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)

David Byrne

David Byrne

Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell talk with David Byrne (formerly of Talking Heads) about protest music: some of his favorite protest songs, the earliest ones he heard, how they affected his songwriting...

2 Apr 201938min

Questlove Part 2

Questlove Part 2

Questlove talks about how he got involved with D’Angelo’s Voodoo record, the evolution of his drumming style, how he approaches DJ’ing, and tells the best Obama story ever. Part 2 of 2. Learn more ab...

26 Mar 201923min

Questlove Part 1

Questlove Part 1

Questlove talks about how he got involved with D’Angelo’s Voodoo record, the evolution of his drumming style, how he approaches DJ’ing, and tells the best Obama story ever. Part 1 of 2. Learn more ab...

26 Mar 201949min

Introducing Broken Record Season 2

Introducing Broken Record Season 2

From Malcolm Gladwell, Rick Rubin, and Bruce Headlam: Conversations. Arguments. Stories. Remembering old music. Discovering new music. Broken Record: Coming to your podcast feed on March 26th. Learn ...

14 Mar 20192min

Tom Petty and the Creation of “Wildflowers”

Tom Petty and the Creation of “Wildflowers”

For the season one finale of Broken Record, Malcolm Gladwell talks with Rick Rubin about Tom Petty, who died in October 2017 at the age of 66.  Rubin and Petty worked together for two years on his bel...

25 Des 201829min

Dave Hill and the Epistemology of Norwegian Black Metal

Dave Hill and the Epistemology of Norwegian Black Metal

Malcolm Gladwell sits down with comedian, guitarist, and legendary metalhead Dave Hill, as he recounts how an email exchange between his alter ego Lance and a Norwegian black metal impresario named Sa...

18 Des 201830min

Rosanne Cash

Rosanne Cash

“She Remembers Everything” is the name of the latest Rosanne Cash album, the 14th of her amazing career. Rosanne and her husband and musical collaborator, John Leventhal, sit down with Broken Record’s...

11 Des 201836min

Nashville Revolution: Bobby Braddock, Don Schlitz, and Don Henry

Nashville Revolution: Bobby Braddock, Don Schlitz, and Don Henry

Malcolm Gladwell talks to three songwriters who helped transform country music in the 1970s. Gone were cowboy hats, train whistles and church suppers. In came songs about desperation, loss, changes, a...

4 Des 201827min

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