Goapele is a singer/songwriter from the Bay Area. She released her first album in 2001. Since then, she’s released five more albums and collaborated with Snoop Dogg. In 2017, on her album DreamSeeker, she put out the song "Stand." It was written in the wake of the shooting death of Oscar Grant, a 22-year-old black man who was shot and killed while unarmed and handcuffed by a Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Officer. The shooting took place in 2009. Coming up, Goapele tells the story of why it took 8 years for her to finish the song.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dear listening to song, explorer where musicians take up their songs and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made, I'm reputation your way. Song
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Globally is a singer songwriter for the bay area. Surely
her first album in two thousand and one since then
she's released five, more albums and collateral.
Ended with soup dog
in two thousand seventeen on her dream seeker. She put this on
stand. It was written in the wake of the shooting death of oscar grant twenty two year old black.
Man who was shot and killed while unarmed and handcuffed on a subway platform
the bay area, rapid transit police officer, the shooting took place,
Thousand nine coming up gladly explains. Why took eight years for her to finish:
My name is gladly
I first started working on this song in oh nine hours.
her grant, had just been murdered by the bark police in oakland.
And asked,
green seemed like a young
your person, I would know it could have been someone that was like
A few or a cousin, but he wasn't in active ass. He wasn't involved in anything soup
a crazy on the streets. He was like a regular young guy hanging out with his friends and so
but it was very tight
enjoyable and relate, and in obvious
read of like this could be
Anybody. I think you,
was just a wake up call of how close
the home, the
taliban profiling is
there were these rallies going on in downtown open and our studio was in west open. My really close to that for
me growing up in oakland am berkeley, it's a play.
It's swear going
It's her marches can be as common is going to concerts and an
at times. When you go to a march, there is going to also be you know, a local
the pop artists and maybe a singer, and it's gonna be like
community gathering. So I feel like
it's always been expected of me to face,
something in my music. I mean I feel, like I've problem
we ve been more commercial and straight ahead than I would have expected myself to be when I was a teenager first thinking of me,
this a career in
wanted to say something, but just
felt like I needed to hold tight and get my
all together in
I kind of sat a while with the lyrics
enjoy stand
oh
We also saw
far from it.
The thing.
and
when this song first started
I mean together, I remember a beat that Dana electric did the Dana electric as a producer out of the bay area. It started out kind of retro kind of like eighties. It was
apparently just from our precept that we had
keyboard in the studio. I started singing that melody that just stand over the music
There was something that I felt like didn't translate all the way to when I first started up
not that I wanted it to sound so serious,
because the lyrics are so serious. I wanted it to have a balance where you feel up,
lifted, but also tat,
mike motivated to get up and stand
and do something
so it just kind of sat in a group with so many songs that I've started that I'm waiting the finnish and it's not
often that I'll start writing a song one year and in so many years later come back to finish it and put it out, but the car
I met of what has been going on leading into two thousand and seventeen, where I feel
like so many of us are under attack in just so encouraged to be
now and
dumbed down and depressed
like ok. Now is the time to to.
put this out, and maybe I waited for a reason
So I listen to the song. I was like bees. Lyric still makes sense, but how can we update
production a little bed.
At the end of the day, I want my songs to come to.
gather and feel effortless
It wasn't effortless doing this know him, though you know, I worked with a few differ
producers to give.
to the version that I have now I mean you, don't know how many times I fucking thong honestly and I was like thing
over with different emotion, to see. If you know that would work, I just kept trying different thing
wondering like em I'd sure thing. Maybe this song is, you know, sir
the thing I did, but it's not worth
people hearing if, since it's like not coming together easily, but the
they in a story were always there, so each
rested in that you know if we could just get music and my performance to feed,
Oh right so bad rocca producer that I've
with four years wanted to take
a stab at at producing it. So
he was like, rethink you no more laid back closely.
You, can understand it's a new day.
If Israel, but we still gonna get. Then he
He started late.
Some other chords on it. Let's a picture in a frame is something to this game. That's a jew juno when he started playing that I felt an emotional connection and it kind of has like a nostalgic feel, and I always like a will: vintage keyboard sound combined with something modern. I think it's the part of me that feels rooted in soul, music. I just like to have something that feels organic or anna lagi to balance out or have a juxtaposition to more modern, programmed drums
and then we went this home studio with Raphia threegs nephew jade in wiggins, who played guitar
it's a very different, and I was wondering like what is still have
energy though- and I also I mean I'm kind of embarrassed to admit this, but I also wanted to have this resume with younger people,
embarrassing because I always feel like I shouldn't care like if everyone likes my music, that's cool and I never want to feel
like I'm trying for a certain audience, but it was definitely a gold
happened to some new energy, so,
interesting that this was like a couple younger guys that we're starting to play on it and it was feeling more mellow, but I was like our they feelings them.
It didn't sound like a sound to me, but it sounded like something new we sent
talk to a keyboard player that plays in my band allied Dave jackson. He added three different layers: organ and a couple. Different keyboard sounds bedrock added a break down where you can hear like a crowd of
kids, yelling and playing. I like that they do.
sound like their living. There is like
This life,
for anyone's taking away our power or our joy.
You know I was a new mother when I was writing the song and I
A little bit corny because I felt like I was kind of like rap singing
I'm afraid, I'm fine, a farmer cooing little different,
needed thing more fast
ace in like a rap or, but I just can't, I wanted to say it out who I am and feel like a bad ass, but also just feel like
in ordinary human
I mean just like
as a mom, just as a person in this world. This is what I don't want to see out there
then tell me what means meanwhile, justice keeps on fighting, so I hoped it would be
the empowering fur other people as each person kind of figures out who they are
in their own life or their position in the community.
I was really adamant that I wanted the chorus,
is to have a crowd voice. I didn't want it.
As a woman's voice. I wanted it to feel like
could sing this at a rally now I've at a alot rallies, but early on that one of the places I started and I wanted to feel like a move.
So I mean we,
the engineer, and there we had some people there.
Would consider themselves singers some people about winning that just added to the crowd,
We
why
wow,
so when we were mixing the song, it was longer in a kind of faded out with the music the vocals were already over and it just felt anti climactic to me. The point of it is to feel like there's a crowd and you're part of something, and so I wanted it and acapella for that to be the last impression you hear those voices together, men and women just stand something.
Stay
a ban
oh
and now here, stand by globally in its entirety,
and standards and new day my misery, I'm gonna, take a better games, stand up. Man, yes, says something: we denounce this kid. Some you stay
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Transcript generated on 2023-06-16.