Adrianne Lenker’s new solo album, Bright Future, releases Friday, March 22. Ahead of the album’s release, Lenker spent time chatting with The Current’s Ayisha Jaffer about the making of the album, as well as Lenker’s deep connections to nature and to Minnesota.

Listen to the full interview above, and read a transcript below.

Interview Transcript

Edited for length and clarity.

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, hello, I'm Ayisha from The Current, and I'm here with Adrianne Lenker. Thanks so much for being here with us.

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah, thank you for having me.

Ayisha Jaffer: Well, I saw that you recently taught a songwriting workshop, and I was wondering how how that all went.

Adrianne Lenker: It went really good. It was one of my favorite things I've ever done. But it was the most nervous I've been in a long time.

Ayisha Jaffer: Do you think you got anything out of it, learned anything out of it yourself?

Adrianne Lenker: Oh, yeah. I feel like I learned so much, just from exploring my process and looking more deeply into like how to break it down and slow it down and articulate what's actually going on when I'm writing a song. I didn't know if it would be possible to explain it when I was first going into it. But there are parts of it that remain unexplainable, for sure; probably the most magical part of it could never really be articulated. But there's so many tools, and there's so many parts of it that are tangible. And that was inspiring to me, to realize that I could share this. I could share my songs in a different way. You know?

Ayisha Jaffer: That's really beautiful. Do you think you'll do it again?

Adrianne Lenker: I would like to do it again someday, yeah. I kind of think maybe I'd like to learn a bit more in my own craft before the next one. I kind of feel like I shared a good amount of what I've learned up to this point. And I feel like next time I do it, maybe it'd be cool to have learned some more tools myself.

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, I love that. We're always adding to our repertoire of learning, too. And to be able to share that is really cool.

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: So I know part of your origin story is right here in Minnesota. Have you revisited this state as part of your musical journey, whether it's physical or really metaphysical?

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah, it's a big part of me, because it's where I grew up. So it's in my blood. Some very close loved ones are still there, like my mom and my grandparents, who I'm really close with. I miss them a lot, and I try to visit as much as I can. And I don't know, I recently went to Duluth. Lake Superior is a special place to me. And I know things have been changing with climate change and stuff, but growing up, it was, like, just frozen all winter; like, it never melted. I remember. And I feel like that cold — those cold winters and the seasons — just really got into my bones. And something feels really right about being in that cold weather. And yeah, I think about it. I think about it a lot.

Ayisha Jaffer: Yeah, and now Duluth is somewhat of a climate refuge, too, when you're talking about that. But it is interesting that there's no snow right now. And it's 50 degrees, if you can believe it. It's wild. [Editor’s Note: This interview was recorded on a date when 50°F was vastly, unseasonably warm for Minnesota.]

Adrianne Lenker: That's so strange.

Ayisha Jaffer: I know. I mean, for all of us.

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah. I feel like Minnesotans often — real Minnesotans — get kind of bummed when it's not cold. Like my grandparents. They'll be like, "Ugh, it's 50, and there's no snow." Yeah, it's just like, “What?” Yeah.

Ayisha Jaffer: And it seems like nature has sort of been a part of your process, or involved in your process, in a way. What does nature kind of evoke for you when it comes to creating?

Adrianne Lenker: Oh, it's all around and everywhere and in everything for me, because that's where I, like, restore and replenish. And it is just so vital, too. I need it so much, especially after touring and being in venues and being in buses and airports and airplanes and hotels and stuff like that. [After that,] I just want to go lie on the ground and be in the woods and lie on a rock, you know? And just like, let it all go, let it all go into the trees and just get in the fresh water and breathe in the clean air, and what a gift that is. It just feels like a massage for my eyes and my body to be able to look at nature and observe it, to be able to look at the colors — you know, sunset sunrises, the veins on the leaves and watching little insects — because it just gets out of the human busyness, the noise. And it's beautiful because there's all these forms of intelligence that we can't understand. And there's all these like, microcosms and macro-cosmos, and it's just like, it's special. I like the feeling of just remembering that I'm just a small part of this wilderness, you know?

