A Conversation With Hurray For The Riff Raff

Plus, the composer behind the score for 'Encanto.'

View this email online Feb. 19, 2022 by Marissa Lorusso This week, we bring you an interview with Hurray for the Riff Raff, from our Listening Party series — plus, our favorite new albums out this week. Indie Film Lab/Courtesy of the artist Since 2006, Bronx-born, New Orleans-based songwriter Alynda Segarra has evolved Hurray for the Riff Raff from roots-based music to incorporate funk, rock and synths into their sound. They describe their latest album, LIFE ON EARTH, as “nature punk”; the record meditates on what it means to thrive during times of disaster. Segarra said the album was inspired, in part, by reading adrienne maree brown’s Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds, a radical self-help book about embracing change and connecting with the natural world. So to celebrate the release of the album, our Listening Party series brought Segarra together with brown — along with host Ann Powers, NPR Music’s critic and correspondent — to talk about the connections between their work. Here’s an edited version of their conversation; you can watch the whole thing on NPR’s YouTube channel. Ann Powers, NPR Music: adrienne, you said you could hear the relationship between this music and your work. Tell us about that. adrienne maree brown: The texture and the weight of the music feels right for this time, and it feels right for the questions that Emergent Strategy is asking: How do we turn inward and reconnect to everything? There's so many aspects of the album that deeply resonated with me. But from "Wolves" I felt immediately invited into wilderness, in such a good way. At first, I just heard the songs you'd released [as singles], and I was like, "OK, these are amazing." But the whole thing, as a piece, it flows. I think of Emergent Strategy as a text and a way of thinking that flows, and flows in many directions; you could start anywhere and you're going to feel that same energy. This album feels like that, too — wherever you dive in, you're in the water, you know? Alynda Segarra: It's so wonderful to watch this album reach you. A big thing that I learned from reading this book is about this emphasis on relationship. It's very easy as a traveling musician to become very isolated, even before the pandemic. Diving into Emergent Strategy not only opened my eyes to the different beings that are living all around us that have so much wisdom to share, but also to me facing that I need people; I need relationships. We all do. brown: The solitary thing of the artists is also true for me. Emergent Strategy is me trying to figure out: How do I [do] community? Because I like to sit by myself and be quiet and write; I'm always like, "How many hours do I have by myself to write alone today?" like, that's the measure of a good day. But I know community is the answer to all survival. There's so much literal movement in these songs — the characters are crossing borders; they are wandering on the street; often they feel lost and found at the same time. I wondered about that theme running throughout the record: coping with real literal loss of people, loss of freedom, but then finding a kind of — “peace” is the wrong word. What's the right word, Alynda? Segarra: I'm really playing around with this word of “bravery” or “courage” lately — trying to face uncertainty with an embodied courage. A major thing that I struggled with through making this record was to not dissociate as much as I'm used to dissociating. I learned so much about being in my body from living here in New Orleans, a place that is a very big hot spot for climate change. Hurricane season comes every year, and I've learned a lot about that feeling in my body of fear, a feeling like “I need to run” — really feeling like an animal, you know? It led me to all the times in my life when I felt like that, when there wasn't a hurricane coming. adrienne, this makes me think about biomimicry. What did you hear of that aspect of your work [in this album], thinking about us as all connected and having to look to the natural world. Is “natural world” even a good term to use? brown: I've definitely seen a move to stop saying “natural” as something outside of ourselves, right? It’s like, this is the world, and we are in it, and we all have a nature — a call, something that is unlocking and driving us. There's something that we're pulled towards, which I think is love and connection. And when we don't have that, that's when our lives get distorted. I felt that when I was listening to this album, especially the songs “Rhododendron” and “The Pierced Arrow.” There's something that I think shifts in a major way when you recognize that your life is not more valuable than anything else that is on this planet. You really feel this surrender, this dropping into: I'm of this, and there's a symbiosis available to me if I can listen for it. Not just lyrically, but [also] the sounds [on LIFE ON EARTH] felt like that: symbiotic. … Everything feels so seamless — like, of course these are the words that go with this sound. As you were writing, did