Kravitz reflects on 30 years of music
Lenny Kravitz didn’t go into the writing of his latest album, “Raise Vibration,” with a clear idea or vision for what kind of record he wanted to make.
It’s hard to steer, after all, when the album is writing itself.
“The record was given to me in a succession of dreams. So the beautiful thing was that I didn’t push myself upon this album. I never do, actually. But I had tried some different things in the beginning, thinking I was going to go in a certain direction. And it was fine. But I wasn’t feeling it in my soul like I wanted to. And then I walked away and closed the studio door.“
A few weeks later, the songs that form his 11th album started coming to Kravitz in dreams.
“And that is the most beautiful way to work, in my opinion,” he says, “when you remove yourself completely but everything you wanted to say and everything you’re feeling at that time is coming through.”
He’s had songs come to him in dreams before, he says, but never an entire album.
“I don’t sit down to write because it’s time to write,” he says, “like ‘Oh, it’s album time.’ I wait until I hear something. And when I hear it, I begin to work on it. And as I get deeper in that process, I started hearing more and more. And that’s what happened. So these records are always about what’s floating around and being transmitted to me. Whatever it is, you know. So that was very special. And of course, it’s a reflection of these times.”
That’s always been a goal for Kravitz, from the time he hit the streets in 1989 with “Let Love Rule,” his first reflection of the times, which announced the arrival of star whose entire aesthetic was based on embracing the music, the fashion and above all else the spirit of the psychedelic ’60s.
“I started out with my first album – ‘Let Love Rule,’ ‘Does Anybody Out There Even Care,’ ‘Mr. Cab Driver’ – talking about everything from racism to government to people coming together and fighting all this evil. It talked about the environment. Fear. All this stuff started with my first record and continued on. Not every song is. Some are
Lenny Kravitz
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What works for Kravitz may not work for others.
And he’s cool with that, as you’d expect.
He’s very Lenny Kravitz that way. Asked, for instance, if he feels the pop songs of today are reflecting the times as much as they could or as much as other songs have in the past, Kravitz says, “It’s reflecting the part of the times they want to deal with. That may be more about self and partying, materialism and more ego-related things because they don’t want to deal with what’s going on, necessarily. I’m not talking about everybody. We’re generalizing. And then there are those that do and that’s the right of every artist – to do what they want to do. That’s what music is for me. It’s about expressing myself.”
Among the more compelling tracks on “Raise Vibration” is “It’s Enough.” After setting the tone for the album’s lead single with “.45 caliber in the face / Shot him in the head because of his race / Now that he is dead, will we plead his case? / While the executioner’s out on grace,” a clearly disillusioned Kravitz sings, “I just thought somehow that things would get better.”
He believed things get better when he wrote that “love can conquer any war” on “Let Love Rule.”
“If you had asked me back in 1989 ‘Do I think that the world would like what it looks like now?,’ I would have thought that it would have been in such a better place in so many ways, whether we’re talking about the government, whether we’re talking about the whole racial thing, the environment. In every category, I would have thought things would have been better. It’s just very interesting to see it going backwards. Very interesting. And troubling. We’re obviously living in challenging times. I think we’re at a very serious crossroads, because I mean, what are we choosing? And when I say ‘we,’ it goes beyond what you and I might want and fight for. We’re dealing with governments and corporations that are so-called running this planet that have a whole other agenda.”
Love still rules
Kravitz’s agenda has been obvious from that first album.
“I love life,” he says. “We were given this beautiful planet. We were given each other. And instead of working with each other on this beautiful planet and embracing the differences, we go in the opposite direction.”
Asked if he finds reasons to be hopeful in 2019, Kravitz makes it clear that he’s still very much the man who wrote that stuff about how love can conquer any war.
“I choose to be an optimist,” he says. “I choose to be hopeful. Because as bad as folks can be, there’s so many beautiful people in this world. I love that. But as hopeful as I am, as optimistic as I am, as much faith as I have, we’ve got some serious issues to deal with. And it doesn’t look good, but we have to keep fighting, we have to keep quote unquote raising vibration and letting love rule and all these things. We have to continue to fight for what we believe in. Which in the end is the most simple thing. Love. Love of ourselves, love of each other, love of our planet.”
With Kravitz arriving in Phoenix just after the 30th anniversary of “Let Love Rule,” it seems as good a time as any to ask what he thinks when he looks back on that release.
“There’s something really special about your first record,” he says.
“I’m proud of all the records I’ve released. I wouldn’t have released them if I couldn’t stand by them. I can stand by all of them. What really gets me is that 30 years have gone by. That’s what trips me out. Because it feels like yesterday, you know? But it was 30 years ago. I mean, it’s mind-blowing. It really is. It really shows you how fast life is moving. At the same time, it’s a blessing to be able to 30 years later still be doing what you love, still be playing and sharing music and putting out new material. I feel very blessed, very grateful and humbled that I get to do what I love, you know?”