Aloe Blacc & Avicii, the ultimate Dance song? KKPC #141

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                                          ALOE BLACC ( SINGER/ SONGWRITER) KKPC #141
This weeks podcast is with singer, songwriter and collaborator, the Platinum selling Aloe Blacc. We're talking as far back as we can; Stones Throw, his rap career, his transition to singing and his collaborations with the late great Avicii. This is an up close and personal chat with a one of a kind. This is Aloe Blacc's Podcast.
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KILLA KELA


ALOE BLACC
Twitter: www.twitter.com/Aloeblacc



ALOE BLACC ( SINGER/ SONGWRITER) KKPC #141 PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

KILLA KELA: Ladies and gentlemen live and direct Central West Hollywood, if there is such a thing. As central as you need to be anywhere, this is the Killa Kela podcast. This is the killa Kela podcast live show and sitting to my right your left is a good friend of mine known for a very long time and it's a pleasure to have him inside the ride Mr. Aloe Blacc, how are you my G. 
ALOE BLACC: chillin.
KK: Yeah, on and off planes mostly at the moment for you sir.
AB: That’s life. It's always been for a long time just what this music thing is traveling.
KK: It's designed to is a test of tolerance isn’t it.
AB: Absolutely, I mean definitely at test of endurance really how quickly can you acclimate to the new time zone.
KK:  Yeah totally, I was thinking about this the other day, when you consider people like your Simon Cowell's of the world and how they operate almost like functions straight into a situation, after you know the levels in which they have to work it must be super intense do you know what I mean.
AB: Yeah, I mean sometimes I feel like I just want to lay in bed and not do anything and sometimes I do that.
KK: Yeah, I see I don’t get enough of that I just I wake up me. With an immediate alarm clock of hell like what the fuck am I doing?
AB: My alarm clock  is my kids, so I've got to wake up anyway, I mean I try to stay in bed as long as I can, but you know.
KK: Family man.
AB: Yeah, family man definitely, two kids six and four and they keep moment keep me on my toes for sure 
KK: Yeah is it, is it what you expected is your life?
AB: Is it? I think it is, I never expected any of it right, doing music especially where we come from in hip-hop and I'd say like in the indie side of hip-hop, you don't think oh one day I'm gonna be an international popstar. Just think I'm gonna make music for the heads, they're gonna they're gonna love it and if they don't middle finger to them, I’m still doing me.
KK: Yeah, yeah that’s the one bro.
AB: But you know life took a turn and I was able to grab onto this train that was moving full speed in a direction and I was able to just like ride that train, I’m still sort of on it but you know I feel like I'm good. Like I don't I don’t want to like I don't want to push too hard just because when with kids I want to be there for them you know.
KK: mmm it's real, it's it's a fine line isn’t it, like you say you weren't you and this is where we really come together because back in 2003, 2004 we hosted a couple of stages, we bucked on a couple of events acquaintances wise, right? and things were it was a very it was a transitional backpacker era wasn’t it and this international thing, like Winter Music Conference come about and we we were hosting that as well and just to see this climb this rise of Aloe Blacc for me as a fan as well as a friend I'm just like yeah this is fucking crazy like you you've you’ve migrated into such a high plateau.
AB: Okay, so anybody who knows you know the Stones Throw legacy knows that it's it’s highly potent hip-hop, yeah but not pop commercial hip-hop, it's really really authentic genuine you know, hip-hop and I got into that circle because of my hip-hop background but I didn’t present myself as a hip-hop artist when I got signed, I became a vocalist, a singer, neo-soul, future soul and all kinds of experimentation right but because of that experience and because of the guidance that was there with Egon at the time I was able to parlay all that I understood about hip hop stage presence song writing into soul music and and practicing my vocals and it just it really did it transformed everything it shifted in a major way.
KK: So what’s the um what the likelihood of a of an act going into, I mean with American rap it's a lot different compared to the domestic tongue of London. There's a more international appeal with your vocals being so much more so leaning towards an area of sound and nostalgic sound that must have played a massive part in it being a conduit for you.
AB: yeah yeah for sure you know Amy Winehouse at the time had worked with Mark Ronson and made the Back to Black Album, rest in peace Amy Winehouse.
KK: Hella yeah.
AB: But also Salaam Remi so the two of them being hip hop heads and were able to you know mix together so her lyricism and her voice, I was able to then come in on the coattails of that because she reintroduced this this his idea of this old sound .and so I need a dollar became a hit and that basically communicated to the world that I was a singer. So for everybody that knew me as an emcee they had to readjust and everybody who was learning me didn't didn't have to know anything about my MCing
KK:  but there is an integrity to the vocal and I think that’s what, I mean that and also your choice of a sound palette, that you like you say had that that leaned towards the doo-wop the the Amy Winehouse kind of vibe and she left massive hole as well when she passed, there was a massive hole that, that, that was to be filled. Your integrity in your vocal I think that wasn't allowed for people that were into your emceeing to kind of fuck with it.
