor, now 61 years old, has been performing in movies, television, and on stage for more than four decades. In addition to \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em>, he’s acted in \u003cem>Independence Day\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Grand Budapest Hotel\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Big Chill\u003c/em>, \u003cem>The Fly\u003c/em> and dozens of other films and TV shows, where he provides that uniquely wry, charming, and unpredictable edge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But before Jeff Goldblum was an actor, he played piano.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m from Pittsburgh, and I played piano when I was a kid,” Goldblum says before a recent performance. “I got the idea to play out and about in cocktail lounges when I was, like, 15, and got a job or two.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136700\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg\" alt=\"Goldblum's acting career still comes first, but when he's not busy acting, he gets his band together for an improvised set.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136700\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0029-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goldblum’s acting career still comes first, but when he’s not busy acting, he gets his band together for an improvised set. \u003ccite>(Hayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Ever since, whenever he’s not playing a character on set, he’s playing a piano at home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These days and for many years, I just hardly spend a day where I don’t pass a piano in my place and just play for as long as I can,” he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Meet The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sometime in the 1990s — and he can’t recall exactly when — Goldblum got a band together through a friend of a friend named John Mastro, who had connections in the local music scene.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We just started playing,” says Mastro, who still manages the band. There was “no advertising or anything. It was just something to do.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The semi-regular group of professional jazz players that perform with Goldblum even took on a name, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra. They’re named for a friend of Goldblum’s family back in Pittsburgh.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum says he still prioritizes his acting career, so the shows have not always been exactly weekly. But when he’s not busy, he’ll get his band together for the very loose, improvised three-hour show at an L.A. club called Rockwell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“So we have a kind of hootenanny, or be-in, or some kind of a jam session is what they call it,” Goldblum says, “and people seem to enjoy it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Working The Room\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136702\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg\" alt=\"Fans take their picture with Goldblum before the show at Rockwell club in Los Angeles. Goldblum likes to mingle with audience members before the show. "Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum," says John Mastro, the band's manager.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136702\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0083-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Fans take their picture with Goldblum before the show at Rockwell club in Los Angeles. Goldblum likes to mingle with audience members before the show. “Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum,” says John Mastro, the band’s manager. \u003ccite>(Hayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>A big part of the audience’s enjoyment comes from the joy Goldblum takes in working a room full of Goldblum acolytes and fans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I consider myself a social lubricant as much as a musician really,” Goldblum says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a recent show, Goldblum meets two musicians in the audience, Ryan Thorn and Jessica Hall. The three spontaneously start singing the aria, “Caro Mio Ben” together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the greatest moment ever,” says Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is the greatest moment of \u003cem>my\u003c/em> life,” Goldblum shoots back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum’s willingness to interact with everyone, taking photos, and playing little games with people in the audience, tends to put many of the very nervous fans at ease.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After hundreds of shows, I’m amused every time,” says Mastro, as Goldblum takes photo after photo with people in the audience. “Nobody works the room like Jeff Goldblum.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘Exactly How He Is In The Movies’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For many of the fans, the show has nothing to do with jazz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“\u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> was my favorite movie since I was a little kid,” says Jay Salahi. “I’ve probably seen that movie 200 times.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The generation of people who grew up watching Goldblum star in 1990s blockbusters have embraced the actor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Recently, both his \u003ca href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/20xynh/hi_this_is_jeff_goldblum_go_ahead_im_all_ears_ask/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">“Ask Me Anything”\u003c/a> on Reddit, and a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJelEXaPhJ8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fan tribute on YouTube\u003c/a> to his eccentric way of laughing in \u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> went viral online.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As someone born in the 80s,” says Lucy Shanahan in between songs, “\u003cem>Jurassic Park\u003c/em> was kind of up there in terms of life moments.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And at least for fan Zach Johnson, Goldblum makes good on those expectations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“His persona, his stage presence, how he is in person,” Johnson says, are “exactly how he is in the movies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Show Comes First\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136704\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg\" alt=\"Goldblum's band is named The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, after a family friend back in Pittsburgh.\" width=\"800\" height=\"532\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136704\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235-400x266.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/goldblumjazz_0235-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Goldblum’s band is named The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra, after a family friend back in Pittsburgh. \u003ccite>(ayley Bartels for NPR)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For the rotating group of musicians that plays with Goldblum, it’s been an odd but fun ride.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They perform loose, improvised versions of jazz standards like “Summertime,” “Watermelon Man” or “The Sidewinder.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I actually like to play things that I’m surprised that I’m playing, have never played before,” Goldblum says. “I like to cold read stuff and kind of, you know, make it up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, Goldblum says, until very recently, The Mildred Snitzer Orchestra never rehearsed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Between songs, Goldblum banters with the audience, plays the movie game, or assures people that he tied his bow tie himself. “I can undo it right now and show you,” he says of a green Brooks Brothers number. “It’s not a clip-on!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What the group might lack in technical discipline, bassist Tim Emmons says, they make up in showmanship.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Jeff’s much more personable than most band leaders,” Emmons says. “I go sometimes to play jazz gigs, and the people [in the band] don’t talk to the audience.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drummer Kenny Elliott says Goldblum provides a welcome shot of joy to the local jazz scene. When he got the call to perform with the group, he says, “I jumped out of my pants to do it!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘I Just Like To Play’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Goldblum makes clear that he has no “careerist ambitions” about his music. “I just like to play,” he says. At the end of the show, he’s fairly unassuming about the three-hour performance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I had no idea what we were gonna do, actually,” he says. “It was kind of fun, wasn’t it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He stays after the final set to chat with fans, take photos and say his goodbyes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if he’s not up to anything else, Goldblum will be out there again next Wednesday, working the room.\u003c/p>\n\u003chr>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Tom Dreisbach is an associate producer with NPR’s \u003c/em>\u003cem>weekend \u003c/em>All Things Considered\u003cem>. NPR’s Daniel Hajek also contributed to this story.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jeff+Goldblum+Plays+A+Jazz+Show+Almost+Every+Week.+No%2C+Really.&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "A Long Conversation with D'Angelo: 'I'm Trying to Go Deep'",
"headTitle": "A Long Conversation with D’Angelo: ‘I’m Trying to Go Deep’ | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>On Wednesday night in Brooklyn the elusive singer and songwriter, who hasn’t released an album in almost 15 years and performs rarely, sat down in front of 500 people in the auditorium of a museum and thousands of people listening online. So hungry were fans of D’Angelo that at one point in the evening the hashtag \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23askdangelo%20&src=typd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#AskDAngelo\u003c/a> was trending Number 1 on Twitter in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Angelo did field questions, from author \u003ca href=\"http://nelsondgeorge.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nelson George\u003c/a>, and from Twitter, but he didn’t exactly open up. It doesn’t even seem intentional, the way he holds a part of himself in reserve. He just doesn’t find himself particularly fascinating, although remembering his teenage self cracks him up, and in stories about his recording process he spoke about withdrawing so that he can produce the music he wants to. He called it “trying to go deep, deep in the onion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Angelo told us of making a private room within a room when he’s recording vocals. He used the word tee-pee. And he tied himself to R&B musicians who’ve also been called eccentric. “Mtume was talking about how Sly would use this thing called the dead zone,” said D. “Sly wouldn’t even use headphones. You know, he would sit at the board, with the mic, and he would position the mic a certain way in between the speakers.” That was the second time D’Angelo brought up Sly Stone. The first time he told us he’d recently heard Sly’s new songs, which use AutoTune, and hinted at a forthcoming duet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinting was a theme of the evening. D stuck his tongue out when he recalled the song he sang to win \u003cem>Showtime at the Apollo\u003c/em> as a teenager, Johnny Gill’s “\u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvtlmlBbDg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rub You The Right Way\u003c/a>.” Questlove, who intermittently climbed on stage, called D’Angelo’s current work the “unmentionable, unspoken third record.” George kept calling it “the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is an almost visible tension around the possibility of a new album from D’Angelo. It’s been rising for a few years, through European dates, occasional U.S. appearances, studio clips. It informed Red Bull Academy’s booking of him and laid heavy over the opening minutes of this week’s public interview. But then the nervy feeling receded. Or, suddenly, something else mattered more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift happened about 15 minutes in. Nelson George said the words “Richmond, Va.” and shouts went up. D reacted directly to those people — “Uh, oh. Richmond in the house. What’s up!” — and then we were part of their conversation. Moments later D’Angelo cursed for the first time. We laughed at the fact of that, the fact of him, and he thought we were all hilarious. He laughed open-throated and familiarly with us, and relief and recognition swept from the stage and over the seats: we were among friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to the conversation in full above, read the transcript below, or watch video \u003ca href=\"http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/dangelo-lecture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at Red Bull Music Academy’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>NELSON GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s start talking about guitar playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What’s up, Brooklyn? How y’all doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the big changes from the D’Angelo people -– for me — was from before to where you are now, musically, is you’ve added guitar to your music — you became a guitar player. Can you talk about how that happened and how that’s affected what you do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, I played guitar before. I was playing a little bit on \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> — a couple of songs, “Left and Right” and some songs. But I think during the \u003cem>V\u003c/em>\u003cem>oodoo \u003c/em>recording, recording the album, I –- we were at Electric Lady, so Jimi Hendrix was a big influence and just a big spirit in the place, in the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve always wanted to — I feel like my style on piano, because piano’s my main instrument, so I feel like I always wanted to — on piano, I was always emulating the guitar and bass. I can play bass. I didn’t play much guitar. I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head that I was trying to emulate on the keys. I wanted to do it for real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it makes me look at the keys in a different way. So it’s like I’m looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over top of it, you know. I guess that’s where I’m at right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://jessejohnson.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jesse Johnson\u003c/a> played a role in this, though, didn’t he?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, he did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Those of you know, Jesse Johnson, guitar player with The Time; solo artist in his own right. Before we go further –- please, no photography! Thank you! No phone pictures. Some big, ugly man may come looking for you if you have them. So, just be aware that that’s prohibited. As we were saying — Jesse Johnson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, Jesse. Shortly after\u003cem> Voodoo\u003c/em>, I got in touch with Jesse through \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-mcclain-mn0001740224/credits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John McClain\u003c/a> and — actually through Alan, \u003ca href=\"http://prince.org/msg/7/171968\">Alan Leeds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Just the instant kinship, you know. When I first talked to him on the telephone — and we talked for years on the telephone before we actually met — I was just struck. I even had to say it to him. I was like, “Man, you sound just like my brother.” Like he just, his voice and his vernacular, he sounds just like my oldest brother, Luther. So I just really felt, like, a kinship with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We finally met at \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/95031938/raphael-saadiq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raphael\u003c/a>‘s studio in Cali — in Blakeslee. He came through, and first thing he did was gave me a couple of guitars. Gave me a Minarik, the black Minarik that I play now and he gave me one of his guitars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You have a pink one, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes. That was one of his. He’s actually \u003ca href=\"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416JDIRJhML._SL290_.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">holding it\u003c/a> on the \u003cem>Shockadelica \u003c/em>album — the pink Fender Invader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Working with him, how did that begin to evolve your playing? How did that affect how you —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I mean, obviously I’m sitting with him shedding, you know. We went out and did a couple of shows in Europe. Before then just sitting with him, he’s showing me things, I’m asking him questions and asking him about, you know, everything. Prince.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right, Prince questions, I’m sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It gets a little hairy because The Time and the Prince — that feud was very real. But, you know, there’s no love lost. He still speaks with a high love and respect for Prince. And I’m just like a sponge. I’m just trying to soak everything in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So, I saw the tapes of your tour in Europe and then I’ve seen you play here in the States. And it does seem like what you’re doing now and where you’re going musically for the future, the guitar and the idea of that -– it’s much more prominent. Like, I feel more rock and more funk in what you’re doing now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it’s a natural progression for me. Honestly, I just feel like that’s where it’s going. The thing with me is, about that — about rock and all that — years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. And I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. And everything soul or funk kind of starts with that. That’s kind of like the nucleus of everything, thread that holds everything together. And so it’s kind of just a natural progression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I remember I seen you open for Mary J. Blige maybe a year ago? A year-and-a-half ago? And it was an interesting dichotomy in the audience that — there’s the music you played on the piano that was familiar, and that, like, the Mary J. Blige crowd particularly, cause that’s a adult black crowd, was into — and then there was where you going now. You’re going in a much — I would say funk-rock direction, maybe, or something like that. And so, I think one of the things that’s gonna be interesting as we go forward with your music is there’s a transition that’s happened in you creatively that the audience is gonna have to be prepared for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I would say so. I think so. A couple of shows that we did, \u003ca href=\"http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-14/entertainment/chi-mary-j-blige-and-dangelo-concert-review-dangelo-at-united-center-reviewed-20120914_1_mary-j-blige-empty-prayers-d-angelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we opened up for Mary\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/07/09/156494248/essence-in-new-orleans-a-festival-that-knows-its-audience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we did Essence Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: We did —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://www.bet.com/video/betawards/2012/performances/dangelo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The BET Awards\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I did the BET Awards, right. But we did like a, we did \u003ca href=\"http://www.soulbeach.net/2013/index.php/9-uncategorised/71-soul-beach-music-festival-aruba-2013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Sinbad thing in Aruba\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, you did the boat ride?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. Well, something like that. I don’t know. So it was a lot of like, R&B, soul thing going on, which is great. But definitely, we’re looking to the future here. I don’t know if people were really expecting what they got from us, because we did a lot of new material and, you know, I think there was a lot of, like, kind of confusion — a lot of confused looks on certain people’s faces. And then, on other people’s faces, they were really receiving what we were doing. But I love that. I love — if it’s confusing at first, that’s a good thing for me; that’s a good sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: From what I got, you wouldn’t necessarily want to — where you’re going now is where you are and you were not like, unnecessarily having to — you don’t want to be a nostalgia act, I guess, in a sense, is what I’m saying. That you’re looking forward. I remember when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3woHfDKTjqU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">you played Bonnaroo, with The Roots\u003c/a>, you were doing, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.” You were doing some Beatles covers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think that that was pretty radical. People weren’t expecting that. The Beatles, is that, as we look forward, is that what we’re gonna be hearing more of — that kind of approach?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know who was not influenced by them. And the thing about them and they were the masters of, were — and I say Prince, too, I love how Prince would do it — how all these interesting, different, eccentric ideas, but they were able to fit it in a simple pop format. That could be considered formulaic, or whatever. But to be able to fit all of that and your vision into this simple format, whether it be a pop song or it’s a 12-bar blues or whatever — I think that’s the challenge. And they were the best at it. They were the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the things that’s interesting — you had, everyone remembers Soulquarian, was that how we pronounce it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Soulquarians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And now, your band now, you call them the Vanguard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What is a vanguard and tell me about what that represents for your music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Vanguard is definitely an evolution; my last band being the Soultronics. And the Soulquarians was, I guess, the collective of all of us. But yeah, the Vanguard is just the progression of that. We’re not the Soultronics. It’s a different band. I think it’s a louder band, it’s a harder band. It’s more guitars, definitely, so it’s definitely more rock, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: When you played with Mary, you had a lot of — I remember asking you like, “Where’d you find these musicians?” And you said you found them in a church. A lot of the younger guys were —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, the younger guys. Yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So that still is the motherload where you find the great black musicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. I mean, the thing about the church is, what I learned early — they used to say this when I was going to church. They used to say, “Don’t go up there for no form or fashion.” So I guess what that means is, “Listen, we’re up here singing for the Lord. So don’t be up here trying to be cute,” you know. “Cause we don’t care about all that. We just want to feel what you, you know, and what the spirit is moving through you.” And it’s the best place to learn that. So you shut yourself down and you let whatever’s coming, come through you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guys that were singing with me, the Lumzys, the Lumzy brothers —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: The Lumzy brothers, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. One of ’em I met in Richmond. I put a little quartet group together, quartet gospel group together, and he was playing drums. So I brought him along, and he brought his cousins who sing, came up in the quartet tradition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s interesting because in the quartet tradition — it’s like a dying art form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I don’t know the last time there was a significant, young, black harmony group, it’s been a long time. So you found most of these guys in Richmond? A lot of the younger guys?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The younger guys, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s talk about Richmond, Va. Not a place —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Uh oh. Richmond in the house. What’s up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Richmond, Va., is not seen as a musical hotbed. However —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, however —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Come on. Explain it, explain it. Tell me about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s not, because I don’t know how many – there’re not really a lot of cats there — from there — that made it really big. I mean, y’all know of Major Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttbsYCM3lgU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Love Won’t Let Me Wait\u003c/a>,” anybody?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Soul music fans in the house?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The singer of The Delfonics. He’s definitely from Richmond. I mean, you know, it’s a couple of motherf—ers, but not really. You know what? It wasn’t nothing down there. And the funny thing about it is that, it was all this talent. It’s, like, mad talent down there. Like, when I was coming up — when I was little — my whole thing was I wanted to just be big enough to be in a band, because they used to have battle of the bands all the time down there. And it was a big deal, you know. It was a whole bunch of local talent, but nobody never really crossed that threshold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Also there’s a — you were telling me there’s a rock tradition there that people don’t know about — don’t think about in Richmond. What bands you talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Wow, well, yeah, it’s a big punk scene in Richmond — always has been — D.C. area and Richmond, big time. Lot of heavy metal heads in Richmond. Where I had to move — when I started going to high school, I moved from Richmond to, there’s a county outside of Richmond called Chesterfield, but that’s where \u003ca href=\"http://www.lamb-of-god.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lamb of God\u003c/a>, that’s where they’re from. \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/slipknot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slipknot\u003c/a>, they’re from Chesterfield. So it’s a big rock scene down there, big time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So in the past you’ve talked a lot about your church background, but I wanted to jump to another aspect of your development, which is — a lot of people don’t know that you were in a hip-hop band, hip-hop group. And the group is pictured here. The group was called I.D.U.: Intelligent, Deadly, but Unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So talk about what you were doing at that particular point in your development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I just moved from Richmond to Chesterfield and that’s when I was MCing back then. I was a MC. I was pretty f—ing good, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You don’t say that if you’re not gonna bust a rhyme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No! Hell no. That was a long time ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: There are apparently some tracks floating around the Internet of I.D.U. somewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I.D.U. s— was for real, man. We weren’t no joke. And it was I.D.U. Productions, so we was a production crew, you know. What y’all laughing at?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Were you the hook singer?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: At first. But I was really like co-producer, and that was the whole thing. When I moved from Richmond to Chesterfield, the first brothers that I really hooked up with was the leader of the group, Brian Trent. And I was, what? I was a freshman, coming to high school, he was a senior. And the other producer for the group, we called him Baby Fro; his name was Ron Flowers. So he was the DJ. His father DJed for years and years and years, so his house was a record store. And those records were kept in pristine condition. We’d be over there all — that’s where I really went to school. That was like Hip-hop and Music 101 for me. It was the first time I learned about \u003ca href=\"http://www.themeters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Meters\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/album/band-of-gypsys-mw0000650248\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Band of Gypsys\u003c/a> and all that s—. You know, when you’re listening to records strictly to find samples, looking for break beats — and then I stopped listening to records for break beats and instead of just skimming through it looking for a break beat, I’m listening to the whole record, you know what I mean? And so that’s when I started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Obviously you had church training, but this was one of your key musical educations in terms of the sweep of music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes. Up until that point — I mean, I rhymed, you know, but my main musical love was Prince. That was it. I started to learn about \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/MicrophoneCheck/2013/09/11/221440934/marley-marl-on-the-bridge-wars-ll-cool-j-and-discovering-sampling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marley Marl\u003c/a> and all those cats. It just opened my whole world up, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s an interesting story because this band, I.D.U., they ended up coming to New York and trying to get a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And the story goes that people would go, “Eh, it’s alright. Who produced the track?” That people were already seeing in these tracks that you made early on with this band that there was something there. And Jocelyn Cooper, who ended up —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Hi, Jocelyn!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Jocelyn Cooper who was then — who now helps run the \u003ca href=\"http://afropunkfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afropunk Festival\u003c/a> — but then was, worked at a music publishing company, Warner/Chappell, right? Midnight Music, excuse me. That you came up to — she tells a story about you coming in and you played —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I walked in with a suit. I had a, like a two-piece. We were walking in Manhattan and we just came from Norfolk and I just really, I just knew that this was the shot. This was my shot. And I was hellbent on getting the suit. I wanted to walk in there with a suit. Bought brand new church shoes and s—. Never walked the streets of Manhattan before. Got to the office and I met Jocelyn Cooper who was just like, ah, like the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Aw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s true. And it was, you know, woopty, woopty, woop and all that. I had to, “Where’s your bathroom? Can I go to the bathroom for a second, please?” I know they kept wondering why I kept going to the bathroom cause I had to take those shoes off, man. My feet were f—ing hurting. But, you know, that’s where it started. I sat there. I played like — I was just like a jukebox. They would name out a song and I’d play it and sing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Well she says you played a Jodeci — Jocelyn, if I’m wrong, correct me. You played a Jodeci song, you played a gospel song and you played a Miles Davis song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So what I go back to is — how old are you at this point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I was 17.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So the range of music that you had some access to is, for a 17-year-old from Richmond, Va., is pretty impressive. Did that go back to — is that the DJ thing? That you were able to expand your horizon through that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Not really. I just, I been playing piano since I was three. And I’d always wanted to just get some more jazz chops. You know what? I studied for two years when I was like 12 or 13, classical music. The classical teacher that I was with, she kinda got hip to me because she would play a song once and I would come back the next week and play it all perfect. But I still wasn’t really reading. And when she got hip to the fact that my ear was that good, she was like, “I’ma send you to this guy,” named Russell somebody, who worked at VCU and taught music theory. So I went to the guy Russell and took a music theory class and, you know, he was like, “I can’t do nothing with you. You don’t need theory. You already know theory. You already know it. So I’m gonna pass you to this guy at VCU.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: In Virginia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: In Virginia, who still taught at VCU. It was Ellis Marsalis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Wynton’s father.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Who was still teaching at VCU. And I went and auditioned for Ellis Marsalis and James Moody, matter of fact. James Moody was up there. I was like 13, 14. And got on the piano and I played, I played an Anita Baker song cause it was the jazziest song I could think of. So I played Anita Baker and, you know, they were impressed, and they were like, “Oh, that’s great, young blood.” “Wow,” I was like, “Are you gonna teach me? Do I get to, you know?” And he was like, “Nah, I’m getting ready to leave.” So he was getting ready to leave that year and go teach back in New Orleans, so I never got a chance to really get any jazz training or what have you, like that. But I always felt like that was a good thing that I didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Because it would have changed my whole style. It would have changed my whole style of playing. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Rhere was another band that you were involved in that I wanted to get at. Because there’s — in researching for this interview, I learned a bunch of stuff that I hadn’t been aware of. So you were, after Intelligent, Deadly, but Unique, you then —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I.D.U.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You had another band, which was Michael Archer and Precise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So this is after–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s before, it’s before I.D.U., actually. Precise —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, OK. So you guys, I mean, what I didn’t know is that you actually won Apollo Amateur night a couple of times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, I did. We used to do a lot of gigs — a lot of shows. Not gigs, but shows. Talent shows, you know, whatever, in Richmond. And it was this big, big talent show they used to have every year. It was huge for the high school kids and s—. And there was a school that was in North Side — I’m from South Side — so then there’s North side. Anybody know anything about Virginia, North Side and South Side do not get along. Like there’s always been beef, right? Even if it’s playful. Anyway, all the great kids and all the great talent went to this one school, Kennedy High School. They had a great musical director there and they would have this big, big talent show that they would have every year at — and they would have it at the mosque. Like that was the big — the mosque in Richmond, everyone performed at the mosque. So it was a huge deal and they would sell tickets and everything. The place would be f—ing packed. And I did the talent show, I guess two years before. But this one year, I got everything together. We got the Precise together, we went there and we tore the roof off, man, really. I was what? I was 16. I was 16 and tore the roof off and from there I got the chance to go to the Apollo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What was Precise? I mean, what was it? How many pieces? Tell me what kind of group was it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it was me and my cousin, Marlon, who played drums. My other cousin, Regina, was on keyboards, and I had my other cousin singing background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It was a family band, in other words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Almost. And then I had two other background singers. They were both named Nikki — Nikki T., Nikki C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So was that your first trip to New York — the Apollo gigs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That was my first trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What do you, tell me about that experience of going up. You’re 16, Amateur Night at the Apollo from Virginia — how was that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It was surreal. It was amazing. The first time I went, it was sponsored by this whole thing called Kemet Productions. So we would get in the bus from Richmond and get on the highway and it would be a whole bunch of talent on the bus or whatever. And so the people that were in charge, like, I mean, you know, they were kinda trying to tell everybody what to do. “You should sing this song. You should sing a Luther Vandross song. You have a Luther Vandross type of tone.” Or, “Don’t sing a gospel song! They’ll boo you!” Type of s— like that. And you know, I had my mind set on singing \u003ca href=\"http://peabobryson.