>> I'm sure that’ll become a pull-quote for something that’ll make me look even stupid.
>> It’s not live, so we edit it to make everybody looks better.
>> Okay, great.
>> Even my wild hand gestures we’ll edit out.
[MUSIC]
My name is Pat Healy.
Welcome to 4/4, where we get in rhythm with our guests by
asking four reverent questions and four not-so-reverent questions.
Our guest is Lola Kirke,
actress, singer, songwriter.
Her second album is out now and it’s [SINGS] “Lady for Sale.”
>> Oh, that was perfect.
>> I'm going to start a thing where I sing ALL album titles from now on.
>> I love it. I love that for us.
>> Going into this second album,
nothing could quite prepare audiences for the difference between these two albums.
What marked the point where you made
this stylistic choice to do more of the ’80s instrumentation? [NOISE]
>> Sorry, can you hear that banging?
>> That’s fine. [LAUGHTER]
>> People are working on the basement right now.
Let me see if I can find some more solace in a guest room.
What is kind of responsible for the difference in sound?
A mixture of time, environment,
and like getting to know myself a little bit better.
My earlier music was very much kind of a product of who I was around,
who I wanted to be at that time, [LAUGHTER] and limited resources in a certain way.
Limited resources for me—personally—musically,
which my resources are still somewhat limited:
I’m not a good guitar player.
I don’t have that much range in my voice, but I was just like,
“Oh, I can play three chords and I can cover these songs and my voice can do
these things because I’ve been smoking since
basically I was a newborn baby.” And [LAUGHTER] that’s what I’m going to do.
With time off and getting to know more music and
being around Austin Jenkins—who produced the record, and went to Berklee—
we were able to explore different qualities in
my voice and I understood that I
was actually a little bit more fun than I’d ever let on,
[LAUGHTER] which I think is very much a part of this record.
>> Your dad is Simon Kirke,
drummer of Bad Company and Free …
>> Yes.
>> Which song rocks harder?
“All Right Now” or “Can’t Get Enough”?
>> Oh my God, ya know, sometimes I wake up with that breakdown
like it goes boo-doom,
boom, boom, boom, boom, boom,
from “All Right Now” like stuck in my head. And it is interesting,
I feel like the songs that we get stuck in our head,
it’s always important to ask what the lyrics are of the song.
This morning, I was singing an Angel Olsen song to myself and it was the song I
hadn’t listened to in a thousand years [SINGING] it was “Hi-Five.”
>> Ooh, I love that one.
>> I love that record.
But I let myself played out and I was like, “Oh my God,
I guess I feel so lonely I could cry right
now because [LAUGHTER] that’s what I’m singing” and I feel like sometimes,
“All Right Now” will get stuck in my head when I’m also freaking out and it’s like no,
it’s all right now, don’t worry.
As I get older, I’m leaning more Bad Co. than I am Free.
When I was younger, I was like “Free are so much cooler!”
If I were to also think about which Free songs I really like,
I think that whole record “Heartbreaker” is so much fun.
“All Right Now” is kind of like whatevs. In the canon of Free,
I think there’s better songs.
>> I think you answered that “All Right Now” rocks harder.
>> I don’t know though. I …
>> Because that’s the correct answer!
>> [LAUGHTER] Yeah, that’s what music nerds like you probably think, [HOST POINTS KNOWINGLY] but I don't know.
I’m all about, as you can probably tell from my record,
I think cheesy wins right now.
>> Yeah. Okay.
>> I think Bad Company are like hella cheesy.
>> [LAUGHTER] They might be.
>> In the greatest way.
Like I remember going to a Bad Company concert when I was younger and it was like,
the whole audience was just off-duty cops with Bad Company calf tattoos.
>> I “Weird Al” them every day around noon.
>> You what?
>> [SINGS] Feel like makin’ lunch!
>> That’s so sick.
“Feel Like Makin’ Lunch.”
>> What’s your favorite AC/DC album?
>> I grew up listening to [SINGS] “Highway to Hell.”
>> My sister has a Boston accent.
I don’t. Your sisters have accents, you don’t.
>> Yes, it’s true.
>> Let’s get down to the heart of the matter and
how often was there teasing between you two?
Like “oh, you say ‘car’ like car instead of cahhhh?”
>> Well, I feel like that’s a more Boston thing, cahhhh.
>> [LAUGHTER] I just chose car out of the blue.
>> That’s from your life.[LAUGHTER] No. It would be more like water, is “wah-tah.”
>> Yeah.
>> Butter is “buh-tah.”
No. I mean, I am five years younger
than my sister Jemima and eight years younger than my sister Domino.
I have a brother named Greg as well,
who is the most English of us all and we’re 12 years apart.
But I moved to New York when I was four-and-a-half or five.
By age 10,
nobody in my life besides my family could understand a word I was saying.
The teasing was profound.
>> While we’re on the topic of accents,
you do kind of affect a twang.
>> Oh, yeah.
>> Because you do have a background in acting or I mean,
it’s more than a background.
It’s what you also do,
I’ve seen critics say,
“Oh, is she playing a character or something?”
I mean, how do you address that?
>> Well, I talk to people about the concept of having fun [LAUGHTER].
In a lot of ways,
something that really drew me to country music,
it’s a storytelling genre in a really profound way and I think that
women in country in particular really get to be kind of embodying of these great roles.
Like Dolly Parton is a fabulous example of somebody who is just like pure persona.
and through that persona has been able to deliver so much truth and reality to
people and authenticity, but like this is a woman
who wears a wig and you don’t know anything about her real life.
And I think that that’s really exciting,
and I think that that’s the power of acting as well.
I think that’s what’s a little tragic about living in a world where actors’
personal lives are just as important as what they are doing onstage or onscreen.
It really dilutes the power of what they’re crafting.
If it’s authentic in one way,
why does it matter if it’s authentic in another way?
>> With the artists that you do say you pay homage to,
when did you start getting into them?
Because it seems like a rabbit hole that nobody contemporary is going down.
>> That music is so exciting and fun.
I really don’t understand why it’s not a path more [LAUGHTER] trodden.
Look, I didn’t like it when I was younger.
My dad loved Nashville country music and I was just like,
“This literally sucks,”
and then as I got older,
I was like, “This is incredible.”
Maybe it was an appreciation for songwriting that I discovered.
This record is very much about falling in love with
someone you shouldn’t fall in love
with when you’re not supposed to fall in love with them.
But I had really been interested in songs like
“Slide off Your Satin Sheets” and Eddie Rabbitt’s “Pour Me Another Tequila,”
like I just began to fall in love with this era of country.
I mean, it’s so fun and so witty and so sad in a way that I could really understand,
[LAUGHTER] so yeah, why not?
>> If you did a shot for every time you said “drunk” on your album, would you be drunk?
>> Definitely.
>> Which makes you feel more “you,” acting or singing?
>> I mean, definitely singing, I guess,
but I feel more “me” acting [LAUGHTER]
in my acting class. Like
when I get to do a role …
I was supposed to do a play right before the pandemic that we're still hoping happens,
which is Chekhov’s “Three Sisters,” and working on pieces
like that really make me feel very much like me.
>> Lola, it has been a pleasure to chat with you.
Thanks for joining us today.
>> Thank you so much, Pat.
It’s been really fun for me too. [MUSIC]