H.E.R. joins Zane Lowe on New Music Daily on Apple Music 1 to discuss her brand new album ‘Back of My Mind’. She tells Apple Music about enjoying a “new creative freedom” while making the record, the gratitude she has for the success she’s experienced over the past two years, her song “Fight For You” and giving a voice to the voiceless, covering Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” for Apple Music’s ‘Juneteenth: Freedom Songs’ playlist, and more.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About Feeling “This New Creative Freedom” Making ‘Back of My Mind’…
I'm feeling this new creative freedom, and it's not necessarily new, but it's something I'm owning a lot more where thankfully people have seen my live performances and have seen all the things that I do, all the different types of music that I love, all the people that I love and am inspired by, and I've really brought it to this album.
I've been working on for the past two years, three years, there's songs on there that I wrote in 2017 that I realized were perfect for this project. But I just was like, "Let's just make good music. Let's just make great music. Let's just see what happens. Let's not try to make this sound or try to make this sound, or, oh, it needs to be cohesive with this or consistent with this." It was like, "Let's just make great music and have a good time. Let's set the instruments up if we need to. Oh, let's try this sound." And that was the energy towards it.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About The Success She’s Experienced Over The Past Two Years and Gratitude...
I don't know if I can fully describe the feeling. Right now, as everything is happening, learning how to celebrate and just accepting it, owning it. Things can happen, but you've got to believe that they're real. You've got to believe that you deserve to be there. And I always like to say, the accolades and all these things that are happening are confirmation and not validation. That's the thing that I tell myself, because at the end of the day, I would do this without the accolades, but the fact that I can live out my dream and take it this far is such a blessing. And it's just a different level of gratitude that I feel not just because of the achievements, but because of how far that I've come and looking at my journey and how hard that I've worked and how it's paying off and how it led me. Every moment from the very beginning, from volume one, from even before then, from being a kid, every moment has led me up to this point and this album specifically. So I'm just so grateful. That's the best way to put it. It feels crazy.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About “Fight For You” and Giving a Voice To The Voiceless...
It feels like I played a part in history as far as seeing change and just being a part of a movement and being part of, like I said, giving voice to the voiceless. It feels like I'm contributing to that. But the fact that you're saying that right now, I'm still like, "Oh wow. I did that? Oh, wow. Okay. I was part of that." So it's still so unreal to me. It was so in the moment, but it was inner feelings, and I just feel like that is my responsibility to talk about my own perspective on the world and talk about my own perspective on the things that happen around me to me. So it was inevitable to write a song about something that's affected me just based on how I write and how everything is a reflection of me. So the fact that it transcended and the fact that it's been a soundtrack to people's marches and cries and all of that, it feels like, "Oh, wow." There was a greater purpose, it was bigger than me.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About Covering Marvin Gaye’s “Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)” for Apple Music’s ‘Juneteenth: Freedom Songs' Playlist…
Man, I was excited. As soon as I heard that I had the opportunity to be part of this project for Juneteenth, I was super excited because I grew up celebrating Juneteenth and I know a lot of people are still not celebrating Juneteenth as they should and we're still not aware of it, we're still not taking advantage of it as a holiday. So I was just excited. I was like, "Yeah. Okay, what song am I going to do?" And I was thinking about Sly songs, I was thinking about Curtis Mayfield songs, and I landed on “Inner City Blues” just because of the message. And really the thing about that record for me was the groove and the joy in the music, but the pain in the lyrics. And that's what I enjoyed. And I just was excited to do it. It felt good to sing it.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About Album Opener “We Made It”…
...working with a producer like Cardiac, who really appreciates music, and we're both huge Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis fans, Herb Alpert fans, Janet Jackson fans. So the idea there was to make something really nostalgic but fresh and hip hop inspired. And the whole album, I mean, it's a celebration of all the things that R&B is. So it was important for me to make a modern record, songs that represent what's going on now in music, but then songs like “We Made It” and other songs that are a little more stripped down or other songs that are a lot more live drum heavy. So I really wanted to give all the different moods of R&B and almost all the areas of R&B whether it's soul or '90s and that kind of thing.
H.E.R Tells Apple Music About Working With Young Bleu on“Paradise”...
I'm a huge Yung Bleu fan, and he reached out to me and just melodically I noticed something about his songs that I thought was really different and really special and unique. Got in the studio and he started singing some melodies and I was like, "Oh my gosh, this could be something really dope." And we thought, "Why not do something a lot more unique where it's like, oh, instead of just put a verse on this, why don't we go back and forth and create this song?" It really felt like you could really feel the two of us. And we just wanted to make something really special creatively and both of our vibes and in both of our moods being all over the track.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About Her Home Studio…
We're in my studio in my home. This is my little safe place. I just moved here during quarantine so I have yet to make some great things in here. But yeah, the vibe is right. I got the guitar, it turns into a tree, and there's Grammy's on my wall and stuff. So yeah, it's a vibe in here.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About The Album Title ‘Back of My Mind’…
...It's a collection of songs of thoughts and feelings and things that we're afraid to say, things that were afraid to face the reality that is as opposed to the filtered fantasy that we tend to live in with social media. Polished me this what I want to be, and this is the pretty picture. This is what I pretend to be who I am to the world. But then when you sit with yourself at the end of the day, at the end of the night, who is that? And what are those thoughts and feelings? What are those things that linger? That's who you really are.
H.E.R. Tells Apple Music About Preparing To Return To Playing Live and Her Upcoming Hollywood Bowl Show…
I'm preparing for shows right now. I'm planning to be at the Hollywood Bowl in August and I'm performing with the L.A. Philharmonic. So talk about a whole new set, it's going to be a whole different vibe and opportunity to really make an experience. So, that is going to be so much fun. I better see you there.