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peabo Bryson\u003c/a>. I was like, “I’m singing Peabo Bryson.” And they were like, “Don’t sing that song. Please don’t sing that song. They gonna boo you off the stage.” And they had me at the last minute, I was trying to switch the song up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyway, long story short, you know, I rubbed the log or whatever and the girl that goes out right before me sings a gospel song, right, a gospel song. And they booed the s— out of it, man. Like, it was no sympathy. They was so cold-blooded. And she walked off the stage crying. “Alright, young blood, you’re next!” I rubbed the log. And the MC comes out, he’s like, “Yeah, so we got this kid. He’s from way down, deep down South.” “Boo!” Like, I didn’t even walk out on the stage. Long story short, I won them over and, you know, I placed and then I got the opportunity to come back. When I came back, I did my own background music, I did my own background vocals. I was like, “No, I’m not doing no Luther Vandross or nothing. I’m gonna do some up-tempo s—.” And you know, whatever. I won first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What song? You did an original song of yours?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No. I did “Rub You The Right Way” by Johnny Gill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the interesting things about your career, speaking of, is that you’ve been really great at interpreting classic material, soul music. And part of the reason I think you attracted so many people to you was that you have a connection to that past. So I want to play one of my favorite D’Angelo covers, and that’s, well, we’ll just play it. Play the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfyJbXn01HM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eddie Kendricks song\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Now, you’ve had many interesting collaborators. And one of the ones that probably people don’t know about, a person who was actually a mentor to me as well, \u003ca href=\"http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/mtume-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the great Mtume\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, sir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Mtume’s pedigree is pretty long. Just break it down, he played with Miles during his electric period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: He went on to become one of the top singer-songwriters, wrote all of Stephanie Mills’ hits, Roberta Flack hits, and then had —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Solo success. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MucY5wRYByU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Juicy Fruit\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the most sampled records in hip-hop history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And also a super political person — was on KISS Radio for years doing morning show. So a very diverse and powerful man. He helped you produce this track, didn’t he?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, yeah, he did. He produced the song for \u003cem>Get On The Bus\u003c/em> soundtrack. And I think, yeah, he was doing like a lot of those dope covers. At that time, he had just did —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, \u003cem>New York Undercover. \u003c/em>He was the song guy for \u003cem>New York Undercover\u003c/em>. He did all those covers on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right, and he had just did the cover of Bobby Womack’s — \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” right. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm87OgZU0cU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wrote it for K-Ci\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: For K-Ci, right. We’re name-checking Jocelyn a lot here, but she gets name-checked again — that he was doing — you told me a story about him doing, he was doing music or songwriting seminars?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, yeah. He was involved with Midnight Songs, definitely. And Jocelyn would have these workshops. So all of the writers on her roster would come to the workshop and James Mtume would really be holding court, you know. And he would literally have like a chalkboard, he’d really be going through it, you know, talking about songwriting and song structure, theory, whatever — blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And you weren’t the best student, I hear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Jocelyn, she used to always be mad at me because I never would come. I never would come to the music shops. “You oughta come! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: But you finally did show up one time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I did come. Yeah, I did come. I was jammin’ — cause I wanted to jam with \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu9QH71YKQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rob Bacon\u003c/a>, who was, you know, a guitar, the funk guitar player from Detroit. But Mtume was awesome. He was one of those cats in the early days that really, really gave me a lot of confidence and let me know that I could do it, you know? I remember at the end of recording \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, I don’t know, I had like a mental block where I couldn’t finish. There was, I couldn’t nail this line on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBB8valskCQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lady\u003c/a>.” And then there was this line on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAfuUZRou7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cruisin’\u003c/a>” that I couldn’t nail. And Mtume was at the studio when I did those vocals and kinda coached me through it, you know. And he’s just a great guy, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: He’s great, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Speaking of collaborators and mentors and that combination, one of the people you’re most associated with, you know, is Questlove from The Roots. I don’t think I need to introduce him. Questlove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What’s up, brother?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You did these shows, I saw the show you did at Brooklyn Bowl maybe a year ago, whatever, where you guys — it was just the two of you on stage. And it was, to me, it was a beautiful experience, musically, and the chemistry you guys had together — talk about how you guys met and the musical bond you guys share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I call him Ahmir. He’s always gonna be Ahmir to me. He’s Questlove but that’s Ahmir. That’s my brother. I met him shortly after \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>came out. I think I’d just stopped touring for a second and they was doing a show at the House of Blues. They were opening for The Fugees. So it was Goodie Mob, The Roots and The Fugees. And so, you know, Cee-Lo was there killing and then here come The Roots. And it was the first time I’d seen them live and, you know, I had just got off the road and I was pretty bummed out because the drummer that I wanted, who was the house drummer at The Apollo, Ralph Rolle —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, Ralph Rolle, sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I wanted — he was my drummer for the first couple of shows and then he didn’t want to tour. So I was bummed out for the rest of the shows. I feel like I did not have the drummer that I wanted and I was searching for a drummer. I went through a whole bunch of drummers during that time. Abe Fogle was one of my drummers. \u003ca href=\"http://omarhakim.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Omar Hakim\u003c/a>, who was with Weather Report, he was one of my drummers at the time. And I just couldn’t find it. So, anyway, at the show, seeing Ahmir — he knew I was there. I don’t know how.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: I knew! \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Where are you at, man? So, OK. He always tells this story. See, you should tell the story, cause you tell it better than I do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, NOW ON STAGE\u003c/strong>: OK, at the risk of overexposure, cause I know people are tired of hearing me talking, I promise to keep this under two minutes. I had met — you had first walked in when The Roots were mixing our \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Do You Want More?!!!??!\u003c/em> record. And Bob — at Battery Studios — and engineer Bob Power, who was working on the \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> record, was like, “Yo, you gotta meet this kid. He’s the next …” You know, he named every — “He’s the next Sam Cooke. He’s the next Donny Hathaway. He’s the next …” you know, and I had such a Nazi attitude towards like R&B at that time, I just thought, “Ah, whatever.” And he walked in, and I was dismissive. I was like, “Ah, whatever.” And Bob’s like, “No. There’s a song called ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfd5UZnGAi0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">S—, Damn, Motherf—er\u003c/a>.’ You gotta play on it.” And I was, you know, and I was so dismissive. You know, he came in, I look, alright, it’s a R&B dude. I’m cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I had had gotten the \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>sampler when I left the Source Awards — the second Source awards — that one where Suge Knight was like, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpgpS3ogvMM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All in the video, all in the —\u003c/a>“. I always consider that day to be hip-hop’s funeral. And the only saving grace was — so at the time when Snoop is on stage yelling, “Y’all don’t love us. Y’all don’t …” I grab my date and I was like, “Yo, we out.” Cause I knew it was gonna be like a war going on. So I ran in the lobby and as I was running, some guy just ran up to me and says, “Here!” I look and it’s D’Angelo, \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, and I put it in my pocket and I ran out. And I don’t know what made me do it, but I listened to it and I thought, “Ah, I done f—ed up now.” Like, I did. I thought like, “Yo. This is our savior.” Like, I knew. So I basically spent — that was May of ’95. So I spent the entire year trying to figure out how to strategically get within his sight so that I can atone for my sins of being dismissive that day. And that moment came April 1, 1996. So, it was April Fools’ Day; Marvin Gaye day. You and Erykah — you had just met Erykah that day, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Nah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Well you knew of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: We were there together, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Right. So y’all recorded the duet, that, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQNMAadLnLE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Heaven Must Have Sent You\u003c/a>.” Y’all recorded that earlier at \u003ca href=\"http://www.marvins-room.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marvin’s studio\u003c/a>. And that night, you, both of y’all came to the House of Blues. So I met both of y’all the same night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I knew he was in the audience. And I thought, “OK. I could either sabotage our show right now …” Like, “Either I can audition for him, or I can make it smooth running.” Because I’m not saying there’s a band rivalry going on between the three, but it was like we were all trying to kill each other in \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/08/21/214145432/the-blast-radius-of-kendrick-lamars-control-verse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that Kendrick Lamar rivalry way\u003c/a>. Like, you know, by this point, we’re in L.A. Soul Train Awards. Everybody’s in the house. You see TLC up there, you see all these notable celebrities, and The Roots could have either stuck to the script or — it was such a moment, I thought, “I gotta audition for him.” And, in the auditioning for D’Angelo, I decided to play in a style that The Roots were not accustomed to. So the sort of — the preview of that drunken \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dilla\u003c/a> style that we perfected for \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>, I thought, “OK. This is what I’m gonna do.” And everyone’s looking at me like, “What are you doing? Why are you playing so …?” And so there was this moment where I was like, “God, I don’t have him yet,” and I decided to do — there’s a song — there’s a side Prince project called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse_(band)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Madhouse\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Madhouse, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: There’s an introductory song called “Four.” So I was like, “Alright. I’ma see what language he speaks.” It was some African communication drum thing. And I did it and he instantly — he was like, “Yeah!” Like he just — that’s how I met him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: True story. True story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think I’ll move ahead. I was gonna do this later, but let’s talk about \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>. Since he’s in the house — one of the things that a lot of people think is that Questlove produced \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, NOW BACK IN THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: No!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: OK. I know, and that’s what we’re doing here. But a lot of people do think that, by the way. So I guess the question I have — I want to talk a little bit about the creative genesis of that album. We were talking earlier about Roy Hargrove played a key role. Talk about the genesis of that album.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, wow. Me and Ahmir met. After that night, they were doing, y’all were doing \u003cem>Illadelph Halflife\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: [off mic]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right, right, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC9twfHSiR8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hypnotic\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So for those who didn’t hear and the people who are listening online, what Ahmir just said is that the last cut on the \u003cem>Illadelphia\u003c/em> album —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Went into the first cut of \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>. Literally, wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And what does that mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What does that mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah. What does that mean, musically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I think what it means is that, you know it’s like musical kin. It’s kind of like being separated at birth and then y’all meet when you’re 22. And you be like, “Damn, you my brother.” That’s basically what it was like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was doing \u003cem>Space Jam\u003c/em> soundtrack. And so the concept of the song was the real NBA players against, you know, the monster. Hence the basketball references in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COix3dndSfk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Playa Playa\u003c/a>.” So that was the first song we did. When we got together, we at The Hit Factory. And we just was like nuttin’ off, like two little kids in the toy store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You want to play that track for a minute?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. Hell yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: From \u003cem>Voodoo, \u003c/em>“Playa Playa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Questlove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So a landmark album. It’s got some — the mood of it is really significantly different from your first album. Talk about the evolution from the first one to the second one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: OK. Just about the entirety of the first album, \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, I wrote it, the majority of that record in my bedroom in Richmond. And all of the demos for it were done on a four-track in my bedroom. I think EMI was a little leery of me being in the studio producing it on my own, which is what I was fighting for. So it was important for them that I go in with someone, an engineer. Everyone was trying to pick like, “You should get Prince’s engineer, or somebody else,” and I picked Bob Power because of my love for Tribe and what they were doing. And it was the best, it was the best thing to do. He was so awesome. He taught me a lot. All of the demos that I had basically before we even set foot in the studio — we were at Bob Power’s house for like three months like going over every detail, tweaking every high hat, every symbol, you name it. And so, when we went into the studio to record, I mean, it was really like, in my opinion, I felt like — after it was done, I loved it. But there were certain songs that I felt it lost something between the demo version and all of the production that went into it. I felt like it lost — like it got a little homogenized, in my opinion, for me, at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You mean just sonically, it was too clean? You need a little dirtier?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No clean but — I wouldn’t use the word clean — but what’s the word? Buttery? I think it’s the best. Yeah, buttery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So you were looking to, you wanted to eliminate the margarine and the butter?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: There you go. So I was like — yeah, straight from the cow to the glass, you know. And that’s what \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> was; it really was that. We were in the studio and i wanted everything to feel like the demo. I wanted everything to feel like the demo. So that was the first thing. And then it was, too, more working with musicians. We were doing a lot of — me and Ahmir would be in there just really, like I said, nuttin’ off like kids. For hours and we would just keep the tape rolling. And we’d be in that live room with absolutely no, really no intent of writing or recording anything — we would just be playing. We would be playing, playing for hours. The whole time the tape is rolling. And then something would come up. We would doodle and then Ahmir would go, “Whoa, whoa! What’s that? Yo, Russ! Rewind it! Rewind the tape!” So Russ Elevado would rewind it, we would listen to it again and boom, there’s a new song. And then, you know, a lot of it was one take, you know what I mean? We would go in there — so that was a different thing from \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>that was because I was doing everything myself at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, for me, I think it was two major elements — or three major elements. Ahmir being there. I think after me and Ahmir did “Playa,” I did a duet with B.B. King. I brought Ahmir with me to the session because it was my intention of doing a cover of — Johnny “Guitar” Watson had just died — he had just died right before the B.B. King session and it was my intention to do a cover of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g4DO6co0II\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Superman Lover\u003c/a>.” So I brought Ahmir with me and you know, we get there, we can’t do Johnny “Guitar” Watson because they have to be B.B. King songs. But I was in search, I was desperately seeking a \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/james-jamerson-mn0000123578\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Jamerson\u003c/a> aficionado or a James Jamerson — I even sought out his son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right; James Jamerson, Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: James Jamerson, Jr. And I was looking for someone who could really give me that and boom, I found him at the B.B. King session: \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pino_Palladino\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pino Palladino\u003c/a>. That and from the \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>days, I’d always been dying — we had a mutual friend who kind of turned me on to his music and I used to listen to it a lot and I just loved his tone and been dying to work with \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/15291267/roy-hargrove\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roy Hargrove\u003c/a>. And we reached out and so I think those elements right there — that was it, man. That was the recipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, Pino Palladino, he’s been with you ever since. He’s still with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, he is. Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How do you work — I mean, obviously Ahmir and you guys have this bond — cause you play so many instruments, I’m really curious how you weave in other musicians. You said a certain way you want to play it. Do you have them play exactly what you played? How much are they able to put themselves in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: They follow — I’ll set the structure, or what have you. Whatever, however you want to call it. And then we follow that to a certain degree, but I do give them license to interpret it, you know. I mean, once you — when you working with musicians of that caliber, you can trust them to interpret it any way. Like Roy, I would just play it for Roy and let him just do what he does. And he would make the arrangements, do the horn arrangements, all right there. He’s incredible. He’s f—ing incredible, man. And Pino pretty much would follow what I wrote, you know, for the structure of the song and then add his own interpretations in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Speaking of the blues, it seems to me that one of the tracks that really is powerful with you from that era is “Devil’s Pie,” and we talked about those — but it’s a blues song to you, isn’t it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it’s kinda like a blues song. I would say the spirit of the vocals was more like chain gang, or like the feel of the slaves, the field slaves in the field picking whatever the f— master had us picking and that’s what we’d be singing while we picking in the hot f—ing sun. I mean, that’s kind of where I was going with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s get a little hit from “Devil’s Pie,” from \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Thank you.\u003cem>\u003c/em> Shout-out to Premier for lacing that. It’s crazy. Preemo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So we had a Twitter #AskDAngelo, and here’s a question: “Just learned you wrote Black Men United’s anthem, ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAVDRa0DFY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U Will Know\u003c/a>.’ What’s the story on that?” And just as a couple little fun things, this a picture we’re gonna drop in later of — this is the R. Kelly, D’Angelo and Brian McKnight, a very unlikely trio. And the sheet music from “U Will Know,” which was written by you and your brother, Luther.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So, let’s talk about that track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Again, in the crib, it was — that song really is what got me my deal. It was on my first demo when Jocelyn signed me to Midnight Music. I think that was the one. That was the song that sealed the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How did it end up being a sound — it ended up being a soundtrack for \u003cem>Jason’s Lyric\u003c/em> as opposed to be a solo track for you. How did that happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it was, you know, it was early and, like I said, it was my original demo and it takes time to get signed and all the process and all that stuff. So by the time I’d gotten signed to EMI, the direction I was going was just different. So it was a perfect fit. Jocelyn being, you know, the great publisher that she was, she placed it for the movie. And it was like, wow. It was like, I’m coming out of nowhere. Because the only thing I had done up to that point was a song called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq4WGKGDtW0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Overjoyed\u003c/a>” for the Harlem Boys’ Choir. And so here I am, you know, with all my heroes, man. So it was —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Who was — talk about the talent that was on that track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Man. So, Brian McKnight, R. Kelly, \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gerald-levert-mn0000649435/biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gerald LeVert\u003c/a>, Al B. Sure, Boyz II Men, H-Town —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: H-Town, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBnEaQd4ZY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Knockin da Boots\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: “Knockin da Boots.” It was everybody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Usher, I think?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Usher. Yeah, little Usher was there. I was like, “This little kid gone do something, man.” S—, yeah. \u003ca href=\"http://www.mtv.com/news/1508850/aaron-hall-working-to-overcome-tough-times-with-guy-reunion-new-persona/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aaron Hall\u003c/a>. Did I tell you Aaron Hall?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, Aaron Hall’s important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Aaron Hall, who was like God to me. I f—ing loved Aaron Hall. And everybody — \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Williams_(singer)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher Williams\u003c/a> —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: That’s a whole era right there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right. It was crazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So you were in the studio. Now, you basically have all these vets and you’re the kid. How was that? How were those sessions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: They were fun. They were really, really fun. And everyone — it was Black Men United, so there was no, I mean, everybody kind of left their egos at the door. For the most part, it was — like I said, it was surreal. And I got a chance to, not just work with a lot of my heroes, but you know, groove. Relationships — especially with Aaron. Aaron Hall was really cool. Those brothers kind of like, you know, kind of put me up under their wing, kind of like, “Come here, young blood.” You know, “Watch out for this. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.” Him and Gerald LeVert were the biggest ones, man. Gerald was just f—ing awesome. Rest in peace, brother. I love that man; love that man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So for those of you who may not know this track or know that D’Angelo wrote it, we’re gonna play “U Will Know” by Black Men United.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s interesting listening to that track now and — talk about longevity and mystique. I mean, there are people on that record who — Christopher Williams — who had a moment. He was a movie star and a singer. He was in \u003cem>New Jack City\u003c/em>. Al B., who’s moved on and does radio. Having longevity and having mystique — you’re one of the few people who has mystique, you know that. I mean in the age of TMZ and all that stuff, you, you have — there’s an aura still about your career. It’s very unusual today for anybody to have any mystery left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I agree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You know, I feel like — so let’s just take a couple more questions. This came in tonight from Twitter. And \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/divynthought/status/469229952085151744\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this is from Divyn Thought\u003c/a>: “Are you a fan of how technology has changed the music industry?” And I guess you could take that a number of ways — technology in the studio or technology in how people consume music. How do you feel about the changes? And how does that affect as you’re going forward with your music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The consumption of it — that’s a — I can’t even touch that; that’s different. But as far as the technology — I don’t have a problem with technology as long as it’s not, it’s gotta be a balance, you know what I mean? So you can use technology but still — if you’re using technology to get the same point across that you would get say in doing analog s—, then it’s cool. I don’t have any problem with it at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Do you have any Auto-Tune tracks you working on?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No. Although, it’s funny, I met Sly recently and he was working on — yeah, \u003ca href=\"http://www.slystonemusic.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sly Stone\u003c/a>. And you know, I always hear the rumor mill that he’s always constantly working on music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: That’s what he says when you ask him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And it’s the truth. He’s got like mad s—, man, that he’s been working on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, he played you some stuff?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And it’s not Family Stone s—. It’s progressive, it’s new, he’s f—ing with the Auto-Tune s—. I had a conversation with him like — cause I heard it. I was like, “Nah! Damn! Nah! Don’t do that! Why you using Auto-Tune?” you know. And he was explaining it. But the way he did it, he’s doing it like no one else. I mean, of course, it’s Sly. But he, like I said, I don’t have a problem with technology as long as you’re doing something with it that’s just new, you know what I mean, that’s putting some kind of twist with it. But he’s incredible, man. He’s incredible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Alright, so when’s the Sly/D’Angelo duet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s coming. Sly, you promised, so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: We can talk a little bit more about — we can talk about your future. I mean, obviously there’s all kinds of anticipation. What are your thoughts about dealing with that? There’s a tremendous amount of like social media pressure that didn’t exist before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Does that infect your process at all — the fact that people are getting at you all the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It doesn’t. And I, to a fault, I think that I’ve kind of put myself in a bubble so that I’m not affected by any of that. Although, it’s hard not to be cause it’s just the world that we live in now. But I mean, I completely kind of like blocked all that s— out. I have to because when I’m thinking about music, when I’m being creative, you know, I can’t even put my mind there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I visited the studio you work in and you have a cave. You literally sing in a cave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, I do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: My little tee-pee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s a black tarp and then you have a humidifier, keyboard — that’s more or less it. And a ashtray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And a ashtray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Talk about that. Cause it’s unusual — even in the studio, which is in itself an enclosed environment, you have even another enclosed environment. What is that? Talk about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I’m trying to go deep, deep in the onion. I get tired of kicking everybody out the room cause when it’s time for me to do vocals, I’ll kick the engineer out, the assistant and everybody. I’m like, “Get out,” you know. I’ll set the board myself and I’ll have the mic there. What we’ve been doing now is Russ will be in the control room mixing and I’ll be in the live room where we set up the cave — in the live room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I hear that’s how Sly used to do it. You know, he would sit at — that’s one thing Mtume taught me, too, about Sly. Mtume was talking about how Sly would use this thing called the dead zone. Sly wouldn’t even use headphones. You know, he would sit at the board, with the mic and he would position the mic a certain way in between the speakers and there’s a dead zone. So he wouldn’t even put on headphones. And that’s why when you listen to some of that stuff, \u003cem>There’s A Riot Going On\u003c/em>, you hear a lot of hiss and a lot of stuff in there, but that’s what that is. I kinda just borrowed that from him, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Well, talk about — I mean, your vocals are part of your trademark, and they’re falsetto harmonies. Talk about the process of recording. Because it seems like a very sacred process. You have a cave. I mean, you know, you’re not someone who has a bunch of people in the studio. It’s not a party when you record. What is your thoughts about that? Why do you go in that direction? Is it just, you say, the onion? You trying to get in deeper?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s the onion, yeah. You know, you’re putting your voice down on tape — because I still use tape — and you know, it’s about capturing the spirit. It’s about capturing the vibe. And I learned — we all learned a lot working on \u003cem>Voodoo.\u003c/em>\u003cem> \u003c/em>That was such a great time. I’m kinda a first take dude. The first time, cut that mic on and the spirit is there and what comes on the mic — I mean, even if I’m mumbling, I like to keep a lot of that initial thing that comes out. Cause that’s the spirit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I’ve heard some vocalists go in and they don’t have — they have a melody, they don’t have the lyrics. The famous — I think Paul McCartney “Yesterday” was originally “Scrambled Eggs” or whatever ’til he figured out what the words would be. Do you go in with the words or the emotion? I mean, which goes first?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s kind of like the emotion, yeah. And freestyle; you freestyle and mumble s—. And then later, you know, fill in the blanks and make sense out of the mumbles, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So we’re coming to the end of our evening and I want to talk just a little bit about the future. From what I’ve seen of the shows you’ve been doing over the last couple years, obviously you’ve evolved. It’s not the same D’Angelo that people might have seen before. Where do you see yourself going musically? Is it gonna be like — because one of the things that’s interesting about the shows, at the Brooklyn Bowl, for example, it was a completely different audience than I’ve seen you with before. It was a younger audience — way younger — it was a whiter audience —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Than I think people would expect. Do you feel like your future recordings will have a different kind of audience base than even what you’ve had before because you’re in a different place?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Different? I don’t know. I just feel like it’s expanding, you know, and the music itself is expanding. So yeah, I mean, I think that this is a different — it’s just a different generation. Everybody call it the iPod Nation or what have you. But I think there’s less segregation, if you will, of genres. I think more people are welcome to — they don’t give a f— if it’s called this or that. If it’s good, it’s good, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think, are we through?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: OK. A couple more questions from the audience. Oh, this is a good one. If you were not a musician, what would you be?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Goddamn. I’m scared to say it. You know what? Cause everybody back home always thinks that this is what I’m gonna do — that I’ma take the Al Green route. I don’t see it. But I don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You’re gonna join the family business?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I don’t think so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: There’s not gonna be a church of D’Angelo in Richmond — outside of Richmond?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: You know, I’ve always looked at, when I’m on stage, that the stage is my pulpit and when we’re on the music, I mean, when we’re playing and we’re getting the energy back and feeding it to the crowd, and that exchange is happening, that that’s my ministry. I’ve always looked at it like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You grew up in a very — I mean, your father was a Pentecostal preacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You grew up in a very church environment. I mean, is there ever a temptation? I mean, you said not a church but you ever have the temptation to go back and do Christian music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I definitely want to do a quartet album and I’m just —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: A gospel quartet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, nice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I love quartet and those guys are still — I’m still fascinated with that whole world. Before the first European tour, you know, that’s what I did in Richmond. Me, my cousin Marlon, dude that’s in the Vanguard now, Arel, my other cousin — we put together a quartet group and I did a little surprise little thing at this church way up in the woods and it was great, man. It was great. It was funny because we was doing like some real deal quartet gospel, you know. Like, we did a song by, we did a couple songs by The Jubes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-bujno-CYk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pilgrim Jubilees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right. Wow. That’s seriously going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Oh, yeah. And then we ended it with this interpretation — so it went to this Fishbone thing. It’s funny and I told Angelo — I called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Moore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Angelo Moore\u003c/a> and told him about it and he was like, “You did what? What song?” It was —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV5Nkah8nP8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Everyday Sunshine\u003c/a>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No, no, no. It”s on \u003cem>Give A Monkey A Brain\u003c/em>. The funk song. “Propaganda.