one or the other come first? Segarra: Well, a little over half of these songs I had before I recorded with Brad [Cook, producer] — and some of them, I even had a totally different structure for, because I've been trying to make this record since even before the pandemic reached us all. … I knew I wanted to get somewhere … and without Brad, I just couldn't get to that sonic place. With his guidance and with his complete immersion into the record, I felt like I found someone who really cared about this [record] coming to life as much as I did. He brought these sonic elements that, once we had them, suddenly things were effortless. You know, it was the flow. The whole time making this record, I tapped into a flow that suddenly I felt like I could do this forever. Somebody who is also an energetic inspiration for this record is Bad Bunny. He was the guiding light. Watching him perform, I feel like there's a regenerative energy. He is present and he's creating more energy as he puts it out, and it's circular and beautiful. brown: I really love that regenerative quality. You know, I suspect that for every human being, there is something that they can do that is regenerative like that for them. For me, it happens in writing. If I spend a day working on my novel, it fills me up. … It nourishes me. So many different kinds of work I've done, I would pour out [energy], and even if it was awesome, I would feel such depletion. I wonder what it would look like on this planet if everyone was given permission — like, if that's what you were going to school for: Let's figure out the thing that is your regenerative thing, you know? So much of the misery that we're in is because people aren't allowed to find what they're supposed to do. Capitalism is always putting us on this path towards what we need to do to survive, and it makes it so hard for us to survive; it makes life such a slog for so many people. I think that liberation comes when capitalism falls. I think when we're able to get back into communities that are driven by those passions, those creativities and that aliveness. … One of the leaps we make as artists is we're like, “Maybe no one's going to like this, but it makes me feel alive, so I've got to do it.” I think everyone can learn from that. Newsletter continues after sponsor message New Music This week on New Music Friday: an epic new album from Beach House, a deeply groovy reunion of Khruangbin and Leon Bridges, a historic return for queer-country pioneers Lavender Country and more great new albums out this week. For Black History Month, NPR Classical’s weekly playlist is spotlighting Black composers. This week, hear the music of Adolphus Hailstork, who draws on the history and sounds of his roots, and whose requiem for George Floyd, A Knee on the Neck, will receive its world premiere next month. This week for All Songs Considered’s New Mix, Bob Boilen is joined by NPR Music editor Hazel Cills, who brings the soulful vocals of Maria BC and the jarring ambient of Whatever the Weather to the show. Featuring If you have young children in your life (or, honestly, even if you don’t), you’ve likely heard about the Golden Globe-winning, Academy Award-nominated Disney animated musical Encanto. Germaine Franco, who wrote its Oscar-nominated score, is the first woman to score a Disney animated feature. But more importantly, Franco is a drummer, who brings a jam-band attitude to a by-the-book industry. Though iconic jazz trumpeter Lee Morgan died tragically in 1972, his legacy was well maintained. At least, it seemed so — until one fan discovered last year that Morgan's gravesite seemed to have vanished. Our colleague Nate Chinen from WGBO spoke to that fan about his journey to find it, and reflects on other efforts to honor the fullness of Morgan’s legacy. Last week, the funk pioneer and fashion icon Betty Davis died at age 77. Raucous, outspoken and empowered, she always knew what she wanted her music to be — raw — and she took control of her career in an era when few Black women could. This week, our friends at WMOT shared a video of Aoife O’Donovan performing “Sister Starling” at the station’s Wired In series for AmericanaFest 2021.  Tiny Desk NPR "How many artists you know that got relevant records in five decades?" Too $hort asks in his Tiny Desk (home) concert — then, the Oakland rapper answers by performing seven songs from across his own lengthy discography. His performance, part of the Tiny Desk’s Black History Month series, is a testament to his extensive (yet still underrated) contributions to the growth of hip-hop on the West Coast. Also this week: a Tiny Desk (home) concert from opera star Anthony Roth Costanzo and the cabaret diva Justin Vivian Bond. One More Thing Sea shanties, revisited. Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). Need a new playlist? Follow NPR Music on Spotify and Apple Music What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: nprmusic@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Books, Pop Culture, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to NPR Music emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy