Janelle Monáe & Nate Wonder

Janelle Monáe has had a lot to smile about this year. After a run of successful albums over the last decade, in June she released her fourth album, The Age of Pleasure. The album was just nominated for two Grammys including Album of the Year. This project is important—it signaled a big tone shift for Janelle whose past albums have centered in part around a recurring character named Cyndi Mayweather, an android who represents society’s new “other.”

Esthetically Janelle has always been buttoned up. For her first few album releases she made a point of always appearing in public in some iteration of a tuxedo. For The Age Of Pleasure though, she literally stripped down to almost nothing, flaunting a newfound freedom centered around Black joy and acceptance.

On today’s episode Justin Richmond talks to Janelle Monáe and her long time music partner Nate Wonder poolside, at their creative home base in the Hollywood Hills called Wondaland. Nate explains how The Age Of Pleasure album started with the simple conceit of making Janelle smile. Janelle also talks about why she decided to ditch a career in musical theater after college, and how THE Grace Jones ended up topless in Wondaland’s now-infamous pool.

You can hear a playlist of some of our favorite Janelle Monáe songs HERE.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episoder(373)

John Frusciante Returns, Part 3

John Frusciante Returns, Part 3

We’re back with the third episode in our John Frusciante Returns series. Over the past couple of months Rick Rubin and John Frusciante of the Red Hot Chili Peppers have come together to tape an on-goi...

13 Des 20221h 14min

Stormzy

Stormzy

The British hip-hop subgenre grime first started to bubble up in London in the early aughts. Artists like Wiley and Dizzee Rascal developed an entirely new style by rapping over lightning-fast beats i...

6 Des 202259min

Neil Young

Neil Young

If Broken Record had an all-star list, Neil Young would be at the top. He’s been on the show three times now, and his legendary body of work has been brought up by more musicians interviewed on our sh...

29 Nov 20221h 18min

Scoring Bad Women

Scoring Bad Women

Today we're sharing a fun conversation with the musicians who scored another Pushkin Industries podcast—Bad Women. The first season of Bad Women focused on reconstructing the lives of the five women t...

26 Nov 202259min

Jacob Collier, Part 2

Jacob Collier, Part 2

Today we have part two of Bruce Headlam’s conversation with YouTube sensation turned five-time Grammy winner Jacob Collier. We left off our last episode with Jacob talking about what it’s like to perf...

24 Nov 202247min

Jacob Collier, Part 1

Jacob Collier, Part 1

Musical genius and multi-instrumentalist Jacob Collier joins us today for part one of a two-part conversation. In 2011, when Jacob was only 17, he began posting videos to YouTube of himself singing an...

22 Nov 202256min

Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers

Maggie Rogers has never been one to mince words. Aside from her powerhouse voice, one of Maggie’s superpowers is her ability to write pop songs fueled by radical emotional transparency. And while it’s...

15 Nov 202251min

From Inside Voice:  Lake Bell and the Mechanics of Singing

From Inside Voice: Lake Bell and the Mechanics of Singing

In her new Pushkin audiobook Inside Voice: My Obsession with How We Sound, actress/writer/director/producer Lake Bell goes down some fascinating rabbit holes, exploring the psychology and social scien...

10 Nov 202210min

Populært innen Underholdning

papaya
enkel-servering
harm-og-hegseth
storefri-med-mikkel-og-herman
tusvik-tnne
tore-og-haralds-podkast
folk-flest-med-linn-og-nils
konspirasjonspodden
topp-3-med-wold-og-fladseth
kjendiscrush-med-sofie-karlstad
hovla
nare-venner
ma-pa-behandling-med-morten-ramm
big-5-med-nils-og-harald-2
vitnemal
gi-meg-alle-detaljene
rss-gammal-maiden
christine-dancke
feedback-med-egon-holstad
humorprisen