Last year, comedian John Early released his Emmy-nominated debut HBO comedy special called “Now More Than Ever.” It’s a mix of stand up comedy and musical performances.
Last month an expanded version of the special was released as his debut comedy album. Early is on tour promoting the album now and caught up with WUNC music reporter Brian Burns before his show at Motorco Music Hall in Durham on October 22.
This is an excerpt of an edited transcript of that conversation. You can hear the full interview by clicking the LISTEN button at the top of this post.
A lot of people are familiar with your comedy and acting work, but when did music come into your life?
I started doing music at my live shows pretty instantly, like whenever I would do a big show at the end of the year where I was kind of culling together all my material I would always do like four cover songs with a full band throughout.
Speaking of cover songs, one of the tracks in the special and on the album is the Britney Spears classic "Overprotected." Tell us what that song means to you.
I feel very evangelical about that song, because it was not a big hit in the U.S. That was at the peak of her powers, and she still had these No. 1 hits, but that was like the third single off the third album. It's very magical, very soaring, and then obviously, with time, it's taken on a new meeting now that we know all this stuff about the conservatorship.
Another cover you do is the 2001 classic Aaliyah song "Rock The Boat." Why did you choose that song?
Aaliyah is one of my top musical artists. I think she's made some of the most futuristic and sophisticated R&B of all time. And I was really, really in love with her when I was a kid, and I was really, really, really upset when she died so tragically.
The time at which we made the song, we were listening to so much Isaac Hayes and Burt Bacharach, and so we were really excited by the idea of doing an Aaliyah song in the style of Burt Bacharach.
