You're listening to Song Exploder, where musicians take apart their songs and,
piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made.
My name is Tao Nguyen.
Brittany Howard is the guitarist and lead singer of the four-time Grammy-winning band Alabama Shakes.
This month, she's releasing her first solo album, called Jamie.
In this episode, Brittany breaks down the song Stay High.
which was the album's first single.
She started working on it
while staying at a house in Topanga Canyon near L.A. I just want to stay high with you.
I was in Topanga last July.
I came out here to start writing a record.
I remember sitting in the living room and had this old acoustic guitar and just picked it up and started playing the...
It wasn't anything special.
It was just like an A to a D, and it was really fluid with no accents on any of the strumming.
And I was like, I like that.
That's like a breath of fresh air to me, you know?
It's nice and airy and simple.
And then I had the idea for the chorus.
When I have an idea, I get everything at once.
I hear the drums, I hear the bass, I hear... everything and where it's going,