Star On the Rise: August Lee Stevens Performs Live In Studio
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From KQED in San Francisco, I'm Alexis Madrigal. Hercules native August Lee Stevens dropped her debut album Better Places last year, earning her praise for her indie soul sound. The 25-year-old singer and songwriter trained as a classical pianist before broadening her focus at the Oakland School of the Arts.

She's now part of a wave of emerging musicians from the East Bay who combine different genres and forms. Stevens joins us for a special live performance this morning and to talk about her musical roots and journey. It's all coming up next after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal.

It's been a long week. It's been a long month. And the rains are going to be coming down for the next few days. And it's Friday. So it seemed like a time to get a bit cozy on the radio, hear some live music. We've got August Lee Stevens and her singers here in the studio with me and engineer Jim Bennett. They're going to start off the show with a song. Take it away, August. Voice working on empty Is that the kind of way to face the burning heat?

I just think about my baby I'm so full of love I could barely eat There's nothing sweeter than my baby I never want once from the cherry tree My baby's sweet as can be She gives me toothaches just from kissing me When my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold dark earth

No grave can hold my body down or crawl home to her My babe would never sweat none 'bout what my hands and my body's done Oh Lord, please forgive me I still have my baby and my babe would have me When I was kissing on my baby And she put love down soft and sweet

In the lonely light I was free Heaven and hell were words to me Time comes around Lay me gently in the cold dark earth No grave can hold my body down I'll crawl home to her And my time comes around Lay me gently in the cold dark earth

No grave can hold my body down. I'll crawl on to her. Oh, man, that was August Lee Stevens, Bay Area-based musician and singer-songwriter. August, do you want to come over here? I love when we have musicians in the studio, but they've got to move around a lot here.

August, why don't you introduce your co-vocalist here with you? Sure. I am here today with my beautiful friends, Ash and Frankie. Hello. Hello.

Thanks for joining us, y'all. Let's talk a little bit just about where are you from? Where'd you grow up? Yeah, I grew up in Hercules, California. Shout out to Hercules. I feel like no one knows where that is. Yeah, maybe you should tell us. Yeah. If y'all know where Pinole is, it's next to Pinole. It's the cooler city. What if you don't know where Pinole is? If you don't know where Pinole is, it's off of Highway 4. Yeah.

Highway 4 and 80, like kind of where they meet. It's on the San Pablo Bay. It's the city you stop in to get gas when you're going to Tahoe. There you go. People are like, oh, yeah, that one. That song was a cover, right? Yes. Work Song by Hojo. Why did you want to cover that song? I love that song. I think...

found hosier's music i think in high school it was based off of a like english project we had to listen to his album um that was a great english project but i loved that album i loved the calmness of it i love his lyricism um and just the way that he portrays love in his music and

He does a lot of different themes that I identify with. So that song I thought would be a nice one to wake up everybody with. It's calm. It was. It felt a little healing. Yeah, it's a healing song. You know, I read one interview with you where you described yourself, I think, as an introvert. And I was wondering, in this day and age, you know, like we had LaRussell in here, people may have heard him. He posts like seven times a day. His entire life is just like converted like sausage into content, you know. Yeah.

Is it difficult for someone who might see themselves as an introvert right now to be like, oh, I got to post seven times a day to Instagram? I find it difficult. I don't like watching myself or looking at myself a lot. So...

Instagram is fun in some ways and it's necessary and it's a great tool it's how I met a lot of people in music in the community but that effort to make a video and then just be okay with it and not criticize every little detail of yourself or criticize the music and all of that I'm still learning shout out to LaRussell for being able to do that

Yeah. I mean, especially for someone like you, right, who came up kind of classically training in music, right? I mean, it was piano. That was your first instrument? Piano, yeah. My parents put me into piano. I tried to quit many times, but I'm very glad that they wouldn't let me. And yeah, that's a kind of isolated instrument, too, because you're learning these grand pieces that last minutes and you're by yourself playing, so...

