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Podcast Episode Notes: Janelle Monàe and Nate Wonder - World Happiness Day Bonus
Podcast Overview Title: Broken Record Hosts: Rick Rubin, Malcolm Gladwell, Bruce Headlam, Justin Richmond Episode Title: Janelle Monàe and Nate Wonder: World Happiness Day Bonus Release Date: [Insert Date] Description: In recognition of World Happiness Day, this episode features a replay of a conversation between Justin Richmond, Janelle Monàe, and Nate Wonder about creativity, joy, and their collaborative work on Monàe's latest album, *The Age of Pleasure*.
Key Themes and Discussions
Introduction to World Happiness Day
- The podcast revisits an earlier episode with Janelle Monàe and Nate Wonder as part of a celebration for World Happiness Day.
- The intention is to highlight themes of joy and community in their work, particularly reflected in Monàe's album.
The Album
*The Age of Pleasure*
- Context: Created to celebrate Black love and community.
- Collaborative Effort: Nate Wonder aimed to make Monàe smile while creating the album. Their teamwork and long-standing partnership are emphasized.
- Creative Process: Monàe reflects on the joy of collaboration and how it has evolved over their years of working together.
Personal Histories and Connections
- Meeting and Early Collaboration: Janelle and Nate met in Atlanta at Morehouse and have collaborated since her early EPs.
- Challenges: Monàe discusses her academic struggles and how her passion for music led her to lose scholarships, ultimately shaping her path.
- Family Influence: Monàe's father, a music professor, introduced her to a myriad of musical instruments and the concept of composition.
Themes of Healing and Joy
- The Role of Music: Both artists discuss how music serves as a therapeutic outlet and a means of connection during difficult times, particularly during the pandemic.
- Intentional Affirmations: They highlight the importance of creating music that not only serves personal healing but also resonates with listeners, offering affirmations and joy.
The Creative Collective
- Wonderland Collective: The concept of community and belonging is crucial. They emphasize how important it is to maintain their relationships and support each other.
- Advice from Questlove: The value of staying together amidst challenges was reinforced by Questlove's guidance.
Social Responsibility Through Art
- Both artists discuss the importance of creating art that challenges societal norms and represents marginalized communities, particularly Black women and non-binary individuals.
- Impact of the Pandemic: They reflect on how the pandemic highlighted the need for community and the joy of being together, cultivating a space for creative expression.
Featured Collaborations
- Grace Jones: Her involvement in the album was significant; her energy and influence inspired tracks on *The Age of Pleasure*.
- Diverse Influences: The album includes a rich tapestry of musical influences, celebrating the diaspora, and featuring a variety of artists and perspectives.
Conclusion and Reflections
- The Importance of Balance: Monàe notes the need for balance between activism and creativity, emphasizing the significance of joy in art.
- Upcoming Projects: Both artists express excitement for future collaborations and projects, particularly reflecting on the influence of their past works and relationships.
Key Takeaways
- The power of collaboration and community is pivotal in creative processes.
- Music serves as a vehicle for healing, joy, and social change.
- Maintaining authentic relationships in the music industry is essential for growth and creativity.
- The album, *The Age of Pleasure*, serves as a celebration of life, love, and the pursuit of joy amidst challenges.
Listening Recommendations
- Album: *The Age of Pleasure* by Janelle Monàe
- Related Episode: The Happiness Lab with Laurie Santos for further insights into joy and happiness.
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This markdown file serves as a structured summary of the podcast episode, highlighting key themes, discussions, and important takeaways from the conversation between Janelle Monàe and Nate Wonder.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:06Pushkin. This is an iHeart Podcast. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Ooclas Speedtest. And they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage. That's your business, Supercharged. Learn more at supermobile.com. Seamless coverage with compatible devices in most outdoor areas in the U.S.
0:48where you can see the sky. Best network based on analysis by Ookla of Speedtest Intelligence Data 1H 2025. Every great music conversation goes beyond the surface. The influence that shaped an artist's sound. The moment that changed their creative direction. The story behind the story that fans never hear. Claude helps you discover those deeper connections. Upload interviews, liner notes, or music journalism, and Claude reveals patterns across an artist's entire journey, showing how influences become innovations. Whether you're a music journalist, passionate fan, or someone who loves understanding creative processes, Claude matches your curiosity about what really drives great artists.
1:29Try Claude for free at Claude.ai slash brokenrecord. Lexus is a company that believes in the importance of setting a standard, which I can appreciate as someone who holds themselves to lofty if not ridiculous standards, especially with the car I drive. The standard Lexus has set for themselves is to experience amazing. Lexus measures success by the feeling and emotions evoked in a driver, like exhilaration and joy. Amazing can only be achieved by knowing people on a deeper level. The standard of amazing results in a feeling in drivers that their car was built in anticipation of them. Machines that make you feel more human.
2:06Because a car that doesn't make you feel something is a car that stops short of amazing. Experience amazing at your Lexus dealer. Hey there, it's Justin Richmond. We're revisiting an episode we recently put out with Janelle Monae to celebrate World Happiness Day. We're part of the Pushkin Network and one of my colleagues, Lori Santos, who hosts the Happiness Lab podcast, ask me to share an episode that makes me happy. And to be honest, nothing made me happier than this episode with Janelle Monae and Nate Wonder. So to celebrate World Happiness Day and the World Happiness Report that the UN puts out every March in honor of my colleague, Laurie Santos from the Happiness Lab, have fun re-listening to this conversation I have with Janelle Monae and Nate Wonder.
2:51Also, we'll be putting an episode of the Happiness Lab in this broken record feed shortly. So stay tuned for that.
3:00This is Broken Record. Line of notes for the digital age. I'm Justin Richman. Here's my conversation with Nate Wonder and Janelle Monae. Happy birthday. Thank you. Grammy nomination. Yes. Album of the year. Yeah. It's like two in a row now. I know, that's a big deal. I know. It's crazy. It's a big deal. I'm still just so humbled. It's a very big deal. Not just progressive R &B album, but like album of the year. Like that's some crazy, that's wild. Yeah. Yeah, I watched a lot of my heroes get it and be on that stage. And like, it's really a dream to be able to not just shine light on the work that I do, but, you know, Nate's here as well.
3:40He worked heavily on the music and production and writing with me and everybody else who, you know, was a part of the album. They get recognized, too. So that's the beautiful thing about being in that category. Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah. I wanted to ask about the collaborative, since I have the pleasure of both of you guys, which feels special to me. So I was curious about how you guys collaborate on it. I mean, you guys have been working together a long time, first of all. Every project, every album. Since my EPs, where I was selling them out of the trunk of my car in Atlanta, we've been able to have a creative bond and just evolution together.