Ayisha Jaffer: I think that's beautiful. I, in another life, was a park ranger, so I understand that on a deep level. I love what you were talking about, kind of when you look at all these pieces, one I can share is just like the rivers, when you see the rivers branch off, and it's like connected to everything, I don't know. It’s just, you have this deep connection, and you feel revitalized and replenished by nature. And I love that that is part of your process. And part of kind of like a meditative self-health part of it that goes into your music. And you sort of had created some deep bonds in the process of this because you got a bunch of your favorite musicians together, which includes Phil [Weinrobe], who's your longtime collaborator, who's producing and engineering the record; Mat Davidson, Nick Hakim and Josefin Runsteen. Can you tell me a little bit about these incredible humans and the bond you guys created on this record?

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah, well, I've known Nick for the longest, since I was probably 16. And I met him at Music School in Boston, and we played shows together. He's one of my best friends. He's like family. But I just think he has one of the most beautiful voices on Earth, and I love his ear, how he listens and plays piano. And Mat Davidson I've known since I was like about 21, or 22. And we started touring, playing shows together when I moved to New York, and he's one of my favorite songwriters on Earth. But he also just has a voice of an angel and can play about just any instrument, it's just incredible. And then Josefin I didn't know as well, but I met her in Italy, at this songwriters’ retreat thing in, like, this castle in Italy, and she's just this insanely talented violin player, percussionist — she went to school for jazz drumming, I think — but she's also just a classically trained, incredible violin player. And she arranges, and she's just really cool. I like her energy a lot, to the point where I just trusted that it would probably be awesome to work with her, even though we hadn't before.

And I don't know, when I was thinking of all these three people, they have a way of listening that I've observed that that was the biggest reason why I just trusted it would be OK. But then again, I didn't know, so it was a bit of a risk, because you never know how people will jell, even if you like them as individuals. It was better than I could have expected. It was more than just working. I guess I felt like they were healing me; I just felt like hanging out with them was so replenishing. And it was so cool to just — they just self-arranged as they went. We never wore headphones, we never listened back. We just played each song a handful of times until we didn't want to play it. And they arranged them as they went, and it felt good, so we would move on. Everybody was so respectful. Everybody put in their whole hearts. Everybody really, really was very present.

Ayisha Jaffer: It sounds like a very natural process, which is really, really unique and special.

Adrianne Lenker: Yeah, it was.

Ayisha Jaffer: I love that. So in this record, at The Current, we're playing "Sadness As A Gift." I really love the title. And I'm just kind of wondering if you can walk through the inspiration for this track?

Adrianne Lenker: Well, it started out as a breakup. And yeah, my heart hurt really bad, because it was just like grieving the passing of this relationship and the form that it was in. But it ended up being a song about a lot more than that, which the ones that stick around tend to be; they're bigger than just one thing, usually. There's room to grow into them. And there are layers of it, where it's just the sadness of life — like everything we come to love, we lose; every person we come to know leaves us; we leave this earth even. For choosing to love, or if we love, we're simultaneously … There is no such thing as loving without letting go also, because we have to, necessarily, because we have no choice. It leaves. So the sadness that we feel from the passing of something, it's a direct indicator of how much love there was. So when I started flipping it like that, like, "Wow, I feel so utterly sad right now. Like such sadness, such deep sadness about this." But then I flipped it in my mind and realized that as deep as the sadness is, that's how much love I feel. And it's like this gift. It's like this treasure in a way, if you can feel the real sadness of something.

Ayisha Jaffer: It's such a flip of the script, really, when you're thinking about it, and that's beautiful.

Well, I don't want to keep you here too much longer. Adrianne Lenker, thanks for joining us here at The Current. Before I let you go, though, the new album is called Bright Future. Is there anything you're looking forward to ahead?

Adrianne Lenker: I'm looking forward to releasing the album!

Ayisha Jaffer: I think that's fair. Well, we really appreciate you spending the time here with The Current. Thanks again for being here. Bright Future comes out March 22.

Adrianne Lenker: Thanks for having me.

Ayisha Jaffer: Nice to meet you!

Adrianne Lenker: You too.

Credits

Guest – Adrianne Lenker
Host – Ayisha Jaffer
Producer – Derrick Stevens
Digital Producer – Luke Taylor

External Link

Adrianne Lenker – official site