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- [00:08]
A
This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC studios in Soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm really grateful that you're here. We have two hours of music ahead of us. Tori Kelly will be here. She'll join us to play some tracks from her latest album which is coming out on Friday. So we're getting a preview and Tori will talk about her upcoming show at Madison Square Garden. We'll hear a lot live performance from the group Civil Disobedience and find out why that name fits. And we will preview Lincoln Center's Summer for the City festival which has hundreds of free performances all summer long. That's the plan. So let's get this hour started with Bedouin. Bedouin is a singer who was described by the New York Times as having a voice like a warm bomb. On her brand new record Neon Summer Skin, she uses that voice to tell the stories of the people closest to her. There's a song about visiting her parents in Saudi Arabia where she spent her youth. There's a song about a family member battling with addiction. There's a song about a difficult choice her grandmother made in Lebanon many years ago. And there's a song about her parents wedding in Syria. It's an album about love, hardship, resilience and about summer afternoons spent in the pool. Neon Summer Skin is out now. Bedouin is performing tonight at 6 at Rough Trade and tomorrow night at 8pm at National Sawdust. But first she joins us in studio for an interview and a special acoustic performance. It is nice to see you.
- [01:46]
B
It's nice to see you too.
- [01:47]
A
We're gonna kick things off with a song. We're gonna hear one thing right from your new album Neon Summer Skin. Do you wanna set this up for us?
- [01:55]
B
Absolutely. This song is a little bit of an outlier. A lot of the song, the songs on the record are about family, as you said. And this one's a little bit more about chosen family. And it goes a little something like this.
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C
You, you I did one thing right it's you it's I'm doing one thing right Lately I don't have my head on straight Typically the things that people love or hate, I don't honestly, sometimes just feeling something counts and who am I to pretend to know what anybody wants I don't but I do have some clue and it's you you I did one thing right it's you, it's
- [03:20]
B
you
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C
I'm doing one thing right. Sometimes I get so conf and as far as having that much to lose I don't always have the latest news they said when I was older I would know the truth I don't But I do have someone I choose and it's you You I did one thing it's you it's you I'm doing one thing right. Be careful what you wish for as the saying goes I don't really know about the things that I've been told oh, be careful what you wish for as the saying goes I don't really know about the things that I've been told I don't But I do have some clue and, and it's you You I did one thing right it's you it's you I'm doing one thing right I'm doing one thing right I'm doing one thing right.
- [05:32]
A
That was Bedouin with a special live performance of her song One Thing Right from her brand new album Neon Summer Skin. She's performing tonight at rough trade at 6pm and tomorrow night at National Sawdust at 8pm this is your fourth studio album, is that right?
- [05:47]
B
Yes.
- [05:48]
A
So what did you want to do differently on this record?
- [05:51]
B
Well, it was the first time that I'd ever written a record with some kind of intention in mind or like some kind of framework. And it all started started with coming back from Saudi Arabia and realizing that my childhood was far behind me. And I also realized that I might not ever go back because my parents were retiring and they were essentially on a decades long work visa. And so I was just hit with it all. And I really wanted to sit down with that feeling and confront it and work through it. And so that's like a different approach I've had to all of my previous records, that kind of intention.
- [06:36]
A
When did you start writing it?
- [06:39]
C
It's been a few years now.
- [06:40]
B
I've been sitting like probably like 2022ish. Yeah. Which was a little while. It was a delayed reaction, but a strong one.
- [06:51]
A
A delayed reaction. Did you suddenly have the urge to
- [06:54]
C
write or was it sort of in
- [06:56]
A
your brain and then just came out or.
- [06:58]
B
Y. Yeah, yeah. That. It was just a lot of like sadness about the situation, you know, with Saudi and Syria and Lebanon and feeling that my family had been moved around and split up a little bit and that I wouldn't really get to relive, you know, the places of the past.
- [07:19]
A
In the same way the Alma's pianos centric a little bit as compared to your past music, which was guitar centric. Why did you find yourself drawn to the piano.
- [07:32]
B
A couple of reasons. A lot of the bands I was opening up for, I started to envy the way that they were singing out. And the way I tend to write on the piano on the guitar is so hushed. And so I wanted to shake things up a bit and just try a new approach and see what that did for the songwriting. But I also was revisiting the instruments of my past along with, like, in the theme of the record. And piano was my first instrument, and so it was kind of like dusting off that a little bit. And trumpet was my second instrument. And there's a lot of brass on the.
- [08:08]
A
And the flute on the record as well.
- [08:10]
B
Yeah, I didn't play that. I wish I was that talented, but I did the brass instruments and the valved instruments, so it was kind of a. Yeah. Revisiting of the past in that way as well.
- [08:23]
A
It's interesting, involving the instrumentation. Were you thinking about that as you were writing the song, or does that come later?