4:20And it's just been really a fun ride. Lots of fun things happen in the studio. It feels like family. It feels intentional. It's magical. Absolutely. Where were you both at when you guys first met? In Atlanta. We met at Morehouse. Janelle was, she was living like in the area. Parson Street. Yeah. Boarding house next to Club Woody in the AUC. Club Woody is the name of the library. Okay. You go there, though, because it's in the middle of all three campuses, it's kind of like a club. You never know in Atlanta what that could be. Exactly. It's actually the university library, and she would throw shows on the steps.
5:04And I was just out of college. I had lost my scholarship in my junior year of college because I was writing music. And so after I graduated, I could really take the time to focus on my music the way I wanted to. So in college, you knew that music was where you were focused. That's where your attention was. But why did you lose your, what happened? You need to tell him exactly a moment that will let you know how serious you were. I mean, I had two full scholarships to school and I lost both of them because I, um. How do you have two? How do you get two? I don't know. It's weird. NASA gave me a scholarship and the school gave me a scholarship separately.
5:45And I just had both of them. I had one like as a backup, I guess, idea. but um i was in a math test and i was doing well on the test except for like in the middle of the test i had this song come to me and uh i just felt compelled to get up and i went to my dorm room and i wrote this all and i did not finish the test and it caused my gpa to crater and uh that's why i lost my scholarship yeah yay was that and that's how we got to make music i mean i'm thank god he lost his nasa and scholarship i mean in any other scenario that's a tragedy yeah but it seems to have been the the right path it felt tragic at the time too after i realized that happened in the moment it felt like this is what you're supposed to be doing you need to just listen to this was that common for you to just up and leave whatever you were doing wherever you were at whoever you were with to go get an idea.
6:43Yeah, but not a test. It had not happened like that. It was something that, like, cost me so much. Yeah. Like, in the movie of your life, those are pretty high stakes. You know what I mean? It was. It was. And it felt like a big mistake afterwards for a little while. It felt like, wow, that was crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And my dad was like, you're crazy. You absolutely have lost your mind. Were your parents academically focused? Like, I mean, I don't know how you get a NASA scholarship. My dad has a doctorate in music, actually. Wow. And he wasn't active in music in that kind of way. He's a professor, so yes, he's involved.
7:17Yeah. You grew up with a lot of theory and things? I mean, I grew up watching him write music, compose, and he was writing operas and all that kind of stuff. So I saw that growing up, and I learned a lot of instruments. I got introduced to a lot of instruments early on, and I got introduced to the idea of composition very early. but he was not he was like that is dumb just so we can be clear this he got a phd in music he's like that's dumb that's dumb did you know him at the time um i didn't know no we didn't know each other that was you know i i met him after he probably did some healing from the traumatic experience of losing your scholarships i learned how to focus that's what i learned from that i I always hold that as like a lesson in focus and like what it takes.
8:07Focus on the thing at hand or focus on the creativity that's taking away from... Actually, you know what's interesting, like it's just pick something and do that thing. Okay. So the idea of the multitasking and all that kind of stuff, I understood how detrimental that could be to whatever the dream that I had was. So if it was music, like I know that like the feeling I had when I was in the class was, hey you're not pursuing the thing that you're supposed to be pursuing right now and you are gonna feel sick about that at some point in time right now you feel sick so you need to go write that song later on i felt like okay i but i made a commitment and so you know it's about just commitment focus not being distracted and when i finished college i was like okay now i'm going to focus and i wanted to do that you did finish yes and you paid yeah i had to pay oh my last year i paid oh my god oh yeah that's what i'm saying i paid last year i got a scholarship for part of it i got a scholarship to go live in spain so they paid me to go i did get another scholarship you too smart man but i did i paid for one semester i did have to pay for one semester in college yeah and tell them what you know what tell them what you got that scholarship in in spanish which i sucked in i failed spanish high school year but you here you go majoring My Spanish class.
9:26Majored in Spanish. Look at you. Yeah. Did you study any music, Spanish music, while you were in Spain? No, I studied Spanish art and architecture, actually. And so when I went to Spain, I was like, let me not pursue music right now. Let me focus. I'm not going to bring any of my instruments. Like, I would never not have a guitar in my hand. And so I was like, I'm going to go to Spain. I'm not going to have any instruments. I'm going to focus. And I'm going to just do what I'm here to do. and I went there and what was crazy is that the place that I lived was directly next to a music conservatory so I would wake up and this girl would play the flute every morning it would wake me up every morning I would hear musicians playing all day and I was like man I gotta so I was there I bought a flute and like taught myself to play the flute but that was it I was like let me just that's small enough yeah so that's more of a hobby than a than a real artistic pursuit similarly you early on were kind of like possessed by creativity right I like that possessed yes there was never a time where I wasn't singing I don't remember like singing acting partying doing exactly what it is that I'm doing I was talking to a friend and she reminded me she was like remember in sixth grade when we used to throw these parties and you would charge a dollar for people to get in.
10:48And I skipped school to hand out flyers. It was a whole thing. But at that same time, I was on every talent show stage in Kansas City and every musical theater production. And, you know, it's morphed into concerts now and the Age of Pleasure album and being driven by just the things that I love. I'm so thankful that I still can do that. And for me, when I went to school in New York after, you know, after high school, went to school in New York and I thought, oh, I want to do musical theater. And soon as I got out there and started going to see plays and stuff, I was like, man, I'm not excited about any of the roles that they're offering, you know, people that look like me.
11:33What were you what kind of roles were you getting? Well, we couldn't really audition, but like there was no there was maybe one strong black woman leading something. Yeah, there was not right now. Broadway has changed. Like it's it's a lot more diverse, a lot more stories, a lot more uniqueness. And the only thing because I'm from Kansas, the only thing I think people saw me doing was The Wiz and The Wiz wasn't on Broadway. And I'm just like, I love The Wiz, but where is the new energy, the new stories? and I had so much bubbling because I'm a writer as well. And I decided that, you know, I was going to quit.
12:09So I quit school in New York. Everybody thought I was crazy too. That was my like, you're crazy moment. Because coming from Kansas, such a small town, they're like, wow, you're in New York. You're living the dream. And little do they know, I was sleeping in the same bed as my cousin because I could not afford housing there. And so I was commuting from like 140th in Amsterdam to like 72nd in Broadway. way every single day, Monday through Friday. I mean, I learned a lot about surviving and I was just like, you know, poor and, but excited about the arts and excited about finally figuring out what did Janelle Robinson have to say?
