"Although I didn't write this song, it spoke to me in a way that made me feel as if it was my own story,” Brandon said. “I found myself playing it over and over again in my bedroom, remembering situations that I've been through.”
Check out the video for yourself below.
The seventeen-track album speaks to the artist's formidable craft and genre meshing abilities — spanning hip hop, experimental, and R&B, with a carefully curated list of features including Young Thug, Offset, The Neptunes, Rico Nasty, MF DOOM, and others to exemplify his incredible sound and progression.
The album details the complexities of love and wanting to be affirmed, heard, and understood. In an effort to heal his inner childhood wounds, the artist unveils an environment that limits his vulnerability and showcases his versatility through visceral lyricism and raw emotion — proving that IDK is out to make music that’s reflective of generations from the past, present, and future.
After digesting this multilayered project, office sat down with the artist with natural musical ability to discuss his process, growing up, and traditional masculinity.
IDK wears an Acne Studios jacket, Angelo Numa pants, and Celine shoes.
How did the music you grew up listening to shape your ear and curate your palette? What were some of the most life-changing memories listening to music?
Some of the most life-changing memories for me in music had to be, I say, when I started listening to the Jackson 5. That was my first CD, my mom had it. I think she bought it for me, actually, and I had a CD player. And I put it in there, and that was the only CD that I really had. So I started off with "ABCs," and "I Want You Back." But then after a while, you get tired of those same songs, you start to explore the entire album. And by a certain time, within a few months, I knew every lyric on every song of the album. And that was literally the first time I ever had control of the music that I listened to because before that it was just whatever came on the radio or MTV, BET, or whatever my mom would play, my mom and stepfather.
How did listening to the Jackson 5 curate the palette that you have now?
I think melodically, it would put me in a place where I wasn't afraid to explore. I think I probably like R&B and singing more than I do even rap. I know I listened to it more than I listen to rap. And I think that comes from the foundation of the Jackson 5, and things like that.
And was that the first album you ever fell in love with?
That was probably the first, yeah.
On this newest album, you have a crazy roster of names on your album. From the Neptunes, to Rico Nasty, and MF DOOM — what qualities and traits do you think you hold that make people want to listen to you and want to sign on to a track with you?
I think my ability to be diverse. I want to say I'm almost like a rap chameleon. It's like, I can kind of do any type of style, but still throw my sauce in it that kind of brings it back to who I am. I think everyone that makes music — it's important that if you do different genres or sub-genres, it's important that you have consistency in your voice and the things that you may say. And I think I keep that at a certain place for the most part.
And you were born in the UK, but you were raised in Maryland?
Yes.
Is there a way that you're tying those two sounds together?
Not purposely, but I do love UK radio. Man, their stuff is so amazing Their taste in music over there is impeccable. And I think that gives me a vibe. I think when I make "Radio Clue," I feel like that's the closest I can get to what they do over there, but still kind of even more weird than what's normal.
So are we going to hear like a Grimes track from you?
Probably. I mean, I would love to work with Skepta, and whatever that is, is what I would do.
IDK wears a GUESS Varsity Jacket, a Margiela Shirt from Yourfashionarchive, Dior Homme Jeans from Yourfashionarchive, and Nike Dunks.
And the same thing, your parents are from West Africa. I believe your mother's from Ghana and your father's from Sierra Leone — so do you ever like seek out like Afrobeat inspiration from them or...?
Oh yeah. No, not from them, but just in general. I was going to go in the studio with Burna' yesterday. I have two songs with him, one already out, one that I just did. I love Afrobeat. I had my phases where that's all I listened to. So people like Fela Kuti, and even his son, Seun Kuti, they are people who basically are the foundation of what I like in Afrobeats. And then it kind of goes more into Afro-pop and fusion, and all those other genres, sub-genres.
Right. I love Nigerian jazz specifically. Have you ever listened to that by chance?
No, I haven't, not specifically jazz, but disco. Yes.
Oh yeah, of course. I'm assuming the title of your album, 'USEE4YOURSELF' is a sonic representation of you trying to prove what you can do in terms of music, culture, and improvement within yourself, etc. Do you feel like you're discredited or put in a box ever?