Yeah, I always, I had that training and then I naturally gravitated inwards. So yeah, it's a lot of... When did that start to change for you to move to other instruments and, you know, perform with other people? Yeah, I went to, so I studied piano starting at seven and then middle through high school, I went to Oakland School for the Arts, which was a performance school.

art school. Um, and I studied classical right in downtown Oakland, right? Downtown theater. Shout out, shout out OSA family. Um, but yeah, I was in an environment where there were lots of extroverts. There were lots of people studying different art forms. Um,

And we had opportunities to collaborate with other students. And I switched to the vocal department my senior year. I'm a late bloomer. But being in that environment, that was very, we were in choir and chorals. So we had to collaborate and we had to sing. And I kind of had to learn to find my voice and sing out and stop trying to hide and stay. Behind the piano. Yeah, behind the piano. Exactly.

How about your actual sort of songwriting and style? Like, I guess you're often described as the indie soul, right? Would you call it that? That's what I usually say. Yeah, I, again, I like more of the...

Laid back and the quieter music or at least like the introspective music. That's a little calmer But I also like from my parents and the music that they listen to and what I grew up listening to There's always some kind of soul that I gravitate towards Whether that's through the instrumentation or through the lyrics of it, but my mom's from like Detroit So she played all the Motown. Yeah So yeah, I

I say indie soul. I think it classifies it in a way that makes sense. There's a lot of like stripped down performances, but like kind of soulful vocals. Yeah. Yeah. What about any other inspirations, you know, in the, I don't know, kind of like Ja Day or something like that in these kind of camps? Yeah. Um,

I grew up listening to... Lauryn Hill was like a big person. My mom would play that album when she was pregnant with me, so I say that it kind of just got embedded into me. The miseducation of Lauryn Hill? Yeah, miseducation. That's a good one to get implanted into your bones, though. She would play that nonstop, and then my dad was always playing Stevie Wonder. And then as a young black girl playing classical piano, I found Alicia Keys and was like,

Oh, what's that? So all of that kind of stuff. And then Hosier as I got older, some of the more contemporary artists. But yeah, those are...

And how about, you know, we heard the cover. Later we're going to hear your original songs. Do you feel like you bring in the classical training into that? Or do you think it's almost like a different part of your brain when you're working on your own music and writing? With piano, yes. I feel like I'm learning now how to escape the classical training and kind of get to more of a...

freedom with the piano. That's why I write a lot on guitar, actually, because I'm self-taught guitar. So there's just less restrictions I have mentally when I'm writing. But the piano, like I definitely think the style and the way that I play sounds classical. I luckily play with other musicians that have other backgrounds and it's kind of learned, it's helped me expand how I play and how I approach it. But I, I,

If I think anyone listening that's a musician will hear me and be like, oh yeah, that's a classical pianist. That's not jazz or anything. How did you teach yourself guitar? Was it like YouTube and the pandemic? Yeah, it was YouTube. And then over the pandemic, I feel like I keep talking about Hosier, but I learned his second album. I kind of just like went through that. And he has a lot of like finger picking style and a lot of guitar stuff. So I kind of went through the album and learned most of the songs on guitar. And that helped me.

And then just like the basic structure chords and everything was through the YouTube tutorials I've shown. Yeah. And you released your debut album, Better Places. What was it like putting that together? Where'd you put it together? I put it together. So Women's Audio Mission, it was a residency that I was able to do with them. That's actually where I met Frankie. Shout out to Frankie. Yeah, shout out to Frankie. Frankie sang on the songs too.

But yeah, I put it together there. It came out last April. It was a really cool process to be able, we had 10 days in the studio that's mixing and recording. So it was a cool process to be able to record something that quickly. Compressed. Yeah, compressed. Yeah. I learned a lot. Yeah.

Yeah. And what do you have coming out this year? Do you know? This year, it's not titled yet, but I have some new songs. Two of them, actually, I'm singing today, so they're not released yet. But one is going to be a single, Tell Me. That's the next song we're performing. And then Citrus we're doing later on, and that'll be part of my next EP project. Nice.