12:48Because I wasn't even going by Janelle Monae. I had not tapped into the center, the core of what I had to say, because I was spending so much time singing everybody else's songs. Why the transition of Janelle Monae then from Janelle Robinson? What about that felt more like the authentic place to create from? Well, I knew about the painter Monet, and I always thought, like, that's a great artist name, and it just so happens to be my real name. My middle name is Monet. My aunt, actually, she was like Janelle Monet. Janelle Monet. She calls me that all the time, like, when she sees me, and it just, it sucks.
13:24Even before, even before. So it wasn't like a rebuke of, like, your family or where you come from. No, it's not. No, I just thought Monet felt like an artist name. Yeah. And it was my name. And it was like, yeah, OK, I get to reinvent, you know, who what I can be, how I can say it, how I see myself. And it was so great. So that's when I moved to Atlanta. And that's when I met Nate Rocket Wonder. I met Chuck Lightning. I met Mikkel Moore, who were all still working together. They were at Morehouse. They ran this arts collective called the Dark Tower Project. And they would bring musicians, poets to Morehouse.
13:59And I was one of the people who performed that night. And I just saw like this kind of black cosmopolitan in Atlanta. Like it was just this melting pot of just excellence and creativity and freedom of expression. I had never seen anything like it. And I wanted to be around that. And I wanted to make music for them. That's who I wanted to make music for. And so when I started to write, I would sit out, like Nate was saying, I would sit on the library steps of Club Woody. And I would just play guitar, sing my songs. People would walk by. Some would stop and listen. Some would keep moving. I would go to dorm lounges, sit on the couch and give performance.
14:35Like to anybody that would listen, I was like, I don't give a damn. I have to know, is this for me? Like, do you guys like what I have to say? Like, can I make my purpose and passion and also career align? Yeah. That's a scary time because you don't really know. I mean, you have the confidence to not necessarily care, but you don't, at the same time, you don't really know. you don't know like one of the reasons why we really connected was because like i know it sounds very basic but we love art and i think that we were inspired by meeting other people who loved art like really would just like fall in love with art you know just be obsessed over it just sit up all day and think about something that they read or a painting that they saw or just a song just sit there and cry to a song and just like yeah I know that Janelle and I have a very spiritual connection that music it really is like the catalyst for that and it catalyzes it all the time it's something that I know that we can always tap into.
15:51Like besides being like good thought partners and like you know there are wonderful myriad things about Janelle that make her a great like human being. But on a musical level she is very passionate about music. Like if I play certain chords it can make her cry. And that is something that also happens to me. Like I can hear certain songs, certain chords, And it doesn't have to do with necessarily the lyrics always. Sometimes lyrics, yes. And poetry is beautiful. And that's another, you know, but just like music and just being really just emotionally brought to your knees over how good music can be.
16:34and we've shared so many of those moments and that was like the beginning of that time where we got to really just pass music back and forth and be shocked yeah and just sit in awe with each other as we would just listen to what could be done I think one of the things that I loved early on and the reason why I think we've we've worked so well together musically is because Nate is a student of music and so when it comes to like anything that I want to do there's nothing we can't do from string arrangements to you know chord progressions horn arrangements melodies like there's no genre yeah we've been genres with each album you know it's all about how do we create our own musical language and I love that I always have to feel pushed and stretched and and i think that's what is the exciting thing because it's like we literally have the the mind and the student heart like we never stop being students you never stop you're always at the beginning always it's always a a new whiteboard yeah you know of ideas ready to be put down sounds to me like you guys are just always creating things yeah regardless of like there's an album do or you know or it's been a minute or you know it's like it's just that's how you guys are inhabiting life it's just creating every day or or you know the days that it feels right to do right yeah yeah i mean i i didn't get into music because of awards or because of you know recognition or anything like that music is truly healing yeah i need music like i need a song in my darkest hours i need a song in my most celebratory stage i need a song when you know i want to communicate something that my own words can't say and i need to be able to write when i'm feeling frustrated or when i'm like it's a way it's it has helped my mental health so much yeah so much you know when i was listening again for like the umpteenth time this morning on my walk to uh the age of pleasure i was wondering listening to it it might be an impossible question to answer but whether these songs were for you or for other people because i in a way i've realized as i've been listening to it i've been taking it as like you giving mantras to me you know what i'm saying but it occurred to me today i'm like maybe you needed to write this for you too and i i don't know how you were approaching that but it's for all of us it's for us and that means a lot to hear you say that because i think one of the most important things as an artist is is your ability to communicate and as much as i can you know say like oh i just want to do an album and i i want If it's just for myself and me to listen to it, that's not my truth.
19:24I actually want everybody to feel like this is their soundtrack to their life. This is curating their thoughts and their feelings. They are part of my community. We're a part of each other's community. And all of us are growing and healing and moving together and sharing something that they can tap into anytime they want to. And it's funny because you're here. This is exactly what inspired the album. this space, having this space filled with black and brown and, you know, just beautiful people across the diaspora here, seeing them smiling, seeing the joy in their spirits, in their hearts during a time where everybody thought the world was ending.
20:05I mean, every day. Because you moved here during the pandemic, right? This is the space you kind of got. Yeah, we created Wonderland West during the pandemic. It was one of the most scary things ever because I grew up, my parents didn't own a home. We were either in like a duplex or, you know, we live with my grandmother and they were working class, like making ends meet, but living check to check. So when it was time for all of us to contribute and figure out where we were going to migrate with Wonderland, it was like, okay, are we ready to all, am I ready to invest in our next creative endeavor?
20:39Yes, I am, but we're in the middle of a pandemic what does that mean and luckily we knew the person who was trying to um sell the space and they were just like there's nobody else I want to have this space great and it worked out and so it came right to you it was yeah it did um but it was also scary because a lot of things were being canceled for me I my job is to go out into the world and travel and try to heal people through music, but I couldn't do that. So you come from growing up a certain amount of insecurity and the successful career you've had, it's hard to imagine that. But as soon as you start to feel that little bit of insecurity again, I know from my own life, it's like, whoa, that's like PTSD.
21:24It's like all of a sudden. I mean, where was your mind at with all of that? I think the pandemic reminded me just how much music means to me as a person, not as a career path, not as the artist that people know and come to the concerts and see, but as a human android having this earth experience, I need music. I need to create. During that time, not only were we working on music, but I also wrote a book called The Memory Librarian. I was just doing anything creative that would help me feel better. Because to go from moving around so much to just being still, it was tough. It was tough for me. How was it for you, Nate?
22:05Yeah. You know, art has this weird responsibility of trying to document and explain the human experience a little bit more and kind of just like unearth a little bit more about what it means to be human. And I think that so many of us were finding out a lot more about what it meant to be human. Yeah. Like a lot about the mortality of it, even though we weren't necessarily in or didn't consider ourselves vulnerable in that kind of way. I think a lot of us looked at ourselves as more vulnerable to death. And I think that that was a very real consideration that we all kind of had to deal with it differently.
