Yesterday evening Zane Lowe spoke to Blood Orange on his new record “Freetown Sound”, his recording process, inspirations, working with Debbie Harry, special collaborations and much more!
On the surprise release:
“I don’t know if my label feels this way but I feel like it could have come out at any point really. I’m not a big fan of surprises but i like surprises within context.”
On 'Freetown Sound' and the topics are writes about:
“I've had people listen to it and ask me questions about why or how but to me it’s just how it is and what else could i do. It’s attention spans are, it’s how my attention span is and it’s where my attention is.”
“I tend to draw on the past because yeah those are things that have happened but also continue to repeat. Themes keep repeating so I think that’s why I always try to draw these links back. Because you know one thing I always think about we always assume just because time moves forward that everyone existing has to. As we can see with Brexit and what’s going on there. I’m always thinking about that.”
“I think as an artist you get convinced into thinking maybe you’re gonna like overdo it. Or oversaturate. I love Beach House and when they announced they had a new album that wasn’t B sides, not a part two just another album. I couldn’t have been more stoked. I think writing new stuff and continuing to put stuff out that reflects things happening is something I think should be happening more.”
On if there is more music from the recording process:
“There is … so much.”
“It’s funny people come up to me that heard things like maybe a year or so ago that didn’t make the album. They’re asking oh so that song is on the record and I was like oh no that didn’t make it. But I still love it. There’s a lot of songs I think I could have put on this record that people would really enjoy as songs but I really wanted to make something that kind of felt it to feel like a world for people to be in. So I cut things I would like to release soon just so the album felt more connected.”
On putting the songs together to form the album and inspirations:
“That really was the hardest part I labored over that continuously towards the end in the mixing process. And influence wise it’ll sound funny but it’s straight hip hop, it’s straight jazz and it’s straight classical. To me they’re the genres that really fine tune that. I’m thinking like Dilla and obviously Paul’s Boutique and mad lib and classical music and jazz music. Especially Miles, Miles Davis was a big influence for this.”
“I had been reading the book on the Bitches Brew sessions and that is crazy to me because I have a whole new appreciation for that record which I already love because you listen to that record and it sounds like a bunch of dudes jamming all night at three AM, maybe a little fucked up, just doing they’re thing. But the actual creative process was ten am to one pm he was sober they did five minute takes between that time period exactly 10am to 1pm everyday. And then him and Teo Macero got the tapes and cut the tapes up and edited in post production. One of the first examples of post production”
“He was able to create this world that you just didn't even like consider it was made in another way.”
“My process wasn’t as crazy as that but there’s still moments like that. There’s a lot of samples on the album but I think people may think some things are samples that aren’t which I’ve intentionally made to sound like samples. There’s a lot of street recordings as well as audio street sounds on the album.”
On if he ever feels guilty for recording strangers in public:
“You know I probably would if it wasn’t in New York. I think if you’re doing this stuff in New York then part of you is aware that you’re adding to the tapestry somehow. At least I hope I don’t get sued by a street saxophone player.”
On what piece of audio he recorded that he knew was going to be special:
“There’s an audio that happens in the song “With Him”and it’s repeated again in the song “Squash Squash” and that was an audio I recorded two or three years ago in Central Park where there was a female tenor singer under a bridge singing Puccini Aria from where I was standing, I was walking and having a conversation at the time and I could hear it in the distance and also there was a saxophone player and they were both blending like crazy. I actually recorded for like two or three minutes. On top of that I then wrote a sax part that I recorded and mixed to sound like it was in that street recording to lead into the song.”
On if this feels like a New York album:
It definitely is. Obviously because the name and the themes, a lot of people haven’t quite caught that. Everything I’m looking at or dissecting, whether it’s myself, ancestors, family, parents, it’s all through the lens of living in NY. More than my last album was. Now I feel very much like this is home and this is the lens that I see things through.
On inspiration:
Yes every day there’s something happening and it’s always hard because I do get asked about inspirations. I find it hard to talk about because it’s like every second in this place. If anyone I have the worst sense of what inspires me.
Thoughts on where the UK is at being his hometown:
It’s heartbreaking to see everything that’s happening. Talking to friends in NY explaining to them what’s happening and why it’s important, one thing I’m noticigin is I think it’s making people notice that they can’t be too complacent. I hate that it was my homeland that was the guinea pig for that amongst young people, but the bubble of being young and living in pretty advanced cities you think ‘no one I know is voting for Trump’ and it’s that mentality that’s dangerous. We're not necessarily the majority but there’s a whole world out there.
On where the title comes from:
I have titles for things crazy in advance. I came up with that title 2 1/2-3 years ago. Initially I was thinking about Freetown and thinking about my dad. I loved the idea of these album titles, kind of UK 80s titles, Public Image Ltd type vibe, I can’t quite explain it, but album titles sounded almost like gangs. I loved the idea of Freetown Sound. In my mind I kept picturing this collection of music. I used to joke that it sounded like a classic flopped album. The word ‘sound' as well, it makes sense. It just creates a town, a world, and a collection.
On album collaborations:
Kelsey Lu who just released ‘Dreams,’ amazing stuff. BEA1991, also incredible new Dutch artist. Debbie Harry, New York. Talented.
On working with Debbie Harry:
She is so wonderful and so sweet. A few years ago we connected/started sporadically working together and becoming friends, which is insane to even say. We talked on the phone and texted each other and I was with her and I had the song EDP that she’s on. I first started that song 2 1/2 years ago and just gradually tweaked it. I played it for her and she really liked it and I said ‘oh do you want to sing on it’ and she said ‘sure’ and we did it at that second. I have the paper in my apartment that she wrote the lyrics to sing on. I have it framed. She wrote that vocal part.
On if there will be a Freetown live experience:
I would love to do that. The album is so weird to me. It’s really musical, but I think Cupid Deluxe worked in putting this band performance together. This album isn’t really that, there’s moments of it, but I think something almost more physical. When I visualize the album I don’t want to say I’m visualizing a DJ set, but it’s very different things flowing together. I want to do some shows this year.
