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00:00What happened to the good old days When you could take a hit of that good shit
00:27And feel your troubles fade away I guess I've got to make a change
00:35I'm not sober, I'm just over trying To smoke away the rage
00:39The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive
00:50And my friends don't call unless they need a ride
00:55Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by
01:00Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive
01:06I've been running on empty and calling it strength
01:11I've reopened old wounds cause I won't take a break
01:16I know I've got to make a change I won't hurt myself or go through hell
01:22Trying to prove my place The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high
01:30Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive
01:34And my friends don't call unless they need a ride
01:39Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by
01:44Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive
02:14The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive
02:28And my friends don't call unless they need a ride
02:33Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by
02:38Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive
02:52What's up, everybody? I'm Joy Aladakun, and we're in Brooklyn, where I just sort of finished
02:56making a record, and I'm back today to play some acoustic versions and to show you some
03:00of my favorite spots. Welcome to my den. Let's go.
03:04When I was finishing my record, Observation to MacGyver, I spent a few days in New York
03:11just because I find it really inspiring here in Nashville, where I live. There's not a
03:18lot going on, which I like about it, but it was cool to come to the city and to sort of
03:24just spend days making music, rolling spliffs, buying candy, and sort of figuring out what
03:30the record is about. Obviously, my favorite activity, as someone who's still very much
03:36a fan of music, is going record shopping. I spent a lot of time while making this album
03:43just leaving whatever studio I was in, finding a record store, finding whatever's in the,
03:49you know, discount bin, and then coming back to the studio, putting it on, and listening
03:54to it, and all of those noises and sounds and shopping trips sort of inspired me to
04:00make Observations to MacGyver. It's been important for me as a creative to stay a fan
04:04and to keep my heart in my head, enjoying music as much as possible so that I don't
04:10burn out or I don't take for granted the fact that I get to make songs for a living.
04:14We got Smiley Lewis, we got Peebo Bryson, the Pointer Sisters, obviously, and Billie Holiday.
04:23For me, coming to the city was just a way to take myself out of a town that I wasn't
04:30sure I wanted to be in. Like, I talk a lot about Nashville and my love-hate relationship
04:35with it on the album, and honestly, a pace of life that I think was getting too comfortable,
04:41whether it's like being able to call my co-writers or friends or producer or distraction.
04:47Honestly, it was three focused days of time in the studio, so I would wake up at like
04:54six or seven, go to my hotel gym, and then I would come to the studio, and from the morning
05:00until probably like one or two the next morning, I would just work. I slept like
05:09three or four hours over just as many days, and the point was to come to New York and to
05:15find the heart of the album, which is, I think, what happened.
05:45Don't care and my mind is dark because things don't seem fair
05:54Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling
06:00Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing
06:05Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun
06:11Am I the only one, am I the only one
06:21It's the human way to ignore our needs we are blinded by ancient history
06:31And my father's blood makes me hard to please that's why waking up is a victory
06:44Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling
06:49Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing
06:55Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun
07:01Am I the only one, am I the only one who's out here losing the race
07:08Only one who's looking for grace only one who feels it's getting hard
07:16Am I the only one who's losing control only one who's looking for soul
07:22Only one whose goals keep getting farther
07:26Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling
07:34Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing
07:39Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun
07:46Am I the only one, am I the only one
07:55I think music is largely therapeutic to me like in the sense that when I sit down to create
08:02the goal is to take the anger and the sadness and the questioning and to sort of alchemize it
08:08into something beautiful or a little more hopeful and so I think that it's a natural result that
08:14an album I wanted to make because I was really sad and really overworked and really tired
08:19deals with a lot of pain but sounds a lot more hopeful than some of the music feels or reads
08:26at times just because I think that that is my goal I'm trying to use songs and use music to
08:32sort of search my way through the negative and find a silver lining again or to build a silver
08:38lining out of what I'm what I'm writing and so yeah I think that's why there's still hope present
08:44because I think music to me is a way that I find and remember and like plant a flag in moments of hope
08:57Oh to be a man in faith
09:02Never asking questions, never changing your ways
09:08I'm a skeptic who's to praise
09:12If death leads me to heaven, they'll recognize my face
09:20So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to
09:26So I am trying to find my way through the middle
09:30And I am desperate to receive every good thing
09:39From now until eternity, from dust until divinity
09:48Oh to be a fortunate son
09:53The world was built for your dreams, with gold your daddy won
10:01I was born out on the run, a stranger with no country, maker of my own luck
10:12So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to
10:19So I am trying to find my way through the middle