22:46And I think that human experience is a very unique one that kind of felt like, OK, so what is the response to that? And how do you talk about this in healthy ways and how do you explore and understand more about it? So I think that like part of what we were trying to do was just face that in an honest way. When you talk about like the affirmations, I mean, that was very intentional. Yeah. Because part of just confronting death is kind of like being able to turn your head and be like, not today. And then you kind of are like, OK, so then what does that mean? And it's kind of like, OK, live. and so then how do you live in a way that honors the life experience and it's like hey okay i'm here i may i'm here now you know and you hear these stories about the roaring 20s when people are kind of like getting through the depression it's depression it's so much going on and they're like you can and they've made it through a pandemic yeah right and you have the survivor's guilt and so much of that goes into just you just your human experience and it's those affirmations were like just the small attempts to just undergird just the everyday thing that's kind of like pushing you down and kind of be like all right I'm gonna get back up you know when Janelle says like I used to walk into the room head down you know it's just that feeling of I used to walk into the room head down and being like that's I'm leaving that and now I'm on to this next stage and of myself.
24:26Yeah. I think it was a privilege to be still because during that time, I mean, as we know, a lot of people were getting laid off from work. A lot of people were losing their families, passing away. And as much as it was sad that I couldn't go and be the artist that I wanted to be out into the world, there were so many other people who had it worse than us. In that stillness, I said, well, what can I do? I know we were in L.A. And we we got the opportunity to feed and give out over thirty five thousand meals through our one to lunch program. And so we did that for like months and months and months.
25:04And I think that connectivity back to humanity really let us know what kind of affirmations our people needed. Yeah. And what I needed as well. And I think to answer your question, we were very intentional about that. And I think float really kicked it off. Like I used to walk into the room, head down. I don't walk now. I float. I got an opportunity in that stillness to deal with, you know, childhood trauma that I had not dealt with. That because because I was moving around so much. I didn't. It was like, OK, you know, something's not right, but I don't have time to deal with it. And in that discovering and peeling back the layers of the rejection and abandonment that I felt early on, get into the root of it my spirit started to get lighter because I knew I was like oh okay so I can become better and more evolved as a person now and I feel so empowered now that I know what was going on with me and when you heal as a as a person all of that seeps into your music and your art my art is a reflection of who I am yeah and I'm so thankful for that because all I wanted to do was give more people affirmations because I know I wasn't the only one when I would have conversations with people they would say the same thing like man I I need I I have to let go of this I have to let go of that you know and so float was that thing it was like once you let go of the heaviness that you've been carrying on your back that you didn't didn't have to carry and you just find you're finding out like oh I I have a way to get all of this off of me now it felt like I I wanted to celebrate as a new person.
26:47Like, I feel like I definitely, you know, shed a lot of skin, turned a new leaf. And obviously, it's a constant, you know, journey. But once I tapped into it, I got really inspired to write about it. After a quick break, we'll come back with more of my conversation with Janelle Monae and Nate Wonder. In today's super competitive business environment, the edge goes to those who push harder, move faster, and level up every tool in their arsenal. T-Mobile knows all about that. They're now the best network, according to the experts at Ooclas Speedtest, and they're using that network to launch Supermobile, the first and only business plan to combine intelligent performance, built-in security, and seamless satellite coverage.
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30:35Our listeners get 10 % off their first month at BetterHelp.com slash broken. That's BetterHelp.com slash broken. We're back with Janelle Monae and Nate Wonder. Once you put the album out, how did you guys feel about the response to it? You know, obviously we were very vulnerable. And I feel like that was like a big point of conversation around that. But was it sometimes you just do things feeling like that's the right thing to do. And it's like, oh, shit, I got to talk about this. Like, how was the process of going out and talking about the album and getting people's responses to the project? You know, I think it's a beautiful thing that when people see themselves reflected, that was the most beautiful thing.
31:22I think a lot of people coming up to me, some of them whispering, some of them more vocal about it, like, thank you so much, you know, for sharing more of who you are. There's this quote by Beth Ann Hardison that says, you know, people don't change, they become more of who they are. And what I got an opportunity to do is become more of who I am and write about it and write about it with other people who were discovering more about who they were. And us having a safe space. That was really important. I think with an album called The Age of Pleasure, there is no pleasure without safety. yeah when we don't feel safe and taken care of you cannot be free in the way that you move or express yourselves at least for me to your point earlier about unpacking a lot of the traumas and stuff just feeling safe within yourself exactly you know what i mean exactly yeah i feel a lot more how do i put it i did put it i see it float i feel like i've i've like i've like floated and anything that used to bother me, it doesn't touch me the same.
32:25It's kind of scary and also really, really awesome. Yeah. How was it writing on this record with Janelle, with giving the, just the way the songs were coming out? It was a real blessing. Before we started working on the album, I remember I told my management team that I really wanted to focus this time that I have right now on making music for black women and black uh non-binary folks i want to make music that makes them smile like i want to make music for them specifically like i really just want to be of service to that community and there's so many reasons why but one reason is because when i i go to the grocery store as like a little side activity i love going to the grocery store i do I do it.
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33:19I love it. This is great. I love this because I do not like going to the grocery store. No. Come on, man. You go in there, you hear hollering those. I was that kid. My mom used to have me in a grocery store way too long. I was like, I'm ready to go home. So anyway, but when I would go and I see like black women at the grocery store smiling, it just makes me feel a certain way. Yeah. And sometimes it would be like when a certain song would come on, it would be like you see them singing their song. And it's like, man, so good. And Janelle, of course, has like done so much work as a leading voice in terms of activism, in terms of being on the right side of history, in terms of speaking it up for marginalized people.
34:05Early to early. Always. It's been her herself. but but I also was thinking about how much that can weigh on a person and I told Janelle I said I really like for your next I would really love I would love to see you smile more like I would love to just see you smile like it really would mean so much I think that you smiling is a really special thing I love when I see you smile and I would love to see what that energy is to like really put that into a space. And I hadn't really considered that. And I looked at all my album covers and I was like, I'm really not smiling. Did it kind of fuck with you for a second?
