artist two more Grammy nominations.
“Plus, I got to see how beautiful and
diverse America’s landscape is — it’s
absolutely gorgeous,” she says.
y
Brittan
continued from page 6
relaxing time for next-career-step reflec-
tion in the wake of the Shakes’ four-
Grammy wins for its 2015 sophomore disc,
Sound & Color. She pauses. “So yeah —
IE: When you delivered mail for the
USPS, was your route the same every
day?
BRITTANY HOWARD: No, my route was
different every day. Because I was new,
they'd give me anything that nobody else
wanted to do. And there were some weird
routes. I once delivered mail to a crack-
house, so that was pretty strange. And I
also delivered mail in an actual tornado —
I eventually had to ditch my truck and
knock on a stranger’s door just to seek
12•2019
that happened. And this is America, 2019."
Ultimately, the experiment worked, and
she was inspired to: Temporarily shelve
the Shakes; retain band bassist Zac
Cockrell; and track a solo album, Jaime, in
homage to her late older sister of the same
name, who died from retinoblastoma, the
same eye cancer that Brittany survived.
And it’s giddily eclectic — cuts bounce
from finger-popping R&B (current single
“Stay High,” with Terry Crews lip-synch-
ing in the hilarious video) to a cabaret-
chilled “Goat Head,” and the jazzy
“History Repeats,” which just earned the
Brittany Howard and The Alabama Shakes
shelter. But there were good parts, too.
One day after those tornadoes, there were
a lot of trees down in the road, but we still
managed to go and deliver insulin. And
people really, really appreciated that. It
was really cool.
IE: Which begs the question, Do you like
routine or despise it?
BH: I feel like in my everyday life, I like a
little routine. Like, just going home to a
place where I kind of feel most understood
and safest. But other than that? I like to
keep things changing. It feels more natural.
IE: So your road trip didn’t feel that
unusual, all told.
BH: Well, I went with my partner. And I
went traversing the country, seeing things
I’d always wanted to but never had the
time. And I very specifically set aside time
for doing this, because Alabama Shakes
was like a mean machine, and all of my
thoughts were dedicated to Alabama
Shakes. So there wasn’t much of Brittany
in that world, so when I stepped away
from that, my whole purpose was to put
more energy into myself and into doing
things I enjoy. Like LIFE things. And I
needed to make that connection with
nature again. I had always been working
so hard, looking for the next thing, the
next thing, and I never really sat and
thought about how I got here or why. It
was that time in your life when you’re
looking for...purpose. So out there driving
around, listening to all the music I wanted,
I just thought, “Why am I doing this?”
And I never really got an answer. But I
think what we do is to weaponize music,
spiritually, and use it for good to motivate
people. And that, in turn, will lift others
up the more you tour.
IE: How did your thoughts come to settle
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