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEXHot1-04\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The “Propaganda” joint\u003c/a>. So at the end where they go — so we was doing that. And like the church, at first, was really up and s—, then when we went into that, everybody sat down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How much more time do we have, folks?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE FROM AND WITH THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: Forever!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Nah. Hey, Questlove, come back up here, man. I want to end this with a little — cause you said something interesting when I interviewed him before about your process and I’d like to get that. I think that would be a good way to end the evening. When I interviewed you for \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2665186/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Finding The Funk\u003c/a>, you talked about the ways in which playing with him affected and how he affected your drumming. I’d love for you to talk about that now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. If you listen to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3y2aP0B4Ic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dreaming Eyes of Mine\u003c/a>,” on \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> — you know, at the time — it’s funny because the only person I’ve ever heard describe this was the time that we brought Lenny Kravitz in to play and he said the same thing that I thought in the beginning. I was like, “Man, there’s a discrepancy on the kick pattern. It’s really messed up.” But I was kind of obsessed with just how sloppy the kick pattern sounded. And I hit up Bob Power — I was like, “Yo, why did y’all leave it like that? Like, it’s so, like no one cared someone drunk was playing it.” And he said, “No, that’s exactly how he wants it.” I was like, “Really?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which leads to, what I was explaining was when D’Angelo, when he came down to Philadelphia to record on the \u003cem>Illadelph Halflife \u003c/em>album, we had him there for two days because normally like a song should take that long, but we literally knocked out the song on The Roots album in seven hours. Like he’s, his vocal process is — I’ve never seen someone just so instantaneous. It’s like watching someone shoot like 10 half-court shots — not even look at the ball — that’s how effortless it is. So we were done and you know, we had him down for two days so he stayed in Philadelphia. And it was like, “Well, alright, let’s mess around.” That’s when I think we were testing each other to see each other’s knowledge. But there was a song that he had initially planned for \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> called “B—” that — I know right! You remember? Which was the most drunkest — past J. Dilla drunk, drumming I ever heard — programming, so if the pulse is this, the drum pattern was \u003cem>— \u003c/em>It was drunk but it was perfect and it just — I had spent, like you have to understand. Being in a hip-hop band in 1996, like there was a lot of resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: It was still the era of \u003cem>The Chronic\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Ready to Die\u003c/em>; Biggie was happening so, you know, real hip-hop was like, yo, if you ain’t sampling, you ain’t doing nothing. So The Roots, I’d spent four years by that point with a chip on my shoulder like, “I am as meticulous and as quantized and as straight as 12 o’clock. I am a time machine.” And he just basically came in and deprogrammed me. I had a lot of pride in the fact that Premier, Q-Tip would come up and be like, “Yo, you’re like a drum machine.” Like, “You’re so straight,” right? So I was playing like a metronome for him and he was like, “Nah, nah.” Like, “Lay back a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So tell us about that. What is that philosophy of drumming come from? What were you trying — cause you were trying to mess up my man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: See that’s the thing. I’m basically trying to emulate the great hip-hop producers. So if you looking for a break — you look for a sample — and this was before you had, I guess, the technology to speed up or slow down a sample without f—ing with the tempo of it, right? So you had a beat going and you would put a sample over top of that beat. It wouldn’t align perfectly unless you kind of would put it behind. You have to kind of play it a little bit before the beat started so that by the time you got to the end of the four bars, it would align. And in that way, everything was the drunk thing, like you’re saying, you know. I mean, that’s just me kinda trying to emulate Premier and Marley Marl, my favorite hip-hop producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I gotta object. You were past that. I mean, I don’t mean like you were past that level — when people program drums, I mean, you can either have the quantized option on — I’m assuming that some of you aren’t musicians, so when you have a quantized on, you can take 12 shots of Patron, program something and it fixes it for you. Whereas the only two human beings I know that never had the quantize option on was D’Angelo and Dilla. And so both of them single-handedly made me drop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And you gotta understand the way that black musicianship was going, you had to be precise, it was about gospel chops, it was about how many drums you can hit per hour. And I’m in my prime. Like finally getting a little light with the group and then suddenly they want me to just strip down to gutter bucket levels, you know. On the whole \u003cem>Voodoo \u003c/em>record, like I’m playing rim shot. I played snare on one song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcQ83tOZ4Wk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Feel Like Makin Love\u003c/a>.” So he, to me, it was like being told to use the force, in \u003cem>Star Wars \u003c/em>terms. Like, “Just trust me. Keep it in the pocket. Be sloppy as hell and it’s gonna work.” So, I mean, it took me like a month to adjust to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I have both of you here — let’s talk about Soulquarians and what that was. From both of your points of view, what did that collective mean to you and how you think it’s affected music going forward in any way, shape or form. Want to jump on it? Either one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I mean —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Don’t let him talk all the time!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: You right. This is your thing, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Exactly. You start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Alright. To me, Soulquarians was definitely just a collective of like-minded individuals. I remember us being at Electric Lady. I’d be downstairs, Ahmir would be in the room and it was just like a hotbed — everyone would stop by. Everyone knew we was there. So Erykah would stop by or she would be upstairs. Common would be down the hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, he had studio A, Common had studio B, and then up in C would be, you know —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Mos Def.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, either Mos or Kweli or sometimes Bilal. So at any given moment, between 1997 and like 2001, 2002, we literally just took over Electric Lady Studios. And I mean, at one point in ’98 it was just like, it was like sleepovers. We would just sit, watch \u003cem>Soul Train\u003c/em> all night and figure out something, like see a trick that Al Green was doing and then — mostly it was like practicing for the show. It was like, what album can we make, that we can do live for people and then they’ll be like, “Ah! That was amazing!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The main premise was, it’s not gonna just be one group — it’s not gonna be one album that does this, it’s gonna be a movement. It’s gonna be all of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I personally have figured out, at least from The Roots’ standpoint, that any success that’s ever happened in music, happened as a movement, you know. You think you like Stevie Wonder, but no, you like the Motown movement. And then who’s he associated with? I mean, everything that’s had a success is associated with something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Before we close, can we grapple with \u003cem>\u003c/em>neo-soul and whether that’s a valid phrase or was just some PR bulls—. Anybody?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I plead the fifth, really. I’m not touching it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: No, you know, I’ll say this much. I’m not — cause I hate documentaries in which like, you know, they’ll coin a term and then you see a bunch of people that are a part of that movement kind of like disassociate themselves with it. I mean, none of us — who came up? Was it \u003ca href=\"http://www.kedar.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kedar\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Kedar. Are you here, Kedar?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yo, this is like \u003ca href=\"http://www.thisisyourlife.com/tiyl.html?id_tiyl=0523TL681065\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>This Is Your Life\u003c/em>\u003c/a>! Everybody’s in here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Where are you Kedar? Can you please stand up? Ke!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: That’s amazing. Everybody’s here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: So he coined the phrase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I think Kedar coined the phrase. But I don’t think —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>:\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Was this a valid phrase or was this something that was bogus? What do you feel about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I never want to go on record disassociating myself from something or think I was above it. Cause usually when people do that, they’re really passive aggressively trying to say, “Well, I’m better than that person that you associated me with.” I think at the end of the day, it’s like the individual collective have made their mark and their stamp in history and more importantly, what I want him to understand — because the problem with the bubble thing, is that sometimes you’re unaware of the effects of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like he’s totally amazed at the fact, when I bring him news of like who’s — the fact that \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> is still rippling, like the effects of it are rippling and spreading and people are now, there’s a whole other audience that’s into it, you know. When we did the Bonnaroo thing together a year-and-a-half ago, and saw the audience, it was like, there’s a new generation of people that are on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we weren’t necessarily card-carrying members with a flag on it, but I do think that it was definitely something in the air between ’97 to like 2003. And I don’t think it’s anything to scoff or disassociate yourself from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, and I agree with you. I don’t think I want to disassociate or anything — and respect it for what it is and all that. But I will say this that, you know, anytime you put a name on something that you kind of, you just put it in a box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: It’s the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: You put it in a box. Right. So, I think the main thing about the whole neo-soul thing — not to put it down or it was a bad thing or anything — but you don’t — you want to be in a position where you can grow, as an artist. You never want to be told, “Hey, well, you don’t do, you’re not doing what you did on \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>,” you know. Cause like right now, I’m not — we’re going some place else. And so going, “Well, damn, you a neo-soul artist. Why don’t you do neo-soul?” And I never claimed that. I never claimed I do neo-soul, you know. I used to say — when I first came out — I used to always say, “I do black music. I make black music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: And you also have to understand that when \u003cem>Voodoo \u003c/em>came out, that was — at one point in history, that was a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. Like it sounded — it’s weird now because it’s in our DNA, but when it came out, there were a lot of people that were like, “Whoa! This sounds like an acid trip or something! What are you guys doing?” Now it sounds normal — especially compared to unmentionable, unspoken third record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I think I just killed the interview. I’m sorry! Thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So how are we doing, guys, on time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: Good! Great! Don’t stop!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Alright, we’ve had a quorum and we’ve decided we’re finished. So, Ahmir Thompson and —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Before we end, I just want to thank all of y’all for coming and for showing your love and support, really, it means so much. Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the heart. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. 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"excerpt": "In a conversation with author Nelson George at the Brooklyn Museum, the elusive singer and songwriter spoke on his idols, his process and his teenage years, and hinted at a new album.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>On Wednesday night in Brooklyn the elusive singer and songwriter, who hasn’t released an album in almost 15 years and performs rarely, sat down in front of 500 people in the auditorium of a museum and thousands of people listening online. So hungry were fans of D’Angelo that at one point in the evening the hashtag \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&q=%23askdangelo%20&src=typd\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#AskDAngelo\u003c/a> was trending Number 1 on Twitter in New York City.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Angelo did field questions, from author \u003ca href=\"http://nelsondgeorge.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Nelson George\u003c/a>, and from Twitter, but he didn’t exactly open up. It doesn’t even seem intentional, the way he holds a part of himself in reserve. He just doesn’t find himself particularly fascinating, although remembering his teenage self cracks him up, and in stories about his recording process he spoke about withdrawing so that he can produce the music he wants to. He called it “trying to go deep, deep in the onion.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>D’Angelo told us of making a private room within a room when he’s recording vocals. He used the word tee-pee. And he tied himself to R&B musicians who’ve also been called eccentric. “Mtume was talking about how Sly would use this thing called the dead zone,” said D. “Sly wouldn’t even use headphones. You know, he would sit at the board, with the mic, and he would position the mic a certain way in between the speakers.” That was the second time D’Angelo brought up Sly Stone. The first time he told us he’d recently heard Sly’s new songs, which use AutoTune, and hinted at a forthcoming duet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hinting was a theme of the evening. D stuck his tongue out when he recalled the song he sang to win \u003cem>Showtime at the Apollo\u003c/em> as a teenager, Johnny Gill’s “\u003ca href=\"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUvtlmlBbDg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rub You The Right Way\u003c/a>.” Questlove, who intermittently climbed on stage, called D’Angelo’s current work the “unmentionable, unspoken third record.” George kept calling it “the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There is an almost visible tension around the possibility of a new album from D’Angelo. It’s been rising for a few years, through European dates, occasional U.S. appearances, studio clips. It informed Red Bull Academy’s booking of him and laid heavy over the opening minutes of this week’s public interview. But then the nervy feeling receded. Or, suddenly, something else mattered more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The shift happened about 15 minutes in. Nelson George said the words “Richmond, Va.” and shouts went up. D reacted directly to those people — “Uh, oh. Richmond in the house. What’s up!” — and then we were part of their conversation. Moments later D’Angelo cursed for the first time. We laughed at the fact of that, the fact of him, and he thought we were all hilarious. He laughed open-throated and familiarly with us, and relief and recognition swept from the stage and over the seats: we were among friends.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Listen to the conversation in full above, read the transcript below, or watch video \u003ca href=\"http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/dangelo-lecture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">at Red Bull Music Academy’s site\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>NELSON GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s start talking about guitar playing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What’s up, Brooklyn? How y’all doing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the big changes from the D’Angelo people -– for me — was from before to where you are now, musically, is you’ve added guitar to your music — you became a guitar player. Can you talk about how that happened and how that’s affected what you do?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, I played guitar before. I was playing a little bit on \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> — a couple of songs, “Left and Right” and some songs. But I think during the \u003cem>V\u003c/em>\u003cem>oodoo \u003c/em>recording, recording the album, I –- we were at Electric Lady, so Jimi Hendrix was a big influence and just a big spirit in the place, in the building.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve always wanted to — I feel like my style on piano, because piano’s my main instrument, so I feel like I always wanted to — on piano, I was always emulating the guitar and bass. I can play bass. I didn’t play much guitar. I played a lot of keyboards, but I really wanted to produce the sound that was in my head that I was trying to emulate on the keys. I wanted to do it for real.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And it makes me look at the keys in a different way. So it’s like I’m looking at the guitar and bass more like meat and potatoes and keys like coloring over top of it, you know. I guess that’s where I’m at right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://jessejohnson.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jesse Johnson\u003c/a> played a role in this, though, didn’t he?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, he did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Those of you know, Jesse Johnson, guitar player with The Time; solo artist in his own right. Before we go further –- please, no photography! Thank you! No phone pictures. Some big, ugly man may come looking for you if you have them. So, just be aware that that’s prohibited. As we were saying — Jesse Johnson.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, Jesse. Shortly after\u003cem> Voodoo\u003c/em>, I got in touch with Jesse through \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/john-mcclain-mn0001740224/credits\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John McClain\u003c/a> and — actually through Alan, \u003ca href=\"http://prince.org/msg/7/171968\">Alan Leeds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Just the instant kinship, you know. When I first talked to him on the telephone — and we talked for years on the telephone before we actually met — I was just struck. I even had to say it to him. I was like, “Man, you sound just like my brother.” Like he just, his voice and his vernacular, he sounds just like my oldest brother, Luther. So I just really felt, like, a kinship with him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We finally met at \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/95031938/raphael-saadiq\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Raphael\u003c/a>‘s studio in Cali — in Blakeslee. He came through, and first thing he did was gave me a couple of guitars. Gave me a Minarik, the black Minarik that I play now and he gave me one of his guitars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You have a pink one, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes. That was one of his. He’s actually \u003ca href=\"http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/416JDIRJhML._SL290_.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">holding it\u003c/a> on the \u003cem>Shockadelica \u003c/em>album — the pink Fender Invader.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Working with him, how did that begin to evolve your playing? How did that affect how you —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I mean, obviously I’m sitting with him shedding, you know. We went out and did a couple of shows in Europe. Before then just sitting with him, he’s showing me things, I’m asking him questions and asking him about, you know, everything. Prince.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right, Prince questions, I’m sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It gets a little hairy because The Time and the Prince — that feud was very real. But, you know, there’s no love lost. He still speaks with a high love and respect for Prince. And I’m just like a sponge. I’m just trying to soak everything in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So, I saw the tapes of your tour in Europe and then I’ve seen you play here in the States. And it does seem like what you’re doing now and where you’re going musically for the future, the guitar and the idea of that -– it’s much more prominent. Like, I feel more rock and more funk in what you’re doing now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it’s a natural progression for me. Honestly, I just feel like that’s where it’s going. The thing with me is, about that — about rock and all that — years and years of crate-digging, listening to old music, you kind of start to connect the dots. And I was seeing the thread that was connecting everything together, which is pretty much the blues. And everything soul or funk kind of starts with that. That’s kind of like the nucleus of everything, thread that holds everything together. And so it’s kind of just a natural progression.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I remember I seen you open for Mary J. Blige maybe a year ago? A year-and-a-half ago? And it was an interesting dichotomy in the audience that — there’s the music you played on the piano that was familiar, and that, like, the Mary J. Blige crowd particularly, cause that’s a adult black crowd, was into — and then there was where you going now. You’re going in a much — I would say funk-rock direction, maybe, or something like that. And so, I think one of the things that’s gonna be interesting as we go forward with your music is there’s a transition that’s happened in you creatively that the audience is gonna have to be prepared for.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I would say so. I think so. A couple of shows that we did, \u003ca href=\"http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-09-14/entertainment/chi-mary-j-blige-and-dangelo-concert-review-dangelo-at-united-center-reviewed-20120914_1_mary-j-blige-empty-prayers-d-angelo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we opened up for Mary\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/07/09/156494248/essence-in-new-orleans-a-festival-that-knows-its-audience\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">we did Essence Festival\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: We did —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: \u003ca href=\"http://www.bet.com/video/betawards/2012/performances/dangelo.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The BET Awards\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I did the BET Awards, right. But we did like a, we did \u003ca href=\"http://www.soulbeach.net/2013/index.php/9-uncategorised/71-soul-beach-music-festival-aruba-2013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a Sinbad thing in Aruba\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, you did the boat ride?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. Well, something like that. I don’t know. So it was a lot of like, R&B, soul thing going on, which is great. But definitely, we’re looking to the future here. I don’t know if people were really expecting what they got from us, because we did a lot of new material and, you know, I think there was a lot of, like, kind of confusion — a lot of confused looks on certain people’s faces. And then, on other people’s faces, they were really receiving what we were doing. But I love that. I love — if it’s confusing at first, that’s a good thing for me; that’s a good sign.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: From what I got, you wouldn’t necessarily want to — where you’re going now is where you are and you were not like, unnecessarily having to — you don’t want to be a nostalgia act, I guess, in a sense, is what I’m saying. That you’re looking forward. I remember when \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3woHfDKTjqU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">you played Bonnaroo, with The Roots\u003c/a>, you were doing, “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.” You were doing some Beatles covers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think that that was pretty radical. People weren’t expecting that. The Beatles, is that, as we look forward, is that what we’re gonna be hearing more of — that kind of approach?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know who was not influenced by them. And the thing about them and they were the masters of, were — and I say Prince, too, I love how Prince would do it — how all these interesting, different, eccentric ideas, but they were able to fit it in a simple pop format. That could be considered formulaic, or whatever. But to be able to fit all of that and your vision into this simple format, whether it be a pop song or it’s a 12-bar blues or whatever — I think that’s the challenge. And they were the best at it. They were the best.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the things that’s interesting — you had, everyone remembers Soulquarian, was that how we pronounce it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Soulquarians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And now, your band now, you call them the Vanguard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What is a vanguard and tell me about what that represents for your music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Vanguard is definitely an evolution; my last band being the Soultronics. And the Soulquarians was, I guess, the collective of all of us. But yeah, the Vanguard is just the progression of that. We’re not the Soultronics. It’s a different band. I think it’s a louder band, it’s a harder band. It’s more guitars, definitely, so it’s definitely more rock, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: When you played with Mary, you had a lot of — I remember asking you like, “Where’d you find these musicians?” And you said you found them in a church. A lot of the younger guys were —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, the younger guys. Yeah, definitely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So that still is the motherload where you find the great black musicians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. I mean, the thing about the church is, what I learned early — they used to say this when I was going to church. They used to say, “Don’t go up there for no form or fashion.” So I guess what that means is, “Listen, we’re up here singing for the Lord. So don’t be up here trying to be cute,” you know. “Cause we don’t care about all that. We just want to feel what you, you know, and what the spirit is moving through you.” And it’s the best place to learn that. So you shut yourself down and you let whatever’s coming, come through you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The guys that were singing with me, the Lumzys, the Lumzy brothers —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: The Lumzy brothers, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. One of ’em I met in Richmond. I put a little quartet group together, quartet gospel group together, and he was playing drums. So I brought him along, and he brought his cousins who sing, came up in the quartet tradition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s interesting because in the quartet tradition — it’s like a dying art form.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it is.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I don’t know the last time there was a significant, young, black harmony group, it’s been a long time. So you found most of these guys in Richmond? A lot of the younger guys?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The younger guys, yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s talk about Richmond, Va. Not a place —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Uh oh. Richmond in the house. What’s up?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Richmond, Va., is not seen as a musical hotbed. However —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, however —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Come on. Explain it, explain it. Tell me about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s not, because I don’t know how many – there’re not really a lot of cats there — from there — that made it really big. I mean, y’all know of Major Harris.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttbsYCM3lgU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Love Won’t Let Me Wait\u003c/a>,” anybody?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Soul music fans in the house?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The singer of The Delfonics. He’s definitely from Richmond. I mean, you know, it’s a couple of motherf—ers, but not really. You know what? It wasn’t nothing down there. And the funny thing about it is that, it was all this talent. It’s, like, mad talent down there. Like, when I was coming up — when I was little — my whole thing was I wanted to just be big enough to be in a band, because they used to have battle of the bands all the time down there. And it was a big deal, you know. It was a whole bunch of local talent, but nobody never really crossed that threshold.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Also there’s a — you were telling me there’s a rock tradition there that people don’t know about — don’t think about in Richmond. What bands you talking about?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Wow, well, yeah, it’s a big punk scene in Richmond — always has been — D.C. area and Richmond, big time. Lot of heavy metal heads in Richmond. Where I had to move — when I started going to high school, I moved from Richmond to, there’s a county outside of Richmond called Chesterfield, but that’s where \u003ca href=\"http://www.lamb-of-god.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lamb of God\u003c/a>, that’s where they’re from. \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/slipknot\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Slipknot\u003c/a>, they’re from Chesterfield. So it’s a big rock scene down there, big time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So in the past you’ve talked a lot about your church background, but I wanted to jump to another aspect of your development, which is — a lot of people don’t know that you were in a hip-hop band, hip-hop group. And the group is pictured here. The group was called I.D.U.: Intelligent, Deadly, but Unique.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So talk about what you were doing at that particular point in your development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I just moved from Richmond to Chesterfield and that’s when I was MCing back then. I was a MC. I was pretty f—ing good, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You don’t say that if you’re not gonna bust a rhyme.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No! Hell no. That was a long time ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: There are apparently some tracks floating around the Internet of I.D.U. somewhere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I.D.U. s— was for real, man. We weren’t no joke. And it was I.D.U. Productions, so we was a production crew, you know. What y’all laughing at?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Were you the hook singer?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: At first. But I was really like co-producer, and that was the whole thing. When I moved from Richmond to Chesterfield, the first brothers that I really hooked up with was the leader of the group, Brian Trent. And I was, what? I was a freshman, coming to high school, he was a senior. And the other producer for the group, we called him Baby Fro; his name was Ron Flowers. So he was the DJ. His father DJed for years and years and years, so his house was a record store. And those records were kept in pristine condition. We’d be over there all — that’s where I really went to school. That was like Hip-hop and Music 101 for me. It was the first time I learned about \u003ca href=\"http://www.themeters.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Meters\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/album/band-of-gypsys-mw0000650248\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Band of Gypsys\u003c/a> and all that s—. You know, when you’re listening to records strictly to find samples, looking for break beats — and then I stopped listening to records for break beats and instead of just skimming through it looking for a break beat, I’m listening to the whole record, you know what I mean? And so that’s when I started.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Obviously you had church training, but this was one of your key musical educations in terms of the sweep of music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes. Up until that point — I mean, I rhymed, you know, but my main musical love was Prince. That was it. I started to learn about \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/MicrophoneCheck/2013/09/11/221440934/marley-marl-on-the-bridge-wars-ll-cool-j-and-discovering-sampling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marley Marl\u003c/a> and all those cats. It just opened my whole world up, really.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s an interesting story because this band, I.D.U., they ended up coming to New York and trying to get a deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And the story goes that people would go, “Eh, it’s alright. Who produced the track?” That people were already seeing in these tracks that you made early on with this band that there was something there. And Jocelyn Cooper, who ended up —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Hi, Jocelyn!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Jocelyn Cooper who was then — who now helps run the \u003ca href=\"http://afropunkfest.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Afropunk Festival\u003c/a> — but then was, worked at a music publishing company, Warner/Chappell, right? Midnight Music, excuse me. That you came up to — she tells a story about you coming in and you played —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I walked in with a suit. I had a, like a two-piece. We were walking in Manhattan and we just came from Norfolk and I just really, I just knew that this was the shot. This was my shot. And I was hellbent on getting the suit. I wanted to walk in there with a suit. Bought brand new church shoes and s—. Never walked the streets of Manhattan before. Got to the office and I met Jocelyn Cooper who was just like, ah, like the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Aw.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s true. And it was, you know, woopty, woopty, woop and all that. I had to, “Where’s your bathroom? Can I go to the bathroom for a second, please?” I know they kept wondering why I kept going to the bathroom cause I had to take those shoes off, man. My feet were f—ing hurting. But, you know, that’s where it started. I sat there. I played like — I was just like a jukebox. They would name out a song and I’d play it and sing it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Well she says you played a Jodeci — Jocelyn, if I’m wrong, correct me. You played a Jodeci song, you played a gospel song and you played a Miles Davis song.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So what I go back to is — how old are you at this point?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I was 17.