Connecting over the internet, Margaret Glaspy shared two songs from Devotion with Jade during our latest virtual session.
Songs performed
Devotion
Stay With Me
Both songs are from Margaret Glaspy's new album Devotion, out now on ATO Records.
Credits
Produced by Jesse Wiza
Engineered by Erik Stromstad
External Link
Margaret Glaspy official website
Transcript
Jade: We're here with Margaret Glaspy on The Current's virtual session but I do wanna hear some music and I think everybody else wants to hear some music as well, so do you wanna play us a couple songs?
Margaret Glaspy: Yeah, I'll start with the title track. This is "Devotion."
[Glaspy plays guitar and sings]
Jade: I always feel like I need to clap now because it is such a one-on-one experience. Are you - is that something that's kinda weird? Because you've been doing a good number of these streaming shows lately. Is it strange to not have like an audience reaction immediately?
Margaret Glaspy: It's so funny because I think that, um, I think that if you - if you are geared toward an audience reaction in the first place, like in your shows if that's what you're going for then I think it feels weirder. And if you're basing it on your own performance and like that's what your focus is on, then it feels less weird because you don't expect it in the first place anyway. And so I oddly feel like it doesn't bother me that much and I think that you also get really used to it and just kinda playing songs when you're by yourself and you okay, that was a song. So it just kinda I what it is.
Jade: Nice. Well, let's hear another song. Is it - do you wanna play another one off of Devotion?
[Glaspy plays guitar and sings]
Margaret Glaspy: Yeah. I think I'll play a song called Stay With Me.
Jade: Well, I know you don't need it but I'm gonna clap anyways.
Margaret Glaspy: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Jade: You're very welcome. That's one of the songs we've been playing quite a bit here on The Current. Stay With Me, off Margaret Glaspy's new album, Devotion. And I always think - you know - with the first album you have all those songs that you've been working on, for some people it's like since the time they were six or whatever, like songs that've been working on for a really long time. You release that and then it's pretty immediate you have to come up with the next album, and it's pretty much like starting from scratch. So how did you kick that off, or are these additional songs that just didn't make it onto the very first album? How do you kick off the second album?
Margaret Glaspy:All these songs were new on this record, so nothing was really saved that was - you know - like a really long time coming kind of sensation. So I think that for this record it took me a while to kinda debrief from being on the road so much. I was on the road for - pretty consistently for a long time for "Emotions and Math" so I think that in the wake of it the first step was to kind of shake it off a little bit, just be at home and remember how to do that. And then after that it was really kind of a tinkering process and thinking about other instruments and different ways to write music. After that it was like a very regimented process where I was showing up and kinda choosing my hours to write every day five days a week. And kind of throughout those three stages I was able to kinda yeah, write this record in a way that felt genuine to me.
Jade: There is something about this whole shelter in place thing that kind of reminds me, or at least if you're a musician, I feel like it has to be possibly a little bit less jarring because you're already - when you're on the road you're so far away from the people that you love and want to be near most of the time anyways. And then like you were just saying, when you're at home you're like you know how to regiment your time. But has there been any new discovery? Have you learned a new skill since you're been home?
Margaret Glaspy: I think - I think you're right in that of course it's a bizarre reality to be home all the time, but I do think - feel like we were slightly prepared in the way that we live our lives anyway. I feel like the minute that I left - I was at music school for - you know - a semester and then after that I was just in the real world. And that was when I was 18 years old, so I think ever since then you do kinda create these mechanisms to just get work done some way or the other, and I think that musicians are - and artists in general - we're gonna good at hustling for the most part and kind of making work for ourselves. So that part feels native. The other parts in learning how to relax and - you know - not work and kind of spend your time in a way that also feels - you know - restorative. Sometimes I think that's the part that's a little harder. But I think honestly the biggest - I love to cook. I'm really kind of obsessively into cooking and baking, so that's - I've been cooking up a storm. That's definitely one thing--
Jade: What's the thing you're - what's the thing you're most proud of that you've learned to cook or at least have been working on?
Margaret Glaspy: Oh gosh. There's quite a list, to be honest with you, of things that I've been working on lately. I just made like a lemon cake, it's like a lemon upside down cake and that was really exciting. One of the things that I think is kind of a gift in every day for us is that I do make like some kind of baked good that lasts - you know - three or four days. And we have espresso and whatever treat I've made for that week around like 3:00. And that kind of gives us the jump start for the rest of the day. And we kind of have these little benchmarks too.
Jade: I love that.
Margaret Glaspy: Yeah, we have these little things I think that we've kind of also embraced to keep - you know - just on the straight and narrow. Like one thing that my partner does a lot, and I've gotten into, is Wim Hof breathing. I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but--
Jade: No. Please explain.
Margaret Glaspy: It's a breathing method. In essence it's - you're inhaling and exhaling constantly and then holding your breath for a long time and then exhaling. And it has something to do with - it's almost like you're hyperventilating in kind of a contrived way but it's a healthy hyperventilation. And I know it speaks to your brain in a way that can shut down the chattering in your mind. But if you, if you Google him it's w-i-m h-o-f and it's a method that he made that's a breathing method that really - it really helps kind of your mind stay centered and also really makes your circulation kind of - you know - peak. Your body feels like it's really alive when you're doing it. And so we do that every day in the morning and that's helped quite a bit and been a nice little ritual every day. So if anybody's curious check out Wim Hof.
Jade: I think - I think rituals are super important so I'm glad that you're putting some in place but I do - one of our hosts here, Mary Lucia, has been asking these daily questions, and weirdly enough her daily question just a couple days ago was 'what was your last Google search?'. Now I'm curious. What was the last thing that you search for or were looking up?
Margaret Glaspy: What was my last Google search? I'm trying to think of what it was. Gosh, I'm always Google searching so, so much. I can't remember.
Jade: If it gives you a little time to remember, mine was '90s songs that feature some screaming, which gave me zero results. It was a horrible - I was just trying to find songs that would like capture an energy and it was - so if you can think of any please let me know. But--
Margaret Glaspy: I did just think of what - and actually it's my project that's rising in the kitchen right now. I'm making - I Googled a New York bagel recipe. That was my last Google search. And so I've got bagels, bagel dough that's rising and I looked up the recipe. I spend about like 90% of my time on Bon Appetit. That's like my kind of recipe go-to. And so this one - oddly I did not find on Bon Appetite, but that's like - that's what I'm constantly searching through and the last thing that I Googled was a bagel recipe.
Jade: Perfect. Well, we'll let you get back to your bagels. Thank you so much for allowing us to come and invade your home and your time. The new album from Margaret Glaspy is called Devotion. It's out now. You can pick it up. Are you plotting out days? Are you - were your shows postponed? Are they coming up later? Just to kind of give people an idea--
Margaret Glaspy: They're coming up later, yeah, totally. There's been some that are officially postponed and the dates are already set, and then some of them are just being rescheduled and we haven't had the dates come up yet. But there's a good little group that they've already been rescheduled and I believe that the tickets are just honored and basically displaced to the new date. But definitely keep your eye out because they're all be kind of finding their new home soon.
Jade: Yay. Well thank you again, Margaret, for taking the time.
Margaret Glaspy: Thank you so much. Thanks.
Jade: And thank you for listening to another on of The Current's virtual sessions. We'll have more of these coming up so just keep an eye over at The Current's Facebook page and as always you can stream The Current at thecurrent.org or download our app, but you can, yeah, just keep listening and keep an eye out for more of these virtual sessions. Thanks.