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NPR’s Ayesha Rascoe talks with singer-songwriter Maggie Rogers about friendships, divinity research, and the music from her new album, “Do not Overlook Me.”
AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
The story of Maggie Rogers is well-known by now. Nearly a decade in the past, she was an NYU pupil in a music manufacturing class when Pharrell Williams dropped in and heard one in every of her songs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALASKA”)
MAGGIE ROGERS: (Singing) I used to be strolling by means of icy streams that took my breath away.
RASCOE: Williams stated he had no notes. A video of the masterclass went viral, and “Alaska” turned successful.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALASKA”)
ROGERS: (Singing) And I walked off you.
RASCOE: Since then, Maggie Rogers has made music that chronicles her 20s and figuring all this life stuff out.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NEVER GOING HOME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) Clean out the traces on my face within the mirror and take into consideration the place I will go.
RASCOE: She’s now about to show 30 with a brand new perspective and a brand new album, “Do not Overlook Me.”
ROGERS: It is like the primary time I’ve written fiction in any means or written a narrative or created a personality. However in that means, I used to be in a position to form of weave this tapestry of all of those reminiscences from my time in my ’20s, from transferring to New York for the primary time and falling in love and having these, like, actually particular lengthy relationships and firsts, and all this completely different sorts of heartache makes its means onto this report. And my buddies make their means onto this report.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “NEVER GOING HOME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) There’s outdated music enjoying. I can hear my buddies saying, you already know it is time to go, go, go, go, go. Are you able to bounce off the cliff? I do know that you may deal with it. And time’s received a means of letting you already know.
I turned 30 on the finish of this month, and I feel that my buddies, being the best loves of my 20s, that is the factor that I am serious about essentially the most.
RASCOE: That is an fascinating factor, and one thing that I’ve thought of due to varied causes, how friendship is commonly that relationship that isn’t talked about as a lot, however it may be such a basis of affection and neighborhood for folks.
ROGERS: Oh, my gosh, a lot. Friendship has all the time form of been, like, a theme all through my music. I generally joke that I make music for fundamental character ladies. There may be this form of quintessential rom-com heroine who’s on the entrance of my thoughts all the time after I’m writing, whether or not it is like Julia Stiles from “10 Issues I Hate About You,” which I simply love, or like a traditional Meg Ryan type of vibe. And buddies, you bought to have them. They have your again, and so they’re throughout this report.
RASCOE: You talked about the primary character music. What’s the tune that you just assume exemplifies that on this album?
ROGERS: You realize, I would simply choose “It Was Coming All Alongside.”
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IT WAS COMING ALL ALONG”)
ROGERS: (Singing) Everyone’s going loopy. See them strolling down the road, and I really feel like a deer in headlights after I activate the TV.
You realize, after I was making this report, I form of imagined this lady, form of a youthful model of myself in her early to mid-20s, making her means on a “Thelma And Louise”-esque street journey by means of the American Southwest. And you may hear on this tune additionally, there’s this superb – it is not fairly a voicemail, nevertheless it is sort of a – it is a pattern.
RASCOE: It appeared like a cellphone name.
ROGERS: It is my greatest pal Nora (ph). There is a lyric that claims, however I’ve nonetheless received Nora on the cellphone. And I simply determined to name her. I used to be like, let’s simply see what occurs. And I held the cellphone as much as the mic, and he or she picks up the cellphone and, completely in time, goes…
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IT WAS COMING ALL ALONG”)
NORA: Um, hey? How are you?
ROGERS: (Singing) And she or he’s saying, maintain your mood…
RASCOE: Whenever you did these songs, I perceive you wrote them in just a few days, and also you wrote them actually shortly. And also you wrote them in sequence, which…
ROGERS: Yeah.
RASCOE: …Would not usually occur. Was it intentional? Did inspiration simply strike, and then you definately began pulling these items?
ROGERS: Yeah. I went into the studio simply to play, like actual nearly like childlike playtime. I had this intuition that I wished to work with this glorious individual named Ian Fitchuk, who’s my co-writer and co-producer for many of this report. And it simply labored out that our schedules, we had two days earlier than Christmas, and it was like complete no strain, like musical handshake, see what may occur. And it simply labored.
I’ve all the time written shortly. Like, I feel that momentum is a device in my inventive course of. And I feel that in taking that strain off, a few of the, like, most potent truths about my life and a few of the most weak songwriting was in a position to come by means of.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T FORGET ME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) Cannot think about what would occur ‘trigger I am nonetheless appearing out of behavior, hoping soiled phrases simply do not escape my tooth.
Most of what you will hear on this report is definitely, like, a primary take. There’s, like, a looseness that feels nearly like a dwell band. Nevertheless it’s simply two folks. And I feel the opposite factor that you may actually hear on this report is how a lot enjoyable we had been having.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “DON’T FORGET ME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) So shut the door and alter the channel. Give me one thing I can deal with, a great lover or somebody that is good to me.
RASCOE: You’ve got this tune, “If Now Was Then.” You’d say the belongings you by no means stated, and clearly, that may very well be as, like, a relationship. However I ponder if, do you’ve ideas like that now, like, even along with your first and second album – if I used to be who I’m now, I might have carried out this again then?
ROGERS: You realize, I do not know that I might have carried out something otherwise. I’ve loads of issues that I wish to say to that lady.
RASCOE: (Laughter) Yeah.
ROGERS: Largely, I might inform her to relax out.
RASCOE: Yeah. Yeah.
ROGERS: I might largely be like, you are good. I do know that that lady did the most effective she may, and generally her greatest wasn’t that superior. And that is OK, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “IF NOW WAS THEN”)
ROGERS: (Singing) But when now was then, I might get out of my head. I might contact your chest. I might break the mattress. I might say the issues that I by no means stated. Oh, the issues I might do…
RASCOE: You probably did one thing that not lots of pop musicians do, which is you entered Harvard’s Divinity College for a grasp’s diploma.
ROGERS: I truly obtained that diploma in 2022. I am at present doing a postgraduate fellowship. The pandemic provided me a while the place I used to be 27, and I had this second the place I may actually go spend a while and take into consideration what I consider. Initially of my profession, the tempo that I used to be operating at wasn’t sustainable for me, and it felt just like the music was getting compromised. And so I wished to spend a while actually serious about what it meant to me to be an artist and what it means to me to be an individual with a microphone at a time on this planet like this and actually take into consideration how you can hold the music on the heart and how you can create a sustainable construction in order that I can get to do that for a very long time.
RASCOE: Do you view your music as sacred?
ROGERS: That is an fascinating query. I do not know that I view my music as sacred. I actually view artwork as one thing that could be very non secular to me since you’re creating one thing out of nothing. And creativity as a follow feels so particular and one thing that belongs to each human, you already know, from the time that you just’re 2 years outdated and might choose up a crayon. And I feel that that intuition to create and join is extremely sacred.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALL THE SAME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) All the identical, daily…
RASCOE: That is singer/songwriter Maggie Rogers. Her new album is “Do not Overlook Me.” Thanks a lot for becoming a member of us.
ROGERS: Thanks, Ayesha.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALL THE SAME”)
ROGERS: (Singing) Prefer it’s yesterday. The lights are on, and nothing’s mistaken. However nonetheless you may’t keep in mind if you performed the sport.
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