PREVIEW: grammy winning r&b star bilal comes to the egg
10/07/2024 at The Egg, Albany
“I wanted to create music that challenges the digital age — music that confuses the algorithms and speaks to our humanity.”
On Monday October 7th, The Egg is hosting Grammy-winner Bilal as part of his coast-to-coast national tour celebrating the release of his latest album, Adjust Brightness. While you may recognize Bilal from his phenomenal collaborations with artists such as Kendrick Lamar and The Roots, his solo work is equally as impressive.
Adjust Brightness certainly continues along in the genre of R&B, yet it cannot be confined to a single category. It’s soulful, electronic and experimental—each track provides a brand new world to explore with rich layers of vocals and instrumentation to dive into. I was able to connect with Bilal in the lead up to the show and hear some of his thoughts on this new record (his first since 2015), the tour, and what to expect on Monday.
“I’m feeling really good and thankful to be putting out a project again,” he shares. “And I’m really happy to be touring and performing this new music live. It’s a new energy for the tour and I can’t wait to share it with audiences in a live setting. It’s a totally independent project (no label) and that is empowering.”
With a career beginning in 2001, Bilal has seen the music industry change drastically through the introduction of various new technologies, most recently Artificial Intelligence. This record joins an ongoing conversation surrounding the overwhelming influence of technology in our lives. In a press release, he states, “I wanted to create music that challenges the digital age — music that confuses the algorithms and speaks to our humanity. Adjust Brightness is about love, warmth, and intimacy. It’s an intimate, human record that speaks to the heart in an era of cold, digital sounds.”
To me, he added, “I just wanted to make something that would be hard for AI to copy.” It’s a timely comment in a year where creatives have been increasingly voicing their concern over the ethical use of AI in art.
In order to make this record so complex, the production was a lengthy process of trial and error. Bilal says, “A lot of the elements on this record came from beautiful mistakes and fearless experimentation. I can remember a fun session where we invented new drum sets [and when] we used a phone book, a cardboard box, and a few bottles of beer on one of the tunes.”
With Albany being the first stop on his Fall tour, we’re clearly in for a high-powered night as these elements are transferred from the studio to a live setting. Rather than take it from me, though, take it from Bilal:
“On the seventh, Adjust Brightness comes alive [and] the people can expect an epic experience that will affect their lives most positively.”
For tickets and more details on the event – which will also feature an opening set from Albany native, DJ Trumastr – please visit https://www.theegg.org/events/event/bilal/.