With five Grammy wins and sixteen nominations, Brittany Howard follows up her massively acclaimed solo debut Jaime with the new single "What Now" and teases what is to come from her upcoming album of the same name. Like Jaime (whose celebratory single "Stay High" earned a Grammy for Best Rock Song), What Now finds Howard once again taking the helm as producer and working closely with longtime collaborator engineer/co-producer/co-mixer Shawn Everett. The album emerged through a deliberately free-flowing process, with Howard doubling down on the unfettered creativity that's long defined her work. "I don't ever plan too deeply, but usually I show up with the songs almost fully formed," she says. "There was a lot of exploring sounds on the spot, and trusting that the right thing would come to us."
"What Now" takes on a potent urgency fueled by its syncopated grooves, blistering guitar riffs, and fiercely honest lyrics ("I've been making plans that don't include you anymore/My heart wants to stay but I don't know what for"). "'What Now' is maybe the truest and bluest of all the songs," says Howard. "It's never my design to hurt anyone's feelings, but I needed to say what was on my mind without editing myself. I like how it's a song that makes you want to dance, but at the same time the lyrics are brutal."
There's a double meaning to the title of What Now. "With the world we're living in now, it feels like we're all just trying to hang onto our souls," says the Nashville-based musician and frontwoman for four-time Grammy Award-winning Alabama Shakes. "Everything seems to be getting more extreme and everyone keeps wondering, 'What now? What's next?'