No. I think that I'm breaking the boundaries of what a box should be. Especially with this album. I think that people don't know what to expect from me, and I like that. I know some people like that in music. With me, I'm more for the people who like to be surprised. I try to create music in a way where I take the pieces from the things that you like, and you create your own vibe of who I am based off of who you are.
How often do you sacrifice the events that happen to you in your personal life to come across as honest in your music, is that ever therapeutic for you?
It's therapy. It's therapy. It's therapeutic. It's closure. It's understanding. I don't make music expecting the world to hear it. Because I make so much music that no one ever gets heard. And even when I put out music, it doesn't mean everyone's going to hear it, you know? So I just do what I do. And if I like it enough, I just put it out. If people like it enough— if I like it enough, it feels right. That's how I move, in general.
You talk quickly about breaking the norms of traditional masculinity. In some senses, people would obviously critique that — considering what you exemplify in your music videos or music, is not the most modern form of breaking traditional masculinity. So what does that mean to you to exactly to break traditional forms of masculinity?
I don't think my job is really breaking traditional masculinity. It's more finding how to understand the negative effects of masculinity within me, and then make my music based off of what I feel, and let the world see what they see and gain what they gain from it. I think when I say whatever I say in my music, it's a representation of who I am. I think that the difference and the part that's positive is the awareness, and then the understanding. And when I put that awareness and understanding to the music, that is really how I feel or have felt. Then, with that understanding becomes change, that brings change. And that's what I think I do.
But it's not intentional. It's very slightly intentional, if that makes sense. It's like, I know that it's important for people to start thinking in the way that I'm thinking, but it doesn't mean it's correct, or definitely the right way to do it. Do you know what I mean? It's just more like, I feel like I'm becoming a better person by understanding certain things. And then I project that to the world and let them kind of receive it the way that they receive it. But I want to elaborate on what you mean by non-traditional ways.
In some ways, when people read "IDK is breaking the norms of traditional masculinity," but then they see those same archetypes and tropes of traditional and toxic masculinity portrayed, it kind of contradicting in a way.
I don't think so. I think that's the problem with people. I think people think that to bring change the best way possible, you have to be of what needs to be changed. I think that the people that appear perfect and opposite of, or when they have an abstract way of thinking of something, they can change a small group of people who also can think in an abstract manner. But they can't change the people who don't think that way because they can't relate. Right? Like for instance, I grew up in an area that's terrible. It's the hood. It's a lot of things going on there. White teachers came to my classes and said, "Hey, stay in school, go to college. These are the things you should do." I don't care. Like, you're not me. I don't live the life you live. What you're talking about is unrealistic to me. I'll just listen to my friends and the people that I grew up around. But when a drug dealer or a former drug dealer comes and says "Yeah, I used to do this. I used to do that, all that stuff you're doing, I was the same way. But I'm seeing things this way now. And I'm not perfect, but I'm still changing." That's who I'm listening to.
So for me, I think that it's important to be real. All this like trying to be politically correct and perfect— No. I say things that could be misogynistic or considered misogynistic in my music, but guess what? The important part is what I said earlier —the awareness. Because with that awareness brings an ability to actually change, but it also can change the people who are the same way. Again, I can change certain people who are woke, who can think in the abstract, but the majority of the people are just going to feel a disconnect. And that's why I just keep it real. I just keep it real.
And to me, breaking those boundaries, in terms of masculinity, it's not only providing for others, but the ability to be vulnerable with yourself, take accountability, and actively working on your mental health. How are you exemplifying that?
Well, I started seeing a therapist who actually told me that he doesn't think I need to see him very often because he felt like in one session, he said to give it three more sessions to double-check, but he felt like in one session, he realized that I have a level of consciousness and a grasp on my being that he doesn't come across often. But outside of that, I'm looking at it like 'hey, anything can change, I've been through a lot of things. I'm doing a lot. I'm extremely busy. I'm more busy than the average human.' And yes, I'm an artist, and artists are busy, but I'm even more busy than the average artist because I'm not just doing the music, you know? And so I think I'm scratching the surface of something a little bit new. Whereas most people are scratching the surface of something that's also new, which is just fame in general. I think I'm taking it another layer deeper. And I think that it's going to affect my mental health if I don't know how to deal with it.