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So the range of music that you had some access to is, for a 17-year-old from Richmond, Va., is pretty impressive. Did that go back to — is that the DJ thing? That you were able to expand your horizon through that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Not really. I just, I been playing piano since I was three. And I’d always wanted to just get some more jazz chops. You know what? I studied for two years when I was like 12 or 13, classical music. The classical teacher that I was with, she kinda got hip to me because she would play a song once and I would come back the next week and play it all perfect. But I still wasn’t really reading. And when she got hip to the fact that my ear was that good, she was like, “I’ma send you to this guy,” named Russell somebody, who worked at VCU and taught music theory. So I went to the guy Russell and took a music theory class and, you know, he was like, “I can’t do nothing with you. You don’t need theory. You already know theory. You already know it. So I’m gonna pass you to this guy at VCU.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: In Virginia?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: In Virginia, who still taught at VCU. It was Ellis Marsalis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Wynton’s father.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Who was still teaching at VCU. And I went and auditioned for Ellis Marsalis and James Moody, matter of fact. James Moody was up there. I was like 13, 14. And got on the piano and I played, I played an Anita Baker song cause it was the jazziest song I could think of. So I played Anita Baker and, you know, they were impressed, and they were like, “Oh, that’s great, young blood.” “Wow,” I was like, “Are you gonna teach me? Do I get to, you know?” And he was like, “Nah, I’m getting ready to leave.” So he was getting ready to leave that year and go teach back in New Orleans, so I never got a chance to really get any jazz training or what have you, like that. But I always felt like that was a good thing that I didn’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Because it would have changed my whole style. It would have changed my whole style of playing. It just wasn’t meant to be, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Rhere was another band that you were involved in that I wanted to get at. Because there’s — in researching for this interview, I learned a bunch of stuff that I hadn’t been aware of. So you were, after Intelligent, Deadly, but Unique, you then —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I.D.U.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You had another band, which was Michael Archer and Precise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So this is after–\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s before, it’s before I.D.U., actually. Precise —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, OK. So you guys, I mean, what I didn’t know is that you actually won Apollo Amateur night a couple of times.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, I did. We used to do a lot of gigs — a lot of shows. Not gigs, but shows. Talent shows, you know, whatever, in Richmond. And it was this big, big talent show they used to have every year. It was huge for the high school kids and s—. And there was a school that was in North Side — I’m from South Side — so then there’s North side. Anybody know anything about Virginia, North Side and South Side do not get along. Like there’s always been beef, right? Even if it’s playful. Anyway, all the great kids and all the great talent went to this one school, Kennedy High School. They had a great musical director there and they would have this big, big talent show that they would have every year at — and they would have it at the mosque. Like that was the big — the mosque in Richmond, everyone performed at the mosque. So it was a huge deal and they would sell tickets and everything. The place would be f—ing packed. And I did the talent show, I guess two years before. But this one year, I got everything together. We got the Precise together, we went there and we tore the roof off, man, really. I was what? I was 16. I was 16 and tore the roof off and from there I got the chance to go to the Apollo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What was Precise? I mean, what was it? How many pieces? Tell me what kind of group was it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it was me and my cousin, Marlon, who played drums. My other cousin, Regina, was on keyboards, and I had my other cousin singing background.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It was a family band, in other words.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Almost. And then I had two other background singers. They were both named Nikki — Nikki T., Nikki C.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So was that your first trip to New York — the Apollo gigs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That was my first trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What do you, tell me about that experience of going up. You’re 16, Amateur Night at the Apollo from Virginia — how was that?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It was surreal. It was amazing. The first time I went, it was sponsored by this whole thing called Kemet Productions. So we would get in the bus from Richmond and get on the highway and it would be a whole bunch of talent on the bus or whatever. And so the people that were in charge, like, I mean, you know, they were kinda trying to tell everybody what to do. “You should sing this song. You should sing a Luther Vandross song. You have a Luther Vandross type of tone.” Or, “Don’t sing a gospel song! They’ll boo you!” Type of s— like that. And you know, I had my mind set on singing \u003ca href=\"http://peabobryson.net/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Peabo Bryson\u003c/a>. I was like, “I’m singing Peabo Bryson.” And they were like, “Don’t sing that song. Please don’t sing that song. They gonna boo you off the stage.” And they had me at the last minute, I was trying to switch the song up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyway, long story short, you know, I rubbed the log or whatever and the girl that goes out right before me sings a gospel song, right, a gospel song. And they booed the s— out of it, man. Like, it was no sympathy. They was so cold-blooded. And she walked off the stage crying. “Alright, young blood, you’re next!” I rubbed the log. And the MC comes out, he’s like, “Yeah, so we got this kid. He’s from way down, deep down South.” “Boo!” Like, I didn’t even walk out on the stage. Long story short, I won them over and, you know, I placed and then I got the opportunity to come back. When I came back, I did my own background music, I did my own background vocals. I was like, “No, I’m not doing no Luther Vandross or nothing. I’m gonna do some up-tempo s—.” And you know, whatever. I won first place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: What song? You did an original song of yours?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No. I did “Rub You The Right Way” by Johnny Gill.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the interesting things about your career, speaking of, is that you’ve been really great at interpreting classic material, soul music. And part of the reason I think you attracted so many people to you was that you have a connection to that past. So I want to play one of my favorite D’Angelo covers, and that’s, well, we’ll just play it. Play the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfyJbXn01HM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eddie Kendricks song\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Now, you’ve had many interesting collaborators. And one of the ones that probably people don’t know about, a person who was actually a mentor to me as well, \u003ca href=\"http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com/magazine/mtume-interview\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the great Mtume\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, sir.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Mtume’s pedigree is pretty long. Just break it down, he played with Miles during his electric period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: He went on to become one of the top singer-songwriters, wrote all of Stephanie Mills’ hits, Roberta Flack hits, and then had —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Solo success. “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MucY5wRYByU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Juicy Fruit\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: One of the most sampled records in hip-hop history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And also a super political person — was on KISS Radio for years doing morning show. So a very diverse and powerful man. He helped you produce this track, didn’t he?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, yeah, he did. He produced the song for \u003cem>Get On The Bus\u003c/em> soundtrack. And I think, yeah, he was doing like a lot of those dope covers. At that time, he had just did —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, \u003cem>New York Undercover. \u003c/em>He was the song guy for \u003cem>New York Undercover\u003c/em>. He did all those covers on the show.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right, and he had just did the cover of Bobby Womack’s — \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: “If You Think You’re Lonely Now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: “If You Think You’re Lonely Now,” right. \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sm87OgZU0cU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wrote it for K-Ci\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: For K-Ci, right. We’re name-checking Jocelyn a lot here, but she gets name-checked again — that he was doing — you told me a story about him doing, he was doing music or songwriting seminars?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, yeah. He was involved with Midnight Songs, definitely. And Jocelyn would have these workshops. So all of the writers on her roster would come to the workshop and James Mtume would really be holding court, you know. And he would literally have like a chalkboard, he’d really be going through it, you know, talking about songwriting and song structure, theory, whatever — blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And you weren’t the best student, I hear?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Jocelyn, she used to always be mad at me because I never would come. I never would come to the music shops. “You oughta come! Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: But you finally did show up one time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I did come. Yeah, I did come. I was jammin’ — cause I wanted to jam with \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu9QH71YKQw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Rob Bacon\u003c/a>, who was, you know, a guitar, the funk guitar player from Detroit. But Mtume was awesome. He was one of those cats in the early days that really, really gave me a lot of confidence and let me know that I could do it, you know? I remember at the end of recording \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, I don’t know, I had like a mental block where I couldn’t finish. There was, I couldn’t nail this line on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBB8valskCQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lady\u003c/a>.” And then there was this line on “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAfuUZRou7g\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Cruisin’\u003c/a>” that I couldn’t nail. And Mtume was at the studio when I did those vocals and kinda coached me through it, you know. And he’s just a great guy, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Absolutely.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: He’s great, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Speaking of collaborators and mentors and that combination, one of the people you’re most associated with, you know, is Questlove from The Roots. I don’t think I need to introduce him. Questlove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What’s up, brother?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You did these shows, I saw the show you did at Brooklyn Bowl maybe a year ago, whatever, where you guys — it was just the two of you on stage. And it was, to me, it was a beautiful experience, musically, and the chemistry you guys had together — talk about how you guys met and the musical bond you guys share.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I call him Ahmir. He’s always gonna be Ahmir to me. He’s Questlove but that’s Ahmir. That’s my brother. I met him shortly after \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>came out. I think I’d just stopped touring for a second and they was doing a show at the House of Blues. They were opening for The Fugees. So it was Goodie Mob, The Roots and The Fugees. And so, you know, Cee-Lo was there killing and then here come The Roots. And it was the first time I’d seen them live and, you know, I had just got off the road and I was pretty bummed out because the drummer that I wanted, who was the house drummer at The Apollo, Ralph Rolle —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, Ralph Rolle, sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I wanted — he was my drummer for the first couple of shows and then he didn’t want to tour. So I was bummed out for the rest of the shows. I feel like I did not have the drummer that I wanted and I was searching for a drummer. I went through a whole bunch of drummers during that time. Abe Fogle was one of my drummers. \u003ca href=\"http://omarhakim.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Omar Hakim\u003c/a>, who was with Weather Report, he was one of my drummers at the time. And I just couldn’t find it. So, anyway, at the show, seeing Ahmir — he knew I was there. I don’t know how.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: I knew! \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Where are you at, man? So, OK. He always tells this story. See, you should tell the story, cause you tell it better than I do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, NOW ON STAGE\u003c/strong>: OK, at the risk of overexposure, cause I know people are tired of hearing me talking, I promise to keep this under two minutes. I had met — you had first walked in when The Roots were mixing our \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Do You Want More?!!!??!\u003c/em> record. And Bob — at Battery Studios — and engineer Bob Power, who was working on the \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> record, was like, “Yo, you gotta meet this kid. He’s the next …” You know, he named every — “He’s the next Sam Cooke. He’s the next Donny Hathaway. He’s the next …” you know, and I had such a Nazi attitude towards like R&B at that time, I just thought, “Ah, whatever.” And he walked in, and I was dismissive. I was like, “Ah, whatever.” And Bob’s like, “No. There’s a song called ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kfd5UZnGAi0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">S—, Damn, Motherf—er\u003c/a>.’ You gotta play on it.” And I was, you know, and I was so dismissive. You know, he came in, I look, alright, it’s a R&B dude. I’m cool.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so I had had gotten the \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>sampler when I left the Source Awards — the second Source awards — that one where Suge Knight was like, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpgpS3ogvMM\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All in the video, all in the —\u003c/a>“. I always consider that day to be hip-hop’s funeral. And the only saving grace was — so at the time when Snoop is on stage yelling, “Y’all don’t love us. Y’all don’t …” I grab my date and I was like, “Yo, we out.” Cause I knew it was gonna be like a war going on. So I ran in the lobby and as I was running, some guy just ran up to me and says, “Here!” I look and it’s D’Angelo, \u003cem>\u003c/em>\u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, and I put it in my pocket and I ran out. And I don’t know what made me do it, but I listened to it and I thought, “Ah, I done f—ed up now.” Like, I did. I thought like, “Yo. This is our savior.” Like, I knew. So I basically spent — that was May of ’95. So I spent the entire year trying to figure out how to strategically get within his sight so that I can atone for my sins of being dismissive that day. And that moment came April 1, 1996. So, it was April Fools’ Day; Marvin Gaye day. You and Erykah — you had just met Erykah that day, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Nah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Well you knew of her.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: We were there together, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Right. So y’all recorded the duet, that, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQNMAadLnLE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Heaven Must Have Sent You\u003c/a>.” Y’all recorded that earlier at \u003ca href=\"http://www.marvins-room.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Marvin’s studio\u003c/a>. And that night, you, both of y’all came to the House of Blues. So I met both of y’all the same night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I knew he was in the audience. And I thought, “OK. I could either sabotage our show right now …” Like, “Either I can audition for him, or I can make it smooth running.” Because I’m not saying there’s a band rivalry going on between the three, but it was like we were all trying to kill each other in \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2013/08/21/214145432/the-blast-radius-of-kendrick-lamars-control-verse\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">that Kendrick Lamar rivalry way\u003c/a>. Like, you know, by this point, we’re in L.A. Soul Train Awards. Everybody’s in the house. You see TLC up there, you see all these notable celebrities, and The Roots could have either stuck to the script or — it was such a moment, I thought, “I gotta audition for him.” And, in the auditioning for D’Angelo, I decided to play in a style that The Roots were not accustomed to. So the sort of — the preview of that drunken \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J_Dilla\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dilla\u003c/a> style that we perfected for \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>, I thought, “OK. This is what I’m gonna do.” And everyone’s looking at me like, “What are you doing? Why are you playing so …?” And so there was this moment where I was like, “God, I don’t have him yet,” and I decided to do — there’s a song — there’s a side Prince project called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madhouse_(band)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Madhouse\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Madhouse, right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: There’s an introductory song called “Four.” So I was like, “Alright. I’ma see what language he speaks.” It was some African communication drum thing. And I did it and he instantly — he was like, “Yeah!” Like he just — that’s how I met him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: True story. True story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think I’ll move ahead. I was gonna do this later, but let’s talk about \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>. Since he’s in the house — one of the things that a lot of people think is that Questlove produced \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, NOW BACK IN THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: No!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: OK. I know, and that’s what we’re doing here. But a lot of people do think that, by the way. So I guess the question I have — I want to talk a little bit about the creative genesis of that album. We were talking earlier about Roy Hargrove played a key role. Talk about the genesis of that album.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, wow. Me and Ahmir met. After that night, they were doing, y’all were doing \u003cem>Illadelph Halflife\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: [off mic]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right, right, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JC9twfHSiR8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Hypnotic\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So for those who didn’t hear and the people who are listening online, what Ahmir just said is that the last cut on the \u003cem>Illadelphia\u003c/em> album —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Went into the first cut of \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>. Literally, wow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: And what does that mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: What does that mean?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah. What does that mean, musically?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I think what it means is that, you know it’s like musical kin. It’s kind of like being separated at birth and then y’all meet when you’re 22. And you be like, “Damn, you my brother.” That’s basically what it was like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was doing \u003cem>Space Jam\u003c/em> soundtrack. And so the concept of the song was the real NBA players against, you know, the monster. Hence the basketball references in “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COix3dndSfk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Playa Playa\u003c/a>.” So that was the first song we did. When we got together, we at The Hit Factory. And we just was like nuttin’ off, like two little kids in the toy store.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You want to play that track for a minute?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah. Hell yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: From \u003cem>Voodoo, \u003c/em>“Playa Playa.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Questlove.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So a landmark album. It’s got some — the mood of it is really significantly different from your first album. Talk about the evolution from the first one to the second one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: OK. Just about the entirety of the first album, \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>, I wrote it, the majority of that record in my bedroom in Richmond. And all of the demos for it were done on a four-track in my bedroom. I think EMI was a little leery of me being in the studio producing it on my own, which is what I was fighting for. So it was important for them that I go in with someone, an engineer. Everyone was trying to pick like, “You should get Prince’s engineer, or somebody else,” and I picked Bob Power because of my love for Tribe and what they were doing. And it was the best, it was the best thing to do. He was so awesome. He taught me a lot. All of the demos that I had basically before we even set foot in the studio — we were at Bob Power’s house for like three months like going over every detail, tweaking every high hat, every symbol, you name it. And so, when we went into the studio to record, I mean, it was really like, in my opinion, I felt like — after it was done, I loved it. But there were certain songs that I felt it lost something between the demo version and all of the production that went into it. I felt like it lost — like it got a little homogenized, in my opinion, for me, at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You mean just sonically, it was too clean? You need a little dirtier?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No clean but — I wouldn’t use the word clean — but what’s the word? Buttery? I think it’s the best. Yeah, buttery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So you were looking to, you wanted to eliminate the margarine and the butter?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: There you go. So I was like — yeah, straight from the cow to the glass, you know. And that’s what \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> was; it really was that. We were in the studio and i wanted everything to feel like the demo. I wanted everything to feel like the demo. So that was the first thing. And then it was, too, more working with musicians. We were doing a lot of — me and Ahmir would be in there just really, like I said, nuttin’ off like kids. For hours and we would just keep the tape rolling. And we’d be in that live room with absolutely no, really no intent of writing or recording anything — we would just be playing. We would be playing, playing for hours. The whole time the tape is rolling. And then something would come up. We would doodle and then Ahmir would go, “Whoa, whoa! What’s that? Yo, Russ! Rewind it! Rewind the tape!” So Russ Elevado would rewind it, we would listen to it again and boom, there’s a new song. And then, you know, a lot of it was one take, you know what I mean? We would go in there — so that was a different thing from \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>that was because I was doing everything myself at first.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, for me, I think it was two major elements — or three major elements. Ahmir being there. I think after me and Ahmir did “Playa,” I did a duet with B.B. King. I brought Ahmir with me to the session because it was my intention of doing a cover of — Johnny “Guitar” Watson had just died — he had just died right before the B.B. King session and it was my intention to do a cover of “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g4DO6co0II\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Superman Lover\u003c/a>.” So I brought Ahmir with me and you know, we get there, we can’t do Johnny “Guitar” Watson because they have to be B.B. King songs. But I was in search, I was desperately seeking a \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/james-jamerson-mn0000123578\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">James Jamerson\u003c/a> aficionado or a James Jamerson — I even sought out his son.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right; James Jamerson, Jr.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: James Jamerson, Jr. And I was looking for someone who could really give me that and boom, I found him at the B.B. King session: \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pino_Palladino\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pino Palladino\u003c/a>. That and from the \u003cem>Brown Sugar \u003c/em>days, I’d always been dying — we had a mutual friend who kind of turned me on to his music and I used to listen to it a lot and I just loved his tone and been dying to work with \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/15291267/roy-hargrove\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Roy Hargrove\u003c/a>. And we reached out and so I think those elements right there — that was it, man. That was the recipe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, Pino Palladino, he’s been with you ever since. He’s still with you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, he is. Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How do you work — I mean, obviously Ahmir and you guys have this bond — cause you play so many instruments, I’m really curious how you weave in other musicians. You said a certain way you want to play it. Do you have them play exactly what you played? How much are they able to put themselves in?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: They follow — I’ll set the structure, or what have you. Whatever, however you want to call it. And then we follow that to a certain degree, but I do give them license to interpret it, you know. I mean, once you — when you working with musicians of that caliber, you can trust them to interpret it any way. Like Roy, I would just play it for Roy and let him just do what he does. And he would make the arrangements, do the horn arrangements, all right there. He’s incredible. He’s f—ing incredible, man. And Pino pretty much would follow what I wrote, you know, for the structure of the song and then add his own interpretations in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Speaking of the blues, it seems to me that one of the tracks that really is powerful with you from that era is “Devil’s Pie,” and we talked about those — but it’s a blues song to you, isn’t it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, it’s kinda like a blues song. I would say the spirit of the vocals was more like chain gang, or like the feel of the slaves, the field slaves in the field picking whatever the f— master had us picking and that’s what we’d be singing while we picking in the hot f—ing sun. I mean, that’s kind of where I was going with it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Let’s get a little hit from “Devil’s Pie,” from \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Thank you.\u003cem>\u003c/em> Shout-out to Premier for lacing that. It’s crazy. Preemo.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So we had a Twitter #AskDAngelo, and here’s a question: “Just learned you wrote Black Men United’s anthem, ‘\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=poAVDRa0DFY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U Will Know\u003c/a>.’ What’s the story on that?” And just as a couple little fun things, this a picture we’re gonna drop in later of — this is the R. Kelly, D’Angelo and Brian McKnight, a very unlikely trio. And the sheet music from “U Will Know,” which was written by you and your brother, Luther.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So, let’s talk about that track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Again, in the crib, it was — that song really is what got me my deal. It was on my first demo when Jocelyn signed me to Midnight Music. I think that was the one. That was the song that sealed the deal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How did it end up being a sound — it ended up being a soundtrack for \u003cem>Jason’s Lyric\u003c/em> as opposed to be a solo track for you. How did that happen?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Well, it was, you know, it was early and, like I said, it was my original demo and it takes time to get signed and all the process and all that stuff. So by the time I’d gotten signed to EMI, the direction I was going was just different. So it was a perfect fit. Jocelyn being, you know, the great publisher that she was, she placed it for the movie. And it was like, wow. It was like, I’m coming out of nowhere. Because the only thing I had done up to that point was a song called “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq4WGKGDtW0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Overjoyed\u003c/a>” for the Harlem Boys’ Choir. And so here I am, you know, with all my heroes, man. So it was —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Who was — talk about the talent that was on that track.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Man. So, Brian McKnight, R. Kelly, \u003ca href=\"http://www.allmusic.com/artist/gerald-levert-mn0000649435/biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gerald LeVert\u003c/a>, Al B. Sure, Boyz II Men, H-Town —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: H-Town, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HrBnEaQd4ZY\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Knockin da Boots\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: “Knockin da Boots.” It was everybody.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Usher, I think?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Usher. Yeah, little Usher was there. I was like, “This little kid gone do something, man.” S—, yeah. \u003ca href=\"http://www.mtv.com/news/1508850/aaron-hall-working-to-overcome-tough-times-with-guy-reunion-new-persona/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aaron Hall\u003c/a>. Did I tell you Aaron Hall?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, Aaron Hall’s important.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Aaron Hall, who was like God to me. I f—ing loved Aaron Hall. And everybody — \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Williams_(singer)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Christopher Williams\u003c/a> —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: That’s a whole era right there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right. It was crazy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So you were in the studio. Now, you basically have all these vets and you’re the kid. How was that? How were those sessions?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: They were fun. They were really, really fun. And everyone — it was Black Men United, so there was no, I mean, everybody kind of left their egos at the door. For the most part, it was — like I said, it was surreal. And I got a chance to, not just work with a lot of my heroes, but you know, groove. Relationships — especially with Aaron. Aaron Hall was really cool. Those brothers kind of like, you know, kind of put me up under their wing, kind of like, “Come here, young blood.” You know, “Watch out for this. Dah, dah, dah, dah, dah.” Him and Gerald LeVert were the biggest ones, man. Gerald was just f—ing awesome. Rest in peace, brother. I love that man; love that man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So for those of you who may not know this track or know that D’Angelo wrote it, we’re gonna play “U Will Know” by Black Men United.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s interesting listening to that track now and — talk about longevity and mystique. I mean, there are people on that record who — Christopher Williams — who had a moment. He was a movie star and a singer. He was in \u003cem>New Jack City\u003c/em>. Al B., who’s moved on and does radio. Having longevity and having mystique — you’re one of the few people who has mystique, you know that. I mean in the age of TMZ and all that stuff, you, you have — there’s an aura still about your career. It’s very unusual today for anybody to have any mystery left.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I agree.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You know, I feel like — so let’s just take a couple more questions. This came in tonight from Twitter. And \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/divynthought/status/469229952085151744\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">this is from Divyn Thought\u003c/a>: “Are you a fan of how technology has changed the music industry?” And I guess you could take that a number of ways — technology in the studio or technology in how people consume music. How do you feel about the changes? And how does that affect as you’re going forward with your music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The consumption of it — that’s a — I can’t even touch that; that’s different. But as far as the technology — I don’t have a problem with technology as long as it’s not, it’s gotta be a balance, you know what I mean? So you can use technology but still — if you’re using technology to get the same point across that you would get say in doing analog s—, then it’s cool. I don’t have any problem with it at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Do you have any Auto-Tune tracks you working on?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No. Although, it’s funny, I met Sly recently and he was working on — yeah, \u003ca href=\"http://www.slystonemusic.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sly Stone\u003c/a>. And you know, I always hear the rumor mill that he’s always constantly working on music.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: That’s what he says when you ask him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And it’s the truth. He’s got like mad s—, man, that he’s been working on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, he played you some stuff?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And it’s not Family Stone s—. It’s progressive, it’s new, he’s f—ing with the Auto-Tune s—. I had a conversation with him like — cause I heard it. I was like, “Nah! Damn! Nah! Don’t do that! Why you using Auto-Tune?” you know. And he was explaining it. But the way he did it, he’s doing it like no one else. I mean, of course, it’s Sly. But he, like I said, I don’t have a problem with technology as long as you’re doing something with it that’s just new, you know what I mean, that’s putting some kind of twist with it. But he’s incredible, man. He’s incredible.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Alright, so when’s the Sly/D’Angelo duet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s coming. Sly, you promised, so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: We can talk a little bit more about — we can talk about your future. I mean, obviously there’s all kinds of anticipation. What are your thoughts about dealing with that? There’s a tremendous amount of like social media pressure that didn’t exist before.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Does that infect your process at all — the fact that people are getting at you all the time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It doesn’t. And I, to a fault, I think that I’ve kind of put myself in a bubble so that I’m not affected by any of that. Although, it’s hard not to be cause it’s just the world that we live in now. But I mean, I completely kind of like blocked all that s— out. I have to because when I’m thinking about music, when I’m being creative, you know, I can’t even put my mind there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I visited the studio you work in and you have a cave. You literally sing in a cave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes, I do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: My little tee-pee.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: It’s a black tarp and then you have a humidifier, keyboard — that’s more or less it. And a ashtray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: And a ashtray.