Zadie Smith & Devonté Hynes: I would never call myself an artist

11 Jun

[Picture of Zadie (c) Dominique Nobokov; Picture of Devonte (c) Jade Magnolia Boulton]

I can’t think of a better way to end season 4 and the never before heard conversations from my archive, than my conversation between friends, best-selling author Zadie Smith and multidisciplinary and multi-hyphenate musician/producer Devonté Hynes

I’d been badgering Zadie for a while to let me interview her and when she agreed, the day before our conversation was scheduled she emails me asking if she could bring her friend Dev? I of course said yes, scrambled to find another microphone and when we had a last minute cancellation of the recording venue, we had to do it at my house. And the room with the best soundproofing, my bedroom!

We talk about how we’re all storytellers; about music; about the power of live music; about the myth of the 10,000 hours; about Prince; about whether we should define ourselves as 'artists'; about authenticity and consciousness; about knowing and unknowing and about being students forever.

I’ve produced almost 60 podcast episodes and this is one of my favourites. Because, for me, there is nothing more fulfilling than sitting around with creative people talking about music and making and process - it’s why this podcasts exists. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Because this is a never before heard conversation from my archive, some references including the music reflect that. You will also hear Zadie refer to a book she’s been working on, that book is now published and is called The Fraud Stay tuned to the end of the conversation to hear Zadie read an excerpt.