Episode 3 - Joy - Live From My Den - video Dailymotion

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00:00What happened to the good old days When you could take a hit of that good shit

00:27And feel your troubles fade away I guess I've got to make a change

00:35I'm not sober, I'm just over trying To smoke away the rage

00:39The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive

00:50And my friends don't call unless they need a ride

00:55Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by

01:00Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive

01:06I've been running on empty and calling it strength

01:11I've reopened old wounds cause I won't take a break

01:16I know I've got to make a change I won't hurt myself or go through hell

01:22Trying to prove my place The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high

01:30Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive

01:34And my friends don't call unless they need a ride

01:39Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by

01:44Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive

02:14The drugs don't work, oh, I can't get high Oh, doctor, doctor, find me a new way to survive

02:28And my friends don't call unless they need a ride

02:33Oh, father, father, feels like I'm barely getting by

02:38Seems like I've got to look for a new way to survive

02:52What's up, everybody? I'm Joy Aladakun, and we're in Brooklyn, where I just sort of finished

02:56making a record, and I'm back today to play some acoustic versions and to show you some

03:00of my favorite spots. Welcome to my den. Let's go.

03:04When I was finishing my record, Observation to MacGyver, I spent a few days in New York

03:11just because I find it really inspiring here in Nashville, where I live. There's not a

03:18lot going on, which I like about it, but it was cool to come to the city and to sort of

03:24just spend days making music, rolling spliffs, buying candy, and sort of figuring out what

03:30the record is about. Obviously, my favorite activity, as someone who's still very much

03:36a fan of music, is going record shopping. I spent a lot of time while making this album

03:43just leaving whatever studio I was in, finding a record store, finding whatever's in the,

03:49you know, discount bin, and then coming back to the studio, putting it on, and listening

03:54to it, and all of those noises and sounds and shopping trips sort of inspired me to

04:00make Observations to MacGyver. It's been important for me as a creative to stay a fan

04:04and to keep my heart in my head, enjoying music as much as possible so that I don't

04:10burn out or I don't take for granted the fact that I get to make songs for a living.

04:14We got Smiley Lewis, we got Peebo Bryson, the Pointer Sisters, obviously, and Billie Holiday.

04:23For me, coming to the city was just a way to take myself out of a town that I wasn't

04:30sure I wanted to be in. Like, I talk a lot about Nashville and my love-hate relationship

04:35with it on the album, and honestly, a pace of life that I think was getting too comfortable,

04:41whether it's like being able to call my co-writers or friends or producer or distraction.

04:47Honestly, it was three focused days of time in the studio, so I would wake up at like

04:54six or seven, go to my hotel gym, and then I would come to the studio, and from the morning

05:00until probably like one or two the next morning, I would just work. I slept like

05:09three or four hours over just as many days, and the point was to come to New York and to

05:15find the heart of the album, which is, I think, what happened.

05:45Don't care and my mind is dark because things don't seem fair

05:54Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling

06:00Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing

06:05Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun

06:11Am I the only one, am I the only one

06:21It's the human way to ignore our needs we are blinded by ancient history

06:31And my father's blood makes me hard to please that's why waking up is a victory

06:44Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling

06:49Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing

06:55Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun

07:01Am I the only one, am I the only one who's out here losing the race

07:08Only one who's looking for grace only one who feels it's getting hard

07:16Am I the only one who's losing control only one who's looking for soul

07:22Only one whose goals keep getting farther

07:26Does anybody feel like everybody's flying even though the sky is falling

07:34Does anybody notice someone's always crying we don't do a thing

07:39Does anybody feel like it's getting hotter down here under the sun

07:46Am I the only one, am I the only one

07:55I think music is largely therapeutic to me like in the sense that when I sit down to create

08:02the goal is to take the anger and the sadness and the questioning and to sort of alchemize it

08:08into something beautiful or a little more hopeful and so I think that it's a natural result that

08:14an album I wanted to make because I was really sad and really overworked and really tired

08:19deals with a lot of pain but sounds a lot more hopeful than some of the music feels or reads

08:26at times just because I think that that is my goal I'm trying to use songs and use music to

08:32sort of search my way through the negative and find a silver lining again or to build a silver

08:38lining out of what I'm what I'm writing and so yeah I think that's why there's still hope present

08:44because I think music to me is a way that I find and remember and like plant a flag in moments of hope

