The Pulitzer-winning folk singers turn toward pop isnt a detour, its part of the journey.
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Rhiannon Giddenss recent work has been weighing on her.
Giddens wrote them over the span of a decade, saving up material for when the time was right.
I take calculated risks.
ForYoure the One, you were interested in making something that was lighter and looser than your previous work.
Songs likeAt the Purchasers Optionand even theOur Native Daughtersproject, all these things were quite intense,Omarincluded.
Its refreshing to hear you speak so openly about that.
Im not interested in being mysterious or artsy.
Its like,Well, its time to do these songs.
Thats kind of it, you know?
And it doesnt herald a brand new direction, that its the New Rhiannon.
I dont think anybody who knows me is going to think that.
Its not like its Taylor Swift production.
Its still pretty firmly rooted in the roots.
Hopefully it signals that it is part of the journey.
Which is the first time I had done something like that.
Id just really been seen as a banjo player up until this point.
My label said yes.
T-Bone had time to do it.
T-Bone likes my song choices.How do you say no to that?
T-Bone himself was like, I felt like you were hiding in the Chocolate Drops.
And I dont think he was wrong.
I think it was safe for me to be in a band, to have this mission.
And it had been hard to do that in a band of all boys.
I really wanted it to be a band.
So this was an opportunity to do those things.
I will always think it was the right choice.
There was not a full agreement.
Im not really interested in getting into names or anything like that.
It didnt feel like the right time.
Ive burned them behind my house.
It didnt do anything for me, writing a song.
That opened the floodgates.
It was like once I found my replica 1858 banjo, which is fretless.
Its got this sound thats got a voice to it.
And thats what I wrote Julie on.
Thats what I wrote Purchasers Option on.
I was writing these songs to have an outlet for these stories.
Is that Youre the One?Yeah.
What was it like writing that one?My daughter was my first child.
I had a years worth of postpartum depression with her.
Its surgery to have a baby.
Some people were like, Yeah, it was great.
I was up the next day.
Thats not what I had.
Then, my son was totally natural childbirth, no drugs, no nothing.
It was a totally different experience.
I remember just lifting him, and he was like this fat little chub.
Of course, I eventually did.
How were you thinking about this album getting the tag of first album of all original songs?
I was like, Theyre literally the weakest songs on the record.
It feels to me that the industry is always hyperfocused on original material for some reason.
Theyre not all that good.
So Im like, Okay, heres the record with all original songs.
And it is a feat for me because I dont know if Ill ever do it again.
This is literally all I do, is I think about this stuff, whatevers going into my art.
I dont keep up with Netflix.
I dont go play golf.
So when I sit down and write a song, it just comes out and I write it.
And its very little editing to the words.
But the concept of most of these really started with me.
So Im not writing ten songs and then I pick the best one.
Its like all the good stuff went into this one song.
Because I made them, I felt like they were good enough to make a demo.
Otherwise, it just doesnt happen.
But the song Another Wasted Life is rooted in the very specific story of Kalief Browders imprisonment.
Thats how I write.
you’ve got the option to feel the emotion that everybody had in that track.
Thats probably the closest Ive ever felt to Nina Simone.
I wasnt even planning on singing it the way that I did until it just started happening.
I didnt care if it was pretty.
I had never heard of him.
I said to him very clearly, I want us to meet in the middle.
It was a reminder that a lot of this stuff was dance and party music.Thats it!
I mean, its all party.
Its all dance music.
[Laughs] Yeah, I dont know.
Oh, God, here she comes.
Shes going to talk about slavery.
We obviously have to addressOmarwinning the Pulitzer.
How do you wrap your mind around that, months later?What the hell?
It still sounds weird!
It still sounds like a joke.
Yeah, I always feel weird about awards for art.
The Pulitzers kind of in a class by itself because its not a popularity contest.
Youre giving it to hard-hitting journalism stories and photos that are doing really important work.
I think its all wrapped up in it.
And I love that.
Im like,Is it the best opera ever written?
But is it doing what it was supposed to do?
Absolutely.It feels good, Im not going to lie.
So its going to have six premieres before its even open for other people to do it.
Most operas, you get your premiere and thats it, bye.
Weve been tweaking it.
Weve been talking to the singers.
Weve been using the time.
So it had just come off of a record sold-out run at Boston.
You could not get tickets toOmarfor love nor money, which is amazing.
Thats a dream, because thats what I wanted when I was 18.
I wanted Julies Aria and it didnt exist then, so somebody else hopefully will want to do it.
Im literally thinking,Do we have five?Im not saying the worlds going to melt.
I want to see a return to the local.
Because what weve been doing is not sustainable.
At this point, Im just doing the best that I can.
Im doing carbon offsets.
I was talking about this to Natalie Merchant.
I really, firmly believe that we dont dance together anymore.
We dont sing together anymore.
And its what weve done for literally millennia.
When there was trauma, we came together and we made art together.
It didnt matter how good it was.
Were not doing that anymore, and were getting sick.
I dont know how to make that happen, but I would love to see it.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