So for me, I'm trying to see him before things happen, not when things are happening, if that makes sense. Being proactive. So yeah, seeing a therapist is one of the things for sure. And then also awareness, man. Just talking to people, seeing people's minds, like understanding what they're thinking about, what they care about, or what they want. And then really soaking that in, understanding human beings, and understanding that life is simple. We are the ones that make this thing difficult. Everything, every problem that comes, there's a simple way to solve it, but we make everything difficult. And I think understanding that and truly understanding that helps a lot.
At the fitting, we talked about emotional intelligence, and I feel like maybe those two things go hand in hand, but can you explain briefly why actively practicing emotional intelligence is important to you?
I think practicing emotional intelligence is mainly important because we just don't get that, man. We, as in Black people. I just found out what the word "emotional intelligence" means. I'd never even heard that word two years ago. You know what I'm saying? We're talking about building black families, reproducing, enhancing, and strengthening the dynamic of a black home, but we don't have the emotional intelligence to even begin to start that healing process. I think it's very important for us, and for me, and I had to learn that by understanding the simplification of life, like understanding how to simplify the way we think of things. And that is probably the first big step to gaining emotional intelligence.
But it's important for us, man. It's probably the number one thing, if we're talking about the dynamic of the homes, because once the dynamic of the home is cleaned up, then the dynamic of the child's life coming out of that home starts to improve. And then when that starts to improve, society starts to improve. And when society starts to improve, it all repeats it. It's so important for us right now to do that. It's so important. It's like the number one thing, to be honest, because it's not about us. It's about our kids. Right now, we're not going to fix these things in our lifetime. We're going to start the change that's needed for it to happen possibly in the next lifetime. And if not the next one, if we start now, if not the next one, definitely the one after that. Emotional intelligence is everything.
Right. When speaking about things like emotional intelligence, or just modern takes on building black homes or the black family dynamic, Black children are often the odd one out. So when they're speaking about things, you can seem crazy, or like the black sheep of the family. Is that also how you grew up?
No, I didn't. I followed my friends more than my parents, and then my parents were second. I didn't learn until I started moving and traveling to places that were more diverse. Where I'm from it's just black people. My school had maybe five white people. It was just black people everywhere. You barely see white people. When I started going to New York and LA, I started seeing other people, and I started meeting people with different ways of thinking. And then I came back to where I'm from. And then I started being able to educate.
That is really what it all boils down to. Like I had to kind of leave to start seeing that. I didn't see that before. I just copied what was taught. I wasn't a black sheep because my friends were the same. Like I was the black sheep in the sense of getting in trouble, having guns. My family didn't have guns, my family never been in jail before. I was the first one. But I wasn't a black sheep in terms of trying to change toxic thought processes. It just was more like, whatever. I wasn't bringing anything positive to the table, if that makes sense.
I kind of want to bring it back to the music though, because you are coming up with the album, which is exciting. So to talk about your process a little bit more, when you're first making a song, do you start with the beat, the lyrics, or the chords, or the melody? You seem like a very like melodic rapper. So what inspires you to experiment with those different sounds?
I think that beat, yeah, definitely inspires me. It's always the instrumental, the more left the instrumental is, the more left what I'm going to do is. Or sometimes I find that balance of— let's say the instrumental's left, but I rap some just regular street shit on it. I just do that too. Finding that balance is also cool. But the beat dictates what I do, always. It just starts with the beat. Then it comes to the melody, and then I think about the lyrics.
What was it like working with the Neptunes and what was that process was in the studio?
Yeah, man. I was in the studio with them. I didn't know it was a Neptunes session. Pharrell was like "come" and I was like 'fuck it, man. I'm coming!"
I pulled up and Chad was there. I was like, "Oh, this is what we doing?" Okay. I got it. Shit, I'm not complaining. From there, we just cooked, man. Made four songs in one day. And I was supposed to come back the next day. But Pusha T was coming in. And he was like, "Yo, we getting in tomorrow?" Like, "if you say it, then yeah, I'll push my flight back."