- [08:31]
B
I think it was just woven into it. I did a lot of. A lot more pre production on this record than I ever have. Oh, interesting. And so, like, playing with the arrangements and the instrumentations was kind of like a part baked into the writing process this time around.
- [08:50]
A
My guest is musician Bedouin. She's performing live from her brand new album, Neon Summer Skin. She has a show tonight at Rough Trade and one tomorrow night at National Sawdust. Your family traveled back and forth across the years between Syria, America, Armenia, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon. Many of these places you had to go because you had to flee violence?
- [09:14]
B
Not me personally, but my family. Yeah.
- [09:17]
A
First of all, how have all those places influenced your music? Let's start there.
- [09:22]
B
It's so hard to say because my upbringing was such a blend and it was so Americanized. Even though my dad moved to Saudi from Syria as essentially an immigrant worker, they decided to put my brothers and I in an American school. And so we were. I know, it's so strange. So we were, like, primed for, you know, winning that green card lottery that brought us to America. And musically, I did have kind of a Western upbringing because I would come home from school and watch MTV and David Letterman would be on with the time change. And so, like, I would still get a lot of, like, Western pop culture. But I think that it probably did find its way in ways that I'm unable to, like, really pinpoint because it still does, like, mean a lot to me.
- [10:17]
A
Who did you listen to?
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C
I.
- [10:20]
B
My first record, it's up for debate, but it was either Boyz II Men or Mariah Carey's Music Box was my first record. And then there was like, I know Michael Jackson's Bad was in the mix. And then I would wake up early to like, to like, capture Nirvana on this, like, little handheld audio recorder I had so I could listen back to it in recess. So it was like, such a weird mix. I just don't even know how all that appears in my music. But, yeah.
- [10:52]
A
What role did music play when you were growing up? Was it surely for entertainment or did you feel something stirring inside of you saying, oh, my gosh, I think I want to do this?
- [11:01]
B
It was a strange dichotomy because my mom was very militant with piano playing, so that was forced upon me. And I, at times I enjoyed it, at times I resented it. But then I was also really into, like, the pop culture. I would, like, belt out to Mariah Carey's Music Box. And so it was a mixed bag.
- [11:28]
A
What did your mom make you practice on the piano?
- [11:30]
B
It was a lot of just classical, you know, Mozart and stuff like that. So, yeah, it was a classical upbringing, which didn't quite translate to, like, writing on piano this time around. So it was still. I still kind of had that beginner's mind for it, which I actually like to protect anyway, so it was. It was totally fine.
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A
It's funny you said Mozart and stuff like that.
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B
Well, you know, is, you know, the kid version of that.
- [11:59]
A
My guest is folk musician Bedouin. She's performing live with her brand new. From her brand new album, Neon Summer Skin. We're going to hear the song Canopies and. And this is about something your mother experienced when she was growing up. Would you tell us that story?
- [12:14]
C
Yeah.
- [12:16]
B
You know, as I got older and realized that, like, my time with my parents might, you know, be limited, I just became more curious about them and their past. And I started to ask my mom more questions about her upbringing. And one time it occurred to me to, like, record our conversation. And she opened up more and more and she said something about having grown up in this orphanage that her mom put her in, which I was aware of that, but she shared a detail with me that really stayed with me. And it was that her mom would stay at this nearby apartment of our relatives. And she would say this phrase on the balcony, which translates to something like, you know, blow, sweet winds, the essence of my child, because the orphanage was on the shores, the shore of Lebanon. And so she would say something like, you know, flutter, like the ocean's flutters, like, blow my daughter's Sweet winds and the way she said it, it just. I knew it struck me, and I wanted to build a song around it from the perspective of her mom.
- [13:31]
A
And she's included on your album?
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B
Yeah. So I included that recording of her speaking as an intro to the song.
- [13:38]
A
Let's hear that song. Now. This is Bedouin with canopies.
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C
I loved you. Too much to keep you all to myself so I committed a crime. A committee of clones said to treat you as one of a kind. Surely no one would meet you and think of someone that came to their mind. Oh, Of all the flowers that come to rise you had the softest eyes and eyelids Outbid only by canopies Sa. Waves waves fold over and send her scent to me. From the rugged cliffs of the Mediterranean to the bars of my belt balcony O. Are the stones to leave unturned on the seashores of Lebanon to my kin and my sin
- [16:33]
B
needs
- [16:36]
C
inconsolable tea.
- [16:45]
A
That was Bedouin with a special live performance of her song Canopies from her brand new album, Neon Summer Skin. Where did the title come from?
