Go immediately right now to Black Planet for questions and answers about Solange’s recently dropped album When I Get Home. For fans who can’t make her live “album experience†events in Houston, Texas, the musician is hosting a livestream Sunday, March 3 at 7:45 p.m. EST to soften the blow. According to Pitchfork, the stream will also reportedly feature a discussion about When I Get Home moderated by writer and art curator Antwaun Sargent. And if you still aren’t clear on Solange’s work after an album, a film, an experience, and a discussion, then you know what? Just let yourself enjoy the mystery.
Update, March 5: At her talk in Houston, Solange divulged the process through which When I Get Home came to be, explaining how she opened the floor to her collaborators and acted as executive producer on a shared project. “The best for me is to invite people into the space and say ‘do you.’ It could be six hours before I hear the one ad-lib or the one thing where I think, ‘OK, that is how I can extend this into an expression of what I want to achieve,’†she said, per Pitchfork.
Solange said she preferred to work as an auteur rather than sole creator, a position women are rarely afforded in music. “Speaking my truth, it is rather difficult as a producer to be reduced to just the songwriter or just the artist when you spend 18 hours editing one drum sound,†she said. “We’ve come a long way from that for women, but it’s still got a little ways to go — the way we’re able to have that conversation about Rick Rubin but we’re not extending that conversation to others.â€
She also revealed that she began creating the album after touring A Seat at the Table, renting a house in her hometown where she began working on new music: “Obviously with A Seat at the Table I had so much to say. With this album I had so much to feel. Words would have been reductive to what I needed to feel and express. It’s in the sonics for me.â€