Lalah Hathaway on 'VANTABLACK' and Town Hall Show (Listening Party)

Lalah Hathaway.
( Photo by Justin Sission )

Alison Stewart: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Grammy award-winning musician Lalah Hathaway made a new album after the blackest black pigment in the world. It's called Vantablack. Here's the title track.

[MUSIC - Lalah Hathaway: VANTABLACK]

Alison Stewart: VANTABLACK also features some notable collabs with artists like Common, MC Lyte, Michael McDonald, Willow, and more. VANTABLACK is out wherever you listen to your music. Lalah Hathaway is here now for a listening party ahead of her show at town hall this Wednesday evening starting at 08:00 PM. Welcome back to the show.

Lalah Hathaway: Thank you so much for having me.

Alison Stewart: When you look at the color vantablack, you can really see how dark it is. When did you first become aware of vantablack?

Lalah Hathaway: You know, I don't remember. I just remember seeing something that was vantablack and all of the light being absorbed into it. I was just always so taken with the way that the word just fell out of my mouth. It has such a mellifluous kind of tone to it. I just really liked the word itself. Really realizing that the color was just absorbing all this light and everything around it, like this black hole, I thought it would be just such a great calling card for the album.

Alison Stewart: We listened to a song titled I AM. It reminded me of the 'I am a Man' posters during the Civil Rights Movement. What's the story behind how you wrote the song?

Lalah Hathaway: I just felt like I wanted to write something anthemic and something affirmative. I am a believer. I'm working on manifesting my billion dollars as we speak. [laughter[ I wanted to write something that people could get behind and go to war with and go out with their friends with and get ready to party and get ready to get dressed for school and just something affirmative and positive. I feel like there's such a lack of that in the marketplace right now.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear I am by Lalah Hathaway.

[MUSIC - Lalah Hathaway: I AM]

Alison Stewart: That's I AM by Lalah Hathaway. It sounds like you're really feeling yourself in that moment [chuckles]. When, in your life, have you had one of those moments when you're like, I've got it going on? Is it on stage? Is it just, I don't know, being a good friend. When is it in life you really felt that?

Lalah Hathaway: Yes. I really do feel like whatever I declare is true. I try to stay positive. There are times when I'm down, but I really like to make these declarations and affirmations every day. Like, "I am happy". "I am well." It may seem a little airy-fairy for people, but I think for me, it's a great way to remember to be really literal about being positive out loud.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Lalah Hathaway. She's in a listening party now for her latest album VANTABLACK. She'll be playing town hall this Wednesday night. On the record, your vocals are very layered. What's your process for arranging vocals in the studio?

Lalah Hathaway: I think it goes song by song. What I do is I listen and I feel like if I'm not finished, I just keep going. Some of the things are more simple and maybe one vocal or two vocals. I just really try to treat each song separately and really see how it feels and how I can not add so much, but sometimes I add things and then take them away. It's really about answering the song, mostly.

Alison Stewart: Your last album came out, I think, in 2017, and that's a seven-year gap. You kind of forget with COVID in there. What did you notice about how you grew as an artist during that time?

Lalah Hathaway: I think that the biggest thing that happened for me is in 2020 when we went down for the quarantine, which I thought in my mind would last maybe three weeks. It was an actual real time of rest and restoration for me. I've probably been working all year, every year since 1990 or '91. It was a time for me to really reflect and sit down and be home and hang out with my mom and my dog. There was no traffic in LA where I lived. The sky was clear, there was no smog. It was a real time for me of recharging.

I really was able to reflect on a lot of things that we were seeing at that time. The Black Lives Matter movement. We were grappling with George Floyd. What we saw happened. There were a lot of things happening, a lot of news happening. That's really how I started the record, really reflecting on what I was seeing with my own eyes, in my community, in the streets, in the world. That time, for me, was crucial, really, to just build up. We started writing really detached from the outcome of what might happen with the album. In the end, I had a full story with an arc, so I was really happy about that.