08:57Oh to be a man in faith

09:02Never asking questions, never changing your ways

09:08I'm a skeptic who's to praise

09:12If death leads me to heaven, they'll recognize my face

09:20So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to

09:26So I am trying to find my way through the middle

09:30And I am desperate to receive every good thing

09:39From now until eternity, from dust until divinity

09:48Oh to be a fortunate son

09:53The world was built for your dreams, with gold your daddy won

10:01I was born out on the run, a stranger with no country, maker of my own luck

10:12So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to

10:19So I am trying to find my way through the middle

10:23And I am desperate to receive every good thing

10:30From now until eternity, from dust until divinity

10:38Oh it's hard to be alive, there are few good options

10:44And the price of getting by is rising

10:48Still I'm grateful to be here in the sun's glow

10:55My sorrow almost swallowed me, I did not let it conquer me

11:03Oh you give and you take and you hope and you pray

11:06Keep the faith till it breaks your heart

11:09Oh you live till you die and you try to survive

11:12Long enough that you leave your mark

11:16Oh you give and you take and you hope and you pray

11:19Keep the faith till it breaks your heart

11:22Oh you live till you die and you try to survive

11:25Long enough that you leave your mark

11:45So it hurts me to believe, it kills me not to

12:00So I am trying to find my way through the middle

12:07And I am desperate to receive every good thing

12:12From now until eternity, from dust until divinity

12:27I mean I think that's part of the reason that I ended up writing it alone

12:30is because I think as a writer and as an artist there was maybe a desperation I had

12:36for there to be no filter on what was being created

12:40and not in a positive way or a negative way

12:45but sometimes when you're writing with other people

12:47you're sort of like creating a mosaic of everybody's feelings and thoughts

12:53and I think that sometimes what I have to say can get lost

12:59not in a way that feels tragic, it's songwriting you know

13:01like not heart surgery but it just

13:05I think writing music alone and getting back to this place

13:08where I could have the confidence of like I wrote every word of this

13:13I think also allowed me to go what do I really feel

13:16what is something that I might want to say or have wanted to say

13:20that someone might convince me out of otherwise

13:23and how can I just bring that to the forefront

13:25since I have the opportunity to make some music being in the driver's seat

13:31Oh Look Up, Look Up I wrote just sort of thinking about

13:37it's so easy to get mired in like the reality of day-to-day

13:43like you know your car doesn't work you know your favorite sports team loses

13:47and Look Up to me was a reminder that I need to sometimes take a break

13:52from looking at my feet and like look at the sky

13:55enjoy some flowers, pet a dog

13:58like really just let loose a little bit and enjoy the positive things around me

14:05I have a few I got to play Rocket Man with my morning jacket at Red Rocks

14:10I also got to sing with Brandi Carlile at Red Rocks

14:14so Red Rocks has been very kind to me

14:17One of my favorite performances though is I was opening for John Mayer

14:21and I was smoking a joint before the show

14:23and I coughed so hard that I threw my back out

14:28but it was the it was the only night that John could play on stage with me

14:32so I had to just like I and you can tell in the photo too that I'm dying

14:36but it's I got to play on stage with John Mayer and he's playing one of my songs

14:40and he is absolutely ripping and I'm sort of hunched over

14:43just making it through the set

14:46I think that's one of my favorites because it's humbling

14:51Um this is gonna sound really weird but uh

14:55hand and headstands do wonders for my brain

14:59I my therapist and I were trying to find a way for me to sort of

15:05get my adrenaline down post playing shows or like

15:10even like I'll have meetings with the label and stuff like that

15:12and I'll get a little stressed

15:15and so I started just literally like inverting myself

15:19like we came we came through this little like

15:21we came up with this little sort of body routine

15:24like I'll literally just stretch a little

15:26and then I'll flip and I'll do the handstand

15:28and then I'll end in child's pose

15:30and it's just like a way for me to maybe just get back into my body

15:35and feel my limbs and all that stuff

15:38and I think that mental health is really important

15:42but it's it's one aspect of health in the sense of

15:45I think sometimes connecting my brain and my body through movement

15:49is a way that I can quell some of the stress

15:54and so that's been the biggest thing that I've learned

15:55it's just like go on a walk do a weird flip

15:59like just sort of like it's okay to get out of your brain sometimes

16:05all of them I like all of them

16:08I'd Miss the Birds is always fun to play

16:17Lately I've been dreaming of a house out in the woods

16:21It's a big backyard my dog and my lover

16:26Gave Nashville a chance and made it farther than I thought I would

16:30But it doesn't mean I should hang around and suffer

16:35This world on fire still has good to discover

16:40I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains

16:44And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place

16:48Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make

16:53But even they know when to fly away

16:58Oh I think it's time to fly away

17:03Dusty Silverado take me to another place

17:07This town has a way to leave you wanting

17:12For all its brand new buildings and its heroes on parade

17:16This town still isn't big enough to love me

17:20And I'm still too damn proud to beg for company

17:25I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains

17:30And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place

17:34Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make

17:38But even they know when to fly away

17:43Oh I think it's time to fly away

17:46Oh I think it's time to make a change

17:52To spread my wings and drift away

17:57I think I finally learned that you can't get back the years

18:01But you can always come back to a place

18:08I wouldn't miss the traffic or the runaway trains

18:14And the proud boys and their women just make me feel out of place

18:18Oh but I'd miss the birds and the music that they make

18:23And the feel of the earth beneath my feet in early May

18:28And the magnolia leaves as they fall out of play

18:36But even they know when to fly away

18:39Oh I think it's time to fly away

19:02I'm Joy Oladokun and this has been my episode of Live From My Den.

19:06My new album, Observations from a Crowded Room, is out now.

19:09Wherever you listen to music and take care of yourselves.

Episode 3 - Joy - Live From My Den

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