We're in the studio for a live performance by August Lee Stevens, who's a Bay Area-based musician, singer-songwriter, debut EP, right? Yeah. Better Places came out in 2024. Also got Frankie Mastin, vocalist, and Ash Stollard as well here with us for these songs.

We would love to hear from you. How's this music kind of landing for you? You can give us a call. The number is 866-733-6786. This is a Stevie Wonder song. Shout out to your dad, I guess. It's As by Stevie. You want to say anything about it? I love this song. I love the title of it because it doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

Neither does the world. What can you say? We're going to be back with more with August Lee Stevens right after the break. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Stay tuned. But in passing we'll grow older every day.

Hi, I'm Bianca Taylor. I'm the host of KQED's daily news podcast, The Latest.

Powered by our award-winning newsroom, the latest keeps you in the know because it updates all day long. It's trusted local news in real time on your schedule. Look for the latest from KQED wherever you get your podcasts and stay connected to all things Bay Area in 20 minutes or less.

Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're joined in the studio this morning for a special live performance by August Lee Stevens, here with a couple of other singers, Frankie Mastin and Ash Stollard. One of our listeners says, Mike writes in to say, Thank you for this full-time stay-at-home dad. Just dropped my kids off at school, and I'm sitting quietly in the car, getting teary-eyed, listening and relaxing as my day begins. Just like you were thinking. Just like you drew it up, August.

You want to intro the next song here, Tell Me? Sure. This next song is an original. It's titled Tell Me. I wrote it about a year and a half ago, just about the feeling of the world being crazy and not enough people talking about it. So, yeah, it's called Tell Me. They say change is a sign of the times that are coming And I'm scared for the day that my words will mean nothing

Well, I've tried to tell you why I've taken this chance. No apologies, I really want you to care. Tell me something, change it right now. No protection breaking me down. Time keeps taking, there's no price we can pay.

All these visions of violence in my head, it's twisted, oh Tell me honestly how you dream if you don't listen Well, I've tried to change your mind, but I think it's swayed, ooh

No apologies, I really want you to care, care. Oh, tell me something, change it right now. No protection, breaking me down. Time keeps taking, there's no price we can pay.

Tell me something. Change it right now. No protection. Breaking me down. Time keeps taking. There's no price we can pay. Don't make it harder. I'm walking farther. Don't make it harder.

Nice. That was August Lee Stevens singing the song "Tell Me." Yeah, you can come back over to-- this studio is awesome.

um,

So talk to me a little bit about the kind of newer music versus the older music. I mean, you're 25, right? So this is like still this time of like a great ferment in your kind of songwriting development career. I love that great ferment. Yeah. Some of the older music that I put out or the music that I put out last year was most of it was kind of written during this time in my life where I was just figuring out

what I wanted and how to express myself really and how to be honest with my feelings and how to be vulnerable about it. And a lot of the music was self-reflective. There was a lot of big events happening in my life and like hard events to deal with and so the music was pretty personal and almost just me processing what was going on. The newer music that I'm working on, some of it is old honestly, some of it that's coming out in the new EP I've written years prior, but

Of the new ones that I've written, I've been able to kind of write outside of myself too and focus on different subject matters or topics or people. A lot of the music that is coming out in the newer EP is based off of my family and just their experiences and some of the histories behind them. What are those? Where are they from? So the newer EP is focusing, it sparked from my dad's move from,

He moved from Louisiana to here and then moved back to Louisiana. So he was actually a part of like both migrations, the great migration that happened from like the 40s to the 70s. And then there is now technically a second migration of people moving back to the South. So that kind of sparked the interest of me like looking into that history again.

as well as another school project actually. But that led to me discovering that whole history of the migration and like why it happened and how it's affecting like the current culture politically and how it's affected the history in the past and then

I also just started to reconnect with my family in the South because I grew up apart from, like, my grandma, my sister, and everyone. What part of Louisiana are they from? He's from Baton Rouge. Yeah. But, like, the country part of Baton Rouge. So, yeah. He's, like, 20 minutes. I saw you got your cowboy boots on. Yeah, yeah. Working towards it. Yeah.