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Talk about that. Cause it’s unusual — even in the studio, which is in itself an enclosed environment, you have even another enclosed environment. What is that? Talk about that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I’m trying to go deep, deep in the onion. I get tired of kicking everybody out the room cause when it’s time for me to do vocals, I’ll kick the engineer out, the assistant and everybody. I’m like, “Get out,” you know. I’ll set the board myself and I’ll have the mic there. What we’ve been doing now is Russ will be in the control room mixing and I’ll be in the live room where we set up the cave — in the live room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I hear that’s how Sly used to do it. You know, he would sit at — that’s one thing Mtume taught me, too, about Sly. Mtume was talking about how Sly would use this thing called the dead zone. Sly wouldn’t even use headphones. You know, he would sit at the board, with the mic and he would position the mic a certain way in between the speakers and there’s a dead zone. So he wouldn’t even put on headphones. And that’s why when you listen to some of that stuff, \u003cem>There’s A Riot Going On\u003c/em>, you hear a lot of hiss and a lot of stuff in there, but that’s what that is. I kinda just borrowed that from him, you know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Well, talk about — I mean, your vocals are part of your trademark, and they’re falsetto harmonies. Talk about the process of recording. Because it seems like a very sacred process. You have a cave. I mean, you know, you’re not someone who has a bunch of people in the studio. It’s not a party when you record. What is your thoughts about that? Why do you go in that direction? Is it just, you say, the onion? You trying to get in deeper?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s the onion, yeah. You know, you’re putting your voice down on tape — because I still use tape — and you know, it’s about capturing the spirit. It’s about capturing the vibe. And I learned — we all learned a lot working on \u003cem>Voodoo.\u003c/em>\u003cem> \u003c/em>That was such a great time. I’m kinda a first take dude. The first time, cut that mic on and the spirit is there and what comes on the mic — I mean, even if I’m mumbling, I like to keep a lot of that initial thing that comes out. Cause that’s the spirit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I’ve heard some vocalists go in and they don’t have — they have a melody, they don’t have the lyrics. The famous — I think Paul McCartney “Yesterday” was originally “Scrambled Eggs” or whatever ’til he figured out what the words would be. Do you go in with the words or the emotion? I mean, which goes first?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: It’s kind of like the emotion, yeah. And freestyle; you freestyle and mumble s—. And then later, you know, fill in the blanks and make sense out of the mumbles, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So we’re coming to the end of our evening and I want to talk just a little bit about the future. From what I’ve seen of the shows you’ve been doing over the last couple years, obviously you’ve evolved. It’s not the same D’Angelo that people might have seen before. Where do you see yourself going musically? Is it gonna be like — because one of the things that’s interesting about the shows, at the Brooklyn Bowl, for example, it was a completely different audience than I’ve seen you with before. It was a younger audience — way younger — it was a whiter audience —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Than I think people would expect. Do you feel like your future recordings will have a different kind of audience base than even what you’ve had before because you’re in a different place?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Different? I don’t know. I just feel like it’s expanding, you know, and the music itself is expanding. So yeah, I mean, I think that this is a different — it’s just a different generation. Everybody call it the iPod Nation or what have you. But I think there’s less segregation, if you will, of genres. I think more people are welcome to — they don’t give a f— if it’s called this or that. If it’s good, it’s good, right?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I think, are we through?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: OK. A couple more questions from the audience. Oh, this is a good one. If you were not a musician, what would you be?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Goddamn. I’m scared to say it. You know what? Cause everybody back home always thinks that this is what I’m gonna do — that I’ma take the Al Green route. I don’t see it. But I don’t know.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You’re gonna join the family business?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I don’t know. I don’t think so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: There’s not gonna be a church of D’Angelo in Richmond — outside of Richmond?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: You know, I’ve always looked at, when I’m on stage, that the stage is my pulpit and when we’re on the music, I mean, when we’re playing and we’re getting the energy back and feeding it to the crowd, and that exchange is happening, that that’s my ministry. I’ve always looked at it like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You grew up in a very — I mean, your father was a Pentecostal preacher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: You grew up in a very church environment. I mean, is there ever a temptation? I mean, you said not a church but you ever have the temptation to go back and do Christian music?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I definitely want to do a quartet album and I’m just —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: A gospel quartet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Oh, nice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I love quartet and those guys are still — I’m still fascinated with that whole world. Before the first European tour, you know, that’s what I did in Richmond. Me, my cousin Marlon, dude that’s in the Vanguard now, Arel, my other cousin — we put together a quartet group and I did a little surprise little thing at this church way up in the woods and it was great, man. It was great. It was funny because we was doing like some real deal quartet gospel, you know. Like, we did a song by, we did a couple songs by The Jubes, \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-bujno-CYk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Pilgrim Jubilees\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Right. Wow. That’s seriously going back.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Oh, yeah. And then we ended it with this interpretation — so it went to this Fishbone thing. It’s funny and I told Angelo — I called \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelo_Moore\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Angelo Moore\u003c/a> and told him about it and he was like, “You did what? What song?” It was —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE, FROM THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV5Nkah8nP8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Everyday Sunshine\u003c/a>?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: No, no, no. It”s on \u003cem>Give A Monkey A Brain\u003c/em>. The funk song. “Propaganda.” \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TaEXHot1-04\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The “Propaganda” joint\u003c/a>. So at the end where they go — so we was doing that. And like the church, at first, was really up and s—, then when we went into that, everybody sat down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: How much more time do we have, folks?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE FROM AND WITH THE AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: Forever!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Nah. Hey, Questlove, come back up here, man. I want to end this with a little — cause you said something interesting when I interviewed him before about your process and I’d like to get that. I think that would be a good way to end the evening. When I interviewed you for \u003ca href=\"http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2665186/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Finding The Funk\u003c/a>, you talked about the ways in which playing with him affected and how he affected your drumming. I’d love for you to talk about that now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Absolutely. If you listen to “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3y2aP0B4Ic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Dreaming Eyes of Mine\u003c/a>,” on \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> — you know, at the time — it’s funny because the only person I’ve ever heard describe this was the time that we brought Lenny Kravitz in to play and he said the same thing that I thought in the beginning. I was like, “Man, there’s a discrepancy on the kick pattern. It’s really messed up.” But I was kind of obsessed with just how sloppy the kick pattern sounded. And I hit up Bob Power — I was like, “Yo, why did y’all leave it like that? Like, it’s so, like no one cared someone drunk was playing it.” And he said, “No, that’s exactly how he wants it.” I was like, “Really?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Which leads to, what I was explaining was when D’Angelo, when he came down to Philadelphia to record on the \u003cem>Illadelph Halflife \u003c/em>album, we had him there for two days because normally like a song should take that long, but we literally knocked out the song on The Roots album in seven hours. Like he’s, his vocal process is — I’ve never seen someone just so instantaneous. It’s like watching someone shoot like 10 half-court shots — not even look at the ball — that’s how effortless it is. So we were done and you know, we had him down for two days so he stayed in Philadelphia. And it was like, “Well, alright, let’s mess around.” That’s when I think we were testing each other to see each other’s knowledge. But there was a song that he had initially planned for \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em> called “B—” that — I know right! You remember? Which was the most drunkest — past J. Dilla drunk, drumming I ever heard — programming, so if the pulse is this, the drum pattern was \u003cem>— \u003c/em>It was drunk but it was perfect and it just — I had spent, like you have to understand. Being in a hip-hop band in 1996, like there was a lot of resistance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Sure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: It was still the era of \u003cem>The Chronic\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Ready to Die\u003c/em>; Biggie was happening so, you know, real hip-hop was like, yo, if you ain’t sampling, you ain’t doing nothing. So The Roots, I’d spent four years by that point with a chip on my shoulder like, “I am as meticulous and as quantized and as straight as 12 o’clock. I am a time machine.” And he just basically came in and deprogrammed me. I had a lot of pride in the fact that Premier, Q-Tip would come up and be like, “Yo, you’re like a drum machine.” Like, “You’re so straight,” right? So I was playing like a metronome for him and he was like, “Nah, nah.” Like, “Lay back a little bit.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So tell us about that. What is that philosophy of drumming come from? What were you trying — cause you were trying to mess up my man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: See that’s the thing. I’m basically trying to emulate the great hip-hop producers. So if you looking for a break — you look for a sample — and this was before you had, I guess, the technology to speed up or slow down a sample without f—ing with the tempo of it, right? So you had a beat going and you would put a sample over top of that beat. It wouldn’t align perfectly unless you kind of would put it behind. You have to kind of play it a little bit before the beat started so that by the time you got to the end of the four bars, it would align. And in that way, everything was the drunk thing, like you’re saying, you know. I mean, that’s just me kinda trying to emulate Premier and Marley Marl, my favorite hip-hop producers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I gotta object. You were past that. I mean, I don’t mean like you were past that level — when people program drums, I mean, you can either have the quantized option on — I’m assuming that some of you aren’t musicians, so when you have a quantized on, you can take 12 shots of Patron, program something and it fixes it for you. Whereas the only two human beings I know that never had the quantize option on was D’Angelo and Dilla. And so both of them single-handedly made me drop it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And you gotta understand the way that black musicianship was going, you had to be precise, it was about gospel chops, it was about how many drums you can hit per hour. And I’m in my prime. Like finally getting a little light with the group and then suddenly they want me to just strip down to gutter bucket levels, you know. On the whole \u003cem>Voodoo \u003c/em>record, like I’m playing rim shot. I played snare on one song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcQ83tOZ4Wk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Feel Like Makin Love\u003c/a>.” So he, to me, it was like being told to use the force, in \u003cem>Star Wars \u003c/em>terms. Like, “Just trust me. Keep it in the pocket. Be sloppy as hell and it’s gonna work.” So, I mean, it took me like a month to adjust to it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: I have both of you here — let’s talk about Soulquarians and what that was. From both of your points of view, what did that collective mean to you and how you think it’s affected music going forward in any way, shape or form. Want to jump on it? Either one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I mean —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Don’t let him talk all the time!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: You right. This is your thing, man.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Exactly. You start.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Alright. To me, Soulquarians was definitely just a collective of like-minded individuals. I remember us being at Electric Lady. I’d be downstairs, Ahmir would be in the room and it was just like a hotbed — everyone would stop by. Everyone knew we was there. So Erykah would stop by or she would be upstairs. Common would be down the hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, he had studio A, Common had studio B, and then up in C would be, you know —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Mos Def.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah, either Mos or Kweli or sometimes Bilal. So at any given moment, between 1997 and like 2001, 2002, we literally just took over Electric Lady Studios. And I mean, at one point in ’98 it was just like, it was like sleepovers. We would just sit, watch \u003cem>Soul Train\u003c/em> all night and figure out something, like see a trick that Al Green was doing and then — mostly it was like practicing for the show. It was like, what album can we make, that we can do live for people and then they’ll be like, “Ah! That was amazing!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: The main premise was, it’s not gonna just be one group — it’s not gonna be one album that does this, it’s gonna be a movement. It’s gonna be all of us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yeah. I personally have figured out, at least from The Roots’ standpoint, that any success that’s ever happened in music, happened as a movement, you know. You think you like Stevie Wonder, but no, you like the Motown movement. And then who’s he associated with? I mean, everything that’s had a success is associated with something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Before we close, can we grapple with \u003cem>\u003c/em>neo-soul and whether that’s a valid phrase or was just some PR bulls—. Anybody?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: I plead the fifth, really. I’m not touching it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: No, you know, I’ll say this much. I’m not — cause I hate documentaries in which like, you know, they’ll coin a term and then you see a bunch of people that are a part of that movement kind of like disassociate themselves with it. I mean, none of us — who came up? Was it \u003ca href=\"http://www.kedar.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kedar\u003c/a>?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Kedar. Are you here, Kedar?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: Yo, this is like \u003ca href=\"http://www.thisisyourlife.com/tiyl.html?id_tiyl=0523TL681065\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u003cem>This Is Your Life\u003c/em>\u003c/a>! Everybody’s in here!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Where are you Kedar? Can you please stand up? Ke!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: That’s amazing. Everybody’s here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: So he coined the phrase.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I think Kedar coined the phrase. But I don’t think —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>:\u003cstrong> \u003c/strong>Was this a valid phrase or was this something that was bogus? What do you feel about it?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: I never want to go on record disassociating myself from something or think I was above it. Cause usually when people do that, they’re really passive aggressively trying to say, “Well, I’m better than that person that you associated me with.” I think at the end of the day, it’s like the individual collective have made their mark and their stamp in history and more importantly, what I want him to understand — because the problem with the bubble thing, is that sometimes you’re unaware of the effects of it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like he’s totally amazed at the fact, when I bring him news of like who’s — the fact that \u003cem>Voodoo\u003c/em> is still rippling, like the effects of it are rippling and spreading and people are now, there’s a whole other audience that’s into it, you know. When we did the Bonnaroo thing together a year-and-a-half ago, and saw the audience, it was like, there’s a new generation of people that are on it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So we weren’t necessarily card-carrying members with a flag on it, but I do think that it was definitely something in the air between ’97 to like 2003. And I don’t think it’s anything to scoff or disassociate yourself from.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Yeah, and I agree with you. I don’t think I want to disassociate or anything — and respect it for what it is and all that. But I will say this that, you know, anytime you put a name on something that you kind of, you just put it in a box.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: It’s the end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: You put it in a box. Right. So, I think the main thing about the whole neo-soul thing — not to put it down or it was a bad thing or anything — but you don’t — you want to be in a position where you can grow, as an artist. You never want to be told, “Hey, well, you don’t do, you’re not doing what you did on \u003cem>Brown Sugar\u003c/em>,” you know. Cause like right now, I’m not — we’re going some place else. And so going, “Well, damn, you a neo-soul artist. Why don’t you do neo-soul?” And I never claimed that. I never claimed I do neo-soul, you know. I used to say — when I first came out — I used to always say, “I do black music. I make black music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>QUESTLOVE\u003c/strong>: And you also have to understand that when \u003cem>Voodoo \u003c/em>came out, that was — at one point in history, that was a hard pill for a lot of people to swallow. Like it sounded — it’s weird now because it’s in our DNA, but when it came out, there were a lot of people that were like, “Whoa! This sounds like an acid trip or something! What are you guys doing?” Now it sounds normal — especially compared to unmentionable, unspoken third record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I think I just killed the interview. I’m sorry! Thank you!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: So how are we doing, guys, on time?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>AUDIENCE\u003c/strong>: Good! Great! Don’t stop!\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>GEORGE\u003c/strong>: Alright, we’ve had a quorum and we’ve decided we’re finished. So, Ahmir Thompson and —\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>D’ANGELO\u003c/strong>: Before we end, I just want to thank all of y’all for coming and for showing your love and support, really, it means so much. Thank you.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>As the seventh X-Men movie begins, New York City is in ruins, its residents nearly annihilated. Yet \u003cem>X-Men: Days of Future Past\u003c/em>‘s true plight is overpopulation. The film is so stuffed with characters that including twin versions of Professor X and Magneto scarcely boosts the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first X-flick directed by Bryan Singer since 2003’s \u003cem>X2\u003c/em> clicks in its middle section, which mostly focuses on the younger crew of heroes introduced in 2011’s \u003cem>X-Men: First Class\u003c/em>. But that story, set in 1973, is framed by another tale that transpires 50 years later and is both ponderous and overcrowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very loosely based on a 1981 Marvel Comics series, \u003cem>Days\u003c/em> uses a sort of time travel to dovetail the two casts. In the future, robotic mutant-hunters called Sentinels murderously pursue the X-folks around the globe. Hiding at a ruined mountain temple in China — can’t ignore the largest cinema market outside North America — a tentatively allied Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) discuss a plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) can transfer the 2023 consciousness of the near-immortal Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to his pumped ’70s body. Then he can rally that era’s Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing mutie-hating inventor Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), who’s about to get Nixon administration funding for his Sentinels program. By killing Trask, you see, Mystique has intensified — or will intensify — fear of mutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that premise weren’t complicated enough, most of the characters sport multiple names. The Prof calls Mystique “Raven,” and he and Magneto address each other as, respectively, Charles and Erik. And don’t even think about catching the handles of the globalized new recruits who make their first X-bows in this episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One exception to that advice: Quicksilver (Evan Peters), a hyperactive adolescent mutie who carries the movie’s niftiest set piece. He helps Wolverine and the Prof rescue Magneto from a super-secure cell under the Pentagon — don’t ask — in a sequence that uses slo-mo to depict how the speed demon views everyone else’s snail’s pace. Then the kid has the good taste to vanish and not further congest the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filmmakers riff on 1973 with lava lamps, simulated 8mm film and a Roberta Flack ballad, and also enlist in the Vietnam War. Mystique flits from a Mekong Delta battlefield to the Paris Peace Talks, and finally to the White House, where she tangles not only with Sentinels but also Richard Nixon (comically impersonated by Mark Camacho).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the younger Prof, who’s rejected his mutant powers, McEvoy gets to be soulfully despairing, and Lawrence has a few frisky moments when she’s not in her blue-reptile-skinned Mystique getup. Most of the time, though, they’re as confined as the other actors: trapped in their supersuits, upstaged by the CGI and buffeted by editor/composer John Ottman’s sub-Wagnerian score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least the droning Teutonic music befits the movie’s heavier themes. The first \u003cem>X-Men\u003c/em> movie opened at a Nazi death camp where the young Magneto was imprisoned; this one’s introduction dumps piles of corpses in a scene that emulates archival footage of Auschwitz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such self-importance is a perennial problem with superhero movies. But \u003cem>Days of Future Past\u003c/em> is lively enough to mostly overcome it. With characters like the impish Quicksilver, the movie recaptures something of the spirit of the comic’s early days. Back then, \u003cem>The X-Men\u003c/em> was all about that persecuted minority that knew the world hated it for being smarter, faster and just plain cooler than everyone else: the teenager. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Dizzy+From+Time+Travel%2C+Overstuffed+With+Mutants&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>As the seventh X-Men movie begins, New York City is in ruins, its residents nearly annihilated. Yet \u003cem>X-Men: Days of Future Past\u003c/em>‘s true plight is overpopulation. The film is so stuffed with characters that including twin versions of Professor X and Magneto scarcely boosts the confusion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first X-flick directed by Bryan Singer since 2003’s \u003cem>X2\u003c/em> clicks in its middle section, which mostly focuses on the younger crew of heroes introduced in 2011’s \u003cem>X-Men: First Class\u003c/em>. But that story, set in 1973, is framed by another tale that transpires 50 years later and is both ponderous and overcrowded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Very loosely based on a 1981 Marvel Comics series, \u003cem>Days\u003c/em> uses a sort of time travel to dovetail the two casts. In the future, robotic mutant-hunters called Sentinels murderously pursue the X-folks around the globe. Hiding at a ruined mountain temple in China — can’t ignore the largest cinema market outside North America — a tentatively allied Professor X (Patrick Stewart) and Magneto (Ian McKellan) discuss a plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kitty Pryde (Ellen Page) can transfer the 2023 consciousness of the near-immortal Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) to his pumped ’70s body. Then he can rally that era’s Professor X (James McAvoy) and Magneto (Michael Fassbender) to stop Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from killing mutie-hating inventor Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), who’s about to get Nixon administration funding for his Sentinels program. By killing Trask, you see, Mystique has intensified — or will intensify — fear of mutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that premise weren’t complicated enough, most of the characters sport multiple names. The Prof calls Mystique “Raven,” and he and Magneto address each other as, respectively, Charles and Erik. And don’t even think about catching the handles of the globalized new recruits who make their first X-bows in this episode.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One exception to that advice: Quicksilver (Evan Peters), a hyperactive adolescent mutie who carries the movie’s niftiest set piece. He helps Wolverine and the Prof rescue Magneto from a super-secure cell under the Pentagon — don’t ask — in a sequence that uses slo-mo to depict how the speed demon views everyone else’s snail’s pace. Then the kid has the good taste to vanish and not further congest the story.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The filmmakers riff on 1973 with lava lamps, simulated 8mm film and a Roberta Flack ballad, and also enlist in the Vietnam War. Mystique flits from a Mekong Delta battlefield to the Paris Peace Talks, and finally to the White House, where she tangles not only with Sentinels but also Richard Nixon (comically impersonated by Mark Camacho).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the younger Prof, who’s rejected his mutant powers, McEvoy gets to be soulfully despairing, and Lawrence has a few frisky moments when she’s not in her blue-reptile-skinned Mystique getup. Most of the time, though, they’re as confined as the other actors: trapped in their supersuits, upstaged by the CGI and buffeted by editor/composer John Ottman’s sub-Wagnerian score.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At least the droning Teutonic music befits the movie’s heavier themes. The first \u003cem>X-Men\u003c/em> movie opened at a Nazi death camp where the young Magneto was imprisoned; this one’s introduction dumps piles of corpses in a scene that emulates archival footage of Auschwitz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Such self-importance is a perennial problem with superhero movies. But \u003cem>Days of Future Past\u003c/em> is lively enough to mostly overcome it. With characters like the impish Quicksilver, the movie recaptures something of the spirit of the comic’s early days. Back then, \u003cem>The X-Men\u003c/em> was all about that persecuted minority that knew the world hated it for being smarter, faster and just plain cooler than everyone else: the teenager. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Dizzy+From+Time+Travel%2C+Overstuffed+With+Mutants&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Every so often, storytellers land on the same idea close enough to the same time that it rattles the zeitgeist like an earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how it felt, sifting through the well-crafted, emotionally exhausting scenes that fill HBO’s version of \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>. Created as a searing, tragic look at the early days of the AIDS crisis in New York City, this TV movie joins the Oscar-winning film \u003cem>Dallas Buyer’s Club\u003c/em> and Peabody-winning documentary \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> as a trio of excellent works documenting this country’s shameful first reaction to the spread of a mysterious disease that ravaged marginalized communities across America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I asked \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> director David France why right now felt like a good time to peel back 30 years of history, he talked about time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, he said the storytellers who lived through those times needed some distance before they could handle talking about what they experienced; when the director first tried to talk with activists for his film, many of them still couldn’t speak easily. Even France, an openly gay journalist who covered the emerging AIDS crisis before it had a name, admitted he initially had trouble pushing himself to relive the days when too many friends died too soon and the world didn’t seem to care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One look at HBO’s \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> shows why. The story centers on Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo), a writer and gay activist with a reputation for heated passion and baldfaced commentary; a not-so-thinly veiled version of the gay author and activist who created the play and wrote this film’s screenplay, Larry Kramer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We meet Weeks in 1981 as the goofy, undersexed man out during a wild weekend at Fire Island, the Long Island area vacation destination for gay men. He’s already drawn ire for writing that the promiscuity of gay men makes love impossible; we see Weeks wander through the unbridled hedonism of the Island like a tourist too scared to jump into a cold stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ironically, that reserve may have saved his life. Cute-as-a-button \u003cem>Glee\u003c/em> alum Jonathan Groff plays the first among Weeks’ friends to get sick; within months, cases are piling up at the offices of Dr. Emma Brookner, seemingly the only physician in New York who takes this epidemic seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Played with a decided lack of glamour by Julia Roberts, Brookner is passionate and blunt as Weeks, unable to use her legs after a childhood bout with polio. But the pair’s efforts to rally support in the gay community initially falls on deaf ears, as men who seem to define their political identity by their promiscuity resist any suggestion that they should stop having sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If having sex can kill you, doesn’t anyone with half a brain stop f—ing?” Roberts-as-Brookner barks in exasperation. Apparently, she’s not familiar with smokers, who keep puffing even though they absolutely know what they’re doing will shorten their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie becomes a sorrowful documentation of all the horrors packed into the first three years of the AIDS crisis. Brookner and Weeks tour a gruesome hospital ward, where uncertainty over how the disease is transmitted leads workers to shun patients as they lay dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials turn a blind eye even as emergency rooms refuse to treat people with full blown AIDS, amid rumors that Mayor Ed Koch is a closeted gay man. News reports initially call it “gay cancer” then GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency); the sense that the world isn’t concerned with a disease killing gay men and intravenous drug users is palpable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film enlists a cast of beloved, well-known actors keep the audience engaged through such wrenching scenes, including Ruffalo, Roberts, Matt Bomer (\u003cem>White Collar\u003c/em>), Jim Parsons (\u003cem>Big Bang Theory\u003c/em>), Taylor Kitsch (\u003cem>Friday Night Lights\u003c/em>) and B.D. Wong (\u003cem>Law & Order: SVU\u003c/em>). Director Ryan Murphy, who deserves a cheer just for bringing Kramer’s play to the small screen after many others failed, scores in every casting choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bomer reportedly lost 40 pounds to play Felix Turner, the closeted \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> reporter who falls for Weeks and eventually contracts AIDS. And Ruffalo’s rumpled charm is key in making a likable figure of Weeks, a cantankerous agitator who seemed to anger everyone in his quest to end the deadly silence surrounding this epidemic. Just like Kramer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is hard to remember, at a time when HIV-positive celebrities like Magic Johnson have lived nearly 25 years, that there was a long period of widespread disagreement over how AIDS was transmitted and how to treat it. And in an age where a kid falling down a skateboard ramp can become national news, it’s also hard to imagine how an emerging disease could kill over 1,000 Americans and get little attention from journalists, lawmakers or public health institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is the greatest value of movies like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>, which takes us back to a time before gay weddings were featured on popular sitcoms and cable news conflicts made the politics of confrontation commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the film, Weeks’ insistence on passionate, public anger earns enemies among some gay activists, who feared exposure and political pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if there is any criticism of \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> that resonates, it’s that the story stops before events proved that the Weeks/Kramer style of activism actually works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As David France’s \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> documents, New York’s gay activists eventually helped push public officials and pharmaceutical companies to provide effective treatments to AIDS. They educated themselves about the disease enough to serve as consultants to drug makers and public policy types\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But none of those victories are shown in \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>, which ends in 1984. Weeks is awkwardly attending another event where gay men are pairing up – a gay dance at Yale University — alone and an outsider. He’s been kicked out of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis group he helped found and the deaths keep piling up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the struggle to legalize gay marriage continues and some complain of a “gay agenda” in public life, films like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> have arrived to remind us when the fight for gay rights was even more directly a matter of life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And perhaps only now, as we pat ourselves on the back for the mainstreaming of gay life and culture in today’s America, are we ready to look back with open eyes on a time when our lack of acceptance killed far too many people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judged by that timetable, looks like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> has arrived just in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Normal Heart airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Painful+But+Critical+Reminder+From+%27The+Normal+Heart%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Every so often, storytellers land on the same idea close enough to the same time that it rattles the zeitgeist like an earthquake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s how it felt, sifting through the well-crafted, emotionally exhausting scenes that fill HBO’s version of \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>. Created as a searing, tragic look at the early days of the AIDS crisis in New York City, this TV movie joins the Oscar-winning film \u003cem>Dallas Buyer’s Club\u003c/em> and Peabody-winning documentary \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> as a trio of excellent works documenting this country’s shameful first reaction to the spread of a mysterious disease that ravaged marginalized communities across America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I asked \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> director David France why right now felt like a good time to peel back 30 years of history, he talked about time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Specifically, he said the storytellers who lived through those times needed some distance before they could handle talking about what they experienced; when the director first tried to talk with activists for his film, many of them still couldn’t speak easily. Even France, an openly gay journalist who covered the emerging AIDS crisis before it had a name, admitted he initially had trouble pushing himself to relive the days when too many friends died too soon and the world didn’t seem to care.