34:47Yeah. I was like, what? What is going on? From the Ark Android to Electric Lady to Dirty Computer. And if you look at the cover for The Age of Pleasure, I am right in this pool, swimming, topless and smiling. Yeah. You know, it's a layered idea, but I do think that giving somebody something that makes them want to smile is its own resistance. It's its own protest. It's its own like giving people affirmations is its own version. It's a certain form of work. Yeah. It's a certain type of healing. and so is pleasure like yes it's like i want you to smile it's like to your point then too it's like i don't know i fucking smile like i went topless in this pool right yeah and smiled yeah and it's like both of those things are yeah can be subversive can be absolutely you know what i mean absolutely it is to make an album called the age of pleasure in the middle of a pandemic is a subversive piece of art because it is just kind of being like no it's just like because there's been you know when you're dealing with so much trauma from elections to it's just so much that happens and it feels like your energy when you wake up is going to be stolen from you yeah yeah definitely it feels like it's gonna be stolen right you're like it's not yours exactly and so it it was like a big like no you cannot have all of my day yeah you cannot have all of my time.
36:28I'm going to take some time to enjoy life as best as I can under whatever the circumstances that I have are. I'm going to try my best to do what I can to appreciate this moment as simple as it may be. And what I think that we were finding in the writing process was that just having time to hang out with your friends was the thing that we needed the most. just seeking time to appreciate each other to smile at each other to laugh with each other to do like the simple stuff with each other felt like this is like worth my time way more than whatever that other thing was that was driving me and de-centering my joy yeah yeah yeah i mean that's what that stuff does right like when you think about racism when you think about sexism when you think about homophobia, all of it.
37:23It literally, in addition to just being pure evil work, it distracts you from living your life because you spend so much time fighting. And I definitely found myself, and I know I'm not the only one. There were so many of my friends and people who were out marching. You have to understand, George Floyd had been murdered. It was so much. Breonna Taylor, it was so much. And I was working with Say Her Name and I put out protest music. It was so heavy, man. And I was like, somebody has to do the work. But I think balance is important. And what I was realizing is I was not getting the balance that I needed.
38:00And so once we made a decision to not center white supremacy, to not center, you know, all of the things that, again, come to distract and destroy and stop us from just living our lives as humans having this earth experience and be clear and stand on that. that's when I feel like the songwriting got focused yeah and with this project I said I want to make music for that community for that community of folks who suffer time poverty like they don't have time poverty is a great phrase it's a it's a real thing in our community people don't have the time or the leisure time to just be yeah you know what I'm saying to just be one with their friends or their families because you're spending so much time working you're spending so much time I'm fighting.
38:45And it's like, when do we say, okay, well, we're going to carve out this little space for us. And so I said, I want to create music that we can all listen to, take with us, hold with us. That is the balance in everything that we're dealing with. And if the people that I invite over are not dancing to these songs, if they are not moving, if they're not trying to Shazam, if they're not asking who is that, then it's not working. yeah it's not like i want them to really really really really love this music obviously i we have to love it right but it was so important that the community of people we were right writing it for loved it yeah and um that's how we put together the age of pleasure we had nana quabana who worked on some of the music who was also a dj and our friends with everyday people i don't know if you know about everyday people parties i've not been but i know yeah yeah like i have to give a shout I'm just entering my age of pleasure.
39:42So I ain't I've been working too hard in my desk. I have to give them a shout out because during the pandemic, they couldn't find a place, you know, to have their parties. And when I say parties, it's not just like I mean, everybody's dancing and singing and having a good time. But people are feeding each other at the parties like their food vendors. It's the diaspora. It's Pan-Africanism from around the globe, from, you know, Nigeria, Ghana, the Caribbean, Jamaica, Atlanta, New York. LA and Cape Verde like all in one place it's just nothing like going to their parties and so when they asked they had come by Wonderland they were like you know they were having a hard time getting a space and we were like come here let's figure it out because we're going through it too like not being able to see people like how can we do this and that was a big Was it a vibe where you had to know who was coming?
40:36For sure it was very small Because that would be a little yeah it was we needed to know it was small and it was safe yeah safe and small and and that's where the music was tested first hearing all the backstory i'm just gonna say it because i feel like it's even in the music like a more human album it's funny because as we're moving into an age now of more the future looks a little bleaker in terms of technology i feel like you might have called that a little early and and it feels like the project away from computer and ArchAndroid and Metropolis and like this, it feels like Janelle the person, you know?
41:17Or it feels like to me listening to it, like I even just feel myself coming alive more, just feeling more me, you know what I mean? I know a lot of people who've listened to the record, a lot of friends, a lot of people the same. Like it makes them feel a particular way as a living creature, you know? Yeah. You know, from the beginning, there was this conversation around android rights yeah and cindy was always being was always fighting to be perceived as a human and to be respected as a human so i guess there's a certain truthfulness to people being like yeah you're human and kind of being like yeah finally i mean that the definition of of an android and if you're listening and you don't know any of my work it's rooted around Cindy Mayweather, who represents the other, and the other is a parallel.
42:07You know, the android is parallel to black folks, to, you know, marginalized folks that I want to amplify the voices I want to amplify and the music I want to write. The definition of an android is a robot developing human characteristics. So I really think it tells such a continuation, a beautiful continuation of the story and and it's not finished it's very trippy to see because when I put out Metropolis we were reading The Singularity is Near by Ray Kurzweil and if you haven't read that please do but it talks about this moment that we're having with AI and it talks about the singularity of like not being able to differentiate AI recording a song by Janelle Monet or Janelle Monet, really mapping out that voice.
42:54And it's so interesting that it's happening now. And when I think about the album, how I hate to say it, we knew that when this moment of integration happens, humans were going to be frantic about it. As you can see right now, it's a lot going on in my business when it comes to using the likeness of an actor's face without paying them. Like AI is in that conversation heavily and people are afraid and they're scared. And I totally get that. And I also think that there needs to be more conversation and more laws and things, rules to really be agreed upon because not all humans are bad and not all AI is bad.
43:38So I think there needs to be a real conversation around who's programming AI. But the thing that I realized in knowing that the singularity was going to happen was that it's nothing like that human to human connection. It was so important for us to gather and have experiences that cannot be created by AI. We can only have these, the barbecue experiences, you know, sharing food together, wrapping our arms around each other, being there for each other in these times. These are moments that that humans have such a deep connection to and can talk about in ways that I can. And that was my hope, too, is to encourage more community, to encourage people to be with each other.
44:25Like our stories are all we have. It is our stories that will set us apart and continue to make us believe in humanity again. Yeah. How have you guys, you know, playing guitar on the steps? Barely finishing college, having to shell out some money to do it. You guys found each other. Over those years, you guys have amassed a body of work, all very different from each other, genre-less, as you said from the beginning. Money comes, success, time, new people, new relationships, new opportunities. It's incredible to me that you guys have managed to stay close. There you go. Yeah. I don't think that happened.
