Lenny Kravitz released his twelfth studio album “Blue Electric Light” in May 2024. We sat down for a conversation with the man himself to discuss the new record and its youthful vibe, receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and just what on earth is a “TK421”?
Hi Lenny! Your new album “Blue Electric Light” (Reviewed here!), that’s got to be one of the best album titles I’ve heard in a long, long time.
Thank you!
And it instantly reminded me of a name you used early in your career, Romeo Blue – why did you choose to use that rather than Lenny Kravitz?
At that time, it was something that I did, because at that time in my teens, I was not comfortable with my own name. I didn’t think that it sounded right, you know? This is the days of Madonna and Prince. And so, these guys gave me this nickname “Romeo” and I added the “Blue” to it and it became this thing – Romeo Blue. Then, I didn’t feel right about it. I felt like it was a persona but it’s not who I am, and so I went back to my own name, which was a beautiful experience, to accept it. Becoming Romeo Blue was an exercise in me finding my way home, back to myself.
So, when you mention “blue” in the title of the new album, it’s not a reference to that?
It’s not, but there are elements of it. I just woke up with this “blue electric light” in my head, went to the studio, recorded the song that was in my head, and for me “Blue electric light” is God, it’s love, it’s humanity, it’s vibration, it’s power. But this album has an essence of Romeo Blue, this album is somewhat the album I never made as a teenager. The sound, the vibe, the production is reminiscent of what I was doing pre-“Let Love Rule”.
Interesting. Like “Let Love Rule”, the album has a really youthful vibe, a joyful vibe, did you think of the influences you had back in your youth when you were making this?
Not so much the influences –- a little bit – but more or less what I was then. It’s interesting that you say about this youthful thing. That youthful spirit of the time in my teens came back to me for some reason, and, I think it was because I’d written this book called “Let Love Rule” which came out in the beginning of the pandemic – I don’t know if you knew about that.
Yeah, I did.
Well, it became a New York Times bestseller.
Great!
It was wonderful. But the point is that I spent a lot of time in that book exploring my teen years, because the book was from birth till the first album, it stopped there. So I spent a lot of time exploring my teen years and I think that, then, when I started making this album, after the book had come out, that spirit came back to me. I had been in there digging and digging. So, I don’t think I’ve ever in my life, at this age, which is weird, felt more youthful, and I’ve realised that youthfulness is also a spirit, it’s a feeling. Part of it is age, part of it is how you feel, that’s why you can meet a ninety year-old woman who has the spirit of a little girl. That’s the spirit that’s within you. I hung out with some kids, I remember, when I was in school, we were ten years old, and there was this kid who would be like a little old man. He had the spirit of an old man, you know – very serious in the way he spoke and that. So, it’s a spirit. The album also represents now, with what’s going on, so it also brought that element together, with where I am.
It’s got a cross-generational appeal. You mentioned that you woke up with the song, “Blue Electric Light” in your head –
All of them! That’s just how I work.
Does it come to you in dreams?
I’m just an antenna. So I’m just waiting to pick up what’s being transmitted. I don’t sit down to write. I let it come to me and then I put it together.
So, when you go to the studio, do you have preconceived ideas?
Yeah, I wait until I have an idea, I wait until I have something that’s come to me.
Did you set out to do anything in particular with this album before you started it and then it turned into something different?
With each album, I have no idea what I’m going to do. Never do I have an idea. If I have an idea, it means nothing [laughs], because whatever is going to happen, happens.
There’s a heavy element of spontaneity in it?
Yes.
A lyric which really stood out for me was “I am here to be human” and I wondered what that statement meant for you – when you say it, what does it mean to you?
To walk in my authenticity, to walk in my purpose, to do whatever I have to do to be in that place, you know? Also to love and to have gratitude, but it’s really about living in one’s purpose. I believe that we’re our most powerful when we’re authentic, to who and what we are. Not living a lie. So, that’s what the song’s about. We are spiritual beings having a human existence, and this is where we are right now. So, we are having this human existence and dealing with all of the dynamics of what being human is, the good, the bad, and the ugly – all of it.
What is a TK421? I’ve heard Star Wars and all sorts of references.
The song is about facing your fears and conquering your fears, doing what it takes to make your life better, so that you can live a better life. But the metaphor – it originally comes from Star Wars, it’s the number of a storm trooper – but in a movie that I love, called “Boogie Nights” by a director that I love, Paul Thomas Anderson, he uses “TK421” in his movie when one of the characters, who’s played by Don Cheadle, who’s working in a stereo store, is trying to sell a stereo to this guy, who’s telling him that the stereo is great as it is, but if you really want it to perform at its optimum level, with more bass, more punch, more dynamics, you have to get the TK421 modification…
Ha!
…which we do in the back room there, you pay extra, and now the stereo is that much better. So, I always loved that film and that whole TK421 thing, and it’s a kind of running in-joke within my people and my studio, this TK421 modification. Because, whenever I would ask the guy who runs my studio “what’s up with that piece of equipment that you’re fixing and that I need back?” he’d say “Oh, I’m doing the TK421 modification in the back.” He jokes about it. So, when I was putting this groove together there it came in my head, so, TK421 is something that makes it better, so much better.
Sounds great.
So, let’s make our lives better with the TK-421.
You mentioned groove, there’s groove all over this record, but you also mentioned production in the studio, and I know you get involved with production too.
Yeah, I produce the albums.
Don’t worry if you can’t pick one, but which was the trickiest track to produce and which was the easiest?
The trickiest…. Hmmm….
Or just that took the longest.
Hmmm – I don’t even know now. One of the ones that took time was a song called “Heaven” but that’s a song from high school time. I pulled two songs out from high school. And I had to really transcribe what was on this old, fucked up cassette that sounded really badly, it was damaged, and I had to transcribe all of the parts, all the sounds, and that was tricky, that took some time. What was the easiest? I don’t know. They all kind of flowed, actually.
Again, interesting that you mentioned going back to your youth, you actually pulled a couple of songs from your youth and reworked them. I’ll have to listen to “Heaven” again and bear that in mind.
“Heaven” and “Bundle of Joy”. Actually, sorry, “Bundle of Joy” was the most difficult, because it had all these synthesiser sounds and things that I had to program, and getting all the sounds right, the drums, the effects, everything took time. “Heav
Your life has several contrasts in it, for example Jewish and Christian, and black and white. Do you feel that’s reflected in your work?
I mean, it can be. I’m all over the place.
Yeah, you defy categorisation.
That’s just part of it. My life seems to be about contrasts.
You recently received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Does that recognition mean a lot to you? Is it important?
Is it important? It’s something that is appreciated and something that is just very surreal. It makes me think about all of the time, all the years that have gone past that I haven’t thought about, how I’d got there, to that place where I’m standing there receiving this. It was beautiful that so many of the people I grew up with were there, they were present. They had been a part of the journey, and I really appreciated that. My daughter speaking so beautifully and with so much love and so much humour. My brother Denzel [Washington]…. It was a wonderful celebration of life and accomplishment.
You’re coming to Norway next month. I wondered what your memories are of being in Norway last time.
I love it, I love it. Are we going to Oslo? Where are we going?
It’s outside Oslo – Hamar.
Ah, well, I’ve had great times in Norway. The people, chill, the fun, especially in the Summer.
Yeah, it’s a great time to be there. You chose well with late June. Happy “Big” Birthday for next week! How are you going to celebrate?
I’m having some friends and family get together. I do this every ten years only, so we’re going to celebrate and have a good time.
Text and live photo: Anne-Marie Forker
Photo: Mark Seliger
First published in Norway Rock Magazine 2024 Issue 2