'Slow Down And Be There': Lizz Wright On Singing To The Present

Transcript

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Soul singer Lizz Wright is starting over. Her new album, called "Freedom And Surrender," came after a tough few years. She left behind a failed marriage and her own expectations about starting a family. But she found creativity in that loss and a new kind of voice.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE NEW GAME")

LIZZ WRIGHT: (Singing) This is a new game, going to flow like nothing behind.

MARTIN: When I spoke with her, Lizz Wright said the key to great songwriting is knowing just how much personal experience to share.

WRIGHT: There's a beautiful kind of seducing trap in being autobiographical in our writing of songs because sometimes we can get so stuck in our own - we just get stuck in our own syrup. And it's so personal that it almost can be embarrassing to the listener. Sometimes I'll listen to, you know, music that - and from artists that I love, and I'll be like oh, my gosh. Can I just not be locked in your bedroom with you?

MARTIN: (Laughter).

WRIGHT: So it's a beautiful challenge to try and be personal and find that universal undercurrent where we are really talking about what it means to be human and it doesn't smell like my sweat.

MARTIN: What was hard about that - trying to use your music in a way as autobiography and catharsis, I imagine, and still keeping it universal. Was there a moment when you thought, I've gone into the syrup; I've got to get out?

WRIGHT: (Laughter). You can feel it. You can feel it when you have failed to surface. But the beauty of that whole process is when you can come up from your murk and see light and you bring both into the writing. And you know that it's complete when it's balanced and when it's rounded and it can be received by other people. And be personal, but still open, like, a threshold. Like, here's a door to my house, but I'm not going to lock you in here or lock you out.

(LAUGHTER)

MARTIN: Come for a little while.

WRIGHT: Eat some pie, and be on your way now. Scurry on.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RIGHT WHERE YOU ARE")

MARTIN: I want to ask you about the song called "Right Where You Are."

WRIGHT: (Singing) Right where you are, stuck for a minute.

GREGORY PORTER: (Singing) Oh.

WRIGHT: (Singing) Shimmering there in the sun.

MARTIN: I mean, this is just a beautiful duet that you sing with Gregory Porter, and it's pretty much a straight up love song. And I guess I wonder - as someone who was trying to move forward after a divorce, this seems like a counterintuitive piece to include.

WRIGHT: (Laughter) Well, I'm so grateful, Rachel, for just the inherent mercy of life. You know, it's not static. We just kind of get carried along the current and brought up somewhere where we have a little more to work with. And I think living in the mountains and bringing my focus back to the land, which is really where I come from, and enjoying my life around people who really lived based on what's going on around them.

Like, for instance, you know, I spend a lot of time with my neighbor who's 91. And she's my favorite 'cause she's so cute. I can't stand it. She's about four feet and change, and she's got bright blue eyes. And she just taught me to care about little things. And so the caring about little things that happen all the time and returning to just a basic sense of wonder has made it easier for me to return to love without having to think about it.

MARTIN: You still live in the small town in North Carolina. What's it like, and how does it fit into your music? I imagine it's a big part of what inspires you.

WRIGHT: Well, there's a couple different experiences, Rachel. There's in town, which, for me, is Asheville, N.C., which is, you know, a good 40 minutes from me. And then there's the mountains. I really like being on the mountain the most because I like talking to people about what to grow and what to harvest. And I just - I don't want so far to fall and I don't want so far to climb. I just want to really enjoy being present.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMEWHERE DOWN THE MYSTIC")

WRIGHT: (Singing) My soul went walking up a mountain trail.

MARTIN: So with the song called "Somewhere Down The Mystic," because this is a story about losing someone but feeling a connection to a parallel life, the afterworld, if you will, is there something about where you're from - Appalachia - that has that quality to it? Do you feel more in tune with things that are beyond this life?

WRIGHT: I think living in a way that's close to nature makes you feel like that, makes you feel how thin the veil is between life and death. And I guess there's no point to this song, but one piece that kind of shines through it is that, you know, love doesn't really regard that threshold so much anyway. How do we know that love goes anywhere when our bodies fail?

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SOMEWHERE DOWN THE MYSTIC")

WRIGHT: (Singing) Somewhere down the Mystic, another kind of angel calls, another kind of glory, another kind of fog.

MARTIN: You actually had your own brush with death. You were in a bad car accident. What effect did that experience have on you?

WRIGHT: Well, I had this accident a week before I was supposed to record the record. So the songs were already tracked and everything. But when I saw the, you know, 75 foot ravine over the frozen creek where my car was held in suspension by this young tree, I had a different feeling for, you know, the words of the chorus. And I really - I was just actually super grateful that I finally had an encounter with death.

I'm a preacher's kid. You know, I'm big-boned. I have giant feet, and I've always been able to run fast. And so I have this sense of, I can't fail. Yeah, I'm invincible, and I'm made of, like, you know, green juice and concrete. Like, nothing's going to happen to me. So it was great to walk into the studio with this really tender reverence for my life and profound gratitude and wonder.

MARTIN: Even though this is not an album of covers, there are a couple of cover songs, including your take on the Bee Gees' 1967 hit "To Love Somebody." Let's listen to this.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO LOVE SOMEBODY")

WRIGHT: (Singing) Honey, you don't know what it's like to love somebody. To love somebody the way I love you.

MARTIN: You hear that preacher's kid in there...

WRIGHT: (Laughter).

MARTIN: ...Which is funny. I wouldn't associate that with the Bee Gees. But you hear your take on this, and there's some gospel happening in there. I wondered, was this song hard to sing. I mean, it's a beautiful showcase for your voice, but it's - you know, those are long notes, and there's not a whole lot of instrumentation behind you.

WRIGHT: The beautiful thing, Rachel, is that I come from a place where when you sing slow, you give up who you are. You know, you're standing in front of the congregation, and people are looking at you. And they can see completely through you. And the whole worship part of the religious musical experience is just that you give it up. You give up who you are, and you just stand there like a window. You just give it up. There's nothing to do but slow down and be there.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO LOVE SOMEBODY")

WRIGHT: (Singing) Can you see what I am? I live and I breathe. I live and breathe for you.

MARTIN: Lizz Wright - her new album is called "Freedom And Surrender." Thanks so much for talking with us, Lizz.

WRIGHT: What a pleasure, Rachel.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "TO LOVE SOMEBODY")

WRIGHT: (Singing) If I ain't got you, if I ain't got you, you don't know... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.