So yeah, it's kind of like looking at different family members and their stories. And then also just like my mom's story too, from moving here from Detroit, which is also somehow tied into the migration too, of like people moving up to the North. So it's, I've been able to kind of write

as a way for me to digest and relate to different people and their experiences. Um, but yeah. Are you trying to take on more of the Louisiana musical style? I would love to. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I would love to, I love blues and I love, I love horns honestly. And that's a big part of music over there. Um, so just like any horn section or trumpets, I try to incorporate when I can have some friends that play, which is nice. Um,

I also feel like anytime I'm in New Orleans, you just walk into some random bar at any random time and the people in there are as good as anybody you've ever heard in your life. It's such an amazing musical culture there. Yeah, you can just walk around the street and there's some of the greatest musicians alive. And I'm like, oh, wow. We have a caller on the line. Mike Oz, welcome to the forum. Thanks for calling in.

Yeah, thank you. Can you hear me all right? Yeah, we sure can. August, can you hear me? I can hear you. Hello. Hi, August. Hi. Nice to hear your voice on the radio. Micah, you are the director of the Oakland School for the Arts, yeah? That's correct, yes. Tell us about how you all try and develop young artists who maybe come in playing one instrument but then want to experiment in another realm.

Like August, who came in playing piano and became a vocalist. We encourage people to stick with what they chose to do when they came to the school. And it's actually rare that people switch their pathways like August did, but clearly it worked for her. I was a little surprised as she's a bit of an introvert or was a bit of an introvert. And when she transitioned to vocal, I was a little surprised at first. And now when I listen to her and see her sing, it makes perfect sense. Yeah.

And what kind of work do you think Oakland School for the Arts does for young artists here in East Bay? It surrounds people with art, and whether they go into the sciences or become a lawyer or become an artist, they're going to bring the value of the arts with them wherever they go. Yeah. August, how about you? How much of a role do you think the school played in kind of –

guiding your path forward? I mean, it was a huge role. That was like my developmental, oh, what did you say? That was the ferment. I love that. It was like a huge portion

portion of my life that was dedicated to going there and understanding what it looks like to study and practice a craft. And then even more so than that, a lot of my peers or the people that I was in classes with were going out and doing it for real afterwards. So there's a lot of people and then alumni, too.

But it was really encouraging to not only see like this is how you practice it every day. This is what you have to put into it. But also here are students or people, your friends that are your age and going out and doing it to like the greatest extent that they can and being really successful at it. So that was the part that was really encouraging and inspiring.

Even the, there's some type of competition, but it's like we all still, everyone from my year, I feel like we still keep in touch. Like there's always a home base and it's the competition that just like to see how far you can go as an individual. So like we're still kind of pushing each other and just like a lot of support all the time. So OSA was a really big role in me. Michael, do you want that competition? Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, it's the concept that if you're not surrounded by people that are better at what you do than you are, then you're not going to improve. So you want to be surrounded by people that are excelling, and you also want to see that as an opportunity, not as a threat. And that's a challenge sometimes with young people, but ideally we're able to help them understand that that's the best place to foster growth. Yeah.

Hey, thank you so much, Michael Oz, director of Oakland School for the Arts. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Yeah, my pleasure. August, it's great to talk to you. You too. Take care. After Oakland School for the Arts, you went to Santa Cruz, though, yeah? You didn't go to Conservatory Route or something like that. I didn't. So, yeah, I was in classical piano. I was performing a lot just for recitals and grades. And part of it was that, and I was just tired. And then part of it was also I just...

wanted to study something else to get a little bit more knowledge and I was 16 during the like 2016 elections so I couldn't vote so I wanted to study political sciences and just like learn more about the systems that were um operating and how to contribute I thought I was gonna be um

a diplomat or something. But I went... You still got time, I promise. Yeah. I did that in film. I was going to do, like, documentaries and, like, travel the world and be a diplomat or some sorts. But music is kind of... When I was at my lowest, that's what I had to go back to, so... I like that music is sort of your fallback practical plan. Yeah. I know, right? Sorry, Dad. Yeah. I want to do, yeah, do something predictable. Yeah. Like a career in music. Um...