- [16:55]
B
So that's the title track, and it's. It's basically a phrase I used for my bathing suit. It sounds much deeper than it is, but it actually is kind of deep because Neon Summer Skin is basically this vignette of my childhood, like, the perfect day and the feeling of safety as a kid without having to think about your own safety under the watchful eye of your parents. And it basically, the song paints a picture of the perfect day at the pool with your family. And that was my favorite way to spend time with my family in Saudi Arabia. And I had this bathing suit with bursts of neon colors on it.
- [17:41]
A
What colors?
- [17:42]
B
It was bright blue, bright yellow, bright orange with sparkles on it. And it was awesome. And, yeah, it just became like a second skin and kind of a theme throughout the record of, like, childhood joy and safety.
- [17:58]
A
Isn't that funny how something that simple can bring you such joy when you.
- [18:03]
B
Yeah, it's the greatest pleasures of life.
- [18:07]
A
I read that when you first started writing songs, you kind of wrote them like journals. It was like journaling.
- [18:13]
B
Yeah, right. Yeah.
- [18:15]
A
What worked about that when you were first a songwriter?
- [18:19]
B
I think compartmentalizing a feeling, like. Feeling like you could take a break from it because you sat with it and you put it away. It's almost like, you know, swapping out your winter clothes or something. Like, you're just like, okay, I've got this. It's contained. I can tuck it under the bed for a Little while and step away for a little bit. I think that became just, like, really cathartic.
- [18:42]
A
Do you still do that?
- [18:44]
B
Absolutely.
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A
Yeah.
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B
Yeah. I don't think that'll ever stop.
- [18:46]
A
Oh, really?
- [18:47]
B
No, no, no. I think it's so important that everybody find a way to express themselves, even if you don't consider yourself a creative type, like, I think it's very important.
- [18:57]
A
There's a song called White Patent Leather which was inspired by a photograph of your parents wedding.
- [19:03]
B
Yeah.
- [19:04]
A
How'd that image turn into a song?
- [19:06]
B
Okay, so this image is of my mom stepping over a sacrificial lamb to get into the wedding reception. And I actually have my own memory of that in Syria with my cousin's wedding when I was about like 7 or 8. And those two things merged and created this song called White Patent Leather of my memory of it. And I actually was on tour opening for Father John Missi, and they were gracious enough to let me on their tour bus. And so Josh and I were talking and somehow this came up and I told him about this memory, and he was like, you've got to write a song about this. And I was like, yeah, you're right. I do got to write a song about this. And so I did. Eventually. It was worked within the framework of this album, which is all about family.
- [19:58]
A
This album, like you said, it's about family. It's about displacement, it's about searching for home, it's about immigration. These are all issues that we talk about a lot.
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B
Yeah.
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A
How did you want your. This album, the songs on this album, to point to the immigrant experience?
- [20:17]
B
You know, it's hard to say because it just. I'm so close to. To it, and it just became like a personal. I wasn't necessarily trying to make any kind of political statement. It's just so personal and such a reflection of my family's experience or my experience with my family. And unfortunately, it's very topical. Continues to be very topical. You know, families getting split up. And the thing that's bizarre about it is that, like my family, I personally, it's the best case scenario. You know, we're all more or less healthy and safe, but we're all really split up. And there's this, like, still this long tail of sadness that you have to contend with, you know?
- [21:12]
A
Do you feel that when you sing the songs?
- [21:14]
B
I did at first. They were really difficult to sing at first, and now I'm breaking them in, and it's just becoming more joyous to just share them.
- [21:22]
A
We're going to Hear your last song. It's in Armenian. I'm going to get you to say the title for me. Oh, I'm so glad I didn't say that. When did you know you wanted the song to be sung in Armenian?
- [21:36]
B
I. I wrote one other song in Armenian called Luis, and I really liked it. It seemed to be received well. People seem to like it even though they didn't understand it, most of people. And it felt really encouraging. I don't know the exact moment, but, like, it just was something fun I wanted to revisit and tease out. And I also really love the cognitive dissonance of this song because if you know the subject matter, it's very different than, like, the tone of the song. Okay. And I enjoy that rub, even though that might not be obvious for a lot of people. What's the subject matter like? Just displacement and like the resilience and the expectation of immigrants to, like, be so carry themselves with such grace even though they. They have a lot of heavy feelings and things that they're dealing with. And. Yeah, to be like this perfect portrait of a person to be accepted into countries that they're, you know, looking for refuge in.
- [22:42]
A
Let's hear from Bedouin. That was veteran performing, and we have to give a shout out to Adrian.
- [25:22]
B
Hello.
- [25:23]
A
Hello.
- [25:23]
B
Thanks for letting me tag along.
- [25:25]
A
Thanks a lot for joining us. Bedouin. She'll be performing at rough trade at 6pm tonight and tomorrow at National Sawdust, the new album, at eight and tomorrow. The new album is called Neon Summer Skin. Thank you for joining us.
- [25:38]
B
Thank you for having us.
- [25:40]
D
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