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One look at HBO’s \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> shows why. The story centers on Ned Weeks (Mark Ruffalo), a writer and gay activist with a reputation for heated passion and baldfaced commentary; a not-so-thinly veiled version of the gay author and activist who created the play and wrote this film’s screenplay, Larry Kramer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We meet Weeks in 1981 as the goofy, undersexed man out during a wild weekend at Fire Island, the Long Island area vacation destination for gay men. He’s already drawn ire for writing that the promiscuity of gay men makes love impossible; we see Weeks wander through the unbridled hedonism of the Island like a tourist too scared to jump into a cold stream.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ironically, that reserve may have saved his life. Cute-as-a-button \u003cem>Glee\u003c/em> alum Jonathan Groff plays the first among Weeks’ friends to get sick; within months, cases are piling up at the offices of Dr. Emma Brookner, seemingly the only physician in New York who takes this epidemic seriously.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Played with a decided lack of glamour by Julia Roberts, Brookner is passionate and blunt as Weeks, unable to use her legs after a childhood bout with polio. But the pair’s efforts to rally support in the gay community initially falls on deaf ears, as men who seem to define their political identity by their promiscuity resist any suggestion that they should stop having sex.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If having sex can kill you, doesn’t anyone with half a brain stop f—ing?” Roberts-as-Brookner barks in exasperation. Apparently, she’s not familiar with smokers, who keep puffing even though they absolutely know what they’re doing will shorten their lives.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The movie becomes a sorrowful documentation of all the horrors packed into the first three years of the AIDS crisis. Brookner and Weeks tour a gruesome hospital ward, where uncertainty over how the disease is transmitted leads workers to shun patients as they lay dying.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>City officials turn a blind eye even as emergency rooms refuse to treat people with full blown AIDS, amid rumors that Mayor Ed Koch is a closeted gay man. News reports initially call it “gay cancer” then GRID (Gay-Related Immune Deficiency); the sense that the world isn’t concerned with a disease killing gay men and intravenous drug users is palpable.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The film enlists a cast of beloved, well-known actors keep the audience engaged through such wrenching scenes, including Ruffalo, Roberts, Matt Bomer (\u003cem>White Collar\u003c/em>), Jim Parsons (\u003cem>Big Bang Theory\u003c/em>), Taylor Kitsch (\u003cem>Friday Night Lights\u003c/em>) and B.D. Wong (\u003cem>Law & Order: SVU\u003c/em>). Director Ryan Murphy, who deserves a cheer just for bringing Kramer’s play to the small screen after many others failed, scores in every casting choice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bomer reportedly lost 40 pounds to play Felix Turner, the closeted \u003cem>New York Times\u003c/em> reporter who falls for Weeks and eventually contracts AIDS. And Ruffalo’s rumpled charm is key in making a likable figure of Weeks, a cantankerous agitator who seemed to anger everyone in his quest to end the deadly silence surrounding this epidemic. Just like Kramer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It is hard to remember, at a time when HIV-positive celebrities like Magic Johnson have lived nearly 25 years, that there was a long period of widespread disagreement over how AIDS was transmitted and how to treat it. And in an age where a kid falling down a skateboard ramp can become national news, it’s also hard to imagine how an emerging disease could kill over 1,000 Americans and get little attention from journalists, lawmakers or public health institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That is the greatest value of movies like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>, which takes us back to a time before gay weddings were featured on popular sitcoms and cable news conflicts made the politics of confrontation commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the film, Weeks’ insistence on passionate, public anger earns enemies among some gay activists, who feared exposure and political pressure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if there is any criticism of \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> that resonates, it’s that the story stops before events proved that the Weeks/Kramer style of activism actually works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As David France’s \u003cem>How to Survive a Plague\u003c/em> documents, New York’s gay activists eventually helped push public officials and pharmaceutical companies to provide effective treatments to AIDS. They educated themselves about the disease enough to serve as consultants to drug makers and public policy types\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But none of those victories are shown in \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em>, which ends in 1984. Weeks is awkwardly attending another event where gay men are pairing up – a gay dance at Yale University — alone and an outsider. He’s been kicked out of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis group he helped found and the deaths keep piling up.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the struggle to legalize gay marriage continues and some complain of a “gay agenda” in public life, films like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> have arrived to remind us when the fight for gay rights was even more directly a matter of life and death.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And perhaps only now, as we pat ourselves on the back for the mainstreaming of gay life and culture in today’s America, are we ready to look back with open eyes on a time when our lack of acceptance killed far too many people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judged by that timetable, looks like \u003cem>The Normal Heart\u003c/em> has arrived just in time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Normal Heart airs at 9 p.m. Sunday on HBO.\u003c/em> \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=A+Painful+But+Critical+Reminder+From+%27The+Normal+Heart%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The last time Robin Williams had a leading role in a film was in 2009, a year when, apart from the Razzie-nominated \u003cem>Old Dogs\u003c/em>, he starred in the \u003cem>World’s Greatest Dad\u003c/em>. Bobcat Goldthwait’s film, about a dad who finds his son dead in the bathroom and turns him into a posthumous celebrity by writing him a moving fake suicide note and online diary, turned an innocuous plot into delightfully dark satire. Five years later, Williams is back to play another superlative in \u003cem>The Angriest Man in Brooklyn\u003c/em>, but the result is an example of how to take a promising premise and reduce it to tedium, making it safe rather than inventive, complacent rather than subversive, and worst of all dull rather than funny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams’ fuming Brooklynite is named Henry Altmann, and we first meet him on the way to a doctor’s appointment, where Dr. Sharon Gill (Mila Kunis) informs him that he has a large brain aneurysm. When Henry hounds her to reveal how long that gives him to live, Sharon throws out an arbitrary number: 90 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, Henry begins a journey to reconcile with everyone who he has driven away with his irate personality, which he developed after his son’s death two years earlier. He visits his brother (Peter Dinklage), wife (Melissa Leo), and other son (Hamish Linklater), each of whom rebuffs his offer of reconciliation before hearing about his brain aneurysm from Sharon, who is only a few steps behind in pursuit of Henry, trying to take back her prognosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Angriest Man\u003c/em>, adapted by Daniel Taplitz from a 1997 Israeli film, marks not only Williams’ return to a leading role, but also the first film in over a decade from director Phil Alden Robinson (\u003cem>Field of Dreams, Sneakers\u003c/em>). Last time Robinson made a movie, in 2002 (when he directed \u003cem>The Sum Of All Fears\u003c/em>), Williams was beginning his forays into darker material with \u003cem>One Hour Photo\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Insomnia\u003c/em>. Those two movies, along with more audacious comedies like \u003cem>World’s Greatest Dad\u003c/em>, pushed Williams beyond the family-friendly roles he focused on in the ’90s. Gone was the inspirational high school teacher, replaced by a series of restrained and unsettling performances.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi3k65MlDCA\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if \u003cem>Angriest Man\u003c/em> hopes to split the difference between the dark and the light—to lead, in this case, a coarse and unhinged Williams to a heart-warming ending—its balance breaks early in the process. Henry’s temper never registers as anything more than exasperation, constrained as it is by wooden dialogue that includes a distracting habit of beginning rants, much like Foghorn Leghorn, with the looping phrase, “What the hell, I’m asking you what the hell!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The script fails to capitalize on Williams’ potentially manic energy, but it has no trouble crafting speeches and flashbacks that add mawkish fluff where liveliness is needed. The film’s most egregious fault is that it gives Henry 90 minutes to live but hardly anything to do with that time. Predictably enough, he decides to have sex one final time with his wife, only to discover that she’s been carrying on an affair with their neighbor. In the film’s most wasted opportunity, Henry tries to host a going-away party of sorts for himself, but only one person shows up: his high school friend, Bix, played by Richard Kind, the only member of the film’s rich supporting cast (even Louis C.K. shows up) who manages to shove some personality into his role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people, upon learning they only had 90 minutes to live, would probably go into a panic and seek out family, just as Henry does. But following those cues offers the most facile kind of realism and unlocks the inspirational, warm and fuzzy version of Robin Williams that is his least interesting iteration. Considering its outlandish premise, what the film lacks are any outlandish scenes—or, if not outlandish, then at least ones in the realm of the creative. As it stands, \u003cem>The Angriest Man in Brooklyn\u003c/em>‘s overstated title is the first and only step it takes in that direction. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+%27Angriest%27+Robin+Williams+Sadly+Becomes+The+Inspirational+One&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The last time Robin Williams had a leading role in a film was in 2009, a year when, apart from the Razzie-nominated \u003cem>Old Dogs\u003c/em>, he starred in the \u003cem>World’s Greatest Dad\u003c/em>. Bobcat Goldthwait’s film, about a dad who finds his son dead in the bathroom and turns him into a posthumous celebrity by writing him a moving fake suicide note and online diary, turned an innocuous plot into delightfully dark satire. Five years later, Williams is back to play another superlative in \u003cem>The Angriest Man in Brooklyn\u003c/em>, but the result is an example of how to take a promising premise and reduce it to tedium, making it safe rather than inventive, complacent rather than subversive, and worst of all dull rather than funny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Williams’ fuming Brooklynite is named Henry Altmann, and we first meet him on the way to a doctor’s appointment, where Dr. Sharon Gill (Mila Kunis) informs him that he has a large brain aneurysm. When Henry hounds her to reveal how long that gives him to live, Sharon throws out an arbitrary number: 90 minutes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From there, Henry begins a journey to reconcile with everyone who he has driven away with his irate personality, which he developed after his son’s death two years earlier. He visits his brother (Peter Dinklage), wife (Melissa Leo), and other son (Hamish Linklater), each of whom rebuffs his offer of reconciliation before hearing about his brain aneurysm from Sharon, who is only a few steps behind in pursuit of Henry, trying to take back her prognosis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Angriest Man\u003c/em>, adapted by Daniel Taplitz from a 1997 Israeli film, marks not only Williams’ return to a leading role, but also the first film in over a decade from director Phil Alden Robinson (\u003cem>Field of Dreams, Sneakers\u003c/em>). Last time Robinson made a movie, in 2002 (when he directed \u003cem>The Sum Of All Fears\u003c/em>), Williams was beginning his forays into darker material with \u003cem>One Hour Photo\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Insomnia\u003c/em>. Those two movies, along with more audacious comedies like \u003cem>World’s Greatest Dad\u003c/em>, pushed Williams beyond the family-friendly roles he focused on in the ’90s. Gone was the inspirational high school teacher, replaced by a series of restrained and unsettling performances.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/yi3k65MlDCA'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/yi3k65MlDCA'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But if \u003cem>Angriest Man\u003c/em> hopes to split the difference between the dark and the light—to lead, in this case, a coarse and unhinged Williams to a heart-warming ending—its balance breaks early in the process. Henry’s temper never registers as anything more than exasperation, constrained as it is by wooden dialogue that includes a distracting habit of beginning rants, much like Foghorn Leghorn, with the looping phrase, “What the hell, I’m asking you what the hell!”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The script fails to capitalize on Williams’ potentially manic energy, but it has no trouble crafting speeches and flashbacks that add mawkish fluff where liveliness is needed. The film’s most egregious fault is that it gives Henry 90 minutes to live but hardly anything to do with that time. Predictably enough, he decides to have sex one final time with his wife, only to discover that she’s been carrying on an affair with their neighbor. In the film’s most wasted opportunity, Henry tries to host a going-away party of sorts for himself, but only one person shows up: his high school friend, Bix, played by Richard Kind, the only member of the film’s rich supporting cast (even Louis C.K. shows up) who manages to shove some personality into his role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Most people, upon learning they only had 90 minutes to live, would probably go into a panic and seek out family, just as Henry does. But following those cues offers the most facile kind of realism and unlocks the inspirational, warm and fuzzy version of Robin Williams that is his least interesting iteration. Considering its outlandish premise, what the film lacks are any outlandish scenes—or, if not outlandish, then at least ones in the realm of the creative. As it stands, \u003cem>The Angriest Man in Brooklyn\u003c/em>‘s overstated title is the first and only step it takes in that direction. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=The+%27Angriest%27+Robin+Williams+Sadly+Becomes+The+Inspirational+One&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>No fewer than three comedies about finding love in midlife open this week, all of them shiny with major stars. Is it time to stop whining about the dearth of romantic comedy for mature audiences? Only if you prefer quantity to quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I haven’t seen \u003cem>Blended,\u003c/em> a Warner Bros. picture featuring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore (talk about milestones, Gertie’s turning 40!) as failed blind-daters marooned in a recreation park with their respective kids. Leaving aside the fact that Sandler is a terrible fit with family fare (he was magnificently dark and dangerous in \u003cem>Punch-Drunk Love\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Grown Ups 2\u003c/em>), any movie that isn’t \u003cem>Neighbors \u003c/em>but boasts a song titled “You Suck” has to give prior pause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MuWt2X59fo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Love Punch,\u003c/em> an overbearingly chipper caper from director Joel Hopkins, shoots for vintage screwball and misses for lack of wit. The plot is topical and mostly to be expected: A divorced couple repairs to France to recover lost pensions from horrid corporate fat cats and — following the usual recriminatory flimflam — rediscovers one another against scenic backdrops. Spark renewal ensues obediently after much falling about and some of the lamest banter I’ve heard since \u003cem>Sex and the City 2\u003c/em>. The movie is only worth your time if you like looking at Emma Thompson (who’s never looked English-rosier) and Pierce Brosnan (aging enviably as the rangy and craggy invariably do) putting in the best teamwork they can muster. Unfortunately, chemistry-wise, they appear to be playing brother and sister.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3NsHnVGQPo\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To its credit, \u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> gets that there’s no need to dispatch skittish lovers to exotic climes in the service of a satisfying midlife romance. In fact, you can pretty much jettison plot, if only because by that stage in life almost everyone is lugging enough emotional baggage to fill a whole archive of verbal swordplay. The action in most middle years is inner life and halting connections, which require a script incisive enough to get at the back and forth and to and fro of two people sidling up to love while backing away from the hurt they see barreling toward them \u003cem>again\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, you can have too much chat if the repartee is not up to snuff. The movie, which is set in a moderately posh Connecticut high school, is at least half an hour too long. The windy script, by former teacher Gerald Dipego, feels more like hard-working ping-pong than an escalating, sexy flirtation between two scarred arty types. It doesn’t help that, ludicrously, they’re facing off over which has more power, literature or fine art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>British actor Clive Owen is miscast as tweedy Eng. Lit. teacher Jack Marcus. His American accent keeps slipping, and he’s too much the recessive hunk to play a once-acclaimed poet who never shuts up so as to drown the voices in his boozed-up head, the ones that tell him he’s a failure and possibly a cheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where on earth do movies get their teachers from? Jack addresses his students as “droids,” inveighs against their use of social media and lack of critical skills, and brooks no alternative to his own fairly middlebrow tastes, which run to Updike and Ian McEwan. In the real world, where fee-hungry schools now cater to rather than instruct their pupils, his disdain would earn him a rap over the knuckles from the Dean. Here the Dean (a refreshingly cast Navid Negahban, who plays a terrorist on \u003cem>Homeland\u003c/em>) is displeased because Jack is neglecting the groundbreaking literary mag he founded at the school. He’s not too happy about the frequent benders, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkHrVw-cDmU\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So far, so familiar. Enter Juliette Binoche, though, and \u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> wakes right up. Binoche has a face made for woe, which has gotten her into a trap playing beautiful, glum women to whom terrible things happen. And a bad thing has happened to Dina DeSanto, an abstract painter whose worsening rheumatoid arthritis has thrust her into teaching art at the school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she enters into a transparently pre-coital war of words with Jack. Ludicrous as it is, Binoche’s gusto (her own paintings are featured as Dina’s work in progress) and her filthy bark of a laugh more than make up for Jack letting off recurrent steam with a double Scotch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> is no more than a middling offering from Australian director Fred Schepisi’s long and uneven oeuvre, which includes \u003cem>The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, A Cry in the Dark, Six Degrees of Separation\u003c/em> and an underappreciated little gem,\u003cem> Last Orders\u003c/em>. But it’s worth seeing for Binoche’s Dina, a woman who hangs onto her principles and her appetite for life even when it shows her careless disrespect. I’m not sure what she sees in Jack, but it’s no stretch to guess what he sees in her. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Love+Blooms+In+Midlife%2C+But+Halfheartedly&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>No fewer than three comedies about finding love in midlife open this week, all of them shiny with major stars. Is it time to stop whining about the dearth of romantic comedy for mature audiences? Only if you prefer quantity to quality.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I haven’t seen \u003cem>Blended,\u003c/em> a Warner Bros. picture featuring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore (talk about milestones, Gertie’s turning 40!) as failed blind-daters marooned in a recreation park with their respective kids. Leaving aside the fact that Sandler is a terrible fit with family fare (he was magnificently dark and dangerous in \u003cem>Punch-Drunk Love\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Grown Ups 2\u003c/em>), any movie that isn’t \u003cem>Neighbors \u003c/em>but boasts a song titled “You Suck” has to give prior pause.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/8MuWt2X59fo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/8MuWt2X59fo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>The Love Punch,\u003c/em> an overbearingly chipper caper from director Joel Hopkins, shoots for vintage screwball and misses for lack of wit. The plot is topical and mostly to be expected: A divorced couple repairs to France to recover lost pensions from horrid corporate fat cats and — following the usual recriminatory flimflam — rediscovers one another against scenic backdrops. Spark renewal ensues obediently after much falling about and some of the lamest banter I’ve heard since \u003cem>Sex and the City 2\u003c/em>. The movie is only worth your time if you like looking at Emma Thompson (who’s never looked English-rosier) and Pierce Brosnan (aging enviably as the rangy and craggy invariably do) putting in the best teamwork they can muster. Unfortunately, chemistry-wise, they appear to be playing brother and sister.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/m3NsHnVGQPo'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/m3NsHnVGQPo'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To its credit, \u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> gets that there’s no need to dispatch skittish lovers to exotic climes in the service of a satisfying midlife romance. In fact, you can pretty much jettison plot, if only because by that stage in life almost everyone is lugging enough emotional baggage to fill a whole archive of verbal swordplay. The action in most middle years is inner life and halting connections, which require a script incisive enough to get at the back and forth and to and fro of two people sidling up to love while backing away from the hurt they see barreling toward them \u003cem>again\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, you can have too much chat if the repartee is not up to snuff. The movie, which is set in a moderately posh Connecticut high school, is at least half an hour too long. The windy script, by former teacher Gerald Dipego, feels more like hard-working ping-pong than an escalating, sexy flirtation between two scarred arty types. It doesn’t help that, ludicrously, they’re facing off over which has more power, literature or fine art.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>British actor Clive Owen is miscast as tweedy Eng. Lit. teacher Jack Marcus. His American accent keeps slipping, and he’s too much the recessive hunk to play a once-acclaimed poet who never shuts up so as to drown the voices in his boozed-up head, the ones that tell him he’s a failure and possibly a cheat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Where on earth do movies get their teachers from? Jack addresses his students as “droids,” inveighs against their use of social media and lack of critical skills, and brooks no alternative to his own fairly middlebrow tastes, which run to Updike and Ian McEwan. In the real world, where fee-hungry schools now cater to rather than instruct their pupils, his disdain would earn him a rap over the knuckles from the Dean. Here the Dean (a refreshingly cast Navid Negahban, who plays a terrorist on \u003cem>Homeland\u003c/em>) is displeased because Jack is neglecting the groundbreaking literary mag he founded at the school. He’s not too happy about the frequent benders, either.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/EkHrVw-cDmU'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/EkHrVw-cDmU'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>So far, so familiar. Enter Juliette Binoche, though, and \u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> wakes right up. Binoche has a face made for woe, which has gotten her into a trap playing beautiful, glum women to whom terrible things happen. And a bad thing has happened to Dina DeSanto, an abstract painter whose worsening rheumatoid arthritis has thrust her into teaching art at the school.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There, she enters into a transparently pre-coital war of words with Jack. Ludicrous as it is, Binoche’s gusto (her own paintings are featured as Dina’s work in progress) and her filthy bark of a laugh more than make up for Jack letting off recurrent steam with a double Scotch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Words and Pictures\u003c/em> is no more than a middling offering from Australian director Fred Schepisi’s long and uneven oeuvre, which includes \u003cem>The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith, A Cry in the Dark, Six Degrees of Separation\u003c/em> and an underappreciated little gem,\u003cem> Last Orders\u003c/em>. But it’s worth seeing for Binoche’s Dina, a woman who hangs onto her principles and her appetite for life even when it shows her careless disrespect. I’m not sure what she sees in Jack, but it’s no stretch to guess what he sees in her. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Love+Blooms+In+Midlife%2C+But+Halfheartedly&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Norman Rockwell Painting 'The Rookie' Sells for $22.5 Million",
"headTitle": "Norman Rockwell Painting ‘The Rookie’ Sells for $22.5 Million | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Norman Rockwell’s \u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> has sold for $22.5 million at auction Thursday. The 1957 painting of baseball players in a locker room was sold by Christie’s auction house — heady heights for a work that first appeared on a magazine that sold for 15 cents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update at 12:50 p.m. The Final Price\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the “hammer price” of the Rockwell painting was $20 million, Christie’s says the painting’s final price is $22,565,000, reflecting a buyer’s premium. We’ve updated this post to reflect the auction house’s final calculation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Our original post continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136544\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 911px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg\" alt=\"Norman Rockwell's The Rookie, seen here on display in 2005, sold at auction for $22.5 million Thursday.\" width=\"911\" height=\"921\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg 911w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-400x404.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-296x300.jpg 296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 911px) 100vw, 911px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norman Rockwell’s \u003cem>The Rookie,\u003c/em> seen here on display in 2005, sold at auction for $22.5 million Thursday. \u003ccite>(Chitose Suzuki/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An image of the painting — its full title is \u003cem>The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room)\u003c/em> —\u003cem> \u003c/em>originally appeared on the cover of \u003cem>The Saturday Evening Post\u003c/em>. The last time it was sold was in 1986, for $600,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> features real big-league ballplayers and a lanky high school student, Sherman “Scottie” Safford, who’s now 75.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rockwell paid me $60 for each posing session,” Safford, who now lives in Rochester, N.Y., tells \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_25807327/norman-rockwell-rsquo-s-lsquo-rookie-rsquo-reflects\">The Berkshire Eagle\u003c/a>. “I wish I had kept those checks; they might be worth more than that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Safford and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan, the only two men who posed for the painting who are alive today, visited Boston’s Fenway Park to see the framed work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003cem>Eagle\u003c/em> reports, it was the first time the pair had ever met. Safford and the Red Sox players were photographed separately to give Rockwell images to work from as he created the locker-room scene. (You can check out the reference photos used for the painting at the \u003ca href=\"http://collection.nrm.org/search.do?db=object&page=1&keyword=rookie+red+sox&view=lightbox\">Norman Rockwell Museum website\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s some background on how the painting came about, from Christie’s:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“Rockwell conceived this cover at least 9 months in advance of its publication date on March 2\u003csup>nd\u003c/sup>, 1957, just in time for the start of spring training for the Red Sox. Over the summer of 1956, he convinced team management to send four players from the starting lineup up to Rockwell’s hometown, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, deep in Red Sox country. Pitcher Frank Sullivan, right fielder Jackie Jensen, catcher Sammy White all posed for the painting. Williams was either unable or unwilling to make the trip and Rockwell captured his likeness from his trading card, and other photographs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts had predicted \u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> would sell for $20 million to $30 million. The record price for a Rockwell painting was set back in December, when “\u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248790682/norman-rockwells-saying-grace-sells-for-46-million-at-auction\">Saying Grace\u003c/a>,” a work depicting a scene in a restaurant, was auctioned for $46 million. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Norman+Rockwell+Painting+%27The+Rookie%27+Sells+For+%2422.5+Million&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Norman Rockwell’s \u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> has sold for $22.5 million at auction Thursday. The 1957 painting of baseball players in a locker room was sold by Christie’s auction house — heady heights for a work that first appeared on a magazine that sold for 15 cents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update at 12:50 p.m. The Final Price\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While the “hammer price” of the Rockwell painting was $20 million, Christie’s says the painting’s final price is $22,565,000, reflecting a buyer’s premium. We’ve updated this post to reflect the auction house’s final calculation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Our original post continues:\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10136544\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 911px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/arts/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg\" alt=\"Norman Rockwell's The Rookie, seen here on display in 2005, sold at auction for $22.5 million Thursday.\" width=\"911\" height=\"921\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10136544\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb.jpg 911w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-400x404.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-296x300.jpg 296w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-32x32.jpg 32w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-64x64.jpg 64w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-96x96.jpg 96w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-128x128.jpg 128w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/05/rookie_frame_custom-d0c2abe05140bae81bdb5d31bd104f79da3061bb-75x75.jpg 75w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 911px) 100vw, 911px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Norman Rockwell’s \u003cem>The Rookie,\u003c/em> seen here on display in 2005, sold at auction for $22.5 million Thursday. \u003ccite>(Chitose Suzuki/AP)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>An image of the painting — its full title is \u003cem>The Rookie (Red Sox Locker Room)\u003c/em> —\u003cem> \u003c/em>originally appeared on the cover of \u003cem>The Saturday Evening Post\u003c/em>. The last time it was sold was in 1986, for $600,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> features real big-league ballplayers and a lanky high school student, Sherman “Scottie” Safford, who’s now 75.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rockwell paid me $60 for each posing session,” Safford, who now lives in Rochester, N.Y., tells \u003ca href=\"http://www.berkshireeagle.com/news/ci_25807327/norman-rockwell-rsquo-s-lsquo-rookie-rsquo-reflects\">The Berkshire Eagle\u003c/a>. “I wish I had kept those checks; they might be worth more than that now.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this month, Safford and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Frank Sullivan, the only two men who posed for the painting who are alive today, visited Boston’s Fenway Park to see the framed work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As the \u003cem>Eagle\u003c/em> reports, it was the first time the pair had ever met. Safford and the Red Sox players were photographed separately to give Rockwell images to work from as he created the locker-room scene. (You can check out the reference photos used for the painting at the \u003ca href=\"http://collection.nrm.org/search.do?db=object&page=1&keyword=rookie+red+sox&view=lightbox\">Norman Rockwell Museum website\u003c/a>.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s some background on how the painting came about, from Christie’s:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“Rockwell conceived this cover at least 9 months in advance of its publication date on March 2\u003csup>nd\u003c/sup>, 1957, just in time for the start of spring training for the Red Sox. Over the summer of 1956, he convinced team management to send four players from the starting lineup up to Rockwell’s hometown, Stockbridge, Massachusetts, deep in Red Sox country. Pitcher Frank Sullivan, right fielder Jackie Jensen, catcher Sammy White all posed for the painting. Williams was either unable or unwilling to make the trip and Rockwell captured his likeness from his trading card, and other photographs.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts had predicted \u003cem>The Rookie\u003c/em> would sell for $20 million to $30 million. The record price for a Rockwell painting was set back in December, when “\u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2013/12/04/248790682/norman-rockwells-saying-grace-sells-for-46-million-at-auction\">Saying Grace\u003c/a>,” a work depicting a scene in a restaurant, was auctioned for $46 million. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Norman+Rockwell+Painting+%27The+Rookie%27+Sells+For+%2422.5+Million&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Jack White's 'Lazaretto': the All Songs Interview",
