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[music]

Alison: You are listening to All Of It. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Hey, how you doing? I wanted to let you know about a couple of All Of It events coming up. As you may have heard earlier on the show, Get Lit resumes this month. We're reading James McBride's new novel, The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store and he'll join me to discuss it at the New York Public Library at the Stavros Niarchos branch. Beautiful new branch. That's Wednesday, September 27th. For more information and to reserve free tickets, go to wnyc.org/getlit. That's our big September event.

On October, we're trying out a new kind of live event. You know our radio listening parties where we interview musicians about their new releases, discuss their inspirations and dive into the recording process and producing? Starting in October we're going to be bringing these deep-dive interviews in front of an audience for an event we're calling Listening Party Live. To kick it off, on October 16th, we're excited to announce that our guest for Listening Party Live will be the man who walked away with five Grammys in 2022, including album of the year. He has new workout, it's all about the radio. We'll be joined by Jon Batiste.

[MUSIC - Jon Batiste: Calling Your Name]

I would get so lost in my feelings, head in the clouds

I would get so caught up in believing something about

But you feel so good in my spirit, it's all over me now

No, can't go back no more, chicky-doe, chickie-dow

Alison: Not only will Jon Batiste join us to talk about his new album World Music Radio, he'll also perform songs from the album live in the room with us. That is all happening in The Greene Space on October 16th at 7:00 PM. It'll also stream live online. For more info and to buy tickets to the event, go to thegreenespace.org. That's Greene with an E on the end by the way. Tickets are already going fast so get yours ASAP to see Jon Batiste talking and performing live with me. I'll be interviewing him in The Greene Space on October 16th. That is in our future, but now let's get this hour started with guess what? A listening party, this time with Jalen N'Gonda.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: Rapture]

These eyes of mine are dying just to see you

And these hands, these hands, these hands are longing just to hold you

Many times will I look in a day

I come around and think of ways

And more, and more, anymore

Alison: A new album from London-based Maryland-born and raised musician Jalen N'Gonda invokes the sounds of Motown, classic soul, R'n'B, and some funk. It's titled Come Around and Love Me. The 11-track album is the singer's full-length debut. He released an EP in 2018 titled Talking About Mary which features one of his most streamed songs, Don't You Remember. Take a listen.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: Don't You Remember]

Don't you remember

Oh it's been so long

Don't you remember

The times we spent alone

As the days go by

We thought but from the time--

Alison: The new work, Come Around and Love Me expands on those classic sounds with songs about life's lessons, the early stages of a relationship, opening yourself up to another, and the potential of facing heartache. An NME Magazine review said, "It's the virtuosic singing and pure charisma bursting out of every sinew that sets the album and N'Gonda apart, with the music staying at a largely similar tempo across the album. It's his voice that provides the power, variety, and a focal point." The album titled Come Around and Love Me is out now. Jason N'Gonda joins us today. Hi, Jalen.

Jalen: Hey, how are you doing?

Alison: I'm good, thanks. Sorry, I called you Jason. It's Jalen.

Jalen: It's all good.

Alison: [laughs] Jalen will be performing live this Saturday, September 16th at 8:00 PM at Racket, New York City, on West 16th Street. Just want to make sure people knew they could see you live. This is your debut album on the legendary independent soul funk label Daptone Records. People around here know it, it's from Brooklyn. What was it about Daptone as a partner that was appealing?

Jalen: Daptone came about just simply with me and my manager. We were just looking for labels. I didn't set my eyes out, "I'm going to go for Daptone." We were looking for labels and then my manager knows someone that knows Neal, and then we just used that to our advantage to reach out to them to let them know that we exist and we love what they do and stuff. It was just a matter of looking for the right label and Daptone was the right one, I think.

Alison: What artistic vision did you have going into this project?

Jalen: I never really had a vision. The plan was to go over to New York because I'm London-based. It wasn't like I was already in New York and we were writing songs and something happened. The goal was just to write some songs and to see what was going to happen. We spoke about maybe just doing a single and then it turned into maybe a couple of singles and then an album just came into the conversation of what would be a good idea from what we experienced so far in the year of COVID and trying to get to be in the same room.