Alison Stewart: The song The Energy, you talk a bit about your memories of your childhood in Chicago. Let's listen and we can talk about it on the other side. This is Lalah Hathaway.

[MUSIC - Lalah Hathaway: The Energy]

Alison Stewart: Lalah, you sing that song, "Somebody's cooking greens in the kitchen, someone in the backyard singing." Was that a typical Sunday in the Hathaway household?

Lalah Hathaway: That could be any day in the Hathaway household. The song was just so reminiscent of my childhood, growing up in Chicago. I really love that song. Just the vibes and the feel. That was what I was really wishing for during the first part of the quarantine, was being able to get together with my friends and have a meal together. Nobody was doing that, so that's where that song came from.

Alison Stewart: I read that this year you went back to your high school, the Chicago Academy for the Arts, for the first time since graduating and you ended up staying a little longer than you planned. Why do you think that visit was so meaningful to you?

Lalah Hathaway: It's always great for me to commune with other creatives, particularly like that age, 16, 17, 18. I remember myself at that age and it made such a difference when creatives came in to visit with us. At my high school, Oprah Winfrey came and she brought Michael Peters, who choreographed the Beat It video from Michael Jackson. It was such a big deal. I really love being able to talk to young people, young musicians, young artists, and just tell them that I'm on the same street as they are. I'm just a few blocks up the road.

While there's an age gap, with creatives, there's hardly ever a time gap, which is really interesting. I was meant to be there just for a moment, but then I started really taking in some of the stuff the kids were doing. I got to see some music, I got to see some art, and it's just the same school as when I left.

Alison Stewart: One of the guests on this album, we have a lot of guests, is Michael McDonald. How did that come about?

Lalah Hathaway: I had this song called No Lie, which I feel like at its best, it feels like just the greatest FM rock, soul, yacht rocky type of song. I had been hearing his voice on it from the moment we started writing it. What I did was I called my friend Thundercat, who has an album, who has a record with Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins, if you can believe that. I said, you've got to call Michael for me and see if it's okay if I have his number so I can beg him to come be on this record. Within about three days we had it going.

I have a message from Michael McDonald on my phone presently that I will never disappear or vanish, where he is saying that he likes the song. That means so much to me. He's such a part of the fabric of the music that I listened to growing up, not only as a solo artist, but as a background singer, as a session musician. All these records, like the Steely Dan records, Criss Cross records, Kenny Loggins records that his voice is such a part of. He's absolutely at the root of soul music for me. He's one of those voices that is part of the foundation of soul music.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear No Lie.

[MUSIC - Lalah Hathaway: No Lie]

Alison Stewart: [unintelligible 00:14:15] Hathaway. This song is called No Lie, featuring Michael McDonald. You're on tour now. You're supposed to play town hall on Wednesday. The Hathaway name is famous for its live performance. How do you as an artist try to move or lift a crowd when you're performing?

Lalah Hathaway: The crowd is, and a lot of them don't realize it, but they are a part of the music when we come to play for them. This is why it's so annoying when someone's standing there with a full iPad to record your show when you're just really trying to sing to them. It's easy for me to look at a crowd and look in their eyes and feel the breath of the room. Sometimes we call an audible during the show. Maybe there's a song that I want to substitute that feels like it may fit the room better, but it's really my job to make sure that the room is happy, as happy as I can get them, as good as I can get them feeling.

I take it very seriously. I really like to take care of the audience and give them an experience. I want them to feel like they are leaving having had an experience.

Alison Stewart: You can check it out this Wednesday at Town Hall. You can hear Lalah Hathaway sing from her new album VANTABLACK. Thank you so much for joining us, Lalah.

Lalah Hathaway: Thank you for having me.

Alison Stewart: We're going out on the song Higher from the new album VANTABLACK.

[MUSIC - Lalah Hathaway: Higher]

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