10:23And I am desperate to receive every good thing
10:30From now until eternity, from dust until divinity
10:38Oh it's hard to be alive, there are few good options
10:44And the price of getting by is rising
10:48Still I'm grateful to be here in the sun's glow
10:55My sorrow almost swallowed me, I did not let it conquer me
11:03Oh you give and you take and you hope and you pray
11:06Keep the faith till it breaks your heart
11:09Oh you live till you die and you try to survive
11:12Long enough that you leave your mark
11:16Oh you give and you take and you hope and you pray
11:19Keep the faith till it breaks your heart
11:22Oh you live till you die and you try to survive
11:25Long enough that you leave your mark
11:45So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to
12:00So I am trying to find my way through the middle
12:07And I am desperate to receive every good thing
12:12From now until eternity, from dust until divinity
12:27I mean I think that's part of the reason that I ended up writing it alone
12:30is because I think as a writer and as an artist there was maybe a desperation I had
12:36for there to be no filter on what was being created
12:40and not in a positive way or a negative way
12:45but sometimes when you're writing with other people
12:47you're sort of like creating a mosaic of everybody's feelings and thoughts
12:53and I think that sometimes what I have to say can get lost
12:59not in a way that feels tragic, it's songwriting you know
13:01like not heart surgery but it just
13:05I think writing music alone and getting back to this place
13:08where I could have the confidence of like I wrote every word of this
13:13I think also allowed me to go what do I really feel
13:16what is something that I might want to say or have wanted to say
13:20that someone might convince me out of otherwise
13:23and how can I just bring that to the forefront
13:25since I have the opportunity to make some music being in the driver's seat
13:31Oh Look Up, Look Up I wrote just sort of thinking about
13:37it's so easy to get mired in like the reality of day-to-day
13:43like you know your car doesn't work you know your favorite sports team loses
13:47and Look Up to me was a reminder that I need to sometimes take a break
13:52from looking at my feet and like look at the sky
13:55enjoy some flowers, pet a dog
13:58like really just let loose a little bit and enjoy the positive things around me
14:05I have a few I got to play Rocket Man with my morning jacket at Red Rocks
14:10I also got to sing with Brandi Carlile at Red Rocks
14:14so Red Rocks has been very kind to me
14:17One of my favorite performances though is I was opening for John Mayer
14:21and I was smoking a joint before the show
14:23and I coughed so hard that I threw my back out
14:28but it was the it was the only night that John could play on stage with me
14:32so I had to just like I and you can tell in the photo too that I'm dying
14:36but it's I got to play on stage with John Mayer and he's playing one of my songs
14:40and he is absolutely ripping and I'm sort of hunched over
14:43just making it through the set
14:46I think that's one of my favorites because it's humbling
14:51Um this is gonna sound really weird but uh
14:55hand and headstands do wonders for my brain
14:59I my therapist and I were trying to find a way for me to sort of
15:05get my adrenaline down post playing shows or like
15:10even like I'll have meetings with the label and stuff like that
15:12and I'll get a little stressed
15:15and so I started just literally like inverting myself
15:19like we came we came through this little like
15:21we came up with this little sort of body routine
15:24like I'll literally just stretch a little
15:26and then I'll flip and I'll do the handstand
15:28and then I'll end in child's pose
15:30and it's just like a way for me to maybe just get back into my body
15:35and feel my limbs and all that stuff
15:38and I think that mental health is really important
15:42but it's it's one aspect of health in the sense of
15:45I think sometimes connecting my brain and my body through movement
15:49is a way that I can quell some of the stress
15:54and so that's been the biggest thing that I've learned
15:55it's just like go on a walk do a weird flip
15:59like just sort of like it's okay to get out of your brain sometimes
16:05all of them I like all of them
16:08I'd Miss the Birds is always fun to play
16:17Lately I've been dreaming of a house out in the woods
16:21It's a big backyard my dog and my lover
16:26Gave Nashville a chance and made it farther than I thought I would
16:30But it doesn't mean I should hang around and suffer
16:35This world on fire still has good to discover
16:40I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains
16:44And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place
16:48Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make
16:53But even they know when to fly away
16:58Oh I think it's time to fly away
17:03Dusty Silverado take me to another place
17:07This town has a way to leave you wanting
17:12For all its brand new buildings and its heroes on parade
17:16This town still isn't big enough to love me
17:20And I'm still too damn proud to beg for company
17:25I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains
17:30And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place
17:34Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make
17:38But even they know when to fly away
17:43Oh I think it's time to fly away
17:46Oh I think it's time to make a change
17:52To spread my wings and drift away
17:57I think I finally learned that you can't get back the years
18:01But you can always come back to a place
18:08I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains
18:14And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place
18:18Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make
18:23And the feel of the earth beneath my feet in early May
18:28And the magnolia leaves as they fall out of play
18:36But even they know when to fly away
18:39Oh I think it's time to fly away
19:02I'm Joy Oladokun and this has been my episode of Live From My Den.
19:06My new album, Observations from a Crowded Room, is out now.
19:09Wherever you listen to music and take care of yourselves.