There wasn't really a vision. By the time when it came to like, "Okay, let's make an album," I knew that there's going to be a body of work that we're going to write that I want to be good to the best of my ability. The only thing I envisioned was the possible chord changes in each song or the possible lyrics to write. It's the only thing I really had envisioned throughout this whole album.

Alison: That's so interesting that it started with, "Okay, we're just going to do a song. Oh, a couple of tracks," and then it starts to blow up. Why do you think it snowballed like that?

Jalen: Just the turn of events. I think the reason why is because when I first met Neal Sugarman, the idea was just to do a single with Gabe, Gabriel Roth. This was the weeks before the world turned upside down. It was because that happened and COVID happened, and then it was like a big shock. No one was thinking about anything apart from just figuring out what's going on in the world.

I think by the time it was the summer, we kept in touch and I was still writing songs. I was sending them demos, and I think they saw that. I was like, "Okay, I'm not writing one song every couple of months. I'm writing all the time." I think it just was like, "Why not do an album?"

Alison: Let's take a listen to the title track. It's one of the first in the album Come around and Love Me. How did you come up with the sound for this song?

Jalen: The song started out as the chords and the music. I always struggle to talk about how the origins of the song came to be.

Alison: It's hard, I know.

Jalen: It just happened.

Alison: Are you a chords and music person first?

Jalen: It depends. It depends what comes first. For this song, I think it was just the chord progressions. I remember we took it down a couple of keys down to the D. When we demoed it, it was very similar to what you hear on the record, just less of a mix, just the drums, tambourine, guitars. What I listen to on a regular basis is Motown, Marvin Gaye, Beach Boys, Beatles. When I'm recording and we're talking about sounds, I'm just thinking about what I listen to. If you're someone who listens to something a lot, what you write is going to be influenced by that regardless if you make that conscious decision or not.

Alison: That's interesting. You said you took it down a couple of keys. What did taking it down a few keys do to the song? How did it help it realize--

Jalen: It just made it more comfortable to sing. I think I wrote something and it was just too high. I'm already singing it high. I think we just took it down a couple just to make it more suitable for my voice. I can't really remember why we did it. I just remember it was in one key and then we changed it, and now it's in the key that you hear now.

Alison: Let's take a listen to Come Around and Love Me by Jalen N'Gonda.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: Come Around and Love Me] Please give a sign

I am yours, and you are mine

Don't keep me guessing about others before

Oh, come around and love me

Keep this night in the ever-light

I, I know you're worrying about giving us a try

That's why I'm saying

There's no use to bat an eye

Oh, come around and love me

Keep this spark in the pressure glass

Oh-oh-oh-oh

Alison: Okay. Jalen, now I know you wanted to bring it down a key after hearing that story.

Jalen: No, no. I like that key the way it is.

Alison: Sounds good the way it is. When were you first introduced to that sound? As you said, you're a big fan of Motown, Smokie, Marvin, and the Beach Boys. When were you first introduced to the Motown sound?

Jalen: The thing about Motown, I think most American families, if you're a child growing up in the States, you're going to hear Motown as a child at one point whether it's on the radio, or at a cookout, at a greatest hits Time Life feature television, it's going to happen at one way or the other. It's just a matter if you're going to be into it or not. In my case, I just liked it more than anything else that I ever heard before. I think I first acknowledged the sound as something I liked at 11. It was on the radio, and then I started asking questions like, "Oh, what is this sound? What is this group?" Then my parents were just like, "Oh, this is old school. This is Motown. This is what your grandparents listened to when they were kids and teenagers."

My parents were more into '80s and '90s music because they're part of that generation. They listened to Prince, and they listened to like New Edition, Tupac, to just the whole '80s and '90s, so Motown wasn't really their big-- that wasn't their bag. I liked it because it just sounded different from what my parents listened to, to what my brothers were listening to. I just kept asking my mother and father to just keep buying these CDs whenever they get paid so I can listen to them. It was more like that. It was more like my parents going like, "Our son weirdly listens to old music only." [laughter] They thought it was cool. I thought it was a phase that I'll probably eventually get out of and listen to whatever everybody else is listening to but, I'm still in this predicament.