What? You want to play another song? You want to play Citrus? Yes, I would love to. Yeah. All right. Cool. Obviously, Stephen's going to play Citrus for us here. Anything you want to say about it before we... Yeah, I would love to. This is a song I wrote...

Based off of two things, there's a wonderful play by a young playwright named Celeste Jennings titled Citrus, and that's where I was inspired from. And her play tackles the same themes that the song tackle. Mine is specifically focusing on the women in my family and just like the ability that the women in my family and black women have to take these situations that have been like thrust upon them and just grow and make something beautiful out of that.

So it's focusing on my grandma and my mom and my, like, the women. And then the play also focuses on that to a different but greater extent. So yeah, this is Citrus. Mama didn't raise no fools Took some time for me to show it Running round, can't tell me what to do I got caught up in the moment

And no one's got a smile like Eileen Hope I end up just as steady Took the pain and made it clean She really knew how to make it all She could make it all Smooth like water Sweet like citrus running down your skin

I wanna take some time to know ya Oh, won't you please let me come home again Oh, smooth like a Smooth like water Smooth like water Smooth like water Smooth like water Smooth like water Smooth like

Smooth like water.

Sweet like citrus running down your skin, down your skin I wanna take some time to know ya Won't you please let me come home again Oh, smooth like water Sweet like citrus running down your skin, down your skin I wanna take some time to know ya

That was Citrus by August Lee Stevens. Got her singers here in the studio with us, Frankie Mastin and Ash Stollard.

Also got a couple of shout-outs for you from listeners. A listener on Instagram writes, August Lee Stevens is one of the best in the Bay, certainly. Jenny writes, I love this show. Such a bomb for an unsettled and frenzied week. Thank you for helping me discover a new musician and taking our attention away from a heartbreaking news cycle.

And Harvey's got a shout out for Jim Bennett, engineer Jim Bennett, sending a shout out to today's engineer. Besides his excellent work for KQED and the Commonwealth Club, great supporter of the Bay Area jazz community. Thank you, Jim. How's this music landing for you? You can give us a call, 866-733-6786. You can email us, forum at kqed.org. Maybe you're an OSA grad or another art school. I mean, how'd that experience inform your life and career?

We're going to go into the break with one of your recorded songs. It's going to be Talk About Us to August. Do you want to tell us anything about Talk About Us? I love this song. This is a love letter to my family. Yeah, that's what I'll say about this one. Which part of your family, though? Oh, I can't choose. My mom's listening. Well, mom. Yeah, mom. It's mom. It's definitely your mom. This is Talk About Us by August Lee Stevens. I'm Alexis Madrigal. Stay tuned for more right after the break.

But I still don't think I see you. I'm followed by your picture hanging in the hall. But your eyes have lost their sight too. Well, didn't you know that your offering is getting older?

You're getting colder with time. What's painted in you is the same in me. Still we can grow higher. Streets of Louisiana calling out your going home. Back to the biggest mess a little girl could cause alone. There's no point in running. All this town has felt your time.

Welcome back to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. We're in the studio here with August Lee Stevens for a special live performance. She's a Bay Area-based musician and singer-songwriter. Her debut EP, Better Places, came out in 2024. She's going to start off this segment with Sweet Thing, I believe. Sweet thing, you keep giving me hope I've changed but I treasure every season

My faith, it blows like the branches in the wind, but your half makes me feel like a hole again. Sweet thing, you keep giving me a reason. Oh, no.