He had another session that he didn't realize. We didn't get to do it again. But man, that was the best day of my life, man, musically. I've always wanted that. Pharrell's my favorite producer. I was like "Yo, I don't want to drop this album unless I have a beat from Pharrell" Like I need that. And I got lucky and got Neptunes. And they're killing it, that Brent Faiyaz shit. Man, that shit is hard, man. Reminds me of "you don't have to call, it's okay girl."
When you think about it, it's similar to that. So I'm so glad I did go on that thing and I'm so glad that I lucky enough to have a beat from them. And I was playing it for 'Ferg one day, and Ferg was like, "Bruh, he gave you a 'It's Hot In Here' record, bruh."
Did you get an iconic Pharrell speech that he usually does?
Hell yeah. Yeah, it's on camera. Yes, I did.
IDK wears a Saint Laurent sweater, Raf Simons pants, and Nike Air Jordans.
MF Doom is also on this album. What was that process like and what is a great memory you have of him before his passing?
Yeah, no. He basically did that a while back and cleared it before he passed, which, I mean, it was amazing. It was amazing that we were able to get that rocking like that. It was amazing. Like, I really, really, really, really am surprised that he did that for me. You know?
And when do you know a song is finished? Do you ever know, or is this something that you are gradually beating yourself up about?
I don't beat myself up about nothing that has to do with music because I'm blessed to be able to do this as my career. Nothing's ever finished. It just kind of ends up in a place where it's dope. It's dope or it ain't dope. You know what I mean? And then you just put it out or you don't put it out. I could think of many more things I could do to almost every song on this album, but it's less about that. It gets to a point where you're like, I don't want to fuck— Okay. A song is done when you're like, 'I don't want to fuck this up.' That's when it's done. A song is done when it gets to the point where you're like, 'all right, this is where it is. I don't want to fuck this up. I don't want to overthink this.' That's for me at least.
Where does your spark come from when it comes to doing initiatives and giving back to the culture?
Yeah, man, I feel like it's my duty again. I'm blessed. I have two homes. I was just in my house in DC. Beautiful, man. It's so nice. Oh, man. I love to see it. I decorated it myself. And the way I decorated it, it's just so me. And I get to go home and see that. And then I'm like, 'Oh, I don't feel like being on the East Coast. I might go to the West Coast.' I was at my album listening party yesterday— packed, full capacity. People couldn't get in. And my rep at Nike came up to me, he was like, "Hey, I know you're really, really busy and everything, but we have to get your approval on the shoe design tomorrow." And I'm like "I got you. No problem." That's my life, bruh! You know what I'm saying? Like what the fuck? Like my stress is getting a shoe design in on time. I'm fucking on a billboard. I'm designing my own jeans. It's my duty to give back. I can't fucking be out here doing all these amazing things and then complaining about it. And that energy that people take to complain about their amazing fucking lives, they could use that energy to help someone who has none of those things.
Man, I was giving out sneakers they sent me. I had shitload pairs of Supreme Air Dunks, right? The green ones. They're $1,500 on Stock X each. I was giving them out. I got them for free. I was giving them out to people in my neighborhood and they're like so ecstatic. They're like so happy. That didn't do nothing, it didn't cost me nothing to do that. But it changed the way somebody's life— like how they think about life. Understanding that there's a way to obtain this level of status, and then maybe they do the positive things to become that person that can get these things. And then give that to other people. That is so fulfilling to me. What I do with my music and shit, that shit's dope. My life I think is amazing. But, to be able to come back and do something that costs me nothing, but it's everything to somebody, I don't know what feels better than that. You know what I mean?
So that's kind of where it comes from. And I think it's my duty. I think it's every artist's duty. They can see how they want to see it, but it's every artist's duty to show gratitude for what they have. Anyone who's successful, honestly, should show gratitude for what they have, and you know, within their means, give back the best way they can.
Hypothetically, we're all living in IDK's world. What does it look like? What are the rules? Can you paint a picture of it?
I say, it's a poem. I live in a world where the skies are yellow, like the eyes of the malnourished. And basically, it's a representation of no matter how perfect things can seem, something's just never like completely right. Something's always off, and that sky is what's off. But it's okay that it's off because that's the part that makes you start to think deep, and makes you start to realize like, okay, I can't be fully comfortable. Whatever that thing is 'let me try to fix that. Let me try to figure that out.' Maybe it's just inspiration to do things differently.
Maybe that's off. But this world is full of lady durags tied to the side, diamonds in my face. And I might wear a tuxedo with Jordan's. Mixing 90% or 80% masculine energy, in terms of the way that I dress, with 20% feminine energy, when you see my pearls, or when you see this diamond in my face, or this lady durag, or the Louis Vuitton brooch— That's the world. It's a bunch of things that feel like they don't make sense together, but I make that shit look good. That's what I feel like that world is in. And it's full of people who either accept that or want to reach that level, or just admire it. That's what this world is.
Check out our exclusive interview with the songstress below.
Your last project 'MASTER 'was a very emotional album with a lot of ballads. What’s the biggest difference in this new album in comparison to your last project ?
There are some emotional moments, but it's more upbeat. I think it's not as dreary, you know. You don't cry every moment on this one.
“2 You” has been released, and it’s definitely true to your upcoming album “Ry Ry World”. What else can we expect from upcoming music videos — are the aesthetics pretty similar to “2 You”?
So the next one that's going to come is for the song called "Aura'' and I've been telling people that you should watch “Aura” and ''2 You" in reverse because there's kind of a little bit of a correlation. I was on Twitter ranting this morning — not a rant, but every now and again, I just go on these like Twitter spells, that I wind up deleting anyway. But I was explaining that both videos are metaphors. “2 You" is more like a post-death kind of thing. I know it sounds kind of crazy, but it's almost like when people say they have near-death experiences and then they “see the light.” It's like I saw into the light almost, and then the next one will explain more of how we made it to that point, at least metaphorically, it will.
What’s the core theme that you want listeners to understand about your new album?
So the cover with the arrow coming through my chest, I was just saying that it's just all a big metaphor for the fact that I think, you know, love is like the death of us. Maybe not everybody, but for damn sure the death of me.
You once described your sound as “A summation of your agony.” Is this an on-going theme listeners will notice with “Ry Ry World”?
I guess it’s not so agonizing now. It's different. I think I'm not in agony now. It's more like after agony like maybe it used to hurt, and now it's just a little scarred. It’s not as hurtful.
I read that you started writing through poetry. What about this outlet appealed to you the most?
I don't even know how that came about. That wasn't even anything serious for me at all. It wasn't anything I was taking seriously. It was just, you know, really aimless. It wasn't even like a hobby. It was just honestly meaningless to me at the time, but it's started to sound good. You know, so I kind of just divulged a little bit more, but it didn't have much relevance or any significance in the beginning. Not really. It was just very casual.
What does the writing process look like for you now?
To be honest, I don't want to say I don't write much, but I have these intervals, where it's like, I binge write. You know, like it depends. I look for beats. So the thing about finding beats, I usually don't write anything without a beat. Sometimes I do, but that's super rare. It doesn't happen often. It would have to really be something on my mind for me to do that. So when I found producers that I liked on YouTube, I would subscribe to their channel and basically just wait for them to post new beats, because I didn't know them personally, to ask. They usually don't post something new every day. Some of them do, but the ones I like, they weren't really like that they were much less active.
So, it'd be like they would post maybe once a month, maybe once every two months they would post like, a couple of beats, maybe like five, but they would post them back to back. You just had to look out for when they were active and then I would just sort through those. If any of them struck up anything in me, I would write to it. I just look for a beat that I feel is unique or it makes me feel some sort of way. It's probably harder to write when I don't have anything to talk about. A lot of artists go to the studio every day and they like force something out. I don't really do that. I feel like I should try, though. I think I'm going to start going to the studio more often, like on a daily basis just to see, you never know what you could make, but I don't really do that. I don't make irrelevant things.
You came up with your name from your previous bio major. What was the moment you realized that college wasn’t for you and how did you find the courage to go against your parents' wishes?