Alison: To find predicament to be in, if you had to be in one. You're in your late 20s now. Is it true that you began songwriting around 14?

Jalen: Yes, around that time. Around 14 because I remember I was in 8th grade. I forgot what class I was in. Instead of doing the work, I was trying to come up with some words.

Alison: What does a 14-year-old Jalen write about?

Jalen: I was basically just trying to copy all the Motown songs note for note, trying to write different words. I would take the same melody and the chords at the time when I was a kid. Just say baby puppy love type stuff. Nothing deep.

Alison: 14, how deep can you go? There's not a lot of life experience there just yet.

Jalen: I haven't written that yet.

Alison: My guest is Jalen N'Gonda. Come Around and Love Me is the new album. Let's listen to another track. This is titled Lost. Would you call this a heartbreak song?

Jalen: Yes, it would be. If you were to genre it, put it in a genre, it'd be heartbreak, yes. It's just those were the words that just came out at the time.

Alison: Let's take a listen to Lost.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: Lost]

Ooh, oh, ooh

Standing at the end of the road of a broken love affair

Hoping to hear your voice in the midst of the smokey air

If I could see your face, lord it would erase

Every feeling of sorrow that's ever crossed my mind

[Chorus]

You I must find, cause hopelessly I'm lost

Without you

I'm lost

And I can't seem to find my way

Alison: That's Lost from Jalen N'Gonda's new album, Come Around and Love Me. You've acknowledged that producer Mike Buckley was really important in the development of that song. How did he help you?

Jalen: It started with him. He was playing the chords on the-- what you hear in the verse [symphony sound] that was played, but it was played a lot faster. I just remember it was a routine writing session. I was walking in, I don't know what we were going to write. He was just playing that on the piano as I was walking in the studio and it sounded good. I can't remember if it was me or someone else that just suggested to slow it. I think I was like, "It would sound nice." I think I just played it slower and it just felt better. Then we just started writing.

From there on, I think I thought of the chord progressions for the choruses and the bridge, and then wrote the lyrics I think that night and we demoed it the next day. The thing with Mike and Vince, we became a team where we had a formula in how we would work together. They always varied. One of us would come up with an idea first, but one of us finishes it.

Alison: We're going to hear more from Jalen N'Gonda's album, Come Around and Love Me after a quick break. This is All Of It.

[music]

Alison: This is All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. My guest this hour is singer Jalen N'Gonda. His new album is called Come Around and Love Me. We're Having a listening party. I mentioned in the very beginning in intro that you were born in the States, but London is your base now. When did you decide you wanted to be in the UK?

Jalen: I decided to want to move there in 2013, and that was just because I was interested in going to a school in Liverpool, so I lived in Liverpool before I lived in London. It was just simply because I went to school there. I chose the university. It wasn't really a university. It was more like an academy kind of thing, a performing arts academy. At the time, I wanted to go because it was the only place that seemed interested in me going there, the only school that reached back and said, "Hey, this is what you need to do to do it," and I just developed. It was almost 10 years ago, so it's really hard to really talk about how it all happened and stuff.

Alison: What's something from that time that is still really useful to you as an artist?

Jalen: What is something from that time that's very useful to me?

Alison: Yes, from your time in that academy.

Jalen: The friendships I have. Sorry, I can't speak.

Alison: It's all good.

Jalen: I attended to want to know how to read music. That's the main reason why I wanted to go, so I can own on my music theory and piano playing. I didn't really learn any music theory, and if I did, I forgot it all. I didn't graduate either. I did a couple of years and they're both different courses. I was more in Liverpool just playing at bands and being outside of university. I didn't really acquire anything apart from the friendships that I made there. I guess the writing under pressure because they'll do things like-- there was also a songwriting course that I did and it was just like a pop course that I was a part of. It was nice to sort of, "I need a song finished by Friday," and it'd be Wednesday. I think that was cool.

Alison: When was the first time that you performed out, your first true real professional gig?

Jalen: I can't remember it. It was around 2015. I was playing in bands before then, but I think the first-- well, no, my first professional gig would be back in DC when I was just playing in bands and getting paid, but I think once you get paid to do something, it becomes professional, and then the practice continues on from there.