♪ Every letter in my full cell brain ♪ ♪ But you're telling me to let it go ♪ ♪ I can't even imagine me without your trace ♪ ♪ Every day I'm with you feels like ooh ♪ ♪ Tell me why you wanna let it go ♪ ♪ 'Cause it feels like home ♪ ♪ Sweet thing, you keep giving me a reason ♪

And I keep hearing all the no's, all the broken bones. This ain't what I wanted, what you talking about? Just tell me why you want to keep this inside. Tell me what I mean to you. Tell me why. And if it didn't mean a thing, why'd you say it was your sweet thing? Want to put some gold on me?

Said you wanna put some gold on me, yeah Ooh, you keep giving me a reason Ooh, you keep giving me a reason Ooh, you keep giving me a reason Oh, sweet thing, sweet thing, you keep giving me a reason

That was August Lee Stevens performing "Sweet Thing."

She's got some upcoming performances. February 1st, performing at Black History Month event at the Chase Center. February 13th, performing at Oakland Museum. March 1st, right? SF Jazz is part of Noise Pop. Yeah. That's exciting. That's some big shows coming up. They're big shows. I'm very excited. Yeah. I also like you showing off some of your classical piano chops at the beginning. Yeah. It's just fantastic.

You don't want to waste all those years of lessons. Exactly. You've got to get into a song. Yeah. Let's bring in Marie from Oakland School for the Arts. Oh, my gosh. Hi, August. It's in the split. Hello. Hi.

Sorry, misplaced. Misplaced. I'm sorry. Oh, no, I'm Marie. I'm Marie. It was the joy of my life to come to school on my birthday. And I'm driving and I'm listening to Cake to Deal like I always do. And they say they're going to interview August Stevens. Oh. I just couldn't believe it. So I am listening to my student with my students at OSA. Give me a shout out to OSA. Oh, my God. Yes. Yes. From 3rd to August. Oh.

Oh, man. So full of love for you. Oh, I love you so much. Thank you. Marie, can you tell us something embarrassing about August from her school days? Yeah, she has. Senior year, August comes to me. She's a piano student. She's very quiet. And August comes to me and says, Miss Platt, I think I want to audition for vocal. I think I want to sing. And I was like, that's nice. Can you? Yeah.

And she can. But she worked hard and she reached for something that was new. And look at all the opportunities that has opened for her. And I'm just, we are all, all so very proud of you, August. Congratulations. Thank you. I'm going to tear up. Thank you so much for calling in. Shout out to all the students. Yes. Come visit us.

Sorry, Marie. Yes, she will come visit, I promise. That is so great. That's so great. I love the kids cheering in the background. That's so good. Let's talk a little bit about sort of the realities of being an artist right now and sort of how you kind of try and make your way forward.

I mean, what's your plan? Just like hit TikTok song? Is that the idea? I don't know. I don't know. I kind of have been just like trying to throw myself. That's how I started it. I was just like, let me throw myself into everything first to get over the stage fright, then to like build the experience of it and then just take the opportunities and keep building from that.

Thankfully, the last year I've been able to get a team to help me too. And they're also beautiful guiding lights to help me. What does it look like to take it to the next stage so that I can start playing the bigger shows and maybe not be broke one day. I don't know. I believe in you. Thank you.

We're joined in the studio by August Lee Stevens, a Bay Area-based musician, singer-songwriter. Her debut EP you can get is called Better Places, came out at the end of last year. Frankie Mastin, also here in the studio. Ash Sellard, also here in the studio, vocalist that you will hear as well. Do you want to play another song, Into the Dark? Sure, yes. Yeah.

This is August Lee Stevens. Of course, you can give us a call with your reactions to the music. 866-733-6786 or forum at kqed.org. It's going to be tough to top the teacher with the class, but maybe you can do it. You can also find us, of course, on all the social media things. We're Blue Sky. We're Instagram. We're KQED Forum.