45:06You guys are going to bait out the Rolling Stones. It's not like if you separate the legal entity of the Rolling Stones, you know, it's like, y 'all have no real responsibility to each other. But we do. But we do. Yeah. But that's very, I'm happy that you brought that up. It's so true. And when I look at some of the collectives and, you know, we don't have to dig into names, but even some of the most iconic collectives ended up not working with each other anymore. And I just remember the time when they were and how that felt and how I felt when it wasn't the case anymore. And I just it always was important to me to nurture my relationships.
45:47Like I invest in people, you know, not because they're of course, everybody is very talented. But I think they are really, really great people who happen to be very talented. And when you come from a big family like me, I have 49 first cousins. so I was brought into a community you know that runs through my blood and it's loyalty and it's growth and transparency and communication and all those things yeah and respect as somebody who has ideas obviously I'll always have the final say if we're working on something with what I want to do you know on my music but I love listening I love being able to hear how Nate's mind is working to hear how Chuck's mind is working, what Sensei Bueno is thinking, no, no.
46:32Like, I love to see how they interpret certain things and how they sharpen my sword, you know, when it is time to creatively fight for an idea. So I love that. I love what this community has done, not just for me before the rest of the world quest love pulled us aside a few years ago and he was like listen man you guys have something really really special but just so you know the most important thing you guys can do like just trust me on this just stay together just stay together like i and he went through his stories of like what happened like all the things that happen to you can change you but just know that you guys have something very special and it's worth protecting stay together don't get distracted by whatever else comes yeah just stay together and the other thing is that we have this um credo a wonderland credo that was written a long time ago like very very early and And in there, it discusses our responsibility to each other and to our broader community, but specifically to each other.
47:52How we need to take care of each other, how we need to look after each other. Those basic things are written into our credo of how we understand Wonderland. like at its foundation it must at least be a community where artists can be taken care of and thrive and of course challenge each other on our ideas but that we feel at least safe to have our ideas yeah that's how you make your best music again when you feel safe with the people that you're with like when you feel like you can just go there and try new shit out like fall in love with music fall in love with art and i think that's what we we love at our core first of all you guys are living the dream i mean that you guys found each other yeah it's unique individuals you guys are let me tell you this it is hard work it is not easy art is hard everything depending on what process you're in art is hard it can be frustrating and just like you can lose your confidence and second guess yourself or you could be having the best time of your life you wake back up and listen to that demo or you wrote the net the night before you're like oh this shit is fire like thank god and you play it for people outside you know who were not a part of the process and you get that feedback it can be disappointing or it can be like yes when do you start playing stuff for people is it usually like earlier in the process or is it like early i try to play as early as possible i like people sitting in the studio when i'm working on music i gotta feel something yeah he's different i don't know that's but but with age of pleasure I was more open.
49:30But with all my other albums, I would be in there engineering myself. I engineer myself a lot on this project too. Yeah. Just because you wanted to be just in by yourself. Exactly. When she goes in, yeah, it's like, close it and Janelle will go in there and we'll engineer. And then I'll call them back in like once I have all my takes that I feel like are highlighted and good or I'll ask them to highlight in green like which ones you think are the best. But I'm always searching for that feeling and sometimes I need to be alone I want to get that feeling. Yeah. We're going to pause for another quick break and then come back with more from Nate Wonder and Janelle Monae.
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53:21Beautiful that on the album Dasper is like Really represented from Shayon Cootie Yes To Sister Nancy Grace Jones Patra, Nia Long Amore CK Doji Horns Unlimited From Atlanta to Ghana to Nigeria to Jamaica And so on All our friends on there Talking King, yeah. The interloubs, where did those come from? Corey Henry. From us. So, the French 75 is us in New Orleans during Essence Fest, not this year, but last year. And we were, we had woke up and we started talking about the night that we had. And it was my first, it was like my first time getting beads. And so, if you've been to New Orleans, you know what getting your beads means.
54:16Like, it's so fun and it was so liberating and just really, really cool. the uninitiated i mean maybe there's some who don't know i know right i guess what does it involves you going down on in the french quarters and if you lift your shirt up they would throw you some beads and it's a part of the new orleans culture fun and it was friend because as somebody who's like oh my god i'm famous i can't do these things i'll end up and nobody even really posted it until like years later then no no no nobody found it actually nobody found that video maybe be one person no no no no not not my beads oh oh i've done that on several occasions no it's not really the beads one too yeah oh i thought okay well that's awesome it made me smile remember i said this album we are smiling this this season we are smiling and with that being said i wanted to just have authentic conversations with my friends and i just asked him it was okay if i press record and it's just it was authentic because the people who were there they're really my friends and so to have these conversations with the people who are directly involved in like inspiring the songs and the song writings they were all in the studio when we were writing them they were the first people that i think everybody on the interlude they were some of the first people that heard the songs yeah so when we did float to champagne shit those were the lipstick lover the like when we were writing those songs i always looked at how they moved I always looked at the body language.
55:45I always looked at like when they would go play other artists songs. Would they ask to play this song again? Because I liked their taste and I knew that they were like key in helping us nurture that audience that we wanted. Like what were an example of something you might have tweaked? So you're looking at your friends playing them. They might not quite groove the way you're expecting. Yeah. So what do you do? You just go back in and. You know what? I don't feel like we had a lot of those moments with this album. I know one song that that happened with and we just changed the song. We were in the middle of trying to figure the song out.
56:21It was hot. Oh, wow. You changed that one? Yeah. Wow. That went through a lot. There's actually a David Bowie vocal that was supposed to go on that. It was a quote from an interview that he had done. Right after Janelle says, they say I look better than David Bowie in a Moon Age dream. there's this quote. I love that line. Because I think Edward had taken us to the movies to see Moon Age Daydream. Because he knew Janelle was a huge fan. Oh, you took everybody to see. I took Edward Norton to go see. Okay, I'm sorry. You took everybody to see the David Boyd film Moon Age Daydream. Did you say you took Edward Norton?
57:02Yeah, because we had just so when we wrote The Age of Pleasure, right before that I just filmed the Glass Onions. And we were in Greece and Serbia. And I was having Nate send me music there. Yeah. Because I was like, when I get back, I'm writing this album. Yeah. Wow. I'm writing this album. I'm so inspired. I know I'm clear on where I am, who I am and what I need to do. And so he sent me all the musical, some of the musical beds and I picked what I loved and liked. And as soon as I got back, I was in the studio. It's poetic that you're working on the Glass onion and you're probably clear about who you are what you want to do it's like why are you in this let's pull back the layers let's pull back the layers yeah yeah so david boy quote it says i think it's terribly dangerous for an artist to fulfill other people's expectations if you feel safe in the area you're working in you're not working in the right area always go a little further into the water than you feel you're capable of being in.