"headTitle": "Jack White’s ‘Lazaretto’: the All Songs Interview | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>There’s a stunning new album from \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/17089122/jack-white\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jack White \u003c/a>on the way. \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>, out June 10, is his second “solo” record, though the talented musicians who made up the male and female backing bands for \u003cem>Blunderbuss\u003c/em>, his first album under his own name, have returned. This time around, the men and women are often part of the same band.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack White has been a passionate and gritty guitar player since he was a teenager, and with \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/15189638/the-white-stripes\">The White Stripes\u003c/a> he excelled at making music that was bold and brash. But in his many projects, both as a musician and as the mind behind the Nashville label Third Man Records, he’s demonstrated a love for a range of American styles, and found ways to bring music from the hills and from the distant past into the here and now. On \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>, he puts those influences on full view: old-time fiddle, honky-tonk piano, wailing electronics and his own shimmering guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I spoke with Jack White last week, I was in Philadelphia and he was in Nashville, in rehearsals with his band to \u003ca href=\"http://jackwhiteiii.com/tour-dates/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tour the new record this summer\u003c/a>. We talked about the composition process behind the new album — including how he crushed writer’s block with a little help from his 19-year-old self — as well as the nature of fate and coincidence, and why he rarely writes anything down. When he first sat down he told me his next stop was the studio, to record a B-side for an upcoming single.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=313991548&m=314279020&live=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hear or download the audio of this interview, with samples of new music\u003c/a>, at the “Listen” link on this page, or read an edited version below.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you first go into the studio to record a song, do you go in with other folks? Do you go in alone?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My band’s in town. We’re rehearsing to go play shows. But today we’re taking a break and we’re just going to record things today. Sometimes you just have to get caught up. When you start playing together and rehearsing, you come up with ideas, and then at some point you have to take a day [and say], “Huh, I want to record a few things because I keep thinking of new ideas now that we’ve been playing music all day long every day.” You take a break and record. I think it’s good for me to capture some of that stuff before I forget about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yeah, I was going to say: Are you good at remembering? How do you remember?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best thing for me to do is to play it on a different instrument. If I’m writing something on a guitar, and [I think], “Oh, I really like that,” I’ll go over and play it on the piano, and for some reason my brain will remember that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh, that’s really interesting.\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>It’s sort of the equivalent of just writing it down, maybe — there’s some muscle memory or something connected.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve never been good at writing things down. I don’t know, I just always lose the paper or I don’t know what it is. I don’t keep a book with me. I don’t like to carry anything with me. I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t like to carry a wallet with me if I can help it. I just don’t like having things in my hands like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about the idea of “rough recording” all that you do and then going back? Is that just too much weight, too much baggage?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, the problem with my personality is that I’m the kind of guy, like if I took a roll of film and it got developed and came back, I would take out the two photos that are good and I throw away all the rest. I don’t like bad photos being there when there’s one good one that’s so great. You know, you should take that one out and frame it, and throw the rest of them away so nobody else will find them. And of course, this is — don’t ever do that in front of a female. They’ll just come run, screaming, diving, “Why?!” Girls can’t stand that for some reason, I don’t know why. Guys are like, “Well, whatever, set them on fire. Who cares?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I can think of a couple of pack rat guys.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular if it’s photographs, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh, I see. A different connection, yeah. It’s not just a matter of items.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoarding, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’ve been really enjoying the record. I can tell you had fun making it. I hear it in the voice, I can hear it in the playing; it feels nicely inspired. I’m gonna play the first thing I heard on it; here’s a little “High Ball Stepper.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Actually, I’m even going to stop it right away — because you must tell me what’s going on, like the first 12 seconds of this song.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRbnAxrS3EM\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We had a day off in touring, and I wanted to get some stuff on tape. This was an idea I had had before we started playing in the studio — I gave this steel guitar player, Maggie Björklund, a “backwards pedal” that takes whatever you put into it and plays it backwards. I thought, “Well, what happens if you play steel guitar into a backwards pedal like that?” She was messing around with it, and by the time she had done that, Lillie Mae was tuning up …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lillie Mae [Rische], the fiddler.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, she played the fiddle, and she made some sound effect while she was tuning up, and it sounded something like \u003cem>[makes screeching sound]. \u003c/em>That thing you’re hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was playing a guitar, and I kept thinking of that little phrase. So I asked her and Ruby [Amanfu], the vocalist, to make that sound effect together while we were playing this song, and so it became something very grandiose, very fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This is an instrumental track. Did you imagine ever putting words to it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, I thought — because [of] this effect, maybe people don’t even know what’s making that sound — that will be our vocals for the song and we don’t need to write any. And then I thought later on, “Maybe it’s not powerful enough.” And I started to think of different ideas for vocals. But then every time I’d play it for someone, I’d say, “Here’s this song, I’m going to put some vocals on it, I think.” And they would say, “Oh my God, that’s my favorite thing of the things you played me.” They already liked it. And I said, “Well, if you like it already, I’m not going to try to fix it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You’ve always been such a lover of words, and there are really good lyrics on this record. I remember once, somebody telling me a story — maybe it was you, I can’t remember — you used to work as an upholsterer, listening to NPR, and would write notes and stuff them in the couches and chairs.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah. That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But I’m also told on this record that you found a series of old writings of your own. Tell me about that.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new problem with these songs is that I recorded the music and I didn’t write vocal parts or lyrics for some of them for maybe seven or eight months, so I was in a real bind. I’d become disconnected with the music. [It was hard] to start thinking about what stories make sense and what characters can be involved in this; I was so far away from them. I had never been in this position before, because I had never worked on an album this long before. So I was getting very frustrated with the idea of, “Oh my God, I can’t imagine sitting down and trying to sing to this song, because now it’s someone else’s song. I have to pretend it’s someone else’s, and I have to cover this song, and collaborate with them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had found these scribble writings or whatever, from when I was 19. I had these one-act plays and whatever they were, poems. They weren’t very good. They were just sort of by a person without any experience in life, but with a lot of fire inside of me — I couldn’t wait to break out of the house and get something done, go somewhere, see something. And I’d thought, like the photographs I told you about before, I think I’m just going to throw away all of these and keep one or two of them that were interesting. And then I thought, before I do that, why don’t I pull some of these characters out, some of these names, some of these sentences, and work with them? And I did. And it became a way to collaborate with my younger self. That’s how I’ll do these vocals on these songs: I’m going to collaborate with a 19-year-old version of me, which is half my age. I have experience now. What would I be telling myself how to do? If I could go back and say, “No, \u003cem>this \u003c/em>is how you write a song. This is how you work with metaphors. Try it like this.” So that became the way I got out of that bind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First of all, how the hell do you throw these away? (\u003cem>Laughter\u003c/em>) I know it’s like the photographs, but I’m gonna be the one there screaming, “How do you take writings that you do when you’re a kid and just toss them?” I don’t even comprehend it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, it’s better to not see them. I mean, it’s just — I’ve always been that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But what if you did that when you were 20? Then you wouldn’t have had these.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To throw them \u003cem>all\u003c/em> away would be a bad idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Okay.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to take what makes the most sense — what’s the beautiful aspect of it? Take that out, and the rest can, you know, be set on fire, because they’ll ruin the one good thing. That’s why I think bad photographs in an envelope ruin the one beautiful photograph. Because when you see the beautiful one, and people want to keep digging through the other photos, and say, “Oh, maybe there’s one that’s better.” No, there’s not one that’s better, there’s just this one, and you know how it goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, right now: If you found a bag of Jimi Hendrix photos, you’re gonna print every single one of them, because it’s a bag of photos of Jimi Hendrix. When are you going to see this again? You’re not going to take out the one good one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s right, I’m not burning them.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re going to print all of them, and probably have an art show and sell each one of them, you know? (\u003cem>Laughs\u003c/em>) But I’m sure he would like, “Oh, my God, there’s \u003cem>one \u003c/em>good one in there and that’s it.” So that’s the funny thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s a really hard discipline. Back to the idea of reconnecting with yourself when you were 19. What did you see in your writings that you did like? What was it about yourself then that you thought something was there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lust for life, but with no experience. It’s a different place to be in. Now, I start to write, and I think about these characters and where they could go. I think, “Oh, this person would do that.” But the harsh reality is, when that person gets to the end of that tunnel, there’s nothing there. Whereas when I was writing when I was 19, I thought, “Oh, no, when you get to the end of that tunnel, something beautiful and romantic might happen there, and it goes to another level.” And now, it’s hard. I have to talk myself out of the harsh reality that, over the years, your romance becomes tempered by realism. And you have to figure out a balance of keeping outlook on life positive, but knowing in the back of your head that there could be a bad ending to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wow. It reminds me of this Richard Thompson song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRwc_1sILkQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The End Of The Rainbow\u003c/a>.” He sings this song to his newborn, “There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow / There’s nothing to grow up for anymore.” And it’s like, “Oh my God, how can you sing that song to a child?”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anyway, on another note, let me play “Lazaretto.” [\u003cem>Track begins with lyrics in English and Spanish.\u003c/em>] I fail at Spanish all the time, but it’s something about working and wood. What’s the Spanish there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYF0LtfUvJs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This was a rhyme about the braggadocio of some hip-hop lyrics — the bragging about oneself in hip-hop music. The character who’s singing this song is bragging about himself, but he’s actually bragging about real things he’s actually accomplished and real things that he actually does, not imaginary things or things he would like to do. Because sometimes you see people who, they sing from the heart, but they haven’t done anything, you know? And their lives are not very interesting or whatever. So this character in this song actually has worked very hard in his life and he’s done some interesting things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t sing a lyric like “I work hard.” You can’t get away with saying it. So I had to change it to Spanish: “\u003cem>Yo trabajo duro\u003c/em>.” “I work hard, like in wood and plaster.” There’s sort of a triple meaning, that wood and plaster are hard surfaces — as in a painter who “works in oils.” It’s sort of bad Spanish, because you wouldn’t say \u003cem>como\u003c/em> [to mean] “as in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This song takes a dark turn, talking about being quarantined on the Isle of Man — “trying to escape any way that I can,” I think is the rhyme. I wanted to talk about what a Lazaretto is. “They threw me down into a Lazaretto … bored rotten.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the only thing I that I really put in the album of my own personality. There’s a song called “That Black Bat Licorice,” where I talk about being confined, a prisoner in a hospital. That really is me, personally. My sort of fantasy that I have is, I wish that some other forces, some powers that be, would push me into this scenario for a month and lock me somewhere, instead of me doing it to myself all the time. I’m always imposing restrictions on myself. And so I guess my fantasy is, it would be so nice to be in a quarantine hospital, but not to die from it — just to know that I had to stay here for two months and I can’t do anything else. That’s why I named the album \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So a lazaretto is a place where they took people who, for some reason, a disease or …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a word for \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Lazaretto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a quarantine hospital\u003c/a>, or a quarantine island, or something like that. It’s a beautiful-sounding word, too, “lazaretto” — coming from Lazarus, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What was funny is, I had that lyric, “Making models of people I used to know / Out of coffee and cotton.” And to me, that was revolving around maybe two or three meanings. I was drinking so much coffee, and I’m resting on these cotton sheets and pillows, and I’m smothering my face in cotton all day long. But at the same time, I’m also taking the coffee grounds and creating little sculptures out of them. These are the few materials that I have in the room together that, if you just give me a couple of slivers of wood and some metal shavings, I will be forced to create something in this room, under this condition. But someone sent me this beautiful thing that someone had found in an interview, that one of the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Memphis Three\u003c/a> — those people that got put into jail unjustly — in jail, he was making drawings with Q-tips and coffee grounds. I couldn’t believe it, man! You’d say, “Oh that’s where you got that idea.” Well, I’m not gonna argue with you now. I’d never heard of that, but that’s an unbelievable coincidence. I couldn’t believe that. That’s one of the biggest coincidences I’ve ever had in my life. I really like that lyric now, even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you make of coincidences? I deal with this a lot — wondering about fate, and where is fate, is there fate, do things happen for a reason, or do you just put two things together and make a purpose from them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the most beautiful and scientifically the most sad thing about that topic, is that, when I was younger, I had heard about synchronicity, when things are happening at the same time: You went to someone’s house and they were watching the same TV show you were just talking about in the car. I had this unbelievable thing happen; this will be my maybe second favorite coincidence. I was in line at a drive-through coffee place in Detroit. This was, like, 10 years ago. And I was telling somebody in line while I was paying for coffee, “You know that in World War II, they couldn’t make pennies out of copper? They had to make them out of steel or aluminum.” I think they’re called steel pennies, but I don’t think they’re actually steel — they’re made out of zinc or aluminum or something like that. But they weren’t copper. And someone was telling me, “Oh, that’s interesting.” Twenty-four hours later in that exact same line again, my morning ritual, getting coffee in this drive-through with the same person sitting next to me, and I’m given change. I’m given a steel penny from 1942. I was like, “C’mon, there’s just no way.” I haven’t been given one of these as change in 10 years or something. So, unbelievable coincidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I read this article a couple years ago about how, scientifically, our brain, we have to create patterns. We look for patterns of similarity all the time; we’re trying to find things that are similar so that our brain can make sense of them. And that, shockingly, is the seed of a lot of romantic ideas for a lot of people on a day-to-day basis, even for a lot of artists, you know? That it was meant to be. Actually, it’s our brain focusing on patterns, trying to discover patterns all the time. It’s a little bit sad to say that, so I hate even saying that out loud because it kind of kills a lot of romance about things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It does, but when those moments happen, it’s really difficult to let go of the romance of it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, I think we shouldn’t. We got nothing else to talk about. (\u003cem>Laughs\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you’d rather someone take you for a month and put you on that island. What would be the difference of you doing that, and someone making you do that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, you can’t really do it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever I had a lot of problems going on, and they’re piling up on each other, I used to think, or say out loud to someone, “Well, God, I wish at least my leg was broken. At least then I’d know what the problem was.” You could say, “Okay, well, my leg’s broken, I can’t walk. I have to wait six weeks now.” Done. But all the other kinds of problems in life, they can be vague, and they’re unsolvable, and you can’t get your head around them. And they’re imposed by these ridiculous things. Not problems you want to have. They’re not good problems. So that’s why I guess that fantasy comes from me wanting to be in the Marine Corps or in prison or something. Something where someone else told me that I have to be in this spot and can’t leave. That would be a nice thing for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You do get an astonishing amount of stuff done.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s self-imposed though. It’s self-imposed, that’s the difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are many beautiful things that happen in the song “Temporary Ground,” and I want to know who helped with that — both the fiddle and then that harmony.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s Lillie Mae Rische, who just exemplifies freedom to me in every way possible. And the first lyric is, “On a floating lily island” — again, sort of an accidental coincidence. I had read in \u003cem>National Geographic\u003c/em> about these giant Queen Victoria lily pads that could hold up to a hundred pounds, so a person could actually float on a lily pad, which seems like an \u003cem>Alice in Wonderland\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Through the Looking Glass \u003c/em>kind of idea. So coincidentally, two ideas about freedom, and the word “lily” together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And she’s also the singer?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, she sings on there too. She didn’t at first, but I really wanted to get her voice on there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you work on a song like this, would you sit with Lillie Mae in a room and make it? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I did this one with the whole band, and then we asked her if she would sing on it later on, after I had put vocals down. She just really, for some reason, exemplifies freedom in all ways to me. She grew up in a band. She was on stage when she was three years old and traveling with her family band, playing music on different stages and fairs and folk festivals and things like that, and she still sort of lives that way. It just seems like she breathes music all day long, and that seems like total freedom to me. She was very inspiring to me for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is there something on this record that you’d like me to play?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know. It’s so funny, [what] you’re playing to me, I’m only hearing the left channel where I’m at. It’s great to listen to these songs again with just one side of it, because I’m hearing things I haven’t heard in a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I can’t tell why that would be. Could we just one quick second ask the engineer …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>No, it’s okay! Let’s keep it. “Want and Able” is interesting, since we’ve got this left channel thing going. I wrote this with these two characters in mind, almost like they would be names, like “Pancho and Lefty”: “Juan” and “Abel,” but “Want and Able.” But by the time it had gotten finished, it felt like I almost should go approach like a gay rights organization or something like that. It feels like something that could be used as a theme for an idea about fighting against something else. And these two characters are talking to each other, and they aren’t able to do what they naturally already want to do, or need to do. Outside forces are not allowing it. And these two characters are telling each other how they either have the chance to fight it or that they’re unable to fight. I think the left channel has a low vocal and piano, and the right channel is a high vocal and guitar. And they’re completely separate from each other, so that if you just turn the knob either direction, you either hear one or the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[\u003cem>Sound of crows plays at start of song\u003c/em>] There’s a needle drop, but I didn’t quite hear it there. Let me just start it again, ’cause I didn’t have the volume up. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those crows are coming from these old hunting records that I found. I found a portable record player from the ’50s that you’d take out when you go hunting, and these are records that you’d play to get crows to come around. There was a death cry of a crow, and a crow and a raven [or] a crow and something else fighting each other. So those are two different old records played at the wrong speed — they’re played very slowed down, like 33 [RPM] when they’re supposed to be 45’s or something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> Do you get to sit around, by yourself, and just play songs? To either a room of no one, or to kids?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I play songs to my kids quite often, to see what they react to, you know? I like to play music [I] recorded in the car to them, too, because they don’t lie. They tell you immediately if something is good or not. And that’s a great place to be. If they react to something, that really tells me I’m on the right path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you tell what it is that engages them? They’re how old now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re 8 and 6 now. No, there’s nothing in particular. I never know what they’re gonna like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you remember the last thing you played for them that they did like?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t know the names of things. They just tell me, “Oh, I like the song that says this.” Or, “The song that has the piano on it at the beginning.” That’s what they say, and it’s pretty funny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I wonder about people who, they started playing music because they \u003cem>couldn’t not\u003c/em> play music. That had to be you, right? You had to make music.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, but I also thought I’d never be able to do it. No one ever said, “You know, if you keep doing this, you’ll be able to make records, and you’ll be able to go on tour.” That was never told to me when I was a teenager. I just always assumed there was no chance in hell of me ever doing anything with it. I always played music because I loved it. And I would play till 4 in the morning. I just loved it to death. My whole bedroom had nothing to do with anything but music, and a little bit of upholstery. That’s about it. [laughter] That was it. I was shocked when we finally did make a record. I think the first White Stripes 45 was the first record I made, and I think I held onto that record for a week. Matter of fact, I put it in the bathroom, so that every time I was in there, I could pick it up and look at it. I was just so shocked. It wasn’t glory. It was just shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you would do that until 4 in the morning. Do you find yourself doing that now, where it’s not project-based, just sitting and playing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You have to sort of wake yourself up. Like, if I see a guitar, I go to pick it up, and sometimes now, I’m 38, and I’m like, “Damn, the \u003cem>guitar\u003c/em> again?” Somebody hand me an accordion or something.” So sometimes you get into that kind of mode. And a lot of times over the years, I’ve thought, “Okay, well, I’ll play a guitar, ’cause I guess that’s what people want me to do. I’d rather be playing xylophone or something on this song.” But you do what you have to do, you make concessions, and you pick your battles about how it’s going to be presented. Obviously, if I went out and read these lyrics out loud, holding a piece of paper on a microphone with no music, that’s not going to have the kind of appeal it would have if I had this kind of drum beat, and this kind of melody to back it up. I need those tricks to get you to pay attention to it. I’m fine with doing it; I’ll do whatever tricks are necessary in my job, to share something with somebody else. It’s just sort of picking those battles of, which ones do you want to use that will be the most effective, and that I’ll get something out of too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think it’s a good thing to think about for anybody who’s new to playing music, that taking chances and not getting into one set way of doing things is always good. But I’ll say to you, and you must know this, that there’s so many things happening on this record. Sometimes it sounds like I’m listening to a jazz record, and sometimes it sounds like there’s a little honky-tonk to it. And I like the way that they all fall into place.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s great to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You dedicate this record to a couple of people. One of them is Florence Green; another is “Amazing Grace” Hopper.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, Florence Green, she was the last surviving participant of World War I. I wrote her name down to think about her as a possible character for one of the songs on the record. I can’t remember if I actually applied that to somebody or not; it was so fast. I write down very little, as I was saying before — but sometimes I’ll say, “Oh, okay, I can’t play that on the piano and remember that name. I’ve got to actually write down that person’s name.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyhow, these were people that came up when I was thinking about characters. And they had incredible lives, but incredible lives in strange ways. One of them’s sort of an anarchist, or fighter for freedom. Grace Hopper was an amazing scientist and mathematician for the Navy. I was dedicating the record, and I thought, “These names are still here. I’m going to dedicate it to them.” The album starts off with “Three Women,” and I guess it ends with three women. It just made sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beautiful. Thanks for your time.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you, I appreciate it. It’s great to talk about all these [characters], and great to hear just the left channel, so I can go back and think about things in rehearsal in a different way now. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jack+White%27s+%27Lazaretto%27%3A+The+All+Songs+Interview&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>There’s a stunning new album from \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/17089122/jack-white\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Jack White \u003c/a>on the way. \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>, out June 10, is his second “solo” record, though the talented musicians who made up the male and female backing bands for \u003cem>Blunderbuss\u003c/em>, his first album under his own name, have returned. This time around, the men and women are often part of the same band.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jack White has been a passionate and gritty guitar player since he was a teenager, and with \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/artists/15189638/the-white-stripes\">The White Stripes\u003c/a> he excelled at making music that was bold and brash. But in his many projects, both as a musician and as the mind behind the Nashville label Third Man Records, he’s demonstrated a love for a range of American styles, and found ways to bring music from the hills and from the distant past into the here and now. On \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>, he puts those influences on full view: old-time fiddle, honky-tonk piano, wailing electronics and his own shimmering guitar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I spoke with Jack White last week, I was in Philadelphia and he was in Nashville, in rehearsals with his band to \u003ca href=\"http://jackwhiteiii.com/tour-dates/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">tour the new record this summer\u003c/a>. We talked about the composition process behind the new album — including how he crushed writer’s block with a little help from his 19-year-old self — as well as the nature of fate and coincidence, and why he rarely writes anything down. When he first sat down he told me his next stop was the studio, to record a B-side for an upcoming single.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>You can \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=313991548&m=314279020&live=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">hear or download the audio of this interview, with samples of new music\u003c/a>, at the “Listen” link on this page, or read an edited version below.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you first go into the studio to record a song, do you go in with other folks? Do you go in alone?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>My band’s in town. We’re rehearsing to go play shows. But today we’re taking a break and we’re just going to record things today. Sometimes you just have to get caught up. When you start playing together and rehearsing, you come up with ideas, and then at some point you have to take a day [and say], “Huh, I want to record a few things because I keep thinking of new ideas now that we’ve been playing music all day long every day.” You take a break and record. I think it’s good for me to capture some of that stuff before I forget about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Yeah, I was going to say: Are you good at remembering? How do you remember?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Best thing for me to do is to play it on a different instrument. If I’m writing something on a guitar, and [I think], “Oh, I really like that,” I’ll go over and play it on the piano, and for some reason my brain will remember that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh, that’s really interesting.\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>It’s sort of the equivalent of just writing it down, maybe — there’s some muscle memory or something connected.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ve never been good at writing things down. I don’t know, I just always lose the paper or I don’t know what it is. I don’t keep a book with me. I don’t like to carry anything with me. I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t like to carry a wallet with me if I can help it. I just don’t like having things in my hands like that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What about the idea of “rough recording” all that you do and then going back? Is that just too much weight, too much baggage?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, the problem with my personality is that I’m the kind of guy, like if I took a roll of film and it got developed and came back, I would take out the two photos that are good and I throw away all the rest. I don’t like bad photos being there when there’s one good one that’s so great. You know, you should take that one out and frame it, and throw the rest of them away so nobody else will find them. And of course, this is — don’t ever do that in front of a female. They’ll just come run, screaming, diving, “Why?!” Girls can’t stand that for some reason, I don’t know why. Guys are like, “Well, whatever, set them on fire. Who cares?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I can think of a couple of pack rat guys.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In particular if it’s photographs, though.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh, I see. A different connection, yeah. It’s not just a matter of items.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hoarding, yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I’ve been really enjoying the record. I can tell you had fun making it. I hear it in the voice, I can hear it in the playing; it feels nicely inspired. I’m gonna play the first thing I heard on it; here’s a little “High Ball Stepper.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Actually, I’m even going to stop it right away — because you must tell me what’s going on, like the first 12 seconds of this song.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/sRbnAxrS3EM'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/sRbnAxrS3EM'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>We had a day off in touring, and I wanted to get some stuff on tape. This was an idea I had had before we started playing in the studio — I gave this steel guitar player, Maggie Björklund, a “backwards pedal” that takes whatever you put into it and plays it backwards. I thought, “Well, what happens if you play steel guitar into a backwards pedal like that?” She was messing around with it, and by the time she had done that, Lillie Mae was tuning up …\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Lillie Mae [Rische], the fiddler.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, she played the fiddle, and she made some sound effect while she was tuning up, and it sounded something like \u003cem>[makes screeching sound]. \u003c/em>That thing you’re hearing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Oh!\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I was playing a guitar, and I kept thinking of that little phrase. So I asked her and Ruby [Amanfu], the vocalist, to make that sound effect together while we were playing this song, and so it became something very grandiose, very fast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This is an instrumental track. Did you imagine ever putting words to it?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At first, I thought — because [of] this effect, maybe people don’t even know what’s making that sound — that will be our vocals for the song and we don’t need to write any. And then I thought later on, “Maybe it’s not powerful enough.” And I started to think of different ideas for vocals. But then every time I’d play it for someone, I’d say, “Here’s this song, I’m going to put some vocals on it, I think.” And they would say, “Oh my God, that’s my favorite thing of the things you played me.” They already liked it. And I said, “Well, if you like it already, I’m not going to try to fix it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You’ve always been such a lover of words, and there are really good lyrics on this record. I remember once, somebody telling me a story — maybe it was you, I can’t remember — you used to work as an upholsterer, listening to NPR, and would write notes and stuff them in the couches and chairs.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah. That’s right.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But I’m also told on this record that you found a series of old writings of your own. Tell me about that.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A new problem with these songs is that I recorded the music and I didn’t write vocal parts or lyrics for some of them for maybe seven or eight months, so I was in a real bind. I’d become disconnected with the music. [It was hard] to start thinking about what stories make sense and what characters can be involved in this; I was so far away from them. I had never been in this position before, because I had never worked on an album this long before. So I was getting very frustrated with the idea of, “Oh my God, I can’t imagine sitting down and trying to sing to this song, because now it’s someone else’s song. I have to pretend it’s someone else’s, and I have to cover this song, and collaborate with them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I had found these scribble writings or whatever, from when I was 19. I had these one-act plays and whatever they were, poems. They weren’t very good. They were just sort of by a person without any experience in life, but with a lot of fire inside of me — I couldn’t wait to break out of the house and get something done, go somewhere, see something. And I’d thought, like the photographs I told you about before, I think I’m just going to throw away all of these and keep one or two of them that were interesting. And then I thought, before I do that, why don’t I pull some of these characters out, some of these names, some of these sentences, and work with them? And I did. And it became a way to collaborate with my younger self. That’s how I’ll do these vocals on these songs: I’m going to collaborate with a 19-year-old version of me, which is half my age. I have experience now. What would I be telling myself how to do? If I could go back and say, “No, \u003cem>this \u003c/em>is how you write a song. This is how you work with metaphors. Try it like this.” So that became the way I got out of that bind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>First of all, how the hell do you throw these away? (\u003cem>Laughter\u003c/em>) I know it’s like the photographs, but I’m gonna be the one there screaming, “How do you take writings that you do when you’re a kid and just toss them?” I don’t even comprehend it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, it’s better to not see them. I mean, it’s just — I’ve always been that way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>But what if you did that when you were 20? Then you wouldn’t have had these.