
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


In this installment of Modern Classics we speak to the amazing four-time Grammy Nominee musician, singer and songwriter Yola about her new record, Stand For Myself, and how hearing Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and all its references to 1970s funk encouraged Yola to unlock her own unprecedented mix of symphonic soul and classic pop.
As Yola tells it, it’s not just a sound from the past that she’s conjuring, it’s a sense of possibility. The way that progenitors like Funkadelic, Minnie Ripperton, and the O'Jays combined political protest with deep grooves, what Yola calls “the Mary Poppins philosophy of music” (the groove being the spoonful of sugar to help the socially-conscious medicine go down).
With this marriage of sound and statement, Yola makes retro sounds relevant again, as on the title track “Stand For Myself,” where she uses throwback slap bass, fuzz guitar, and orchestral strings to craft a distinctly modern messages about her identity as a Black woman, cultural allyship, and UK politics. Also, why she likes mixes that sound like they have a “big old booty.”
Songs Discussed
Yola - Stand For Myself, Diamond Studded Shoes, Starlight, Barely Alive, Be My Friend, If I Had to Do it All Again
Childish Gambino - Redbone, Riot
Bootsy Collins - I’d Rather Be With You
Funkadelic - Can You Get to That
The O’Jays - Back Stabbers
Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
By Vulture4.6
26252,625 ratings
In this installment of Modern Classics we speak to the amazing four-time Grammy Nominee musician, singer and songwriter Yola about her new record, Stand For Myself, and how hearing Childish Gambino’s “Redbone” and all its references to 1970s funk encouraged Yola to unlock her own unprecedented mix of symphonic soul and classic pop.
As Yola tells it, it’s not just a sound from the past that she’s conjuring, it’s a sense of possibility. The way that progenitors like Funkadelic, Minnie Ripperton, and the O'Jays combined political protest with deep grooves, what Yola calls “the Mary Poppins philosophy of music” (the groove being the spoonful of sugar to help the socially-conscious medicine go down).
With this marriage of sound and statement, Yola makes retro sounds relevant again, as on the title track “Stand For Myself,” where she uses throwback slap bass, fuzz guitar, and orchestral strings to craft a distinctly modern messages about her identity as a Black woman, cultural allyship, and UK politics. Also, why she likes mixes that sound like they have a “big old booty.”
Songs Discussed
Yola - Stand For Myself, Diamond Studded Shoes, Starlight, Barely Alive, Be My Friend, If I Had to Do it All Again
Childish Gambino - Redbone, Riot
Bootsy Collins - I’d Rather Be With You
Funkadelic - Can You Get to That
The O’Jays - Back Stabbers
Queen Latifah - U.N.I.T.Y.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

11,488 Listeners

6,006 Listeners

7,848 Listeners

10,741 Listeners

3,146 Listeners

1,500 Listeners

9,480 Listeners

3,644 Listeners

3,151 Listeners

4,084 Listeners

1,487 Listeners

2,071 Listeners

2,117 Listeners

1,014 Listeners

3,460 Listeners

2,164 Listeners

5,973 Listeners

23,617 Listeners

713 Listeners

6,455 Listeners

2,298 Listeners

527 Listeners

1,217 Listeners

4,447 Listeners

151 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

1,753 Listeners

1,742 Listeners

1,150 Listeners

1,332 Listeners

588 Listeners

423 Listeners

35 Listeners