58:07Go a little bit out of your own depth. And when you don't feel that your feet are quite touching the bottom, you're just about in the right place to do something exciting. Yeah. So that was the end of that was the quote that was on the in the record. We should put that back in. It was great. But of course, like when you're at a party, you may not want to go into the like. Yeah, it was just like. Cerebral. I'm sure Bowie appreciates not being the one to fuck the party up. No, that film, I don't know if you've seen it, but it was really. Incredible, Doc. It was amazing. I wasn't expecting it to be.
58:42Because this is somebody who, like myself, you know, is a world builder. Yeah. And somebody who believed, like Ziggy Stardust in The Spiders From Mars gave me the courage to do Cindy Mayweather in Metropolis and the Archandroid. and to create these versions of ourselves, you know, these thousand versions of myself. And we're all fine as fuck. That's, if you don't know, that's from phenomenal on the age of pleasure. Sorry. So, so, so to be able to watch him say, I know that I could be Ziggy Sardust for the rest of my life, or I can become more of who I am and give you that and not be afraid, you know, to break it down and rebuild and reimagine who I can be.
59:27So that really also helped inspire me as well. Did you ever get a chance to meet him? I feel like I did. I feel like our spirits absolutely met each other. I know that he knew who I was because I did a cover of Heroes. And his wife, Iman, told me. And he had to clear it. And his wife told me that he really loved me. And I was like, oh, I wish I could have told him how much I really loved him. But I think he knows it. They are aware. Yeah. Yeah. Did you pretty naturally fall into, I mean, 2019, you're feeling like you want to start writing for women, people, color, non-binary folk. Was it easy to slide into that mentality?
1:00:08Was it easy to like. I felt compelled. And again, when I feel compelled, I'm like, oh, man, I'm doing it. Was it a messy start? Did it feel always right or natural? Fill myself playlist. Yeah. Oh, yeah. That really encouraged us. We were definitely both of us had the same thought. So we were listening to Spotify. We had an opportunity to listen to a lot of music. I start back working out and there were a lot of black women on this playlist that were just like sounding extra liberated and super tapped into their well of honesty and truth and sensuality and sexuality and grit and softness and hardness.
1:00:48And it's like I loved hearing that all on one playlist. And it encouraged me to tap into my many different sides. And I think Nate would see me listening to Filling Myself playlist around the studio and as I was working out. And it was like, I've never remembered. And that's the beautiful thing with playlists. You can really curate your own world, your own soundtrack. And when I felt that vibe, I was like, I want more of this. And I want the people that are listening to this who are feeling like they have not been able to walk in their greatness as black women, as non-binary folks, as marginalized people.
1:01:27They haven't been able to really own all of them. I want to lead by example and I want to highlight them. I want to highlight them by creating music that speaks to their hearts. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I got two daughters and I don't want them to feel ashamed of pleasure or whatever. Yeah. Like as they get older or not, it's like, yeah. But society for so long. Yeah. And it's still that it's still a lot of work to be done in that area. But, you know, one of the things I noted was that playlist, like when you go to like a rap caviar or the other like big hip hop, the biggest hip-hop playlist sometimes they'll even have like a woman on the cover but then you go through the actual playlist it literally out of a hundred songs it might be like three songs by women and it really i just took so much issue with it yeah i was just like this is wild yeah like literally they'll put megan the stallion on the cover of it and then i have to go like down 30 songs to get to her song.
1:02:34It's like, this is crazy. This is wow. And that was another reason why we wanted to make sure that black women were represented on this project. Yeah. Generationally. From Dolce to, you know, the king of Jamaica, Grace Jones. Grace's album's really album. Come on. Exactly. Ridiculous. Let me tell you, I spent 72 hours with Grace Jones. That's how we got her on the album. I was going to say, how'd you get her? She came right over there. She don't move. I'm still like just bowing down to her. 72 hours with her. 72 hours. Where I was like, oh my God. How did that come together? So I went to her concert at the Hollywood Bowl and I ended up, she was somehow, it was like one of her last songs and they were calling people on stage and of course I'm going to jump on stage.
1:03:24And if you look online, if you look online, you will see. I've seen that video. There's video of me running through Grace Jones' legs. Her smacking my ass, us dancing, like just being the free spirits that we are. And I had met her years back, but we didn't really get to connect. And she did call me. She called me years back and I was so shocked. I was like, how does she even get my number? And she just called me and she told me she loved me. And I was just like, I love you. But we never got to connect again after that. I think maybe she changed her number or, you know, maybe she just went to another planet for the springtime.
1:03:59Who knows? it's grace jones and so when she came this time though we went backstage and we really connected and she she was just like hugging me i was hugging her and and she was just saying you know i'm in town for a few days we she invited me to her hotel where they had like a small little gathering to celebrate her incredible performance live if you ever get a chance go see her she nobody nobody touches her i regret not going i was supposed to go to that you always you just always say yes and so that night when we went back to our hotel I was like you know I had you know I had to leave and I just said I'm just gonna invite her to Wonderland what what she can just say no and if she says no I'll be like yes Grace Jones told me no yes that's so great and so I said listen um I have to leave but I don't know you know what your schedule is tomorrow but I would love to have you for lunch at Wonderland at our studio and she was like is there a pool there and I was like indeed there is a pool and then she was like okay i will call you i'm gonna come and i just i was like okay and i was like she says this to everybody i'm sure because she doesn't want to hurt anybody's feelings and she called she had she had her assistant text and asked if it was a heated pool if they yeah because she swims every day is her exercise and i asked them well what does she drink What is she like?
1:05:25Like, I'm scrambling. I'm like, how am I going to host Grace Jones? Everybody sent her to the grocery store. We need to have a meeting. Right. Go to the grocery store. What are we doing? And he sends me this list like her wine list is immaculate. Her champagne list is immaculate. And so she came over and we really had lunch and we really got in this pool. She took her top off. Just I mean, I know we're talking a lot about all of the toplessness, which which is really great. because as we know we live in a world where there's a double standard yeah you know where the liberation that grace has been able to do did not come with open arms yeah you know it came with a lot of scrutiny this is somebody who was raised under a pastor you know who was a bishop and in a very conservative community and for her to say i'm gonna live my motherfucking life and to show us Because that, like, that was all I needed to see and hear.
