JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
In north Baltimore, there is a small body of water created by a dam.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER FLOWING)
SUMMERS: This is Lake Roland Park. It's a place where, as the pandemic upended everything, musician Marcus Brown would come to clear his head - literally to go touch grass or a tree.
MARCUS BROWN: You can have your own space. I would go on dates here. I would come here during the wintertime alone like a psychopath...
SUMMERS: (Laughter).
BROWN: ...Like, there's like a tree down here I love.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "IDIOT IN THE PARK")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) Idiot in the park. Two idiots in the park.
SUMMERS: Marcus Brown grew up in a neighborhood nearby, though he says he didn't come here back then when it was known as Robert E. Lee Park.
BROWN: I think we'd just drove by it all the time. Like, oh, there's a racist park (laughter).
SUMMERS: The short version of what happened next - Brown moved away to music school, came back to Baltimore, left again for Los Angeles, came back to Baltimore again. And the whole time, he was trying to make music. But to do it, he had to support himself with a slew of different jobs - working at a barbershop, a bookstore, a grocery store, teaching tennis, as a videographer. And the one thing that broke through after nearly a decade was made during COVID, while he had COVID - literally in his parents' basement - as a one-man band. He called the project Nourished By Time.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE FIELDS")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) I don't have much money, but I, I do what I want with my time.
BROWN: Just drain the sponge, you know, like, the whole day, I'm just living life, doing things, meeting people.
SUMMERS: Brown described his work as a musician as being a conduit for what he's lived through. His job is to get his skills up to where he can just let his subconscious flow through him.
BROWN: You don't want a vessel that sucks (laughter), you know? If I'm a spirit trying to find a vessel, like, in "Space Jam," when, like, they were - like, they found NBA players to take. Like, they didn't find me. You know what I mean? It's like, they're like, yeah, I'm going to find Charles Barkley and take his body. Yeah, it's the same thing (laughter).
SUMMERS: The way his music comes out is hard to describe because it blends so many styles together. You can hear that on the new Nourished By Time album. It's called "The Passionate Ones."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "CRAZY PEOPLE")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) I saw you, my deja vu. You′re running from something too.
SUMMERS: Marcus Brown recently moved to New York City, but we caught up with him here in Baltimore by the dam in Lake Roland Park.
(SOUNDBITE OF WATER FLOWING)
SUMMERS: You've said in other interviews that Baltimore is really at the heart of your music. You've described your music as working-class music. Can you say a little bit more about that?
BROWN: Yeah, I mean, I say a lot of things I disagree with, even if I say it (laughter) sometimes. But, like, Baltimore definitely - I mean, it gave me so many experiences as a kid. I know what it's like to, like, yeah, drop my friends off at, like, you know, their home, and it's just, like, a bunch of dilapidated, you know, homes. Or, like, just go to my grandmother's house, and it's just, like, the same street that's just been, like, run down. But, you know, at the same time, it's like, I know what it's like, to go to, like, fancy French restaurants that are, like, 10 minutes away and, like, you know, like, all these other things.
And I guess I never want to only minimize Baltimore as, like, a working-class experience, but it definitely is a working-class city. It's a post-industrial city. And I'm inspired by the people there, and I'm inspired by, like, yeah, some of the negative experiences that I've had here. But also, like, you're never going to find, like, more creative and just more interesting and, like, intelligent people that probably don't know they're those things, that don't identify as that, like, but they are, you know?
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "9 2 5")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Vocalizing).
SUMMERS: As we're kind of having this conversation about labor and work and value, I do want to ask you about the song "9 2 5" because that so clearly is in that world. Can you tell us a little bit about the song?
BROWN: So I was working at a Barnes & Noble for a year and a half, saved up like 5, 7 grand, and then I moved to LA. And I moved here to be an artist, and now I'm realizing I can barely afford it, and I'm spending all my time going to work. When I get home, I have to record and, like, make music for at least two hours - two, three hours. And so I'm recording from, let's say, like, 11 to 2, you know? And I'm just doing that every day, but I'm not really meeting people like I would rather be. And so, yeah, "9 2 5" was basically just, like, what I was going through when I was living in LA.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "9 2 5")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) Oh, brother, it's a hateful life, and you got two choices, either left or right, oh.
BROWN: Musically, I was just, like, I wanted it to just be - everyone's like, copying, like, Baltimore, like, dance music now, or, like, Baltimore club...
SUMMERS: Yeah.
BROWN: ...Music. And I just wanted to, like, do it in a way that, like, I thought was genuine to me but also, like, pushing the music forward. I wanted to do my version of, like, "Dance My Pain Away."
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "DANCE MY PAIN AWAY")
ROD LEE: (Singing) Dance my pain away. I've got problems. Dance my pain away. I've got problems.
BROWN: They're saying real [expletive] over the club beat. Like, "Dance My Pain Away" is, like, something like bill collectors. Like, you know, he's talking about, like, his family life. He's talking about just, like, pain. You know, the whole song is pain. And, like, I always thought that that was the balance of dance music, you know? Like we're dancing, but we got to earn it, you know, sometimes.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "BABY BABY")
NOURISHED BY TIME: Make music, young fella.
SUMMERS: The album is called "The Passionate Ones." Why did you pick that name?
BROWN: It's based off - just, like, "The Beautiful Ones" - Prince's "The Beautiful Ones" from "Purple Rain." I always was really struck by the title. And - but also just, like, "The Passionate Ones" is something that - it's very universal. You know, it's not - it's just really anyone with a dream or anyone with a fire in their heart about anything, and that's really who I'm talking to.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHEN THE WAR IS OVER")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) I wanna see you like a flower does. Gotta get it down low in the mud.
SUMMERS: What has changed for you since your past albums came out? Has anything changed about your process? Do you still have total control over every bit of the music that you're creating and the way that you did when you started?
BROWN: Yeah. Creatively, yeah, it's - I'm always just competing with myself in that regard.
SUMMERS: What is it like having that level of control over your music, your creativity, the final product? Is it more daunting, freeing? Is it intimidating at times?
BROWN: That's a really good question. I think, like, for me, it was really important for these first two projects for it to be very DIY and for it to be, like, more relatable and more just, like, you know, let's see how much we can do, you know, like, with a concept. Even with the next album, like, I'm probably going to work with other people. Like, it'll probably be more collaborative, like, in the future because, like, I'd never want to be just, like, an echo chamber of my own ideas and thoughts. And, like, I can progress for sure, but, like, I am seeing the pros and cons of collaboration.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "JOJO (FEAT TONY BONTANA")
NOURISHED BY TIME: (Singing) I belong to you. I reject those words. When I can't see my reflection, it burns. Oh, I never been worse.
TONY BONTANA: (Rapping) Ah, no. Trials and tribulations, I was down and out. I was wishing on a star. I was looking south.
SUMMERS: Thank you so much for coming down and spending some time with us. This has been so fun.
BROWN: Of course. Oh, yeah, thanks for coming.
SUMMERS: Musician Marcus Brown - his new album, as Nourished By Time, is called "The Passionate Ones."
(SOUNDBITE OF NOURISHED BY TIME SONG, "JOJO (FEAT TONY BONTANA") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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