Brittany Howard: 2024

Brittany Howard's latest album, What Now, arrives five years after her stirring solo debut, Jaime. As an artist restlessly seeking to expand in new directions as a musician, What Now lifts off in thrilling and unexpected directions. Over the course of twelve tracks, Howard joyfully dives into futuristic, psychedelic funk, untethered jazz, dance, drum 'n' bass, and more, shaping a rocking dream odyssey that dwells in romantic disillusionment and rethinking an unfulfilling entanglement. Basically, it's an album of pandemic-era heartbreak, but done in Howard's inimitable, break-all-expectations style.

In this FUV Live session, recorded on Valentine's Day (one of Brittany's favorite holidays, heartbreak be damned), we chat about those pandemic years for Howard (living in a rental house, recording ideas), her "symbiosis" with co-producer and co-engineer Shawn Everett, and what she calls the fun of freedom in the birth of What Now. "I always wanted to be the type of artist you can't nail down," she says. She also delivers three songs from What Now, recorded in concert at New York's Webster Hall in February 2024: "Another Day," "Power To Undo," and "Prove It To You."

[Recorded: 2/14/24; Engineered by Jim O'Hara and produced by Meghan Offtermatt]