Janelle Monáe

This month's Songcraft One-On-One features Janelle Monáe’s Atlanta-based career has garnered praise for its unique sci-fi hip-hop trajectory and earned comparisons to OutKast's kitchen sink approach to pop production. Here, we discuss with her song "Violet Stars Happy Hunting" from Metropolis Suite I: The Chase (the first in a four-part concept album about a time-traveling robot named Cindi Mayweather) written by Monáe and Atlanta producers N8 "Rocket" Wonder and Chuck Lightning.

Q: Do you think it's important for songs to be stylistically adaptable, or do some songs just live in specific environments?
A: Any song I write I may have to perform, and perform well in any given setting, but I also realize that every song is different. Some songs that come to life in the studio remain bound there in spirit. There are so many layers of paint and sounds that have been added there, and perhaps even the root of the song is so sequenced or machine-driven that it becomes hard to play it live without an army of background vocalists and more sequencers than is feasible. You can find a way to do it, but you always feel like you're approximating something great instead of playing it as it was meant to be heard. You can be frustrated and not want to play it live at all. But I strive to give my songs a strong foundation – a strong melody you can't forget and a hook with a story, something that allows the song to transfer from setting to setting with minimal fuss.

Q: How did the idea of this song as part of a concept album affect things?
A: We listened to the music, chose a particular scene in the story, and wrote lyrics for that. We pushed the entire narrative out of our minds and focused intensely on the scene – Cindi running for her life from the bounty hunters – and we began to realize that this song was really a simple song. Lyrically, it's a love song about a human and an android in love in a society where this type of love is against the rules.

Q: The song is all over the place,melodically – old disco and soul, Lauryn Hill strains, '80s cartoon themes, even bits of modern theater and Zappa. What's your process for organizing all of it?
A: We have no format, restrictions or routines. With this song, we laid a solid musical base down, wrote out the story and basic melody, and then went crazy with colors.
Some of your favorite parts probably weren't added until the very end! But in general, you're right. We're fans of the Brides of Funkenstein, fans of Zappa, huge fans of Lauryn Hill, new wave and Outkast. Who says you can't have all the things you love in the same song?

www.janellemonae.com
Visit www.performermag.com for more from Janelle Monáe and to listen to "Violet Stars Happy Hunting.”