That song was a different idea at first that was already mixed and done for the album. Did “Redbone” give you the same sort of feeling from the jump? You mentioned that “Me and Your Mama” really stood out to y’all during the recording process. Small little things like that made it feel new and modern but still nostalgic.
“Me and Your Mama” - the 808s in the beginning and the processing of the vocals. If you listen to “Stand Tall” for example, how it transition to that synth part at the end. It’s not fun if people listen to it and it’s like, “This sounds like someone could have made this 40 years ago.” Bringing in recording techniques and studio elements that didn’t exist back then, and bringing together a mix of genres that weren’t being combined back then. Something else that I was thinking about as a producer is how do we make funk music in a way that it couldn’t have been made in the ‘70s. Were you already familiar with their catalog going in? We were playing around with the riff for that song, changing the time signatures - the song starts in 4/4 and switches to 6/8 - and making it more unique.ĭonald Glover was very vocal about the Parliament-Funkadelic influence on the album. One of the song ideas that we felt was really special and that we always circled back to after listening back was “Me and Your Mama.” Prior to these jam sessions, Donald and I had been playing around with different riffs. We probably did 15 songs in the studio and a lot of it was really out there. We didn’t really know where it was going to go. We got our band together in the studio and spent the studio trying out different sound ideas and jamming. Before every show, we go out there at soundcheck and play with each other for two hours - just jamming. There’s been performances with big string sections and stuff like that so we’d been working a lot with musicians, even though our first two albums were more produced in the studio. So I think that’s always been the sound of our live shows.
#Childish gambino awaken my love 640x640 update#
It's a departure, an update of the past, a statement of artistic intent from one of the true polymaths of the millennial era, but above all, "Awaken, My Love" is a stone-cold blast from beginning to end.It is a departure but I would say if you’ve been to one of our live shows, we’ve always had a huge live band. It's true that the album owes a deep debt to the sounds that inspired it, but there are times when the music, voices, and words come together to make something that sounds owned by Childish Gambino alone.
The songs are all as memorable as Bootsy Collins' star-shaped sunglasses, and Glover's vocal gymnastics and impassioned delivery vault things past into more rarified air. It's not an academic exercise by any means, though. Göransson and the tight crew of musicians must all be dedicated students of the era's sounds, and they play with controlled passion and fire. Empowering pop-soul songs ("Have Some Love"), gloomy tales of the entertainment biz ("Zombies"), late-night detours into true love ("Redbone") - everything Glover tries comes off just right and every note on every song is perfectly placed. Tripped-out ballads like "Me and Your Mama" and "Terrified" bump up against massive jams like "Riot" and "Boogieman," and totally oddball moments like "California" match up well with heartfelt songs about fatherhood ("The Night Me and Your Mama Met," "Stand Tall"), which give the album its heart. Glover and Göransson construct the album like a soundtrack to a nostalgic trip, hitting all the sweet spots of that magic moment when funk and soul got truly odd and inspiring. He doesn't have a classic soul singer's voice, but what he does have is personality and it comes through loud and clear, even through the murkiest moments of nasty funk. He does use his voice like an acrobat, though, sometimes crooning sweetly, other times screaming like a demon. "Awaken, My Love!" has fuzz guitars, vintage synths of all kinds, burbling organs, grimy basslines, and masses of backing vocals adorning the songs the influence of Sly Stone and George Clinton's various groups is strong, and Glover doesn't rap at all.
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While working on his new TV series, Atlanta, Glover and his longtime sidekick Ludwig Göransson seem to have had some kind of musical awakening brought on by late-'60s dipped-in-psychedelia soul and early-'70s earthy funk. His 2015 EP Kauai widened his approach a bit, with Glover doing more singing than rapping in a hazy modern R&B style, showing off a voice so smooth that it's almost unfair that one guy can have so much going for him.
Over the course of a backpack's worth of mixtapes and a couple of albums that won him commercial success, if not critical acclaim, Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover) staked a claim as one of the brainiest, weirdest, and most inventive rappers around.
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