And, yeah, obviously Stephen's going to be playing Into the Dark here. All right, another peaceful song. Lead me to your broken tide I'll get lost in you and stumble in its heart It's easy when you come inside You know I see more of you than your worst guard

Maybe that's why I only see you in the dark You're gentle when there's no one here And I'm trapped in expectations by the light A trend of hope that's plagued by fears Of distance way too grand and words too slight We can never be more who we are

Maybe that's why I only see you in the dark We can never be more than who we are Maybe that's why I only see you in the dark Well I'll pray for a moment Like this where I'm open And not scared of anything

And you will pray for my soul That I'll move on and let it go And you won't hurt me We can never be more than who we are Maybe that's why I only see you in the dark We can never be more than who we are

Maybe that's why I only see you in the dark Beautiful, Into the Dark by August Lee Stevens Here with us this morning performing live We've got caller Brett in Berkeley with a shout out here Welcome Brett Hi, I'm a professional musician myself And his voice is very impressive Phenomenal

Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Hey, thank you, Brad. Appreciate that. We also have a couple of other shout outs for you. I like this. My favorite one. A listener writes, wow, what a talent. Please protect your soul. Thank you.

That person's clearly been in the music business, I guess. What's going on there? Another listener says, I love August Lee Stevens' lyrics and musical arrangement. And another person, another listener, wants to know more about Frankie and Ash.

I would love to say more about them. Yeah. Okay. I met Ash through Instagram. I needed someone to sing harmonies with me. And it was like, is anyone free? And Ash responded and was so willing. And her vibrato just like it resonates in my ribs. And I love it so much. And then Frankie, I met through the residency at the Women's Audio Mission. I was going to have choir lessons.

sing on a song, but they all got COVID the night before they were supposed to come in. And Frankie was interning there. And I was too afraid. I had the idea, but I was too afraid to ask because she was an intern and looked professional and everything. But she was willing to sing the choir part. And then I heard her sing and was like, I want you to have the whole song. Your voice is like the angels singing. So I'm so lucky to be able to sing with both of them.

Are you starting to write with them in mind? We've talked about it, but we have not yet set dates, so we won't do that. But I mean, I think of harmonies and arrangements with them in mind all the time, just because both of them, their vibratos are just so...

robust and beautiful and also round and I love the sounds of your voices and then I love being able to sing with you and hear the three voices collected together so I'm in love with both of them how would you describe your voice would you do you think it's round in that way or do you think it's something else I feel like my voice can be round but it's a little raspier and so that's why I love singing with them too is because I think I have to use other parts of my voice is also to make a good blend so yeah

We're going to have you do another song, Shutter Places. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank you for having me. Thank you for having all of us. It's been wonderful. Thank you so much. The 9 o'clock hour forum is produced by Grace Wan and Blanca Torres. Our interns are Brian Vo and Jesse Fisher. Jennifer Ng is our engagement producer. Francesca Fenzi is our digital community producer. Judy Campbell is lead producer.

Special shout out to our brilliant engineers, Danny Bringer and Jim Bennett. Jim Bennett responsible for the beautiful music mix. As always, they really make these music shows possible. Katie Springer's operations manager of KQED Podcasts. Our vice president of news is Ethan Toven Lindsey. And our chief content officer is Holly Kernan. I know you want to go see August Lee Stevens after you've heard this music. And she does have shows coming up.

February 1st, right? Black History Month at the Chase Center, Oakland Museum of California, and also SF Jazz. All right, take us away. If this is it, then tell me all that I miss goes out the back door. A moment to cry.

What we believed in Cause if we're moving on There's no way we can take much more And we tried another way to find it Only breaking down what was left with our open hands Empty pockets searching for what we know is there

♪ If all that you said is over ♪ ♪ Reach for my hand and we can stay a while ♪ ♪ We'll save your soul for later ♪ ♪ 'Cause if we're moving on ♪ ♪ We can't be weighed down anymore ♪ ♪ And we tried a new way to find this ♪

searching for what we know is there

Better places, better places, better places, better places. We're going to reach for those better places, better places, better places, better places. Oh.

Funds for the production of Forum are provided by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Generosity Foundation, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.