Alison: Let's listen to another song from your album, Come Around and Love Me. It's the second track titled If You Don't Want My Love. Kind of get what that's about from the title. As we listen to it, what would you like people to listen for in the instrumentation or in the orchestration?

Jalen: The instrumentation, it's something to sort of support the song in a way. I think people are going to listen to what they want to hear. I don't want to tell people how they should listen to the song, or which-- what they could expect from the instrumentation is what's in the instrumentation; strings and vibraphones and guitars. Instrumentation is something that's just part of the song. Some people listen out for just the lyrics and stuff, but just listen out for what you want to hear out. I can't even speak right now. I'm sorry. It's a hard question to answer.

Alison: Let's listen to it and then I'll have another one on the other side. Let's see if we can do that. This is If You Don't Want My Love.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: If You Don't Want My Love]

In this night, a starry sky

My baby told me with a sigh

Saying words that came across as a doubt

I reassured that every day my love is strong in every place

In your heart, I sure enough can't live without

Every mountain, every sea

Can never stray or burden me

No matter the state of space and time

Keeps us close and keep us dear

That distant day that every year

You're made to be a focus in my mind

But if you don't want my love

And if you want something more

Said if you never wanted my love--

Alison: Jalen, I have a question about that last section we just heard that, "If you don't want my love," really punctuated, that rhythm, that pattern, is that something that is written to the song? Is that something that comes out during the performance, during the production?

Jalen: That was written in the very essence of the song. It was first started with the guitarist of the sessions, Benny Trokan. He came up with the verse chords because he came into the songs, "I've got this idea." What you hear in the verse is what he was playing. Then we jammed those chords out for ages and in a cycle. Then I just suggested that we do a bum, bum, and carried on after that, so like bum, bum, and then the chords after that. It's one of those things we did as we were trying to come on what to do next, so I thought it'd be cool to do a little rhythmic push. I didn't write any words to that part yet. I was typing down the lyrics on my phone actually, and then that just came out.

Alison: You were talking about sometimes you get an idea and the producer comes in, or another artist comes in, another musician, and then you lay down a track. How do you know when you want to have another go at it? When you think like, "I think I want to do that again," or "I want to do that," and conversely, how do you know when you've got it?

Jalen: Can you ask that one more time in terms of the got it thing?

Alison: When do you know you want to rerecord a track or when do you know when you have it, when you've nailed it?

Jalen: Oh, you'll know when you want to rerecord it. If it don't sound good and you're not feeling it, then that's when you're prompted to rerecord it. You decide that you're good with it when you're satisfied and you think it's good. You think you did it to the best of your ability and you're satisfied, that's when you feel like you don't need to do it again. That's just a thing. If you make a stew and you take a sip and you get the wooden spoon, if it don't taste good, start over or try something different. It's the same thing with songwriting.

Alison: You have a concert coming up this Saturday in New York City. You're performing a lot; New York City Summer Stage, Newport Folk Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival. What do you like about being part of a festival? I know you have your own gig coming up, but when you're in part of one of these big-- some of these are iconic.

Jalen: To be honest, I just think about the gig. I think about the stage and I think about the audience. It's been an absolute pleasure to play at all these festivals, but I've never been a big festival person. I never really follow festivals and stuff. I follow music and everything, but I never gave myself pressure because I was playing at a certain festival. I get more nervous just the fact that it's how many people are there. If it was not a festival and it just so happened that there'd been a lot of people, I would still be nervous. It's a gig to me. You can strip all the decorations of the what festival's what. The most important thing is the stage, the audience, and the show.

Alison: The album is titled Come Around and Love Me. It is out now. Jalen N'Gonda has a concert this Saturday, September 16th at 8:00 PM at Racket in New York City on West 16th Street.

Jalen: That's correct.

Alison: Jalen, thank you so much for being with us.

Jalen: Thank you.

Alison: Let's go out on the track from the album called So Glad I Found You.

[MUSIC - Jalen N'Gonda: So Glad I Found You]

Ooh-ooh-oh, ooh-ah

Ooh-ooh-oh, ooh-ah

I just got to keep you baby

And that's no lie

You are the center of my happiness

My heart's desire

 

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