AB: I think so yeah and the lyrics too like I wrote all the lyrics, I sang the songs, yes it wasn’t, it wasn't a packaged you know planted kind of pop attempt it was it was just like real genuine experimentation but genuine music, nonetheless.
KK: yeah it's beautiful, remember I remember very well first hearing it I and I think, I think that derives from knowing you. anyway but to hear, to hear such a change of events, what was it, what was it like when that because that was a real like had a cult for attachment years and it had a hand legs and it was moving you like rapidly and then obviously as the the collaborations that you started getting involved with, the album, the Avicii ,all these things just like played and playing and bang-bang-bang helped how quick was that was? that it was it as quick as it felt from what's looking from the outside?
AB: It feels like yeah, I feel like it was all yesterday, but it was it's a 10 year maybe a 15-year trajectory my shine through album was 2006 or so.
KK: Which doesn’t feel it feels like yesterday, that’s crazy.
AB: and that’s that led to the good things album which was 2009 and 10 and then the major label stuff was 2013-14 and so it's been a few years since then but I also had kids since then so like you can see the difference between like my contemporaries who had success around the same time with hits and families and then if they continue to be in the spotlight their relationships are probably ruined right now.
KK: Right.
AB: They went through some tribulations.
KK: That’s some real talk ladies and gentlemen.
AB: Whereas like you know my wife Maya was like, look if you’re not here then how are we really married, how is this a relationship and I understood that I took that to heart. So, I was like all right let me see what I can do to be here as much as possible but still have the career still have fun with what I do.
KK: So, I've got a question for you it's spicy, spice alert. but how much of that do you feel like there's a real hindsight where you're like if only I had a little but more time to do my work.
AB: Yeah, yeah, you're not, it's just there's there’s parts of me that are like yeah, I wish parts of me that like I wish I could have had more time to like escalate and and get to the stratosphere. But at the same time I'm so happy like right now. I can easily walk down the street anywhere any city,with my family in my kids just be a normal person and not have to worry about paparazzi or a bunch of fans. like maybe one fan in a day would want to take a photo or might recognize me that's just enough to keep my ego happy and just enough to make me feel like I'm still somebody but not enough for me to be like get away from my kids.
KK: Yeah yeah definitely.
AB: Now, I've been I've been fortunate enough to like you know have that kind of liberty. I think about some of the really, really big major cats that everybody knows and they’re always tripping on people you know talking about their kids and social media or like about when they're out in public like being hounded I'm like there’s no money there's no amount of money in the world that can pay for what I have right now. KK: Freedom 
AB: Freedom, you could be and I know some billionaires who are like faceless like they're the they made money on technology, that's the kind of money I want to make. You don't need to know how I made my money, you don't even need to know that I have money, but if I want to experience something crazy I could do it and not have to worry about you know everybody following me while I'm doing it you know.
KK: Yeah yeah, I feel that.  Um do you think, I was gonna go to somewhere else actually as you were saying this, but I feel like if you if you experience wealth there's a level of confidence that just drives you in a very different way. It doesn't feel like because you know we've both had success. Yours is super crazy but so I'm only speaking like in a small-scale to this but to know that you have accomplished something, to know that you had got paid for it to know, that you had figured the puzzle out and came out the other end knowing how in kinder and how it works there is a level of confidence that you can walk away pretty satisfied and knowing that I don't need to that spotlight all the time.
AB: Oh yeah, I mean for me I, I wish that I could build you know a system that other people can use to follow what I do, but this was all accidental and by chance. I didn't expect any of it to happen, you can't really game  it but you know, I might have one more moment where like I try to get my my status up again so I can then pivot and flip it into something else fashion, tech, you know film ,who knows but I want to I would love to just be home with my kids write songs and and distribute the music and not have to be out on the road to sell it.
KK: Because of course it's a different, different time and there's so many other avenues and outlets and ways of you know, when, when is it too much when when is your delegation of you doing your work, it precedes it goes over like the creative threshold, all of a sudden you have inter life, you'd be your own social media but I mean this is a lot of takes away from the writing.
AB: social media is crazy, like I can't, I don't even understand, trying to think back to how we did it where it was his hand to hand like how I made it around the world without social media. I did.
KK: I know it's crazy to think how logically it seems like the only piece of the puzzle, that's missing for a lot of these people that are on social media it’s the bit that happened to us back then and it doesn't exist no more.
AB: it doesn't, it's weird, I mean mystery used to be the driving force and now I’m not sure what the driving force is maybe it’s access I have I have no idea.
KK: mystery was a real key factor.
AB: oh yeah, like you don’t need to know, too much just this is the story I'm telling you need to believe. That yeah, come to the show, in that world but um you know I think that’s at this point like the only thing I can live in is my truth because that’s what everybody's gonna see anyway. Whereas you know Marilyn Manson didn’t have to have a truth it was just that character you know what I'm saying.
KK: And I loved that that's awesome because that’s what you're buying that's what you're buying into a dollar right so that tune.
AB: That was a character that was definitely a character. I was a 1970s soul gutbucket kind of hero of hero of the underdog.  And people came to the show expecting that, I remember one of my reviews was a critic that was super pissed off that when I did my show I was a little bit too energetic I had too much soul and too much funk he was looking for like the more blues soul 
KK: Uh-huh, he was looking for a porch basically.
AB: But he was, anywhere he really was it wasn't he wasn’t feeling the way I ended up presenting but I understood it because, I have created an entire character that was almost opposite to what I ended up presenting onstage but I grew up in hip-hop I can't just go and just sing some songs and not rock a stage. I have to rock a stage and I didn't and I never learned how to separate rocking a stage from what I presented on my record so I don't know I'm sorry but if you didn’t have fun when you should go to go see someone else.
KK: There was a saying, I'm paraphrasing of friend of mine said it's like don't lead your audience into creating known conclusions about a thing and I think that’s what what you're getting at because when you when you create a character, you create an environment, people are able to own it a lot more because that's their they fuck with that that’s their thing and as soon as you start in fact in fact if you get really successful in it all of a sudden they own you and you can't move any direction that becomes.
AB: It's starting the show though you know, with the young kids, they’re a little bit more open they see Billie Eilish do crazy things in her videos, when they see her just be abnormal person outside of the video which think is really good. Marilyn Manson didn’t do that he never broke the fourth wall, he was always in character, always in character, so I think it’s cool now, that we can show, oh it is a character yeah and we can break it because we're also human and and still have a following and they don't they don’t leave us and say all you front they know it's an act they're they’re here for the act  and they also want to know a little bit about the realness.
KK: I wonder when that started. when did that actually come about?
AB:I am telling you this is the social media stuff, like you know back in the day when you were a star you were always star you came out of your house looking like a star you never dressed down but but I think the social media shows shows a little more than than what we used to show in the past so.
KK: and I’m wondering whether some of my Amy Winehouse would tolerate that kind of overexposure you know, when, when she passed. She was almost like her whole everything was time capsule to the point where that was the show so long farewell folks this is her in her creative entirety no more.
AB: it’s hard, it's hard to tell. I mean you can see how still there are artists who struggle with the the fame who and you know it's it's taking lives.
KK: So yeah which is at which you know interesting segue or not that Avicii was a great example and you worked with him fair few times, a bunch of live shows. Man, like he fucking killed them live shows with him when when you guys were together it was like boom how was it working with Avicii at the time?
AB: It was pretty awesome, like he was very, very laser focused kind of passionate artist, almost didn't really seem to mention or care about anything other than the music, you know. I mean like in my conversations with him I know he was a deep cat because I've seen you know interviews and other things with with other friends but for us it was like telepathic music creation ion.
KK: Omg, that’s so sick.
AB:,But, but, you get that you get that, when you're working with great artists who have a vision and have a personality and they know what they want to do and they're open enough to let you do what you do best then you’re only combining.
KK: Greatness.
AB: Yeah, greatness with greatness and that that's what I think worked so well with with Avicii he was he was certain about what didn't work, and he was very confident about what would work.
KK: Oh, I love that, you know when you walk into a room and you just know that you're in safe hands right.
AB: and you also know when you’re not in safe hands.You can tell it and you can tell who's who doesn't belong in the room and how did you get here and why are you in this business.
KK: Oh yeah, something smells immediately totally.
AB: You're wasting everybody's time, that those kinds of moments hurt for me because you know.
KK: it impacted the system.
AB: Impacted the system. I don't know why you’re here and you're probably, you're probably gonna stay here but it's not fair to everybody else because you really ain't that really not that good for the business.
KK: A hundred percent, I mean, I and I know the kind of character, the exact kind of characters you’re talking about. I think it's down to producer, fact it's not just a producer, so it's about finding that weak because you're only strong as your weakest right? so you’ve just gotta flush them people out as soon as possible do you know what I mean. that's probably that's a producer’s role as well I mean it, he's it's a management of of creative space.
AB: Guaranteed man, it's the creative space. Yes man, that's the lesson, if there's a lesson to be learned manage your creative space, keep anyone who's not a hundred percent out of your creative space. Wow. If they're not a positive person, if they're not skilled like there’s time to be a mentor and teach other folks but that doesn't have to be on you on your business time that's on your teaching time you know what I mean yeah
KK: it's an it's unfortunate he’s passing it massively you know missed now and in retrospect is there anything this is a really broad question, I probably wasn't even I didn't think I was gonna even come to this but as you quite rightly said you know you, you, you worked really closely and well with him is the only thing in hindsight that you could have seen in the bit was it anything within him that you.
AB: Not at the time that at the time of his passing no, no he was a hundred percent everything seemed normal. There was a time where I was like yo, I know you're going through something. this is this is wild I hope that you can like escape the clutches of whatever. It is that's, that's um you know you’re struggling with and he did and so by then everybody everybody was like under the impression that everything was good so whatever happened was a complete mystery.
KK: Yeah and a shock, and it was a shock for everybody. A way with going into like and this is a broader question outside of Avicii I mean going into these recording session show do you like to work how quick you like how rapid it is.
AB: I do um I've gotten into a habit of four hours long sessions. So my session should last for four hours I walk in with an idea hopefully everybody else who walks into the room has an idea we can either compete with ideas we can even start from complete scratch. I would only like to do that with folks that I completely trust through starting from scratch that are like accomplished because otherwise you're spinning wheels
KK: And wasting time.
AB: And you waste time and honestly like I'm trying to get back to my family like I like to work I'm happy to work, but I'm not trying to pull teeth I just want I just want to make something good and in four hours we should have something that we all really like at least a demo of it and then we can come back in and fine-tune it but if we don't have it in that time I'm not happy.
KK: Yeah well, what’s your batting average so if you would say go into studio.
AB: I don’t know, so I um I feel like my batting average is a hundred. I don't think like I’m missing anything but I'm not in there trying to make hits I'm trying to make great songs and not all great songs become hits that's right . Not all hits are great songs.
KK: That's for damn sure.
AB: So, I feel like every song, I make has a place. Yeah, I feel like I'm happy with everything I come out of the studio with and and that's really what matters batting average, what's gonna end up actually being a hit could be one in twenty. One in twenty songs.
KK: I ask that mainly because, from experiences of like going in the studio I always find like if you’re going in there with one idea you don’t mean it's like if you've got like six bouncing all at once then at some point they're gonna find their own lanes and speed through. Sometimes when you’re just working on one there's this massive pressure on the one tune isn't it and and that can often derail because we’ve all got loads of ideas and you know sometimes it's good to just like for a load of demo ideas together does it happen with 
AB :I'm, I'm always , I’m always a proponent of like make more songs .keep making more and you can you don’t need to focus on one because there’s a million ways to as,  a million ways to produce a song like wake me up came to the world as a dance track but before of each put the dance production on it it was just vocal and guitar it was a folk song.
KK: It was a folk song wasn’t it was a you hear that way you can hear that more more.
AB: in the studio and when we first wrote it. So then you can make a reggae version you make a salsa version, you can make a rock version, like productions, a whole other beast just for me as an MC it's like getting the lyrics, righty as a growing vocalist it's about getting the melody right and that should stand on its own and then what I learned from Avicii was like the music has to have its own melody too so even without my lyrics there's a melody that everybody knows that Avicii put into the music that they can sing so it has its own character.
KK: That's so true.
AB: Stands on its own and when you have those two, three elements. lyrics that stand on their own just on paper, a vocal melody that stands on its own without a lyric, just humming it and then music, an instrumental foundation that also stands on its own that has a melody, that you can hum you can't lose. like and then you give people some some rollercoaster moments you know in the in the music some some drops or or some build ups and some stops or whatever it is yeah
KK: It’s exciting, when you adapt a real contemporary layout of a song and then it's always it gets remixed do you know what I mean. And with all the modern-day things, it’s just like like you say if you really broke it down to that's you know the bare bones, it's a folk song and in that I took I took that away but it got better with age the song came up, bang and then as as you go in to and it grows up itself you realize that the songwriting is everything. you can like you say you can adapt it to any any genre can't you.
AB: You can, you can, I that's that's what I love about music is that songs grow once you release them. it's no longer yours, it just belongs to everybody and people will twist them and bend them in so many different ways. The ones that end up getting twisted and bent the most times are the ones that had all the right parts to begin with.
KK: All the right components. Yeah, yeah exactly well on that note we’re gonna go to Amoeba Records and we're going to checkout a few gems that inspired you over over the course of your musical history.
AB: Right on.
KK: You know I mean so should we do this Killa Kela podcast liven effect Aloe Blacc hold tight