So the last semester I was in school, I knew there was a break coming up, Easter break, and I went to a Catholic private college. So I knew that we would be able to go home and stuff like that. So, I went home and I was telling my mom that I'm not going back and you know, I'm gonna just wing this shit, basically. She was like, "You definitely are going back to school, I don't know what you're talking about."
I just literally was like, “No, I'm not going back”. I mean, I thought about it for a long time though. Like maybe for like a couple of weeks before I didn't go back. I wasn't going to class, honestly, this is really bad. I wouldn't recommend that to anybody. Like, don't stop going to class. I just did because I was just so withdrawn from it at that point, and I just had my mindset on something else, but don't get it twisted. I was very much passionate about what I was in school for. I just saw the potential in another route at the time. Plus college is really expensive and medical school is even more expensive and they do not give scholarships to medical school. So I was really just weighing my options, to be honest.
I feel like young people are very much impressionable, and some are not like other people who are dead set on what they want to do early on. I'm almost envious of them and granted, I thought I knew what I wanted to do and I would go back to school, you know, practically in a heartbeat. I still have a thing for science. I just feel like I could work equally as hard at this, you know? And it might pay off.
How did you get into music since the path you were supposed to take is much different from the path you are on now?
So when I quote/unquote dropped out and went home, by then I had put some music on SoundCloud and I knew that it was like circulating. People would send feedback through Instagram, DMs, and I signed a deal. I was not really interested in the label thing at first. I didn't really see the value in it initially, you know, because you don't really need a label to have a significant career, these days. Then eventually they started throwing around a whole lot of magic numbers and, you know, once I realized that I could also own my masters, it didn't hurt, you know, at the time it didn't seem like it would hurt.
What are some top albums that have inspired your current sound?
So be honest with you, I literally don't listen to any music. I know this sounds ridiculous. I don't want to say not any music, but I just like barely even listened to music. Especially not new stuff, you know, it's usually like, just older music that's just repetitive for me. I know it sounds crazy, but I just don't be listening to music.
I mean, like, you know, sometimes every now and again. I just listen to my own stuff, I guess the car when it's time for a project to come out, but realistically on a daily basis, I don't' listen to much music. Plus like when I'm dating and I'm hearing what the other people are listening to, I just know for a fact they won't be listening to the shit I listen to. Sometimes you might catch a good one and they might fuck with what you fuck with but that is so unlikely. So I just more so sit back and hear what my friends play.
What are some next steps for you? Any plans for tourin
I definitely want to tour. There have been some tour offers this past couple of weeks and stuff. I've been trying to make sure that whatever we do in general, you know, makes sense for the kind of music I make. Like I have this weird anxiety about performing for an audience where my music doesn't resonate. Like just something about that. I feel like there's going to be a huge disconnect and it will be super awkward for me to perform for people who don't fuck with me, you know? I guess I shouldn't look at it like that. I should look at it more like I should be having fun and, you know, enjoying the music that I make, which I do, but I just want to make sure whatever I do it's just received well, but I definitely plan on touring. I don't necessarily want to do it by myself. You know, I think it will be good to either support someone else's tour or go with someone, but definitely more plans to perform.
Zauner seems to be starting anew after about four years since the beloved band’s last album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet. The 2017 release is a project woven intrinsically with anguish, loss, and the explorative musings of a young person in pain, trying to figure out what to make of it. The girl singing in Jubilee is more sure of herself, more confident in her voice and her power.
Japanese Breakfast has grown, though the music is still unwaveringly honest and vulnerable. Their songs still allow you to insert yourself into them, relating and feeling the hopefulness and resilience.
It’s been a few years since your last album release- how has the creative process for Jubilee been different from your last?
The last record, I was a bit petrified by the sophomore slump, and my way of combating that feeling was to have a really insular studio environment. So it was just Craig Hendrix and I in his studio in Philadelphia arranging and producing the songs together. I think for Jubilee, I wanted to expand that sonic palette and bring in new collaborators and larger instrumentation and spend more time on the preproduction process on my own before bringing it into the studio. So I think it’s a more ambitious record in some ways because of those reasons.
What is your pre production process like?
