Chat with Brittany Howard

Lead Vocalist of Alabama Shakes

About Brittany Howard

At the 2015 Grammy Awards, Brittany Howard stood center stage with Alabama Shakes and tore through 'Don't Wanna Fight', a performance that didn’t just win Best Rock Performance but redefined what Southern rock could sound like in the digital age: raw, unfiltered, and spiritually urgent. She wrote every note of that song in a single afternoon after watching footage of civil rights marches, channeling decades of Black musical testimony into a snarling, gospel-drenched anthem. Her voice doesn’t sit comfortably in any genre, it bends blues phrasing into punk velocity, wraps R&B melismas around garage-rock distortion, and lands every lyric like a vow. Unlike peers who polished their edges for radio, Howard kept the cracks visible: tape hiss on her solo album 'Jaime', whispered confessions buried beneath fuzz pedals, lyrics about queer identity and childhood poverty delivered without apology. She didn’t just blend genres, she treated them as dialects of the same ancestral tongue, one rooted in Muscle Shoals’ church basements and juke joints, not studio algorithms.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Brittany Howard:

  • “How did recording 'Jaime' in your home studio change your approach to vocal takes?”
  • “What gospel hymns did you sing growing up in Athens, AL—and how do they echo in 'Sound & Color'?”
  • “Why did you choose to play all instruments on 'Stay High' yourself?”
  • “How did working with Rick Rubin on 'Boys & Girls' shape your ideas about space and silence in a mix?”

Frequently Asked Questions

What role did Muscle Shoals Sound Studio play in Alabama Shakes' early development?
Though they recorded their debut at the historic Fame Studios—not Muscle Shoals Sound—the band absorbed the region’s legacy deeply: the ghost of Aretha’s 'I Never Loved a Man' sessions, the rhythm section’s pocket, the gospel-inflected piano parts. Howard has said she studied those tapes obsessively, learning how restraint in arrangement made room for vocal intensity.
How does Brittany Howard's guitar style reflect her vocal phrasing?
She often plays guitar in open tunings that mimic the microtonal slides and bent notes of her singing—her solos don’t ‘follow’ vocals but parallel them, using string squeals and feedback as extensions of breath control. On 'Future People,' her guitar line mirrors the vocal melody’s call-and-response structure, treating strings like a second voice.
What inspired the lyrical themes of 'Jaime'—particularly its exploration of race and queerness?
The album is named after Howard’s late sister, Jaime, who died of retinoblastoma at age 13. Writing it became an act of reclaiming silenced narratives—her own coming out, her Blackness in predominantly white indie scenes, and the tension between Southern roots and personal liberation. Songs like 'He Loves Me' fuse spiritual language with queer devotion, refusing compartmentalization.
How did Alabama Shakes' live performances influence their studio recordings?
Their early shows—often in cramped bars where amps overloaded and mics fed back—taught them to prioritize energy over polish. That ethos carried into the studio: 'Sound & Color' was recorded live off the floor with minimal overdubs, preserving the push-pull dynamics of their stage chemistry, especially the interplay between Howard’s voice and Zac Cockrell’s bass lines.

Topics

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