Best known for drumming and singing with soul revival band Durand Jones & The Indications, Frazer charts his own course on his solo debut, produced by The Black Keys' Dan Auerbach.

Transcript

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

The music of Aaron Frazer feels a bit like stepping into a time machine. It's got touches of Curtis Mayfield and Carole King.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IF I GOT IT (YOUR LOVE BROUGHT IT)")

AARON FRAZER: (Singing) If I got a house, got a home, little meat left on my bones. If I got it, baby, your love brought it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: But it's also very much of the now. And the Baltimore native, who's known for playing drums and singing with the band Durand Jones & The Indications, is paving a new way for American soul. And of course, he's got a new album, "Introducing...", to show for it. Aaron Frazer joins us now from Brooklyn.

Welcome to the program.

FRAZER: Hey. Thank you so much for having me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It is a pleasure to have you. I am wondering - your band is still together. What made you want to branch out with your own solo album?

FRAZER: Yeah. It was really just getting a phone call while I was making dinner. I got a call from Dan Auerbach being like, I love your music. Let's make a record.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Of The Black Keys.

FRAZER: Of The Black Keys, yeah.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I understand you wrote this album together in the course of just a few days.

FRAZER: Yeah, that's right. We wrote the record over the course of four days. I think we came out with, like, 16 vocal tracks and, like, four more instrumentals. It was a sprint.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Is that what it's like when something just clicks with someone - all that creative energy just explodes?

FRAZER: Yeah, I think that's right. I think Dan tried to get me to a place of intuitive songwriting because, like you said, Carole King, Curtis Mayfield - like, they're such, you know, finely crafted songs that each one is like a watch or something. But we also both love 45s, you know, these singles that kind of sound raw and from the gut. And so I think the idea of this record was to find a midpoint between something that feels good in the brain and something that feels good in the gut and in the ear.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah. I want to listen now to "Have Mercy," which has got touches of doo-wop. Let's listen.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "HAVE MERCY")

FRAZER: (Singing) Oh, oh, oh, have mercy. Lord, have mercy on me.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tell me about this song.

FRAZER: This one is pretty autobiographical. It's the story of me meeting my lady and just, you know, that feeling of being like, oh, my gosh, this person is so special, and then the fear that kind of comes with that of, I don't want to screw it up.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: It's interesting that that is what the song's about because this album does seem to sort of have love at its core. I'm thinking of "Lover Girl" in particular. Tell me about that song.

FRAZER: Yeah. I mean, I think sometimes, like, when you meet somebody - in this case, it's a romantic love. But I think there's a lot of stuff on the record about just, like, also, like, platonic love and anyone who brings you joy and light. But on "Lover Girl," it's just that feeling of just, like, man, there's just some magic there. It can be bewitching.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LOVER GIRL")

FRAZER: (Singing) Never going to find me another lover girl like you.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And you brought in a wide range of musicians to record with you - members of The Memphis Boys who backed icons like Dusty Springfield and Aretha Franklin but also some younger artists. You know, tell me about that dynamic and what they sort of brought to the album.

FRAZER: I think everybody, like, both old and young, brought such, like, sensitivity and empathetic playing. And most of it was done live. I think it's kind of interesting to note that a bunch of stuff on the record musically, you'll hear happened on the two - like, one, boom. And I think that's because you have people who are listening first and reacting, letting other people sort of, like, set the tone and then doing what needs to be done in response - and everybody just trying to work together to make the thing happen. It's like a barn raising.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: (Laughter) I like that - a barn raising. There's one song in particular I want to listen to, which reflects a lot of what we've been hearing lately. This is "Bad News."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD NEWS")

FRAZER: (Singing) But you don't listen. So it's bad news. Yeah, it's bad news.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So tell me about this song.

FRAZER: "Bad News" was written two Novembers ago, but I think it's only gotten more timely as release day, you know, was approaching. And the song itself - I wrote it to be heard almost from the perspective of Mother Earth.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BAD NEWS")

FRAZER: (Singing) I'm on fire. I'm burning. I can barely keep it turning.

But it's also just - it's all of us - right? - in this moment of just, like, yo, can I catch a break, like, please?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You've spoken about how important it is to raise awareness about injustices through music. And I think we hear some of that in "Ride With Me."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "RIDE WITH ME")

FRAZER: (Singing) If we don't change, then we stay the same.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So tell me a little bit more about that and the role you think you might play in the events we've seen unfolding over the last year.

FRAZER: "Ride With Me" is another climate change song. You know, it's classic sort of gospel imagery of the train is at the station. You can hear the - you know, the diesel humming. It's - and we can't afford to miss it because it is leaving the station. It's an issue I think a lot about and stress out a lot about. And I just feel like, given that so many artists who come before me, you know, especially artists of color, have given me so much, I feel like I have a platform, and I want to use it.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Tell me about this time for you because you've been in New York, which has been so, you know, affected by the pandemic. Do you think that's going to make its way into your music in the future? I mean, I wonder about this - sort of what art is going to look like after this period.

FRAZER: Yeah. I think as so many, you know, past moments of political chaos have been reflected in kind of, like, folk life, you know, in whatever form you define it - yeah, I think a lot about, like, Gil Scott-Heron's "H2O Gate Blues" and how much it maps on to today and what we look at. And my work with Durand Jones & The Indications - we're starting our next album actually this weekend. And we definitely have a couple moments on there that were borne from what we all shared and went through together this year.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Aaron Frazer. His new album is "Introducing...".

Thank you very much.

FRAZER: My pleasure. Thank you.

(SOUNDBITE OF AARON FRAZER SONG, "GIRL ON THE PHONE") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

Correction

An earlier version of this interview misspelled Gil Scott-Heron's first name as Gill and omitted the hyphen in his last name.