Well, it’s starting to arrange the songs and demo them out before going into the studio. So, for instance, Paprika had a pretty fully realized arrangement. I had recorded all of the strings, the horns, and the drums, basically the entire instrumentation on the computer, and then I brought it into the studio to kind of recreate that with analog instruments. There were a couple more songs that were a little more fully realized than with Soft Sounds from Another Planet, which started largely as just guitar demos.
The songs on Jubilee are sonically a lot bigger and symphonic. What inspired this sonic shift?
I think that writing for those instruments became much less intimidating over the course of three years of touring and meeting musicians like Molly Gerber, who plays violin, and Adam Shatts, who plays saxophone, and having those players in your back pocket to utilize on your recordings. Chris Hendrix is a Berklee grad with a swiss army knife of a skill set, and gave me the confidence to write those types of arrangements with them and understand what they were adding to the music in a way that I maybe wasn’t prepared for on my previous releases.
Wow. Amazing. Thematically, what inspired this project, and how did you go about collecting songs for it? It has such an uplifting feel.
My narrative as an artist has been so rooted in the loss of my mother in 2014, and the last two albums and my book are all about grief and loss. I felt I had said everything I needed to say about that experience in the book, and it was time to write about something completely different. I thought the most surprising thing for me to do as an artist would be to write an album about joy. So that was my thought process.
That’s beautiful. If fans are to gather anything from Jubilee, what should it be?
I think that Jubilee is also about this fight for almost teenaged unabashed feeling. I just really want people to be carried away by intense emotion when interacting with this record, however that may be.
Where is the best place to listen to it, or doing what?
Actually, I have so many fond memories of listening to records on modes of transportation. On the subway platform or on a plane. I feel like it is such a transient place to experience art, and I don’t know why, but I’ve always had very vivid experiences with albums that way. I really enjoy hearing about people who have listened to the record on a subway or a train.
It’s a very introspective place to be. A lot of times you’re traveling alone. When you’re younger, you’re looking out the window, dramatizing everything.
Being your own protagonist. Yes, exactly. What is your favorite song on the album? I think it changes every time. I would say that “Kokomo, IN” has a soft spot in my heart because it unlocked something new for me compositionally. That song was exciting for me and now Jeff Tweedy has covered it, and that’s really special.
Wow, that’s incredible, I didn’t know that!
Yeah, it just happened a few days ago.
One thing that stands out about you is your vulnerability and your rawness in your lyrics. I’m the type of person that rests a lot on the lyrics; they’re often my favorite part about the music I like, and I really pay attention to them. That’s the thing that stands out the most to me. I was wondering if that’s ever difficult for you, being so vulnerable, or if it comes naturally.
Lyrically, there is so much that’s hidden in a way that is more laid bare in prose writing. I was probably more nervous about the book than I ever have been about the lyrics of songs because people misinterpret lyrics all the time. It’s not too scary. I’m in this interesting place now, where, for a long time ,music was just a way for me to work out what I was feeling or a complicated situation in my life. And now it's slowly becoming less about that, but for a long time a song didn’t feel important to me unless it exposed some part of my personal life or unpacked some part of my personal life. I think for the first time, that’s begun to change for me. I’m entering a new chapter, and the beginnings of that are maybe seen on Jubilee.
Speaking of your book, based on a 2018 essay - will you tell me a little bit about writing Crying in H Mart?
It was a long, almost five year process, but it was very rewarding and allowed me to explore part of my creativity that had been untapped.
Now that you’ve moved in a different direction artistically with Jubilee, did it feel like closure of some kind to go through all those feelings and then to write them all out in the book?
I realized after writing two albums about that experience, I still had so much left to say and unpack, and I think that was my way of doing that, certainly.
You postponed the release of your album. What was that like for you?
Oh, I mean, in retrospect, it was a really petty concern, you know? But, at the time, I was afraid and devastated, and it seemed like the most important thing in the world to be upset about. But in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t such a big deal.
Well, I think it was a good choice because I think it’s been released at the perfect moment. The album feels like a light at the end of the tunnel, and I think that’s similar to how a lot of people are feeling right now. The past year and a half has been so troubling and difficult for everybody, so I think it worked out in your favor.
I think it did, too, I’m glad we waited.