1:06:20And she really, by being her and by hanging out with her and her encouraging me to be me and sitting in the studio listening to the songs, like, her getting up dancing and moving and telling us which ones she loved and what, like, her hearing the instruments and talking about that. Like, she is a musical genius. It was all the affirmation I needed. First of all, her taking off her top in your pool is a real. Legendary. What an honor. you know what I mean that you curated it's just a typical Tuesday for her yeah but then so then you pull in the studio when she's listening you asked her to yeah I was like I told her I said I would love to get you you know on my project she was like okay well where is it and I was like well since you asked there's a studio right in here and so we went in there and but I will say recording Grace Jones because I had to wrangle her in it is like having the most beautiful panther in the studio that then turns into a tiger that then turns into like a bird with the biggest wings that will flap around and you just you cannot contain that energy you just have to have everything on record and get what you can wow you know what i'm saying like you don't you can't really tell her what to do but even in the moments where i was like okay can you do more of this or do more of that or no say it like this or talk french because she speaks french fluently and that's And that was the thing that stuck.
1:07:43That's what I made it. I said, oh, that's the sexy shit that I want on this project. Because I don't think we've really gotten a chance to hear her in that way. And we've actually recorded more. Like, I have at least two hours of recording with Grace Jones. Definitely. Can you guys make an album out of that, please? I really, really want to. She's working on her album, which is going to also be incredible. She played us her album. Like, I got to hear Grace Jones' album. We did. It's really beautiful. Wow. That's incredible. well man you got i mean the fact that you went as far as to pull grace jones in the studio for your album nothing we can say but thank you there's nothing we could say but thank you and congratulations on not just the grammy but congratulations for that but just what i've seen to do to people's spirits over the last eight months you know uh that's all we want it's incredible.
1:08:35That's all we want. Thank you so much. Can I ask not to put you on the spot, Nate? Sure. I love We're Far Enough From Heaven. Oh my gosh. You are a Deep Cotton fan? I fucking love Deep Cotton. Oh my gosh. And y 'all pulled the EP. I don't know where the fuck the... I lost my copy of Love. I love this. You are... I knew I liked you, but now I love you. I love Deep Cotton. This is my shit. This song is... I feel like I don't even... I don't know how to explain my love of this song. It's so good. It's really good. We're far enough from heaven now We can freak out There's a world under your zipper And it wants to freak out You can join here Bang bang Uh We're far enough from heaven now We can freak out There's a world under your zipper And it wants to freak out There's a killer in the hall And he's marching it off Bang bang Go his jaws And he's hungry for more You can see it, you can feel it, let it all to your head Might as well kiss the monster, laugh the fuck till you're dead Young Nikashi, oh I got this brand new idea Let's take up further's mansion, tell some stories in here Who can cook, who can clean, who will paint the fence?
1:09:51Who can cook, who can clean, who will paint the fence? Who can cook, who can clean, who will paint the fence? I will, I will, I will, I will, I will, I will And we're far enough from heaven now We can freak out. Yeah, we're far enough from heaven now. We can freak out. Yeah, we're far enough from heaven now. We can freak out. Yeah, we're far enough from heaven now. We can freak out. Freak out. La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. This is such a fucking crazy song. It's so crazy. You have excellent taste. I love it. Y 'all got excellent taste. That's fine. He cotton. I love it. I love it.
1:10:26When I heard their song, actually, when Nate was saying, he met me performing on the library steps with the guitar i was heavily just like on some acoustic big afro i guess you would say neo soul vibes and when i heard their music it changed my whole life it changed the way i saw us i love it because i hadn't seen i mean with the exception of like andre because nars barkley wasn't even around yeah at that time but with the exception of like the love below and what andre was doing and you know some some some indie artists in atlanta nobody was stretching it and is sounding good like it was either too alternative for me to get to you know to get into and there was no melody there was no soul but when i heard their stuff i was like it was up temp there were like up tempo records that sounded like japanese funk i don't know that's the best way to describe it and all I knew is like I want to make music like that and so that I really have to credit Deep Cotton for why I like up-tempo songs and why I make up-tempo music and stretch when it comes to genre.
1:11:33The textures are incredible no one really no one really plays like acoustic like that like on like an up like it sounds like some Frank Black like it's like whoa it's like these weird bizarre like phrases. And Chuck is an incredible writer like him and or their partnership. It's crazy. We actually are finishing our album right now. We actually just got the album cover done for it and everything. It's amazing. They coming out with an album. Shit, my dreams is coming true. I cannot believe. Ten years I've been waiting. Yeah. Yeah, I love that song because I love the line, who can cook, who can clean, who will paint the fence.
1:12:11I mean, there's so many other things about the song that are great, but also who can cook, who can clean, who will paint the fence. because it takes like this idea of like taking over the mansion and tell some stories and then all that kind of stuff which is cool idea right but then like it's the responsibilities that you have to each other like who's who can cook who can clean who paint like who's doing the real work that it takes to like stay alive so we can you know take over this mansion and tell some stories I love it thanks so much guys thank you thank you so much thank you so much this is beautiful incredible
1:12:47Thanks to Janelle Monae and Nate Wonder for the invite to Wonderland to chat about her latest album, The Age of Pleasure. You can hear it, along with our other favorite songs of Janelle Monae's and Nate Wonder's, on a playlist at brokenrecordpodcast.com. Subscribe to our YouTube channel at youtube.com slash brokenrecordpodcast, where you can find all of our new episodes. You can follow us on Twitter at Broken Record. Broken Record is produced and edited by Leah Rose with marketing help from Eric Sandler and Jordan McMillan Our engineer is Ben Tolanay Broken Record is a production of Pushkin Industries If you love this show and others from Pushkin consider subscribing to Pushkin Plus Pushkin Plus is a podcast subscription that offers bonus content and ad-free listening for$4.99 a month Look for Pushkin Plus on Apple Podcast subscriptions And if you like this show please remember to share, rate, and review us on your podcast app.
1:13:44Our theme music's by Kenny Beats. I'm Justin Richmond.
1:13:52The more you learn about your favorite artists, the more you want to know. Claude helps you keep digging, finding new threads and rabbit holes to explore. Whether it's discovering deeper meaning behind a detail in an interview or figuring out the influence behind an artist's particular era, Claude thinks with you to find the next clue. If you can't get enough of the stories behind your favorite music and artists, Claude will help you discover new layers you didn't know existed. Try Claude for free at claude.ai slash brokenrecord. This is an ad by BetterHelp. We've all had that epic rideshare experience.
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From the publisher
In recognition of this month's World Happiness Day, we are presenting one of our favorite episodes from last year with Janelle Monàe and her longtime collaborator, Nate Wonder. Janelle's latest album, The Age Of Pleasure, was created in part as a celebration of black love and community. And as Nate Wonder shares in this interview with Justin Richmond, one of his guiding principles when making the album was to make Janelle smile.
As part of Pushkin Industries' network-wide celebration of World Happiness Day, we will also be sharing an episode of The Happiness Lab from our brilliant colleague, Laurie Santos later this month.
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