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To throw them \u003cem>all\u003c/em> away would be a bad idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Okay.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But to take what makes the most sense — what’s the beautiful aspect of it? Take that out, and the rest can, you know, be set on fire, because they’ll ruin the one good thing. That’s why I think bad photographs in an envelope ruin the one beautiful photograph. Because when you see the beautiful one, and people want to keep digging through the other photos, and say, “Oh, maybe there’s one that’s better.” No, there’s not one that’s better, there’s just this one, and you know how it goes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Take, for example, right now: If you found a bag of Jimi Hendrix photos, you’re gonna print every single one of them, because it’s a bag of photos of Jimi Hendrix. When are you going to see this again? You’re not going to take out the one good one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s right, I’m not burning them.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re going to print all of them, and probably have an art show and sell each one of them, you know? (\u003cem>Laughs\u003c/em>) But I’m sure he would like, “Oh, my God, there’s \u003cem>one \u003c/em>good one in there and that’s it.” So that’s the funny thing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It’s a really hard discipline. Back to the idea of reconnecting with yourself when you were 19. What did you see in your writings that you did like? What was it about yourself then that you thought something was there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A lust for life, but with no experience. It’s a different place to be in. Now, I start to write, and I think about these characters and where they could go. I think, “Oh, this person would do that.” But the harsh reality is, when that person gets to the end of that tunnel, there’s nothing there. Whereas when I was writing when I was 19, I thought, “Oh, no, when you get to the end of that tunnel, something beautiful and romantic might happen there, and it goes to another level.” And now, it’s hard. I have to talk myself out of the harsh reality that, over the years, your romance becomes tempered by realism. And you have to figure out a balance of keeping outlook on life positive, but knowing in the back of your head that there could be a bad ending to this.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wow. It reminds me of this Richard Thompson song, “\u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRwc_1sILkQ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The End Of The Rainbow\u003c/a>.” He sings this song to his newborn, “There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow / There’s nothing to grow up for anymore.” And it’s like, “Oh my God, how can you sing that song to a child?”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Anyway, on another note, let me play “Lazaretto.” [\u003cem>Track begins with lyrics in English and Spanish.\u003c/em>] I fail at Spanish all the time, but it’s something about working and wood. What’s the Spanish there?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/cYF0LtfUvJs'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/cYF0LtfUvJs'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>This was a rhyme about the braggadocio of some hip-hop lyrics — the bragging about oneself in hip-hop music. The character who’s singing this song is bragging about himself, but he’s actually bragging about real things he’s actually accomplished and real things that he actually does, not imaginary things or things he would like to do. Because sometimes you see people who, they sing from the heart, but they haven’t done anything, you know? And their lives are not very interesting or whatever. So this character in this song actually has worked very hard in his life and he’s done some interesting things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can’t sing a lyric like “I work hard.” You can’t get away with saying it. So I had to change it to Spanish: “\u003cem>Yo trabajo duro\u003c/em>.” “I work hard, like in wood and plaster.” There’s sort of a triple meaning, that wood and plaster are hard surfaces — as in a painter who “works in oils.” It’s sort of bad Spanish, because you wouldn’t say \u003cem>como\u003c/em> [to mean] “as in.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>This song takes a dark turn, talking about being quarantined on the Isle of Man — “trying to escape any way that I can,” I think is the rhyme. I wanted to talk about what a Lazaretto is. “They threw me down into a Lazaretto … bored rotten.”\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the only thing I that I really put in the album of my own personality. There’s a song called “That Black Bat Licorice,” where I talk about being confined, a prisoner in a hospital. That really is me, personally. My sort of fantasy that I have is, I wish that some other forces, some powers that be, would push me into this scenario for a month and lock me somewhere, instead of me doing it to myself all the time. I’m always imposing restrictions on myself. And so I guess my fantasy is, it would be so nice to be in a quarantine hospital, but not to die from it — just to know that I had to stay here for two months and I can’t do anything else. That’s why I named the album \u003cem>Lazaretto\u003c/em>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So a lazaretto is a place where they took people who, for some reason, a disease or …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s a word for \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadelphia_Lazaretto\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">a quarantine hospital\u003c/a>, or a quarantine island, or something like that. It’s a beautiful-sounding word, too, “lazaretto” — coming from Lazarus, I guess.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What was funny is, I had that lyric, “Making models of people I used to know / Out of coffee and cotton.” And to me, that was revolving around maybe two or three meanings. I was drinking so much coffee, and I’m resting on these cotton sheets and pillows, and I’m smothering my face in cotton all day long. But at the same time, I’m also taking the coffee grounds and creating little sculptures out of them. These are the few materials that I have in the room together that, if you just give me a couple of slivers of wood and some metal shavings, I will be forced to create something in this room, under this condition. But someone sent me this beautiful thing that someone had found in an interview, that one of the \u003ca href=\"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Memphis_Three\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">West Memphis Three\u003c/a> — those people that got put into jail unjustly — in jail, he was making drawings with Q-tips and coffee grounds. I couldn’t believe it, man! You’d say, “Oh that’s where you got that idea.” Well, I’m not gonna argue with you now. I’d never heard of that, but that’s an unbelievable coincidence. I couldn’t believe that. That’s one of the biggest coincidences I’ve ever had in my life. I really like that lyric now, even more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What do you make of coincidences? I deal with this a lot — wondering about fate, and where is fate, is there fate, do things happen for a reason, or do you just put two things together and make a purpose from them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is the most beautiful and scientifically the most sad thing about that topic, is that, when I was younger, I had heard about synchronicity, when things are happening at the same time: You went to someone’s house and they were watching the same TV show you were just talking about in the car. I had this unbelievable thing happen; this will be my maybe second favorite coincidence. I was in line at a drive-through coffee place in Detroit. This was, like, 10 years ago. And I was telling somebody in line while I was paying for coffee, “You know that in World War II, they couldn’t make pennies out of copper? They had to make them out of steel or aluminum.” I think they’re called steel pennies, but I don’t think they’re actually steel — they’re made out of zinc or aluminum or something like that. But they weren’t copper. And someone was telling me, “Oh, that’s interesting.” Twenty-four hours later in that exact same line again, my morning ritual, getting coffee in this drive-through with the same person sitting next to me, and I’m given change. I’m given a steel penny from 1942. I was like, “C’mon, there’s just no way.” I haven’t been given one of these as change in 10 years or something. So, unbelievable coincidence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But I read this article a couple years ago about how, scientifically, our brain, we have to create patterns. We look for patterns of similarity all the time; we’re trying to find things that are similar so that our brain can make sense of them. And that, shockingly, is the seed of a lot of romantic ideas for a lot of people on a day-to-day basis, even for a lot of artists, you know? That it was meant to be. Actually, it’s our brain focusing on patterns, trying to discover patterns all the time. It’s a little bit sad to say that, so I hate even saying that out loud because it kind of kills a lot of romance about things.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>It does, but when those moments happen, it’s really difficult to let go of the romance of it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oh, I think we shouldn’t. We got nothing else to talk about. (\u003cem>Laughs\u003c/em>)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you’d rather someone take you for a month and put you on that island. What would be the difference of you doing that, and someone making you do that?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, you can’t really do it, you know?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>That’s it.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whenever I had a lot of problems going on, and they’re piling up on each other, I used to think, or say out loud to someone, “Well, God, I wish at least my leg was broken. At least then I’d know what the problem was.” You could say, “Okay, well, my leg’s broken, I can’t walk. I have to wait six weeks now.” Done. But all the other kinds of problems in life, they can be vague, and they’re unsolvable, and you can’t get your head around them. And they’re imposed by these ridiculous things. Not problems you want to have. They’re not good problems. So that’s why I guess that fantasy comes from me wanting to be in the Marine Corps or in prison or something. Something where someone else told me that I have to be in this spot and can’t leave. That would be a nice thing for me.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You do get an astonishing amount of stuff done.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s self-imposed though. It’s self-imposed, that’s the difference.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>There are many beautiful things that happen in the song “Temporary Ground,” and I want to know who helped with that — both the fiddle and then that harmony.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s Lillie Mae Rische, who just exemplifies freedom to me in every way possible. And the first lyric is, “On a floating lily island” — again, sort of an accidental coincidence. I had read in \u003cem>National Geographic\u003c/em> about these giant Queen Victoria lily pads that could hold up to a hundred pounds, so a person could actually float on a lily pad, which seems like an \u003cem>Alice in Wonderland\u003c/em>, \u003cem>Through the Looking Glass \u003c/em>kind of idea. So coincidentally, two ideas about freedom, and the word “lily” together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And she’s also the singer?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, she sings on there too. She didn’t at first, but I really wanted to get her voice on there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>When you work on a song like this, would you sit with Lillie Mae in a room and make it? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I did this one with the whole band, and then we asked her if she would sing on it later on, after I had put vocals down. She just really, for some reason, exemplifies freedom in all ways to me. She grew up in a band. She was on stage when she was three years old and traveling with her family band, playing music on different stages and fairs and folk festivals and things like that, and she still sort of lives that way. It just seems like she breathes music all day long, and that seems like total freedom to me. She was very inspiring to me for that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Is there something on this record that you’d like me to play?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I don’t know. It’s so funny, [what] you’re playing to me, I’m only hearing the left channel where I’m at. It’s great to listen to these songs again with just one side of it, because I’m hearing things I haven’t heard in a long time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I can’t tell why that would be. Could we just one quick second ask the engineer …\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>No, it’s okay! Let’s keep it. “Want and Able” is interesting, since we’ve got this left channel thing going. I wrote this with these two characters in mind, almost like they would be names, like “Pancho and Lefty”: “Juan” and “Abel,” but “Want and Able.” But by the time it had gotten finished, it felt like I almost should go approach like a gay rights organization or something like that. It feels like something that could be used as a theme for an idea about fighting against something else. And these two characters are talking to each other, and they aren’t able to do what they naturally already want to do, or need to do. Outside forces are not allowing it. And these two characters are telling each other how they either have the chance to fight it or that they’re unable to fight. I think the left channel has a low vocal and piano, and the right channel is a high vocal and guitar. And they’re completely separate from each other, so that if you just turn the knob either direction, you either hear one or the other.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>[\u003cem>Sound of crows plays at start of song\u003c/em>] There’s a needle drop, but I didn’t quite hear it there. Let me just start it again, ’cause I didn’t have the volume up. \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those crows are coming from these old hunting records that I found. I found a portable record player from the ’50s that you’d take out when you go hunting, and these are records that you’d play to get crows to come around. There was a death cry of a crow, and a crow and a raven [or] a crow and something else fighting each other. So those are two different old records played at the wrong speed — they’re played very slowed down, like 33 [RPM] when they’re supposed to be 45’s or something.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003cstrong> Do you get to sit around, by yourself, and just play songs? To either a room of no one, or to kids?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I play songs to my kids quite often, to see what they react to, you know? I like to play music [I] recorded in the car to them, too, because they don’t lie. They tell you immediately if something is good or not. And that’s a great place to be. If they react to something, that really tells me I’m on the right path.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can you tell what it is that engages them? They’re how old now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They’re 8 and 6 now. No, there’s nothing in particular. I never know what they’re gonna like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Do you remember the last thing you played for them that they did like?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They don’t know the names of things. They just tell me, “Oh, I like the song that says this.” Or, “The song that has the piano on it at the beginning.” That’s what they say, and it’s pretty funny.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I wonder about people who, they started playing music because they \u003cem>couldn’t not\u003c/em> play music. That had to be you, right? You had to make music.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, but I also thought I’d never be able to do it. No one ever said, “You know, if you keep doing this, you’ll be able to make records, and you’ll be able to go on tour.” That was never told to me when I was a teenager. I just always assumed there was no chance in hell of me ever doing anything with it. I always played music because I loved it. And I would play till 4 in the morning. I just loved it to death. My whole bedroom had nothing to do with anything but music, and a little bit of upholstery. That’s about it. [laughter] That was it. I was shocked when we finally did make a record. I think the first White Stripes 45 was the first record I made, and I think I held onto that record for a week. Matter of fact, I put it in the bathroom, so that every time I was in there, I could pick it up and look at it. I was just so shocked. It wasn’t glory. It was just shock.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So you would do that until 4 in the morning. Do you find yourself doing that now, where it’s not project-based, just sitting and playing?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You have to sort of wake yourself up. Like, if I see a guitar, I go to pick it up, and sometimes now, I’m 38, and I’m like, “Damn, the \u003cem>guitar\u003c/em> again?” Somebody hand me an accordion or something.” So sometimes you get into that kind of mode. And a lot of times over the years, I’ve thought, “Okay, well, I’ll play a guitar, ’cause I guess that’s what people want me to do. I’d rather be playing xylophone or something on this song.” But you do what you have to do, you make concessions, and you pick your battles about how it’s going to be presented. Obviously, if I went out and read these lyrics out loud, holding a piece of paper on a microphone with no music, that’s not going to have the kind of appeal it would have if I had this kind of drum beat, and this kind of melody to back it up. I need those tricks to get you to pay attention to it. I’m fine with doing it; I’ll do whatever tricks are necessary in my job, to share something with somebody else. It’s just sort of picking those battles of, which ones do you want to use that will be the most effective, and that I’ll get something out of too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>I think it’s a good thing to think about for anybody who’s new to playing music, that taking chances and not getting into one set way of doing things is always good. But I’ll say to you, and you must know this, that there’s so many things happening on this record. Sometimes it sounds like I’m listening to a jazz record, and sometimes it sounds like there’s a little honky-tonk to it. And I like the way that they all fall into place.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s great to hear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You dedicate this record to a couple of people. One of them is Florence Green; another is “Amazing Grace” Hopper.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yeah, Florence Green, she was the last surviving participant of World War I. I wrote her name down to think about her as a possible character for one of the songs on the record. I can’t remember if I actually applied that to somebody or not; it was so fast. I write down very little, as I was saying before — but sometimes I’ll say, “Oh, okay, I can’t play that on the piano and remember that name. I’ve got to actually write down that person’s name.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anyhow, these were people that came up when I was thinking about characters. And they had incredible lives, but incredible lives in strange ways. One of them’s sort of an anarchist, or fighter for freedom. Grace Hopper was an amazing scientist and mathematician for the Navy. I was dedicating the record, and I thought, “These names are still here. I’m going to dedicate it to them.” The album starts off with “Three Women,” and I guess it ends with three women. It just made sense.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Beautiful. Thanks for your time.\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thank you, I appreciate it. It’s great to talk about all these [characters], and great to hear just the left channel, so I can go back and think about things in rehearsal in a different way now. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Jack+White%27s+%27Lazaretto%27%3A+The+All+Songs+Interview&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Led Zeppelin Sued over 'Stairway to Heaven' Guitar Line",
"headTitle": "Led Zeppelin Sued over ‘Stairway to Heaven’ Guitar Line | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Did a band from Los Angeles get ripped off by Led Zeppelin? That’s the claim in a new lawsuit by representatives of the band Spirit, which played some dates with the British rock legends in their early days in America.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The story is a familiar one: A band plays a bit of music that sounds a lot like another song; a debate ensues. But in this case, the band is Led Zeppelin, and the song is “Stairway to Heaven,” a megahit so popular it’s been ubiquitous in bars and on the radio for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The similarity of the meditative guitar-picking in both 1971’s “Stairway to Heaven” and 1968’s “Taurus,” an instrumental track on Spirit’s self-titled album, has been discussed by music fans for years. Now a lawsuit over the songs’ similarities has sent the debate toward a court date.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can listen to the Spirit song and see for yourself what you think.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJUdnTKlP1E\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-15/led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-vs-dot-spirits-taurus-a-reckoning\">Bloomberg Businessweek\u003c/a> reports, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the trust of Spirit guitarist Randy California, who died in 1997. The band’s original bassist is also involved in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ ” says attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy. “It’s been a long time coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney also acknowledges there’s a great deal of money at stake. From Bloomberg Businessweek:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Stairway\u003c/em>‘s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when \u003cem>Conde Nast Portfolio \u003c/em>magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That number is out of date — and it’s poised to rise higher, as Led Zeppelin is set to release new versions of its albums this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News of the lawsuit has prompted a lively comment session over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-targeted-for-plagiarism-20140519\">Rolling Stone\u003c/a>, where readers are debating the ability to copyright chord progressions and chords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Randy California didn’t often speak about the similarity between the two songs. By many accounts, he was an easygoing sort who didn’t let it bother him. But he did comment on it in an interview with \u003cem>Listener\u003c/em> magazine that was recently \u003ca href=\"http://turnmeondeadman.com/led-zeppelin-plagiarism-stairway-to-heaven/\">quoted by the site Turn Me On, Dead Man\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“Well, if you listen to the two songs, you can make your own judgment. It’s an exact… I’d say it was a rip-off. And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said, ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?’ It’s kind of a sore point with me. Maybe some day their conscience will make them do something about it. I don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As that story noted, Led Zeppelin had likely heard the song on its first American tour, when it opened up for Spirit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writing about the 40th anniversary of “Stairway To Heaven” in 2011, NPR’s Ann Powers noted that elements of it “may or may not” have been borrowed from the Spirit song. But she also noted, “nobody but Zep could have molded those chord progressions into such a masterpiece of excess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stories about artistic influence are often circuitous — and to prove it, we bring you a paragraph from music critic Will Shade, written in 2001 for \u003ca href=\"http://www.furious.com/perfect/yardbirds2.html\">Perfect Sound Forever\u003c/a>. He laid out several instances in which Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been alleged to have lifted the work of others, before touching on the “Taurus” question:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“But it is that holiest of Holy Grails, ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ that will shock the faithful. On one of Led Zeppelin’s early tours, they had opened for the California art-rock group, Spirit. In the liner notes to the reissue of Spirit’s 1968 eponymous debut, the band’s guitarist Randy California mentions the fact that Jimmy Page took special interest in an original entitled ‘Taurus.’ There is no doubt that Page appropriated the opening guitar lines note for note on ‘Stairway To Heaven.’ Further, the chord progression in ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is incredibly similar to a song by the Chocolate Watch Band, ‘And She’s Lonely.’ The Yardbirds played with the Chocolate Watch Band during Page’s tenure. It would be quite ironic if he did indeed lift the chords from the Chocolate Watch Band. The Chocolate Watch Band, to those in the know, were the ultimate Yardbirds clone. Wouldn’t it be fitting that a former Yardbirds guitarist ripped off something from a band that based an entire career around sounding like that famed quintet?”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Led+Zeppelin+Sued+Over+%27Stairway+To+Heaven%27+Guitar+Line&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As \u003ca href=\"http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-05-15/led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-vs-dot-spirits-taurus-a-reckoning\">Bloomberg Businessweek\u003c/a> reports, the lawsuit was filed on behalf of the trust of Spirit guitarist Randy California, who died in 1997. The band’s original bassist is also involved in the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The idea behind this is to make sure that Randy California is given a writing credit on ‘Stairway to Heaven,’ ” says attorney Francis Alexander Malofiy. “It’s been a long time coming.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorney also acknowledges there’s a great deal of money at stake. From Bloomberg Businessweek:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“Stairway\u003c/em>‘s stature—financially, culturally, and musically—is towering. By 2008, when \u003cem>Conde Nast Portfolio \u003c/em>magazine published an estimate that included royalties and record sales, the song had earned at least $562 million.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>That number is out of date — and it’s poised to rise higher, as Led Zeppelin is set to release new versions of its albums this summer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>News of the lawsuit has prompted a lively comment session over at \u003ca href=\"http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/led-zeppelins-stairway-to-heaven-targeted-for-plagiarism-20140519\">Rolling Stone\u003c/a>, where readers are debating the ability to copyright chord progressions and chords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Randy California didn’t often speak about the similarity between the two songs. By many accounts, he was an easygoing sort who didn’t let it bother him. But he did comment on it in an interview with \u003cem>Listener\u003c/em> magazine that was recently \u003ca href=\"http://turnmeondeadman.com/led-zeppelin-plagiarism-stairway-to-heaven/\">quoted by the site Turn Me On, Dead Man\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“Well, if you listen to the two songs, you can make your own judgment. It’s an exact… I’d say it was a rip-off. And the guys made millions of bucks on it and never said, ‘Thank you,’ never said, ‘Can we pay you some money for it?’ It’s kind of a sore point with me. Maybe some day their conscience will make them do something about it. I don’t know.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>As that story noted, Led Zeppelin had likely heard the song on its first American tour, when it opened up for Spirit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Writing about the 40th anniversary of “Stairway To Heaven” in 2011, NPR’s Ann Powers noted that elements of it “may or may not” have been borrowed from the Spirit song. But she also noted, “nobody but Zep could have molded those chord progressions into such a masterpiece of excess.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stories about artistic influence are often circuitous — and to prove it, we bring you a paragraph from music critic Will Shade, written in 2001 for \u003ca href=\"http://www.furious.com/perfect/yardbirds2.html\">Perfect Sound Forever\u003c/a>. He laid out several instances in which Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page has been alleged to have lifted the work of others, before touching on the “Taurus” question:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\n\u003cp>“But it is that holiest of Holy Grails, ‘Stairway To Heaven,’ that will shock the faithful. On one of Led Zeppelin’s early tours, they had opened for the California art-rock group, Spirit. In the liner notes to the reissue of Spirit’s 1968 eponymous debut, the band’s guitarist Randy California mentions the fact that Jimmy Page took special interest in an original entitled ‘Taurus.’ There is no doubt that Page appropriated the opening guitar lines note for note on ‘Stairway To Heaven.’ Further, the chord progression in ‘Stairway To Heaven’ is incredibly similar to a song by the Chocolate Watch Band, ‘And She’s Lonely.’ The Yardbirds played with the Chocolate Watch Band during Page’s tenure. It would be quite ironic if he did indeed lift the chords from the Chocolate Watch Band. The Chocolate Watch Band, to those in the know, were the ultimate Yardbirds clone. Wouldn’t it be fitting that a former Yardbirds guitarist ripped off something from a band that based an entire career around sounding like that famed quintet?”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Led+Zeppelin+Sued+Over+%27Stairway+To+Heaven%27+Guitar+Line&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Be Wary and Bury the Very Scary 'I Wanna Marry Harry'",
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"content": "\u003cp>Gather round, children, and I will tell you of a dark time. A cruel time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It was a time when reality dating shows were even worse than they are now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Little remains of what was once a rich tapestry of such programming, if by “rich” you mean “smelly” and by “tapestry” you mean “garbage heap.” Back in the day, \u003cem>Joe Millionaire\u003c/em> featured a poor guy posing as a rich guy. \u003cem>Married By America \u003c/em>resulted in nobody getting married. Monica Lewinsky hosted a show called \u003cem>Mr. Personality\u003c/em> where the guys wore masks. \u003cem>Average Joe\u003c/em> ended with a climactic twist where the woman confessed the terrible secret that she had once dated Fabio. (True story. \u003cem>True story\u003c/em>.) \u003cem>Love Cruise\u003c/em> and \u003cem>Temptation Island \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Paradise Hotel \u003c/em>and \u003cem>Eden Something Something\u003c/em> all gave people opportunities to walk around in bikinis and dream the ultimate dream: of one day being able to get into a sweaty nightclub populated by other reality-show refugees on a Friday night.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gradually, like a surging tide of fetid water with rotted fish floating in it, this particular fad slowly faded. All that was left of this era, the single gleaming salmon judged marginally safe to eat, was \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>franchise, which totters along drunkenly, both figuratively and literally, as its participants engage in a sort of premarital trial by combat in which the prize is a bland and/or terrible person delivered to you, caked in makeup, on a silver tray made of the internet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But with summer approaching, Fox has decided to revisit that terrible old time, much as one might decide to become a historical reenactor specializing in plagues of locusts, with \u003cem>I Wanna Marry ‘Harry,’ \u003c/em>a show that posits that women stupid enough to believe that Prince Harry is trying to find a wife on a Fox reality show are nevertheless interesting enough to treat as humans rather than props. We are told that he is just Matt, an average guy, but the women are led to believe he is Prince Harry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It should be said first that \u003cem>I Wanna Marry Harry \u003c/em>is, above all else, patently and ferociously fake — an accusation often leveled against reality television of all kinds despite being deserved to varying degrees. There are, after all, \u003cem>Bachelor \u003c/em>couples who got married and had kids. That show is, let’s say, 70 percent fake. \u003cem>I Wanna Marry Harry \u003c/em>is about 112 percent fake, with the extra 12 percent coming from the fake butler who’s been piled on top of the fake dating — just like Joe Millionaire’s butler was.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Consider the very idea that 12 real human women who, in many cases, profess an affinity for Prince Harry could “believe” this story. Could “believe,” that is, that a member of a royal family that is historically so private that the very idea of their wearing underpants would probably get you thrown out of the country if you mentioned it in print would suddenly decide to find a romantic partner by asking Fox to go round up some models and actresses and model-actresses. (Plus a couple of special education teachers and other brains-y types who are probably there to be disapproving of everyone else.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Could “believe” that while royal spouses are probably vetted with a vigor normally reserved for Supreme Court nominees, the family (gazillion-dollar industry that it is) was willing to substitute bikini strutting.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Could “believe” that people who prefer not to be seen in public acknowledging they have a nose, let alone picking it, would send a young fellow who could under not implausible circumstances \u003cem>become king \u003c/em>off to rub elbows and other parts with a bunch of fame-seeking Americans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gaze upon these women, and you will realize that even these women — \u003cem>even these women \u003c/em>— cannot possibly believe such a thing. They can only be in on the joke. \u003cem>Only\u003c/em>. No, this is not even the bent and massaged reality of \u003cem>The Bachelor\u003c/em>; it is pure fantasy. And the fantasy is not romance, as the show might have you believe. The fantasy is comeuppance for vain, beautiful, terrible, greedy women. Oh, sure, Matt may wind up picking one of them and confessing he’s not a royal, and she may say, “Oh, that’s okay!” and leap into his arms. But the real fantasy here lies in week after week watching as woman after woman reveals herself to be a grubbing, grasping, infantile harpy for wanting what the show is dangling in front of her, as well as a moron for believing it’s the truth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Believe it or not, there were bad old days of reality dating shows, and this is what they were like. Fake, cheap, witless and mean, in a way that makes \u003cem>The Bachelor \u003c/em>look like \u003cem>Anna Karenina\u003c/em>. This is woman-hating television for women, times 10, turned up to eleven, with a side of fries. Summer will provide opportunity after opportunity to enjoy frivolity made with substantially less malice than this, not to mention frivolity that doesn’t immediately create the sense that Nickelback’s “How You Remind Me” is about to come on the radio. \u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"http://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=Be+Wary+And+Bury+The+Very+Scary+%27I+Wanna+Marry+Harry%27&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
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},
"radiolab": {
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"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
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"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"rightnowish": {
"id": "rightnowish",
"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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},
"science-friday": {
"id": "science-friday",
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"info": "Science Friday is a weekly science talk show, broadcast live over public radio stations nationwide. Each week, the show focuses on science topics that are in the news and tries to bring an educated, balanced discussion to bear on the scientific issues at hand. Panels of expert guests join host Ira Flatow, a veteran science journalist, to discuss science and to take questions from listeners during the call-in portion of the program.",
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